Fenghou

Chapter 471 Burning the City
In the afternoon, the Xixia army arrived in Egan County. There were indeed three thousand stones of grain in the county, which made the whole army cheer. Xia Lian saw that the walls of Agan County were tall and strong, like a military city, so he decided to station the army in Egan County.

But the county is too small to station [-] troops, and the majority of the people in the county are Han Chinese, which is not worthy of pity. The generals unanimously decided to drive all the people in the city out of the city.

If Lanzhou had not already belonged to the territory of the Xixia Kingdom, and these people were already Xixia people, they would probably go on a killing spree and slaughter all the people in the city.

Xixia soldiers began to forcibly drive out the people from house to house, and the city was full of chickens and dogs. Most of the people didn't even have time to clean up their property. They were forced out of their homes with only a few copper coins. Some old people who refused to leave their homes also died in In the hands of the Xixia army.

Teams of common people helped the old and brought the young together to form a long dragon, and under the strict surveillance of more than a thousand Xixia spear soldiers, they walked out of the city crying.

In just one hour, all the people in the city were expelled from the city, and the city gates were closed. Xia Lian immediately ordered five thousand troops to defend the city and established a defense system. In the city.

Ten thousand Xixia soldiers rushed into the homes of the people, and began to search through boxes and cabinets, taking the opportunity to loot the property that the people had not had time to take away.

A group of Xixia soldiers rushed into a mansion, but they found that it was an empty house, which seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time. The boxes and cabinets were empty and full of dust, which disappointed the leading general.

"Go to the backyard and have a look, if there is no one, go to the next one!"

The three Xixia soldiers ran to the back house. There was nothing in the back house, only a dilapidated woodshed. They kicked the woodshed away with their family, and a stench rushed towards them. The three of them pinched their noses and cursed loudly before running back Church.

"General, there is nothing behind!"

The leading general waved his hand, led the soldiers out of the mansion, and went to the next house.

The firewood room was full of rotten rags, and there were many dead rats, emitting a stench, but there was a stone slab hidden under the rags, and a tunnel under the slab led directly to the outside of the city.

Night finally fell. After marching for nearly ten days, the exhausted Xixia soldiers all lived in the homes of the common people and rested early.

There were [-] soldiers patrolling the city at night. In the hall of the county government office, Xia Lian was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his hands, his eyes full of anxiety.

Until this time, he was able to calm down and think carefully about the serious consequences he was about to face. How could he explain to the emperor?Explain to the court?
Although he can despise Cao Baozong and laugh at Cao Baozong, Cao Baozong did perform poorly on the battlefield, but he is like a fish in water in the court.

When Cao Baozong returned to the court, how would he sue the emperor?He could completely shirk the responsibility for the defeat to himself and several other commanders, because the defeat caused by the discord between the generals was a perfect excuse.

Coupled with the influence of the Cao family in the court, he has almost no chance of winning this lawsuit. He will not be able to get rid of this crime if he commits the crime next time. The emperor will definitely kill the five of them to rectify the military regulations.

If Cao Baozong had been decisively killed at the beginning, there would be no troubles in the future, and Xia Lian was full of remorse.

"It's better to surrender to the Jurchen!" Xia Lian raised his head and sighed softly.

But will the Jurchens return them to Xixia?
It was already very late at night, and Xia Lian was still pacing back and forth in the lobby, sighing.

Chen Qing's army had arrived at Agan County and stopped ten miles away. He had sent two thousand troops to escort more than [-] people from Egan County to Lanzhou City for a temporary stay.

Sure enough, as Chen Qing expected, the Xixia people still turned Agan County into a pure military city. This is inevitable, not just for housing, but more for safety and elimination of hidden dangers. They will definitely drive all the people out of the city .

The reason why Chen Qing wanted to give the Xixia army some food was because he was worried that the Xixia army would plunder and slaughter several counties in Lanzhou after they had nothing to do.

It's like fishing, using a little grain to make a nest, and attracting the Xixia army to Agan County for centralized annihilation.

In a marching account, Chen Qing spread out the scouts to draw a map of Agan County, and said to Liu Cui and Niu Gao: "The county is too small to open up a isolation zone, which creates the conditions for us to attack the county with fire, and the buildings in the city It is mainly made of brick and wood, and the buildings are very dense. Once it burns, the whole city will be burned, but the Xixia army is not stone, they will definitely put out the fire with all their strength, and there are [-] defenders on the top of the city, with sharp bows and crossbows. Arrows prevented Song soldiers from getting close to the city wall, so I considered setting fire from inside the city first."

Liu Cui and Niu Gao looked at each other, and they both laughed, "It seems that both of them are ready to attack first!"

Chen Qing nodded, and said solemnly: "Yang Zaixing's scouts have already dug a tunnel in the city, leading directly to the outside of the east city, and waited for the enemy soldiers to fall asleep before going in and setting fire, but we must arrange on the outside, how to deal with the enemy's breakout. "

At two o'clock, fifty soldiers of the Song army wearing Xixia army armor stooped and rushed along a ravine. They were only [-] steps away from the city wall. There were Xixia soldiers patrolling back and forth on the top of the city, but the Xixia soldiers could not see inside the ravine. situation.

Several soldiers pushed away a boulder, revealing a cave, which was a tunnel they dug in five days, and everyone got into the tunnel one by one.

More than [-] Xixia soldiers lived in the mansion of the air traffic control. The stone slabs in the firewood room were slowly pushed away, and a Song army soldier came out. He opened the firewood room door and looked into the yard. The yard was very quiet. , there was no movement, and there were no soldiers on the top of the city.

There is a small gate in the yard, and a very long alley outside. The key to the small gate is in the hands of the soldiers.

He opened the small door, and with a wave of his hand, one by one soldiers came out of the firewood room and ran towards the small door. Two soldiers stayed behind. This was their escape route, and someone had to stay behind.

At the same time, Chen Qing's army had surrounded the county from all directions. Chen Qing personally led [-] elite troops to ambush outside the north city gate. Agan County is a small county with only one city gate in the north.

There are four Xixia soldiers patrolling back and forth in the city, but they are mainly distributed on the two main roads, east-west and north-south, so there is no need to patrol the cobweb alleys.

Fifty soldiers carried fifty bags of kerosene on their backs. They mainly set fires in the east city. Firstly, it was convenient for them to retreat, and secondly, they would not be discovered by patrol soldiers. Many, relatively old, and the houses are very dense, once a fire catches fire, it will burn in pieces.

They actually acted as an introduction to attract the defenders on the top of the city to fight the fire. The real igniters were the [-] Song soldiers outside the city.

Fifty soldiers ran in the alleys. Each of them carried a leather bag filled with [-] catties of kerosene, and sprayed kerosene on the roofs and wooden walls of houses. Start the fire.

Not long after, a wooden house in the southeast caught fire first, followed by several nearby wooden houses, and almost at the same time, several fires in the northeast also ignited.

The Xixia soldiers on the head of Dongcheng immediately noticed the abnormality and sounded the alarm, 'Dang!when!when!when! '

Many soldiers woke up from their dreams and ran out one after another. At this time, the fire points in the east of the city began to connect together, thick smoke billowed, and the fire was raging. The soldiers on the top of the east city ran down to fight the fire.

Xia Lian fell asleep lying on the table, and the harsh alarm bell suddenly woke him up. He heard the shouts outside, quickly pushed the table away, stood up and came to the door, his eyes widened suddenly, the fire in the east city was blazing, thick Smoke billows.

Xia Lian suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Could it be that the Song army set fire to the city?

He immediately realized the greatest risk in Egan County, which was the enemy's fire attack. With sweat dripping down his forehead, Xia Lian hurriedly shouted: "Order the whole army to put out the fire!"

The entire city began to become chaotic. At this time, countless gunpowder arrows were shot from outside the city, and more and more places were on fire, and fires were also burning on the four walls. When they reached the top of the city, they set it on fire, so that the soldiers of the Xixia Army could not escape to the top of the city.

The entire east city was engulfed in flames and thick smoke, and it began to spread rapidly to the west city, and the west city was also on fire everywhere. The Xixia soldiers in the city could no longer put out the fire, and ran around in panic. Many people fled to the city gate, and the soldiers scrambled for their lives. , trampled on each other, countless casualties, screams, cries resounded throughout the city.

Outside the city gate, Chen Qing led three thousand crossbowmen ready, and the three thousand crossbowmen coldly aimed at the city gate
(End of this chapter)