Fenghou

Chapter 677 Oriole
Fifty li to the north from Xingqing Mansion is Dingzhou, and there are basically no cities in Dingzhou to the north. It takes more than [-] miles to go to Heishan, which is the Hetao area at the top of the Yellow River. , During the Han Dynasty, it was developed on a large scale by the Central Plains Dynasty. The population reached hundreds of thousands at the time, and then fell silent. During the Tang Dynasty, three surrendered cities were built, and military reclamation was briefly resumed. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, it became a pasture for the Hu people. .

At present, the Heishan area is the northernmost territory of Xixia, which is mainly used to exile prisoners. In addition, after Xixia destroyed the Ganzhou Uighurs, some Uighurs were also resettled here and became Xixia's sheep slaves, raising cattle and sheep on behalf of Xixia. Three thousand garrisons were in charge of guarding them.

It is precisely because Montenegro is far away from the hinterland of Xixia that the Xixia dignitaries decided to use it as a transit point for their wealth. They first transferred their wealth to Montenegro and then watched the situation develop. If the situation improves and the Song army withdraws from Xixia, they will return to Xingqing Mansion , but if the general situation is over, they will quickly transfer their wealth to Datong Mansion.

For several days in a row, the wealth transfer of the rich and powerful began one after another. Some were carried by camels, some by boats, and some by leather rafts. Brother Li Cha went to Xiping Mansion. Emperor Li Ganshun did not dare to offend the public. Just turn a blind eye and close your eyes, let them go.

This morning, a scout cavalry from the Song Army came rushing in from a distance. Except for the Yellow River, the surrounding deserted Gobi Desert, and the remnants of Mount Henan in the distance, they rushed to a sandy place and saw the ground The corpses were mutilated by the pack of wolves. These people were buried in the sand not long after they were massacred, and all of them were pulled out by the pack of wolves who smelled blood.

The deputy commander of the scouts, Liu Xiang, shook his head. This was the seventh batch of victims they encountered. They all died in the same way, and their heads were brutally beheaded.

"Pile them up and burn them all!"

The soldiers worked together to pile up the corpses, burn them with a fire, and then bury them deeply, which is also to prevent the epidemic.

The scout cavalry then turned around and galloped north
The mountains in this area belong to the remnants of the Henan Mountains. They are not high, but they have many branches and are relatively broken. In a large valley, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led [-] cavalry to station here.

Another valley twenty miles away from them is the lair of Brother Li Cha's second son Li Hanzhong and his subordinates. The cavalry of the Song Army knew Li Hanzhong's every move, but Li Hanzhong didn't know the existence of the Song Army.

In the evening, Liu Xiang returned to the canyon, cupped his fists to Liu Qiong and said, "Report, I searched for a day today and found seven murdered teams."

Liu Qiong nodded, "They returned to the canyon very early today. In terms of numbers, they have already exceeded a hundred transport teams. The top ten families have all been killed. There should be no big fish behind. You have worked hard today, go first have a rest!"

Liu Xiang saluted and stepped back.

After another two hours, as the night gradually darkened, a scout rushed back to report, "General Qi, they are leaving!"

Liu Qiong was waiting for this news, he immediately cheered up, and quickly asked: "How many people?"

"A total of three hundred people brought three thousand camels, all loaded with heavy cargo."

With three thousand camels, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian looked at each other in shock, how much wealth would there be?
But now they don't have time to think about it. When the other party sets off at night, it must be Li Hanzhong who brought his confidantes to hide the wealth. Of course, it is impossible to take all [-] people, only his confidantes.

Liu Qiong didn't know how many teams would come from Xingqing Mansion, but Li Hanzhong and the others knew that in just seven days, a total of [-] batches of goods were massacred and thousands of people were killed. Li Hanzhong finally stopped.

Liu Qiong and Tang Qian immediately divided their troops into two groups. Tang Qian led [-] cavalry to intercept and kill Li Hanzhong, while Liu Qiong led [-] cavalry to clean up the remaining [-] soldiers in the canyon.

Under the cover of night, [-] cavalry left the canyon without a sound. They were afraid that the sound of horseshoes would startle each other, so instead of galloping, they slowed down and walked twenty miles away.
In an unknown canyon, Li Hanzhong led [-] confidants and led [-] camels full of large boxes to walk slowly. They had already discovered a cave two miles deep before, and they needed to collect all the wealth they had intercepted. Stack them in the cave, and then seal the cave.

They don't know how much wealth is in the big box carried by these three thousand camels.

But now the Xixia country is impoverished and the people are poor, where is the wealth accumulated for a hundred years?It goes without saying that they were all taken into the pockets of more than a hundred powerful families in Xixia.

This time they are planning to transport to Montenegro, of course not all the wealth, a large amount of copper coins is not easy to transport, and there are also bulky items, such as wood, sheepskin, utensils, etc., which cannot be transported away.

What can be transported away are small items of high value such as gold, silver, jewelry, jade, silk, spices, etc., but it is these small items that need [-] camels to transport.

There are sharp cliffs on both sides, and the night is dark, quite gloomy and depressing. The team finally arrived in front of the cave, and a few soldiers went in with torches and walked around, and came out and said: "Everything is normal!"

Li Hanzhong immediately ordered, "Unload all the cargo!"

Each camel bears more than [-] jins of cargo, [-] camels, and only [-] people unload the cargo. One can imagine the difficulty, but it is impossible to quit. It took a full hour to unload [-] camels The cargo, the soldiers were so tired that they collapsed on the ground, unable to move any more.

"Whoa!"

A large box accidentally fell to the ground, the box shattered, and hundreds of silver ingots rolled out of it.

"Useless bastard!"

Li Hanzhong was so angry that he cursed and rushed forward to beat him with a whip.

Just then, a cold arrow 'whoosh! The shot came at such a fast speed that Li Hanzhong had no defenses and couldn't dodge in time. He was shot in the throat by an arrow, and with a muffled grunt, he fell on his back.

Immediately afterwards, random arrows were fired in the darkness, shooting at more than [-] soldiers who were resting at the entrance of the cave. Thousands of arrows were shot like a storm. In the blink of an eye, he was shot like a hedgehog, but dozens of soldiers still fled into the cave.

Three thousand Song soldiers came from all directions. In order not to disturb the other party, their horses stayed outside the canyon. The remaining dozens of people were unable to resist and were all killed. The army searched out all the remaining ones and executed them.

After disposing of the corpse, Song Jun put the big wooden box back on the camel and led the camel away.

The battle in the Tibetan canyon soon ended. The Song army blocked the mouth of the canyon and shot and killed more than [-] Xixia soldiers who were trying to break out. The remaining [-] Xixia soldiers hid in the valley and confronted the Song army.

The Song army cut down a large number of thorns. This kind of thorns is called black wolf thorn, which is a local specialty. When it is burned, it will produce a lot of poisonous smoke. The Xixia soldiers were all overwhelmed by the thick smoke.

At dawn, the Song army began to enter the valley and executed all the Xixia soldiers who had not yet died.

At this time, it doesn't matter whether there are still powerful families transporting wealth to Montenegro. The [-] Song Army cavalry took [-] camels and [-] large ships and went south quickly, taking away the hope of more than [-] Xixia dignitaries.

In the big camp in Mingsha County, thousands of craftsmen are rushing to make simple siege ladders and chariots overnight.

The simple siege ladder is made of fir that Chen Qing likes. This kind of fir is straight and strong, and two iron hooks are installed on the front end. Although it is not as elegant as the standard siege ladder, it is enough for use.

Then began to build chariots, which are actually four-wheeled human carts, two feet long and eight feet wide. It is thick enough to reach the opponent's bow and arrow, and if a false top is added, it can even withstand the impact of throwing boulders.

Thirty people can be stuffed into each cart, and then more than [-] soldiers are used as cover, hiding around the cart, and are responsible for pushing the cart at the same time.

The reason why this kind of cart is called a chariot is of course that it is used on the battlefield. First, it is used to transport soldiers directly to the city. And small trebuchets are placed on the cart, so the top of the chariot can be lifted. For the oil fire cabinet, even only one opening needs to be exposed.

At night, the lights in the camp are still brightly lit, and the craftsmen are still rushing to make them overnight. They have already made [-] siege ladders, which basically meet the needs. It is enough to make twenty vehicles. Of course, in addition to making chariots, it also needs to be installed and debugged. This is another batch of craftsmen.

Tomorrow is the deadline, and no matter how tired the craftsmen are, they must complete it overnight. The leader of the craftsmen shouted to everyone: "Everyone has worked hard all night, and you can rest tomorrow morning."

(End of this chapter)