Fenghou

Chapter 695
The harvesting of wheat was over in one month, and the Song and Xia armies resumed their combat confrontation again. The Xingqing Mansion closed the city gate again, and no one was allowed to enter or leave in violation of the regulations.

Of course, as long as you follow the rules, you can also enter and exit the city gate normally.

In the blink of an eye, it was mid-November, the weather was very cold, Xixia had already entered winter, and there was light snow in the sky, which was the first snow in winter.

That evening, Hu Yanlei came to Liji's mule and horse shop as usual, and shouted: "Take the horse, it's getting cold, add more black beans to it tonight!"

"Master Hu, don't worry! Make sure to feed him fat and strong."

This month Huyanlei rented a horse, and came to lead the horse almost every morning, and returned the horse in the afternoon, and he was very familiar with the people in the mule and horse shop.
Huyanlei's current identity is Cao Baozong's confidant, and this was revealed by him inadvertently once. The shopkeeper and staff of the Luoma shop immediately paid attention to him, especially the proprietor Tuoba Shi Changshi, who deliberately made friends with Huyanlei , asked him to drink a few times.

Hu Yanlei also slowly exposed his insecure lips, especially after drinking, he leaked many things about Cao Baozong.

Especially a few days ago, Hu Yanlei leaked a sentence after drinking, Cao Baozong suspected that the missing property case was related to his brother Cao Baohui, and the two had turned against each other.

This sentence was immediately remembered by Tuoba Shi Changshi, and he immediately told Brother Li Cha the news with Eagle Letter.

Brother Li Cha immediately wrote back, asking Tuoba Changshi to spend more money to win over this soldier named Hu Yanqing.

The first capital that Tuoba Changshi made was to give the rented horse to Hu Yanlei, which really touched Hu Yanlei.

Tuoba Changshi came out and said with a smile: "It's snowing, it's very cold, why don't we go have a glass of wine to warm up."

"Of course, but today I'm treating you!"

"Brother, don't be polite to me, let's go! Go to Ganzhou Restaurant."

Ganzhou Restaurant is diagonally opposite Luomadian, which is also owned by Brother Li Cha. The two of them went up to the second floor and sat down at their old seats by the window.

Tuoba Changshi ordered food and wine, and the two drank a few glasses of wine. Tuoba Changshi asked, "I heard a news that the imperial court will give the Jurchens one million taels of silver. Is it true?"

Hu Yanlei was surprised and said: "How could elder brother know that the privy envoy also said that this news is very secret!"

"Good things don't go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles. How can this kind of news be hidden? Didn't I just hear about it?"

"It makes sense. The Jurchen's condition for sending troops back then was one million taels of silver. In addition, they suffered heavy losses. How could they let the court go? The money cannot escape."

"How to send the money away?"

Tuoba Changshi quickly explained: "I am afraid that they will requisition my livestock."

"I won't requisition your livestock and use camels to transport them. With thousands of camels, my brother won't want to intercept them halfway!"

"Intercept?"

Tuoba Changshi smiled wryly: "I don't want to court death!"

"It is indeed courting death. Ten thousand Jurchen cavalry escorted the money to Taiyuan, and then transferred it to Beijing from Taiyuan. It is said that it was dedicated to the emperor of the Kingdom of Jin."

"when are we leaving?"

"Just a few days! The exact date has not been decided yet."

Brother Li Cha had already received a reply from Wan Yanchang, and Wanyan Tarlan clearly expressed his support for his ascension to the throne, which undoubtedly gave Brother Li Cha a reassurance.

During this period of time, Brother Li Cha followed every move of the imperial court. Of course, he is the King of Jin after all. He has been in power for decades, and there are many officials serving him in the court. He has many channels to get news. Tuoba Changshi It's just one of the humble intelligence channels.

He has received conclusive news that the Son of Heaven and the Kingdom of Jin have reached a secret treaty. The Son of Heaven agrees to transfer one million taels of silver to the Kingdom of Jin for preservation. It was sold to Xixia at the price of two silver coins as the temporary capital of Xixia.

This is the real information, not the rumors from the outside world. One million silver is used as compensation for the Jin soldiers to send troops. This is actually a kind of deposit, and the Jin Kingdom guarantees that Xixia can continue.

There is another piece of information that is more accurate. Ten thousand Jurchen cavalry will escort the batch of silver to Taiyuan Mansion, and then transport it to Shangjing from Taiyuan Mansion.

Brother Li Cha is now quite confused about whether he should leak this information to Chen Qing. Once Chen Qing intercepts this batch of silver and wipes out [-] Jurchen cavalry, Jin Guo will definitely give up Li Qianshun, and his chance will come.

But Brother Li Cha was also worried, if the one million taels of silver were gone, would Wanyan Tarlan give him the Datong Mansion?
It's hard to have both!
Brother Li Cha suffered all night. At dawn, he finally thought it over clearly. He couldn't leak this news to Chen Qing. If he didn't get one million taels of silver, the Jin Kingdom's court would never give him the Datong Mansion. Wanyan Talan agreed, and the other nobles of the Kingdom of Jin would not agree either.

The Yellow River froze in early November, and a large number of siege supplies were sent from Lanzhou to Xixia along the ice of the Yellow River by sledge.

In Yingli County, Chen Qing finally got the siege baggage that had been waiting for nearly four months. Thousands of camels dragged it on the ice for ten days.

Although thousands of camels had thick fur, they were still froze by the cold of the Yellow River ice, and more than a hundred camels were frozen to death on the road.

The soldiers took thousands of camels to the county for recuperation, and tens of thousands of soldiers began to carry them by relay. There were [-] large siege ladders, [-] heavy trebuchets, and one giant battering ram.

Standing on the hill, Chen Qing watched tens of thousands of soldiers chanting slogans and dragging with all their might, and slowly transported various parts of giant beast siege ladders, trebuchets and battering rams back to the county seat. It is a complete weapon, and it cannot enter the county seat at all. The rack of the battering ram alone is five feet high. How can it be moved into the county seat?

"Everyone is there!"

Chen Qing suddenly heard a soldier seeming to identify him, and when he turned his head, he saw Zhang Xiao hurriedly walking towards this side.

"Zhang Sima, what's the hurry?" Chen Qingying went up and asked with a smile.

"Xuanfu envoy, urgent information from Xingqing Mansion!"

Zhang Xiao handed a volume of Eagle Letter to Chen Qing, Chen Qing opened the Eagle Letter, and there was a sentence in it, "[-] Jurchen cavalry escorted a million taels of silver to Taiyuan, leaving on November [-]th." '

Chen Qing's eyes widened. It wasn't because of one million taels of silver, but because of ten thousand Jurchen cavalry.

"Today is November [-]th, so we will leave the day after tomorrow."

"Exactly, we still have two days."

"Let's go back to the county first!"

Chen Qing immediately led everyone back to Yingli County. He needed to carefully consider the opponent's route and various possibilities, and make a perfect plan.

In the big tent, Chen Qing spread out the map and said to Zhang Xiao and the generals: "The golden soldiers guarding a million taels of silver must use camels to go east. They have three routes to go. The northern route goes north along the Yellow River, enters The Hetao area of ​​​​the Hetao Army Division entered Datong Mansion from the north, but the commander of the Heishan Army Division was Cao Baohui, Cao Baozong's brother. Since Cao Baozong did not mention it, he would definitely not go north.

The Jin soldiers will also guard against our interception. Although they have [-] cavalry guards, Uyan Puluhun has suffered a big loss in our hands. He will not risk another million taels of silver, so the southern line is also unlikely. Then only the midline is the most suitable. "

Chen Qing pointed to the long strip of grassland between the two large deserts and said: "This is Henan in Xixia, passing through this grassland also enters Dongsheng Prefecture, this is where they came from, if I guessed correctly , they will go to the center line."

(End of this chapter)