Fenghou

Chapter 704 Decisive Battle ([-])

With 'Boom! ' With a loud bang, the wall in front of the battering ram collapsed as if its backbone had been smashed, the sky was filled with dust, the fire was extinguished, and the soldiers of the Song Army retreated one after another, and the smoke and dust made people breathless.

But the dust dissipated slightly, and the city wall collapsed for nearly a mile, and the buildings inside appeared in front of everyone's eyes. Of course, the hammer body will not be damaged if it is buried with masonry and sand, and the value is not worth much. The key is the hammer body and iron chain, which will generally not be damaged.

Chen Qing waved his sword and shouted: "The city wall has collapsed, go into the city!"

"Kill!"

An army of one hundred thousand rushed forward like a raging wave like a sea. At this time, thousands of arrows were fired in the city, and [-] Xixia soldiers rushed up. The soldiers of the Song Army who followed the battering ram resisted with shields and laid planks on the moat.

Liu Cui led [-] infantry soldiers to the ruins of the city wall first, and fought fiercely with the [-] Xixia soldiers who intercepted them.

Brother Li Cha's heart was already cold, he said to his soldiers: "Fire gunpowder arrows!"

The soldiers fired two gunpowder arrows, which exploded in the sky with a 'pop!'. Brother Li Cha led [-] confidant cavalry to the north gate. At the north gate, [-] iron kite cavalry had already assembled. , [-] golden soldiers also arrived, and there were hundreds of carriages, including brother Richard and the family members of the main generals, the prince and concubine, as well as officials, dignitaries and their families who supported brother Richard.

A total of [-] troops were preparing to break through, accounting for half of the city's troops. The other half rushed to the east city to resist the Song army's attack. The south and west gates were empty. The [-] Song army was led by Gao Ding. It has already entered through the south gate.

The northern city slowly opens, towards the suspension bridge, the front army is the iron harrier, the iron harrier is the heavy armored cavalry, just like the Iron Buddha in the Kingdom of Jin, it is the most mysterious and powerful army in Xixia, but unfortunately limited by national power, There were only [-] cavalry in total.

It is most suitable to break through, Xia Houliang shouted, "Rush out!"

The three thousand iron kite cavalry suddenly mobilized and rushed out of the city. The Song army on both sides fired arrows at random, but they could not penetrate the armor of the cavalry and horses. The three thousand iron kites rushed forward like a strong wind. Behind them were three The thousand female real cavalry, followed by Li Cha's [-] cavalry, led by Shang Dongyan, the commander of the capital.

The last is the [-] Congregation Army led by Han Chang. The Congregation Army is infantry, and the others are cavalry. Among them, Shang Dongyan's cavalry team is also mixed with hundreds of carriages.

Outside the northern city was the [-] Song Army led by Liu Qiong. They did not stop them, but only symbolically fired arrows at the enemy troops breaking out from both sides. After paying the price of more than a thousand casualties, the Xixia army successfully broke through and turned to the direction of the Henan grassland. go
The Nancheng, Xicheng and Beicheng also killed a large number of Song troops. The [-] Song troops surrounded the more than [-] Xixia soldiers standing on both sides of the ruins of the city wall. The Xixia soldiers who were still preparing to fight to the end collapsed instantly, dropping their weapons and surrendering one after another.

There were still thousands of guard soldiers who did not surrender and fought stubbornly. They were finally wiped out by the Song army's [-] crossbowmen and [-] throwing military storm-like crossbow arrows and dense flying spears.

This is why Han Chang judged that Chen Qing would let them break through in the end. Letting them break out could greatly reduce the casualties of the soldiers of the Song Army. To annihilate the enemy army, Chen Qing would have to pay the price of at least [-] soldiers killed in battle, but that was an ideal situation, and it was more likely that the price would be more than [-] soldiers.

But whether it was [-] or [-], Chen Qing couldn't bear it. He had already paid the price of more than [-] soldiers killed in battle. If this number became [-] or [-], how would he explain to the people in Sichuan and Shaanxi?
So after Brother Li Cha was released, the remaining soldiers would no longer have the will to resist, and a large-scale surrender could be achieved.

The prisoners of war were taken away, and the Song army immediately imposed martial law throughout the city. No one was allowed to go to the streets, but soldiers were also not allowed to come and rob. Chen Qing needed to deal with some people accurately and quickly, that is, the royal family, foreign relatives, officials, and literati of Xixia , generals, wealthy families, although Brother Li Cha has already helped him deal with a batch, and took away another batch, there are not many people left, but it is still not enough, and the remaining people must not be let go.

From the Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the handling of all foreign races would lead to great chaos in the end. Either it would turn into a military disaster that disrupted the Central Plains, or it would become independent and become a cancer of the central dynasty. The fundamental reason is that these foreign princes and nobles have survived, and their culture has also been preserved , has never been Sinicized, and has always formed an independent kingdom on the land of the Central Plains. When the Central Plains was in chaos, they took the opportunity to rebel.

So killing their leaders and nobles, obliterating their culture, leaving only ordinary people, and then scattered all over the Central Plains, this is the long-term way.

Although it was a bit cruel at the beginning, when it is time to be cruel, you must not have the kindness of a woman.

Chen Qing ordered Wang Duo, the commander of the upper army, to lead [-] soldiers to carry out this mission. According to the list drawn out by Cao Baozong, they searched from house to house. Women and boys under ten years old were allowed to be spared. There were more than [-] men in total. , All young and old were taken away, and they were nowhere to be found again. Only one thousand guan was left for the left-behind women to support their families, and everything above [-] guan was confiscated.

It was not until dawn the next day that the biggest hidden danger was dealt with. Even if there were still some fish that slipped through the net, it would not cause too much harm. We will gradually deal with it in the future. As long as eyeliners are placed among the party members, these fish that slipped through the net will I can't get over the big waves.

Of course, Xixia did not perish. Brother Li Cha led the remnant forces to escape to Datong Mansion. More importantly, they would definitely bring all the Dangxiang nomadic tribes along the way to Datong Mansion.

After dawn, the Song army lifted the martial law in the whole city, and began to post safety notices everywhere, and cooked porridge on the main streets to relieve the victims.

There are only hundreds of eunuchs and maids left in the Western Xia Palace. The prince and concubine followed Brother Li Cha to escape. As for the emperor Li Qianshun, no one knew his whereabouts. I know, maybe he is still in Brother Li Cha's hands, maybe he has been secretly executed.

But these are not important to Chen Qing, and Chen Qing doesn't care either. What he wants is Xixia's land and wealth, and destroys the knife hanging above his head. Without Xixia's strategic containment in the north, his army can Concentrate on moving east.

Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty was unable to defeat the Liao State repeatedly. A big reason was that Xixia had strategically contained the Northern Song Dynasty. Without Xixia, there would be a huge confidant problem missing.

Chen Qing took a nap in the palace, just woke up, and washed his face a little. At this time, Hu Yanyun walked over quickly and handed a booklet to Chen Qing, "This is the inventory of the warehouse, except for grain, pig iron, Except for copper ingots, wood, sheepskin, medicinal materials, and dyes, there is no other cloth and silk. It is said that except for the cloth and silk that were given to the Kingdom of Jin and captured by us, the rest were rewarded by Brother Richard to the soldiers."

"Where's the money?" Chen Qing glanced at the inventory and asked again.

"There are still [-] taels of silver, which have not been taken away. There may be hundreds of thousands of copper coins, which are currently being counted. Others are right, and there are still a batch of property in the palace, gold and silver utensils, jade jewelry, and high-quality goods. Porcelain, valuable ivory furs, expensive furniture, etc. are still being counted."

Chen Qing nodded, "Give them ten taels of silver each for the maids and eunuchs in the palace, let them go home, and let them take away their personal belongings."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

"It's all done, and this imperial palace is also completely demolished. It's good to use these timbers to build government buildings and schools."

"Understandable!"

Hu Yanyun left in a hurry, Chen Qing got up and left the palace, just after he left the palace, he met Yang Zaixing head-on, "Report to Dutong, I have something to report from a lowly position!"

"General Yang, please speak!"

"Xiaozhi received the news from the scouts that Brother Li Cha took away all the Dangxiang tribes on the Henan grassland. I asked for instructions whether to chase after them and take back the cattle and sheep."

Chen Qing shook his head, "It's going to be a blizzard soon, it's more dangerous to chase, let them go!"

That night, a blizzard swept from the north, from Dingzhou to Mingsha County, the entire land of Xixia was shrouded in a blizzard.

(End of this chapter)