Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 642 The army goes south
In early June, 20 new troops arrived at Wuyuan City. Adding the 28 troops before Wuyuan City, the total strength of the Song Army reached [-], with more than [-] large and small warships.

In the commander's tent of the big camp outside the city, Fan Ning held a high-level pre-war meeting, and all generals above the command participated.

Fan Ning spread out a huge map of Western Xia on the big table, and Fan Ning pointed to Xingqing Mansion with a wooden pole and said to everyone: "From the information we have so far, there are only no more than [-] troops left in Xingqing Mansion." , On the pier outside the city, there is the largest warehouse group in Xixia, which contains countless grain, grass and materials they raised to attack the Song Dynasty. The first goal of our fleet is to destroy their warehouses and the grain, grass, and materials inside."

Di Qing hesitated next to him and said: "The north of Xingqing Mansion is Dingzhou. If our fleet passes through Dingzhou, it will be easy to be spotted, and they will probably transfer food and supplies in advance."

Fan Ning said with a smile: "This involves some details. Dingzhou City is about two miles away from the Yellow River. Standing on the city wall, you can clearly see the situation in the Yellow River, but if it is night, they cannot see it.

Moreover, the Yellow River is more than ten miles wide. We try to walk along the east bank of the Yellow River. They are unlikely to find out that the distance from Dingzhou to Xingqing Mansion is only fifty miles away. If we walk when it is dark, we will definitely reach Xingqing Mansion before dawn the next day. . "

The one next to him said: "Once we are approaching the city, will Xixia call up the army of the state capitals?"

"Of course. Tens of thousands of people can't hold a capital city. Xingqing Mansion will inevitably recruit troops from nearby states to rush to the capital city to serve King Qin. I still have the same principle. Don't fight the opponent head-on too early. We must constantly weaken them and erode them bit by bit. They would rather take a little longer and win this war at the least cost."

Everyone nodded silently, and Fan Ning said again: "Among all the cities in Xixia, we have to pay attention to two cities. One is Dingzhou City, which we must take as our foundation in the hinterland of Xixia. There are 1 troops. I don’t know if the Xixia court will call them back to Xingqing Mansion. If they are called, we will occupy the city directly.

The second is this city. Fan Ning pointed to the Xiping Mansion in front of him, "This city is on the east bank of the Yellow River. They will definitely cross the Yellow River in the King Qin Xingqing Mansion. Our second goal this time is to completely wipe out Xiping Mansion." army."

All the generals went back to prepare, only Fan Ning and Di Qing were left in the big tent.

Di Qingyu said earnestly: "I'm afraid you have to face a choice. The Song Army has never encountered it before. This time you will encounter it. Occupying Xixia's belly city, how do you deal with the party members?"

Fan Ning said slowly: "Actually, the Song Army encountered it when they captured Liaoyang Mansion in Tokyo. My order to the navy is that no matter how old or young, resisters will be shot and killed. It's the same this time."

"The party members are very fierce, and every household has weapons. Although I don't approve of massacres, the benevolence of women will also make us suffer. You have to be more careful and grasp this properly."

Fanning nodded, "I see!"

Di Qing sighed again, "But once you kill the civilians, this matter will become a stain in the future. I have a deep understanding. When I captured Youzhou, in order to prevent the party members from cooperating with each other, I ordered the massacre of Suixiang , Maonu, Shangluo and other more than a dozen tribes with tens of thousands of people, and later when all the officials of the imperial court jointly impeached me, this incident became my biggest crime."

Fan Ning was silent for a moment, then said with a smile: "I just want to have a clear conscience, as for other things, let them talk!"

Early the next morning, Fan Ning ordered Yang Wenguang to lead 20 troops to defend Wuyuan City. He personally commanded [-] warships, and [-] troops marched southward. The Song army opened the prelude to attacking Xixia.

Decades after the founding of Xixia, they never dreamed that the war fleet of the Song Army would come to the city.

On June [-]th, at dawn, an overwhelming number of Song Army warships appeared on the Yellow River outside Xingqingfu City. There were [-] warships appearing on the Yellow River with a width of more than ten miles.

Hundreds of giant leather rafts docked on the shore were engulfed by the fire, and the warehouses on the shore were also ignited. 120 warehouses, 50 shi of grain, 30 dans of forage, and countless armor materials were burned .

The city of Xingqing was in chaos, the city gates were closed, and fifty thousand troops stood on the top of the city, each with a stern expression and shock in their eyes. From the emperor to the traffickers, from the general to the soldiers, no one would have thought that today's A frightening scene.

Not only that, [-] Song troops also landed on the east bank, ruthlessly destroying the endless wheat fields, which are covered with green wheat seedlings. The grain here is only harvested once a year. The wheat fields were destroyed by the Song army. The food reserves in the country were also burned, which means that Xixia will face famine this year.

The people outside the city of Xingqing Mansion fled away one after another, and the cavalry of the Song Army set fires everywhere, and the whole city was engulfed in a sea of ​​flames.

Dozens of envoys with military amulets and imperial decrees rushed out of the south gate on horseback and galloped towards various places in Xixia.

Due to the small population of Xixia, they had to implement the national policy of all the people as soldiers. However, there are not many standing troops in normal times, only 20 people, of which 10 troops guard the long southern border, and the other 5 people are in addition to the [-] people guarding Hexi. In addition, the remaining [-] troops are deployed in the capital.

This time Xixia mobilized the whole country and planned to use 30 troops to attack the Song Dynasty. In addition to the original 20 frontier troops, a new [-] reserve army was actually recruited.

Among them, the [-] reserve army suffered two disastrous defeats, all of which were buried in Hetao, and the other [-] troops were distributed in various state capitals. The Queen Mother Liang urgently recruited the [-] reserve army King Qin.

The 30 troops on the southern border cannot be moved. Once they are transferred, the [-] Song troops outside will definitely enter the hinterland of Xixia, and the [-] troops in the Hexi Corridor cannot be moved, otherwise the Hexi Corridor will not be guaranteed.

The situation is very critical, and the senior officials and ministers of Xixia don't care whether other state capitals are empty. At this time, keeping the capital is the first important thing.

The first King Qin army to arrive at Xingqing Mansion was the [-] reserve army in Dingzhou.

Dingzhou is located about [-] miles north of Xingqing Mansion. It is the north gate of Xingqing Mansion. There are usually [-] defenders. Since hundreds of warships of the Song Army approached the city of Xingqing Mansion, it was easy to cause a crisis for the Xixia court. The illusion is that the North Gate is meaningless.

As far as the Xixia court is concerned, Dingzhou is indeed useless. It can neither stop the main force of the Song army going south, nor intercept the Song army's logistics team. Go back to Xingqing Mansion.

But the consequences soon appeared. Ten thousand Song troops quickly marched into Dingzhou City. Unexpectedly, after the Song army entered the city, they were fiercely resisted by the soldiers and civilians in the city. The Song army suffered nearly a thousand casualties and completely occupied Dingzhou.

Fan Ning immediately issued an order to kill all the men over the age of 14 in the city, a total of more than [-] people. This order later became Fan Ning's biggest political stain.

Two days later, Fan Ning led an army of [-] troops to Dingzhou and used Dingzhou as the logistics base of the Song army. This was unexpected by the Xixia court. It has extremely important significance. The Song army occupied Dingzhou and took root in the hinterland of Xixia.

There are several big cities around Xingqing Mansion in Xixia, Dingzhou in the north, Shunzhou, Jingzhou, Huaizhou and Lingzhou in the south, a total of five big cities guard the capital Xingqing Mansion.

Among the five big cities, only Lingzhou is on the east bank of the Yellow River, and the other four big cities are all on the west bank of the Yellow River. There are dozens of canals and rivers scattered on the west bank of the Yellow River, forming a dense water network.

Abundant water sources, fertile land, and sufficient sunlight have made this vast land historically known as the Fortress Jiangnan, and it has become the most affluent area in Northwest China.

Lingzhou, also known as Xiping Mansion, is located in the southernmost of the five cities. It is located on the east bank of the Yellow River. Once the Song Army enters the hinterland of Xixia from the south, it will first approach Xiping Mansion, so Xiping Mansion is also called Xingqing Mansion. At the south gate, [-] reserve troops were stationed, and a large amount of food was hoarded in the city.

Now that Dingzhou, the northern gate, had given up, the Xixia court ordered the [-] reserve troops of Xiping Mansion to also rush to Xingqing Mansion to serve the king in order to preserve its military strength to the maximum extent.

The [-] troops from Xiping Mansion rushed to Xingqing Mansion, but unlike the other four states, it needed to cross the Yellow River.

After making a plan and then moving, the Song Army focused on Xiping Mansion at the beginning of sending troops.

(End of this chapter)