Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 643 Top Secret Deployment Map

The [-] defenders of Xiping Mansion also received King Qin's order. They did not dare to neglect, and immediately set off for Xingqing Mansion.

At this time, there was no Song army in Xiping Mansion, and the pier was crowded with people, horses neighing, and people's voices were buzzing. There were hundreds of huge leather rafts moored on the pier. These were Xixia's Yellow River ferry boats. It took about an hour for a hundred soldiers or fifty war horses to cross the river.

According to the usual practice, the soldiers are transported first, and then the horses are transported separately. Twenty thousand soldiers boarded the giant leather rafts one after another, and 8000 giant leather rafts transported 2000 people at a time, leaving [-] people to guard the horses.

'Woo——' the low-pitched horn blew, and hundreds of skin rafts slowly left the pier and sailed to the other side of the river.

Xixia has been using this giant leather raft as a ferry for hundreds of years. It is very convenient, and soldiers and ordinary people are used to it. However, because the Xixia court blocked the news, the soldiers of Xiping Mansion did not even know about the attack on grain and grass.

At the bottom of the giant leather raft are two layers of hundreds of sheepskin bags. On the top is a layer of wooden rafts, and then two layers of cowhide. The soldiers sit on the cowhide. The walls are surrounded by sheepskin bags. The front and back of the raft are slightly longer. A boatman at each station supports the raft with long bamboo poles.

The leather raft is very big, with a length and a width of more than ten feet each, just like a passenger ship of two thousand shi.

Just when hundreds of rafts sailed into the middle of the Yellow River, a dozen huge Song Army steamships appeared, each of which was a giant of five thousand stones, full of Song Army sailors.

In fact, they have been waiting in the north for a long time, waiting for Xixia soldiers to enter the water, and their strategy is to attack halfway.

The appearance of more than a dozen huge warships made the ferries in the Yellow River flustered immediately. The boatmen tried their best to speed up, but they were not faster than the steam-driven warships of the Song Army. This is hundreds of Song Army water ghosts entering the water.

Wearing water tanks and holding sharp knives in their mouths, they quickly dived into the bottom of the raft. The two were in charge of a raft, one on the left and one on the right, and cut through hundreds of skin bags with their sharp knives. Unable to bear the weight of 200 people, the wooden raft sank into the bottom of the water with a bang. Amidst the screams, all two hundred soldiers fell into the water. on the water, shouting for help.

But the soldiers had no chance. As the Song Army warship rumbled forward, what was waiting for them was the Song Army's utter killing. The Song Army on the ship mercilessly shot and killed the soldiers of the Xixia Army on the water.

In just over half an hour, none of the Xixia ferry boats were able to dock smoothly, and all of them capsized in the Yellow River. Broken leather rafts and scattered logs were floating everywhere on the water surface. , All eighteen thousand soldiers were killed at the bottom of the river.

At this time, the [-] Song Army cavalrymen on the shore had also been killed, and the [-] Xixia soldiers who hadn't disembarked were terrified.

The Song army immediately occupied Xiping Mansion, but this time it was the opposite of Dingzhou. The Song army entered the city and received an unprecedented warm welcome.

On the one hand, most of the party members in the city left from the army. On the other hand, Xiping Mansion is a famous handicraft and textile center in Xixia, so that more than [-]% of the residents in the city are slaves from the Song Dynasty who were captured. Working in more than a dozen government-run handicraft workshops, there is an iron mine nearby, and nearly [-] miners are Song Dynasty border residents.

Hundreds of thousands of Song people sang and danced, and many people cried and shouted to welcome the troops from their hometown. Looking at the excited and tear-filled faces, the soldiers of the Song Army were also very moved.

The head coach Di Qing shouted loudly to the hundreds of thousands of people who welcomed them into the city: "From now on, you are no longer slaves. We came late and let the fathers and villagers suffer."

The whole city suddenly burst into tears, and Di Qing immediately ordered tens of thousands of party residents in the city to be expelled from the city, and their houses were handed over to Song people to live in. Song people donated food.

Fan Ning arrived at Xiping Mansion at dusk, and the people of Xiping Mansion were still immersed in the joy of being liberated. Di Qing went out of the city to welcome Fan Ning's arrival in person.

"How many Song people are there in the city, have you counted them?" Fan Ning asked Di Qing as soon as they met.

"A rough count, including the miners, there are 35 to [-], all of whom are kidnapped Song people or their descendants."

"There are so many?" Fanning asked in surprise.

"It's actually not surprising. This is the result of Xixia's decades of plundering the Song people. Xixia's military manufacturing is in Xingqing Prefecture, and a small number of party craftsmen are in charge. Non-military handicrafts are all done by Song people, including mining and smelting. It’s the Song people, Xiping Mansion is the largest handicraft city in Xixia, so there are the most Song people.”

"What's the gain in the warehouse?"

"There are more than 20 stones of grain, 70 dans of forage, 200 taels of silver, more than [-] million catties of pig iron, and [-] million catties of copper. There are also armor and shields. In addition, [-] war horses were seized."

Fan Ning nodded, "Dingzhou has also harvested a lot, and the warehouses in Huaizhou, Jingzhou, and Shunzhou are also magnificent. I plan to transport all the grain and grass materials from these three states to Xiping Mansion."

"Is Xianggong going to occupy the other three cities?" Di Qing asked.

"This is the purpose of my coming to Xiping Mansion. I found that 20 troops are not enough. I need [-] troops to guard Huai, Jing, and Shun prefectures for me. See if I can recruit troops from Song people?"

Di Qing pondered for a while and said, "If it's just recruiting, I believe Song Min's enthusiasm will be very high. First of all, at least [-] of the [-] miners can be converted into soldiers. Recruiting [-] soldiers is not a big problem, but I'm afraid the combat ability will be poor."

"Then train them and train them to become auxiliary soldiers defending the city."

"What about the party members in Huaizhou, Jingzhou and Shunzhou?"

Fan Ning said lightly: "I have driven them all out of the city and sent them to Xingqing Mansion. I sent someone to deliver a letter to Xingqing Mansion. If they refuse to accept these party members, then I can only kill them all. However, according to In terms of feedback, they should accept these hundreds of thousands of people."

"Isn't this the reinforcement of Xingqing Mansion's troops?" Di Qing was a little puzzled.

Fan Ning smiled and said: "Everything will have advantages and disadvantages. The population of Xingqing Mansion may be as high as one million. How will they deal with food? The population is dense and the weather is getting hotter. What will happen if a disease breaks out? I guess the Empress Dowager Liang actually She may not want to accept it, but she dare not refuse to accept it, otherwise she will be charged with persecuting party members."

"Xianggong is right, even if they gather 30 troops, so what? They don't have so many armors and equipment. Let's fight a protracted war with them and see who can't hold on in the end?"

The two came to the temporary military office, which was originally the official office of Xixia, and was requisitioned as the Song Army's military office. There were soldiers standing guard at the gate, and the guards were heavily guarded. When the two entered the military office, Di Qing spread out a large map and said with a smile: "This is the right to seize The biggest harvest of Xiping Mansion was discovered from the seized baggage, let me see what this is?"

Fan Ning stepped forward to take a closer look, and was suddenly surprised and delighted. It turned out to be a defense map of the [-] troops on the southern border. It was very detailed. The strength and food of each cottage, checkpoint, and city were clearly marked. Top secret information.

Fan Ning leaned over the map and took a closer look. From the east, Yinzhou, Xiazhou, Shizhou, Longzhou, Hongzhou, Youzhou, Yanzhou, Weizhou and other military cities, as well as 36 cottages and more than 100 checkpoints , [-] troops are distributed among them.

"Is this the latest map?" Fanning asked again.

Di Qing pointed to a date in the lower left corner, the map revised 20 days ago.

Fan Ning frowned, "Why are the armies in Longzhou, Hongzhou and Youzhou very concentrated, reaching as many as 3000 troops, while the troops in the east and west are very few, Weizhou has only [-] defenders, while Yinzhou and Xiazhou have only [-] troops? Zhou and Shizhou each have only a few thousand people, what is the reason for this?"

"I have also considered this issue. I guess that Xixia was preparing to attack Gyeongju on a large scale before, so the army was mainly hoarded in the middle. As a result, we occupied Hetao and they had to withdraw their troops. However, the pattern of attacking Gyeongju has not had time to change, so the main force is Hoarding in the middle."

"If that's the case, will we have a chance?"

Di Qing smiled slightly and said, "It's very easy to attack all the Xixia Army checkpoints from behind. The key is to see if Mr. Fan's strategy should be changed?"

Fan Ning paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and finally said: "We have also deployed 30 troops to the south. It is a bit unreasonable not to give Han Xianggong and the old generals a chance. In this way, we will open a channel for them, and how to deal with the Xixia army?" It's up to them to decide."

Di Qing thought for a while and said, "Leave this matter to me! I will open the Yinzhou and Weizhou passages for them. Except for the three cities of Longzhou, Hongzhou and Youzhou, the other copycat checkpoints can be wiped out from behind. Clean, but they concentrate their forces to deal with the three border cities of Xixia."

(End of this chapter)