Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 953 0948 [Forced Surrender]

The 8,000 cavalrymen from the Yan Army Division in Heishui Town rushed around the Ming army's castle.

Yan refers to the Liao Kingdom, and to suppress Yan is to suppress Liao.

The original intention of setting up the Heishui Town Yanjun Division was to prevent the Liao army from setting out from Mobei and attacking Ganzhou (Zhangye) along the Heishui River. At the same time, it was also a node on the grassland Silk Road, with a "Ganzhou-Heishui City-Mobei" trade route.

Heishui River refers to Ruoshui River and Ejina River.

It originates from the Qilian Mountains, flows northward and converges into the Juyan Lake.

In ancient times, the area of ​​the Juyan Lake was as high as 2600 square kilometers.

During the Han Dynasty, the area of ​​Juyan Lake was reduced to more than 700 square kilometers, and the riverside and lakeside areas were fertile fields. The Han Dynasty cultivated 280 million mu of land here, and also built horse farms and nomadic areas. people were sent here to build cities and guard the border!

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Five Dynasties and the Western Xia Dynasty, the area of ​​the Juyan Lake continued to shrink, but there were still three or four hundred square kilometers left, which was arable and grazing, and had a large population. Historically, after the Mongols conquered the Heishui City, they massacred tens of thousands of people.

Yes, it is the Blackwater City in “Ghost Blows Out the Light: The Cave of Dragon Ridge”.

Fei Congjuli came from one of the eight Dangxiang clans. His great-grandfather's generation was transferred to Heishui City, and part of Fei Cong's tribesmen were moved there to reproduce.

Life has always been pretty good there, with abundant grass and water, fertile fields and vast expanses of land, and it is also a trade node where taxes can be collected.

After the fall of the Liao Dynasty, Mobei fell into disarray and the Zhenyan Army no longer posed any military threat.

Their duties also changed accordingly, that is, they had to be ready to support the Wei Fu Army at any time, and come to the rescue immediately after receiving a carrier pigeon or beacon fire from thousands of miles away.

It really is a thousand miles away!
There are many desert belts and oases along the way, and beacon towers are built relying on oases and rivers.

Fei Congjuli dispatched his troops very quickly this time, because the Weifu Army had sent dozens of carrier pigeons and the beacon fires had not stopped. He had no time to recruit more soldiers and horses, so he only recruited more than 10,000 men from the area around the East Juyan Sea, and rushed to Wulahai City with two horses.

When Brother Richard was in the decisive battle, Fei Congjuli led 8,000 cavalry to go around the rear and brought a large number of simple wooden ladders for siege.

It was an obstacle city, and also the largest material transfer station and military warehouse between Wulahai City and Tiande Military City.

The Ming army’s artillery and food are hidden in the city!

There is no moat.

Moreover, the Ming army had blasted a gap in the east wall of the castle. At this moment, the gap was simply repaired and barely blocked with soil and wood, and it was only blocked to a height of more than three meters.

The Ming army infantry and gunners defending the city numbered only a few hundred in total, with a few hundred grassland peasants.

There were many grain-carrying ships on the Yellow River outside the city, and the boatmen and some civilians lived on the ships.

Seeing the enemy coming, all the grain transport ships moved to the south bank. Two of the small ships quickly sailed westward to the main battlefield to report the news to Han Shizhong.

Fei Congjuli led his troops to rush here, and after a brief observation, he immediately engaged in battle.

Some cavalrymen dismounted and carried wooden ladders, rushing towards the gap, while the rest of the cavalrymen took turns shooting arrows to provide cover.

The Ming army defending the city were smashing iron pots with clanging sounds.

The broken pieces of rammed earth and iron pot fragments were used as shotgun shells and stuffed into the gun barrel.

These are siege artillery with large caliber and long range, and are temporarily placed here.

If you use siege bullets, the effect against light cavalry is too poor. If you use shotgun shells instead, the situation will be different.

"Boom boom boom!"

The six cannons on both sides of the gap took turns firing at the incoming enemy. Countless rammed earth blocks and iron pot pieces flew out, and Xixia soldiers fell down from time to time.

Cleaning the barrel of the gun is quite troublesome. The rammed earth blocks come from the collapsed city walls, and a lot of dust is left in the barrel when the gun is fired. There is no other way. It is difficult to find stones nearby, so we can only smash the rammed earth blocks to use instead.

Hundreds of grassland peasants were also shooting with their bows and arrows.

The soldiers under Fei Congjuli were repelled in four consecutive attacks, and their morale was gradually worn away.

He simply divided his troops into four groups and attacked from all sides instead of just attacking the gap.

The Ming army's remaining troops were too small to defend every place, and were soon rushed to the city by a group of Western Xia soldiers.

The Xixia soldiers were setting up ladders when they saw a ball falling from above their heads.

"boom!"

The thunder bomb exploded, causing heavy casualties among the Xixia soldiers, and those who were not dead all fled in terror.

Fei Congjuli still refused to believe in evil and continued to organize the attack, but the Western Xia soldiers became timid and moved forward or stood far away from each other.

"boom!"

Another thunder bomb exploded, and all the Xixia soldiers nearby fled. Even those who were twenty or thirty meters away were fleeing, as if they would be the ones to be blown up if they didn't run away.

"General, we can't attack anymore. The Ming army's firearms are powerful!" The chiefs of the tribes under his command pleaded.

In fact, up to this point, only 4 of the Xixia soldiers were killed or wounded, with a casualty rate of less than %. Many of the Xixia soldiers who were hit by small lumps of rammed earth only had fractures, so they would not be in danger of death if they retreated.

But they were all frightened by the firearms, especially the thunder bombs, which made the Xixia soldiers dare not approach the city walls.

They came thousands of miles from the Zhenyan Military Command, so there is no need for them to risk their lives for the Wei Fu Military Command.

These Western Xia soldiers were mainly Tangut-ized Uighurs.

No matter how much they become Tangut-like, they are still not real Tanguts. Their language contains a lot of Uighur words, and their daily life still retains many Uighur customs. They are not of the same mind as the Tanguts of the Weifu Army.

Seeing that the chieftains were unwilling to fight again, Fei Congjuli could only bite the bullet and say, "Attack again, send more people!"

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Soon, more than a dozen thunder bombs exploded one after another, and groups of Xixia soldiers fled back. The chiefs looked at Fei Congjuli, without saying a word, and remained silent.

Fei Congjuli looked at the small barrier city, the gap that was only two or three meters high, swallowed hard and said, "Let's go to the decisive battlefield and lend a hand to His Royal Highness Prince Jin."

The chiefs finally smiled. They would rather face tens of thousands of Ming troops on the grassland than attack the castle defended by firearms.

God knows how many iron balls that can explode are there. As long as the Xixia soldiers rush to the city wall, they will be knocked over by the explosion. No matter how many Xixia soldiers there are, how many times can they withstand it?

Fei Congjuli took away the wounded and the bodies and led more than 7,000 cavalry to the main battlefield.

He felt that the battle between the two sides, with a total force of more than 100,000, would not be over in a short time. As long as he kept his horse's strength up all the way, he could suddenly attack from behind the Ming army at the critical moment of the battle and surely achieve extraordinary success.

To be on the safe side, Fei Congjuli also sent out hundreds of light cavalry to run far ahead to gather information.

It was not until the afternoon that the light cavalry came running back in panic: "General, the King of Jin has been defeated!"

Fei Congjuli asked in surprise: "How did you lose?"

"I don't know," said the officer of the cavalry. "We didn't encounter any Ming cavalry interception along the way. When we approached the battlefield, we saw prisoners and corpses everywhere. Before we had time to take a closer look, a group of cavalry rushed over. We were so scared that we quickly fled back."

That group of cavalry were Han Shizhong's personal soldiers.

The rest of the Ming cavalry all went to chase and kill the defeated enemy, leaving only Han Shizhong commanding the grassland cavalry to clean up the battlefield.

Han Shizhong had already received the message from the clipper. He deliberately let the scouting Xixia light cavalry approach to let the enemy army attacking the castle know that Brother Richard had been defeated.

An inexplicable panic quickly spread among Fei Congjuli's army.

They didn't know how they lost the decisive battle, nor did they know how many friendly troops escaped.

"Let's go back to Wulahai City first!" Fei Congjuli gave the order.

The more than 7,000 cavalrymen immediately galloped northward, swam across the Uga River, and then headed west along the northern bank, bypassing the battlefield area and fleeing back to Wulahai City.

After running until dark, Fei Congjuli suddenly stopped.

In front of them, on both sides of the Uga River, the Ming army was already waiting there.

There were still many Ming cavalrymen who were chasing the enemy and had not returned. Han Shizhong personally led more than a thousand Ming cavalrymen and nearly ten thousand grassland light cavalrymen to guard both sides of the Uga River to block the enemy's return.

More than ten miles behind Han Shizhong was the Langshan Pass where the Wulahai City was located.

A Tangut chieftain who surrendered in Tiande Military City rode over and shouted: "Don't shoot arrows, I am a Tangut! Don't shoot arrows, I am a Khitan..."

Fei Congjuli ordered not to shoot, and waited until the man ran in before asking: "Since you are a Dangxiang, why did you defect to the enemy country?"

The Tangut chief said, "My name is Mi Qinxin Ge, and I am the chief of a branch of the Mi Qin clan. I was stationed at Tiandejun City before, and surrendered only after the city was breached. The Ming army did not kill prisoners indiscriminately, and even ordered firefighting. There was a Ming protector named Yue who suppressed and executed two enemy chiefs who killed prisoners indiscriminately. If you surrender, you will definitely be able to survive."

All the chiefs under Fei Congjuli were excited after hearing this.

Especially the Uighur chieftains, whose hometown was thousands of miles away and they were not of the same tribe as the Tanguts. Why didn't they surrender if they could save their lives?
What's more, Brother Richard was defeated.

Fei Congjuli asked, "How did the King of Jin lose?"

Mi Qinxin said, "Including the Iron Harriers, all of our Great Xia... Western Xia cavalry were routed. The Ming cavalry broke into the infantry formation, and the entire army of the King of Jin was routed. The Ming army killed and captured tens of thousands of people, and the King of Jin fled with the remaining troops. No one knows where they fled to. But it was definitely not Wulahai City, and he did not dare to flee back to the city."

Fei Congjuli was silent.

Mi Qinxin continued, "Han Duhu asked me to tell you that after the spring, the Ming Dynasty will send 500,000 troops to Shaanxi, and the Yellow-headed Uighurs will also send troops to destroy Xixia in three directions. Even if you escape back to the Zhenyan Army Headquarters, when the Ming army conquers the Xixia capital, they will also send troops to Blackwater City. Will you be able to win by then?"

There's no way to escape back, the retreat route is blocked!

To the north is Wolf Mountain, to the south is Uga River, and the grassland area in between is only a dozen miles wide.

Even if they could fight their way into Wulahai City, they would all be trapped if the Ming army blocked the entrance to Langshan.

At that time, the only way to survive was to cross the Langshan Pass and travel more than a thousand miles from the northern foot of Yinshan Mountain back to Blackwater City. Along the way were all Gobi, deserts and mountains, and I was afraid I would starve to death on the way.

Another Tangut cavalryman rushed over and shouted, "Han Duhu said, whether to fight or flee, let you decide quickly, he has to go back to distribute the spoils!"

The Uighur chiefs came forward one after another and surrounded Fei Congjuli.

Even the chief of the Dangxiang tribe did not stop this behavior, but chose to stand on horseback and watch.

Fei Congjuli looked at the chiefs with their hands on the hilts of their knives. If he dared to say "no", he would probably be hacked to death on the spot.

The descendants of these people defended Heishui City to the death for more than eighty years, purely because of the brutality of the Mongols.

At this moment, they have a chance to survive.

Fei Congjuli sighed, threw away his weapon and said, "I am willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."

Han Shizhong called Fei Congjuli over and pointed to Wulahai City, which was more than ten miles to the northwest. "All your cavalrymen should leave their weapons unarmored and go outside the city to call for surrender. Tell them that the Zhenyan Army has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and ask the defenders in the city to surrender as soon as possible. If you dare to defend, the artillery and bows and arrows will not be able to detect you."

Fei Congjuli had no other choice but to hand over his weapons and armor. Under the "escort" of the Ming Dynasty's elite cavalry, more than 7,000 cavalry rushed to the outside of Wulahai City to persuade them to surrender.

Looking at the more than 7,000 friendly soldiers who were unarmed, the defenders in the city began to quarrel.

Most people wanted to surrender. Brother Richard didn't flee into the city, which obviously meant he had abandoned the city. So why were they still defending it?

Cao Yu, the military supervisor of the Wei Fu Army, ordered the killing of several officers who were threatening to defend the city, and then led the entire army to open the city gates.

Cao Yu ran to Han Shizhong's front, and knelt down several meters away: "Cao Yu, the military supervisor of the lower country, pays homage to the general of the upper country! I am the cousin of the Queen Mother of Western Xia. I also have a cousin named Cao Tuan, who has been an envoy in Luoyang for a long time and knows many civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty. I...I am willing to serve the Ming Dynasty and follow the army to Keyi Gate to persuade the garrison commander to surrender. The Cao family is also willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty. I can also persuade my cousin, the Queen Mother Cao, to order the king of Western Xia to surrender."

Han Shizhong laughed loudly: "You are very sensible."

Cao Yu knelt down, turned around, and said towards the city gate: "General, please enter the city. I will lead your horse for you."

(End of this chapter)