Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 962 0957 [Xingqing Prefecture is not easy to fight]

Yue Fei's attack route was no secret in Western Xia, but it was easily overlooked.

No one, including the locals, would go that way.

The reason is simple. There is a flat road to travel on, so why should we cross three sections of desert?
It was normal for Cao Yu not to know the route. Every time he passed through this place, he would go through the Keyi Gate, and his knowledge of this area came from the stories told by his entourage.

Since the generals of Chao Shun Military Division knew there was a gap, why didn't they station troops to guard it?
Be prepared.

The Western Xia built a fort on the east bank of the Yellow River ferry to prevent the Ming army from attacking from behind the Keyi Gate.

Well... I just forgot to guard against the Ming army’s direct attack on Xingqing Prefecture.

Because there is no need to defend.

First, if they wanted to attack Xingqing Prefecture, Dingzhou City would be blocking the way.

Second, the Western Xia army at Keyi Gate could cut off the enemy’s retreat at any time.

Under normal circumstances, if Yue Fei led his troops to Dingzhou like this, they would have become an isolated army deep in enemy territory!

As long as the defenders of Keyi Gate divide their forces and cross the river, they can catch the turtle in the jar and beat the dog behind closed doors.

This is very similar to when the Jin army marched southward, Wanyan Zongwang bypassed many strong cities and went straight to the Northern Song capital of Bianliang. If the Northern Song army was a little more normal, it would have blocked the Jin army's retreat and wiped out Wanyan Zongwang's troops - that was what Zhang Shuye suggested, but unfortunately the Song army was already rotten to the core.

……

"What? The enemy has captured Dingzhou?"

Li Renzhong was horrified: "Please ask the King of Jin to lead his troops back to help!"

After Li Renzhong received the news, he had no time to inform the King of Western Xia, so he immediately sent someone to invite Richard back, and at the same time dispatched troops to consolidate the defense of Xingqing Prefecture.

Not long after, Li Renxiao also received the news and quickly summoned Li Renzhong to the palace for questioning.

Li Renxiao asked: "Did the Ming army fly over the Keyi Gate?"

"I... really don't know." Li Renzhong, like Cao Yu, was the prime minister of Western Xia and had no idea that he could take a detour through the desert.

Li Renxiao asked again: "How many troops are there in the city?"

Li Renzhong said: "Five thousand garrison troops and one thousand Xingqingfu city defense troops. If the enemy does not come in large numbers, we can organize the people to defend the city until the King of Jin leads his army back!"

"Defend it to the death, then defend it to the death." Li Renxiao said hurriedly.

Li Renzhong said: "Your Majesty, please go up to the tower to defend yourself. The soldiers and civilians in the city will surely fight to the death."

"Okay, I'll go right away!"

This sixteen-year-old emperor, who had been on the throne for more than half a year, did not surrender out of fear like Liu Chan did.

Not only did he go up to the city wall himself, he also brought the newly enthroned Queen Wang with him.

Li Renzhong took the opportunity to send people to spread the word everywhere. When the soldiers and civilians of Xingqing Prefecture heard that the emperor and the empress had ascended the city, their morale was boosted and they obeyed orders to defend the city.

All men, women, old and weak in the city were organized. The men were organized into an army with various weapons, and the women were arranged to carry supplies everywhere.

As long as the Xixia army and civilians can defend the city, Yue Fei will be the one in desperate situation!

Because Yue Fei had traveled a long distance, he did not carry much food and fodder. In the Western Xia territory, the enemy had fortified the city in the first half of the journey and had excessive grain collection in the second half. It was difficult for him to obtain food in the enemy territory, and even the Dingzhou city he occupied did not have much food.

The main force of the Xingqing Prefecture's garrison now is the 5,000 garrison troops, which was founded by Li Yuanhao.

They were also called the "Imperial Garden Sixth Guard", which had only 500 people at the beginning, but gradually expanded to 5,000 people over the past 100 years. They were all made up of the direct descendants of various powerful tribes, and to put it bluntly, they were hostages used by Li Yuanhao to control the various tribes.

The combat effectiveness of this group of "proton troops" was extremely terrifying a hundred years ago!
Now, haha.

Their daily work was to guard the imperial palace and royal gardens, and they would only be dispatched when the King of Western Xia personally led the army to war.

Three hundred of them were sent by Li Renzhong to the north to scout the enemy situation.

They were wearing golden armor and riding tall horses. At first glance, they looked very majestic.

In fact, their armor plates are very thin and can hardly defend against even strong bows.

The troops stationed in the palace only need to look impressive. Why do they need any defensive power? Real armor is so heavy. Standing guard will make you tired!

The three hundred cavalrymen cautiously left the city, split into teams of thirty and headed north to scout Yue Fei's movements.

After they rode several miles, they were unwilling to move forward and stayed around. Once there was any movement, they would go back and report, which was considered as completing their mission.

"The Han army is coming! The Han army is coming!"

Several Western Xia people came galloping on horseback from the north.

These Xixia hostage soldiers were so frightened that they immediately blew their horns to warn their scattered companions, then turned around and fled on horseback.

When they returned to Xingqing Prefecture, Li Renzhong personally asked, "How many Ming troops have arrived?"

“Thousands and tens of thousands.”

"How much exactly?"

“It could be a few thousand, or it could be tens of thousands.”

"Asshole! Did you encounter any enemies?"

"Yes. But the enemy came too fast and we didn't have time to count how many there were."

"How far is the enemy from here?"

"It's estimated to be several miles away." "Don't estimate, how far is it?"

"Five miles. Maybe six or seven."

"..."

Li Renzhong almost exploded with anger after asking these questions.

He could basically conclude that these guys had never seen the Ming army with their own eyes!
That afternoon, Yue Fei really brought his troops.

The generals rushed closer to observe and suddenly felt a headache because it was impossible to take it down.

The circumference of Kaifeng's city wall is 28.8 li, and the circumference of Xingqing Prefecture's city wall is 18 li. By comparing them, you can see how big the city is.

The width of the moat is more than 30 meters.

Moreover, the Xixia rulers and ministers, who were determined to defend the city to the death, simply demolished the bridge.

Although the main forces were transferred to the front line, Xingqing Prefecture was a large city with more than 200,000 people. At this moment, the people were organized to defend the city, and the top of the city was densely packed with people.

Yue Fei didn't have any siege weapons, so let alone being the first to capture the city, he couldn't even cross the moat.

It was no use shouting to persuade them to surrender. Standing outside the moat, they were too far away from the city wall and no matter what they shouted, they couldn't hear clearly.

"What should we do?" The generals looked at Yue Fei.

Yue Fei said: "Besiege the city and attack the reinforcements. The Xixia capital is under siege, and they will definitely send a large army to rescue."

Yang Yizhong said, "But we haven't received much food and grass in Dingzhou City. We will starve in a few days. The Xixia people nearby have also been confiscated and have no surplus food. Even if the soldiers plunder, they can't get a few grains of rice."

Yue Fei said: "Send the cavalry to the east, north and south, and disperse the local people along the way to ensure that there are few people within a radius of dozens of miles, so that the enemy does not know where our main force is. At the same time, these cavalry advancing on three sides are also responsible for scouting the enemy situation. In order to advance and retreat quickly, they should take off their armor and retreat when they encounter the enemy."

"Then what?" Liu Zhengyan asked.

Yue Fei said: "We will act according to the situation."

Xingqing Prefecture City is the closest to Huaizhou City, only forty miles away.

The Ming "light cavalry" sent to Huaizhou encountered a large group of enemy cavalry halfway on the way, and immediately retreated to the direction of Yue Fei's main force without engaging in battle.

Jingzhou City was fifty miles away in the south, and the report came back saying that it was extremely deserted.

Yue Fei immediately sent half of his troops southward. He said to Xu Qing who was carrying out the mission: "Attack the city at night and fight if you can. If the enemy is prepared, withdraw immediately!"

"Report!!!"

"We caught a spy, riding a horse and running around suspiciously. He claimed to be from the Military Intelligence Department of the Ministry of War, but he couldn't produce anything to prove himself."

Before Xu Qing set out, some of the scouts he had sent out suddenly came running back.

Yue Fei was overjoyed: "Nonsense! How dare the military intelligence officers keep their badges in the enemy's country? Hurry and bring the people here!"

After saying that, he asked Xu Qing not to leave for the time being.

About a quarter of an hour later, a middle-aged man was brought to Yue Fei.

The man saluted and said, "General, my name is Li Cunhui. I served in the Western Army during the pre-Song Dynasty. I couldn't stand the exploitation of the generals, so I became a horse bandit in Lanzhou. Later, I followed General Li Yanxian to join the Ming Dynasty. I also followed General Li Yanxian and General Yang Zhi to defeat the Western Xia and the Southern Army."

"Sorry for the neglect." Yue Fei stood in awe and saluted quickly. The man in front of him was more senior than him.

Li Cunhui said:
"When the emperor was the crown prince and personally led an expedition to Hebei, I followed him. I was injured and rested for half a year. After I recovered, I joined the Military Intelligence Department. At first, I traveled between the borders of the two countries, smuggling blue and white salt from the Xixia salt dealers to Xiamazhai in Huanzhou. The court found a reason to crack down on smuggling, and I took the opportunity to escape to Yanzhou with my injuries."

"The governor of Yanzhou in Xixia has been using his cronies to smuggle blue and white salt. I claimed to have connections in Huanzhou, so he sent people to find out about me. When he found out that I had made up an identity, he stopped suspecting me. I helped him smuggle blue and white salt for three years. When he was transferred to Youzhou, he took me with him and even arranged for me to marry the daughter of a Youzhou officer."

"In the past few years, I have been in Youzhou and served as a guard officer under the Youzhou Inspector. If the two countries do not go to war again, I would like to bribe my superiors and become the commander of the Youzhou Inspector."

After hearing these words, all the generals were stunned.

The guy in front of me not only successfully infiltrated Xixia, but also became an officer in Xixia.

Yue Fei asked: "Since you are an officer in Youzhou, why are you here?"

Li Cunhui smiled and said, "The Xixia commander in Youzhou is Wang Cunli, the father-in-law of the Xixia. He is a complete idiot. He led his troops to fight Xiao Heda in a hurry, but was frightened and fled when he was attacked at night. I was in the camp outside the village at the time, and when Xiao Heda came to kill me, I led my troops and fled back to Youzhou without a second thought."

"He originally wanted to return to Youzhou and look for an opportunity to help capture the city, but Wang Cunli was frightened. When he learned that Longzhou had been lost and Shizhou was under siege, he actually retreated with tens of thousands of troops and more than 100,000 civilians. He did not stop at Yanzhou and actually abandoned Yanzhou as well."

Yue Fei asked: "Where have Wang Cunli's tens of thousands of troops retreated to now?"

Li Cunhui said: "More than 100,000 civilians have retreated to the outskirts of Huaizhou City. Only the families of officers can enter the city. My wife and children in Xixia are settled in the city. Currently, there are 50,000 troops in Huaizhou City, but they are all remnants of the defeated army. Wang Cunli is leading these soldiers to defend the city."

"Brother Richard was urgently summoned by the King of Xixia to select 20,000 cavalrymen who were still capable of fighting. I don't know where he went. According to my guess, he should have sneaked into the depths of the grassland to cut off the food supply of the Ming soldiers."

"Wang Cunli received the news that the general was rushing to attack Xingqing Prefecture in Huaizhou. He was so scared that he dared not act rashly and sent out the remaining cavalry to investigate."

"I am an officer of one of the cavalry units. I encountered the cavalry sent by the general before, and I took the opportunity to abandon my troops and chased them all the way."

"General Yue, if you don't find a way to break the impasse, you will most likely be blocked by tens of thousands of troops!"

Yue Fei said: "I am not afraid of facing tens of thousands of enemy troops, but I am afraid that the enemy will hide in the city and the food and grass in my hands will not last too long. Before we captured Dingzhou City, there was not much food and grass there. If we really have nothing to eat, we can only go back to Dingzhou City and force food from every household, and snatch the surplus food from the people to survive."

Li Cunhui said: "There is food in Huaizhou City. Wang Cunli has fortified the city and cleared the fields, and all the looted food is there. But there are 50,000 troops guarding the city, and the general has no siege equipment. I am afraid that he can only lure Wang Cunli out. But this man is too timid, even if Xingqing Prefecture is besieged, he dare not easily send troops."

Yue Fei said: "You have lived in Xixia for many years, and followed Wang Cunli all the way here. Can you think of any way to capture the city?"

Li Cunhui said: "Huaizhou City is not big. With 50,000 troops stationed there, there is no room for more than 100,000 civilians. These civilians are either the families of the soldiers guarding the city or the clans of the soldiers guarding the city. They are placed outside the city. If the general can capture a large number of civilians, the soldiers guarding the city will certainly be in chaos! Using civilians as hostages to force the defenders in the city to surrender, even if it fails, it can cause chaos in the city. I will go back to the city and take the opportunity to instigate some chieftains to defect, which may help the general capture the city in one fell swoop!"

(End of this chapter)