Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 963 0958 [Four 3s encounter a hand full of bombs]

There are generally two ways to relocate civilians during the period of clearing the countryside.

The first is to drive them away by force.

Burn down any house you see, and force the people to leave their homes. They can flee to the mountains or to the rear areas, as long as they don't leave any manpower and supplies for the enemy.

This method is often accompanied by looting.

That is, they would send their own troops to disperse the civilians, and then they would seize some of them while they were carrying out their mission.

The second is administrative relocation.

This is relatively civilized, but it requires high grassroots organizational capabilities and is often mixed with the use of force.

The Western Xia's policy of clearing the countryside mainly leaned towards the second option.

Because their basic organization is the tribe, the chiefs of each tribe have the ability to organize the migration of the people. In addition, all the people are soldiers, the young and strong are all drafted to fight, and the people are all soldiers' families. If the people are randomly driven away, the soldiers will lose their fighting spirit.

On the west bank of the Yellow River, outside Huaizhou City.

There are large areas of curtain beams in the suburbs, which are small Xixia tents. They can be made of trees in the wild or made of wood, and then covered with felt to keep out the wind and rain.

When marching and fighting, three Xixia soldiers shared one curtain beam, and were assigned a camel to transport baggage and basic equipment for the three soldiers.

Now, tens of thousands of soldiers have entered the city, and more than 100,000 civilians are living in the suburbs.

These people who moved here from other places often came into conflict with local residents because they occupied large tracts of farmland in the suburbs.

Passing through a large area of ​​tents, Li Cunhui rode back to the city alone, showed his officer badge and went in.

And was not suspected.

He led his team out of the city on horseback for reconnaissance, and it was normal for him to encounter the scattered Ming army.

That night, Yue Fei led his troops to the outskirts of Xingqing City again. Not only did each cavalryman hold a torch, but two torches were also tied to the saddle of each horse. Then they blew horns and shouted as if they were going to attack the city.

The soldiers and civilians in the city were shocked. Li Renzhong invited Li Renxiao again and climbed to the top of the city wall to organize the soldiers and civilians to defend the city.

For the Xixia army and civilians, the night was even more terrifying.

It was originally pitch black outside the city, but now it was surrounded by countless torches, and it seemed that tens of thousands of enemy troops had arrived.

Yue Fei also ordered the soldiers who were familiar with water to lie on the door panels and swim across the moat to set fire to the houses outside the city.

The door panels were removed from a country house.

Torches were also made from wood, cloth and oil collected from houses within a radius of twenty miles.

At midnight, many houses outside the city of Xingqing Prefecture began to catch fire. The fire grew larger and larger, and the entire street was set on fire, even the outer skin of the city wall was blackened.

The Xixia army and civilians did not dare to leave the city to put out the fire and could only watch the houses in the surrounding areas burn down.

The people in the city did not sleep all night and rumors began to spread.

As the capital of Xixia, there were at least ten major spies in Xingqingfu. Most of them were in single-line contact and did not know each other's existence. They had been spreading rumors in the city for the past two days.

The rumors are varied, and the content is as follows:
The Ming Dynasty sent a total of one million troops this time.

Emperor Zhu led the army in person and was already attacking Lingzhou.

Wang Shu's entire army was wiped out at Keyi Gate, so the Ming army was able to attack from the north.

The Ming army did not come from the north, but from the east, and Richard's entire army was wiped out.

There were more than several thousand Ming troops outside the city, a total of 100,000. The main force was stationed in Dingzhou waiting for food and grass. They would be able to reach Xingqing Prefecture in three to five days at most.

Lingzhou commander Ren Dejing had already surrendered to the enemy. He was originally a Han Chinese, and he surrendered as soon as the Ming army arrived.

In fact, Wang Cunli was the one who surrendered to the enemy. He held three major military commanders but retreated without a fight, and even sent 200,000 Ming troops to Xingqing Prefecture...

There are all kinds of rumors, which are confusing and contradictory.

Yue Fei's threats at night made the rumors spread faster in the city. Even without the need for the Grand Secretary to spread rumors, the panicked Xixia soldiers and civilians had already created and spread rumors themselves.

Rumors from the people soon affected officials and soldiers.

After dawn, although Yue Fei had led his troops and disappeared without a trace, the people in Xingqing City were still in panic and uneasy.

Li Renzhong selected strong men and sent people out of the city to ask for help again.

Those seeking help went in three directions: some went southwest to Shunzhou, some went south to Jingzhou, and some went east to Huaizhou.

Yue Fei deliberately let these messengers go, but he still did not give up besieging the city and attacking for reinforcements.

……

Huaizhou City.

The second group of messengers asking for help has arrived and handed Li Ren'ai's handwritten letter to Wang Cunli.

After reading the letter, Wang Cunli felt even more conflicted.

On the day Yue Fei approached Xingqing Prefecture, Wang Cunli had already received a letter for help. He sent light cavalry to inquire and sent someone to inform Richard.

Brother Richard led 20,000 cavalrymen and stationed them in several grasslands on the edge of the desert.

Li Yanxian is currently in Yanzhou, dispatching grain and troops. Zhong Yanchong and Xiao Heda are the vanguards, heading towards Huaizhou City, but their march is extremely slow because the grain transport team has been attacked several times.

The fight was not going well for both sides.

Since Li Yanxian led the main force to stay in Yanzhou, Richard could only carry out small-scale raids on grain supplies time and time again, trying to lure the Yanzhou Ming army deeper into the city.

The reason why Li Yanxian stayed in Yanzhou was because there was a problem with the transportation of grain and fodder - Wang Cunli retreated too quickly, and Li Yanxian's troops chased him too quickly, so the grain route was suddenly lengthened and the baggage could not keep up.

Moreover, all the generals under Li Yanxian's command were requesting to fight, wanting to chase them down quickly and capture Huaizhou so that they could go straight to Xingqing Prefecture.

Wang Cunli was a terrible fighter, and the Ming army won too easily. The whole army was filled with arrogance and underestimation of the enemy. They thought that they didn't need to worry about food and grass, as long as they chased the enemy all the way, the enemy would be defeated, and they could easily conquer Xixia!

"General Li, another batch of food and fodder arrived yesterday, and the entire army can now set out," Zhang Xian suggested.

Li Yanxian shook his head: "It's not enough. We need to store more food and grass here. Then bring more civilians to transport food to Huaizhou with the army."

Yao Pingzhong said: "From Yanzhou to Huaizhou, it is only 300 miles. Leave an army to garrison Yanzhou so that subsequent food and grass can be transported continuously. As for the food for the front-line troops, it can be transported 300 miles from Yanzhou. How can the enemy cut off our food supply? Just relying on Wang Cunli? Does he dare to leave the city to cut off the food supply? If he sends fewer soldiers, the food protection team can solve the problem. If he sends more soldiers, we can just return and annihilate him completely!"

"General Yao is right." Zhang Xian couldn't help it.

Yao Pingzhong said anxiously: "If we don't advance quickly, Xingqing Prefecture will be captured by our friendly forces!"

In their quest to grab credit, they have lost their minds.

In other words, knowing clearly that there might be danger, they still took a gamble in order to grab the credit for destroying the country. Li Yanxian comforted them, "Three days, wait for another three days. You two send your generals and bring more cavalry to explore everywhere. I always feel that there are still enemies hiding somewhere. If Yanzhou City was stronger, I would agree with your way of fighting. But Yanzhou City is short and broken. If we use it as a food and grass transfer point, it will be easy for the enemy to break through and cut off our food supply after the main force of our army leaves."

Zhang Xian said: "Just leave more thunder bombs in the city!"

Li Yanxian shook his head: "Wang Cunli has many infantrymen under his command. They are good at climbing mountains and scaling city walls, and they don't care about their lives when fighting. If a brave general leads his infantrymen to attack the city regardless of casualties, Yanzhou City may not be able to be defended."

Yao Pingzhong said: "Then let the garrison troops and civilians gathered in Yanzhou pretend to be elite troops and follow the main force to attack Huaizhou, so as to lure the enemy to attack Yanzhou. We will quietly leave a few thousand elite troops behind, and not deploy many soldiers on the city walls, so that we can suddenly attack the enemy when they come!"

Li Yanxian smiled and said, "That's a good idea."

The "main force" under Li Yanxian finally moved. As they were in a "hurry" to travel, they did not send out a large number of cavalry to cover them, and were soon "detected" by Richard's light cavalry.

"Don't be in a hurry. Let them march for another two days." Brother Richard felt that he had seized the loophole of the Ming army.

"Da da da da..."

A messenger came galloping over and handed the letter for help to Brother Richard.

This is the first call for help. The second call for help has not yet arrived.

After reading the letter, Richard was not very anxious. He immediately wrote back to the Western Xia court.

The reply can be summarized as follows:
First, even if the Keyi Gate could be breached, it would not be so quick. The Ming army must have bypassed the desert.

Second, if they came from the desert, then their number must be small, and they did not bring much food or fodder.

Third, the Ming army was short of manpower and food, and it was impossible for it to capture Xingqing Prefecture or Huaizhou, which was heavily guarded.

Fourth, the defenders of all cities should not send out troops to rescue indiscriminately to prevent the Ming army (Yue Fei) from besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements. Xingqing Prefecture, defend it to the death. Huaizhou, also defend it to the death!
Fifth, Keyimen should have divided his troops and marched south, but not to retake Dingzhou, which would have been too dangerous and prone to defeat. Instead, he should have crossed the Yellow River to the west and set up a camp to block Yue Fei's escape route due to lack of food.

If Western Xia could really strictly implement Richard's plan, then Yue Fei would be unable to do anything in the Yinchuan Basin, and his entire army might even be wiped out due to lack of food.

But Brother Richard missed two points.

First, he did not regard the relocated people outside Huaizhou City as human beings, so he subconsciously ignored them.

Second, he did not realize how terrified the emperor, his ministers, officials, soldiers and civilians in the capital of Western Xia were. The emperor would send out letters for help one after another. If Richard did not return, Wang Cunli would definitely not be able to bear the pressure and would lead troops to rescue Xingqing Prefecture sooner or later. Even Ren Dejing might not be able to bear the pressure, causing Jingzhou to fall after sending troops back to rescue, allowing Deng Chun's army to march straight in.

Either of these two points is extremely fatal.

But Brother Richard had no choice because he had too few chips.

This is his only chance to defeat the Ming army, and he cannot lead his troops back.

Otherwise, even if Brother Richard went back to annihilate Yue Fei, Li Yanxian's army would be able to take the opportunity to attack the city of Huaizhou.

The Ming army had a lot of bombs in their hands, four twos, four aces and two kings, but Brother Richard only had these four threes.

How could he possibly break up his only four 3s, then play a set of consecutive cards and three strips, and still have a bunch of scattered cards left in his hand?
"Traitor, traitor, how dare he not return to rescue the emperor?"

In Huaizhou City, Wang Cunli was shocked and angry when he received Richard's reply.

Wang Cunli wanted to lead his army to rescue Xingqing Prefecture, but he was frightened by the Ming army and worried that he would be besieged and attacked. So he stayed back and asked Richard to come back and lead the troops.

But Brother Richard didn't reply, which made Wang Cunli very angry.

Suddenly there was a commotion outside the mansion, and Wang Cunli called his personal guards to ask, "What happened outside?"

The personal guard just happened to come running to report: "Father-in-law, the chieftains of various tribes have requested to see you, saying that they can no longer control their soldiers. More than 100,000 civilians outside the city have come from hundreds of miles away to defend the city. They are all the families or clansmen of the soldiers. Now there are rumors in the city that 30,000 Ming troops are heading south. If Huaizhou cannot be captured, they will kill all the civilians outside the city."

It was Li Cunhui who spread this rumor.

Hearing this, Wang Cunli was overwhelmed and he really didn't know how to deal with it.

Huaizhou City had crammed in 50,000 troops out of thin air, and had to vacate civilian houses to store large amounts of food and fodder. How could it accommodate more than 100,000 civilians? Moreover, the civilians had come from afar with their belongings, including 400,000 to 500,000 cattle and sheep.

These people were originally going to be resettled outside the city of Xingqing Prefecture, but they were left alone because Yue Fei suddenly attacked.

If the people are allowed to enter the city, the cattle and sheep must also enter the city.

If only civilians or only cattle and sheep were brought in, there would be great chaos.

But they couldn't really stay outside the city. Leaving the people outside would cause the soldiers inside to cause trouble. Leaving the cattle and sheep outside would mean sending food to Yue Fei.

Wang Cunli summoned the chiefs of various tribes, and after some discussion, they decided to let all the people and livestock into the city.

No matter how crowded it is, people can fit in and sleep side by side on the streets.

Wang Cunli deployed a large number of light cavalry to first observe whether there were any enemy troops nearby, and then carefully let the civilians into the city.

Li Cunhui was also sent out with a group of cavalry to spy on the enemy.

"Army, have we gone too far?" asked a cavalryman.

Li Cunhui said: "If we don't go far away, how can we detect the enemy's situation?"

"That's enough. We've come several miles."

"Ten miles is not enough! Your family members are all outside the city. If the Ming army suddenly attacks, will they have time to enter the city?"

Li Cunhui led the cavalry and walked for more than ten miles before arriving at a village to rest.

Just as they entered and were about to dismount to feed, a large number of Ming troops rushed out from the surrounding villages.

Li Cunhui smiled and stopped his men: "We are one, put down your bows and arrows."

Seeing that the Ming army did not charge and their superiors were confident, the Western Xia cavalry gave up fighting without knowing why.

Li Cunhui asked: "Do you want to live?"

More than thirty Xixia cavalrymen nodded.

Li Cunhui asked again: "Do you want your family members to survive?"

The Xixia cavalry continued to nod, and one of them asked, "Armour, have you surrendered to the enemy?"

Li Cunhui said with a smile: "I was originally a man of the Emperor Zhu. Although I have been far away in Xixia for these years, I have already been promoted to the sixth rank military officer. If I can make great contributions this time, I may even be promoted three or four ranks. If you follow me, you will have a good life in the Ming Dynasty in the future. Think about it, is it better to die with Xixia or to surrender to the Ming Dynasty with me?"

Everyone looked at each other, hesitating and struggling.

Li Cunhui's deputy escort suddenly knelt down and said, "We are willing to follow our brother and surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

"We are willing to follow the escort team and surrender to the Ming Dynasty!" More than thirty cavalrymen knelt down one after another.

Li Cunhui turned to the Ming officers who surrounded them and said, "Quickly inform General Yue that Wang Cunli may let the people into the city tonight. Tell him not to worry too much. There are more than 100,000 people, hundreds of thousands of livestock, and other belongings. It will take too long to bring them in. It won't be too late to wait until tomorrow noon. Of course, it would be best to act before dawn tomorrow morning."

(End of this chapter)