Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 967 [Famous General’s End]

Brother Richard is old after all.

He is already in his fifties, and in recent years he has been addicted to alcohol and sex, and his physical strength is no longer as good as before.

He rushed from the Maowusu Desert, only taking two short breaks along the way, and marching in a sandstorm. He waited for darkness ten miles outside Yanzhou City, rested for only an hour, and then rushed over and directly joined the battle.

We are exhausted!

According to Brother Richard's idea, the city can be captured in one fell swoop.

Even if there were Ming army scouts patrolling outside the city and blowing horns to warn the defenders inside the city, it would be difficult for the defenders to deploy their defenses quickly at night.

At this moment, a group of Ming cavalrymen were chasing closely behind them. Richard blew the horn twice, letting his cavalrymen flee separately, and also sent out cavalrymen to cover the rear and block the attack several times.

The Xixia cavalry responsible for the rear guard were frightened by Richard's power, so they reined in their horses, slowed down, and turned around to fight the enemy.

But when Wu Lin led his troops to charge over, these Western Xia cavalrymen were frightened and suddenly dared not to stop the Ming army with their bodies. They fled in panic at a distance of thirty or forty steps.

Wu Lin ignored these defeated enemies and focused on Richard's team.

Although it was difficult to see clearly in the dark, under such circumstances, they were able to send troops to cover the rear and constantly blow trumpets and issue orders, so there must be a Xixia general ahead.

Gradually, no one had the courage to cover Brother Richard's retreat.

Brother Richard separated the cavalry behind him and fled in three directions. Wu Lin was still chasing after Brother Richard.

Brother Richard really couldn't understand how the enemy general who was chasing him recognized him?
It's very simple, most of the people in other directions are tribal cavalry.

But the ones who have always been following Brother Richard are his personal soldiers and Iron Harriers.

After being crippled by Han Shizhong and Yue Fei last year, Richard reorganized the personal soldiers and Iron Harriers who escaped alive into an elite cavalry of more than a thousand people.

Even though they were fleeing in the dark, this elite cavalry stood out from the crowd.

They fled in a more orderly manner.

They also automatically "isolated" friendly forces. The rest of the tribal cavalry always kept a distance from them, as if getting too close would be an offense.

If Yao Pingzhong had chased after them, he would definitely have discovered the clues.

Unfortunately, Yao Pingzhong chased the wrong person from the beginning. He was chasing Mu Xiaoliang, the commander-in-chief of Yanzhou.

Li Jiqian's biological mother's surname was Wang.

Li Yuanhao's biological mother's surname was Wei Mu.

These surnames were all major families in Western Xia, and most of the civil and military positions were occupied by them.

In order to escape, Wei Muxiaoliang became even more frantic. He rode his horse as fast as he could, relying on the good horse under him to gallop all the way. He left all his personal soldiers behind and disappeared into the night on horseback alone.

In a situation like this, the troops under his command were useless and it would be difficult to regroup for a month or two.

Yao Pingzhong chased for a long time and finally caught a decent enemy general.

The guy stumbled and fell to the ground, shouting in fluent Chinese: "Don't kill me. My brother is the Chief Censor Rela Gongji, and it was my brother who arranged for Ren Dejing's daughter to enter the palace! My name is Rela Gongren, and I can take you to attack Huaizhou! Spare my life, spare my life..."

All Dangxiang surnames are transliterations, and there are more than a hundred surnames recorded in historical books, official documents, inscriptions, Buddhist scriptures, and official seals.

Having the last name "Rela" is nothing, there is also the last name "Iran".

Of course, among these more than 100 surnames, many can often be classified as one. For example, Iran, Yilang, and Yilang are actually the same surname.

"Tied!"

Yao Pingzhong gave an order and continued to lead his troops to pursue and defeat the enemy.

In the wilderness, countless Xixia cavalrymen fled in all directions, and they could not even tell which direction they were going. Sometimes they heard the sound of horse hooves on the left, and they turned to the right in fear. After running for a while, they found themselves running back to Yanzhou City.

At the beginning, they all followed their chiefs and herdsmen, but as they ran away, they no longer cared about anyone.

No one dared to stop and blow the horn, for they were afraid of attracting the Ming cavalry. Blowing the horn meant that they had not lost their organization and would become the main target of the Ming cavalry.

Brother Richard didn't dare to blow the horn again, but he still couldn't get rid of Wu Lin.

Brother Richard, who had been running for a long distance, was chased closer and closer after escaping for more than ten miles because he was exhausted.

The formation of those personal soldiers and Iron Harriers became more and more scattered, and some of them kept turning away from Brother Richard on purpose.

"what!"

A scream came from behind, and Richard was so scared that he quickly crouched down and sped up. It was one of his personal soldiers who was attacked.

"The one with the helmet tassel must be a Xixia general!" shouted a Ming cavalryman.

"Chase the helmet tassel!"

"Chase the helmet tassel!"

As shouts were heard, Brother Richard reached out to touch his helmet and found that there was indeed a helmet tassel on his head.

He quickly untied the helmet rope, took off the helmet and threw it away.

Brother Richard sped up his horse again and whipped the horse's buttocks madly, not caring about whether the horse would be killed.

He sprinted away at full speed, as if he had wings on his back and was just about to fly.

No matter how hard Wu Lin urged his horse, he could not catch up with the enemy even if he tried to chase him to death. This was the crushing difference between the horses of the other side.

Brother Richard was far ahead of everyone else, including his own soldiers.

He escaped! He actually let Brother Richard escape!

Wu Lin shouted, "Keep chasing him. He won't get far this way, and his horse will soon die of exhaustion!"

Brother Richard didn't dare to stop for even a second and kept riding his horse at full speed.

I don't know how long I ran, but the sky was already slightly bright, and Brother Richard finally stopped whipping his horse.

He wanted to slow down and stop slowly.

But the warhorse under his crotch lost its whip, as if all its strength was drained away, its front legs went weak and it suddenly fell down, throwing Brother Richard out.

Brother Richard was so dizzy from the fall that he was unable to stand up due to severe pain all over his body.

After taking a long break, he tried to get up by supporting himself with his hands, but he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. It turned out that his arm was broken when he fell off his horse just now.

Richard was sweating from the pain, and with great effort, he untied his shoulder guard and shoulder cape with one hand. Then he untied his body armor, removed the armor on his chest and back, and instantly felt much more relaxed.

He walked slowly towards the horse. This top-quality horse from Ganzhou Horse Farm was now lying on the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth, looking at its owner pitifully.

He definitely wouldn't survive.

Brother Richard couldn't use his right arm, so he drew his sword with his left hand and put it against the horse's neck.

He pressed down with all his strength, and blood gushed out from the horse's neck. Brother Richard stretched out his mouth to drink the horse's blood.

It not only relieves the warhorse from pain, but also replenishes one's own physical strength.

After filling his stomach with horse blood, Richard stood in the wilderness and looked around, but there was no one.

He didn't know where he was because he had forgotten which direction he was running in. Fearing that the Ming army would chase him, he turned sideways halfway.

Brother Richard took off all his armor, cut two pieces of horse meat, put them in his clothes and walked northeast.

He didn't dare go west. Even if he didn't encounter the Ming army, he would starve to death in the semi-desert area.

Although the east had long been occupied by the Ming army, there were mountains and water sources, so it was not easy to starve to death or die of thirst, nor was it easy to be captured by the Ming army.

After walking for a whole day, Brother Richard entered the hilly area.

His broken arm had swelled up. He came to a valley to rest at night, and when he woke up he felt dizzy, hot all over, and had a high fever.

He struggled to get up, but finally gave up and fell into a deep sleep.

In a daze, Richard felt someone shouting. He opened his eyes with difficulty and saw a hunter. He immediately said happily: "I..."

Sore throat and hoarseness.

"Save me..." Brother Richard said weakly, "I... am... Prince Jin... Brother Richard..."

The hunter was ecstatic: "Are you really the King of Jin?"

Brother Richard felt it was difficult to nod at this moment, and blinked his eyes and said, "It's me..."

The hunter raised his foot and stomped down hard, stepping on Richard's broken arm.

"what!"

Brother Richard screamed, and was immediately shocked and angry. He endured the pain and touched the sword at his waist.

But he touched nothing, it turned out that his knife was in the hunter's hand.

The hunter smiled and said, "I'll take you to collect the reward. If you want to live, don't move. Let me tie you up. A living King Jin is worth more than a dead one."

As expected, Richard did not move, and began to ask questions to divert the other party's attention: "Where is this?"

The hunter said, "Fox Valley."

"So we've arrived at Fox Valley..." Brother Richard looked miserable.

When Li Jiqian was defeated here, Tian Qinzuo led his army to attack from Wanjingkou, and Li Jiqian was defeated and fled to Dijinze to lick his wounds.

Those were the most miserable days for Li Jiqian.

Can I make a comeback like my ancestors?

"Put your hand over here and be quiet!" the hunter scolded.

Brother Richard said, "My arm...is broken, so I can't use my strength."

The hunter reached out to pull it, and Brother Richard screamed in pain.

Taking advantage of the pain, Brother Richard suddenly turned around and counterattacked, scaring the hunter so much that he chopped him with a knife.

The knife hit Brother Richard in the face, knocking him down immediately.

The hunter was afraid of another accident, so he simply stabbed Richard a few more times, killing him alive.

Richard, a famous general of Western Xia and King of Jin, died at the hands of a hunter.

At that time, Liu Fa, the number one general in the northwest, was forced by Tong Guan to advance alone. While breaking out, he fell off a cliff and broke his leg, and was actually killed by a Xixia grain transporter.

When Brother Richard saw Liu Fa's body, he sighed and lamented, and now it is finally his turn.

The hunter carried Richard's head and ran quickly to the nearby Wanjingkou. He shouted from a distance away from the village wall: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, the head of Jin Wang Richard is here!"

There were only a few hundred garrison troops and civilians in Wanjingkou Village.

The garrison troops could not even understand what the hunter was saying, but the local civilians understood: "General, a great achievement has been made. Outside is the head of Richard, the King of Jin of Western Xia!"

The garrison commander was only the battalion commander of the Fengxiang Prefecture garrison, a low-ranking general of a second-line unit, who was thrown into the Wanjingkou fort to garrison.

He never thought about making any contribution and just hoped to end the war as soon as possible.

A head was delivered to my door!

The garrison commander, along with the local civilians, quickly called the hunter in for questioning. He then went to look for Richard's body and sent people to Yanzhou City and Baichi City to report the news.

……

But Wang Cunli waited for a whole day, but did not see Brother Richard return. Instead, he saw the cavalry who had escaped back.

"Our army suffered a great defeat."

"Where is the King of Jin?"

"I don't know. Has King Jin not returned yet?"

"Prince Jin will not be captured, right?"

"..."

The cavalry who stayed behind to guard the livestock, as well as those who escaped back one after another, became more and more frightened and confused.

Suddenly, a chief came out with a sword drawn and took Wang Cunli hostage without any warning.

"What are you going to do?" Wang Cunli was shocked.

The chieftain said to the other Xixia soldiers, "Daxia is definitely gone. From now on, we can only be loyal to Emperor Zhu, otherwise we won't be able to get back our pastures and herdsmen. This guy's daughter is the queen, so we can just capture her and present her to the Ming soldiers!"

Everyone reacted and felt that it made sense.

Wang Cunli knew that he would not die for the time being, so he shamelessly said: "I have wanted to surrender to the Ming for a long time. Brothers, please do not kill me. You send me to see the generals of the Ming army, and I will lead the Ming army to Xingqing Prefecture to persuade the young emperor to surrender. When Xingqing Prefecture is captured, we will all have made great contributions!"

(End of this chapter)