Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 968 0963 [After I escape, why would I care about the flood? ]

Generals Li Yanxian, Zhong Yanchong, Zhang Xian, Xiao Heda and others led their army towards Huaizhou City.

When the vanguard approached Huaizhou for 20 miles, they suddenly encountered a large group of Dangxiang cavalry. Xiao Heda was the pioneer, and they also looked like Dangxiang cavalry.

The two cavalry groups shot at each other for a while, and then each sent someone back to report.

Xiao Heda personally led the army and came over. He ran a few dozen steps and asked, "You are holding the flag of the Eluo tribe. Is the chieftain of the Eluo tribe here?"

A Tangut general rushed out and said, "I am Elu Ayole. I have surrendered to Emperor Zhu. I advise you to surrender to the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible!"

Xiao Heda was completely confused. The Tangut cavalry from Huaizhou actually claimed that they had surrendered to Emperor Zhu?
What the hell?

Could it be that Wang Cunli surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in Huaizhou?

Xiao Heda pointed at his own flag and said, "You don't recognize this flag?"

"How can I recognize Chinese..." Er Luo Ayole suddenly reacted, "Hey, why are you using the Chinese character for the general flag?"

Xiao Heda said: "I am Xiao Heda from Xiazhou."

"You are Li Heda. I was wondering why you looked familiar." Er Luo Ayole suddenly realized.

Xiao Heda was furious: "Grandpa's name is Xiao Heda, not Li Heda!"

Er Luo Ayole was too lazy to argue: "Yes, yes, I don't care what your last name is. Since you have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and I have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, then we are family."

Xiao Heda asked, "Why did you surrender to the Ming Dynasty?"

Erluo Ayole explained: "General Yue sent down divine troops to conquer Huaizhou in one fell swoop, and has already led his troops to attack Jingzhou. General Li (Li Cunhui) was left to garrison Huaizhou, and several of our tribes have joined General Li's army to defend Huaizhou."

Many Dangxiang tribes were blocked in the city, kneeling and begging for mercy and became Yue Fei's prisoners.

Some chiefs were smart enough to capture granaries or kill civil officials before surrendering, which was tantamount to offering their loyalty to Yue Fei and earning them important positions.

After resting for a day, Yue Fei led his troops south to attack Jingzhou.

However, Li Cunhui transformed himself from a spy into a commander of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, all of whom were Tangut soldiers. He stayed in Huaizhou to guard against Richard's attack.

In addition, Li Cunhui also sent out cavalry to spread the word that the Ming Dynasty would not kill people indiscriminately and asked the soldiers and civilians who had fled to the wild to return quickly.

He distributed the ownerless livestock and food, as well as the food in the military warehouse, to the army and civilians every day, and let the officials and generals be responsible for the distribution, and successively executed several people who took the opportunity to embezzle, and soon won the hearts of the army and the people.

Now, soldiers and civilians who had escaped are returning one after another.

On the contrary, in Xingqing Prefecture, the Xixia rulers and ministers were afraid that spies would infiltrate the city, so they closed the city gates and did not allow the escaped soldiers and civilians to enter the city.

When the news reached Huaizhou, the stark contrast chilled the hearts of the Xixia army and civilians.

Even the chieftain of the Weiduo clan, a branch of the Weiming clan, one of the eight major Dangxiang clans, refused to surrender after being captured. When he heard about this, he also wanted to be loyal to Emperor Zhu.

"Which General Yue? Which General Li?" Xiao Heda asked.

Erluo Ayole said: "General Yue Fei, the Protector General of Yue, and General Li Cunhui."

Xiao Heda was afraid of a trap, so he sent his confidant to follow Erluo Ayole to Huaizhou City. After some investigation in the city, he confirmed that it was true.

He sent troops to inform Li Yanxian.

After receiving the letter, Li Yanxian said to his generals with a smile: "Yue Fei led his army deep into the enemy's territory alone and captured Huaizhou City, which was heavily guarded by 50,000 soldiers."

Zhong Yanchong said in disbelief: "Without siege equipment, civilians, or food, how did he take Huaizhou?"

"Someone from the Military Intelligence Department helped me," Li Yanxian said with emotion. "That person was an old subordinate of mine. He was injured in the battle of Hebei and was declared dead. I didn't expect that he was a spy in Xixia. I even took out some money and asked someone to send it to his wife and children."

Zhang Xian exclaimed: "These two have made great contributions!"

Li Yanxian said: "Speed ​​up the march. Huaizhou has been captured by them, so we can go straight to Xingqing Prefecture. Generals, greater military achievements are waiting for us!"

"March into Xingqing Prefecture!"

"March into Xingqing Prefecture!"

All the generals shouted in unison, their blood boiling.

……

However, Yue Fei brought 6,000 elite Ming cavalrymen, 8,000 surrendered Tangut soldiers as laborers, and all the craftsmen in Huaizhou City, and went south with war horses and livestock to carry food and fodder.

In two days, they arrived outside Jingzhou City.

There are 10,000 defenders here, who were transferred from Lingzhou by Ren Dejing, specifically to stop Yue Fei's troops.

Tangut civilians were sent out to row boats across the moat and shout from many places outside the city: "Huaizhou is gone, Brother Richard and Wang Cunli's army were wiped out! Three hundred thousand Ming soldiers are besieging Xingqing Prefecture. Do you still want to defend Jingzhou to the death and be buried with the tyrant emperor?"

They put small boats on their heads to block the arrows, and hundreds of people rushed to the foot of the city and took turns shouting.

At the beginning, the defenders in the city were still shooting arrows, but they all stopped and listened carefully to see if they had heard it wrong.

The commander of the defending army was named Mo Zang Luo, who came from the Mo Zang clan, a prominent Dangxiang clan. Li Yuanhao’s second empress also had the surname Mo Zang.

Seeing that the people in the city were already in a panic, Mei Zang Luo called his generals and said, "Those who are shouting outside the city may be trying to trick us into surrendering. Don't trust one-sided words. Send light cavalry to Xingqing Prefecture and Huaizhou to investigate."

Immediately, a general said, "I just saw someone outside the city holding Wang Cunli's flag. Wang Cunli must have been defeated and lost the city."

Another general said: "There is a man outside the city who claims to be the chief of the Tiantian clan. I am very familiar with Tiantian Shiguang. Although he is hiding his head with a small boat, I can recognize his voice. Not only did he join the Ming army, he also became the captain of the Ming army's burden (miscellaneous soldiers). "

"And the Ye Ma clan, the Ye Ma clan's training is also outside the city!"

"..."

The generals talked one after another, making Mo Zangluo completely despair.

There is no need to send cavalry to investigate, Huaizhou City must have been destroyed. That means Wang Cunli's entire army was wiped out, and it is estimated that Brother Richard is also in danger.

It also means that the Ming army can come from Yanzhou and march 300 miles directly to Xingqing Prefecture!
They were holding a meeting in the city tower when they suddenly heard silence outside the city, so they all lay down on the edge of the city wall to check the situation.

But another small boat came over, and after landing, it was running around, telling the person who was shouting what to do. Soon, the content of the shouting became concise and clear.

"Kill the commander and surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

"Kill the commander and surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

At first the shouts were not in unison, but gradually they became more and more uniform, scaring the defending leader, Mo Zangluo, so much that his face turned pale.

"Don't mess around." Mei Zang Luo retreated quickly, holding the hilt of the sword and hiding among his personal soldiers.

The rest of the generals looked at each other in bewilderment. They had only brought one or two followers to the meeting, and they could not defeat Mo Zangluo who had many personal soldiers present.

Moreover, they didn't know how to leave.

Whoever first proposes to leave the city wall will be suspected of going to mobilize troops for rebellion, and Mei Zang Luo's personal soldiers will rush up on the spot.

Mei Zang Luo was also very embarrassed. He was originally considering surrendering, but the people outside the city shouted "Kill the commander, surrender to the Ming Dynasty", which blocked his way to surrender and put him in opposition to the generals!

Even if Mei Zang Luo shouted "Long live Emperor Zhu" now, the generals under his command would take his life.

Because "killing the main general" is a prerequisite for "surrendering to the Ming Dynasty"!

As for the generals, they were equally worried. They were not sure who would be loyal to Xixia and who would defect to Ming, and they were afraid that they would be killed if things went wrong.

Yue Fei was stationed outside the moat at this time, looking at the city wall in the distance with a smile. He had asked the craftsmen to cross the river, dismantle the houses and collect wood.

Yue Fei was also very evil-minded, and he directly used the strategy of sowing discord as an open conspiracy.

Sooner or later there will be internal strife in the city!

After a long stalemate on the tower, Mei Zang Luo said, "Everyone stay here. We will eat and live together, so it is convenient for us to discuss military affairs at any time. As for commanding the operations in various places, just leave it to your deputy generals."

"The governor is right."

All the generals agreed, but in fact they were detained by Mo Zang Luo.

……

Lingzhou City further south.

Deng Chun's army was already several miles away, but only 80,000 of them came, and another 50,000 were sent to attack Shunzhou next door.

Ren Dejing had to hold out for at least another month before the water level of the Yellow River could rise. If the levee was opened now, even if the water flooded the Seven Armies, it would not be a big deal for the Ming army.

Can he defend it in a month?

The Ming army came too fast!
A speedboat came speeding from Jingzhou. It was the messenger sent by Mo Zangluo.

After Ren Dejing opened the letter and read it, his face suddenly changed drastically. The content was so horrifying.

Huaizhou City has been lost, Wang Cunli's army was wiped out, and Richard has no news. Jingzhou is under siege, and Xingqing Prefecture may also be under siege...

What the hell are you fighting for?
Ren Dejing really wanted to hack Wang Cunli to death with his sword.

"Report! The enemy has set up camp several miles away. The camp stretches for ten miles and you can't see the end at a glance."

Ren Dejing's body trembled when he heard this. The city behind him was surrounded, and he himself would also be besieged by tens of thousands of enemy troops.

surrender?

Ren Dejing dared not to.

He rebelled against the Song Dynasty and defected to the Xia Dynasty, lured and killed half of the civil and military officials in Xi'an Prefecture, and swallowed up their property.

Some relatives of the victims are still serving as officials in the Ming Dynasty, including both civil and military officials.

This blood debt cannot be evaded. Even if Ren Dejing had the merit of surrendering the city, and barely saved his life and even became an official, his enemies would definitely unite and look for every opportunity to avenge his relatives and friends. Sooner or later, Ren Dejing would die miserably!
Ren Dejing called his brother Ren Degong, who was in charge of food and fodder, and said, "We can't hold on here anymore. If we surrender, we will definitely die a miserable death. We have to find a way to escape."

"Third brother, fourth brother, and our entire family are now in Xingqing Mansion." Ren Degong reminded.

Ren Dejing asked: "Can you still go back and save them?"

In history, Ren Degong, with the help of his brothers, was promoted to the position of prefect of Xingqing Prefecture in Western Xia. He was also a corrupt official who held real power.

Ren Degong was equally cold-blooded and ruthless. He didn't hesitate for long before asking, "How do you escape?"

Ren Dejing said: "Take a few trusted people and some gold and silver, set fire to the city at night, and we will escape to the southwest during the chaos. Escape to the Western Regions and seek refuge with Yelu Dashi!"

Ren Degong said: "The Ming army is attacking Liangzhou (Wuwei), can we get through?"

"Let's escape first," Ren Dejing said, "If we encounter the Ming army, we will claim to be Han Chinese from Xixia, sneak through first and then find an opportunity to escape westward."

Ren Degong nodded: "This is the only way."

The money and property that the Ren family had embezzled over the years had long been used to bribe ministers.

But Ren Dejing had a large army and could make a lot of money in a minute. When they suppressed the rebellion last year, they embezzled food and secretly exchanged it for gold and silver.

In order to escape, he actually sent people to burn down several granaries and houses.

The city was in chaos. The two brothers took more than a dozen confidants and fled with several boxes of gold and silver.

Deng Chun was in the camp several miles away, preparing to fill the moat the next day, but that night he discovered flames rising from Lingzhou City.

"The spies acted too quickly. I just arrived here and I'm not ready yet." Deng Chun never expected that the enemy commander would escape. He thought that it was the Ming spies in the city who launched the attack in advance.

In fact, the spies planted by the Ming Dynasty Military Intelligence Department in Lingzhou City were also looking at the fire in confusion at this moment.

Deng Chun couldn't care less and had to eat the half-cooked rice. He ordered, "All troops, quickly assemble and follow me to capture the fortified city!"

……

I recommend the new book of the old author: "America in 1879: Please Call Me Boss". It is a story about the protagonist who traveled back to the Great America in 1879 and was sold as a piglet and harmed the people of Great America. The author is old and the quality is guaranteed.

(End of this chapter)