Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Gong Xiu hoped to get there first, but Yang Zhi only wanted to besiege the city and bring reinforcements.

Although Ju Ming asked him to fight quickly, finishing the battle in a few days was too fast. If he delayed it for a month, he might be able to wait for reinforcements from Xixia.

Anyway, this place is only more than a hundred miles away from Lanzhou, so the transportation of grain and grass does not consume much.

With the Ming Dynasty's current food reserves, it can also defeat Henan Military Division. Still want to go to Liangzhou (Wuwei)? Don't dream about it. With that distance and the terrain along the way, transportation costs will double and double again.

For several days, the city was attacked with artillery.

Due to terrain reasons, Henan Army Sicheng was surrounded.

Not to mention breaking out of the siege, the defenders in the city couldn't even send out messengers. The messengers who left the city a few days ago were deliberately let go by Yang Zhi.

The thick city wall made of red clay persisted until cracks appeared on the fourth day, and began to collapse on the sixth day, leaving a gap.

The second, third, and fourth gaps appeared, and then Yang Zhi ordered the bombardment to stop. It's not that there's not enough gunpowder, it's that there's not enough artillery shells, and some have to be left to deal with reinforcements that may come.

During the bombardment, the soldiers were not idle, taking turns to carry stones from the cliffs on both sides.

Carry the stone back and have the masons with the army polish it into stone bullets.

"The city wall has collapsed several times, why haven't the Han troops attacked the city yet?" Li Yuchang lay on the tower, carefully observing the movements of the Ming army, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Yeli Fulu suddenly realized: "The Han soldiers are waiting for our reinforcements!"

Li Yuchang was stunned for a moment, because the consequences were too terrible.

If there are reinforcements from Xixia, they will definitely come from the direction of Jisang (Gulang).

The straight-line distance from Jisang to Kalochuan is sixty miles, but the terrain is extremely complex, and the actual distance is two hundred miles.

Then go south along the Kalachuan River Valley, which is also 200 miles away. There are countless valleys on the mountains on both sides. You can hide your troops in any place you choose. When the Xixia reinforcements pass by, the Ming army will come out of the valley.

If there is a blockage in front and behind, it will be difficult to fly!

On this broken terrain, the Ming army set up vehicle formations and infantry formations for defense, and then directly served with muskets and artillery. There are mountains on both sides of the east and west, and Ming troops blocked it in the north and south. The Xixia reinforcements were only left to be shot in the middle valley.

Li Yuchang and others had never thought of this because they were still thinking about the problem with old thinking and had forgotten the terrifying lethality of muskets and artillery in narrow terrain.

It was only now that the Ming army was holding back from attacking the city that they began to worry about the danger of reinforcements.

After thinking about this, Li Yuchang felt entangled in his heart.

Not only looking forward to the reinforcements coming to rescue, but also fearing the reinforcements coming to rescue them. If I had known this, I should have broken out that day!

But that day's breakout was just talk. Based on the battlefield situation at that time, as long as they dared to run away, the Ming army would pursue them madly. The cavalry may be able to run away, but the infantry will be completely destroyed and completely routed for dozens of miles.

…

Haomen River Valley.

The marching route of Yaogu's army was much longer. Not only starting from the Song army's city, but only after entering the river valley, they had to walk more than three hundred miles. Moreover, the mountains on both sides are higher and the river valleys are more rugged, making it more difficult to march and transport food.

After procrastinating for twenty days, we had only walked more than half of the distance.

Night, camp.

Wu Lin stretched out her hand towards the fire, looked at the dark mountains and said, "Can General Yang really defeat him? I always think it's too childish."

Wu Jie said: "I accompanied Yao Jing... General Yao to see them fire artillery. I'm afraid they can really blow down the city wall. Once we ask for help from the Southern Army Division, our Xixia troops will definitely be mobilized. Then Zhenwu City (Ancient Bone Dragon City) will be easy to fight."

"If we can really defeat them, we can comfort the souls of countless soldiers in heaven." Wu Lin sighed.

Zhenwu City is what Song Jun calls, and Ancient Bone Dragon City is what Xixia calls. Too much blood has been shed in that place.

There is more than one route to the Hexi Corridor. The one with Nanjunsi is the shortest and easiest to take. You can also go there from Zhenwucheng.

Can Ju Ming think of threatening the Hexi Corridor? There are so many famous ministers and generals in the Song Dynasty, but they are all fools who can't understand it?

of course not.

But it was too difficult to fight against the Southern Army Sicheng, so the Song Dynasty could only retreat and try to open up the route to Zhenwucheng.

The Song Dynasty defeated them, massacred the city and garrisoned them.

Xixia was defeated, the city was massacred, and the army was stationed.

Massacres came and went, the surrounding areas of the city were sparsely populated, and agricultural production was completely destroyed. No matter who occupies this city, all military supplies must be transported, but the food roads on the Xixia side are shorter.

The two brothers were chatting for a while, and Wu Lin suddenly said: "The new Governor Hehuang, is he just like the envoy?"

"They should be almost the same." Wu Jie wasn't too sure.

Wu Lin said: "Finally, a sensible person has arrived. He understands that we cannot rely on fighting here, but must cultivate land to get more food."

Wu Jie smiled and said: "There are many people who understand. It's not that the civil servants were confused in the past, but that the monarchs and ministers in the court were confused. Now that the emperor has changed, they will naturally send sensible people to visit Hehuang."

"That's right, the emperor should have been changed a long time ago." Wu Lin couldn't help complaining.

The first governor of Hehuang appointed by Zhu Guoxiang was Li Mida. After this governor surrendered to Zhang Bor, he made the civil affairs of Puzhou sound and impressive in the chaotic Shandong. Not only does it not require relief from the court, but it can also deliver food to the court!

So Li Mida was directly promoted from the mere governor of the state to the governor of Hehuang, taking charge of Lanzhou, Xining, Huangzhou, Jishijun, Kuozhou, Hezhou and Xizhou.

If you want to conquer the Hexi Corridor, you cannot rely entirely on transporting grain from Guanzhong. Part of the grain problem must be solved at the border.

The Hehuang Valley is a top priority. It is very suitable for agricultural production. Song Huizong did a good job when he came to the throne and provided a large amount of military rations for Tong Guan's expedition to Xixia.

But in the past decade or so, the situation has taken a turn for the worse.

The civil and military officials are all bastards, and the civil affairs are in a mess. The soldiers and people who were forced to immigrate by the imperial court were overwhelmed and fled one after another. Of course, the local Han people and ethnic minorities cannot escape crazy exploitation. The number of taxpayers has plummeted, and food production has also been decreasing year by year.

Not to mention conquering the Hexi Corridor, with the current agricultural situation, even the Hehuang garrison cannot afford to support it!

The Zhu family and his son sent Li Mida to serve as governor. To put it bluntly, they wanted him to restore people's livelihood.

Li Mida arrived in Lanzhou last month and the first decree he issued was to halve the taxes of the states within his jurisdiction and abolish more than half of the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

The people were also encouraged to cultivate wasteland. As long as they cultivated for three consecutive years, they could go to the government to receive the land deed.

We are not afraid that large households will seize the opportunity to enclose land, because the situation of land abandonment is too serious, and the agricultural population is too small. Even if large households occupy land, they will not be able to recruit enough tenant farmers.

What's more, there are no real big players here.

Large-scale land reclamation must be organized by the government, and organized into Baojia to advance and retreat together to guard against plunder by ethnic minorities in the mountains at any time.

Many of the ancestors of those ethnic minorities were Han Chinese hundreds of years ago!

When the Han people who reclaimed the wasteland have established a foothold, Li Mida will be gentle to the ethnic minorities and guide them to go out to farm and establish households to integrate the people.

The premise of all these policies is to fight two battles hard and win them well.

Only by winning the battle against Xixia can the prestige of the government be established and the people be given confidence. Otherwise, they would be worried about the Xixia invasion and the officers and soldiers going to war to forcefully requisition food. Who would be willing to farm with peace of mind in such a precarious situation?

If Henan Army Sicheng and Zhenwucheng are captured this time, the two river valleys will be resettled and reclaimed, so that they can support the defenders of the two cities in the future.

Anyway, you will be given land when you come here, and you will be exempted from taxes in the first year.

After more than ten days, the vanguard of Yaogu's army arrived at Zhenwucheng and sent someone back to report that there seemed to be no defense there.

Yao Gu, who was originally in a nervous mood, was overjoyed and quickly ordered the entire army to speed up.

Yao Pingzhong even led thousands of troops, abandoned all their baggage and marched hastily, and then found... Zhenwucheng was empty.

"You've captured Zhenwucheng now?" Yao Pingzhong couldn't believe it.

The important military town that the Song Dynasty and Xixia fought for repeatedly, the place where the people and soldiers of the two countries shed their blood, actually came back without spending a single soldier.

The Wu brothers were in Yao Pingzhong's army, and they also felt that things were outrageous.

Wu Lin asked: "Why did the Xixia soldiers escape?"

Wu Jie guessed: "With the Nanjun Division, the Xixia people may be in big trouble."

Zhenwu City (Ancient Bone Dragon City) was taken away by Xixia last year, and there was no way for immigrants to cultivate it. Xixia could only temporarily station troops. As a bridgehead for the invasion of Hehuang, all military supplies had to be transported from the rear.

I heard that Henan Army Division was surrounded and Zicheng had fallen, and the surrounding Xixia people went crazy.

All the troops that could be mobilized were sent over, leaving only a thousand people stationed in Zhenwucheng.

A few days ago, the defender discovered that Yao Gu was leading an army and immediately abandoned the city with his troops and fled.

Anyway, there is Renduoquan City behind, which is the military base of the Xixia people and has enough population to cultivate food. As for Zhenwucheng, it is not too important to Xixia, but it is extremely important to the Han people.

Yao Gu led the main force to arrive later, with a smile on his face.

He liked this situation so much. He had the military merit of seizing the city without taking any risks.

With soldiers and civilian husbands, more than 40,000 people were dispatched this time.

It seems that the army and the people are wasting food and grass, but there is only an empty city. But these peasants can't even think about going back. They were tricked into farming. From now on, they will open up wasteland in the Haomen River Valley. If they are willing, they can bring their families here.

Zhong Shidao, Li Mida and Yang Zhi discussed it and believed that immigration and reclamation could only be done through deception.

Due to the various scandalous operations of the Song Dynasty, ordinary people were unwilling to settle here at all. Among the several waves of immigrants in the past few years, those who did not escape were all dead, either killed by Xixia soldiers or forced to death by the civil and military forces of the Song Dynasty.

Yao Gu announced the news of the immigration and asked the soldiers and civilians to stay first. He then selected fields in the river valley on a certain day. Three thousand soldiers were also expected to stay and garrison.

As soon as this statement came out, the army and the people were in an uproar, and some people escaped that night.

After escaping for a while, they discovered that Yao Gu had secretly sent his soldiers back to camp, waiting for them on the only way to escape.

It's impossible to be on guard like this forever. Some people will definitely escape in the future. It's enough to keep half of them.

The longer it goes on, the more people will be left behind.

Especially after the seeds were sown, they paid the labor cost. If they were not exploited too much, they would not give up the land they cultivated easily.

Even in this land, Xixia people may come to kill you at any time!