The difficulty in attacking Lingzhou is not only because of its tall and solid city, but also because the city is right next to the Yellow River, and there are mud swamps of miles that have been flooded every year. The siege cannot set up large troops outside the city. To attack Lingzhou, the best season is when the surroundings are frozen and the mud outside the city is frozen.

It is late spring, and the peach blossom water is about to rise, and the outside of Lingzhou City is muddy and it is difficult for people to move.

The city lord of Lingzhou Esangge was originally a subordinate of Yuan Hao's second son Ali. When Ali was an adult, he wanted to gather people to rebel, Esangge reported to Yuan Hao. Yuan Hao sank Ali in the Yellow River, promoted Esangge to the city lord, and became a senior official in the field.

Yuanhao's family is characterized by his son, except for those who died early, who were not born in his mother's belly. All the rest had committed his rebellion. As for relatives and brothers, I don't know how many of them committed rebellion. It would have been a miracle that he could live for so many years. So now he is in Weizhou, and the most elite military force of the personal guards has been wiped out in Tiandu Mountain, and no one will pay attention to him. If it weren't for the great masters of the Dangxiang clan who had not yet discussed the result, he would have chopped him up with one knife and brought the head to Xu Ping's army to ask for me.

The military and political power of Lingzhou City did not belong to Esangge. He was the city lord there to see. In fact, all the power was in the hands of Ye Li Wangrong. The situation has changed suddenly recently. Ye Li Wangrong wanted to try Xu Ping's attitude with Lingzhou City, and suddenly handed over the power to Esangge. At the same time, he withdrew the elite defenders in Lingzhou City, leaving only some guards.

Xing and Lingzhou are the foundation of Yuanhao, known as the 170,000 garrison troops. Among them, 25,000 elite troops were 75,000, and the treatment was comparable to the "Shangsi Army" of the Song Dynasty imperial guards. Ye Li Wangrong transferred the elite troops away, and the remaining soldiers and horses in Lingzhou City were still nearly 20,000, which was still very powerful in terms of the number of people alone.

At this time, the Transport Authority Office, which was originally in Lingzhou, all the Transport Authority and other yamen had been withdrawn. According to Yeli Wangrong's arrangement, he went to Xingqing Palace, leaving only one Esangge. Esangge was a rough man. He had been a city lord who had been famous for many years. He suddenly took over the real power and was extremely excited. In recent days, he has been singing and singing every day, spending time in the city, and he is extremely happy. There is several miles of mud outside the city, and there is nearly 20,000 troops in the city. Lingzhou City is like a battle of iron, and the Song army has no reason to come here.

The outskirts of Lingzhou have already fallen, and Esangge still believes that the Song army would not come to Lingzhou, but should have passed around the city and directly attacked the county and county behind them. Dangxiang inherited the tradition of Tubo, and did not establish prefectures and counties, implemented a tribal system, and did not govern the city. Most of the cities occupied by them were abandoned, and many ancient cities have become ruins. Even some large cities in the cities of Dazhou have hundreds of households, and few dozens of households. On the contrary, some villages located in prosperous areas have become places where a large number of people gather.

Although Lingzhou has a prefecture name and is still in the Great Governor's Office, it is actually a military fortress, different from the prefecture of Song. The Song army passed around the city and could reach the city of Xingqing Prefecture, and there were no more cities along the way.

Esangge didn't want to resist to the end. He felt that he occupied a city with heavy troops and wanted to surrender to Song, so the price would be higher than others. As a result, Xu Ping just sent someone to discuss it once. After he refused, he stopped talking and kept increasing troops here. Now the Song army barracks stretched for dozens of miles outside the city, and I am afraid that a hundred thousand troops would have arrived outside Lingzhou City.

However, Esangge still doesn't believe that Xu Ping would attack Lingzhou. Behind it is Dangxiang's wealthy land, and there are no heavy troops in the city. Isn't it better to just roll over the troops to the city of Xingqingfu? What's the point of fighting against Lingzhou by the Yellow River?

But Xu Ping recognized Lingzhou and mobilized Zhang Kang and Liu Jianji's troops, plus Tan Hu's Protectorate's Office directly under the command of an army, gathered at the city of Lingzhou and had to capture it. There was no way, and there was no strong city to attack the north except the Xingqing Prefecture, Dangxiang Capital. The prefectures and counties that were established in the late Tang and Five Dynasties were abolished Tubo once, not long after the Song Dynasty established the country and repaired Rong, Zhao Jiqian occupied it and abandoned it again. After passing Lingzhou, he could not even find a county town. He wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, but now there is only one chicken in Lingzhou.

The most difficult thing to attack Lingzhou is the swamp and mud that is several miles wide outside. Esangge has destroyed the original roads. There is a large mud flat outside the city. Whether it is a man or a horse, it will be trapped inside. If you can't get under the city, how can you talk about siege?

This kind of thing can only be done by stupid means. The army at Lingzhou City only did one thing, taking dry sand from the surrounding area to pave the road, and paving it all the way to Lingzhou City. When it was more than a mile away from the city, it lays out a large piece of dry sand as a base, and then radially leads out five avenues to Lingzhou City, all the way to the city of Lingzhou City. The avenue that is opposite the east gate of Lingzhou City is the widest, as the main attack direction. Now these avenues paved with sand have reached the moat of Lingzhou, and are paving a dry battlefield.

Esangge in the city still didn't believe that the Song army would attack the city. He thought that paving these roads was just to scare himself and ask him to surrender quickly. He really didn't believe in that evil. With the battlefield paved with sand, the Song army could attack the city? I haven't heard of this kind of thing! The battlefield paved with sand was all conspicuous targets, and there were also cannons in Lingzhou City!

The Dangxiang Army's Shikao Army has a special organization and name, called "Puxi". It can be seen that it is still of some strength. Although I have heard that the Song army has very powerful smoke cannons, I have never seen Esangge before, how can it be better than the "Puxi" army? The Song army used guns to bombard the city walls and hit his army with cannons, which was enough to level the technical gap between the two sides' artillery.

Xu Ping stood on the sandy base paved outside Lingzhou City and looked at the head of Lingzhou City with a telescope. The city was silent. On the top of the city, soldiers Dangxiang stood in groups of three or three, without fighting. Many people looked at the Song soldiers who transported soil outside the city curiously.

Seeing Xu Ping put down his telescope, Wang Kai said, "There are no people in this city, and there are only nearly 20,000 thieves in the detectives, plus the almost-numbered number of Zhan Fu and the village wife. I looked at it a few times and the thieves in the city had no desire to fight, and they just rely on the trenches in the city to not surrender."

Xu Ping nodded: "Is this right? If the first strong city of the thieves besides Xingqing Mansion also surrenders, it would be unreasonable. Well, if you capture this city, the thieves will not be lucky."

Wang Kai said: "The lord of Lingzhou City, Esangge, is a rough man. He started his business by prosecuting the son of Haozi's treason. The soldiers and generals in the city were not obeyed his control. Originally, there were nearly 10,000 elite troops in Lingzhou City, and our army arrived and was transferred to Xingqing Mansion by Ye Li Wangrong. The senior officials such as the Grand Commander's Office and Transportation Envoy in the city also left together and left Esangge here."

Xu Ping smiled and shook his head: "The thieves are unwilling to surrender, so he threw a muddy man here and tried us. If such a muddy man could rely on a Lingzhou city to join the court to receive a large reward and be granted a beautiful official, others would have to pay the price. Needless to say, capture the city and punish the muddy man clearly, and eliminate the thoughts of the thieves and wealthy man!"

"What the Protector said is. In fact, everyone can see that the thieves, high-ranking officials and chiefs of Weizhou and Xingqing Prefecture all understand this truth. Only Esangge in the city suddenly held the real power of such a big city, and was in a hurry and refused to submit to the court easily. According to his intention, if he wanted to submit to the court, he should be better than other thieves and kings."

That's what Esangge thought, and he felt that he was compromised. Since Lingzhou is easy to defend but difficult to attack, he has 20,000 troops in his hand. How many of those kings can compare with him? Is it too much to surrender to the Song Dynasty to be a regular defense censor? Li Guang of the Qingyuan Army also got the governor of Yao County, and his asking price is not high at all.

But he didn't expect that Zhang Kang and Liu Jianji, who were holding heavy troops at the city, had not been appointed as the official defensive censor, how could Xu Ping agree to him?

Li Xing was able to get the governor of Yao County because he was the first to welcome Cao Keming. Anyway, he actively helped the officials sent to the Song Dynasty to manage the surrounding foreign lands. When they opened the city to welcome Xu Huaide, they did not mention any conditions, and the court took the initiative to grant him.

Basic principle: Xu Ping will not allow anyone who wants money and officials by relying on the troops in his hands. Not to mention these foreign soldiers and generals, even Yuan Hao and Xu Ping did not give him this opportunity, how dare others think. Now that they carry an army of 200,000, Xu Ping cannot let these people threaten him. Going north from Lingzhou, there is no strong city except Xingqing Prefecture, so the army cannot be fooled into going to Wuyuan.

As for those who still want to fight the Song army, Xu Ping's army would not pay attention to Lingzhou after capturing Lingzhou, so he handed it over to Xu Huaide.

Xu Huaide's army was frightened on the road, but when they arrived at the Qingyuan Army, they were really laughed at. Especially when Cao Keming's troops besieged Weizhou were not far away, Xu Huaide became the laughing stock among the people. People always have shame, but after all, Xu Huaide's army is now more willing to fight than other large armies. If he asked him to attack the remnants of Dangxiang, he would probably kill people.

Xu Ping didn't care about those things anymore. He had done his sincerity and could only kill him if he insisted on not surrendering. He led his army north along the Yellow River and went straight to Wuyuan, and his troops were at the foot of Yinshan. After Cao Keming defeated Weizhou, Xu Huaide went east to Yanzhou and fought all the way. He cooperated with Fan Zhongyan of Fuyan Road to capture Hengshan.

After the battle in Tiandu Mountain, Fan Zhongyan and Zhe Jimin also took the initiative to attack and attacked the hinterland of Hengshan. There was already a mess due to drought, and they did not encounter great resistance. Now their biggest difficulty is not fighting, but lack of enough food and grass to save disasters. As long as they bring enough food, many foreign tribes will go a long way to seek refuge.

The Sansi accumulated enough food and grass in Guanzhong and Hedong Road, but the transportation capacity of the two routes was insufficient and they could not transport it to the front line in time, which became the biggest bottleneck. Xu Ping sent thousands of camels over, and the rest depended on them.

Attacking Lingzhou was the last tough battle between Xu Ping and Dangxiang. After this battle, the army of his Protectorate's Office would quickly advance north along the Yellow River to Wuyuan and prepare for the war with the Khitan. Dangxiang's remnants were handed over to other imperial guards.

(I am sick today, only one update, please forgive me.)
Chapter completed!