The next morning, Zhao Yan got up early to wash and eat, and then, along with Cao Song and his managers and his men, left Xi'an Prefecture with an army that went to Jingzhou City to reinforce. Now the main force of the army that led the Song Dynasty to attack Xi'an Prefecture is also gathering in Xi'an Prefecture, preparing to break through the Taoist Xingqing Prefecture in Xi'an Prefecture in one fell swoop. Xi'an also gathered the elite of the whole country, preparing to make the Song army beat its head under the walls of Xingqing Prefecture.

It is worth mentioning that although Cao Song took away most of the managers and staff, he still left a capable manager and several servants in Xi'an Prefecture. In addition to letting them continue to operate bank-to-arms business in Xi'an Prefecture, the most important thing is to establish a branch in Xi'an Prefecture. As for the small matters of bank location and recruiting personnel, Cao Song naturally does not need to worry about it.

Zhao Yan had only heard of the cruelty of war before, but he had never experienced it personally. Although there was a war in Xi'an Prefecture before, when they arrived, the entire Xi'an Prefecture had returned to its former prosperity and there were not many traces of war that could be seen. However, when Zhao Yan left Xi'an Prefecture and continued to move northward, he finally saw the cruel side of the war.

After leaving Xi'an Prefecture and heading north for a few days, Zhao Yan found that there were basically no civilians on the road, and the fields on both sides of the road were also deserted, and most of the villages passed by were turned into ruins. You can even see wild wolves appearing in them. In some villages, you can also see bones. The wild wolves who eat human flesh are not only not afraid of people, but also bare their teeth at Zhao Yan and the others, but they dare not pounce on them.

It was not until Zhao Yan and the others were about to arrive at Mingsha City that the two sides of the road gradually became more popular. Sometimes you could see some inhabited villages, and even some bold villagers would sell some local specialties to the Song army on the roadside. Of course, this was mainly beneficial to Yang Wenguang's extremely strict constraints on the Song army. Generally, as long as they did not actively attack the Song army, the Song army would not attack the civilians in Xixia.

After Zhao Yan and the others entered Mingsha City, they rested here for a day before they continued to set off again. However, Cao Song had no time to rest. He repeated the matter of starting a banking business in Xi'an Prefecture in Mingsha City, and left a manager and several friends to continue to acquire the spoils from the soldiers in Mingsha City. However, this time he did not set up a bank branch in Mingsha City. After all, the current situation in Xixia is still unstable. It is not too late to expand the banking business after the army conquered Xingqing Prefecture.

Next, Zhao Yan and the others went through nearly ten days of travel, and passed through Lingzhou and Shunzhou, and finally arrived at Jingzhou City. However, when Zhao Yan came to the city of Jingzhou, he saw a scene that shocked him.

I saw that the tall and strong city walls of Jingzhou City were covered with scars, and almost every other section would collapse. Some even collapsed in groups, and the remaining city walls were full of traces of artillery fire. Even Zhao Yan could see that the blue bricks on the top of the city had turned into purple, which was the color left after being soaked in blood. This shows the tragic tragedy when attacking Jingzhou City.

Although the city walls of Jingzhou City were dilapidated, the city gates were well preserved, and there were not many traces of artillery fire on the city walls near the city gate. This was because when the Song army attacked Jingzhou City, the Xixia army in the city blocked the city gate with stones and soil, and the city gate was surrounded by the strongest place of the city wall. Therefore, when the Song army attacked Jingzhou City, the Song army did not put in any effort at the city gate, but instead concentrated its firepower to attack those relatively weak city walls. Later, after Jingzhou City fell, the city gate was dug up again. When Zhao Yan walked past the city gate, he could see a lot of soil remaining on the top of the city gate hole.

For his own safety reasons, the news that Zhao Yan came to Jingzhou City did not inform Yang Wenguang and others in the city. Even only a few generals in the army with him knew about it. After he entered Jingzhou City, he immediately came to the commander's mansion temporarily established by Yang Wenguang.

Not only was the outer wall of Jingzhou City broken, but the city was even more dilapidated. This was mainly because the Xixia people in the city had demolished the houses in the city to block the roads in order to resist. After the Song Dynasty occupied this place, it took more than ten days to slowly clear the roads in the city. However, the demolished houses could not be restored. Therefore, when Zhao Yan entered Jingzhou City, he felt like he was coming to a huge ruin, but the people in the ruins were stationed with a large number of troops. Because the houses had been destroyed, the army had to live in tents. As for the residents in the city, they had escaped long before the Song army arrived.

Yang Wenguang's General's Mansion was actually the former capital management office in Jingzhou City. It was also the only house in the city that had not been demolished. When Zhao Yan came here, he happened to meet Yang Wenguang who was summoning the generals to discuss matters. Zhao Yan did not disturb him, and he didn't want everyone to know that he was coming, so he came to a side hall of the General's Mansion to rest.

With the arrival of various reinforcements and the arrival of logistics supplies, Yang Wenguang is now full of confidence. So today he summoned generals from all walks of life to discuss the matter, mainly to discuss how to attack Xingqing Prefecture. All the generals expressed their opinions on this and the discussion was very enthusiastic. Speaking of which, with the successive victory of the Song army, all the generals present were also inspired to fight. Some of them dared not think and did not dare to do in the past. Finally, Yang Wenguang summarized several important opinions and had a clearer idea of ​​attacking Xingqing Prefecture.

The meeting lasted until the sun set, and Yang Wenguang announced that the discussion would be temporarily held here and we would continue to discuss it tomorrow. However, just as he walked out of the meeting hall, someone came forward to report to him quietly, which surprised Yang Wenguang. He hurried to the side hall, but saw Zhao Yan dozing off bored.

This cannot be blamed on Zhao Yan. After all, he was very tired along the way, and he was the most bored when waiting for someone, so the current scene appeared. Fortunately, Niu Lie, the head of the guard beside Zhao Yan, reminded Zhao Yan, which made him wake up. When he saw Yang Wenguang, he immediately said apologetically: "The old general is forgiven, this... I was exhausted all the way, and I was really a bit rude just now."

"Haha~, Prince, you are polite. There are not so many things in the army!" Yang Wenguang said with a smile at this time. Although it was his first time meeting with Zhao Yan, he knew a lot about Zhao Yan through Yang Huaiyu. Yang Wenguang also admired the prince of the Song Dynasty in front of him.

Zhao Yan was also a cheerful person. When he saw Yang Wenguang's appearance, he smiled immediately, and immediately asked someone to send the reading glasses that Yang Huaiyu asked him to bring. Speaking of which, Yang Huaiyu also led the second and third class students of the military academy to be in Jingzhou City. However, when he left the capital, he had not prepared the reading glasses yet, so he had to ask Zhao Yan to bring them.

Yang Wenguang is nearly seventy years old and has a very serious presbyopia. He can only lean back hard when reading a book to see clearly. He has long known about reading glasses from Yang Huaiyu, and is very happy at the moment. He immediately picked out a suitable pair of reading glasses from the box and put them on. He immediately felt that it was much clearer in front of him, which also made him thank Zhao Yan immediately.

"Prince, I wonder if you came to Jingzhou this time, but you came to supervise the war?" Yang Wenguang asked carefully next. Attacking the capital of a country is not a trivial matter. The court has always distrusts the generals. Generally, when encountering such major wars, people will send people to supervise the war. The generals are most afraid of this kind of thing, because the people who supervise war generally do not understand military affairs, but like to interfere in the war. As a result, the war situation often becomes a mess because of the random command of the people who supervise war.

"Haha, don't worry, General Yang, I came to Jingzhou this time not for public affairs, but because of some private matters. As for the attack on Xingqing Mansion, my elder brother told me before I came that he was completely relieved of you and other generals, so I will leave all this battle to you. It is naturally the best if I can take down Xingqing Mansion in one fell swoop. If I can't do anything, I must not force it!"

Zhao Yan's previous words were true, but Zhao Xu was very confident in the attack on Xingqing Mansion this time. Before coming, he asked Zhao Yan to tell Yang Wenguang that he would defeat Xingqing Mansion no matter what the price he paid, and thus destroy Xixia, a confidant. However, Zhao Yan felt that saying this would definitely bring great psychological pressure to Yang Wenguang and the others, so he changed it without authorization, because he knew that even if Zhao Xu didn't say it, Yang Wenguang and the others would do his best to attack Xingqing Mansion. After all, they were unwilling to give up their military achievements.

"Thank you for the trust of His Highness and the Prince. Today, I have discussed a rough step to attack Xingqing Prefecture with all the generals. Next, you only need to deploy the army to launch a general attack on Xingqing Prefecture and strive to fight Xixia in a battle!" When Yang Wenguang said the last moment, an unspeakable light suddenly burst out in his turbid old eyes. He had almost worked hard to fight the invasion of Xixia in his life, but he did not expect that in the last few miles of his life, he would have the opportunity to destroy Xixia, his old enemy, with his own hands, which is a great pleasure in life!

"Haha, the old general is so ambitious! My father said before I came that the only one among the generals of the Song Dynasty can destroy Xixia is the only one who can destroy Xixia!" Zhao Yan immediately praised. He was not nonsense. Zhao Shu really valued Yang Wenguang. After all, compared with other generals, Yang Wenguang, who came from a general, also reassured the court. Even Di Qing could not compare with him at that time.

Yang Wenguang was even happier when he heard that even the Emperor praised him so much, but he still said a few humble words. At this time, Zhao Yan suddenly thought of something and said again: "General Yang, I heard that you plan to leave the army after this battle. However, with the talent of the old general, it is a pity to go home to support him. Brother Huaiyu happened to be young and wanted to make achievements. So I wonder if the old general was interested in replacing Brother Huaiyu to serve in the military academy, so that he could get what he wished?" (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, the novel is better and faster!
Chapter completed!