Li Yanqing fought Xixia with a time difference. At this time, the capital of Xixia may not have received any news of the fall of Xiping Prefecture. It will take about two to three days to send troops south. Li Yanqing needs to plunder the wealth and population of Xiping Prefecture within two days and release all Song slaves.

In order to achieve this goal, Li Yanqing had to do many things simultaneously. For example, after the Song army captured Lingzhou City, Wang Gui immediately led 3,000 cavalry to the Baitongshan Mine, caught the defenders off guard, and at the same time seized the copper and silver warehouse under the mine.

Baitong Mountain is located thirty miles northwest of Lingzhou City. It is a mountain that stretches for dozens of miles. The whole mountain is red and copper-colored. It was originally called Chiyan Mountain. About ten years ago, Xixia finally discovered that there were rich copper and silver minerals here, so it changed Chiyan Mountain to Baitong Mountain. Bai means white, and 100,000 Song slaves and their families were moved from all over the Xixia to act as mining and smelting, which brought a lot of wealth to Xixia.

When Li Yanqing arrived at Baitong Mountain, Wang Gui had annihilated the thousand Xixia soldiers guarding the mine three hours ago and seized the copper and silver warehouse.

The news of the Song army coming caused the Baitong Mine to boil. Tens of thousands of mine slaves and their families cried bitterly. Some old people even cried loudly. They had been wandering in foreign lands for more than ten or even decades. They finally had the opportunity to return to their hometown. Tens of thousands of Song slaves helped the elderly and young, kneeled at the foot of Baitong Mountain to welcome the arrival of the Song army.

When Li Yanqing led 5,000 troops to the foot of Baitong Mountain, the soldiers were shocked by the situation in front of them. They saw that tens of thousands of low and dilapidated small tents were built at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by high camp bars. Although the number of tents was huge, the area was not vast. On the one hand, the tents were too small, and each small tent covered up to seven or eight square meters. On the other hand, the tents were too dense, and only people could walk sideways between the two tents.

The narrow living space must bring about the extremely dirty environment, sewage everywhere, the whole camp is extremely smelly, the disease is prevalent, the women are withered, wearing bad clothes and torn skirts, and the children are even naked, running and rolling in the camp, but everyone's faces are filled with joy. Not only do they have the hope of returning home, but just an hour ago, they finally had their first full meal in many years, and there was a little oily soup.

Li Yanqing was immediately not far away, staring at the slave camp with a heavy mood. At this time, more than a hundred old men walked out of the camp tremblingly and knelt in front of Li Yanqing together. Before he could speak, he couldn't help but lie on the ground and cry.

Li Yanqing quickly turned over and dismounted, helped one of the old men in the leadership, and asked his personal soldiers to help the other old men up.

Li Yanqing asked, "How many years have you been living in Xixia for your father-in-law?"

The old man cried and said, "The young man's surname is Yang, from Jingzhao Mansion. He was also the head of the Song border army. In the second year of Yuanyou, our castle was defeated by the Xixia army, and all the brothers were captured as slaves in Xixia. It has been almost forty years. I thought I would never return to my hometown in this life, but I didn't expect that the Song army finally came, and the young man could be buried beside my parents."

After saying that, the old man trembled all over and grinned and cried silently. Li Yanqing hugged the thin old man tightly, and his tears couldn't help but flow, "It's us that we are late, and we have been suffering for so many years!"

At this time, more than a thousand great men came out of the camp and knelt down and said, "We are willing to join the army to avenge the dead relatives. Please beg the general!"

Li Yanqing nodded and said to everyone loudly: "If you want to join the army, I will definitely meet your requirements. Now the most urgent thing is to pack up and return to the Song Dynasty. Once the Western Xia iron kite comes, I am afraid everyone will not be able to leave."

"We have no property, just give some food and we can set off at any time!"

"The food will be given to everyone, and everyone will take away the tent and shelter the wind and rain along the way."

Everyone went back to pack their belongings, and the tent began to disappear one after another. At this time, Wang Gui led dozens of people to come and rode on his horse, clasped his fists and said, "Your Magistrate, the warehouse has been occupied!"

Li Yanqing was overjoyed and asked quickly: "How much copper and silver are there?"

"There are so many that it's uncountable. Some officials are counting. Please go over and inspect."

Li Yanqing arranged for commander Gong Zuwen to lead 5,000 troops to help Song Nu prepare for the southward journey. He turned his horse's head and led hundreds of personal soldiers to follow Wang Gui to the warehouse in the distance.

The warehouse of the Xixia Army is located at the foot of Baitong Mountain, close to Lingzhou Water. It is a warehouse group composed of thirty large warehouses. The warehouse is made of large white granite stones. It is very strong and square. There is a wall built around it. There is also a sentry tower on both sides of the gate. It looks very cautious. Now the warehouse group has been controlled by the Song army, and the gate is full of Song army posts.

Li Yanqing entered the warehouse wall and then turned over and dismounted. He looked at the warehouse and smiled and said, "So many warehouses should not only place copper and silver!"

Wang Gui also smiled and said, "There are everything inside, including wine and meat. There are three large warehouses full of frozen beef and mutton. Fifty thousand lamb legs were just distributed this morning."

"Are there any soldiers?"

"There are 10,000 pairs of leather armor and matching sword spears. Bei Zhi is considering recruiting 10,000 soldiers from Song Nu."

Li Yanqing shook his head, "There are too few ten thousand soldiers. At least 30,000 soldiers must be recruited. There are tens of thousands of sets of armor in Lingzhou City, which should be enough."

"I understand!"

As the two of them said this, they came to the copper and silver warehouses, which consisted of eight warehouses, two of which were silver warehouses and the other six warehouses were copper warehouses. At this time, the Warehouse Si Shi Ma Wenxiao stepped forward and bowed, "I am not aware of the commander-in-chief!"

Li Yanqing waved his hand, "No need to be polite, but the inventory is over?"

"The inventory is about to end. There are 200,000 thick copper ingots, each weighing fifty kilograms, and the thick copper is 10 million kilograms, and the silver ingots are 30,000, and each weighing twenty kilograms, and there are 600,000 kilograms of thick silver ingots."

This quantity really surprised Li Yanqing. Six hundred thousand kilograms of silver are equivalent to nine million and six hundred thousand taels, and even after refining, it will have eight million taels. This quantity is really scary.

Li Yanqing asked in confusion: "How come there are so many?"

"Qizhuan, this is the inventory that has been mined and smelted for three years. Xixia has not been transported away, so it has accumulated a lot."

Speaking of transportation, Li Yanqing was a little embarrassed. How could he transport so much copper and silver inventory?

Ma Wenxiao understood the concerns of the governor, so he smiled and said, "The warehouse was built next to the Lingzhou water, of course, to walk on the waterway."

The Lingzhou water is the famous Maling River. It originates from Helan Mountain and flows into Guanzhong. It injects the Jing River in Xinping County, Binzhou, and finally flows into the Wei River. This valley is also an important commercial channel for the Song Dynasty to the Western Xia.

The Malinghe Grand Canyon was originally stationed in Xixia, and it was under the jurisdiction of the Xiazhou Metropolitan Division. At present, these 10,000 people have been completely wiped out by the Jingzhao Army along with the Xiazhou Army. If there is a ship, you can transport it directly to Jingzhao Prefecture by water.

Li Yanqing frowned slightly and said, "I know I can walk on the waterway, but there is no ship by the river. How to transport it?"

"You reported to the Dutong that Xixia water transportation generally does not require ships."

Li Yanqing suddenly woke up and asked quickly: "Is there a sheepskin raft?"

Ma Wenxiao nodded with a smile, "The people of Xixia had long thought of this. The five warehouses were filled with air-dry sheepskin rafts, which were enough to form thousands of large sheepskin rafts to transport supplies."

Li Yanqing pondered for a moment and asked, "The water in Ma Lian Water seems to be very urgent. Will it be in danger?"

"Your Magistrate, Bei Zhi is very familiar with the hydrological situation there. If it is spring and summer, the water flow is indeed turbulent, but now it is autumn, and the water flow has been much smoother. There is no problem with the sheepskin raft transporting material southward."

Li Yanqing was overjoyed. This was the most exciting news he heard. He immediately said to Wang Gui: "Striving to blow all the sheepskin rafts before dawn tomorrow, and also distribute the food and mutton to the people. If there is an excess sheepskin raft, let the elderly, weak, women and children ride it and set out south tomorrow morning."

Wang Gui quickly bowed and agreed, "Abide by the orders with humble duties!"

After the transportation was arranged, the eight thousand Song troops began to operate at full capacity. First, they recruited 20,000 soldiers from the slaves and equipped them with armor and weapons. The new recruits were commanded by Wang Gui and Yang Wenyi. Li Yanqing immediately distributed some of the food and meat to nearly 200,000 slaves, ensuring that each household could get five dou of grain and ten kilograms of meat, and the rest of the food was distributed to them after entering Guanzhong.
Chapter completed!