Night shrouded Xinxia City, and Xixia soldiers patrolled back and forth on the top of the city, looking warily at the outside of the city.
Yang Zaixing led 300 elite soldiers to gradually approach the east city wall. The city gate was on the west wall, and the east wall was the back wall. There were not many soldiers on the city wall, only about a hundred people patrolling.
Yang Zaixing still chose the northeastern corner of the city, which was a "liang no matter" zone and had the fewest patrol soldiers.
At the same moment when Yang Zaixing led 300 elite troops to approach the northeastern corner of the city, Liu Qiong also led 6,000 main soldiers to slowly approach the east city.
In addition, Liu Qiong also deployed a thousand soldiers to block the city gate, and deployed a thousand soldiers to ambush on the official road in the south, preventing a single enemy soldier from escaping.
The construction time of these military cities was too short, and there was no time to set up beacons. For the time being, the main camp could only be notified through eagle letters or cavalry reports.
The Song Army also thought of this, so the Song Army chose to attack at night, so that neither eagle letters nor dove letters could be sent.
There was a sentry standing on the northeast corner. Yang Zaixing hid behind a big stone, stretched his bow and nocked an arrow, and shot an arrow. 'Poof!' hit the sentry in the throat, and the sentry clutched his throat and fell from the top of the city.
"There is an enemy!"
Suddenly several Xixia soldiers stood up from the corner and started shouting.
"Damn it!" Yang Zaixing cursed secretly. He never thought that there was someone hiding and sleeping in the corner.
"dash forward!"
Yang Zaixing shouted, and three hundred soldiers rushed towards the city wall carrying five simple wooden ladders.
Yang Zaixing shot three consecutive arrows in one breath. Three Xixia soldiers who were shouting were hit by the arrows and fell down. Yang Zaixing picked up his spear and rushed towards the city.
'Dang! Dang! Dang!'
The alarm bells rang loudly on the top of the city, and the patrol soldiers on the north and east walls rushed towards the northeast corner. The area that was originally left alone became an area under attack from both ends.
The Song army had already set up a wooden ladder and rushed to the top of the city first. Ten soldiers guarded the ladder. Xixia patrol soldiers had also rushed up from the north, and a fierce battle broke out in an instant.
"You build a human ladder!"
Yang Zaixing ordered several soldiers to build a human ladder. He climbed a few steps on the human ladder, jumped up to the top of the city, and stabbed the Xixia soldiers running towards the east like a storm. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight soldiers were all choked.
Shot and fell to the ground.
Yang Zaixing blocked the patrol soldiers on the east city wall, giving the Song soldiers a precious breathing space. Immediately, more than a dozen soldiers rushed to the city wall and joined the fierce battle.
All the Xixia soldiers in the city were alarmed, and groups of soldiers rushed toward the east wall.
Liu Qiong led a main army of 6,000 people and quickly came from a mile away.
The Song army has already rushed to the city with more than 150 soldiers, fighting hard against the 200 patrol soldiers. The Xixia army is also very powerful and resilient.
Not long after, all three hundred soldiers were on the top of the city, and the number of Xixia soldiers on the top of the city also increased to five hundred. Arrows were raining down, and the shouts of killing were loud. Both sides refused to retreat, and seven thousand Song troops arrived at the bottom of the city.
, they erected dozens of simple wooden ladders and quickly climbed to the top of the city.
The Song army swarmed into the city, with more and more people saying, "Follow me!" Yang Zaixing shouted, and led two thousand soldiers to rush down the city wall and enter the city. They met a thousand Xixia soldiers coming from the military camp. The two armies once again
Fight fiercely together.
Although it was nighttime, the soldiers on both sides were easy to identify. The main reason was that the Xixia soldiers' helmets were horn helmets with two horns, which made them easy to identify.
As more and more Song soldiers participated in the battle, the Song army took an absolute advantage and defeated the enemy. Soon another Song army came behind them and attacked from both sides. It was difficult for this Xixia Song army to escape.
.
The west city gate has been opened, and many Xixia soldiers fled out of the city. However, they were attacked by a thousand Song soldiers outside the city who fired arrows. Hundreds of soldiers who rushed out of the city fell down one after another.
The battle ended in only half an hour. All two thousand Xixia soldiers were killed, including more than two hundred soldiers who escaped from the city. No one escaped in the end because of the two interception lines set by the Song army.
Next, the Song army cleaned the battlefield, transported food, and moved 50,000 shi of food in the city to a ravine more than ten miles away and hid it.
The Song army then filled sacks with soil and stacked them neatly in the warehouse, pretending to be grain, but covering the surface with a thin layer of grain.
Yang Zaixing led hundreds of people to dig a large pit at the foot of Dongcheng. It was covered with wooden boards and then covered with a thick layer of soil, so that there was no trace of a large pit below.
But this was not enough, and a tunnel was dug outside the city, leading directly to the pit. Even if the pit was discovered by the enemy, the soldiers in the pit could escape through the tunnel. The tunnel exit was located in a narrow gap, making it difficult to be discovered.
The army was busy all night and all morning before finishing everything. The army rested for an afternoon. Yang Zaixing left Tang Qian and a thousand cavalry to continue to monitor Xinxia City, waiting for the enemy to take the bait.
Eight thousand cavalry, led by Yang Zaixing and Liu Qiong, left Xinxia City and headed north to Xinqing City. Yang Zaixing's task was to concentrate his forces to defeat the supply military cities along the way, kill all the enemy troops along the way, and at the same time snatch food and grass.
Materials.
Finally, when the enemy crossed the Yellow River, they attacked him halfway across the river.
There were only 24,000 Xixia troops left, and half of the army was killed by the Song army in one battle. It would be difficult for anyone to accept it.
The soldiers of Xixia were full of complaints and were dissatisfied from top to bottom. All the dissatisfaction was focused on the coach Cao Baozong. All the generals found that the coach had no real ability and was just an inexperienced son of a noble family.
The knowledge of the generals was transmitted to the soldiers, so that all the soldiers lost confidence in future battles, and calls for withdrawal rose.
At this moment, coach Cao Baozong fell ill.
In a large tent, five main generals of the Xixia Army gathered together to discuss what to do next.
These five commanders all led troops from various military divisions. It’s not that they don’t know how to march and fight, but they have been watching Cao Baozong’s jokes before, and now they realize that the problem is serious, and maybe their lives will be lost.
In Longxi County, these five people became anxious.
They all realized that if they followed Cao Baozong's plan to withdraw their troops to the north, the entire army would be destroyed. This was something they could not accept at any cost. If Cao Baozong refused to change, then they were the only ones to change.
One of the commanders said bitterly: "He must not be sick. He must not know what to do next. He is just looking for an excuse to escape."
Deputy General Tuoba Chengqing waved his hand, "Whether he is really sick or pretending to be sick, it doesn't matter now. We can no longer count on him to lead us out of this predicament. We can only rely on ourselves. Let's talk about it, everyone!"
Everyone looked at Xia Lian, the commander-in-chief. Although he was not a deputy general, he was the oldest and had rich combat experience. However, he was also an official official and did not want to take the responsibility on himself, so he always remained silent and did not interfere with Cao Baozong's affairs.
any decision.
Now, he can no longer remain silent.
Xia Lian sighed and said slowly: "Now the situation is very clear. There will never be only a few thousand Song troops in the city. There should be tens of thousands of people, including Chen Qing's main force. They must be in the city now. Their strength should have surpassed ours. In fact, What I'm worried about is not the Song army in the city, but Xinxia City, Tongxicheng and other places. I don't believe Chen Qing didn't attack them? If the Song army occupies the military city, we will be in big trouble."
The construction of these logistics military cities along the route is also the most criticized by the generals. It is said to be a step-by-step approach, but in fact it is useless and unrealistic at all.
The military city was dilapidated and low, and its troops were small. It could not withstand the Song army's attack. The Song army could concentrate its forces and defeat them one by one.
I really don’t know why Cao Baozong built them. If he was worried about insufficient logistics, he would have brought more food supplies and enough food for half a year. Could it be that he couldn’t capture Longxi County in half a year?
Isn't building these military cities just a matter of sending food and supplies to the Song army in vain?
"General Xia means that these military cities have become an obstacle to us?"
Xia Lian nodded, "Let's talk about Xinxia City! It happens to be guarding the official road, and our army can go around it, but what about the baggage? The baggage will not be able to survive. If we cannot attack the city, we will have to give up the baggage. Without the food and grass baggage, if we If we are blocked halfway, how long can we hold on?"
There was silence in the big tent. Everyone knew that the consequences would be serious. They had to walk through several valleys along the way, and it was indeed easy to be blocked by the Song army.
Tuoba Chengqing thought for a moment and said, "Shang Dongyan suggested killing Qinzhou before. What do Xia Tongjun think?"
Xia Lian still shook his head, "If we had an army of 60,000, we could kill Qinzhou, but if we go now, we will definitely die."
"Then what should we do now?" Everyone was anxious.
Xia Lian said calmly: "You can retreat to the west and go to Lintao Mansion!"
