In a wilderness outside the Guichuan Silver Mine, three thousand Song troops, led by Li Muching, had quietly arrived under the cover of night.
After the Xixia Army was completely annihilated in Lanzhou, Chen Qing issued an order to Li Muqing, asking him to find a suitable opportunity to recapture the Sichuan Silver Mine and completely annihilate the Huangzhou Army.
The prisoners of war can accept it, but Ren Zhongqun cannot let him escape this time.
The guide who led Li Muqing was Jiang Xin, a subordinate of Wu Hongwei in Didao County, who was very familiar with the silver mines. Chen Qing had previously appointed him as the manager of the silver mines. Ren Zhongqun led his troops back to the silver mines, and Jiang Xin was forced to flee.
Return to Didao County.
Jiang Xin pointed to the hillside in front and said: "You can see the army camp when you go up the hillside. There is a small official road to the north of the camp, leading to Hezhou. Once a fight breaks out, the enemy troops will definitely escape there."
Li Muching asked: "Is there a path around it?"
Jiang Xin nodded, "There is a path!"
Li Muqing said to deputy general Tang Jingyang: "General Tang led a thousand soldiers to go around the path and block the enemy troops from escaping to Hezhou."
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Li Muqing smiled at Jiang Xin and said, "Please, Manager Jiang, take General Tang there. Is one hour enough?"
"enough!"
"Well, at the fifth watch, I will officially launch an attack!"
Tang Jingyang and Jiang Xin quickly left with a thousand soldiers, and Li Muching waited patiently for the time to pass.
.........
At the fifth watch, Li Muching led two thousand soldiers to rush up the hillside from the side.
Rushing up the hillside, there is an open area on the mountainside in front of you. On the left is an abandoned silver mine. More than a hundred camps are stationed in the open space more than 200 steps away, and there are camp fences and sentries around.
The military camp occupies a large area and can station at least 5,000 people, but currently only 1,000 Huangzhou troops are stationed in the camp.
It was still dark, and Li Muching led two thousand soldiers to rush through the night. About a hundred steps away from the camp, the bell on the guard post suddenly rang.
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ They were discovered by the sentry.
"Shoot gunpowder arrows!"
Li Muqing gave an order, and two thousand soldiers fired gunpowder arrows at the camp. The dense gunpowder arrows were like bright meteors streaking across the sky.
The camp tent caught fire, and many soldiers were shot by gunpowder arrows. Screams and exclamations broke out everywhere, and the camp was in chaos.
"Fight in!"
Li Muching led two thousand soldiers and rushed towards the main gate of the camp.
"One, two, three, boom!"
The soldiers broke open the gate with strong giant trees and rushed in. The camp was already a sea of fire, and countless soldiers were running around in the light of the flames.
When the Song army entered the camp, more than 300 soldiers who were preparing to break out from the east were so frightened that they knelt down and begged for mercy.
Li Muching left two hundred soldiers to guard the prisoners of war, and another three hundred to clear the camp. He led the army to continue the pursuit.
Jiang Xin was indeed right. The west camp gate was wide open and most of the soldiers escaped through the west gate.
The soldiers fled westward along an official road, but after less than two miles, there was a sudden fire in front of them. An ambush soldier came out and fired random arrows. Dozens of people running in front fell to the ground.
At this time, the Song army was also chasing from behind. There was a blockade in front, and later they were pursued. Many of the hundreds of soldiers were empty-handed, unarmed, and without armor. Seeing that they were cornered, the soldiers knelt down and begged for mercy.
............
At dawn, the Song army escorted more than 800 prisoners of war to the open space. Ren Zhongqun was not found among the prisoners, which put Li Muching under tremendous pressure.
He immediately ordered the army to search everywhere, "search every corner, and don't miss every mine!"
At this moment, the steward Jiang Xin ran over panting and said: "General Li, Ren Zhongqun has been discovered!"
Li Muching was overjoyed and asked anxiously: "Where is it?"
"Over there in the mining area, but...but he has been beaten to death by the miners."
Li Muqing quickly led his men to the mining area. It didn't matter if Ren Zhongqun died, but he wanted to see people in life and his body in death.
Three corpses appeared in the open space in front of the gate of the mining area. It was Ren Zhongqun and his two stewards. The Song army came to kill them. The three people had no time to escape, so they hid directly in the mining area. As a result, hundreds of people who came out to watch the fun were killed.
Discovered by miners.
The angry miners saw Ren Zhongqun and two stewards who were alone. Hundreds of people surrounded them with sticks and beat the three people to death.
Li Muqing arrived with hundreds of soldiers and saw a corpse hanging on each of the three wooden stakes. Jiang Xin pointed at the tall and thin middle-aged man and said: "This is Ren Zhongqun. He is usually full of evildoers. That's why he ended up like this today."
.”
Ren Zhongqun stared at the sky with dull eyes. He could never have imagined that after working so hard for so many years and smelting one hundred thousand kilograms of rough silver, he would end up making Chen Qing's wedding dress in vain.
........
At this time, Chen Qing led an army of 10,000 to Xining Prefecture, which is today's Xining area. This is the edge of the Hehuang Valley. To the west is the endless West Sea. To the north, you can see the vast Qilian Snow Mountains, illuminated by the sun.
, the snow-capped mountains shine with magnificent golden light.
Xining Prefecture and Huangzhou were integrated into one during the Tang Dynasty, collectively known as Shanzhou, and were the seat of Longyou Jiedu Prefecture.
During the reign of Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, this place was restored to the Longyou Protectorate by the Song Dynasty. It was also the westernmost border state of the Song Dynasty, and Jishi Prefecture was to the south of Xining Prefecture.
Xining City, also known as Qingtang City, was once the capital of the Qingtang Dynasty. After the dissolution of the Qingtang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty seized the opportunity to restore Xihe Road and migrated a large number of Han people to Xihe Road.
Huangzhou City and Xining City were both major migration places for Han people. A large number of Han people planted wheat in the Hehuang Valley, ensuring the military supplies of the Xihe Army.
Ren Dejing's army originally stationed in Xining Prefecture had been defeated by the Song army. When Chen Qing's army arrived in Xining City, General Judge Feng Quan and his civil servants came out to ask for surrender.
Feng Quan was actually an official appointed by the puppet state of Qi. He was about thirty-five or six years old. He was Wang Hou's grandson-in-law. He first joined the army in charge of farming in the Western Army, and later served as the magistrate of Xining County. The puppet state of Qi took over Xining Prefecture.
Later, he was invited to serve as the general magistrate of Xining Prefecture.
Most of Chen Qing's closest associates were officials from the puppet Qi State. Feng Quan was a local and Wang Hou's grandson-in-law, with a good reputation, so Chen Qing had no intention of replacing them.
When everyone heard that the Jiedushi would not hold them responsible for surrendering, but continued to let them perform their duties, everyone's hearts dropped to the ground, and they cheered and surrounded Chen Qing to inspect the city.
Feng Quan listened to Chen Qing's question about the magistrate, and quickly explained: "The Jiedu envoy did not know that the magistrates of Xining, Huangzhou, and Kuozhou were all concurrently appointed by Ren Dejing, who himself served as the military and political administrator of the three states, so the three states
The state only has general judgment."
Chen Qing nodded and smiled: "I only stayed in Huangzhou City for one day before setting off, so I don't know these things. How many common people and Han people are there in the city?"
"Reporting back to the Jiedushi, there are about 80,000 people and 15,000 households in Xining Prefecture, basically concentrated in Xining County, of which 70% are Han people and the other 30% are Qiang and Tubo people."
Chen Qing saw that although the city was large, it was relatively deserted, so he smiled and asked, "The business here doesn't seem to be as prosperous as Huangzhou City."
Feng Quan smiled bitterly and said: "The business here mainly involves trading with the Tubo people, and Huangzhou City is the end of the Silk Road. A large number of merchants from the Western Regions are concentrated in Huangzhou. Xining City is definitely not as good as Huangzhou City.
But in a few days, it will become lively here.”
"Why?"
"The ice and snow over the West Sea are beginning to melt, and a large number of Tibetan merchants will come here with their camels to trade, buy daily necessities and grain, and sell sheepskins, sheep wine, dairy products, and medicinal materials."
At this time, Chen Qing had already seen the Tubo camel team appearing on the street. He asked curiously: "Don't the Tubo people use yaks to carry things? How could it be a camel?"
Feng Quan chuckled, "The Tibetan people in the plateau used yaks. The Tibetan people in the Qing and Tang Dynasties initially used horses, but in recent years they started to use camels because camels have a large carrying capacity."
Chen Qing nodded and asked: "Besides food, what else is Xining Prefecture rich in?"
"Reporting back to Jiedu Envoy, it was originally rich in salt!"
Feng Quan sighed, "Xining Prefecture was originally the largest salt producer on Xihe Road, but now it is in big trouble."
[There was a small typo in the front, Xining Prefecture was written as Xi'an Prefecture.]