Gaoding led 20,000 cavalry all the way north. They first arrived at Xiping Mansion. Xiping Mansion was Lingzhou in the Tang Dynasty and the seat of Shuofang Jiedushi. It was renamed Xiping Mansion by Xixia. There were 8,000 troops stationed in the city and the city gates were closed.
The city was filled with Xixia soldiers.
The Song army destroyed three surrounding small military cities and a group of warehouses by the river. At this time, scouts came to report that hundreds of thousands of people appeared on the official road twenty miles to the north. It was said that they were expelled
Foreign people who came out of Xingqing Mansion.
Gao Ding was puzzled and sent Sun Kang to inquire about the situation. Sun Kang led three thousand cavalry to the north. Soon, Sun Kang sent someone to report that it was indeed the common people who had been expelled from Xingqing City by Brother Richard.
Most of the Dangxiang people are Qiang people, but there are also Han people, Uighurs and Khitans.
Many people have run out of food and can only rely on catching voles and digging wild vegetables for food.
Gao Ding led the army to attack in a mighty manner. The hundreds of thousands of people on the official road were frightened by the cavalry's formation, and they knelt down one after another. The official road was packed with people on their knees.
Gao Ding ordered the troops to be more vigilant and maintain their formation. He put up a curtain and looked to the north. Gao Ding was worried that the Xixia army would drive these people to disrupt his army's position and use the chaos as a cover to launch a sudden attack on him.
After looking at it for a long time, nothing unusual was found. At this time, Sun Kang brought a middle-aged businessman. The businessman took out a round waist badge, handed it to Gao Ding and said: "My humble position is Xiao Yuan, the head of the third scout army, under the command of General Hu Yan.
Inquire about news in Xingqing Mansion."
This is one of his own. Gao Ding nodded and said, "Xiao Dutou has worked hard. What's going on with these people?"
Xiao Yuan sighed and said: "These are non-Dangxiang people. They have been living in Xixia for several generations. On the surface, they say they are driving away foreigners and preventing the Song army from detecting sentries. In fact, they are trying to seize wealth. The wealth accumulated by each family has been
They robbed everything and now they have nothing."
"Are there any Xixia spies here?"
Xiao Yuan shook his head, "They are all poor people. I beg the general to help them!"
Gao Ding was hesitant. He was considering whether to report to the capital first. At this moment, yellow dust was billowing from the east, and a massive cavalry was coming towards us. A scout rushed to report, "General Gao.
, it’s General Liu’s team!”
Gaoding's heart suddenly dropped. Not long after, Liu Cui's 20,000 cavalry surrounded them, and 40,000 cavalry surrounded more than 100,000 civilians.
Liu Cui also came from the east after hearing the news. Unexpectedly, he met Gao Ding. He stepped forward and cupped his fists and said, "General Gao, what happened?"
Gao Ding said calmly: "In order to raise money and food, the Xixia people drove out all the non-Party people in the capital and plundered their property."
"Then what does General Gao plan to do with them?"
"What I can do with it is up to the governor to decide. Most of them are Qiang people. I want to take them all to Mingsha County to see what the governor wants!"
"That's right. The governor has just reached an agreement with the Qiang people. Maybe they will be used."
At this time, Xiao Yuan stepped forward again and said: "Two generals, I have one more thing to report for my humble position!"
Liu Cui glanced at him, "General Gao, who is he?"
"He is Hu Yanlei's subordinate, our intelligence scout in Xingqing Mansion!"
Liu Cui cupped his fists and saluted, "Please speak!"
Xiao Yuan said quickly: "There are not many Han people in this team, but in fact there are at least tens of thousands of Han people in Xingqing Mansion. Almost all of them are slaves. They were also expelled from the city, but were placed in various large manors."
Xiao Yuan pointed to the northwest, "In the Loop, you can see it after crossing the Yellow River. There are large manors. They are surrounded by trees. The trees are like city walls. There is a deep ditch like a moat in front. Inside
The fertile land in the Hetao, which covers several thousand or even tens of thousands of acres, has basically been occupied by the powerful, and there are very few homesteaders."
Liu Cui whispered: "I suggest not to go for the time being. First, we don't understand the surrounding situation and are not familiar with the terrain. I'm worried that we will be surrounded by enemy troops, especially surrounded by the Yellow River. Once the pontoon bridge is destroyed, we will be trapped in
It’s inside.”
Gao Ding nodded, "You are right, this matter is best decided by the governor. Let's take these people back first."
Gu Wei
After the two men reached a consensus, they asked the soldiers to bring some dry food to the families who had run out of food, and headed south with hundreds of thousands of people.
They walked for two days and were still ten miles away from Mingsha County. Chen Qing received a letter from Gaoding and led a camel team loaded with food and grass to meet them.
The Song Army has set up a large camp outside Mingsha County. Thousands of Song Army soldiers took hundreds of thousands of people into the camp to rest. These poor people saw hope in despair and were finally resettled. Hundreds of thousands of people cried.
The sound was so loud that everyone knelt down and kowtowed to thank Chen Qing and Song Jun.
Zhang Xiaoxiao asked: "How does Xuanfu intend to arrange them?"
Chen Qing pondered for a while and said: "Although they are foreigners, they have broken away from the nomadic life and settled in the city. They can be mixed with the Han people. In a few decades, their descendants will all be Hanized, so I am still going to put them
They will be placed in Xixia, but I haven't thought about how to place them at this stage. Does Sima have any good ideas?"
"They can be resettled in Weizhou and Yanzhou, and part of them can be resettled in Mingsha County. In fact, Weizhou and Mingsha County are enough. The key is to provide food for hundreds of thousands of people. Now we can organize them to plant some melons and beans."
Chen Qing nodded, "This is a problem for Sima. Let Chao Qing and Zhong Huan assist you, and I will ask Zhao Xiaoyi to lead an army of five thousand to do your bidding."
Zhang Xiao smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, everyone! We all have experience and we will make arrangements."
Chen Qing ordered people to find Gao Ding and Liu Cui again. He spread out the map in the tent and asked them: "You led the army north, how well do you know about the situation in Xixia?"
Liu Cui bowed and said: "I discovered in my humble position that there are no villages in Xixia. I haven't encountered any villages. Everyone lives in the city. I don't know whether they live in the city with a fortified wall or just live like this."
"Where is General Gao?" Chen Qing asked again.
Gao Ding smiled bitterly, "I haven't encountered any Xixia villages along the way, but I really don't know much about them. I met these refugees as soon as I arrived at Xiping Mansion. I suggest that we all ask the intelligence scout, named Xiao Yuan, who has been lurking in
People in Xingqing Mansion know the situation better than we do."
Chen Qing was overjoyed, "Where are they?"
Not long after, the soldiers brought the intelligence scout Xiao Yuan into the big tent. Xiao Yuan quickly bowed and saluted, "This humble post is Xiao Yuan, the commander of the third scout army. See the commander!"
"How long has Xiao Dutou been lurking in Xixia?"
"Jin Zhi is the first batch. He has been lurking for two years and opened a restaurant as a cover."
Chen Qing nodded and said: "When their cavalry went north, they didn't encounter any Xixia villages. Is it because there are no villages here?"
"Reporting to the capital, most of the Tangxiang people in Xixia live in the city, and some of them make a living by grazing. At the foot of Henan Mountain, there are also many people living in manors. They are basically serfs, mainly Han people. Xixia Congda
The Song Dynasty plundered at least one million people, many of whom had lived in Xixia for several generations and were slaves for generations, as well as slaves of other ethnic groups.
Household slaves, serfs, sheep slaves, mining slaves, salt slaves, craftsman slaves, etc., the entire Xixia was supported by slaves, so their party members had hundreds of thousands of troops to fight the Song army."
"The information your General Huyan sent me said that the Xixia Army now has more than 200,000 people. Is the information reliable?"
"Reporting back to the capital is basically reliable. I got the information from my humble position that there were 280,000 people. It was quite mixed. At least 100,000 people had no armor and only had simple weapons. They wore cloth armor made of white cloth and were called the White Armor Army."
"Where's the combat effectiveness?" Chen Qing asked again.
"Some are very good. For example, the 20,000 cavalry from Shazhou are very sharp. I saw them entering the city with my own eyes. They are indeed murderous and well-trained. There are also the Xixia Emperor's Su Guards, Capital Guards, Proton Army, and Iron Kites.
Army, this is the army directly under the emperor, there are 30,000 people, very elite.
Then Brother Richard's 50,000 captured troops are also very elite. These 100,000 troops are all stationed in the capital, the other 80,000 troops are stationed in various surrounding cities, and the 100,000 white-armored troops are stationed outside the capital.
Your duty is to guard the estate."
"Does Xixia have ships?" Chen Qing suddenly asked.
"Reporting back to the capital, there are boats in Xixia. I saw them in Jingzhou. They are a kind of flat ferries, specially used to ferry people across the Yellow River. There are quite a few of them."