Chen Qing paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. Although the siege weapons could not get through for a while, it did not mean that he would do nothing. He could start from the aspects that did not require siege, first clean up the periphery, and finally attack the city.
, like a rope around the neck, slowly tightening it step by step, and finally strangled it to death.
First of all, there are boats. The cities of Xixia are located on the left and right banks of the Yellow River. They must use boats to build pontoons. The pontoons built with rafts are easily destroyed by the Xixia people. The pontoons built by boats are much stronger.
Chen Qing now needed to find a general who was good at surprise attacks. After pondering for a long time, he turned around and ordered: "Get Tang Qian for me!"
Not long after, Tang Qian hurriedly walked into the big tent, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "I'm sorry to see you in charge of the capital!"
"General Tang, please rise!"
Chen Qing smiled and said: "I will give you a task. If the task can be completed, I will reinstate you to your original position!"
Tang Qian was really excited, clasping his fists and saying: "This humble position will definitely live up to the great trust of the capital!"
Chen Qing nodded, "The task I give you may be simple or difficult, which is to search and capture all ships outside the city. If you encounter Han slaves, you can bring them back directly, but there is no need to deliberately go there.
Find them, your task is to find the ship."
"I understand the humble position!"
"Take five thousand cavalry over there, and if you find a group, send back a group."
"I understand the humble position!"
An hour later, Tang Qian led five thousand cavalry across the raft pontoon bridge and headed north along the west bank of the Yellow River.
The river surface in this area of the Hetao Plain is very open and the water is gentle, which is very suitable for shipping and irrigation. In addition, the soil is fertile and the sunlight is sufficient, making the Hetao Plain rich in grain, melons and fruits, and it is called the South of the Yangtze River.
The Hetao actually consists of the front set, the middle set and the back set. The front set refers to the Yinchuan area today, the middle set refers to the Bayannur area in Inner Mongolia, and the back set refers to the Baotou area in Inner Mongolia. These three places are fully irrigated by the Yellow River.
, and became a famous grain producing area.
Five thousand cavalrymen galloped along the west bank of the Yellow River. This was a plain with a wide field of vision, and the situation within the Yellow River could be seen clearly.
There were no boats or rafts in sight, and the Yellow River was very quiet. At noon the next day, they passed the gorge, where the Yellow River began to branch. At the same time, large reed swamps appeared on both sides of the river. In terms of normal river crossing needs,
There should be ships in this area.
Tang Qian reined in his horse and looked across the Yellow River. A soldier who had been to Xixia pointed to the other side and said: "On the opposite side is actually a large island in the Yellow River. It is very large. There are many canals in it, as dense as a spider web. There are hundreds of large islands.
There are many large and small estates scattered inside, and I guess the ship we are looking for is also hidden inside."
Tang Qian was a little confused. Now the question is how do they get in?
At this time, a soldier suddenly pointed to the river in the distance and shouted: "General, there is a boat on the river!"
Tang Qian quickly took a closer look, and sure enough, a small boat sailed out of the reed swamp and paddled towards this side.
The soldiers hurriedly waved and shouted. After a while, the boat rowed to the shore, and it turned out to be an old man with a hunchback. He looked very old, but his face and clothes were all Han Chinese.
"Are you Song Jun?" The old man spoke Chinese, but it was a bit unfamiliar.
Tang Qian nodded, "We are the Western Army, am I a Han Chinese?"
The old man sighed, "I used to be, but now I don't know where I am from?"
"How long have you been here in Xixia?"
"It has been fifty years. I was kidnapped when I was a teenager. Now I am over sixty years old. I have never gone back in my life."
Speaking of this, the old man suddenly started crying, "I wonder if my parents are still there?"
The eyes of all the soldiers were wet, and Tang Qian advised: "If I are willing to go back to my hometown to see you, we can take you back."
"Hometown? My hometown is Yanzhou. If I can return to my hometown, I would do it even if I die."
Gu Bin
"My father, we are actually looking for a boat. Do you know where we can find it?"
The old man wiped his tears with his sleeve and said: "I know you are looking for the boat. I am the boatman. The Xixia people said that you would snatch the boat away, so they hid the boats. I will wait for you in the reed swamp!"
Everyone was overjoyed, and Tang Qian quickly asked: "Do you know where the boat is hidden?"
"How could I not know? I have been a boatman on the Yellow River for fifty years. I know the way even if I close my eyes here. There are three boat hiding places nearby. I can take you there."
It was hard to find anything, and it took no effort to get it. They were at their wits' end, but they didn't expect an old Han boatman to be willing to help them.
Tang Qian asked two soldiers to get on the boat. He led the cavalry to follow on the shore. The old boatman rowed a few miles north and pointed to an inlet. The inlet was covered with dense reeds. It was not easy to tell that this place was a place.
Water swings.
Immediately, more than twenty navy soldiers paddled their rafts down the river and rowed hard to the inlet on the other side. They followed the old man and rowed into the water.
Not long after, three large flat-bottomed boats sailed out of the water, and the soldiers on the shore cheered.
These three large ships were the first step, but they were the foundation. The three large ships transported hundreds of soldiers across the Yellow River. Soon, another twenty large ships were found hidden in a river on the other side.
These two dozen large ships are exactly the same as the previous three large ships. They are all flat-bottomed boats with Xixia characteristics. This is also because the Yellow River in Xixia is calm and has no wind and waves. The sides of the ships on both sides are relatively low, but the bottoms of the ships are very wide.
If we use a more vivid metaphor, the ships in the Central Plains are like bowls, while the ships in Xixia are like plates. They can transport many people and horses at one time, as well as a lot of food.
However, the Song army found twenty-seven ships, which were only a small part of the Xixia ships. The old boatman said that there were more than three hundred such ships in Xixia, some of which were transported into the city, and others were hidden.
He knew that there was a boat hiding place not far away. According to the clues provided by the old boatman, the Song Army soon found twenty more flat-bottomed boats on the same small river. In just one day, the Song Army found forty
Seven big ships, this harvest is really not small.
"Thank you, father-in-law, for the clues." Tang Qian thanked him again and again.
The old boatman's Chinese is no longer as jerky as it was at first, and he has become very proficient in speaking it. Everyone knows that his surname is Qiao, but his specific name has been forgotten. Everyone calls him Qiao Tuozi, a native of Ansebao, Yanzhou, for generations.
A boatman on the Qingshui River was abducted by the invading Xixia army during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty and brought to Xixia as a slave. Seeing that he could sail a boat, the Xixia people simply let him work as a boatman on the Yellow River.
In the first few years, Duke Qiao wanted to escape home all the time. In order to hold him back, the Xixia people married a Uighur woman to him and gave birth to a son. Now they completely held him back and returned home.
The thought gradually faded away, and I worked as a boatman for fifty years.
His wife and son both died of illness ten years ago, and his two grandsons were also taken away by the Xixia army and disappeared. Old boatman Qiao became alone again. The Xixia people saw that he was old and no longer worth exploiting, so they no longer cared about him.
, he himself did not dare to go home again.
Until he finally met Song Jun today, he once again had the idea of going home. As long as he could take a look at his parents' graves, he would have no regrets in his life.
"I am from the Song Dynasty, and I am very happy to be able to help the army of my motherland. I have lived here for fifty years and I am very familiar with every plant and tree here. I will tell you whatever you want to know."
"Thank you so much, husband."
Tang Qian asked again: "Excuse me, my father-in-law, is there any manor near here?"
Duke Qiao smiled and said: "There are not many manors here, only in the north. But there is still a large manor, right next to where we found more than 20 ships. I forgot to tell you, the 20 ships are actually
The owner of the property of that manor is the royal family of Xixia, who lives in the capital and will come to the manor during the autumn harvest."
"Are there any Han people in the manor?"
"How could it not be possible? The Xixia people robbed the Han people just to grow food for them. Other Hu people don't know how to grow food! The Xixia people themselves don't know how. There are at least 3,000 Han people in the manor, and they are guarded by more than a hundred soldiers. The first two
Heaven sent another group of slaves, two to three hundred people, also sent from the capital."
"To transport slaves here, do we need to use ships?" Wang Jianxiao, the commander, asked.
Mr. Qiao was stunned for a moment. He lowered his head and thought for a moment and said, "You reminded me that there are not only boats in the manor, but there seems to be an army, and they only came two days ago."
"How many people are there in the army?" Tang Qian asked quickly.
Mr. Qiao shook his head, "I don't know exactly how many people there are. I just heard what others said. I dare not go near that manor. There are very ferocious dogs in it. I have been bitten before."
Tang Qian stood up and smiled at several commanders: "Let's go see what the Xixia manor looks like?"
