The hundreds of thousands of people who were expelled from Xingqing Mansion have all been sent to Weizhou and Yanzhou for resettlement. The newly vacant camp has welcomed new residents. The first batch of 3,000 Han slaves have lived in the camp.
.
Tao Chun, the marching commander responsible for the placement of these Han slaves, came to Chen Qing and asked for instructions: "These Han people are very confused about the future. They all come to ask Beizhi, but Beizhi cannot answer them. Can Dutong tell Beizhi how to resettle them next?"
"
"I plan to let them stay in the Hetao, give them land, tax-free tax for thirty years, and give them enough profit incentives to let them take root in the Hetao."
Tao Chunlai hesitated and said: "They have a strong desire to return to the Song Dynasty. I'm afraid only some of them are willing to stay."
Chen Qing smiled and said: "I will let them choose voluntarily. If they don't want to stay, they can also go to northern Shaanxi for resettlement. Those people also need people. It is said that there are hundreds of thousands of Han slaves. In fact, it is not a big problem."
After a pause, Chen Qing said to Tao Chunlai: "A large number of people will arrive soon. Set up tents quietly. If you have any difficulties, ask Zhang Sima. I have asked him to take full responsibility for the people."
Tao Chunlai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. With Zhang Sima in charge, his pressure was much less.
"I will arrange to set up the tent right away!"
Returning to the commander's tent, Chen Qing ordered his soldiers again: "Go and invite Zhang Sima, and then invite General Yang, General Gao, and General Liu, saying that I have something important to discuss with them!"
Not long after, Zhang Xiao arrived first, followed by Yang Zaixing, Gao Ding, Liu Cui and Liu Qiong who also rushed to the big tent.
"Everyone, please take a seat. I have something important to discuss with you."
Everyone sat down, and Chen Qing raised a report in his hand and said: "This is a report written by Tang Qian. He went to search for ships and built a manor on my order. Some details in it make me worried."
Chen Qing handed the report to Zhang Xiao and asked him to circulate it to everyone.
Chen Qing said to everyone again: "I discovered three more serious problems. First, the Zhuang Ding problem. This is actually the private army of various powerful people. The Xixia powerful people hid them in the manor because they did not want to hand them over to the court.
, the total number of these private armies will not be small. What I am worried about is that they are now Zhuang Ding. If the Xixia dignitaries feel that the situation is not good, will all these Zhuang Ding join the Xixia army?
Second, there is the issue of food and soldiers. There is a large amount of food and soldiers stored in the manor. To be honest, the food is within my expectation, but the soldiers are beyond my expectation, but it is reasonable after thinking about it.
.
In the final analysis, it is still the same as the nature of the private army. Because the powerful are selfish, or in other words, the powerful do not feel the seriousness of the situation and are unwilling to hand over their property to the court, so they hide food, soldiers, and private armies.
In the manor, once they feel that the situation is serious, they will not hesitate to fully support the Xixia court."
Gao Ding couldn't help but interjected: "What Du Tong means is to intercept these resources and eliminate all Zhuang Ding before they wake up?"
Chen Qing nodded, "That's what I mean, and I'm a little worried. Tang Qian destroyed the first manor. Once the news leaks out, it will definitely trigger a chain reaction. There is no airtight wall in the world, only the speed of the wind."
Zhang Xiao pondered for a moment and asked: "Xuanfu just said that there are three questions, so what is the third question?"
"The third problem is the issue of Han slaves. They are basically concentrated in major manors. I estimate there are hundreds of thousands of them. I am worried that when the Xixia troops are insufficient, they will all be taken back to Xingqing Mansion to be used as human shields. When
When we attack Xingqing Mansion, there will be a very tragic scene, which will also seriously affect my Hetao plan."
"So Xuanfu decided to send troops?" Zhang Xiao continued.
Chen Qing nodded, "We must immediately send troops to the north and sweep away all the manors without leaving any hidden dangers!"
Yang Zaixing pondered for a moment and said: "The Xixia court will not just watch us sweep away, they will definitely send troops to stop us!"
"This is why I called everyone to discuss. How should we send troops? How many troops? How to deploy them?"
The generals looked at each other, and then they understood that the commander-in-chief had decided to send troops, but the method of sending troops needed to be discussed with everyone.
That night, 100,000 Song Army cavalry divided into three routes and headed north, and 60 large ships also headed north again. Gao Ding led 30,000 cavalry to sweep the major estates, and Liu Qiong led 10,000 cavalry to destroy the pontoon bridges built by the Xixia Army. Liu Cui and
Li Muqing and Cheng Huan each led 20,000 cavalry to block the Xixia army.
Chen Qing personally led 50,000 Song troops and 30,000 Qiang cavalry northward as backup.
This is also a weakness of the Xixia. The interests of the Xixia dignitaries and the court have not reached unity. The Xixia dignitaries have placed a large number of resources in the manor. Chen Qing must destroy the resources placed outside the city by the Xixia dignitaries before the Xixia government and the public can reach a consensus.
At this time, Tang Qian had already acquired 110 ships, which was entirely due to the two men, Qiao, the old boatman, and Song Cheng, the Han steward.
Boatman Qiao drew a map for Tang Qian and marked all the places where the ships might be hidden. However, Boatman Qiao couldn't support his body and could no longer follow them. He followed the first fleet to Mingsha County.
But just given the map, the Song Army's eyes were still in darkness. They couldn't find any hiding spots on the map. The steward Song Cheng stepped forward. He became the Song Army's guide and led the soldiers to find one after another.
At each hiding spot, batches of ships were pulled out from hiding in the water by the Song army.
In just three days, the Song army searched all 21 hiding spots mapped by old boatman Qiao and captured 110 large ships, bringing their total number of captured ships to 172, surpassing the total number of Xixia ships.
half of the number.
The remaining ships are either hidden in the manor or in the city.
That afternoon, Tang Qian led his cavalry and marched southward with one hundred and ten ships. Suddenly dust flew up in front of him, and the earth seemed to be shaking. A huge cavalry was rushing from the south.
Tang Qian immediately ordered the scouts to go and investigate. After a while, the scouts came back and reported, "It's General Gao's army!"
It turned out that Gao Ding was coming, and Tang Qian rushed to greet him. At this time, Gao Ding's cavalry had slowly slowed down and stopped.
Gao Ding had already seen the fleet in the Yellow River. He urged his horse forward, pointed his whip and laughed: "Is this the latest victory of General Tang?"
Tang Qian cupped his fists and saluted, and said with a wry smile: "These are all the warships that can be found so far, and there are still more than a hundred ships that have not been found."
Gao Ding nodded and told Tang Qian the plans and arrangements of the commander-in-chief. He said helplessly, "My mission this time is to sweep all the manors, annihilate all the villagers, confiscate grain and supplies, and take away all the slaves.
But I don’t know where to start, can General Tang help me?”
Tang Qian smiled and said: "If it were three days ago, I would have been confused, but now I can indeed help General Gao."
After speaking, Tang Qian called his guide Song Cheng up and introduced him to Gaoding: "This man is called Song Cheng. His original surname is Zhang. He was a commander under Murong Tao, the commander of the Jingyuan Army. After the Battle of Fuping, Murong
Tao led his army to surrender to Xixia, and he was also forced to enter Xixia. Because he refused to work for the Xixia people, he was sold as a slave by the Xixia people. He changed his name to Song Cheng, which means Song Chen. In recent years, he has been known for his ability because of his ability.
, has strong leadership ability, and was appointed by his master as the steward of the Han slaves. He is very knowledgeable about the conditions of the manors in various places, and he is also my guide."
After hearing this, Gao Ding stood in awe, clasped his fists and said, "General Song is determined not to betray, which is admirable."
Song Cheng replied: "If General Gao needs to know the situation of the manors in various places, can I introduce it in detail? But I suggest that General Gao start with the top ten manors. They own 80% of the manors, food, soldiers and armor.
They are almost like slaves. The first large manor is Brother Richard's Tianlu Manor, which is only twenty miles away from us and covers an area of more than two hundred hectares. I heard that there are nearly ten thousand people there."
Gao Ding was overjoyed and made a decision immediately: "Time waits for no one, let's go to Tianlu Manor now!"
The Song army used large ships to build a pontoon bridge, and 34,000 Song army cavalry crossed the Yellow River. Under the guidance of Song Cheng, the army marched towards Tianlu Manor more than ten miles away.