With a loud bang of "Boom!", the city wall in front of the battering ram collapsed suddenly as if its ridge bones were broken. Dust filled the sky, the fire was extinguished, and the Song soldiers retreated one after another, and the smoke and dust made people gasp. Can't help but feel angry.
But the dust dispersed slightly, and they saw that the city wall had collapsed for nearly a mile, and the buildings inside appeared in front of everyone. The front wooden frame of the battering ram was crushed, so that the hammer body rolled to the ground and was poured down. Buried with masonry and mud, the hammer body will of course not be damaged and is worthless. The key is the hammer body and the iron chain, which will generally not be damaged.
Chen Qing waved his sword and shouted: "The city wall has collapsed, fight into the city!"
"Kill!"
A hundred thousand troops surged forward like a raging sea. At this time, thousands of arrows were fired in the city, and 20,000 Xixia soldiers rushed forward. The Song soldiers following the battering ram used shields to resist while laying planks on the moat.
Liu Cui led 20,000 infantrymen to rush to the ruins of the city wall and fought fiercely with the 20,000 Xixia soldiers who intercepted them.
Brother Richard's heart was already cold. He said to his soldiers: "Fire the gunpowder arrows!"
The soldiers fired two gunpowder arrows, which exploded in the sky. Brother Richard led 12,000 confidant cavalry and ran towards the north city gate. At the north city gate, 3,000 iron kite cavalry had already assembled. , 21,000 Jin soldiers also arrived, as well as hundreds of carriages, including Brother Richard and the families of the main generals, the princes and concubines, as well as officials and dignitaries who supported Brother Richard, as well as their family papers.
A total of 36,000 troops were ready to break out, accounting for half of the city's troops. The other half of the troops rushed to the east city to desperately resist the Song army's attack. Both the south and west gates were empty. The 30,000 Song troops were led by Gao Ding. They have already entered through the south city gate.
The North City slowly opens, towards the suspension bridge, the front army is the Iron Kites, which are heavy armored cavalry. Like the Iron Buddha of the Jin Kingdom, it is the most mysterious and powerful army of Xixia. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the country's power, There were only three thousand cavalry in total.
It was most suitable for breaking out of an encirclement. Xia Houliang shouted, "Get out!"
The three thousand iron kite cavalry suddenly launched and rushed out of the city. The Song troops on both sides fired arrows at random, but they could not penetrate the armor of the cavalry and war horses. The three thousand iron kite cavalry rushed forward like a violent wind. Behind them were three Thousand Jurchen cavalry, followed by Brother Richard's twelve thousand cavalry, commanded by Shang Dongyan, the commander-in-chief of the capital.
Finally, there were 18,000 auxiliary troops led by Han Chang. Among them, the auxiliary troops were infantry and the rest were cavalry. Among them, Shang Dongyan's cavalry team was also mixed with hundreds of horse-drawn carriages.
Outside the North City was the 20,000 Song army led by Liu Qiong. They did not stop them, but symbolically fired arrows at the enemy troops from both sides. After paying the price of more than a thousand casualties, the Xixia army successfully broke through and turned towards the Henan grassland. go........
A large number of Song troops also entered the South City, West City and North City. One hundred and eighty thousand Song troops surrounded more than 30,000 Xixia soldiers standing on both sides of the ruins of the city wall. At this time, news came that Brother Richard led the Jin soldiers to break through. Originally, The Xixia soldiers who were still prepared to fight to the end collapsed instantly and dropped their weapons and surrendered.
There were still thousands of guards who refused to surrender and resisted stubbornly. In the end, they were completely wiped out by the Song army's 20,000 crossbowmen and 5,000 throwing troops using a storm of crossbow arrows and dense flying spears.
This is why Han Chang judged that Chen Qing would let them break out in the end. Letting them break out could greatly reduce the casualties of the Song army soldiers. He was also absolutely right. The opponent had more than 70,000 soldiers. If a brutal street fighting broke out, even if all of them were killed in the end,
To annihilate the enemy, Chen Qing would have to pay at least 30,000 soldiers killed in battle, but that was an ideal situation, and the greater possibility was more than 50,000 soldiers.
But whether it was 30,000 or 50,000 people, it was unbearable for Chen Qing. He had already paid the price of more than 50,000 soldiers dying in battle. If this number became 80,000 or 100,000, how would he explain it to the people of Sichuan and Shaanxi when he returned?
Therefore, after letting Brother Richard go, the remaining soldiers will no longer have the will to resist, and large-scale surrender can be achieved.
The prisoners of war were taken away, and the Song army immediately implemented martial law throughout the city. No one was allowed to go to the streets, but soldiers were not allowed to come to rob the house. Chen Qing needed to deal with some people accurately and quickly, that is, the Xixia royal family, relatives, officials, and literati
, generals, wealthy families, although Brother Richard has helped him deal with a batch and took away another batch. There are not many people left, but it still doesn't work, and the remaining people must not be let go.
From the Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the handling of all foreign races would eventually lead to great chaos, either turning into military disasters that plagued the Central Plains, or becoming independent and becoming a cancer for the central dynasty. The fundamental reason is that these foreign princes and nobles have been preserved, and their culture has also been preserved.
, has never been Chineseized, and has always formed an independent kingdom on the land of the Central Plains. When the Central Plains was in chaos, they took the opportunity to rebel.
Therefore, the long-term solution is to kill their leaders and nobles, eliminate their culture, and leave only ordinary people scattered throughout the Central Plains.
Although he was a little cruel at first, when he should be ruthless and vicious, he must not be as kind as a woman.
Chen Qing ordered Wang Duo, the commander of the upper army, to lead 5,000 soldiers to carry out this task. According to the list issued by Cao Baozong, they searched from house to house. Women and boys under ten years old were allowed to be spared. There were more than 1,700 men in total.
, all the young and old were taken away and their whereabouts were never found again. Only a thousand guan of property in their warehouse was left for the left-behind woman to support her family, and all the money above the 1,000 guan was confiscated.
It wasn't until dawn the next day that the biggest hidden danger was dealt with. Even if there were still some fish that slipped through the net, it wouldn't be too harmful. We will deal with it step by step in the future. As long as spies are placed among the party members, these fish that slipped through the net will be eliminated.
I can't afford to make big waves.
Of course, Xixia was not destroyed. Brother Richard led the remaining forces to escape to Datong Prefecture. More importantly, they would definitely bring all the Dangxiang nomadic tribes along the way to Datong Prefecture.
After dawn, the Song army lifted martial law throughout the city, began to post notices of peace of mind everywhere, and cooked porridge on the main streets to help the victims.
There were only hundreds of eunuchs and maids left in the Xixia Palace. The prince and concubines all followed Brother Richard to break out. As for the emperor Li Qianshun, no one knew his whereabouts. His life and death were unknown. I am afraid only Brother Richard could do it.
You know, maybe he is still in Brother Richard's hands, or maybe he has been secretly executed.
But these are not important to Chen Qing, and Chen Qing doesn't care. What he wants is the land and wealth of Xixia, and destroying the knife hanging above his head. Without Xixia's strategic restraint in the north, his army can
Concentrate on heading eastward.
Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty was unable to defeat the Liao Kingdom many times. A big reason was that Xixia had strategic constraints on the Northern Song Dynasty. Without Xixia, there would be no huge confidant.
Chen Qing took a nap in the palace and just woke up and washed his face a little. At this time, Hu Yanyun walked quickly and handed a booklet to Chen Qing, "This is the warehouse inventory. In addition to grain and pig iron,
Except for copper ingots, wood, sheepskins, medicinal materials, and dyes, all other cloth and silk are gone. It is said that except for the cloth and silk that were given to the Kingdom of Jin and were captured by us, the rest were rewarded to the soldiers by Brother Richard."
"Where's the money?" Chen Qing looked at the inventory and asked again.
"There are still two hundred thousand taels of silver that have not been taken away. There may still be hundreds of thousands of copper coins that are currently being counted. Others... By the way, there is also a batch of palace belongings, gold and silver utensils.
, jade jewelry, fine porcelain, precious ivory furs, expensive furniture, etc., are still being counted."
Chen Qing nodded, "The maids and eunuchs in the palace will each give them ten taels of silver and let them go home, and let them take away their personal belongings."
"I humbly obey orders!"
"After everything has been dealt with, the palace has been completely demolished. It would be good to use the wood to build government buildings and schools."
"I understand the humble position!"
Hu Yanyun left in a hurry, and Chen Qing got up and left the palace. As soon as he left the palace, he met Yang Zaixing, "I'm reporting to the capital, I have something to report to my humble position!"
"General Yang, please speak!"
"I have received news from the scouts that Brother Richard has taken away all the Dangxiang tribes on the Henan grassland. I am asking for instructions if I want to pursue them and take back the cattle and sheep."
Chen Qing shook his head, "It's going to snow soon. It's more dangerous to chase. Let them go!"
That night, a blizzard swept from the north. From Dingzhou to Mingsha County, the entire Xixia land was shrouded in a violent snowstorm.
