Chapter 962 0957 [Xingqing Mansion is difficult to fight]
Yue Fei's attack route is not a secret in Xixia, but it is easily ignored by everyone.
No one, including the locals, would go that way.
The reason is very simple. Why go through three sections of desert when there is a flat road?
It is normal for Cao Yu not to know the route. Every time he passes through this place, he takes the Keyi Gate. His understanding of this area comes from the stories of those who accompany him.
Since the generals of Chaoshun Military Division knew that there was a gap, why didn't they garrison troops to prepare for it?
Be on guard.
Xixia built a fortress on the east bank of the Yellow River ferry to prevent the Ming army from attacking behind Keyi Gate.
Hmm... I just forgot to guard against the Ming army taking Xingqing Mansion directly.
Because there is no need to guard against it.
First, if you want to attack Xingqing Mansion, you will be blocked by Dingzhou City on the way.
Second, the Xixia army at Keyimen can cut off the retreat of the attacking enemy at any time.
Under normal circumstances, Yue Fei led his troops to Dingzhou like this and turned into a lone army deep into the enemy's territory!
As long as the garrison at Keyi Gate divides its forces and crosses the river, it can catch turtles in jars and beat dogs behind closed doors.
This is very similar to when the Jin soldiers went south. Wanyan Zongwang bypassed many fortified cities and went directly to Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. If the Northern Song army were normal, they could block the retreat of the Jin soldiers and annihilate Wanyan Zongwang's troops - Zhang Shuye
That's what he suggested, but it's a pity that Song Jun is rotten to the core.
…
"What? The enemy has fallen into Dingzhou?"
Li Renzhong was shocked: "Please quickly ask the King of Jin to lead his army to come back for reinforcements!"
After Li Renzhong got the news, he had no time to notify the Xixia leader, so he immediately sent someone to invite Brother Richard back, and at the same time dispatched troops and generals to consolidate the defense of Xingqing Mansion.
Not long after, Li Renxiao also received the news and quickly summoned Li Renzhong into the palace for questioning.
Li Renxiao asked: "Did the Ming army fly over Keyi Gate?"
"I... really don't know." Like Cao Yu, Li Renzhong, as the Xixia Prime Minister, had no idea that he could go around the desert.
Li Renxiao asked again: "How many troops are left in the city?"
Li Renzhong said: "Five thousand garrison troops and one thousand Xingqingfu city defense troops. If there are not many enemies coming, and we organize people to defend the city, we can hold it until the King of Jin leads his army back!"
"If you defend to the end, then defend to the end." Li Renxiao said quickly.
Li Renzhong said: "Please ask your Majesty to climb the tower in person to defend against the enemy. The soldiers and civilians in the city will definitely fight to the death."
"Okay, I'll go right away!"
This sixteen-year-old little emperor, who had been on the throne for more than half a year, did not surrender in fear like Liu Chan.
Not only did he go to the city tower himself, but he also brought the newly enthroned queen, the Clan clan, with him.
Li Renzhong took the opportunity to send people everywhere to spread the word. When the soldiers and civilians of Xingqing Mansion heard that the emperor and the queen had come to the city, their morale was greatly boosted and they followed orders to defend the city.
All the men, women, old and weak in the city were organized. The men were organized into an army with various weapons, and the women were also arranged to carry supplies everywhere.
As long as the Xixia army and people can hold on to the city, it will be Yue Fei who is in dire straits!
Because Yue Fei traveled a long distance and did not carry much food and grass. In Xixia, the first half of the journey was blocked by strong walls and the fields were cleared, and the second half of the journey was also over-requisitioned. It was difficult for him to get food on the spot within the enemy territory, even in Dingzhou, which he occupied.
There is no food in the city.
The main force of the current garrison of Xingqing Mansion is the five thousand garrison. This force was founded by Li Yuanhao.
They also have the title of "Yuyuan Liubanzhi". They were initially composed of only 500 people, and gradually expanded to 5,000 people over the past hundred years. They are all composed of direct descendants of various wealthy tribes. To put it bluntly, they are the hostages used by Li Yuanhao to control various tribes.
.
The combat effectiveness of this "proton army" was very terrifying a hundred years ago!
Now, haha.
Their daily job was to guard the palace and royal gardens, and they were only dispatched when the Xixia ruler was personally on an expedition.
Three hundred of them were sent by Li Renzhong to reconnoiter the enemy's situation in the north.
They wore golden armor and rode tall horses. At first glance, they looked majestic.
In fact, their armor is so thin that it is difficult to defend against even strong bows.
The troops stationed in the palace just look majestic, but what kind of defense is needed? How heavy is the real armor? Standing on guard at ordinary times will be exhausting!
The three hundred cavalry carefully left the city, and a group of thirty people dispersed, heading north to scout Yue Fei's movements.
They rode horses for several miles and then stopped moving forward. They stayed around and wandered around. If there was any trouble, they would go back to report the news, which could be regarded as completing their mission.
"The Han army is coming, the Han army is coming!"
Several Xixia people came galloping on horseback from the north.
These Xixia proton troops were so frightened that they immediately blew their horns to warn their companions who had dispersed, then turned around and fled on horseback.
When they returned to Xingqing Fucheng, Li Renzhong personally asked: "How many Ming troops have come?"
"Thousands and thousands."
"How much exactly is it?"
"It could be thousands, it could be tens of thousands."
"Bastard! Have you encountered any enemies?"
"Yes. But the enemies came so fast that we didn't have time to count how many there were."
"How far away is the enemy?"
"It's probably a few miles away."
"Don't estimate, how far is it?"
"Five miles. Maybe six or seven miles."
"..."
Li Renzhong asked, almost making his lungs explode.
He can basically conclude that these guys have never seen the Ming army with their own eyes!
That afternoon, Yue Fei really came with his troops.
The generals rushed closer to observe, and suddenly felt a headache, because it was impossible to defeat them.
Kaifeng's city wall has a circumference of 8 miles, and Xingqingfu's city wall has a circumference of 18 miles. This comparison will give you an idea of how big the city is.
The width of the moat is more than 30 meters.
Moreover, the Xixia monarchs and ministers, who were determined to defend, directly demolished the bridge.
Although the main troops have been transferred to the front line, Xingqing Mansion is a large city with more than 200,000 people. At this moment, people are organized to defend the city, and the city is densely packed with people.
Yue Fei didn't have any siege weapons. Let alone capture the city first, he couldn't even cross the moat.
It was useless to shout to persuade them to surrender. Standing outside the moat, they were too far away from the city wall and could not hear clearly no matter what they shouted.
"What should we do?" The generals looked at Yue Fei.
Yue Fei said: "Besiege the city and call for reinforcements. The Xixia Kingdom is besieged, and they will mobilize a large army to come back for reinforcements."
Yang Yizhong said: "But we have not received much food supplies in Dingzhou City, and we will be hungry in a few days. The Xixia people nearby have also been expropriated and have no food left in their homes. They are looting and plundering."
Less than a few grains of rice.”
Yue Fei said: "Detach the cavalry to march east, north, and south, disperse the local people along the way, and ensure that there are few people in the area for dozens of miles, so that the enemy does not know where our main force is. At the same time, these cavalry marching from three sides must also
Responsible for reconnaissance of the enemy. In order to advance and retreat as fast as possible, they all take off their armor and retreat when encountering enemy troops."
"Then what?" Liu Zhengyan asked.
Yue Fei said: "Act according to the opportunity."
Xingqing Fucheng is the closest to Huaizhou City, only 40 miles away.
The Ming Dynasty's "Qingqi" who were sent to Huaizhou encountered a large group of enemy cavalry on the way, and immediately returned to the direction of Yue Fei's main force without engaging in battle.
However, Jingzhou City was fifty miles away to the south, and they reported back that it was extremely empty.
Yue Fei immediately sent half of his troops south. He said to Xu Qing who was on a mission: "Attack the city at night. If you can, fight. If the enemy is on guard, lead your troops to withdraw immediately!"
"Report!!!!"
"We caught a spy who was running around on horseback, which is very suspicious. He claimed to be from the Military Intelligence Department of the Ministry of War, but he couldn't produce anything to prove himself."
Before Xu Qing set out, a horse that had been sent out suddenly came running back.
Yue Fei was overjoyed: "What a nonsense. How dare people from the Military Intelligence Department keep their badges in the enemy's country? Bring them here quickly!"
After saying that, he asked Xu Qing not to leave for the time being.
About a quarter of an hour later, a middle-aged man was brought to Yue Fei.
The man cupped his hands and said: "This general, my name is Li Cunhui. He served in the Western Army in the former Song Dynasty. He could not stand the exploitation of the generals, so he became a horse thief in Lanzhou. Later, he followed General Li Yanxian to join the army and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. He also followed General Li Yanxian.
General Yang Zhi sent troops to defeat Xixia and the Southern Army."
"You're neglectful." Yue Fei was in awe and quickly saluted with a military salute. The person in front of him was older than him.
Li Cunhui said:
"When the official became a prince and went to Hebei, I went with him. I was injured and rested for half a year. After I recovered from my injury, I joined the Military Intelligence Department. At first, I traveled between the two countries' borders, smuggling green and white salt from Xixia salt dealers to Huanzhou Xiabao Village.
.The imperial court looked for an excuse to crack down on smuggling, so I took the opportunity to escape to Yanzhou with my injuries."
"The magistrate of Yanzhou in Xixia has been using his cronies to smuggle blue and white salt. I claimed to have a way around Huanzhou, so he sent someone to inquire about my details, and after finding out my fabricated identity, he no longer doubted me. I helped him smuggle it for three years.
Qingbaiyan, that fellow was transferred to Youzhou and took me with him, and even acted as a matchmaker to get me to marry the daughter of an officer in Youzhou."
"In the past few years, I have been in Youzhou, and I have also served as a detachment officer under the inspection envoy of Youzhou. If the two countries do not go to war again, I still want to spend money to bribe Shangguan to handle the account of the inspection envoy of Youzhou.
Will."
After saying this, all the generals were dumbfounded.
The man in front of me not only successfully sneaked into Xixia, he actually became an officer in Xixia.
Yue Fei asked: "Since you are an officer in Yuzhou, why are you here?"
Li Cunhui said with a smile: "The Xixia coach in Youzhou is the head of the Xixia Kingdom, Zeng Cunli. That guy is a pure idiot. He hurriedly led his troops to fight Xiao Heda, but was attacked by a night attack on the way and ran away in panic. I was there at the time
In the camp outside the stronghold, I encountered Xiao Heda coming to kill me, so I led my troops and fled back to Youzhou without even thinking."
"I originally wanted to return to Youzhou and look for an opportunity to help seize the city, but Nag Cunli was frightened to death. He learned that Longzhou had been lost and Shizhou was besieged, and he actually brought tens of thousands of troops and more than 100,000 people with him.
Withdraw. They did not stop even as far as Yanzhou, but actually abandoned Yanzhou as well."
Yue Fei asked: "Where have the tens of thousands of soldiers from Ng Cunli retreated to now?"
Li Cunhui said: "More than 100,000 people have retreated to resettlement outside Huaizhou City. Only the families of military officers can enter the city. My wife and children from Xixia are resettled in the city. At present, there are 50,000 troops in Huaizhou City, but they are all small
If the remaining soldiers are defeated, then Zong Cunli will lead these soldiers to defend the city."
"Brother Richard was urgently transferred by the Xixia Kingdom to select 20,000 cavalry who can still fight. I don't know where he went. According to my guess, he should have sneaked deep into the grassland in order to cut off the food routes of the Ming soldiers."
"When Bin Cunli received news in Huaizhou that the general was attacking Xingqing Mansion, he was too frightened to act rashly and sent the remaining cavalry out to investigate."
"I am an officer of one of the cavalry groups. I met the cavalry sent by the general before and took the opportunity to abandon the troops and pursue them all the way."
"General Yue, if you don't find a way to break the situation, you will most likely be blocked by tens of thousands of troops!"
Yue Fei said: "I'm not afraid of facing tens of thousands of enemy troops. I'm just afraid that the enemy troops will be huddled in the city and won't be able to get out of the city. The food and grass in my hands won't last long. When we conquered Dingzhou City before, there wasn't much food and grass there. There was really nothing to eat.
We can only go back to Dingzhou City to force food from door to door and snatch the surplus food from the people to survive."
Li Cunhui said: "There is grain in the city of Huaizhou. Wang Cunli has built a strong wall and cleared the fields, and all the grain he has collected is there. However, there are fifty thousand troops guarding the city, and the general has no siege equipment. I am afraid I can only lure Wang Cunli out. But this
People are so timid that even if Xingqing Mansion is besieged, they will not dare to send troops easily."
Yue Fei said: "Your Excellency has lived in Xixia for many years and followed Zong Cunli all the way back. Can you think of any way to seize the city?"
Li Cunhui said: "Huaizhou City is not big. There are already 50,000 troops stationed, but there is no room for more than 100,000 civilians. These civilians are either the family members of the soldiers who defended the city, or the tribesmen of the soldiers who defended the city. They were placed outside the city.
If the general can capture a large number of people, the morale of the soldiers who defend the city will definitely be in chaos! Using the people as hostages to force the city defenders to surrender will, even if it fails, cause chaos in the city. I will return to the city and take the opportunity to instigate some chiefs to defect, which may be able to help
