I was discussing sutras with the monks in the temple.
Yue Fei won the argument holding the knife handle, and the eminent monk immediately moved out the food labor force.
This temple is called Gaotai Temple, located fifteen miles east of Xingqing Prefecture. It is easy to find it because there are several pagodas in the temple, and the tallest pagoda is dozens of meters tall.
It was built by Li Yuanhao who worked hard and mobilized people. He exchanged good horses for Buddhist scriptures from Mount Wutai, and then went to Xinjiang to hire eminent Uighur monks as translators.
It occupies a vast area and has a lot of grain storage.
Just this morning, Yue Fei disturbed the Xingqing Mansion to evacuate at night. Li Yu saw the pagoda from a distance and suddenly had an idea: "Protector, there should be a lot of food in the temple, right?"
"How could I forget this!" Yue Fei slapped his head hard.
So Yue Fei took his troops to Gaotai Temple to worship Buddha and asked the monks for some food.
It's a pity that although the monks are rich, they don't have much food reserves.
In the past few years, natural disasters caused food prices to skyrocket during the lean period. Gaotai Temple took the opportunity to sell a lot of food. This year, Xixia troops were short of food and grass, so they had no choice but to borrow food from the temple.
Most of the food reserves in Gaotai Temple were gone, and even some young monks were drafted into the army to fight in the war.
After careful calculation, the food stored in the temple was only enough to feed Yue Fei's 6,000 soldiers for about ten days.
After ten days of collecting food and grass in vain, Yue Fei's mouth turned crooked with a smile.
So another officer came to report that when he went out for reconnaissance two days ago, he also found a large temple in the southwest of Xingqing Fucheng.
Yue Fei immediately sent out three thousand horses, one person and three horses, and rushed towards Chengtian Temple in Xixia.
At dusk, six thousand horses returned with a full load of grain - all the monks from Chengtian Temple had fled into Xingqing City in a hurry, leaving a lot of grain "for free" to Yue Fei.
Even without Li Cunhui's careful advice, the food obtained from just two temples was enough to feed Yue Fei's troops for half a month.
The temples in Xixia were so rich that they still had so much left after being requisitioned.
If Xixia was not in danger of annihilation, it is unlikely that they would ask for food from temples, because Buddhism is the state religion of Xixia.
Moreover, the three major temples in Xingqing Prefecture—Gaotai Temple, Chengtian Temple, and Jietan Temple—were all built under the orders of the royal family. Without the emperor’s imperial edict, no one dared to touch the things in the temples, let alone ask the monks to collect military rations.
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In order to obtain Buddhist scriptures for Gaotai Temple, Li Yuanhao directly exchanged many top-notch war horses with the Northern Song Dynasty.
This is not because Li Yuanhao believes in Buddhism, but through worshiping Buddhism to establish the legal authority of the Xixia regime!
"Protector, Li Cunhui sent a message that Nong Cunli may move the people into the city tonight. He said that it won't be too late to kill them at noon tomorrow, but it is best to arrive at dawn."
"Take good care of all the monks in Caotai Temple!"
Yue Fei was still very civilized and did not kill monks in the temple.
Only some of them were tied up, and the remaining monks cooked for the bound monks. At the same time, soldiers were sent to watch and not allow them to move around freely.
The food and fodder for Yue Fei's army are also temporarily stored in the temple.
…
Outside Huaizhou City, the sky was completely dark.
Deng Cunli sent a large number of light cavalry to investigate and confirmed that there were no enemy troops within a radius of fifteen miles, and then opened the city gate at dusk to let in the people who were settled in the countryside.
Before the outsiders arrived, the local people who had settled in Guo moved first.
They knew that the Ming army was moving south, and they had long wanted to hide in the city, but now they finally had the opportunity.
The soldiers originally planned to stop them, but a riot soon broke out. Although they successfully suppressed the civil unrest, they blocked several city gates for two hours. As people from outside the city entered the city one after another, local people from neighboring Guo came to join them.
After the riot, the city gate was blocked again!
Nong Cunli stood on the tower and looked tired, so he had no choice but to order: "Let everyone in."
To the east of Huaizhou City is the Yellow River, and torches are held everywhere on the west, south and north sides. People drive livestock, carry grain, support the elderly and the young and rush towards the city. Many families even bring cooking utensils, firewood and fodder.
Not only do they want to cook in the city, they also want to feed cattle and sheep in the city.
Bin Cunli didn't stop it, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Anyway, when there is not enough fodder, those herdsmen will definitely kill sheep and cattle. While making the city stink, the price of meat will also drop, which can be purchased by the residents in the city who are short of food.
Chaos! Chaos! Chaos!
What a mess!
Many people were pushing and blocking each other before they even entered the city. Some people lost their livestock and were looking for them everywhere, but they were squeezed into a narrow area and found it difficult to move.
Gradually, families were separated, and the children could not find their mothers. They stood in the crowd and cried hoarsely, and were even trampled to death.
It became even more chaotic after entering the city.
Bin Cunli ordered the residents in the city to accept as many outsiders as each house. But everyone wanted to live in the house. After the owner closed the door, some people still knocked on the door and broke in.
Many homeowners had no time to close the door, and people kept crowding in. Then conflicts broke out and quarrels began.
Even a fight!
There were also fights on the street. Everyone claimed that a certain animal belonged to them, and they were clamoring to go see the officials to confirm ownership.
How could the city officials care about such a thing?
Soldiers have ignored military orders and left their posts without permission to run into the streets to look for relatives. They have been separated from their families for several days. Although they are close to each other, they cannot see each other. They don't even know whether their family members are still alive.
On every street, there were soldiers shouting the names of their families, and the whole city was noisy, chaotic and completely out of control.
Zong Cunli stood on the city tower and looked at the inside and outside of the city. Everyone was numb.
If the Ming army came to attack at this time, he would not be able to command the troops.
"Come back!" Li Cunhui shouted.
The soldiers under his command said: "Come on, let's go look for our relatives. If we don't find them now, when the Ming army arrives, I'm afraid our family will be trampled to death and killed."
Li Cunhui asked: "Now that there are so many people in the city and outside the city, how do you find your family? Just keep shouting along the street? There are many party members with the same name. When will you find them? Most of the people have not entered the city yet.
Your family members may still be outside the city, but no one answered your calls until dawn."
The soldiers stood there, not knowing what to do.
Among them, only Li Cunhui and the adjutant's family were settled collectively in the city from the beginning.
Li Cunhui continued: "Stay here and follow me to make meritorious service. Finish the war as soon as possible so that you can find your family in peace and contentment. What's the difference between searching for your family now and looking for a needle in the desert?"
A city gate is blocked again.
Because there were too many people entering the city, the Xixia soldiers could not maintain order at all, and suddenly a large-scale stampede occurred in the city gate.
More and more people fell down, and there were even many livestock blocking the place.
The people outside the city gate didn't know what was going on. They continued to squeeze in, but found that they couldn't squeeze in, so some people suspected that the city was full and the rest were not allowed to hide in the city.
This kind of rumor was very popular, and those who were blocked outside started shouting and roaring.
Gradually, the anger and panic spread outside the moat and turned into various rumors, which spread further and further when people communicated privately.
The Xixia soldiers who were responsible for maintaining order outside the city were pressed against the city wall by the people. They could not even raise their weapons, let alone draw swords to threaten them.
Wang Cunli was furious: "Shoot the arrow, shoot the arrow!"
The Xixia soldiers on the city shot arrows outside the city gate, frightening the people there to cry and run away.
After struggling for a while, the place was finally empty.
Only then did Wang Cunli send troops to clean up the corpses inside and outside the city gate cave and let the people in again.
This time, it was much more orderly, and no one dared to crowd in again.
But it is still very noisy, especially in households with a lot of livestock. Some animals are disobedient and will run around when disturbed. When driving a large number of livestock into the city, it often takes a long time, and the people behind are so anxious that they curse.
The chaos continued like this until dawn, and only half of the more than 100,000 people entered the city.
To be precise, more than 100,000!
The people in Fuguo took the opportunity to flee into the city, as did the local people in the suburbs.
The Yinchuan Basin is the most densely populated area in Xixia.
none of them.
The population density here is almost as high as that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The young and strong people near Huaizhou City were all sent to the front lines to fight, leaving countless old, weak, women and children at home.
They also want to go to the city.
Not only the people of Huaizhou, Yue Fei found that he could not conquer Xingqing Mansion, so he immediately dispatched cavalry to disperse the people. Since Huaizhou was closest to Xingqing Mansion, at least half of the people driven away by Yue Fei fled to Huaizhou.
Some even escaped from Dingzhou.
These farmers from Xingqing Prefecture were even worse. Because they fled in such a hurry, they didn't even have anything to eat, so they had to beg in the suburbs of Huaizhou.
Bin Cunli thought he was letting more than 100,000 people into the city, but in fact it was more than 200,000.
There are only over one million people in Xixia as a whole.
If you count the people and soldiers in the city, one-fifth of the population of Xixia is here - the other one-fifth is in Xingqingfu City, the capital of Xixia.
Don’t you think it’s outrageous?
Nothing could be more normal!
Wang Cunli strengthened the walls and cleared the country, and brought soldiers and civilians from several states over.
Those states were very barren in the eyes of Ming officials, but they were the "richest areas" in Xixia after the Yinchuan Basin and Tawai. Because they had a large number of people and were on the front line, they also had the largest number of military commanders there. Xixia
The border is entirely supported by those states.
Even if the Ming army was defeated on all sides in this battle, it would be miserable for Xixia to barely hold on.
The elite land has been ravaged. This year we can only replant food. Next year there will be famine and rebellion everywhere. Even if the rebellion is suppressed, the population will be reduced sharply and it will take at least 20 to 30 years to recover.
"Woo~~~Woo~~~Woo~~Woo~~"
Due west of Huaizhou City, the sound of horns came from far to near. It was the Xixia Qingqi who were sent to the city to investigate.
Yue Fei is here.
Wang Cunli stood on the tower and shouted: "Close the city gate!"
The people, who had gradually become orderly after many rectifications, suddenly panicked when they saw that the soldiers were about to close the city.
They didn't even want their property, food, or livestock, and those who hadn't entered the city rushed in quickly.
The people in the city gate struggled to push forward, and the soldiers could not close the door at all.
A rain of arrows fell outside the city gate, trying to drive away the people who were coming after them. As long as the people who followed were retreated and the people in the city gate hole entered, the city gate could be quickly closed.
"The Han army is coming, rush over quickly!"
The people could not be driven back by the rain of arrows, so they rushed in desperately through the rain of arrows, carrying the felt used to pitch their tents.
Li Cunhui mounted his horse with his cavalry. He and the deputy escort each led fifteen people and rushed onto the street from different directions, shouting along the way: "The Han army has entered the city! The Han army has entered the city..."
At this moment, Nong Cunli was blowing the trumpet to gather troops, asking the soldiers scattered in the city to gather quickly.
Li Cunhui and others would kill lone soldiers when they encountered them on the street. After killing them, they immediately rode forward and continued to shout that the Han army had entered the city.
The streets were full of people and livestock, as well as running soldiers.
When the common people heard the shouting, they thought Li Cunhui and the others were the Ming army, and were driven forward in panic and fled.
More and more people were running around randomly, causing widespread panic in the city.
Those people who had just entered the city experienced chaos for several hours. After finally entering the city, they did not rest for a while on the street. How did they react when they suddenly heard that the Ming army was entering the city?
People were running around aimlessly, their minds were blank, their bodies and minds were shrouded in fear, and they had lost the ability to think.
Those who climbed over the wall and hid in private houses were considered rational, but some people actually fled towards the city gate. It seemed that the Ming army was in the city, and they would be safe after leaving the city gate.
In the end, there was no need for Li Cunhui to create chaos, the people of Xixia themselves were creating chaos.
The Xixia soldiers were influenced by the common people and had no idea how many enemies there were in the city. They really thought that a large number of Ming troops had been mixed in.
At this time, the morning light was dim and visibility was less than ten meters.
Bin Cunli looked at the increasingly chaotic city, and heard the rumble of horse hooves outside the city from far to near. His commander was also completely panicked. He actually followed the horse path of the city wall and led several soldiers on horseback to the city, and then
Kill along the way and rush towards the east gate.
"Open the city gate!" Bin Cunli shouted in horror.
Without his order at all, soldiers and civilians had already opened the east city gate.
Outside the city gate is the Yellow River, which will not be intercepted by the Ming army, so there are still rational soldiers and civilians who choose to escape here.
The head of the Xixia Kingdom and the commander-in-chief of the army ignored the courtesy and ran away leaving more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians behind.
What he left behind was one-fifth of Xixia's population!