MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 950 The War to Destroy the Nation (4)

  Chapter 950 The Battle to Destroy the Nation (4)

Just as he was thinking, Cao Meng led a troop of cavalry from the west gate, and immediately saluted Li Yanqing: "Report to Dutong, the suppression of the city's outskirts has ended, more than 1,300 people have been captured, and the rest of the deserters have been killed. Only a very few escaped."

   "Where's the enemy general?" Li Yanqing raised his eyes and stared at Cao Meng sharply.

Cao Meng's face flushed immediately, and he said for a long time: "The deputy governor of the enemy army was shot to death by random arrows. After being captured, the governor was found to be just a soldier. The enemy commander escaped disguised as a soldier. He is humble and incompetent. Please punish him. !"

Li Yanqing glanced at him and said coldly: "It's normal for the enemy's chief general to escape, I won't blame you, but I want to remind you that when reporting the military situation in the future, you must first report to the general and then report to the soldiers. The priority cannot be reversed. "

  Cao Meng was ashamed all over his face, "I know my mistake!"

Li Yanqing nodded, and said to Han Xianglin, the commander of the army: "Collect the property looted by the enemy last night, and return them to the residents in the city. All captured prisoners who participated in **** and looting last night, regardless of whether they are Xixia Han beheaded!"

   "Follow the order!"

  Han hurried to Lin Xianglin, but Wang Gui muttered to the side: "It is better to reward the brothers for the looted property!"

Li Yanqing patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "The goal of our conquest of Xixia this time is to destroy the country, the country of Xixia, and you can't kill all the party members. Since you can't kill them all, then change your thinking and get them Become Song Min, you just need to treat them as Song Min, then all the doubts will be solved."

   "Is it possible to regard them as Song people?" Wang Gui still couldn't react.

"It may not be possible now, but what about ten or twenty years from now? We must not be confused by the situation in front of us, we must consider the situation in twenty years' time. The war is only for a few years, but the hatred will be remembered for a lifetime. Remember my words .”

  Wang Gui scratched his head, but still smiled wryly: "The humble staff will resolutely obey the orders of the governor."

  Li Yanqing didn't force him to understand what he said. After all, it was too difficult for them generals to understand political things. As Wang Gui said, as long as they resolutely obeyed his orders, it would be fine.

Two days after the Song army captured Xiazhou, Brother Li Cha led 30,000 Xixia reinforcements to Tiemenguan, which was about 350 miles away from Xiazhou. On the way, brother had already learned that the main force of the Song army had passed the Hengshan Grand Canyon. He was very anxious and had to enter Xiazhou before the Song army attacked Xiazhou. As long as he kept Xiazhou city, he was 50% sure to defend Xixia.

   But if Xiazhou City falls, the Song army will be able to use Xiazhou as the foundation and drive westward. All the strategic defenses of Xixia will disappear, and there will be no danger to defend. The national strength of Xixia will not last for a few years.

Brother Li Cha didn't allow the army to rest, and ran all the way to the east. At the same time, he yelled at Pu Wang Li Anren all the way. The intelligence battalion in Xixia was originally under the control of Jiao Yanjian. Three years ago, after Li Anren took away the power of intelligence from Jiao Yanjian, Xixia's intelligence spies began to decline rapidly.

   This time, the Song Army sent information to Xingqing Mansion in a hurry after the Song army started to assemble in Yan'an Mansion. Li Yanqing was preparing for the war for several months before, what did they do? Li Yanqing recruited civilian husbands on a large scale half a month ago, why didn't they report?

This is what Li Anren did. He kept inserting his cronies into important positions in the Song Dynasty, and these cronies were more interested in collecting money than intelligence. This completely destroyed the intelligence network that Xixia spent a hundred years building. This time, the Xixia army was so passive. It is because Mrs. Jingzhaofu's information did not keep up with it in time. If the information can be warned five to ten days in advance, the result will be very different.

About 150 miles away from the iron gate, the team stopped, and a defeated army of more than 100 people came in front, led by the governor Sa Jin. Right now, does it mean that Xiazhou has fallen soon?

After a while, the soldiers brought Sa Jin to Brother Li Cha's horse, and Sa Jin prostrated himself on the ground and wept bitterly, "The lowly officials have conscripted 10,000 soldiers from the city, but the Song army is too powerful, and their catapults are higher than Xiazhou City. The city wall was blown down with thunderbolts, ten thousand recruits fled first, and the morale of the army collapsed. I have tried my best, but I really can't resist it!"

  Brother Li Cha shook his head slowly, "I never ask about the process when I lead the troops, only care about the result. The imperial court handed over Xiazhou City to you, but you lost it. What do you think should be the crime?"

  Sa Jin's lips moved, and he wanted to argue, but Brother Li Cha yelled sharply: "Come on! Drag him down and behead him."

Several soldiers like wolves and tigers rushed over, grabbed Sa Jin and dragged him down. Sa Jin shouted: "I am innocent, no one can defend Xiazhou, and neither can you. You can't kill me!" !"

  Brother Li Cha waved his hand coldly, "Cut!"

   Sa Jin cursed desperately, and after a while, the voice stopped abruptly, and the soldiers quickly delivered a tray with Sa Jin's head on it.

  Brother Li Cha's anger subsided a little bit. In fact, he also knew that Sa Jin was not entirely to blame for Xiazhou's fall, but how could he explain to the emperor that Xiazhou fell, and the emperor didn't know how to be furious?

   Brother Li Cha immediately ordered: "The army rests on the spot!"

The 30,000 troops rested in place, and Brother Li Cha began to consider the next move. The 30,000 troops he led included 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, and there were also 3,000 camels carrying supplies. It is spring, and the two sides of the Tula River With enough grass, the fodder for the war horses is not considered for a while, and the food carried by three thousand camels can support the soldiers for about half a month. Even if Xiazhou cannot be conquered, their army can cross the Gobi Desert in the north and return to Xingqing Mansion.

Brother Li Cha ordered several deserters to be brought up, and asked them carefully about the situation of the Song army attacking Xiazhou. In the end, Brother Li Cha was also secretly shocked. The Song army actually directly blew up Xiazhou city with a thunder You must know that he has also done experiments. The Zhentian Lei made by Xixia can't blow up the city at all, unless it explodes five at the same time within the city wall, but they have never mastered the technology of this simultaneous explosion. As long as one explodes first, the others Four will be blown up immediately and become squibs.

Moreover, Xixia’s thunderbolts are very unreliable. Only four out of ten thunderbolts can explode successfully, and the other six are dumb mines, which makes the military lose all confidence. They also know that it is a problem with the gunpowder formula. The prison said three years ago that it was about to succeed, but it has not succeeded until now. It is useless for the emperor to change three military supervisors.

Brother Li Cha paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. How should we fight this battle? The opponent has a hundred thousand troops, but they only have thirty thousand troops. Of course, it is not impossible to defeat the Song army with thirty thousand troops. There are 20,000 cavalry, and they are iron kite cavalry, of course they are not real iron kite cavalry, the real iron kite cavalry is heavy armored infantry, and this cavalry is cavalry archer, also called Poxi army, only slightly inferior to iron kite cavalry It's just a chip, but it's also a very strong army.

But the question is, is Song Jun willing to fight with him head-on? In Brother Li Cha's memory, it seems that Li Yanqing has never fought a large-scale frontal battle with the enemy, at least not with Jin Bing. They all rely on defending the city to consume the opponent So this time, is Li Yanqing going to defend Xiazhou City to the death, exhausting his army rations, and forcing himself to retreat?

  But after much deliberation, Brother Li Cha realized that he really had no choice, the initiative was not in his hands, so he could only confront Li Yanqing to buy time for the imperial court to integrate all the tribes and send troops together.

Early the next morning, the Xixia Army, which had rested overnight, began to reorganize its troops and horses, and was ready to set off. At this moment, the scouts from the rear sent news that Tiemenguan was captured by a Song army. This news surprised Brother Li Cha. , he immediately understood.

Tiemenguan is actually the intersection of three roads, one is along the northern foot of Hengshan Mountain, and the other two are the main roads from Xiazhou to Xingqing Mansion. Needless to say, this Song army must have come along the northern foothill of Hengshan Mountain. It is reasonable to capture Longzhou, Hongzhou and Yanzhou, and finally occupy Tiemenguan, which is empty of troops.

Brother Li Cha certainly knows the intention of the Song army to capture Tiemen Pass. Li Yanqing wants to annihilate his entire army between Xiazhou and Tiemen Pass, and of course go back across the next door, which means that he can only attack Xiazhou for seven days at most. Otherwise, with his remaining rations, he would not be able to pass through the deserted Gobi area.

  Brother Li Cha secretly admired him, this Li Yanqing is really good at grasping the enemy's weakness, his weakness is the lack of supplies.

  He must either withdraw immediately, or go to Xiazhou to find opportunities.

  Brother Li Cha had no choice but to pull himself together and lead an army of 30,000 to kill in the direction of Xiazhou.

  (end of this chapter)