The wall of Xiping Mansion was blown open, and the Song army immediately occupied the gap, and cleared a passage, Zhao Zhen personally commanded the army to enter the city, but the party in the city was unwilling to fail, and still organized a heavy counterattack at this time, wanting to drive the Song army out of the city.

However, it is a pity that the party people are not used to street fighting at all, and the cavalry does not play much role in the city, but is easy to be restrained by the infantry using the terrain, which also makes several counterattacks by the party people were repelled by the Song army, but also lost a large number of streets, and finally Zhao Zhen also personally entered the city to command the clearance, but the remaining party members finally could not resist, and escaped in a hurry after opening another city gate.

However, Zhao Zhen had already ambushed a cavalry outside the city gate, when the party had just escaped halfway, the cavalry suddenly killed, cut the party into two sections, the back was mainly the family and materials of the party people, and all of them were left in the city, and then this cavalry chased the party people in front of them for hundreds of miles, and countless party people fell on the way to escape, and finally when the Great Song Dynasty collected the troops, there were less than 2,000 party people who could really escape.

Thirty years ago, when Li Jiqian beat the Xiping Mansion that was still called Lingzhou at the time, the Han people in the city were brutally cleaned, and even once led to no trace of the Han people in the city, and later in order to let the Han people help them grow food, this robbed a lot of people, but most of these Han people lived outside the city as serfs, and their lives were extremely miserable, after the arrival of the army of the Great Song Dynasty, many Han people also provided a lot of help to the Song army.

"General, the west of the city has been cleared, and all the party nobles who did not escape have been arrested, please deal with it!" Cao Mata strode to the City Lord's Mansion with blood on his body, and then saluted Zhao Zhenhe, the City Lord's Mansion was already empty when they came, so Zhao Zhen temporarily stationed here to rest.

"Good job, did you encounter resistance when you arrested people?" Zhao Zhen nodded approvingly at first, and then asked again.

"Yes, these party members didn't have time to escape before, so they retreated in the mansion and resisted, so they killed a few brothers when they were arrested." Cao Mata replied again that the previous interception had made it impossible for most of the party nobles to escape, and now they were all around the city and refused to surrender, because they knew that the Great Song would definitely not let them go easily.

"Those who dare to resist, punished!" At this time, Zhao Zhen ordered again with a cold face, the so-called "punishment" is not to kill only one person, but if someone resists, then the whole family will be punished, in other words, Zhao Zhen is going to let his subordinates open the killing world.

Cao Yu was stunned when he heard this, and then looked left and right before he stepped forward with some hesitation and said: "General, if you kill too many people, will it attract the attention of all the ministers in the court, in case someone participates in the general because of this, I'm afraid it will ......."

Cao Yu is also out of good intentions, as the first time in these years to lead troops to go abroad, Zhao Zhen is easy to be jealous, not to mention that this time is not a civilian official to lead the troops, maybe many people are staring at Zhao Zhen, waiting for him to make a mistake, now that Xiping Mansion has been laid, if there are too many people, maybe it will be said that it is "indiscriminate killing of innocents", if this crime is confirmed, I am afraid that Zhao Zhen will be unlucky even if he has made great achievements.

Zhao Zhen naturally knew that Cao Yu was out of kindness, but he smiled confidently at this time: "Don't worry, even if someone in the court wants to buckle my hat, someone will help me then, and I will never be convicted for this!" ”

"But even if there are people in the general's court, there is no need to kill so many party members, after all, the general's reputation ......."

didn't wait for Cao Yu to finish speaking, but Zhao Zhen waved his hand to interrupt him and said: "I know what you have to say, but false names are of no use to us at all, I value practical benefits more, although our 50,000 army is the elite of the border army, there is also a big shortcoming, that is, there is too little blood, you should also know this!" ”

Cao Mata also showed a complicated look when he heard this, although there have been continuous conflicts in the northwest in recent years, the scale is generally not large, and it is still a fixed area, which also makes it possible to contact not many troops in actual combat, even if they draw out 50,000 elites, many of them are on the battlefield for the first time, and the difference between soldiers who have seen blood and soldiers who have not seen blood is simply very different, they know this better than anyone else.

"The general wants to train troops in Xiping Mansion!" After a long while, I saw Cao Mata say slowly.

"Yes, although Xiping Mansion is the military town of the party, according to the information we have obtained, Xingzhou on the other side of the Yellow River is the foundation of the party, even if the number of defenders there is less than ours, but it must be limited, and there are cities to rely on, we not only have an advantage, but are still at a disadvantage, so through Xiping Mansion let the brothers see blood and increase morale, lest those recruits who have never been on the battlefield look foreign!" Zhao Zhen explained again at this time.

Of course, Zhao Zhen did not say one more thing, that is, when he received the appointment, he once received a secret letter, which was written by a hot big man in the DPRK, in which he analyzed some of the situation in the DPRK and China, and made some promises to him, which was also the main reason why he dared to let go and kill.

Three days later, the Song army occupying Xiping Mansion was sealed, there were 20,000 defenders alone, and the population was more than 100,000 Xiping Mansion, but now the population is less than half, this is mainly because the party is a soldier, as long as it is an adult man is a soldier, so the Song army occupied here, but also encountered stubborn resistance, even now, there are still sporadic resistance, but this does not affect the overall situation, most of the survivors are women, old and weak.

But even so, Zhao Zhen still announced that the entire Xiping Mansion City would be under military control, and all the materials in the city would be handed over, and then distributed uniformly, and then there would naturally be other people to take over here in the future, and then it was likely that the army of Tuntian would come, and these women were just married to the bachelors in the army.

With the stability of Xiping Mansion, Zhao Zhen also raised troops again and rushed to Xingzhou, and two days later joined Zhou Mei's vanguard army, but at this time it was a problem to cross the river, after all, the Yellow River was so wide, and the party people on the opposite side had long been ready to meet the enemy, and when the Song army crossed the river, they would definitely be attacked by the other party.

However, what many people didn't expect was that after Zhao Zhen's main army came to the bank of the Yellow River, he didn't take a pontoon bridge or a boat, so he was quietly stationed on the bank of the Yellow River without moving, and Li Yuanhao on the opposite side also gathered an army to wait on the opposite side, and both sides were unwilling to cross the river.

The news of Zhao Zhen's immobility also quickly spread to the rear, and then sent to the capital through the flying pigeon transmission of the Imperial City Division, and when Zhao Zhen got the news, he immediately summoned Lu Yijian, Cao Wei and others to discuss, of course, Li Zhang must also be there, in fact, Zhao Zhen has just taken over government affairs during this time, many things are not yet familiar, and someone needs to remind him from time to time, in addition, Liu E's funeral is about to be held, so Li Zhang often stays in the palace during this time.

"Zhao Zhen is standing still on the bank of the Yellow River, and he has not built pontoon bridges and boats, what are his plans?" After everyone arrived, Zhao Zhen didn't talk nonsense, and directly said the doubts in his heart.

"Your Majesty doesn't have to worry, the minister thinks that Zhao Zhen is likely to be waiting!" At this time, I saw Cao Wei being the first to stand up and say, he is old, especially his legs and feet are not very good, so Zhao Zhen also gave him a seat immediately after coming to the vertical arch hall.

"Wait? What are you waiting for? Zhao Zhen asked a little puzzled at this time.

"Are you waiting for the Yellow River to freeze?" At this time, Lu Yijian next to him suddenly spoke.

"Freezing! When does the Yellow River freeze? Zhao Zhen didn't finally pat his head when he heard this, he almost forgot that the Yellow River would freeze, but it was not yet October, and the capital had begun to freeze, but I don't know when the Yellow River would freeze?

"It's colder in the northwest, and it usually freezes earlier than in Beijing, but the Yellow River in Xingzhou is more turbulent, and the sediment in the water is relatively large, so it's not easy to freeze, but generally around mid-October, the river will definitely be frozen!" Li Zhang is quite familiar with the Yellow River, and he has also been to the northwest, so he also opened his mouth to explain at this time.

The climate of this period of the Great Song Dynasty is still different from that of later generations, simply put, the climate of this period is colder in winter, but not as hot in summer as in later generations, in contrast, the climate of the former Tang Dynasty is more similar to that of later generations, but later the weather became colder and colder, which also caused the nomads to go south, which formed the situation of the Liao and Song Dynasty dividing the world.

"In the middle of October, isn't that the day when the eldest lady will be buried?" Zhao Zhen was also stunned when he heard Li Zhang's answer.

"Almost, in fact, Zhao Zhen is also gambling, he bets that there will be no heavy snow before the Yellow River freezes, otherwise if the road is closed by heavy snow, the supply of the army and the rear will be cut off, and then the army can only retreat to the Xiping Mansion that has just been beaten to recuperate, and then send troops to attack Xingzhou next year." At this time, Cao Wei also spoke again.

The heavy snow in the northwest is very terrible, sometimes even burying houses under the snow, and the snow will not melt throughout the winter, so it is extremely dangerous to use troops in winter, and without supplies, the army will not be able to fight, which will give Li Yuanhao in Xingzhou a chance to breathe, and there may be something wrong at that time.

"Then if the road is really closed by heavy snow before the Yellow River freezes, what impact will it have on this battle?" Zhao Zhen was a little worried again at this time, after all, this was the first time such a big military operation since he took office, so he didn't want any problems.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, if the heavy snow closes the road, we can't move here, and the party can't move either, and when the spring starts next year, we can continue to fight, but the party can't drag it out, after all, they are few and lacking, and they can't fight with us at all, the only thing to worry about is ......" Cao Wei suddenly paused when he said this, and his brows furrowed at the same time.