In the distance, with the sound of horses' hooves galloping, a black cavalry marched south along the avenue, and these cavalrymen were either dressed in iron armor or cloak, and their robes were different from the previous crimson and black, but gray.

These people galloped and howled like wolves. Next to the saddle are also equipped with weapons of different lengths, scimitars, sabers, hammers, whips, bones, and all kinds of weapons. But what is the same is that they all carry bows and arrows on their backs, carry quivers, and a large yellow flag waving in the wind.

They are the Khitan Zhenghuang Banner Department that has been organized into an army.

There are not many troops, only more than 2,000 people, but the momentum is good. It's like a pack of hungry wolves roaming the banks of the desolate and uncertain river. The face of the life of the leader is like the bottom of a pot, the nostrils are facing the sky, the curly hair is red, and the shape is six feet, which is not just a praising of praise.

Along the Wuding River to the west, men with two horses, this is their first task. Do the Tangut people think that if they can't beat me, they will hide and go home? Lu Qian didn't speak so highly. The biggest purpose of his establishment of the Eight Banners is to facilitate the operation of the grassland, and now it is a small test.

He didn't expect two thousand cavalry to take down Xiazhou, so he sent Tian Hu's army together, but the latter had more foot soldiers, and it was still behind.

For the Western Xia, this Xia Prefecture can't take it, but the iron smelting business on the side can always be cleaned up ruthlessly, not to mention that not to mention that all the Western Xia people are hiding in the city. The latter are nomads.

And just when Xuanzan led the Zhenghuang Banner viciously to the west, Lu Qian had already arrived near Yan'an again.

Along the way, I saw deep ravines and high ravines, and what I saw was a piece of yellow, which already looked like a later generation. There is not much water in the rivers along the way, and there are few water conservancy ditches.

This level is the foundation of the emperor, a fertile field, and a place of victory.

But now it is so bleak.

Even if it is a large river like Qingshui, many sections of the river can be crossed smoothly, and the change in climate has really had a big impact here.

Add to this the fact that the war led to the fact that the local people rarely built water conservancy projects, and the earlier water conservancy projects were destroyed, and the results are easy to draw. The agriculture in this level is inferior to that of Li Tang's time.

Many places are dilapidated, and weeds grow. Even in the vicinity of Yan'an, it is rare to see large areas of prosperous towns and villages.

The land of the Guanzhong Plain, which has been rich for thousands of years, is already very depressed.

Lu Qian only felt that his heart was heavy.

Although he has not really seized the land of this Guanzhong and unified the three Qins, seeing this barren land, he is also like a big stone in his heart.

Today's Guanzhong is no longer the foundation of the emperor that can be restored simply to appease the people and build water conservancy.

The passage of land fertility after thousands of years of cultivation and the serious destruction of vegetation have led to the flooding of loess and serious soil erosion. It's a vicious circle. Thinking about northern Shaanxi in later generations, thinking about Jin Province in later generations, Lu Qian had a very rough idea in his heart.

Afforestation, soil and water conservation, population restriction, and return farmland to forests.

Looking at the endless plantations planted by Zhao Song along the Songliao line in Hebei Province, it can be seen that even under the current conditions, as long as you make up your mind, you can still plant trees on a large scale.

Of course, the differences in climate and environment between the two places cannot be ignored. But even if it's difficult, as long as you put your mind to it, you can still do it.

It's just that this is still a thought that he suddenly born, a general idea, and if he really wants to implement it, he doesn't know how troublesome it is.

Since Lu Qian has arrived at the city of Yan'an, it is foreseeable what Linfeng Village, Qinghua Village, Jinming Village and other places will look like.

The enemy was coming, and Li Hui did not order Zhang Shen to withdraw. Yan'an City is very strong, but it is not really an iron wall, impregnable. There are a few points around that must be kept. If you don't fight, you will withdraw people, and if you lose the battle, it will really hurt your morale.

To tell the truth, what Li Hui regrets most now is that he didn't ask Zhang Shen to raise some troops and horses to force the Suide army. After the Zhijiao Wang Jinbu was almost wiped out, there was no movement, so that Lu Qian could deal with the Western Xia soldiers in the north wholeheartedly.

Now, he regrets it.

Now facing the Liangshan army, which claims to be 200,000, Li Hui has no confidence in victory at all. The city of Yan'an is very strong, and since the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, it has not fallen in the past hundred and sixty years.

Qingshui hit the city outside the line, because the angle is about to twist 90 degrees, so it is called the North River of the South River by the locals. But this is not the moat of Yan'an City, the real power of this city is its interior. On one side is the undulating mountains, and on the other side is the plains. Therefore, the city is divided into east and west, the east city is flat, and the west city is dangerous.

In the first year of Kangding (1040), Li Yuanhao's troops attacked Yanzhou in three ways. Zhizhou Fan Yong made a mistake in response to the enemy and divided his troops into 36 villages to defend, but it caused the emptiness of Yanzhou's troops, and Li Yuanhao's army reached the city. has an absolute advantage in troops, the fault is not the heavy snowfall, Yanzhou at that time, and Yan'an City at the moment, will be lost. At least the East City can't resist it!

Pagoda Mountain, known as Jialing Mountain in ancient times, is located in the east of Yan'an City, on the shore of the Yanhe River, only a hundred zhang away from the city, and can have a bird's-eye view of the entire urban area of Yan'an on the mountain.

There are still 30,000 or 40,000 troops in this city, although Zhang Shen suffered defeat, but as a veteran of the Western Army, people are not given in vain, but they are not all the soldiers in their hands are lost.

With so many Western troops in the city, it is almost impossible to attack and fight hard. As an important town in northern Shaanxi and an important place in the border fortress, Yan'an has a large number of military equipment in reserve, which is unimaginable.

If you want a bed crossbow, you want a bed crossbow, and if you want a stone cannon, you want a stone cannon. Divine arm bows, crossbows, innumerable.

And Lu Qian had already prepared for this, he himself did not plan to take Yan'an City quickly. This is a rare stone city in China today. His solution is to lock down the city!

And if you want to lock the city, it is easy to say in the west, when people build this Yan'an City, they cut the soil into a gully, which is steep and dangerous. Lu Qian also asked people to build a wall on Phoenix Mountain, and the troops were stationed to defend it. To the north, there is a clear water channel, which is a natural line of defense. The road to the south is narrow, but if the soldiers are sent there, only one camp is set up, the official road is blocked, and then someone is asked to set up a police force on the surrounding hills.

It's the east side that's hard.

The army wanted to bypass Yan'an City and continue to the south, not going inside the city, but outside the city, and the only passage was in the east.

However, there was a river and a moat blocking it, which means that if the Liangshan army wanted to go around the city to the south, the first thing was to build a stable passage on the river. But the difficulty is that the distance between the city wall and the pagoda mountain is too close, and the Song army only needs to aim with a crossbow on the top of the city, so isn't it completely covered? Not to mention bed crossbows and stone cannons.

So, how to do this, how to make the Song army unable to control the river surface on the east city wall, this is what Lu Qian has to do at the moment.

This is also something beyond Song Jun's expectations.

Taking Li Hui and Zhang Shen as examples, the two of them couldn't imagine that Liang Shanjun could do this, but when they saw the east city wall that was blazing all day long, no, to be precise, a section of the city wall with the East City Gate Tower as the core, it was stupid in their eyes.

Liang Shanjun started with stone cannons and threw incendiary bombs to the head of the city, setting fire to the city gate tower. Then the wooden bullets were sent to that section of the city wall, and the flames were always blazing.

The entire army and civilians of Yan'an City could only watch the Liangshan army knock and beat on the surface of the river, and continued to build a pontoon bridge across both sides of the river at a lightning speed. At the same time, extra-large wooden pipes were fed into the river.

There were not many soldiers and horses stationed on it, but only a high wooden female wall, or simply a solid "beggar" type.

There is only one purpose, that is, to block the crossbows fired from the city, so as not to threaten the safety of the pontoon bridge.

This clear water swirled around in Yan'an and continued to flow eastward, not southward. The waterway to the south is only the eastern moat of Yan'an City, the depth of the pond is two zhang, and the width is less than ten zhang.

And this was to a certain extent the passage for the Liangshan army to march south.

Yes, after crossing to the other side of the Qing River via a pontoon bridge, there is no way to go further south. The only passable flat land was inside the moat, at the foot of the city walls. But it's not insurance, is it?

Lu Qian's meaning is to fill in the moat and pave a passage from it. This is very difficult, but it is difficult to stop Liang Shanjun.

First, a water barrier was built to cut off the connection between the moat and the clear water, and then dry firewood and grass bundles were thrown inside, which can be said to be a wooden trestle bridge in the east of the city. Then raise the sheep and horse wall, at least to ensure that the height of the carriage can pass.

This borrows the principle of the cave. The Song army was able to come up with a siege machine like a train skin, how could Liang Shanjun not be able to create an enlarged version of the "hole" under the nose of the Song army?

It's not just people, it's also baggage wagons.

The "big hole" is equipped with a series of buildings, just like the original protection of the city, which can resist the shooting of stone cannons and bed crossbows, and can also resist the shooting of strong bows and crossbows.

In this way, this 'road' will be paved straight to the southeast corner of Yan'an City, turn to the south of the city, and suddenly open up.

The characters in Yan'an City didn't understand what Liang Shanjun intended at first, but when the pontoon bridge was rolled out, and then the wall was built to block the water, and the sheep and horse wall in the east of the city was raised, what else did not understand? How can that be tolerated. Immediately, he used a strong bow and a crossbow and stone cannon, and the means were all out, and the shooting did not stop.

That is, Lu Qian asked people to work hard to transport the Liangshan cannon to the top of the pagoda mountain, condescendingly, and bombarded Yan'an City, which made the bed ballista stone cannon in the city stop.

In the city of Yan'an Mansion, Li Hui's face was gray. To this day, what else is there that I don't understand? The Liangshan thieves are not trying to attack the city, but to repeat their old tricks. They're locking down the city.

Locked Yan'an City, they only need to leave a few men and horses to guard the place, and they can vacate a large army, and then Lu Qian will lead the army all the way into Guanzhong, just those empty places, isn't it sweeping thousands of miles?

Chang'an City is very empty, what does Dong Zhengfeng rely on to defend the city, how can he resist it?

As soon as Chang'an is lost, the back roads of Tongzhou and Tongguan will be cut off, so how can they hold on? That's a terrible move!

"Yan'an is an important border town for me, and my official does not want to lose it. However, to this day, it has to be abandoned. Li Hui looked at the generals and said, "Chang'an is empty today, I want to withdraw the army to Jingzhao, what do you think the generals think?" It's been a month, and the Song army can't stop the extension of the "big hole" even if they try their best.

Zhang Shen was silent, and yesterday he was invited by Li Huizhi to come to the house to talk. The two talked secretly for a long time and reached a consensus. This Yan'an City really can't be defended any longer.

The power of the city locking method can be imagined, once the Liangshan army's plan is successful, the thirty or forty thousand elite soldiers will all fall into Yan'an. Do you want Chang'an?

After Yan'an Mansion, there is only a sweet spring, which is Yanzhou, then Fangzhou, Yaozhou, and then Chang'an.

Don't look at the fact that there are still three state capitals separated by this, in fact, there is not a single soldier in Yanfang and other places, and some are at most the newly gathered local villagers who are brave and brave, and they are vulnerable in front of the real elite soldiers.

How can they keep Chang'an?

And once Chang'an is lost, Guanzhong will no longer be owned by the Song Dynasty.