The sky is already bright, and Zhao Chen is standing on the wall of Hongzhou City at the moment!

Countless soldiers of the Imperial Camp stood beside him to protect his safety!

The snow is still falling, and the sky and the earth are pale!

Zhao Chen looked into the distance, only to see that the distance was empty and full of snow! But he knew that under the snow was a grassland!

From here, the historic Hetao is known! It used to be a place where the Han people raised horses, and when the Song Dynasty was just established, it still belonged to the Han people! It wasn't until the rise of the Western Xia that the Hetao was occupied by the Western Xia people! Since then, the Han people have lost the land for raising horses, and the Song Dynasty has no more formed cavalry! The reason why the Song Dynasty was not an opponent of the nomads was also a major reason for the lack of cavalry!

And now, the Han people will once again collect this place one after another!

At this time, footsteps came from behind, and Li Xianzhong strode behind Zhao Chen.

"Your Majesty, the casualties have been counted! This time, our army lost more than 2,300 killed and seriously wounded! That's a total of 3,500 people! Li Xianzhong said.

Zhao Chen stood there and nodded!

At any time, he was very sad to hear the news of the death and wounding of the soldiers! But he knew that the war with Western Xia was an inevitable war, and the dead were indispensable! He can only try to ensure that fewer people die so that more fighters can return home!

"Your Majesty, through this battle, it can be seen that the combat power of our army has far surpassed that of Western Xia!" Li Xianzhong said again.

"How much better are we than them?" Zhao Chen said.

"If it's a single soldier, in terms of physical fitness, one of us soldiers can stand up to the two of them! If it is a battalion, the soldiers of one of our battalions will be able to stand up to the soldiers of their three battalions! If it is an army of 10,000 soldiers, we are enough to resist 50,000 of them! However, this refers to the fact that on the plains, when everyone is infantry, one of our armies can defeat five of them! However, Western Xia produced horses, and their cavalry was extremely numerous! Infantry against cavalry, with the quality of our army, with the same strength, one army can probably only block one army of their cavalry! Li Xianzhong said.

"It's already very good!" Zhao Chen nodded.

His heart was overjoyed!

It has been five years since Xuanwu was announced, and it has been more than five years since he ascended the throne, counting the year when he was in power, Zhao Chen has presided over the military and politics for more than four years! In the past four years or so, the army has changed dramatically! The current Great Song army is far better than the forbidden army and the Western army in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and it is also far better than the current Western Xia army! The combat effectiveness of the Great Song army is no longer under the strongest Jurchen army in this era! The only drawback, though, is that this army lacks horses!

This time into Western Xia, the forbidden army in northern Shaanxi is all infantry! There are more than 20,000 cavalry in the Huanqing army! As for the Jingyuan army, there are also more than 20,000 cavalry! This is still the war horse obtained from the Jurchen army of Guanshan and the new Khitan army after defeating the Jurchens of Guanshan! And unlike the Jurchens, many of the Jurchens are one person, two horses or even three horses, and the cavalry under Zhao Chen is only one person and one horse! The cavalry has one person and one horse, and its ability to continue fighting will be greatly reduced, far inferior to the Jurchen army with two or three horses per person!

"After conquering Western Xia, we will have enough horses! How many war horses are there in Hongzhou City now? Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, there were originally 30,000 Western Xia troops in Hongzhou City! These 30,000 Western Xia troops were originally the Western Xia vanguard preparing to enter northern Shaanxi, and they were all cavalry! There are more than 50,000 horses here! Li Xianzhong said.

"It's wonderful! This is a fortune we have gotten, and we must take care of these horses! Zhao Chen said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, we have also captured a captive! It turned out to be Han! Li Xianzhong said.

"Oh? Bring it on! Zhao Chen said.

At that moment, Li Xianzhong waved his hand, and several soldiers escorted Ren Dejing, the prefect of Hongzhou, and walked up!

Ren Dejing has been locked up for half the night, and he is worried in his heart, not knowing what kind of outcome he will face! After dawn, he was escorted out, and along the way, he only saw countless Song soldiers standing next to him! These Song soldiers were completely different from the Song soldiers in his impression, their standing posture was neat, their eyes were sharp, and their morale was unusually strong! This is an army he has never seen before, and he immediately judged at the moment, and came to a conclusion in his heart: the soldiers in front of him are far superior to the original Western army, far more than the current Western Xia army, even the most elite Jurchen army is nothing more than that! He was horrified!

"When will there be such an army in the Great Song Dynasty? There were rumors in the past that the Great Song army in Hanzhong had defeated the Jurchen army, but was it true? How can it be? When did the Han people become so brave? In an instant, countless thoughts passed through his mind.

After I don't know how long, he was taken to the city wall, and after a while, he was sent up!

When he came to the wall, he immediately saw a young man standing there! This young man is surrounded by countless soldiers, his face is resolute, and he points out the country with the soldiers around him! What's more, he was wearing a dragon robe! He was wearing a sword around his waist, which was the Seven-Star Longyuan Sword worn by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi brothers back then!

"This ...... Is it the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty? Ren Dejing stayed there all of a sudden!

He never dreamed that the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty would come here! Since the establishment of the Great Song Dynasty, except for Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, who had personally driven the expedition, no emperor dared to go to the battlefield! All emperors only dare to hide in the palace, they live a rich life, but they are cowardly as mice! The two emperors in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Song Huizong and Song Qinzong, behaved ridiculously in front of the Jurchens, and Emperor Xuanwu of Hanzhong was their descendant, how could he be so brave? How do you have the guts to go to war?

A moment later, several soldiers knocked Ren Dejing to the ground!

"Weichen Ren has to see Your Majesty!" Ren Dejing said hurriedly.

"Wechen? I just heard that you are a courtier of Western Xia, the prefect of Hongzhou, why do you say 'Weichen'? Zhao Chen turned around and said.

At this time, Ren Dejing heard Zhao Chen's voice clearly! Zhao Chen's voice is calm and capable, which is very different from the previous emperors! The previous emperors were all Wen Zou Zou, and they had to think about it for a long time! Moreover, the emperor will not speak to the captives head-on, after the emperor speaks, the eunuch next to him will convey, and Zhao Chen does not seem to have a eunuch beside him!

"Your Majesty, Weichen is the former Xi'an Prefecture General Judge Ren Dejing!" Ren De respectfully.

"Since you are a courtier of the Great Song Dynasty, why did you take refuge in Western Xia?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, Weichen is just thinking of breaking into the interior of Western Xia! Your Majesty, I have a clear understanding of the situation in Western Xia over the years! Weichen's daughters have all entered the Xixia Palace, and now they are imperial concubines, and it is not impossible to become queens in time! Your Majesty, Weichen is willing to tell Your Majesty everything he knows! Moreover, in the future, after Weichen's daughter becomes the queen, she can also secretly transmit messages! Your Majesty, what do you think? Ren Dejing's forehead was sweating, but his mind changed sharply, and he said.

"Do you know who I hate the most in my life?" Zhao Chen looked at the generals around him and said.

"I don't know!" Li Xianzhong said.

The generals next to him also shook their heads.

"The most hated thing in my life is a traitor! Forget the country, forget the nation, know no shame, take refuge in outsiders, and help outsiders deal with their own people! Foreign enemies are hateful, but traitors are even more hateful! The Western Xia has repeatedly invaded Guanshan for a hundred years, and I don't know how many Guanshan people have been killed, and in this case, there are officials of the Great Song Dynasty who have taken refuge in the Western Xia and enjoyed the glory and wealth in the Western Xia! You say, "What should such a person do?" Zhao Chen said.

"Kill!" Li Xianzhong said without hesitation.

"Your Majesty! Spare your life, spare your life! Weichen really knows countless news about Western Xia! And Weichen's daughter is indeed the imperial concubine now! There are Weichen and Weichen's daughter, Your Majesty has conquered Hongzhou this time, Weichen can cover up for Your Majesty, Weichen can write to the Western Xia court, just say that it is the Jurchen invasion of Western Xia! Your Majesty, you can leave Hongzhou now and return to the Great Song Dynasty, without worrying about the arrival of the Western Xia army! Ren Dejing was shocked and said.

"Leave Hongzhou now and return to the Great Song Dynasty? Ridiculous, ridiculous! This time, I raised half of the country's troops into Western Xia, and I will leave after defeating a mere Hongzhou? Zhao Chen laughed.

The generals next to him also burst out laughing.

"Your Majesty, do you want it?" Ren Dejing said in horror.

"We want to make Xixia no longer a border trouble!" Zhao Chen said lightly.

"Your Majesty, what are you talking about? Don't you know that for more than a hundred years, the Great Song Dynasty has not been able to destroy Western Xia? Ren Dejing said in surprise, he even forgot the fact that he was about to be killed now, and at this moment he just felt that Zhao Chen was crazy and dared to say such a thing!

"Drag it down! No mercy! Zhao Chen said lightly.

"Your Majesty! Spare your life! Ren Dejing begged for mercy again at this time!

A moment later, a scream was heard in the distance!

Ren Dejing, the biggest traitor in Western Xia in history, is now dying in Hongzhou City like this! His history will be interrupted from then on, and the history of Western Xia will also change like never before!

******

The army rests for a day in Hongzhou City!

On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, the army continued to move north!

On the twenty-fifth day of the first month, the army came to the city of Youzhou in Western Xia, which is probably located in the area of the current Inner Mongolia Etuoke Qianqi East Aolezhaoqi!

There are 5,000 Western Xia garrisons here, and in less than half an hour, Youzhou fell! All the Western Xia soldiers in Youzhou surrendered!

On the first day of the first month of February, the army conquered the Western Xia Jianing Military Division!

There are 10,000 garrisons here, but in front of the 150,000 troops of the Northern Shaanxi Forbidden Army and the Huanqing Army, this place is also vulnerable! In addition, this is the place where the Tangut people reserve grain and grass baggage, and when they were attacked here, the Song army got countless grain and grass baggage, which was enough to cope with the later battles!

After attacking the Jianing Military Division, the army spent another two days repairing here!

After that, the army went all the way to the west, and on February 10, they came to the city of Yanzhou in Western Xia!

This Yanzhou city was originally built in the Tang Dynasty, in order to resist border troubles, Bai Juyi has a poem "City Yanzhou" cloud "self-built Yanzhou for more than ten years, the left felt Qiu does not commit congestion"! In the early years of the Song Dynasty, it was also a border city of the Song Dynasty! It's a pity that after the rise of the Western Xia party, this place was occupied by the Western Xia! Compared to Hongzhou, Yanzhou's status is undoubtedly more important, the defense here is stronger, and the number of garrisons here is also larger! This is the military hub to the east of Western Xia!

At this moment, the news that Hongzhou, Youzhou, Jianing and other places have been conquered has spread to Yanzhou City, and the 40,000 garrisons of Yanzhou City are waiting for it, and it is impossible for the Song army to take Yanzhou by surprise!