After only two days, the limelight of the Western Xia campaign began to turn, led by Lu Yihao, Fan Zongyin, and Huang Qianshan, signed by nearly 100 officials and officials, and a petition against the destruction of the Western Xia was circulated in the imperial court, and their reasons were very clear, the Great Song Dynasty was a country of benevolence and righteousness, and suffered the pain of the destruction of the country by the Jin soldiers, and escaped to Lin'an by luck, preserving the country, and how could the pain of destroying the country be transferred to others.

A word of righteousness and awe-inspiring, but caused a lot of ministers resonated, for a time to ask for peace, the voice of opposition to the destruction of the country in the court is becoming stronger and stronger, at the same time, the folk also appeared 'Xia extinguished the Song Dynasty' proverb, in the streets and alleys of Lin'an spread boiling soup, soon by the wind envoy will be a few widely spread proverbs reported to the imperial court, they and the imperial court against the destruction of the country together, to the Son of Heaven Zhao Gou exerted great pressure.

"This is a lie!"

Fan Zhixu slapped the table fiercely and said angrily: "We must strictly investigate the source of the fallacies, and severely punish those who spread rumors to confuse the public!" ”

Gao Shen next to him said worriedly: "This kind of proverb is not terrible, it is terrible to be the manipulator behind it." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Fan Zhixu turned to look at Gao Shen.

Gao Shen sneered: "Doesn't Duke Fan think that this folk proverb and the petition of the imperial court cooperate very tacitly? ”

Fan Zhixu was silent, as long as this matter was lightly poked, the forces behind it would surface on the surface, and hundreds of officials could be mobilized to petition, especially Lu Yihao and Fan Zongyin, the manipulators behind this would be no one else except the emperor.

Moreover, the Emperor Taishang did it so obviously, this was actually a clear opposition to the destruction of Western Xia, and the selfishness of power overwhelmed the interests of the country.

Fan Zhixu said in a deep voice: "Let's go to the official family, this matter is related to the vital interests of the Great Song Dynasty, and they must not mess around!" ”

Gao Shen also agreed with Fan Zhixu's idea, and the two immediately went to the imperial study of the Vertical Arch Palace.

After waiting outside the imperial study for a while, a eunuch came out and said with a smile: "The official family invites the two ministers in!" ”

The two walked into the imperial study, only to see the Son of Heaven Zhao Gou standing in front of the window with his hands in his hands, looking out of the window and being silent, the two looked at each other and stepped forward to salute, "See Your Majesty!" ”

After a while, Zhao Gou sighed and said, "The two ministers are here for the affairs of Western Xia?" ”

"Exactly!"

Fan Zhixu said: "We have always believed that Western Xia is a great disaster in the Song Dynasty for a hundred years, and now it is finally time to eliminate the great trouble of the henchmen. ”

Zhao Gou turned around and took a copy of the book from the table and handed it to Fan Zhixu, "This is a letter from Zhu Xianggong to me, he suggested that the Song and Xia sides negotiate first, and if the negotiation fails, it is not too late to launch a military battle!" “

Fan Zhixu was taken aback, why did Zhu Xianggong turn to the emperor again?

Zhao Gou said lightly: "This should be Zhu Xianggong's consistent position!" Compromise in the middle, and both are not guilty. ”

Gao Shen said beside him: "Your Majesty, this time is not a middle ground, once there is a negotiation between Song and Xia, it means that the country cannot be destroyed, and Western Xia is very likely to agree to all the conditions of the Great Song Dynasty, what should we do at that time?" Rebel or withdraw from Western Xia? ”

"Gao Xianggong is right, there is absolutely no possibility of negotiation in the matter of Western Xia, we must seize this opportunity to destroy the country, otherwise we will regret it in the future, and our children and grandchildren will not forgive us!"

Zhao Gou was silent for a moment, "My father wrote a letter to me, he went to the temple to ask for a signature, and the reply given to him by the ancestors and ancestors was benevolence and righteousness first. ”

Zhao Gou took the yellow wooden slip dedicated to the temple on the table and handed it to the two, "See for yourself!" ”

The signature is really four big words: 'benevolence and righteousness first', and there is a note at the back: Destroy the heirs of the country, and destroy the people, this is obviously deliberately prepared, not the original signature of the Taimiao, but the Emperor Taishang took it out from the Taimiao, but he didn't dare to say that he was blaspheming the temple, who dared to say this kind of thing?

"My father used this sign as a basis to ask me to accept the request of my ancestors and ancestors, immediately stop destroying the country, and start negotiating with Western Xia, I can't bear this pressure!"

At this time, Gao Shen said: "Your Majesty Weichen has a plan for both. ”

Zhao Gou perked up and hurriedly said, "Prime Minister Gao, please say, what is the best of both worlds?" “

Gao Shen smiled slightly: "Your Majesty officially issued an order to suspend the attack on Xingqing Mansion, and at the same time send the negotiating minister to Xixia, and then Your Majesty will use the flying pigeon to pass the secret decree, so that Li Yanqing will immediately attack and destroy Xixia, and this Xixia will go to Bashu and Guanzhong, and it will take more than 20 days at the earliest, and wait for the negotiation envoy to arrive in Xixia, and the Western Xia will have been destroyed by then." “

This is indeed a good way, it depends on whether Li Yanqing can destroy Western Xia in the shortest possible time.

Zhao thought for a moment and said, "I'm afraid that my father will also ask me to send a message to Li Yanqing." ”

"It's simple, Li Yanqing didn't receive the pigeon letter, in such a distant place, it is normal for the pigeon letter to be lost."

Fan Zhixu added with a smile next to him: "If you want them to have nothing to say, just do something at the Bashu pigeon letter transfer station, so that they don't receive this letter, of course Xixia can't receive it." ”

The three of them discussed for a moment, and immediately formed a complete plan.

Zhao Gou immediately issued an order, suspended the attack on Xingqing Mansion, suggested that the two sides of Song and Xia hold peace talks, ordered Gao Shen to negotiate formally, Fan Zongyin as the deputy envoy for negotiations, and immediately set off for Western Xia with more than a dozen ministers.

At the same time, he secretly ordered Li Yanqing to immediately destroy Western Xia.

Early the next morning, at the suggestion of Lu Yihao, Zhao Gou wrote another edict, ordering the Privy Council to immediately send it to Western Xia in the form of a pigeon letter.

But just the day before, Fan Zhixu also used the form of a pigeon letter to secretly order the Chengdu prefect Wei Jin to intercept the edict of the Son of Heaven transmitted by the Privy Council in advance, so that the Chengdu pigeon letter transfer station did not receive this edict.

But Zhao Gou still underestimated his father Zhao Ji, Zhao Ji was treacherous and slippery, he understood Zhao Gou's intentions, and delayed the time on the way, he immediately asked people to send his own edict to Qin Hui with carrier pigeons, so that Qin Hui, who was patrolling in the northwest, immediately rushed to Western Xia to prevent Li Yanqing from attacking Xingqing Mansion.

For a time, the pigeon letters were flying, and a race against time to destroy the country and save the country was being staged.

...........

But whether it is Zhao Gou's destruction of the country, or Zhao Ji's salvation, in fact, there is no meaning, the real initiative is in the hands of Li Yanqing, and the final fate of Western Xia is also in the hands of Li Yanqing, even if Zhao Gou finally succumbs to the pressure of his father and has to ask Li Yanqing to stop attacking Western Xia, Li Yanqing will not accept it, as the so-called general is outside, the monarch's order is not subject to it, he is completely in accordance with his own will to control the rhythm of the war, control the outcome of the war.

Li Yanqing would never give Western Xia any more chances.

The day after the negotiation with the Western Xia broke down, Li Yanqing sent cavalry to shoot letters and arrows to the city, and issued an ultimatum to Li Qianshun, the king of the Western Xia, demanding that they leave the city and surrender within three days, otherwise the Song army would enter the city and confiscate all their property, and at the same time, the lives of the Western Xia monarchs and their families could not be guaranteed.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed, and the Western Xia remained silent, without any reply, but Xingzhou City was in full swing under the arrangement of Brother Richard, and carried out various arrangements to defend the city, they demolished the houses, took the big stone as a stone, cut off the beams of the house for rolling wood, and collected all kinds of weapons and pig iron in the people, requisitioned all kinds of craftsmen, and went all out to build all kinds of weapons and heavy trebuchets.

But Li Yanqing would not give Western Xia time to prepare for war, and as soon as the three days passed, the war officially began.

Li Yanqing still chose to attack the city at night, this is because his soldiers have carried out long-term night combat training, including this time, his soldiers also actively carry out adaptive night combat training, that is, to adapt to the terrain and climate of Western Xia, but mainly to adapt to the architectural style and city structure of Western Xia.

50,000 soldiers carried out night combat training in Lingzhou City, Lingzhou City was built in imitation of Xingzhou City, the streets and alleys and the structure of houses are very similar to Xingzhou City, nearly 10 days of actual combat training, so that the Song army has achieved extremely ideal training results.

At the beginning of the night, the Song army camp slowly opened, a team of soldiers wearing iron helmets and iron armor walked out of the camp neatly, they held short spears and shields, every ten people in a row, the pace was neat and powerful, after the five thousand troops walked, a huge object appeared, this is the Song army's super giant trebuchet, each trebuchet is as high as four zhang, one zhang higher than the city wall, the long throwing pole is enough for eight zhang, it takes a hundred soldiers to pull.

Ten giant trebuchets lined up in a long procession, and below them were thirty strong oxen pulling, making them walk slowly, and in front and behind were mighty soldiers, constantly shouting slogans, and the low sound of horns was constantly blowing in the procession, urging the soldiers forward.

Li Yanqing invested 80,000 troops to participate in tonight's decisive battle, and as the 80,000 army marched towards Xingqing City, a few miles away, the final battle against Western Xia finally kicked off.