This Yang Zhaofang was a Langzhong of the Ministry of Industry in the Western Xia, who was in charge of the construction and maintenance of the bridge in the city of Xixia, and was dismissed from his official post last year because of a bridge collapse incident, and was idle in his hometown in Shunzhou.

Li Yanqing looked at him and smiled: "Are you Han?" ”

"Under the grandfather, the grandfather is Song Min, and now the villain is a Western Xia person."

Li Yanqing nodded, it seems that this person still has a strong sense of belonging to Xixia, but Li Yanqing doesn't care, he smiled again: "I came to you because I wanted to ask for something." ”

"Don't dare, Li Jingluo asked, and the villain knew everything."

"That's right, when we were repairing Xiazhou City, we found that the mortar between the big stones of the city wall was weathered, and the entire city wall was piled up between the stones, which was very unreliable, but the city wall of the Song Dynasty did not have this situation, what is going on?"

Yang Zhaohe sighed, "I know very well what the envoy said, I was dismissed because of the collapse of a bridge, and the reason for the collapse of this bridge is the weathering of the mortar you mentioned, which is very common in Western Xia. ”

"But according to my craftsmen, you didn't use rice milk when you built the city, but just mixed lime with sand as mud, is that true?"

Yang Zhaohe smiled bitterly, "Xixia does not produce rice, it uses batter, but the adhesion of the batter is not enough, this is not the main reason, but the wind and sand in Xixia are large, the climate is dry, and the building is easy to weather, so the city wall generally has to be rebuilt every thirty years, but due to the influence of financial resources, only the city wall of Xingqing Mansion can do this, and other cities may be once in fifty years, or even never rebuilt, such as Xiazhou City, the last time it was rebuilt was sixty years ago." ”

"What about Lingzhou and Jingzhou?"

Yang Zhaohe was silent for a moment and said, "Is the envoy looking for the weakness of the city wall?" ”

Li Yanqing stared at him sharply, "You don't want to say that I'm not reluctant, but this is your chance, after the fall of Western Xia, we will definitely reuse a group of local Han officials, you think about it yourself!" ”

After being silent for a long time, Yang Zhaohe sighed and said: "The middle of the Lingzhou city wall is filled with sand, even if a layer of big stones collapses outside, it is sand pouring down, but the city wall at the city gate is hollow, and it is supported by wood inside, it has been more than fifty years, almost sixty years, it is very rotten, and Jingzhou is the same, I wrote a report last year, asking for the rebuilding of Lingzhou and Jingzhou, but I was dismissed before I received a response." ”

"Is there a weakness in the walls of Xingqing Mansion?" Li Yanqing looked at him again and asked.

Yang Zhaohe nodded, "There are also weaknesses, if you can really attack the city of Xingqing Mansion, I will give it all." ”

"Alright! Mr. Yang, please go down and rest first. ”

The soldiers took Yang Zhaofang down, and Liu Jian smiled: "Dutong really doesn't plan to use the siege ladder?" ”

Li Yanqing smiled faintly, "If the Jin soldiers have our earth-shattering thunder, I don't think they will use the siege ladder again!" ”

.........

At night, a mile outside Lingzhou City, dozens of black shadows appeared, they moved quickly, their movements were vigorous, carrying several huge earth-shattering thunders to the south gate of Lingzhou step by step, and two miles away, 50,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry were ready, Jingzhao Army has been practicing night combat skills for a year, almost every soldier can fight in night battle, and night combat is precisely the weakness of the northern nomads.

Li Yanqing also rode on the war horse, looking at Xiping City from afar, once the city was attacked, the two sides would mainly fight in the streets, and the cavalry was very inconvenient in the street battles, but the infantry was more advantageous.

For this northern expedition, Li Yanqing also made full preparations, the soldiers not only long-term training night fighting, but also carried out intensive training in street fighting, including short-shot crossbow arrows specially used for street fighting, this kind of crossbow arrows kill the distance is only 50 steps, the advantage is that it is small and convenient, can be quickly wound up to shoot, in addition, the iron fire thunder is also a sharp weapon for street fighting, as well as poisonous smoke bombs, this kind of poisonous smoke bombs are invented in the early Northern Song Dynasty, which is the size of a teacup, with arsenic and wolf poison in it, and will produce poisonous smoke after burning.

It's just that the early gunpowder is not good, so that the poisonous smoke bomb is not effective, this time the Song army improved high-efficiency burning gunpowder and ground into fine powder wolf poison arsenic mixed together, burning will produce a large amount of poisonous smoke, it will be a huge disaster for the enemy hiding in the room, it is an early chemical weapon.

In addition to the 50,000 infantry, Li Yanqing also deployed 20,000 cavalry on the periphery, and their task was to kill the escaped soldiers of the Western Xia Army and prevent them from escaping back to Xingqing Mansion.

Thirty soldiers carrying two explosion-type earth-shattering thunderbolts, are moving quickly in the direction of the city gate, compared with the city of the Song Dynasty, one of the biggest differences is that the city of Xixia does not have a moat, some cities will dig a trench, in which spikes and wooden stakes are placed, and some cities do not even have a moat.

Lingzhou and Jingzhou behind belong to the latter, he is not like Weizhou, Xiazhou like important border cities, nor like Xingqing Mansion capital, so they did not dig a trench in front of the city, even the city gate is relatively old, what the Western Xia army can do is to block the city gate with a boulder, even if the city gate is blown up, there is still a stronger boulder behind.

Thirty soldiers had already entered within fifty paces of the city wall, and the moonlight was good tonight, and the defenders on the city wall could already spot the Song army.

There are about 5,000 defenders on the city wall at night, and the main general in the city is still Brother Richard, the king of Jin.

Li Qianshun originally planned to appoint Li Zhizhong, the king of Wei, to guard Lingzhou, but Li Zhizhong and his brother Li Renzong, the king of Pu, have become the most trusted right-hand men of Li Qianshun, the son of heaven, and have faintly surpassed Brother Li Cha.

But unfortunately, Li Zhizhong is currently coordinating the tribes to send troops, and he can't rush to Lingzhou, and Brother Richard happens to be playing a role in Lingzhou, Li Qian decided to use Brother Richard again by the way, so that he can hold Lingzhou no matter what.

Entering within fifty paces, the thirty soldiers were more careful, they were draped in the same color as the big land, and they could not be seen even during the day when they were prostrate on the ground, and the thirty soldiers moved slowly, and a group of soldiers at the head of the city stood in front of the battlements, but they did not find the Song soldiers who were gradually approaching the city wall.

The distance of fifty steps climbed for a quarter of an hour, and finally the two soldiers jumped up, ran to the city gate, and stood close to the city gate, two earth-shaking thunderbolts immediately rolled over, and they used two eighty-pound earth-shaking thunderbolts to top the city walls on both sides of the city gate with tripods, this is the hollow city that Yang Zhaohe said, which looks solid, but in fact it is in danger.

Two soldiers worked nervously by the city wall, while a dozen or so soldiers outside were vigilantly guarding them with crossbow arrows, fearing that if they were discovered, a sentry would slide down the rope at the head of the city.

At this time, the fire under the city wall was lit, and it was the soldiers who lit the fire, and it was immediately discovered by the soldiers on the head of the city, and the head of the city immediately shouted and shouted,

The two soldiers lit the fire rope, turned around and ran against the city wall, which was an effective way to use the city wall to block the shock wave of the earth-shattering thunder, and it was not very convenient to release arrows at the head of the city, and the eighteen soldiers also jumped up and ran against the city wall as well.

At this time, the head of the city began to release arrows, and one soldier fell to the ground with a scream, and he was hit in the back by an arrow, and two soldiers hurriedly carried him and ran wildly.

Just as the soldiers at the head of the city rushed in the direction of the city gate tower from all directions, two extremely dull explosions exploded, the flames soared into the sky, the smoke billowed out, countless bricks and stones soared into the air, and the entire city wall shook, as if a small earthquake had occurred.

Twenty Song soldiers hurriedly lay on the ground, holding their heads in their hands, and no one in the city cared about them, and the soldiers were terrified, and many of them fell to the ground unsteadily.

When the smoke cleared, I saw that the entire city wall at the city gate had disappeared, leaving only a small section of the city wall in the middle that was supported by the boulder behind it, and a gap of more than ten zhang long appeared on both sides, and there were ruins and broken walls everywhere.

At this time, suddenly the war drums rumbled in the distance, and the Song army, which had been waiting for a long time, came out in an all-round way, killing Lingzhou City, five thousand cavalry rushed in front, and it only took a moment to kill the front, hundreds of Western Xia soldiers were carrying sandbags, trying to plug the gap, but it was too late, the cavalry took the lead and rushed directly into the gap.

Xiping Mansion was lost.......