After the Song army captured Weicheng, they went all the way north, Li Yanqing divided his troops into two routes, he ordered Wang Gui and Cao Meng to lead 8,000 cavalry to attack Xiping Mansion 100 miles away, and Liu Ziyu led 3,000 troops to attack Mingsha County in the west.

As for the Western Xia, there are still some small military cities near Xiping Mansion, such as Bole City, Yaowu City and Pingshuo City, etc., these small military cities are actually supply points along the way, there are a lot of grain, grass and water sources, and the defenders are only about 100 people, which can be easily captured.

Li Yanqing immediately led an army of 10,000 to Xiping Mansion, only one hour later than Wang Gui.

Western Xia claims to be 500,000 troops, but the standing army is actually only 200,000, in addition to the 80,000 main army taken by Richard brother, there are 80,000 Iron Harrier troops guarding the capital, and then 20,000 troops guarding Xiazhou, and 8,000 troops guarding Weizhou-Ta Cutting Village-Xiangyikou, and the remaining 12,000 troops are scattered in small military cities around the country.

After crossing Weizhou, it entered the hinterland of Western Xia, where the heavy troops were concentrated in various parts of the frontier, while the troops in the states and counties in the hinterland were almost non-existent, and only a few hundred people were responsible for maintaining order.

The Song army captured Weicheng, which was equivalent to capturing the gate of Western Xia, and then went north all the way like a bamboo, successively captured Mingsha County, Lingzhou County, Xiping Prefecture and more than a dozen small military cities, this afternoon, Li Yanqing led an army of 10,000 into Xiping Mansion.

Xiping Mansion is the second largest province in Western Xia after Xingqing Mansion, which is also the largest copper and silver producing area and salt production area in Western Xia, and more than 100,000 laborers and their families who were captured from the Song Dynasty in Western Xia were forced to become mining slaves and salt slaves, and have been mining and mining salt for Western Xia for generations.

Perhaps the Western Xia never thought that the Song army would attack Xiping Mansion, and the Western Xia garrison in Xiping Mansion was only 1,300 people, except for the 300 people guarding the city gate in the city, the remaining 1,000 soldiers were deployed in the settlements of mine slaves and salt slaves, responsible for guarding the mine slaves and salt slaves.

The state of Xiping Mansion is Xiping County, also called Lingzhou City, it was the old capital of Xixia, with a population of more than 200,000, mainly distributed in a tribal way on a large grassland on both sides of the Lingzhou River, there are 80,000 civilians in Lingzhou City, mainly inhabited by nobles and Xixia commoners.

The business in the city is prosperous, the two sides of Lingzhou Avenue that runs through the north and south are full of dense shops, taverns, foot shops, green buildings, shops, etc., among the shops, there are grocery stores, southern goods stores, fur shops, medicinal herb shops, jewelry stores, printing shops, literary bookstores, silk shops, cloth shops, and various stalls selling meat, vegetables and other ingredients, one by one, all kinds of signboards and flags hang all over the street, it is particularly prosperous.

However, as the Song army captured Lingzhou City, the prosperity of the city seemed to disappear overnight, every household closed its door, Lingzhou Street was deserted, not a pedestrian could be seen, flocks of birds and birds foraged on the street, and only Song soldiers patrolled the street.

The prefect of Xiping Mansion is called Li Tao, and he is also a member of the Xixia royal family, proficient in Chinese, although the Xixia founded the Dang Xiang Wen and the Dang Xiang language, but the scholars and nobles of the Western Xia generally have to learn Chinese, the government is located in the north of the city, Li Yanqing is surrounded by hundreds of guards, and enters the palace to rest.

"Can the prefect catch it?" Li Yanqing asked with a smile.

A partial general hurriedly saluted and said: "This is a night raid, we blocked the north and south gates, but none of them ran away, and the prefect Li Tao was naturally caught." ”

"Bring him up, and I'll ask him."

The general hesitated for a moment and said: "Qiyu Dutong, this prefect drew his sword and killed himself, but he was rescued by the soldiers in time, but his throat was injured, and I am afraid that he will not be able to talk to Dutong." ”

"Are there any officials who know the situation?"

"Yes! The lord Bo Bai should be a Han Chinese, and he knows more about the situation. ”

"Bring him to me!"

After a while, two soldiers escorted the lord Bo Bai Ying to see Li Yanqing, if it weren't for the fact that this person was wearing a Western Xia official uniform, Li Yanqing really thought that he was an official of the Song Dynasty, he was about thirty years old, he looked gentle and elegant, and there was no shadow of a party member in his appearance, the party members were generally high cheekbones, and most of the men had a mustache.

Li Yanqing's prestige has long been spread throughout the Western Xia, is the second Song army commander after Di Qing to make the Western Xia people feared, I heard that it was Li Yanqing who interrogated himself, Bai Ying looked very nervous, his legs trembled slightly, he walked into the hall and knelt down and kowtowed: "The lowly Bai should meet the commander!" ”

"You are the master Bai Ying?" Li Yanqing took a sip of tea and asked lightly.

"The villain is exactly!"

"Where are you from?"

"The villain is from Xiazhou......."

Li Yanqing was stunned, "It turns out that you are not Han?" ”

Bai Ying hurriedly explained: "The villain's grandfather was a Han Chinese, he was exiled to Western Xia during the reign of Shenzong, and three generations have lived in Western Xia for fifty years, and the villain has already been naturalized in Western Xia, and is no longer a Song person. ”

"You speak Chinese very well, why?"

Maybe Li Yanqing's tone was more relaxed, Bai Ying's fear gradually disappeared, and his answer became calm, "The villain is studying and studying in Xixia Taixue, where basically Chinese is spoken in Chinese, and the villain's family speaks Chinese, so the villain speaks Chinese well." ”

"How many people are there in Xiping County?" Li Yanqing flipped through the account book on the table and asked.

"There are about 84,000 people, more than half of whom are engaged in commerce, and half are engaged in agriculture, farming outside the city."

Li Yanqing frowned, "But as far as I know, Xiping Mansion is the largest copper mine and salt producing area in Western Xia, why is no one engaged in mining?" ”

"Back in the capital, the salt wells in the mines were all mined by slaves, and they were made up in a separate book, and they were not counted among the residents."

"Are they all Song slaves?"

"Most of them are, and there are a small number of Qiang people."

Li Yanqing's gaze began to become sharp, and he continued to ask, "Is there a Song slave in the city?" ”

Bai Ying felt Li Yanqing's anger, and he said tremblingly: "Of course there are, almost every household has them, Song slaves are very cheap, and there is no need to pay wages, almost all of the big families in the city have hundreds of people, mainly female slaves." ”

"Where is the inventory of copper ingots in Xiping County?"

"Some of them are in the city, but most of them are still in the treasury under the White Copper Mountain, where the White Copper Village is also the place where Song slaves are most concentrated, and there are almost 100,000 people living there."

Li Yanqing waved his hand, and asked Bai Ying to take him down, and at this time, Sima Liupei of the Song Army hurriedly walked in, bowed down and said: "Qiyu Dutong, I have already led the army to count the materials in the warehouse in the city, including 200,000 stones of grain, 180,000 quintals of forage, and about 40,000 pairs of armor, as well as 1.2 million catties of copper ingots and 500,000 catties of silver ingots, all of which have been counted and registered. ”

"Well done!"

Li Yanqing approved, and said to him again: "Next, I will give you another task, give me an inventory of the Song slaves in the whole city, all the families who own Song slaves in everything, all the property will be confiscated, each Song slave will be given freedom first, and the compensation standard will be decided afterwards, and the Xixia people in the whole city will be escorted south, and those who dare to resist will be killed." ”

Liu Pei shuddered, "Is Dutong going to plunder the population and wealth of Xiping Mansion?" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "Western Xia must have plundered a large number of people from Xihe Road, and the two sides will be able to exchange at that time." ”

"The lowly position understands, but the lowly position needs the assistance of the army."

"I know, I asked General Yang Zaixing to lead 5,000 people to assist you in this task."

Li Yanqing immediately ordered someone to call Yang Zaixing and Cao Meng, instructed Yang Zaixing a few words, and handed him the order arrow, and Yang Zaixing and Sima Liupei immediately said goodbye and left.

At this time, Li Yanqing said to Cao Meng again: "In addition to the 80,000 people in Lingzhou City, there are more than 100,000 people in various tribes in Xiping Mansion, and they also have a lot of wealth and Song slaves, you can lead 5,000 cavalry to sweep through various tribes, release Song slaves, and plunder all wealth and population, or that sentence, those who dare to resist will be killed!" ”

Cao Meng shouted excitedly, "Obey the order!" ”

After Li Yanqing finished arranging the plundering plan, he immediately led 5,000 troops to leave Lingzhou City and hurried towards Baitong Mountain, thirty miles northeast of Lingzhou City.

..........