Just thinking about it, Cao Meng led a group of cavalry from the west gate, and saluted Li Yanqing on the horse: "Qiyu Dutong, the suppression on the outskirts of the city has ended, more than 1,300 people have been captured, and the other deserters have been killed, and only a few have escaped." ”

"What about the enemy general?" Li Yanqing raised his gaze and looked at Cao Meng sharply.

Cao Meng's face suddenly swollen red, and he said for a while: "The deputy governor of the enemy army was killed by random arrows, and after the governor was captured, he found that it was just a small soldier, and the enemy governor disguised himself as a small soldier and escaped. ”

Li Yanqing glanced at him and said coldly: "It's normal for the enemy's main general to escape, I won't blame you, but I want to remind you that in the future, when you report the military situation, you must report to the general first, and then report to the army, and the priority cannot be reversed." ”

Cao Meng's face was full of shame, "Humble duty knows mistakes!" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, and said to Sima Han Xianglin, who accompanied the army: "Collect the property looted by the enemy last night, return them to the residents of the city, and all the captured prisoners of war who participated in the rape and looting last night, regardless of whether he is from the Western Xia Han or not, will be beheaded!" ”

"Obey!"

Han Xianglin hurried away, but Wang Gui muttered on the side: "The looted property is better rewarded to the brothers!" ”

Li Yanqing patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "The goal of our expedition to Western Xia this time is to destroy the country, it is to destroy the country of Western Xia, and you can't kill all the party members, since you can't kill them, then change your thinking and turn them into Song Min, as long as you regard them as Song Min, then all doubts will be solved." ”

"Is it possible to treat them as Song Min?" Wang Gui's mind still didn't react.

"Maybe not now, but what about ten or twenty years from now? We must not be fooled by the situation in front of us, we must consider what will happen twenty years from now, the war will only be a few years, but the hatred will be remembered for a lifetime, remember my words. ”

Wang Gui scratched his head, but still smiled bitterly: "The lowly will resolutely obey the orders of the capital." ”

Li Yanqing didn't force him to understand his words, after all, it was still too difficult for them to understand political things, as Wang Gui said, as long as they resolutely obeyed their orders.

..........

Two days after the Song army captured Xiazhou, Richard led 30,000 Western Xia reinforcements to arrive at the Tiemen Pass about 350 miles away from Xiazhou, the army did not stop, and continued to advance rapidly in the direction of Xiazhou City, Richard Brother had learned on the way that the main force of the Song army had passed the news of the Hengshan Grand Canyon, he was anxious, and he must rush to enter Xiazhou before the Song army attacked Xiazhou, as long as he kept Xiazhou City, he had a fifty percent chance of holding Western Xia.

But if the city of Xiazhou is lost, the Song army can take Xiazhou as the foundation and drive westward for a long time, all the strategic defenses of Western Xia will disappear, and there will be no danger to defend, and the national strength of Western Xia will not be able to support it for a few years.

Brother Richard did not allow the army to rest, and rushed all the way to the east, and he also scolded Li Anren, the king of Pu, all the way, the intelligence battalion of Western Xia had been controlled by Jiao Yanjian, and it was very tight, and it could also grasp the movements of the Song army from time to time, but since three years ago, after Li Anren took away the intelligence power from Jiao Yanjian, the intelligence spies of Western Xia began to decline rapidly.

This time, they actually hurriedly sent intelligence to Xingqing Mansion after the Song army began to assemble in Yan'an Mansion, before Li Yanqing had been preparing for a few months, what did they do? Li Yanqing recruited people on a large scale half a month ago, why didn't they report it?

This is the good thing that Li Anren did, constantly inserting his cronies into important positions in the Song Dynasty, and these cronies were more mainly collecting wealth than intelligence, which completely ruined the intelligence network that the Western Xia spent a hundred years to build, and this time the Western Xia army was so passive, because the intelligence of Mrs. Jingzhaofu did not keep up in time, if the intelligence could be warned five to ten days in advance, the result would be very different.

After leaving the Iron Gate Pass for about one hundred and fifty miles, the team stopped, and a defeated army of more than 100 people came in front, led by the governor Sajin, this news made Brother Richard fall into the abyss, and Sajin appeared in front of his eyes, which soon meant that Xiazhou was lost?

After a while, the soldier brought Sa Jin to Richard Brother Warhorse, and Sa Jin crawled on the ground and wept bitterly, "The lowly post has recruited 10,000 soldiers from the city, but the Song army is too strong, their trebuchet is higher than the city of Xiazhou, and the city wall that collapsed directly with earth-shaking thunder, 10,000 recruits took the lead in escaping, which made the army's heart collapse, and the lowly post has gone all out, but it really can't resist it!" ”

Brother Richard shook his head slowly, "I never ask about the process when I lead the troops, I just care about the result, the court handed over Xiazhou City to you, but you lost it, what kind of crime do you think you should be guilty of?" ”

Sa Jin's lips moved, and he was about to argue, but Brother Richard shouted: "Someone! Drag him down and behead him. ”

Several wolf-like soldiers rushed over, grabbed Sa Jin and dragged him down, Sa Jin shouted: "I'm not guilty, no one can hold Xiazhou, you can't hold it, you can't kill me!" ”

Brother Richard waved his hand coldly, "Chop!" ”

Sa Jin cursed desperately, and in a moment, the sound suddenly stopped, and the soldier quickly delivered a tray with the head of Sa Jin.

Brother Richard's evil breath in his heart disappeared a little, in fact, he also knew that the loss of Xiazhou could not be blamed entirely on the gold, but if he didn't kill the gold, how could he explain to the Son of Heaven, Xiazhou was lost, and the Son of Heaven didn't know what to be angry about?

Richard then ordered: "The army rests on the spot!" ”

The 30,000 army led by him included 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, and there were 3,000 camels carrying supplies, it was spring, there was enough grass on both sides of the Tula River, and the forage for the horses did not need to be considered for a while, and the food carried by the 3,000 camels could support the soldiers for about half a month, even if they could not capture Xiazhou, their army could cross the Gobi Desert in the north and return to Xingqing Province.

Brother Richard asked a few deserters to come up, and carefully asked them about the situation of the Song army's attack on Xiazhou, and the result also made Brother Richard secretly frightened, the Song army actually used the earth-shaking thunder to directly blow up the city of Xiazhou, you must know that he has also done experiments, the earth-shaking thunder made by Xixia cannot collapse the city at all, unless it is five simultaneous explosions within the city wall, but they have not mastered the technology of this synchronous explosion, as long as one explodes first, the other four will be blown up immediately and become squibs.

Moreover, the earth-shaking thunder in Western Xia is very unreliable, only four of the ten earth-shaking thunders can successfully explode at most, and the other six are dumb mines, which makes the military have no confidence, and they also know that it is a gunpowder formula problem, and the ordnance supervisor said three years ago that it will be successful soon, but it has not succeeded so far, and it is useless for the Son of Heaven to even change the three ordnance superintendents.

Brother Richard paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands, how to fight this battle, the other side has 100,000 troops, and they only have 30,000 troops, of course, it is not impossible to defeat the Song army with 30,000 troops, there are 20,000 cavalry in his 30,000 army, and it is the Iron Harrier Cavalry, of course, it is not the real Iron Harrier Cavalry, the real Iron Harrier Cavalry is the heavy infantry, and this cavalry is a cavalry army, also known as the Pop Xi Army, which is only slightly inferior to the Iron Harrier Cavalry, but it is also a very strong army.

But the problem is that the Song army is willing to fight head-on with him, in Li Chage's memory, it seems that Li Yanqing has never fought with the enemy army on a large scale, at least not with the Jin soldiers, they all rely on defending the city to consume the other party, is this time Li Yanqing going to defend Xiazhou City, exhaust his military rations, and force himself to retreat?

But after thinking about it, Richard found that he really had no choice, the initiative was not in his hands, he could only follow Li Yanqing to confront and buy time for the imperial court to integrate various tribes and jointly send troops.

Early the next morning, the Western Xia army, which had rested all night, began to reorganize its troops and horses and prepare to set off, at this moment, the rear scouts came with the news that Tiemen Pass was attacked by a Song army, which surprised Richard, and he immediately understood.

Tiemen Pass is actually the intersection of three roads, one along the northern foot of Hengshan, and the other two are the main roads from Xiazhou to Xingqing Mansion, needless to say, this Song army must have come along the northern foot of Hengshan, captured Longzhou, Hongzhou and Yanzhou, and finally occupied Tiemenguan, which was empty, and it was reasonable.

Of course, Brother Li knew the intention of the Song army to capture Tiemen Pass, Li Yanqing wanted to annihilate his entire army between Xiazhou and Tiemen Pass, of course, he went back across the next door, which meant that he could only attack Xiazhou for seven days at most, otherwise with his remaining military rations, he would not be able to pass through the Gobi region, which was uninhabited for thousands of miles.

Brother Richard secretly admired in his heart, this Li Yanqing was indeed good at grasping the weakness of the enemy, and his weakness was insufficient supplies.

He will either withdraw his troops immediately now, or go to Xiazhou to look for opportunities.

Brother Richard had no choice, so he had to cheer up and lead 30,000 troops to kill in the direction of Xiazhou.