Xixia is a country where agriculture and animal husbandry coexist, agriculture is mainly concentrated on both sides of the Yellow River, where the water source is abundant, the land is fertile, from the Han and Tang dynasties to cultivate, opened up a large number of farmland, mainly by the Han and a part of the Dangxiang people who turned to agriculture to cultivate, and the animal husbandry of the Western Xia is more developed, mainly concentrated in three places, one is the Hetao area in the north, one is at the foot of Helan Mountain, the other is the Hexi Corridor, all the fertile pastures are almost divided by the eight departments of the party.

The Eighth Department of the Dangxiang has its own pastures in the Hetao Plain and the Hexi Corridor, but their tribal headquarters are concentrated in the grasslands of nearly 1,000 miles at the foot of Helan Mountain.

Since a fierce battle between the allied forces of the tribes and the Song army, neither side continued to fight, maintaining a state of confrontation, which has lasted for nearly ten days.

In the afternoon of this day, a 20,000-strong Song cavalry appeared at the edge of the pasture at the foot of Helan Mountain, which was about 300 miles away from the camp of the Western Xia Army, and needed to cross the Yellow River to arrive.

In the distance is a large tent, about a thousand tops, here is just a branch of the small tribe of the fine seal, composed of thousands of herdsmen, when 20,000 Song cavalry appeared a few miles away, the herdsmen suddenly found them, everyone did not pay attention at first, but soon they realized the danger, the herdsmen were terrified, quickly fled north.

At this time, the cavalry of the Song army quickly launched, swept to the camp station, like a black storm swept in, the cavalry of the Song army was ruthless, and there was no mercy, more than 1,000 herdsmen who had no time to escape were all killed, and the hundreds of thousands of sheep and goat's milk they raised also became the military food of the Song army, and the army immediately set fire to the big tent and killed the next pasture.

In just one day and one night, eight of the fourteen tribes of the Seal Department were killed, thousands of herdsmen were killed, and the pastures were full of flames and thick smoke.

The big chief of the fine seal department is called the fine seal black tower, seeing that the fine seal department is about to be exterminated, and the army of the fine seal department is fighting with the Song army in Jingzhou hundreds of miles away, the fine seal black tower is terrified, and urgently sent people to divide the troops into two ways, and rushed to Xingqing Mansion and Jingzhou for help as quickly as possible.

Next, the other two relatively large tribes, Fei Tingbu and Xiangli Department, were also bloodily killed by the cavalry of the Song army, with heavy casualties and huge losses.

In the palace of Xingqing Mansion, Li Qianshun was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, going back and forth in the study, he had received urgent requests for help from the party departments, and the cavalry of the Song army began to slaughter the herdsmen of the party departments, which was equivalent to pumping the hamstrings of the Western Xia State, once the party departments were slaughtered, the foundation of the Western Xia country collapsed.

Of course, there are more than 100,000 farming party members of the party, which is also the foundation of the party people, the 80,000 standing army of Western Xia is recruited from the agricultural party, but these standing armies have been wiped out, and only 10,000 of the most elite cavalry are left to defend the capital.

Li Qianshun slowly stopped, sighed and said to Yinggui and Jiao Yan: "Li Yanqing is ruthless, even the old and weak women and children are not spared, and we have no soldiers to save, what can we do?" ”

Jiao Yan said anxiously: "Li Yanqing sent troops to attack the Dangxiang tribe, obviously disturbing the Jingzhou army, once the military heart is out of control, the tribal armies are likely to kill back, and the coalition army will collapse, Weichen suggested that His Majesty immediately send the Iron Harrier cavalry to Helan Mountain to stop the Song army, and at the same time appease the Jingzhou army." ”

"No!"

Yinggui immediately objected: "The Iron Harrier cavalry is the guard army of His Majesty's Imperial Palace, and it must not leave the capital, and it is useless for three thousand Iron Harrier cavalry to kill He Nanshan, and there is no certainty of victory in the face of 20,000 Song cavalry, but it is easy to be attacked by the Song army halfway, if the army goes too much, then the capital will have no defense, and 10,000 Song troops can capture our capital." ”

Li Qianshun also felt that Yinggui was reasonable, the iron harrier really couldn't leave the capital, and he couldn't leave his side.

Jiao Yanting saw that Yinggui was always against him, and he was really annoyed in his heart, so he asked coldly: "Then Yingshang said what should we do now?" Will Song Jun be allowed to exterminate all party departments? ”

Yinggui pondered for a moment and said to Li Qianshun: "Your Majesty, it is better to stabilize the morale of the army first, and tell them that Your Majesty has sent 10,000 cavalry to Helan Mountain, and ask them to fight the Song army with peace of mind." ”

Li Qianshun and Jiao Yanting's eyes widened at the same time, isn't this just deceiving the former soldiers?

Jiao Yanting suddenly became anxious, "The former soldiers are not blind and deaf, is there anyone to save their families, will they know?" Doing so will only make them completely disappointed with the Imperial Court, and will hasten the disintegration of the coalition. ”

Yinggui also said-for-tat: "Then what do you say?" Each tribe could have gathered two or three hundred thousand troops before, but why was it only willing to take out a hundred thousand troops this time? They obviously have an army to protect themselves, but they have to ask the court for help? Doesn't this put the imperial court in a dilemma? They didn't want to send troops to help the court tide over the crisis, and now they were just finding an excuse to recall the army! ”

Jiao Yanting also admitted that Yinggui had a certain amount of truth in what he said, but the problem is that now everyone should take into account the overall situation, instead of only thinking about their own one-third of an acre.

Jiao Yanting said to Li Qianshun again: "Weichen has another way, and that is to replace the defense. ”

Li Qianshun seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw, and hurriedly said: "What replacement defense?" ”

Jiao Yanting said while thinking about it: "The only thing that can still have troops now is the Party Item Department, Tuoba Wanli is still relatively comprehensive, it is better to ask him to send 30,000 troops to guard Xingqing Mansion, and then send 10,000 cavalry from Xingqing Mansion to rescue the various departments of He Nanshan, what does Your Majesty think?" ”

Of course, Li Qianshun also knew the century-old grievances between the Tuoba Department and the Fine Seal Department, and it was indeed impossible for the Tuoba Army to rescue the Fine Seal Tribe, but as Jiao Yanting said, it was indeed a feasible way to let the Tuoba Army defend the city and let the army defending the city rescue the Fine Seal Department.

Yinggui didn't object this time, he had no choice, he had to admit that Jiao Yanting's method was quite feasible.

Li Qianshun saw that Yinggui did not object, so he immediately decided: "Then please ask Jiao Shangshu to go to the Tuoba Department and ask them to send 30,000 troops to guard the capital." ”

Jiao Yanting has a very good relationship with the Tuoba Department, and it is best for him to come forward, Li Qianshun thought of leading the troops to rescue He Nanshan's general, so he said: "Quickly order Li Renzong, the king of Pu, to enter the palace!" ”

.........

Li Renzong accepted the appointment and prepared to lead 10,000 elite cavalry to rush to the rescue of Henan Mountain, but it was impossible for him to send troops immediately, at least until the army of the Tuoba Department crossed the Yellow River and rushed to Xingqing Mansion, they could not leave, otherwise there would be a window period without troops in Xingqing Mansion, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just as Li Renzong was reorganizing his army and preparing to set off, Xingzhou City began to be controlled, only allowed to enter and not to leave, and began to clean up the Han people in the city to prevent the Song army spies from transmitting important information to the Song army.

There is chaos everywhere on the street, at this time the order has just been issued to check the Han people, other measures are being implemented one after another, the Han people in the city are so frightened that they run away from the city with their families, the Xingqing Gate in the south has been closed, and the Han people are not allowed to flee, but it is said that several sub-gates have not conveyed the order to close the city, and the Han people have heard the news and rushed to it.

Wei Ying had been living in the old servant's house for the past few days since Qiao's trading house was seized, and at this time, one of his sources told him an important piece of information that the 10,000 cavalry guarding Xingzhou City were about to rush to Henanshan, and the 30,000 Tuoba troops would defend the city instead.

Wei Ying realized that this news was extremely important, he didn't care about packing his things, and hurriedly ran to the city gate, he just ran onto the street, a guy ran over out of breath, "Shopkeeper Wei, all the city gates are forbidden to go out, only the Northwest Water Gate can go out, and you can't get out if it's too late." ”

"Isn't it possible to go out of the secondary gate?"

"That's fake news, I'll come from the northwest secondary gate, the city gate has long been closed."

Wei Ying turned around and ran in the direction of the northwest water gate, at this time all the city gates received the order to close the city, only allowed to enter and not allowed to go out, all the city gates were crowded with Han people who wanted to go out of the city, shouting, shouting, crying, making a mess.

Xingzhou City also has a Cao River, together with the Yellow River, all over the grain and materials are transported into the city through this Cao River, the water gate imitates the Song Dynasty water gate construction, built two iron gates, as long as the iron gate is put down, the inside and outside ships can not pass.

At this time, dozens of small boats were also crowded in front of the iron gate, and the people on the boats were noisily shouting to get out of the city, and several spear-wielding soldiers stood on either side, arguing with the people on board.

Wei Ying did find an opportunity, although the iron gate had been lowered, but it was not put into the river to the end, but the boat could not get out, he took advantage of the unpreparedness of the people around him, jumped on a boat, turned over and went into the water, he dived from the bottom of the water to the city gate of fifty paces.

The water was crowded with small boats, and no one noticed the situation under the water, Wei Ying quietly changed his breath twice on the shore, and swam under the iron gate with enough breath.

The reason why the iron gate was not completely lowered was that several ships were stuck in the city gate hole, and the soldiers were driving these ships out, so the iron gate inside was lowered, but the iron gate outside was still open, and these ships refused to go out, and everyone was in a stalemate in the city gate hole.

Wei Ying dived dozens of steps in one breath, and when he poked his head out to catch his breath, he was already more than twenty steps outside the city, and he was overjoyed, climbed onto a boat and jumped ashore to run.