Coming to the outside of Xingqing Mansion, Zheng Lang called Guo Kui and Wang Shao.

Even if you arrive at Xingqing Mansion, it may not be so easy to take Xingqing Mansion.

Before the rise of Western Xia, there was also a small town called Huaiyuan Town, which was mainly used for military purposes. Later, Li Deming moved the capital here, carried out a large-scale expansion, and returned eighteen miles in a week. Compared with the eighty-one li of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty and the fifty-eight li of the Song Dynasty, the scale is much smaller. And the fifty-eight-mile-long Kaifeng City can no longer accommodate the people in the city, and it is still expanding outside the city. Strictly speaking, although Chang'an is large, there are many vacant lands in the southern Zhufang, and even cultivated land and a large number of vegetable gardens, the actual area of Kaifeng City is not as large as Chang'an, but the population exceeds that of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty.

But the city with a circumference of eighteen miles is undoubtedly the premier large city in the northwest.

And because there are lakes from the north to the south, the city has to face each other from east to west. Later, Yinchuan still retains the east-west pattern of Western Xia, and there are lakes, but the lakes are far less deep and wide. Of course, in the whole Northwest, without relevant policies, the water and soil are deteriorating rapidly.

The length of the city of eighteen miles is twice the length of the north and south, so six gates were opened, two in the north and south, and one in the east and west. There was a moat ten zhang wide outside the city. The city is modeled after Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty and Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty, divided into dozens of squares, and the residents are densely distributed among the squares. There are also Miyagi buildings, palace halls, government offices, an official handicraft workshop, barracks and warehouses. Coupled with the grain and grass materials prepared in advance, Xingqing Mansion alone can survive independently for several years.

The layout of the whole Xingqing Mansion is not only in the city, but also outside the city, the Gaotai Temple and Zhufutu by the Yellow River fifteen miles east of the city, the Wutaishan Temple in the east of Helan Mountain in the west, the Royal Mausoleum, the Buddha's Temple, and the palace that Yuan Hao repaired for the unmoved clan. There is also a summer palace in the jungle of Shandong. This part of the Liang clan took the initiative to give up and compressed all the troops into the city.

But don't underestimate Xingqing Mansion.

As the political, economic, military and cultural center of Western Xia, it was built taller and stronger than Lingzhou. Thirty years ago, the Liao State attacked Xingqing Mansion unsuccessfully, and Zheng Lang also knew another thing, more than a hundred years later, Genghis Khan besieged Xingqing Mansion four times. In history, the Song Dynasty failed to attack Lingzhou, and now it is ten times more difficult to attack Xingqing Mansion than to attack Lingzhou!

If you take Xingqing Mansion, this battle will be over, but if you don't get it right, you can stalemate in Xingqing Mansion for one year, two years and three years! Don't take a year. Only half a year of stalemate will cause many bad changes.

In October, the Hexi Plain ushered in a heavy snowfall.

On the plus side, it is officially cold at this time, and the temperature may still be seven or eight degrees Celsius during the day, but it will return to below zero at night. The pitiful sun during the day can't melt the ice, whether it's the wide moat outside the city of Xingqing Mansion and the aqueducts. and the lakes, all of which were covered with a thick layer of ice, on which even horses could run. The army of the Song Dynasty could reach the city wall of Xingqing Mansion with a single horse.

There is a downside.

The city was cold, and the river froze. The earth is also frozen hard, don't expect to dig tunnels and bombard the walls.

In the case of low temperatures, the bow and arrow are effective, except around noon. Bows and arrows are less effective in the morning and night, including sharp weapons such as the Divine Arm Bow.

The weather was cold, although the soldiers of the Song Dynasty had cotton clothes to keep out the cold. However, wearing thick clothes affected the flexibility of movement. However, most of the Western Xia soldiers grew up here, and they could fight with a simple animal skin robe, and this cold weather was not good for the enemy.

The northwest road began to be congested with snow and ice, and logistics were becoming more and more difficult.

The Song army set up camp.

On the eighth day of October, the dense Song army Chen soldiers were in the south of Xingqing Mansion.

Zheng Lang began to order: "Except for those who resist, except for those who take in those who take the opportunity to disrupt the security of the city, if the three armies enter the city without a military order, they must not slaughter the people, and those who violate the order will be beheaded." Houses must not be burned, and those who violate the order shall be beheaded. Thou shalt not commit adultery with the daughters of the people, and those who violate the order shall be beheaded, shall not be robbed, shall be beheaded, shall not break into the private houses of the people at will, and shall not take one hundred rods from the people, shall not receive a needle or a penny from the people, and shall not be given a hundred rods to those who violate the order. The three armies read it aloud three times. ”

Since the Song army entered the territory of Western Xia, it has carried out relevant orders. But this time it's stricter.

This is not a weak national policy, if there is resistance, the suppression is also extremely murderous, and even under the developed intelligence network, some Hengshan Qiang who are hostile to the Song Dynasty are deliberately forced to rebel, so as to find an excuse to suppress and lay the foundation for the smooth governance of Western Xia in the future.

But that's only one side of the spectrum.

It is more of a side of grace, in history, the Yuejia army and the Qi family army were strictly disciplined, and they did not commit any crimes against the people, so they won all battles. But those two armies are strange in the entire history of China. Even the Tang army under Pei Xingjian's rule, when it reached the enemy's range, burning, killing, and plundering could not be avoided.

For the time being, it can give the soldiers wealth, increase morale, and pave more grudges for the future.

Now this policy has become stricter, and the three armies in front of the city wall have deliberately recited it three times in unison, which is deliberately for the people in the city to listen to, so that the people in the city will weaken their resistance mentality.

This is very critical, Le Yi led the army of the five countries to attack more than 70 cities in Qi State, leaving only Jimo and Ju two cities, but in the case of the unity of the army and people of Qi State, it was not successful for a long time, and finally had to use various policies to buy the hearts of the people to break the resistance of the soldiers and people of the two cities.

Wang Shao's military ability is not weak, but he believes that he will not surpass Le Yi.

The Song army is very strong, but the strength of the other party must have surpassed the strength of the two cities of Qi back then.

The story of the Fire Bull Formation can't be staged, but God knows what variables will happen after a long time.

And you can't make grudges, after all, Xingqing Mansion is the center of Western Xia, and if Xingqing Mansion is not well governed, it will not be well governed in Western Xia in the future. In the long run, this is also a model, and there will be Yunshuo and Youzhou in the future......

This is the first option.

Also, the Song army was only blocked in front of the southern city wall, and the northern city wall was not enclosed.

If they are all encircled, the remnants of the Western Xia will have to fight to the death, but they will not be surrounded, and it is not easy to say whether they have this heart or not.

And also.

After the military order was announced, the Song army slowly retreated, and did not immediately attack, so the sacrifice would be heavy.

Next, while building siege equipment, the tunnel was excavated on the south bank of the moat. It is doubtful how deep the digging was, but from morning to night, the explosives exploded incessantly. Even yellow powder was used, and every time an explosion was heard, the frozen earth would rise into the sky.

It may not be possible to successfully dig the tunnel under the city wall of Xingqing Mansion in a short time. However, it further weakened the morale of the Western Xia City.

It seems to play this role, but it should not be underestimated.

……

On October 13th, the snow is clear, and the sun shines pink.

After Gao Zunyu checked the equipment, he said to Zheng Lang, Wang Shao, Guo Kui and Li Xian: "Zheng Gong, Zichun, Zhongtong, Zifan, we can attack." ”

Different managers. The center of gravity is also different. Wang Shao is biased towards the military, Zheng Lang is biased towards the rear, and if the battle in the front drags on for a day, the rear will not know how much money it will cost. Years of savings and preparation have long been wiped out because of the war. As the money borrowed from the bank gradually ran out.

The front line is advancing step by step, but several prime ministers in the rear keep writing to Zheng Lang to complain about their grievances.

But this can't be rushed, and if you want to hurry, you can't reach it.

Zheng Lang took Wang Shao, Guo Kui and Li Xian to check the equipment again. Only then was the order given to the official offensive.

First, more than 500 huge towers were introduced, which were equipped with wheels underneath and could be moved, and could accommodate nearly 100 people standing on top. But it wasn't really a hundred soldiers who went up, only a few dozen people went up, and at the same time they brought the Divine Arm Bow up, and they also brought artillery.

They are used to carry out ranged attacks.

The real siege is still the ladder. It turned out that the army had brought many ladders, and a large number of ladders had been rebuilt in the past few days.

But when attacking, it is not divided into two lines, but four lines.

The first line was for the besieging soldiers to push the ladder and attack under the city walls. But there were still three fronts in the rear, one was on the side of the two city gates, prepared a large number of archers and spearmen, to prevent the Tanguts from opening the city gates and coming to a sudden counterattack. The second is to follow closely behind the ladder, with a large number of divine arm bows and all the remaining artillery, taking advantage of the range advantage, to attack the city. There were also stretcher bearers, ready to carry the wounded down. There are a number of other branches of the military. Finally, there are the towers, which mainly occupy a height advantage and make the target more accurate.

But this kind of attack is precisely the most dangerous.

If there is no command ability, so many people are mixed together, and the order is chaotic, maybe you will be defeated.

In fact, if the Song Dynasty does not fall after the Song Dynasty, this attack on Xingqing Mansion is an opportunity to accumulate valuable experience in attacking Youzhou.

Approaching a hundred paces away from the city wall, the Tanguts had already begun to counterattack with strong bows, Zheng Lang waved the flag, and then the horn sounded.

Almost at the same time, an overwhelming array of arrows and crossbows flew towards the city, mixed with a large number of cannonballs in between, and flew towards the city with a whistling sound, but most of them landed outside or inside the city.

But that's it, the advantage of the city walls gradually loses.

Wang Shao looked at the battlefield, his facial expression was both happy and worried, and he said softly: "Gong Zheng, if these weapons are in the hands of the enemy, it will not be good for my court." ”

Now these weapons are conducive to attacking the city, but the Song Dynasty is the main defensive side, that is, if it can occupy the sixteen states of Youyun, it still has to defend. Or attacking the prairie, Wang Shao has some agreement, but Zheng Lang and the scholars and doctors are not very in favor, occupying the prairie, can defeat the enemy, how to govern? Even the Tang Dynasty, which forced the northern Turks to surrender, held it peacefully for decades, fifty or sixty years, and during these fifty or sixty years, there were more or less major battles.

However, Zheng Lang's idea is different from that of other scholars, if science and technology progress a little more, a large number of rifles are available, and even steam trains appear, then whether it is Jurchen or Yuanmeng on the prairie, it is not enough to do harm.

Genghis Khan was a scourge to Europe, but those expeditions also woke Europe up. In short, his expedition actually did more harm than good to Chinese civilization.

Of course, that is the future, and it has little to do with Zheng Lang, what Zheng Lang is doing now is to lay a better foundation for the future.

"Zichun, Zifan, Gao Gong, Zhongtong, you can write a report on the situation of this attack on Xingqing Mansion and present it to the imperial court. The first is to let the imperial court further expand the study of Gewu, only our dynasty technology has been in the leading state, so we are not afraid. The second is to strengthen the secrecy of technology. ”

"Yes, the technology of these weapons must not be lost abroad," Li Xian said.

But on the first day, the Tanguts fought back very bravely.

In the face of the superiority of the Song Dynasty's weapons, they also came up with a way to pile up sandbags behind the city wall, and people crouched behind sandbags or stacks to dodge bows and arrows and cannonballs, further exploiting the advantages of the city wall, and then counterattacking from the bunker.

The bloody battle lasted for a long time, and it was evening. The Song army blew the horn of retreat.

On this day of bloody fighting, both sides suffered heavy casualties, but because of the appearance of various weapons, the besieging side suffered fewer casualties than the defending side.

Zheng Lang did not expect to take Xingqing Mansion in one day, and continued to discuss with the generals that night.

The next day the offensive began again.

On this day, the wind gradually subsided, and another weapon appeared in the Song army, all kinds of airboats, but in general, there was a slight northerly wind, which was not conducive to this primitive bulky airboat floating into the city.

This is to break the morale of the military. More than a dozen airboats floated above the city walls, dropping all kinds of acid water and gunpowder packets, which were not very accurate, and accidentally injured some of the people along the city walls, but then those people fled to the north of the city together. He even accidentally wounded some of his own soldiers.

There were some soldiers in the back who kept carrying the soil out of the tunnel, in fact, the tunnel was still far from the city wall, but how far it was dug up, the Tangut people did not know. There was only one possibility they knew, once they let the Song army dig under the city wall. Blow up the city wall with explosives, the city wall of Xingqing Mansion is built on top of the earth, then the city wall will inevitably collapse.

Almost upper, middle and lower, the three roads launched a threat to Xingqing Mansion.

Half a day later. The Song army again withdrew its troops.

Day 3, Day 4, Day 5!

In fact, the mentality of both sides is the most critical until now.

Just like when Zhao Kuangyi attacked the sixteen states of Youyun. Although there were various reasons for the defeat of the Gaoliang River, if there was no Han Derang, Youzhou would have been taken. Then all kinds of awards were awarded, and the morale was boosted again, and if you take it, you will win it, even if there is a person like Liao Jingzong and a famous general like Yelu Xiuge. But it was precisely because of Han Derang's heroic resistance, coupled with the fatigue of the soldiers, and various other unfavorable factors, that they could not be attacked for a long time, broke out together, and finally suffered a big defeat.

If the Western Xia holds on for one day, the morale will fall for one day.

It is also not good for Western Xia, and now Western Xia is not like Youzhou City back then, but if it drags on for a long time, the Khitan has a seventy percent chance of sending troops to help. However, the Song army attacked too fiercely, and the daily sacrifice was almost twice that of the Song army, and the Northern Song army did not care, which was not good for Western Xia, after all, there was a chance to escape, at least flee to the Khitan, and the Khitan would also take them in for political and military needs, and many nobles were not strong in resisting. Zheng Lang's four chops and two rods made some people's hearts shake, and they did not have the intention of defending their families and the country to the death. As the losses grew heavier, so did the morale.

It depends on how both sides can boost morale.

For this reason, Zheng Lang has to patrol the camp every night, talk to the soldiers, record the exploits, the reward can not come down immediately, but the merits are recorded, the reward after the war is inevitable, and personally visit the wounded, he can't suck the pus and blood of the soldiers like Wu Qi, but he also takes the initiative to ask for warmth, and does it himself, with the doctors in the army to clean and bandage the wounds, he is inferior to Wang Shao in military ability, but he is far better than Wang Shao in politics.

Therefore, the southern city wall of Xingqing Mansion has become a meat grinder, and morale has not dropped much.

There is also this attack, handsome is handsome, not only Zheng Lang is the main commander, but also famous generals like Wang Shao, who give advice, command and regulate the three armies, and there are many famous generals in the army, that is, they returned to Hedong and Hebei, and most of the generals who can take out their hands in the Song Dynasty are also concentrated outside the city of Xingqing Mansion. Coupled with the previous military training, the soldiers were in good order. This also further ensured that the morale would not be depressed after several days of bloody fighting.

On the sixth day, the sky was overcast again, but the Song army's offensive was still not weakened, and after several days of bombardment, many strong wall battlements were blown up, although each wave of soldiers attacked the city and was finally driven back, but the number of attacks on the city wall became more and more.

In the evening, snowflakes fell in the sky.

Zheng Lang ordered to stop the attack, and the soldiers slowly retreated, in fact, after a few days, the Song army also fought very hard, including Yan Da, Zhang Chuan and other generals because they took the lead, and they were all injured in varying degrees of severity.

Zheng Lang ordered that the logistics men should bring wine and meat, let the soldiers drink wine and eat meat, subsidize their vitality, restore their strength, and let some soldiers who can speak party songs sing bleak party songs.

At the time of the third watch, Zheng Lang slept in the tent, and suddenly his scouts came in to report: "Zheng Gong, someone has fled from the north gate of Xingzhou to Helan Mountain." ”

Zheng Lang got up and said, "Siege." ”

This is the day I was waiting for.

Even if Xingqing Mansion is besieged on all sides, the certainty of being able to storm it can reach ninety percent, but in that case, the sacrifice will be even heavier, so this time he implemented the strategy in Sun Tzu's Art of War, which besieges three and leaves one.

But it is not a conspiracy, but a conspiracy, and the Tangut people can also see it. However, it depends on whether the Xixia people can hold on, and sure enough, in the end, the Liang family can't hold on, even if she can hold on, the nobles and lords in the city can't hold on. So with the help of the cover of this snowy night, he wanted to flee to Helan Mountain, and fled from Helan Mountain to Khitan.

Zheng Lang gave an order, and then issued another order, asking Guo Kui to lead his subordinates to bypass the west of the city and chase after the fleeing army.

Most of the Western Xia defenders in the city did not know the news, Zheng Lang ordered a forcible siege of the city, and on the other hand, let the soldiers shout, the Liang family has fled, you don't have to resist, surrender and don't kill, and those who resist will not be killed.

The Liang family did not escape, the Western Xia soldiers did not know, but the various bigwigs did not see any of them, so the resistance became smaller and smaller, and at dawn, the Song army finally captured two city gates in a row, and the army marched to the city.

On the other side, there is another fierce battle.

Liang took his son's henchmen, a large amount of wealth, and nearly 10,000 soldiers, and fled to Helan Mountain, with Guo Kui in hot pursuit.

Zheng Lang was pacifying the people in the city, but a chase was being staged outside Helan Mountain.

In the evening of the next day, the Liang family was on the run, and there was a spy in front of him to report: "Empress Dowager Qi, two Song armies appeared on the left and the right in front." ”

One was from Juyanhai by Li Hao, but it had been lurking among the Tatan tribes in the desert oasis for nearly half a month. There is also a group of Wang Wenyu and Zhe Kexing of the Zhang Qi faction, which followed the northernmost part of the road leading to the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty from the west of Yinshan Mountain and inserted it into the rear of Helan Mountain, and also lurked in an oasis, but the incubation time was not long, only four days.

The three-way soldiers and horses quickly approached, surrounded the Liang clan, and looking at the miserable soldiers of Western Xia, Wang Wenyu said: "Is there a Xia lord on the other side?" Our Great Song has come to save you. (To be continued......)