Chapter 183 Xiazhou City

Tongwan City, its majestic imperial city standing on the beach, rock-solid white walls, forest of horse faces, towering corner towers, unique "Zhengtai Secret Room" structure and majestic palace ruins, clearly seduces the outline and scale of this edifice named after the meaning of "unifying the world, monarching all countries" and the outline and scale of the national capital city——1——

From east to west, the city is divided into the Outer Corridor City, the East City and the West City. The plan of the outer corridor city is rectangular, the circumference is nearly 4,000 steps, the middle of the east and west city is separated by a wall, the circumference is more than 2,000 steps, commonly known as the first city, the second city and the third city. According to the place to form the northwest high, the southeast is low, higher than the water surface of the Wuding River more than ten zhang, all are rammed earth construction, because of the accommodation to the topography and the largest area to contain, quite irregular, the outer outline city is close to the edge of the platform on the north bank of the Wuding River, the city wall is high and majestic, undoubtedly out of the military consideration of trying to occupy the favorable terrain to consolidate the city's defense.

The east inner city and the west inner city are combined into a large inner city, this large inner city is actually the capital built by Helian Bobo - Tongwan City, after that, Xiazhou City added a double outer outline city to form a triple city circle, marking the different functional areas of Xiazhou City, the West City (Imperial City) is the residence of the Great Xia Emperor Helian Bobo and his clan, the place to deal with the government affairs, and the location of the central government office; Dongcheng (Outer City) is a general residential area, a commercial area, a handicraft workshop, and a military camp.

From the 11th year of Taihe of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was called Xiazhou City, and the urban functional area pattern of Xiazhou City remained basically unchanged. Xicheng has successively become the Xiazhou Governor's Office, the Xiazhou Governor's Office, the Ningshuo Ambassador's Office, the Xiazhou Jiedu Embassy and other high-level military and political organs, as well as the residence of Xiazhou, Huazheng County, Shuofang County and other government offices, as well as a number of public facilities, such as warehouses, bell towers, drum towers, etc. distributed in this city. Dongcheng is the location of county-level government offices such as Yanlu and Shuofang, a residential area for civilians, merchants, tourists, and soldiers, and a distribution area for commerce and handicrafts. The outer city became a military barracks, livestock pens, handicraft workshops, and places for public activities.

But at this time, the city of Xiazhou is no longer majestic, but it is like an old man who has entered the twilight of his life, and the remaining palaces in the city have become dilapidated houses, and there are only a few hundred households in the city, and the rest are garrisons and various yamen. Although this is related to the migration of the abandoned city of the Song Dynasty and the great earthquake in history, it is also inseparable from the traditions and customs of the Xia Kingdom. After the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the territory of the western part of Guanlong was lost, and the western part of Longyou Road and Guannei Road belonged to the Tubo Kingdom. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo Kingdom was weakened, and its ethnic groups were scattered, with thousands of large families and small families, each with its own leader, and was in a state of division.

The profound changes caused by this are that since the Tang Dynasty, the administrative system of prefectures, counties, townships, and li has completely degenerated into a tribal system, and its customs are 'many feuds, do not interact with each other, and in case of battle, they will help each other with evil, pass on arrows, and follow the flow; However, there is no leader to dominate the city, and all of them are scattered in the mountains and rivers, and they often do not think about it', so only a small number of Han people live in the city, and the Tibetan people live in the wild.

After Li Jiqian rebelled against the Song Dynasty, he consciously developed this state, and in the fifth year of the Chunhua Dynasty of Taizong of the Song Dynasty, he migrated the people of Suizhou to Pingxia and the sixth year of Xianping, and moved the rich households of Yin and Xia to the west, and Ding Zhuang migrated outside the river, and gathered manpower and financial resources in the Xing and Ling areas to enrich the land of Wangji, and the result was that the Han system existed in name only in Western Xia, and the Fan system was fully developed. As a result, the land of Xia Kingdom, the residents are scattered between the desert and the mountains, and there is no solid city, but for a few decades, so that there is a situation that when the Song army invaded the summer for four years, "there is no county along the way, and there are only dozens of residents in the city of Xiazhou".

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Western Xia government has been constantly fighting wars, coupled with the cold climate and frequent famines, so in order to provide logistical support for the military and for the purpose of disaster prevention and mitigation, the Xia government has reserved grain in the border area or important strategic areas, and established a complete warehouse system for grain reserves, and assigned officials and desks for management. Xiazhou is in the Hetao grain production area, the transportation is convenient, north of Gyeonggi, south of the Song-Xia border, has always been the wartime point of the army where the army is, the Loess Plateau climate is dry, with the characteristics of soil upright, it is convenient to dig the cellar to preserve the grain, so in the Qiliping close to the city of Xiazhou, the national cellar was built to store grain, the grain storage is 100,000 stones, enough for 100,000 people to eat for two months. …,

Zhao Ren turned around, the situation was basically clear, and he had a bottom in his heart, and there was not much difference between the Xiazhou City Defense Layout and the report forwarded to him by the Intelligence Department. The last time the Song army came here was thirty years ago, so although the war continued, they all happened in the border area, Xiazhou was far away from the border, and there were natural dangers, which led to a great drop in vigilance, the city defense was lax, and the quality of the sergeants was also very different from the soldiers on the border, and even there were many female soldiers guarding the city, and no one checked the entrance and exit gates.

On the way back, Zhao Ren had a plan, he planned to revise the plan formulated by the prince, and the focus of the troops was on Qiliping, their army and horses only brought more than ten days of grain and grass, and now they are almost exhausted, and the battle together, they must stick to the city, there is nowhere to collect grain, and then the prince leads the army to join forces, and also needs the supply of grain and grass, which is pinned on the granary of Qiliping.

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Zhao Ren returned to Banjingyi, the people from the Intelligence Department had arrived, and presented the latest battle report from Hedong, and learned that the prince had annihilated nearly half of the Chage army, and the rest was blocked in the Turbidity Wheel River, and the annihilation was only in front of him, and all the generals were overjoyed. The loyal army is full of more than 18,000 people, Zhao Ren brought out more than 8,000 people, and the prince only relied on 10,000 people to defeat Chage's nearly 100,000 army, which has no precedent in the history of the Great Song Dynasty.

Originally, Ji Lu planned to arrive in Fengzhou on the 10th, but due to a storm on the way, it was delayed for two days, and the army hid in this small town, and after a long time, it was inevitable that the news would leak. After discussion, it was decided to immediately end the rest and recuperate and move overnight.

Now it is summer, the days are long and the nights are short, the sky is already bright, and the time is not waiting for people.

Zhao Yong led the three battalions of the lion generals, the four battalions, and the three battalions of the dragon generals, and the first battalion of the machine gun, the engineer battalion and the scout battalion directly under the reinforcement army to take the task of capturing Xiazhou City.

Zhao Zhong led the four battalions of the dragon generals and the three and four battalions of the tiger generals to take charge of the task of capturing Dejing Town, annihilating the defenders, and occupying Qiliping. In this battle, it is necessary to strictly prevent the Xia army from destroying grain, leaving part of the troops to guard after completing the task, sending troops to capture the surrounding tribes, requisitioning all means of transportation such as Ding Zhuang, camels, horses, and carts, and cooperating with the baggage battalion to transport grain to Xiazhou City. Zhao Ren led the army's personal battalion and the third and fourth battalions of the leopard general as reserves, ready to support the two armies at any time, and sent a guard in the direction of Shizhou to prevent the enemy from reinforcing the army.

The distribution has been decided, the soldiers will have dinner, and Zhao Yong will lead the army to set off first. The horse picks the bell, the person is titled, and under the guidance of the guide, he runs along the road to Xiazhou City. Half an hour later, Zhao Zhong then set off to Dejing Town, twenty miles away, and Zhao Ren stayed behind in Banjing Post to respond to the two armies.

Flowers bloom two each table a branch, first say Zhao Yong, he led the army all the way galloping, in the ugly time to Xiazhou City, three miles away from the city of the whole army dismounted, led the horse, one mile away from the city, the whole army stopped moving forward, this is the darkest moment, only in front of the eyes of the black city, and the city looming lights.

From the reconnaissance in advance, Zhao Yong had already learned that the defense of Xiazhou was lax, and the strength of 3,000 people to defend the huge city was already overstretched, and they were some irresponsible guys, so although the city was strong, it was full of loopholes. Zhao Yong first selected 100 soldiers who were good at climbing from the army, and Zhang Ting, the commander of the third battalion of the tiger general, led Zhang Ting to climb the city from the most lax defense of the eastern inner city, clear the sentry posts and guard the soldiers, open the city gate to welcome the army into the city, and blossom in the belly.

The eastern inner city used to be a residential and commercial area, but now it is abandoned, the moat is almost filled with quicksand, and the city wall is also the lowest, but it is also as high as seven or eight zhang, which is equivalent to the height of the current seven-story building, and it is built of rammed earth, the face is like a mirror, and there is almost nowhere to borrow strength. When Zhang Ting was in the training camp in Beifu, he was known for his ability to climb, and with the faint starlight, he found a city wall that fell off from the surface of the city gate, and took the lead in climbing the city. Carrying a long rope on his back, he carried only a dagger and a short gun, and went into battle lightly. …,

Because the surface of the city wall is peeling off, revealing the dense rammed holes left by the fixed ramming plate when the city was built, and the difficulty can only be imagined by climbing with the help of these small holes of different depths. Zhang Ting tightened his belt, took a deep breath, and with the assistance of the two soldiers, he violently rushed towards the rammed hole, grabbed the rammed hole, fought with one hand, straightened up, stepped on the wall with his feet as much as he could, tentatively moved into the rammed hole to stabilize his body, and then reciprocated to the rammed hole again... Watching Zhang Ting like a gecko little by little, slowly turning into a blurred black shadow, until he disappeared into the darkness, the people under the city were nervous and breathless, and the success or failure of the surprise attack depended on him.

Time seems to freeze, I don't know how long it has been, maybe a quarter of an hour, maybe only a few breaths, the city finally fell down the long rope, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly grabbed the long rope and shook it a few times, told the commander that the rope had landed, and when the city sent a signal again, several sergeants with long ropes on their backs immediately climbed the city. As more and more ropes hang down, so does the speed of the climb.

The lantern at the head of the city was suddenly extinguished, but after a while, the lantern was lit again and shook twice towards the city, "General, Commander Zhang has successfully landed in the city and has cleared the sentry!" The changes in the head of the city were immediately discovered by the soldiers under the city, and they immediately reported to Zhao Yong.

"All the troops are on horseback, and they are in the city!" Zhao Yong, who was anxiously waiting for news under the city, stood up fiercely and shouted loudly.

At this time, two red signal flares rose into the sky, exploded in the air, the closed city gate was opened, and a raging fire pointed out the direction of their attack, and the gate of Xiazhou City was open to the loyal army!