Without siege weapons, the 80,000 army could not attack the city, and the 80,000 soldiers were wrapped in sheepskin to rest on the grassland that night, and the next morning, there was no news of the baggage fleet, and he began to feel a little uneasy in his heart, his army only brought four days of dry food, and now three days have passed, and the dry food can only last for one day, and the grain ship has not yet arrived, so something will happen.

By noon, there was still no news from the baggage fleet, and there was no news of even the people who were sent, so Meng Meng finally realized that something was wrong.

He hurriedly ordered the army to pull out and withdraw to the west, the 80,000 army complained, scolded and scolded, and was about to set off, Fan Ning at the head of the city looked at the Western Xia soldiers and began to retreat, he turned back and asked Yang Wenguang, "The general cavalry brings back a few days of dry food?" ”

Yang Wenguang thought for a while and said: "According to my experience in dealing with the Western Xia army, they have a rule that if the army launches a campaign, the army must carry at least ninety days of food, if it is a light assault and the running distance is more than five hundred miles, it must bring half a month's dry food. ”

Fan Ning thought for a while and said, "It has taken them three and a half days to kill, even if they bring five days of dry food, they can only last for a day and a half at most, so is there any other way than killing horses to satisfy hunger?" ”

"Either hunting and eating grass roots, but the Western Xia army generally will not kill horses until the point of exhaustion, horses are the private property of soldiers, once they kill horses to satisfy hunger, it will seriously shake the morale of the army."

Fanning nodded and smiled: "Then wait and see!" ”

At this time, Yang Wenguang suddenly pointed to a special team in the distance, "Look at that army!" ”

Fanning looked in the direction of his finger, and saw that there was a very conspicuous team in the Western Xia army, and the other soldiers were all single horses, but they were double horses, carrying heavy burdens on horses, and a servant was responsible for leading the horses.

Fanning thought for a moment and asked, "Could it be that the Iron Harrier?" ”

Yang Wenguang nodded, "I suspect that the physique of the war horses is very large, and they are obviously specially selected, and the other horse should be heavily armoured." ”

Fan Ning looked at it for a while, he felt that the Iron Harrier was deified, it was nothing more than heavy armored cavalry, in fact, the Song Dynasty also had it, the Jingsai Army of the Song Dynasty was the heavy armored cavalry, not to mention the Liao State, the Tielin Army and the Leather Room Army of the Liao State were also heavy armored cavalry, and the Tiefutu of the Jin Dynasty in history was also.

On the contrary, because of the weak national strength, Western Xia did not have so much pig iron to support, so there were only 3,000 iron harriers.

"Xianggong, should we follow the pursuit?"

Fanning stared at the enemy army for a moment and said, "Wait a little longer, and when they are reduced to zero, it will be our chance." ”

..........

Fanning's naval army deployed in the Hetao area, in addition to fifty steam ships, there are more than 500 thousand-stone warships, these thousand-stone warships are rowed by oars, each ship has dozens of archers, and thousands of sentinel ships, after the main force of the 80,000 Western Xia army penetrated into the Hetao, all the warships appeared, and their task was to cut off the retreat of the Western Xia army.

The Song army's warships were mainly deployed in the northern, middle, and western sections, controlling the 500-mile Yellow River waterway, of which more than 1,000 sentinel ships were the most active, patrolling the river and monitoring the crossing points of the Western Xia army.

That night, the food of the Western Xia army ran out, but they were still more than 100 miles away from the Yellow River, and there was still more than a day away, and there was no news from the logistics baggage team, and the 80,000 Western Xia army began to fall into panic.

He was anxious and flustered, but he would never allow anyone to criticize him, and he gave several strict orders in a row, daring to criticize the commander in private, and beheaded him for the crime of shaking the morale of the army.

One after another strict orders were conveyed, and the 80,000 troops dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, from the generals to the soldiers, they all hated this stupid and ignorant military guard.

Early the next morning, the soldiers ate a pot of boiled wild vegetables, not even salt, and the 80,000-strong army suddenly exploded, and the soldiers realized that they had run out of food.

The soldiers ate boiled wild vegetables, but the generals and the Iron Harrier cavalry were treated well, the soldiers hunted dozens of deer, and the venison was boiled into minced soup.

The news spread quickly, and the angry Western Xia soldiers had a strong mood of war weariness and slackness, and he also realized that the army's heart was shaken, and at noon, he ordered to slaughter hundreds of old and weak horses to match wild vegetables to relieve the soldiers' hunger, but Meng Meng also knew that the consequences of killing horses were very serious, but in order to feed the soldiers, he couldn't take care of it.

The war horses and armor of the Western Xia army are all private owned by soldiers, only the armor of logistics supply is built by the government, and the same is true for the Liao soldiers, for the Dangxiang and the Khitans, horses are their brothers and comrades-in-arms, and many tribes would rather die than eat horse meat.

Although the killing of horses solved the imminent problem of hunger, this move caused hatred and panic among the Western Xia soldiers, and the Western Xia army began to flee on a small scale after two meals of food.

As long as there is a phenomenon of desertion in any army, it is a sign that the morale of the army has dropped to the freezing point.

Helpless, he could only force the army to speed up the march, and when night fell, they finally reached the bank of the Yellow River.

The tired and hungry Western Xia soldiers did not wait for the commander's order, and rushed to the river to start building pontoon bridges, at this time, a mile away on the river, more than a dozen small boats were quietly moored in the middle of the river, and a few miles behind them, there were several large boats, they were quietly waiting for their opportunity.

The raft pontoon bridge was built very quickly, and in just one hour, a pontoon bridge up to one and a half miles long appeared on the river, and the pontoon bridge was being fixed on the final shore.

"Cross the bridge!"

A rocket was raised on the other side of the pontoon, which indicated that the pontoon bridge had been completed, and he immediately ordered: "The front army crosses the river!" ”

The soldiers of the Western Xia Army, who had already lined up on the shore, immediately ran to the pontoon, and many soldiers found that there was a black viscous liquid under their feet, and it emitted a pungent smell, but they didn't care, they just ran to the opposite bank, and in just a moment, the pontoon bridge had already run thousands of soldiers.

At this moment, a rocket appeared on the river in the distance, and the bright rocket shot straight into the night sky, making a crisp popping sound in the air: 'Smack! ’

Suddenly feeling bad, he immediately shouted: "Stop going to the bridge!" ”

But there was no need for him to order, and no soldier dared to go up the bridge, only to see that the front, middle and back sections of the bridge were all on fire, and the flames spread rapidly, engulfing the soldiers on the bridge in an instant, and the soldiers were burned and screamed, and jumped into the water desperately.

Soon, the pontoon bridge broke and overturned, even the soldiers who were not burned fell into the water, and the fire gradually engulfed the entire pontoon bridge, and only a few hundred soldiers passed on the south bank, and nearly 2,000 soldiers fell into the Yellow River, life and death are unknown.

All the soldiers on the shore were dumbfounded, and most of the soldiers understood that the Song army had cut off their rear road, and their logistical baggage should have been destroyed by the Song army in this way.

Angry and anxious, he ordered sharply: "Build four more pontoon bridges and build them at the same time!" ”

The generals persuaded him one after another, "General, no matter how many pontoon bridges you build, it will definitely be destroyed, and we have no advantage on the water at all." ”

Ranmeng turned his head and roared: "Then what should I do!" Are we just waiting here to die? ”

The generals were silent, and a general couldn't help but whisper: "You shouldn't have rushed into the Hetao in the first place!" ”

Furious, he rushed up and stabbed the general with a sword, staring at everyone viciously, "Who else is not convinced, just say!" ”

The generals all retreated, this reckless and crazy man, if he wants to die, let him die!

The generals underestimated the greed for life and fear of death, and also underestimated his cunning, and found that the Song army would not attack the pontoon bridge immediately, and the outer pontoon bridge would block the middle pontoon bridge, slowing down the time for the Song army to destroy the pontoon bridge, just like the hundreds of soldiers who fled to the other side at the beginning, they could take advantage of this time difference to escape with their lives.

The four pontoon bridges had just been built, and the reckless and deceitful men rushed to the third pontoon bridge first, urging the horses to run to the opposite bank, and the Western Xia soldiers on the shore realized that the commander was going to flee first, and they also rushed to the pontoon bridge.

At this time, two steamships of 5,000 stones rumbled, the hard head directly hit the pontoon bridge into two sections, the sentinel ships behind launched rockets one after another, countless Western Xia soldiers screamed and fell into the water, not long after, the four pontoon bridges were all destroyed, and the soldiers who fell into the water were as high as more than 6,000 people, many people were squeezed off the pontoon bridge by their own people, including nearly 1,000 Iron Harrier cavalry also buried at the bottom of the river.

However, the commander of the Western Xia army led 300 soldiers to escape the Yellow River and fled south without looking back.

At daybreak, the news that the commander had abandoned them and fled quickly spread throughout the army, and the main forces of the Western Xia army, which was extremely hungry and demoralized, began to flee on all fronts, fleeing in all directions, crossing the river on rafts where there had never been a blockade.

At this moment, 50,000 cavalry of the Song army came from behind, and began to slaughter the hungry and cold Western Xia soldiers on the banks of the Yellow River, unable to resist, the Hetao in June was full of blood and killing, and 80,000 party members were killed on the north bank of the Yellow River.