The battle of Western Xia was in full swing, after the Song army annihilated 50,000 Western Xia troops in Huaizhou, it completely gained a firm foothold in the hinterland of Western Xia.

The 300,000 army, under the leadership of the commander Han Jiang and the deputy commander Chong Ge, divided the troops into Western Xia and surrounded the 60,000 remnants of the Western Xia army in Yanzhou City.

At the same time, the Tibetan chieftain, who found the warplane, suspended his trip to the Great Song Dynasty, led 120,000 Tubo to attack the 50,000 Western Xia troops stationed in Hexi, and the eunuch Li Xian and the general Yan Da, who defended the front line of Huilan, led 30,000 cavalry north to Liangzhou to cooperate with the Tubo army to attack the Western Xia garrison.

There was no Song army outside the city of Xingqing Mansion, but the city was still closed, and the Huaizhou trap left an extremely painful lesson for the capital of Rome, although he was dismissed by the Empress Dowager Liang, but he was also severely reprimanded, and he was not allowed to risk attacking again.

Although the Song army could not be seen outside the city of Xingqing Mansion, it did not mean that the Song army would go away, on the contrary, all the Western Xia soldiers knew that the Song army was like a tiger, watching Xingqing Mansion with a tiger's eye, as long as the army left the city, it would inevitably be devoured by the tiger.

The reason why the Empress Dowager Liang did not dismiss the capital of Rome was because she had no one available, her brother Liang Yi buried the Great Song Dynasty to negotiate, and there was no news, and the Liao State did not show any signs of preparing to send troops to attack the Song army, and the royal family in the city who opposed her was always eyeing her, and the royal family supported the regent system, not the Empress Dowager's dynasty.

Internal and external troubles plague the Empress Dowager Liang, and there may be a way to relieve the external troubles, but those royal families in the city, I am afraid that once they get the opportunity, they will not hesitate to show her hideous faces.

It is precisely for this reason that although Empress Dowager Liang deeply hated Du Luowei, she withstood the pressure of countless people and refused to dismiss him.

In the palace, the Empress Dowager Liang was discussing the issue of the Yanzhou army with Du Romewei, Yanzhou was trapped with 60,000 soldiers, and Li Chaolun, the general of the unified army, sent an eagle letter, hoping to break through to Xingqing Mansion.

Although Du Luowei is greedy and selfish, he is an old qualified general after all, and he knows more about military affairs than the Empress Dowager Liang, he was silent for a moment and said: "Yanzhou must first pass through the Gobi Desert for three hundred miles, how can they escape the pursuit of 300,000 Song troops, and then they have to cross the Yellow River, the Yellow River is a dead end, it is better to stick to Yanzhou, the wall of Yanzhou is tall and strong, if there is enough food, there is no problem to hold on for a year." ”

"It's as if their food will only last for three months." Empress Dowager Liang said.

"Three months is much better, stick to it first, there will always be hope."

Empress Dowager Liang took a few steps and asked, "How is the recruitment situation in the city?" ”

"Back to the Queen Mother, there are a lot of soldiers, at least 100,000 troops can be raised, but the soldiers in the city are insufficient, at most 30,000 people are armed, and the remaining 70,000 people can only be used to prepare for the people."

Empress Dowager Liang frowned, "Why is there a shortage of armor, not every household has weapons?" If you don't have it in the official warehouse, can't you go to the private sector to solicit it? There are more than a million people in the city, I don't believe I can't come up with a few knives? ”

"The lowly duty understands, and the lowly duty tries to go to the civilian population to collect weapons."

"Also, how long will our food last?"

"If you stick to strict rationing, you can hold on for about two months, but if you can't do it, you can still slaughter livestock, and then you can hold on for a while."

"I know, you step back first!"

Empress Dowager Liang was upset when she thought that the royal family had opposed the rationing system she had implemented.

.........

Yanzhou is located in the middle of the southern defense line of Western Xia, is the outermost city, backed by Liuboling, behind is the reckless mountain, the circumference of the city is about 30 li, it was renovated last year, it is very tall and wide, the Kushui River passes through the city, forming two water gates in the north and south.

There are about 100,000 people in Yanzhou City, basically all of them are party members, originally there were only 10,000 defenders, but now they are squeezed into an army of 60,000, which makes the city a little chaotic.

The general of the unified army is named Li Chaolun, who is also a member of the imperial family, and he originally planned not to defend Yanzhou City, but planned to retreat to Xiping Mansion first, and then cross the Yellow River from Xiping Mansion to Xingqing Mansion.

However, the army was blocked by the Song army when it crossed the Tiemen Pass, and suffered thousands of casualties, and could not capture the Tiemen Pass, so they had to withdraw again, and the 300,000 army had been pursued, so they had to retreat to Yanzhou City.

Outside the city of Yanzhou, the Song army built a large camp with a plate wall, and the three large camps were distributed in the three directions of southeast and west, and the north was Liuboling, and the Song army was also stationed on the ridge, almost surrounded Yanzhou.

Li Chaolun stood at the head of the city, looking at the direction of the capital in the distance, he only heard that the Song army had controlled the Yellow River, but to what extent, he didn't know, he only hoped to receive the will of the queen mother, let himself return to the north, he led the army to break through, he would rather die on the battlefield than be trapped in the city.

At this time, he suddenly saw several eagles flying from the north, and at a glance it was the trained letter eagle, and the news from the north came, and he was overjoyed in his heart, and hurriedly walked towards the eagle tower.

A few eagles landed on the eagle tower, the eagle slave had already taken the letter from his leg and handed it to the soldier, and as soon as the soldier ran down the eagle tower, he met Li Chaolun and hurriedly saluted: "General, it's a letter from Xingqing Mansion." ”

"I know, give me the letter!"

Li Chaolun took the letterbox, and pulled out a paper scroll from it, which was written by the Empress Dowager Liang herself, written in Chinese, Li Chaolun read the letter, and his face suddenly looked ugly, he actually asked him to defend Yanzhou City, he was annoyed in his heart, snorted heavily, and turned around and went down to the city with great dissatisfaction.

........

At the same time that Li Chaolun received the letter from Xingqing Mansion, in the big tent of the Chinese army in the west camp outside the city, Han Jiang, Di Qing and Chong Ge were discussing the final strategy to break the city.

Fanning hoped that the army of the South Road could solve the defense of Yanzhou City within a month, and then the two families would join forces and besiege Xingqing Mansion together.

They had besieged Yanzhou City for almost ten days, but the Western Xia army had never broken through the city, and it was inevitable to attack the city.

According to the information of the scouts, they have sorted out all kinds of data of Yanzhou City, and introduced it to everyone: "The city wall is two feet and five feet high, with a circumference of thirty miles, and the same as other city walls in Western Xia, it is made of mud rammed, and it was renovated last year, there are two city gates, Xicheng and Dongcheng, there is no moat, all Xixia cities have no moats, we can use heavy battering rams to break open the city gates, or we can use trebuchets to smash the city walls, as for the comprehensive siege of the city with siege ladders, to be honest, I don't approve of it, that casualty is too great." ”

"How is the strength of the Western Xia Army's street fighting?" Han Jiang asked.

"These 60,000 troops are mountain troops, good at mountain warfare, and the street battles in the city should be relatively strong, but we choose night battles."

"The Western Xia army is not good at night fighting?" Han Jiang was a little puzzled.

Chong Mo smiled slightly: "It's not whether they are good at it or not, but I have specially trained 50,000 troops in night warfare, and I have been training for a whole year, so we will definitely have an advantage in night warfare." ”

Han Jiang sighed slightly, "Once a brutal street battle breaks out, the people in the city will be affected. ”

"Xianggong, there is no way to do this, the war is like this, it is difficult for the people involved in the war to survive, if we pity the people, then we will have to pay heavy casualties."

"I know, it's just emotion."

Han Jiang saw that Di Qing had been silent in thought, so he asked with a smile, "What about Di Shumi's high opinion?" ”

Di Qing pointed to the bitter water channel on the map: "Since this river passes through the city, isn't there a water gate?" ”

"They didn't build a water gate, but opened a gap under the north and south city walls, which looked like a crescent moon on the ground, and the river flowed in and out of these two openings. ”

Di Qing's eyes lit up, "Is it possible to dive into the city from the bottom of the water?" ”

"Impossible!"

Chong Mo shook his head and said: "The Western Xia army has installed an iron fence in the gap, all of which are thumb-thick iron bars, which are inserted to the bottom, and the scouts have gone to probe, and people will definitely not be able to dive in." ”

Di Qing nodded, "Then leave the siege to me, and the general will prepare for a night battle!" ”