At night, the 300,000 Song troops had been deployed, and they poured out of their nests and distributed five miles away from Yanzhou City, surrounding the city.

Fifty thousand of them, the main force of tonight's attack were waiting in the wilderness south of the city, and they sat on the ground for a while to rest, sharpening their guns and swords, and waiting for the order to attack.

There were also 40,000 cavalry cruising around the eastern and western cities, waiting for the Western Xia soldiers to break through.

The city was heavily defended as usual, and 10,000 Western Xia troops were guarding the city, vigilantly watching the outside of the city, beware of the Song army's night attack.

The Kushui River is sparkling, flashing white in the dim moonlight, the Kushui River is a small river, the flow is not large, but on the edge of the water-scarce Gobi Desert, it is so precious that the city wants to include it in it, the Kushui River passes through the city, and flows out of a thin gap in the corner of the south wall of the city, after flowing out, the riverbed slowly widens, but it is only three to four zhang.

It was almost two o'clock, and two water ghosts dressed in black water leaned into the water quietly, carrying a very small sampan, and on the sampan was placed a large cabinet, which was a special cabinet, and in the cabinet were placed two heavy iron fire thunders, weighing one hundred and fifty catties.

With the soldier's ability alone, it is difficult to make two iron fire and thunder explode, even if there is a difference of one second, one of them explodes, often the other will be blown away, so you have to think of another way, these two iron fire thunder are actually conjoined babies, internal communication, one explodes, the other will explode at the same time, and will not be blown up,

Two water spirits push the sampan forward in the bitter river, and the sampan and wooden cabinet are also painted black, making it difficult to detect in the dark.

After a short time, the small sampan quietly floated to the bottom of the city, and slowly stuffed into the gap in the corner, and the buoyancy pushed the sampan and the wooden cabinet tightly above the gap, unable to move.

Song Jun had already taken this into consideration, he actually exposed the fire rope from the side opening of the cabinet, the fire fold was wrapped on the small sampan, wrapped in a tarpaulin, a water ghost took out a fire fold and shook it off, lit the fire rope on the side, and the two water ghosts immediately dived into the water and swam outside.

50,000 soldiers covered their ears one after another, prostrate on the ground, for a moment, only to hear an earth-shattering explosion, flames and city soil rose into the air, black smoke filled the air, crackling water and mud in the sky, when the smoke dissipated, the city walls within 20 zhang on both sides of the Kushui River have completely disappeared, and hundreds of zhang of the city wall collapsed, the high city wall has become a mound, you can directly rush up,

Of the 3,000 soldiers guarding the southern city, at least a thousand were killed or shocked, and the rest of the soldiers were dumbfounded and had not yet recovered from such a violent explosion.

The seed yelled, "Kill! ”

50,000 soldiers of the Western Army suddenly rushed to the city like a tide, and Li Chaolun also woke up from the violent explosion, he knew that the Song army must have entered the city, so anxious that he shouted: "Order the whole army to resist, you must kill the Song army!" ”

The soldiers in the barracks were in disarray, and most of the soldiers did not have time to put on their armor, so they rushed out of the camp with spears and knives, and fierce street fighting began to break out in the city.

The city was full of fires and soldiers, and women and children were so frightened that they hid in their homes, holding their children and hiding in cellars, and every household in Yanzhou City had cellars.

Some young men ran out to check the situation, and were soon shot dead by soldiers on both sides, the Song army was neatly armoured, the helmets were all white, and the left arm was tied with a white belt, all of them were moving in a team of 100 people, and they could distinguish each other clearly.

50,000 Song troops trained for a year of night fighting, their advantages were fully reflected, with a very tacit understanding, a team of 100 people, including 30 crossbowmen, 30 sword and shield soldiers and 40 spearmen, crossbowmen in the dark and high places to cover and shoot the enemy, sword and shield soldiers charged, spearmen followed, once the two armies fought at close range, spearmen immediately killed, using the advantage of long weapons to assassinate the enemy, sword and shield soldiers retreated to both sides of the side.

In contrast, the soldiers of the Western Xia army were very chaotic, most of them did not wear armor, and when they saw abnormal people, they would start slashing or shooting with bows and arrows, and even killed each other.

Half an hour later, the Western Xia soldiers, who had been killed in the street battles, began to break through from the east and west gates, although they also knew that there were likely to be Song soldiers outside, but the Western Xia soldiers who broke through always had a trace of luck.

Just a mile away from the east gate and the west gate, 40,000 Song cavalry had drawn their swords and waited, waiting to break through the Western Xia soldiers, and five miles away, 200,000 troops had laid a net.

Thousands of Western Xia soldiers were the first to swarm out from the east and west gates, scattering and fleeing, and the cavalry who had been waiting for a long time killed from all sides, slashing and burring, mercilessly killing the fleeing soldiers.........

By dawn, Li Chaolun committed suicide, and the remaining Western Xia soldiers saw that they had no way out, so they put down their weapons and went out of the city in batches to surrender.

This is a battle of disparity in strength, 300,000 troops against 60,000 troops, from the moment the city wall was blown down, the Western Xia army was doomed to failure, this battle, the Western Xia soldiers were killed more than 40,000, more than 19,000 were captured, and the people in the city were also killed and wounded nearly 15,000 people, most of them were men, women and children were hiding in the cellar, but escaped a catastrophe.

However, the stubborn resistance of the Western Xia army also made the Song army pay a heavy price, with nearly 6,000 casualties, which was the heaviest casualties of the Song army since the beginning of the Western Xia War.

10,000 Song soldiers escorted more than 100,000 women and children to Yan'an Mansion for resettlement, and the prisoners of war were sent to Weicheng for detention, Weicheng has held nearly 20,000 prisoners of war, Han Jiang on behalf of the imperial court has clearly told them that they will be released home after five years of mining, and if they want to continue to be enemies of the Song army, then the Song army will no longer keep prisoners of war, and all of them will be slaughtered.

The war in the southern part of Western Xia was basically over, and Chong Ge led 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry to continue to clear the remnants of the Western Xia army, while Han Jiang led more than 200,000 troops to the north and joined Fanning's army.

At the beginning of July, 500,000 Song troops surrounded Xingqing City, Western Xia was originally a small country, most of the country was mountains, Gobi and deserts, completely relying on the steep terrain and strong soldiers and the Song army with a lot of land and resources, once the geographical advantage was broken, once the Song army gave full play to its own advantageous military branches, avoiding the shortcomings, the advantages of the strong soldiers of Western Xia will also be neutralized.

So far, the Song army has never engaged in large-scale field battles with the Western Xia army, and this time, the 500,000 army besieged the city, and the Song army will not give the Western Xia army another chance.

The large camp of the Song army was three miles away from the Western Xia City, and a tall and sturdy slab-walled military camp was built, and the wide Tanglai Canal in the west was full of Song warships, even if the Western Xia cavalry attacked from Helan Mountain or the Hexi Corridor in the north, they could not cross the defense line of the naval army.

"According to the information we have before, the Western Xia is seriously divided, and the mother party headed by the Empress Dowager Liang and Liang Yibury controls the current military and political power of the Western Xia, while the Western Xia nobles advocate the implementation of the regent system and oppose the Empress Dowager's dynasty, they mainly control the tribes of the Western Xia, that is, the party of the party, and the cavalry of the party tribe in Helan Mountain are reluctant to come to the rescue of Xingqing Mansion, which is the reason."

Inside the big tent, Fan Ning and Han Jiang chatted about the current situation while drinking tea.

"What about the Hexi Corridor?" Han Jiang took a sip of tea and asked with a faint smile.

"The Hexi Corridor is more complicated, if Li Yuanhao occupied the Hexi Corridor, he could reach a peace agreement with the Qingtang Tubo, but he could also gain a firm foothold, but he was too ambitious, and wanted to plot Hehuang, forcing the Qingtang Tubo to the Song Dynasty, plus he moved the party nomadic to the Hexi Corridor, which was obviously to seize the Qiang people's pasture, of course, it was strongly resisted by the Qiang people, and finally the migration was not successful, but led to the hostility of the Qiang people, as well as the Han people in the Hexi Corridor, Li Yuanhao used the means of harmony, but it will not be too successful, After all, the party people are very xenophobic in their bones, just look at the situation of the Empress Dowager Liang today, in fact, the party people can also accept the Empress Dowager's coming to the dynasty, but the premise is that the Empress Dowager must be born in the party and the nobility, but the Empress Dowager Liang is Han, and the problem comes. ”

"Now that the Song army and Tubo are jointly attacking the Hexi Corridor, will the Tubo have ambitions for the Hexi Corridor?"

Fanning smiled and shook his head, "How can you not be ambitious?" Such a fertile pasture, ambition is not enough, but also ability, Qingtang Tubo is only a branch of Tubo, can occupy Hehuang and Qinghai Lake and is their limit, if they want to occupy the Hexi Corridor, I am afraid that in the end even Hehuang will not be able to keep, this point, Dong Yu should be very clear, he sold us this favor, is to hope that the Song Dynasty will let Hehuang go. ”

"Looks like we can control the Hexi Corridor?"

Fan Ning nodded, "Only the Han people can keep the Hexi Corridor for a long time, first of all, we are a farming nation, we will not want to grab pastures like the Dangxiang people and the Tubo people, we will only occupy the city, with this Qiang people will support us, second, we have a market, the horses and sheep raised by the Qiang people can be sold to us, the third point is that the Song Dynasty's taxes in the Hexi Corridor are very low, even tax-free, of course, it is welcomed by all ethnic groups in the Hexi Corridor, after all, since the Han and Tang Dynasties, we have controlled the Hexi Corridor, thousands of years, we return to the Hexi Corridor, just to restore the rule, Not an alien invader. ”

"Then when do you think we will be able to break Xingqing City?"

Fanning smiled slightly: "We need to wait patiently, two or three months!" It's time for the city to face a food crisis. ”

At this moment, a soldier reported outside the account, "Qi Yu Xianggong, Xiping Mansion sent a person, saying that he was the prime minister of Western Xia." ”