After observing for two days in a row, there was no epidemic situation among the fleeing soldiers, and Fan Ning breathed a sigh of relief, at this time, the entire battalion became nervous, and the news of the outbreak of the epidemic in Xingqing Mansion had spread throughout the whole army, and the entire Song army was nervous, after all, there were more than 500,000 troops, if the epidemic broke out, it would be a big deal.

Several strict orders issued by Fanning immediately took root in the hearts of the people, it was strictly forbidden to drink raw water, it was strictly forbidden to defecate in the open, the latrines should be disinfected with quicklime every day, it was strictly forbidden to hunt any game outside the camp, it was necessary to take iron boats in the morning and evening to go to Yansan, and if there was diarrhea or fever, it was necessary to immediately send it to the medical camp for isolation.

After several orders were issued, the Song army began to fully implement it, and even a little grass and trees were all soldiers, and in a camp tent, a little headache and brain fever were immediately exposed by others, and then forcibly sent to the medical camp for isolation and observation.

Fanning was even more worried that the Western Xia army would drive the sick to surrender to the Song army, so he specially ordered to strengthen the guard, increase the number of guard towers on the periphery, increase the number of guard towers at 50 paces to 20 paces, and anyone who approached the Song army's camp must identify themselves at a distance of 100 paces, and those who tried to storm the camp would be shot.

Strengthen the perimeter patrol posts near Xingqing Mansion, and all the Tangut people will be shot and killed, and the corpses will be burned, and the peripheral patrol posts will only enter the large military camp after five days of monitoring in the patrol camp.

This order still had a good effect, and every night in a row, dozens of Western Xia soldiers who tried to flee were shot and killed by the Song army, and their bodies were burned after spraying fire oil from a distance with fire oil bags.

Patrols have also been stepped up on the river to prevent sick soldiers from escaping across the Yellow River and the Tanglai Canal.

On the morning of the fifth day, Fan Ning listened to the report of the messenger of the commander Chen Yan in the big tent of the Chinese army, and the commander Chen Yan led 30,000 cavalry to make a detour to Henanshan to clear the nest of the Dangxiang people, where there were thirteen tribes of the Dangxiang people, and this time the 50,000 Dangxiang cavalry came from these thirteen tribes.

Chen Yan didn't have time to write a written report, Fanning listened to the oral report, in fact, it was very simple, the thirteen tribes did not resist, all were exterminated by the Song army, killed more than 40,000 men, captured nearly 100,000 women and children, was crossing the Yellow River, preparing to temporarily settle in Dingzhou, seized millions of cattle and sheep, more than 100,000 horses, millions of sheepskins and cowhides, and a large amount of other property, including as much as 500,000 taels of silver alone.

At this time, the Xingqing Mansion can already be described as hell on earth, the epidemic began to appear in more than a month, a large number of people had fever and diarrhea symptoms, the government did not take it seriously, until more than 70 people died at once, the government did not realize that the outbreak of the epidemic, and at this time, the epidemic has spread, there are patients everywhere in the city, and even the army has been infected with the epidemic.

For more than a month, the government in the city has tried every means to isolate, burn corpses, and bury polluted water sources, but to no avail, and the epidemic has spread on a large scale.

As a last resort, the army had to order martial law for the whole city, and no one was allowed to go out on the streets, and those who violated the order were killed, which was actually leaving the people in the city to fend for themselves.

As soon as night fell, Empress Dowager Liang urgently summoned Xiangguo Liang Yiburi, she saw Liang Yiburi, so she threw a piece of the fold in front of Liang Buri, and then scolded her head and face, "I asked you to come up with a plan to solve the epidemic within three days, this is your plan?" actually asked me to surrender to the Song army, what are your intentions? ”

Liang Yi said with a sad face: "I really have no choice, do you know how serious the epidemic outside is now, a month ago we distributed 900,000 servings of gruel a day, and yesterday we only distributed 600,000 servings, a decrease of 300,000 gruel in a month, what terrible things happened here, can't you guess?" ”

"Then you want to surrender?"

"Queen Mother, now we have no choice but to surrender, what other way do we go, yesterday a letter and a sword were shot outside the city, don't you know?"

Empress Dowager Liang was stunned for a moment, "What sword, what letter, why don't I know?" ”

"I heard that it was a letter of persuasion, tens of thousands of cavalry in Helan Mountain have been completely annihilated, and thirteen tribes have also been exterminated by the Song army.

"I ask you where is Shinwa Sword now?" Empress Dowager Liang's voice became stern, and she actually hid such a major matter from herself.

"I don't know, it should be in the hands of the military!"

Empress Dowager Liang immediately turned back to the guards and ordered: "Quickly go and summon the capital to Rome to see me!" ”

The guards saluted and hurried away.

Empress Dowager Liang then turned the topic back to what she cared about, "How serious is the epidemic now, have you gone door-to-door to count and remove the corpses?" ”

Liang Yibury shook his head, "The government officials are dead, those who escape, there are no more manpower, I asked the army to count, but the army refused, saying that the soldiers were infected and we couldn't bear the responsibility." ”

"Then you're not going to go to Romano's Tail for help?" Empress Dowager Liang said angrily.

Liang Yi sighed, "He has no prestige in the army at all now, most of the generals don't buy his account, and no one will carry out his military orders." ”

Empress Dowager Liang was taken aback, Du Luo Wei is her hand in the army, if Du Luo Wei fails in the army, doesn't it mean that she has lost control of the army?

Liang Yiburi understood the queen mother's worries, and hurriedly explained: "What Weichen means is not that the army is not loyal to the queen mother, but the capital is too bad, greedy and brutal, and he has no ability to fight, and the army is very resistant to him." ”

"Didn't you recommend him?"

Empress Dowager Liang glared at Liang Yi with dissatisfaction, "At the beginning, you praised him to the sky and recommended him to me, so I reused him, and now you say that he can't do it, it seems that I used people inappropriately?" ”

Liang Yibury was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly said: "The Queen Mother is angry, Du Luo Wei did behave very well before, and he was loyal to the Queen Mother, so I recommended him, where do I know that loyalty can't be eaten, and loyalty without ability will make mistakes, I have only recently seen through this person, and I can't be greedy." ”

Empress Dowager Liang was very disturbed, and the army must firmly control Zhu, otherwise once she mutinied, she would have no place to die.

Liang Yibury persuaded again: "Queen Mother, we can't support it for a few days, we have no medicine, we can't isolate, the food can only last for more than ten days, the final result is either death of illness or starvation, surrender to the Song army!" At least we can keep the glory and wealth of our family, and at least half of the people in the city, Queen Mother, don't hold on any longer. ”

Empress Dowager Liang was silent, in fact, she was also a little tempted, she summoned her brother today just to listen to his persuasion.

At this moment, there was a faint sound of shouting and killing in the distance, which was very clear at night, and the Empress Dowager Liang was stunned, is this the Song army attacking the city?

I saw a person crawling in from the outside, and said urgently: "Queen Mother, there is an army mutiny in the city!" ”

Empress Dowager Liang was taken aback, the teacup in her hand fell to the ground, and she was a little panicked and said: "Yi buried, you quickly think of a way, this must be a rebellion of those bastards." ”

Of course, Liang Yibury knew that this must be a rebellion by the regents led by Li Chengyu, the emperor's uncle.

Li Yuanhao's two younger brothers, the second brother Li Chengyu is a good man, he has little desire for power, he drinks and boils eagles all day long, and the third Li Chengwei, that is, Wei Minglang, is the first hero of Western Xia, following Li Yuanhao to fight in the south and north, he asked for the implementation of the regent system, and he came to be the regent, failed in the power struggle, was exiled to Hexi, and died in a fierce battle with the Song army a few days ago.

Although Li Chengyu was a good man, the other royal families brought him out against the Empress Dowager Liang, who had long since discovered that the army was unstable, so she continued to reuse the army to defeat the capital of Huaizhou.

Unexpectedly, there was still a mutiny.

After all, Empress Dowager Liang is a female stream and young, so in the face of the sudden mutiny, she can only turn to her brother Liang Yi for help.

Liang Yibury was indeed calmer, he thought for a while and said: "Close the palace gate first, and then the Queen Mother will control the Son of Heaven in her hands, and I will go to find rescuers." ”

Empress Dowager Liang also calmed down, and she immediately ordered the palace gate to be closed, and all the palace guards went to the city to prepare for battle.

Liang Yi buried and ran out of the palace, he also thought of a person, not Du Luo Wei, but the general Zang Wenmu, he is also a Qiang person, he has always been excluded by the royal family, and he is more loyal to the Queen Mother, but the relationship with Du Luo Wei is very stiff, and he has not been reused.

There are 10,000 men under Zangwenmu, and if they can win him over, they still have a glimmer of hope tonight.

A fierce battle broke out in the city, and the fuse was Wei Minglang's sword, Wei Minglang was killed, and many royal families who supported Wei Minglang immediately turned to support Li Chengyu, they had already prepared, and they were waiting for Wei Minglang to launch a mutiny after returning to the capital.

As soon as Wei Minglang died, a mutiny broke out immediately.

Although Du Romewei was hated, the army that supported the Son of Heaven and the Empress Dowager still had the upper hand, and the two armies had serious infighting in the streets and alleys.

Liang Yibury just ran out of the palace not far away, and met the Tibetan Wenmu who led the army to defend the palace, Liang Yiburi was overjoyed, and hurriedly took him back to the palace to see the queen mother and the prince.

Zang Wenmu knelt down to the Empress Dowager Liang and said: "Please rest assured, those rebel soldiers are only a few, and they can't become the climate, and Weichen will do his best to exterminate the rebel ministers." ”

Empress Dowager Liang breathed a sigh of relief, nodded and said, "Everything depends on the general." ”