Gong Xiu was looking forward to the first success, but Yang Zhi only thought about besieging the city and sending reinforcements.

Although Zhu Ming asked him to fight quickly, it was inevitable that the battle would be too fast after a few days, and he might be able to wait for reinforcements from Western Xia if he delayed it for a month.

Anyway, this place is more than 100 miles away from Lanzhou, and the transportation of grain and grass does not consume much.

With the current grain reserves of the Ming Dynasty, he will be able to hit the Henan Military Division. Do you still want to run to Liangzhou (Wuwei)? Don't dream, just the distance and the terrain along the way, the transportation consumption doubles and doubles.

For several days in a row, it was an artillery siege.

Due to the terrain, the city of Henan Army was surrounded by regiments.

The defenders in the city can't even send messengers to break through, and the messengers who left the city a few days ago were deliberately let go by Yang Zhi.

The thick walls of the laterite ramparts lasted until the fourth day when cracks appeared, and on the sixth day began to collapse into a gap.

The second, third, and fourth gaps followed, and then Yang Zhi ordered the shelling to stop. It's not that there isn't enough gunpowder, it's that there aren't enough shells, and some has to be left for reinforcements that might come.

During the shelling, the soldiers were not idle, taking turns to carry stones on the cliffs on both sides.

Bring the stone back and let the accompanying stonemasons polish it into stone bullets.

"The city wall has collapsed several times, why hasn't the Han army attacked the city?" Li Yuchang lay on the city tower, carefully observing the movements of the Ming army, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Yeli Fulu suddenly woke up: "The Han soldiers are waiting for our reinforcements!" ”

Li Yuchang was stunned for an instant, because the consequences were too terrible.

If there are reinforcements in Western Xia, they will come from the direction of Jisang (Gulang).

The distance from Jisang to Karochuan is 60 miles in a straight line, but the terrain is extremely complicated, and the actual distance is 200 miles.

Then it is down the valley of the Karagawa River to the south, which is also 200 miles away. There are countless ravines on both sides of the mountains, and you can hide the troops in any place, and when the Western Xia reinforcements walk over, the Ming army will come out of the ravines.

A wall in front and back, it is difficult to fly with wings!

On this broken terrain, the Ming army set up a large array of vehicles and infantry to defend, and then muskets and artillery directly served. The east and west sides are full of mountains, and the north and south are blocked by the Ming army, and the Western Xia reinforcements are only left in the middle valley to be shot and cannoned.

Li Yuchang and the others never thought of this, because they were still thinking about the problem with the old way of thinking, and they had forgotten the terrifying lethality of muskets and artillery in narrow terrain.

It was only now that the Ming army dragged on and did not attack the city that they began to worry about the danger of reinforcements.

Thinking about this, Li Yuchang was entangled in his heart.

I was looking forward to the reinforcements coming to the rescue, but I was also afraid that the reinforcements would come to save me. If I knew this, I should have broken through that day!

However, the breakthrough on that day was just a matter of talking, with the battlefield situation at that time, as long as they dared to run, the Ming army would definitely pursue frantically. The cavalry may be able to escape, and the infantry will all be buried, and they will be properly routed for dozens of miles.

……

The valley of the Haomen River.

The route of Yao Gu's army was much farther, not to mention starting from the Song army's city, only after entering the river valley, it had to walk more than 300 miles. Moreover, the mountains on both sides of the river are higher, the river valley is more rugged, and it is more difficult to march and transport food.

It took 20 days to procrastinate and only walk more than half the way.

Night, big camp.

Wu Lan stretched out his hand to the fire, looked at the dark mountains and said, "Can General Yang really fight down over there?" I always think it's too child's play. ”

Wu Jue said: "I accompanied Yao Jing...... General Yao, go and see that they have fired cannons, I am afraid that they can really collapse the city wall. Once we ask for help from the Southern Military Division, the Western Xia soldiers on our side will definitely be mobilized, and Zhenwu City (Ancient Bone Dragon City) will be easy to fight at that time. ”

"If you can really fight down, you can also comfort the souls of countless soldiers in the sky." Wu Lan sighed.

Zhenwu City in the mouth of the Song Army, and the Ancient Bone Dragon City in the mouth of Western Xia, there was too much blood flowing in that place.

There is more than one route to the Hexi Corridor, and the Nanjun Division is only the shortest and best distance, and it can also be passed from Zhenwu City.

Can Zhu Ming think of threatening the Hexi Corridor, so many ministers and famous generals in the Great Song Dynasty, are they all fools who can't understand?

Of course not.

But it was too difficult to fight with the Southern Army Sicheng, and the Great Song Dynasty could only retreat and try to open up the route of Zhenwu City.

The Great Song Dynasty fought down, slaughtered the city, and garrisoned the army.

Western Xia fought down, slaughtered the city, and garrisoned.

Slaughter came and went, the city was sparsely populated, and agricultural production was completely destroyed. No matter who occupies this city, all the military rations have to be transported, but the grain routes on the Western Xia side are shorter.

The brothers chatted for a while, and Wu Lan suddenly said, "What kind of new Governor of Hehuang is it, is it just like the envoy of the scriptures?" ”

"It should be about the same." Wu Jue didn't know much either.

Wu Lan said: "Finally, someone who understands that Jinglu can't rely on war here, and he has to farm the land to make more grain." ”

Wu Jue said with a smile: "I understand that there are a lot of people, not the previous civil officials who were confused, but the princes and ministers of the imperial court. Now that the emperor has changed, it is natural to send someone who understands it to come over to pass through the river. ”

"That's right, this emperor should have changed a long time ago." Wu Lan couldn't help but complain.

The first governor of Hehuang appointed by Zhu Guoxiang was Li Mida, and after this monarch surrendered to Zhang Bo, he made Puzhou's civil affairs impressive in the chaotic Shandong. Not only does it not need relief from the imperial court, but it can also deliver food to the imperial court!

So Li Mida was directly promoted from the governor of the district to the governor of Hehuang, and was in charge of Lanzhou, Xining, Huangzhou, Jishijun, Kuozhou, Hezhou, and Xizhou.

If you want to attack the Hexi Corridor, you can't expect all of the grain to be transported from Guanzhong, and you must solve a part of the grain and grass problem in the frontier.

And the Hehuang Valley is the top priority, it is very suitable for agricultural production, Song Huizong did a good job at the beginning of his accession to the throne, and provided a large amount of military food for Tong Guan's conquest of Western Xia.

But in the last decade or so, things have taken a turn for the worse.

The civilian, military and military generals are all bastards, and the civil affairs are in a mess. The soldiers and civilians who were forced to emigrate by the imperial court were overwhelmed and fled. Of course, the local Han and ethnic minorities could not escape the frenzied exploitation, the number of taxpayers plummeted, and the grain output was also declining year by year.

Not to mention attacking the Hexi Corridor, with the current agricultural situation, even the Hehuang garrison can't afford to support it!

The Zhu family and his son sent Li Mida over to be the governor, to put it bluntly, to restore the people's livelihood.

When Li Mida arrived in Lanzhou last month, his first decree was to halve the taxes of the prefectures under his jurisdiction and abolish more than half of the harsh taxes.

He also encouraged the people to reclaim the land, and only need to cultivate for three consecutive years before they can go to the government to obtain the land deed.

We are not afraid that large households will take the opportunity to occupy the land, because the abandonment situation is too serious, and the agricultural population is too small, and even if the large households occupy the land, they will not be able to recruit enough tenant farmers.

What's more, there are no real big players here.

Large-scale land reclamation has to be organized by the government, and it is organized to advance and retreat together to prevent the ethnic minorities in the mountains from coming out to loot at any time.

The ancestors of those ethnic minorities, many of them were Han Chinese hundreds of years ago!

When the Han people in the wilderness have a firm foothold, Li Mida will be gentle with the ethnic minorities and guide them to go out of the mountains to cultivate and organize households to gather the people.

The premise of all these policies is to fight two battles fiercely, and to win beautifully.

Only by winning the battle against Western Xia can the prestige of the government be established and the confidence of the people can be given. Otherwise, they would be worried about the invasion of Western Xia, worried that the officers and soldiers would go out to fight and forcibly requisition food, so who would want to farm with peace of mind?

This time, if the city of Sicheng and Zhenwu City of the Southern Army are taken, the two river valleys will be resettled and reclaimed, and strive to support the defenders of the two cities in the future.

Anyway, the land will be given when it comes, and it will be exempt from taxes for the first year.

After more than ten days, the vanguard of Yao Gu's army arrived at Zhenwu City and sent people back to report that there seemed to be an empty guard.

Yao Gu, who was originally in a nervous mood, was suddenly overjoyed and hurriedly ordered the whole army to speed up.

Yao Pingzhong even led thousands of troops, abandoning all baggage and marching quickly, and then found ...... Zhenwu City is empty.

"This is going to take Zhenwu City?" Yao Pingzhong couldn't believe it.

The military town that the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia repeatedly fought for, and the place where the people and soldiers of the two countries shed their blood, actually came back without a single soldier.

The Wu brothers were in Yao Pingzhong's army, and they also felt that things were outrageous.

Wu Lan asked, "Why did the Western Xia soldiers escape?" ”

Wu Jue guessed: "With the Southern Military Division, I'm afraid that the Western Xia people will be in big trouble." ”

Zhenwu City (Ancient Bone Dragon City) was taken by the Western Xia last year, and there was no ability to reclaim the land by immigration, so the Western Xia could only temporarily garrison the army, as a bridgehead for the invasion of Hehuang, and all the military rations had to be transported from the rear.

I heard that the Henan Military Division was surrounded, and Zicheng had fallen, and the surrounding Xixia people were crazy.

All the troops that could be drawn were withdrawn, and only more than 1,000 people were left in Zhenwu City to garrison.

A few days ago, the defender found that Yao Gu was coming with a large army, and immediately abandoned the city with his troops and fled.

Anyway, there is also a Renduoquan City in the rear, which is the military base of the Tangut people, with enough people to cultivate food. As for Zhenwu City, it was not too important to Western Xia, but it was extremely important to the Han people.

Yao Gu led the main force to arrive, smiling with wrinkles on his face.

He likes this situation too much, he has the military merit to capture the city, but he does not take any risks.

Even soldiers and civilians were dispatched, and more than 40,000 people were dispatched this time.

It seems that the army is a waste of food and grass, but there is just one more empty city. But these people don't want to go back, they have been deceived into farming, and in the future, they will open up the land in the Haomen River Valley, and if they want, they can bring their families here.

Seed Master Dao, Li Mida and Yang Zhi discussed it, thinking that they could only immigrate and reclaim by deception.

Due to the various riotous operations of the Great Song Dynasty, normal people did not want to settle here at all. In the past few years, several waves of immigrants, all of whom did not escape have died, either killed by the Western Xia soldiers, or forced to death by the Great Song Dynasty Wenwu.

Yao Gu announced the news of the emigration, and asked the soldiers and civilians to live first, and then select the fields in the river valley on the next day, and there were 3,000 soldiers who would also stay and garrison.

As soon as these words came out, the soldiers and civilians were in an uproar, and some people fled that night.

After escaping for a while, he found that Yao Gu actually quietly transferred his own soldiers back to camp, and waited on the way they had to escape.

It is impossible to be so prepared forever, there will definitely be people who will run away in the future, and it will be enough to keep half of them.

The longer it takes, the more people remain.

Especially after the seeds are sown, they pay the labor cost, and if they are not exploited too hard, they will not easily give up the land they cultivate.

Even in this land, the Tangut people may be killed at any time!

(End of chapter)