After solving Wulianghai City, it is equivalent to opening up the north-south corridor above the capital of the Xixia Kingdom, from Wulianghai to Dingzhou, except for the big sand nest of Mao Suwu that Xiao Ming and they walked around, it is almost a flat Gobi Desert, and it is not necessarily true to say that there is no threat now, because Xiao Ming began to lead his troops westward again, targeting Heishui City!

Heishui City is located in the northwest direction of Wulianghai City, located at the foot of Yin Mountain, it is a famous ancient city since ancient times, and it has also been the royal city of the Huns, but now it is occupied by the Western Xia, there is the "Heishui Town Yan Military Division" garrison of the left wing of the Western Xia Dynasty Shun Soldiers and Horses, and the strength is not less than 20,000 people.

Heishui City is located on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Ejina River, the meaning of Ejina in the Dangxiang language is the meaning of "black water", so the Xixia people call this city "Ejina City" again, it is located on the throat of the ancient Silk Road, it is a very prosperous city.

It was originally just a castle for the tun army, and the castle was built long before the official founding of the Western Xia Dynasty. Although the city is small, it is strategically important because it is the only way and transportation hub from Hexi to Mobei. Before the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, there were already a large number of residents in the area of Heishui City, who cultivated, hunted, and multiplied here. After the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, in order to strengthen the management of this area and prevent the invasion of the Liao State in the east, the Western Xia Dynasty successively mobilized two unified army divisions to garrison Heishui City and the entire Juyan region. And a large number of people were moved to settle in the area of Heishui City, so that they could cultivate fields and produce food in the local area to meet the living needs of a large number of soldiers and civilians.

Nowadays, Blackwater City is no longer a simple military castle, but has gradually become a prosperous city with a relatively developed economy and culture. In the current Heishui City, government offices, houses, shops, post stations, Buddhist monasteries, and various workshops for printing Buddhist scriptures and making tools are all over the city, and it is a prosperous scene.

For such a city, Xiao Ming would definitely not let it go, but it was obviously too simple to capture it by force alone, and he didn't want to do it yet, so he sent people into the city to persuade him to surrender.

The city guard of Heishui City is a civil official, called Zan Wuji, a Confucian scholar who has been baptized by Sinicization, although several of his generals have also said that they will stick to the city and wait for reinforcements, but the news transmitted through the stagecoach confirmed that Lijili City and Wulianghai City have all been occupied by the Liao army, and the defenders have surrendered.

Zan Wuji finally decided to negotiate with Xiao Ming, and he put forward several requirements, first, not to harm all the soldiers and civilians in Heishui City, second, he hoped to let those generals and officials who were unwilling to surrender to the Liao State leave, and the third request was that Heishui City only surrendered, but hoped that it could be retained as the territory of Western Xia.

For these three requirements, Xiao Ming categorically rejected the third article, and completely agreed to the first article, as for the second article, Xiao Ming asked people to reply, officials and soldiers who are unwilling to surrender and are willing to leave can go, but they must use money to buy freedom, and let as many people go as much as they can come up with, and only accept gold and silver and nothing else.

Zan Wuji had no choice but to agree, so in the case of less than 50,000 taels of gold and silver, Zan Wuji left Blackwater City with thousands of officials and army generals who were unwilling to surrender, and headed south, in fact, he was able to take more people away, but many soldiers in the army below were unwilling to leave here, and within a radius of ten miles was their home, and no one wanted to leave their homeland, and the result was that most of them stayed.

Xiao Ming took Heishui City again, in the face of such a castle and the mountains of grain piled up in the treasury, the Liao army was greatly supplied, and the remaining grain was dispersed to the people and military households, and transferred Xigeda from Wuliang Haicheng to manage the remaining Western Xia army and guard Heishui City for Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming's army began to move south from Heishui, and went straight to Lingzhou and Xiazhou, and the momentum was like a bamboo along the way, basically there was no war and more than a dozen state capitals were even under the same order, and it was still an old routine, if you were willing to pay gold and silver, let you leave voluntarily, and if you were unwilling, you would open artillery to capture the city.

Along the way, he only lost thirteen shells, but he got hundreds of thousands of taels of gold and silver, received the gold, Xiao Ming kept it himself, and he rewarded all the silver to the officers and soldiers below, before arriving in Lingzhou, he himself got less than 10,000 taels of gold, and the rest were told to be scattered below, so that the money was pulled out and got tens of thousands of taels of silver, haha laughed and shouted to him, "Get rich!" Get rich! The officers and soldiers at the bottom also gained a lot, and everyone smiled.

But Xiao Ming also paid attention, after the jewelry and jade looted along the way, Buddha statues and Buddhist scriptures and other things were also loaded into several carts, and then let people send them to Emperor Tianzuo, such a convoy has been in an endless stream after his expedition to Western Xia, Emperor Tianzuo got a large number of jewels and jade, Buddha statues and scriptures and various precious handicrafts and sacrificial ritual vessels, anyway, there is no gold and silver, but this has made Emperor Tianzuo happy.

There can be such a good thing in fighting with King Xiao, and the officers and soldiers below are "Whoa!" every day! called, looking forward to marching again, but Yang Qizhong complained: "With this lot of silver, the horse is almost unable to move on the butt of the fallen war horse!" ”

Xiao Ming scolded him: "What stupid! You won't put it in a box first, and then let the cart pull it, do you think we're short of horses now? Now there are 30,000 people and 90,000 horses! ”

This is the truth, Xiao Ming did not collect horses along the way, he wanted all captured and captured horses, nearly 100,000 horses marched mightily along the way, and it seemed that there were hundreds of thousands of troops marching from a distance.

Lingzhou City paid 200,000 taels of gold and silver, and the Liao army easily took it, but Xiao Ming persuaded the Lingzhou City Guard to stay and continue to manage Lingzhou, and promised to exempt Lingzhou from taxes for a year.

Han Shizhong was most surprised by this, Xiao Ming's behavior along the way has always fallen in his eyes, like Xiao Ming, a money fan, in the name of war to loot, can still get the support of the people, many people actually regard him as a savior! It's hard to accept!

Xiao Ming said to him in private: "There is a saying that is called harsh government and fierce tigers!" Although I am greedy for money, the gold and silver I ask for are all owned by the government, and although these are also looted by the government, but if I exempt them from taxes, it is equivalent to moving away the mountains that are pressed on them, can he not be grateful to me? ”

Han Shizhong sighed: "It would be nice if my Great Song official family could understand this truth!" ”

So Xiao Ming carried out the tax exemption, according to the size of the city according to the tax exemption for one year, two years, three years, for a time the people of the states and counties around the country were all grateful to Dade, many Western Xia officials were impacted, officials were killed, the county revolted, endlessly, have asked the Great Liao State to send troops to garrison, this is for Xiao Ming is looking for trouble, he can't take care of it at all now.

When approaching Xiazhou, Xiao Ming's army happened to encounter the Uighur and Western Xia coalition forces that had arrived from the Hexi region, and the two armies faced each other across the Wuding River.

Deputy commander of the Western Army of the Great Song Dynasty, Yang Zhen of Wujielang led the army north to Guyuan, besieged Zhongwei Mansion, defeated the Western Xia Army in early September, and directly entered Xiazhou, which shocked the entire Western Xia Kingdom, if Xiazhou was occupied again, the entire Xingqing Mansion would be surrounded!

All hopes were pinned on the Uighurs and the Western Xia alliance, and Li Yanzong, the governor of the capital of the Shun Soldiers and Horses Division, personally commanded this army and prepared for a decisive battle with Xiao Ming's army and the Song army, but the Uighur general Wei Chi Boge suggested that the Western Xia state live in Chongzong Li Qianshun and move the capital to Liangzhou, with the 100,000 soldiers and horses of the coalition army, the safety of the Western Xia court could be temporarily guaranteed.

Here, Xiao Ming waited for Yang Zhen's envoy and brought Xiao Ming a letter, which said: "Hearing that Brother Xiao has won a great victory, the Xia army has been defeated, and the general trend of the Western Xia Kingdom has gone, I am willing to join hands with Brother Yu to break the Xia army and recover the lost land of 50,000 miles west of the Great Song River...... Strengthen my homeland in China, and open the Han and Tang dynasties to ......"

Yang Zhen meant to cooperate with Xiao Ming to defeat the Western Xia and Uighur alliances, take Xingqing Mansion directly, directly destroy the Western Xia Kingdom, and then take advantage of the situation to recover Liangzhou, Guazhou, Shazhou and other places, and restore the entire territory of the Tang Dynasty.

Yang Qizhong learned of this and came to meet Xiao Ming, and asked Xiao Ming how to decide on his father's suggestion, Xiao Ming was silent about this, Yang Qizhong said to him: "Emperor Liao's request for the marshal is only to conquer the Western Xia, but he did not let you destroy the Western Xia, and now the marshal's military exploits can already coerce the Western Xia to hand over the Bana Tieju and seek a lot of benefits, but what does this have to do with my Song people?" ”

"After the death of the summer, I have gained tens of thousands of miles of land, and I have made great achievements, but this battle is difficult, and it is suitable to fight steadily, I don't approve of my father's approach in such a hurry," Yang Qizhong continued.

Xiao Ming nodded and said, "Zhengfu!" You have such thoughts, it can be seen that you are thoughtful, but have you ever thought that after the fall of Western Xia, the Great Liao Kingdom will clash head-on with the Great Song Dynasty, and it will not be able to deal with the Jurchen Jin Kingdom with all its might, in that case, it will not be far from extinction! And without the buffer of the Liao State, the Iron Cavalry of the Jin State will immediately start a war against the Great Song Dynasty."

Xiao Ming shook his head and continued: "With the current combat power of the Great Song Dynasty, it can't beat the Jin Guo Iron Cavalry at all, I'm very worried about this!" ”

Yang Qizhong said: "If it's the marshal leading the troops?" ”

Xiao Ming smiled bitterly: "You said that just above the court now, Cai Jing, Wang Hao, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan and others will let a Liao minister lead the army?" ”

Xiao Ming patted Yang Qizhong on the shoulder and said: "Your father has been loyal all his life and wants to make contributions to the Great Song Dynasty, but he is still too anxious, when this war is almost over, you can also help him!" ”

Yang Qizhong was silent......

The next day, Yelu Xiaoju Die led the army to the mouth of the Wuding River, and came to meet Xiao Ming, as soon as the reinforcements of the Liao army arrived, they could not help but boost their morale. On the third day, Yang Zhen personally rushed to Xiao Ming's camp and tried his best to promote this joint operation, but Xiao Ming couldn't resist him, so he had to hold a military meeting to discuss the matter.

Who knew that above the meeting, Yelu Xiaoju Die resolutely opposed the cooperation with the Great Song Dynasty to fight! In his words, he sneered at Yang Zhen and looked down on him to the fullest, "How can the warriors of my Great Liao be in the company of the cowards of the Song Kingdom, and the land of Western Xia is the blood of my warriors of the Great Liao, how can I make a deal with the Song people?" ”

Yang Zhen suppressed his anger and looked at him with a smile, he had to give Xiao Ming face, but Yelu Xiaoju Die obviously didn't give Xiao Ming face, and still chattered: "The Song people are all treacherous people who love to take advantage, they will be scared to pee their pants when they hear the war drums on the battle array, they want to take back their homeland, can they fight by themselves?" Why rely on the heavenly soldiers of my Great Liao! ”

Yang Zhen said: "General Yelu looks down on the combat power of my Great Song army?" I didn't know that I could clash in front of the two armies that day, and it would be better to compete with each other? "He can't take it anymore!

Yelu Xiaoju Die said arrogantly: "This general is exactly what he can't ask for!" ”

Xiao Ming interjected: "The two generals don't have to fight, Xixia occupies tens of thousands of miles of land in Hexi, you have the strength to see who can fight Shazhou?" When the time comes, the king will personally judge, how about the one who won the reward of 5,000 taels of gold? "He made a bet for the two of them, and they would quarrel again.

Yelu Xiaoju said in his heart: "My soldiers and horses in Liaoxi have been fighting in the desert next to the grassland all the year round, how can they be compared to these infantry-based Song troops, this gamble is won by itself!" So he applauded.

Yang Zhen was not stupid, he had already heard it, Xiao Ming's move was already acquiescing to his plan to recover the states in Hexi, of course, he was also very happy, then everyone had to discuss how to defeat the 100,000 Uighurs and the Western Xia alliance in front of them, they were the core issue of today's meeting.

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