Xingzhou is the original Huaiyuan, today's Yinchuan City. Since Li Deming moved the capital, he began to build a large number of buildings.

In a few years, the city is "ten miles high", with a radius of several miles. The whole Xingzhou city is divided into three inner cities, three outer cities, the inner city palace, drum tower, bell tower is lined up, and the outer city pagoda and temple are dense.

Xixia advocates Buddhism and has successively built well-known temples such as Jietan Temple, Gaotai Temple, and Chengtian Temple. On the surrounding city wall, a number of watchtowers stand, each of which is several feet high, and can be clearly seen dozens of miles away.

After the painstaking management of the king of Xiping and the ministers, the buildings and palaces of the Xingzhou Mansion at this time are towering, the streets and alleys are longitudinal and horizontal, the crowd is weaving back and forth, and there are the Han people of the Song Dynasty, the Uighur merchants, the Khitan Dajia, the Tubo nobles, etc., carry out business and trade activities here, the whole Xingzhou city is a prosperous scene, echoing with the Bianliang of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty, known as the West Xingzhou, the East Bianliang.

Xingzhou Wangcheng takes Lingxuan Avenue as the axis and is divided into two pieces: east and west. On this day, it was the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, when the autumn tiger was in full swing, the sound of horses' hooves was heard in the distance on the scorching Lingxuan Avenue, and someone shouted: "The king drives the horse, and the people avoid it." ”

A train fleet came slowly, there was a letter in front of it, the dragon flag opened the road, under the guidance of the guide car, a vermilion red elephant chariot pulled by six jujube red horses, slowly moving forward. The four walls of the elephant chariot are equipped with ivory carvings, there are bronze birds on the top, and the red flags are inserted on the left and right sides, hunting in the wind, as if it is the honor guard of the Son of Heaven.

Behind the elephant's chariot, a young man followed closely on a tall, swarthy horse, whose hooves were snow-white and extremely powerful. The man on the horse had slender cheeks, a series of eyebrows raised, the bridge of his nose was high, his cheekbones were prominent, his eyes were blazing, his face was cold, he was not angry and arrogant, and a Taoist priest behind him squinted his eyes and stroked his beard to ride a horse to follow.

The convoy went straight all the way into the inner courtyard of the palace, someone raised the curtain, and a bearded old man over half a hundred years old walked out. This man wears a crown of heaven, a silk robe, and a square heart curved collar. Looking at the costumes, it is also the shape of the Son of Heaven in the Northern Song Dynasty. Although he is more than half a hundred years old and his beard is white, he is still heroic, and it is Li Deming, the king of Xiping.

The young man who followed behind the elephant took two quick steps and followed Li Deming into the main hall.

At this time, the civil and military officials had already been lined up on both sides, Li Deming sat in the center, looked around, and said loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, today is an extremely important day for my Great Xia Kingdom, and I want to announce a major event. Come on, proclaim the edict. ”

A person walked by, holding an edict in his hand, and it was Gao Zhanen, the commander of the Yiwei Division. At this time, Zhang Pu, Wei Mu Shanxi, Yeli Tiandu and other old ministers have passed away, Wei Mu family, Yeli family and other dignitaries are still favored, and the Wuzang family has risen rapidly in recent years because of the marriage of the Yeli family. But in terms of the command of soldiers and horses, and the obedience of vehicles, Gao Zhanen still won Li Deming's trust. Therefore, important matters such as the reading of the edict are generally completed by him.

Gao Zhanen held the edict in his hand and read it aloud: "My son Yuanhao, who went out to study, has been 15 years after the cold and summer, and has returned from learning today, and has been given the surname Zhao of the Song Dynasty, and is specially appointed as the prince of Xiping." ”

All the ministers said "ah", these years I only heard that the little prince was taken away by the descendants of Yuan Tianshi to learn art, and I didn't know it for fifteen years, and I didn't expect to finally return today. At that moment, Qi Qi knelt down and said loudly: "The return of the son of the world is a blessing for the country." Congratulations to King Xiping, congratulations to King Xiping. ”

Li Deming was in a good mood, got up and said, "Everyone, please get up." You have done your best for many years to help my Li father and son go all over the place, fight in the south and the north, and break through the foundation of this Great Xia Kingdom, Deming is very grateful. From today on, the prince Yuanhao will govern together with this king, and I hope that all Aiqing will help a lot.

"The king can rest assured, seeing the prince is like seeing the king of Xiping, if anyone is not convinced, Lao Tzu will be the first to screw his head off. The person who spoke was rough and rough, with broad shoulders and a round waist, and everyone saw that this person's name was Yeli Yuqi, and he was the first fierce general of the Yeli family. Over the years, he followed the king of Xiping to conquer Tubo and Ganzhou Uighurs, and made a lot of meritorious contributions, and was quite prestigious in the army.

"The return of the prince is the blessing of our Great Xia Kingdom, why should the king of Xiping be too humble. We will support the son of the world, and we will die after death. "The one who spoke was the new big clan who had not hidden the family recently, who was young, and was already the head of the third official residence, in charge of the allocation of property, and was also a celebrity around Li Deming.

Subsequently, there were Yeli Rongren, Yu Baolan and other people who expressed their intentions. At this time, a person flashed out of the crowd and said: "Fang Jin, my Western Xia, is becoming more and more prosperous under the rule of King Xiping, and the national strength is strong. Over the years, we have expanded our territory and increased our population, and we have been able to compete with the Song Dynasty, which is all the credit of King Xiping. Now that the emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhen is young, the Liu family listens to the government, and the government is scattered, which is a godsend. In my humble opinion, why don't the king proclaim himself emperor as soon as possible and establish the Western Xia Empire, so that Yuan Hao can be appointed as the crown prince and the emperor as the prince, and no one can say a bird, right?" Li Deming looked over, and it was the privy envoy named Lang Yu who spoke, and his words were actually in line with Li Deming's intentions. After these years of governance, the Western Xia did become stronger and stronger, and Li Deming imitated the administrative system of the Tang and Song dynasties and established a complete official system.

After Langyu finished speaking, all the ministers in the hall applauded in unison, and they all said: "Please enthrone the king as soon as possible and establish the Western Xia Empire!"

Li Deming waved his hand again and again, and said with a smile: "Zhong Aiqing's heart has been received by the king, but before my father succeeded to move to Gongbin Tian, he repeatedly told us to wait for Song Chenliao and Taoguang to raise his mind. Deming is old, time is running out, and the future will be completed by the prince and Zhong Aiqing. ”

The ministers petitioned again, but Li Deming insisted on refusing to allow it, so he had to give up for the time being. Li Deming waved his hand at Gao Zhanen and said, "Li Yuanhao, the son of Xuan, went to the palace." ”

Gao Zhanen said in a loud voice: "The king of Xiping has a decree, and Li Yuanhao, the son of Xuanshi, will go to the palace." ”

Everyone looked back, only to see a short young man walking up to the hall quickly, kneeling down in front of Li Deming and saying: "Yuan Hao thanked his father for his kindness, and his sons and ministers should swear to serve to the death to protect our party members for thousands of generations and eternal prosperity." ”

It was the same young man who had followed the elephant chariot just now.

It turned out that Li Yuanhao was kidnapped by Yuan Shuren, a descendant of Yuan Tiangang, fifteen years ago, and has been practicing in Tayun Nunnery in Helan Mountain. Yuan Shuren is a cultivator, good at using spiritual magic to cover his whereabouts, and no one knows where Tayun Nunnery is all these years. Every five years, Li Deming and his wife can be guided, visit Li Yuanhao once, and see that he has made great progress every time, not only his skills are increasing day by day, but his knowledge and courage are also quite kingly, and he can't help but rejoice in his heart.

At this time, at the end of the fifteen-year period, Li Deming personally welcomed back his son, established himself as the prince in front of the ministers, and insisted on inviting Yuan Shuren to stay by his side to continue teaching, and several people returned to Xingzhou City together.

The ministers saluted again and saw the prince of Xiping. After some greetings, Li Deming was about to announce a big banquet, but he heard several thunders outside the main hall, and the sky suddenly darkened, as if someone had covered the sun with a black cloth, and the hall was instantly dark. Then a blinding light suddenly lit up, and the bright light pierced through the main hall, reflecting everyone's faces.

The crowd looked at each other, not knowing what had happened. Not long after, there was a commotion outside the hall, and someone was shouting something, but it was too far away to be heard. Li Deming and everyone in the hall walked to the door of the main hall one after another, only to see that outside the palace wall in the distance, a white oblong object continued to glow with strong light, stabbing people's eyes.

"Lingmen, that's Lingmen! Quick, protect the king and the prince......" Gao Zhanen waved his hand, and hundreds of black-clothed and black-armored warriors poured on both sides of the main hall, holding long knives, lined up to protect Li Deming, Li Yuanhao and others.

"Report ......" There are imperial city warriors rushing to it.

"King Qiqi Xiping, the sky on Lingxuan Avenue is strange, as if a heavenly eye has opened in the air, the people are scattered and fled, and the city is in chaos, please make a decision. ”

"Probe, report!"

"Yes!"

The warriors of the imperial city rushed away, Li Deming walked quickly to the wooden table on the side of the throne, picked up a huge wooden box, and as soon as he opened it, a turtle and a white snake poked their heads out and pointed in the direction of the glow.

"Yes, according to the Xuanwu Treasure Box, it is indeed the spiritual gate that has been opened again, and this time the spiritual gate has chosen to be opened near the palace, and I am afraid that something big will happen. Li Deming said, waved his hand at Gao Zhan'en and said, "Pick up the elite soldiers and strong generals, and hurry to the place where the spiritual gate opens." ”

Gao Zhanen picked up the horn hanging on his waist, one long and two short blows three times, and the five generals in the palace rode horses and galloped, these generals had black helmets and black armor, black masks, holding long lances, and even the horses were wearing thick armor, which looked like heavy cavalry attire.

The five generals came to the king of Xiping and the others to salute one by one, and then took out the whistle arrow from their arms, lit the fuse and shot it into the air. The whistle arrow spewed a tongue of fire and made a sharp and piercing whistle that soared into the air, and exploded with a bang.

In a moment, the sound of horses' hooves rumbling outside the palace, Li Deming took off the court clothes on his body, did not have time to put on his armor, turned over and stepped on the snowflake horse led by the samurai, and rushed to the city gate first. Behind him, Li Yuanhao, Yuan Shuren, Gao Zhanen, Yeli Yuqi and others got on their horses and followed.

At this time, outside the city, there were already more than 1,000 heavy cavalry waiting in line.

Since the battle between Wei Ming Gu and Xiao Tuyu's Tielin Army, Li Deming deeply felt the importance of heavy cavalry, and in recent years, he has been working to let Gao Zhanen, Wei Ming Langyu and others build the Iron Harrier of Western Xia Heavy Cavalry, and now he has achieved a small success.

The party has been practicing riding and archery skills since childhood, and the five generals are the leaders of the first one, each of them leads more than 200 horsemen, according to the five elements of the formation can be divided or combined, free maneuver, take care of each other, and the tacit understanding between each other is increasing.

These iron harriers usually use the leader's arrows as a signal, and they can assemble and set out for the battle in a moment, which is really a noble and fast soldier.

Soon, the crowd came to the place where the light was shining.

As described by the spy, this spiritual gate seemed to open a heavenly eye in mid-air, oblong, with a black hole in the middle that could not be seen clearly, and the edge emitted a strong white light, shaking so that people could not open their eyes.

Gao Zhanen took out a black flag and held it high above the top, and more than a thousand Iron Harrier cavalry surrounded the spiritual gate with three layers inside and three layers outside, everyone holding shields and long lances, waiting for the battle.

After waiting for a while, the spiritual gate only glowed, but there was no other vision.

Gao Zhanen said: "Come on, come forward to spy on the truth." Each of the five teams of Iron Harriers sent a rider and rode towards the Spirit Gate. But as soon as the five of them arrived, a sudden heat wave hit, the temperature around the spiritual gate suddenly increased dozens of times, the strong light soared, and everyone only felt chest tightness and shortness of breath, sweating. Gao Zhanen knew that something was wrong, and it was too late to order people to retreat, and the five riders who approached the Lingmen turned into powder and scattered all over the place.