Twenty-one. The Siege of Gyeongju

The seven years of the Northern Song Dynasty, August.

It rained heavily in Huanzhou for half a month in a row.

On the evening of the 15th, many mountains in the Baimaling area collapsed, and a large amount of sediment rushed into the river, blocking the estuary in front of Hongdezhai. As a result, the water level in the upper reaches of the Maling River soared and rushed out of the river bank.

Two hours later, the flood flooded under Hongdezhai, and more than 5,000 people from the Helin Department were trapped in a critical situation.

On the same night, the levee near Tongyuan City burst, and the flood rushed into the city. Zhao Ze mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to fight against the flood overnight. After a day and night of fighting, he completely blocked five gates in the outer city.

The next day, a large-scale flash flood broke out and washed away the official roads in Huanzhou, flooding more than 30 villages, further expanding the affected area and affecting the barbaric tribes in the southwest of Huanzhou.

Half a day later, the rain passed and the flood recedes. The defenders of Huanzhou began to go out of the city to clean up the affected areas and rescue the survivors.

Subsequently, Zhao Ze launched the military and civilian of Huanzhou to carry out post-disaster reconstruction. After half a month of hard work, Huanzhou basically returned to its pre-disaster state.

Before the end of the month, Huang Qi, Cao Guan Lao Xiucai, an agent in Huanzhou, reported to Zhao Ze the loss of Huanzhou in the flood. According to preliminary statistics, more than 1,300 people were missing in the water, and nearly 3,000 households were homeless. The flood destroyed 12 markets, one military town, and three border fortresses. Among them, the downstream was seriously affected, Mizang and Kang. The two slaves killed and injured nearly 10,000 people.

In order to appease the people, Zhao Ze ordered to exempt the people of Huanzhou from this year's tax, and quickly sent a letter to Beijing to ask the court to reduce or exempt the local tax of Huanzhou for three years.

A few days later, the restoration of Huanzhou Guandao was completed.

100,000 urgent military information came from Qingzhou. The 50,000 army of the bodyguards buried by the generals in Xixia broke through the security forces. The five cities of Lian Keshunning, Jintang, Dejing, Dashun and Pingrong have reached the northwest boundary of Qingzhou, and they can pass the Huachi water to attack the hinterland of Qingzhou.

Now Fan Chunyou, a lieutenant of Qingzhou Zhiguo, is leading troops to fight fiercely with the Xixia army on the Huachi River. It is extremely tragic, and there are thousands of casualties every day. Fan Chunyou has sent more than a dozen messengers to Teng Zijing, Zhizhou for help. In order to defend the defense line, Teng Zijing ventured to send more than half of the soldiers and horses of Qingzhou Prefecture to support Fan Chunyou to stay safe. The river bank of Jiangzhai and Huachizhai.

Wanwan didn't expect that another soldier and horse in Xixia had long detoured the Hulu River in Pozhou, killed from the southeast, and surrounded Qingzhou Prefecture. When Fan Chunyou returned to the aid, he was ambushed and returned to Huachi Village.

The Xixia army attacked Qingzhou City for three consecutive days, and the army defending the city suffered heavy casualties. Teng Zijing of Zhizhou sent more than a dozen messengers in one go, all of which sank into the sea.

Later, he put all his hopes on an old man Zhang who was herding sheep. The old man was a mute and could not read. He just knew that he was from the Song Dynasty. He was ordered by Lord Teng, Zhizhou to send a sheepskin belt to Lord Zhao in Huanzhou.

Old Zhang sat in a bamboo basket and went out of the city that night. He hid in the dead for a long time before avoiding the camp of the Xixia army. Then he walked in the barren mountains and mountains for three days and three nights before he came to Huanzhou. Fortunately, on the way to the north, he met Zhao Ze's road repair army, so he picked up an old life and handed over the sheepskin belt with secret letters to Zhao. Ze.

Early the next morning, Zhao Ze ordered Yang Wenguang to be the vanguard officer and lead 10,000 troops to Qingzhou to relieve the siege. He was accompanied by three generals, Mu Yunhan, Di Ning and Lu Jun. Because of the military emergency, the march must be accelerated. Zhao Ze allocated 3,000 wooden cattle and horses to Yang Wenguang so that he could rush to Qingzhou by land in the shortest time.

Zhe Xiaolan originally planned to go to Qingzhou with Yang Wenguang, but Yang Wenguang did not agree, so she had to stay in Tongyuan City for a while. Zhao Ze gave her a very important task, that is, to watch Brother Ning Ling to prevent him from being assassinated. If she could do this well, it would be a big deal. One piece of merit.

Although Zhe Xiaolan was not very happy, she still stayed in Tongyuan City under the comfort of Shangguan Mei and Baihua. On the one, it is to complete the mission assigned by Zhao Ze, on the other, it is for the face of Shangguan Mei, and on the other, she wants to repair it when no one is around. Brother Ning Ling dares to stick to her like a butt again.

On the night when the Huanzhou rescue army was on the road, Zhao Ze ordered Guo Mishan, Tang Lin and Huang Qi to guard Guidebao; Sima Guang, He Lin, Lu Cheng, Dang Junzi and others stayed in Tongyuan City.

He personally led Ma Bu's army of 30,000 troops south to rescue Qingzhou. The accompanying generals were Zhang Zai, Jiao Yan, Jiao Zhenhua, Ren Qian, Chao Fang, Li Tieqiang, Chen Shun, Teng Xiong, Tang Lin, Liu Lu, Zhao Shilian, Wu Feng, Wu Lang, Wu Xia, the leader of the Niu family, and Su, the leader of the party department.

Ouyang Chun, Xu Zhu, Zhang Hu and Zhao Rong were responsible for escorting grain and grass, and then took the wooden cattle and a flowing horse south from the land.

Three days later, Zhao Ze's 30,000 troops resisted the 10,000 troops of Qingzhou and Yang Wenguang, and fought with the enemy of Xixia in Fengchuan Town, North, Qingzhou Prefecture. In this battle, Zhao Ze devoted all his efforts to break through the tens of thousands of cavalry in Xixia with earth cannons. The wooden cattle and flowing horse army attacked the high-speed mobile flanks, and the Chinese army steadily fought steadily. Tactics, force the Xixia army into Fengchuan Town and avoid the war.

So far, Zhao Ze's closed-door dog fighting tactics have been initially completed, leaving only one exit in the southeast.

After half a day of preparation, Zhao Ze used 20 earth cannons to bombard Fengchuan Town in turn. Under the intensive blow of one hour, Fengchuan Town was blown into ruins, the original fortifications were completely destroyed, and the Xixia Army suffered heavy losses and nearly 10,000 casualties.

Before dusk, Li Liang, the commander of the Xixia army, led more than 10,000 people from the remnants to rush out of Fengchuan Town and fled to Huluhecang in the southeast.

When crossing the river, he was strafed by the Huanzhou heavy machine gun ambushed on the other side. In an instant, people turned over, and countless people were shot. Li Liang was hit and killed by stout bullets on the way to lead the army. Most of the rest were shot, and only a small number of them fled into the boundary of Xiaozhou.

After Zhao Ze defeated the Xixia cavalry in Fengchuan Town, he took advantage of the victory and attacked the other side of the river.

After half a day of fighting, three border cities in the northwest of Gyeongju were recovered, and the invading enemy was completely repelled.

The Huanzhou Army won a complete victory, with more than 3,000 casualties, which greatly boosted the morale of the Gyeongju garrison.

On the day of victory, Fan Chunyou, a lieutenant of Qingzhou Zhiguo, asked Zhao Ze to discuss a joint force between the two companies. He immediately left Qingzhou and swept away the Xixia army that was stationed in the security army and recovered the lost land. However, Zhao Ze did not agree. His reason was that the enemy was unclear. He could not rush to rise up, otherwise it would be very dangerous. Many generals have been defeated by pride throughout the ages. In this word, once he won, he was dizzy. He thought that he would be invincible from now on. As a result, he overturned in the sewer soon. From then on, he was depressed, and he must be cautious in attacking the security forces.

Fan Chunyou felt that Zhao Ze's words were also quite reasonable. After the banquet began, he stopped mentioning this matter. He decided to explore the reality of the Xixia people before discussing the military march, so as to ensure that there was no mistake. His father Fan Zhongyan was also like this when he was in Qingzhou. There is absolutely no harm in being cautious.

In fact, Zhao Ze is purely planning for himself. He doesn't want to fight for himself. After a big war in Gyeongju, the ammunition inventory is about to bottom out. It's not enough to use protection. If you force the attack, the genius will know what will happen.

Therefore, Zhao Ze plans to wait for a while before Ryukyu brings ammunition before preparing for war.