The battle in Xixia was in full swing. After the Song army wiped out 50,000 Xixia troops in Huaizhou, they completely gained a foothold in the hinterland of Xixia. Di Qing then sent troops to attack the south, caught the Xixia border army off guard, and made a concerted effort to flatten 36 military camps and open up the road for the Song army to head north on Shaanxi Road.

The 300,000 army, led by commander Han Jiang and deputy commander Zhong Yan, divided troops into two groups to enter Xixia, and surrounded 60,000 remaining troops in the city of Yanzhou.

At the same time, the Tubo leader who discovered the fighter plane suspended his journey to the Song Dynasty and led 120,000 Tubos to attack the 50,000 troops stationed in Hexi. The eunuch Li Xian and general Yan Da from the front line of Huilan led 30,000 cavalry to Liangzhou to cooperate with the Tubo army to attack the garrison in Xixia.

There were no Song troops outside Xingqing Prefecture City, but the city was still closed. The Huaizhou trap left an extremely painful lesson for the capital Romawei. Although he was dismissed by Empress Dowager Liang, he was severely denounced and he was not allowed to take the risk again.

Although the Song army cannot be seen outside Xingqing Prefecture City, it does not mean that the Song army will go far away. On the contrary, all the soldiers of Xixia know that the Song army is like a tiger, peeking at Xingqing Prefecture at a covetous target. As long as the army leaves the city, it will inevitably be swallowed by a tiger.

The reason why Queen Mother Liang did not dismiss the capital Roma tail was because she had no one to be available. Her brother Liang Yi buried the negotiations of the Song Dynasty, and there was no news. The Liao Kingdom showed no sign of being prepared to send troops to attack the Song army. The royal family in the city who opposed her were always eyeing her. The royal family supported the regent system, not the empress dowager's administration.

Internal and external troubles troubled Queen Mother Liang, and there may be ways to rescue the external troubles, but the royal families in the city may show their ferocious faces to her without hesitation once they get the chance.

It is precisely for this reason that although Queen Mother Liang deeply hated that she was not good at the Roman tail, she withstood the pressure from countless people and refused to dismiss him.

In the palace, Empress Dowager Liang was discussing the issue of Yanzhou's army with the capital Romawei. Yanzhou was trapped in 60,000 soldiers. General Li Chaolun sent an eagle letter to him, hoping to break through and come to Xingqing Prefecture.

Although he was greedy and selfish, he was an old general after all, and knew more about military affairs than Queen Mother Liang. He said for a moment of silence: "When Yanzhou comes, you must first pass the Gobi Desert of 300,000. How could they escape the pursuit of the 300,000 Song army? Secondly, you have to cross the Yellow River. The Yellow River is a dead end. It is better to stick to Yanzhou. The Yanzhou city wall is tall and strong. If there is enough food, it will be no problem to hold on to it for a year."

"It seems that their food can only last for three months." Queen Dowager Liang said.

"Three months are much better. If you stick to it first, there will always be hope."

Empress Dowager Liang walked a few steps behind her back and asked, "What is the situation of recruiting troops in the city?"

"Reporting to the Empress Dowager, there are many soldiers and can recruit at least 100,000 troops, but the city is short of armor, with up to 30,000 armed people, and the remaining 70,000 can only be used as military preparations for civilians."

Queen Mother Liang frowned, "Why are there insufficient weapons? Not every household has weapons? There is no official warehouse. Can't you go to the public to collect? I don't believe that I can't get a few knives in the city?"

"I understand, try to collect weapons from the people."

"Also, how long can our food last?"

"If you adhere to the strict rationing system, you can hold on for about two months, but it really doesn't work. You can still slaughter livestock, so you can hold on for a while."

"I understand, you can step down first!"

Empress Dowager Liang was upset when she thought that the royal family opposed the rationing system she had implemented.

.........

Yanzhou is located in the middle of the defense line in the southern part of Xixia. It is the outermost city, backed by Liuboling and behind it is vast mountains. The circumference of the city is about thirty miles. It was renovated last year and is very tall and wide. The Kushui River passes through the city and forms two water gates, north and south.

There were about 100,000 people in Yanzhou City, basically all of whom were Dangxiang people. Originally, there were only 10,000 defenders, but now they were crowded into the army of 60,000, making the city a little chaotic.

The general of the army was named Li Chaolun, who was also a royal family. He originally planned not to defend Yanzhou City, but planned to retreat to Xiping Prefecture first, and then cross the Yellow River from Xiping Prefecture to Xingqing Prefecture.

However, the army was blocked by the Song army when they passed Tiemen Pass. Thousands of people were injured and killed. They could not capture Tiemen Pass, so they had to retreat again. The 300,000 troops had already been chased, so they had to retreat to Yanzhou City.

Outside Yanzhou City, the Song army built a wall-shaped camp, with three camps distributed in three directions, southeast and west. To the north is Liuboling, and the Song army was also stationed on the ridge, almost surrounding Yanzhou.

Li Chaolun stood at the top of the city and looked into the direction of the capital in the distance. He only heard a little that the Song army had controlled the Yellow River, but he didn't know how much he controlled it. He only hoped to receive the order of the Queen Mother and let him return to the north. He led his army to break through. He would rather die in the battlefield than be trapped in the city.

At this time, he suddenly saw several eagles flying from the north. When he saw that they were trained, they were the trained eagles. When news from the north came, he was overjoyed and hurriedly walked towards the eagle tower.

Several eagles fell on the eagle tower. The eagle slave had already taken off the letter from his legs and handed it to the soldier. As soon as the soldier ran down the eagle tower, he met Li Chaolun and hurriedly saluted: "General, it is the letter from Xingqing Mansion."

"I know, give me the letter!"

Li Chaolun took the letter tube and pulled out a scroll of paper from it. It was written by Empress Dowager Liang and written in Chinese. After reading the letter, Li Chaolun's face suddenly looked ugly. He actually asked him to defend Yanzhou City to the death. He was very annoyed, snorted heavily, and turned around and went downstairs with great dissatisfaction.

...........

At the same time Li Chaolun received a letter from Xingqing Prefecture, in the central army's tent in the west camp outside the city, Han Jiang, Di Qing and Zhong Yan were discussing the final plan to break the city.

Fan Ning hopes that the South Road army can resolve the defense of Yanzhou City within one month, and then the two families will join forces to encircle Xingqing Prefecture.

They have been surrounding Yanzhou City for almost ten days, but the Xixia army has never broken through and out of the city, so it is inevitable to attack the city.

According to the scout's information, they had sorted out various data from Yanzhou City. Zhong Yan introduced to everyone: "The city wall is two feet high and has a circumference of thirty miles. Like other city walls in Xixia, it was rammed out of earth. It was renovated last year. There were two city gates in Xicheng and Dongcheng. There were no moats. All Xixia cities had no moats. We can use heavy siege rams to break the city gate, or we can use a catapult to smash the city wall. As for using a siege ladder to fully attack the city, to be honest, I don't agree, as there would be too many casualties."

"How is the street fighting strength of the Xixia Army?" Han Jiang asked.

"These 60,000 troops are mountain troops, good at mountain combat. Street combat in the city should be relatively strong, but we choose night combat."

"The Western Xia army is not good at night battles?" Han Jiang was a little puzzled.

Zhong Yan smiled and said, "It's not whether they are good at it, but I have specially trained the night battle of 50,000 troops. I have been training for a whole year, so we will definitely have the advantage in night battles."

Han Jiang sighed slightly, "Once a cruel street battle breaks out, the people in the city will be implicated."

"My husband, there is no way to do this. War is like this. It is difficult for the people involved in the war to survive. If we pity the people, we will suffer heavy casualties."

"I know, it's just emotion."

Seeing that Di Qing had been thinking and silent, Han Jiang asked with a smile: "Where is Di Shumi's great opinion?"

Di Qing pointed to the Kushui River on the map: "Since this river passes through the city, is there no Water Gate?"

Zhong Yan said: "They did not build a water gate, but opened a gap about meter wide under the north and south city walls, which looked like a crescent moon buckled on the ground, and the river water flowed in and out of these two gaps."

Di Qing's eyes lit up, "Can we dive into the city from the bottom of the water?"

"impossible!"

Zhong Yan shook his head and said, "The Xixia army installed an iron grid in the gap, all of which were iron bars as thick as thumbs. They were inserted to the bottom. When the scouts went to explore, people would definitely not be able to sneak in."
Chapter completed!