Chapter 313: Leaning on the River (Continued)
On the eighth day of April, the Song army marched more than sixty miles along the river before they stopped calmly. At this time, they were only about forty miles away from Xingqing Prefecture in a straight line. Even if they went down the river and then turned around, the distance was only more than fifty miles... In any case, no matter how they calculated, the Song army could rest for a night tomorrow night and officially launch an attack on Xingqing Prefecture the day after tomorrow, which was the tenth day of April.
This is two days earlier than the original schedule, and under the current situation, two days may very well be the difference that determines the life or death of a country.
At the same time, the main infantry and cavalry of the Song army were all intact, as were the baggage and equipment, so there was no loss at all.
To be fair, on that day, Western Xia's King of Liang, Weiming Anhui, did try his best. He ordered a small group of tribal cavalry to continue harassing the enemy and sent sheepskin rafts carrying soldiers to engage in the attack from the river. However, both were defeated by the Song army's more powerful crossbows... The Jurchens, who were known for their heavy armor, were frightened by the Song army's bows and crossbows, let alone the tribal soldiers who were hastily summoned and lacked armor?
Of course, An Hui himself had anticipated this. After yesterday's observation, this veteran Xixia official with rich war experience did not expect this action to have any practical effect. Those people were simply forced to use their lives to harass as much as possible. And this old official of the royal family, who currently has the most military experience in Xixia and whose status is second only to the king, put his mind on two things from the beginning... One is to recruit and gather as many tribes as possible, the more the better; the other is to cross the Song army in advance and come to Jingzhou, which is almost next to the Yellow River, and then forcibly take away the foreign troops and civilians here, lift the defense here, and throw the money in the treasury and the gold in the temple on the road east of Jingzhou.
But unfortunately, the Song army did not go to Jingzhou at all. In the evening, 20,000 to 30,000 main infantry and cavalry of the Song army arrived at the foot of Jingzhou city. Facing the open city gate and the gold and silk shining in the setting sun, no army broke away from the formation. Instead, the entire army passed through the city without entering and continued to move forward.
This made Weiming Anhui's fear reach a peak.
After all, the Tanguts were never a purely nomadic people, and the Western Xia was no longer the same as when Li Yuanhao was alive, where the ruler was the country. Over the past hundred years, the country established by the Tanguts could not resist the strong influence of Han culture. The official system basically began to imitate the Song Dynasty. Han rituals gradually overwhelmed the Tibetan rituals forcibly established at the founding of the country, and Confucianism became a prominent school of thought. Although the language, customs and military system with quite ethnic characteristics were still retained, the main culture gradually tended towards the Han system.
Various cultural nourishments, coupled with the richness of the Yinchuan Plain, allowed the country to gradually form its own core agricultural area, so a solid concept of the capital was eventually formed - Li Ganshun had not left Xingqing Prefecture for many years.
Weiming An Hui certainly could not explain these truths, and the Song army that abandoned Jingzhou and did not enter might not be able to explain them either, but they all understood them in their hearts on another level!
They knew very well that the foundation of Western Xia was in the Xitao area between the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River, which was the Xingling land, and the heart of this place was Xingqing Prefecture... If this city was captured, no one would dare to say that Western Xia would perish, but this country would definitely be in shock immediately!
In a word, the gains and losses of Xingqing Prefecture have already had enough significance.
To this end, Weiming Anhui did not hesitate to leave Jingzhou, one of his important cities, as bait in an attempt to slightly hinder the pace of the Song army. The senior officers of the Song army did not hesitate to kill many soldiers and low-ranking officers who tried to take advantage of the situation on the battlefield, and they had to march all the way north to try to ensure that they could launch an attack on Xingqing Prefecture the next day.
In any case, the Xixia people failed again in this delaying operation.
"King Liang did the right thing."
In a field ten miles northwest of Jingzhou City, surrounded by several golden-armored warriors and tribal leaders, and accompanied by the rumbling of drums in the distance, a Dangxiang nobleman wearing a golden crown sitting by the campfire listened to the report, raised his wrinkled face, and sighed. It was Li Ganshun, the nearly fifty-year-old Xixia lord. "If I were here, I would also use Jingzhou as bait."
On the other side of the campfire, several local officials and tribal chiefs of Jingzhou visibly dimmed their expressions and disappeared directly into the twilight. The gray-haired Weiming Anhui sat beside them, but the uneasiness in his heart did not diminish at all when he heard the words.
After hesitating for a while, he directly skipped the Jingzhou question and asked the key question:
"Your Majesty, if you don't stop us tomorrow, the Song army can set up camp on the river bank east of Xingqing Prefecture. It's only more than 20 miles away from Xingqing Prefecture and more than 10 miles away from the palace outside the city..."
"That's why I came to see King Liang in person." Li Ganshun's brows were still furrowed. "King Liang, I have been restless for the past three days, and I have been thinking again and again. Do you think that the light cavalry we have can defend the city? Isn't it self-defeating for a large number of light cavalry to defend the city instead of going to the field to fight?"
"I thought so too..." King Liang sighed, then responded seriously, but it was obvious that he was hesitant to speak.
"Today's situation is all due to my incompetence and stupidity. It has nothing to do with you. As long as you can hold on, any words are honest." Li Ganshun didn't even look at Weiming Anhui. He knew what the other party intended to say just by listening to the voice, and he urged directly. "If King Liang has anything useful to say, please speak quickly."
"Your Majesty," Weiming Anhui said with difficulty. "Xingqing Prefecture has been renovated and expanded many times, but none of them were done when I was the Grand Tutor more than a decade ago... At that time, the country was rarely stable, Your Majesty promoted Confucianism and Han rituals, and I expanded Xingqing Prefecture and built water conservancy projects... I am not trying to show off my achievements, but I am thinking that I personally built Xingqing Prefecture, but I knew long ago that the city had too many flaws!"
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