On the other side of the river, Yue Fei saw the chaos on the other side with his own eyes, and knew it was not fake, so he immediately urged Qu Duan and Wang De to lead their troops across the river to capture the city, in order to control the situation while sweeping away the remaining Western Xia troops.
On the other side, in a small stronghold next to the Great Wall in the northeast of Lingzhou City, Yang Zhengyao, the governor of Huanzhou, saw the fire and did not hesitate to order the entire army to abandon their baggage and attack Lingzhou.
Just like that, at just the second watch, the infantry of Wang De's imperial camp poured in from the defenseless west of the city. Qu Duan then led the cavalry to sweep the main streets, capturing the looting, killing and raping Dangxiang rebels, and drove the surrendered foreign soldiers to fetch water to put out the fire.
In the chaos, after learning that the Song army had entered the city, dozens of Han officials including the Western Xia prime minister Wang Shu and Cao Guozhang who were guarding the government office died. Pu Wang Weiming Renzhong, who was also in the government office, stayed behind. After making sure that everyone was dead, he personally set fire to the firewood and other miscellaneous items that he had ordered his subordinates to pile up outside the government office during the Broadday Mutiny. Not only did he burn the government office down to the ground, he also buried himself.
When the fire started, Weiming Yunge couldn't tell whether he was sad or relieved, but there was no reason for him to sit in the city and wait for death, so he fled the city with the remaining thousand people. Then, he didn't dare to go north along the river, so he had to turn to the desert.
In the darkness of the night, perhaps because there were too few soldiers, Brother Yun and his party did not cross paths with Yang Zheng and managed to escape.
However, after finally stopping in the desert to take a short rest and looking back at the Lingzhou City where the fire was gradually dying down, he turned around and was shocked to hear the news - the most senior figure in the team, Shu Wang Weiming Renli, whom he had saved twice, had committed suicide on the camel with a dagger.
It seems that he chose to commit suicide shortly after leaving the city.
Brother Yun said nothing and sat down beside Renli's body. He didn't shed any tears, but just felt confused and terrified.
The sky was about to brighten, and smoke was still rising from the Lingzhou City. What was waiting for this city was an execution - Qu Duan, commander of the Imperial Cavalry, sat upright on an iron elephant, standing in front of the city government office which had become a ruin. On his left, Wang De was standing beside him, sneering. On his right, Yang Zheng, the governor of Huanzhou, did not dare to ride a horse at all. He just stood with his hands crossed in front of the old superior's horse, looking solemn. If you didn't know better, you would think he was a guard leading the horse.
On the street ahead, about a hundred Tangut chieftains and officers, some burned, some wounded, some soaked in dew, were in a state of utter disgrace, but could only stand trembling on both sides of the street, heads bowed and silent. Farther down the street, thousands of Tangut soldiers were tied up tightly, thirty in a row, and were continuously escorted to the street among these chieftains by Song soldiers, and then beheaded in public.
These are the criminals who took advantage of the chaos last night to loot, kill, burn and rape, and they are famous for their murder.
In this way, the fighting continued until the morning. As thousands of soldiers' heads fell to the ground, Emperor Zhao, who was far away in Youzhou, finally received his second gift.
"Lü Sheren."
Just as the city of Lingzhou was in a state of panic, Ren Duo... the new gatekeeper who had officially changed his name to Ren Baozhong, could not wait to come and see the only person who could be considered his superior among the people.
Lu Benzhong, who was drinking millet porridge, looked up in surprise. He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that Ren Baozhong looked much younger, and even his scalp was much tighter... Obviously, this man was much older than his father, okay?
"Ren... Sheren." Lü Benzhong was from a famous family, so he was well-mannered. Although he was wary of this, he still stood up and bowed, using the honorific title of Zhihou. "Do you have any advice?"
"Yes." Ren Baozhong clasped his hands. "In fact, I would like to present another gift to the emperor... If this gift is presented, the people of Xixia will be more stable, but this matter must be decided by Lu Sheren."
"Oh?" Lu Benzhong immediately became interested. "If you have such a generous gift, why didn't you present it yesterday?"
"I just found out about this today." Ren Baozhong was full of energy. "It turns out that the emperor has traveled west for half a year and didn't even bring a concubine with him! And when I asked, I found out that the emperor only has two concubines, but he has enough children, so it's just right... What do you think... Is this a good thing for both the public and the private?"
Lü Benzhong instantly realized what the other party meant. Out of some instinct, he immediately wanted to refute him, but for some reason, when the words came to his lips, he was speechless. On the contrary, after thinking about many obstacles, this Lü Sheren was actually moved.
PS: Continue to dedicate my new book "Zhao Zhou".
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