Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

100,000 soldiers of the Forbidden Army in northern Shaanxi are heading north!

In the morning, the weather was just a little gloomy, but in the morning it was snowing heavily!

There is a gray area in front of it, and it is impossible to see clearly from a little distance!

One hundred thousand troops are trekking hard!

It was not until late at night that day that they came to an earthen city and rested in this earthen city! On the borders of Song and Xixia, due to perennial wars, such earthen cities abound! Many of the Tucheng were fortresses that once housed troops and were later abandoned during wars! There are also some Tucheng buildings left over from the Tang Dynasty. Even the locals can't tell their history clearly!

The cold wind was howling outside, and the soldiers huddled together, relying on each other's body temperature to keep warm! But the soldiers didn't have the slightest distress in their hearts. They just wanted to rush to Xixia as soon as possible and join the war as soon as possible! They yearn for war, they yearn for war, this army is completely different from the original Song army! If it was the Song army back then, the soldiers served as soldiers only for their salary, just passing by, they would never risk such hardships to go to Xixia, nor did they have the courage to enter Xixia! But now, this army has the belief of being invincible. They believe that as long as they enter Xixia, they will be able to conquer that country and return all the shame to them!

In the early morning of the next day, the army continued to march forward through the snow!

Northern Shaanxi is too desolate, and there are no roads in many places! Some places look like flat snow, but once the soldiers step on it, they will immediately collapse! It turned out that these places turned out to be deep trenches! Once the soldiers collapsed, it was almost impossible to survive! Li Xianzhong has ordered the First Army to start ahead!

By the end of the day and night, according to the data reported by the First Army, more than 300 of them had died while exploring the road!

Li Xianzhong gritted his teeth and wrote down the data in his notebook! This is the first batch of victims of the Northern Expedition!

On the third day, they came to Dingbian Army! This is already the border area of ​​Xixia and Song Dynasty! There is a Song army of more than a thousand people stationed here. These Song troops are extremely excited to see their army coming! At that moment, Li Xianzhong ordered this army to follow the Northern Shaanxi Forbidden Army on the Northern Expedition to conquer Xixia!

On the fourth day, 100,000 soldiers of the Forbidden Army in northern Shaanxi were stationed in the wilderness!

On the fifth day, the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, they arrived at Helanyuan on the border of Xixia!

There were two fortresses on this Helan Plain. Li Xianzhong's 100,000 troops rushed over like a flood. In less than an hour, both fortresses were captured, and no enemy could escape!

"Commander! An army has appeared from behind!" At this moment, Mo Biao, the commander of the Third Army, came to report.

"Oh?" Li Xianzhong was slightly taken aback!

But he was not very anxious, the army that appeared from behind must be the army of Song Dynasty! Could it be that the Huanqing army has already followed up from behind?

He guessed well!

Less than half an hour later, an army of 50,000 people rushed over! Unlike Li Xianzhong's army, 30,000 of this 50,000-man army are cavalry! They are the Huanqing Army of Commander Liu Kai!

In addition to the Huanqing Army, there was another army following closely behind, and it was the Imperial Battalion led by Zhao Chen himself! Qu Duan and Yu Yunwen all went north with Zhao Chen and came here!

"Your Majesty has come! Your Majesty has come in person!"

"Quick, meet Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty has come to Xixia in person! His old man is personally marching, and we must not retreat!"

After a while, the news spread throughout the entire Forbidden Army in northern Shaanxi!

All the officers and soldiers of the Northern Shaanxi Imperial Army were stunned with joy, and countless officers and soldiers of the Northern Shaanxi Imperial Army fell to their knees on the ground, welcoming Zhao Chen's arrival! Kneeling has been abolished in the army for many years. In Zhao Chen's view, this is a "bad habit", but such a "bad habit" is still difficult to be completely corrected! Because many generals in the army are more or less condoning such "bad habits", they allow soldiers to kneel when they see the emperor!

Zhao Chen rode forward on the Zhaoye Jade Lion Horse. He had already arrived in front of the 100,000 soldiers of the Imperial Guards in northern Shaanxi. He got off his horse and said loudly, "Let's all get flattened!"

"I'll wait to see Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty!" There are still countless soldiers shouting here!

"It's snowing so much, get up quickly! Kneeling there, your body is frozen stiff! Get up!" Zhao Chen said loudly.

Only then did the 100,000 soldiers of the Northern Shaanxi Imperial Army stand up one after another!

"Your Majesty, can we win?" A soldier not far from Zhao Chen looked at Zhao Chen excitedly and asked.

"We must be able to win! In front of us, the Xixia people are vulnerable! They must submit to us, or they will destroy the country!" Zhao Chen said loudly.

His voice came out, and the officers and soldiers of the Northern Shaanxi Forbidden Army shouted excitedly in the distance!

"The last general, Li Xianzhong, sees His Majesty!" At this moment, Li Xianzhong had already come to Zhao Chen's side, and he knelt down in front of Zhao Chen, saying.

"There is no need to kneel in the army! Why are you like this?" Zhao Chen pulled Li Xianzhong up and said.

"Your Majesty, this is a etiquette that has been passed down for thousands of years! It will never be changed!" Li Xianzhong said.

"That's all! The soldiers have been trekking for days and nights. This journey has been exhausting! Find a shelter from the wind and let the soldiers rest for half a day! After that, we will set off with the whole army and go to Hongzhou! I will give you three days to take down Hongzhou. State!" Zhao Chen said.

"Yes! The last general takes orders!" Li Xianzhong said excitedly.

Hongzhou City is a big city on the border of Xixia, and its location is probably in the west of Jingbian County and the east of Dingbian County! Thousands of years later, this famous Xixia city has already been destroyed, but now it is still extremely prosperous and famous all over the world! During the more than 100 years of war in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty, the Xixia people often attacked Guanshan from Hongzhou. Although the Western Army was strong, no one had ever dared to go north to attack Hongzhou!

After Zhao Chen's order was conveyed, the soldiers below were all excited! Everyone please fight! The morale of the army is beyond imagination!

"Although Hongzhou City is an important town in Xixia, but this time I will mobilize an army of 160,000 to come, and I will definitely be able to conquer it in one fell swoop!" Zhao Chen mounted his horse again, pointed to the north, and said.

"The total army strength of Xixia is only more than 400,000! Most of their 400,000 people are in the area of ​​Xingqing Mansion. Unless it is a wartime, there are not many troops in Hongzhou! There is no problem in conquering Hongzhou!" Yu Yunwen nodded. .

"I can't wait any longer, I want to stand on the wall of Hongzhou City now!" Zhao Chen laughed.

The soldiers next to them laughed together! They want to hurry now, but the soldiers have not rested for five days, so they are really exhausted. Even though they are energetic now, they are exhausted physically and must rest!

On the afternoon of the 16th day of the first lunar month, the army continued to move forward, aiming to reach Hongzhou Mansion in Xixia!

The road ahead is extremely difficult, and the soldiers are marching even slower!

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, they were still more than seventy miles away from Hongzhou City!

On the morning of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, they continued to set off! On the afternoon of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, they were not far from Hongzhou City!

*** ***

The north is desolate at this time, and the outside of Hongzhou City is empty, and there is almost no one in sight!

The weather is too cold, no one comes out at this time! There are no merchants traveling to and from various places at this time!

The sky was gradually getting dark, but at this time, among the government offices in Hongzhou City, there were bright lights here!

Countless officials in Hongzhou City entered the government office!

The red candles in the government office are bright, and the seats are full of guests. Besides officials, there are countless gentry! In addition, there are countless generals sitting there!

At this moment, a civic official dressed as a fourth-rank official came up, and he sat on the main seat, while the officials and gentry below stood up one after another!

"See Mr. Prefect!"

"See Mr. Ren!"

"Why did the prefect summon us here today?"

The officials and gentry below spoke one after another.

This fourth-rank official is Ren Dejing, the magistrate of Hongzhou Prefecture in Xixia! It was also the General Judge of Xi'an Prefecture in the Song Dynasty! In the same day, the city of Kaifeng was destroyed, and the news spread to the north of Guanshan, Ren Dejing immediately took refuge in the Xixia people! It's just that his official position is not high, and he is still just a general judge! But just half a year ago, Ren Dejing got through the relationship with King Jin Li Qianming and sent his daughter to the Xixia Palace! His daughter is exceptionally beautiful. In just half a year, his daughter has changed from an ordinary concubine to the imperial concubine of Xixia! Ren Dejing has also risen with the tide, and in a short period of time he has become the prefect of Hongzhou Prefecture in Xixia!

Ren Dejing is full of ambition now, looking at the Xixia officials and gentry below, he really wants to look up to the sky and laugh! He is a Han, and he has only been in Xixia for five years, and now he is the magistrate! In time, if his daughter can become a queen, his status will be even higher! If his daughter could give birth to the Xixia Dragon Son, he might be able to enter the court as a chancellor! He naturally didn't know how "prominent" he had a reputation in history. He was a mere Han who came to Xixia and almost split Xixia without a single soldier, leaving Xixia devastated! As a Han, he was able to finally become the "King of Chu" of Xixia, which can be regarded as leaving a heavy mark in history!

Of course, now he is only a magistrate, he is already very satisfied!

"I invite you to come here today to introduce a general of the imperial court to you!" Ren Dejing said with a smile.

"General of the court?"

"Recently, the DPRK has sent 30,000 troops here! But the chief general has not arrived. Could it be that the chief general of the 30,000 troops is not here?"

"It should be like this!"

The officials and gentry below were talking a lot, and at this moment a general came from behind! This general is about 30 years old, tall and tall, with a beard on his face, very ugly, but his eyes are shining, he is not an ordinary person at first glance!

"So it's General Li Siyi!" The officials below had already recognized the identity of this general, and said immediately.

"This one is Li Siyi, General Zhenwei of the court. He came to Hongzhou by His Majesty's order to guard Hongzhou!" Ren Dejing pointed at this general and laughed.

"I'll see General Li!" The Xixia officials and gentry below saluted one after another!

Many officials and gentry knew that Li Siyi's identity was not simple! His surname is Li, which is the national surname of Xixia, so it can be seen that he is a child of the Xixia royal family! Of course, this "Li" in Xixia is different from the "Li" in Central Plains! Xixia was originally a country formed by Dangxiang people. Dangxiang was also called Dangxiang Qiang in the Tang Dynasty, and it was a branch of the Qiang people! There are eight major surnames in Dangxiang, the largest of which is Tuoba! During the Tang Dynasty, Tuoba Chi, a member of the party, took refuge in Datang and was given the surname Li! At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Tuoba Si Gongping, the leader of the Dangxiang tribe at that time, made contributions to the Huangchao uprising, and was given the surname Li again, and was named "Xia Guogong"! Therefore, the name of the country established by the party members was "Xia", and their royal family also took "Li" as their surname! In fact, they are standard Northwest Qiang people, real foreigners!

"Everyone is welcome! From now on, I will be in Hongzhou, and I will depend on you!" Li Siyi glanced over these people, nodded and said!

"Come here, bring me all the delicious food and wine!" Ren Dejing laughed loudly.

Following his order, countless servants and maidservants brought wine and dishes and put them on the tables of these officials and gentry! Today is Ren Dejing washing Li Siyi's dust, so it is naturally extremely lively!

"I'm a soldier, so don't drink too much of this wine!" Ren De toasted, and Li Siyi said after drinking a cup.

"Good! General Li strictly observes military discipline, and Ren admires it! Ren has been in the Northwest for more than 30 years, and he has seen the Western Army of the Song Dynasty before. None of the generals of the Western Army can compare with General Li!" Ren De respectfully.

"Hmph! The Han people, the Western Army! They're just cowardly and incompetent, how can they be compared with our party men!" Li Siyi said.

"What General Li said is true! The Han people are humble, they are indeed far inferior to the Dangxiang people!" Ren Dejing seemed to have forgotten his identity as a Han Chinese, his face remained unchanged, and said.

"Master Ren, you offered a strategy this time, saying that the little Han emperor in Guanshan was surrounded by the Dajin Kingdom and Emperor Jianyan in the south of the Yangtze River, and was in danger. Let us take the opportunity to go south to capture the lands in Guanshan! Your Majesty appreciates it very much! If this time we If you can get enough benefits, His Majesty will never forget your contribution!" Li Siyi said.

"Ah! Seriously? Thank you, Your Majesty!" Ren Dejing hastily knelt down on the ground and kowtowed in the direction of Xingqing Mansion, the capital of Xixia.

"A mere Han Chinese is vulnerable! This time I am just a vanguard, and I am supervising the battle in Hongzhou. Our party's hundreds of thousands of troops have gathered in various places and will go south at any time! But we have to wait until the old man Jin Wang returns!" Li Siyi said. .

"The king of Jin went to Guanshan to submit the letter of credence. I wonder if the little Han emperor can agree?" Ren Dejing said.

"He will definitely agree! He is not a fool! If he is willing to take the initiative to cede most of Guanshan, we will spare his life for the time being! At that time, we will get half of Guanshan without using the army!" Li Siyi excitedly said .

"That's really great!" Ren Dejing said with a smile on his face.