C246

Chapter 246 - Siege of cities along the way

The sky had already lit up, Zhao Chen was currently standing on top of the walls of Hongzhou City!

Countless Managed warriors stood by his side, protecting his safety!

Snow was still falling, and the world was still pale.

Zhao Chen looked into the distance and saw an empty patch of white! However, he knew that underneath the white snow was the prairie!

From here onwards, it would become a famous river region in history! This place was once a place for the Chinese to raise horses. When the Song Dynasty was just established, this place still belonged to the Chinese! It was not until the rise of the Western Xia that the river bank was occupied by the Western Xia people! From then on, the Han lost their land to raise horses, and the Song Dynasty no longer had a set of cavalry! The reason why the Song Dynasty was not a match for the nomadic tribes was because of their lack of cavalry!

And now, the Han Chinese were going to collect more of these places!

Just then, the sound of footsteps came from behind him. Li Xianzhong walked with large strides behind Zhao Chen.

"Your Majesty, the number of casualties has been calculated! This time, more than 2,300 people from our army have died, and more than 1,200 have been severely injured! Altogether we have 3,500 people! " Li Xianzhong said.

Zhao Chen stood there and nodded!

No matter what time, he would be extremely saddened to hear the news of the soldiers' deaths and injuries! But he knew that a war with the Western Xia was inevitable, and a dead man was also essential! He could only try his best to ensure that fewer people died, so that more warriors could return to their home!

"Your Majesty, through this battle, we can see that the fighting strength of our army far surpasses that of the Western Xia!" Li Xianzhong said again.

"How much stronger are we than them?" Zhao Chen said.

"If it's a single soldier, in terms of physical fitness, one of us soldiers can match up to both of them! If it was just one battalion, then the soldiers of one of our battalions would be able to fight against the soldiers of three of their battalions! If it were ten thousand soldiers in a single army, we would be able to fend off fifty thousand of them! However, this means that on the plains, under the condition that we are all just infantry, a single soldier of our army can defeat five of them! However, since the Western Xia produced horses, they had an extremely large number of cavalrymen! For infantry versus cavalry, with the quality of our troops, under the same strength, a single soldier can probably only stop one of theirs! " Li Xianzhong said.

"It's already very good!" Zhao Chen nodded.

He was abnormally happy!

It had already been five years since he ascended the throne. Counting the one year that Zhe Keqiu had been in power for, it had already been more than four years that Zhao Chen had taken charge of the military affairs! In these four years, the army had undergone tremendous changes! The current army of Song Dynasty far surpassed the Imperial Guards and Western Army of the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and far surpassed the army of Western Xia as well! The battle prowess of the Song Dynasty's army was no longer inferior to the strongest female true army of this era! However, the only drawback was that the army lacked horses!

This time when they entered the Western Xia, Shanbei Forbidden Army was completely filled with infantry! There are more than 20,000 cavalrymen in Tsinghua Army! As for the Jingyuan Army, they also had more than 20,000 cavalry! And this was after she had defeated Nvzhen back then, she had even obtained this war horse from women's army s of Guan Shan and New Dependencies of Qidan! Furthermore, unlike the Nvzhen, many of them had two or three horses each, while the cavalry under Zhao Chen only had one horse each! One man and one horse, their ability to sustain battle would be greatly reduced, far inferior to the women's army who had two or three horses per person!

"After we take down the Western Xia, we will have enough horses! How many horses are there in Hongzhou? " Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, Hongzhou City originally had thirty thousand Western Xia Army soldiers! These thirty thousand soldiers of the Western Xia Army were originally going to be the vanguards of the Western Xia Army to enter the Shaanxi. There are over 50,000 war horses here! " Li Xianzhong said.

"That's great! "This is a great fortune we have obtained, we must look after these horses!" Zhao Chen said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, we have also captured a prisoner! It's actually Chinese! " Li Xianzhong said.

"Oh? Bring it up! " Zhao Chen said.

Immediately, Li Xianzhong waved his hand, and a few soldiers brought Hongzhou Prefect Ren Dejing over!

Ren Dejing had already been locked up for half the night, his heart was perturbed, he did not know what kind of outcome he would face in the future! When daylight arrived, he was escorted out. Along the way, he only saw countless Song Army Soldiers s standing by his side! These Song Army Soldiers s were completely different from what he remembered. Their stance was neat and orderly, and their eyesight was sharp. This was an army he had never seen before. He immediately came to the conclusion that the soldiers in front of him far surpassed the Western Army in the past and far surpassed the Western Xia Army. His heart was overwhelmed with shock!

"When did the Song Dynasty have such an army? There was a rumor in the past that the Song Dynasty's army had defeated the female army. Was this true? How is this possible? When did the Chinese become so brave? " Countless thoughts passed through his mind in an instant.

After an unknown amount of time, he was brought to the top of the city wall. After a while, he was sent up!

Upon reaching the city wall, he immediately saw a young man standing there! This young man was surrounded by countless soldiers. His expression was firm and resolute as he pointed out rivers and mountains to the soldiers around him! More importantly, he was actually wearing a dragon robe! He was wearing a treasure sword on his waist, the Seven Star Dragon Abyss Sword that Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi used to wear back then!

"This... the Emperor of the Song Dynasty? " Ren Dejing was instantly stunned!

He had never dreamed that the emperor of the Song Dynasty would actually come here! Ever since the establishment of the Song Dynasty, other than Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, no one else dared to step onto the battlefield. All the emperors only dared to hide within the imperial palace. They lived a life of wealth, but they were as timid as a mouse! In the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the two emperors, Song Huizong and the Song Chin Zong, showed an extremely ridiculous performance in front of the Nvzhen. How could he have the guts to enter the battlefield?

After a moment, a few soldiers pushed Ren Dejing down to the ground!

"This humble subject, Ren Dejing, greets Your Majesty!" Ren Dejing anxiously said.

"This humble official? I just heard that you are one of the subjects of the Western Xia, the Lord Prefect of Hongzhou, why did you say you are a 'humble subject'? " Zhao Chen turned around and said.

It was only now that Ren Dejing could clearly hear Zhao Chen's voice! Zhao Chen's voice was calm and capable, completely different from the previous emperor! In the past, emperors were all well-mannered. One word was enough to make one think for a long time! Furthermore, the emperor would not directly talk to the captives. After the emperor said it, the eunuchs by the side informed him that there were no eunuchs by Zhao Chen's side.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject is the original Xi'an Prefecture's Judge Ren Dejing!" Ren Dejing said.

"Since you are an official of the Song Dynasty, why did you choose to join the Western Xia?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject is only thinking of a way to infiltrate the Western Xia! Your Majesty, all these years I have been very familiar with the circumstances of the Western Xia! This humble subject's daughter has already entered the Western Xia Imperial Palace and is now the Imperial Consort. It is not impossible for her to become the Empress someday! Your Majesty, this humble subject is willing to tell you everything I know! In addition, when this humble subject's daughter becomes the empress, she can also send news to the empress! Your Majesty, what do you think? " Ren Dejing forehead was perspiring, but his thoughts raced as he said.

"Do you know who I hate the most in my life?" Zhao Chen looked at the generals around him and said.

"I don't know!" Li Xianzhong said.

The other generals beside him also shook their heads.

"The thing that I hate the most in my life is traitors! Forget the country, forget the nation, have no sense of shame, turn to outsiders, help outsiders to deal with their own people! It was hateful to be enemies on the outside, but it was even more hateful to be a traitor! The Western Xia had repeatedly invaded the Guan Shan for the past hundred years, killing who knows how many citizens of the Guan Shan. Under these circumstances, there were still officials of the Song Dynasty who sought refuge in the Western Xia and enjoyed wealth and prosperity in the Western Xia! "What do you guys think we should do with such a person?" Zhao Chen said.

"Kill!" Li Xianzhong said without the slightest hesitation.

"Your Majesty! Spare me, spare me! This humble subject really knows a lot of information about the Western Xia! This humble subject's daughter is indeed the imperial concubine! With this humble subject and this humble subject's daughter here, this time His Majesty has taken down the Hongzhou. This humble subject can help Your Majesty cover it up, this humble subject can report this to the Western Xia Imperial Court and tell them that the Nvzhen has invaded Western Xia! Your Majesty, you can leave Hongzhou right now and return to Song Dynasty. You don't have to worry about western Xia army's arrival! " Ren Dejing said in shock.

"Leave the Hongzhou now and return to the Song Dynasty? Ridiculous, ridiculous! This time, we will bring half of our troops into the Western Xia and take down a mere Hongzhou. Zhao Chen laughed.

The high-ranking officers beside him also burst into laughter.

"We will make sure that Xicha will never again fall into trouble!" Zhao Chen said indifferently.

"Highness, what are you talking about? Don't you know that for the past hundred years, the Song Dynasty has not been able to destroy Western Xia? " He had even forgotten the fact that he was about to be killed. At the moment, he only thought that Zhao Chen had gone mad, to actually dare say such words!

"Drag him away!" Kill without mercy! " Zhao Chen said indifferently.

"Your Majesty! Please spare my life! " Only now did Ren Dejing begin to loudly beg for mercy!

A moment later, a miserable scream was heard from afar!

Ren Dejing, the biggest scoundrel of the Western Xia in the history, had actually died in Hongzhou City like this! From then on, his history was cut off, and the history of the Western Xia was going to experience an unprecedented change!

The army would be resting in Hongzhou City for a day!

On the 20th of the first month, the army continued to head north!

On the 25th of the first month, the army arrived at the city of the Western Xia Province, which was probably located in the area where the current Otok, the former flag of Inner Mongolia, had been summoned by the Eastern Ao Leong!

There were five thousand Western Xia army garrisoned here. In less than an hour, the Acropolis had fallen! All the Western Xia soldiers surrendered!

On the first day of February, the army captured the Garning Military Division of Western Xia!

There were ten thousand troops stationed here, but in front of the hundred and fifty thousand strong s, this place was not even able to withstand a single blow! In addition, this was the place where Western Xia stored their food and transport. After this place was attacked, the Song Army would get countless of food and transportation, enough to handle the upcoming battles.

After the attack on Jianning's military division, the army had to rest here for another two days!

After that, the army headed west. On the tenth day of the second month, they arrived at Western!

The Yanzhou City was built in the Tang Dynasty to protect itself from borderlines. Bai Juyi had a poem, "Salt City", which read, "Build your own Salt Province for over ten years, and don't violate the rules of the land"! It was the first year of Song Dynasty, and also the border city of Song Dynasty! Unfortunately, after the rise of the Western Xia Party member, this place was occupied by the Western Xia! Compared to the Hongzhou, Yan Zhou's position was much more important. The defenses here were stronger, and there were more garrison troops! This was the military hub of the eastern part of the Western Xia!

At this point in time, the news of Hongzhou's attack on Gui Zhou, Jia Ning and the others had already reached Yanzhou City. The forty thousand strong army of Yanzhou City was on guard, it was impossible for Song Army to attack Yan Zhou in surprise!