Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Hundreds of grassland laborers were also shooting with their bows and arrows.

The soldiers under Fei Congjuli's command were repelled in four consecutive attacks, and their morale was gradually eroded.

He simply divided his forces to attack from all four sides, instead of just attacking the breach.

The number of Ming troops left to defend the city was too small to cover every point, and a group of Western Xia soldiers quickly rushed to the city walls.

The Western Xia soldiers were setting up ladders when they saw a round ball fall from above.

"boom!"

A deafening thunderclap deafened the Western Xia soldiers, who suffered heavy casualties; those who survived fled in terror.

Fei Congjuli, still unconvinced, continued to organize the attack.

But the Western Xia soldiers became timid and hesitant, advancing or standing at a great distance from each other.

"boom!"

Another deafening thunderclap exploded, and all the nearby Western Xia soldiers fled.

Those who were 20 or 30 meters away were all running away, as if they would be the ones to be bombed if they didn't escape.

"Commander, we can't attack anymore! The Ming army's firearms are powerful!" the tribal chiefs under his command pleaded.

In fact, so far, out of the eight thousand Western Xia soldiers, only three hundred have been killed or wounded, with a casualty rate of less than 4%.

Many of the Western Xia soldiers hit by small clods of earth only suffered fractures and were out of danger once they retreated.

But they were all terrified by the firearms, especially the thunderclap bombs, which made the Western Xia soldiers dare not approach the city walls.

They came from a thousand miles away from Zhenyan Military Command; there's no need for them to risk their lives for Weifu Military Command.

Chapter 3758 Heavenly Thunder Explosion

These Western Xia soldiers were mainly Uyghurs who had been influenced by Tangut culture.

Even with further Tangutization, it would never truly be Tangut. The language retains a large number of Uyghur words.

Their daily lives still retained many Uyghur customs, and they were not of the same mind as the Tangut people under the Weifu Military Command.

Seeing that the tribal chiefs were unwilling to fight again, Fei Congjuli had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Let's attack again, and send more men!"

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Soon, more than a dozen thunderbolts exploded one after another, and squads of Western Xia soldiers fled back.

The chiefs looked at Fechongjuli, remaining silent and exchanging glances.

Fei Congjuli looked at the small fortified city wall, and seeing the gap that was only two or three meters high, he swallowed hard and said, "Let's go to the battlefield and lend Prince Jin a hand."

The chieftains finally smiled; they would rather face tens of thousands of Ming troops on the grasslands than attack the castle defended by firearms.

Who knows how many of those exploding iron balls there were? As soon as the Western Xia soldiers rushed to the city wall, a group of them would be knocked down by the explosion.

How many times could the Western Xia army withstand such a large force?

Fei Congjuli took away the wounded and the dead, and led more than 7,000 cavalry to the main battlefield.

He felt that the battle, with a total force of over 100,000 on both sides, would not be over in a short time.

As long as I maintain my horse's stamina, I can suddenly attack the Ming army from behind at a crucial moment in the battle and surely achieve great feats.

Just to be on the safe side, Fei Congjuli also dispatched several hundred light cavalry to scout ahead at a distance.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon that the light cavalry rushed back in panic: "Commander, the Prince of Jin has suffered a great defeat!"

Fei Congjuli asked in surprise, "How did you lose?"

“I don’t know,” said the officer of the light cavalry. “We didn’t encounter any Ming light cavalry intercepting us along the way. When we got close to the battlefield, we saw prisoners and corpses everywhere.”

"Before we could even take a closer look, a cavalry charge came charging at us, and we were so frightened that we ran back immediately."

That iron cavalry was Han Shizhong's personal guard.

The rest of the Ming cavalry went to pursue and kill the routed enemy, leaving only Han Shizhong to command the steppe cavalry to clean up the battlefield.

Han Shizhong had already received the message from the fast ship. He deliberately let the scouts from the Western Xia light cavalry approach, so that the enemy troops rushing to the castle would know that Richard had been defeated.

An inexplicable sense of panic quickly spread through Fei Congjuli's army.

They didn't know how they lost the final battle, nor how many of their allies had fled.

"Let's go back to Wulahai City first!" Fei Congjuli ordered.

These seven thousand cavalrymen immediately galloped north, swam across the Uga River, and then followed the north bank westward, bypassing the battlefield and escaping back to Wulahai City.

After running wildly until nightfall, Fei Congjuli suddenly stopped.

Ahead of them, on both banks of the Uga River, the Ming army was already waiting.

Many Ming cavalrymen were still pursuing the enemy and had not yet returned. Han Shizhong personally led more than a thousand Ming cavalrymen and nearly ten thousand grassland light cavalrymen to guard both banks of the Wujia River and block the enemy's return route.

Ten miles behind Han Shizhong was the Langshan Pass, where Wulahai City was located.

A Tangut chieftain who had surrendered at Tiande Army City rode over on horseback and shouted, "Don't shoot arrows! I am a Tangut! Don't shoot arrows! I am a Khitan!"

Fei Congjuli ordered no arrows to be fired, and only asked when the man rushed in, "Since you are a Tangut, why do you want to defect to the enemy country?"

Chapter 3759 No Indiscriminate Killing of Prisoners

The Tangut chieftain said, "My name is Miqin Xinge, and I am the branch chief of the Miqin clan."

"I was stationed in Tiande Army City before, and I only surrendered after the city fell."

"The Ming army did not indiscriminately kill prisoners, and even ordered the fire to be put out."

"There was a Ming Dynasty Protector-General surnamed Yue who suppressed and executed two enemy chieftains who indiscriminately killed prisoners."

"If you surrender, you will surely live."

The chieftains under Fei Congjuli's command were all intrigued by what they heard.

Especially the Uyghur chieftains, whose homeland was thousands of miles away and who were not of the same ethnicity as the Tanguts. Why wouldn't they surrender if they could survive?

Moreover, Richard has already been defeated.

Fei Congjuli asked, "How did the Prince of Jin lose?"

Mi Qinxinge said, "Including the Iron Falcon, all of my Great Xia... Western Xia cavalry were routed."

"The Ming cavalry charged into the infantry formation, and the Prince of Jin's entire army was routed."

"The Ming army killed and captured tens of thousands of people. Prince Jin fled with his remaining troops, and no one knows where he went."

“But it certainly wasn’t Wulahai City; he wouldn’t dare to flee back to the city.”

Fei Congjuli remained silent.

Mi Qinxing continued, "Han Duhu sent me to deliver a message that after the spring, the Ming Dynasty will send 500,000 troops to Shaanxi, and the Yellow-Headed Uyghurs will also send troops to wipe out the Western Xia in three routes."

"Even if you escape back to Zhenyan Military Command, once the Ming army conquers the capital of Western Xia, they will send troops to attack Heishui City. Do you think you can win then?"

There's no way we can escape back; all our escape routes are blocked!

To the north lies Langshan Mountain, to the south Wujia River, and the grassland in between is only a dozen miles wide.

Even if they managed to fight their way into Wulahai City, if the Ming army blocked the Langshan pass, they would all be trapped like turtles in a jar.

At that time, the only way to survive would be to cross the Langshan Pass and travel more than a thousand miles back to Heishui City from the northern foothills of Yinshan.

The route is all Gobi Desert, desert and mountains, and we would probably starve to death on the way.

Another Tangut cavalryman charged in, shouting, "Han Duhu said you must decide quickly whether to fight or flee, he needs to go back and distribute the spoils!"

The Uyghur chieftains stepped forward and surrounded Fei Congjuli.

Even the Tangut chieftain did not stop this behavior, choosing instead to stand by and watch on horseback.

Fei Congjuli looked at the chiefs with their hands on the hilts of their swords. If he dared to say "no," he would probably be hacked to death on the spot.

The descendants of these people defended Khara-Khoto more than eighty years later, purely out of desperation by the brutality of the Mongols.

At this moment, however, they have a chance to survive.

Fei Congjuli sighed, threw down his weapon, and said, "I am willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."

Han Shizhong called Fei Congjuli over and pointed to Wulahai City, more than ten miles to the northwest: "All your cavalrymen are unarmed. Go outside the city and shout to persuade them to surrender."

"Just tell them that the Zhenyan Army Command has surrendered to the Ming, and that the garrison in the city should surrender as soon as possible."

"If you dare to hold out to the death, the cannons and arrows will not be indiscriminate."

Fei Congjuli had no other choice but to hand over his weapons and armor. Under the "escort" of the Ming cavalry, more than 7,000 riders rushed to the outskirts of Wulahai City to persuade him to surrender.

Seeing their more than 7,000 allied troops unarmed, the city's defenders began to quarrel.

Most people wanted to surrender, but Richard didn't flee into the city.

They've clearly abandoned the city, so what's the point of them continuing to defend it?

Chapter 3760 General of the Superior Nation

Cao Yu, the military supervisor of Weifu Army, ordered the killing of several officers who were insisting on defending the city to the death, and then led the entire army to open the city gates.

Cao Yu rushed to Han Shizhong's front and slid to his knees several meters away: "Cao Yu, the military supervisor of the lower kingdom, pays respects to the Heavenly General of the upper kingdom! This humble subject is the cousin of the Empress Dowager of Western Xia."

"I also have a cousin named Cao Tuan, who has been serving as an envoy in Luoyang for a long time and knows many civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty."

"Your humble servant... Your humble servant is willing to serve the Ming Dynasty and will accompany the army to Keyimen to persuade the garrison commander to surrender."

"The Cao family also wishes to submit to the Ming Dynasty."

"This humble servant can also persuade my cousin, Empress Dowager Cao, to order the King of Western Xia to surrender the kingdom."

Han Shizhong laughed heartily: "You're quite sensible."

Cao Yu knelt down, turned around, and said towards the city gate, "General, please enter the city. Your humble servant will lead your horse."

……

The capital of the Western Liao Dynasty, Husihan.

Before the Western Xia envoy arrived, the Khwarazmian envoy had already arrived.

The envoy knelt on the ground and said to Yelü Dashi, "Great Jurhan, my king begs for your help and hopes that you can send troops immediately!"

Yelü Dashi asked, "He was defeated so quickly?"

The envoy explained, “The noble lords are afraid of the Seljuk Sultan, and one by one they have turned against him.”

"My king can only lead his loyal guards to temporarily avoid the Seljuk army's advance, and has now retreated to the Talas steppe."

"Why should I send troops to help him?" Yelü Dashi asked.

The envoy said, "If you can help my king regain the throne of Shah, Khwarazm will be a vassal state of the Liao Dynasty from now on."

Yelü Dashi nodded in satisfaction: "Good, let Ajisi wait. The Seljuk Sultan will soon withdraw his troops."

After dismissing the Khwarazmian envoy, Yelü Dashi sent an official document to the army stationed in Khujand.

He ordered his cavalry to repeatedly harass the Western Karakhanid Khanate, making it appear as if he was about to attack Samarkand.

Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao.

Yelü Dashi, who was well-versed in Chinese history, did not need to launch a major offensive to force the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar to withdraw his troops.

As expected, Arslan Khan, the ruler of the Western Karakhanid Khanate, was so frantic that he wrote to Sanjar for help, claiming that the Western Liao army was approaching Samarkand.

Sanjar feared the destruction of his vassal state and believed that his current military strength was insufficient.

So he led his troops back to Mulu to gather a large army—he wanted to fight Yelü Dashi to the death!

King of Sigestan and King of Ghur, King of Ghazni, King of Mazandaran, and other rulers of Khorasan.

He responded to Sanjar's call immediately and led his army to join forces in Merv.

Sanjar continued to amass troops, while the armies of his more distant vassal states had not yet arrived.

It will take at least six months for the army to complete its assembly.

The decisive battle next year will involve an estimated 200,000 troops on both sides, and will determine who will be the hegemon of Central Asia.