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

The city wall of Kaifeng had a circumference of 28.8 li, while the city wall of Xingqing Prefecture had a circumference of 18 li. This comparison shows how large the city was.

The moat is over 30 meters wide.

Moreover, the Western Xia rulers and their ministers, determined to defend the city to the death, simply dismantled the bridge.

Although the main forces had been transferred to the front lines, Xingqing Prefecture was a large city with more than 200,000 people.

At this moment, the people were organized to defend the city, and the city walls were densely packed with people.

Yue Fei had no siege weapons; he couldn't even cross the moat, let alone be the first to scale the walls and capture the city.

Shouting pleas to persuade them to surrender was useless. Standing outside the moat, too far from the city wall, they couldn't hear anything they were shouting.

"What should we do?" The generals looked at Yue Fei.

Yue Fei said, "Beat the city and attack the reinforcements. The capital of Western Xia is besieged, and they will surely send a large army back to reinforce it."

Yang Yizhong said, "But we haven't received much food or fodder in Dingzhou City, and we'll be starving in a few days."

"The people of Western Xia in this area were also deprived of all their food, and even when the soldiers looted, they could not get a few grains of rice."

Yue Fei said, "Dispatch cavalry to advance in the east, north, and south, disperse the local people along the way, and ensure that there are few people in the surrounding area for dozens of miles, so that the enemy will not know where our main force is."

"At the same time, these cavalrymen advancing from three directions were also responsible for scouting enemy positions."

"In order to be able to advance and retreat swiftly, they all took off their armor and retreated when they encountered the enemy."

"And then?" Liu Zhengyan asked.

Yue Fei said, "Act according to the situation."

Xingqing Prefecture City is the closest to Huaizhou City, only forty li away.

The Ming "light cavalry" sent to Huaizhou encountered a large enemy cavalry force on the way and immediately retreated to the direction of Yue Fei's main force without engaging in battle.

Chapter 3792 Night Raid

Jingzhou City, however, is fifty miles to the south. Upon their return, they reported that the city was extremely deserted.

Yue Fei immediately dispatched half of his troops south. He told Xu Qing, who was in charge of the mission, "Attack the city at night. If you can win, then fight. If the enemy is prepared, immediately lead your troops to retreat!"

"Report!!!"

"We caught a spy who was riding around on horseback, which is very suspicious."

"He claimed to be from the Military Intelligence Department of the Ministry of War, but he couldn't produce anything to prove it."

Before Xu Qing could set off, some of the scouts he had sent out suddenly returned.

Yue Fei was overjoyed: "Nonsense! How dare someone from the Military Intelligence Bureau leave their identification badge inside enemy territory? Bring them here immediately!"

After saying that, he told Xu Qing not to leave yet.

About fifteen minutes later, a middle-aged man was brought before Yue Fei.

The man cupped his hands and said, "General, my name is Li Cunhui."

"He served in the Western Army during the Song Dynasty, but could not bear the exploitation by the generals, so he became a bandit in Lanzhou. Later, he followed General Li Yanxian in raising an army to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."

"He also followed General Li Yanxian and General Yang Zhi on their military expedition, where they decisively defeated the Western Xia and the Southern Army Command."

"I'm sorry for the neglect." Yue Fei was filled with respect and quickly saluted. The man in front of him was more senior than him.

Li Cunhui said:

“When the Emperor was the Crown Prince and personally led the expedition to Hebei, I went with him. I was wounded and recuperated for half a year. After I recovered, I joined the Military Intelligence Bureau.”

"Initially, they traveled between the two countries' borders, smuggling salt from the Western Xia salt merchants to Xiama Village in Huanzhou."

"The imperial court found a pretext to crack down on smuggling, so I took the opportunity to escape to Yanzhou with my injuries."

"The governor of Yanzhou in Western Xia was using his cronies to smuggle salt."

“I claimed to have connections in Huanzhou. He sent people to investigate my background, and once they found out the identity I had fabricated, they no longer suspected anything.”

“I helped him smuggle salt for three years. When that guy was transferred to Youzhou, he took me with him and even acted as a matchmaker to let me marry the daughter of a Youzhou military officer.”

"For the past few years, I have been in Youzhou, and I even served as a squad leader under the Youzhou Inspector."

"If the two countries don't go to war again, I'd like to spend money to bribe my superior and become a general under the patrol inspector of Youzhou."

After hearing his words, all the generals were dumbfounded.

The guy in front of me not only successfully infiltrated Western Xia, but also became a military officer there.

Yue Fei asked, "Since you are a military officer in Youzhou, why are you here?"

Li Cunhui said with a smile, "The commander-in-chief of Western Xia in Youzhou is Wang Cunli, the father-in-law of the Western Xia emperor."

"That fellow is a complete fool. He rushed to lead his troops to attack Xiao Heda, but was ambushed at night and fled in panic."

“I was in the main camp outside the village when Xiao Heda attacked. Without thinking, I led my troops back to Youzhou.”

"I originally wanted to return to Youzhou and find an opportunity to help capture the city, but who knew that Wang Cunli was so frightened."

"Upon learning that Longzhou had fallen and Shizhou was besieged, he led tens of thousands of troops and more than 100,000 civilians in a retreat."

"They retreated to Yanzhou but did not stop there; they even abandoned Yanzhou."

Yue Fei asked, "Where have Wang Cunli's tens of thousands of troops retreated to?"

Li Cunhui said, "More than 100,000 people were resettled outside Huaizhou City. Only the families of military officers were allowed to enter the city. My wife and children in Xixia were settled inside the city."

"Currently, there are 50,000 troops in Huaizhou City, but they are all remnants of defeated soldiers, and Wang Cunli is leading these troops to defend the city."

Chapter 3793 Dingzhou City

"Richard was urgently summoned by the King of Western Xia to select 20,000 cavalrymen who were considered capable of fighting, but we don't know where he went."

"My guess is that they infiltrated deep into the grasslands, intending to cut off the Ming army's supply lines."

"When Wang Cunli received news of the general's surprise attack on Xingqing Prefecture in Huaizhou, he was so frightened that he dared not make any rash moves and sent out the remaining cavalry to scout."

"I was an officer in one of the cavalry units. We encountered the cavalry sent by the general earlier, and took the opportunity to abandon our troops and chase after them."

"General Yue, if you don't find a way to break this deadlock, you're very likely to be blocked by tens of thousands of troops!"

Yue Fei said, "I am not afraid of facing tens of thousands of enemy troops, but I am afraid that the enemy will stay in the city and not come out. My food supplies will not last long."

"When we captured Dingzhou, there wasn't much food or supplies there."

"When there is really no food left, we can only go back to Dingzhou City and go door to door to demand grain, robbing the surplus grain from the people to survive."

Li Cunhui said, "There is grain in Huaizhou City. Wang Cunli fortified his defenses and scorched the fields; all the grain he looted is there."

"However, with 50,000 troops defending the city and the general lacking siege equipment, I'm afraid the only option is to lure Wang Cunli out."

"But this man is too cowardly. Even though Xingqing Prefecture is besieged, he doesn't dare to send troops out easily."

Yue Fei said, "You have lived in Western Xia for many years and retreated here with Wang Cunli. Can you come up with a way to capture the city?"

Li Cunhui said, "Huaizhou city is not large, and it already has 50,000 troops stationed there, which is not enough to accommodate more than 100,000 civilians."

"These civilians were either the families of the soldiers guarding the city, or their relatives."

"They've been placed outside the city. If the general can capture a large number of civilians, the morale of the defending soldiers will surely collapse!"

"Using civilians as hostages to force the city's garrison to surrender, even if that fails, will still create chaos within the city."

"I'll go back to the city and take the opportunity to instigate some chieftains to defect. Perhaps that can help the general seize the city in one fell swoop!"

……

There are generally two methods for relocating people during the scorched earth policy.

The first method is to drive them away by force.

They burned down any houses they saw, forcing people to leave their homes.

People can flee to the mountains or to the rear, as long as they don't leave any manpower or supplies for the enemy.

This method is often accompanied by looting.

That is, the local army sent out to disperse the civilians would plunder a portion of the troops while carrying out their mission.

The second option is administrative relocation.

This is relatively more civilized, but it requires a higher level of organizational capacity at the grassroots level and often involves coercion.

The Western Xia's scorched-earth policy mainly leaned towards the second approach.

Because their basic organization is the tribe, the chiefs of each tribe have the ability to organize the migration of the people.

Moreover, it was a system of universal conscription, with all able-bodied men being conscripted to fight, and civilians serving as soldiers' families. If civilians were randomly driven away, it would demoralize the soldiers.

On the west bank of the Yellow River, outside Huaizhou City.

In the suburban areas, there are large areas of tent-like structures, which are small tents used in the Western Xia Dynasty.

Trees in the wild can be used as supports, or wooden frames can be built and covered with felt to provide shelter from the wind and rain.

When marching and fighting, three Western Xia soldiers would share one curtain beam.

They were also provided with a camel to transport supplies and carry the basic equipment of the three soldiers.

Now, tens of thousands of soldiers have entered the city, and more than 100,000 civilians live in Muliang on the outskirts.

Chapter 3794 The Emperor's Personal Expedition

These people, who migrated here after a scorched-earth policy, frequently clashed with the local people because they occupied large tracts of farmland in the suburbs.

After passing through a large area of ​​tents, Li Cunhui rode back to the city alone, showing his officer's badge as he entered.

There was no suspicion.

It's normal that he led a small team out of the city on horseback to scout and got separated from the Ming army.

That evening, Yue Fei once again led his troops to the outskirts of Xingqing Prefecture.

Not only did each cavalryman carry a torch, but each horse also had two torches tied to its saddle. They then blew horns and shouted as if they were about to attack the city.

The soldiers and civilians inside the city were greatly alarmed. Li Renzhong once again invited Li Renxiao to the city wall to organize the soldiers and civilians to defend the city.

For the soldiers and civilians of Western Xia, the night was even more terrifying.

The area outside the city was originally pitch black, but now it was surrounded by countless torches, which seemed to indicate that tens of thousands of enemy troops had arrived.

Yue Fei then ordered soldiers familiar with swimming to lie on the door panels and swim across the moat to set fire to the surrounding residential houses outside the city.

The door panels were salvaged from a rural house.

Torches were also made from wood, cloth, and oil obtained from houses within a radius of twenty miles.

At midnight, several houses outside Xingqing Prefecture began to burn.

The fire grew larger and larger, engulfing entire streets and even blackening the outer skin of the city wall.

The Western Xia army and civilians dared not leave the city to fight the fire, and could only watch helplessly as the houses near the city were burned down.

The entire city stayed up all night, and rumors began to circulate.

As the capital of Western Xia, Xingqing Prefecture had at least ten Ming spies within its walls.

Moreover, most of their communication is one-way, and they are unaware of each other's existence. They have been spreading rumors in the city for the past two days.

The rumors are varied and include the following:

The Ming Dynasty mobilized a total of one million troops this time.

The Liangshan Emperor has personally led his army to attack Lingzhou.

Wang Shu's entire army was wiped out at Keyimen, which allowed the Ming army to advance from the north.

The Ming army did not come from the north, but from the east; Richard's entire army was wiped out.

The Ming army outside the city numbered not just a few thousand, but a full 100,000.

The main force is stationed in Dingzhou waiting for supplies, and will be able to reach Xingqing Prefecture in three to five days at most.

Ren Dejing, the commander of Lingzhou, has already defected to the enemy. This fellow was originally a Han Chinese, and he surrendered as soon as the Ming army arrived.

In fact, Wang Cunli had already defected to the enemy. He held three major military commands but retreated without a fight, and even let 200,000 Ming troops come to Xingqing Prefecture...