Lingzhou, the palace of the king of Chu. This is the most luxurious and magnificent mansion in Lingzhou, and some people have said that it is not inferior to the palace of Western Xia. It is the mansion of Ren Dejing of the Western Xia Xiangguo in the past, and now although Ren Dejing is not the Xiangguo of the Western Xia, the Ren Di family still lives here.

At this time, Ren Dejing, Ren Decong, Ren Deren, Ren Chunyi, Ren Chunli, Ren Chunxin, Ren Chunzhi, etc., except for Ren Chunzhong, who died in Yijing, all the other heads of the Ren family gathered here to discuss things.

Seeing that the number of people was all in the scriptures, Ren Chunyi got up and said: "Father, now it is obvious that the Southern Song Dynasty is not here to rescue our Ren family at all, but in the name of assisting the Ren family, in fact, it is to annex all the land of the Great White Gao Kingdom, and now that the Song army has hit Xingqing Mansion with the scriptures, we can no longer sit idly by." ”

Ren Chunxin also said: "Uncle, if it weren't for our help, the Song army would have been so easy to capture Hedong and Henan, and now the Southern Song Dynasty is not only not grateful for the kindness of our Ren family, but has taken away the military power of our Ren family, and all the people of our Ren family have been removed from the army, which is really too embarrassing, uncle, you must think of a way!" ”

Ren Dejing closed his eyes and listened to the words of his son and nephew, noncommittal.

Ren Decong also got up and said: "Brother, pure righteousness and pure faith are not wrong, although we and the imperial court are like fire and water, but after all, we are still people from the Great White High Kingdom, once the Southern Song Dynasty occupies the entire Great White High Kingdom, the power and status of my Ren family will no longer exist, so for the glory and wealth of the Ren family, we can no longer be indifferent." ”

It turned out that after the Song army sent troops to attack the Western Xia, although Ren Dejing knew in his heart that once the Western Xia and the Southern Song Dynasty completely broke up, then the Ren family would also break down the important Xing of the Southern Song Dynasty, and I am afraid that they would lose their current status forever, and the rise and fall of the family was only between the Southern Song Dynasty and even Yang Yan's thoughts, so in order for the Ren family to have a foothold in the Great Song Dynasty in the future, Ren Dejing fully cooperated with the Song army, asking for food and soldiers.

But the rest of the Ren clan did not have this kind of insight in Ren. In their opinion, the Song army sent troops, just to help the Ren family, now that the new monarch of the Jin State has succeeded to the throne, he may not have time to send troops, and the Western Xia court is by no means the opponent of the Song army, many people have started to borrow the power of the Song army to overthrow the Li court, and then replace it by Ren.

Even if the Song Dynasty did not intend to support the Ren clan, but after the imperial court was hit by the Song army, it would inevitably be even weaker, so after the Song army retreated, relying only on the strength of the Ren clan would be enough to overthrow the Li clan and replace it, and no matter how bad it was, it would be able to tear the ground and stand on its own. This Ren clan is not only a powerful person, but all of them will become relatives of the emperor, dragon sons and dragon grandchildren.

Because he is Ren Chunyi, because once Ren is honored as the emperor, then he will be the prince who will not give in, and he will face the south and the north in the future, and the day when he will ascend the throne and sit in the palace. Therefore, at the beginning of the war, every time the Song army won a victory, the children of the Ren clan would compete to celebrate, as if they were one step closer to the throne. and Song Jun's request, he also tried his best to meet it. Ren Chunyi even took out part of his family wealth to fund Song Jun.

However, as the war progressed, although the Song army won one after another, many Ren disciples found that something was wrong. First of all, the places captured by the Song army were all stationed by themselves, and they were not handed over to the Ren family for management, on the contrary, they also included Weizhou, which originally belonged to the Ren family, into their own jurisdiction, and appointed officials on their own.

If we say that these things are because in wartime, it is necessary to act in a hurry, there is some truth in that. However, after the Song army captured the Xiangqing army and Lingwu, it turned to the Hetao region, which was obviously out of the scope of helping the Ren clan, and it was obvious that it was going to occupy the land of Western Xia.

In order to fight against the Western Xia army, the Song army asked Ren to also send troops to participate in the war, and Ren Dejing handed over all the more than 60,000 elite men and horses under his command to Yang Yan, and handed over all the power of the army to Yang Yan. And Yang Yan was not polite, after taking over the command of the army, he immediately cleared out the generals who were close to the Ren clan from the army, promoted a group of middle and lower-level generals, and disrupted the establishment of several armies that were most loyal to the Ren clan and scattered them among the other armies, gradually eliminating Ren's influence in the Lingzhou army.

Moreover, after breaking through the defense line of the Yellow River, Yang Yan stationed all the Lingzhou troops on the west bank of the Yellow River on the grounds that he was preparing to attack Xingqing Mansion and needed manpower to build fortifications, which further weakened the connection between Ren and the army. At the same time, he sent people to Lingzhou to transport a large amount of food and military supplies to Xiangqingjun.

At this point, the intentions of the Song army could not be seen there, so the Ren clan immediately gathered the leaders to discuss how to deal with the current situation.

After listening to the speeches of several people, Ren Dejing stroked his beard and said, "Then what can you do?" ”

After listening to Ren Dejing's words, everyone else also looked at each other, and they had no idea for a while. Most of them were gentlemen, shouting loudly, but they were helpless to come up with an idea.

After a long while, Ren Chunyi spoke: "Father, the only way now is to mobilize men and horses to sneak attack the Xiangqing army. Now that the Song army has just won the battle, we must be lax in our defense, so we took advantage of the opportunity to stab the Song army in the back and force the Song army to retreat. After the Song army retreated, we went to attack Xingqing Mansion and killed Li Renxiao, so that the Great White Gaoguo would be our Ren family. ”

Hearing him say this, Ren Chunli and Ren Chunxin were also in high spirits, and they said, "Yes, this is a good way." ”

Ren Dejing listened, and couldn't help but "snort", and said, "Sneak attack on the Song army? How many people do we have now? How many men did the Song army have? What to take to sneak attack the Song army? Even if the sneak attack is successful, what can the Xiangqing army do, now the Song army has occupied the key roads of the Great White High Country, and there is only one Xiangqing army, and the foundation of the Song army cannot be moved. ”

Listening to Ren Dejing's words, Ren Chunli and Ren Chunxin, who had just applauded, couldn't help but be discouraged, since 60,000 elite men and horses were transferred away by the Song army, there are still more than 30,000 people in Lingzhou City, but only 10,000 are regular troops, and the other 20,000 people who are temporarily recruited are not of great use at all. Moreover, in Lingzhou City, there were still 10,000 Song troops stationed, but I am afraid that they were extinguished by the Song army before Ren could launch an attack.

But Ren Chunyi still had a hard mouth and said: "This is also easy to do, aren't there still fifty or sixty thousand horses on the west bank of the Yellow River?" As long as you send someone to the army and lead the soldiers to make trouble, you can disrupt the Song army. And don't we still hold thirty or forty thousand prisoners in Lingzhou? They are all soldiers themselves, as long as these prisoners are released, are they still afraid of the Song army in the city? Moreover, the Song army only forcibly occupied the city and county, and the people were not convinced, so as long as we captured the Xiangqing army and inflicted heavy losses on the Song army, the people in other places would definitely respond positively to us. At that time, we can drive away the Song army, and the entire Great White High Country is not our family. ”

Ren Dejing listened, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Although his son is in his forties, in terms of knowledge and experience, he is far inferior to Yang Yan, who is less than thirty.

On the west bank of the Yellow River, there are still 50,000 or 60,000 horses of their own, but the generals who led the army have basically been replaced by Yang Yan, and the current generals are far from being so loyal to the Ren family. What's more, the current situation can be seen clearly, the capture of Western Xia by the Song army is a foregone conclusion, so even if there are still people loyal to the Ren family, at this time, they must be weighed. Moreover, the Lingzhou army was not stationed together, but was dispersed into seven or eight branches by the Song army and stationed separately, and it was impossible to say that they would make trouble together.

And it is impossible to rely on the 30,000 or 40,000 Western Xia army prisoners who are locked up in Lingzhou City. First of all, these prisoners are guarded by the Song army, not the Lingzhou army, and it remains to be said whether they can be released smoothly. And even if they are all released, they may not obey Ren's orders. Because now everyone in Western Xia knows that the Song army was colluded by the Ren clan to attack the Western Xia, but I am afraid that these captives will have more resentment towards the Ren clan than the Song army, so it is too wishful thinking to want them to obey the Ren clan.

As for the hope that the people of Western Xia will respond to Ren, it is even more of a fool's dream. Ren has to respect the old in accidents, and naturally it is clear, so that the people will not care whether the emperor is a Han or a member of the party, as long as they can survive safely, it doesn't matter who is the emperor. If the Song army burned, killed and looted in the territory of Western Xia, and did all kinds of evil, it may still be possible. But Ren Dejing also sent someone to secretly investigate, after the Song army occupied the land of Western Xia, it was naturally unrelenting to those who dared to resist, but as long as they obeyed the control of the Song army, they were still relatively tolerant of the common people. Although it is not a love for the people like a son, and Qiu has not committed any crimes, he has not done any obvious evil deeds.

And the Ren family in the Western Xia Kingdom, usually only have the power and wealth of the power, and there is no name of generosity and benevolence for the people, benefiting the people, why should we expect the people to respond to the call of the Ren family.

Ren Chunyi couldn't even see such a simple fact, and he was really disappointed by himself. Thinking of this, Ren Dejing slowly shook his head and was about to speak. At this time, a cronie came in and said: "Lord Xiangguo, the big thing is not good, Jin Guo will raise an army of thirty horses to aid the Great White Gao Kingdom, and the vanguard people and horses will reach Yinzhou through the warp."

This sentence was not like a thunderbolt, which stunned everyone again. No one thought that the Jin army would send troops so quickly, and it was still a large army of 300,000. At this time, no matter how confused people are, they will understand that with Ren's strength alone, they can compete with the 300,000 Jin army. And if the Song army is not defeated, at most it will retreat to the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty, and if the Ren clan is defeated, where can they retreat?

At this time, Ren Dejing stood up casually and said, "Then there is no need to discuss anything now, let's go all out to deal with the Jin army." ”