Just when Wang Shi was using Tong Guan as an experimental guinea pig, Hong Tao was also torturing the defenders in Ganzhou City. His new army has the cover of the Qingtang cavalry, and the speed of marching is faster, a hundred miles a day is the standard, and it is not a problem to run three hundred miles.

At this time, the advantage of camels is revealed, their absolute speed is certainly not as good as that of war horses, but their endurance is much stronger than that of any horse, and they can run for two hours without eating or drinking at a uniform speed, and only need to eat and drink enough and rest for two hours, and then get up and continue running.

If you let the war horses of the Qingtang cavalry run like this, it won't take much, and they will all be on the ground at the end of the day. However, the Qingtang cavalry also had a way, they had three horses per person, and they could barely keep up with them if they changed horses. Of course, Hong Tao only tried for four hours, and then slowed down.

On the seventh day after departing from Liangzhou, Jiang Erlang came back to report that Ganzhou City was fifty miles ahead, which was larger than Liangzhou, but the degree of defense was far worse than that of Liangzhou.

Why? Because this Ganzhou city was built in the Tang Dynasty, it has a history of more than 300 years, during which it has experienced more than one war. After the occupation of the Tanguts, it was not repaired on a large scale, and the city walls and moat were still there, but they were dilapidated, and most of the moat was silted up.

Compared with the dilapidated city defense, the defense force of Ganzhou is even less pitiful, and Renduo Baozhong transferred the main force of the Gansu Military Division to save Liangzhou, but the result was basically annihilated, and only more than 1,000 wounded soldiers escaped.

In fact, if a person did not flee back, it would be less troublesome, these wounded soldiers not only brought back the news of the annihilation of the main army, but also brought back the terrible lethality of the Song army that had no banner and strange armor.

As a result, the people in the city were panicked, and even if the commanders of the Gansu Military Division cut down several soldiers in a row, it did not reduce the spread of this panic in the slightest.

Seeing that it is September, snowflakes will fall on the plateau for another half a month, presumably the Song army will not run long distances to attack Ganzhou, as for what to do in the spring next year, this commander does not know.

At present, the communication between Ganzhou and Xingqing Prefecture is very unusual, and it is not possible to send people around the desert to the north to pass. To what extent did the peace talks between Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty go, the news here was known two months later than Xingqing Mansion.

Looking forward to the stars and the moon, I finally survived until the middle of the month, and on this day, a report suddenly came from outside, and the east and south of the city found a ranger of unknown origin, without a banner, and wearing strange armor!

Du Tongbing almost didn't vomit a mouthful of blood at that time, which was the last news he wanted to hear. According to the soldiers who fled, the army was extremely brutal, and the population of Liangzhou was more than five times that of Ganzhou, but there was not a single one left.

No one thought that this Song army, which liked to slaughter the city, would be kind to the people of Ganzhou, and no one thought that a total of less than 5,000 remnants outside the city would be able to defend Ganzhou City, so what are you waiting for, run away

Not only are people fleeing with their families, but some soldiers are also trying to sneak away, even if they catch and kill a few, this phenomenon is still endless. They can't all be killed, and besides, many of the guards at the city gate are also their kindred, so who can know if they can turn a blind eye and let them go, and these soldiers will also run with them.

Seeing that the enemy was about to disperse before he arrived in Ganzhou City, the commander simply let all the soldiers and horses enter the city and station, not planning to fight the enemy in the field. If this idea had known to Hong Tao, he would have fallen off his horse with laughter.

Xiliang Iron Cavalry, which is famous for field warfare, actually chose not to come out to attack the city defense battle that he was not good at, why? I'm scared. It seems that notoriety is not all bad, at least not in war.

Of course, there are two sides to everything, and notoriety can scare people and scare people to the death. Originally, Hong Tao also wanted to persuade the defenders of Ganzhou to surrender, and the rocket also asked for money, and the prisoners could still be sold as slaves, so why not do it.

But the Qingtang envoy sent said that he was thin-mouthed, and the defenders of Ganzhou did not intend to surrender. The condition they gave was that the city could be given up and the people had to be let go.

"The people are gone, what's the use of this official wanting to break the city! Gondo, you take your cavalry to the west and north to block it, kill as few as you can, but don't let too many people escape. Wang Da, prepare to attack the city! It seems that if you don't give them a little bitter taste, they won't know that Ma Wangye has three eyes! ”

This answer obviously did not satisfy Hong Tao, he not only came to attack the city, but also the land and the population.

Now the size of the new army has exceeded 5,000, and the cost of each soldier of the new army is much higher than that of the ordinary forbidden army, and the money is used to kill the enemy when fighting. No matter how much money you have, you have to save money, and you have to find ways to generate income.

For example, taxing caravans along the way, providing services, prospering cities, etc., but these methods are relatively slow, and the fastest way to collect money is war. Directly grab money, materials, and population, and feed the war with war!

A fortified city like Liangzhou could not withstand the power of black gunpowder, and a rammed earth city like Ganzhou, which was old and badly weathered, was even more hopeless. Even the large thunderbolts were not used, and as soon as the blasting tube was ignited, the dozens of meters long city wall collapsed with the sound.

However, Hong Tao did not immediately order a street battle in the city, but threw a few thunderbolts at the head of the city and inside the city, and waited for half an hour before starting the siege.

It's still the south gate, and it's still the routine of opening the way with oil bombs, covering with steel plate crossbows, and focusing on siege crossbows. But this time, unlike Liangzhou, he basically didn't encounter too strong a counterattack, and he climbed the city wall very smoothly.

It's not that the defenders of Ganzhou are powerless to resist, but that there are no more people in the city. Even the common people and most of the defenders have abandoned the city and fled, and the north and west gates are the focus.

"Officer, should we also send someone in to capture some prisoners?" Wang Da looked at the empty city very unpleasantly, the battle did not start, and it was better to capture prisoners than to watch dry.

"Let the new army do all the work, what should the Qingtang friendly army do? We will attack the city, catch the prisoners and grab things, and then everyone will sit together and share the spoils, which is called division of labor and cooperation. Remember, the basis of cooperation is mutual respect, regardless of ability, to give each other the opportunity to display their talents, otherwise sooner or later there will be a big conflict. ”

Hong Tao said so much nonsense, in fact, he didn't want the new army to suffer more casualties. It is still a bit dangerous to capture prisoners, especially when entering the city, because the loss of soldiers because of a few prisoners is more than worth the loss. This job is the most suitable for Qingtang soldiers, and they are also the most willing to do it. If you can stand aside and watch the excitement, you have to rush up thanklessly, so why bother.

The field combat ability of the Qingtang soldiers Hong Tao has not had a chance to witness it so far, but their plundering skills have been admired twice, and they are indeed proficient! Whether it's sacking a city or capturing people in the wilderness, they are all first-class masters.

Before dark, the 5,000 Qingtang soldiers had already captured almost twice the number of prisoners, and even the Western Xia soldiers and the common people were all tied into strings like cattle and sheep, and they were guarded by a small number of cavalry on the edge of the city.

By the way, they also washed the city of Ganzhou cleanly, and the carpet alone was piled up on no less than five or six hills. Hong Tao doesn't know what they want so many carpets for, is it possible that the rich people in Qingtang are thicker than anyone's carpets?

"Three thousand middle-aged captives can be both men and women, two carts of gold, silver and precious stones, 1,000 sets of armor, 300 yaks, 1,000 sheep, and the rest are all owned by the master of Qingtang."

When the gas lamp was lit, Tsering Gondo finally came with a list, thanks to his good mathematical foundation when he was a special soldier, this list is quite clear, and there are more than 20 kinds of loot recorded in different categories. Hong Tao was really in no mood to look at the same, and he didn't want to send someone to count the numbers, so he only mentioned the types and quantities he wanted.

"Adults will always be friends of Qingtang people...... At the end, someone will be sent to send these people and items to Liangzhou City, please rest assured. "How much does Hong Tao want? It can be seen from Tsering Gongdo's expression that it is really not much, and it can even be regarded as extremely generous.

"Don't go to Liangzhou, send the official from Qingtang City to Huangzhou and hand over the book to Master Zhou." It's not that Hong Tao doesn't want more, but he really has no interest in those furniture, blankets, and clothes, so he can only cheapen Xi Luosa. Not only this time, as long as the Qingtang soldiers are willing to listen to the command and contribute, there will be more things like this in the future.

In fact, these things are not taken for nothing, Xi Luosa needs to ensure that the post roads from Mawei City to Liangzhou City and Liangzhou City to Ganzhou City are smooth, and he also needs to send people to escort the convoy of boxes to and fro, and the task is not easy. As the new army moves westward, the supply distance becomes longer and longer, and the difficulty will increase exponentially.