The castle that Gao Yu saw across the Yellow River was called Huaizhou City, which was a private state and county in Western Xia. In the original state and county system of the Song Dynasty, this area, including the boundary where the current Xingqing Mansion is located, is under the jurisdiction of Lingzhou.

Qianshun, who was defeated east of the Yellow River, did not immediately return to Xingqing Prefecture, but stayed in Huaizhou City, trying to collect the defeated party soldiers and horses while monitoring the Song army on the east bank of the Yellow River.

After staying for a few days, of course, the defeated party soldiers and horses did not collect a few - there were neither pontoon bridges nor boats on the Yellow River, and the defeated party members had to swim to cross the river! The surging Yellow River is still very turbulent, how many can you swim through? Therefore, most of the party soldiers and horses who slipped through the net on the east bank of the Yellow River that day fled in the direction of Lingzhou. According to the report that Qianshun received later, less than 20,000 of the 80,000 troops who crossed the river with him that day returned to Hexi alive.

The rest were either slaughtered or captured by the Song army, or their whereabouts are unknown......

In short, the battle on the east bank of the Yellow River can be regarded as making the Great White Gaoguo more injured!

Therefore, on the third day after the battle on the east bank of the Yellow River, when he saw Gao Yu's army moving east along the river bank, although he knew that the other party was going to seize Lingzhou, Qianshun was still relieved.

"Finally gone......

"Wushu, they're going to Lingzhou!"

Following the Wushu Qianshun, Wei Ming Anhui, who climbed to the top of Huaizhou City to watch the Song army leave, cried and reminded him, "At most, they will be able to arrive in Lingzhou in two days...... There's no time to retreat! ”

The territory of Lingzhou is not large, but it is the richest place in Western Xia, known as the Jiangnan Plug. Because it is close to the Yellow River, there is the Lingzhou River flowing through the territory, and the water resources are very abundant. And as early as the Western Han Dynasty Emperor Hui Emperor, Lingzhou County has been set up here, belongs to the development of more than 1,000 years of cooked land, now the entire Lingzhou territory, there are more than 300,000 acres of paddy fields alone - dry fields in the northwest is not uncommon, but the yield is usually very low, and the harvest is not guaranteed. Paddy fields are very rare in the northwest, and counties with hundreds of thousands of acres of paddy fields like Lingzhou are unique!

In addition to the paddy fields with a fairly guaranteed yield, Lingzhou is also rich in green salt, miscanthus salt, lime, and charcoal, as well as a very rich Yellow River beach grassland, and the famous Tan sheep are produced in Lingzhou.

In addition, Lingzhou was also the center of the handicraft industry in Western Xia. The city has a large number of Han craftsmen, whose products include weapons, cloth, porcelain, pottery and so on.

If Lingzhou is lost, it will not only deprive Western Xia of an important grain producing area (Lingzhou not only has more than 300,000 mu of paddy fields, but also a large number of dry fields), but also the main source of handicrafts and trade products, and of course, a large number of people and taxes!

It can be said that the pain of losing Lingzhou is even greater than the loss of Yinxia Wuzhou!

Qianshun sighed, "Send a messenger to Renli and ask him to ask Gao Yu for peace......" He turned back to the old county king of Daliao and said to Yelu, "Please also send an envoy to the kingdom of Daliao!" ”

Yelumut smiled and said, "Just let Xiao Heda go!" ”

He paused, and said to Qianshun: "Vulture, now is an opportunity for us to design and eradicate Gao Yu!" ”

"Eradicate the high-ranking people?" Qianshun was stunned, "How is it possible?" ”

"Why not?" Yeluhut touched his beard, "As long as Da Song is still the original Da Song, Gao Yu's fate will not be much better than Di Qing...... Removing the military power and recalling Kaifeng, it is only a matter of time before he is depressed. If we work harder, we can send him to Kaifeng Mansion as soon as possible. ”

Gao Yu is not old, he is only in his thirties this year, and he is not yet forty. If he is allowed to lead troops in the northwest to sixty miles away, not only will the days of Western Xia be over, but even the Great Liao Kingdom will not be able to live in peace.

So Yeluyut has been discussing with Xiao Heda for the past few days how to use counter-tactics to eradicate Gao Yu - at least he has to get Gao Yu into trouble!

After some discussion, the two really thought of a way, that is, to let Gao Yu play an important role in the peace talks, and steal the limelight of the civil officials in the Kaifeng Mansion court who were responsible for negotiating peace. At the same time, it is necessary to package Gao Yu as the protector of the famous family!

Just one charge of colluding with Fanbang or colluding with a feudal town is enough for this tall Xuanfu to drink a pot.

……

East of Lingzhou City.

The flames at the gates of Dongguan Town, where fierce battles took place only yesterday, have been extinguished, and scorched black and bloodstains can still be seen everywhere inside and outside the city, under the head of the city. A headless corpse was collected and stacked outside the town's walls, set on fire.

The number of corpses is not very large, about more than a thousand. This massacre could have been avoided, and Wei Ming Renli, who had just taken over the Xiangqing Military Division, had no intention of fighting at all, and after taking office, he was busy gathering his troops and preparing to retreat. But he didn't expect that the vanguard of the Song army led by Wang Yu (the three straights in front of the emperor) bypassed the front of Lingzhou City and directly attacked Dongguan Town, twenty miles east of Lingzhou City, and wiped out the command coefficient of a Western Xia army in the town. He also ransacked this rich town - where would he raise military rations to feed the more than 50,000 generals who were high-ranking without looting?

By the time Gao Yu arrived, the military flag of Xingling Xuanfu had already flown over the somewhat dilapidated town.

On the official road outside the town, there are people in bearded clothes and bald hair, helping the old and the young, holding the pot pulp, and welcoming the army. There are still some party nobles living in Dongguan Town, although they are not descendants, but they are also quite wealthy, they are all broken, all wearing prison clothes, kneeling in front of the high horses. Because they all already know that the army of vultures has been defeated in the desert on the east bank of the Yellow River! The army of the Song people is coming from the north. The entire Lingzhou is about to fall into the hands of the Song people! The Han people in the town (most of the people in Dongguan Town are Han) are okay, it's nothing more than a change of master. But it's hard to say about the party and the country, maybe the Song people's Xuanshuai Gao Yu will lose his life as soon as he gives an order.

A white-bearded old man who was a little older, perhaps a retired official in Western Xia, was dragged to Gao Yu's horse by a warrior, and Wang Yu, who arrived in advance, bowed his hand to Gao Yu: "Xuan Shuai, this person is the biggest party member in Dongguan Town." ”

Gao Yu glanced at the trembling old man: "Can you speak Chinese?" What is the surname? ”

"The old man can speak Chinese, and the old man's surname is Li ......"

"You are a member of the party, how can you have the surname Li?" Gao Yu's face sank.

"Yu Xuanshuai, Xiao Lao'er's ancestor once served the country and was given the surname Li by Emperor Taizong."

"Taizong gave the surname Li?" Gao Yu was stunned for a moment, "Which dynasty's Taizong?" ”

"Tang Taizong ......"

"Hehe, what is the old surname of the party?"

"Tuo, Tuoba......" said the old man in a trembling voice.

It turns out that this old man is the descendant of Tuoba Chici, who returned to the Tang Dynasty in the early years of Zhenguan, and if he looks through the family tree, he really has a little blood relationship with the current Weiming royal family - a family relationship hundreds of years ago! If it weren't for the fact that the party members would have risen up and established their own country. This old man's family has long been Han, and it is estimated that he has forgotten his ancestor's surname Tuoba.

Gao Yu snorted coldly, "It turned out to be the royal family!" ”

The little old man was so frightened that he waved his hand again and again, "No, no, no, the little old man and the traitor Yuan Hao are estranged by blood, and they have little to do with each other." ”

"Sensei nonsense!" Gao Yu waved his hand, "Since you are a member of the royal family, then you must know the thief chieftain in Lingzhou City, right?" ”

"Acquaintance, acquaintance......" The old man nodded. It doesn't matter, it's a family from hundreds of years ago! The surname Tuoba still has a little bit of shadow in Western Xia, and he can enter the official - the current Western Xia has not yet opened the imperial examination (the Western Xia imperial examination began in the Qianshun era), and if you want to be an official, you have to rely on reincarnation!

"Then bother you to go to Lingzhou, tell them, let them get out of here!" Gao Yu said sharply, "Otherwise, it will be the next Tongwan City!" ”

After saying this, Gao Xuanshuai swaggered into Dongguan Town. However, his words about turning Lingzhou City into the second Tongwan City are completely frightening. When Wu Haogu left Tongwan City, he had already taken two engineer commanders with him, and the terrain of Lingzhou City was completely different from Tongwan City. Tongwan is a half-abandoned city, and the outer city has been demolished by order of Song Taizong - the outer city of Tongwan City was originally built according to the Wuding River and the Heishui River, and there are also wide and deep trenches on the side where there is no river to follow, and it is basically impossible to dig a tunnel to place explosives. The topography of Lingzhou City is somewhat similar to the original Tongwan City, but it is built according to the Yellow River.

One side is against the Yellow River, and the other three sides are covered by wide moats. Moreover, the ditch is also connected to the Yellow River, and a sluice gate has been built, which can be diverted and poured in at any time. It's almost impossible to blast the cave.

However, two days later, this old man surnamed Li actually brought an envoy named Mou Ning Keren from Lingzhou City, and this envoy also brought a surprising news to Gao Yu.

The West Thief wants to negotiate with Gao Da Xuanfu to discuss the matter of recruiting peace and reform!

"Recruit and rehabilitate?"

Hearing the report from his subordinates, Gao Yu just smiled, turned back to Li Yongqi and said, "Yongzhi, I really told you!" The thief is coming...... I wonder if it's a fraud? ”

Li Yongqi said with a smile: "Xuanshuai might as well give them a chance to prove their sincerity." ”

"How?" Gao Yu asked.

"You can ask them to hand over Lingzhou City!" Li Yongqi said, "Xuan Shuai was going to take Lingzhou City, and Lingzhou City is really not easy to fight, if you want to attack it, I'm afraid you have to wait for the arrival of the Taiwei soldiers before you can join forces to attack the city, and the casualties will definitely not be small." If the Western Thief is willing to hand over Lingzhou City, it will save us from trouble, Xuan Shuai might as well talk to them, if it can be negotiated, it can be regarded as a wish for the official family. ”

"That's fine!" Gao Yu nodded, he didn't want to stay in the northwest for a long time - he now has the suspicion of supporting the army and respecting himself, and removing the military power as soon as possible is the best strategy for self-preservation!

Gao Yu said: "Yongzhi, you just tell that person, as long as you are willing to hand over Lingzhou, a certain family can make peace talks, and a certain family is Xingling Xuanfu and has this power!" ”