Early the next morning, Zhao Yan got up early to wash and eat, and then with Cao Song and his stewards and men, he left Xi'an Prefecture with an army that went to Jingzhou City to reinforce the city, and now the main force of the army of the Great Song Dynasty to attack the Western Xia is also gathering in Xi'an Prefecture, preparing to break through the Taoist Xingqing Mansion of the Western Xia in one fell swoop, and the Western Xia has also concentrated the elite of the whole country, ready to let the Song army hit the head and bleed under the wall of Xingqing Mansion.

It is worth mentioning that although Cao Song took away most of the stewards and associates, he still left a competent steward and a few associates in Xi'an Prefecture, in addition to letting them continue to run the bank's business to the army in Xi'an, the most important thing is to establish a branch in Xi'an Prefecture, as for the location of the bank and the recruitment of personnel, these small things, naturally Cao Song does not need to worry about it.

Zhao Yan had only heard of the cruelty of war before, and he had not personally experienced it, although there had been a war in Xi'an Prefecture before, but when they came, the entire Xi'an Prefecture had recovered its former prosperity, and there were not many traces of war that could be seen, but when Zhao Yan left Xi'an Prefecture and continued to move north, he finally saw the cruel side of war.

After a few days of leaving Xi'an Prefecture and advancing north, Zhao Yan found that there were basically no civilians on the road, the fields on both sides of the road were also barren, and most of the villages passing by had become ruins, and even wild wolves could often be seen in them, and some villages could also see tired white bones, and the wild wolves that ate human flesh were not only not afraid of people, but would bare their teeth at Zhao Yan, but they did not dare to pounce.

It wasn't until Zhao Yan and the others were about to arrive in Mingsha City that the two sides of the road slowly gained some popularity, and sometimes some inhabited villages could be seen, and even some bold villagers would sell some local specialties to the Song army on the side of the road, of course, this was mainly due to Yang Wenguang's extremely strict restrictions on the Song army, as long as he did not take the initiative to attack the Song army. The Song army would not have done anything to the civilians of Western Xia.

After Zhao Yan and the others entered Mingsha City, they rested here for a day before continuing on the road, but Cao Song did not have time to rest, he repeated the opening of banking business in Xi'an Prefecture in Mingsha City, and left a steward and a few men, so that they could continue to buy the spoils in the hands of the soldiers in Mingsha City. However, this time he did not set up a bank branch in Mingsha City, after all, the current situation in Western Xia was not stable, and it was not too late to expand the bank's business after the army conquered Xingqing Mansion.

Next, Zhao Yan and the others traveled for nearly ten days, during which they passed through Lingzhou and Shunzhou, and finally arrived at Jingzhou City, but when Zhao Yan came to Jingzhou City, he saw a scene that shocked him.

I saw that the walls of Jingzhou City, which were supposed to be tall and strong, were scarred, and there would be collapses almost every other section. Some of them collapsed in pieces, and the remaining city walls were also full of traces of artillery fire, and even Zhao Yan could see that the green bricks on the city head had turned purple, which was the color left after being soaked in blood, which shows the tragedy of the original attack on Jingzhou City.

Although the walls of Jingzhou City are dilapidated, the city gate is very well preserved, and there are not many traces of artillery fire on the city wall near the city gate, which is because of the Great Song Dynasty army when they attacked Jingzhou City. The Western Xia army in the city blocked the city gate with stones and earth, and the city gate was surrounded by the strongest part of the city wall. Therefore, when the Great Song Dynasty army attacked Jingzhou City, it did not exert its strength at the city gate, but concentrated its firepower to attack those relatively weak city walls, and later after the fall of Jingzhou City, the city gate was re-dug through, and when Zhao Yan walked through the city gate, he could also see that there was a lot of soil remaining on the top of the city gate hole.

For your own safety. The news of Zhao Yan's arrival in Jingzhou City did not inform Yang Wenguang and others in the city, and even only a few generals in the army who came with him knew about it.

Not only was the outer wall of Jingzhou City broken, but the inside of the city was even more dilapidated. This is mainly because the Xixia people in the city in the city in order to resist, demolished the houses in the city and blocked the roads, after the Great Song Dynasty occupied here, it took more than ten days to slowly dredge the roads in the city, but those demolished houses could not be restored, so when Zhao Yan entered Jingzhou City, he felt like he was coming to a huge ruin, but there were a large number of troops stationed in this ruin, because the houses had been destroyed, so the army had to live in tents, as for the residents of the city, They had already fled before the Song army arrived.

Yang Wenguang's Shuai Mansion is actually the former capital of Jingzhou City, which is also the only house in the city that has not been demolished, when Zhao Yan came here, he happened to meet Yang Wenguang was convening the generals to discuss the matter, Zhao Yan did not disturb him, and he didn't want everyone to know that he was coming, so he came to a side hall of the Shuai Mansion to rest.

With the arrival of reinforcements from all walks of life, as well as the arrival of logistics materials, Yang Wenguang is now full of confidence, so he convened all the generals to discuss today, mainly to discuss how to attack Xingqing Mansion, the generals are also expressing their opinions, the discussion is very warm, speaking of which, with the Song army even the victory, all the generals present are also inspired to fight, some of the previous dare not think of what they dare not do, but also dare to put forward as a reference, and finally Yang Wenguang summarized a few important opinions, I also have a relatively clear idea of attacking Xingqing Mansion.

This meeting lasted until the sun set, and Yang Wenguang announced that he would discuss it here for the time being, and it would be discussed again tomorrow, but as soon as he walked out of the meeting hall, someone stepped forward and quietly reported a few words to him, which made Yang Wenguang also surprised, and hurriedly came to the side hall, but saw Zhao Yan dozing off boringly.

This can't be blamed on Zhao Yan, after all, he was also tired along the way, and he was the most boring when waiting for people, so the current scene appeared, fortunately, at this time, Niu Lie, the head of the guard next to Zhao Yan, reminded Zhao Yan, which made him wake up, and when he saw Yang Wenguang, he immediately said apologetically: "The old general forgives me, this ...... This king has been traveling all the way, and he was really rude just now. ”

"Haha~, the king of the county is polite, there is not so much attention in the army!" Yang Wenguang laughed at this time, although he and Zhao Yan met for the first time, they knew a lot about Zhao Yan through Yang Huaiyu, and Yang Wenguang also admired His Royal Highness the county king of the Great Song Dynasty in front of him.

Zhao Yan is also a cheerful person, he immediately smiled when he saw Yang Wenguang's appearance, and then immediately asked people to send the reading glasses that Yang Huaiyu brought to him, speaking of which, Yang Huaiyu also led the second and third cadets of the military academy in Jingzhou City, but the reading glasses were not ready when he left the capital, so he could only ask Zhao Yan to bring them.

Yang Wenguang is nearly seventy years old, and his presbyopia is also very strict, and he can only see clearly when he leans back hard when reading, and he has long known about reading glasses from Yang Huaiyu, and he is very happy at the moment, and immediately picked out a suitable pair of reading glasses from the box and put it on, and immediately felt that his eyes were much clearer, which also made him thank Zhao Yan immediately.

"King Jun, I don't know if you came to Jingzhou this time, but you came to supervise the war?" Next, Yang Wenguang asked cautiously, attacking the capital of a country is not a trivial matter, and the imperial court has always distrusted military generals, and generally sends people to supervise the war when encountering this kind of heavy war, and the military generals are most afraid of this kind of thing, because the people who supervise the war generally do not understand military affairs, but they like to meddle in the war, and as a result, the war situation often becomes a mess because of the indiscriminate command of the person who supervises the war.

"Haha, General Yang rest assured, I didn't come to Jingzhou this time for official business, but because of some private matters, as for the attack on Xingqing Mansion, my eldest brother told me before I came, he is completely at ease with you and other generals, so this battle will all be handed over to you, if you can take Xingqing Mansion in one fell swoop, it is naturally the best, if you can't do anything, you must not force it!"

Zhao Yan's previous words were true, but Zhao Yan was full of confidence in this attack on Xingqing Mansion, and asked Zhao Yan to tell Yang Wenguang before he came, so that he would take down Xingqing Mansion no matter what kind of price he paid, so as to destroy the great trouble of Western Xia, but Zhao Yan felt that saying this would definitely bring heavy psychological pressure to Yang Wenguang and them, so he changed it without permission, because he knew that even if Zhao Yan didn't say it, Yang Wenguang and they would do their best to attack Xingqing Mansion, after all, they were not willing to give up their military exploits.

"Thank you for the trust of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the King of the County, today I have discussed with the generals a general step to attack Xingqing Mansion, and then we only need to deploy all the armies, and we can immediately launch a general attack on Xingqing Mansion, and strive to defeat the Western Xia!" When Yang Wenguang said the end, an indescribable light suddenly erupted in his cloudy old eyes, he had worked hard to resist the invasion of Western Xia almost all his life, but he didn't expect that in the last few miles of his life, he would have the opportunity to destroy the old enemy of Western Xia with his own hands, which was really a great joy in life!

"Haha, the old general is so ambitious! Before I came, my father also said that among the generals of the Great Song Dynasty, the only one who can destroy the Western Xia is you, the old general! Zhao Yan immediately praised him, he was not talking nonsense, Zhao Shu really valued Yang Wenguang, after all, compared with other generals, Yang Wenguang, who was born in a general's family, also reassured the imperial court more, which even Di Qing could not compare with him back then.

Hearing that even the emperor praised himself like this, Yang Wenguang was even more happy, but he still said a few words of humility, then Zhao Yan suddenly thought of one more thing, and immediately said: "Old General Yang, I heard that you plan to leave the army after this battle, but with the talent of the old general, it is a pity to go home to retire, it just so happens that Brother Huaiyu is still young, and he wants to make meritorious contributions, so I wonder if the old general is interested in replacing Brother Huaiyu to serve in the military academy, so that he can get what he wants?" (To be continued......)