The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

There is no permanent prison in Xiakou Pass, and there is a Shura field under Wulong Ridge.

The fire continued to burn, the battle continued, and it was already dawn.

The Xiakou Pass is not that majestic, and it is not a big city. It is very different from Huizhou, Zhuoluo, Liangzhou and other places and cannot be compared.

Those big cities can accommodate tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people without being crowded, but Xiakou Pass cannot.

Xiakou Pass is a military pass sandwiched between mountain walls and built on the ground. Even if there are no ordinary people, there can be at most 100,000 people stationed there.

At this moment, there are nearly 100,000 people in the pass. Zhao Yan has more than 50,000 troops, and there are more than 30,000 Xixia soldiers over there, so the city is a little bloated.

But it would be fine if it was just a street fight with swords and guns, as it wouldn't be a crowded and invisible situation, but it would be different once the fire breaks out.

Water and fire are the most ruthless things, and they can easily kill people. No matter how many soldiers you have, how can you cover them?

The soldiers ran and dodged, and got close to each other. Some people bumped into others and started to panic.

At this time, the wind helped the fire, and the fire took advantage of the power of the wind and burned away very quickly. With a "whisper", most of the pass was burned, and it went straight to the north.

How could the Xixia soldiers resist such a ruthless nature, so they had no choice but to retreat. Those who walked slowly were directly swallowed up by the fire. Those who walked fast reached the north of Guan, but they listened to no orders and hurriedly opened the city gate. Escape outside.

Brother Richard was shocked and dumbfounded. This was already the second fire. The first fire burned thousands of his soldiers and horses in Mingsha City. He was trapped in the city. It was terrible to see. This second fire actually burned Xiakou Pass directly. .

The layout of the Xiakou Pass is the most suitable for setting fires. Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Since we have built stacked buildings for street fighting and can fight and ambush in the pass, the disadvantage is that it is easy to set fires.

Guan Nei is not the kind of ordinary city with orderly streets and houses. The flames are difficult to connect and only cover an area. However, this street fighting building is easy to burn.

Especially, the south wind is blowing now!

Brother Richard only felt "booming" in his head, as if thunder was exploding from the sky. He had never considered that the other party would set a fire, but setting a fire was not easy. Even if the above conditions were met, the pattern was suitable for setting a fire, and the wind was in the right direction, But there must be a lot of kerosene.

This kerosene is not that easy to find. The other party set fire to Mingsha City and Wulong Ridge and used a lot of it. Why is there still so much oil?

Setting a fire in Guanli requires too little kerosene. Why did the other party bring so much kerosene for no reason? Why are you using fire to attack everywhere? This Zhao Tong can't fight without fire!

Brother Richard was so angry that his face was livid, and all the generals nearby came to persuade him to leave the city quickly. The fire was rolling in quickly, and if he didn't leave, he would be submerged in the sea of ​​​​fire.

Brother Richard opened his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood. He was carried out of the military mansion by the generals, and then helped to the horse. A group of people hurriedly rushed outside Beicheng.

It was okay for those with horses at this time, but it was miserable for those without horses and facing the Song army in the pass. When they saw the fire, they ran away. When they reacted and ran back, the fire had already started. If they could escape in a straight line, they would be in trouble. That's fine, but there are stacked buildings everywhere, and they were suffocated and burned to death before they could get out.

The fire burned for half the night, and for most of the day after dawn, and only gradually extinguished in the afternoon.

At this time, there was no longer a living Xixia soldier in the pass. Brother Richard led more than 10,000 people out of the pass and headed north to Shunzhou. This time, the loss of the army was again halved, leaving only more than 10,000 and 80,000 of the more than 30,000 people. After the troops were sent out to Xingqing, within a month, the entire army was almost wiped out.

After occupying Xiakou Pass, Zhao Tong immediately ordered the repairs to the buildings in Guanzhong, changed the layout, and then began to recruit troops.

Naturally, Brother Richard brought troops scattered outside. About half of the 80,000 troops died. Brother Richard was defeated in Shunzhou and took more than 10,000 people with him. So there were at least 20,000 scattered outside. These are what Zhao Tong wants to recruit.

More than 20,000 people are not a minority. So many people are scattered outside to eat and drink. It is a problem. The north-south front line from Zhuoluo, Fuchuan, Huizhou, and Mingsha are all in Zhao Tong's hands. There are only two places for these soldiers to go. One is heading east to the city of Jingsai Army Division, and the other is heading northwest to Yingli City and Shatuo Town.

Yingli City is a small county and cannot support so many people, let alone Shatuo Town. As for Jingsai Military Division, it is too far away. It is difficult for these people to get there without food or water.

Zhao Tao first sent troops to capture Yingli City and Shatuo Town, and occupied the main roads. Then he released the news and recruited troops on a large scale with money that was 50 to 60% higher than the Xixia army's salary. No matter who they were from or what they had done before, they would recruit them equally regardless of past grudges. military. As soon as the news came out, nearly a thousand people came to join the army that day. In the following days, many people who wanted to join the army went to various cities to sign up. In a short period of time, nearly 10,000 people were recruited, all of them were the scattered remnants of Brother Richard.

Dangxiang originally lived a nomadic hunting life, living in pursuit of water and grass. Even after the founding of the country many years ago, many people did not have much land and were still nomadic or herding cattle for the nobles to make a living. The concept of family and country was not strong, let alone the war with Song Dynasty for hundreds of years. You would have been killed long ago. There is me, and you are included in me. If you vote, you will vote, and you don’t care much.

Zhao Tong naturally doesn't care. That's what war is all about. It just snowballs. Recruiting more than 10,000 people is already a good result. As for those who haven't been recruited, they are probably the elite Xingqing Imperial Guards who have homes in Xingzhou and are more worried. It's heavy, so I don't hesitate.

With more than 10,000 troops, Zhao Tong was satisfied. The number of troops he could mobilize was close to 70,000. 70,000 troops were enough to fight separately. If he wanted to completely destroy Xixia, division of troops was inevitable. matter.

That day, Zhao Tong was watching the secret report sent by the scouts from Shunzhou. Suddenly Bai Zhan entered: "Master, Wu Erlang is here!"

When Zhao Tong heard this, he immediately said with joy: "Hurry up and call me here!"

After a while, Wu Song led Li Zhong, Fan Rui and four others through the door and bowed to the ground: "Master, my subordinates have been delayed for many years and are now late. I hope you don't blame me!"

Zhao Tong looked at him and said: "Why did Erlang say this? By the way, brother Ling..."

"Young Master, my eldest brother has passed away. After burying my eldest brother, I came to join you." Wu Song said in a sad voice.

Zhao Tong nodded and sighed: "My condolences, Erlang!"

Wu Song said: "Eldest brother can live to this day only because of the kindness of the young master. When eldest brother died, he told his subordinates to repay this kindness..."

"Eh..." Zhao Tong waved his hand: "What are you talking about, Erlang? Why don't you see someone else? Get up quickly!"

After saying that, he glanced at the other four people kneeling on the ground, and his eyes couldn't help but narrow slightly.

Zhao Tao had seen all four of these people, and he had never forgotten them. On the day when Liangshan people were recruiting troops, they conducted military exercises in front of Xuande Tower. Zhao Tao was upstairs, and he recognized these four people as the tiger general Li Zhong, the demon king Fan Rui, and the eight. Arm Nezha Xiang Chong, flying great sage Li Gong.

He couldn't help but wonder. Song Jiang led people to fight against Tian Hu in Hebei. Aren't these people supposed to be in Song Jiang's army? Why did he follow Wu Song to Xixia?

Wu Song stood up at this time and watched the four people introduce their origins and the reasons for their coming. Zhao Tong nodded and his eyes fell on Li Zhong first.

Li Zhong immediately took out the letter and presented the jewelry in the bag. Zhao Tong took the letter and read it without saying a word.

The letter was naturally written by Song Jiang. The content was mournful, and every word was like a cuckoo crying for blood, expressing his misfortune and calling for the injustice of his subordinates.

After reading the letter, Zhao Tong thought for a while and said to Li Zhong: "I see that Song Gongming said in the letter that there are only about twenty people left in Liangshan. How can there be such a small number left?"

Li Zhong did not dare to raise his head and said: "I'm telling His Highness the King of Qin that Tian Hu's troops are really strong, and there are many experts and strangers in the army. They fought hard against each other and were consumed in pairs, so only these brothers are left."

Zhao Tong secretly thought that he intercepted a few people who were supposed to go to Liangshan. Later, Liangshan recruited people again, Lin Chong fled south, and killed more than ten or twenty people, but the remaining ones should be in their seventies or eighties, but there were only There are more than twenty left. It seems that Tian Hu is not weak. However, after this, Tian Hu's side is estimated to have lost troops and generals, and its strength has been greatly reduced.

He called the four of them to stand up, and then held a banquet in honor of them. Naturally, he accepted the three of Fan Rui. As for Li Zhong, he wrote a personal letter and asked him to go back to Song Jiang, and asked Song Jiang to bring someone to deliver as soon as he saw the letter.

In the blink of an eye, two days later, the sky was blue and cloudless. Zhao Tong ordered his troops to leave the city and headed north to inspect the front line of Mingsha River.

(End of this chapter)