Chapter 222 Blood floods the world!

While Murong Fu was making great efforts in Tokyo, his subordinates and allies were not idle either.

The idea of ​​attacking the Song Dynasty from four directions was constantly being realized in Murong Fu's grand plan.

January 1st, early morning, Xixia.

Li Qiushui was dressed in military uniform, with silver armor and a snow-white cloak, making her look like a silver fox on the battlefield.

She personally led the 3,000 most elite Iron Harriers of Western Xia, charging forward and capturing cities and strongholds.

The Iron Harriers were the most elite heavy cavalry of Western Xia. With Murong Fu's guidance, Li Qiushui's martial arts had made great progress.

She led the army personally, and their fighting power reached an appalling level.

A peerless master has amazing dominance on the battlefield. Even in the original novel, Xiao Feng captured the Crown Prince Yelu Chongyuan alive among thousands of troops and saved the kingdom of Liao Dao Zong Yelu Hongji.

If this was just a coincidence once, then it was no coincidence that Duan Yu and Xu Zhu captured Yelu Hongji amidst thousands of soldiers.

If you practice martial arts to the highest level, as long as you don't be foolish enough to fight against thousands of troops alone, you can gain strong dominance on the battlefield.

However, there is only one such master among millions of people.

Today, the entire Chinese population exceeds 100 million, but there are not even ten such masters in China.

However, Li Qiu Shui is such a master, and this is Xixia’s greatest luck.

When Emperor Shenzong launched five expeditions against Xia, Li Qiu Shui turned the tide and saved the country from collapse. Not only did she establish her own political status in Western Xia, she also helped her son Li Qianshun ascend the throne.

Western Xia was essentially a military state. Precisely because it was a military state, its mobilization capabilities far exceeded those of the Song Dynasty. With a population of more than two million, it could mobilize an army of up to 500,000 at most, meaning that basically every citizen was a soldier.

In the military, whoever can lay the foundation for victory in the war will gain power and everyone's respect.

The people of Western Xia did not care whether Li Qiushui and her son eliminated Prince of Jin Richard, but they cared whether Li Qiushui and her son could lead them to victory. As long as they could win on the battlefield, they would be wise queens and wise rulers of Western Xia.

If not, the position will be shaken.

This is also the reason why Li Qiushui brought his son and personally commanded the army.

Li Qiushui was responsible for commanding the most elite cavalry to remove the obstacles set up by the Song Dynasty on Huanqing Road, while Li Qianshun commanded an army of 200,000 (actually 100,000) and marched towards Huanzhou City.

Western Xia and the Song Dynasty had been at war for decades, with constant friction and mutual spies. Western Xia mobilized the entire country, and the Song army naturally received the news a long time ago.

Zhang Yu, the governor and pacification commissioner of Huanqing Road, had already ordered people to seek help and had prepared all defensive fortifications. His strategy was "defense and counterattack."

With Huanzhou City as the core, there are a total of thirty castles nearby. Although Western Xia has an army of 200,000, they can divide their forces to attack these castles. Each troop has less than 10,000 people, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

Except for the Iron Harriers, the Xixia soldiers were actually very ordinary and not as good as the Western Army.

The Song Dynasty and Western Xia were actually just weaklings fighting each other. If the Jurchens had not later exposed the Song Dynasty's lies, judging from the history books alone, the Song-Xia War was in full swing and seemed to be very spectacular.

In fact, it is a battle between the brave bronze and the unyielding silver.

With less than 10,000 Western Xia soldiers, it was impossible for them to break through the Song army's city.

If the troops were not divided, the surrounding castles would be able to harass the Western Xia army from the rear when it besieged Huanzhou, cut off its food supply, block its retreat, and make its morale unstable and unable to continue.

It should be said that the literati of the Song Dynasty were not all incompetent. Zhang Yu's style of fighting was very suitable for the Western Army, and it was similar to Zeng Guofan's in later generations, that is, "building a strong camp and fighting a stupid battle."

Unfortunately, what Zhang Yu didn't know was that Xixia now not only had Li Qiu Shui, but also a secret weapon supported by Murong Fu - the counterweight trebuchet.

It would be difficult for Li Qiushui to attack the city by force alone, after all, she is not Murong Fu.

But with the counterweight trebuchet, Li Qiu Shui could easily capture the city.

Therefore, Li Qiu Shui captured the cities along the way, and the cities near Huanzhou were lost one after another.

Xixia was advancing like an unstoppable force, and Li Qiushui's prestige continued to rise. People from all walks of life in Xixia now worshipped Li Qiushui as a god.

Inside Huanzhou City, Zhang Yu, whose hair and beard were all white, received the news with a solemn expression and said to his generals:
"Wulan Village, Hongde Village, and Suyuan Village have also been lost one after another. The Xixia army has no more worries and has surrounded our Huanzhou City."

"When the late emperor led five expeditions against the Xia, the evil queen of Western Xia, Li Qiushui, severely damaged our Song Dynasty. Fortunately, the great official Li was able to block the attack of the evil queen of Western Xia."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Li has been killed and all his honors have been stripped by the court. Alas, without a master like Mr. Li, we would not be able to stop the Xixia Demon Queen head-on."

"If it was just the Western Xia Demon Queen who held the city, she would have no choice but to retreat. But she somehow improved the trebuchet. The trebuchet she is using now is too powerful. I'm afraid Huanzhou City cannot defend itself."

Although the principle of the counterweight trebuchet is simple, it is black technology in this era.

The Mongols used this to even break down the city walls of Xiangyang. Huanzhou City was much inferior to Xiangyang City of the Southern Song Dynasty and could not withstand the counterweight trebuchet.

"Jinglüe, what should we do?" asked Zhe Keshi, Zhang Qie's most trusted Western Army general and a rising star of the Zhe family.

Zhang Yu said: "Don't panic, Xixia may be aggressive for a while, but our Song Dynasty is rich and powerful. Even if we lose Huanqing Road, we will slowly get it back. As long as the court continues to support us with money and food, and we have figured out a way to deal with these catapults, we will be able to beat Xixia back."

"It's just that someone must take the responsibility for the loss of land! I have been loyal to the Song Dynasty all my life. I will never change my mind and swear to live and die with Huanzhou City."

"Zunzheng, when the city is broken, I will create an opportunity for you. You will lead the elite troops to break through and go to Qinfeng Road to join forces with the brothers Zhong Shidao. No need to persuade me! The country will be destroyed but the mountains and rivers will remain. As long as you are loyal to your country, the Song Dynasty will not perish!"

Afterwards, Zhang Yu personally went to the city wall to command, but now, the dense Western Xia army had surrounded Huanzhou City, and one after another counterweight catapults threw huge stones at Huanzhou City.

Huanzhou City held out for several hours before its walls were breached. The morale of the people in the city dropped to the lowest point. If it weren't for Zhang Yu's personal presence, the morale of the Song army would have collapsed long ago. Seeing that things were hopeless, Zhang Yu retreated from the city wall and engaged in street battles with the Xixia army, covering Zhe Keshi and others in their breakout.

Only after Zhe Keshi and others broke through did Zhang Qie breathe a sigh of relief and continue fighting to the death.

Although Western Xia had all the advantages, the main general of the Song army, Zhang Yu, braved the arrows and died with Huanzhou, and Western Xia suffered heavy casualties.

Li Qiu Shui had been attacking the city for a whole day, and his snow-white cloak had turned bright red. He had wanted to take a breath, but unexpectedly this incident had forced him to take action himself.

Once Li Qiu Shui made a move, no matter how strong the resistance of the remaining troops of Zhang Qie was, she was helpless. She defeated the remaining troops of Huanzhou City like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves and captured Zhang Qie.

"You old bastard, you are a man of courage." Li Qiushui looked at Zhang Yu and said, "Why don't you surrender to our Great Xia Kingdom? The Great Xia Kingdom will give you high positions and generous salaries, and wealth and glory!"

"I have read Mencius all my life. Mencius talked about the great righteousness. I will not surrender." Zhang Yu said calmly, "I can die, but the Song Dynasty cannot be destroyed! Without the Hu people, the Han Dynasty will prosper!"

"Kill him!" Li Qiu Shui knew that Zhang Qie had made up his mind and waved her hand.

Zhang Qie was executed.

Even when this old general was dying, his hair was standing on end with anger, his eyes were wide open, and he remained mighty and unyielding.

The Xixia generals were also greatly impressed, but also began to worry.

If the Song Dynasty were full of people like Zhang Yu, their next offensive would be difficult.

"Give him a proper burial!" Li Qiushui said, "Murong Fu once recited a poem to me, which included the line 'Ask the boundless earth, who controls the rise and fall'. I don't know if he controls the rise and fall now!"

Tibet.

Jiumozhi, along with the King of Tubo and Prince Zongzan, led a mighty army of 50,000 to attack the Song Dynasty.

However, the Tibetan army was put together hastily and almost failed to defeat the Song army. If it were not for Jiumozhi using the Six Meridians Divine Sword at the critical moment and leading the monks of the Dalun Temple as the vanguard, the Tibetan army would have been almost driven back by the Song Dynasty.

This made Jiumozhi very embarrassed.

He originally wanted to show his face, but he almost showed his butt instead.

"I don't know how the leader's offensive is going. Has he taken Tokyo?" Jiumozhi thought to himself, "I have to occupy some territory, otherwise it will be difficult to explain!"

The great Mahavairocana, the Tibetan state teacher Jiumozhi, was also worried about not meeting his KPI, just like other workers.

Compared to Jiumozhi, Duan Yanqing's side was much smoother.

The Song Dynasty would never have dreamed that Dali would one day invade it.

Therefore, the Song army was caught off guard and was defeated by Duan Yanqing's army. The Dali troops crossed the Dadu River and prepared to join forces with Jiumozhi.

Tubo and Dali are both small countries. If they want to achieve results, the best thing would be for the two to merge into one and disrupt the Xichuan region of the Song Dynasty.

Historically, the Nanzhao Kingdom once allied with Tubo to attack the Xichuan region of the Tang Dynasty.

But the Tang Dynasty was not the Song Dynasty. Even in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Nanzhao and Tubo were easily defeated and suffered heavy casualties, so they had to retreat in disgrace.

But now the Song Dynasty can only wish for the best.

southeast.

Suzhou was Murong Fu's base camp. Under Wuyazi's command, Suzhou surrendered without using any soldiers.

Xu Zhicheng, the governor of Suzhou, had been planted with a life and death spell by Murong Fu. He had long been a puppet of the Murong family and had no determination to resist.

Afterwards, Murong's army, led by several centurions, swept across the Liangzhe Road like a whirlwind.

There were only 5,000 Song troops in Liangzhe Route, which even couldn't defeat Fang La in history, let alone Murong Fu's troops today. Naturally, they were easily defeated.

Afterwards, the counterweight catapult smashed outside the city of Hangzhou for an hour, and the city was captured.

Hangzhou, an important city in the southeast and the future capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, has now become Murong Fu's territory, with the flags on the city walls changing.

Wuyazi and Wang Qingqing controlled the money and grain together, and began to follow Murong Fu's strategy to fight the local tyrants, divide the land, and recruit soldiers in one go.

Murong Fu in Tokyo, because he had little roots in the north, made a certain degree of compromise with the northern ruling class.

But in Jiangnan, Murong Fu was the tyrant of the South. Gusu Murong's influence enabled him to find partners at any time, so he was rude to the landlords and bureaucrats in Jiangnan.

Wang Qingqing even personally tortured these bureaucrats and landlords, forcing them to hand over the money.

The entire southeast was instantly plunged into a bloody storm, and Murong Fu's troops began to divide their forces and attack various routes in the southeast.

For a time, the southeastern half of the Song Dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

January 1st, a very ordinary day.

But it was also the day when the death knell of the Song Dynasty was sounded.

On this day, blood flooded the world.

(End of this chapter)