end song

In November, there was heavy snowfall, Xingqing Mansion was covered in snow, and Pingchuan at the foot of Helan Mountain was also covered in white snow.If Tang Jun hadn't repelled Tachaer early, the whole city might be frozen in the flood at this time, and it would collapse without attack.But today's situation is not good.

"Commander, the main force of the captive chief has passed Dengkou." "Any news from His Majesty?"

"not yet."

Li Zengbo frowned when he heard the words, and calculated in his mind, he guessed that Li Xia might have already met Mangge, no matter whether he wins or loses, it will take at least two months to withdraw to Xingqing Mansion.

The generals waited for a while, seeing that he had stopped talking, they asked: "Commander, with our strength, I'm afraid it will be difficult to stop the Yuan army, do you want to withdraw from Xingqing Mansion?"

"Where to retreat?" The generals were silent.

"If we retreat to Liangzhou, the Yuan army can directly attack Longxi; if we retreat to Lanzhou, will the Hexi Corridor be lost?" Li Zengbo asked back, and then sighed: "Now the imperial court is trying to appease the Tubo tribes. If our army retreats, all previous efforts will be for naught. Abandoning Ningxia at this time is tantamount to abandoning Gansu and Tubo.”

"I understand what the commander-in-chief is saying, but... I'm afraid I won't be able to defend myself."

"Of course it's difficult to defend. The policemen in Song Dynasty knew it was difficult to defend 300 years ago."

When Li Zengbo said this, he did not lament, but smiled, and began to boost morale.

The subject changed, and he said: "But it's different now, it's not the Song Dynasty now. Even if we Tang soldiers face Kublai Khan's personal conquest, we can stop him in Hetao for a month. What about us? We defend the city, Why not block the Yuan army for another two months."

He raised his voice and said: "If all the troops believe in this old man, there will be reinforcements in two months!"...
Today, when the generals went down to the top of the city, someone still muttered a few words.

"He said one thing and another, and only said that he could not retreat. It only boosted morale, but he didn't say what to hold for two months."

"What else can we take? Take our lives."

Li Zengbo was still standing on the top of the wall, looking at the backs of those soldiers. Although he couldn't hear what they said, he could feel their dissatisfaction.

Of course there will be dissatisfaction. After so many years of war, it has been too long. Everyone is tired and unable to continue.This time, they planned to capture Hetao. To boost morale, the army publicized the significance of capturing Hetao many times. If they can take Yanjing directly, it seems that defeating Mengyuan is just around the corner.

Now that the plan has been frustrated, and we have to continue to face dangers and difficulties, many people will be discouraged and complain.

Not everyone can stay strong forever, even Li Zengbo himself sometimes feels unable to hold on.He couldn't say anything that could make people's blood boil. If there was dissatisfaction in the army, he could only accept it and continue to defend the city.

"Commander, are you sending Sheri Jihan back to Mount Liupan?" A military councilor stepped forward and asked. "Sheriji Khan."

Li Zengbo looked up at the nine-pronged white banner erected behind the flag.

Li Xia brought Xili Jihan out from Liupan Mountain during his personal conquest, and planned to relocate him in Jiuyuan City after recovering Hetao to appease the Mongolian tribes.

When chasing Tachar, pay attention to the speed of marching. Li Xia and Yang Ben led [-] horses and left, temporarily leaving them in Xingqing Mansion, and sending them there with the luggage after the battle.

Several military councilors had similar opinions on Sheri Jihan, and they all opened their mouths to analyze.

"Kublai Khan chose to attack Xingqing Mansion first, instead of taking the Qin Zhidao to go down to Guanzhong. Apart from the difficult road and the difficulty of attacking the plateau mountain fortress, there was another reason. It must be to kill Xiri Jihan and take six Panshan."

"Yes, Sheriji Khan and Liupan Mountain are not important to the commander-in-chief, but they are extremely important to Kublai Khan. If he doesn't kill Sheriji, he can't be regarded as the Great Khan of Mongolia. There will always be Mongols who use this name to oppose he."

"Marshal, why don't we send Xiliji back to Mount Liupan first? In this way, even if Xingqing Mansion is unable to hold on, we won't lose all our chips at once."

"You can't send them away." Li Zengbo shook his head and said, "If you send them away, your morale will be lowered." He turned around and went down from the top of the city, and walked into the city.

~~
Li Xia brought Sheri Jihan to Xingqing

After entering the mansion, he was placed in a deserted nunnery in the city.

One day, Li Zengbo walked to the front of the nunnery and looked up. He saw the word "Jietanyuan", and felt that the name was familiar.

After thinking about it, he remembered a story often told by the school general Wang Mancang in the army, about the Xixia emperor Li Yuanhao and the Wuzang clan having an affair in this altar courtyard.

Looking back, Tang Jun was in charge of guarding around the yard.

It is said that the "guard" of the Mongolian Khan has a leisurely job, and more veterans who have been discharged from the army due to injuries are selected. They have enough experience to fill the role without being too tired. Of course, a better job for veterans is to serve as an instructor in the army.

Walking into the courtyard, I saw many Mongolian nobles, who were reading and writing, or playing and singing, and they seemed to be living decently.

Since Xiri Jihan has been in Xingqing Mansion for so long, except for Li Zengbo who glanced at him from a distance when he entered the city, today is the first real meeting.

He didn't know how to address it for a while.To be honest, this kind of etiquette language has been entangled for several years by the scholar-officials in Song and Jin Dynasties.

"Mongol Khan, can you speak Chinese?" "Yes."

Sheriji's voice was a little childish and thin.

Li Zengbo squinted his old eyes, and saw that he was wearing a white robe and a felt hat. Although he was not very old, he had a thin beard on his face, and almost only his eyes were exposed, but he was very dignified.

A puppet shouldn't have such a majestic look in its eyes.

"Kublai Khan has attacked the city." Li Zengbo said, "You said, if you fall into his hands, will you die?" "Yes."

Li Zengbo didn't care if he got such short one-word answers to two consecutive questions.

The reason why he came in person was to see Xiliji's determination to defend the city, so he said: "The city is not easy to defend. In this battle, all active people in the city need to be mobilized. I need your help to defend the city."

When he said this, he kept looking at Sheriji's eyes.

I saw that the young Khan lowered his head first, trying to hide his softness, then raised his eyes after a while, and said, "Okay."

Li Zengbo said: "I will transfer the soldiers and horses guarding you away, and I will also use the Mongols outside. You need to tell me,

Who is not to be trusted. "

"it is good."

Li Zengbo turned around and walked out, he didn't need a puppet to give orders, as long as his determination was confirmed, he would naturally arrange other things.
~~
The next day, Hu Lanji, commander of the Yuan army, launched another fierce attack on the city.

It was not considered hard work for him to siege the city before, but now he wanted to break through the Xingqing Mansion before Kublai Khan arrived, as if holding the Buddha Wall temporarily.

"No more artillery!"

On the top of the city, the blood-stained soldiers turned their heads and shouted for help: "Is there any shells left?" "No, the Yellow River water has soaked the transported baggage, and there is no more gunpowder."

"Use a cannon cart, hit them with a cannon cart!" "There are not many stones left." "Boom!"

Stones from the Yuan army fell on the city.

After that, seeing that the Tang army's artillery was finally exhausted today, the Yuan army dared to gather and began to attack the city.The fierce fighting continued until the evening, and the city was covered with the corpses of soldiers from both sides.

A Mongolian soldier who attacked the top of the city but was cut to the ground fell there and howled. Watching the Yuan army recede like a tide, he hurriedly crawled towards the city wall.

Stretching out his head to see, he would surely die if he fell.

After that, his feet were dragged by soldiers of the Tang army, and he was dragged from the dirty snow to more than ten people. "It's all about me."

Suddenly there was a Mongolian voice, and the soldier looked up and saw a very noble Mongolian.

"You don't know me. I'm the leader of the Great Mongolian State's Woyi Clan. I'm married to the son-in-law of Hada, the eldest granddaughter of Genghis Khan, Princess Huolei. All along, I've been following the real Great Khan, Meng Geda. Khan's son, the generous and merciful Sheriji Khan, elected by the kings at the Kuliltai Assembly."

"You coward full of lies."

"puff."

Some Mongolian soldiers stood up

shouted, but after the interpreter told his words to the soldiers of the Tang army around him, someone immediately went up and killed him with a knife.

Blood even splashed on Ha Da's face.

Hada was so frightened that he wiped the sweat from his brow before continuing: "Kublai Khan is a sinner who betrayed Mongolia. You were deceived by him and you will be punished by the Changshengtian. But the benevolent Khan decided to give you an atonement." Opportunity."

"Don't listen to him! He will kill""

There was another "poof", Tang Jun treated these prisoners mercilessly, and immediately cut down those who dared to resist a little.

Hada's face turned paler, and he said, "I don't need you to do anything, I will let you go back, and let you thank the Great Khan for his kindness.
~~
Three days later, Hu Lanji realized something was wrong. "Marshal, Tang Jun has released the wounded again." "Back again?"

Hu Lanji frowned, not happy about it.

He was happy when he heard for the first time that Li Zengbo released the captives before, and he laughed at Tang Jun for not even wanting military exploits just to show his favor.

But gradually he discovered that the wounded were basically unable to be saved when they walked back from Xingqing Mansion in this cold weather.It doesn't work to have shamans do it, or to put them in the belly of a cow.

Often more food is consumed, and it can no longer become a combat power.

What annoyed him was that some people in the army began to talk about the puppet Khan that existed in Xingqing Mansion.Apparently, Tang Jun even planted secret operations among these wounded.

Hu Lanji then ordered to control all the wounded so that they would not shake the morale of the army again.However, the morale of the army was still shaken.

While struggling, another fast horse came from the north. "Report to Marshal, the army has arrived!"

"Hurry up, I have to meet Da Khan."

The huge Jiuyou Baizhu moved to the south, and the long black dragon passed through the snow all over the sky and slowly entered the foot of Helan Mountain, becoming the most spectacular scenery above Yinchuan.

Hu Lanji reported his victory to Kublai Khan with sincerity and fear.

"Khan, I have already consumed the artillery in the city of Xingqing Prefecture, and I estimate that more than half of the food and arrows have been consumed. Li Zengbo's army is only over 1, and half of them are militiamen recruited temporarily. But..."

"but what?"

Only then did Hu Lanji tell how Li Zengbo's return to captives affected his military morale.

Hearing Shariji's name, Kublai Khan's eyes became complicated, and he did not hide his disdain, and the anger in the disdain.

In his opinion, that nephew is simply a waste.

However, this waste is like a mud pit on the side of the road, and even if he steps into it, he will feel uncomfortable.

"Ben Khan's poor nephew was used by Li Xia." Kublai Khan sighed, and asked, "What do you think?" Yang Wen'an looked at the interpreter, and he did not understand until the interpreter had translated Kublai Khan's words.

"My son and nephew fell into the hands of the enemy, what can I do?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry, Li Zengbo's tricks are only useful when the two sides confront each other for a long time and he has the upper hand. Now he just has no other way, so let's do it for now. Your Majesty's army is gathered in the city, and it can be broken by the force of thunder." city"