I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 207 The Fall of Western Xia

...

What color is war?

In some people's opinion, it should be red.

Because during the battle, blood splattered everywhere, and the ground was littered with severed limbs and torsos with pink flesh showing.

However, some people think it should be black.

Because the battlefield after the battle was covered in ashes, all the vegetation had been trampled flat, and only black mud was exposed, like scars on the earth.

For the people of Xingqing Prefecture, war was a gray area.

For those who died in battle, starved, froze, or were executed had gray faces, gray eyes, gray skies, and even gray hearts.

The people of Xingqing Prefecture have been defending the city for half a year, and countless people around them have died, many of whom have even been eaten.

It's cruel, but it's very real.

Not long ago, they were comrades-in-arms fighting side by side, but today some of them are piled up without dignity, forming a small mountain, which will be stolen by those who are starving and turned into food when it gets dark.

The Liao reinforcements promised by the emperor and his ministers were nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, the Song people outside the city used archery and other means to inform the people inside that the Song and Liao had made peace, that Western Xia had been abandoned by the Liao, and that the Liao army would not come to their aid. They were now the last resistance force of Western Xia.

Food supplies in the city were dwindling. The horses and other livestock in both the outer and inner cities had long been eaten up, and even cats, dogs, insects, and rodents had disappeared. The remaining food in the city was first supplied to the high-ranking officials and their closest confidants in the imperial city. Even the armed forces protecting Xingqing Prefecture only received a spoonful of beans a day. As for the common people, their plight was unimaginable.

The ice protecting Xingqing Prefecture from the Song army's attack is now melting into water at a visible rate, and the Song army may begin its siege tomorrow.

After the city falls, will the Song army massacre the city?

Probably so.

Over the years, they and their ancestors have repeatedly raided Song territory, burning, killing, looting, and plundering people to enslave them in Western Xia.

Now that the Song people have finally destroyed the Western Xia and captured their enemies, how could they not avenge this deep-seated hatred?
Resentment, anger, fear, and despair lingered and gathered in everyone's hearts. The nerves of the people in the city were like fully drawn bowstrings, tense and fragile. The slightest provocation would either drive them mad or insane.

Emperor Li Qianshun and his ministers had long been aware of these circumstances. Fearing mutiny or riots, they enforced military and political orders more strictly than usual. Every single person in the city was forbidden from laughing, complaining, sighing, crying, shouting, or talking about their families. Anyone who disobeyed the orders would be beheaded on the spot without exception, and even their comrades and neighbors would be punished as a result.

Under such high pressure, the people in the city are even more on edge.

Everyone carefully avoided eye contact, for in their eyes lurked a savage, untamed nature. Countless times, a beastly impulse surged within them, an urge to draw their swords and slash at every living creature around them.

One night in late April of the third year of the Hongwu reign (1386), dark clouds obscured the moon, and the air was unusually heavy.

The people in the city were strictly divided into groups. This was to facilitate collective heating and reduce the consumption of firewood.

In one of the tents, dozens of people lay shoulder to shoulder and leg to leg around a small fire.

They did not remove their clothes or armor, each holding their arms and waiting for battle.

They all tried to breathe deeply, trying to fill their chests with air, but they still felt very suffocated.

The stench of blood, sweat, feet, and mud mingled together, assaulting everyone's senses and making them dizzy.

The flashing of swords and the sight of severed limbs flashed before some people's eyes, while the roars of men and the neighing of horses echoed in the ears of others.

It wasn't until late at night that these people, lost in their own thoughts, managed to drift into a semi-conscious state.

suddenly!

A clap of thunder boomed above the rooftop.

At the same time, a boy of only twelve or thirteen years old suddenly sat up in fright. He stared blankly into the void, tearing at his clothes while letting out hysterical screams.

The sound was extremely shrill, completely unlike that of a human, but rather like that of a wild beast.

The group, already under immense stress and having not slept soundly for months, were instantly awakened.

A thick, impenetrable darkness filled their vision, and piercing screams surged into their ears, filling them with both fear and rage.

Finally, with a "snap," someone felt the nerve in his mind, stretched to its limit, suddenly snap. In an instant, the anger, resentment, fear, grievances, and longing for his hometown, wife, and children that had been building up in his heart for so long surged up, almost making his chest explode.

As if possessed, the man, like the boy, frantically tore at his clothes, howling at the sky and venting his anger.

The collapse spread rapidly through the population like a plague.

Soon, several more people stretched their necks and let out wild howls.

Those who were still lucid were baffled by the bizarre behavior of these hysterical people and horrified by the sight before them.

Upon seeing this, the experienced elders looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy, their faces turning ashen as they exclaimed, "Oh no, the camp is about to be destroyed!"

Some young people wanted to ask what "camping up" meant, and the tents next door also became chaotic.

Some people were howling, some were cursing, and some were shouting the names of people who had fallen into hysteria.

A sane person wants to stop a person who has fallen into hysteria from going further insane.

The crazed person recklessly grabbed the person next to them, punching and biting them wildly.

One person bites another's ear, another gouges out this person's eyes, and a person covered in blood crawls haphazardly on the ground, howling, crying, and shouting wildly.

Torches were lit one by one, the flickering flames elongating and distorting people's shadows, making this hellish scene even more terrifying.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Enemy attack!"

The crowd erupted into a frenzy, panic spreading like waves through the hearts of the people and engulfing the entire camp. Some drew their knives, others their swords, wildly slashing at the blurry figures around them.

The shouts of battle spread rapidly, and soon the entire camp was in chaos, filled with howls and fierce fighting.

More and more camps are falling into chaos.

Soon after, it seemed that the entire Xingqing Prefecture was in chaos.

Hysterical, vengeful, self-defense-seeking, or simply venting their pent-up resentment, everyone turned on each other with knives, hacking and slashing tirelessly.

Emperor Li Qianshun and his ministers in the imperial city, and Song generals such as Lü Huiqing outside the city, discovered the chaos in Xingqing Prefecture at almost the same time.

Li Qianshun and Lü Huiqing ascended the high platform almost simultaneously and looked towards the chaotic scene. The difference was that Lü Huiqing immediately recognized it as a camp raid, while Li Qianshun, who had never witnessed such a situation before, was visibly shocked and hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

The attendants beside him also looked frightened, and no one could explain this sudden turn of events.

Li Qianshun turned to look at the veteran general Ren Duobaozhong beside him.

Rendo Baozhong's face was ashen, and a hint of despair flashed in his eyes. He said in a trembling voice, "The camp has been wrecked!"

Upon hearing this, Li Qianshun felt a chill run down his spine. He had heard of the camp being overrun and knew that it was caused by the mental breakdown of the people in the city who had been under the heavy pressure of war for a long time. At this moment, they no longer distinguished between friend and foe and only knew how to kill in a frenzy.

Li Qianshun knew that if this unrest could not be contained, Xingqing Prefecture would fall without a fight, and the fate of Western Xia would be sealed. He suppressed his panic and said sternly, "Send down the order: stabilize the situation and do not allow this chaos to spread to the capital!"

However, those who understand the situation, such as Rendo Baozhong, know perfectly well that no matter what they do, it is already too late to salvage the situation.

Chaos spread rapidly through the city like a plague, flames soared into the sky, and shouts of battle were deafening. Many in the city had lost their minds; they killed one another, and brothers who had once fought side by side became victims of each other's blades.

Soon, someone said, "Today's events are all because the Li family carved out their own territory and established themselves as independent. Otherwise, we are all Song citizens, so why would the Song army attack us?"

Some echoed, "The emperor has already lost his country, yet he refuses to open the city gates and surrender. Instead, he is using us to resist stubbornly and drag us down with him. His intentions are despicable."

The people, who had gone mad with killing, had their hatred completely ignited. Someone shouted, "Capture Li Qianshun and present him to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, and we may be spared death and enjoy peace!"

These words, like a boulder thrown into a lake, stirred up a thousand waves. The people, who had been driven mad by the riot, seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, and their anger and resentment finally found a new outlet. They began to consciously surge towards the imperial city, their shouts of battle mixed with their dissatisfaction and curses towards Li Qianshun and the Li family of Western Xia.

Upon seeing this, the high-ranking officials and nobles of Western Xia led their relatives, confidants, and personal troops to assist Li Qianshun's six guards within the imperial garrison, the emperor's trusted guards, and the five armies of Xingqing Prefecture in guarding key locations to stop these hundreds of thousands of madmen.

The Six Guards within the Imperial Enclosure were the personal guards of the Western Xia emperor. They were 5,000 men selected from the sons of powerful clans, all skilled in riding and archery. They were divided into three shifts to guard the emperor. They not only served as the personal guards in front of the emperor's tent, but also acted as a "hostage army," using the sons of tribal chiefs and powerful clans as "hostages" in front of the emperor to protect his safety.

The emperor's personal guard numbered about three thousand men, composed of the strongest and bravest warriors selected from various armies within the territory. They were all heavily armored cavalry, divided into ten squads of three hundred men each. They accompanied the emperor in battle and were the most elite unit among the Western Xia cavalry, known as the "Iron Hawks." They were equipped with the best warhorses and the most defensive cold-forged armor of the time, making them extremely powerful in combat.

The five armies of Xingqing Prefecture were the Tiger Control Army, the Weidi Army, the Datong Army, the Xuanwei Army, and the Mingsha Army, which also belonged to the Western Xia royal family's garrison.

Emperor Li Qianshun and his ministers had long realized that things were not going well, so they had transferred all their personal guards to the capital to protect their lives and the lives of the high-ranking officials and nobles of Western Xia.

In addition, there were the troops brought by high-ranking officials and nobles.

The garrison in the imperial city numbered approximately 50,000.

Although these troops were not as numerous as the soldiers and civilians outside the city, they were the elite of the Western Xia army, and could easily take on five opponents at once.

The key issue is that the soldiers and civilians outside the city have gone mad. They are disorganized and blindly rushing around in the darkness and firelight, like a swarm of wild bees that have lost their queen. Although their numbers are large, they are completely disorganized and chaotic.

Therefore, the outcome of this battle was actually not in any suspense.

The problem is that this is infighting, a lament for the fate of the Western Xia dynasty, and a doomsday scenario that Li Qianshun and his ministers were unwilling to face.

Most importantly, once they finish fighting here, the Song army will definitely rush into the city and deliver the final blow to Western Xia, thus winning the war completely.

In other words, the Western Xia dynasty had already perished at that moment.

Soon, the madmen began storming the imperial city.

Arrows rained down, piercing the night sky and carrying the scent of death as they plunged fiercely into the frantically surging crowd.

Blood splattered, and screams of agony rose and fell, but nothing could stop the surge of the crowd. They were like mindless zombies, blindly rushing forward, toward the imperial city they had never dared to challenge before.

As Lü Huiqing watched the chaotic scene from outside the city, he said to his attendants, "Heaven is helping our Great Song Dynasty! The fate of Western Xia is sealed, and the city will fall today!"

A cold light flashed in Lü Huiqing's eyes, and his words carried an undeniable firmness. In the darkness, his figure flickered in and out of the firelight, like a judge who controlled fate, silently watching this turning point in history.

Wang Hou, who was standing nearby, asked, "My lord, when shall we attack the city?"

Lu Huiqing said without any emotion, "No rush. We can wait until their madness gradually wears off before we make our move. By then, the elite of Western Xia will have been lost, the people's hearts will be broken, and the city will fall on its own without a fight. We can then take the city without shedding a drop of blood."

A cold smile curled at the corner of Lü Huiqing's lips, his words revealing a precise grasp of the current situation and profound calculations.

Then, Lü Huiqing gave the order: "Pass on my command to prepare for the siege. The army will take turns resting, and we will reap this unparalleled victory tomorrow morning."

Meanwhile, in Xingqing Prefecture, atop the imperial city, the defending soldiers stood resolute, unleashing a hail of arrows like locusts, each twang of the bowstring accompanied by the loss of a life.

However, this brutal slaughter did not extinguish the fervor in the hearts of the soldiers and civilians outside the city. They found siege equipment and recklessly attacked the city walls, while using battering rams to continuously ram the city gates.

It's not hard to guess that once this torrent sweeps into the imperial city, they will absolutely annihilate everything within it.

It was precisely because they understood this that the defenders, knowing they were killing their own people, dared not show any mercy.

By daybreak, more than 70% of the people in Xingqing Prefecture had died or been injured.

The remaining survivors, looking at the corpses and blood all over the ground, gradually calmed down.

At this moment, countless Song soldiers had already stormed the city walls of Xingqing Prefecture. They immediately broke down the walls and opened all the city gates of Xingqing Prefecture.

Immediately afterwards, countless Song soldiers rushed into the city, and then slowly advanced towards the imperial city from all directions...

Upon seeing so many Song soldiers, the survivors dropped their weapons and scattered like birds and beasts, hiding in the ruins or in the tunnels they had already dug.

Seeing this scene from the city wall, Li Qianshun looked at his exhausted personal guards, whose eyes held a long-suppressed savagery. They were only one step away from causing a ruckus.

Li Qianshun finally lowered his head and glanced at the blood and corpses scattered all over the city below.

Li Qianshun knew that all of this was caused by the ambition of the Li family. If they had been law-abiding, perhaps the Tangut people could still live and thrive on this land, instead of being in such a state of devastation and bloodshed.

Li Qianshun prostrated himself on the ground, weeping bitterly, unable to rise from his breath.

Everyone present, especially Mrs. Li, regardless of age, burst into tears.

Their cries were deafening, so loud that the sun seemed to dim and the wind howled.

They all knew that the Western Xia dynasty was gone, a thing of the past, and that they too would become lambs to the slaughter.

Before the Song army could enter the inner city, the gates of the imperial city were opened from the inside.

Prince Li Renzhong and Privy Councilor Xue Yuanli, carrying a white flag with the word "Surrender" written on it, marched heavily toward the Song army...

……

(End of this chapter)