After Liu He arranged the people, he came back to report.

"Li Zhizhou, everyone has been notified. I will confirm it in time."

"Um."

Looking at the soldiers gathering around him, Liu He asked: "Are we going to pursue them?"

"No, capture Zhuoluo City first."

Liu He immediately said: "The general is willing to lead people in to find out what's going on."

"Stop joining in the fun and let He Yu go."

"The general will be able to do it!"

"Leave a little chance for others."

Liu He immediately understood and said: "Yes!"

Not long after, He Yu came: "Li Zhizhou."

"The Xixia people have escaped from the city. Let's make four preparations." Li Yanxian simply drew a picture on the ground. "Old He, please lead three thousand people into the city to find out what's going on. Try to reduce casualties as much as possible. If you can, surrender if you can."

"Yes!" He Yu was not dissatisfied. Li Yanxian brought people to support Lanzhou. At this time, he had the highest reputation, so he obeyed the arrangement.

"Liu He, lead three thousand men in pursuit from this direction. After catching up, those who can surrender will be surrendered. Those who are unwilling to surrender will be killed without mercy!"

"Yes!" Liu He said.

"I will lead three thousand people and go from this direction. There is still an ambush of a thousand people here, but the Western thieves may not go this way. If we don't pursue them, we will meet here."

Liu He continued to ask: "If we are not pursued, will we meet here and then withdraw?"

"No, let the boys bring two months' worth of dry food!"

"Two months?"

"Go quickly!"

"yes!"

"Isn't the population of Xixia small? Let's just say that Zhuoluo and Nanjunsi only have a total of 30,000 people." Li Yanxian said, "If they are all eliminated in one fell swoop, it will greatly consume the Western bandits!"

He Yuxi said: "Wouldn't it be possible to build a wall here afterwards?"

Li Yanxian said: "No, there is the Xixia Luopang Army Division more than a hundred miles northwest of here, there is the Xixia Youxiang Chaoshun Army Division three hundred miles away in Liangzhou, and there is the Xishou Baotai Army Division more than a hundred miles east of here.

.If the reinforcements from the Western Bandits are suppressed, Lanzhou is across the river from here, so they cannot quickly support us and cannot defend them permanently. On the contrary, it will consume our army's strength, which is not the best strategy."

He Yu was stunned for a moment, feeling that he could not refute Li Yanxian's analysis.

Li Yanxian said: "The amount of fertile land here is limited, and there are not many people who can feed it. Destroying the city and fertile land will greatly consume the Western thieves."

When the war enters this stage, it basically begins to consume resources.

Defeating the opponent, plundering or destroying the opponent's resources is tantamount to depleting the opponent's national power.

For example, after Xixia, troops must be stationed here, otherwise the Song army could go north from here at any time, leaving more time for strategic arrangements.

Destroying this place will greatly increase the cost of stationing troops in Xixia, which will inevitably involve budget cuts from other military departments.

This is Li Yanxian’s view on the situation.

He Yu said: "If this Western thief escapes to the Gobi Desert, he will be in trouble!"

Li Yanxian said categorically: "If you escape to the Gobi, you will catch up and kill them as well!"

Next, everyone started to act separately.

Li Yanxian and Liu Hebing pursued in two directions.

At dawn the next day, He Yu led three thousand troops into the city and conducted a comprehensive search of Zhuolu City.

A total of more than 1,300 people were found, all of whom were old, weak, sick and disabled.

In order to evacuate as soon as possible, the Xixia people gave up most of the food, grass and military equipment in the city.

However, the Xixia people's armament itself was very crude, and the Song army had nothing to show their appreciation for, but food was of great use.

There is not enough food in Lanzhou right now, so we need to use food from the Xixia people to fill it up for a while.

On the evening of the ninth day of March, Li Yanxian and Liu He pursued each other fifty miles north of Zhuoluo City.

This place is already a land of mountains and mountains. Li Yanxian sent Shen Xian in advance to ambush a thousand troops here.

Shen Hen ran to see Li Yanxian and said, "Li Zhizhou, in the afternoon, a group of Western bandits escaped from here. The general sent people to chase them several miles ahead and captured more than 800 people. The main force of the Western bandits has escaped."

"How many people are there in total who fled north from here?"

"About five thousand people."

"It seems that the Western bandits are retreating separately."

"What should we do now?"

At this time, Liu He had also caught up, and the three forces met here.

Li Yanxian said: "Keep chasing, the Western thieves are also out of men and horses, so they can't escape far!"

In this way, Li Yanxian's tribe actually went all the way north, like a sharp sword, piercing the territory of Xixia.

Due to the remote location of Zhuoluo and Nanjunsi, the Song army arrived so quickly that the Xixia people were caught off guard. As a result, the news could not reach Xingqing Mansion quickly, and Li Qianshun still knew nothing about the situation.

What's even more terrible is that starting from the sixth day of the lunar month, Liu Qi's east-route army secretly marched north along the Wuding River and began to attack Mizhi Village.

At this time, Liu Qi was only thirty miles away from Mizhi Village.

He stopped marching.

Lieutenant General Han Zhi said: "Liu Shuai, the terrain here is open and there are hillsides to the east, so it is not suitable to set up camp."

Liu Qi took the map and looked at it attentively, and said: "I know."

"Then why stop?"

Liu Qi did not explain, but just said: "You go and select a group of Xiangfan soldiers who can speak Xixia."

"What does Liu Shuai want to do?"

Liu Qi said: "There must be beacon smoke in Mizhi Village. We want to catch Yinzhou off guard and we must not let beacon smoke erupt in Mizhi Village."

Han Zhi scratched his head and said, "So Liu Shuai plans to let the Tibetan soldiers attack Mizhi Village?"

Liu Qi explained his plan. After listening to it, Han Zhi was shocked. Isn't this the same plan Zhe Keshi used to attack Xixia?

At that time, Zhe Keshi sent someone to find out the names of the Xixia beacon soldiers, and took a group of people to pretend to be commanders. They arrived at the Xixia people's beacon land, deceived the people and gave them a slap in the face, and then carried out a lightning assault on the surrounding cities.

Later, the mother-in-law of Xixia led nearly 100,000 people to encircle and suppress 8,000 Keshi, but was ambushed by Keke, and beat 100,000 people, throwing off their armor.

Han Zhi quickly went to find someone.

At dinner time, five hundred soldiers were summoned, all of whom were party members.

They have lived with the Song people in Shaanxi for a long time, but they have maintained many of their own characteristics and can speak both Dangxiang and Chinese.

Inclusion and equal treatment were also common ethnic policies of the Song Dynasty.

That night, Liu Qi made arrangements.

First, send someone to find out the name of the commander of the Xixia garrison at Mizhi Village.

It is not difficult to inquire about the name, especially if you send party members to inquire about it to reduce the other party's defensiveness.

One day later, the people sent out came back.

The person guarding Mizhi Village was a small party officer named Rigude.

On March 11th, before dawn, Liu Qi personally led 500 Tibetan soldiers to Mizhi Village. He also changed his outfit and mingled with the team.

In the morning, after arriving at Mizhi Village, the Xixia people immediately discovered their whereabouts.

Yu Ling, the commander of the Tibetan soldiers under Liu Qi, was an out-and-out Party member. He grew up on the border between Song and Xia and spoke fluent Party language.

He shouted to the people above: "We are sent by Yinzhou to inspect, let Rigu come out!"
Chapter completed!