The city wall of Xiping Prefecture was blown up, and the Song army immediately occupied the gap and cleared a passage. Zhao Zhen personally directed the army to enter the city, but the Dangxiang people in the city were unwilling to fail. At this time, they still organized a heavy counterattack, hoping to drive the Song army outside the city.

Unfortunately, the Dangxiang people were not used to street fighting at all, and the cavalry could not play much role in the city. Instead, they were easily restrained by the infantry using the terrain. This also caused the Dangxiang people's several counterattacks to be repelled by the Song army, and instead lost large areas of streets. In the end, Zhao Zhen also went to the city to command the clearance. As a result, the remaining Dangxiang people finally couldn't resist and opened another city gate and fled in a hurry.

However, Zhao Zhen had already ambushed a cavalry outside the city gate. When the Dangxiang people had just escaped halfway, the cavalry suddenly came out and cut the Dangxiang people into two sections. The main behind were the Dangxiang people's families and supplies, but they were all left in the city. Then the cavalry chased the Dangxiang people in front of them for hundreds of miles, and countless Dangxiang people fell on the way to escape. Finally, when the Song Dynasty retreated, there were less than two thousand Dangxiang people who could actually escape.

The Dangxiang people who were able to escape were still very lucky. However, the Dangxiang people in Xiping Prefecture had ushered in the revenge of the Song army. Thirty years ago, when Li Jiqian conquered Xiping Prefecture, which was still called Lingzhou, he cruelly cleaned the Han people in the city, and even once resulted in no trace of Han people in the city. Later, in order to ask the Han people to help them grow food, he plundered a lot of people. However, most of these Han people lived outside the city as serfs and lived in extremely miserable lives. After the arrival of the Song army, many Han people also provided a lot of help to the Song army.

"General, the west of the city has been cleared. All the nobles of Dangxiang who did not escape have been arrested. Please deal with it!" Cao Mata came to the city lord's mansion with blood on his body, and then saluted Zhao Zhenhe. When they came, the city lord's mansion was empty, so Zhao Zhen temporarily moved here to rest.

"I did a good job. Have you ever encountered resistance when arresting people?" Zhao Zhen nodded in praise first, and then asked again.

"Yes, these Dangxiang people had no time to escape before, so they hurried in the mansion to resist stubbornly, so they died when they arrested people." Cao Mata replied again. The previous interception made most of the Dangxiang nobles not have time to escape, and now they are all refusing to surrender everywhere in the city because they know that the Song Dynasty will definitely not let them go easily.

"If you dare to resist, you will be punished!" Zhao Zhen ordered again with a cold expression on his face. The so-called "punishment" is not just killing one person, but if someone resists, the whole family will be punished. In other words, Zhao Zhen is trying to open up the killing world.

Cao Ma was stunned when he heard this, then looked around and then hesitated and stepped forward and said, "General, if you kill too many people, will it attract the attention of all the ministers in the court? If someone participates in the general because of this, I'm afraid..."

Cao Mata was also kind-hearted. As the first general who led troops abroad in recent years, Zhao Zhen was prone to jealousy. What's more, this time it was not a civil servant to lead the troops. Maybe many people were staring at Zhao Zhen, and they were waiting for him to make mistakes. Now Xiping Prefecture has been conquered. If too many people were killed, it might be said that he was "indiscriminate killing innocent people". If this crime is deducted at that time, I'm afraid Zhao Zhen will be unlucky even if he makes great contributions.

Zhao Zhen naturally knew that Cao Mata was kind-hearted, but he smiled confidently at this moment and said, "Don't worry, even if someone in the court wants to put a hat on me, someone will help me then, and I will never be punished for this!"

"But even if there are people in the general's court, there is no need to kill so many Dangxiang people. After all, if the general's reputation is..."

Before Cao Mata finished speaking, Zhao Zhen waved his hand and interrupted him, "I know what you are going to say, but false reputation is useless to us. I value real profit more. Although our 50,000 army is the elite among the border troops, it also has a big disadvantage, that is, it is that there is too little blood, and you should also be clear about this!"

Cao Mata also showed a complex look when he heard this. Although there have been constant conflicts in the northwest in recent years, it is generally not large in scale, and there are still several fixed areas. This also makes it possible to contact the actual combat army. Even if the 50,000 elite soldiers they have drawn, many of them have been on the battlefield for the first time. The soldiers who have seen blood and those who have never seen blood are completely different. They know this more than anyone else.

"The general wants to train troops with Xiping Prefecture!" After a while, Cao Ma said slowly.

"Yes, although Xiping Prefecture is a military center of Dangxiang, according to the information we have obtained, Xingzhou on the other side of the Yellow River is the foundation of Dangxiang. Even if the number of guards there is less than ours, it is definitely limited, and there are cities to rely on. Not only do we not have an advantage, but we are still at a disadvantage. Therefore, using Xiping Prefecture to let the brothers see blood and increase their morale so as not to make a fool of those new recruits who have never been on the battlefield!" Zhao Zhen explained again at this time.

Of course, Zhao Zhen didn't say one thing, that is, when he received the appointment, he once received a secret letter. The letter was written by a hot figure in the court. The letter analyzed some of the situation in the court and made some promises to him, which was also the main reason why he dared to let go of killing people.

Three days later, the Song army occupying Xiping Prefecture was then defeated. The Xiping Prefecture, which originally had 20,000 defenders and a population of more than 100,000, has a population of less than half. This is mainly because the whole people of Dangxiang are soldiers, and as long as they are adult men, they are soldiers. Therefore, when the Song army occupied this place, they encountered tenacious resistance. Even now, sporadic resistance still appeared, but this no longer affects the overall situation. Most of the surviving women, old and weak.

However, even so, Zhao Zhen still announced that the entire Xiping Prefecture City would implement military control, and all the materials in the city would be handed over and distributed uniformly. In the future, other people would naturally take over the place. At that time, the army would probably be military farming, and these women just happened to be given to the bachelors in the army as their wives.

With the stability of Xiping Prefecture, Zhao Zhen also raised his troops again to Xingzhou and joined Zhou Mei's vanguard army two days later. However, it was a problem to cross the river at this time. After all, the Yellow River is so wide, and the Dangxiang people on the opposite side have long been ready to face the enemy. When the Song army crossed the river, they will definitely be hit by the other side.

However, what many people did not expect was that after Zhao Zhen's main army arrived at the bank of the Yellow River, they did not build a floating bridge or rely on boats, and they kept stationing quietly on the bank of the Yellow River without moving. Li Yuanhao on the opposite side also gathered a large army to wait on the opposite side. Both sides were unwilling to cross the river.

The news that Zhao Zhen was still holding his troops quickly reached the rear, and then sent the letter to the capital through the Feige of the Imperial City Department. When Zhao Zhen received the news, he immediately summoned Lu Yijian, Cao Wei and others to discuss it. Of course, Li Zhang must be there. In fact, Zhao Zhen had just taken over government affairs during this period and was not familiar with many things. Someone also needed to remind him from time to time. In addition, Liu E's funeral was about to be held, so Li Zhang often stayed in the palace during this period.

"Zhao Zhen was still holding his troops on the bank of the Yellow River, and he did not build a floating bridge or a boat. What are his plans?" After everyone arrived, Zhao Zhen did not speak nonsense and directly spoke out the questions in his heart.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. I think Zhao Zhen is probably waiting!" At this time, Cao Wei was the first to stand up and said, "He is old, especially his legs and feet are not very good, so Zhao Zhen immediately gave him a seat after coming to the Chuigong Hall.

"Wait? What are you waiting for?" Zhao Zhen asked in confusion at this time.

"Are you waiting for the Yellow River to freeze?" Lu Yijian next to him suddenly spoke.

"Frozen! When will the Yellow River freeze?" Zhao Zhen finally slapped his head when he heard this. He almost forgot that the Yellow River would freeze. However, it is less than October, and the capital has begun to freeze. I just don't know when the Yellow River will freeze?

"The northwest is colder and usually freezes earlier than the capital. However, the Yellow River in Xingzhou is relatively turbulent and the mud and sand in the water are also relatively large, so it is not easy to freeze. However, by about mid-October, the river surface will definitely be frozen!" Li Zhang was quite familiar with the Yellow River, and he had been to the northwest, so he also explained at this time.

The climate during the Song Dynasty was still different from that in later generations. Simply put, the climate during this period was colder in winter, but the summer was not as hot as in later generations. In contrast, the climate during the Tang Dynasty was more similar to that in later generations. However, the weather became colder and colder later, which also caused nomadic people to move south, which formed a situation where the Liao and Song dynasties divided the world.

"In mid-October, isn't that the day when the eldest lady is going to be buried?" Zhao Zhen was stunned when he heard Li Zhang's answer.

"Absolutely, Zhao Zhen is also betting that he bet that there will be no heavy snow before the Yellow River freezes. Otherwise, if the road is blocked when heavy snow is blocked, the army and the supply from the rear will be cut off. At that time, the army will have to retreat to the newly captured Xiping Prefecture Center to rest, and then send troops to attack Xingzhou next year." At this time, Cao Wei also spoke again.

The heavy snow in the northwest is very terrible. Sometimes it can even bury the house under the snow, and the snow will not melt throughout the winter. Therefore, it is extremely dangerous to use troops in winter. Without supplies, the army cannot fight. This will give Li Yuanhao from Xingzhou a chance to breathe, and some changes may occur at that time.

"Then what impact will it have on this battle if the road was blocked by heavy snow before the Yellow River is frozen?" Zhao Zhen said worriedly again. After all, this was the first time such a large military operation since he took power, so he didn't want any problems.
Chapter completed!