Chapter 395: The Western Xia Kingdom Will Never Appear Again

At Xiazhou, once the first month passed and the ice and snow melted, the siege of Xiazhou, quiet for over a month, resumed once more.

But this assault was nothing like the slow grinding of the previous months.

After a full five months and more of encirclement, the Dingnan Army in the western city of Xiazhou was nearly at the breaking point.

The Guiyi Army's patience was nearly worn out as well; everyone was thinking of taking Xiazhou and returning home in glory.

Zhang Zhao saw that the troops' morale could be put to use, and so he personally urged the great army to begin its fierce assault.

By now the two earthen mounds outside the western city's west gate had been piled up level with the wall, and seven trebuchets ceaselessly hurled black pottery jars into Xiazhou.

These jars were filled with a viscous, pitch-like substance concocted from rock oil (crude petroleum), tung oil, charcoal, and other materials.

Once this substance clung to something and caught fire, water basically could not extinguish it; only burying it under a great deal of earth would do.

Ancient Chinese trebuchets actually had a fairly major flaw: nearly all of them were traction-powered.

That is, men pulled the trebuchet to hurl the stone, essentially the same principle as a bow or crossbow.

One could regard this kind of trebuchet as a giant bow, or a bed crossbow capable of lobbing projectiles.

The advantage was that such trebuchets were extremely accurate, because manpower could actively control the trajectory.

In history, in the first year of Taihe under Emperor Wenzong of Tang, when Wang Zhixing, Military Governor of Wuning, campaigned against Li Tongjie, son of Li Quanlue, Military Governor of Henghai, Li Tongjie had yabing guards skilled at cursing stand atop the wall and revile Wang Zhixing.

Wang Zhixing then had a yabing officer under him skilled at operating trebuchets hurl a ten-jin stone from beyond two hundred paces, and with a single shot smashed that cursing yabing guard's head to pulp — a clear measure of the accuracy.

But the problems were also great. First, achieving such accuracy was beyond ordinary men; it required elite specialists.

Second, traction trebuchets generally threw rather small stones; ten to twelve jin was basically the limit.

To hurl boulders, the machines were costly to build and hard to move, and on top of that could basically be used only once.

As for counterweight trebuchets, which were powerful and long-ranged, Zhang Zhao had long since sent envoys to notify Hamid, Emir of Samanid Persia.

He had him recruit, in the Abbasid Caliphate or the Eastern Roman Empire, craftsmen who knew how to build counterweight trebuchets.

The news that came back left Zhang Zhao utterly astonished: after searching everywhere, the trebuchet craftsmen brought back had no idea what a counterweight trebuchet was.

So the thing hadn't even been invented yet!

Although Zhang Zhao vaguely knew that counterweight trebuchets seemed to launch by lever principle, he knew absolutely nothing of the details.

So he could only give a rough, vague direction and let Liu Di continue the research and development.

Therefore, in the first several months of the siege, Zhang Zhao had hardly used the trebuchets.

First, there were only these few, and they could only hurl stones of around ten jin — frightening enough, but of little real use.

Moreover, with heavy rain and snow, hurling fire-oil jars produced poor results, so Zhang Zhao had not deployed them.

But by now, nearly ten days had passed without rain or snow, which was just the time to let the soldiers and civilians of the Pingxia tribe in Xiazhou's inner western city feel the "warmth" of spring.

Fifty or sixty fire-oil jars came screaming over in succession. Some foolish fellows even reached out to touch them, smeared a bit on and sniffed it, and some even tasted it.

But the very next second, the fire-oil jars were ignited by rockets loosed at an upward angle from the Guiyi Army's bed crossbows.

In an instant, raging flames set the inner western city ablaze in a sea of fire. The fire the residents of the inner western city had most craved through these months appeared before everyone in this manner, fierce and violent.

A warhorse screamed and ran wildly in all directions. The poor beast had slipped and fallen on a road slicked wet by a fire-oil jar, and then, even more unluckily, at that very moment a rocket happened to fall.

This blazing warhorse, in the searing heat, burst forth at its utmost speed, charging everywhere amid wafts of roasting-meat fragrance, igniting one dwelling after another.

Fortunately, the furniture in these dwellings had long since been burned up by the residents themselves, or the fire would have been even harder to control.

And at the north gate of the inner western city, ten "Lu Gong chariots" in all had already been pushed forward by several hundred soldiers.

These Lu Gong chariots stood over ten meters tall, basically level with the walls of Xiazhou, and in some places even a little higher.

Atop each Lu Gong chariot was a broad platform, on which crouched five to eight Divine Arm crossbowmen.

Standing on the Lu Gong chariots, they fired ceaselessly at the Dingnan Army soldiers on the wall, covering the main force as it filled in the moat — as for the moat water, it had long since been drained dry.

And at the south gate, Zhang Zhao had built three large battering rams, and to increase the force of the rams against the gate, he had specially heaped a small ramp outside the south gate.

The iron-sheathed battering rams charged down the ramp and rammed the inner western city's south gate again and again with brute force; with every impact, the Dingnan Army soldiers on the wall let out shrieks of terror.

While the north, west, and south gates were being fiercely assaulted with engines, at the inner western city's east gate — facing the eastern city of Xiazhou where the Guiyi Army was encamped — Zhang Zhao adopted ant-like massed scaling.

More than three thousand non-Pingxia Tangut, captured from various places and forced into submission, were each issued an iron blade and then mercilessly driven forward to climb with simple scaling ladders.

And behind them stood crossbowmen, uniformly without armor.

These crossbowmen were basically all mine slaves from Jingtie Mountain. They had originally been the Left Camp crossbowmen, established by Zhu Quanzhong to aid the Uyghurs specifically against the Guiyi Army's heavy-armored troops.

After Ganzhou fell, the Left Camp crossbowmen, who bore deep grudges against everyone in the Guiyi Army, met with disaster: nearly all officers above fire-leader were slaughtered, and the rest were thrown into the mines.

Of the more than eight hundred who went in, after more than half a year fewer than six hundred were still alive, and only a little over three hundred were still usable.

These three hundred-odd men had lost all their pride and only wanted to leave the mines and live a few days as human beings, so Zhang Zhao gathered them up again to be used as death soldiers.

And he promised that if they could survive three battles, they would be pardoned; those who died would have their wives, children, and parents pardoned as well.

Thus these former great enemies of the Guiyi Army became the most reckless cannon fodder on the battlefield.

This brutal siege battle continued for two days straight, and Xiazhou began to totter on the brink.

Compared with the Guiyi Army's fierce assault, what made Li Yiyin even more despairing was that the court had made no response at all.

The Guiyi Army had besieged the city for over five months; if the court truly had troops to send, they would have arrived even if they had to crawl.

That they still had not come could mean only one thing: the court simply did not want to intervene, or could not control Zhang Zhao.

Li Yiyin's eyes were full of despair. In his heart he could hardly accept it — was the Li family of the Pingxia tribe, the Dingnan Army that had entrenched itself in Xiazhou for nearly two hundred years, really about to be finished so quickly?

Just then, a heaven-shaking wail came from outside. Li Yiyin's cousin Li Yijie rushed in from outside, his expression near collapse.

"Commander, a force has appeared outside the city, flying the great banner of the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou and its Military Governor. The court has appointed Gao Yunquan as Military Governor of Zhangwu, and he has come with troops."

Li Yiyin's spirits jolted. The Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou had come — could it be that the court had sent men to drive off the Guiyi Army? Could the wailing be the crowd weeping tears of joy?

But before Li Yiyin could open his mouth to ask, Li Yijie had already continued, crying out, "After Gao Yunquan arrived, he did not pause to rest, but immediately set the Zhangwu Army to attacking the city as well!"

Thud! With a crisp sound, the large-framed Li Yiyin felt the world spin and pitched headfirst to the ground.

Outside Xiazhou, Gao Yunquan had not only brought over a thousand Zhangwu Army troops as his pledge of allegiance, but had also brought several thousand laborers and ten thousand shi of grain and fodder.

If you ask why he was so obedient? Well, that goes back to Ding Shenqi.

This Ding Shenqi had been sent together with Man Xiong to attack Suizhou. The original plan was to have the officer He Xingzheng, who had leverage over him, shoot him dead with a hidden arrow on the battlefield.

But before He Xingzheng could act, Suizhou surrendered without a fight, and no chance to kill Ding Shenqi was found.

In the end, however, Ding Shenqi still "lived up to expectations." After entering Suizhou, Ding Shenqi did not settle his troops, perhaps figuring that Zhang Zhao would cover for him anyway.

He alone seized the wife, daughters, and all the property of Li Guangli, who had surrendered. While his soldiers shivered in the cold outside, he sat inside the city hugging beauties and drinking wine, thoroughly pleased with himself.

At this, Ding Shenqi's personal troops, who had seen how soldiers and officers were treated in the Guiyi Army, would not stand for it. Incited by Li Guangli and He Xingzheng, they raised a mutiny right there in Suizhou.

When Man Xiong outside the city saw this, he was overjoyed, and at once led his troops into the city to put down the unrest. He executed He Xingzheng, Li Guangli, and the soldiers who had led the trouble, and pardoned the rest.

Then he arrested Ding Shenqi on charges of mistreating his troops and provoking mutiny, taking bribes, and harboring disloyal intentions, and sent him to Xiazhou.

Zhang Zhao immediately seized the opportunity, gave Ding Shenqi a public trial, and once again drilled the officers great and small in the military law of the Guiyi Army.

However, on the grounds that Ding Shenqi was not an officer of the Guiyi Army, he announced only that he would be expelled.

Ding Shenqi thought he had escaped with his life, but the moment he left Xiazhou, he was seized by Gao Yunquan and his men, who had long been waiting.

Gao Yunquan took Ding Shenqi back to Yanzhou and cut him down with one stroke, giving an accounting to the people of Yanzhou, whose families had been torn apart and ruined by Ding Shenqi's troops.

Then he secretly sent the head to the court, denouncing Ding Shenqi, Military Governor of the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou, for going over to the Guiyi Army.

Not only had he sent men to join the siege of Xiazhou, he had also intended to hand Yanzhou over to Zhang Zhao. Fortunately, Gao Yunquan had acted decisively and captured and killed the traitor.

Add to that some maneuvering by the main branch of the Gao family in the Eastern Capital, and Shi Chonggui, who had never had much of a mind of his own, feared that Shi Jingtang would pursue the matter, because Ding Shenqi had obtained his post as Military Governor of the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou through his connections.

So he quickly approved Gao Yunquan's request and appointed him Military Governor of the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou and concurrently Prefect of Yanzhou.

With that, Gao Yunquan had taken back Yanzhou, which his ancestors had controlled, and of course he was profoundly grateful to Zhang Zhao.

He had to be profoundly grateful, because with only a few thousand men in the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou, how could he dare offend Zhang Zhao?

At the same time, Gao Yunquan felt that Zhang Zhao was someone he could secretly rely on, so he simply brought the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou to besiege Xiazhou, becoming the last straw that crushed Li Yiyin.

In the early morning, in a small room near the headquarters of the Dingnan Army in Xiazhou, more than twenty soldiers of the Guiyi Army gathered together.

Before them were the people of Xiazhou whom the Guiyi Army had released, along with their relatives, numbering several hundred.

Every one of them held a sharp blade, wore armor in scattered pieces, and stood silent in the flickering lamplight.

Suddenly! The water clock gave a soft click, and the hour of Mao arrived.

"Strike!" The Guiyi Army squad leader who had been brought into the city by Tuoba Chongmin gave a low shout, and several hundred people burst out of the room and headed straight for the headquarters of the Dingnan Army, shouting as they went and setting fires.

In an instant, wailing and flames shot up into the sky.

Inside the Dingnan Army headquarters, Li Yiyin was startled awake by the wailing and the firelight. He let out a few hysterical cries, donned his armor, gripped his blade, and tried to charge out.

But after only a few steps, he seemed to lose all his strength.

Because outside the door stood his cousins Li Yijie and Li Yirong, the yabing officer Tuoba Chongbin, Xifeng Xili, and others, all holding sharp blades. They were plainly not there to fight alongside him.

Li Yiyin let out a great cry, then ran back into his bedchamber. The others were about to rush after him when a scream rang out.

Li Yiyin, wielding a treasured blade, killed more than ten of his wives, concubines, and children, and finally set a fire in his bedchamber.

As the flames grew larger, Tuoba Chongbin shouted, rushed in, dragged out Li Yiyin's corpse, and then cut off the head.

The people around understood at once and surged in, each giving a stroke of the blade. They cut off the heads of Li Yiyin and his four sons, placed them all on platters, then opened the main gate of the headquarters and knelt in a row.

At the end of the hour of Mao, the four gates of the western city of Xiazhou were thrown wide open. All the officers of the Pingxia Division of the Dingnan Army, along with more than forty thousand soldiers and civilians in the city, bared their upper bodies and kowtowed to Zhang Zhao, begging to surrender.

Since the second year of Guangde of Emperor Daizong of Tang, 764 AD, when the Pingxia Division had moved to Yin, Xia, You, and Sui, this branch of the Tangut people had endured for over a hundred years. Having moved into the interior more than two hundred years ago, they were about to take on a new name.

The descendants of Tuoba Sigong, who had controlled the Pingxia Division for over two hundred years and risen to power by suppressing the Huang Chao rebellion, the Li family of the Military Governors of the Dingnan Army, would become history. The Western Xia state would never appear in this time and space.

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