***
That night, Qitate mobilized tens of thousands of troops, first using small boats and rafts to drive piles into the river, and then digging sand and sinking it into the river.
Overnight, the Heihe River was diverted and the water washed over the city. The adobe walls of Dongsheng City collapsed under the impact of the river water.
The 1,000 Qin soldiers in the city were either captured or fled.
Qitate not only obtained eight cannons, but also two hundred Type 68 rifles that the Qin army had recently equipped, and thousands of thunder bombs.
Seeing that Dongsheng City was captured so easily and that he had made great gains, Qitate was overjoyed. He ignored his wife Mutab beside him, hugged Yatu and kissed her madly, tore off her clothes, and was about to ride his horse and whip it to vent his passion.
Yatu pushed him away and said, "Khan, don't do this. Now... Now is not the right time. We have to cross the river before Ma Yongzhen catches up."
Qitate felt a little caught in a dilemma. Looking at the spring scenery on her chest, he swallowed hard a few times and his eyes were full of fire.
Yatu pulled up her clothes to cover her breasts and advised: "The Khan is a man of integrity. My sister and I are blessed to serve him. As long as he becomes the Khan of the whole world in the future, please don't look down on me and my sister."
"No, the two princesses are my lucky stars. I, Qitate, swear to Changshengtian that if I dislike the two princesses, I will not die a good death." Qitate swore without hesitation. At least his oath now was sincere.
Mutab, who was standing by, had already accepted his fate. He just watched from the sidelines without saying anything, and even had to force a flattering smile.
Now Yatu not only has her husband who listens to her, but she also controls half of the army with the original Jurchens as the backbone. Her appeal is even greater than Qitat, and she is not something that Mutab can control at all;
Yatu knew that Qitate liked the sense of accomplishment of having two princesses at the same time, so she would always ask her sister Mutab to serve together during sex, and Mutab could only try her best to please both of them. In short, she was lucky that Yatu could still accommodate her.
After swearing the oath, Qitate immediately left the tent as Yatu had said, and commanded 15,000 troops to quickly cross the Yellow River from Junzijin and enter Dongtao.
Generally speaking, the entire Hetao region of the Yellow River is shaped like a Chinese character "J", and the Great Wall is used as a boundary. The Ordos region northeast of the Great Wall is called the Eastern Hetao.
The Ordos grassland is called "O'erduo" in Mongolian, which means "palace tent". In the past, the people here served as Genghis Khan's guards all year round. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called "Aoerdusi".
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Aerdusi belonged to the pastureland of the Tumed tribe. When the Qin Dynasty conquered Hetao, it took advantage of the fact that the Mongolians south of the desert were in disarray and incorporated the Dongtao under the jurisdiction of Xijing.
But there is no doubt that in such a short period of time, the Aordusi area was still mainly populated by nomadic Mongols and Hui people.
Yatu wanted to seize the Hetao area because he saw that the population of this area was mostly non-Han people, and it had not been under the rule of the Qin Dynasty for a long time, so the foundation of rule had not been consolidated. It was easy to seize.
Mao Jingyuan led a thousand Qin troops and desperately chased them. When they arrived at Dongshengwei the next day, Qitate had already crossed the river. Seeing Dongshengwei destroyed by the river and the Qitate army on the west bank of the Yellow River, Mao Jingyuan felt very heavy in his heart. The thing he was most worried about had happened.
Deputy General Wu Xin asked anxiously: "General, what should we do?"
Mao Jingyuan gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go to Heishan and cross the river from there before the enemy arrives."
Mao Jingyuan gave an order, and the thousand-man army rushed forward again.
The location of Heishan is roughly near the later city of Baotou, which is also an important ferry crossing from the south of the desert to the Hetao area.
There are five hundred Qin soldiers guarding the south bank of the ferry. If we can get there before Qitate, crossing the river will not be a problem. The key is time. I believe Qitate will also try to seize the ferry. It just depends on who is faster.
After Qitate entered Hetao, he divided his troops to capture various fortresses, and at the same time used Yatu's strategy to show goodwill to the local Mongols, and did his best to win them over by giving them gold, silver, treasures and beauties.
If anyone refused to submit, they would be slaughtered in a bloody manner. All men taller than the wheel would be slaughtered, and then the women and property would be looted.
If they surrendered, they would be rewarded with money and women; if they did not, they would die. Under such circumstances, the Mongols in the Dongtao region surrendered without hesitation and submitted to Qitate, worshipping him as the Great Khan.
The commander of Hetao was Wen Cunxiao, stationed in Ningxia Prefecture.
Ningxia City was originally the seat of Xingqingfu, the capital of the Western Xia Dynasty. Genghis Khan of Mongolia launched six attacks on the Western Xia Dynasty. The History of the Yuan Dynasty records that Genghis Khan died suddenly during the attack. There is a legend in unofficial history that Genghis Khan died because his genitals were bitten off by a captured Western Xia princess.
Regardless of whether the unofficial history is true or not, the Mongols were indeed incredibly cruel after conquering Western Xia. They completely wiped out the Dangxiang people from the face of the earth. Nothing was left of anything related to Western Xia except a few bare royal tombs and a Haowang Canal.
Ningxia City was also rebuilt in the early Ming Dynasty. In the former governor's office of the Ming Dynasty, Wen Cunxiao was shocked to learn that Qitate had invaded Dongtao and that the Mongols in Hetao had joined the bandits.
Gushih Khan of Qinghai-Tibet attacked Lanzhou with tens of thousands of troops. In order to ensure that Lanzhou would not be lost, half of the troops in Hetao were transferred to reinforce Lanzhou. Only 10,000 troops were left in the entire Hetao.
If the one thousand from Dongshengwei are excluded, there are only nine thousand people left.
These 9,000 men were now scattered in various cities in the Hetao region. In Ningxia City, there were only 2,000 soldiers left.
Wen Cunxiao felt that the situation was critical, so he sent people back to Xijing for help, and at the same time tried his best to mobilize the troops scattered in various cities, then crossed the Yellow River to the east and attacked towards Dongtao.
***
Qin Mu, along with Sima An, Li Yuan, Gu Junen, Yu Shangyou, Yang Chao, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Wei Yuan, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Works and others, took a speedboat and traveled day and night to Dengzhou, northwest of Xiangyang. They landed in Dengzhou to change horses and, escorted by Zhu Yijin's 1,000 elite cavalry, took a shortcut through Shangzhou. They traveled quickly all the way and it took them 22 days to arrive in Chang'an, the Western Capital, on August 13, even arriving two days earlier than Su Jin and his army.
The construction of the imperial palace in Chang'an took a year and was basically completed. Its scale was much smaller than that of the imperial palace in Nanjing.
The three main halls of the previous dynasty, including the platform, were only 65 meters high, which is about 21 meters high, half the height of the Purple Palace in Nanjing.
The three palaces in the rear court are also relatively small. Apart from that, there are only six palaces in the east and west, as well as pavilions and towers in the imperial garden.
For example, the twenty-four supervisors of the inner palace in Nanjing were not planned and constructed. Only a row of side courtyards were built behind the six east and west palaces as residences for eunuchs and palace maids.
The large vacant area was designated as the Imperial Garden, where flowers and trees were planted, making the entire palace look particularly beautiful. Flowers and trees were everywhere, and clear streams and sparkling lakes were everywhere.
Dong Xiaowan, who likes seclusion, found that the palaces in Nanjing were not as solemn and majestic as here. She immediately fell in love with the birdsong and flowers in the back court. Also coming to Xijing to serve the emperor this time were Li Xiangjun, Li Zhiyin, Xu Ruoshi, and Hong Niangzi.
He brought a few concubines with him, but the war situation was not easy to deal with. Qin Mu and his entourage had just entered Chang'an City and had not even had time to catch their breath when they received a letter from Wen Cunxiao asking for help from Ningxia.
At this time, the armies led by Su Jin, Li Jiu, Gao Yigong, Hao Yaoqi, Hui Dengxiang, Liu Fangliang and Zhao Jian had just arrived at Tongguan.
Qin Mu, who was exhausted from the journey, had to immediately summon Sima An, Gu Junen and others, as well as Shaanxi Governor Nong Dianzhang, Censor Yu Chenglong, and Xijing Zhenguo General Qin Yiming to the Wuying Hall to discuss countermeasures.
Qin Mu glanced at Nong Dianzhang and Yu Chenglong with a somewhat unhappy look, and asked, "You two are in charge of Xijing, governing the people and caring for the people. I have high hopes for you. But now that Qi Ta Te has arrived, the people of Hetao have joined the bandits. Do you have anything to say?"
"I acknowledge my guilt."
Nong Dianzhang and Yu Chenglong did not dare to defend themselves and immediately knelt down to plead guilty.
Sima An said thoughtfully: "Your Majesty, the area under the jurisdiction of Xijing is too large. The people are complicated, and it is inevitable that it is a bit out of reach for Hetao and Hexi. Moreover, most of the Dongtao people are Mongolian tribes, and they have been under the rule of our Great Qin for less than a year. Therefore, we can't blame the officials of Xijing for their poor governance."
After listening to Sima An's words, Qin Mu could not help but nod his head. At present, Guanzhong, Hanzhong, northern Shaanxi, Hetao, Hexi and Longyou are all under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi. The area is too large, and many places are inhabited by farming and nomadic peoples, which makes it difficult to govern.
Qin Mu thought about it and decided to separate Hetao, Longyou and Hexi from Shaanxi Province.
Ningxia Province was established in the Hetao region, and Ningxia Wei was changed to Yinchuan Prefecture, with the provincial government located in Yinchuan.
Gansu Province was established in Hexi and Longyou, with its capital in Lanzhou.
This setting is very necessary. Communications are backward nowadays. If we have to ask Chang'an for instructions on everything, the long distance will make it difficult to handle many things in a timely manner.
After Qin Mu put forward this idea, Sima An and others all praised it, so Qin Mu immediately issued an edict to implement it.
In addition, Liaodong was separated from Northern Zhili, and Liaoning Province was established.
As a result, Daqin gained four more provinces, namely Liaoning, Gansu, Ningxia and Luzon, and the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty became three capitals and sixteen provinces.
"Pass on my order, order Su Jin to lead 10,000 cavalry to speed up the journey and rush to the Hetao area to provide assistance."
“Yes!”
"Minister Nong, you are required to immediately collect the food and fodder that Su Jin's 10,000 cavalry will need along the way. There must be no mistakes. Stand up."
"I obey your order." Nong Dianzhang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It sounded like the emperor had no intention of punishing them for the Hetao incident.
The past two years have been one of the rare good years in Shaanxi in the past 20 to 30 years. In addition, with the vigorous promotion of new crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, Guanzhong has had a bumper harvest of grain this year. It is not a big problem to raise food and fodder for an army of 10,000. Nong Dianzhang answered without any embarrassment.
This time, a total of 60,000 troops were transferred north from the Nanjing garrison, of which 10,000 were sent to Datong to support the south of the desert, and the remaining 50,000 were prepared for an expedition to Hexi.
Qin Mu continued, "You must also gather food and fodder for the remaining 40,000 troops as soon as possible."
Nong Dianzhang, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, said bitterly, "Your Majesty, Xijing has already provided a lot of grain and grass to Hexi. I'm afraid the output from Guanzhong alone won't last long."
"Don't worry about this. I know what's going on. Yang Qing, when will the food and fodder from Jinghu and Sichuan arrive?"
"Your Majesty, I will send someone to urge the workers to speed up their journey."
****************
ps: I went to Mobile Reading Base today and found that the clicks there have reached 2 million, which is half more than Qidian. The number of monthly votes is 322, ranking 11th in the history and military category. Mobile Reading Base is not just Qidian's books, so the monthly votes are also better than Qidian's own site.
But why don't I see any income...
.(To be continued..)
...