Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 944 0939 [Yue Fei and Han Shizhong join forces to go to war]

Imperial meeting.

Zhu Ming asked, "The Xixia Mu brothers sent people to contact us about surrendering to the Ming. What are the backgrounds of these two people?"

Before the meeting, Shi Yuangong carefully checked the files:

"The Mu clan was originally the Murong clan. In the early years of the pre-Song Dynasty, they were still Song people, but they joined the Li clan of Western Xia in a rebellion."

"When Mr. Fan Wenzheng was the commander of the Northwest, he personally persuaded the chieftain of the Mu clan, Mu En, to surrender. From then on, the Mu family inherited the title of commander of Huanqing and returned to the Song Dynasty with their people, becoming a powerful family in Huanzhou."

"When the Jin army marched south, the Mu family did not come to the king's aid, but stayed in Huanzhou to guard the fortress. When the Western Xia army came, the Mu family abandoned the city and fled, but did not surrender to the Western Xia. They even submitted a petition to become a general of the Ming Dynasty. However, most of their people were plundered by the Western Xia, and the Mu family was no longer as powerful as before in Huanzhou, and was excluded by the two generals Miao and Liu."

"When the Ming Dynasty took back the military power of the Northwest Border Generals, Miao and Liu were willing to obey the order, but the Mu brothers were unwilling to be transferred and took the remaining people of the clan to join the Western Xia."

"Now, it is probably because life in Xixia is not going well that the Mu brothers are thinking of surrendering to the Ming Dynasty. This powerful family can be used, but they must not be reused. They have defected countless times over the past hundred years."

Zhu Ming finally figured it out: "It turns out that he is a former Song and Ming general who defected to Xixia. If he can be used, use him. If not, just kill him!"

Zhang Tong said: "If we want to send troops to Xixia, it would be best to do it after the beginning of next spring. There are many fortresses on the border between the two countries, and we have to take them down one by one. It will take time to fight. If we send troops this year, we will have to stop fighting in winter, especially in the Hengshan area, where it is difficult to transport food and grass in winter."

Li Bao suggested: "Han Shizhong can send troops to the grassland in autumn. The weather outside the Great Wall is clear and cool in autumn, and the war horses are fat and strong. We can quickly seize the grassland and city on the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain. After we take it down, it will be almost winter, and it will be difficult for the Western Xia army to counterattack in the snow to retake the land!"

Zhang Guangdao said: "The three powers in Mobei are fighting fiercely with each other. It is impossible for them to move south for several years. Yue Fei can also lead several thousand elite cavalry and join forces with Han Shizhong to fight together."

Wang Yuan said: "The imperial army should set out this year and arrive at the Shaanxi border before winter. When the snow melts next year, the army will march out immediately."

Ma Kuo reminded: "Don't forget the Yellow-headed Uighurs. You can order them to cross the Qilian Mountains and harass Shazhou (Dunhuang) and Guazhou. If the Yellow-headed Uighurs dare not send troops, we will teach them a lesson afterwards!"

Zhu Ming said: "The Privy Council will work with the Ministry of War to come up with a detailed strategy."

Li Bao said: "The grasslands can't wait to come up with a strategy. Let Yue Fei join Han Shizhong as soon as possible to eat up the Black Mountain Wei Fu Army Division of Western Xia. Destroying the Wei Fu Army Division is equivalent to cutting off an arm of Western Xia."

Liu Yu asked: "What is the reason for attacking Xia this time?"

"I will write the manifesto against Xia!" Hu Anguo took on the task.

Zhu Ming added: "The Cabinet, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works must ensure that food, equipment, and laborers are fully prepared before the beginning of next spring. If any of them has a problem and affects the war on the front line, the least serious thing is to be dismissed and sent back home, or to be imprisoned!"

"Yes!"

Everyone had serious expressions and stood up and bowed in unison.

……

Yue Fei's base was far away from Yinshan Mountain, so he did not bring many troops with him.

He only brought two thousand brave cavalry and three thousand light cavalry, a total of more than five thousand people.

Among them, most of the 3,000 light cavalry were from the Khitan, Tanggu and Jurchen tribes. The chieftains of each tribe had to select their best soldiers, ranging from dozens to hundreds, to follow Yue Fei to fight.

By doing so, we can, firstly, make rational use of the grassland tribes, and secondly, prevent the tribes from taking the opportunity to rebel.

After all, Yue Fei took the main force away, and the Han soldiers there on the grassland were empty, so maybe some tribe would cause trouble.

Not all tribal cavalry are light cavalry.

Especially those Khitan cavalry, who cooperated with Yue Fei in the decisive battle and picked up a lot of armor from Wanyan Zonghan!
More than 5,000 riders set out from Linhuang Prefecture, each man riding four horses, advancing rapidly.

The food and fodder they brought were not much, so the tribes along the way had to provide food. They would not take it for free, and the tribes could take the evidence and go to the nearest Ming government office to get compensation for the amount of livestock and food they had eaten.

In early autumn, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong joined forces.

Han Shizhong already had sufficient food and fodder, including a lot of military rations shipped from Shanxi.

There are many ways to make military rations in the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" of the Northern Song Dynasty. One of them is to boil rice and expose it to the sun, remove impurities and repeatedly steam it ten times. 120 kilograms of rice can be compressed into 20 kilograms. When marching and fighting, there is no time to cook, so they break off a piece and soak it in water to drink directly. It can be understood as the compressed biscuits used by the army in the Northern Song Dynasty.

With the improvement of the great President Zhu, this compressed biscuit was compressed together with dehydrated vegetables, rice flour and bean flour.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty's improved version of compressed military rations added vitamins and proteins.

When marching and fighting on the grasslands, people would also bring a lot of dried meat.

When Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were stationed on the grassland, they would naturally absorb the strengths of the grassland cavalry.

After the two joined forces, the number of cavalry was about 18000.

More than 60% of them were not Han cavalrymen, but came from various tribes on the grasslands. Including the grassland princes and dukes who were generously rewarded by Zhu Ming, all of them brought their tribes to help fight. Who dared not come?

Then don’t rush to attack Xixia, deal with the disobedient tribes first!
Eighteen thousand cavalrymen, with more than fifty thousand horses, with an average of three horses per person, headed straight for Dongsheng Prefecture (Togtoh County).

There are only 800 Western Xia troops stationed in this city.

The surrounding tribes are mostly Dangxiang and Tanggu.

The Tanggu were a grassland tribe formed by slaves of various ethnic groups living together in the Liao Dynasty. In the past, they were seriously inclined to Khitanization, but now, depending on the specific rulers, they began to learn the customs of the Han or Dangxiang.

All the young and strong men from the Dangxiang and Tanggu tribes in Dongsheng Prefecture were recruited as cavalry, about two to three thousand of them.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong arrived so quickly, how could they have time to recruit young and strong men for the Xixia garrison?

The Xixia garrison commander fled to Baotou with 800 troops and their families, and ordered the Dangxiang herdsmen in his jurisdiction to flee with him.

The Dangxiang herdsmen here had always been ruled by the Liao Kingdom, and later by the Jin Kingdom. They were ruled by the Western Xia for less than ten years.

Seeing that the Ming Dynasty had strong military power, the Dangxiang tribes were unwilling to accompany the Western Xia to death.

Even the Dangxiang chieftains brought their young and strong men and took the initiative to come and join Yue Fei and Han Shizhong!
"I am a guest soldier, so I just need to go to the south this time." Yue Fei showed his style and did not compete with Han Shizhong for credit.

Han Shizhong was immediately delighted and said, "Good man! I will only attack Xixia's Tiande Military City, where I will wait for you to join me, and then we will attack Weifu Military Command together."

Yue Fei said sternly: "We must not delay the military plan. If Han Duhu succeeds, we should go straight to the thieves' nest and don't wait for me to get there."

"Okay, I've prepared a banquet at the Wei Fu Army Headquarters, and I'm waiting for you to come over to drink and eat meat." The more Han Shizhong looked at Yue Fei, the more he liked him.

Who wouldn’t like friendly forces that don’t take credit for the work?
The strategic goal of the grassland troops' battle this time was to destroy the Wei Fu Military Division of Western Xia.

Yue Fei gave the main target of this battle to Han Shizhong, who had more troops, and led 5,000 cavalry south to eliminate secondary targets.

……

However, when Han Shizhong led his troops to Baotou, he still came up empty-handed. The Western Xia army had already fled with the herdsmen.

The Xixia army retreated all the way west to Tiandejun City (Wulangsuhai Lake), where there was a strong city built by the Liao Kingdom. In addition, the desertification nearby was not serious, and there were a large population of farmers and herders, so they could rely on the strong city to defend for a long time.

In order to save time, Han Shizhong did not bring siege artillery, and the artillery is still on the way.

While his army was besieging the city, he sent people to cut down trees and build siege equipment.

Here is the Muna Mountain (Wula Mountain) which stretches for 200 miles and has endless trees.

At the same time, Han Shizhong sent light cavalry westward to inquire about the whereabouts of reinforcements from the Western Xia Wei Fu Army - the Wei Fu Army was stationed at the foot of the Yinshan Mountains.

There was no rush to attack the city for the time being. Han Shizhong was thinking about besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements.

A Ming officer who understood Tangut language rushed to Tiande City to persuade him to surrender: "Generals in the city, why don't you surrender quickly? We are just the vanguard, and 100,000 Ming soldiers will arrive soon. The Jin Kingdom had hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but they were all destroyed by the Ming Dynasty. Do you think you can defend Tiande City with such a small number of people?"

The Xixia garrison commander did not dare to shoot the people who tried to persuade them to surrender. Instead, he stood on the top of the city wall and questioned: "Daxia is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. We have agreed to be father-son states forever. Why did the Ming Dynasty go back on its word and suddenly send troops to attack a vassal state? Where is the Ming Dynasty's integrity? How do other vassal states view the Ming Dynasty?"

The Ming officer said: "The land of Xixia was originally Chinese territory, but it was split up by the scoundrels. The Li family was originally a barbarian, and was given a surname by the Tang Dynasty. They were subjects of the Song Dynasty but did not know how to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. Their founding of the country was not right! After becoming a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, the Xixia monarch and his ministers did not practice benevolent governance, and the people in the country were living in poverty. Every year, countless hungry people fled to the Ming Dynasty to beg for food. Xixia also did not abide by the way of being a vassal, secretly colluded with the Western Liao Dynasty, and cut off the Ming Dynasty's merchants and travelers. This is a rebellious act."

"Whether it's punishing the criminals or eliminating the rebellious vassal states, the Ming Dynasty has a legitimate reason for doing so! If you know what's best for you, open the city and surrender immediately!"

The Xixia garrison commander argued, "Nonsense! It was the bandits from the Hexi tribes that cut off the Ming merchants. Our Great Xia emperor has punished those tribes and has already given an explanation to the Ming. You are just making excuses by digging up the past!"

The Ming officer said: "It was the tribesman's fault once, but is it the same every time? If it is the same every time, the Xixia emperor cannot even control the tribes in his country, so how can he be qualified to be the ruler of a country?"

It's really out of control!

Due to frequent disasters in the Western Xia Dynasty, corruption in the officialdom, and the inability to rob the Ming Dynasty to make up for their losses, many Western Xia tribes were poor and hungry.

The tribes on the other side of the Hexi Corridor robbed merchants and travelers more and more frequently, and showed no respect to the Western Xia emperor at all.

In the past two years, the number of merchants traveling in the Hexi Corridor has decreased, and they have turned to bypass the Yellow-headed Uighur territory. The more this happened, the less commercial taxes Xixia collected, and the more it exploited the tribes and the people, forming a vicious cycle.

Sending troops because of repeated robberies of merchants and travelers was a very legitimate reason, and it was not a fabricated excuse made up by the Ming Dynasty's rulers and ministers.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Several riders rushed back from the west and reported to Han Shizhong, "Protector General, a large number of Xixia cavalry were spotted 20 miles away. They should be reinforcements from the Xixia Weifu Army!"

(End of this chapter)