Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Lanzhou.

Yang Zhi held in his hand the order he had just received from the Generalissimo's Office and the Ministry of War: "Send troops at the end of the month, regardless of the Xixia peace talks. As we discussed before, General Yao will go to Zhenwucheng (Ancient Bone Dragon City), and I will lead the troops." Go to fight with the Henan Military Division."

Yao Gu couldn't help but ask: "There are no friendly forces in the north to cooperate?"

"I don't care about that!" Yang Zhi said.

Zhong Shidao instantly understood what Ju Ming meant: "The prince is changing the old Song Dynasty strategy of conquering Xia. From now on, he plans to seize the Hexi Corridor first."

The Northern Song Dynasty and Xixia were at war. In the past seventy or eighty years, the core competition area has been in the direction of Hengshan.

When the Northern Song Dynasty occupied it, they could rely on Hengshan's manpower and material resources to attack, and they could also build fortresses layer by layer for defense. If we lose that place and want to invade the hinterland of Xixia, we will have to cross the mountainous areas and deserts and mobilize a large number of civilians and laborers for an expedition.

Xixia occupies that place and can also rely on Hengshan's manpower and material resources to attack, otherwise it will have to cross a large desert area.

But now, Ju Ming has broken the jar!

Because Xi'an Prefecture and Huaide Army were almost completely occupied by Xixia, and the northern part of Huizhou also fell into the hands of Xixia, the Song Dynasty's decades of conquest were ruined.

Liu Yanqing and other border generals could barely defend the city, but it was impossible to regain the lost territory, and Ju Ming did not have enough money and food to support them in sending troops.

Then just leave Hengshan alone, just give them some money and food, and let them handle the rest by themselves. All generals in the relevant areas were appointed as governors or military commanders. The military power was concentrated in one general, which was essentially equivalent to making them warlords.

When these generals become warlords, they will naturally defend their territory because it is their own territory!

Liu Yanqing, Zhe Keqiu, Liu Zhengyan and others were overjoyed when they received the appointment edict, and they really racked their brains to guard against Xixia and Jin.

Ju Ming doesn't have high requirements for them, just don't be defeated all at once.

After pacifying the south and stabilizing the front with the Jin Kingdom, we will be free to clean up the warlords.

The terrain on the Hengshan side was too complicated, and Ju Ming did not want to adopt the Song Dynasty's strategy.

His idea was just as Zhong Shidao said, let Xixia occupy Hengshan first, and the Ming border troops would defend the city. The main force of the Ming Dynasty went directly to the Hexi Corridor. Although the journey was long, the logistics and transportation were more convenient.

Once the Hexi Corridor is captured, Xixia's population and food resources will be sharply reduced, and commercial income will be shattered!

The Henan Army Division and the Ancient Bone Dragon City that we want to capture this time are the gateways to the Hexi Corridor.

Especially the Henan Military Division, which belongs to the core of the southern theater of Xixia!

At the end of May, they vowed to send troops.

Yang Zhi led 22,000 troops, followed the Kaluochuan (Zhuanglang River), and took the Henan Army Division of Xixia directly. Among them, 18,000 were Sichuan soldiers and 4,000 were Li Yanxian's miscellaneous cavalry. The remaining Sichuan soldiers and miscellaneous infantry stayed in Lanzhou to garrison and support the forts in Lanzhou at any time.

Yao Gu commanded 45,000 troops and set out from Xining along the Haomen River to attack Gugulong City.

Yao Gu's 45,000 people, including the auxiliary soldiers and civilians, were less than 10,000 with real combat effectiveness.

Yang Zhi's 24,000 men are all capable of fighting!

Yang Zhi didn't lead many civilians because the target was too close. The straight-line distance between Henan Army Division and Lanzhou City is less than 120 miles, and the actual distance is less than 160 miles, and they can march along the river valley the whole way.

…

Zhuoluo and Nanjianjunsi (Hongcheng Town, Yongdeng County).

What a coincidence, Xixia Prime Minister Li Yuchang is here.

This guy also wanted to gain military exploits and prestige last year, commanding the western and southern armies of Xixia and sending troops to capture the entire northern Huizhou and Xi'an prefectures.

Xiao Heda, the Liao general whom Li Qianshun relied on, also participated in the invasion and commanded the Eastern Army of Xixia to seize the territory of Keqiu and others.

Yang Zhen, the guard of Jianning Village, was killed by Xiao Heda.

Yang Yizhong, son of Yang Zhen, is making trouble every day, instigating Zhe Keqiu to send troops to avenge his father.

Li Yuchang almost emptied the troops in the Hexi Corridor. Due to the separation between the desert and the mountainous area, not only could he not continue the offensive, he could not even supply the army with food and grass for a long time.

Therefore, while he asked the Western Army to withdraw to its original home base, he tried to negotiate peace with the new Ming Dynasty.

The first peace negotiation letter was the product of a compromise between Li Yuchang and Brother Richard. That is to say, part of the occupied territory was returned, Xixia controlled part of the Hengshan area, and other areas were pushed forward as a whole, in exchange for Ming's recognition of Xixia's new boundaries.

Unexpectedly, several months passed and Daming still didn’t reply.

Moreover, according to the news from merchants, the Ming Dynasty had heavy troops in Lanzhou and Xining, and it was also discovered that grain and grass were constantly being transported to Lanzhou.

Li Yuchang and Brother Richard were immediately alert. Brother Richard stayed in Xingqing Mansion to keep an eye on the emperor. Li Yuchang came to summon the western and southern armies with the Southern Army Division.

The Western Legion of Xixia, namely the 30,000 troops on Ganzhou Road in the right wing, was stationed in Ganzhou and Guazhou. The southern legion is stationed in Weizhou, Xishou and Zhuolu, with about 50,000 people.

If the call is completed, the total strength will reach 80,000!

Of course, these 80,000 soldiers cannot all be guarded in the Henan Military Division, and some must be allocated to guard the Ancient Bone Dragon City.

"Have the Han soldiers really set off?" Li Yuchang asked.

A businessman dressed as a Han knelt on the ground and said: "There are so many soldiers and horses that I can't count them. I am afraid there are 30,000 or 40,000 people. The common people are so frightened that they come all night to report to the Prime Minister!"

Li Yuchang nodded in approval: "Very good, you can go and receive the reward."

Li Yuchang was not worried. Henan Army Division already had tens of thousands of troops, and he successively summoned nearly ten thousand more troops. Now he had more than twenty thousand troops.

So what if 30,000 to 40,000 Han soldiers came?

Not to mention fighting in the city, even if you stick to the city, it will be enough for the Han army to drink a pot.

Li Yuchang sent Qingqi to investigate. Only two hours later, soldiers from the border posts came back and reported: "The two posts in front have been captured by the Han army!"

"Why can't you be so quick?" Li Yuchang asked in surprise.

The sentry soldier said: "The Han army has a thunderbolt cannon that can project iron bullets. The wall of the sentry post is not strong. It collapsed after being hit two or three times."

Li Yuchang couldn't imagine what kind of cannon it was, but thought it was a more powerful catapult.

He has no iron kite in his hand, and those elite troops are all in the hands of Brother Richard.

Li Yuchang's current 20,000-strong army is almost entirely made up of the Qisheng Army and the Young Master. Their combat strength is similar to that of the Western Army of the Song Dynasty.

There are also a few Bubazi, but they are all recruited in the Qilian Mountains. Regardless of whether their bloodline is authentic or not, the equipment is bad enough, and they cannot be called mountain heavy armor troops at all.

We can only wait for help!

…

and Nanjun Division, in the valley twenty miles southeast.

There are mountains on both sides, with the Kala River flowing through the middle, and the flat valley area is about two miles wide.

The Ming army arrived so quickly that they did not give Xixia time to set up an ambush.

After more than a hundred miles, Li Yanxian led the cavalry as the vanguard. They arrived in two days and ran head-on into Xixia's reconnaissance cavalry.

"kill!"

Li Yanxian took the lead and rushed forward without saying anything.

The cavalry under his command include rangers, horse bandits, deserters, and Western troops. The equipment is even more diverse, some from Sichuan, some from the Western Army, and many made by civilians.

The war horses are also good and bad, there are serious military horses, and there are also horses pulling carts, but fortunately they can be ridden by one person and two people.

Four thousand miscellaneous cavalry rushed forward, and several hundred Xixia scout cavalry were so frightened that they turned around and ran away.

After chasing them all the way to the vicinity of Henan Army's Sicheng City and killing dozens of riders one after another, Li Yanxian ordered the pursuit to stop.

This place is about five miles away from the city. There are valleys in the mountains on the east side. The future Lianhuo Expressway will be built along the valleys.

Li Yanxian had come here many times to observe the terrain and knew where to hide troops and where to ambush.

He separated hundreds of horses and hid in the ravine, then fed the horses water and salt, and rested for a while before moving on.

Soon we were approaching Henanjun Sicheng. The valley and flat land here were already four miles wide.

Xixia Prime Minister Li Yuchang personally led his troops out of the city, hoping to frustrate the vigor of the Han army's vanguard.

When the 10,000 Xixia troops were in formation, Li Yanxian led his cavalry to call for formation. As soon as the enemy began to advance, he immediately retreated.

Thousands of miscellaneous cavalrymen with complex compositions were able to use them like an arm and a finger, without any worry that a feigned retreat would turn into a rout.

Li Yuchang is also very stubborn, or rather confident.

He knew clearly that Li Yanxian was luring the enemy, so he abandoned a large group of infantry and personally led five thousand cavalry in pursuit.

This guy is the Prime Minister of Xixia!

Both sides chased and fled, gradually approaching the Tibetan Soldier Valley.

"Blow the horn and stop the pursuit!" Li Yuchang shouted.

A horn sounded, the Xixia cavalry began to slow down, and Li Yanxian also stopped with the cavalry.

The two sides faced each other four to five hundred steps apart, and to the east of the center was the ravine where the soldiers were hiding.

The situation was clear, there was an ambush in the ravine, and it was clear to each other.

After Li Yuchang stopped, he sent someone back to convey the order for 10,000 infantry to follow. He himself faced off here, and after the infantry came to join them, the infantry went into the valley to search the mountains and fight.

"How to fight? Do you want to charge directly?" Yan Ping asked.

Li Yanxian said: "There are more Xixia cavalry, and our army is behind. Now is not the time to fight. Call out the brothers hiding in the ravine and lead them as far back as possible. As long as the party members dare to follow, we will look for opportunities to rob them at night." Camp. If we don’t follow, we will retreat to the narrow part of the river valley and wait for the army to join us.”

Although he said he was not desperate, Li Yanxian led his troops to charge and shot Li Yuchang directly with his strong bow.

Shooting on horseback, the distance of 70 steps is far beyond the range of ordinary horse bows, but Li Yanxian's arrow is very powerful.

Li Yuchang ducked to avoid the attack, and the arrow hit another war horse behind him.

The Xixia cavalry were horrified. Li Yuchang, who was almost hit by an arrow, was sweating on his vest. He quickly ordered his cavalry to fire back.

While the two sides were shooting at each other, the cavalry hidden in the valley had already rushed out to the flat valley one after another.

"withdraw!"

After successfully meeting the ambush, Li Yanxian immediately ordered a retreat.

Li Yuchang was so frightened by the arrow that he stopped chasing him and returned to the city to wait for help.

Two days later, Yang Zhi arrived with his army and set up camp five or six miles away from the city, where Li Yanxian set up an ambush.

This bad terrain is a river valley for 200 miles in front and back. There is no place to choose from. Just camp by the river.

Of course, the mountains on both sides must also be stationed with troops to prevent the Xixia people from climbing over the mountains and circling around to kill them.

The next day after setting up camp, Yang Zhi led his troops to prepare for battle, planning to fight the Xixia army in the wild.

No tactics are easy to use here. The valley is four miles wide in total, and the narrow part is even only three miles. There is also a river running through the middle, with only one or two miles wide on both sides of the river bank.

What can you do with two miles wide?

There are so many troops that they can't be arranged at all, and the cavalry has no room to display, so they can only fight in formation.

The Sichuan soldiers brought by Yang Zhi are not afraid of formation battles. This terrain is perfect for the Yuanyang formation!

But Li Yuchang couldn't hold on. He had a strong city to rely on and reinforcements coming from behind. Why did he have to fight in the field with the Han army?

Continuous calls for formation had no effect. Yang Zhi shouted: "Draw out all the artillery and blow down the city wall!"