The scale of the forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty was extremely large, and it had exceeded 800,000 during the reign of Renzong.

A large part of this is empty pay, and the rest have little combat effectiveness to speak of.

It is no longer the same as the strong army of the Northern Han Dynasty, the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the Liao State in the early Song Dynasty.

As for the reason for the deterioration of combat effectiveness, in addition to the fact that there is no big war all year round, the most important thing is that after the release of military power with a glass of wine, it is almost impossible for those forbidden army generals to lead troops anymore, so they turn to money.

The forbidden army was regarded as a confinement by these generals, who ate empty salaries, drank the blood of soldiers, and drove the soldiers to slavery and slaves. Compared with the guards at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it is also surpassed.

Instead of carrying knives and guns, the sergeants picked up shovels and carried large bags.

Work in the workshop, deliver food on the street. Fishing on the Bianhe River, playing and singing in the three tiles and two houses.

Most of the money sent down was deducted, and the rest couldn't even support their families. Naturally, there can be no combat effectiveness.

In the past, when Qingli New Deal and Wang Anshi changed the law, they also tried to reduce empty salaries and improve combat effectiveness.

But with the abolition of the new policy by the old party, it was extinguished again as soon as there were signs of improvement.

These new policies and changes were actually snatched out of the hands of those imperial relatives and nobles of the Great Song Dynasty, and then used to enhance the national strength.

On the surface, the old party is the light and others who smash the cylinder, but the actual power is those behind the scenes. The previous Empress Dowager Gao was their representative.

Wang Xiao was given a temporary assignment called the Observation and Disposal Envoy of the Yan Yan Road, referred to as the Observation Envoy.

This position is under the envoy of the festival, and it is generally a remote leader to take the money.

But with the addition of dispatch and knowledge, it has become an actual job position. In other words, Wang Xiao has the responsibility of supervising Yan Yan Road, so he naturally does not need to be restrained by Lu Huiqing, the envoy of Yan Yan Road.

Zhao Xu's appointment of Wang Xiao was risky.

Because once the city was lost and fell for Wang Xiao's reasons, the army was defeated and damaged. Then Zhao Xu will definitely be appointed by Secretary Shi to be a traitor.

That is to say, Wang Xiao's performance in the past has always been very good, and he has the magical ability to deduce the heavenly machine. Otherwise, Zhao Xu would never dare to let him go to the battlefield.

After getting the official appointment, the first thing Wang Xiao did was to post lists in various military camps in Bianliang City, and gather the sergeants who were willing to go to Yanyan Road with the usual monthly salary.

The treatment of the forbidden army is not low, but only the upper four armies can get the consistent monthly salary.

And even if it is in the upper four armies, this money has to be used by generals at all levels for a few hands, and it is good to get a few hundred wen in the end.

But this time, Wang Xiao said that he could pay for a year's money and cloth in advance, and at the same time give the opening fee on the spot.

There are hundreds of thousands of forbidden troops around Bianliang City, how can Wang Xiao have time to choose slowly. This can only be done in this way to let those who have a heart take the initiative to come and accept the selection.

The selection method is very simple, it is a simple military skills test and physical examination.

Because it is recruited from the forbidden army, it is not difficult to find a source of soldiers who meet the conditions.

Those who can use crossbows are crossbowmen, and those who can use bows.

Those who can cook are the fireheads, those who can build bridges and pave roads, and those who can set up camp are auxiliaries.

Those who can pierce armor and line up and do not retreat in the face of bows and crossbows are qualified soldiers.

The money spent was approved by the emperor himself, so Wang Xiao would not save money for him.

Not many years after Wang Anshi's reform was abolished, the Great Song Dynasty still had a lot of savings in his hands.

That is, after Zhao Ji ascended the throne, he squandered it and completely lost his family's foundation, resulting in the people's misery.

"My lord, after three people in the army took the money and food, they prevaricated that they were sick and didn't come."

Wang Xiao, who was checking the materials allocated from the arsenal, was not angry when he heard the news, "Pick two doctors in the army, and find two famous doctors in Bianliang City to treat them together." If you are really seriously ill, let them take care of it with peace of mind. If not, drag it to the school yard to announce the whole army and behead. ”

The three bloody heads shocked many people. In the forbidden army of Bianliang City, which has been peaceful for a long time, it has caused quite a stir.

These three people also have some distant relatives behind them, but unfortunately no one dares to come forward.

In the end, death is death, and it was even cleared from the register.

This kind of thing is inevitable in any era.

And this incident also moved the hearts of the few sergeants in the forbidden army who really wanted to go to the battlefield and win fame and wealth with their skills and lives.

They can see that Wang Xiao is not cheating and cheating money, this is really going to do great things.

According to the quota given by Zhao Xu, Wang Xiao collected 10,000 horses and named them the right wing of the Divine Guard.

The people who recruited thousands of people left Bianliang City with hundreds of carts of supplies and headed towards Yanyan Road.

Before leaving, Li Gefei arranged a family banquet to see off his disciples.

At the family banquet, Li Gefei wanted to settle things first, so that Wang Xiao could feel at ease.

But Wang Xiao said that no matter what it is, he must wait until he comes back.

Li Gefei admired Wang Xiao's atmosphere. I know that going to war is very dangerous, so I don't want to burden people. He said that as long as Wang Xiao can come back alive, then the matter will be settled.

Entrusting Mingyue to the care of the Li family, Wang Xiao embarked on a journey.

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"It's worthy of Cai Jing, he climbs really fast."

In September of the third year of Shaosheng, Jinmingzhai.

Wang Xiao, who had changed into a military uniform, was looking through the newspaper in his hand. Cai Jing had been appointed as a scholar of Hanlin some time ago.

Because Cai Bian is now the prime minister, Cai Jing, as his brother, will be considered the end of this position.

Further up is the political affairs hall, and it is impossible for the Great Song Dynasty to allow both brothers to be ministers.

It is estimated that it will not be long before Cai Jing, who is extremely power-hungry, will do something to his younger brother.

Wang Xiao arrived in Yanzhou in May, but he couldn't see Lu Huiqing, and it was said that he went out to inspect.

And the real situation is that Lu Huiqing doesn't like to see this young man who is said to have had too close contacts with the old party and is not at his disposal. So I simply turned a blind eye.

Wang Xiao didn't stay much in the governance center on Yanyan Road, and went directly to Jinmingzhai to garrison.

The tactics of the Northern Song Dynasty against the Western Xia were actually similar to those of Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan at the end of the Ming Dynasty. They all built a large number of fortresses, blockaded layer by layer, and advanced layer by layer.

The Song army was not good at field warfare, so it could only rely on the tactics of defending the city.

The most important point of the defense tactics is that when the enemy besieges a walled city, it can be supported and contained from all sides.

But in the battle of Jinmingzhai in history, when the Xixia people besieged Jinmingzhai, Lu Huiqing of Yanzhou, who was not far away, held tens of thousands of troops in his hands, but he never came to reinforce. In the end, the defender Zhang Yu was killed in battle, and 3,000 defenders were killed.

Literati commanding the army, this kind of thing is very common.

The Western Xia people want to fight Yanzhou, and Jinmingzhai is the most important gateway. If you bypass Jinmingzhai and go straight to Yanzhou, you may be cut off from the back road.

Therefore, as long as they come over, then Jinmingzhai is the inevitable place to attack.

"Your Excellency, the spies sent to Western Xia have returned." Zhang Yu, the guard of Jinmingzhai, came over to report, "They said that the western thieves have begun to gather troops, and they expect to send troops to fight in the near future." ”

After Wang Xiao came to Jinming Village, he immediately distributed money and grain, and moved all the people in the village to Yanzhou City.

At that time, Zhang Yu was very dissatisfied with this. However, in the past few months, Wang Xiao has taken the lead and personally conducted strict training, but he has won the respect of Zhang Yu and others.

Wang Xiao expanded the stockade, excavated the moat, strengthened the city defense, and stored materials. Strict training of sergeants in accordance with the new book of discipline.

Everything can be arranged properly, and it will naturally be impressive.

"You personally go to Yanzhou and bring back all the materials I have gotten." Wang Xiao instructed Zhang Yu to "not miss a bag of grain and an arrow." It's all up to us in this battle. ”

Jinmingzhai originally had 3,000 defenders, and Wang Xiao brought 10,000 soldiers and horses and thousands of people. Although the garrison has been strengthened, the consumption of materials has also increased significantly.

Now that the Tanguts are here, it is inevitable to reserve as much as possible.

On the tenth day after Zhang Yu brought a large number of supplies from Yanzhou City, the dust in the sky slowly approached from afar.

The Western Xia army, known as 500,000, is finally here.

Wang Xiao gathered all the soldiers and horses into Jinming Village, and the city was full of various city defense equipment, and there were even dozens of eight-bull crossbows covered with cloth.

He also set up several forts outside the city to support each other.

The Western Xia army left a team of 10,000 people to guard Jinming Village, and the main force of soldiers and horses did not stop and went straight to Yanzhou.

"My lord, do you want to attack?" Zhang Yu found Wang Xiao and suggested that the whole army attack first to defeat the 10,000-strong team outside.

"There's no hurry." Wang Xiao at the head of the city shook his head slowly, "Wait until the main force of the Western Xia people retreats from the defeat of Yanzhou City, and then make a move to attract them." ”

There were many people in the Western Xia, and the city defense of Yanzhou was strong and the materials were abundant. And there were tens of thousands of defenders stationed in the city.

The Tanguts, who lacked siege means, attacked several times, but they were all beaten and their heads broke and blood flowed back.

They wanted to scatter and plunder the countryside, but there was nothing left for them in the nearby walls.

Coupled with the constant dispatch of various walled cities to attack the back road, the Western Xia people wanted to retreat a little.

Having mobilized so much manpower and material resources, it was too demoralizing to run over with great fanfare and retreat without much fighting.

The people of Western Xia discussed to pick a small village to break, and then news came that the 10,000-person team besieging Jinmingzhai was attacked, and almost the entire army collapsed.

Now it's okay, the goal doesn't need to be discussed, and he goes directly to Jinmingzhai.

At the head of Yanzhou City, many generals suggested that Lü Huiqing take advantage of the siege of Jinmingzhai by the Western Xia people to attack its rear. But after Lu Huiqing pondered for a while, he said, "That kid doesn't think very highly of himself, so let him carry it himself." Wait for him to ask for help, and I'll send troops later. ”

The generals looked at each other, Jinmingzhai was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Western Xia troops, where did they come from to ask for help?

It has been a few months since Wang Xiao arrived in Jinming Village, and he has already cut down all the woods that can be used as siege equipment within a radius of 100 miles, and even the houses outside the village have been demolished.

Lacking building materials, the Tangut people had no choice but to use the wood they had brought with them, which was originally used as a camp, to build siege equipment.

In the eyes of the Tangut people, their hundreds of thousands of troops surrounded this small stockade, even if there was no fence antlers, horse rejection sentry posts or something. Does the Song army inside dare to rush out?

On the tenth day of the tenth month of the third year of Shaosheng, in the sound of war drums in the sky, tens of thousands of Xixia people pushed all kinds of siege equipment to Jinming Village.