50,000 cavalry soldiers attacked the Song army in three ways, with 10,000 cavalry on the left and right roads, and 30,000 cavalry on the middle road.

This battle can be said to determine the final direction of the war, and neither Liu Zhenglong nor Richard can afford to lose. Both sides invested their most elite troops, and both wanted to step on each other's corpses and make themselves to the top.

After the last battle, Liu Zhenglong quickly made adjustments, he knew that the Western Xia army would attack desperately, and if they wanted to win the final victory, they must resist the rapid attack of the Western Xia cavalry.

The Western Army prepared a total of 250,000 troops, not counting the 30,000 cavalry of the Zhejia Army stationed near the Milli tribe. Add in 20,000 forbidden troops, 10,000 Longxiang troops, and 33,000 sailors, it can be said that the total number of troops invested in the Great Song Dynasty exceeded 300,000, and this battle was not as simple as defeating Brother Richard.

The night before the war, Liu Zhenglong summoned Qu Duan, Liu Zhongwu, Liu Fa, Chongshi Dao, Zhe Keqiu and others, he didn't like to go around in circles, so he said straight to the point, "Although most of the troops don't need to be involved in this battle, everyone must know that it won't take so many troops to destroy the Jin King Richard Brother." The 300,000 army is preparing for the war of annihilation in Western Xia, and you must be fully mentally prepared. ”

The battle of destroying the country in Western Xia, this sentence is enough to frighten the generals present, so as to know that Western Xia is a fierce and belligerent country, known as 500,000 soldiers, if there are no millions of Song troops, how can they destroy the country?

Although the generals present felt incredible, everyone was basically accustomed to Liu Zhenglong's routine, so no one raised objections, but quietly waited for this magical man to reveal the final answer.

After Liu Zhenglong asked his subordinates to open the map of Western Xia, he marked the fields of the eight major tribes one by one, and analyzed and explained the territory of the Qiang people, even the countries of the Western Regions, the territory of Tubo, and the distribution of troops one by one. In the end, he said, "The advanced will defeat the backward, the Great Song Dynasty is stronger than the Western Xia in all fields, the reason why the two sides have won and lost each other for many years, what do you say is the reason?" ”

"Because the terrain of Western Xia is complex, easy to defend and difficult to attack, every attack has to pay a great price." It was the old general who spoke Shidao, who was over seventy years old, and had fought with Western Xia all his life, so he should have the most right to speak, and he finally said, "Of course, this is directly related to my lack of horses in the Great Song Dynasty." Victory is a small victory, defeat is a rout, only relying on strong national strength to be able to mediate with the Western Xia for hundreds of years, if the national strength is as strong, the Great Song Dynasty will be defeated. ”

Liu Zhenglong waved his hand and said, "The old general is right, the Western Xia terrain is responsible, easy to defend and difficult to attack, for the Song army that lacks war horses, every attack will face the invasion of the Western Xia cavalry, and in the end, it is a labor force to mobilize the people, and return in vain." However, this point, General Ben does not think that it is fundamental, if it is fundamental, there will be no Hundred Years War, and the Great Song Dynasty will win more and lose less. I don't know if you have anything else to add. Today, this official declares that this is purely a military discussion meeting, and it will not be aimed at a certain person, let alone settle accounts after the fall. ”

Liu Fa pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, the reason why the Great Song Dynasty could not destroy the Western Xia even if it won was that Yu Chai was very important because he used literature to control the military, and the highest official in charge of the command was either a eunuch who had lived in the deep palace for a long time, or a civil minister, who did not know how to be a soldier, a sharp weapon of the country, and a way to survive. A layman leads an insider, and in this case the war can be won purely by chance. But it is almost impossible to destroy Western Xia. ”

Everyone nodded to Liu Fa's analysis, these generals have always looked down on the civilian officials who command blindly, but in the Great Song Dynasty of the civil official world, their fate is in the hands of the civil official, and they will be pinched to death at any time, so they have to consider the factors of the civil official in a limited way, resulting in timidity, wanting to win and being afraid of losing, and it is difficult to transform the victory into victory.

"There is nothing to add, the official thinks that just these are the only ones, it is difficult to explain that the Great Song Dynasty will be pressed down by the nomads, and it will not be able to turn over for a hundred years, which cannot be explained, so this official hopes that you can know everything and say everything, analyze the hundred years of the war between the Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty, and finally formulate a complete plan."

Liu Zhenglong is serious this time, he knows that the Great Song army is indeed vulnerable when facing the southward movement of the Jin State, but the Western Army, which has been fighting with the Western Xia for a hundred years, has won more and lost less in the history of more than 100 years of warfare, these generals have just been squeezed by civilian officials for too long, and they can't stand up in a sentence for too long, and what they want now is to establish confidence in victory for these generals.

In the future, the Jin army will go south, and the army that can really stop the Jin army from going south is still this western army, this is the result of history, Liu Zhenglong is not good at arranging troops after all, and leading troops to fight is not his specialty, and it is okay to bully Brother Richard now, after all, the Western Xia lacks national strength and cannot afford it. However, in the future, the strong Jin Guotie cavalry can be said to have traveled all over the mountains and rivers, and the outstanding generals such as Yan Zongwang, Yan Zongbi, Yan Zonggan, and Yan Yanmu are all hard worked on the battlefield for many years, and each of them can be independent.

Throughout the history of the war between the Great Song Dynasty and the Jin State, it can be said that the army could not be defeated in the early stage, but in the later period, Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, Yu Yunwen, Meng Hui, Wu Jue, Wu Luan, etc. have not yet appeared on the stage of history.

Yao Pingzhong pondered for a moment and said, "Perhaps, it has something to do with the intervention of the Liao State, every time the Song army wins a big victory and the Western Xia is in danger of survival, the Liao State will send troops to intervene. It was okay for Song to fight Western Xia alone, but there was indeed a big gap in strength in the face of Liao, not to mention fighting with Western Xia and Liao at the same time, which was also the reason why Western Xia could not be destroyed. ”

"In fact, there is another important reason that you dare not say, that is, the civil and official world, with the civil army, the military generals cannot really unify the army, let alone complete the great depth of the war to destroy the country. Di Qing's example is a bloody lesson, each of you will not forget, after a long time, you will fight separately, and you can still compete with Western Xia when you get one acre and three points of land, but everyone will be defeated by each of them when they work together. ”

The words that have been held in the hearts of the generals for many years were finally said by Liu Zhenglong, a civil official, and it was okay only when he said it. But everyone knows these things, but no one dares to say it, to put it bluntly, Chen Qiaoyi's 'yellow robe plus body' is a curse, which has plagued the Great Song Dynasty for a hundred years, and it can't get rid of this curse until the fall of the Song Dynasty.

Liu Zhenglong saw that the generals all bowed their heads, so he continued, "There is a specialization in the art industry, and there is a reason for the outsiders to lead the insiders." For example, regarding the planning of a large-scale war, this officer does have unique opinions, but the arrangement of troops, to be honest, cannot catch up with the small capital below. Sometimes, I think about how I should command, how to boost morale, how to lead the soldiers to charge, and I have never had an answer. And that's what you're good at. In a word, in the midst of strategizing, the decisive victory is thousands of miles away, this is what I have done, and I will definitely do it well, as for the command of the army, it is better to hand it over to you, after all, Han Xin's generals are as many as possible, and Zhang Liang is just planning, this official is willing to be Zhang Liang, I don't know if anyone compares himself to Han Xin. ”

Speaking of which, the generals are not stupid, of course they know that now is the time for radical generals, who wants to be a turtle with a shrunken head?

The first to express his stance was the old general's cultivation of the Dao, and the old man said loudly, "If you can't even command the army, then we Qiu Ba simply go home and make people behind closed doors, don't come out and be embarrassed, no matter what the battle, as long as the adults give an order in the future, our family army will definitely be the first to charge forward, and we will definitely not be a bad seed." ”

The old breed has expressed his position, and of course he will not be a bad breed among the breeders.

Liu Fa, a famous general of the generation, patted his chest and said, "I have been fighting with Xixia for many years, Lao Tzu has more wins and fewer losses, who is afraid of that group of birds, as long as there is no iron harrier, no matter when, confrontation, I will beat their group of bird eggs." ”

The generals expressed their positions one after another, and also conveyed a message that in the face of the Iron Harrier armed to the teeth, they really did not have much to do, and even said that many times the Iron Harrier would decide the entire battle situation.

Liu Zhenglong waved his hand and said, "The Iron Harrier is just a heavy cavalry armed to the teeth, and it takes a great price to form such a team. However, I tell you that the Iron Harrier is not invulnerable, and I have long since figured out how to crack it. It's just that in this confrontation, the Iron Harrier didn't appear, so it didn't need it, and now the official began to arrange tactics, and everyone prepared carefully. After destroying Brother Richard this time, you will understand that in the face of absolute strength, what an iron harrier is, it is nothing more than a paper tiger. ”

Encountering the Iron Harrier is a later story, and now the top priority is to destroy Brother Richard, this battle is very important for the Western Army, this is the first large-scale battle after Tong Guan left, and it is also an important war in which the Western Army proves that its strength exceeds that of the New Western Army, and every general does not dare to be sloppy.

Liu Zhenglong said, "This battle is mainly divided into four stages, the first stage, hold on, as long as the two brothers in the division are responsible, no matter how ferocious the attack of the Western Xia cavalry, we can't let it rush in within two days, as long as we hold on for two days, then we will win half of the victory." The main force that held on was only 30,000 troops, 10,000 Longxiang troops, and 20,000 forbidden troops, as for how not to deploy, the official would not intervene, it would depend on the old general, after all, he had been fighting with the Western Xia cavalry for many years, and there should be a way to defend the war. ”

The planter said, "I can't hold on for two days, the planter said, and the planter is willing to apologize with death." ”

Liu Zhenglong waved his hand, signaling that the old general did not need to express his position, and he only looked at the action. He continued, "In the second stage, 30,000 sailors attacked the Golden Wolf Army City in two ways, and the battle of the navy army had already been arranged by the officer, so there is no need to repeat it today." ”

It has long been no secret that the navy participated in the war, everyone knows it, but they don't know exactly what the navy appeared at that stage, and it is even less clear how much of a role the navy can play.

"The third stage, the blocking battle, once the Golden Wolf Military City is attacked, the Western Xia cavalry will definitely come to the rescue, if the official's estimate is good, there will be 10,000 cavalry to come back, only by eating these 10,000 cavalry, Brother Richard will withdraw from the battlefield, so the blocking battle must be quickly resolved, and it is necessary to ensure a complete victory. This task is arduous, so I will hand it over to General Liu Fa, you will command the men and horses of your department, as for how to fight and how many troops are needed, you decide for yourself, and after the meeting, I will explain otherwise. ”

Blocking 10,000 cavalry, and to evacuate before the Western Xia army returns, this is not a small difficulty, especially to completely annihilate the 10,000 cavalry, which Liu Fa is not sure to do, but he did not dare to raise it at the meeting.

Liu Zhenglong finally said, "In the fourth stage, all the battles will be annihilated, once the entire army of the Western Xia cavalry retreats to the Golden Wolf Military City, then the final decisive battle will come." Our army was flanked on three sides, the east was commanded by General Zongshi Dao, and the western front was commanded by Liu Fa, who was in charge of the front. The rest of the generals launched an attack in accordance with the previously agreed place, and the old general's own arrangement was already very good, and there was no need to trim it. This official is waiting for you to report to the court after you arrest Brother Richard. There is a saying that tells you in advance that there will be no reinforcements in Western Xia, and you can fight this siege and annihilation battle and destroy the more than 60,000 cavalry under Brother Richard. ”

After the generals left, Liu Zhenglong said to Liu Fa, "You don't have to feel pressure, as long as you personally lead 30,000 elite soldiers to block the Western Xia cavalry, as long as their army is trapped in Laolongkou, there will be strange soldiers to help you win this battle, okay, go down and prepare, if you can't force the enemy close to Laolongkou, your 30,000 elite soldiers may be difficult to eat these 10,000 cavalry, or the whole army will be annihilated, so the core of this battle is to take advantage of the favorable terrain." ”

With the help of favorable terrain, it sounds simple, but in fact, the difficulty factor of executing the team is very large, in order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Liu Fa personally led the army to it, and he went to survey the terrain himself.

After coming to Laolongkou, Liu Fa understood why Liu Zhenglong ambushed a cavalry here, and why he insisted on destroying the 10,000 Western Xia cavalry here, it seems that this place is destined to be the cemetery of the Western Xia cavalry.

It turns out that the official road is not very far from Laolongkou, and the terrain of this place is rugged, most of the places are not suitable for cavalry combat, as long as an ambush is set up in advance, the Western Xia cavalry who are eager to return to help will eventually choose to entangle, and directly penetrate Laolongkou.

What kind of cavalry will there be in the old dragon's mouth? Liu Fa finally guessed the navy, and he immediately understood how he should deploy, and after everything was arranged, he just waited for the appearance of the Western Xia cavalry.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. The prologue of the great battle has begun, the cavalry charges, and the infantry holds on.