At the reception banquet of Empress Dowager Xiao, there was no mention of the troops going south, and Li Jiqian didn't dare to ask more, but he already had a bad premonition in his heart.

Sure enough, two days later, he was invited to the imperial court tent, and the Empress Dowager Xiao said to him: "Don Ma, my Great Liao State has just been defeated, and the army has withdrawn to Shangjing after a tiring journey, and the two generals have died of depression because of repeated defeats. ”

Although Li Jiqian was very disappointed, he had already prepared in advance, and said with a smile: "The Queen Mother has thought it through, it is the sons who are reckless, but it doesn't matter, Ruyuan and I happened to go to relatives." ”

Empress Dowager Xiao smiled and said: "You can think so, this palace is very gratified, this palace will not let you come for nothing, just give you 300,000 loads of food, you must know that the Liao country is not rich, and we are also tightening our belts to save you." ”

Li Jiqian was overjoyed, there was no hope of sending troops, and it was not a trip in vain to have so much food, you must know that what Western Xia lacked most now was food.

Back at the post house, Li Jiqian told everyone about the situation, and everyone was very disappointed, but fortunately, there was still a lot of food.

Li Jiqian's confidant and his younger brother Li Jixin said: "Big brother, what should we do? Still fighting? ”

Li Jiqian slammed the table and said: "Of course you have to fight, these cowards of the Liao State can kill two generals after a few defeats, I will die ten times earlier like them, but what if Lao Tzu is defeated, isn't it stronger and stronger the more defeated?" ”

"Shall we fight ourselves then?" Li Jixin asked.

Li Jiqian shook his head and said, "When I saw the lukewarm appearance of Empress Dowager Xiao that day, I was making up my mind again. Ashin, there are three things you should do now. ”

"Big brother, please command."

"First, immediately contact Princess Helian, she will be responsible for forming an alliance with Shu, we will fight back and forth, advance and retreat together, I think this is also what Shu is wanting."

Li Jixin nodded.

Second, you personally go to Tibet and put pressure on them to return to Western Xia as soon as possible, otherwise I will personally lead troops to recruit and fight the Song Dynasty, and it is not easy to fight Tibet? ”

"But what's the use of us in Tibet, is it necessary to send troops to recruit at this time?"

Li Jixin asked.

"Of course, it is necessary, once Tibet is annexed, it will be of great benefit to us in terms of troops and food and grass supply, and the most important thing is that once we are defeated and cornered, we can retreat to the Tibetan Plateau.

Li Jixin nodded and said, "It's still the eldest brother who thinks long-term, so what about the third thing?" ”

"Third, send a few capable men to the east to Fusang, and lead Fusang to the shore from the East China Sea, then there will be Shu in the south, Western Xia in the west, Fusang in the east, and even if the Liao State in the north does not send troops, the Great Song Dynasty will not dare to despise it, so that it will be embattled to see how long the little emperor of the Zhao family can last."

Li Jixin stroked his palm and said: "This plan is very good, but Fusang is a subject country of the Great Song Dynasty, and it has always been friendly with the Great Song Dynasty, and it pays tribute on time every year, how can it be possible to send troops?" ”

Li Jixin sneered: "Hehe, I don't expect Fusang to send troops, they just need to steal." ”

"Big brother mean pirates?" Li Jixin's eyes lit up and asked.

Li Jiqian nodded and said: "We just need to tell the Fusang people that the Great Song army is all in the south to quell the rebellion, and the west is about to fight, and there are Liao people in the north, and only the east is by the sea, so there is no army to garrison." ”

Li Jixin nodded again and again and said: "Okay, when the Fusang pirates come, burn, kill and loot, the Song Dynasty can't ignore it, and at least score 100,000 troops." ”

"Hahaha, pirates are haunted, the coastline of the East China Sea is thousands of miles long, and 100,000 people may not be able to defend it." Li Jiqian laughed.

"Big brother, I'll take the first step, rush back to do errands, you and your sister-in-law will slowly go to relatives."

The two brothers said goodbye and set up a dead end for the Great Song Dynasty.

……

On this day, Ling Kun's spirit was a little better, so he was helped out by Zhao Mingyue to have a look. At this moment, the Song army had already set up camp on the Shu Road and was ready for a long-term confrontation with the Shu army.

Under the leadership of Situ Jianghua, the Shu army launched several attacks, but firstly, the Shu Road was too difficult and dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and secondly, once it entered the Shu Dao, the power of the bed crossbow was fully exerted, so several times it was in vain. So he had to be stationed in the mountain pass all day long, scolding.

"These turtle sons, the scolding is really ugly, didn't you go down to fight?" Ling Kun asked.

When the generals saw Ling Kun coming, they dared to salute and say hello.

Hong Jialu said: "The scolding is really ugly, I really want to go down and fight hard, but Vice Marshal Wang won't let me." ”

"Oh?" Ling Kun glanced at Wang Yingjue and said, "Vice Marshal Wang, that's what you're used to hearing, in fact, it's just like that, it's similar to a rooster crowing." ”

The generals in front of the palace laughed. Wang Yingjue snorted coldly with a dark face: "General, in the first battle of the Chengdu Plain, because you were greedy for merit, you killed and injured more than 10,000 brothers, which is the first defeat since the current emperor succeeded to the throne. ”

"Hey, how can you blame the palace marshal ......." Hao Wenkai didn't like to listen to it, so he wanted to reason with Wang Yingjue, but was stopped by Ling Kun.

"I am indeed responsible for this, and I will bear all the consequences alone." Ling Kun said a little dullly: "But the battle still has to be fought, and if it is consumed in this Shu Dao every day, it will only make the Shu Kingdom stronger and stronger, and the Great Song Dynasty will become weaker and weaker." ”

"How? Your general hid behind unscathed, and more than 10,000 brothers on the front line were buried in one fell swoop. Wang Yingjue sneered.

"Vice Marshal Wang, you don't have long eyes, the palace marshal almost took his life in order to cover our retreat, which eye of you saw him unscathed." Xu Zixuan raised his gun and pointed it at Wang Yingjue and said angrily.

"I, I didn't mean that, I mean you can't joke with the lives of soldiers, you can't rush in without a perfect strategy, do you think I like to be scolded by people, I have no choice." Wang Yingjue yelled aggrievedly.

Ling Kun coughed and said: "Vice Marshal Wang is right, there must be a foolproof strategy, otherwise you can't act rashly, it's just that I've thought about it for so many days, and I really can't think of a plan to break the enemy. ”

Xu Zixuan was still angry, waved the golden gun and said: "Palace Marshal, the last general is a rough man, there are no ideas, you guys think here, I'll go down and fight, tear the broken mouth below." ”

"Didn't you say you can't be greedy for merit?" Wang Yingjue said angrily.

Zhao Mingyue, who had not spoken, said: "I think it's good to fight, General Xu's martial arts are strong, as long as the opponent is not Situ Jianghua, he should not be defeated, being scolded like this all day long has too much impact on the morale of our army." ”

"The princess is wise, and the last general will set off." Xu Zixuan didn't care whether the chief and deputy commander agreed or not, and ordered five hundred elite soldiers to rush out of the camp to challenge.

Of course, no one will oppose Zhao Mingyue's proposal.