To see a man is to see his heart, and to buy a horse is to test its pace.

- Lhoba proverb

Wang Shanren, a descendant of Wang Chen, was young and strong, enlisted in the army of the Great Song Dynasty and was sent to the northern border. This is because the Song Dynasty and the Liao State were reconciled not long ago, and the party people on the northwest border were not at peace again.

Wang Shanren learned from the chief that the party members were a branch of the Qiang nationality. During the Tang Dynasty, the Dangxiang Qiang and Tuyuhun living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau often united against the powerful Tibetans. Later, Tuyuhun was wiped out by Tubo. The Dangxiang Qiang people, who had lost their attachment, requested to attach themselves to the Tang Dynasty, and were first placed in Songzhou (present-day Songpan, Sichuan Province), where they gradually multiplied into several large tribes, occupying present-day southeastern Qinghai and southern Gansu, and then moved to Qingzhou (present-day Qingyang, Gansu Province).

After the Anshi Rebellion caused by the Sogdian An Lushan and the Turkic Shi Siming subsided, the Tang Dynasty general Guo Ziyi, fearing that the Dangxiang of a foreign race would follow suit and cause trouble, suggested that the Dangxiang people in Gyeongju be relocated to the north of Yinzhou (present-day Yulin, Shaanxi Province) and to the east of Xiazhou (present-day Hengshan, Shaanxi Province) (southeast of present-day Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region). This is the old land of Daxia established by the Huns during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and it was called Pingxia at that time. Therefore, this part of the party is called the Pingxia tribe, that is, the ancestors of the Western Xia royal family in the future.

In 881, the Pingxia tribe was awarded the Xiazhou Festival Envoy for assisting the Tang Dynasty in quelling the Huangchao Uprising, and later because of the recovery of the capital Chang'an, the Tang Dynasty emperor gave the surname Li and was named the Duke of Xia, and officially received Yinzhou, Xiazhou, Suizhou (now Suide County, Shaanxi Province), Youzhou (now Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province) and Jingzhou (now Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province) and other places. Since then, the descendants of the party surnamed Li have become the local feudal forces.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, no matter which ethnic group was in power in the Central Plains, the wise Li clan bowed down to his subordinates in exchange for the ruling group's recognition of his dominance and a large number of rewards.

After more than 200 years of construction, the Pingxia region has become very rich, with fertile pastures providing a large number of cattle, sheep and pasture, and agricultural areas irrigated by river water to produce grain, as well as good green salt that can be used as currency. Therefore, the Pingxia tribe can be said to have soldiers, horses, food and money, and the time, place, and people are all occupied, and their power has gradually expanded.

In 982, the Great Song Dynasty planned to strip the military power of the feudal towns, and prepared to bring the Li clan to Tokyo to eradicate this entrenched local power.

Li Jiqian, the head of the Li family, has extraordinary ambitions, and knows that once he enters Beijing, it is tantamount to Jiaolong losing water, and there is no possibility of turning the tables, so he escaped from his place of residence and escaped into the vast prairie.

The high-spirited Great Song Dynasty carelessly thought that the small gang of bandits who escaped had no ability, and they did not take it seriously at all.

Li Jiqian, however, is very politically savvy. Through marriage, he married several powerful local daughters as wives and concubines, and suddenly became relatives with the local chiefs, and they were exquisite, and his power gradually became stronger.

In 985, Li Jiqian's brothers booby-trapped Cao Guangshi, a general of the Song Dynasty, occupied Yinzhou, and conquered Huizhou (now Jingyuan, Gansu Province), completely turning against the Song Dynasty, the suzerain.

He knew that falling out with the Song Dynasty would mean incurring death, so he hurriedly threw himself into the arms of the Liao State and was named the king of Xia by the Khitans.

The emperor of the Great Song Dynasty saw this scene, of course, he was unwilling. He sent troops to fight against the Li clan many times, but he was defeated repeatedly. He had no choice but to cede Xiazhou, Suizhou, Yinzhou, Youzhou, Jingzhou and other places to Li Jiqian, in fact, he recognized the national status they enjoyed, but he did not give them a name for the time being.

In 1002, Li took advantage of the Song Dynasty and the Liao State to fight each other, led the tribes to capture the Song Dynasty's important town Lingzhou, and renamed Xipingfu, and later, captured the northwest town of Liangzhou (now Wuwei, Gansu Province), cut off the Song Dynasty's trade route to the Western Regions, destroyed the Western Regions countries to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty, and at the same time, forbade the Western Regions to buy and sell horses to the Song Dynasty, which seriously affected the Song Dynasty's military construction.

The Li clan made great efforts to develop the Hexi Corridor, attacking Tibet in the south and the Uighurs in the west, greatly expanding their living space. They chose the town of Huaiyuan (present-day Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) as the capital and renamed it Xingzhou, but externally they still paid tribute to the Song Dynasty and the Liao State, and internally they were completely imperial.

They were bordered by the Liao State to the northeast and the Song Dynasty to the east and southeast.

In 1032, Li Yuanhao succeeded to the throne of Xia Guogong, and with the great ambition of establishing a country, he actively prepared to break away from the vassal Song Dynasty. He first gave up the surname Li and called himself Wei Ming. In the second year, he changed the Ming Dao era name of the Song Dynasty to Xiandao in the name of avoiding his father's secrets, and began the party's own era name.

In 1038, the Dangxiang people formally established their own regime, Xia, which was known as Western Xia because of its location in the west.

Western Xia, also known as Bangni Dingguo, may be a literal translation of the Dangxiang language, which is translated as Bai Gao Guo or Bai Shang Guo. One theory is that Baigao refers to the Baishui in the upper reaches of the Baihe River, which originates in the northwest of Sichuan, which means that it refers to the Songpan Plateau, the birthplace of the Dangxiang people; Another theory is that the party advocates white and respects white. After ten emperors and nearly 190 years of national rule, the Western Xia was a country with the party as the main body, including the Han, Uighur, and Tibetan ethnic groups.

After Wang Shanren heard this surprising news, he scolded angrily: "The little wolf cub grew teeth and began to open his mouth to bite his master!" ”

The court of the Great Song Dynasty was extremely angry at the treachery of the party members. The ministers wrote to the emperor one after another, demanding that the unruly party barbarians be punished.

The emperor of the Song Dynasty issued an edict to cut off Yuan Hao's official titles and offer a reward for his capture. Relations between the two sides officially broke down. The war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia broke out.

Wang Shanren and the soldiers were gearing up, ready to teach the party barbarians a good lesson.

However, both the Great Song Emperor and Wang Shanren underestimated the strength of the party members.

After the founding of the Western Xia, it adopted the strategy of uniting Liao to resist the Song Dynasty, and successively launched the Battle of Sanchuankou, the Battle of Haoshuichuan, the Battle of Linfufeng and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai, plundering property and annihilating tens of thousands of elite troops of the Song Dynasty.

In April 1040, Yuan Hao led an army to pretend to attack Jinmingzhai (in present-day southern Ansai, Shaanxi Province), and on the other hand, he sent a letter to Fan Yong, the governor of Yanzhou (present-day Yan'an, Shaanxi Province) of the Song Dynasty, expressing his willingness to negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty, deliberately creating a false impression to paralyze Fan Yong and relax his vigilance.

The mediocre Fan Yong believed it and immediately wrote to the court to report the good news, and the defense of Yanzhou was also relaxed.

In August, Yuan Hao sent a large army to surround Yanzhou.

Wang Shanren took the initiative to ask for war and followed the Song Dynasty generals Liu Ping and Shi Yuansong to reinforce Yanzhou to fight on the battlefield.

When Wang Shanren arrived at Sanchuankou (northwest of present-day Yan'an, Shaanxi Province), he was attacked by the Western Xia army and was heavily surrounded.

Liu Ping and Shi Yuansong led the army to fight a bitter battle with the Western Xia army, and the battle was dark and the corpses were all over the field, causing the Western Xia army to suffer heavy losses.

However, the Song army was outnumbered and had to retreat to the slopes near Sanchuankou to defend. While building fortifications on the hillside, Wang Shanren looked at the rugged path in the valley, thinking that this time he must punish the party barbarians.

The Western Xia generals were afraid of the scheme, and reinforced a large number of troops to besiege the Song Dynasty army. At the same time, Yuan Hao did not give up the tactics of attacking the heart, and wrote letters to the Song general Liu Ping many times to persuade him to surrender. However, Liu Pingning was unyielding.

In the end, the Western Xia army was forced to launch a fierce assault and seize the hillside where the Song army was stationed.

Due to the small number of officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty, the Western Xia army won a complete victory, capturing not only Wang Shanren and other soldiers, but also the Song Dynasty generals Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun, and they were escorted back to the Western Xia and imprisoned in the prisoner camp.

Wang Shanren's younger brother Wang Shande heard that his brother was defeated and captured by the Western Xia army, and ran to join the army in anger, determined to avenge his brother.

After the Battle of Sanchuankou, the emperor of the Song Dynasty truly realized the strength of the Western Xia, and ordered Feng Xia Zhu to be the pacification envoy of Shaanxi, and Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan as deputy envoys, jointly responsible for the affairs of the Western Xia.

In March 1041, Yuan Hao again led an army of 100,000 southwards with the intention of destroying the Song dynasty. He ambushed the main force at the mouth of the Haoshui River and sent another part to attack Huaiyuan (in present-day eastern Xiji, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), claiming to attack Weizhou (present-day Pingliang, Gansu Province) to lure the Song army deeper.

Fan Zhongyan is resourceful and does not fall for the Western Xia people. Therefore, the Western Xia army did not dare to act rashly.

However, Han Qi, the deputy envoy of Shaanxi Province, did not listen to Fan Zhongyan's dissuasion, stubbornly held his own opinion, and assigned Ren Fu to lead more than 50,000 people from the Zhenrong army (now Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) to Yanglongcheng (now southwest of Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), waiting for an opportunity to attack the Western Xia army.

Before Ren Fu's army reached Huaiyuan City, the Western Xia army pretended to be defeated and retreated.

Ren Fu, who was stubborn and self-serving, fell for a trick and commanded Wang Shande's team to follow and pursue. The army of the Song Dynasty was already very tired due to the long-distance pursuit, lack of food and grass, and lack of people and horses.

Ren Fu fought valiantly and died soon after. The army of the Song Dynasty was suddenly in chaos, and almost all of them were wiped out under the fierce pursuit of the main force of Western Xia.

Wang Shande was wounded in the battle and captured, and was also escorted to Western Xia and imprisoned in a prisoner camp. The two brothers Wang Shanren and Wang Shande unexpectedly met in the prison of Western Xia. They looked at each other, full of shame and indignation, and sighed.

When the emperor of the Song Dynasty heard of the defeat of his army, Long Yan was furious, and demoted Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, the deputy envoys of Shaanxi Province, to exile them to a wilderness land, and organized another team to go to the front.

Gong Yuan's son Gong Yizhong is in this team.

In 1042, Zhang Yuan, a member of the Song Dynasty who had taken refuge in Western Xia, offered advice to Yuan Hao: all the elite soldiers and generals of the Song Dynasty were gathered in the Song-Xia border area, but the military strength in the Guanzhong region was very weak. If the Western Xia army held back the army in the border areas of the Song Dynasty and left the Song Dynasty without time to take care of the Guanzhong region, and then sent a strong army to take the opportunity to attack the Guanzhong Plain and capture Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), it could effectively deal a blow to the confidence of the Song Dynasty.

Yuan Hao immediately sent 100,000 troops to attack the Song Dynasty on a large scale in two ways.

As a humble pawn, Gong Yizhong took the survival of the country as his own responsibility, followed the army of the Song Dynasty, and launched a bloody battle with the Western Xia soldiers.

At the beginning, the Song and Xia sides won and lost each other, and in the end, the Song Dynasty army still could not escape the fate of the annihilation of the whole army.

Gong Yizhong held a big sword, charged into battle, and killed countless enemies, but the Song Dynasty army had lost its national blood, and it didn't help no matter how brave he was, only blood was spilled on the battlefield and martyred bravely.

The army of the Song Dynasty was defeated repeatedly. In order to save face, the imperial court threatened to regroup and fight a decisive battle with the Western Xia, but in fact, it wanted to shake hands with the Western Xia and make peace.

Although the Western Xia won many battles, the victory was very miserable, and the plundered property could not compensate for the consumption in the war, and the treasury was already empty. After the interruption of private trade, domestic prices rose rapidly, the people's lives were very difficult, complaints from all over the country, coupled with the contradictions between the Western Xia and the Liao State and many other reasons, the Western Xia had to sit down and negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty.

In 1044, the Song dynasty reached a reconciliation agreement with the Western Xia. The history is known as the Qingli Peace Conference.

The brothers Wang Shanren and Wang Shande returned to their hometown Taiyuan as prisoners in exchange. Seeing that the war was over, they decided to go back to their old business and concentrate on making money.

In the decades that followed, the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia began to trade in the border areas, and economic and cultural exchanges were also very close. The brothers Wang Shanren and Wang Shande, with their understanding of the Western Xia trade market, made the business of the former enemy Western Xia, and made a lot of money due to the blessing of misfortune.

This equal peace negotiation was exchanged for nearly half a century of peace between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia.

It's a pity that Western Xia is not a fuel-efficient lamp. He just took a breath, turned around and fought with the Liao State, an ally of the year, and actually defeated the Liao Emperor who carried 100,000 elite imperial drivers to conquer in person.

At this time, the Liao State was already out of energy, and had no intention or ability to start a large-scale war with the Western Xia, so it had to send people to return the detained Xia envoys and make peace with the Western Xia.

The conflict between the Liao State and the Western Xia ended for the time being.

After years of crusade and conquest, the Western Xia finally gained equal status with the Song Dynasty and the Liao State, and established the pattern of Song, Liao, and Xia tripartite worlds.

After the defeat of the Song Dynasty and the Liao State, Yuan Hao of Western Xia became even more arrogant, unstoppable, increasingly tyrannical and indulgent, and even took his son Ning Lingge's wife as a concubine regardless of shame.

On the Lantern Festival in 1048, Brother Ning Lingge wiped off all the noses of his father Wang Yuanhao because of the hatred of taking his wife.

Yuan Hao screamed, rolled on the carpet with his hands on his nose, died of pain, and finally died of excessive bleeding at the age of 46.

The long-accumulated domestic contradictions in Western Xia broke out all of a sudden, and the society was in chaos.

When the emperor of Liao saw that the Western Xia was in chaos, he couldn't help but secretly rejoice in his heart, and took the opportunity to send an army to attack the Western Xia, which was in civil strife.

The truth that arrogant soldiers will be defeated has once again been tested by practice.

Unsurprisingly, the Western Xia suffered a crushing defeat, and had to bow to the Liao Emperor and confess his guilt, bowing his head to the vassals, losing his heroic spirit and fearless courage.

The Western Xia adopted the method of tenderness and appeasement to the Uighurs, Tibetans and other neighboring ethnic groups, which did much better than the Song Dynasty, and in the bloody era, it was also exchanged for some people's hearts.

The Tibetan leader of the Western Envoy City (present-day southwest of Dingxi, Gansu Province) was unwilling to submit to the Song Dynasty and was attacked and plundered by the Song Dynasty army.

Western Xia immediately sent troops to support, and also married the daughter of the sect to him, winning the respect of Yuzang Huama.

In 1063, Yuzang Huama led the tribe to belong to the Western Xia, and dedicated the Western Envoy City, Lanzhou and other places to the Western Xia.

Western Xia had no choice but to bow his head to the Liao State to show weakness, just after two days of calm days, his natural temperament of bullying the weak and fearing the hard made him turn around and launch a war of aggression against the Great Song Dynasty, and as a result, both sides were defeated, and their common enemy Liao was cheapened.

The following year, Western Xia attacked Gyeongju of the Song Dynasty and was defeated by Song troops at Dashun City.

From then on, the Western Xia lost the momentum of active offensive on the battlefield and gradually became on the defensive.

Remembering the humiliation suffered by the country, the Song Dynasty emperors prayed daily for the revival of the Great Song Dynasty and its rejuvenation. He appointed Wang Anshi as the prime minister, and was determined to use the shame of snow for several years to change the law and make great efforts.

The Song Dynasty went west to conquer the Tubo and Jiaoguoluo regimes, expanded the land for more than 2,000 li, established the Xihe Road, and governed Xizhou, Hezhou, Taozhou, Minzhou and Tongyuan Army, which is equivalent to the Daxia River Basin, Taohe River Basin, and the west of Gangu County in the upper reaches of the Wei River, Xihe, Lixian, and Tangchang counties in the upper reaches of the Xihanshui and Bailong River. The Song Dynasty gradually began to take the strategic initiative against the Western Xia, trying to capture the territory of the Western Xia.

In 1081, there was another political upheaval in the Tangut state.

The emperor of the Song Dynasty believed that the opportunity had come to capture Western Xia, and took advantage of this to launch the Five Route Army to defeat Western Xia. At this time, Wang Shande, a native of Taiyuan, was too old to go into battle to kill the enemy in person, so he sent his youngest son Wang Tiancheng to the front line.

Li Hao, a general of the Song Dynasty, led Wang Tiancheng and other vanguards from today's Lintao, crossed the Mabit Mountain, and went to the ancient city of Kang (now Yuzhong, Gansu Province), and captured the new city of Xishi (now the triangle city of Yuzhong).

In October, the Song Dynasty army conquered Lanzhou, set up a marshal's mansion in the city and built Lanzhou. Wang Tiancheng stayed in Lanzhou as a defender.

In the following year, the Song Dynasty changed Xihe Road to Xihe Lanhui Road. Lanzhou was officially included in the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Gong Fugui, a descendant of Gong Huaizhou and the son of Gong Yizhong, is in Jingyuan Road (the jurisdiction is now west of the Puhe River, east of the Hulu River, north of Zhangjiachuan in Gansu Province, and Guyuan, Longde, Jingyuan, Xiji and other cities and counties in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Liu Changzuo's subordinates served as soldiers, fought bravely, and took advantage of the victory to reach the city of Lingzhou.

The generals of the Song Dynasty lacked an overall grasp of the battle situation, and blindly ordered Liu Changzuo to attack the city directly in the absence of siege equipment and insufficient logistics, and besieged Lingzhou for half a month but returned in vain.

The Western Xia army released the Yellow River to flood the Song Dynasty military camp, and cut off the road to transport food and salary in the rear, causing the Song Dynasty soldiers to freeze and starve, and many people died.

Gong Fugui is fateful, but he only froze off two toes, and he was so thin that he was skinny, and there were only two big eyes left on his face.

In September 1082, the Song Dynasty general Xu Xi and others invaded Hengshan in Western Xia (now Hengshan, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province) and approached the capital Xingqing Mansion. Xu Xi built Yongle City (in present-day Ningxia) in Yongle River as a station.

Western Xia hurriedly sent 300,000 troops to attack Yongle City.

Xu Xi did not listen to the correct strategy of his subordinates to surprise the enemy, and lined up 10,000 people under the city to confront the enemy.

After crossing the river, the Western Xia army launched a fierce attack on the positions of the Song army.

The Song Dynasty army was outnumbered and retreated into the city in defeat.

The Western Xia army surrounded Yongle City and cut off the water source that flowed through the city.

Shen Kuo and Li Xian led the army to come to the rescue but were hindered by the Western Xia army, and they were so anxious that they burned their eyebrows.

The Western Xia army finally broke through Yongle City.

Xu Xi and more than 20,000 Song Dynasty soldiers and servants were all killed. Gong Fugui was neither rich nor noble, but left a pile of white bones in the wilderness of Western Xia.

After 1092, the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty won and lost each other in battles, with the Song Dynasty having a slight advantage.

In the autumn of 1099, Western Xia was forced to send an envoy to the Song Dynasty to apologize and use humble words. The two sides finally returned to peace and re-established the border between the Song dynasty and Western Xia.

In 1114, the Song army defeated the Western Xia army at Gugulong (on the north bank of the Datong River in the southeast of present-day Menyuan Hui Autonomous County, Qinghai Province) and conquered Hengshan in Western Xia.

Western Xia lost its southern barrier and faced extinction. The Western Xia, who was in danger of losing their country, hurriedly submitted to the Great Song Dynasty, which had been despised at all.

However, the good times left by God to the calamitous Great Song Dynasty were too short-lived.

In 1127, the rule of the Great Song dynasty in the north was replaced by the powerful Jin state. The war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia ended for such a special reason.

The Western Xia survived and began to encroach on the northwestern territories that had previously belonged to the Song Dynasty.

The economic lifeblood of Western Xia was foreign trade. In the early stage, the main trading object was the Song Dynasty, and in the later period, it became the new neighbor Jin Kingdom. Domestic cities such as Xingqing, Liangzhou, Ganzhou, and Heishui City are very prosperous in business.

The Western Xia traded tributary to the Song, Liao, and Jin states, often exchanging camels or cattle and sheep for grain, tea, or important materials, and was particularly interested in tea.

The Western Xia also owned the Hexi Corridor, a major commercial route of the Silk Road between the Central Plains and Central Asia, and would also exchange tea and New Year's coins from the Song Dynasty for Uighur and Tibetan sheep, and then resell them to the Song Dynasty, the Liao State, and the Jin State to make huge profits. His behavior naturally made these countries very uncomfortable, and they have always been interested in eliminating this intermediary speculator.

The Western Xia's monopoly of the Hexi Corridor forced some merchants from the Western Regions to switch to the Qaidam Basin and travel along the Huangshui River through Shanzhou (present-day Xining, Qinghai Province) to Qinzhou (present-day Tianshui, Gansu Province) in the Song Dynasty. Because this area historically belonged to the land of Tuyuhun, it was called Tuyuhun Road in history.

Later, when the Western Xia saw that the national fortunes of the Liao State were declining, they threw themselves into the rising Jurchen state of Jin.

The emperor of the Jin State was happy and gave the Western Xia the states west of the Yellow River, such as Lezhou (present-day Ledu, Qinghai Province) and Jishi Prefecture (present-day Guide, Qinghai Province), which he had previously occupied.

The speculation of Western Xia has benefited, and the territorial area has reached the peak of history, ending as far as the Yellow River in the east, Yumen in the west, Xiaoguan in the south (now Tongxinnan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), and controlling the Mongolian desert in the north, covering an area of more than 20,000 li, becoming a regional power that dominates today's Ningxia, northern Shaanxi, most of Gansu, eastern Qinghai, and western Inner Mongolia.

The plain along the Yellow River, where Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia, is located, with the tall Helan Mountain in the west as a barrier to the city and the Yellow River in the east to irrigate farmland.