After marching for more than ten days, the army was about to leave the territory of the Great Song Dynasty and enter the territory of the Western Xia Kingdom. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

A thousand scouts had already been sent out by Zhao Gu to probe the Xixia eyeliner for three hundred miles on the way forward, so that the army could advance at any time.

When the news of the scouts' feedback came, and he learned that Western Xia had shrunk to the westernmost point, Zhao Gu cautiously issued a military order to advance a hundred miles a day.

No matter what Mi Dechao was defeated, he also has some ability to lead the army to fight, but the woman named Xia Weibing can defeat him so easily, it can be seen that Xia Weibing is very good, Zhao Gu will not be arrogant enough to think that he can easily clean her up, so in this strange territory of Western Xia, Zhao Gu made up his mind and acted cautiously.

As soon as you enter the territory of Xixia, a different scenery will be Zhao Gu into the eyes, at this time in spring, the Yellow River water source is sufficient, the grassland is green, but there are no cattle, sheep and horses, the breeze blows, bringing a faint grass fragrance, giving people a different feeling in the Central Plains.

The border of Western Xia is dominated by grasslands and deserts, that is, Ningxia, northwest Gansu, northeast Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and northern Shaanxi, the area is not small, although it is not as prosperous as the Great Song Dynasty, but some areas are also very rich.

Instructed the sergeant to follow the map fed back by the scouts, Zhao Gu and the others found a river, and seeing that it was not early, Zhao Gu ordered to camp on the spot.

Zhao Gu and others entered the Western Xia from the northern part of Inner Mongolia in the later world, and as soon as they entered Inner Mongolia, they were almost in the hinterland of the Western Xia, who called the land area of the Western Xia is not large, only one-fifth of the Great Song Dynasty!

Approaching late at night, Zhao Gu and the others rushed for a day, and everyone except for the guards quickly fell asleep.

In this day is particularly blue, the horizon is particularly wide to sleep in, but also has a different flavor, the surroundings are quiet, only the sound of the river dingdong in the ears, but also suitable for sleeping.

Suddenly, several horses' hooves sounded outside the barracks, waking up the army, and everyone immediately sat down and picked up the weapons in their hands.

Zhao Gu was naturally awakened, but unlike ordinary soldiers, he already knew that Xixia was crippled by Yi Dechao, so he was sure that the sound of horses' hooves could never have been made by the Xixia people.

In this way, this voice can only be made by the Great Song scouts.

Ordered the soldiers to go down to appease everyone, Zhao Gu also asked people to call the scouts who came over, and things turned out to be as he expected, the horses that rushed really carried the Great Song scouts.

It's just that in the past, scouts usually came to report during the day, but this time they chose late at night, which shows that there is something urgent.

As soon as the scout saw Zhao Gu, he immediately handed over a bamboo tube, which was sealed with wax to show that no one had opened it halfway.

The leader of the scout this time is also an old acquaintance of Zhao Gu, Liu Dezhu, the commander of the thousand who used to suppress bandits with him, Zhao Gu is still very relieved of him, knowing that Lao Liu is not a person who has nothing to do, so he immediately opened the bamboo tube.

With the faint oil light, Zhao Gu finally saw the contents of the letters in the bamboo tube.

I saw thirteen beautiful small characters written on it - Xixia Xia Weibing, willing to be with the Marquis of Zhuozhou County.

Xia Weibing wants to see me? The corners of Zhao Gu's mouth couldn't help but show a smile of interest, for this woman who commanded the battlefield, he also had a heart.

At the same time, Zhao Gu was also thinking about the reason why Xia Weibing wanted to see him.

The historical roots of the Western Xia can be traced all the way back to the early Tang Dynasty, and their ancestors were all Dangxiang people.

Dangxiang is a branch of the Qiang nationality, and it is recorded in the Sui book that "the Dangxiang Qiang is also after the three seedlings". "Old Tang Book" contains: "Dang Xiang Qiang...... Han Xiqiang is also another species. After the Wei and Jin dynasties, the western wall was weak, either subject to China, or channeling through the mountains and wilderness. ”

It means that they have been attached to China, and they have also been separated from China, and they are free from the outside, to put it bluntly, they have anti-bone attributes since ancient times.

During the Tang Dynasty, Dangxiang Qiang and Tuyuhun, who lived on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, often united against the powerful Tibetans. During the reign of Tang Gaozong Li, Tuyuhun was destroyed by Tubo, and the Dang Xiang Qiang, who had lost its dependence, requested to be attached and was placed in Songzhou by the Tang Dynasty.

During the reign of Tang Kaiyuan, Dang Xiangqiang, who lived in the southeast of Qinghai and the south of Gansu, was very afraid of the Tubo army that was looting and killing everywhere, so he asked Tang Xuanzong for help and was moved to Qingzhou.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi of the Tang Dynasty was afraid of these foreign troubles, and suggested that the Tang Dynasty Sect move the Tuoba Chaoguang Department in Gyeongju to the north of Yinzhou and the east of Xiazhou, which was the old land of the Huns Helian Bo during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which was called Pingxia at that time, so this part of the Dangxiang Qiang became the Pingxia Department, that is, the ancestors of the Western Xia royal family in the future.

During the Tang Dynasty, Tuoba Sigong, the leader of the Party Department, was named the envoy of the Xiazhou Festival by the imperial court, and because of the meritorious work of the Huangchao Uprising, he once recovered Chang'an, and was given the surname Li again, and was named the Duke of Xia. Since then, Tuoba Sigong and his descendants surnamed Li have become local feudal forces with Xia Guogong.

This part of the Dangxiang Qiang armed forces is also known as the Dingyan Army, and its sphere of influence is centered on Xiazhou, including the vast areas of Xia, Sui, You, and Yinzhou, all of which are called the private territories of the Tuoba clan.

Later, in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, no matter who was in power in the Central Plains, the Li clan (Tuoba clan) was "bowed down to the vassals", in exchange for the dominance of the place and a large number of rewards.

During this period, the Western Xia was very careful to handle the relationship with the Shatuo regimes such as the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han, and there were frequent contacts with the Song Liao, and no one was offended or close.

At this time, after more than 200 years of construction, the Pingxia area is very rich, with the fertile pastures of the Jinze area in the south of Ordos as the core, and the agricultural area represented by Qiliping at the junction of the Xia and Song dynasties provides a large number of cattle and sheep grain and grass for the Western Xia, at the same time, Ordos is also rich in the best green salt that can be used as currency at that time, and the annual output can reach about 15,000 Hu, so the Pingxia Department of Dangxiang Qiang can be said to have soldiers, horses, grain and money, the time and place are favorable, and the power is gradually expanded.

But the ambition of the Li family has not been great, it is nothing more than willing to be a prince, although Song Taizu cut the military power of the feudal town, but he is still lenient to the ethnic minorities in the northwest, "Xu Zhi hereditary".

But when the Xiazhou Festival made Li Jisheng come to power, the situation changed.

In the seventh year of the Taiping Rejuvenation of the Kingdom, which was later called 982 AD, Zhao Guangyi cut the military power of the feudal town and brought the Li family to the capital, preparing to eradicate the entrenched power in the northwest. But Li Jishou has a younger brother named Li Jiqian, who 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. Therefore, he fled under the pretext of escape into the vast grassland.

At that time, Zhao Guangyi thought that the escaped small bandit gang had no ability and could not toss, but Li Jiqian was very politically minded, and even married the daughters of several local powerful people as wives and concubines, and suddenly became relatives with local leaders, and his power gradually grew.

The Western Xia also had a bad relationship with the Great Song Dynasty, and sent troops to the frontier again and again, although there were no major wars, but small frictions were constant.