If you want to govern Huanzhou, you have to solve the source of the scourge of the Xia Army, and if you want to govern the Xia Army, you must first govern the Zhou Army, this is the basic idea that Yang Yi sorted out.

Therefore, he took Ma Hanqing and did not go out of the city directly, but went straight to the garrison of the city.

The garrison in the city is divided into two battalions in the east and west, when Yang Yi entered the west camp, Chong Pu was on the edge of the playground, directing the soldiers to practice, and he was slightly surprised to see Yang Yi, the chief officer, came to the barracks on the first day of his appointment.

Yang Yi took a brief look at the military formation that was in full swing in the field, and felt good, it seemed that the Western Army was obviously a little more fierce than the garrison in Hebei, for the Western Army, after all, the war had never stopped.

Waiting for Chongpu to take a group of officers forward to salute, Yang Yi should go to the big tent in the camp first.

Spread out the map, Huanzhou is located in the northwest corner of Huanqing Road, north of Hengshan, south of Gyeongju, east of Dingbian Army, and security army, west is Jingyuan Road under the jurisdiction of Zhenrong Junzhou; The Baima River and the Guide River that flow from the south of Hengshan converge in Hongdezhai in the north of Huanzhou, and then flow south through the west of Huanzhou City; There are no counties under the rule of Huanzhou, only dozens of towns or walled forts of different sizes.

Yang Yi didn't say a word of nonsense, pointed to the map and asked Chong Pu directly: "In previous years, when the Xia army came to attack, which route did they usually take!" ”

In recent years, because the old party has adopted a policy of appeasement to the Western Xia, it has strictly ordered the border generals not to provoke without permission, and even the Xia army invaded the border generals to go out of the city to resist, and the imperial court in order to appease the Western Xia, often degraded these officials and generals who took the initiative to resist the Xia army, and Chong Pu and others have been in the northwest for a long time, and I don't know how much grievances they have suffered.

Now as soon as Yang Yi entered Huanzhou, he immediately put on this posture, thinking of his proud achievements in Hebei, how the generals such as Chong Pu were dissatisfied and happy. He pointed to the map and explained to Yang Yi: "Lord Zhizhou, please see, Hengshan is stretched from east to west, forming a natural barrier between my Song and Xia; Originating in the summer realm, the Guidechuan River crosses the Hengshan Mountains at the Qinggang Gorge and flows south into Huanzhou, forming a natural passage through the barrier of the Hengshan Mountains.

Similar to the passage of Baima River, the Western Xia respectively built a military village at the place where the two rivers crossed the Hengshan, and guarded these two passages, the Baima River was the military city of Qingyuan, and the shrimp toad village was held back to the Tode River, because Hengshan was controlled by the Western Xia, I built the city without danger in the Great Song Dynasty, therefore, these two passages became a convenient passage for the Xia army to attack. In addition, the trails on Hengshan are everywhere, if it is a small group of Xia troops, they can attack through these trails at any time, and we can't prevent it. ”

"Defense?" Yang Yi spit out this word from between his teeth! Then his gaze coldly swept over the faces of the generals present, "The Great Wall is still there today, how can it have been prevented from foreign invasion?" From the day the official came to Huanzhou, you all gave the official a lot of energy, Xia Jun came one, you cut him for me, Xia Jun didn't come, you crossed Hengshan and cut his mother! Kou can go, I can go too! ”

"Whoa!"

"What do you need, this official will solve it for you, this official only needs a result, don't let Xia Jun cross the border one step, do you hear clearly?"

"Obey your lordship's orders!"

The generals struck the breastplate again, and they responded violently, and everyone's eyes revealed a fanatical light, as if they wanted to kill Hengshan immediately. For the border generals, the battle is their life, and without the merits of the war, why should they be promoted?

In particular, the kind of Pu is rejoicing, from his grandfather to Lao Tzu, the family has always been a trick to fight, blood for blood, tooth for tooth, how can there ever be only defended but not attacked?

As soon as Yang Yi saw that the effect of boosting morale had been achieved, he immediately waved his hand to calm down the generals, and then said: "In the future, for Western Xia, although it is mainly attacked, it still needs to be supplemented by defense. ”

Yu Qingliang, the marquis of Yu in the army, pointed to the map and spoke first: "My lord, the north of Huanzhou is mountainous, and most of the walled forts are distributed along the banks of the Guide River and the Baima River, as long as we can strengthen the defensive capabilities of these two walled forts, we can minimize the losses.......

"In this case, we don't have to talk about the troops on paper, the general has arranged for the generals to stay behind, and the other generals will go out of the city with their own officials, let's immediately take a look at it along the river, if you have any suggestions, let's put forward it after the on-site inspection."

Yang Yi said to do it, he should go out of the account first, and the generals looked at each other, looking at Yang Yi's style of acting, why did they seem to be civil officials, Yang Yi became a military general, it seems that he will really have to make some profits in the future!

A team of two hundred cavalry, the wind generally swept out of the north gate of Huanzhou, galloped away along the river to the north, looked at it, the mountains in the north of Huanzhou were like daisies, the emerald color was even the sky, the splendid mountain fireworks were generally open, the eagle soared in the air, the cuckoo cuckoo cried at the edge of the field, and the spring was full of color.

In the field, there were officials from neighboring states in Qingzhang land, Yang Yi saw that Cao Taiping, who had joined the army, was also in the middle of it, and he was very busy, and when he saw two hundred cavalry galloping by, the officials in the field looked at each other.

All the way to the north, the main forts are Wulun Village, Suyuan Village, Hongde Village, most of the villages are built in the middle of the mountainside, or easy to defend and difficult to attack, the regular army responsible for guarding is generally only a few hundred people, and most of the rest are local village soldiers. These village soldiers were all locals, who worked as farmers in their spare time and as soldiers in wartime, and the imperial court did not pay for food, but had to provide weapons.

In addition to these people who lived in the fortified villages, there were many people scattered in the mountains, and most of them lived by hunting, and the endless mountains became a good refuge for them, and hunting in the mountains could avoid the scourge of the Xia army. As a result, many people preferred to abandon their fields and take refuge in the mountains.

Hongdezhai is the place where Baimachuan and Guide Chuanchuan meet, this village is very famous, because a few years ago Zhang Ji served as the governor of Gyeongju, that is, let his generals fold 10,000 people, ambush the Empress Dowager Liang's 100,000 army here, the battle of Hongdezhai is a rare victory in the northwest, and the Empress Dowager Liang even ran away with her pants.

Folded can be suitable for wisdom and courage and complete, is a rare general, now he is the Zhenrong army of the army, and he is basically the same level, the reason why Zhang Ji was able to win many battles at the beginning, is missing the powerful arm of the invincible. Yang Yi looked at the planting, I hope the planting is not lost to the folding!

Out of Hongdezhai, Yang Yi chose to continue to gallop northeast along the Guide River, and traveled another twenty or thirty miles, which was already close to Guide Debao.

Fort Guide is the northernmost walled fort on the line of Guide and Tokugawa, and further north is the deserted border.

Yang Yi took the lead, just turned a mountain col, and bumped into a messenger rushing head-on, and learned from the messenger that Liang Gefang, the general of Western Xia, was attacking Fort Guide with two thousand Xia troops.

It is common for small groups of Xia troops to enter and loot, but Yang Yi did not make a fuss, he did not immediately express his opinion, but looked at a few generals and asked: "Tell me what we should do?" ”

Duyu Marquis Yu Qingliang said: "Lord Zhizhou, we only brought two hundred men and horses, although there are two battalions of garrisons in Fort Guide, in fact, the number of soldiers is less than seven hundred, counting the township soldiers in the fort, there are only 1,000 people, so the lower officials think that it is not wise to have a hard encounter with the Xia army, and they should quickly transfer troops from Hongde and other villages to help." ”

Although the military situation is like fire, Liu Quan is worried that Yang Yi has just arrived, and he is a civilian official, in case there is a mistake, it is always not good, and it is inevitable that he will be a little conservative with his attitude, and most of the other generals nodded in agreement after hearing it.

It was the turn of Chong Pu to say: "It is not a problem to transfer reinforcements, but this time Liang Gefang only brought two thousand men and horses, obviously planning to loot and retreat, I am afraid that when the reinforcements arrive, Liang Gefang has already fled, this time we came by coincidence, I believe that Liang Gefang was also unexpected, so the last general suggested that Lord Zhizhou wait for reinforcements here, and the last general will first copy the trail to the Qinggang Gorge area to set up an ambush, and then we will give Liang Gefang a front and back attack, and leave these two thousand Xia troops in one fell swoop. ”

Yang Yi was greatly relieved when he heard this, at least Chong Pu did not disappoint him, so he ordered loudly: "Command Liu Wu to stay and wait for reinforcements, remember, the soldiers are not expensive, when the Xia army retreats, you only bring the elite soldiers to chase closely, General Chong, let's immediately take the trail to the front to set up an ambush." ”

As soon as the military order was given, the generals did not dare to say much, and the two hundred men and horses galloped away along the path.

During the nine years of Yuan You, the Xia army of more than 10,000 troops invaded as many as four or five times a year, after such a small group of people entered the country to loot, they quickly fled more like a commonplace, because Hengshan was controlled by the Western Xia, the Great Song side lacked danger to defend, the Xia army almost wanted to come, want to go, can be described as unscrupulous.

Just like this time, if you wait for the arrival of reinforcements, it is estimated that you can only see the smoke and dust of the Xia army in the distance, and the Great Song Dynasty does not want to station more soldiers and horses in the frontier area like Fort Guide, in fact, these walled forts can not accommodate many garrisons, once expanded, the cost is huge, not to mention, if there is no series of echelon support, build a lonely city and easy to be besieged by the Xia army, Yongle City is to build a lonely city on the line of the Wuding River, on the throat of the Western Xia, the Western Xia immediately raised hundreds of thousands of troops to besiege the city and attack, Because the periphery of Yongle City did not form a complete defense system, as soon as it was surrounded, it immediately fell into the predicament of fighting alone, and the soldiers and horses in the northwest were not subordinate to each other, and it was difficult to achieve unified command and reinforcement, resulting in Yongle City being besieged for half a month, and 200,000 soldiers and civilians were killed.

The fiasco of Yongle City made Da Song's heart palpitate, and he never dared to build a city in the throat area again, for fear that a tragedy like Yongle City would happen again.

And Sima Guang they have always been tactful to the foreign states, is a smile of service, for fear that the friends will be surprised, they from the Yongle City fiasco absorbed the scriptures, is to give up resistance, try not to provoke the Western Xia, for fear of attracting the revenge of the Western Xia again, they will never want to establish a complete defense system, to avoid the recurrence of tragedies like Yongle City, these reasons together, it has led to today's Xia army want to come, want to go away the situation, since the new party in power, although a change in the old party appeasement policy during the Yuan Yu years, But it is impossible to reverse the strategic situation between the two countries at once, which requires an opportunity to find a strategic fulcrum again and break the situation of Xixia's comprehensive control of Hengshan Pass, so as to truly achieve Kou Ke and I can go!

(To be continued)