When the whole country of the Great Song Dynasty was celebrating, Western Xia was stormy, like the end of the world.

Hexi was captured by the Song army, and the Western Xia lost most of the country at once, and at the same time lost 50,000 or 60,000 troops, the entire Hetao area was surrounded by the Great Song Dynasty on three sides.

Liang Ting was ordered to lead his troops to recapture Hexi, and lost 50,000 troops in Liangzhou, which made the Western Xia's troops even more stretched.

Now the actual strength of the Hetao area is less than 80,000, and the Western Xia had to recruit a large number of old and weak and women to serve in the army, and barely raised more than 100,000 troops.

But these armies can't even get together with swords, guns and arrows, and their combat effectiveness is comparable to that of the Xiang army of the Great Song Dynasty, and it may be okay to use them to give themselves a strong momentum, but expecting these people to protect their families and defend the country is tantamount to a fool's dream.

Hexi was lost, the shock to Xixia was better than a ten-magnitude earthquake, and the Qiang people in the Hengshan area were even more eager to defect to the Great Song Dynasty.

Li Yuanhao is a habit of looting, not only the usual things are used when they are snatched, when the country was founded, the name of the Xixia palace and the structure of various departments were copied from the Great Song Dynasty, including the government of Xingqing Mansion, it is not called Xingqing Mansion or Yingtian Mansion, but directly applied the name of the Great Song Dynasty' Kaifeng Mansion, there is no doubt that there is indeed a Kaifeng Mansion in the capital of Western Xia.

On this day, the Empress Dowager Liang gave an order, and Yin An Huaixin of Kaifeng Mansion was pushed to the Suzaku Gate, and the executioner waved his big knife, and a big head suddenly rolled out of the distance, and the crimson blood sprayed all over the ground.

This sounds a little awkward, as if the Empress Dowager Liang killed the Sanpin of the Great Song Dynasty, but listening to An Huaixin's crime, you will understand that this Kaifeng Mansion is not the Kaifeng Mansion.

An Huaixin was found out by chance because he had fornicated with the Great Song Dynasty and provided intelligence and cover for the spy personnel of the Great Song Dynasty Staff Museum, so he was killed.

And the staff pavilion also sacrificed two front-line spies.

Kaifeng Mansion Yin An Huaixin was killed, not only did not calm the undercurrent in Xingqing Mansion, but also increased the suspicion of all parties, just imagine, even the "mayor" of the capital Xingqing Mansion secretly defected to the Great Song Dynasty, how many officials are secretly connected to the Great Song Dynasty, the ghost knows, and as the master of Western Xia, who else does the Empress Dowager Liang dare to believe?

Out of this fear, Empress Dowager Liang ordered martial law to begin in the entire capital, and her practice was tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, further increasing the turmoil in the court and the panic of the officials and the people.

The spies of the staff hall who were active in Xingqing Mansion further spread rumors, saying that Yinzhou had been lost today, and that Xiazhou had fallen tomorrow, which made rumors fly all over the city of Western Xia, people's hearts fluctuated, and officials and people were uneasy; What's more, if a Western Xia official was unwilling to defect to the Great Song Dynasty, the staff staff spread rumors to frame him for fornicating with the Great Song Dynasty, and he really killed two high-ranking Western Xia officials by this method, which made the Western Xia officials even more dangerous, for fear that the Empress Dowager Liang would not distinguish between the true and the false and kill herself.

The worried Empress Dowager Liang summoned Liang Gefang and Liang Dingshan to Tianzuo Hall to discuss countermeasures, and now she can only believe in these mother's families.

Liang Gefang sighed and said: "Now that the situation is getting more and more unfavorable, it seems that we can only send someone to Tokyo to sue for peace!" ”

Liang Dingshan snorted: "At the beginning, the Southern Dynasty wanted to cede Hexi as a price for peace, but you refused, but now it's okay, people take Hexi back by themselves, with the personalities of Zhang Dian and Yang Yi and others, you go to make peace now, maybe let you cede the entire Hetao, I think you should do it?" ”

Liang Gefang glanced at him coldly and said: "Okay, okay, now even you have put all the responsibility on my head, it was you who changed the beginning, can you agree to cede Hexi?" ”

Empress Dowager Liang was in a panic, and when she heard that even her mother's family was fighting, she immediately reprimanded: "What are you fighting for, when are you still fighting for this?" In my opinion, the Southern Dynasty simply wants to annex my Great Xia, and when things come to this point, I'm afraid it's useless to sue for peace, and it seems that we can only fight to the death. ”

Liang Gefang shook his head and said: "Queen Mother, even if you want to fight, you have to send someone to Tokyo to try it first, in case you can negotiate it is the best, even if the conversation fails, it can delay time, let's make more preparations." ”

At this moment, a eunuch ran in in a panic, pounced on his head and bowed: "Queen Mother, it's not good, it's not good, the Yanzhou guard general didn't hide Aluo and took refuge in Helan thieves and occupied Yanzhou." ”

"What!"

The three Empress Dowagers Liang were so shocked that they all stood up, their faces were blue and white, Helan thieves have become a big problem in Western Xia for more than a year, they are bandits when they gather, and they are for the people when they disperse, once they mobilize the army to encircle and suppress, you can't find them at all.

Because every time they robbed food or goods, they gave them to the people, and the people were very grateful, and they secretly helped to cover their tracks.

Even if you can detect the traces of a small number of people, it is useless, this Helan thief usually covers his face when he goes out, and he is not familiar with each other, and when he is dispatched, he is temporarily recruited by some upper-level thief leaders, unless you can catch these thief leaders, it will not be able to inflict heavy damage on this group of bandits.

The problem is that the whereabouts of these thieves are extremely secretive, and it took Liang Gefang more than a year to catch one; Although these thieves are all dressed as party members and use the names of party members, from a comprehensive analysis of clues from all aspects, these people are likely to be spies sent by the Southern Dynasty; These people do not need the help of the people to cover, but are helped by some treacherous Western Xia officials, and it is difficult to find them.

Now, the matter once again confirmed Liang Gefang's guess, the Yanzhou guard general did not hide Ah Luo, and also secretly took refuge in the Great Song Dynasty, so he cooperated with the Helan thieves to occupy Yanzhou in this stormy situation.

The significance of the move was not only the loss of Yanzhou, but also further accelerated the collapse of Western Xia, and the seriousness of the matter has reached the point of no return.

Empress Dowager Liang didn't think much about it, and immediately ordered Liang Gefang: "You immediately lead the troops to recapture Yanzhou, you must be fast, you must severely punish Luo who did not hide Aluo, otherwise the other guards will follow suit, and my Daxia will really be over, go quickly!" ”

Liang Gefang also knew that he couldn't delay, so he ran out of Tianzuo Hall without saying a word.

The intelligence about the Western Xia, through the border army scouts and the spies of the staff pavilion constantly gathered in Tokyo, the preparations for the war in the Hetao area began at the beginning of the year, and after Yang Yi's conquest of Hexi, Shaanxi was even more vigorous, ready to attack the Hetao at any time.

In view of the fact that after the fall of Hexi, the Western Xia was already crumbling, and the imperial court decided to increase the intensity of the shallow attack on the Hengshan line, so as to make the Western Xia even more chaotic.

The so-called shallow attack, in fact, has been carried out since the first year of Shaosheng, and we don't go deeper, just bite a bite on the border from time to time, once you find a gap in the opponent's defense, you immediately send a large army to attack and plunder, the purpose is just to continuously weaken Western Xia, but you don't plan to kill him at one time.

This time, the imperial court once again ordered to strengthen the shallow offensive strength, and gave Zhang Qi the right to make a decision, once the shallow offensive was strengthened, there was a sign of collapse in Western Xia, then Zhang Qi could immediately mobilize Hedong, Yanyan, Jingyuan, Huanqing, Qinfeng Shulu, a total of 70,000 troops, to seize the five states of Dingyan.

In fact, giving Zhang Qi the right to make a decision on the spotlight is equivalent to the official opening of the battle to destroy Xia.

Shaanxi Province, which had already sharpened its knives, sent troops one after another to storm the fortress passes in Hengshan.

Due to the large number of Qiang people in Hengshan who defected to the Great Song Dynasty, this not only greatly weakened the defense capability of Western Xia, but also the Song army had some help from the Qiang people, and they were even more familiar with the battle and achieved twice the result with half the effort.

The progress of the siege and plundering of the city was very fast, and this one-sided scene further disintegrated the fighting spirit of the Xia army.

In the Jingyuan Road Shuaisi, Zhang Qi recruited Chong Pu, Zhe Keshi, and Guo Cheng to discuss the next step of the march.

Zhang Qi pointed to the map and said: "General Manager Yang's expedition to Hexi is like a bamboo, and I don't need to say much about the blow to Western Xia, the imperial court edict has been issued, so that we can send troops to seize the five states at any time; My northwest roads, in addition to staying in one, the imperial court that can be requisitioned has been allocated to us, 70,000 troops, it is said that it is enough, but General Yang is in charge of the expedition to Hexi, and the cavalry from the northwest roads are brought out, we can only attack the five states with infantry, which is bound to increase the difficulty of our supply security, if you have any suggestions, please hurry up. ”

Chong Pu replied first: "Zhang Jingluo, the last general thinks that all roads should first seize the dangers of Hengshan, and when the Hengshan line is consolidated, the problem of logistics and supply will be much easier to solve, and then it will not be too late to march in one fell swoop to seize the five states of Dingdifficult, and even the entire Hetao; Now our army does not have to rush to success, as long as it constantly puts pressure on the Western Xia, it is enough to give it no time to breathe, if it is in a hurry to march, once the supply can not be guaranteed, resulting in defeat, I am afraid that it will give the Western Xia a chance to come back to life. ”

Zhi Keshi had a different opinion, he said: "Zhang Jingluo, I think that instead of letting all the roads scatter their troops everywhere and divide the various passes and fortresses in Hengshan, it is better to gather troops to attack Yinzhou.

The troops are scattered, the effect is slow, one by one to capture the Hengshan fort, it takes a long time, it costs a lot, and it is easy for the Xia army to have a gap to find, each to break through.

If you gather troops to attack Yinzhou, you can attract the Xia army and gather in one place, and now the entire Western Xia can fight a total of 70,000 or 80,000 people, if it can be defeated or annihilated at one time, then the entire Hetao area can be pocketed, and there is no need to fight for a city and a wall, which will be able to reduce huge expenses for the imperial court. ”

When Guo Cheng heard this, he immediately echoed: "Zhang Jingluo, I agree with the opinion of the general, now that Mizhi has long been controlled by our dynasty, he will use Mizhi and Yongle City as strongholds, and raise tens of thousands of troops to attack Yinzhou, Yinzhou is the gateway to the five states, and Xixia will not dare to give up lightly; In this way, most of the Xia army can be attracted to Yinzhou, and we don't have to go too deep to seek a decisive battle with the Xia army, which is also very beneficial to logistics and supplies, and once a big victory, there is no need to attack city by city, and Western Xia is already in the bag. ”

Zhang Qi pondered for a while, the two suggestions of planting Pu and Zhe Keshi have their own advantages, and the view of Chongpu is relatively safe, and now with the help of the Hengshan Qiang people, it is probably not a problem to take the whole line of Hengshan, but it is more time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Once successful, the entire Hetao will be like a stripped beauty, let the Great Song Dynasty take it, and the loss of the Great Song Dynasty will be reduced to a minimum.

(To be continued)