The cold wind wrapped the dust, dyeing the earth into a dusky color, a large army that could not see the edge slowly moved along the road, and the faces of the soldiers could not be seen in the wind and sand, Zhao Ji covered his face with a light veil to block the dust in the air, but at this time he was still a little worried and asked an old general beside him: "Old General Yang, are you really sure that Western Xia will march from this road?" ”

"Your Royal Highness rest assured, although the Western Xia people have gathered a large number of troops in the border area, it seems that they can attack my Great Song Dynasty anytime and anywhere, but there are not many places between the Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty that are conducive to large-scale battles, Tiandu Mountain is one of the best places to send troops, in addition, I think Li Liangzuo is extremely conceited, and he wants to surpass his father Li Yuanhao, when Li Yuanhao defeated my Great Song Dynasty three times, they were all sent from Tiandu Mountain, with Li Liangzuo's character, he will inevitably choose to send troops from Tiandu Mountain, and then achieve a more brilliant victory than Li Yuanhao, in order to show his martial arts!" The old general with white hair beside Zhao Ji said very sure that he was the only remaining veteran Yang Wenguang in the Jiangmen, he had served in Huanqing Road, and since Zhao Ji came, he was transferred to his side to take charge of the military, and he was one of Zhao Ji's most important assistants.

Hearing Yang Wenguang's explanation, Zhao Ji also felt a little settled in his heart, with the arrival of autumn, the army mobilized on the border in Western Xia was also ready to move, and it could go south at any time. Although the Great Song Dynasty has long been preparing for a war to destroy the country against the Western Xia, but this war needs to consume the master's manpower and material resources, and it has not been fully prepared until now, if the Western Xia goes south at this time, it is likely to completely disrupt the previous preparations of the Great Song Dynasty, so what Zhao Ji has to do now is to delay the time for the Western Xia to go south as much as possible.

Although Zhao Shu had read several military books, he had no experience in leading troops at all, and before he came, Zhao Shu had already told him not to interfere too much in military affairs and to use the army. We must listen to the opinions of Yang Wenguang and other veterans, Zhao Ji is also self-aware of this, and he did not interfere too much in military affairs after coming here.

The fact that the Great Song Dynasty was going to attack Western Xia on a large scale was top secret, and except for a few people, most people did not know, but Yang Wenguang was a veteran in the army after all. He had already guessed the intention of the imperial court from various signs, although he was worried that he would take a big risk, but if the Great Song Dynasty wanted to change the passive form in the military, it was necessary to remove the tumor of Western Xia, and in the past two years, the army of the Great Song Dynasty has added several powerful weapons, although it cannot fundamentally change the military of the Great Song Dynasty, but it has also greatly increased the combat capability of the army, and the people of the Western Xia are more certain.

It was precisely because Yang Wenguang knew the Great Song Dynasty's plan for Western Xia that he knew better than anyone the reason why Zhao Ji came to the border. However, it was not easy to delay the Western Xia people to go south, especially Li Liangzuo suffered a big loss in the Liao State, not only lost a part of the elite army, but also suffered a heavy blow to the domestic economy, in this case, the Western Xia was eager to make up for the losses of the Great Song Dynasty, so it was almost a foregone conclusion that the Western Xia would attack the Great Song Dynasty.

Just a few days ago, the Great Song Dynasty sent a piece of information from his meticulous work in Western Xia. This information shows that the high-level officials in Western Xia were very active during this time, and several famous generals have been transferred to the border army. This also shows that the Western Xia may go south at any time, but as for where the Western Xia will attack the Great Song Dynasty, Xizuo did not get any useful information, and it is said that the real location of the troops is only known to Li Liangzuo himself.

After Zhao Ji got the news that Western Xia was about to send troops, he was also anxious for a while, in this case. Since it is impossible to prevent the Tanguts from sending troops, the best way is to know the route of the Tangut army, and then concentrate the superior forces to drive the Tangut back as quickly as possible, so as to minimize the loss of the Great Song Dynasty. So as not to affect the plan for Western Xia too much.

It is precisely because of the above reasons that the location of the Western Xia troops has become the key to determining this battle, but the details of the Great Song Dynasty can no longer do anything about it, and can only send some domestic trends in the Western Xia, hoping to rely on the experience of the generals of the Great Song Dynasty border army to judge the location of the Western Xia.

In the past, although Li Liangzuo surrendered to the Great Song Dynasty on the surface, he also went south to attack the Great Song Dynasty several times, and each time he sent troops from the Yanzhou area of Western Xia, and each time he attacked Dashun City in Qingzhou, so most of the generals in the army thought that Li Liangzuo would still choose to send troops from Yanzhou this time, so the Great Song Dynasty needed to deploy heavy troops in the area of Dashun City.

However, Yang Wenguang and a few other experienced veterans did not agree with the above statement, they thought that when Li Liangzuo attacked the Great Song Dynasty in the first few times, the number of troops sent was not large, and Yanzhou was feasible as a rear base in Western Xia, but this time Western Xia concentrated more than 100,000 troops, if troops were sent from Yanzhou, the terrain and roads there, and food reserves were not enough to support such a large-scale army battle.

In contrast, Xi'an Prefecture near Tiandu Mountain, as the Xijing of Western Xia, was the base camp of Li Yuanhao's invasion of the Great Song Dynasty, which could fully support the battle of more than 100,000 troops, and this time the Xixia people suffered great losses, so this time the Xixia people invaded the Great Song Dynasty and the previous few times, and even this time Li Liangzuo didn't even find a reason, he nakedly wanted to loot the Great Song Dynasty, it can be said that he had torn his face, plus Yang Wenguang analyzed Li Liangzuo's character again, so he firmly believed that the other party would definitely choose to send troops from Tiandu Mountain.

The generals who insisted that the Western Xia send troops from Yanzhou were numerous, and the veterans such as Yang Wenguang, who insisted that the Western Xia send troops from the Tiandu Mountain area, although there were few people, most of them were highly respected, so the two sides were also in dispute, and in the end no one could convince anyone, so in the end the decision fell into the hands of Zhao Ji.

After seeing this situation, Zhao Ji also felt very embarrassed, because if his judgment was wrong, it would not only be a heavy blow to him, but also cause the Great Song Dynasty to suffer huge losses, and the battle plan for the Western Xia might also be postponed, or even canceled, and the Great Song Dynasty could only be in a militarily weak position at that time, and could be bullied by the Western Xia and Northern Liao at any time.

Yang Wenguang saw Zhao Ji's embarrassment and hesitation, he is over seventy years old this year, although he can still afford to hold a gun and kill the enemy, but he also obviously feels that he is old, if he misses this opportunity again, I am afraid that he will never have the opportunity to destroy Xixia with his own hands, so in this case, he secretly found Zhao Ji to persuade for a long time, and put forward a plan to prepare for both aspects, which persuaded Zhao Ji to make up his mind and mobilize most of the troops in his hands to the vicinity of Sanchuan Village, which is the closest to Tiandu Mountain. Prepare to block the army of Western Xia.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Ji, who was riding a horse and walking in the marching procession, couldn't help but worry again, although he made a decision, he still made mistakes in his judgment from time to time in his heart, what if Li Liangzuo still sent troops from Yanzhou? However, when he thought of the two preparations proposed by Yang Wenguang, he felt a little relieved.

According to Yang Wenguang's plan, although the army they rushed to Sanchuan Village this time was the main force, the army was not equipped with the new weapons invented by Zhao Yan, especially the ballista that could fire gunpowder shells, and there was no one, and all the crossbows used were the previous bed crossbows.

The reason why such an arrangement was made was because Yang Wenguang and Zhao Ji both thought that those new weapons were very powerful, and when they were used for the first time, the enemy did not have any preparation at all, and they would definitely have a surprise effect, so as to exert the greatest power, so it was best to be able to use them in the future battle to destroy the Xia, and now it is enough to use conventional weapons, after all, they are only blocking the attack of the Tanguts, not fighting a decisive battle with the Tanguts, and Yang Wenguang and other Song generals are still very confident in this.

However, although the main army of Zhao Ji and Yang Wenguang was not equipped with ballistas and other firearms, the other Song army sent to the direction of Yanzhou brought a large number of firearms, which was mainly to prevent that in case of misjudgment, if Li Liangzuo still sent troops from the direction of Yanzhou, then there was no need to hide the gunpowder weapons, and these powerful weapons could only be used to block the Western Xia army, so as to buy time for the return of the army.

These two hands can be said to be foolproof, no matter which direction the Western Xia attacked, they can be blocked, of course, Zhao Ji still hopes that Li Liangzuo can attack from Tiandu Mountain, so that the power of gunpowder weapons will not be exposed, and secondly, he also wants to personally meet the Western Xia lord who is the same age as him, speaking of which, although Li Liangzuo is young, he has succeeded to the throne when he was young, and he eradicated the powerful ministers in the court when he was a teenager, and in just a few years, the entire Western Xia was taken care of in an orderly manner, and was called a generation of Ming Jun by the Western Xia people, This made Zhao Ji a little unconvinced, and this time he had the opportunity to see him on the battlefield, which naturally made Zhao Ji feel a sense of enthusiasm.

After a few days of arduous marching, the main force of the Great Song Dynasty led by Zhao Ji finally came to the Sanchuan Village in the south of Tiandu Mountain, here is the place where the Western Xia invaded the Great Song Dynasty from Tiandu Mountain, more than 20 years ago, the Great Song Dynasty was defeated by Li Yuanhao here, the south of Sanchuan Village is not far from the good water river, there are countless Song troops buried, it is said that the underground there is all the white bones, whenever night falls, the locals can hear the sound of the army fighting, it can be said that this is the sad place of the Song army, but it is the place of merit of the Western Xia army.

Originally, Zhao Ji, as the quasi-prince, only needed to sit in the rear, but he heard that Li Liangzuo also personally led the troops every time, so he insisted on coming despite the opposition of Yang Wenguang and others, and when he saw the dilapidated city wall of Sanchuan Village in the distance, he couldn't help but feel a suppressed excitement in his heart, maybe this is the place where his martial arts began! (To be continued......)