No one thought that the Great Song Dynasty would take the initiative to attack the Western Xia, and did not show any obvious signs in advance, and when the news of the fall of Xi'an Prefecture spread, the world was almost boiling, and the people of the Great Song Dynasty were excited at the same time, they were also a little worried, after all, the Great Song Dynasty army could defend the city over the years, but the initiative to attack was almost defeated, and the Liao people were even more surprised. In addition, Shuang experienced the scourge of civil strife, and the country was also weak, and it was impossible to aid Western Xia.

After a short period of shock, the Tangut people who were attacked quickly became angry, and the generals of the Tangut army stationed in various places wrote to petition, hoping to lead the Song army back, and Li Liangzuo, who was the king of a country, was also very angry, and immediately mobilized the army to prepare to personally lead the army to recapture Xi'an.

However, before Li Liangzuo's army was mobilized, the other two armies followed by Zhao Xu's army also crossed the border between the Great Song Dynasty and Western Xia, of which the Western Route Army attacked the Huizhou City of Western Xia, and went straight to Yingli City, and the Eastern Route Army entered the city, Pule City, Yaode City, and then turned west to kill Mingsha City, Yingli City and Mingsha City were not far away, just two strong cities in front of Zhao Xu, and after the East and West armies conquered these two cities, Zhao Ji finally arrived to meet them.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Yingli City and Mingsha City are also located on the edge of the Yellow River, and they go downstream along the Yellow River. It is the economic center of Western Xia, the capital of Western Xia, Xingqing Mansion is also located on the bank of the Yellow River, and there are also very important towns such as Lingzhou, Shunzhou, and Jingzhou.

However, the shocking appearance of the Great Song army has only just begun. After the three-way army met in Yingli City and Mingsha City, in addition to the troops left behind, the remaining 150,000 troops that could be mobilized went straight to Lingzhou along the Yellow River, Lingzhou is the seat of Xiping Mansion, and Xingqing Mansion is not far from the north, which can be said to be one of the barriers of Xingqing Mansion. If this place is conquered, then only Shunzhou City and Jingzhou City will stand in front of the Great Song army.

Originally, in the eyes of Li Liangzuo and the Western Xia generals, the Song army was able to conquer Xi'an Prefecture and other places, but it was nothing more than relying on a surprise attack, so that the Western Xia army was not prepared, so it would be caught off guard, but now the Great Song Dynasty's invasion of Western Xia has been known to the world, and the Western Xia army in various places is also prepared, and Lingzhou City is not only a tall city wall. Moreover, there are 60,000 troops stationed, which is enough to block the Great Song army, and may even kill the other party.

However, the Great Song Dynasty has been preparing for this battle to destroy the summer for several years, and the army is carrying sufficient firearms, so when the Great Song army rushed to Lingzhou City, they immediately used ballistas to bombard the city gate, which can be said to be almost a copy of Xi'an Prefecture, although the defenders of Lingzhou City received the news before. I heard that Song Jun had a powerful weapon in his hands, but he didn't take it to heart. When he and his soldiers experienced the power of firearms, they paid a huge price for it, Lingzhou City only lasted less than three days, and was broken through the city gate by Zhao Ji's army, and then launched a brutal street battle, and finally the Great Song army relied on the advantage of firearms and numbers. It took another two days to finally capture Lingzhou City.

After the fall of Lingzhou, the entire Western Xia finally panicked, after all, the Song army was Shunzhou and Jingzhou again, and these two cities were almost next to Xingqing Mansion, if they were conquered again. At that time, Xingqing Mansion is like a woman who has robbed all her clothes, she can only still have tall walls and block the enemy, and even if Xingqing Mansion, which is the capital of the country, falls, then Western Xia will be equivalent to destroying the country.

It is precisely because of this that Li Liangzuo and the ministers of Western Xia finally let go of their original arrogance and began to pay attention to the army of the Great Song Dynasty, and it was only at this time that they discovered that the reason why the Great Song Dynasty attacked everything was because of the use of a new weapon, although they had already received a report of defeat, but no one paid attention to it at all, which also made them finally taste the bitter fruits of today.

There have long been gunpowder weapons in the Northern Song army, and Zhao Yan just improved them, so the Xixia people soon discovered that the weapons used by the Great Song Dynasty army were actually gunpowder, after all, this thing is not a secret, the Western Xia will import a lot of fireworks from the Great Song Dynasty every year, and there are also some gunpowder craftsmen in the country, although the power of the cannonball is much larger, as long as it is a discerning person, it can be seen.

It's a pity that even if the Western Xia knew that the Great Song Dynasty used gunpowder, they didn't have a very good way, unless they knew the formula of gunpowder, and then made the same firearm, so that it was possible to use gunpowder against gunpowder, so that the advantage of the Great Song Dynasty in weapons disappeared, but unfortunately the Great Song Dynasty protected the gunpowder formula extremely tightly, and it was impossible for the Western Xia to get it in a short time.

When the Western Xia had a headache about gunpowder, Zhao Ji and Yang Wenguang were not idle, and the plan they formulated this time was to fight a quick battle, taking advantage of the fact that the Western Xia people were not familiar with the power and characteristics of gunpowder weapons, and strive to capture Xingqing Mansion as soon as possible, so after they conquered Lingzhou, they only rested for two days, and immediately waved their troops north, pointing directly at Shunzhou and Jingzhou, the last two barriers in the south of Xingqing Mansion.

As a prince, Zhao Ji was already very risky to follow the army before, so after entering Western Xia, he was left in the rear to dispatch in the center, and the main people who led the army to fight in front were Yang Wenguang and Guhe, and this attack on Shunzhou and Jingzhou was led by Yang Wenguang himself.

However, this time the Tangut people have been prepared, especially when they know that the weapon that the Great Song Dynasty relies on is gunpowder, which makes many Tangut people reduce the fear in their hearts, and the Tangut people are not stupid, they are not stupid people, they have used mud to block the city gate hole before the Song army arrived, so that even if the city gate is broken by the Song army, the Song army will not be able to enter.

In the face of this situation, Yang Wenguang was also psychologically prepared, so he was also very calm, and immediately commanded the army to start a conventional siege battle, but this time the army of the Great Song Dynasty had firearms as cover, and the cannonballs fired by the ballistas blew up the city head, and the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty below took ladders to attack the city, as long as they could occupy a section of the city wall, then the army could continue to attack the city.

Although this attack was very unsmooth, but Yang Wenguang finally spent half a month to capture Shunzhou City, so that there was only one Jingzhou City left in the south of Xingqing Mansion, and in the following time, Yang Wenguang concentrated his forces to storm Jingzhou City, hoping to overcome this last checkpoint as soon as possible, but unfortunately Li Liangzuo's army mobilized at this time finally arrived, nearly 100,000 troops defended Jingzhou City, although the Song army suffered heavy casualties in the firearms, but these Western Xia troops did not retreat, This made the whole battle situation stalemate all at once.

Compared with the cruelty and bloodshed on the battlefield, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty is still peaceful, but all the institutions of the imperial court are running rapidly because of this war, and when they see the carriages of officials on the street, they are all in a hurry, and even some gatherings in the city are much less, it can be said that in addition to those ordinary people, the high-level officials of the Great Song Dynasty have also been paying attention to the war situation in Western Xia.

"It's blocked, which is also expected, but it's really a pity, one step further can hit the city of Xingqing Mansion!" Zhao Yan in the room said with some annoyance, this is the room of the military academy Zhang Zai, since Zhao Ji and they began to attack Western Xia, he often came here to discuss the battle on the front line with Zhang Zai.

"Hehe, don't be impatient, when I discussed this battle situation with Brother Huaiyu, I only thought that our army would be blocked in Lingzhou, and now it is very good to be able to hit the city of Jingzhou!" Zhang Zai said very calmly at this time. After Yang Huaiyu left, the fourth enrollment of the military academy went very smoothly, and now the military academy has once again enrolled more than 200 cadets and has begun normal operation.

"Having said that, it's still very unwilling, but it's still very unwilling!" Zhao Yan walked back and forth in the room a few times, in fact, he didn't expect that after the gunpowder weapon was improved, it could burst out with such a powerful power, which made the combat effectiveness of the Great Song army increase exponentially, and it actually killed the heartland of the Western Xia people in one go.

"Although it's a pity, but judging from the current situation, the reason why the Xixia people were able to hold Jingzhou City was all by using the lives of the Xixia army to fill it, according to the intelligence sent by Huaiyu, the casualties of the Xixia people in Jingzhou were more than several times ours, but General Yang's consumption of gunpowder weapons was too great, can His Royal Highness's ordnance supervisor still support it?" Zhang Zai spoke again at this time, after Yang Wenguang and other generals realized the powerful lethality of gunpowder weapons, they all cherished their soldiers, and when they could use firearms, they would never use human lives to fill them, so Zhang Zai was really worried that they would use up the firearms in reserve, and you must know that there is a stronger Xingqing Mansion behind Jingzhou City.

"The reserve of firearms is no problem, the key is that transportation is a big trouble, fortunately, the Ordnance Superintendent has sent a batch of firearms reserves to Gyeongju, but the day before yesterday I received news that the firearms consumption on the front line is indeed a bit large, and the reserves in Gyeongju City have been almost used, so during this time, the Ordnance Superintendent will allocate a batch of firearms to send over." Zhao Yan also said when he heard this, although the consumption of firearms is a little larger, but he has always believed that human life is more valuable than anything, so as long as he can die less Song Jun, it is understandable that the consumption is larger.

Zhang Zai also nodded when he heard this, and just wanted to discuss the battle situation again, but at this time, he heard a rush of footsteps outside, and then saw Huang Wude actually break in, which made Zhao Yan also startled, because if there was no special matter, Huang Wude would never have appeared here in the military academy. (To be continued......) R1292