The earliest prototype of Western Xia was the Dangxiang Qiang who was active on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the so-called Dangxiang clan was actually a branch of the Qiang tribe.

With the rise of Tibet, the party departments were gradually driven down by the Tibetan Empire and attached to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Tang Empire first settled it in Gyeongju, but after the Anshi Rebellion, fearing a foreign rebellion, it moved to the Eunju area.

Tuoba thus began to start, and was once named the Duke of Xia after raising troops in Huangchao for his military exploits in recovering Chang'an. He was given the surname Li Tangguo, and was later called the envoy of the Dingyan Army, and took the four prefectures of Yin, Xia, Sui, and You as the territory of the Tuoba Department.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Central Plains fought endlessly. In just half a century, five Central Plains dynasties have been replaced.

But no matter which dynasty rises, all the Dingyan armies surrender. In addition to consolidating the rule of the four states, he also reaped a lot of rewards. Even when the Liao State was established, the Tuoba Department also expressed a certain degree of friendship.

Until Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Qiao mutiny and established the Great Song Dynasty, the Dingyan army surrendered as usual. But the meaning of this submission is only an attitude and a nominal belonging, and in fact it still maintains the division of the feudal town.

However, the ambition of the Tuoba Department at this time is not great, and he just wants to always be able to maintain the state of separating the feudal towns and be a grass king.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, after almost 200 years, the economy of the Yinxia region has made great progress and development. Grain, cattle, horses, sheep, and green salt can not only ensure self-sufficiency, but also trade with foreign countries.

In the seventh year of the Taiping Rejuvenation of the Kingdom, in 982 AD, Zhao Guangyi took advantage of the disharmony within the Dingyan Army to officially launch the action of cutting down the feudal town, and made Li Jisheng's family enter Tokyo City with the Dingyan Army at that time. If you don't give money or power, you can be regarded as taking the opportunity to recover the land of Yinxia Sizhou.

I don't want Li Jiqian's brother Li Jiqian to go to Beijing, but absconded to Qinze and began to fight hard.

First, he used the prestige gradually formed by the Tuoba Department for hundreds of years to recruit troops, and at the same time, he successively used the in-law relationship to contact the local wealthy families, and his power gradually became stronger.

Three years later, Li Jiqian took advantage of the situation to raise troops, and first used a trick to trap and kill Cao Guangshi, the general of Yinzhou, and occupied Yinzhou. Later, he officially sent troops to break through the Great Song Dynasty and officially owned the foundation of the land.

Taking advantage of the hostile relationship between Song and Liao, Li Jiqian submitted to Liao and was canonized as the king of Xia.

During this period, Li Jisheng, who was in Tokyo in the Great Song Dynasty, also secretly helped each other in many ways, and continued to work hard to restore the former status of the Tuoba Department.

At that time, the strong enemy of the Great Song Dynasty was always the Khitan, and Li Jiqian, who only divided the land of the two states, did not pay too much attention to it. And Li Jiqian continued to pay tribute, paralyzing Zhao Guangyi in the name of restoring the land of his ancestors.

After all, Song Taizong took away the land of the four states, and only Yinzhou and Huizhou were robbed. It is said that it is also to pay tribute to the ancestors and ensure that the burial place of the ancestors is in the palm of their hands.

But he didn't think that this was Li Jiqian's strategy to delay the army, intending to restore his strength and then expand his foundation.

At this time, although Li Jiqian occupied two states, his actual strength could not pose any threat to the Great Song Dynasty in terms of economy and military terms.

But after another ten years of recuperation, Li Jiqian finally felt that he had enough capital and decided to use troops again. First, he led the army to take away 400,000 grains and grass from the Great Song Dynasty, and then sent troops to besiege Lingzhou, an important town in the northwest.

Zhao Guangyi finally got angry and mobilized the 5th Route Army to crusade against Li Jiqian. But this time the troops were dispatched, but they ended in failure.

After Zhao Guangyi's death, Song Zhenzong succeeded to the throne, and the timid Song Zhenzong directly ceded the four states of Yin, Xia, Sui, and You, which were finally taken by Zhao Guangyi, to Li Jiqian, and additionally took Jingzhou.

Li Jiqian's "wish" to restore the land of his ancestors was finally officially achieved, and Song Zhenzong and a group of ministers believed that peace in the northwest frontier could finally be restored, and the Dingyan army should not continue to make trouble.

But only a few years later, Li Jiqian sent a large army to sneak attack, conquered Lingzhou, an important town in the northwest, and renamed it Xiping Mansion.

Soon after, he captured Liangzhou and completely cut off the communication channels between the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Regions. As a result, the Great Song Dynasty lost the plains and horse breeding grounds in the Hetao area, and cut off the channels for buying horses in the Western Regions.

On the surface, the Great Song Dynasty did not lose much land and population, but it suffered great losses at the strategic level.

Originally, because of the loss of the land of Yanyun, there was no important place to raise horses, but now the loss of the Hetao area has made the Great Song Dynasty lose the last place to raise horses, and at the same time lose the commercial channel for buying horses in the Western Regions.

Since then, the Great Song Dynasty has always been at an absolute disadvantage at the strategic level.

Without enough horses, it is impossible to form a large-scale cavalry of the strategic arms of the agricultural era. At the end of the Song Dynasty, they could only use infantry as the main force in actual combat, and thus lost the strategic initiative.

After Li Jiqian, he was plotted against the Tubo Association and was killed by an arrow at the age of 42. It basically laid the foundation for the later establishment of the Western Xia state, and his son Li Deming succeeded to the throne and attacked Tubo in the south and the Uighurs in the west, making every effort to stabilize the Hexi Corridor, and officially changed Huaiyuan Town to Xingzhou to build the capital.

Although he was still nominally a vassal to the Liao State and the Great Song Dynasty, he was already an imperial style inside.

When Li Yuanhao succeeded to the throne in 1032, he began to prepare for the establishment of the country. Changing the era name, changing the surname, building a palace, establishing civil and military affairs, setting up a military system, establishing a military name, creating the Western Xia script, and changing the ceremonial grammar to issue a bald order.

After successively capturing the three strategic places of Tubo Guazhou, Shazhou and Suzhou, Li Yuanhao, who finally owned more than 20 states, officially established the country in 1038 AD, changed Xingzhou to Xingqing Mansion, established it as the capital, and the country was called Daxia. Because it is located in the northwest, it is known as Western Xia.

When the Western Xia was founded, the territory ended with the Yellow River in the east, Yumen in the west, Xiaoguan in the south, and the desert in the north, with a place of more than 20,000 miles. It is bordered by the Xijing Road of the Liao Kingdom in the northeast, the Great Song Dynasty in the east and southeast, and the Tibetan Provinces, the Huangtou Uighurs and the Xizhou Uighurs in the south and west.

Although most of the territory of the country is desert terrain, the Hetao Plain is in control. As the so-called Yellow River is harmful, only a set of profits, located in the center of the Hetao Plain, the Xingqingfu River ditch is vertical and horizontal, and there are thousands of lakes, known as the reputation of plugging the south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, in terms of food production, domestic demand can basically be met.

In the west, Helan Mountain can be used as a barrier to shield from the cold air of Siberia, and it can also be used as a strategic place to resist external invasions; There is the Hetao plain irrigated by the Yellow River, and there are grasslands for horse breeding and grazing, and both the output of green salt.

The founding of the Western Xia state can be described as very well prepared. And Li Yuanhao is good at military affairs, since he was the prince, he has been fighting in the east and west, and he is known for his reputation for winning a hundred battles and enjoying a reputation both inside and outside.

After the founding of the country, it fought with the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty more than ten times, and won all the four key strategic decisive battles, losing more than 100,000 elite soldiers and good generals of the Song Dynasty. Later, he had a bad relationship with the Liao State, and the Khitan Emperor personally led 100,000 elite soldiers to drive the expedition.

As a result, Li Yuanhao won a complete victory again, completely establishing the status of Western Xia, so that neither the Liao and Song countries dared to underestimate it.

However, in the end, the Western Xia was still small and the people lacked the background, and the successive campaigns consumed a lot of national strength.

Although the Great Song and Liao States were forced to recognize the formal establishment of the Western Xia, they did not have the capital to continue the war.

After that, the Western Xia continued to claim vassal status to the Great Song and Liao States, but this became a nominal title.

From the beginning of Zhao Guangyi's reduction of the feudal town to collect the Dingyan army, about half a century has passed. The final result was not only that the feudal towns of the Dingyan army were not flattened, but that the sphere of influence was expanded, causing the Great Song Dynasty itself to suffer heavy losses.

After the establishment of the Western Xia state, it invaded for many years, resulting in the erosion of the entire northwest of the Great Song Dynasty, and wars occurred almost every year.

The original hinterland of the Han and Tang dynasties became a frontier, and the beacon fire continued to cause the Great Song Dynasty to continue to lose blood.

Ding Yang knew very well that if he wanted to change the Great Song Dynasty now, he first needed to pacify the Western Xia and restore the entire northwest from the frontier to the interior again before he could continue the next move.

This time he left the Liao State and went straight to Western Xia, first of all, to see the domestic situation of Western Xia at this time, and secondly, to satisfy his own wishes.

Speaking of which, Xingqing Mansion, the capital of Western Xia, is his hometown after a thousand years, and he is really unwilling to travel through it without going to see it.

After leaving the Liao State, Ding Yang did not make a big fuss and even refused the official escort of the Liao State. The light car was simple, and he set off on the road with only a few guards.

In addition to the head of the Lin sect as a personal guard, Yelu Yixin also sent Xiao Da to escort the Eight Miao Immortals to the west.

In fact, everyone knows that with Ding Yang's strength, he doesn't need anyone to escort him at all. It's just that no matter how much face, even if Yelu Yixin is unwilling to stay with Ding Yang, he still has to give it away.

Anyway, Xiao Da and Ding Yang have also cooperated, and it was Xiao Da who was escorted to Huanglong Mansion before.

This time he dispatched again, which also made Xiao Da overjoyed - after all, he was a close subordinate of Yelu Hongji, and if he stayed in Shangjing, he would inevitably be rejected by Yelu Yixin. simply took the opportunity of the escort to leave Daliao with Ding Yang.

Although no official notice was given to the Western Xia, when Ding Yang entered the territory of the Western Xia from the Liao State, he was still very warmly welcomed.

The generals guarding the border of Western Xia have all been famous for a long time for the Eight Miao Immortals, and they are full of awe.

Not to mention that Ding Yang did not receive any mistreatment along the way, even Xiao Da enjoyed an unprecedented hospitality.

No matter who it was, they were all in awe when they saw Ding Yang and his party. Especially the common people, their attitude towards Ding Yang is no different from looking at the living immortals - a lot of news has been spread in the Liao Kingdom.

But when the group entered Xingqing Mansion, the capital of Western Xia, the situation finally changed.

The attitude that was full of enthusiasm suddenly cooled down, and there was a hint of hostility.

This situation caused Ding Yang's dissatisfaction at the time, and it made him even more suspicious.

Although he didn't think that he would gain a lot from this trip, the abnormal attitude in Western Xia was obviously for a reason.

After Xiao Da's many inquiries, he finally got a piece of news that I don't know if it's true or not.

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