Near the south gate of Xingqing City, a new silk shop was opened in the past two days, specializing in the silk of the Song Dynasty, although the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty have repeatedly fought in the past two years, but the high-level of the Western Xia still loves the high-end goods of the Song Dynasty, porcelain, silk, spices, rouge, high-grade tea cakes, etc., are the favorite commodities of the middle and upper classes of the Western Xia.

The middle and lower classes of the Western Xia are also inseparable from the items of the Song Dynasty, such as ceramics, tea cakes, daily necessities, etc., so the merchants of the Song Dynasty did business in the Western Xia, and there was no trouble at all, and even the Song merchant shops that operated high-end products would be protected to a certain extent, and the army and scoundrels were not allowed to extort.

The business of this silk shop is good, they have a relatively complete range of goods, not only all kinds of silk and satin, if you have money, you can also buy some treasures, such as Song Jin in Suzhou, Yun Jin in Jiangning, Shu Jin in Chengdu, Silk in Dingzhou, etc., but the quantity is not much, and the price is also very expensive.

The name of the silk shop is Song Jin, and the shopkeeper is a very fat middle-aged man, surnamed Zhang, and there are four or five guys below, all of whom are Song people, and no one knows who the proprietor is.

The shopkeeper and the guy can speak fluent Tangut language, and they are very thoughtful and patient in greeting guests.

Most of the customers are mainly female customers, many of whom are Western Xia ladies, who have specially come to the store to buy silk and satin.

"Shopkeeper, I want these three Song Jin, wrap them up for me." A tall and fat lady shouted at a straight voice.

The shopkeeper hurriedly stepped forward and begged, "Madam, didn't we say that we should only pick one?" You're going to buy them all, it's hard for me to do it! ”

"I won't give you any silver, if you sell it to others, if you sell it to me, you will sell it, and I won't be without you for a tael of silver."

The shopkeeper said helplessly: "Madam, why don't you leave one!" I only have three here, the samples are gone, the next time I buy, I will be the first to inform you. ”

The lady was reluctant, picked left and right, and left one, "Then say okay, the next time you buy goods, you must be the first to notify me." ”

"Definitely! Certain! ”

The noble lady immediately instructed her entourage to settle the bill, and the two Song Jin paintings cost one hundred taels of silver, and she did not frown.

Soon it was busy until noon, and the store was finally empty of customers, and the shopkeeper and the guys breathed a sigh of relief.

"Shopkeeper, business is so good, we need to buy more goods!"

"! Now that there are wars everywhere, where are we going to buy goods, let's talk about it when the war subsides a little! ”

At this time, a man hurriedly walked in from outside, and when the shopkeeper saw him, he immediately transferred to the backyard, and the man also came to the backyard, and the two entered a room.

The man said in a low voice: "I got the latest news, early this morning, Western Xia sent 15,000 troops to Hetao, including 10,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry. ”

Shopkeeper Zhang nodded, "Is there any other news?" ”

"Not yet."

"Okay, I'll send the news out right away."

This silk shop was the first intelligence agency of the intelligence battalion of the Song Army's General Staff Department in Xingqing Province.

Prior to this, the Song Dynasty did not attach importance to the intelligence of the Western Xia, such as the death of Emperor Yizong of the Western Xia, the Song Dynasty did not know at all, or the envoys of the Western Xia in the Song Dynasty notified the Zhizheng Hall, and the court knew that something happened in the Western Xia.

A group of more than a dozen of them lurked in Xingqing City two months ago, and after slowly understanding the situation, they opened this silk shop as a cover.

Half an hour later, the shopkeeper Zhang tied a tube of letters to the eagle's legs, and as soon as he let go, the goshawk flew into the sky, circled a few times and then flew in the direction of the northern Hetao.

………

In just half a month, a new Wuyuan county town stood on the Hetao Plain.

The inner city is still the former Tiande City, not demolished, the city is mainly warehouses and military camps, some businesses are also arranged in the inner city, the outer city is as long as thirty miles, and there is still only one city gate in the south.

The Song army at the same time from the Wuyuan River to divert water, formed a moat as wide as ten zhang, the Song army built a pontoon bridge on the moat, usually from the pontoon bridge in and out of the city, once the Western Xia army killed, immediately dismantle the pontoon bridge, pull up the suspension bridge, with ten zhang wide moat, the Western Xia army wanted to kill not easy.

At present, the outer city is relatively empty and wide, except for some military camps, the rest are used as training grounds and vegetable fields.

Wuyuan City has been built, and another Fertile City is in full swing construction, Woye County is east of Wuyuan City, about thirty miles away from Wuyuan City, the city is much smaller than Wuyuan City, just the same size as the original Tiande City, with a circumference of only twelve miles.

At present, the city wall has been repaired to a height of two zhang, at this time, Fanning received an eagle letter from Xingqing City, the Western Xia court gathered 15,000 troops, including 5,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, is killing the Hetao.

Fanning immediately ordered the construction of Fertile City to be stopped, and 20,000 craftsmen immediately withdrew to Wuyuan City.

The first counterattack of the Western Xia army on Hetao was approaching, and the 35,000 Song troops in the city were full of troops and horses, preparing to annihilate the Western Xia army under the city of Wuyuan.

At the head of the city, Fanning looked to the southwest, where there was a beacon they had built, and he was waiting for the beacon smoke to ignite.

Yang Wenguang, the lord of Wuyuan City, slowly walked to Fan Ning's side and asked with a smile: "It's very interesting, the other party actually only sent 15,000 troops, Xianggong, what do they mean by this?" ”

Fan Ning smiled faintly, "It shows that the Western Xia have not yet realized our strategic intention of preparing to attack them from the north, perhaps they also thought that the Song army occupied the Hetao to prepare for raising horses, and thought that there would only be a small number of Song troops here, so they wanted to crush the Song army's attempt to occupy the Hetao in time." ”

"So how are we going to deal with it?"

Fan Ning looked back at Yang Wenguang and said with a smile: "You are the main general, this has to be decided by you." ”

Yang Wenguang hurriedly shook his head, "The chief general is not the commander, I am only responsible for leading the troops to fight, and the specific decisions must be finalized by the minister, this is the rule of our Great Song Dynasty, I don't dare to break this precedent." ”

Fanning didn't insist, and smiled: "Then the old general will tell me what you think." ”

Yang Wenguang thought for a while and said: "If you want to catch a big fish, you must put a long line, it is better for us to show weakness, lure the enemy deep, cut off his retreat, and then annihilate it in one fell swoop." ”

Fanning smiled and nodded, "This idea is interesting, you can give it a try!" ”

........

At noon the next day, the defenders of Wuyuan City saw the smoke in the distance, the enemy finally came, and Yang Wenguang made careful arrangements, preparing to annihilate the land of the future invasion on the Hetao Plain.

15,000 Western Xia troops slaughtered to the Hetao, their formation is the Montenegrin Weifu Army, according to the convention, they should be stationed in the Hetao Plain, but because there is no enemy in the Hetao area, the cost of supply is high, the Montenegrin Weifu Army is actually stationed in Xingqing Province.

This time the Hetao was attacked by the Song army, of course, they should be responsible for recapturing the Hetao and annihilating the Song army.

The chief general of this army is called Cui Shancheng, who is about fifty years old, who once followed Li Yuanhao to seize the Hexi Corridor, fought against the Song army many times, has rich experience, and is the veteran of the party army.

But rich experience is not necessarily all good things, Cui Shancheng has never lost a battle, he looked down on the Song army from the bones, he thought that the Song army was defeated in a battle, and he had the idea of underestimating the enemy as soon as he set out on the expedition.

Cui Shancheng also did not realize that the Song army was preparing to use the Hetao as a strategic intention to attack Western Xia, and he also thought that the Song army just wanted to seize a land for raising horses, so he did not attach much importance to tactics, and brought not much dry food, and could only hold out for more than ten days, as for the forage, there was no need for it, and the Hetao Plain was full of rich pasture.

The army arrived at the south bank of the Yellow River in Hetao, and at this time, a soldier found a beacon fire more than ten miles away, Cui Shancheng waved his hand and said: "Don't pay attention, they are telling the grazing horses and sheep to enter the city to hide, listen to my orders, and cross the river immediately!" ”

The Tangut people were far more mature than the Liao people, they not only had a large number of rafts, but also large rafts and super-large rafts, the largest raft was equivalent to a 3,000-stone warship, mainly used as a ferry and to transport grain and grass materials.

The Western Xia army was also very handy in building pontoon bridges with leather rafts, and they connected hundreds of rafts into long strings, placed them vertically in the river, fixed one end, and the other end floated with the river to the other side of the Yellow River, and then fixed with several piles.

Two hours later, the Tangut army built a pontoon bridge on a raft at the narrowest point of the Yellow River, laid it with wooden planks, and the army began to cross the river quickly and continue to drive deeper into the loop.