At the beginning of June, 200,000 new troops arrived at Wuyuan City, plus the 80,000 troops before Wuyuan City, the total strength of the Song army reached 280,000, and more than 3,000 large and small warships.

In the tent of the large camp outside the city, Fanning held a high-level meeting before the war, which was attended by all the generals above the command level.

Fan Ning spread out a huge map of Western Xia on the big table, and Fan Ning pointed to Xingqing Mansion with a wooden pole and said to everyone: "Judging from the information we have so far, there are no more than 80,000 troops left in Xingqing Mansion, and there is the largest warehouse group in Western Xia on the dock outside the city, which contains countless grains, grasses and materials they raised for the attack on the Song Dynasty, and the first goal of our fleet is to destroy their warehouses and the grain and grass materials inside." ”

Di Qing next to him hesitated for a moment and said: "The north of Xingqing Mansion is Dingzhou, if our fleet passes through Dingzhou, it will be easy to be discovered, and they are likely to transfer grain and grass materials in advance." ”

Fan Ning smiled: "There are some details involved, Dingzhou City is about two miles away from the Yellow River, standing on the city wall, you can clearly see the situation in the Yellow River, but if it is night, they can't see it."

Moreover, the Yellow River is more than ten miles wide, we try to walk along the east bank of the Yellow River, they can not find it, from Dingzhou to Xingqing Mansion is only fifty miles, we go when it is dark, we will definitely be able to reach Xingqing Mansion before dawn the next day. ”

One of the commanders next to him said: "Once our troops come to the city, will Western Xia recruit the troops of the state capitals to King Qin?" ”

"Definitely, tens of thousands of people can't hold a capital, Xingqing Mansion will inevitably recruit the troops of the nearby state capitals to rush to the capital Qinwang, I still have that principle, don't fight the other party head-on too early, to constantly weaken them, eat them up little by little, rather take a long time, and win this war at the least cost."

Everyone nodded silently, and Fan Ning said: "Among all the cities in Western Xia, we have to pay attention to two cities, one is Dingzhou City, we must take it, as our foundation in the hinterland of Western Xia, there are about 10,000 troops in Dingzhou City at present, I don't know if the Western Xia court will recruit them back to Xingqing Mansion, if they are recruited, we will directly occupy the city, if Western Xia does not recruit them, then we must concentrate on the army to capture Dingzhou."

The second is this city, Fan Ning is the Xiping Mansion on the front side, "This city is on the east bank of the Yellow River, and their Qinwang Xingqing Mansion will inevitably cross the Yellow River, and our second goal this time is to completely annihilate the army of Xiping Mansion." ”

.........

All the generals went back to prepare, and only Fan Ning and Di Qing were left in the big tent.

Di Qing said earnestly: "I'm afraid you have to face a choice, the Song army has not encountered it before, this time you will encounter, occupy the belly city of Western Xia, how do you deal with the party members?" ”

Fan Ning said slowly: "Actually, the Song army encountered it when it captured Liaoyang Mansion in Tokyo, and my order to the naval army is that no matter how old or young, those who resist will be killed, and this time it will be the same." ”

"The party members are very fierce, every household has weapons, although I do not approve of the massacre, but the kindness of women will also make us suffer a great loss, you should be more vigilant, grasp this measure."

Fanning nodded, "I see!" ”

Di Qing sighed again, "But once you kill the civilians, this matter will become a stain in the future, I myself have a deep experience, when I seized Youzhou, in order to prevent the party from colluding with the outside, I ordered the slaughter of more than a dozen tribes such as Sui Xiang, Mao Nu, Shang Luo, etc., and later when the hundred officials of the court jointly impeached me, this incident became my biggest evidence of crime." ”

Fanning was silent for a moment and said with a smile: "I just want to have a clear conscience, as for the rest, let them say!" ”

Early the next morning, Fan Ning ordered Yang Wenguang to lead 30,000 troops to defend Wuyuan City, he personally commanded 1,000 warships, 200,000 troops rose and marched south, and the Song army opened the prelude to the attack on Western Xia.

.........

Decades after the founding of the Western Xia, they never dreamed that the Song army's warfleet would come to the city.

On 20 June, just after dawn, an overwhelming number of Song warships appeared on the Yellow River outside Xingqingfu, and 800 warships appeared on the Yellow River as wide as 10 miles.

Hundreds of huge rafts docked on the shore were engulfed in flames, and the warehouses on the shore were also ablaze, and one hundred and twenty warehouses, 500,000 stone grain, 300,000 loads of forage, and countless armor materials were burned.

There was chaos in Xingqing City, the city gate was closed, and the 50,000 troops stood at the head of the city, all with grim expressions, their eyes full of shock, from the Son of Heaven to the peddlers, from the generals to the soldiers, no one would have thought of this terrifying scene today.

Not only that, but 10,000 Song troops also landed on the east bank, ruthlessly destroying the endless wheat fields, the wheat fields were full of green wheat seedlings, and the grain here was only harvested once a year, and the wheat fields were destroyed by the Song army, and the hard-earned grain on the docks was also burned, which meant that Western Xia would face famine this year.

The people outside the city of Xingqing Mansion fled one after another, and the cavalry of the Song army lit fires everywhere, and the entire outside of the city fell into a sea of fire.

Dozens of envoys with military talismans and holy decrees rushed out of the southern city gate on horseback and galloped towards all parts of the Western Xia, and the Empress Dowager Liang urgently issued more than a dozen decrees, asking the Western Xia troops from all over the country to rush to the capital to Qin Wang.

Due to the small population, the Western Xia had to implement the national policy of all the people being soldiers, but there were not many standing troops in peacetime, only 200,000 people, of which 100,000 troops guarded the long southern border, and the other 100,000 troops were deployed in the capital in addition to 50,000 people guarding all parts of Hexi.

This time, the whole country of Western Xia mobilized to prepare to use 300,000 troops to attack the Song Dynasty, in addition to the original 100,000 border troops, in fact, a new reserve army of 200,000 was requisitioned.

Among them, the 100,000 reserve army suffered two defeats, all of which were buried in the Hetao, and the 100,000 troops were distributed in various state capitals.

The 100,000 troops on the southern frontier can't move, and once they are transferred, the 300,000 Song troops outside will definitely enter the hinterland of Western Xia, and the 50,000 troops in the Hexi Corridor can't move, otherwise the Hexi Corridor will not be protected.

The situation was very critical, and the high-ranking officials and important ministers of Western Xia could not care about whether other state capitals were empty, and at this time, it was important to keep the capital for the first time.

The first Qinwang army to arrive in Xingqing Mansion was the 10,000 reserve army of Dingzhou.

Dingzhou is located about fifty miles north of Xingqing Mansion, is the north gate of Xingqing Mansion, there are 10,000 defenders in peacetime, because the Song army hundreds of warships are under the city of Xingqing Mansion, it is easy to create an illusion to the Western Xia court, that is, the north gate is meaningless.

For the Western Xia court, Dingzhou really had no effect, neither could stop the main force of the Song army from going south, nor could it intercept the logistics team of the Song army, so it could only defend the city alone, so the Western Xia court did not hesitate to transfer the army of Dingzhou City back to Xingqing Mansion.

But the consequences soon appeared, 10,000 Song troops quickly marched into Dingzhou City, unexpectedly, after the Song army entered the city, it was met with fierce resistance from the soldiers and civilians in the city, and the Song army suffered nearly 1,000 casualties before completely occupying Dingzhou.

Fanning immediately issued an order to kill all the men over the age of 14 in the city, totaling more than 5,600 people, and this order later became Fanning's biggest political stain.

..........

Two days later, Fanning led an army of 100,000 troops into Dingzhou, using Dingzhou as a logistics base for the Song army, which the Western Xia court did not expect, they thought that Dingzhou was meaningless to them, but forgot that Dingzhou was of great importance to the Song army, and the Song army occupied Dingzhou, and it also laid a foundation in the hinterland of Western Xia.

..........

There are several big cities around Xingqing Mansion in Western Xia, Dingzhou in the north, Shunzhou, Jingzhou, Huaizhou and Lingzhou in the south, a total of five big cities defend the capital Xingqing Mansion.

Of these five big cities, only Lingzhou is on the east bank of the Yellow River, and the other four big cities are on the west bank of the Yellow River, and there are dozens of canals and rivers on the west bank of the Yellow River, forming a dense water network.

The abundant water sources, fertile land, and abundant sunlight have made this vast land historically known as Saishang Jiangnan and the richest region in the northwest.

Lingzhou is also called Xiping Mansion, located in the southernmost of the five cities, it is located on the east bank of the Yellow River, once the Song army from the south into the hinterland of Xixia, first of all, it is necessary to come to the city of Xiping Mansion, so Xiping Mansion is also known as the south gate of Xingqing Mansion, stationed 20,000 reserve troops, and hoarded a large amount of grain in the city.

Since Dingzhou, the northern gate, had been abandoned, in order to preserve the strength of the Western Xia court to the greatest extent, it ordered the 20,000 reserve troops of Xiping Mansion to also rush to King Qin of Xingqing Mansion.

The 20,000 troops of Xiping Province rushed to Xingqing Province, unlike the other four states, and it needed to cross the Yellow River.

After planning and then moving, the Song army set its sights on Xiping Mansion at the beginning of the army.