The Xining Army took Huangzhou and Kuozhou almost bloodlessly, as well as the land west of the Hexi River of the Jishi Army.

Needless to say, Kuozhou is even inferior to Huangzhou, only 800 soldiers defend the city, as soon as the army arrives, the governor of Kuozhou directly ordered to open the city gate, step by step out of the city and surrender.

This is different from fighting against Western Xia, knowing that he can't hold it, he has to fight bloodily and swear to live and die with the city.

At the moment, it is their old Zhao family's own business, the governor of Kuozhou is not interested in fighting, the disparity between the forces of the two sides is huge, and they can't fight it, anyway, the holy decree does not say that the king of Qin rebelled, but only that the states are guilty of arrest, and if they can't hold it, they will vote well, and they can't let the Western Army kill each other.

Tokyo, the imperial city of Enfukugu.

"What?" Emperor Daojun stood up abruptly after the imperial case, staring at He Li in front of him with wide eyes, He Li is not very old, he is the champion of Qin Hui's imperial examination, and Qin Hui is the eye.

His promotion speed is even faster than Qin Hui, after a short period of two years as a Beijing official, he went all the way up, knowing Suining Mansion, Taizhou, Fengxiang Mansion, and now at the age of less than forty, he is appointed as the Privy Council, and is the second-in-command second only to Tong Guan in the Privy Council.

Tong Guan left Beijing to conquer the Liao State, the Privy Council and the domestic military, all of which were run by He Li, he was sweating at the moment, and said: "Official, the west of the Yellow River on Xihe Road was occupied by the King of Qin, and now the King of Qin is guarding the river." ”

"What a hindrance, what a hindrance!" Emperor Daojun waved his sleeves and knocked over all the artifacts on the case, and scolded: "I want to recover the old land of Houshan, the homeland of Youyan, and build immortal meritorious deeds, so this evil obstacle will come to make trouble for me, take advantage of the fire to rob, and have bad intentions, what does he want to do?" I see that he has really rebelled! ”

He Li said: "Official, even if King Qin is really reversed, he can only endure it at the moment, and it is not good to make a big show and tell the world." ”

Emperor Daojun said angrily: "How can it not be announced? I want the whole world to know that this evil obstacle is rebellious, and the wolf's ambition was all hypocritical and cover-up in the past, but now the original form is revealed, and everyone can ask for it if they want to steal the artifact of the society! ”

Hearing the words wolf ambition, the corners of He Li's mouth twitched, it seems that the official family is really angry, and he can even say such words.

"Official, this matter must not be done!" He Li hurriedly dissuaded: "Official, now that the army is going north to attack Liao, it is a time of tension, the court and the people in the country are worried and must be appeased, and the soldiers in front must also be distracted to kill the enemy...... I'm afraid to be shaken! ”

"This ......" Emperor Daojun immediately shuddered when he heard this, how could he not know the truth of this, he had not said it in the holy decree before, on the one hand, it was too embarrassing to be rebelled by his son because of his own face, and on the other hand, he was worried about affecting the war in the north to invade Liao.

"This evil obstacle will really choose the right time!" Emperor Daojun was so angry that he slapped the table in front of him hard: "He has already calculated it, he has already calculated it!" ”

"Official ......" He Li bent down and said: "Weichen thinks that if it is still to be discussed before, but at this moment, the army of Liao has already stepped into Xijin Mansion, and it should be mainly to recover Yanyun, as long as the King of Qin is temporary...... If you don't take your troops across the Yellow River for the time being, let's just watch its movements and wait for the Western Army to come back. ”

"But what if this evil obstacle is mad and crosses the Yellow River?" Emperor Daojun shouted loudly, and Zhang Di at the door was so frightened that he hurriedly closed the door of the palace.

"If the King of Qin really stepped on the Yellow River and attacked the other half of the Xihe Road, then it was certain that he would take advantage of the fire to rob him, and the officials should immediately dispatch the local forbidden troops in the south to encircle and suppress the Xihe River, and then announce it to the world, count the ten major sins of the King of Qin, and reprimand him for ignoring the overall situation, causing chaos and trouble, and intending to prevent the imperial court from recovering the homeland of Shenzhou.

Emperor Daojun's face was cloudy when he heard this: "Why don't you summon the Western Army back?" ”

"Official, the Western Army cannot be called, if the war in the north is tight, once it is recalled, even if it is only partial, I am afraid that the previous achievements will be lost, and if you really take the sixteen states, you must be heavily garrisoned, otherwise, otherwise...... Jin Guo covets it, and secretly moves crooked thoughts, which is not good for my Great Song Dynasty! ”

Emperor Daojun frowned and said, "Can't the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army move?" ”

He Li said: "Official, originally part of the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army was stationed in Hebei, and then King Yun had to take command and take the elite to Liaodi, and the rest must be left to guard the Beijing Division, and they must not be moved!" ”

Emperor Daojun glanced at him: "Then just watch the second child occupy half of the Xihe?" ”

He Li said: "It's just half of the Xihe River, it's not a big problem at the moment, the land west of the river is only Huangzhou in addition to Xining, and it is still prosperous, and Kuozhou was originally a military state, not as good as the county seat of the Central Plains, if the King of Qin stops here, it is estimated that he wants to rely on the Yellow River to divide and rule, and the official family only needs to wait for Yanyun to calm down, and turn around and think about it slowly." ”

Emperor Daojun snorted: "Slowly calculate, slowly calculate, he has rebelled, where do I have the heart to slowly calculate with him." ”

He Li said cautiously: "The official, the minister guesses that the King of Qin may not have crossed this side of the Yellow River. ”

"Why did Aiqing say this?" Emperor Daojun wondered.

"If the King of Qin really plans to go all the way to the east, cross the Yellow River, and go down to Qin Feng, then he should have raised an anti-flag at this moment and sent it to the world, but as far as the minister knows, nothing like this has happened."

"You don't understand this obstacle." Emperor Daojun said lightly: "This evil obstacle is the best at playing some tricks to hide from the sky and cross the sea, and take the sheep by hand, and if you don't raise the anti-flag and send anti-texts, you just want to confuse the behavior, give the outside world a false impression, so as to seize the city and land in a foolish way, I will give Xizhou Tong a decree now, hinting to him, don't be deceived by this evil obstacle, and also tell him to pay close attention to the movements in Hexi, as soon as this evil obstacle has an attempt to cross the Yellow River, immediately report it urgently." ”

"Yes, the official is wise!" He Li said busily.

Huangzhou, Zhizhou Yamen.

Zhao Ta sat on the chair and squinted at the two kneeling on the ground, one was Xin Shuxian, and the other was Yu Wenshu, the governor of Huangzhou.

Yu Wenshu lowered his head and didn't say a word, he had nothing to say, even if he was stupid at this moment, he also knew that Yao Pingzhong must have secretly taken refuge in Zhao Tan, otherwise where would he not move a knife or a shot, so he ran out of the city with the army, especially when he left, the gate of the eastern city was damaged, and he didn't send a boat back after running across the Yellow River.

Since Yao Pingzhong has taken refuge, it is difficult for Yao Gu to say, if Yao Gu also takes refuge in Zhao Ta, then something big will happen in the northwest.

Yu Wenshu lowered his head and pondered in his heart, but Uncle Xin next to him held his head high: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin occupies Xining and captures Huangzhou, does he really want to dig the foundation of my Great Song Dynasty and raise an army to rebel?" ”

Zhao Ta sneered: "Do you still use this king to dig?" If this king doesn't make a move, this Xihe will soon become your Xin family. ”

"If you want to add to the crime, there is no excuse, King Qin is slandering!" Xin Shuxian immediately said anxiously: "The old man has been fighting horses all his life, loyal to the monarch, and loving Li Min, and has never done anything deviant, if the king of Qin sees the old man unpleasantly, he will kill him, but he must not tarnish the old man's name in his life!" ”

"Clear the name?" Zhao Ta looked at him and shook his head, he has nothing to say, people are changing, there are countless examples of dragon slayers who are dragons since ancient times, and Xin Shuxian is no exception, and even Xin Shuxian is not qualified enough, after all, the official position is not high enough, the power is not big enough, and he is only confined to Xihe.

Zhao Ta didn't plan to kill him, although he didn't win over the Xin family, but the Xin family brothers are leading troops in the Liao State right now, if he kills the Xin family on his side, the Xin family brothers will make trouble on the battlefield, which will be unfavorable to the Liao war, although he is out of the court at the moment, but in the matter of Yanyun, he naturally has to stand on the side of the Great Song Dynasty, although the Great Song may not be able to recapture the sixteen states, or even hold on.

Zhao Ta sighed slightly, waved his hand to the side, and immediately came over and escorted the two down.

Then he summoned the generals to a meeting, went to the city to lookout, and after giving a careful explanation, he returned to Xining Prefecture on the second day.

He then began to purge his troops and horses, train new troops, send troops to lay tight defenses on the banks of the Yellow River, and then discussed the matter of attacking Western Xia.

The sign of the Xining Zhizhou Mansion has been removed at this moment, and the name of the Generalissimo Division has been replaced, and Zhao Ta took the post of Generalissimo himself, and changed the original Zhizhou Hall inside into a conference hall.

At this time, there were more than a dozen people in the hall, the deputy protector of the Longyou Metropolitan Protectorate, the chief adjutant of the three military divisions, and the commanders and deputy commanders of the armies below.

Zhao Ta pointed to a military map on the wall and said: "Let's take a closer look, express their opinions, and discuss any ideas." ”

Everyone stepped forward to watch together, some of whom had known about the situation of Western Xia before, and some who had only heard of its name but knew it in general, but they all looked at the map seriously.

This picture was hand-drawn by Zhao Ta himself, which is different from ordinary military drawings and is more detailed and easy to understand.

Nowadays, Western Xia has a total of 16 prefectures and 4 prefectures, the capital is Xingqing Mansion, and the other three prefectures are Xuanhua Mansion, Xiping Mansion and Xiliang Mansion.

However, the states of Western Xia are different from those of the Great Song Dynasty, and the states along the border are called military divisions, especially the places where they intersect with Jingyuan, Huanqing, and Yanyan of the Great Song Dynasty, and the military divisions are dense and heavily guarded.

On this side of the Xihe River, there is only one Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division, and there is a Gaizhu City in front, and there is Rouwolf Mountain below.

As for the Xixia military division of the two thousand miles of land on the right side of Longyou, they are all far away, after all, the junction here is extremely difficult to walk, the sandstone mountain desert, it is not easy to use soldiers, once you step into the other party's area, it will be difficult to go back.

The military system of Western Xia is also different from that of the Great Song Dynasty, Li Yuanhao called the emperor, divided the whole territory of Western Xia into the left and right compartments, the five defense areas, that is, the five major legions, with the military division, the economic strategy division, the military system is roughly divided into three layers, the first layer is the privy council, the second layer is the economic strategy division, the unified army division and the palace front division, and the third layer is the military supervision division.

There are a total of 12 military supervision divisions, similar to the military route of the Great Song Dynasty, and each military supervision department is divided into garrison affairs by the capital commander, deputy commander, supervising army envoy, and subordinate commanders, coaches, and left and right attendants.

The initial strength of the Western Xia was about 150,000, and now it is known as 300,000, according to the intelligence of the Privy Council of the Great Song Dynasty, the real elite soldiers are more than 80,000, and the rest are permanent troops, or the old, weak, sick and disabled.

Among them, the most elite is the 25,000 guards of Xingqing Mansion, belonging to the Central Legion, this part of the soldiers and horses includes six classes of Zhisu Guards and 3,000 Iron Harriers, as well as the Lingzhou and Xiangqing Supervision Military Division in the south of Gongwei Xingqing Mansion, and the Right Wing and Chaoshun Supervision Military Division in the north of Gongwei Xingqing Mansion.

And the commander of this central legion, the commander of the army and the head of the town, is the brother of the Western Xia Emperor Li Qianshun, the king of Jin, Li Chage.

Brother Richard is a man who is eloquent and strategic, has a military strategy, can open a three-stone bow, can make hundreds of catties of horse lance, shoot heavy armor, and immediately take the enemy's head.

Moreover, this person once helped the Tubo tribes to oppose the Song Dynasty, reformed the iron harrier marching method, and defeated the Song army in Tong'an City.

This battle made Richard known as the god of the Western Xia army, and even the Uighurs and Liao and other places have heard of it.

At this time, Zhao Ta said: "Song Jin destroyed Liao, Emperor Tianzuo will definitely ask Li Qianshun for help, but Western Xia has always been treacherous, two-faced, and it is impossible to send troops to aid Liao, but ......"

Everyone turned their heads to listen at this moment, and Zhao Ta continued: "But according to Li Qianshun's virtue, it is very likely that he will take this opportunity to sneak attack the Great Song Dynasty!" ”

Everyone gasped when they heard this, and Liu Suiyun said: "What the prince said is reasonable, although the feud between Song and Xia has stopped in recent years, but such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how could Li Qianshun let it go." ”

Lu Junyi wondered: "Now that the Song-Jin Alliance, isn't Li Qianshun afraid that after destroying Liao, he will attack Xia again?" ”

Zhao Ta shook his head and smiled, Liu Suiyun also laughed, Lu Junyi became more and more puzzled, and said: "If your subordinates don't understand this kind of political affairs, the prince still doesn't want to be dumb." ”

Zhao Ta nodded, his eyes fell on Lu Jiang, Lu Jiang seemed to be thinking about something at this time, and he didn't notice Zhao Ta's view.

"Deputy Commander Lu!" Zhao Ta said.

"Ah, Lord Wang......" General Lu woke up from his thoughts and said hurriedly.

"Tell me, is Xixia afraid that the Song-Jin Alliance will attack Xia?"

"This ......" Lu Jiang frowned and said: "Probably not afraid, there are few people in the Jin Kingdom, even if the Liao is destroyed, it will be difficult to occupy them all, otherwise they will not agree to the Great Song Dynasty to form an alliance, how good it is for their own family to directly take the whole territory of the Liao Kingdom, if the Western Xia can understand this, I am afraid that they will not be afraid, because it is impossible for the Jin State to agree to the Great Song Dynasty to attack Xia." ”

Zhao Ta nodded and looked at everyone: "That's it, after the destruction of Liao, the huge territory and grassland, the Jin Kingdom can't digest it in a short time, where is there the heart to fight a mountain plain like Western Xia, as for the Great Song Dynasty...... After fighting Liao, most of them were tired troops, and they were unpredictable in the past, but now that they are tired of the army, Li Qianshun is naturally not afraid. ”

After he finished speaking, he stood up, walked to the map, and lightly swiped his finger on the line sign representing the Northwest Fifth Road: "If you are Li Qianshun, once you are ready to sneak attack the Great Song Dynasty, then which road should you choose?" ”

There was silence in the conference hall for a moment, and then Yang Zhi's slightly trembling voice sounded: "No...... It can't be Hee-hee, right? ”

"I look like Heehe!" Zhang Xian also said.

"It must be Heehe!" Xu Ning, who has always been silent, spoke.

"It's Xihe!" Du Yan said: "Other places are close to Liaodi and the Great Song Dynasty Jinggi, only the Xihe River is the farthest, once the Xihe River is attacked, then the Western Army will have to send back reinforcements for a long time, if I am Li Qianshun, I will definitely choose to attack the Xihe River." ”

Zhao Ta smiled and glanced at Liu Suiyun, Liu Suiyun also laughed, and said to everyone: "What you said is right, it is Xihe!" ”

As soon as he spoke, everyone started to talk about it, and General Lu walked to the map and looked up and down for a few breaths, and said in surprise: "Lanzhou, Lanzhou is the closest state city to the border of Western Xia, and Lanzhou has always been prosperous in commerce and trade, if Western Xia comes, it will definitely attack Lanzhou nearby!" ”

"Yes, other state cities are far away from the border, rushing to come, it is difficult to hide the tracks, there is no longer a sneak attack and a loss of opportunity, not to mention the lone army going deep, it is not in line with the usual tactics of Western Xia!" Zhao Tan nodded.

"Lord Wang, is it Lanzhou?" At this time, Luda grabbed a handful of tendrils under his chin and said, "Lanzhou is on the other side of the Yellow River, and it is not under our control." ”

"We don't guard Lanzhou, Lanzhou is protected by the Xi River, General Lu doesn't have to be anxious." Liu Suiyun said with a smile.

"That's it, my brother is in a hurry, and we won't go over to the Yellow River for the time being." Shi Jin also said.

Zhao Ta stood up again at this time, walked to the side of General Lu, stretched out his hand to the opposite side of Lanzhou, and said slowly: "If Xixia crosses the Yellow River to attack Lanzhou, it will inevitably dispatch Zhuo Luo and the soldiers and horses of the Southern Military Division, then we will ......."

His fingers slid upwards and stopped at Xixia Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division: "Let's go and sneak attack Gaizhu City in front of the Military Division!" ”

(End of chapter)