During the Song, Liao, Western Xia, Jin, and Mongolian periods, the main protagonists of battlefield cavalry were still heavy cavalry.

For example, the Jingsai army of the Song people, the Tielin army of the Liao State, the Iron Harrier of the Western Xia, the Tiefutu of the Jin State, and the heavy armored iron cavalry of the Mongols.

However, the cost of heavy cavalry is huge, and the cost of personnel training and armor equipment is very expensive, so the number of heavy cavalry deployed between countries is small, and the number of light cavalry is the largest.

Therefore, if the Liao and Song Dynasty started a war and encountered it in the wild, in the face of the strong light cavalry of the Liao State, the infantry phalanx of the Song army could indeed only be used as a live target.

The problem is that Song Jun won't be stupid enough to fight you in the wild.

There are more than 30 cities in the border of Hebei, and there are hundreds of other fortresses, military villages, and bunkers, which are densely packed and countless.

In more than 10 military states on the border, such as Zhendingfu, Dingzhou, Baozhou, Guangxin Army, Ansu Army, Shun'an Army, Xiongzhou, Mozhou, Baoding Army, Xin'an Army, Yongning Army, Cangzhou, Baoding Prefecture, etc., the garrison has risen from more than 100,000 in the Song Zhenzong period to more than 200,000 now.

The cavalry of the Liao State marched south, and encountered the other party's cities, military villages, fortresses, and pillboxes, all of which were hard bones.

In the past, you could still stand up to the opponent's city to see if you could attack it. Now, people at ultra-long distances have bed crossbows, and there are bows and crossbows at medium and long distances, and they finally rushed to the city and were directly blown to pieces with grenades.

Therefore, when Liao Xingzong Yelu Zong really listened to the analysis of the ministers, he felt very tricky.

The Song Dynasty is like a turtle, although its counterattack ability is not strong, but the defense is too hard, the mouse pulls the turtle and has no way to start, if the turtle shell is still thorny, and if you bite back, it will be troublesome.

But in any case, although the new firearms of the Song State did not pose a threat to the active attack on the Liao State, it also had the confidence to make the Song State dare to refuse the Liao State, and the Song Emperor Zhao Zhen experienced an easy defeat of the Western Xia, and his self-confidence soared and became fearless.

Yelu Zongzhen believes that even if he can't invade the Song Dynasty in the south, he can't let the Song State continue to soar in self-confidence, and there should still be a deterrent of soldiers and horses. Therefore, after much hesitation, it was finally decided to gather troops in Nanjing first and see the situation.

So in the second half of the second year of Baoyuan, the Liao State began to gather troops frequently. The spy on the border of the Song State also apparently noticed this, and immediately reported the situation to the imperial court after inquiring about the movement of the Liao army's assembly.

In fact, the Constitutional Yuan has long analyzed this situation, and Zhao Zhen and the others have already made arrangements and preparations in advance, and a large number of grain, grass, weapons and equipment began to be transported to Hebei, and at the same time, a part of the forbidden army in the capital was dispatched to bring more than 100,000 grenades to prepare to meet the enemy on the border.

Historically, the Song State had been fighting in the northwest for several years, with huge expenditures and increasingly empty treasury. At this time, the Liao State led troops to deter again, and Zhao Zhen and they thought that the national strength of the two-sided battle could no longer be supported, so they chose "Qingli Increasing Coins" in exchange for the Liao State to withdraw its troops.

But now, in history, the Song State has been fighting with the Western Xia for several years, and when the national strength is seriously consumed, it cannot go to war with the Liao State again. Now that it has just begun, it is over, and the Song Kingdom has not consumed much at all, so he is naturally fearless.

Second, after Zhao Jun came to the Great Song Dynasty, the national strength has increased, and industry and commerce have become more and more prosperous.

The third and most important point is that Zhao Zhen and the others already knew the history in advance. This means that for the Song-Xia War and the possible Song-Liao War in the future, they have been preparing for more than three years from the third year of Jingyou to the second year of Baoyuan now.

Western Xia also prepared for a long time to attack the Song Dynasty, but the Song State knew that they had been preparing for a long time to attack the Song Dynasty, so they prepared for a long time to counteract. had a calculating or unintentional, and directly turned the Western Xia attack into a rout.

On the Liao side, temporary preparations were needed, but the Song State had already been wary of the Liao State, and in this case, the war preparations between the two sides were not at the same level at all.

September.

The Liao State is still raising grain, grass, soldiers and horses, but the northwest side has entered a white heat.

The wind is howling on the Loess Plateau, approaching early winter, and everything is silent.

The green hills turned yellow, and the grass withered, revealing the high slopes full of yellow sand.

Zhang Kang led thousands of knights and slowly appeared on the hills north of Longansai.

Behind him, Di Qing, Zhi Jimin, Zhou Mei and other middle-level officers followed. All the soldiers had two horses, one horse with people, and the other horse with bean feed.

Due to their excellent performance in the Battle of Luzhai Village, almost all the original junior officers became mid-level officers.

Among them, Zhang Kang's official promotion was the highest, and he was praised by Zhao Jun, and was recommended by Fan Zhongyan, and was directly promoted to the deputy pacification envoy of Dunyan Road and the deployment of the capital, as if he was already the first general of the soldiers and horses of Dunyan Road.

His previous official position was not low, he was from the fifth rank of Yanzhou Zhizhou, and he was still from Jinshi, and now he has been promoted to the fourth grade, which is also a matter of course.

At this moment, Zhang Kang's eyes were deep, he looked to the north and said: "Everyone, at this time, the Gyeongju, Huanzhou, Huaide Army, Zhenrong Army, Deshun Army and Qingtang have all been dispatched now, in order to create an opportunity for us to attack the rear, this battle, Xu Sheng is not allowed to lose, do you hear!" ”

"Yes!"

The crowd shouted.

"Let's go!"

Zhang Kang gave an order, and took the lead in galloping his horse, and tens of thousands of iron horses galloped behind, and countless dust came out of it.

Fan Zhongyan planned to counterattack the Western Xia, not only mobilized more than 100,000 troops on the three roads of Yanyan Road, Huanqing Road and Jingyuan Road, but also invited him to send troops together with the Tubo Brothers.

After Zhao Jun took power, he proposed a plan to clamp down on Western Xia, and Zhao Zhen specially sent an envoy to Qingtang, not only rewarding him, but also giving him a lot of gifts.

The two sides exchanged markets on the border, and carried out in-depth exchanges in trade, economy, culture and military, especially in the Great Song Dynasty, which used to prohibit the export of iron to foreign countries, and sold a lot of them in order to help the development of the Gang Luo regime.

In this case, he was very grateful for the generosity of the Great Song Dynasty, so he gave back a lot of horses. He gladly accepted the proposal to use the currency of the Song Dynasty and to include the Song Dynasty language and script in the official language.

The Song Dynasty lacked horses, and the ethnic minorities lacked iron, so each side took what it needed. Coupled with the fact that the Great Song Dynasty began to increase the proportion of trade to the Woo Woo, the two sides fell into a honeymoon period of relationship for a while.

In fact, it is not unaware that this may cause the Qingtang regime to rely heavily on the Great Song Dynasty.

But he couldn't help it.

In fact, the Qingtang Gang regime was only a small tribal regime on the border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which was not very strong during the Tsangoro period, with a total population of just over 200,000 and 60,000 troops under the condition that all the people were soldiers.

There seem to be a lot of people and horses, but they are far inferior to Western Xia in terms of equipment and combat strength, so Western Xia often wanted to annex them at that time, such as Li Yuanhao occupied Qingtang in the second year of Jing You.

If it weren't for the rebellion, coupled with the favorable time, place and people, and the defeat of the Western Xia army in the Battle of Zongge River, I am afraid that Li Yuanhao would have already annexed the Qingtang Gang regime.

Therefore, the weakness of the country and the poverty of the people are obviously the problems that the people have to face.

After the Song Dynasty united with the Kuoluo regime, the trade of the Great Song Dynasty could travel to the Western Regions through the Hehuang region, so that the Silk Road trade that had been blocked by the Western Xia could be reopened and the economic ties between the Great Song and the Jiaoguoluo regime could be strengthened.

According to historical records, the Hexi Corridor was cut off by the Western Xia, and the Gang took on the important task of restoring and protecting the Sino-Western trade routes, reopening the "Gutuguhun Road" that entered the Central Plains from the Western Regions through the Hehuang, and set up international trade markets in Qingtang, Miaochuan, Lingu and other cities, and also sent troops to escort caravans from various countries to the Song border.

In this way, the land transportation between China and the West, which had been cut off by the Western Xia, was unimpeded in the Hehuang region ruled by the Nuo Dynasty. The tributary envoys and merchants of the Western Regions traveled thousands of miles to make a detour through Hehuang and went straight to Bianjing, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

Western goods have flowed into China, and Chinese culture has been imported into the West.

In the process of continuous economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West, Qingtang became an international city at that time, surrounded by Hu merchants in the city, and treasures were accumulated.

Therefore, intensifying ties with the Song Dynasty will only benefit Qingtang's economic development and strength. Even if he knew that he might be more heavily dependent on Song Guo in the future, for the sake of Qingtang's future, he must maintain a good relationship with Song Guo.

Anyway, regardless of whether the Song Dynasty promoted language culture and coins in Qingtang, Qingtang used the Tibetan dialect, Tubo language, plus Chinese and Chinese characters to communicate. Not to mention the coins, Qingtang does not have its own currency, so it is naturally more convenient to use the currency of the Song Dynasty.

At this time, Qingtang after two years of support from the Song State, the population absorbed many of the rest of the tribes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the weapons and equipment were also improved.

At the beginning of September, Western Xia was in flames. Fan Zhongyan launched the Northern Expedition in the name of Li Yuanhao's insincerity.

Li Yuanhao was shocked, so he could only send an envoy to Liao again to ask for help, and on the other hand, he sent the general Qi Yu Wangrong to lead 20,000 troops to Xiliang Mansion to defend against the Song army, and he led the main force to fight a fierce battle with the Song army.

Fighting broke out between the two sides in Weizhou, Yanzhou, Youzhou, Xiazhou, Shizhou, Yinzhou, Longzhou and other places on the Western Xia border.

In mid-September, Huanzhou deployed Chong Shiheng to take advantage of the fact that Zhao Zhen, the deputy governor of Huanqing Road, surrounded the Jingsai army in Western Xia, and led the army to bypass Jingsai Fort and raid near Xiping Mansion.

This is something that has never happened since the Songxia War, Li Yuanhao was frightened, and hurriedly led the army to resist in person, and finally repelled Chong Shiheng.

No way.

The capital of Western Xia was too close to the Song border.

The nearest place is Douling, which was under the jurisdiction of the Huaide Army, that is, Tongxin County, Ningxia, which was only 200 kilometers away from Xingqing Mansion, which was Yinchuan City.

Fan Zhongyan has been preparing for this battle for more than two years, and when his own army is crushed in numbers and reliable generals are selected, even if he goes out of the border fortress to attack the enemy's hinterland, the Song army also fights well, and the two sides are in a stalemate.

In this Western Xia, a light cavalry force quietly bypassed Longzhou, where the two sides were fighting, and went north through Sanchakou and Wanjingkou, and entered the Ningxia Plain.

In the vast grassland, you may see the inhabited Dangxiang tribe everywhere. They drove the cattle and sheep to the last wave of fat before the onset of winter. When the winter comes, the cattle and sheep will have no fresh grass to eat, so they can only eat the hay harvested and dried in the summer.

These Dangxiang tribes saw the dense cavalry from a distance, and at first everyone thought that this was the troops of Dangxiang Emperor Li Yuanhao, after all, on the Ningxia Plain, they had not seen the Song army.

However, when they got a little closer, the party with good eyesight found that it was a group of Song cavalry.

For a while, the grassland was in chaos in an instant, and many party herdsmen did not even have time to drive away their cattle and sheep, so they rode horses and scattered birds and beasts, heading towards Xingqing Mansion in the west.

Some of the Song soldiers proposed to chase after them, but Zhang Kang vetoed them.

His purpose was very clear, and he continued to go deeper more than 300 kilometers to the north, and the soldiers carried nothing but bean fodder to ensure the horse's physical strength and a straight knife with a ring head, only a few grenades.

Even leather armor was not worn, just to ensure the mobility of the light cavalry.

Four days later, the cavalry of the Song army reached the provincial city of Weicheng, which was more than 300 kilometers away from the border of the Song Dynasty, at a speed of more than 70 kilometers per day.

"Western Xia Shushi" records: In the second year of Song Tiansheng, Deming made the province of Weicheng in Dingzhou to control the Tibetan people.

Provincial Weicheng is located in the north of Dingzhou, in the north of the Yinchuan Plain, probably in the area of Shizuishan City, Ningxia in later generations, because it is located in the richest Yinchuan Plain area, it has also become an important gathering area of the Dangxiang tribe.

Li Yuanhao summoned many party tribes to establish themselves as emperors, and all the small and medium-sized tribes below were gathered by him to reclaim the Yinchuan Plain, not only for animal husbandry, but also for agriculture.

On the vast plains, you can see some tribal tent bags from time to time, and some farmland has been reclaimed near the tents to divert water from the Yellow River, just like the villages of the Song Dynasty.

The sudden arrival of the Song army obviously startled the scattered party members on the periphery, and they sounded the horn warning one after another.

The sound of movement spread quickly.

Zhang Kang was still in a hurry, ignoring the herdsmen and farmers near the Yellow River.

But after all, the sound was faster than the horse, and with the continuous trumpets one after another, it alarmed the Shun army of the Western Xia Dynasty stationed near the provincial Weicheng.

Li Yuanhao reformed the military system and also deployed a large number of troops on the Song-Liao border. However, after the Song-Xia War began, he moved most of the soldiers and horses on the Liao border to the Song border.

The Chaoshun army was one of the very few troops that did not move to the south, because they were responsible for only one mission - to protect Li Yuanhao and the main tribes under him!

Yes!

The area from Weicheng to Dingzhou, as the richest land in Western Xia, naturally all belonged to Li Yuanhao's own famous tribe.

After he established himself as emperor, he gathered many party leaders and relocated their tribes here.

When it is said to be protection, it also implies the meaning of controlling the families of various tribes.

More than 10,000 Chaoshun troops hastily assembled.

When Zhang Kang climbed a small hill, he saw a scene that surprised him.

To the west of the hill is the majestic and tall Helan Mountain, which is towering into the clouds and covered with mist.

From the bottom of the mountain to the hills, I don't know how many miles, the endless prairie is full of dense tents.

On the horizon, a small city can be faintly seen.

Outside the city, the army assembled.

The sound of continuous trumpets sounded between the tents, and countless party members helped the old and the young to flee in the direction of the city.

"Kill!"

Zhang Kang looked at this scene expressionlessly, and spit out a word lightly.

On the hill behind him, groups of Song cavalry appeared, pouring into the hinterland of Li Yuanhao.

(End of chapter)