In mid-August, on the vast Saibei grassland.

Countless knights were like streams converging into rivers, heading towards Helan Mountain.

The king of the party gathered his brave men together and attacked their enemies.

From the defeat of Li Yuanhao in the first year of Bao to the signing of the contract with the Song State in the year of Kangding, Li Yuanhao called troops many times.

However, it was not a war with the Song State, but with the Xizhou Uighurs, who occupied a small half of the Western Regions, and the Huangtou Uighurs, Caotou Tatars, and other tribes in the Hercynian Corridor.

Li Yuanhao controlled the Hexi Corridor, and if he wanted to grab business with the Hehuang Corridor occupied by Qingtang, he had to fight the source well.

Therefore, he attacked the Western Regions many times, just to rob the source of merchants and prevent them from going to Qingtang through the Hehuang Corridor again.

The effect was significant, and a large number of merchants from the Western Regions returned to the Hexi Corridor, and the Western Xia prospered as a result.

Under several attacks, many small Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar tribes in the auxiliary roads of the Hercynian Corridor were annexed by the Western Xia, and Li Yuanhao's strength increased again.

This time, Li Yuanhao declared to many tribes that he wanted to fight Qingtang and avenge the year, and after the leaders of many tribal parties and nobles heard about it, they did not hesitate and immediately brought troops over.

As long as they didn't go to the Great Song Dynasty, the party nobles still understood their wise decision of the Great Xia king.

Even a small number of the nobles who were quite smart were a little worried that the relationship between Qingtang and the Great Song Dynasty was so good, and if they attacked Qingtang, it would attract the army of the Great Song Dynasty.

But Qingtang and Western Xia are feuds, and the hatred has blinded most people, and they don't think about it that much at all.

From day to evening, I don't know how many Western Xia knights came, until August 24, Li Yuanhao finally gathered about 80,000 cavalry, and under his personal leadership, marched towards Qingtang.

It took about half a month to gather 80,000 people, which is a fast speed.

Nomadic soldiers come from the reckless steppes and often need to go to various tribes for short notice, but a tribe may be scattered in a radius of hundreds of square kilometers.

Therefore, now Li Yuanhao can gather nearly half of the domestic strength in a period of time, which can be said to be the embodiment of the improvement of the comprehensive national strength of Western Xia.

Over the years, some of the party's young men have grown up to the age where they can fight.

In addition, Li Yuanhao also recruited some of the small Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar tribes, and gathered more than 60,000 party soldiers and more than 10,000 other small tribes.

A few days later, Xiliang Mansion of Western Xia, Qingtang and Xixia border, Zhuo Luo City.

This place is Guangwu County in the Tang Dynasty, located in the area from Datong Town to Hongcheng Town in the south of Yongdeng County, Gansu Province in later generations, and was the station of Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division set up by Yuan Hao at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In this way, with the 20,000 people of the local garrison, Yuan Hao gathered an army of 100,000 to attack Qingtang.

In fact, Zhuo Luocheng was closer to the territory of the Song army.

Because this place is the north of Lanzhou City in the later generations, and the southeast direction of Lanzhou City controlled by Qingtang is the border between the Song State and Qingtang and Western Xia, where there is a military village of the Song army, called Guwei Village.

Listen to the name, it is Tongwei County in Gansu in the later generations, located between Lanzhou City and Tianshui City, and is also an important transportation hub for trade between Qingtang and the Song Kingdom.

If Li Yuanhao attacked Qingtang directly from Liangzhou, he would not only have to cross the Qilian Mountains, but also be careful that he would be attacked by the Song army when he crossed the mountains, which would obviously be more than worth the loss.

Although in the second year of Jing You, Li Yuanhao crossed the Qilian Mountains and raided Maoniucheng in Qingtang, which was later Qinghai Datong Hui Tu Autonomous County.

But the price is that the logistics supply is difficult to keep up, and when he finished eating the captured materials and was about to withdraw his troops back, he was seized by the Gang Guys and was defeated by the Guys in Huangshui.

Therefore, in order to prevent the logistics from being unable to keep up with this kind of thing again, Li Yuanhao could only bypass the Qilian Mountains and attack from the border of Qingtang in Song and Xia.

At the end of the day, at five o'clock in the morning, it was not yet dark.

The gates of the city opened.

Countless dense horses slowly walked out and headed south.

This was Li Yuanhao's vanguard force, consisting of soldiers from the Uighurs, Huangtou Uighurs, and Caotou Tatar tribes of various Western states who surrendered to him.

His large force is now located in the north-west of the city of Geju.

It was only at three o'clock that Li Yuanhao led the main force to start south.

In fact, it is irrational to let these people be vanguard cannon fodder, because those who surrender and submit to submission often do not have high combat effectiveness, and if they are defeated by the enemy, it is easy to reverse and affect the whole army.

However, in ancient times, since there were often slave armies, death row prisoners, and surrender armies as vanguards, it was natural that there were means.

For example, threatening their families.

After these tribes took refuge, the life and death of the tribe were controlled by Li Yuanhao, so he was able to use these people so boldly.

The mighty vanguard army went all the way to the south, followed by Li Yuanhao's front, middle and rear armies.

The army stretched for dozens of miles, along the Zhuanglang River towards Lanzhou.

In fact, when Jing Yu was three years old, Li Yuanhao defeated the Guys and occupied Lanzhou.

But then wasn't he beaten up by Lao Fan?

At that time, Lao Fan united with the Guys to launch a general attack on Western Xia, beating Li Yuanhao so much that he couldn't find the north.

Although he hit a hard nail over there, he was defeated by Yeli Wangrong.

However, when Yeli Wangrong returned to Xingqing Mansion, he made a comeback again and snatched Lanzhou back.

Therefore, at this time, Qingtang was probably a regime entrenched in the area from Xining, Qinghai to Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, and belonged to the easternmost part of the Hehuang Corridor.

At this moment, Lanzhou is located at the junction of Qingtang and the Great Song Dynasty, and prospered with Zhao Jun's five-way trade policy, where the Tubo people speak Chinese, use Chinese characters, wear Hanfu, and trade Song Dynasty copper coins.

The entire economy was almost completely controlled by the Han Chinese, and even about 2,000 troops were stationed in the Great Song Dynasty outside Lanzhou for the maintenance of border security and trade.

Early in the morning, An Ziluo, the general of the Tubo Gang in Lanzhou City, got up from the mansion, put on the silk robe of the Song Dynasty, and put on the official hat and jade belt given to him by the Song Dynasty, and walked out of the mansion like a seven-grade county order of the Great Song Dynasty.

Not only was he rewarded by the Song Dynasty, but he was also given by the Song Dynasty as the envoy of the Shanzhou Assassin History, the Baoshun Hexi Military Festival and the five states of Shan, He, Huang, Kuo, and Lan to observe and deal with the Tibetan envoys.

With the defeat of the Liao State by the Great Song Dynasty, it seems that there is a trend of regaining the title of the first brother in Asia, and the surrounding countries have begun to re-establish diplomatic relations with the Great Song Dynasty. Before the Great Song Dynasty defeated the Liao State, the extremely pro-Song regime naturally received the benefits first.

At this moment, An Ziluo put on silk and satin, and planned to patrol the city first, as in the past. Then find a restaurant opened by the Song people to eat a hot pot and stir-fry, and then go to the tea house opened by the Song people to drink hot tea, and listen to the storyteller from Bianliang this year. Finally, go to the brothel of the Qinglou and enjoy the arrangement of those blonde and blue-eyed beauties in the Western Regions.

However, just as he was about to leave the house, the sound of the horn "woo woo woo" on the head of Xicheng suddenly sounded.

Several horsemen galloped over, shouting anxiously as they entered the city: "The Tanguts are coming, the Tanguts are coming!" ”

As the sound continued to spread, Lanzhou City, where Hu and Han had gathered, was suddenly in an uproar, and the crowd was chaotic and ran in all directions.

Although An Ziluo has been a little lazy in the past two years, it was he, as the vanguard general, who raided Li Yuanhao's army and caused Li Yuanhao to be defeated by Zonggehe.

Therefore, he was quite calm, and after learning of this, he hurriedly asked his subordinates to bring the horses, and immediately asked people to go to the Song army camp for help.

After about a quarter of an hour, An Ziluo had already put on his armor and went up to the city wall.

At this moment, the gates of Lanzhou City have been closed, and when the scouts spread the news to the city, more than an hour later, first I saw a cloud of dust coming from the northwest, and then there were dense black spots at the end of the road.

The only good news is that the ancient Lanzhou city is located on the south bank of the Huangshui, in the Luoluo River, that is, between the Zhuanglang River and the Yellow River, there is a pass called Dongyu Pass, which is stuck at the crossing of the Yellow River.

The Western Xia army apparently did not dare to attempt to cross the river easily, but chose to follow the north bank of the Yellow River to the east in the direction of Lanzhou, and cross the river from the west of Lanzhou.

This is also a plain area, which is almost the area from Xigu District to Qilihe District of Lanzhou City in later generations.

At least the Western Xia army did not cross the river from the upper reaches and then suddenly appeared in Xicheng.

Otherwise, I'm afraid there won't be time for An Ziluo to prepare calmly.

But even so, the situation is not encouraging.

An Ziluo couldn't help but look sad as he looked at the dense crowd in the distance, and countless cavalry were slowly approaching the plain area in the northwest.

The total population of the Tubo tribe under the rule of Na Gang was 200,000 or 300,000, and the number of young and strong troops was about 60,000.

But it couldn't stand Chengping for several years, and it was suddenly attacked, and it was impossible to gather so many people.

There are only more than 5,000 soldiers in the entire Lanzhou City, and there are more than 7,000 soldiers in total from the Song army. And the other party's vanguard army alone is afraid that there will be 10,000 or 20,000.

How good is that?

"General, the deputy superintendent of the king is here."

A soldier reported to him.

"Please."

An Ziluo hurriedly said.

After a while, Wang Shiyun, the deputy supervisor of Guweizhai, hurriedly came.

As the general of the Song army stationed in the local area to protect trade, he naturally knew An Ziluo, so he asked directly: "General An, how is the situation?" ”

"General Wang, you came just in time, the Xia army is coming."

An Ziluo pointed outside and said, "Our scouts have reported that their vanguard army alone has 10,000 or 20,000 people, and I am afraid that their large army is behind. ”

"I have already sent someone to Guwei Village to report the news, General Liu will bring people to help soon, we must repel them first!"

Wang Shiyun looked at the situation outside and quickly analyzed it.

If the enemy is allowed to storm the city immediately, they may not be able to withstand the attack, once the city of Lanzhou is broken, and the Western Xia rely on the city, even if the Song army reinforcements come, they may not be able to capture it.

At that time, the main force of Western Xia immediately rushed west to Qingtang, and the Great Song Dynasty had been supporting the Gang regime would be in danger.

So they have to buy time.

At the very least, defeat the enemy's vanguard army and stop them outside the city of Lanzhou.

"Is there any way to do it?"

An Ziluo asked, "We really have too few people, or we will immediately recruit troops in the city?" ”

"No, there aren't so many weapons and equipment for conscription now."

Wang Shiyun thought about it, glanced around, and noticed Gaolan Mountain, a high mountain in the south of Lanzhou City, and pointed to the mountain behind him and said: "You hold the city first, before the main force of Yuan Hao arrives, you must not be defeated by the enemy, wait for me for two hours." ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Go up the hill and set up a cannon!"

Wang Shiyun said this, didn't say anything else, turned around and left, leaving An Ziluo confused.

This is a military secret, although Qingtang has a good relationship with them, but he can't say it.

In fact, the artillery technology of the Great Song Dynasty can be said to be changing with each passing day.

Thanks to Zhao Jun's establishment of a steel plant in Wu'an, through the two steelmaking technologies of later generations, the steel output has been greatly increased, and the overtaking of corners has been realized, and steel cannons have been directly made.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, red-coated cannons and muskets were easily blown up, because the guns at that time were made of wrought iron, which was far less hard than steel.

And now with steel, it can be directly made into steel guns, and the stability is greatly improved.

So it's not just a super cannon that is more than 2,000 catties and can fight more than ten miles, but the Song army is also making that kind of small cannon now.

Among them, there is a kind of Weiyuan cannon, which is two feet eight inches high, five inches high from the bottom to the fire gate, three inches and two minutes high from the fire door to the abdomen, and the caliber of the cannon is more than two inches and two minutes, weighing one hundred and twenty pounds.

120 catties in the Song Dynasty, equivalent to 150 catties in later generations. In other words, the total weight of this cannon is only one person, and two or three people can carry it.

Guweizhai is not a new army, and it is not qualified to be equipped with super-powerful artillery.

However, as a border army that could fight at any time at close range with Western Xia, the imperial court gave priority to supplying a large number of such mortar-like small cannons, and there were thirty in Guwei Village, ten of which were in Wang Shiyun's hands.

It's just that the power of this kind of cannon can't be compared with the cannon, and the firing range is only about three or four miles, unlike today's cannons of more than 2,000 catties, which can blast out more than ten miles away.

Therefore, Wang Shiyun planned to seize the commanding heights, and by having a wide field of vision at a high place, he could increase the firing range and give Xixia a big surprise.

Soon Wang Shiyun immediately returned to the Song army camp outside the eastern city, and asked the more than 2,000 soldiers of the whole army to start climbing the mountain with ten small steel cannons and hundreds of large and small ammunition.

At the same time, the Western Xia army, which was more than ten miles away, was slowly getting closer and closer from the dense small black spots.

After about half an hour, they finally walked slowly outside the city of Lanzhou, and under the command of the Western Xia generals, they began to prepare for the siege.

Surprisingly, however, they didn't rush straight forward.

Instead, they began to form four or five miles away.

Immediately after that, among the Western Xia army, more than a dozen cannons were slowly pulled out, and the black muzzles were aimed at the city wall!

Wang Shiyun, who was watching from the mountain, couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

The Tangut people quietly and actually built cannons, what is going on?

Fortunately, they did not install artillery at the head of the city, people's cannons can shoot more than ten miles, and their small cannons can only shoot three or four miles, and the firing range is greatly disadvantaged.

In this stunned moment, the cannons of the Tangut people began to fire violently.

"Bang bang bang!"

The muzzles of more than a dozen cannons suddenly burst into flames.

The black ammunition crossed an arc in the sky and smashed heavily into the gate of Lanzhou City, most of the shells were crooked, hitting the city wall, and the city wall did not move at all.

However, a cannonball magically smashed into the city gate, and the city gate burst open.

"Damn, the thieves have cannons too!"

Wang Shiyun scolded secretly, and then shouted: "Is the cannon loaded?" ”

"It's loaded."

The gunner shouted.

"Aim at their artillery and give me a bang!"

"Yes!"

"Wait, use the blossom bomb!"

Wang Shiyun shouted.

Song Jun has developed a flowering bomb.

Although the actual lethality is not as good as that of live ammunition, it is still very useful to hit this kind of artillery array.

Even if you can't destroy the enemy's cannon, you can still kill and injure the gunners around the cannon to prevent the enemy from firing again.

At that moment, the ten gunners immediately adjusted the muzzle of the gun, and through the crosshair and altitude measurement, and estimated the experience, they lit the small cannon one after another.

I saw that on the cliff halfway up the Gaolan Mountain, which was at least ten miles away from the city, more than ten sounds suddenly erupted.

Immediately afterward, ten black shadows also pierced the void and flew towards the outside of the city.

"Bang bang bang!"

Ten flowering bombs exploded in an instant.

Some of them didn't control the time of the gunpowder lead, and they exploded in mid-air.

Some did not fall into the enemy camp at all and exploded between the two armies, while others turned their guns too high, and although they hit the enemy, they did not hit the enemy's artillery array.

This kind of ultra-long-distance artillery still requires too high an accurate grasp of the gunner, and it is impossible to be so accurate unless it is covered bombing.

But around this, the loud sound of the flowering bomb still frightened the Tangut people, and the entire military array immediately caused a riot.

"Come again!"

Wang Shiyun saw that it was effective, and immediately ordered to continue.

"Bang bang bang!"

It was the second round of small artillery firing, taking advantage of the commanding heights, and the firing range was greatly increased.

Moreover, the Song army's small cannon has an extremely fast rate of fire, almost reaching ten rounds per minute, which is much faster than the cannon can only shoot three or four rounds per minute.

The Western Xia army was still reloading over there, and then the second round of artillery bombardment from the Song army came.

After a burst of bombardment, a shell happened to land on the enemy's artillery array, and although it did not hit the opponent's artillery, it killed several surrounding gunners and bombloaders.

At this time, the Western Xia army was completely panicked.

Then, a few seconds later, a third round of shelling came.

The flowering bomb exploded in the crowd with a huge explosion, splashing dirt and dust, and even some people were blown up high.

This gave the Tangut people a great impact.

Especially those soldiers of the rest of the tribes who had never seen the power of firearms, even if Li Yuanhao controlled their tribe, they were a little unable to resist, and they were even a little defeated.

"Kill!"

After several rounds of shelling, Li Yuanhao's vanguard army could not hold out and began to disperse.

An Ziluo in the city was overjoyed when he saw this, and he actually shouted: "Kill it!" ”

"Kill!"

More than 5,000 Tibetan soldiers in the city were also demoralized, opened the city gates, and rushed forward in a swarm of horses.

It's just that the Tanguts originally wanted to rely on long-distance artillery to blast their city gate open before raiding, so the distance was a bit far, and they didn't catch up for a while.

However, there were still more than a dozen cannons left on the position, but they were captured by An Ziluo.

And Wang Shiyun on the mountain wiped the sweat from his forehead, laughed and said: "The West Thief is just like this, he has a cannon, I have a small cannon, but it is not as good as us, hahahahahaha!" ”

His stock of flowering shells is not much, only a few dozen, but fortunately, the enemy has collapsed, otherwise it would be difficult to try his luck and destroy the enemy's artillery with solid bullets alone.

(End of chapter)