At this time, the situation on Shaanxi Road is not too complicated.

To put it simply, Yuan Hao crossed the Qilian Mountains in May, and at the end of May and the beginning of June, he broke through Qingtang City and Miaochuan City.

The Great Song Dynasty reacted quickly, and Qin Fenglu transferred Yang Kai to immediately send troops to Lanzhou.

The imperial court immediately sent Han Qi to lead a large army.

The large army is not like the scattered people, and it can be reached in a few days on horseback from Kaifeng to the northwest, so it took more than half a month to arrive.

Han Qi arrived on Shaanxi Road in early July, and when he first came, he did not immediately send troops, but found out the bilateral movements.

Otherwise, he didn't even investigate the layout of his own soldiers and horses, and rashly launched an attack on Western Xia, which was tantamount to letting the army of the Great Song Dynasty go to death.

After more than half a month of reconnaissance, Han Qi had already understood a general situation between us and the enemy, so he planned to make the decision to send troops.

He explained and analyzed the weak points of the Western Xia that he had detected on the map, as well as the intertwined forces of the two sides, and finally decided on the strategy of the main force on the west side to strive for a decisive battle with the main force of Yuan Hao and the feint attack on the border of Western Xia on the east side.

The three deputies, Yang Kai, Zhang Fangping, and Zhang Kang, had no other opinions and approved Han Qi's plan. So Han Qi made a formal decision, issued a document, and began the entire layout of the army.

First of all, the main army of Qin Fenglu, in addition to Qin Fenglu itself, about 20,000 people, plus Han Qi brought 30,000 people from the Bianliang forbidden army, a total of about 50,000 people, it was ordered that Zhang Kang, the privy deputy envoy and the head of the soldiers and horses of Shaanxi Road, led these 50,000 people out of Qinzhou to take Huangzhou.

The second is to send the deputy capital of Jingyuan Road to deploy and pacify, so that Gao Jixuan led 20,000 troops out of Jingyuan Road to take the Xishou Baotai Military Division of Western Xia.

As for the question of whether Qinfeng Road is empty after 50,000 people leave, there is no need to worry, because Qinfeng Road is the area from Dingxi City to Tianshui City and then to Baoji City in the southeast of Lanzhou City in the later generations, and its north is called Jingyuan Road in the Song Dynasty.

In other words, Qinfeng Road is in the hinterland, and if Li Yuanhao wants to attack Qinfeng Road in the south, he must pass through the heavily guarded Jingyuan Road and pass the pass of Gao Jixuan.

And Han Qi also summoned Zhao Zhen, who has now been promoted to the deputy capital of Huanqing Road, to lead 8,000 people to come over to defend, and ordered Chong Shiheng, who was promoted to the head of the soldiers and horses of Huanqing Road, to go northwest to Huizhou, and cooperate with Zhang Kang, Jingtai, Gao Jixuan, Ge Huaimin, Wang Qi, Liu Hu and other surrounding generals.

In this way, the terrain of the entire Qinfeng Road plus the transfer of a part of the army from other places is enough to ensure the safety of Qinfeng Road. Unless Li Yuanhao's army has wings to fly over, it is basically foolproof.

And in the end, Han Qi handed over the task of the feint attack on the East Road to Ren Fu.

It's not that history has shifted to where it should be, but that Ren Fu was the deputy head of the Ma Bu Army on the Yan Road before, and when the Song and Xia were in the war before, he was promoted to the deputy capital of the Yan Road because of his military exploits.

As mentioned before, the level of generals in the Song Dynasty was chaotic, and the upper and lower commands were not clear, but in general, they were graded up and down according to the deployment of the capital (the head of the capital), the deployment of the deputy capital (the deputy head of the city), the deployment (the head of the head), the deputy deployment (the deputy head of the city), the jurisdiction of the government, the prison, and the capital of the prison.

Under normal circumstances, only civil officials from Jinshi can be deployed. Therefore, the deputy capital deployment is already the highest-level general along the way, and if Han Qi wants to implement the plan to go east, it can naturally only be handed over to Ren Fu, the supreme general of Yan Yanlu.

In this way, Han Qi's plan is actually to divide the troops into three routes, but Gao Jixuan's part is actually in response to Jingtai, and together they are flanking Li Yuanhao's main force, trying to occupy Zhuo Luo and Nansi in Western Xia.

At the end of July and the beginning of August, the entire Shaanxi Road was fully mobilized. The border was full of scouts and scouts, scouting the intelligence between the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia.

Li Yuanhao's side naturally quickly noticed the actions of the Great Song Dynasty.

He didn't take the initiative to attack anyway, because he knew that the result of taking the initiative to attack would be to confront the dense military villages, fortresses, and cities of the Great Song Dynasty, and eat the shells of their artillery.

So he sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and waited for the Great Song Dynasty to take the initiative to attack, so that he could defend and counterattack and fight a battle similar to that of Fan Zhongyan back then.

After Zhang Kang led the army to the expedition, he ordered Jing Tai, the commander of the soldiers and horses of Qinfeng Road, to lead 10,000 troops to Lanzhou as the vanguard.

Jingtai, as the deputy transport envoy of Qin Fenglu, also serves as the highest military general of Qin Fenglu, and is a Wenchen Jinshi. But he is actually very capable of fighting, Li Yuanhao won three battles and three victories in history, and the only big defeat was lost in his hands.

This time the army led the expedition, Jingtai led the army to arrive in Lanzhou City in early August, and at this moment the military commander in the city was Jia Kui of Qinzhou Soldiers and Horses, as well as the number one general An Ziluo under the command of the Emperor.

After he was seriously injured, the doctors in Lanzhou treated him, but the wound seemed to be infected, and he was in a fever and coma.

So Han Qi arranged for him to go to Chang'an, originally wanting to send him to Bianliang, after all, Bianliang's medical level must be the best in the country. It's just that they really can't withstand the bumps now, so they can only settle for the next best.

The situation of the Qingtang regime is very bad now.

He was seriously injured and fell into a coma, and his son Dong Yu was separated from his father during the breakout and was captured by Li Yuanhao's men.

For a time, the hearts of Qingtang were disheartened, and even many people surrendered to Li Yuanhao, and the Qingtang departments added up to 780,000 troops, but at this moment, they were scattered, and only Lanzhou was left with more than 10,000 people.

After Jingtai arrived in Lanzhou, he immediately opened a military meeting and summoned more than ten generals in the city, including the generals of the Qingtang regime, An Ziluo, Gu Duozhi, A Yudan, etc.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the house is relatively solemn, and the generals of the Song Dynasty are okay here, mainly these generals of the Qingtang regime, with different expressions.

Some have serious faces, some have rolled their eyes, and some seem to be thinking about something.

Now that the Qingtang regime is panicking, many small tribal leaders have left Qingtang with their headquarters and left to the southwest.

It's not that they are going to defect or defect to the enemy, the strength of the Great Song Dynasty is here, but the Qingtang is a bit of a disintegration, and now it all depends on the support of the Great Song Dynasty behind it.

If the Great Song Dynasty does not send troops this time, I am afraid that they will have to carry their bags, take the property and men and horses of their tribes, leave this land, and go to other places.

"I know that since the Hexi Army was seriously injured, you have all been worried, afraid that Yuan Hao's army will attack, and Qingtang will not be able to stop it."

Jingtai saw that the atmosphere at the meeting was more solemn, and just now he said a few words of war analysis and no one answered, so he said: "But what I can assure you is that as long as the Great Song Dynasty is here, Yuan Hao will never capture Qingtang!" ”

After he said this, An Ziluo reluctantly smiled and said, "We naturally know about Great Song Tianwei, alas."

Saying that, he sighed again: "However, now Zampu's life and death are unknown, and we have no leader for the dragons." ”

"Hmm"

Jingtai said in a deep voice: "You don't need to worry about this, Han Xianggong has already asked the imperial court to send a defense envoy from the same state." ”

The defense envoy of Tongzhou is the eldest son of the Dumb Guy, who joined the Great Song Dynasty after he broke away from Qingtang.

Historically, he only led his tribe to live in the area of Yulin County in the southeast of Lanzhou, and was awarded the Dengzhou regiment training envoy, not far from Lanzhou, until his son Mu Zheng (Zhao Sizhong) was completely attached and was given the surname Zhao.

However, at the beginning of this year, he paid tribute to the imperial court, expressing his complete dependence on the imperial court. He is willing to lead his tribe to incorporate into the Great Song Dynasty and become the people of the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen was very happy at that time, so he gave him the surname Zhao, named Zhao Youlu, and awarded it to the defense envoy of the same state.

This belongs to the regular operation of the Great Song Dynasty to the leaders of the ethnic minorities attached to it, such as Li Yuanhao's uncle and grandfather Li Jisheng, who was given the name Zhao Baoji and awarded the Xiazhou Assassin History and the Envoy of the Difficult Festival.

The descendants of Zhao Baoji's children and grandchildren also entered the third class of government service and became the sons of the nobles.

Therefore, the ethnic minorities who are basically willing to attach to the Great Song Dynasty generally do not treat them badly, except for being monitored by the eunuchs and eunuchs of the Great Song Dynasty at most, but the clothing, food, housing and transportation on weekdays are worry-free, and their lives are still very chic.

However, when everyone heard Jingtai's words, their faces changed slightly.

This time, the government suddenly gave birth to a big change, and the blind felt was attached to the Great Song Dynasty, and it had lost the inheritance of Qingtang, and now it suddenly came back.

Could it be that Qingtang is going to change the sky in the future?

Seeing everyone's reactions, Jingtai smiled, and didn't reveal too much in this regard, but said, "Okay, let's talk about business first." ”

"This Yuan Hao's southern invasion is an act of provocation to the Great Song Dynasty. My Great Song Dynasty and Qingtang have long been one, sharing honor and disgrace. Attacking Qingtang is attacking the Great Song Dynasty, and I, the Great Song Heavenly Army, will not sit idly by. ”

Saying that, he continued: "After Yuan Hao seized Qingtang City and Miaochuan City, he built a camp at the mouth of the river, built a walled fort, and Zhuo Luo City in the north, and there was also a large army going south, there seemed to be two ways to outflank Lanzhou, Zhang Xianggong ordered me to go first, not to settle in Lanzhou, but to march into the wall, what do you think?" ”

Jia Kui immediately said: "Deputy marshal, the last general thinks that being a soldier is very fast. ”

"Tell me why."

"Their scouts must have informed them of our movements, but they must have felt that we would wait for the main force to arrive, and then slowly reach their outskirts, and the two armies will fight against each other. If we had attacked, we might have been able to catch them off guard. ”

"No."

Another general, Zhong Baocai, who was imprisoned by Deshun's army, said: "It's too reckless to do this, if they set up an ambush on the way, or if they had already dealt with it, wouldn't it be an accident?" ”

"I don't see it that way."

Jia Kui said.

"Let's talk."

Jingtai Road.

Jia Kui analyzed: "Deputy Marshal, the last general thinks so, first of all, our weapons are very different from the enemy, they must fight in close combat, and we can attack from afar, and it is even more difficult to ambush us." ”

"Hmm."

Jingtai nodded slightly, this is indeed the truth.

In recent years, the armed forces of the whole country have undergone a thorough change in their armaments, replacing all the original cold weapons with firearms.

Don't look at the firearms of today's era, in terms of rate of fire and power, they still can't compare with the firearms of later generations.

But if you have watched the movies of cold weapon warfare, you know that cold weapon warfare is actually gathering together, arranging a formation and then rushing forward in a swarm.

If a relatively intact formation can be maintained in the process of charging, then this general can basically be regarded as a famous general.

If the formation is stable, the army will not fall, and in the middle of the rush, the enemy's formation will be crushed, so that the side with a tighter formation will have an advantage, and once the enemy is defeated in formation, it will be defeated like a mountain.

Therefore, cold weapon combat is basically held together.

The advantage of firearms is long-range shooting, coupled with the training of the three-stage type, which can carry out unlimited firepower coverage. Basically, if 6,000 people line up in formation, it won't be a problem to block tens of thousands of people.

If there are mountains, there may still be a danger of being ambushed, but the northwest is vast, and many of them are reckless grassland areas, and even if there are mountains, they are mostly hills, with more grass and few trees.

In this case, it is still very difficult for cold weapons to ambush an army of firearms.

"The second is that the last general thinks that this offensive is to make Yuan Hao feel that we are reckless. That's how he dares to come and fight us, otherwise, if he retreats into the city, we won't be able to break through it easily. ”

Jia Kui said another reason for himself.

Jingtai felt that it made sense and agreed: "Well, it makes sense. We sent troops so rashly, and there will only be two results. One is that Yuan Hao has some concerns, and he is afraid that it is our strategy, so he will shrink into the city. One is that he underestimated us and led his troops into battle with us, neither of which seemed to be a defeat for us. ”

Thinking of this, he clapped his hands and said, "Okay, then do it." Zhang Xiang asked me to be the vanguard, I should take Huangzhou directly, the main army is behind us, we don't need to worry, where is Jia Kui? ”

"The last general!"

Jia Kui was overjoyed and stood up.

"Let you lead three thousand as a pioneer, set off today, and go straight to the mouth of the river!"

"Yes."

"Where is Zhou Yaowu?"

"The end will be."

"Let you lead a thousand people to respond to Jia Kui's side."

"Yes."

"Where is Zhong Baocai?"

Jingtai methodically arranged the tactics of the army.

Han Qi's side is a strategy.

The division of troops into two routes, one main attack and one feint attack, is to complete the strategic task given by the imperial court to take Qingtang and Zhuo Luo and the south.

And Jingtai has to arrange tactics.

Zhang Kang led the main army of 50,000, and he brought 10,000 people on his side, plus the original 3,000 people in Lanzhou City, which belonged to the front army of the main army.

The front army has a vanguard, so that the whole army forms a front and back, orderly steps.

However, the actual operation still depends on the arrangement of the main general, otherwise once the distance between the front and rear is too far and there is no time to rush to help, it will be a disconnect between the front and back, and it is a taboo for military aircraft.

Later, Jingtai arranged for the soldiers and horses of the Qingtang regime to serve as logistics work, and their subordinates acted as the escort army for the supply of grain and grass, and cooperated with the main force in the rear to deliver grain and grass to the front army.

After the tactical arrangement was completed, Jia Kui went out of Lanzhou City, answered the military camp outside his city, and officially began to set off with an order, marching westward.

The soldiers all rode on horseback, and now there is no shortage of horses in the Great Song Dynasty, and the price of ordinary war horses has even fallen to 90 to 120 yuan a horse, which is nearly half cheaper than that of Jingyou in the year.

No way.

At the beginning, both the Liao State and the Western Xia imposed an embargo on war horses on the Great Song Dynasty, and the only source of war horses in the Great Song Dynasty was Qingtang.

Now the Liao State and the Western Xia are forced to open the country and let the domestic war horses go out, plus the Great Song Dynasty has also set up a lot of horse farms on Shaanxi Road, and the supply of war horses exceeds demand, so naturally the price began to plummet.

In the past, there were more than 200,000 troops on the Shaanxi Road, and there were only 20,000 or 30,000 cavalry, but later Fan Zhongyan went to the northwest to operate for several years before increasing the number of elite cavalry to 50,000.

But now the army of more than 100,000 people on the Shaanxi Road has almost achieved the freedom of war horses, and everyone can gallop on horseback.

Countless northwestern men carried spears on their backs, ring-headed knives hung from their waists, and on both sides of the horse's belly there were various bags, one of which contained fixed ammunition. Another bag contained some biscuits, kettles, and other utensils.

Three thousand light horsemen went out of the city, and in less than two hours, they arrived at the mouth of the river in the distance, which was the ancient town of the estuary on the west side of Lanzhou in the later generations, and was about 35 kilometers away from Lanzhou City.

Jia Kui raised his eyes and looked out, hundreds of tents were densely packed on the south bank of the estuary in the distance, according to the scout's report, Li Yuanhao stationed more than 10,000 men and horses here, and the rest of the Western Xia army was in Michuan City in the west and Zhuo Luo City in the north.

In the distant wilderness, dozens of Western Xia cavalry watched them from a distance on the small hillside hills, and one of them blew the horn, and the sound of the desolate horn spread throughout the wilderness.

"Kill!"

Jia Kui pulled out the knife at his waist and pointed it at the Xixia camp on the south bank of the estuary in the distance.

Behind him, thousands of horses rolled up Pinggang, and dust and smoke were everywhere!

(End of chapter)