In the first month of the first year of Qingli (1041), Han Qi received a report that the Western Xia army had invaded Weizhou (now Pingliang, Gansu). He immediately sent the general Ren Fu to lead the army to attack. The Western Xia army was frustrated and retreated, and Ren Fu ordered a quick pursuit. chased straight to the foot of Liupan Mountain in the Western Xia Realm, but was ambushed and surrounded at the mouth of the Haoshui River. Ren Fu and 16 other generals LinkedIn died bravely, and more than 10,000 soldiers died tragically. Han Qi returned defeated, encountering thousands of family members of the deceased on the way. They cried out the names of their loved ones and prayed that the souls of the dead would return with Han Shuai. Han Qi stopped on the horse to cover his weeps and was remorseful.

Fan Zhongyan's strategic defense is not a simple or passive defensive measure. As soon as he arrived in Yanzhou, he comprehensively inspected the military and carried out serious layoffs and reorganization. He promoted a number of fierce generals from among the soldiers and junior officers, recruited many militia members from among the local residents, and carried out strict military training. In terms of fortifications, he adopted the advice of Chong Shiheng and first built a city in Yanbei, and later built a fortress in the Song and Xia battle zones. For the ethnic minority residents along the border, they will be sincerely united, generous and preferential, and strictly establish a reward and punishment convention. In this way, a solid barrier was gradually erected on the roadside defense lines such as Luyan, Huanqing, and Jingyuan.

One day in March of the second year of Qingli (1042), Fan Zhongyan secretly ordered his eldest son Chunyou and the general Zhao Ming to lead troops to attack the Western Xia army and recapture Mapu Village in the northwest of Gyeongju. He himself then led his army out. None of the generals knew the purpose of the operation. When the troops were about to penetrate into the Western Xia military defense, he suddenly gave the order to start building the city on the spot. The construction tools were prepared in advance, and it took only ten days to build a new city. This is the famous lonely city between the Song and Xia Dynasty - Dashun City. Unwilling to lose, the Western Xia sent troops to attack, but found that the Song army was centered on Dashun City, which had formed a solid strategic system echoed by the fortress.

On the way back to Gyeongju from Daesun City, Fan Zhongyan felt relieved. In the first year, Shiheng was sent to build Qingjian City in Yanzhou, and the northeast border defense has stabilized. The words of the private precepts in the Western Xia army also reached his ears. They said, "You can't easily capture Yanzhou, and now Xiao Fan Laozi has tens of thousands of armor soldiers in his chest, which is not as easy to deal with as Da Fan Laozi." At present, the border defense in the northern part of Gyeongju is also generally close to consolidation. But his own body felt very tired.

Fan Zhongyan also adopted a number of methods to improve the combat effectiveness of the army. The edict of the emperor of the Song Dynasty stipulated the number of troops to be led by generals at all levels, and if the enemy invaded, the officers of low status would lead the army to resist first. Fan Zhongyan said: "War generals do not choose appropriate people, but only use the rank of the officer as the criterion for the order of the battle, and this is a way to bring about defeat." Therefore, he conscientiously inspected the army in Yanzhou, eliminated a number of cowardly and incompetent generals, and selected a group of talented people who had been tested by the war to replace them. He also eliminated the old and weak, selected 18,000 qualified soldiers, divided them into 6 divisions, and let each general lead 3,000 people, and trained them separately, changing the situation that the soldiers and generals did not know each other in the past.

Fan Zhongyan actively recruited soldiers. Because most of the people who were guarding the border were corrupted forbidden troops transferred from the interior, these people were not patient with hard work, and because they had been homesick for a long time, their fighting spirit was not high, so they recruited soldiers from the local people, who were familiar with the mountains and rivers, and who were strong and daring to fight, and because they defended their hometowns, they had a strong fighting spirit. The training of non-commissioned officers has improved the combat effectiveness of the army. In addition, Fan Zhongyan can lead by example, he never says he is thirsty when the soldiers don't drink water, he never calls them hungry when they don't eat, and the gold silk rewarded to him by the court is distributed to the soldiers. Fan Zhongyan rewarded and punished the soldiers who bravely killed the enemy, promoted the generals who made meritorious contributions, and beheaded the corrupt elements who deducted military salaries in public without mercy. In this way, under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan, many brave and resourceful generals like Di Qing and Chong Shiheng emerged in the Northwest Army, and a group of strong and daring soldiers were trained, until the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, this army was still a strong force in the Song Dynasty.

Under the painstaking management of Fan, Han and others, the situation on the border has been greatly improved. At this time, there were various crises in the Western Xia, and there were also many contradictions among the generals of the Western Xia army. After the second year of the Qingli calendar, the border from the Western Xia to the Song Dynasty has been continuous. The people of the Song and Xia countries hoped to stop the military operations as soon as possible. The envoys of the two sides who negotiated peace also began to secretly travel back and forth between Xingqing Mansion (present-day Yinchuan City) and Bianliang. In the fourth year of Qingli (1044), the two sides formally reached a peace agreement. Peace was restored in Song and Xia, and the situation in the northwest was turned from dangerous to peaceful.