Throughout July, on the smoke-filled Shaanxi Road, the Western Army retreated steadily. Everything seemed to confirm the judgment of the Bianliang court and the Shaanxi front line. The Western Army was doing its best to resist the attack of Yelu, the governor of Shangjing Road in the Liao Kingdom.

Xi's attack, as for Song's attack, could only rely on natural dangers to delay the attack.

Yelvxi's attack must have spared no effort, of which the Song Dynasty had no doubt.

Because this attack on Xiao Ding of the Western Army will be his last chance to make a comeback for the Emperor of Liao. If he fails, Yelvxi will not be able to compare with Yelujun at all.

No one will follow a loser.

So this time Yeluxi put all his wealth into a big gamble.

If he wins, he will have the opportunity to compete with Yelujun for the throne of the Emperor of Liao. Moreover, Yeluxi, who has the support of many people in the North Court, will even have a certain advantage. After all, in Daliao, the status of the North Court is much higher than that of the South Court.

The orthodox Liao people did not like Yelujun, a prince who was deeply Sinicized.

But if he loses, he will have nothing. Once Yelujun comes to power, he will probably have to liquidate the things that Yeluxi did quietly in the past. At that point, it will be difficult to survive.

So Yelvxi definitely wouldn't have any reservations.

On the basis of this inference, it was natural for Xiao Ding's elite troops to go out together to respond to Yeluxi's attack.

The main force went to the north, and the troops that could compete with the Song people in the south were naturally those second-rate and third-rate people.

It was difficult to deal with the elite forces of the Western Army, but everyone was still very confident in dealing with the remaining soldiers and generals.

Even those military generals from the south are full of confidence and are ready to work hard to make their resumes more glorious.

After all, having defeated Xiao Ding's army is not an achievement that can be obtained casually.

The military villages occupied by the Western Army were recaptured by the Song Army one by one. The intelligence dug out from the captured prisoners also confirmed the previous judgment one by one.

Until now, the Song Army has not even encountered an elite unit of the Western Army. Those guarding these military strongholds are almost all young Xiang troops or tribesmen.

These people have no desire to fight, and they will run away with only minor casualties in the slightest contact.

This situation is especially obvious on the right wing where Zheng Xiong mainly attacks.

On the contrary, Wang Jun's main attack on the left road encountered a relatively tenacious attack along Suide, and the troops who attacked them were not direct descendants of the original Western Army, but Li Du's son-in-law, who was currently stationed in Siwu Village.

The old Dingnan Army unit commanded by Zhang Yunsheng.

The Dingnan Army and the Song Army have been fighting for nearly twenty years. It is natural to hate each other. It is natural to resist the Song Army's attack to the end. There is nothing to say. And Xiao Ding did not take Zhang Yunsheng to fight with the Liao people.

The fighting is also understandable.

Because Zhang Yunsheng is unlikely to surrender to the Song Dynasty again, but if he surrenders to the Liao people, there will be no psychological pressure. So it is better to put it in a place like Siwu Village to resist the Song army.

Guan Jian was a very powerful general. Facing this guy, Wang Jun did not dare to be careless in the slightest.

At the end of July, Zheng Xiong finally captured Dingbian City, and then the army used Dingbian City as the base of advance and marched towards Shentang Fort. Dingbian City was just an appetizer, and Shentang Fort was the focus of the Western Army. Xiao Ding's military strength was

No matter how hard it is, heavy troops will definitely be stationed in Shentang Fort.

If the Song army captured the Shentang Fort, it would be equivalent to locking the door for the Western Army to leave Hengshan. Everyone would feel uncomfortable being guarded at the door.

After more than ten days, Wang Jun finally attacked Funing City. The next step was to attack Siwu Village.

Whether it was Shentang Fort or Siwu Village, it was impossible for the Western Army to watch them lose.

Without these two places, Xiao Ding's Western Army would really be destroyed.

One on the left and one on the right, two battles are about to break out.

Li Yi stood on the city wall of Shentang Fort and looked at several Song Army sentinels flashing in the distance.

These sentinels were quite bold. Not only did they appear swaggeringly within the sight of Shentang Fort, they even made some provocative actions that were extremely indifferent, which made the hard-blooded soldiers in the city extremely angry.

, immediately someone asked to go to war and kill these sentinels on the spot.

But such little tricks are simply not worth mentioning to Li Yi.

When he was fourteen or fifteen years old, he followed the general manager to fight with the Liao people on the battlefield. He did not know how many times he had done this kind of trapping and killing. If his prediction was correct, there were at least dozens of people hiding in invisible places on the city wall.

The enemy cavalry probably came here last night, and they are now waiting for the people in the city to go out and deal with these arrogant scouts!

Once you go out, you can't come back.

If they really wanted to launch a large-scale attack, they would see it clearly and flee immediately. Now that the soldiers in the city could not pursue them far, they could only watch them escape.

Repeating this routine a few times is enough to make the soldiers in the city feel discouraged. It has to be said that the other party is really scheming.

Li Yi suddenly laughed.

Sons of a bitch, who can fight with the general manager? You are still young! You have been arrogant enough for more than a month. I have endured it for a month and I don’t care about this trembling. I will make you happier.

Damn it, I will take back the principal and interest when the time comes.

"Ignore them! If anyone dares to move forward without risking his life, there will be a bed crossbow to greet him! Whoever can shoot a scout to death with a bed crossbow will be rewarded a hundred dollars!" Li Yi patted the wall with his knife,

Look around with a smile.

The bed crossbow is extremely powerful, but if you want to use it to hit a single target, it depends purely on luck, and the probability of pie in the sky is not much different. If someone really encounters such great luck, Li Yi will not hesitate

After all, it is a great morale booster for a heavy reward.

After years of construction, Shentang Fort is no longer the small military fortress it once was. It is a military fortress that can accommodate 3,000 people and can give any military general who wants to attack the city a headache. A pure military fortress,

But it is much harder to defeat than a big city.

For this battle, Shentang Castle has stored a large number of crossbow stones.

The Divine Arm Bow, which was regarded as a magic weapon by the Song Dynasty and would never be spread to outsiders, could now be made by the Western Army itself. The Emperor of the Song Dynasty hid the craftsman camp in the imperial city, thinking that this way he could keep the secret forever, but little did he know that

Two years ago, the Western Army began large-scale imitation.

Nowadays, in the Hengshan Mountain behind Shentangbao, there are several iron mines and smelters as well as arsenals, bows and arrows, armor, swords and guns, which are continuously produced.

The chess pieces that Xiao Erlang laid out back then have now begun to shine.

There was a thud, and then the sighs of the soldiers on the city were heard. Li Yi, who was about to go down to the city, turned his head and saw that a corps commander had just smashed the mechanism of a crossbow with a hammer. That thick

The bed crossbow flew hundreds of steps and was now stuck in the ground, half of it burrowed into the ground. Farther away, several scouts quickly fled away.

Of course, it missed the target by a little, but it must have scared the opponent enough.

The sons under my command are quite skilled!

In Shentang Fort, Li Yi was quietly waiting for Zheng Xiong's troops to attack, while in Siwu Village, Zhang Yunsheng was also waiting for Wang Jun's attack.

The former Siwu Village has now been renamed Luowucheng by Xiao Ding.

Standing at the top of the city, he reached out and took from a soldier a divine arm bow that had just been issued by Xingqing Mansion. Zhang Yunsheng actually used the strength of his two arms to pull the bow string easily and then slowly loosened it again.

go back.

It's good stuff, no worse than the ones produced by Da Song Craftsman Camp.

Zhang Yunsheng was filled with emotion.

I think back then, when their army had just shown signs of wanting to stand on its own, the imperial court immediately cut off the supply of weapons and armor. Those divine arm bows that had been secretly stored earlier were also used one less. This kind of sharp weapon is very powerful.

, but the loss is also huge, but the Difficult Army will not build it.

But now, Xiao Ding's Western Army not only created this magical weapon that the Song Dynasty was proud of, but they also had other powerful weapons that the Song Dynasty did not possess.

Zhang Yunsheng witnessed with his own eyes how the city gate, which was several feet thick and covered with iron sheets, broke into pieces with a thunderbolt.

Xiao Ding followed the same path as Li Xu, but his steps were much more solid than Li Xu's.

Whether it's the military or people's livelihood, Xiao Ding is much stronger now than Li Xu was back then.

Of course, the enemies he faces now are much more powerful.

The Song people kept sending envoys to recruit surrender.

Even if he kills one after another, he can't stop the Song people from continuing to dispatch.

It's a clumsy alienation plan, but I have to say that this kind of counter-insurgency plan that involves taking human lives may actually be useful.

After all, he was a remnant of the Dingnan Army, and he was Li Du's son-in-law, so he had a deep hatred for Xiao Ding.

Zhang Yunsheng grinned.

When he surrendered to the Song Dynasty with his father-in-law, although it didn't last long, the initial feeling of being irritated by the civil servants came back again, which made him quite unhappy. Even the father-in-law himself was a fourth-grade man.

Of course, he was even more unbearable, and he was dismissed by a sixth-grade governor.

It's really boring.

Later, my father-in-law fought with Xiao Ding and lost completely. He had no choice but to surrender. But now he is more prosperous than before. Xiao Ding is indeed a master.

It's grand and bold and makes people convinced.

It is impossible for Zhang Yunsheng to surrender to the Song Dynasty again, because if he does surrender again, a duplicitous person like himself will definitely not end well. Even if he really faces a desperate situation again, then run to the Liao Kingdom!

But for now, let’s fight the battle first.

Wang Jun was difficult to deal with, but the troops who came with him were much easier. Standing on the city wall and watching the past few days, just the process of setting up a camp was enough for Zhang Yunsheng to separate the opponent's army.

Three, six, nine, etc. are coming.

The good ones are really good, the bad ones are really bad.

Encountering such an army, Zhang Yunsheng felt very happy.
To be continued...