The Qinfeng and Yongxingjun roads in the northwest are originally barren and desolate places. The total number of households in the two roads is less than 120,000, and the number of people is less than one million. Normally, apart from the people who originally lived here, there are only
The soldiers, horses and merchants stationed by the imperial court went there.
The population is small, the output is not self-sufficient, and there is drought and famine every year. In fact, it has become the key relief target of the Song Dynasty. To put it bluntly, if these two roads were not strategically defendable, Bianliang City would be undefeated.
The only barrier is that if it weren't for the fear of bearing the infamy of having our ancestral land invaded, someone in the court would have long ago proposed abandoning this ungrateful place.
However, in the first year of Baoyuan, Li Yuanhao, a party member, broke away from the Song Dynasty and established his own country.
Li Yuanhao, who proclaimed himself Emperor of Great Xia, wrote a letter to inform the Song Dynasty court, hoping that they would recognize this fact. This immediately aroused great indignation from the Song Dynasty court. In June of that year, Zhao Zhen issued an edict to cut off Yuan Hao's official title and offered a reward for his arrest.
From then on, the Song-Xia war broke out in an all-round way; soldiers and horses gathered, and fortifications sprang up. In just over three years, dozens of forts were built along the frontier, and the border garrison also increased from the original five.
More than 10,000 people gradually increased to nearly 150,000. In this land, some people made great military exploits and became famous, some were defeated in Maicheng and their reputations were ruined. More ordinary people and soldiers lost their lives here, and they shed their blood on this land.
on this barren land.
Generally speaking, the Song Dynasty suffered a lot of losses in the more than three years of war. Regardless of the small defeats, the Song Dynasty suffered big losses in the battles of Sanchuankou and Haoshuichuan in the second year of Baoyuan and the second year of Kangding.
.In the two wars, the Northwest Army suffered more than 100,000 casualties, and nearly 150 generals were killed. It was a great shame and humiliation.
But the death of the army is not the main loss. The real losses are the people plundered by the Western thieves, the destroyed cities and the looted goods. The losses of the army are nothing compared with the civilians. Just one year in the first year of Qingli
In two years, 30,000 people and hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and livestock were plundered by the Western bandits on both sides.
The direct victims of the war were the people. The people who were already struggling to make a living had no choice but to give up their land. In order to prevent the border people from flowing into the interior and causing trouble, the imperial court issued strict orders prohibiting the people from retreating. At the same time, they ordered the local people to work as laborers on the spot.
The army built cities, built villages, paved roads and bridges; although this was inhumane, it at least allowed the people to get paid for their labor and barely make a living.
After entering the second year of Qingli, Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi's proposal was approved by the imperial court. They changed the previous head-on battle strategy to a defensive and counterattack strategy of clearing the country with strong walls, strengthening the city walls and fortresses and installing more long-range attack weapons to refuse to fight with the Western thieves.
A large-scale battle was fought, and the situation was slightly relieved.
Li Yuanhao sent troops several times to harass, but every village became a ghost village with empty houses. All the people took their belongings and hid in various fortresses. The Xixia soldiers found nothing, and they attacked the fortresses but suffered heavy losses one after another, and then they gradually died down.
The situation between the two sides is gradually becoming balanced.
When the war has reached this point, both sides are fighting for internal friction. No one dares to relax, and no one is willing to give in. They are all secretly panting and looking for opportunities to bite each other.
Although there were no major battles during this period, small battles continued one after another. The most encouraging ones were the several small-scale battles commanded by Di Qing, the commander of Yanzhou. Under his command, the Song Army successively conquered Jintang City, Youzhou
In other places, tens of thousands of Xixia grain and grass were burned, and countless tents, weapons and materials were seized. They also looted more than 5,700 livestock, and ordered the soldiers to build the city in Qiaozi Valley, a strategic location, and built Zhao'an, Fenglin, Xinzhai, and Dazhai.
Langzhu Fort planted nails one after another in key points on the front line.
Fan Zhongyan's strategy of defending and counterattacking with strong walls and clearing the country received mixed reviews in the court. Some people ridiculed Fan Zhongyan for losing the backbone of the Song Dynasty and acting like a coward; but it turned out that this move reversed the decline in one fell swoop and allowed the Song Dynasty to successfully defeat Li Yuanhao.
His arrogance was suppressed.
Black cats and white cats are good cats if they catch mice. The improvement of the war situation will naturally make these opposing voices gradually disappear. In Han Qi's words, "Fan Xiwen's move is to avoid the enemy's edge and make the brave cavalry of the Western thieves useless."
The place of martial arts is a wise move.'.
This is to the point. The most ferocious thing about the Xixia army is their iron cavalry. They move back and forth like the wind. Moreover, the Dangxiang clan members are all good at riding and shooting. If they go head-to-head with their infantry in the wilderness and plains, then
It is precisely by using one's own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strong points that a disastrous defeat is inevitable; and after holding on to the walled city, the strong walled city blocked the cavalry's advance. In addition, the main force of the Song Dynasty army was archers, who were condescending and supplemented by
Long-range weapons such as bed crossbows naturally left the Xixia army helpless.
The Xixia army mainly used cavalry and never used any siege equipment such as catapults. At most, it was a cyclone cannon carried on the back of a camel. Although this thing can reach far, it is not a counterweighted catapult machine, but a full-scale catapult.
It relies on manpower to launch the stones, so the distance of the thrown stones is limited, and the power is so small that it can be ignored by the Song army. Soldiers will occasionally be killed, but the city wall is almost undamaged, which does not bring much benefit to the battle situation. Instead, it needs to be shot close.
Many of them were shot dead by the Song army's condescending crossbows.
It's not that Yuan Hao didn't want to use heavy catapults to attack the city, but the situation didn't allow him to do so. First of all, it was expensive and Xixia's national power really couldn't afford it. Fighting to support war was his ultimate strategy, and the looted materials and property could make up for it.
He consumed it so that the Xixia army would have the strength to fight again. Otherwise, when all the people in Daxia were fighting and production was almost at a standstill, what would he use to fight?
Secondly, there is the problem of army configuration. The high-mobility tactics of the cavalry are already the specialty of the Xixia army. Even the tornado cannon is mounted on the back of a camel and follows the army as it comes and goes; once it is equipped with a heavy catapult,
Using such cumbersome equipment, the entire army changed from being as fast as the wind to being as slow as a turtle crawling, which was tantamount to giving away the advantage.
All in all, the northwest frontier is now experiencing great changes in the calm, and thunder is brewing in the silent place, which is precisely due to the battle of wits and courage between the two sides; although there is no war, small-scale harassment is in full swing in various parts of the frontier every day.
…
Su Jin and his entourage left Beijing on June 26. The imperial court's food and salary were robbed several times by small groups of cavalry from the West who broke into the Song Dynasty. After the robbery, the food and salary sent to the northwest were also rerouted. Originally, the food and salary were routed through Jiezhou.
Transfer to Yaozhou, split into two routes and then go all the way north to Yanzhou and other places for distribution. The other route continues westward along Yaozhou via Fengxiang to Qinzhou for collection by the various states on Qinfeng Road.
However, most of the official roads in this section passed through many mountains. One of the reasons for the defeat of the Battle of Haoshuichuan was that the official roads under the Yiniu Mountain in Fengxiang at that time were washed away and filled up by mudflows, making it difficult to sustain military supplies. Although Pang Ji led tens of thousands of civilians continuously
Rush repairs, but the war will not happen until you have built the road, so the Song army was trapped without food and could only break through, which was one of the reasons for the defeat.
This time, the official of the Third Division escorting the grain and grass transportation was a chief of the Du branch named Wang Lang. This man had traveled between the northwest and the capital many times to escort grain, grass and weapons and supplies and had never made any mistakes. This time Yan Shu appointed him to go with Su Jin.
, also means using his experience to help Su Jin arrive safely.
The secret to Wang Lang's success was that he didn't go from the nearest official road at all. Instead, he detoured through Jingnan Road and then entered Lizhou Road, then turned north and directly arrived at Qinzhou Prefecture. Qinzhou Prefecture was then responsible for notifying local officials.
The state government sent troops to escort the grain and grass back.
Wang Lang's route is Gongbei, and the nearest route is Gongxian. As a result, the time on the road is more than doubled. Originally, the baggage team will arrive around 15 days, and it will take at least 35-60 days according to Wang Lang's route.
Only a genius can reach Qinzhou.
Wang Lang still adhered to the safe way. After leaving the capital, he proposed to Su Jin to walk along this route. Su Jin rejected him without hesitation. Su Jin had his own reasons. For such a long road, it would be better to arrive a day earlier.
A little dangerous, and the half-month arrival time has more than doubled, which undoubtedly greatly increases the risk.
And although it seems safe to take a long detour from the lower road, in fact, the road from Lizhou Road to Qinfeng Road to Qinzhou is still unsafe. Are the Xixia soldiers fools? If they get nothing on the old road, why don't they go to Qinzhou?
Trying your luck in Nan's official career?
Furthermore, the escort this time was a luxurious one. Not only did they have their own 500-horse army to protect them, but there were also more than a thousand soldiers assigned by the imperial court to escort the grain and grass, plus thousands of people transporting the grain. Such a group
With such a huge team, even a small group of enemy troops would be frightened from a distance, let alone step forward to stroke the tiger's beard.
"Master Su." Wang Lang rubbed his hands and said, "If something goes wrong with this batch of supplies, I can't bear the responsibility. It's better to be careful."
Su Jin smiled and said: "Master Wang, I won't force you. How about you take the food team and weapons and supplies and take the safe road, and I take my own guards and take the high road, so that everyone doesn't have to worry about it, and you don't have to either.
We are very worried about food and supplies."
Wang Lang said in shock: "This... I'm afraid this is not good. This is not an act of dividing the troops, and it is even more insecure. Besides, the Master of the Third Division has strictly ordered that I must follow Mr. Su all the way. How can I dare to disobey the order?"
Su Jin smiled and said, "Then I'll take the top road, will you follow me?"
Wang Lang was extremely depressed. He heard that Mr. Su Jinsu didn't like to take the ordinary road. Today, he really lived up to his name. It was obviously not possible to go separately. The 500 horse troops around Su Jin were the main force. His own 1,000 infantrymen encountered Xi Jinping.
The thief's cavalry is not an opponent at all. The cavalry against the cavalry is the enemy. If we lose this big protection, if we encounter enemy soldiers on the way into Qinfeng Road, we will have no power to fight back.
Wang Lang had no choice but to follow Su Jin on the adventure, thinking to himself: "This boy is still young. A newborn calf is not afraid of tigers. You have to suffer a big loss to realize that what I say is good advice; but I hope
Don’t let me suffer a loss this time, I don’t want anything to go wrong on this trip.”