In this era, the careerists in the Eastern Continent coveted the riches of the Central Plains.

They continue to stir up the storm.

At the very least, the international situation remains treacherous.

Just as Xixia was preparing to increase its troops and the Jin Kingdom also took action, a storm arose again in a place in the northwest that no party had noticed.

The center of this storm is still Liu Qi, who caused the arrogant kidnapper Ma to suffer in the Battle of Chang'an!

If Li Yanxian's deep attack on Xixia was the beginning of the reversal of the northwest war situation, then Liu Qi's siege of Yinzhou was the beginning of the storm.

After taking Mizhi Village, Liu Qi's army rushed toward Yinzhou silently along the Wuding River among the high mountains.

On March 13th, the sky was clear, the grass and trees between the mountains had grown new green, the cold winter was finally over, and the northwest land was awakened by spring.

The rolling mountains ahead are the Hengshan area.

The main peak of Hengshan is called Qiaoshan, which is more than 400 meters high. From here all the way to the west, it enters the Hengcheng Mountain for more than a thousand miles.

The strategy of seizing Hengshan and destroying Xixia has been proposed since the time of Fan Zhongyan.

Why is it said that Xixia died when Hengshan was taken?

There are many military states in the Hengshan area, which are also rich in salt and iron. Rivers run through the mountains and agriculture is developed.

However, in the south of the Hengshan area, there are many steep mountains and complex terrain, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

To the north of the Hengshan area, the terrain is gentle.

The so-called areas rich in salt and iron and with developed agriculture are all located in the north of the Hengshan area.

The area north of Hengshan is occupied by Xixia, which is the Pingxia area.

The hundreds of miles between Pingxia and Xingqingfu are desert areas, which became the Mu Us Desert in later generations.

Just think about it, if everything north of Hengshan was controlled by the Song Dynasty, Xixia would have to cross the desert if it wanted to use troops against the Song Dynasty.

This would be a long-distance battle for Xixia. The exhausted troops would come to Hengshan, while the Song army would wait for work in Hengshan.

Nowadays, Xixia controls Hengshan. The north is gentle and fertile, while the south is mountainous and difficult to march. Xixia, sitting and lying on Hengshan, completely overlooks the roads in Shaanxi.

Once the Song army arrives, Xixia can prepare in advance and wait for work.

Therefore, the battle between Song and Xia was actually a battle for Hengshan.

After two days of marching along the paths in the mountains of Hengshan, Liu Qi was already not far from the head of Yinzhou City.

He sent a large number of scouts before and after to detect whether there were any traces of Xixia people on various roads and valleys.

Early in the morning on March 15th, the Xixia garrison at the head of Yinzhou City was on duty as usual.

The donkey cart transporting goods came this way along the winding path from the front.

On it are basically the daily supplies of the Xixia soldiers and civilians in Yinzhou City, including salt, iron, cloth, etc.

Not far from the city tower, some craftsmen were repairing the city wall.

The towers in Yinzhou are very dilapidated.

During the Shenzong era, the Song Dynasty carried out military attacks on this area and had actually initially taken control of Hengshan.

However, the Song army could not effectively defend the Youzhou, Xiazhou and Yinzhou areas of Hengshan from the Yanyan Road to the north of Hengshan for hundreds of miles.

So Zhonge suggested to Shenzong to build a city in the Yinzhou area and push the front into the hinterland of Hengshan.

The imperial court also agreed, so special commissioners Xu Xi, Shen Kuo and others were sent from the imperial court.

The problem arises here. Xu Xi is a penman who likes to talk about strategies and expresses his opinions very much. When he arrived here, he rejected Zhong'e's idea of ​​building a city in Yinzhou and built Yongle City south of Yinzhou.

Zhong E was extremely opposed to the construction of Yongle City because there was no water source near Yongle City, but Xu Xi insisted on having his own way.

At that time, the Song Dynasty mobilized 200,000 soldiers and civilians, and a new city was built within thirteen days.

When Xixia saw that the Song army had built a city here, they came with an army of 300,000 soldiers.

General Gao Yongxiang said that the city here was small and had no water source and could not be defended. Xu Xi refused to listen and sent Gao Yongxiang to Yanyan Road Prison.

Someone said to Xu Xi, let's attack while the Xixia army is not ready.

Xu Xi didn't listen.

After the Xixia army was lined up, someone said that we should attack while the Xixia people have not yet rested from their expedition.

Xu Xi didn't listen again.

When the Xixia people were all ready, arrayed, and ambushed, Xu Xi ordered his troops to go out of the city to fight. The Song army was defeated and returned to the city.

The Xixia people besieged Yongle City. Yongle City was short of water. Countless soldiers and civilians died of thirst, and corpses piled up like mountains.

However, Zhong E was resentful of Xu Xi and acted out of his own will, watching and doing nothing.

The defeat of Yongle City implicated the death of 300,000 Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians in the entire northwest. Xu Xi himself also died tragically in Yongle City. Naturally, he died unjustly. He could not atone for his sin even if he died ten thousand times!

However, the defeat of Yongle City was the finale of the Shenzong Dynasty's expedition to Xia, which meant the overall failure of the Song Dynasty's offensive strategy against Xixia.

After Song Shenzong heard about the defeat of Yongle City, he became angry and died soon after.

So, there are specialties in the arts.

Some people know nothing about certain fields and do not conduct on-the-spot research. They are self-righteous and just talk, causing harm to others and themselves.

Xu Xi is such a person.

Liu Qi couldn't help but sigh, if the imperial court had listened to Zhong'e's suggestion and built a new city in Yinzhou, Xixia might have been forced to shrink in the Houtao area.

In that case, Zhezong and the Supreme Emperor would not have invested so much troops in Xixia and consumed the country's power.

Maybe in the early years of Jingkang, people would be more calm when dealing with Jin people.

History always has infinite regrets.

The scout reported on the terrain and enemy situation.

Putting away his regrets, Liu Qi began to quickly encircle Yinzhou.

The Song army divided into ten teams, each with 2,000 men, and rushed to Yinzhou from all directions.

Along the way, when they encountered Xixia people, they shot them with bows and crossbows, moving quickly and cleanly.

In the morning, three armies arrived near Yinzhou City.

The Xixia people only reacted at this time, but it was too late.

Six groups of troops met at the foot of Yinzhou City at noon and cleaned up the area around Yinzhou City.

There are still four groups of troops stationed at the important pass in the direction of arriving at Yinzhou.

This is called siege and reinforcement. As long as the Xixia army comes to Yinzhou for rescue, it will inevitably pass through those areas, and the Song army that has ambushed it in advance can wait for work.

All business travel goods are also intercepted.

The alarm bell on the city tower rang, and everyone in Yinzhou City turned their eyes there in unison.

At this time, Yinzhou guard Yeli Jingren had just finished lunch and was about to take a nap. He woke up when he heard the bell.

"what happened!"

After a while, someone came to report: "Report! The Song Army is coming!"

Yeli Jingren was shocked: "This is impossible, how could the Song army suddenly come to Yinzhou!"

"General, there are more than 10,000 Song troops outside the city!"

Nori Kagehito immediately began to put on his armor and issued an order to mobilize all soldiers in the city.

"When the Song army came to Yinzhou, why was there no information sent in advance?"

"This...I don't know..."

"What is the beacon tower in Mizhi Village for?" Yeli Jingren said angrily while putting on his armor.

No one dared to respond to him.

Yang Shu said: "General, we have good relations with Song Dynasty, but Song Dynasty comes to attack rashly, why not send people to question Song generals, hold them back, and quickly mobilize troops in the city!"

"Okay, you go!"

Yang Shu quickly said: "Yes!"

Soon, Yang Shu arrived at the tower.

At this time, the Song army had just completed their formation.

Yang Shu asked loudly: "Song and Xia have good relations, why did General Song send troops to our Yinzhou?"

Liu Qi was a pragmatic person. He did not send anyone to persuade them to surrender because he knew that the Xixia people were very cunning.

The Xixia people generally would not surrender, and even if they surrendered, most of the time they would feign surrender.

He also did not answer Yang Shu's question.

Because he has a mission, his mission is to capture Yinzhou as soon as possible.

It can also be seen from this that Liu Qi's character is very pragmatic.

He began to arrange for people to make trebuchets and ladders, and also dispatched a group of people to the southeast of Yinzhou.

Yinzhou is located at the intersection of Wuding River and Mingtang River. The southeast city wall has been washed away by the river all the year round, and a large part of it has collapsed.

Liu Qi sent 8,000 men to arrive here, preparing to attack the city from here.
Chapter completed!