After the Chinese New Year, Long Huang, an official of the Zhao Song Dynasty, suddenly entered the pass westward, which shocked the whole world.
It should be noted that before this, the Song Dynasty already had two complete armies in Guanzhong, namely the imperial camp left army under the command of Han Shizhong and the imperial camp rear army under the command of Wu Jie. The two armies totaled as many as 60,000 people.
...Of course, even if Han Shizhong may still have some problems with the number of soldiers, after Zhao Jiu directly intervenes at the commander level, it will gradually become impossible to be too different.
Fifty thousand or sixty thousand people are enough to properly deal with the situation in Guanzhong from a defense perspective. If we add in the elite front, middle, and cavalry troops brought by Zhao Jiu this time, Zhao Song's military strength in the Guanzhong area has actually reached eighty-nine.
Ten thousand, on the surface it is directly over one hundred thousand. If we also take into account the Li Yanxian tribe who is between Guan and Luo, then the number of one hundred thousand is definitely higher even in reality.
The actual number of 100,000 people, plus the civilians who transported them and the auxiliary soldiers who were immediately recruited as soon as the war started, was the typical routine of "hundreds of thousands of troops" in the feudal era... In other words, in transportation, communication, and the number of troops participating in the war at the same time,
In this limited era, the field troops accumulated by the Song Dynasty in the Guanzhong area are absolutely capable of launching a decisive battle.
As for the emperor of Zhao and Song Dynasty, the actual situation of the Dragon Head and many famous generals of the Song Dynasty including Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, Li Yanxian, Wu Jie, and Qu Duan pouring into Guanzhong further increases this possibility.
, so that no one dares to neglect it.
As a result, the Jin army began to mobilize on a large scale. The troops in Daming Prefecture turned to the Yellow River. The troops in Hedong immediately pressed south to Hezhong Prefecture. Only the Jurchen troops in Longde Prefecture remained silent. This is because this position is very delicate and completely
You can make backup plans based on the situation.
At the same time, in a hurry, in order to facilitate the command, the fourth prince of Jin Kingdom, King Wanyan Wushu of Wei and his third brother King Wanyan Yinliduo of Jin had to temporarily exchange the command of their respective troops... to make thoughts
The fourth prince Wanyan Wushu, who worked in politics, officially took over the command of the battlefields of Hedong and Hexi, that is, the West Route Army; at the same time, the third prince Wanyan Yinliduo also rode out of Yanjing, but went straight to Damingfu
Sit in charge.
Not to mention this, Wanyan Xiyin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Jin Kingdom, also immediately left Zhendingfu, an important town in North China, to take charge of logistics.
For a time, only the eldest prince, King Wanyan Oben of Liao, and Qin Huizhi, who actually had no say at this time, stayed in Yanjing.
Then, the Jin Army's fast horse messengers drove between Yanjing, Zhending, Taiyuan, Daming Prefecture, Longde Prefecture, Xijing (Datong), Yan'an Prefecture, Daning County, Hezhong Prefecture and other key towns, while the Jin Army's
The highest levels are actually exchanging opinions in this way and initiating discussions on the situation.
At this time, the Jurchens had to face an absolute and core difficult problem.
To be fair, the Jurchens are not afraid of war. They cannot lose their courage to fight because of the previous defeats. Moreover, their military strength and combat effectiveness are still undoubtedly superior at this time. But a serious question is whether to cross the river.
Go to war?! Especially when the officials of Zhao and Song Dynasty pointed out that they were going to Yan'an and the mountainous area around Hengshan Mountain in Xixia behind Yan'an.
It should be noted that the Song and Jin Dynasties fought for seven or eight years. Putting aside conventional battles and non-combat attrition, the two biggest pain points for the Jurchens came from the Yanling counterattack and the Yaoshan battle. The former caused the East Route Army to lose ten soldiers.
The latter caused the Jin army to collapse 40,000 households in both east and west routes at the same time, resulting in an actual attrition of about 20,000 troops.
For the Jurchens who own the entire North China and the entire Liao region, the number of troops can be easily flattened, and the organization can be easily rebuilt, but what is the price paid for this? Of course, it is a significant decrease in the upper limit of combat effectiveness.
Frankly speaking, the Jurchens were a little in a hurry. Although they responded very neatly and properly, in fact, the senior officials did not have any preparations for the battle, and the officers and soldiers at the middle and lower levels were unwilling to cross the river to fight on inferior battlefields, which might happen again. Failure... At the same time, with the arrival of spring, the Yellow River began to flood. It is conceivable that after the floods are over, the initiative on the river surface in the lower half of the Yellow River will be controlled by the Song Army's navy. This makes the Yellow River empty of Song troops. A new battlefield was opened downstream, and the natural assumption that the Song army could not look after each other quickly came to nothing.
In other words, Song Jun carefully chose his time and was obviously well prepared.
Although the Jin army was busy in every corner, the Xixia people were even more unbearable... Due to transportation delays, there was a backlog of information for them.
Two months ago, Li Qianshun, the leader of the Xixia Kingdom, received a private taunt from Zhao Song's official family. After thinking about it, it might be a test to block Hengshan and control the Tibetan cavalry... Therefore, Li Qianshun first spent three to five days to calm down. (one of the top ten men in the power list), after a little discussion with domestic civil and military officials on how to deal with it, and some hesitation, he finally decided to bite the bullet and pretend to be cowardly, and sent a cowardly reply to the Song Dynasty half a month after receiving the letter.
Of course, it is impossible to give it to Fanqi, it is impossible to smash the monument, and it is impossible to erase "Lingzhi Song"... The former is called "Zi En Enemy", let alone mentioning it, even the latter is an iconic object of Li Qianshun's martial arts. , is an important testimony that he established Sinology as the key link, and as a country leader who has been on the throne for almost fifty years and is almost fifty years old, he cannot afford to lose that person in the country... He just told the Zhao family and the Song Dynasty that he had already It's just buried. Anyway, people from the Song Dynasty can't come to Xingqing Mansion to witness it with their own eyes, right?
Needless to say what happened next, after the letter was sent out, the Jurchens came to him and vaguely proposed giving land or something... Originally, Li Qianshun was dancing on two eggs and left some time ago. Da Jin went to Da Song, which is what he meant. Now that the Jurchens have said that they will recognize Nianhan's promise to give land, Li Qian happily returned to the warm embrace of Da Jin.
Of course, Li Qianshun is really not a fool.
He wanted the land of Yan'an ten thousand times in his heart, and the Xixia people also wanted ten thousand people... You must know that back then, Li Qianshun's own mother mobilized all the men in the country, and then took him, who was only thirteen years old, to conquer it personally. , it was brought about by Hengshan, controlling the Baoan Army, Suide Army, Jinning Army and Yan'an Prefecture, and controlling all the areas inside the shape of the Yellow River has always been the ultimate dream of the Xixia people.
However, what is the cost?
How can there be such a thing in the world? Lou Shi is dead! What is the title of Han Shizhong, the most famous general in the Song Dynasty and the commander-in-chief of Guanzhong? Where is his hometown? What happened to the Wanyan live girl?
Li Qianshun knew everything in his heart.
Therefore, within one or two months, the Xixia leader forcibly suppressed the internal turmoil, and at the same time launched intensive diplomatic contacts with the Jin people, bribing the Jin people in Xijing (Datong) to stay in Wanyan Luguan (A Gu Da Liu Zi, Wu Shu) Sixth Brother)...According to the idea of the leader of the Xixia Kingdom, it is best not to use Yan'an Mansion, but to take the hometown of the Liao Kingdom on the inside of the Yellow River, Heqing, and Ningbian. If the Jurchens are willing to give up Linzhou to him, If he is willing to seal it off, he can ask to be king.
In a word, don't do anything that is too exciting. Making money behind the scenes is the most important thing.
Of course, the Jurchens are not fools either. Seeing that the living women are trying to solve the problem peacefully, they are also perfunctory with the Xixia people. After two months, not to mention the Yan'an Prefecture, let alone the loss of Linzhou family, even the Heqing Army This kind of land inside the Yellow River, which is so called insignificant next to the desert, is not willing to be given to the Xixia people.
For a time, Li Qianshun was so angry that he kept telling his confidants as soon as he went to court, "The Jurchens won't even give me a Heqing army"!
The weight of resentment was palpable, which was in sharp contrast to the surprise he felt when he learned that the Jurchens were going to give him land.
It was precisely this kind of surprise and resentment that made the oldest and most politically experienced person in power in East Asia ignore the trends in the Song Dynasty... Li Qianshun did not take seriously the newspapers sent by Gao Shouyi. Because the discussions and problems in Yan'an Mansion were real, it was normal for Song people to complain.
Moreover, according to Li Qianshun's understanding, the people of the Song Dynasty have now made the Di Bao public to the public, making this kind of thing obviously for outsiders to see, so the things posted on it should be symbolic. It is tentative and cannot be used as a real message.
It is not as valuable as the "Historical Records" sent by the young Emperor of the Song Dynasty, because that book represents the private attitude of the most powerful man in the world... Even though the man is only in his twenties, he is about the same age as Li Qianshun half.
But then, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty led his troops to help the west, and said that he would attack Yan'an and Hengshan! Then, the Jurchens came again, and said that they wanted Xixia to send troops to help defend Yan'an. If they defended Yan'an, they would send Yan'an away!
Things haven't calmed down here yet, but a Korean came and asked Li Qianshun in Tokyo Mandarin to go to Chang'an to plead guilty?!
One after another, the emperor of Dabai Gao Kingdom was disgusted.
However, no matter how disgusting it is, Dabai Gaoguo must respond and react when things are put in front of us.
In the imperial court of the Dabai Gao Kingdom, a court meeting was being held in the palace located at the east end of Xingqing Mansion (later Yinchuan). In his late fifties, the Dabai Gao Kingdom Emperor Li Qianshun, who was full of forehead lines, was sitting at the top, with clearly distinguished civil and military figures on both sides.
Different from those envoys who wore gold crowns and gold belts, most of the civil and military officials in the palace wore tight-fitting clothes with round necks and narrow sleeves. Then the civil servants wore futou, and the generals mostly wore small gold crowns and small silver crowns. ...As for Li Qianshun himself, he was wearing a high crown, a dragon robe, and a belt.
This shape is very different from the attire worn when the Xixia Kingdom was founded, but if you look carefully, you can see that the characteristics of Khitan, Han, Western Regions, and grasslands can be revealed, which can be regarded as a great fusion of cultures.
Of course, if you look carefully, you will still find an important feature unique to Xixia, which is short hair and a bird-shaped hairstyle.
There is no way, this is the continuation of Li Yuanhao's policy of "leave your head without leaving your hair, leave your hair without leaving your head" when he founded the country. Even if he completely overturned the "Fan rites" and implemented the "Han rites", Li Qianshun could not shake it, but he The sideburns should be thicker, and the head should be as bald as possible.
And just as this hairstyle suggests, the Xixia Dynasty never seemed to be able to break away from its own intolerant style.
Back to the present, although the civil and military order in the palace is in order, everyone knows that this is not the result of "Han Rites", but the difficulty of the matter is beyond their imagination. Those surnamed Li and Weiming have no idea what to do. how to respond.
But on the other hand, although the matter is difficult, it is not complicated, so in a sense, there is no need to over-discuss it.
First of all, everyone knows that going to Chang'an is definitely not allowed.
Then, Jin Wang Weimingcha Ge tentatively suggested that he might as well agree to the Jin people's request and send troops across the mountains to assist the Jurchens in guarding Yan'an... But then the Han prime minister Xue Yuanli asked back. In the past few months, the Jin people had asked Dabai Gaoguo His contempt was already obvious. If he went to Yan'an, the Jurchens withdrew, and the Song people came again, what would happen?
Are we going to have a decisive battle with the main force of the Song army in Yan'an, a place full of Han people? He Wei Ming Cha Ge can actually fight better than Wan Yan Lou Shi?
Therefore, this opinion was quickly rejected.
By this time, although no one had spoken, the plan was ready to come out.
"Then let's do it!"
Seeing that no one spoke again, Li Qianshun thought for a long time and finally settled on a tone. "No matter what, Xixia was just a small country before the Song and Jin Dynasties. A small country must have the self-awareness of a small country...it is all about survival in every possible way! Xue Xianggong !”
"I'm here."
"You go with that Korean and go to Chang'an yourself." Li Qianshun sighed. "Bring fifty camels, a hundred good horses, and some gold items. By the way, there's also the one sent from the Western Regions." The white parrot that can recite Buddhist scriptures. I heard that the Zhao Song Dynasty official was also a person who worshiped Buddhism, so I brought it to him to see... Be more humble in your words. If necessary, you can promise to let go of the Hengshan Fan cavalry and open the horse market... ...And if the Song Dynasty asks for the Dingbian Army strongholds that I personally took after Jingkang, I can also go with him!"
"Brother Emperor!" After hearing this, Brother Cha, who was in his forties, couldn't help but come out again. "This is to support the enemy."
"It's just an expedient measure!" Li Qianshun looked a little irritated. "Of course I know that it is impossible for the Great White Kingdom and the Great Song Dynasty to live in harmony, but when there are hundreds of thousands of elites, we must bow our heads when we should."
Xue Yuanli bowed his head even more, and Brother Cha was speechless.
"As for the Jurchens, Yan'an is not available, but we must make it clear that we have no intention of going against the Jin Dynasty. More than that, when the time comes when the Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty really confront each other, it is clear that the Gao Kingdom will only help the Jin Dynasty and will never No two minds..." Li Qianshun suppressed his frown and called out another person. "Bali Zuren... you are my censor Zhongcheng. Go and talk to the Jurchens."
A party official immediately stepped out and answered the call carefully.
"That's it, let's break up! King Jin will follow me to the harem to talk!" Li Qianshun ordered here. He also felt a little impatient, so he stood up and turned back, with only Jin King Cha Ge following closely behind.
Everyone knew that the next step was to increase the troops in Hengshan, and since the increase in troops in Hengshan must be led by King Jin, the king took King Jin to the harem to discuss it alone, but both civil and military officials were speechless.
However, when Li Qianshun and his younger brother Cha Ge moved to the harem, they did not directly discuss the matter of assistance. Instead, they directly summoned several witches and witches in the harem courtyard and asked them to burn mugwort and smoke it in front of the two brothers. Roasting lamb blades, of course, involves dancing while exercising power on the lamb blades... This process is long and boring, but the two brothers remained silent and just stared at the witch and witch man. It's just the sheep blade in the middle.
And after a long time, with the shout of the nearest witch, like a bolt from the blue, the dry sheep blade finally cracked, and the two most noble men of Dabai Gao Kingdom stood up and hurriedly came to prepare. Look carefully at the crack shape.
It turns out that according to the witchcraft tradition that the Xixia people believe in, this move is called "Zhibo Jiao", and it is precisely to judge the good or bad by looking at the gaps in the sheep blades that have been smoked, and two gaps must be burned before it can be used... Among them, the first seam is the main seam, and the second row of seams produced on the main seam is called the guest seam, both of which are extremely important.
According to experience, as soon as the main seam comes out, the guest seam will also appear immediately.
Sure enough, shortly before Li Qianshun and Cha Ge arrived, the main seam was visible to the naked eye, and soon a thinner seam appeared. At this point, the witches and witches all stopped, and the leader with a loud voice The older witch even wrapped the blackened sheep blade in dry mugwort and prepared to offer it to King Cha Ge of Jin, intending to let Cha Ge hold it for the king to see.
However, Li Qianshun, the leader of the Xixia Kingdom who always respected Han rites, couldn't wait for a moment. He actually snatched the sheep bone directly with his hands and took advantage of the afternoon sunlight coming from the direction of Helan Mountain in the west to see this pattern... However, he had always observed 'Zhibo' Li Qianshun, who had a high level of focus, was immediately stunned when he saw it.
Without him, although the witches and witches stopped immediately after the guest mark appeared, they did not expect that the residual heat of the scorching sun had taken effect, or Li Qianshun had taken it too quickly and used too much force... Above this main seam, there had been continuous There are two separate seams, one short and one short, and three separate seams, and each seam is actually longer and larger than the main seam. The seams are woven horizontally from left to right, which is really surprising.
"This 'Zhi Bo Jiao' is useless." Brother Cha saw that his brother's face was not good, so he quickly intervened to comfort him. "Let's do 'Sheng Ba Jiao' again tomorrow..."
Shengbajiao is the second most popular divination method in Xixia. It mainly involves killing a sheep through a series of steps, and then taking the intestines from the sheep's belly to make inferences based on the distribution of food and feces in the intestines.
"How could it be useless? This kind of thing has to be seen for the first time..." Li Qianshun threw the sheep blade on the ground helplessly and shook his head. "It's just God's will that this divination is beyond my knowledge, which shows how difficult this time is." "
"Just guard Hengshan." Brother Cha quickly advised. "We have been fighting with the Song people for hundreds of years, and whoever attacks always suffers... Let's guard Hengshan. No matter how arrogant the Song people are, they will retreat over time. What's more, .I felt from the beginning that the Song people were more bluffing."
"You don't understand!" Li Qianshun looked down at the sheep blades on the ground, and sat directly on his knees regardless of his black hands. "We know that Gaoguo has been in existence for hundreds of years, but it is still a small country after all... For example, Li Liangfu killed more than ten thousand people in Yinshan Mountain before. , the country still cannot recover its vitality, but what about the people of Song Dynasty? They must have lost millions of people in those few years, but they can still fight back? The Song Dynasty lost the entire Hebei and Hedong, hundreds of state armies, and still If we can be so sharp, if we lose Hengshan, we will be in danger of national subjugation. So it doesn’t matter what the momentum is of false accounts, can we really ignore it?"
Brother Cha was also a little embarrassed.
"Now I'm afraid that the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is too young and will force us to fight with us. When the three kingdoms around Hengshan fight, we will have to send out the entire army if we want to protect ourselves. But when the Jin people see us sending troops, But he deliberately stood still across the river and deliberately consumed us... This is difficult." Li Qianshun gave up looking at the sheep blades and looked up at the vaguely visible Helan Mountain to the west, shaking his head more and more. "Today's meeting, Xue Yuanli gave it to you and saved my face... He didn’t mention God’s blessing and the disaster of Yong’an.”
Brother Wei Mingcha didn't pay much attention at first, but when he heard the last few words, his expression suddenly changed, and his eyelids even twitched immediately.
The so-called God's Blessing and Yong'an Disaster refers to the fact that when Li Qianshun's biological mother, Empress Xiaoliang, was in power, in order to consolidate her own power, regardless of reality, she forcibly mobilized the whole country to conquer the Song Dynasty, which led to the danger of Xixia's subjugation.
The first time was the seventh year of God's blessing on the people. Empress Xiaoliang and her son mobilized 500,000 people to attack the Song Dynasty. The Jin army extended the road to Yan'an, that is, the Yan'an Prefecture, the Suide Army, and the Bao'an Army. The result was Returned defeated.
The second time was two years later in the first year of Yong'an. At that time, Li Qianshun barely came of age and had a certain appeal, but he still could not stop his biological mother. So Empress Xiaoliang once again mobilized 400,000 people across the country to attack the Song Dynasty. Finally, After being defeated at Pingxia City and returning, they could only go to Liao Kingdom for aid to ensure the survival of Dabai Gao Kingdom.
Let us also say that the core area of Xixia is nothing more than the first two of the three Yellow River areas. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it had only a population of more than one million. Later, it vigorously developed the Hetao and expanded Hexi. At its peak, it only had a population of three million, and three million Population, how many men can be recruited?
Above fifteen, below sixty, five hundred thousand is the limit of the Xixia Kingdom.
And this kind of national war, once it is frustrated, or even does not need to be frustrated, as long as it lasts for a while, it will cause the decline of the national strength of the entire country. At this point, starting from the second expedition after Xiaoliang, they gave up the farther Hengshan and chose to be farther away from the capital. This can be seen from the fact that Pingxia City, which is closer, is the target, and the number of mobilization troops has been increased from 500,000 to 400,000.
As for the second defeat, even the local defense could not be organized, and the only option was to seek intervention from the Liao Kingdom.
In fact, the two times after Xiaoliang committed suicide were the closest Xixia came to the country's subjugation.
And this is the tragedy of a small country with few people. Even if it is a country founded by force and a nation full of martial virtues, the upper limit of national power is set here... Once the soldiers move, it is the power of the whole country. Once it is frustrated or returns without success, , it will take many years of rest and recuperation to slow down.
What's more, Xixia's real mobile troops are insufficient.
In the two battles, most of the 500,000 and 400,000 people were just logistics personnel. The so-called 200,000-strong army of the Twelfth Army was even more nonsense. Those were just parties and tribes that combined the military and civilians.
Xixia's real national army is only 70,000 to 80,000, which is the limit. And they are stationed everywhere. The field force can be 40,000 to 50,000, which is also the limit. The core iron kite is only a few thousand.
No one knows this better than Li Qianshun and Brother Cha.
The battle that made Wei Mingcha brother famous all over the world, that is, the time when Liu Fa was killed. No matter which side the record is, it is clear and unmistakable. Although Liu Fa was forced to lead his army out lightly, he suddenly attacked Lingzhou, the hinterland of Xixia. Under the city, Brother Cha was actually forced to fight to the death... The two sides fought fiercely for a day, but Liu Fa continued to break through, and was finally trapped and died.
And how many soldiers did Liu Fa have at that time? Twenty thousand.
Chage probably only had 20,000 infantry and thousands of iron kites, and relied on a typical infantry confrontation with the cavalry to attack behind.
If you understand Xixia's situation, you will understand Li Qianshun's military and diplomatic philosophy of "Everything is for survival, survival is everything". You will also understand why Zhao Jiu wants to bet on this wave. Of course, you will also understand Li Liangfu's battle at Yinshan. , why did Li Qianshun become so frightened that he directly killed his wife and the eldest son of his closest relative who had raised him single-handedly?
Because that battle was not only a defeat, but more importantly, the Jurchens showed a strong ability to pursue and annihilate in the battle... They were defeated in one battle, causing the Xixia people to lose thousands of people. The Song people could also do it. , but unlike the Song people, the tenacity of the Jurchen cavalry played a great role after the war. The continuous pursuit of Wanyan Loushi and Wanyan Yinshuke caused the retreating Xixia soldiers and horses to suddenly swell in a wild field. They suffered a fatal blow in front of the river. Countless Xixia cavalry drowned in the unknown river, causing heavy losses in the Xixia elite troops.
"Beyond Hengshan, there are 50,000 troops and 50,000 infantrymen. I will give you 30,000 and 6,000 iron kites." Li Qianshun saw that Brother Cha finally became serious and cautious, and then he sighed. "You take it to Hengshan, and Brother Yun, Heda and the others join forces, and they have a total of 50,000 people. Dingkou in the Hengshan area can also be recruited and used by you... I think you can still defend Hengshan for me! But you must not leave Hengshan to replace gold. People take chestnuts from the fire! This is also the key point why I called you here to give special instructions! Do you understand?!"
"I understand! I swear by the Buddha that I will never step out of Hengshan Mountain!" Cha Ge gritted his teeth and swore, but he was a little worried. "But brother, if I take away most of the soldiers, you can only return 20,000 at most." What matters is the Song people's Huluhe or Hanhai raids, so what?"
"If Hanhai comes over, he is seeking death. If it is a place like Hulu River, the maximum number of troops that can come is 20,000 to 30,000. I will put these 20,000 troops in Lingzhou to watch over Hanhai and hold up the mouth of Hulu River. Isn't that enough?" Li Qianshun The wrinkles on his face finally relaxed slightly.
Brother Cha nodded slightly.
Li Qianshun paused for a moment, but regardless of the blackness of his hands, he directly touched the 'bird's wings' next to his brother's golden crown and then said to him sincerely: "Brother Cha, go and get through this, we brothers will definitely make Xixia come back again." Pass it on for a hundred years!”
"My brother is willing to go through fire and water for my brother and Dabai Gaoguo!" Chage immediately knelt down, and the witches and men around him also danced and worshiped after him.
The unique smell of mugwort suddenly filled the air again.
PS: Thanks to Shui Changdong~my classmate for being cute again!
Of course, if you look carefully you will find that these