Inheriting the Song Dynasty

In 1127 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty fell. Immediately, the ninth imperial prince, Zhao Gou, ascended the throne in Shangqiu amidst widespread anticipation, inheriting the Song imperial line and r...

Chapter 69: Leaning on the River (Continued)

Indeed, as the oldest and most experienced ruler among all the countries, Li Ganshun had experienced too many things, some of which were even legendary. Not to mention his relationship with his mother, his father-in-law, his wife and children, just from the current military perspective, the military victories of Xixia against the Song Dynasty were enough to make him proud.

However, even if others didn’t know, how could Li Ganshun himself not know?

Although Xixia had several remarkable military victories and repeatedly sent the Song army into disaster, in fact, the occurrence of these wars itself meant that Xixia was repeatedly pushed to the brink of national destruction by the Song Dynasty from a strategic perspective... If Li Ganshun were to choose, he would rather be a peaceful emperor than face the political and military crises that established his authority as the ruler. Otherwise, how could he ask for peace with the Song Dynasty after winning battles? How could he kowtow to the Liao Dynasty and ask for marriage?

Of course, he was also somewhat lucky. Since he came to power, he had been repeatedly in trouble because the Song Dynasty had built Pingxia City. But suddenly, Jing Kang came, and the noose around his neck was suddenly untied.

Although he lost tens of thousands of elite field troops in Yinshan, it did not prevent him from taking Pingxia City and Dingbian Army, and even taking a small half of Xi'an Prefecture... Moreover, the rulers of the Great Jin Dynasty were once willing to give the land inside the "J" shape of the Yellow River to Western Xia.

What kind of future is this?

At that time, he really thought that Xixia could last another hundred years!

However, now the Song people have fought back and recaptured Pingxia City, and then there is another serious crisis that occurs every eight or ten years.

To be honest, until now, it was not the Song army's surprise attack that made Li Ganshun fall into a state of panic... The Song army's surprise attack was certainly deadly, but the problem was that this fatality came from a purely military surprise attack, from his own tactical misjudgment and the existence of a loophole. In this situation, being seized by a skilled Song army commander could only be said to be inferior to him in skills.

What really shocked Li Ganshun psychologically was the news that the Khitans were advancing rapidly along Hexi a few days ago!

At that time, like many ministers, he had to work very hard to accept the reality that the Dangxiang people were being attacked by both the Han and Khitan peoples.

At that time, Li Ganshun had already realized something... This time, the Great Baigao Kingdom was really in an unprecedented crisis... However, the crisis developed so quickly and so deadly that it really frightened him.

On the ninth day of April, as soon as the sky was bright, Li Gan got up directly. The Song army, which had been harassed all night, also got up properly. After eating, they continued to go down the river without fail.

Last night the Xixia people changed to noise harassment, but the Song army responded appropriately. They still had the outer layer on duty in armor, while the inner layer covered their ears and slept, and then they took turns... and they also took the initiative to launch a surprise attack in the early hours of the morning, which yielded fruitful results.

After the march began, everything continued to go smoothly, but generals such as Yue Fei, Qu Duan, and Liu Qi had already made preparations... There was no need for clear information brought back by the scouts under Li Shifu in the bloody scout fight. Just on the unobstructed plain, even on the small slopes they happened to pass by on the road, these generals could notice that the Xixia people had begun to gather large numbers of foreign cavalry and civilian laborers.

The chaos at the scene, with green shoots and smoke, made it impossible to count the exact number of cavalry, but there was no doubt that the other side was gathering as many troops as possible to prepare to stop the Song army.

Of course, considering the distance, this is only natural.

"As long as we can march 40 miles today, we can win this battle." Qu Duan put his hands on the awning, looked around, and turned back to Yue Fei. "But if we can kill a little, it will be much easier to advance to Xingqing Prefecture next time... Jiedu, if the Dangxiang people continue to harass us with light cavalry today, we should allow the cavalry to counterattack further!"

Under the early summer breeze, Yue Fei's expression remained unchanged. He just nodded slightly, and said sparingly, "Okay."

After saying this, the commander-in-chief of the imperial camp's vanguard was about to come down the small slope and lead his troops to continue moving forward with the main army.

At this moment, Hu Hongxiu, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, who was about to leave, suddenly changed color, reined in his horse and shouted, "Jiedu!"

"What's the matter?" Yue Fei turned around and asked.

"It's the White Bull Banner!" Hu Hongxiu pointed to the Xixia army that was beginning to organize in the distance, providing a crucial message. "The Xixia leader is here!"

The soldiers and generals around were all shocked, and then they rushed to look. Even Qu Duan couldn't help but stand up on the iron elephant that he had specially changed today to look... It turned out that the so-called white ox banner was not a banner embroidered with a white ox, but a large banner decorated with white yak hair as the outer edge, with the two words "Daxia" embroidered in the Tangut script in the middle. It has always been the symbol of the Western Xia king. However, after the two expeditions in his youth that left him with tuberculosis and seven injuries, the Western Xia king Li Ganshun rarely went on expeditions in person again, perhaps because of psychological stress. Therefore, even those who came from the Western Army of the Great Song Dynasty had not seen this banner for many years.

Coming back to the present, the white yak hair was really eye-catching. When the generals looked over, they saw that there was indeed such a big banner appearing and disappearing in the distance. It seemed that the King of Western Xia had indeed come in person, and there was a commotion for a while.

Only Yue Fei was slightly startled, and then turned around and headed north: "Don't worry about him, the key point today is to march forward."

The personal guards behind him also hurriedly held up the banner of loyalty to the country and headed north.

Under Qu Hu, everyone had a serious expression and followed the leader, but they couldn't help but look at the white bull banner...

Just like that, at noon, the attack finally began. Still, several groups of unarmored foreign cavalry arrived first, but it was obviously a test. Moreover, with previous experience, these cavalry simply stopped at the first try. Yue Fei still let the entire army maintain the state of the previous two days. He still only let the outermost layer of soldiers wear armor, and then replaced them in turn, and the entire army continued to move forward steadily.

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