The Song army also successfully crossed the canal mouth before dark, entered between Tangqu and the Yellow River, and then camped directly... If the Hulu River is the outer shell and the gorge is the skeleton, then this place is the real inner core of the Xixia people.
And the entire Xingling land, up to this point, was like a beast with a knife stabbed in the abdomen, and it was completely spasming and struggling.
That night, the Song army, with their backs against the river and their front against the Tang Canal, carefully set up camp and rested early. Under the night sky, countless torches kept coming and going, howling mixed with the sound of the Yellow River, and cold arrows were shot from time to time, all of which indicated that the Xixia people were mobilizing and joining quickly.
"Is this your Majesty's order?"
That night, in the brightly lit Shunzhou prefecture in Western Xia, the prefect Weiming Zhangli looked up in surprise, as if he couldn't believe it.
"What do you think?" The person who came to deliver the decree was Liang Wang's Grand Tutor and former Privy Councilor, whose name was An Hui. The fact that he came at night in this capacity was enough to show the seriousness of the matter. "Hurry and do it!"
Weiming Zhangli sighed, as if he still couldn't bear it, and obviously wanted to say something... But at this moment, another burst of hurried horse hooves broke the night, and then there were continuous shouting outside the door. The two of them could hear it clearly, and it meant that the gold medal guards were escorting some important person here again.
An Hui and Zhang Li each stood up solemnly to greet the visitor, and a moment later, under the lights, a golden-armored warrior came in holding a child of seven or eight years old. An Hui and Zhang Li were stunned for a moment, then they both stood up in shock, then knelt on the spot and kowtowed heavily to the visitor.
"Your Majesty has an order." The golden-armored warrior put the panic-stricken child on the ground. Unexpectedly, the child could not stand steadily, so he had to hold him with one hand. With the other hand, he took out a gold medal from his waist and threw it to the ground. Then he kept talking. "Tell the two nobles that since the founding of the Great Baigao Kingdom, there has never been such a crisis... At this time, we can't rely on anyone but ourselves! Tell King Liang not to delay, gather as many troops as possible, and quickly harass the Song army. Delay for a while! Tell Zhang Li that I have no reinforcements for him, and Anhui's troops cannot be dispersed. Instead, I have to entrust the prince to him..."
At this point, the golden-armored warrior, whose face was covered in dust and who had not even had time to take off his helmet, swallowed his saliva and then tried to continue to convey his order: "Also tell Zhang Li that if he can delay a little time, the better... and if the Song army really comes along the Tang Canal and Shunzhou cannot be defended, then he should kill the prince for me to compensate the people of Shunzhou! In any case, he cannot fall into the hands of the Song people!"
Prince of Liang Anhui kowtowed heavily, without even looking at the ignorant child, and rushed out of the door. Zhang Li, who had nowhere to hide, also kowtowed heavily, and when he raised his head, he was in tears. He walked forward and took the eight-year-old Crown Prince Li Renxiao into his arms, and then he said that he had received the order.
The golden-armored warrior shook his head and whispered, "Not only is the prince here, but the King of Yue (Li Ganshun's youngest son) was also sent to Lingzhou on the other side of the river overnight."
After saying this, the man was about to turn back.
Zhang Li hugged his own prince and nodded with tears in his eyes, but suddenly reached out and grabbed the other party: "There is something that is really difficult for the locals to do, and I need your help."
The warrior looked back in confusion.
"The narrowest part of the Tang Canal is right next to Shunzhou..." Zhang Li said with difficulty. "It's only about ten steps wide... Even if it's just for the sake of precaution, please take people to block that place! And not just this place... After this place is blocked, the water downstream will slow down. On your way back, take the opportunity to have people block a few more places... This way, if the Song army really comes from here, it will be enough to delay them for a while."
This time, even the warriors in golden armor were stunned for a moment, but they nodded heavily and hurried away.
Without mentioning how the Xixia people fought bravely and struggled that night, let's just say that on the other side, when morning came, the Song army saw the surrounding foreign cavalry disappearing, and they were not only unhappy, but became more serious, because everyone knew that it was very likely that the Xixia people had sent an authoritative general to the vicinity overnight to organize these foreign cavalry.
In fact, Li Shifu sent the foreign cavalry forward and soon brought back the correct answer. The flags of Western Xia Liang Wang and Li Ganshun's former ruler Wei Ming Anhui had appeared along the Tangqu line ahead.
Over there, countless foreign cavalry were gathering.
On the other hand, when it was daybreak, Yue Fei did something that puzzled many people... You know, this was the golden time to save distance and time, but General Yue began to arrange the marching formation at daybreak.
All troops are divided into small groups according to their arms.
For example, the cavalry was divided into the foreign cavalry led by Li Shifu and the armored cavalry led by Liu Qi, Zhang Xian and others. Both the foreign cavalry and the armored cavalry were divided into twelve teams, with each team of foreign cavalry having less than 300 men, while each team of armored cavalry had 500 men.
At the same time, the infantry was divided into three types: spearmen, archers, and sword and shield soldiers. There were twelve teams in each type, a total of thirty-six teams, and each team had less than three hundred to five hundred men.
These troops, with sword and shield soldiers and spearmen forming a square formation on the outermost side, and archers slightly offset and marching in an array on the inner side. At the same time, the foreign cavalry scout and roam outside the infantry, and the armored cavalry stand in formation behind the archers. The whole army is well organized.
Finally, Qu Duan led the last two thousand cavalry and infantry in the center, serving as the central army and the general reserve.
At this point, of the 30,000 soldiers who came to attack, except for the 6,000 troops of Wang De's army and a small number of troops left in Pingxia City and Xi'an Prefecture as garrison troops and decoys, the 21,000 cavalry and infantry here were all dispersed and formed a battle formation.
Twelve generals from each department, starting with Liu Qi, including the commander and deputy commander, were also selected and divided roughly according to their own troops. They were assigned in order, with each commander in charge of a team of spearmen, a team of sword and shield soldiers, a team of archers, a team of armored cavalry... and when the foreign cavalry were not acting as scouts but instead meeting the enemy, they were also divided into teams and served under these temporary commanders.
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