The humiliating defeat of Western Xia in the second year of Baoyuan obviously became a laughing stock among the three kingdoms of Song, Liao and Xia.
In history, Li Yuanhao also invaded the territory of Song Dynasty, but he did not attack Taoluo Village, but Jintang City. The scale was not that large. He led 30,000 people to launch a small-scale sneak attack.
In this battle, the defender of Jintang City, the Fuyan Road military commander Lu Shouqin, and the Fuyan Road inspector Liu Huaizhong who came to support from Taoluo City had only 5,000 defenders.
The Song army reacted very slowly. The battle lasted for several days without any reinforcements arriving, but in the end Li Yuanhao withdrew his troops.
It was not the arrival of reinforcements, but the fact that in this battle, there was a young general named Di Qing who led hundreds of his own troops to stubbornly withstand the enemy's attack, fought bravely, and repelled Li Yuanhao.
After this battle, Di Qing was promoted four levels, from a junior officer to a mid-level officer. The commander-in-chief, Lu Shouqin, was also promoted to the Left Qiji Envoy, transferred to Shaanxi, and returned to Yanzhou.
It can be said that this was the battle that led to Di Qing's rise to power.
But then in the first month of the first year of Kangding in the following year, Li Yuanhao made a comeback. He first used a strategy to defeat Jinmingzhai and captured Li Shibin alive. Then he surrounded Yanzhou, attacked the reinforcements, and defeated the Song army.
This was the first major defeat of the Song Dynasty in the Song-Xia War, the Battle of Sanchuankou!
So although Li Yuanhao also withdrew his troops this time in history, it was not because of failure. At most, it was a normal withdrawal due to unfavorable battle conditions, unlike now, when the losses were so heavy.
During the entire Song-Xia War, Li Yuanhao's most painful defeat was the third Battle of Dingchuanzhai.
At that time, he divided his troops into two groups. One main force attacked Dingchuan Village of Zhenrong Army, and the other detachment attacked Weizhou. When passing through Pengyang City, they were blocked by Jingtai, the governor of Yuanzhou, and more than 10,000 troops were wiped out.
It was just that the Song army also suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Dingchuanzhai, which concealed the fact that Li Yuanhao's detachment was also defeated, making the Song Dynasty appear so weak.
Now the Song Dynasty has a full vision and is supported by technology. The gunpowder has been highly purified and granulated, and its power is comparable to that of black gunpowder. After a few rounds of grenades, Li Yuanhao was dizzy and disoriented.
If the battle between the two sides had not taken place near the national border, and his troops were all cavalry and could have withdrawn to their border city within a day, Li Yuanhao's more than 100,000 troops would probably have had to surrender.
Even so, he became a frightened bird. After fleeing back to Hongzhou on the border, he did not stay for long and ran back to Xingqing Prefecture almost non-stop the next day.
In Xingqing Prefecture, Li Yuanhao was in the palace, feeling helpless and furious. Several slaves were caught in the misfortune and were used as an outlet by him. He was so angry that he drew his sword and started chopping. Everyone was scared and fled in all directions. He even chopped off the head of a slave who ran slowly.
Outside the imperial palace, Yeli Yuqi, Yeli Wangrong, Zhang Yuan, Yang Su, Weiming Congshun and others were trembling with fear, looking at each other, but did not dare to enter the palace.
The mad Li Yuanhao was really terrifying.
After about ten minutes, the room finally quieted down. They heard Li Yuanhao roar, "Everyone, get in!"
Everyone reluctantly entered the hall, bowed to him in Xixia etiquette and said, "Your Majesty."
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh"
At this time, Li Yuanhao's face looked very ugly and he was breathing heavily.
But to their surprise, Li Yuanhao did not lose his temper. Instead, he gradually calmed down and asked in a deep voice, "Have the chiefs of each tribe been appeased?"
Yeli Wangrong glanced at the corpses on the ground and whispered, "The chiefs of each tribe do have some complaints, but no one has led their tribe to leave."
Although Western Xia completed the transformation from a primitive tribe to a country, and Li Yuanhao also established the official system, military system, and etiquette, in the final analysis, Western Xia was still an alliance state composed of various Dangxiang tribes.
Strictly speaking, Li Jiqian and his son Li Mingde were only the largest tribal leaders in the Dangxiang tribe. They became kings in the hearts of the Dangxiang people by conquering and annexing other tribes.
But once this king is defeated and loses the power to suppress the various tribes, then he will fall apart in an instant, just like Mongolia later.
Therefore, what Li Yuanhao is most concerned about now is the attitude of the tribal leaders. If his defeat causes those tribal leaders to become disloyal and leave with their tribal soldiers and return to the northwest grasslands, then he will be really finished.
But fortunately, things don't seem to have developed to that point yet. After all, Li Yuanhao's family has been operating in the northwest for three generations, and they still have some prestige.
After hearing Yeli Wangrong's words, Li Yuanhao finally felt relieved and said, "That's good. I will gather all the chiefs for another alliance in two days to appease their hearts and make sure they don't betray me at this time."
At this time, he didn't even call himself "Zhen".
Li Yuanhao then continued, "Now let's talk about the most important issue. I never thought the Song army would have such firearms. Their firearms were never so powerful before. Why did they suddenly become so powerful?"
He sighed and said, "If I had known about this earlier, my men wouldn't have died. This battle was such a tragic and frustrating defeat for us."
Zhang Yuan rolled his eyes and whispered, "I wonder what your majesty plans to do in the future? Will you surrender to the Song Dynasty?"
"What does the military advisor mean?"
Li Yuanhao frowned and asked, "Are you mocking me?"
Seeing that he was not angry, Zhang Yuan boldly said, "I am not mocking Your Majesty, but asking Your Majesty whether Your Majesty will continue to fight the State of Song. If Your Majesty is defeated and asks for peace, I am afraid that the State of Song will not only force Your Majesty to dethrone Your Majesty, but also demand Your Majesty to pay tribute and surrender completely."
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