In September of the second year of Baoyuan, the Song army went out of the border and took the initiative to attack Western Xia.
Yuan Hao responded hastily and the battle was difficult to determine.
The border between Song and Xia was engulfed in war.
However, Fan Zhongyan, the chief officer of the Song army in the northwest, did not abide by military ethics and sent elite cavalry to cross the Ningxia Plain and directly into Li Yuanhao's heartland.
This is the main gathering area for Li Yuanhao's tribe and many of his subordinate tribes. It is also the residence of the families of the Dangxiang soldiers under his command. It is a very important rear base.
Li Yuanhao had previously deployed several armies around here, namely the Baima Qiangzhen Army, the Youxiang Chaoshun Army and the Xiangqing Army, as guards to protect the rear.
But at this time, under the joint attack of the Song Dynasty and Zuo Silu, his military strength was stretched to the limit, and he had no choice but to transfer most of his troops to the south to resist the attack of the Song-Zuo coalition forces, and the hinterland was almost undefended.
So on the seventeenth day of the war, the troops, who were maneuvering around, seemed to know the front-line deployment of the Western Xia army very well. They easily bypassed the border guards and launched a surprise attack on the old nest of Shengwei City.
The Chao Shun army put up a tenacious resistance, but was no match for the Song army. After defeating the Chao Shun army, the Song army set fires, threw grenades, and caused destruction everywhere, destroying at least thousands of tents and countless stockpiled food and supplies.
Two days later, Li Yuanhao received the news and was shocked. He hurried back to provide assistance, but the Song army had long disappeared, leaving only a mess on the ground.
The Western Xia army suffered continuous defeats on the border, especially when they heard that the rear was attacked, the morale of the army was unstable. Many leaders of the Dangxiang tribes simply left the battlefield with their tribes and returned to the rear, hoping to escape to the border with their people.
The only thing that achieved some success was that Qi Yuwangrong successfully repelled Zuo Siluo and was returning to defend the Yingli area.
But under such circumstances, Qi Yuwangrong was unable to reverse the decline.
For a time, Xixia was divided internally and suffered heavy losses externally, showing a trend of near collapse.
In history, Li Yuanhao was walking on a tightrope. Even if he succeeded, it would cause instability in the domestic situation of Western Xia. Even if he won, he almost caused the collapse of his own Western Xia Empire.
Not to mention the current defeat.
If the Song army continued to attack at this time, Li Yuanhao would not be able to continue his dream of becoming emperor, and even Xingqing Prefecture would be captured.
So Li Yuanhao's hair turned white with worry overnight and he almost went crazy.
But unexpectedly, more than ten days later, when the situation was extremely unfavorable to Li Yuanhao and the Western Xia army was completely defeated, the Song army chose to withdraw at this critical moment and retreated back to the national border.
The entire war lasted about a month. From the initial stalemate between Song and Xia to Zhang Kang's sneak attack on the rear, Xixia was on the verge of collapse, but it suddenly ended.
Although Li Yuanhao was a little dazed after being beaten, he quickly gathered the remaining soldiers, appeased the rear, and stabilized the collapsed situation.
It was later learned that because the Liao army suddenly marched south and deployed troops on the Liao-Song border, the Song emperor immediately ordered the withdrawal of troops from the northwest and transferred Fan Zhongyan to Hebei.
Upon learning of this, Li Yuanhao was grateful that the Liao Kingdom had saved his life, but looking at the devastated and dilapidated rear, he could only accept the peace agreement handed over by the Song army.
While secretly licking his wounds, he swore that once all the elite troops of the Song army in the northwest were transferred to Hebei and the Liao and Song dynasties officially went to war, he would brazenly tear up the peace agreement and send troops to the Song Dynasty to avenge himself.
But what he didn't know was.
This battle was actually Fan Zhongyan's strategic mission to accomplish the Song State.
After defeating the Western Xia, he focused all his efforts on dealing with the Liao Kingdom.
As for the question of whether the Liao Kingdom would annex the Western Xia after crippling it.
That would be interesting.
If the Liao Kingdom attacked Western Xia at this time, the Song army would definitely be happy about it.
Firstly, the Liao Kingdom’s main force, the Pi Shi Army, was all near Zhongjing. If the main force was transferred away, the Song Kingdom’s Hebei border would be completely safe.
Secondly, the Liao Kingdom rushed to attack the Western Xia, a distance of more than a thousand kilometers, and fought with the trapped Western Xia. It was possible that both sides would suffer losses. If the Liao Kingdom suffered heavy losses, the Song Kingdom would have the possibility of recovering Yanyun.
Therefore, if Yelu Zong was really stupid enough to destroy Western Xia at this time, Zhao Zhen would wake up laughing in his dreams.
So under this change.
The time came to November 1039 AD.
At this time, Western Xia was severely damaged, and Yuan Hao withdrew his troops and defended Xingqing Prefecture.
The Liao army of 150,000 marched south to Yanyun, which is the Beijing area in later generations, and stationed on the border between the two countries.
The two armies faced each other and war was about to break out.
Yelu Zongzhen personally went to Xijin Prefecture in Nanjing and sent a letter to the Song Dynasty, demanding that the Song Dynasty hand over the gunpowder formula and cede the ten counties of Nanguan, which is the area of Xiong County in Hebei in later generations. Otherwise, he would march troops to the city and force horses to drink from the Yellow River.
Zhao Zhen was rarely tough. After transferring Fan Zhongyan and many elite soldiers and generals from the northwest to Hebei, he sent a letter back to the country, saying that if you want to fight, then let's fight.
At the same time, a large number of firearms were transported to the north and deployed in various cities, fortresses, and military camps.
You should know that it has been more than two years since Zhao Jun came up with the formula for pure granular gunpowder. The Song Dynasty has actually used this gunpowder on the firearms that had already been invented, and has recreated its glory. Under the guidance of Zhao Jun, several cannons were made.
This progress is actually very slow, because the technical content of artillery is actually not very high. The principle is the same as that of firearms, which is to fill gunpowder in the barrel and ignite the fuse to fire.
However, in the Battle of Songjin in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the artillery explosion rate of the Ming army was as high as 25%.
This shows how difficult it is to manufacture safe and stable artillery. If you are not careful, the artillery may be destroyed and people may die.
Therefore, the development process was extremely cautious. Even during the testing phase, extremely long leads had to be prepared and multiple tests were conducted before a few qualified products were finally produced.
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