But what is unknown to the world is that the Liao people loved to keep hawks, especially Saker Falcon, while the Xixia people loved to keep pigeons, and often used carrier pigeons to transmit information.
This is recorded in "History of the Song Dynasty, Volume 485, Biographies of the Xia Kingdom" and "History of Western Xia". In the Battle of Haoshuichuan, Li Yuanhao defeated Ren Fu by relying on carrier pigeons.
However, the Western Xia envoys certainly could not release carrier pigeons in Kaifeng Prefecture.
Carrier pigeons mainly rely on their homing instinct to deliver messages. After being released, they will definitely fly towards Xixia's home, but the distance is too far and accidents are likely to occur, and the weather in Bianliang was not very good at that time.
For this reason, they had to wait until they returned to Shaanxi before releasing the carrier pigeon, so that Li Yuanhao received the news more than ten days later.
On January 16, in the Great Xia Palace in Xingqing Prefecture of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao returned from the Helan Mountains, exhausted. He had attacked the Western Region Uighurs in the middle of last year and captured a large number of Uighurs to serve as slaves of Western Xia.
At the end of the year, the army returned to the capital, and it was the New Year again. Influenced by Han culture, the Dangxiang people also celebrated the New Year, so he rewarded the army and took the soldiers hunting in the Helan Mountains, distributing captured slaves and confiscated supplies to the brave warriors.
Li Yuanhao has been in a good mood recently. The reason is not only that the military has achieved certain results on the western front, but also that Western Xia has expanded its territory and is planning to send troops out of Guazhou and take Yizhou, which is the area around Hami City in later generations.
At the same time, the firearms of the Western Xia were supported by the Liao Kingdom, and the number of cannons was increasing rapidly. Although there were no muskets, with the cannons, dealing with the Western Region Uighurs was as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.
The only thing that worried him was that the number of artillery pieces of the Song Dynasty on the northwest border was not increasing rapidly, but had increased exponentially. The densely packed artillery muzzles in the border cities frightened him.
The weather in the northwest was still very cold on the 16th. Li Yuanhao, wearing a fur coat, stood outside the palace, overlooking the entire Xingqing city from a high place.
After years of development, the streets of the city at the foot of the mountain are crisscrossed, and there is intensive trade with the Western Regions. Not only Tibetans, Uighurs, and Karakhanids, but also Seljuks, Shahis, Cinis, Ghis, Oghuz Turks, Khwarezmians, and so on.
These people are basically ethnic groups from Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other places in later generations, and even from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan near the Mediterranean.
As a key transit station on the Silk Road, although they all came for the goods of the Song Dynasty and hoped to buy exquisite porcelain, silk and tea, this did not prevent Western Xia from prospering.
Li Yuanhao's palace is located in the northwest near the Helan Mountains. It is located on a higher ground and one can see the entire city from here.
So he especially likes to watch here.
Watching the city prosper at a visible speed in his hands, and seeing the feat that his father and grandfather had failed to accomplish, he felt a strong sense of pride.
Only when he looked towards the southeast would a hint of sadness occasionally appear in his eyes - that was the direction of the Great Song Dynasty.
"My king, it's getting cold."
Yeli Wangrong, a close minister, came over and advised, "Go back to the palace and rest for a while."
Although they were tired from hunting in the morning, Li Yuanhao was not tired either. He smiled and said, "No problem, go call them all over and discuss crossing the West Pass."
"yes."
Yeli Wangrong agreed and went to call someone.
Xiguan is the passage connecting the Hexi Corridor and the Hehuang Corridor. It is probably located in Xuanhua Prefecture of Western Xia, which is west of Zhangye City in later generations and in the area of Sunan Yugu Autonomous County.
Because the Western Xia cut off the Silk Road in the early years, merchants from the Western Regions changed their route and chose the Hehuang Corridor to communicate with the Song Dynasty instead of taking the Hexi Corridor.
Although Xixia now opened its borders and welcomed merchants from the Western Regions, the Song Dynasty provided greater support to the Hehuang Valley, which led to many merchants from the Western Regions choosing this area, allowing Zuo Silu to make a lot of money.
Li Yuanhao had long wanted to annex Zuosilo, but attacking from Lanzhou was not feasible, as that was the border between the Song Dynasty and the Zuosilo Qingtang regime. Once he sent troops from here, the Song Dynasty would inevitably send troops to support him, making it difficult for him to resist.
Therefore, Li Yuanhao came up with another treacherous plan, which was to go through the West Gate and cross the Qilian Mountains, and then penetrate into the Huangyuan area northwest of the Riyue Mountains, capture the Caotou Tatars living there, and then raid Qingtang from the back of the Hehuang Valley.
This plan was extremely vicious. Even if it failed, it would at least cut off the Hehuang Corridor, forcing Western merchants to take the Hexi Corridor instead, causing Qingtang's economy to stagnate or even collapse.
But the problem is also obvious.
That is, whether it is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or the surrounding Qilian Mountains, the drop in the Hehuang Valley reaches more than two thousand meters.
In other words, if Xixia wanted to accomplish such a feat, it would have needed to cross the Qilian Mountains and first attack the Caotou Tatar tribe, which was located near the Hala Lake, the second largest lake in Qinghai in later times, before it could make a detour and raid the Hehuang Valley.
Therefore, both logistics and combat difficulties are extremely high, and it is not easy to achieve such conditions.
But everything depends on human effort.
Li Yuanhao felt that even if he failed to eliminate Zuo Silu, it would be a good idea to first take control of the entrance to the Hehuang Corridor in the rear.
He then returned to the hall and waited for the ministers to come.
After about a quarter of an hour, most of the confidants had arrived, including Yeli Yuqi, Yeli Wangrong, Yang Su, Weiming Congshun, Fangdang Qiuhu, Fei Tingguxi, and his younger brother Weigeningling.
During this period in history, Li Yuanhao had killed the Yeli brothers, taken possession of Yeli Yuqi's wife, Mo Zang, and promoted Mo Zang's brother, Mo Zang Epang, to be prime minister.
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