The situation on Shaanxi Road was not too complicated at this time.
Simply put, Yuan Hao crossed the Qilian Mountains in May and captured Qingtang City and Miaochuan City at the end of May or the beginning of June.
The Song Dynasty reacted quickly, and Yang Xie, the Qinfeng Road Transport Commissioner, immediately sent troops to Lanzhou.
The imperial court immediately dispatched Han Qi to lead a large army.
A large army was not like a group of scattered soldiers who could travel from Kaifeng to the northwest in a few days on horseback, so it took more than half a month to arrive.
Han Qi arrived in Shaanxi in early July. He did not send troops immediately after arriving, but instead tried to find out the movements of both sides.
Otherwise, he would have launched an attack on Western Xia without even investigating the deployment of his own troops, which would have been tantamount to sending the Song army to its death.
After more than half a month of reconnaissance, Han Qi had a general understanding of the enemy and our own situation, so he planned to make the decision to send troops.
He explained and analyzed on the map the weak points of Western Xia that he had discovered, as well as the intertwined forces of the two sides. Finally, he decided on a strategy in which the main force on the west side would strive for a decisive battle with Yuan Hao's main force, while the east side would feint an attack on the Western Xia border.
Yang Xie, Zhang Fangping, and Zhang Kang, the three deputies, all agreed with Han Qi's plan. Han Qi then formally decided, issued the document, and began to lay out the entire grand plan.
First of all, there was the main force of Qinfeng Road. In addition to the Qinfeng Road's own army of about 20,000 people, there were also 30,000 people brought by Han Qi from the Bianliang Imperial Guards, totaling about 50,000 people. He ordered Zhang Kang, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council and the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Road Army, to lead these 50,000 people out of Qinzhou to take Huangzhou.
Secondly, Gao Jixuan, the deputy commander and pacification envoy of Jingyuan Road, was dispatched to lead 20,000 troops out of Jingyuan Road to capture the Xishou Baotai Military Headquarters of Western Xia.
As for whether Qinfeng Road will be empty after 50,000 people leave, there is no need to worry, because Qinfeng Road is the area from Dingxi City to Tianshui City and then to Baoji City in the southeast of Lanzhou City in later generations, and its northern part was called Jingyuan Road in the Song Dynasty.
In other words, Qinfeng Road is located in the hinterland. If Li Yuanhao wants to go south to attack Qinfeng Road, he must pass through the heavily guarded Jingyuan Road and pass Gao Jixuan.
Han Qi also summoned Zhao Zhen, who had been promoted to deputy commander of Huanqing Road, to lead 8,000 people to defend the city. He also ordered Zhong Shiheng, who had been promoted to general manager of the army of Huanqing Road due to his merits, to go northwest to Huizhou to cooperate with surrounding generals such as Zhang Kang, Jingtai, Gao Jixuan, Ge Huaimin, Wang Gui, and Liu Hu.
The terrain of the entire Qinfeng Road, combined with the deployment of some troops from other places, is sufficient to ensure the safety of Qinfeng Road. Unless Li Yuanhao's army has wings and can fly over, it is basically foolproof.
Finally, Han Qi gave the task of the feint attack on the east to Ren Fu.
It’s not that history has deviated to where it should be, but that Ren Fu was previously the deputy chief of the cavalry and infantry of Fuyan Road. During the previous war between Song and Xia, he was promoted to deputy commander of Fuyan Road due to his military achievements.
As mentioned before, the ranks of generals in the Song Dynasty were chaotic and the command structure was unclear, but in general, they were divided into the following levels: capital deployment (captain general manager), deputy capital deployment (deputy general manager), deployment (general manager), deputy deployment (deputy general manager), seal commander, supervisor, and capital supervisor.
Under normal circumstances, only civil officials with a Jinshi degree could hold the position of Du Tu. Therefore, the deputy Du Tu was already the highest-ranking general in the route. If Han Qi wanted to implement the eastward expedition plan, he could only hand it over to Ren Fu, the highest-ranking general in Fuyan Road.
In this way, Han Qi's plan was actually to divide the troops into three groups, but Gao Jixuan's group actually supported Jingtai to attack Li Yuanhao's main force together, trying to occupy Zhuola and Nansi of Western Xia.
By the end of July and the beginning of August, the entire Shaanxi Route army was fully mobilized. Enemy and friendly scouts were everywhere along the border, gathering intelligence on the relationship between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia.
Li Yuanhao naturally quickly noticed the actions of the Song Dynasty.
He would not take the initiative to attack anyway, because he knew that the result of taking the initiative to attack would be a head-on collision with the densely packed military camps, fortresses, and cities of the Song Dynasty, and being hit by their artillery shells.
So he sat back and waited for the Song Dynasty to take the initiative to attack, so that he could defend and counterattack, fighting a battle similar to the one Fan Zhongyan fought back then.
After Zhang Kang led the army to the battle, he first ordered Jingtai, the commander-in-chief of the Qinfeng Road Army, to lead 10,000 troops as the vanguard to station in Lanzhou.
Jingtai served as the Deputy Transport Commissioner of Qinfeng Road and concurrently served as the highest military commander in Qinfeng Road. He was a civil official and a Jinshi (Jinshi) by training. However, he was also quite capable in combat. Historically, Li Yuanhao won three battles and only suffered a major defeat at his hands.
This time, Jingtai led the army to Lanzhou City in early August. At that time, the main military commanders in the city were Jia Kui, the commander of Qinzhou Army, and An Ziruo, the number one general under Zuo Silu.
Zuo Siluo himself is actually not in Qingtang now. After he was seriously injured, the doctor in Lanzhou treated him, but the wound seemed to be infected, and he has been having a fever and coma, and it seems that he is not getting better.
So Han Qi arranged for him to go to Chang'an. He had originally wanted to send him to Bianliang, after all, Bianliang's medical level was definitely the best in the country. However, Zuo Silu really couldn't withstand the bumpy ride, so he had to settle for the next best thing.
The situation of the Qingtang regime is very bad now.
Zuo Silu was seriously injured and fell into a coma. His son Dong Zhen was separated from his father while trying to break out and was captured by Li Yuanhao's men.
For a time, the people of Qingtang were demoralized, and many even surrendered to Li Yuanhao. The Qingtang army, which totaled 70,000 to 80,000, was now scattered, with only Lanzhou having more than 10,000 troops.
After Jingtai arrived in Lanzhou, he immediately held a military meeting and summoned more than ten generals of all ranks in the city, including An Ziruo, Si Duozhi, A Yudan and other generals of the Qingtang regime.
The atmosphere in the room was rather solemn at the moment. The Song Dynasty generals were fine, but the generals of the Qingtang regime had different expressions.
Some have serious expressions, some have their eyes rolling around, and some seem to be thinking about something.
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