He knew that the king was going to do something big now.
The State of Song was too powerful.
They had no way and no possibility to attack southward and take the Song Dynasty's homeland.
Therefore, we can only choose to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, avoiding the real and attacking the fake.
For this plan, even if there are sacrifices, it is inevitable.
Otherwise, one day, the powerful Song State will easily crush the Western Xia and take over the land on which they depend for survival.
In the afternoon, Li Yuanhao left Miaochuan City with only a few hundred light cavalry and headed north across the Qilian Mountains to return to Western Xia.
There have been trails here since ancient times. In history, in the Battle of Gozong River in the first year of Jingyou, Li Yuanhao led his army across the mountains in this area and almost destroyed Qingtang, giving Zuo Silu an opportunity to defeat him.
Later, this small road became the Zhanian Highway, connecting the G341 National Highway, also known as the Gangqing Highway, directly to Tianzhu County.
Li Yuanhao would later return to Western Xia via this path, and then head east to lead his main army into a decisive battle with the Song army's feint attack force.
Even if it's just a small victory.
As long as he could break the myth of the Song army's growing strength in recent years, he would still be able to boost the morale of the Great Xia army and cooperate with the Liao Kingdom in a decisive battle with the Great Song on the border.
"Yelü Zongzhen should have already started to act by now. If he is not stupid, he should understand that this is his last chance."
"The Song State has become increasingly powerful. In previous border conflicts, Great Xia always had the upper hand. Only dozens of our warriors could chase down hundreds of Song troops."
"Now they only have two or three thousand people, but they can kill more than ten thousand warriors of my tribe into pieces."
"Even before that, the once powerful Liao Kingdom had already been defeated. If this stalemate continues, sooner or later the Song Kingdom will annex all of Liao and Xia."
"So we all understand that this is the year we have to fight to the death!"
Li Yuanhao, riding on horseback, his white cape fluttering behind him, stood on the slope of a hill. He turned his head to look south at the distant Miaochuan City, his face expressionless, then turned his horse and headed north.
The life or death of Western Xia depends on this battle.
And just when Li Yuanhao was implementing his plan step by step.
At this moment, far away in the northeast, on the land of Liao, Yelu Zongzhen was also mobilizing a large army.
Unlike the Western Xia army, which was mainly composed of the Dangxiang people, the Liao Dynasty used the Khitan people as its backbone, and then coerced a large number of other ethnic groups to form the vanguard army to serve as cannon fodder.
The Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty and the Mongol Mongols were originally subordinate tribes of the Liao Dynasty. They rose up to overthrow their masters after becoming powerful.
This tactic is still used today.
After Yelu Zongzhen arrived at Liaoyang Prefecture, the eastern capital of the Liao Dynasty, the first thing he did was to intimidate Liaodong.
He valued Wanyan Aguda's grandfather Wanyan Wugunai and used the strategy he provided to eliminate Wanyan Shixian, the opposition leader of the Jurchen tribe, and quell possible Jurchen civil unrest.
He also found that Wanyan Wugunai's strategy was quite effective, so he used the same method to force the tribal leaders of Bohai, Shiwei, Wimen, Mohe, etc. to come to the court for an audience.
There were hundreds of tribes of various ethnic groups, large and small. The Liao Dynasty adopted the strategy of controlling the large tribes of various ethnic groups, and then controlling the small and medium-sized tribes through the large tribes.
Many tribal leaders were forced to go to Liaoyang Prefecture, and in the face of the power of the Liao Kingdom, they finally had to choose to surrender.
In this way, Yelu Zongzhen easily suppressed the northeastern region, which was originally restless and slightly dissatisfied and rebellious towards the Liao Kingdom.
After temporarily pacifying Liaodong, Yelu Zongzhen began to organize an army to invade Goryeo in the south.
He ordered the armies composed of the Jurchen, Wimanc, Bohai and other tribes to serve as the vanguard and start the attack on Goryeo, while he himself led the main army, brought food and supplies, and set off from the rear.
In mid-August, Xiao Ying, the Liao general and the governor of Liaoyang Prefecture in Tokyo, led a miscellaneous army from various tribes to Baozhou, which was later the area of Sinuiju in Korea.
Because during the Song Dynasty, the border between Liao and Goryeo was not the Yalu River, but extended eastward from Sinuiju to Anzhou City and Hamhung City in North Korea, Goryeo naturally lost a barrier.
However, it was also because of this that Goryeo built a long wall on the border over the years, sending envoys to pay tribute to the Liao Kingdom while secretly guarding against it.
So when the Liao army marched south, fierce fighting broke out between the two sides in Dangwan, Yanzhou and other places on the border.
Initially, Goryeo barely managed to repel several exploratory attacks from the Liao Kingdom. However, as the battle expanded and a large number of border tribes poured in, the border defenders could no longer resist and slowly retreated to Guizhou.
Guizhou has a complex terrain and high city walls. In the early years when the Liao Kingdom conquered Goryeo, the Goryeo army won a great victory in Guizhou under the command of Jiang Hanzan, the commander-in-chief of the northwest camp, and severely damaged the Khitan army. Therefore, Jiang Hanzan is also regarded as a national hero of Goryeo.
But unfortunately, Jiang Hanzan had died of illness fifteen years ago, and Goryeo was in a very embarrassing period at that time.
Since the last war with Liao was 28 years ago, Goryeo had been at peace for too long, resulting in low combat effectiveness of its army.
In addition, the country happened to be experiencing the death of King Hyung of King Jeongjong of Goryeo. The new King of Goryeo, later King Hui of King Munjong of Goryeo, had only been on the throne for less than three months, and the regime was in turmoil.
Although Wang Hui was a wise ruler who created a period of peace and prosperity for Goryeo.
However, he had only just ascended the throne and lacked prestige. Many people in the country still wanted to be close to Liao and stay away from Song, so the internal political situation was quite turbulent for a while.
However, Wang Hui is not a young master, but the younger brother of the former king. He is 27 years old this year and still has some courage. He decides to ignore the opposition and personally lead the army to the north to meet the invading enemy.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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