Zhang Yue and Wang Shao have led their troops down the mountain to the plain.
The Song Army and the Xixia Army fought several battles, and the Song Army finally encountered a hard nut this time. Unlike the Qing Tang and Tibetan tribes that had fought before, Dangxiang's army went up to harass the Song soldiers when they saw them. When they saw the main force coming, they fled far away.
When the scouts of the two armies were fighting, the party's cavalry fled at the first touch and retreated separately. When they retreated to a place, they were met by soldiers. Once, the Song cavalry pursued too deep and was lured into the enemy's depths, losing more than 20 cavalry.
Wang Shao heard this and whipped the leading general several times.
In the afternoon, the Song army began to set up camp. Wang Shao, Wang Hou, and Zhang Yue rode on high ground to inspect the nearby terrain.
A general must know the geographical advantages. Zhang Yue often saw Wang Shao holding a map and looking at it.
Wang Houdao: "Logically speaking, our army is pursuing Dangxiang's cavalry in depth. We should find Dangxiang's army here, but for some reason we can't find any of them."
Wang Shao raised his whip and pointed it out: "Dangxiang people practice fighting. When the troops are sent out, the birds scatter in the valley, and when the troops are drawn out, the ants gather in the wall. You see the valley in front of you. Our army dare not go deep at dusk, but it can hide tens of thousands of troops. ."
Zhang Yue and Wang Hou followed Wang Shao's pointer and saw that the valley was not only lush with vegetation, but also shrouded in the shadow of tall peaks as the sun set. If there was an ambush here, they would be killed accidentally.
Wang Houdao said: "Dad, I heard that the Dangxiang people are superstitious about fortune tellers and ghosts. They only go to war on a certain day, and to avoid the dark day, we might as well avoid it for a while and wait for the dark day to go to war."
Wang Shao said: "How can we stick to this when using troops? We must look for the right time to move, rather than waiting for the right time to move."
"I have a hunch that the party's cavalry has arrived and ambushed not far from our army. Even if it is not in the valley, it is still nearby."
Zhang Yue said: "It doesn't have to be a fight, just to contain the party's troops. If we hold back one more person here, the Xixia people on the other side of Hengshan will lose one person."
"As far as I know, the Tiandu Mountain Military Supervision Department here is not a good one."
The most elite of the twelve supervisory military divisions in Xixia was the Zuoxiang Shenyong Army. It was originally stationed in the Mituo Cave in the Mingtang River east of Xiazhou, but was later stationed in Tiandu Mountain in order to conquer the Song Dynasty.
Li Yuanhao ordered general Ye Liyuqi to command the left wing of Tiandu (the earliest military system in Western Xia). Because he was stationed in Tiandu Mountain, he was known as the King of Tiandu.
However, later the Divine Warrior Army in Zuoxiang moved back to Yinzhou and Hengshan. A part of the Divine Warrior Army was left to set up the Tiandu Military Supervision Department to guard Song Jingyuan Road.
Because the Tiandu Military Supervision Department was newly established, it was not among the twelve Military Supervision Departments and had fewer troops and horses than the Twelve Military Supervision Departments.
Wang Shao laughed loudly after listening to Zhang Yue's words and said: "Sheren, if we are not the elite of the party, why would I, Wang Shao, come here? Tiandu Mountain is located at a key point on the five roads. From here to the south is Xiaoguan (Haiyuan County). (Shixiakou), if our army can defeat the party here, we will surely be famous all over the world, and our great martial arts achievements will be known to the world!"
Wang Shao said with confidence.
Zhang Yue was also surprised when he heard that Wang Shao planned to actively seek a decisive battle with the Xixia people.
Sometimes the opponent is very cautious, such as when crossing the Yellow River north, but sometimes he is very bold, and actually leads a group of Qing, Tang and Tibetan tribes to dare to challenge the party's elite.
One day ago, the party's army outside Nanmou City at the foot of Tiandu Mountain had been assembled.
According to Xixia laws and regulations, soldiers are divided into main troops, main auxiliaries, and burdens.
The main army, officers and horses, armor, a bow, thirty arrows, a spear, a sword, a spear and a full set of plectrums.
A main and auxiliary bow, twenty arrows, a spear and staff, and a complete set of plectrums are used as the deputy of the main army. If the main army is killed in battle, he will be replaced as the main army.
Burden, a bow, twenty arrows, and a sword. He is mainly responsible for providing logistics for the main army and taking care of the horses.
In this way, for an army, some armies only have the main army and one auxiliary leader, and there is no burden. Some have two auxiliary leaders, or even only the main army, without the auxiliary leader and burden.
In short, the number of people who can make a copy is only eight at most. Like Xishou Baotaina and other military supervisors, inspections are not strict, and often there are not enough people and equipment when gathering.
Sometimes the gatherings are frequent, and the leaders of various ministries will refuse to participate in the war.
However, the predecessor of the Tiandu Military Supervision Department was the Shen Yong Army. Its members plundered countless wealth from many battles against the Song Dynasty and made huge profits. Therefore, they had a strong will and combat effectiveness against the Song Dynasty.
Inside the tent, a man wearing a red felt hat, white clothes with narrow sleeves, and heavy earrings was reading a military book.
What he holds in his hand is "Taiyi Golden Jianjue", and what he says is military divination.
Similar to how scholars read the way of governing a country from the divination in the Book of Changes, Li Yuanhao and other Xixia generals also referred to this book to make decisions during their marches and battles.
The man who was flipping through the book was named Wei Ming Lingda, and he was the Supervisor of the Military Supervisory Department of Nandu.
Weiming is the surname of the Xixia Kingdom, one of the earliest eight parties. Li Yuanhao's Li is a Han surname given by the Tang Dynasty. However, after the founding of the country, Li Yuanhao restored his original surname Weiming in order to make a clean break with the Han people.
And this famous Lingda came from the Xixia royal family.
In the big tent, he was surrounded by the leaders of the Military Supervisory Department and the Fan tribe on his left and right. They all sat in a circle, with wine and meat in the center, but no one moved a knife.
At this time, a soldier entered the tent and whispered a few words to Wei Minglingda, and then withdrew.
Weiming Lingda put down his book and said to his left and right: "The Song Army's cavalry fought with us for several battles, with each other winning or losing. Our reconnaissance cavalry could not get close. We still can't figure out how many they have, but we estimate that there are tens of thousands of cavalry. "
"As for the notification from Huizhou, there should be about 15,000 riders, most of them are the tribes of the ancient Wei..."
All the leaders had serious expressions, but when I heard that Gu Wei's tribe showed disdain. .
A leader surnamed Yeli said: "We only have two leaders, but we are all elite soldiers and generals. One can defeat ten."
The five armies of Xixia were set up with a wooden sign, the tenth set up a house warden, the twenty set up a small leader, and the last tribe was called Yiliu, which did not exceed sixty times.
A number of slips can form a head item.
When Li Yuanhao started his army, he only had five heads.
Everyone discussed and decided to go to war, otherwise it would be bad if the Song army went deeper and the tribe's cattle, sheep and livestock were plundered.
Weiming Lingda nodded and said: "Yi was buried in Yinzhou and gathered together. I was going to lead you and others to fight against the Song army at Hengshan, but now after gathering together, another Song army came to the door. Then we will be destroyed." It won't be too late to go to Yinzhou with this Song army."
After saying that, Wei Minglingda stood up, opened the tent, looked at the horizon and said: "The clouds in the distance are blood red, which just indicates that there will be a war!"
All the leaders nodded together. The Dangxiang people believed in divination the most, using clouds and gas to see whether they could fight.
Then Weiming Lingda ordered the diviner to take out a sheep skeleton and burn it on the fire. The party leaders all stared at it.
But after a while, the diviner looked at the sheep bones that had been roasted by the fire, and he was not afraid to hold them in his hands. He made gestures in all directions, and then said: "The Song army will come from the southwest!"
Upon hearing this, the leaders nodded again.
Weiming Lingda asked: "When can we fight?"
The diviner said: "We can fight in two days!"
The leaders nodded upon hearing this, and then Weiming Lingda held out a skull wine glass filled with wine. Each leader stabbed his arm with blood and poured it into the wine, and then drank from it together.
Weimingshan led his army to set off overnight.
(End of chapter)
