In the twelfth lunar month of the third year of Jianzhong Jingguo in the Song Dynasty, for Tao Jiefu, the governor of the Fuyan Road, it can be described as joy from the sky.

The war between Hengshan and the north and south was unbelievable!

To the north of Hengshan, the three elite troops commanded by Wu Haogu conquered Yinzhou and Shizhou in succession, defeated tens of thousands of Western thieves, beheaded more than 2,000, and more than 3,400 alive prisoners (some more were captured in Shizhou City), and countless cattle, sheep, horses and food were seized.

Wang En and the Fuyan army commanded by Wang Ze also made a surprise attack on Shibao Village, beheading 300 people, and seized thousands of stones of grain.

To the south of Hengshan, I was caught off guard by the Western thieves, and the Saimen Village was once lost. The archers lost thousands of losses, and the number of people who were captured and killed was two or three thousand.

But then Gao Qiu repelled the Western thieves' army in Ansai Fort and chased hundreds of miles. Not only did he drive the invading Western thieves out of the territory of the Song Dynasty, but he also achieved a record of beheading more than 2,300!

In just over a month, the Song army on Fuyan Road not only captured three castles, Yinzhou, Shizhou and Shibao, but also killed and captured more than 8,000 Western thieves! This was achieved under the arduous conditions of cold weather and unsuitable for combat!

If we consider the victory of the Haoya River Battle on the Western Front, the Western thieves have lost 25,000 troops in a few months. They have also lost at least four castles including Yinzhou, Shizhou, Shibaozhai, Renduoquan City.

Such a victory can be compared with the Hengshan Victory in the second year of Yuanfu, and even surpassed the Hengshan Victory... After all, the Hengshan Victory was a victory achieved by the main force of Northwest 7th Road (Shaanxi Liulu Jiahe East Road).

The current successive victory only used the troops from Xihe Road and Fuyan Road, and the main force of the Western Army had not been used yet!

Moreover, during the battle in the Wuding River area, the Song Dynasty cavalry swept across the Western thieves! Only a thousand armored cavalry soldiers, with incredible losses, swept across the north bank of the Wuding River, as if they were entering a nobody's land!

In the past, such a situation was simply unimaginable. In the past, even if the cavalry of the Song army could compete with the cavalry of the Western thieves, it would not be possible to win with single-digit losses...single-digits! This was almost crushing the opponent!

This shows that the strength comparison between the Song army and the Western thieves has undergone a significant reversal. The Song army has already had the strength to crush the Western thieves!

"It seems that the Western Pirates are really not good!"

"Maybe it's not that the Western thief is not good, but that Yuma Nao and Mengshi Nao are too powerful... Especially Yuma Nao, it would be too surprising to be able to fight so much. If we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, our family would have suspected that Wu Haogu was liaring about military affairs."

"Yes, I have been an official in the northwest for more than ten years, and I have been in charge of military affairs. I have never seen such an armored cavalry as a horse. I don't know if they can defeat the iron harrier of the Western thief. If I can defeat the iron harrier, then it will be a matter of breaking out the Lingxing."

In the hall in Yan'an Prefecture City, Tao Jiefu and Tong Guan, who had seals locked, were idle and talked about military affairs again.

The two of them are not the masters of talking about war on paper. Needless to say, Tong Guan was the number one military eunuch of the Song Dynasty after Li Xian. Tao Jiefu was not bad either. He was Zhang Qi's number one strategist, which was equivalent to the chief of staff. He had a great contribution from the last victory in Hengshan!

Tao Jiefu held a bowl of fragrant cloud tea and took a sip, looked at Tong Guan and asked, "Doom, has it been too long for three to five years?"

"It would take a long time to attack Po Xingling in three or five years?" Tong Guan smiled, "If we had the intention of destroying the Western thieves in three or five years in the fourth year of Yuanfeng, the northwest would have been very determined."

"Will the Khitan sit and watch the Western thieves be destroyed?" Tao Jiefu asked back.

Tong Guan thought for a while and shook his head gently.

Now it is the three parts of the world! The linkage between the Song, Liao and Xia Kingdoms is theoretically almost zero in the Liao Kingdom's chance of watching the Song Dynasty destroy Western Xia.

Tong Guan asked in thought: "But in the fourth year of Yuanfeng, the Khitan did not launch a large number of troops?"

Tao Jiefu gently turned the tea bowl in his hand and thought, "In the first year of Kaibao, Taizu took advantage of the demise of Liu Junxin, the king of Northern Han, to send Li Zhuangwu (Li Jixun) to attack Taiyuan in the north. In October of that year, Khitan sent troops to rescue Northern Han, and Li Zhuangwu led his troops to the south. In February of the following year, Taizu personally led a large army to attack Taiyuan. In March, Taizu surrounded Taiyuan and led the Fen River to flood the city. It lasted for three months. Then the Liao army arrived again, and Taizu retreated in a hurry.

In August of the ninth year of Kaibao, Taizu sent five troops to gather at the city of Taiyuan. The Liao troops arrived again, and later they stopped due to Taizu's death.

In February of the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo of Emperor Taizong, Taizong personally led a large army to attack Liao and once again surrounded Taiyuan. The Liao Kingdom led troops to rescue the army with the commander of Prime Minister Yelu Shawei. He was defeated by Guo Jin and blocked at Shiling Pass, and the Northern Han Dynasty was destroyed.

Afterwards, Taizong advanced to Yanyun with a victorious army. He won consecutive battles in May and June. On June 23, Taizong personally arrived in Youzhou, stationed in Baoguang Temple and supervised the army to attack the city. After nearly twenty days of fierce fighting, when the soldiers were exhausted, Yelu Xiuge led the army in northern Liao to arrive, fought in the Gaoliang River, and destroyed Taizong's army.

In the last battle of the third year of Yongxi, Taizong did not encircle Youzhou in view of the defeat in the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo, but divided the troops into three groups, first taking over the prefectures and counties around Youzhou, so he did not fight under Youzhou City... In the previous Northern Expeditions of our dynasty, this time he did not meet the Khitan army first!"

Tong Guan already understood what Tao Jiefu meant, "I mean, in the battle of the fourth year of Yuanfeng, if our army had not been defeated first, the Liao Kingdom would have sent troops to rescue the Western thieves?"

"Can't it?" Tao Jiefu gently placed the tea bowl on the table. "Will there be a sixth or seventh time in a row when the Khitan dealt with us like this for five times in a row?"

"That's right..." Tong Guan nodded, "But why did the Liao Kingdom need to work hard to send troops to Xingling? Can't we come to surround Wei and save Zhao?"

Tao Jiefu smiled and said, "The siege of Wei may not necessarily save Zhao, but it may be a protracted war... The Khitans are currently trapped between the Bu, Jurchen, and Goryeo. Moreover, the Buddhist teachings in China are too strong, wasteful, and the lack of national use is unaffordable.

He sent troops directly to rescue Lingxing, and took advantage of the fatigue of our teachers' veterans to fight a fast and ruthless victory, which severely damaged our strongest Western Army. He could also blackmail more annual monies from the court. High-ranking official, what would you choose if you were a Khitan?"

Tong Guan nodded repeatedly. This Tao Jiefu was indeed a bit tricky and the analysis made sense!

On the surface, besieging Wei to save Zhao seemed to be the best choice for the Khitans, but judging from the current difficulties faced by the Khitans, it was undoubtedly a big gamble. Only by breaking the Kaifeng Prefecture and seizing the rich land of the Central Plains in a short period of time can you win the bet. Once Xingling is destroyed first and the Western army launches large-scale eastern aid, the Khitans may have to face the siege of the Song Dynasty, the Jurchens and Goryeo at the same time, and it is impossible not to perish.

Besides, with the performance of the three emperors on the battlefield and the good fighting of Taiwei Gao, can the Khitans break Kaifeng Mansion in a short time? Don’t let Taiwei Gao defeat him at that time, he will really cry to death.

In contrast, a short attack on the Song army besieged Xingling was safe. The army under the city was very fragile, and must be more fragile than the enemy who stood by the city.

Moreover, the battle to rescue Xingling is definitely a quick decisive battle. The winner will be decided in a few days or at most ten days.

Once the teacher and veterans were exhausted, the Western Army was defeated, the Song Dynasty would have to knock down teeth and swallow them, and perhaps they would be forced to increase hundreds of thousands of annual trump sums.

Tao Jiefu said proudly, "But it is not easy to rescue Xingling. After all, Xingling is far away from the heart of the Khitans. If the long-distance attack and the people are trapped, they will probably repeat the mistakes of Liaoxingzong. Therefore, we must first set up horses and rest for a while, wait until the horses recover, and then go straight down the Yellow River to Xingling. Then the grassland is the place where the Western thieves herding horses and sheep herding places. They set up a Black Mountain Weifu Army Office to guard against the Khitan.

However, once the Wuding River area is all for me, the land between the rivers will become the place where our cavalry is crisscrossed. Then it is imperative to ced the Houtao grassland and the Khitan. It will be much easier to get the Khitan in the Houtao area to go south to rescue Xingling.

In addition, the chaos in Beizhubu has not yet been settled, and the Khitans cannot withdraw their troops for a while, so it has been a bit long since they took Xingling for three to five years."

"Three or five years are too long..." Tong Guan was also repeatedly calculating Tao Jiefu's words in his heart, and there seemed to be some truth!

First, they took Yinxia, ​​then farmed and raised military rations, and then gathered the army. The method of seizing Xingling in one fell swoop seemed safe, but they did not consider the reaction of the Liao Kingdom at all.

If the Western Xia ceded the trap after losing Xingling, and the land of Hejian was given to the Liao Kingdom, would the Song Dynasty still have a chance to attack Xingling?

At that time, the Liao Kingdom will place an army of 100,000 on the Hetao grassland, and the Western Army may not dare to move, so why should we fight Xingling?

"What good advice do you have?"

Tao Jiefu said: "A few days ago, Wu Chongdao reported that he could organize his troops to farm hundreds of thousands of acres in Yinzhou next spring, and at least one million stones of wheat can be harvested in autumn.

In addition, you can also herd horses and sheep on the grasslands upstream of Mingtang River. When the horses are strong and the sheep are fat in autumn, they can destroy the spirits in one fell swoop!"

"I'll attack Xingling next year?" Tong Guan frowned, "Would you be a little too anxious?"

"Soldiers are very important!" Tao Jiefu said, "If it really drags on for a few years, I don't know how many changes will happen!

Dolfon, this time we go to Beijing, it’s better for us to offer advice to the official family together.”

Tong Guan's eyes turned around and said with a smile: "Master, our family can't leave... Wu Chongdao in Yinzhou is a businessman after all, and we are not at ease with so many soldiers to him. So our family has already asked the official family to let our family go to Yinzhou to take charge."

Tao Jiefu didn't know that Tong Guan's memorial to Zhen Yinzhou had not been written yet! He thought about it and felt that Tong Guan's words made sense, so he said, "Okay, then I'll ask the Taoist to submit the memorial. I will go to Kaifeng to report my work."
Chapter completed!