Although Ouyang Bian was named one of the commanders, he did not have an army under his command and was not allowed to control any army. His duty was to temporarily maintain the stability of the six routes in Shaanxi.

In other words, Ouyang Bian can only watch the army in front fighting from the rear, and must ensure stability in the rear. If the rear is unstable, Ouyang Bian will have to lose his life.

If it were other people, they might think that this was a humiliation, but Ouyang Bian did not complain and took on the stable work behind him.

In late August, the five-way army began to set off, and the sixth way in Shaanxi immediately became a large military camp.

The gathering of up to 600,000 people and various logistics transportation made the official roads of Shaanxi 6th Road extremely busy.

However, it is precisely the large infrastructure over the years that has benefited from the cementation of official roads, the promotion of four-wheelers, the prosperity of commerce, the prosperity of Qingzhou Industrial Park, and the development of Shaanxi Sixth Road by the Agricultural Bank of China. I don’t know how powerful the strength of Shaanxi Sixth Road is compared with the Xining reform in history.

Not to mention anything else, just talk about the ordnance.

The industrial categories in the Qingzhou Industrial Park are very complete. What they produce here is not only daily commodities, but also strong smelting capabilities. After all, the production of various agricultural tools, knives, etc. requires strong iron smelting capabilities. The key is to build forts, bridges, and roads. High-quality steel is required. Therefore, the Qingzhou Industrial Park has become the largest iron smelting plant in the northwest region.

The steel of the iron smelting plant in Qingzhou Industrial Park was initially used for roads, bridges and fortresses, but after a wave of construction, the fortresses were basically saturated and the construction of the official roads was basically stopped. After all, the central bank's money was limited and it was impossible to provide it to the limit.

Because the construction of these two major steel consumption gradually decreased, the strong productivity of the iron smelting plant was a little oversupply, so it targeted the border army. Unfortunately, the border army was corrupt and only used a small part of the money to buy weapons. Even so, the strength of the border army has been greatly improved. After all, compared with their original swords and guns, the quality of these steels is much better.

So this time the border army looks quite powerful, at least the swords, guns, swords and halberds are brand new.

In terms of food, although the disaster year has just passed, the military has accumulated three years of military supplies. As long as the military ration is renewed this year, there will be no big problem with military rations.

At this time, the minister in charge of military supplies in the court realized how much wealth Ouyang Bian had accumulated for the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, in the eyes of the ministers in the court and Zhao Xu, the Song Dynasty army was strong this time, with sufficient food and high morale. This time, it would definitely be able to defeat the already chaotic Xixia.

However, Ouyang Bian doesn't think so.

Fighting is not just about weapons and food, but about people.

The people of the Song Dynasty were not only not enough, but also very bad.

Originally, the five armies, plus logistics, had a total of 600,000 people. In this era, it was extremely difficult to coordinate. There was still a unified command system, but this time there were three commanders. How should we coordinate this?

It's very difficult.

As expected, it was not as Ouyang Bian expected, and the problem still arose.

The main attack is in the center, and the side should be activated first to attract the main force of the Xixia Army.

In late August of Xining, Li Xian left the Xihe River, bypassed Lanzhou, and advanced towards the Xishi New City.

Li Xian's army encountered 20,000 Xixia cavalry, and the Xihe Corps formed Li Jing's six-blooded flower formation. Outside the Xincheng of Xishi, the Xixia Army was defeated and beheaded more than 2,000 levels. The Xihe Corps seized 500 horses.

After capturing Lanzhou City, Li Xian stopped and attracted eight or nine Western Xia troops.

This operation is not a big problem, Ouyang Bian is quite amazed by this. Wang Shao's leadership ability is indeed extraordinary.

At this time, Wang Shao was in the Xihe Corps. Li Xian was the nominal commander, but the one who really led the troops was Wang Shao.

The start was amazing.

In mid-September, the five Song troops launched the unparalleled Western Expedition.

Zhong Yan's Fuyan army sacrificed the flag on September 15th, and rose to Suide on the 24th, and headed north along Wuding Hebei, attacking Mizhi City as originally planned.

At Mizhi City, Zhong Yan attacked for three consecutive days, but Mizhi City remained unmoved.

In fact, when I got here, Ouyang Bian felt that the result of the Western Expedition would not be very good.

Sure enough, Liang Yongneng, the general of the Western Xia Dynasty, then led 80,000 reinforcements to the rescue.

Zhong Yan played against 80,000 people with 90,000 people, and had an advantage in numbers, but he had a strong city and was in the enemy's territory.

On September 27, heavy fog fell from the sky, and Liang Yongneng led 80,000 cavalry to decide to attack in the early morning and destroy the Song army in one fell swoop.

However, Zhong Yan is a famous general after all, and he set up an ambush in a valley near Mizhi City.

The Xia army was ambushed by the Song army. After 6 hours of fierce fighting, the Xia army still could not defeat the Song army.

When the Xixia people were trapped in the face of horses, Zhong Yan personally led his army to attack. The Song army from all directions rushed in like a tide. The tired Xia army could no longer hold on. The Dangxiang people "stopped the two sides of the funeral" and "blood stained Yinchuan with red blood."

The Fuyan army chased and killed more than 20 miles, beheaded more than 8,000 levels, seized 5,000 horses, and captured seven generals including Manu Chitogo, the chief minister of the Xixia Privy Council.

After winning this battle, Fuyan's army prepared to attack the city, but Mizhi City opened its doors and surrendered.

Zhong Yan captured Mizhi City, Yinzhou, and Xiazhou, and gradually advanced.

In early November, I occupied Majiaping.

Eight days later, the Yanzhou was captured.

If it is in the south, this is the time to make a concerted effort, but this is the northwest.

Heavy snow fell from goose feathers in the sky in the northwest.

The army had no clothes to keep warm, and the food was not good. After the snow, the number of people was reduced by one fifth. Even so, the Fuyan army still attacked and advanced towards Baichi and Lingzhou.

Ouyang Bian is quite unoptimistic about this situation.

The northwest area has been able to fight for too short, and the cold winter is too long. Now that winter is approaching, the army will inevitably suffer a large number of staff reductions due to the cold.

Although cotton in the Song Dynasty has now become the main thing to keep warm, and cotton coats and quilts have become the most important thing to keep warm by the Song Dynasty, according to Ouyang Bian's observation, the border troops of the Song Dynasty have not yet enjoyed the achievements of the development of the Song Dynasty.

It is true that cotton coats and quilts have become popular throughout the Song Dynasty, but they have not entered the army so far. Ouyang Bian knows what the reason is, either it is severely deducted, or the quarconian purchased according to the previous procurement path, and the cotton coats and quilts were turned away.

Without cotton coats and quilts to keep warm, the army would not be able to maintain combat effectiveness in the severe cold, but now Zhao Xu is still driving the army to continue to go to the hinterland of Xixia.

Xixia is not the Song Dynasty. There are cement official roads everywhere. The roads in Xixia are bad. Not to mention the army, even ordinary caravans are extremely distressed by the roads in Xixia.

Now that the army is deeply in Xixia, hunger will become another big problem.

Sure enough, Wang Zhongzheng and the Hedong Army set off from Linzhou on September 23, and only brought food and grass for half a month.

Wang Zhongzheng's army advanced cautiously along the way. There was no enemy ahead of him, but he was cold and hungry tortured 20,000 troops. After eating all the food, he retreated back to the Song territory at the end of October.

——Wang Zhongzheng and his army carried out a field hike in Xixia.

And the people and problems that Ouyang Bian believes are also exposed.

The Jingyuan Army led by Liu Changzuo went north along Huluchuan as planned, met with the Huanqing Army, and then besieged Lingzhou City.

But when the Jingyuan Army arrived at Mogong Pass, he did not see Huanqing Army, and Gao Zunyu broke the appointment!

There were tens of thousands of Western Xia cavalry in front of him, but only 50,000 infantry in the area. Liu Changzuo set up a formation according to local conditions to welcome the impact of Western Xia cavalry.

The Song army used the Divine Arm Bow to cause major casualties to the Western Xia cavalry, and Guo Cheng led 800 cavalry to complete the final blow.

In this battle, 2,500 levels were beheaded, and twenty-two of the enemy's chief general, Chi Duoli, captured alive.

——Ouyang Bian is not clear whether there is any fraud here.

However, because of this victory, the Jingyuan army captured Mingsha City along the way and gained a large number of military supplies.

When Liu Changzuo's Jingyuan army rushed to Lingzhou City, the defenders of Lingzhou City had not yet reacted and actually opened the city gate and went out of the city to fight.

Just when the Jingyuan Army was about to seize the city gate, Gao Zunyu, who had disappeared for a long time, appeared and sent someone to order the Jingyuan Army to stop the attack. It was obvious that Gao Zunyu was going to seize the merits.

In this way, the opportunity to capture Lingzhou City disappeared, and the people of Xixia returned to the city to defend the city.

Ouyang Bian: “…”

Ouyang Bian thought that at most, there were inconsistent errors in the three commanders, but he did not expect such a problem to occur.

However, Ouyang Bian was relieved.

On the battlefield, any accident is possible.

In the army of the Song Dynasty, no matter what incredible things happen, no matter whether they are logical or not, they will eventually happen.

Ouyang Bian’s idea is correct.

What happened next was that his three views were completely destroyed.

Gao Zunyu delayed the fighter plane. Not only did he feel no guilt, he treated Liu Changzuo politely, but he even angrily wanted to remove Liu Changzuo from his post and appointed Liu Changzuo's deputy Yao Lin to take over.

Not only Liu Changzuo was almost furious, but even Yao Lin, who was appointed to replace Liu Changzuo, was extremely angry. He firmly refused the appointment. After a big quarrel, the Jingyuan Army was forced to withdraw from the Lingzhou battle and sent to the periphery to take charge of defense.

Gao Zunyu led the Huanqing Army to attack the city, but Lingzhou City is a strong city, and its city defense can be comparable to Taiyuan City. For the Huanqing Army, which lacks siege equipment, the siege has no effect.

For the Western Xia, if Lingzhou City is lost, the capital Xingqing Prefecture will be out of protection.

Therefore, the most powerful general Ren Duoling Ding was sent to help.

On the outskirts of Lingzhou City, the Jingyuan Army did not resist the attack of the Xia army, and the Huanqing Army also allowed the Xixia reinforcements to enter the city without resisting.

No one knows whether Liu Changzuo had negative resistance or not.

But afterwards, Gao Zunyu indeed accused Liu Changzuo of not resisting reinforcements and dragging Liu Changzuo out and chopping him out.

This aroused the anger of the Jingyuan Army. If Liu Changzuo hadn't known the general, there would have been a mutiny in the army.

This battle is no longer possible. The number of enemies defending the city has increased, but the morale is low. Liu Changzuo was so angry that he fell ill. The siege of the city has no effect for 18 days, and news of food and grass being intercepted came.

At the end of November, it was cold and the Xixia people dug up the Yellow River embankment. The Song army was forced to withdraw urgently, but the water was flooded and a large amount of baggage was discarded.

Gao Zunyu led Huanqing Army to run in front, causing Jingyuan Army to cut off the rear.

The Jingyuan Army retreated in the cold, food shortage and ice water were seriously injured.

It was only in early December that the two armies retreated to the Song territory, and the Huanqing Army lost one-fifth of the troops, while the Jingyuan Army lost more than two-thirds of its troops.

Zhong Yan's Fuyan army arrived in Baichi in mid-December and could no longer advance, so they had to withdraw their troops.
To be continued...