Prime Minister

Chapter 664 Victory in the First Battle
After climbing over the highest point of Maxian Mountain, he stepped on the vast sea and loess under his feet. Although Zhang Yue knew that the Baiyun Hengling blocked his sight, he could see the Hexi Corridor when the weather was clear.

To the north is Dahe and Hanhai, to the east and south is the loess plateau, but Lanzhou in the west is fertile and wild for thousands of miles!
On the way down the mountain, there was a snowstorm. The sudden heavy snowfall and the high wind on the high mountains made the soldiers' lips turn blue with cold.

Zhang Yue was dressed neatly, but he had never encountered such a strong wind or snow.

It is not an exaggeration to call Maxian Mountain the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Longxi.

After descending the mountain, the snow stopped and the slope slowed down.

Zhang Yue went down the mountain slowly, but when he saw Wang Shao set up his camp temporarily on the mountainside, the soldiers beside him were lighting a fire and cooking.

Zhang Yue looked at the scenery here and it was much better. Although it was cold winter, he could see the green under the mountain, the beacon fires rising one after another from afar, and the Wachuan Society standing on the main road.

Now Lanzhou is in front of the army!

This Maxian Mountain is the junction of Xixia and Tubo. After Li Yuanhao defeated Tubo, he returned to Lanzhou on the way back to his teacher.

Li Yuanhao built the Wachuan Society here, cutting off the tribute road between Tubo and the Song Dynasty.

In Xixia language, it is a market.

Xixia traded with the Tibetans through the Wachuan Society.

After a dozen Xixia soldiers were taken down, their faces were full of panic. They never dreamed that the Song Army would cross Maxian Mountain and appear in Lanzhou in the twelfth lunar month of winter.

When they all went out of the city to investigate after seeing the beacon fire, they were ambushed by the Song army and captured here.

Several Xixia soldiers thought that Qingtang and Tubo were so brave that they dared to invade Xixia. One is not pale.

That's right, if Wang Shao sent troops from Qinzhou instead of the ancient Weizhai, he would have to conquer Huizhou first and then Lanzhou.

Lanzhou is undoubtedly the rear of the Song and Xia frontlines.

How could Song Jun appear here in the cold winter months?
Wang Shao ordered his soldiers to interrogate him. The leading Xixia general was very stubborn and refused to explain a word. Without thinking, Wang Shao ordered someone to drag him out and chop him up.

After the death of the Xixia general, the Fan army under him became more honest and rushed to confess.

It turned out that there were one thousand Xixia troops and two thousand Fan troops in the Wachuan Society. Yes, the Xixia army, like the Song army, also used local Fan people.In addition, there are hundreds of craftsmen and military families in the city.

Zhang Yue asked, "How to attack the city?"

Wang Shao said: "No need to attack! They left the city by themselves?"

"Out of town?"

Wang Shao nodded and said: "If they don't leave the city, we will slaughter all sides!"

Zhang Yue is silent, Wang Shao is very murderous. In another time and space history, he died of a malignant sore, and when the ulcer festered, he could see his internal organs. Others said that he killed too many people.

Zhang Yue persuaded: "In the future, we will collect more from Lanzhou! If there are too many killings, I'm afraid it will be difficult to manage here in the future."

Zhang Yue also knows that laymen cannot command experts, but the problem is that as a general, you only need to consider winning or losing, but as a civil servant, you must consider politics. This is where the contradiction lies.

Then again, if benevolence does not rule the army, righteousness will not lead to Jia.

But Zhang Yue is the commander-in-chief in name after all, Wang Shao compromised and said: "It's okay not to kill, but to take him away. But I'm afraid it will be difficult for the Fan army to restrain him."

Zhang Yue thought to himself, except that the Yue family's army would freeze to death and not demolish houses, starve to death and not plunder, how much military discipline could they expect from the feudal army.

After all, it's kindness that doesn't command soldiers, so Zhang Yue didn't say anything else.

On the way down the mountain, Zhang Yue saw thousands of horsemen scattered and leaving, so Liu Xixi came to ask himself.

Liu Xixi was surprised when he heard about it, and he has learned a lot after taking it as a horse over the years.

Whether it is offensive or defensive, the Song Army's tactics are to stand firm and wait for the enemy to charge.

But such tactics are very rare.

Zhang Yue said: "Elder-in-law, all the people in the Tibetan tribe are soldiers. Those who sent out to plunder were all young and strong, and those who stayed behind were old and weak women and children. Don't underestimate these old and weak women and children."

"It's all they do to camp and guard. Even unloading horses, luggage, and carts are also under the control of women and children."

"This is also in charge of the luggage, clothes, money, etc. that are carried during the expedition."

"What if there is a war? What will they do?"

Zhang Yuedao: "The Fan tribe always fights with the old and the young. When they meet the enemy, the old and the weak will be formed into the rear battalion."

Taking all the family's cattle and sheep with them on the expedition means that the Fan tribe has no supply line problem, so the Fan army relies on grazing and threshing grass along the way to maintain the expedition.

When the army arrived at Wachuanhui, the city didn't seem to know that it was the Song army who arrived, and a cavalry force of nearly a thousand people arrived to fight to cover thousands of civilians entering the city.

It happened to be a fierce battle with the forward of the Song Army.

In the evening, when Zhang Yue and Wang Shao led the elite Song army to Wachuanhui, they saw that the grass market outside the city gate had been burned to a white ground.

The Grass Market is the market outside the city, where merchants usually reside here, but now it has become ruins due to the flames of war.

Nearly a thousand Xixia cavalry who went out to fight in the daytime were lured into ambush by the forwards of the Song Army led by Wang Hou because they did not understand the situation, and hundreds of them were annihilated.

At this moment when night fell, the Song army set up camps around the city, stood on the hills and looked far away, but saw several miles away, many places were on fire.

Zhang Yue knew that this was the Fan army sent to raid the grass valley during the day, and they were looting everywhere. After the looting, they set fire to the pasture.

When Zhang Yue arrived at the camp, the cavalry of the Qing, Tang and Tibetan tribes dressed in fur were driving large groups of cattle, sheep and horses, talking and laughing back to the camp.

There were still a lot of captives. Thousands of civilians who were about to flee into the Wachuan Society were intercepted by the forwards of the Song Army. Only a small half of them entered the city, and most of the rest were captured.

Now they are locked in the circle like oxen and horses, with panic and fear in their eyes, and there are guards on all sides with bows. sweep.

Zhang Yue knows that in terms of Khitan, there are family members who fight the grass valley and those who keep the camp.

In Mongolia, it is called Oru, which is the soldier who guards the camp.

They all exist as auxiliary soldiers.

During the night, the Fan army crossed the Maxian Mountain one after another and arrived at Wadanghui City to set up camp. The light made by countless grease torches floated in the cold night. Everywhere.

It was noisy in the middle of the night, and the [-] troops had just finished their garrison. It was not until dawn, when the cold fog shrouded the foot of Maxian Mountain, and the melodious and desolate sound of the Qiang flute spread all over the inside and outside of the city.

The Song army surrounded Wadanghui on three sides.

Encircle three ques and one, and leave the north to let the defenders escape. This is also the traditional method of war for besiegers.

After daybreak, Wang Shao wanted to lure the defenders into a decisive battle, so he asked seven of his subordinates to command the Song army to dispatch three, and set up a formation under the city, making it clear that he didn't want to take advantage of you with an advantage in strength.

Seeing that the defenders were not going out of the city, Wang Shao pushed more than twenty Xixia captives to the bottom of the city and chopped them all down in front of the defenders.

At that moment, a Song general went to the city to scold the battle. He first scolded the defenders for their incompetence, then unbuttoned his trousers and urinated on the top of the city. Finally, he told a story about the relationship between your empress dowager Liang and his younger brother Liang Yibu.

Zhang Yue slapped his legs and laughed loudly when he saw General Song scolding more and more vigorously, and the Xixia people shot a rain of arrows.

The general of the Song Dynasty laughed and rode his horse to dodge, and even whipped out several arrows, and then braved the arrows to enter the city. Immediately, he drew his bow and set an arrow, aiming at the flagpole of the Xixia Army on the tower, shooting three arrows. .

Suddenly Song Jun burst into warm cheers!
It turned out that these three arrows were firmly nailed into Xixia's flagpole from top, middle and bottom, and the feathers on the tails of the arrows shook mercilessly, mocking the Xixia army in the whole city.

Zhang Yue couldn't help applauding and said, "Excellent, whose general is this?"

Wang Shao said with a smile: "This man's name is Chen Si, and he was one of the more than ten imperial students that Sheren sent to my tent at the beginning."

Zhang Yue understood that there were more than a dozen martial arts students he had recommended to Wang Shao's army, but most of them couldn't bear the hardships of Gu Wei, and later returned to Bianjing, only a few of them stayed in Gu Wei.

The more Zhang thought of this, Chen Si had already returned to the Chinese army.

Zhang Yue greeted each other personally and said: "Good skills, the general really has the courage of Xue Rengui!"

Chen Sibai said: "Students are ashamed."

Wang Shao said with a big laugh: "pass it on, the general will set three arrows on Tianshan Mountain, and the strong man will enter Hanguan with a long song!"

The Song army under the city shouted loudly!

"The general's three arrows set the Tianshan Mountain, and the strong man enters the Han Pass with a long song!"

Hearing Song Jun's call, the defenders on the city looked ashamed, but the other party endured until the end and were not fooled.Even watching the Tubo cavalry looting all around, I endured it.

Since the defenders were not going to fight, Wang Shao summoned the Han generals to discuss in the tent that night, but most of them did not advocate attacking the city.

Because Wadanghui is a fortified city, a large army lacking the ability to attack fortifications will not be able to attack it if it is stationed here for more than ten days.

Wang Shao had no choice but to give up. The morale of the Song army was high now, and it was a good time to use troops. If it was blocked under a strong city, it was not the best strategy, so we had to bypass the city.

After the agreement, when everyone planned to circle the city the next day, they didn't know that in the middle of the night, a fire suddenly ignited in the city, and the Xixia army with more than 2000 riders rushed out at night, abandoning the people in the city.

Facing this scene, Wang Shao and Zhang Yue were surprised and delighted.

The Song army captured the Wadanghui without any effort, and then Wang Shao sent out the fan cavalry to loot the surrounding area, and did not stay any longer.Wang Shao and Zhang Yue continued to march northward.Zhang Yue wrote a letter and sent people to Qinzhou to win the victory, while Wang Shao left a commanding Song army and [-] strong cavalry from the Tibetan tribe to stay at Wadanghui.

Wang Shao did not go to attack Jincheng where the state government of Lanzhou was located, but led his army westward into Nvzhe Valley.

Most of the land in Longzhong is loess hills with vertical and horizontal ravines, but Lanzhou is different, where rivers and valleys meet, it is a good place for both reclamation and grazing.

Nvzhe Valley is also the grassland for the Fan tribe of Lanzhou to spend the winter.

Here Wang Shao met the main force of the Fan tribe who belonged to Xixia in Lanzhou. According to reports, there are more than 3 Fan troops here!
At the same time, according to the investigation, the Xixia army learned that after the Song army had crossed Maxian Mountain, they sent troops from Huizhou, north of the Yellow River, and Jincheng direction to help!
(End of this chapter)