Prime Minister

Chapter 674
The next day, the Song army camped on the banks of the Xihe River.

This is the downstream of a fork in the river. The river flows from north to south. It is divided into east and west branches where the Song army is stationed.

Song people called this river the West River, while Xixia called it the Liangcha River.

At that time, Li Yuanhao was playing wild in Liangchahe, and secretly accompanied him with the Mizang family. It was here that Li Liangzuo, the second generation of Xixia, was born.

Now that the Song army arrived here, crossing the river to the west is Mouhui in the south of the city, and crossing the river to the east is Tiandu Mountain. At the foothills of Tiandu Mountain facing north, there are large tiles and palaces. This is the Xixia Palace.

Back then, Li Yuanhao loved the Buyi family, and built this palace at the foot of Tiandu Mountain in order to make her smile.But Li Yuanhao also neglected the queen Ye Lishi because he did not move the family.

This aroused great dissatisfaction from Yeli's family. Li Yuanhao acted preemptively, and borrowed Zhong Shiheng's countermeasures to kill the two elder brothers of the queen Yeli, the famous generals Yeli Yuqi and Yeli Wangrong.

After Yeli Wangrong died, the left side of the brave army also moved back to Xiazhou, and now only the Tiandu Supervisor Army Division remains.

Before dawn, the sound of fighting in the barracks came.

Zhang Yue had already woken up in the morning, and with a little light, he read through the few letters he had received from home from beginning to end.

Then Zhang Yue got up and rubbed ink against the light to write a letter home.

Seventeen Niang gave birth to another son for herself. When Zhang Yue received the letter, he was speechless for a long time.My gratitude to my wife cannot be expressed in words, but at the same time I am full of relief.

At this moment, with a premonition that the war was imminent, Zhang Yue also wrote a letter to his family. In addition to saying hello, he also said a lot of missing words.

The beacon fire lasts for three months, and the family letter is worth ten thousand gold.

In addition to telling Seventeen Niang to take care of her health, Zhang Yue also paid special attention to the homework of the eldest son Zhang Gen. Now Zhang Gen is making rapid progress in his studies.

After Wang Anshi's imperial examination reform, scholars all over the world only know to read the scriptures with their hands in their hands, and regard the scriptures as their golden houses.

But Zhang Yue believed that in addition to the meaning of the classics, he also advised Zhang Gen to read more historical books.

The emperors and generals in ancient and modern China and abroad are all proficient in history.

Reading history can make a person wise and informed.

Zhang Yue wrote here and repeatedly told Zhang Gen about his homework, and at the same time, he should not be utilitarian in reading...

When writing here, Zhang Yue heard the sound of drums in the army and had to stop writing half of the letter.

Zhang Yue walked out of the tent, but saw that Song Jun had already got up and packed up, ready to march across the river.

At this moment, the river was covered with fog and mist, and the scene on the other side could not be seen clearly.

Wang Shao's father and son from the side tent also opened the tent, and they had already put on their armor neatly.

Zhang Yue asked, "Cross the river now?"

Wang Houdao: "Reporting to the Sheren, I have explored no shoals yesterday. I plan to lead the army to cross the river and stand in formation first, and then a large group of troops will cross the river."

Wang Shao said: "At least two pontoon bridges must be built on the river to cross the river!"

"That would take a lot of work."

Wang Shao straightened his leather gloves and said, "There is no way, but if I am the commander of the Xixia Army, I will lie in ambush on the other side."

Zhang Yue asked: "How does Xixia know, should we cross the east bank or the west bank?"

Crossing the west bank is Tiandu Mountain, and crossing the east bank is the important town of Nanmouhui. As usual, they should cross the east bank and attack the opponent's important town.

Wang Shao didn't answer.

At this time, the fog on the bank of the river gradually dissipated.A sharp-eyed soldier said: "Look at the east bank!"

Zhang Yue looked around and saw that in the mist, he could vaguely see many tents standing on the east bank, but these tents were not there during the day yesterday.

Is this tent a trick of Xixia's suspicious soldiers, or is there really a large army here?

At this time, the sky was getting brighter, but the city of Nanmouhui in the distance on the east bank was actually burning with smoke.

"It seems that the party members burned their own city and retreated in a hurry." Wang Hou said excitedly.

Hearing this, Wang Shao got on his horse and galloped to the place near the river. Zhang Yue and Wang Hou also followed. Here it can be seen more clearly that the city is indeed on fire, and it is not small.

If it is a party member's strategy to lure the enemy, then the price will be too high.

Wang Shao looked left and right. The terrain on the east bank of the river is open, and it is difficult for the Xixia people to ambush.

"Since this is the case, there is no reason not to take a look!"

Wang Shao gave an order: "Take two pontoon bridges to cross the river!"

The sergeants were a little agitated when they heard the news. Several leaders of the Fan army volunteered to be the vanguard because they were afraid that all the Xixia people would escape because they had not made any military exploits and were greedy for the goods in the Nanmou meeting.

Seeing this, Wang Shao immediately agreed: "I will choose you to cross the river first."

Each of these people is happy.

Wang Hou originally thought that his father would send him to cross the river first to pursue the party members, but after hearing the words, he became a little unhappy.

At this moment, the Song army has begun to build the pontoon bridge.

The river is not deep, and you can swim across some places, but the carriages and mule carts with luggage must pass the pontoon bridge to cross the river.

At this time, Wang Shao said to the west bank again: "We will also build a pontoon bridge here later!"

"Why?"

Wang Shao said: "If there is no enemy army in the Nanmou Association, then cross the river to Tiandu Mountain from now on!"

Wang Hou speculated: "Father, I think that Dang Xiang's presence on the east bank is just a tactic to set up suspicious troops. In fact, their main force is lying in ambush on the west bank. When our army reaches the east bank, it will be empty?"

Wang Shao said: "I have no way of knowing, so I can only take one step at a time."

Zhang Yue doubted that the people of Xixia would be able to calculate it cleverly. They knew in advance that the Song army would cross the river to the east, or cross the river to the west?
Therefore, ambush on the east bank or west bank in advance.Such a thing does not make sense.

After finishing the words, seeing that the first pontoon bridge had been erected, some Fan troops eagerly crossed the river, and then set up a formation by the river to prevent the party members from attacking them halfway across the river.

But Zhang Yue looked around and saw that the east bank was always quiet.

Zhang Yue chatted with Wang Shao: "I heard that the party members sent troops only on a day, and today is just a day."

Wang Shao nodded and said, "Not bad."

Zhang Yue said: "I've researched it. Party members never fight on dark days. It makes sense to look at superstitions carefully."

"There is no moon at night on a dark day. It is very risky if the two armies fight at night, so there is such a saying."

Wang Shao was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "What Sheren said is very true."

The two talked and chatted, Zhang Yue also had a premonition of the oppressive feeling of the imminent war in the air, and he also said something to Wang Shao to relieve his emotions.

No matter what he is, he is still a civil servant with no power to restrain himself. It is difficult to calm down when he encounters a sudden battle for the first time.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yue couldn't help touching the half-filled letter in his bosom. If there is really... something, then the words in the letter...

At this time, when the second pontoon bridge was built, thousands of Fan troops on the river bank had already assembled.

With the completion of the two pontoon bridges, Song Jun can now cross the river even faster.

When the Fan army crossed the river for the first time, they were always worried about the surprise attack of the Dangxiang army, but now as the number of people crossing the river gradually increased, they did not see the Dangxiang army attacking, so they were a little slack.

When there were three thousand Tibetan cavalrymen crossing the river, Wang Hou said: "Father, let's cross the river too!"

The Song army had [-] cavalry, and the real soldiers were no more than [-] cavalry. The rest were similar to the party's main auxiliary and burden, as support or miscellaneous.

The [-] cavalrymen who crossed the river were all regular troops. After seeing that they were enough to deal with it, they sent a detachment of [-] cavalry to check the tents set up by the party members.

The camp was set up more than three miles away from the river bank, and even the cavalry would need some effort.

Wang Shao looked at the cavalry who were going to investigate, and said kindly to Wang: "Don't worry, let the baggage cross the river first!"

Wang Hou saw that he was not destined for the battle exploits that were at his fingertips, so he sat on the sidelines again.

At this time, the carriage and mule cart had begun to cross the river.

The cavalry who went to the Dangxiang camp to investigate, entered the camp in a fan-shaped semi-surrounding search.

But I saw that the tent was already empty, except for a few pack horses, some mats, wine pots, saddles and other things, nothing of value.

As they continued their search, they saw a large box in the middle of the tent.

The two fan cavalry were overjoyed when they saw this, and immediately took out their sabers and opened the box.

At this time, the box was seen to move violently, but hearing the sound of puffing, the two soldiers backed away in fright.

At this moment, Wang Shao saw hundreds of white pigeons soaring into the sky in the camp of the Dangxiang people, flying high with their wings fluttering, and then heading southwest together.

"not good!"

The moment Wang Shao's face changed, suddenly there was a shout of killing.

And the shouts shaking the mountains did not come from the east bank, nor did they come from the west bank, but came from behind Wang Shao and Zhang Yue!

Wang Shao yelled: "Change! The whole army defends against the enemy!"

Wang Hou suddenly understood that the party members were not ambushing on the east bank, nor on the west bank, but behind them.

If Wang Hou didn't listen to Wang Shao and let himself lead three thousand Song troops across the river, then the luggage left on the river bank would definitely be attacked by Dang Xiang.

Wang Hou suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

If he is handsome, the whole army will confess to this.

At this moment, I saw several fire boats suddenly jumping out from the upper reaches of the river.

The fireboat was fully loaded with firewood, and was rushing towards the pontoon bridge while burning.

The water was very fast, and when the Song army tried to stop it, it was too late, and the fire boat immediately hit the first pontoon bridge.

There was a carriage on the pontoon bridge that couldn't move forward or backward. Suddenly, even the carriage and the horse belt bridge were burning. The pontoon bridge was burned instantly, and then the second pontoon bridge was burned.

Damn, the party members are so cunning and resourceful.

Wang Hou felt great hatred in his heart.

Once the pontoon bridge was broken, the thousands of Tibetan troops crossing the river were unable to return to the river bank for support.

At this time, Zhang Yue and Wang Hou looked back towards the valley, but saw two groups of soldiers and horses coming from one east and one west.

One of Wang Shao's subordinates, Yu Hou, was counting the party's military strength, and immediately reported: "The good teacher knows that there are two top soldiers, about seven thousand or eight thousand!"

Wang Shao nodded and said, "I see the same thing."

Now staying on the river bank, the Song army that has not yet crossed the river has [-] main troops and [-] to [-] auxiliary soldiers. Although there are more people than the party members, the victory is actually quite low.

Wang Shaodao: "Soldiers come to block, water comes to cover up! It's not so easy for party cavalry to break through my tent! Each department performs its own duties, follow me to defend against the enemy, and anyone who retreats will be killed!"

Zhang Yue was also beating drums with all his heart at the moment, he silently picked up his bow and arrow, and stood under Wang Shao's handsome banner.

Tang Jiu and Wang Gong also stood in front of themselves with vigilant expressions on the left and the right.

Tang Jiu said in a low voice: "My lord, you'll have no eyes when you fight with swords and arrows. If you really can't do it, we'll cover you here, and you can swim across the river with your horse in your arms."

Wang Gong listened and nodded.

After Zhang Yue heard Tang Jiu's words, he suddenly felt humiliated, and thought that as a civil servant, what could he do?

He shouted: "What are you shouting about, I won't retreat!"

(End of this chapter)