Wei Ming Jizhong immediately stood on the embankment and looked at the flowing Yellow River in front of him. {(八{一Chinese )}>.) 8)1]Z〉}.>COM At this time, it was the beginning of October, although the meridian entered the late autumn, but it had not yet entered the dry period, compared with the beginning of the spring when the river was crossed, the river surface of the Yellow River was much wider. Moreover, the depth of the water can cover the horse's back, not to the horse's neck, and the current is much faster, the cavalry may be able to cross the river without wading, but the infantry army can't, and there are vehicles to carry the baggage, so it is necessary to erect a pontoon bridge on the river.

Under the city of Lanzhou, it was caught off guard by the artillery of the Song army, and the Western Xia army was defeated for a while. And on the evening of the same day, Wei Ming Jizhong received an urgent report from Qingxing Mansion, because the Song army had sent troops from Xinhui Prefecture to another way, bypassed Rouwolf Mountain, and attacked the Xishou Baotai Military Division, and then defeated the reinforcements of the Jingsai Military Division. Along the east bank of the Yellow River to the north, Lian Ji captured Shatuo, Yingli, Mingsha, Xiayu and other places, less than 30 miles away from Shunzhou.

At this time, the entire Western Xia court was shaken, because at this time, the main force of the Western Xia army was attacking Lanzhou, Hezhou, Jishi Prefecture and other places, and the defense of Shunzhou and Xingqing Mansion was very empty, and Shunzhou was the southern gateway of Xingqing Mansion. Therefore, Li Renxiao hurriedly issued an edict, on the one hand, he ordered Ren Dejing, who had retreated to Lingzhou, to send troops to stop the Song army, and on the other hand, he urgently ordered Wei Ming Jizhong and Gao Shan to immediately withdraw their troops and return to Xingqing Mansion. He also ordered Shunzhou, Jingzhou, and Huaizhou to be strictly garrisoned, and at the same time recruited strong men in Xingqing Mansion, gave them weapons, and organized them into an army to prepare to resist the attack of the Song army.

And after the defeat, Wei Ming Jizhong also had the intention of retiring from the army. After receiving the emperor's edict, he just borrowed the ladder to go down the wall, and immediately ordered the whole army to be prepared, and the next morning, he pulled out the camp and retreated to the north bank of the Yellow River.

As soon as the Western Xia army retreated, the Song army, which had been closed to the city for more than two months, came out of the city again and followed behind the Western Xia army. Wei Ming Jizhong was also a person who was proficient in the art of war, and he had long been prepared for the pursuit of the Song army, and hurriedly ordered the whole army to prepare for battle. As soon as the Song army saw the Western Xia army in formation, it also stopped moving, and the two sides fought against each other like this. The Western Xia army was still apprehensive about the artillery of the Song army, and when they saw that the Song army did not attack, they did not dare to go into battle.

The two sides held each other for more than half an hour and did not move, but Wei Ming Jizhong became a little anxious, because now that Xingqing Mansion was tight, he did not dare to spend so much time with the Song army. So Wei Mingji had no choice, only left Wei Mu Yanping and Wuzang Anhuan, led 20,000 horses and horses, and then led the army to the south bank of the Yellow River.

Immediately, dozens of soldiers in the Western Xia army who were good at water, each with a long rope, swam across the Yellow River, looking for big trees and boulders on the opposite bank, and binding the ropes. The soldiers who remained on the south bank of the Yellow River also began to cut down trees and began to erect pontoon bridges. The surface of the Yellow River is not wide, and tens of thousands of troops worked together, and in less than three hours, three floats were erected on the river surface. At this time, Wei Mu Yanping and Wu Zang An Huan also rushed to the Yellow River with the broken men and horses.

When Wei Ming Jizhong saw it, he hurriedly asked, "How is it, has the Song army retreated?" ”

Wei Muyanping smiled bitterly and said, "They haven't moved, so we don't dare to move, and we have been waiting until now." When we saw that there was really nothing we could do, we withdrew, and they followed. ”

When Wei Ming Jizhong heard this, he immediately rode his horse and ran up the causeway, looked into the distance, and saw that a thousand steps away, sure enough, there was a figure of the Song army shaking. Wei Ming Jizhong thought, is it difficult for the Song army to attack while we are crossing the river? This is very likely, although the Yellow River is not wide, but once the men and horses cross halfway, the tail still can't take care of each other, the art of war: half of the crossing can be attacked. That's it.

Wei Ming Jizhong immediately ordered Wei Mu Yanping and Wuzang An Huan to lead their troops to line up on the Yellow River embankment to prevent a surprise attack by the Song army. Then he left the embankment and came to the bank of the river to direct the other soldiers to start crossing the river.

At this time, it is the afternoon of the warpon, but although the pontoon bridge is erected with the warp, it is very simple, can not withstand the heavy stepping, and there are vehicles and heavy loads, so it can not rush across the river in a swarm, and must cross the river in turn.

However, fortunately, the surface of the Yellow River was not very wide, and in less than half an hour, nearly 10,000 people had crossed the river. As long as the Yellow River is crossed, there is no need to chase the Song army. Therefore, Wei Ming Jizhong ordered that after the men and horses crossed the river, they would camp on the opposite bank and rest for the night, and wait for tomorrow to continue their journey.

The Western Xia army, which had been running for most of the day, was also very tired at this time, and the soldiers after crossing the river found a leeward place to sit down and rest and set up camp. Some lit fires and fetched water to cook.

Wei Ming Jizhong looked at it for a while, everything was very normal, and then he was a little relieved, and instructed the generals around him: "After you cross the river for a while, you will take 5,000 cavalry to rush back to Xingqing Mansion first, and after you cross the river, Du Luoqing, organize people and horses to camp over there to meet the army." Then he rode up the causeway again. Among the soldiers who came to line up on the embankment.

When Wei Mu Yanping saw it, he said, "Ling Gong, why are you still here, but you can't go to the river?" ”

Wei Ming Jizhong said: "How can I leave you here and go by yourself." I'll stay here with you until all the men and horses have crossed the river. ”

It turned out that Wei Mingji was loyal to his heart, although the Song army had not yet launched a surprise attack, probably because the Western Xia army was tightly defended, so that the Song army had no chance to take advantage of it. However, as the number of people crossing the river increases, the number of people left on the south bank of the Yellow River will only become smaller and fewer, so the 20,000 horses left behind in the end will be very dangerous, and if they are not bitten by the tail of the Song army, they will be wiped out. And seeing that the other horses and horses continued to cross the river, he would inevitably feel uneasy in his heart, so he stayed in the formation himself, at least to be able to calm the hearts of the army.

Nearly an hour passed, and it was dusk, and the sun was on its own side. Nuo Yixinghai and Du Luoqing both came over to say hello to Wei Ming Jizhong, and also crossed the Yellow River. At this time, the Song army on the opposite side seemed to be a little tired of waiting, and began to approach the Western Xia army on the embankment.

When Wei Ming Jizhong saw it, he knew that the Song army couldn't bear it, and immediately ordered the whole army to prepare for battle. Seeing that the Song army had not used the terrible weapons of yesterday's battle for a long time, the soldiers of the Western Xia army were also a lot more relieved, and the archers lined up on the river embankment, bending their bows and arrows, just waiting for the Song army to enter the range of bows and arrows. And the "Iron Harrier" and the other cavalry also clenched their weapons, and just waited for the Song army to approach, they rushed out from the embankment condescendingly, killing the Song army on their backs and turning over alone.

However, at this moment, suddenly on the other side of the Yellow River, there was a dense sound of horses' hooves, Wei Ming Jizhong was stunned for a while, looked back, only to see the banner on the embankment on the north bank of the Yellow River, in the afterglow of the sunset, killed countless cavalry, from the embankment to the shore of the Xixia army rushed over, in the middle of a fiery red flag fluttering, very eye-catching, embroidered to see a big "Song" word.

"It's Song Jun! When did the Song army go around behind us and cross the Yellow River first? This is the end of it. Wei Ming Jizhong only felt that his eyes were dark, and he almost cut off from the horse.

It turned out that Lai Wenzheng had already reached an agreement with Ren Dejing, and after Yang Yan led the Song army into Sichuan, Ren Dejing immediately transferred the defenders of the Xishou Baotai Military Division, let the Song army of Xinhuizhou enter the Western Xia, and ordered the defenders of the cities along the way to retreat immediately after a little resistance, causing the Song army to invade the Western Xia Kingdom and threaten the situation of Xingqing Mansion. In this way, the Western Xia Emperor Li Renxiao had no choice but to transfer the army of Wei Jizhong back to Xingqing Mansion to resist the Song army. The Song army could take advantage of the Western Xia army to cross the river and attack half-crossing, defeating Wei Ming Jizhong's men and horses in one fell swoop.

After the defeat of Wei Ming Jizhong, Li Renxiao's power will inevitably be greatly reduced, and he can no longer resist the Song army, so he can only ask Ren Dejing to come forward to clean up the mess. And Ren Dejing naturally has enough capital to bargain with Li Renxiao and win more benefits for himself.

Therefore, after Yang Yan led the army into Sichuan, he left Gao Zhen in Xingzhou and went to Lanzhou first. At this time, Wang Yan transferred more than 20,000 horses from the three imperial garrisons of Xingzhou, Xingyuanfu and Jinzhou, and recruited more than 10,000 township soldiers and handed them over to Gao Zhen to lead, and appointed Yang Juyuan and Li Haoyi as Gao Zhen's deputy generals.

Gao Zhen immediately led the Song army into the territory of Western Xia from Xinhuizhou, and the Western Xia defenders of the Xishou Baotai Military Division were indeed transferred. So Gao Zhen immediately led the army along the Yellow River to attack northward, all along the way are Ren Dejing's territory, the defenders really heard the wind and fled, within one day and one night, the Song army grabbed three passes in a row, and the men and horses were killed until they reached the mouth of the Yellow River gorge that was only more than 30 miles away from Shunzhou. Sure enough, this move was beyond the expectations of the Western Xia monarchs, and the entire Xingqing Mansion was shaken, and Li Renxiao hurriedly sent someone to withdraw the army back to Xingqing Mansion with an expedited edict of 800 li.

After Yang Yan won another big victory in Lanzhou, he received a letter from Gao Zhen on the same day, learning that the Song army had entered the territory of Western Xia with the scriptures, and knew that the Western Xia army would withdraw immediately, so he immediately led the horse army Si Xiao cavalry to Xinhuizhou overnight, where he crossed the Yellow River, and then went back to the north bank of the Yellow River behind the Western Xia army to ambush, just waiting for the Western Xia army to cross the river. Because the other side of the Yellow River in Xinhuizhou was already under the control of the Song army, the Western Xia army knew nothing about it.

At the same time, when the Western Xia army withdrew, Yang Changpeng and Cao Xun also led nearly 37,000 main forces of Lanzhou City to pursue out of the city, which was also to create a kind of pressure on the Western Xia army, making them think that the Song army would attack the Western Xia army on the south bank of the Yellow River, so they focused all their energy on guarding against the Song army on the south bank, thus ignoring the defense on the north bank.

Yang Yan looked down from the embankment, at this time, the Western Xia army crossed more than 30,000 horses, but because the north bank is the territory of Western Xia, in the eyes of the Western Xia army, as long as it is safe to reach the north bank, Wei Ming Jizhong also thinks so. Therefore, from the beginning of the river crossing, although the Western Xia army has been guarding against the Song army to attack halfway through, its attention has always been on the south bank of the Yellow River, and there is no preparation for the north bank of the Yellow River. Some soldiers were boiling water for cooking, some were disarming and resting, and some were letting their horses graze, but they were suddenly killed by the Song army, and they all panicked immediately.

Yang Yan pulled out his sword and shouted: "The whole army is attacking." ”