In the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081), the Song Dynasty sent an army of 300,000 troops, and launched a large-scale attack on Lingzhou and other areas in Western Xia. In this battle, the Song Dynasty's five-way army had no commander, lacked unified command, ran long distances, and failed to continue with food, resulting in failure. The Tangut people adopted the strategy of going deeper, first tired and then attacking, and defeated our army.

In the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082), Emperor Shenzong, who had experienced the final defeat of the Battle of Lingzhou, in order to resist the Western Xia, after consulting with the ministers, prepared to build Yongle City at the junction of Xia, Yin, and Youzhou, and garrisoned it. When Li Bingchang, Huizong of Western Xia, heard about this, he felt very threatened, so he sent 300,000 troops to attack it.

Originally, the Song army could not defeat the Tangut people, plus the Song army was unlucky, the Tangut people besieged Yongle City for more than ten days, a night suddenly rained heavily, the newly built city wall was soaked in water and was crushed by the Tangut people, the Song army that had been besieged for a long time was tired and hungry, and had no strength to fight with the Tangut people, and the Tangut people finally broke through Yongle City.

In the battle, more than 10,000 soldiers of the Song army were killed, and none of them were spared. Xu Xi in the matter, Li Shunju, and Gao Yongneng died in battle.

However, even after being defeated in the two battles of Lingzhou and Yongle, the Song Dynasty still gained a vast territory, as well as important military fortresses such as Jialu, Wubao, Mizhi, Yihe, Futu, and Saimen, thus effectively stifling the southern invasions of Western Xia and putting the Song Dynasty in an advantageous strategic position.

But the good times did not last long, and after the death of Shenzong, Zhao Xu, who was only nine years old, succeeded to the throne. At that time, it was Zhao Xu's grandmother, the Empress Dowager Gao, who controlled the government, and the Gao family used the old school headed by Sima Guang to restore the old law, which was known as 'Yuan You's change'.

After the old party came to power, in addition to vigorously attacking the new law and the new party at home, it also reversed what it did during the Xifeng period in its relations with the Western Xia, and wanted to return the land it had obtained to the Western Xia.

Under the encouragement of the old school and the request of the Empress Dowager Gao, in the fourth year of Yuanyou (1089), in November of the third year of Yizhiping in the summer, Zhao Xu of Song Zhezong issued an edict saying that as long as the Western Xia returned the soldiers captured in the battle of Yongle City, the Song Dynasty could give up the four villages of Mizhi, Jialu, Anjiang and Futu.

This is what Downing knows about this historical event, and now it seems that the wheel of history has not stopped or changed direction because of its arrival, and is still rolling forward.

The atmosphere inside the thatched hut was very dull, Liu Ling didn't want to speak, in order to deal with the party members during the Xifeng period, the Song Dynasty made a lot of efforts, and many of them were Wude Si secret agents who died in a foreign land. The rice fat area is a battleground for soldiers, and returning the rice fat to the Western Xia is, to a certain extent, like all the efforts made in vain during the Shenzong period, and there is no difference between thousands of soldiers who sacrificed in vain.

"Traitors have misled the country!"

Tang Ning was applying the wound medicine that Liu Ling had given him to his wound, when he suddenly heard Liu Ling's hideous roar.

Startled, he almost threw out the porcelain bottle with the wound medicine in his hand, opened his mouth and screamed blindly, and then lowered his voice and said hatefully in Liu Ling's ear: "You don't want to live?" You don't want to live, I still want to live! Can you shout that here? I want to call you to the temple of the arch and shout, and don't kill me!" ”

Liu Ling stared at Tang Ning, his eyes were as if Tang Ning was his enemy who took his wife and killed his father, his fists creaked, and he looked like he was gritting his teeth and bitter hatred.

Tang Ning took a step back vigilantly and said, "What are you going to do?" Don't think of me as Sima Guang, I ......"

"We don't have much time, Downing." Liu Ling was like a deflated ball, slumped on the bed and whispered: "It is the nature of the party people to be insatiable, and in February this year, the party people sent back the prisoners of our army in exchange for the land of Sizhai, and it is very likely that the party people will march in February next year...... We don't have time to spend any more time here. ”

Tang Ning shrugged and said, "Okay, you look very anxious. But what are you anxious about, according to your statement, we still have a year. And let's spend it here, it's almost time to close the net, don't rush for quick success, and lead to the abandonment of all previous efforts. ”

Liu Ling thought about it carefully, and finally nodded weakly.

He was a little ashamed of his inaction in the cottage in the past two years. In the past two years, he has been committed to provoking the relationship between Zhao Ren and Wang Qing, hoping that after the conflict between Wang Qing and Zhao Ren broke out, he would provoke the civil strife of the Nanshan bandits, and then reap the benefits of the fisherman.

This approach had little effect, and it was far less satisfying than Tang Ning's direct start from the relationship between the two and Han Xiong. This is mainly because Liu Ling is used to serving the emperor, and subconsciously maintains the power held by leaders like Han Xiong. This is also one of the very interesting characteristics of the ancients, Tang Ning found out, but did not tell Liu Ling.

No matter how strong and powerful Liu Ling was, he still received fifty lashes from Han Xiong after all. These fifty whips came down, almost shattering the flesh and skin on Liu Ling's back, and when Tang Ning applied the medicine, he directly applied the medicine to Liu Ling's back like a facial lotion.

After using up all the wound medicine that Liu Ling handed over to him, Tang Ning wrapped the strips of cloth he had just thrown into the crockpot and wrapped it around Liu Ling's body. The lack of gauze made Downing a little worried about the breathability of these strips of cloth, so he poked countless holes in the strips of cloth, and after wrapping them, the person with dense phobia would probably carry a knife to cut Downing.

Hearing Liu Ling say that he used silk to wrap his wounds before, Tang Ning couldn't understand how rich Wu Desi's funds were, and this guy could squander it like this.

After everything was taken care of, Tang Ning clapped his hands and let out a sigh, washed his hands, and sat back behind the desk to read.

It seems that the return of Sizhai has a great impact on Liu Ling, and this guy still has his eyes wide and continues to be in a daze. Tang Ning really couldn't stand it, so he knocked on the table and said helplessly: "Please, can you not continue like this, it will affect my mood very much?"

Isn't it just four villages, and it's not a big deal......"

"You yellow-mouthed boy really came with your mouth open, who told you that these four stockades are nothing? The four villages of rice fat, Jialu, Anjiang and Futu are all important places in the throat and must be fought for by soldiers. Do you know how much effort and blood I have shed to capture these four military villages?

As soon as you opened your mouth, you said that these four military villages are nothing, what are your intentions? Are you a spy planted by the party members in our court?! ”

Tang Ning sighed and said: "After all, I still haven't hidden it from you, what you said is right, I am the spy planted by the party members in the Great Song Dynasty...... That's weird! The importance of these four military villages is in your eyes, but in my eyes, there is no difference between whether these four military villages exist or not.

Since the failure of the Battle of Yongle City, the dream of the Great Song Dynasty to destroy the Western Xia can only come to naught. This battle completely lost the courage of the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty, and because of personal grudges, he did not go to the rescue of Xu Xi, and let Xu Xi and his subordinates die in battle, and the destruction of Yongle City was also seen by the Xixia people.

Others are not fools, and the border of the Great Song Dynasty is still infighting in this situation, which shows how rotten the imperial palace in Tokyo City has been. In this case, how could the Tangut people occupy these four villages and not return them?

Besides, the Tangut people have long coveted Mizhi, when they besieged Yongle City, Jing Siyi sent an envoy to the Xixia army, and the enemy commander saw Siyi, so he said, "If we return Lanhui and Mizhi, we will immediately relieve the siege." Of course, Jing Siyi couldn't agree, so he ......"

Liu Ling struggled to get up, both eyes were red, grabbed Tang Ning's collar and shouted in a low voice: "Where did you know all this!" ”

Tang Ning blinked, feeling that he seemed to have said a little too much when he was interested, so he pursed his lips and said, "It's my master who told me ......."

"There are a lot of these things you said that even I don't know, could it be that your master participated in the battle of Yongle City in the first place?"

"This ...... I don't know......"

"Jing Siyi saw the enemy commander, the content of the conversation between the two sides was Jing Siyi's secret music directly submitted to the official's family, you tell me, how did you know the content of this secret music?"

"This ...... This ......"

Tang Ning was really nervous now, and his head was sweating. Looking at the past from the perspective of God in the future, it is natural to know everything. But there are some things that are still in a state of secrecy at the time of his occurrence. Obviously, now Tang Ning knows something that he shouldn't know, seeing Liu Ling's shocked and suspicious look, Tang Ning thought about it, and didn't think of any excuse to get by......