The Jin State was about to send 300,000 troops to reinforce the Western Xia, and the news that the emperor Wanyan Yungong would personally conquer the imperial frame was immediately transmitted back to Jiankang by the spy system set up by the Great Song Dynasty in the Jin State. Therefore, the Great Song Dynasty court also immediately started a discussion on how to deal with the Jin army's troops.

Although the Great Song Dynasty had long been mentally prepared for the Jin State to interfere in the war of Western Xia, it also formulated several sets of countermeasures. But after learning the news, the entire court was still surprised. Because according to Yang Yan's original prediction, it is very likely that the Jin army will wait until the spring of the next year, but the timely response and rapid action of the Jin State far exceeded this expectation. Moreover, the army of 300,000 is not a small number, and it is not necessarily unknown whether the current strength of the Song army in Western Xia is enough to deal with it.

In fact, since the Great Song Dynasty sent troops to attack Western Xia, it was almost like a broken bamboo, winning consecutive battles, and the war has been going very smoothly, because it has captured the Hetao area that the Great Song Dynasty has dreamed of for several generations, so Zhao Chen is also very relieved. And the opposition in the court and the voice gradually subsided, as every good news was transmitted back to Jiankang, the ministers were in high spirits, and then praised Zhao Chen for his wisdom, and he was a wise decision to the Western Xia soldiers.

But after the news of the Jin State sent troops to Jiankang, the court was also nervous, no one was praising Zhao Chen's wise decision, and the officials who opposed the Western Xia were also ready to move at this time, although they did not dare to blatantly oppose the attack on the Western Xia, but most of them thought that the Jin army was strong, and I was afraid that the Song army would be difficult to resist, so some people suggested that it would be better to withdraw the army temporarily. The officials who advocated the use of troops against Western Xia, such as Wang Yan, believed that the war had reached this point, and it was absolutely impossible to retreat, and the Great Song Dynasty should send reinforcements to Western Xia to increase Yang Yan's troops, and fight a decisive battle with Jin in Western Xia.

Zhao Chen was a little hesitant, not knowing how to choose. From his heart, he never wanted to withdraw the army, because once the army was withdrawn, all the efforts made by the Great Song Dynasty before would be in vain, and it would be difficult to find such a good opportunity to destroy Xia in the future, but if he continued to stay in Western Xia and fight a decisive battle with the Jin army, Zhao Chen had no bottom in his heart. He is no longer an ignorant young man who has just succeeded to the throne, and he is very unprepared for a decisive battle with the Jin State with the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty.

The Governor's Office, which was set up for this war, was also uncertain about the decisive battle with the Jin army, so it could not come up with any good references. In the end, it was Shangshu Zuo Pu who shot Han Yanzhi and immediately ordered someone to urgently spread the news to the front line of Western Xia with eight hundred miles and asked Yang Yan about it. Let's take a look at what Yang Yan thinks. After all, he is the commander of the front,

Zhao Chen had actually thought of this a long time ago, but now Yang Yan was in Western Xia, thousands of miles away. Although for this war, the Great Song Dynasty specially built a post road from Jiankang to Lanzhou, which greatly accelerated the rapid transmission of official documents. But Jiankang's official document was passed to Yang Yan, and then Yang Yan sent back the reply to the imperial court. It will take at least fifteen or sixteen days to come and go, even if the imperial court can make a decision based on Yang Yan's reply and there is no need to ask again, but when the imperial court's edict is sent to the front again, I am afraid that a month will pass. At that time, I am afraid that it will be too late to withdraw the troops.

Han Yanzhi naturally thought of this, so he said: "Your Majesty, according to the minister's opinion, you can add the sentence "In the war on the front line, Yang Juma can act cheaply on his own" in the official document of the imperial court, once Yang Juma thinks that it is necessary to withdraw the army, then he can arrange the withdrawal of the army by himself without waiting for the imperial court to give another order. In this way, there will be no mistakes. ”

After hearing this, Zhao Chen also felt that it could only be so, and at the same time, he also believed that Yang Yan would make the right choice, so he nodded and said: "What Han Qing said is extremely true, but if Yang Juma thinks that he can fight with the Jin army in Western Xia, but he needs the imperial court to send reinforcements, will it be too late when the official document is restored to Jiankang?" ”

When Han Yanzhi heard it, he felt that the emperor was right, since the ancient road, saving soldiers is like fighting a fire, if Yang Yan really needs reinforcements there, and then send reinforcements after the official document is sent back to Jiankang, it will be delayed for nearly twenty days, and maybe Guan Jian, who will decide the outcome of the battle, will be in these twenty days.

Therefore, Han Yan thought about it for a while, and said: "Then I will send another edict to Zhao Ruyu and Liu Heng, if the front line really needs reinforcements, it will be temporarily dispatched from Sichuan, and then the imperial court will immediately mobilize fifty or sixty thousand troops to send it, if the front line needs reinforcements, it will just come very well, if Yang Yan decides to withdraw the army, then the march of the army will inevitably be slow, the official document is in the hands of Yang Yan, and the army is only afraid that it is still in Hubei, so it is only necessary to tell Yang Yan the route of the march, and let him immediately send someone to prevent the army from entering Sichuan, that is." ”

Zhao Chen smiled and said, "Han Qing is really a serious minister, and it is really rare to be able to be so comprehensive." Okay, I'll issue an edict immediately, do what Han Qing says! ”

The next day, Han Yanzhi immediately discussed in the name of Zhongshu Province, and sent an official document to Yang Yan, Zhao Ruyu, and Liu Heng in an expedited manner of 800 miles. Then immediately dispatched men and horses, led by Cao Xun, and immediately entered Sichuan to reinforce the Song army.

The inconvenience of messaging has always been a major problem on the battlefield. The so-called 800 miles expedited, in fact, it can't reach 800 miles, and it can reach five or six hundred miles a day, which is considered very good. In order to solve this problem, before attacking the Western Xia, the Great Song Dynasty deliberately built a special post road from Jiankang to Lanzhou, setting up a post station every sixty miles, each post station was guarded by 20 people, and 12 horses were raised. Once there is an urgent document, it is passed through layers without stopping. At the same time, a set of strict transmission system was also formulated, and it was stipulated that the transmission between the two post stations must be completed within an hour, and the official document began to be transmitted, and a date and time of arrival would be received at each post station, and the post station would be heavily fined if the delivery time was exceeded. On the contrary, if you can advance a certain amount of time, there is also a reward.

Therefore, under this kind of reward and punishment measures, the post guards did not dare to slack off, and basically could guarantee the speed of 800 miles a day, and sometimes they could even run more than 1,000 miles a day. So that the speed of message delivery is also greatly improved. It used to take at least seven or eight days to get an official document from Jiankang to Lanzhou, but now it only takes four or five days to arrive.

Zhao Ruyu and Liu Heng, who presided over the overall situation in Xingzhou, first received an edict from the imperial court, and learned that Jin Guo would send 300,000 troops to rescue Western Xia, and the two also realized the seriousness of the facts, and decided that no matter what, they should rush to the front line to meet with Yang Yan, whether they continued to stay in Western Xia or retired from the army, they had to discuss countermeasures in person.

Therefore, after the two explained their official affairs, they immediately set off, and first went to Lanzhou to see Xin Qiji, and explained their intentions. Xin Qiji also understood that the incident was urgent, so on the one hand, he ordered someone to notify Yang Yan first, and on the other hand, he dispatched 3,000 Song troops, and personally led them to protect the two of them into Western Xia. When they arrived in Huizhou, they received a reply from Yang Yan, inviting the three of them to Weizhou to meet and discuss in detail

Fortunately, the places they passed through were occupied by the Song army, and there were no accidents along the way. Arrived in Weizhou very smoothly. At this time, Yang Yan, Gao Zhen, and Yang Changpeng were all waiting in Weizhou.

At this time, the Jin army sent troops to Yijing, and the vanguard arrived at the edge of Yinzhou. Therefore, after the two sides met, Zhao Ruyu didn't care about being polite, and asked directly: "Zihao, now that the Jin Kingdom has dispatched an army of 300,000 to aid Western Xia, in your opinion, how should you deal with it?" ”

In fact, Yang Yan had already learned about the movements and strength of the Jin army, and he had already made a plan to deal with it. Xianggong can rest assured, he has already made a plan to discipline Jin Jun this time. ”

Although he hadn't heard anything about Yang Yan's plan, seeing that Yang Yan was so sure, Zhao Ruyu and the others also had full confidence in his ability to use troops, so they were also a lot more relieved.

Of course, Zhao Ruyu did not want the Great Song Dynasty to withdraw the army, he had been the prime minister for more than a year, and had a considerable understanding of the Great Song Dynasty's Yijing. On the contrary, if Yang Yan can really defeat the Jin army, not only will he be able to collect the Western Xia, but it will also greatly boost the morale of the Great Song Dynasty, and no one will dare to oppose the Northern Expedition easily.

Therefore, Zhao Ruyu said: "Then I don't know what help Zihao still needs now, Ru Yu will definitely do his best to support Zi Hao, even if you are out of reach, you will do your best for Zi Hao to fight for Zi Hao in the court, and make every effort to ensure that Zi Hao can defeat the Jin Army this time." ”

Yang Yan nodded and said, "Our army has captured many places in Western Xia with Jingjing, and now we have to divide our troops to guard it, so our troops are too scattered. Therefore, I want to transfer all the places west of Weizhou to the rear management, and ask the prime minister and Xuanfu to transfer men and horses as soon as possible after returning to complete the handover with our army. ”

Zhao Ruyu also nodded, and said: "This matter is easy to handle, I will arrange for people as soon as I go back, and the handover will be all paid for by You'an!" ”

Xin Qiji was originally a candidate to pacify the governor of the Western Xia region, but he had stayed in Lanzhou because the war was unclear. Now that the Song army has captured a large area of land, it is time to begin to establish the ruling system of the Great Song Dynasty.

After finishing Xin Qiji, Zhao Ruyu said again: "In addition, what else does Zihao want?" ”

Yang Yan said: "Now the grain and grass materials are not bad, but now it is November weather, the temperature is cold, and the soldiers' clothes and armor are very thin, so we must send cotton clothes and felt as soon as possible, so that the soldiers can survive the cold winter, and now it may snow here at any time, so this matter is also very urgent and must not be delayed." ”