In a battle on the bank of the Yellow River, the Song army set up an ambush on both sides of the river, took advantage of the Western Xia army to attack halfway, won a complete victory, beheaded more than 30,000 people, captured more than 23,000 people, and also captured more than 4,000 war horses, swords and equipment, gongs, drums, tents, and countless banners, and the materials and military supplies brought by the Western Xia army except for a small amount fell into the Yellow River, and the others were also obtained by the Song army. The commander of the Western Xia Army, Wei Ming Jizhong, committed suicide, and the general Du Luoqing died in the chaos.

After the victory, Yang Yan immediately ordered Zhou Hongming to lead 10,000 horses and escort the prisoners and the obtained materials back to Lanzhou to see the prisoners and put them in storage. Then he crossed the Yellow River with Yang Changpeng, Cao Xun and the remaining Song army, and immediately attacked Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division.

Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division is the Western Xia and the Great Song Dynasty border vertical town, located in the east end of the Liuling Zhuanglang River, the terrain is dangerous, and there are usually garrisoned by a large army to guard, easy to defend but difficult to attack. But now Xingqing Mansion is in an emergency, and even the high mountains of Hezhou have led the army to rescue Xingqing Mansion, so the defense of Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division is very empty, and the Song army is riding a big victory, morale is booming, and the army is killed, and it does not take much effort to capture Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division.

Then Yang Yan left Yang Changpeng to guard Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division, and he and Cao Xun led the army to the northwest, and successively captured Huangzhou, Kuozhou, Xining Prefecture and other places, which originally belonged to the land of the Great Song Dynasty, but was captured by the Western Xia taking advantage of the Song and Jin wars, and now the recapture has also expanded the northwest territory of the Great Song Dynasty by hundreds of miles. And Yang Changpeng stationed Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division did not blindly defend it, and sent troops to capture Gaolan, Yongdeng and other places, consolidating the surrounding areas of Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division.

Zhou Hongming also returned from Lanzhou, and Wang Yan, the envoy of Sichuan Xuanfu, mobilized another 30,000 horses, as well as a batch of grain, grass, military supplies, etc., to Lanzhou to support Yang Yan, and brought them all to Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division.

At this time, all the armies of Western Xia returned to Xingqing Mansion with Jing Jing, and captured Gao Zhen of the Yellow River Gorge to become a lone army, but the combat objectives of the two fronts were to be achieved, so Yang Yan ordered people to fly to report Gao Zhen, so that he gave up the Yellow River Gorge and retreated to Yingli to garrison. Then Zhou Hongming was left to guard Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division, Yang Changpeng to guard the Jingsai Military Division, and he and Cao Xun went to Yingli and Gao Zhen to converge. At this point, a large area in the southern part of Western Xia, including Zhuo Luo and the Southern Military Division, the Xishou Baotai Military Division, and the Jingsai Military Division, were occupied by the Song army.

This time, the Western Xia dispatched an army of 120,000 to attack Lanzhou, and when Wei Mu Yanping, Wuzang Anhuan, Dong Mingzhao, Wuyi Dage and others fled back to Xingqing Mansion with the defeated army, there were only more than 50,000 people left, and most of them were wounded. Knowing that the Western Xia army was defeated and returned, Wei Ming Jizhong also died on the battlefield, and the Western Xia Emperor Li Renxiao was in a hurry to attack his heart, and the palace fainted on the ground. was so frightened that the ministers of Western Xia were at a loss, and hurriedly summoned the imperial doctor, and after a long period of effort, he finally woke up the emperor. Fortunately, Li Renxiao didn't have any serious illness, but he was in a hurry, and he was in a hurry, and he only needed to recuperate for a few days.

And in the next few days, all the bad news came, but after more than ten days, the entire southern part of Western Xia was occupied by the Song army, so the entire Xingqing Mansion was panicked, because it was the defeated army of Wei Ming Jizhong, and the Song army was described as a fierce god, and the elephant army that defeated the "Iron Harrier" was described as terrible as much as possible, so that the entire Western Xia army was in turmoil and full of fear of the Song army.

In fact, as early as the seventh year of Da'an (1081) of Huizong Li Bingchang of Western Xia, the Song Dynasty had dispatched 300,000 troops to attack Western Xia in five ways, and the troops were in Lingzhou. But at that time, the Western Xia still retained the martial spirit of the Jingzong Li Yuanhao era, so the wall was clear, and the top and bottom worked together to fight a decisive battle with the Song army, and the queen mother and the prime minister even went into battle in person, and finally defeated the attack of the Song army, turning the crisis into safety.

But today's Western Xia monarchs and ministers have been in peace for too long, and in the past few decades, they have been promoting Wenzhi, and they have hardly experienced any major wars, and even many ministers do not know about military affairs at all, so in the face of the attack of the Song army, they are all panicked.

Fortunately, at this time, the Song army took the initiative to withdraw from the Yellow River Gorge, relieving the threat to Xingqing Mansion, so that the Western Xia court could breathe a sigh of relief. But then the ministers of Western Xia found that in this way, the Song army had greater flexibility in using troops in the next step. To the east, you can send troops again at any time to attack Xingqing Mansion, and to the west, you can also capture Xiliang Mansion and take the entire Hexi region. Between Xiliang Mansion and Xingqing Mansion, there is a large desert, and it is very difficult to rescue. And now that the Xixia army has been newly defeated and its vitality has been greatly damaged, Xingqing Mansion is still too busy to take care of itself, where can it still be divided to rescue Xiliang Mansion?

As soon as Li Renxiao's health was a little better, he immediately cheered up and summoned the ministers of civil and military affairs to discuss the strategy of retreating from the Song army. At the same time, Li Renxiao also issued an order to appoint Gao Shandu as the commander of the army of Xingqing Mansion, replacing Wei Ming Jizhong and presiding over military affairs. Then he announced that he would not pursue the defeat of Wei Mu Yanping, Wu Zang An Huan, Dong Mingzhao, Wu Yi Da Ge and other generals, and let them still hold their original positions and be used under the command of Gao Shan Du.

The announcement of these two articles has played a role in stabilizing the hearts and minds of the people and the army. Gao Shan is the oldest general in the Western Xia military except for Wei Ming Jizhong, and it is logical for him to be the commander of the Western Xia army. Moreover, after Wei Mu Yanping, Wu Zang An Huan, Dong Mingzhao, Wu Yi Da Ge and other generals received the edict, they were also grateful for the emperor's magnanimity, and they were all determined to defend Xingqing Mansion to the death.

Although there are still more than 50,000 people who were defeated and returned to Xingqing Mansion, there are not a few people who were injured by arrows, accounting for almost half of them, but the 30,000 people under the command of Gao Shan Du did not suffer much loss, plus the original men and horses of Xingqing Mansion, there were more than 80,000 people in total. Obviously, the princes and ministers of Western Xia did not think that such a force would be enough to resist the attack of the Song army. Ren Dejing's subordinates in Lingzhou still have a lot of people, but Li Renxiao can't trust him, so he doesn't dare to recruit him into the court, and the Lingzhou he guards is also an important place, so he can't give up easily. Therefore, only 40,000 or 50,000 horses were mobilized from the Baima Qiangzhen Military Division, the Right Wing Chaoshun Military Division, and the Black Mountain Fuwei Military Division, plus some of the recruited new troops, and 1670,000 horses were also gathered, which is quite a lot, but it is still difficult to predict what the combat effectiveness will be.

However, at the same time as mobilizing people and horses, the Western Xia court adopted the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness on the periphery of Xingqing Mansion, moving all the people into the city, dragging away all the grain, setting fire to the houses, etc., so that the Song army could not obtain supplies on the spot, and also strengthened the defense of Xingqing Mansion and the surrounding areas, strengthened the city wall, widened the moat, and prepared a large number of tools to defend the city. I also have some confidence in holding Xingqing Mansion.

However, Li Renxiao also knew that relying only on the Western Xia country, I am afraid it would be difficult to resist the attack of the Song army, although there was a Jin country to rely on, but it would not be beneficial to the Western Xia to fight, and it was better to make peace with the Southern Song Dynasty. But even if it is to make peace, it must rely on the Jin State to maneuver through it. Therefore, Li Renxiao rectified the defense of the country on the one hand, and on the other hand, sent Lang Jinzhong as a minister to the Southern Song Dynasty to seek peace, and sent Jiao Zhongjing as an envoy to the Jin State to ask for help.

Fortunately, after the Song army captured a large area of land in the southern part of Western Xia, it also needed a period of time to stabilize, and it was unable to launch a new offensive for a while, which also freed up some time for Western Xia to sue for peace.

On the last day of the Song Dynasty's Autumn Festival, Monk Wanyan Chen returned to Jin Guo overnight with more than a dozen people on fast horses to report the news, while Bai Yanjing remained in Jiankang and kept a close eye on the progress of the situation.

In fact, before Monk Wanyan Chen arrived in Zhongdu, the court of Jin received the news. The Song army suddenly launched a counterattack against the Western Xia, and immediately attacked the Western Xia country, and the rapid response was indeed greatly unexpected by the Jin State.

The whole process of the battle of Song and Xia was also roughly clear to the Jin State, although even the Jin State was deceived by Yang Yanhou's plan to hide the sky and cross the sea, but in the case that the Southern Song Dynasty did not send a large army to reinforce Lanzhou, and the 120,000 army of the Western Xia was defeated by the Southern Song Dynasty with less than 60,000 horses, which is also too ugly. Thinking of the previous performance of the Western Xia Army, it seems that the combat effectiveness of the Western Xia Army should also be re-evaluated.

These days, Jin Guo is also discussing every day how to deal with the current situation. Now that the Jin State has lost its first hand, if it still sits idly by and continues to develop like this, it is difficult to say that the Southern Song Dynasty will not annex the Western Xia, or force the Western Xia to fall to the side of the Southern Song Dynasty, no matter what the situation is, it is something that the Jin State will never want to see, so all the courtiers of the Jin State first immediately reached an agreement, that is, the Jin State must interfere with the Southern Song Dynasty to continue to use troops against the Western Xia, and must not let the Southern Song Dynasty destroy the Western Xia.

And there are no more than two methods of intervention, military and political.

The military means were very simple, that is, to immediately launch a large army to attack the Southern Song Dynasty and force the Southern Song Dynasty to immediately withdraw its troops from Western Xia. However, in the past two years, although the national strength of the Jin State has recovered somewhat, it is not enough to launch a full-scale southern expedition again. It is possible to rely on the men and horses guarding the border to launch a local attack, but now the Southern Song Dynasty is also heavily guarded on the border, and it may not be able to please it. Even if you can win a few battles, it won't change the overall situation. What's more, the Southern Song Dynasty still has the Yangtze River natural danger, which is also a difficulty that the Jin army cannot overcome at present, and the last defeat of the Southern Expedition was not so much a defeat to Yang Yan as a defeat to the Yangtze River.

And the most important thing is that now Wan Yanyong is not willing to tear his face with the Southern Song Dynasty immediately, so it is absolutely undesirable to use purely military means, and can only use political means to exert diplomatic pressure to make peace between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, and then stop the army.

According to the analysis of the current situation and the news obtained by the detailed workers, with the current strength of the Southern Song Dynasty, if there is interference from the outside world, it will be difficult to annex the Western Xia, so as long as the attitude of the Jin State is resolute, the Southern Song Dynasty should accept peace with the Western Xia. However, as the defeated side, it was inevitable that the Western Xia would make some concessions and let the Southern Song Dynasty accept peace with dignity. Naturally, the Jin Kingdom will also try its best to minimize the losses of Western Xia.

However, after the Song and Xia negotiations, after this war, the Southern Song Dynasty has accumulated praise for the past two years, and in the next few years, it will be at a disadvantage to the Jin State, and it also makes the Western Xia understand that only by relying on the help of the Jin State can they resist the attack of the Southern Song Dynasty, so they will rely more on the Jin State. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone. That is, it weakened the Southern Song Dynasty and pulled the Western Xia.

Therefore, Wan Yanyong immediately sent someone to send a letter to Bai Yanjing, who stayed in Jiankang, and asked him to test the attitude of the Southern Song Dynasty in Jiankang first.

Of course, the use of political means to solve the problem does not depend entirely on the mouth of the envoy, and appropriate military means are also indispensable. However, the use of military means, that is, to make the Southern Song Dynasty feel threatened, had to stop the attack on Western Xia, so as to accept peace, but not to provoke the Southern Song Dynasty too much, so as not to make the Southern Song Dynasty embarrassed and angry, and turn into a full-scale conflict between the Song and Jin, then the gains outweigh the losses. It is not easy to grasp the faults. Therefore, the choice of the chief general of the Jin army is a big problem, and the current Jingzhaofu Road system envoy Wanyan ×× is obviously not a suitable candidate.

Therefore, Wan Yan Yong deliberately summoned Wan Yan Changzhi back to the central capital, and discussed with the ruling ministers how to cooperate with political means in military action. At this time, Monk Wanyan Chen also rushed back to Zhongdu and also participated in the discussion.

After several days of deliberation, it was finally decided that on the border between the Central Plains and the Jianghuai River, after all, it was too close to Jiankang, and I was afraid that it would anger the Southern Song Dynasty too much and create some tense atmosphere. But on the southwestern border of the Jin country, it is appropriate to create some conflicts and conduct some skirmishes. And when necessary, they can also send troops to the territory of Western Xia to help Western Xia resist the attack of the Song army. Because the southwest is far away from Jiankang, even if some fierce wars occur, there is room for redemption. The imperial court decided to send Shangshu Zuo Cheng Shi Lie Zhining to serve as the envoy of Jingzhao Mansion to preside over the overall situation of the southwest. At the same time, the monk Wanyan Chen was appointed as the chief of soldiers and horses of Jingzhao Mansion, in charge of military affairs.

At this time, Jiao Zhongjing, the envoy of Western Xia, also rushed to Zhongdu and pleaded with the Jin State to intervene and let the Southern Song Dynasty withdraw its troops. And Bai Yanjing, who stayed in Jiankang, also sent back the news, and the Southern Song Dynasty court believed that if the conditions were suitable, it also agreed to make peace with the Western Xia.

This news also made the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State breathe a sigh of relief, and their most heartfelt thing was that Zhao Chen, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, was young and vigorous, and after a few victories, he got carried away and had to annex Western Xia. That would only force the Jin State and the Southern Song Dynasty to go to war in an all-out way. Now that the Southern Song Dynasty also has the intention of making peace, it will be easy to do, and as for the conditions, we can talk about it slowly, and we can always find a plan that is acceptable to both sides.

However, Yang Yan's use of soldiers is really too ghostly, who knows if this time he is playing tricks again, and then he will repair the plank road and secretly cross Chen Cang. You can't afford to be unguarded. Therefore, Wan Yan Yong promised Jiao Zhongjing on the one hand, guaranteed that Dajin would maneuver from it, and on the other hand, he sent Su Shi Lie Zhining and Wan Yan Chen Monk to Jingzhaofu Road immediately.