Although Li Yanqing was in Yan'an Mansion on the eastern line of Hengshan, he finally decided to take the Qinfeng Road on the western front to attack Western Xia, that is, the road to the north where Tong Guan's 100,000 army was wiped out, and crossed the Hulushui Grand Canyon in Hengshan.

At that time, Li Yanqing led the army north to take the eastern front, and attacked Yinchuan City after passing through the Tiger Roaring Gorge, but because the eastern line was more than 1,300 miles away from Xingqing Mansion, and a desert had to be crossed in the middle, the road was very difficult.

The western line of Hengshan is much closer, only more than 400 miles away from Xingqing Mansion, once it enters the territory of Western Xia, it can shake the entire Western Xia.

But it is as difficult and dangerous as taking the western line of Hengshan, and the three major passes have become a boulder blocking the Song army's northward movement, that is, there are not many garrisons of the Western Xia army on the western line of Hengshan.

At the same time that Li Yanqing arrived at Yan'an Mansion with 2,000 men, Liu Jian led 15,000 troops to leave Jingzhaocheng overnight and secretly marched to Gyeongju in the northwest, preparing to join Wang Gui's army that had arrived in Gyeongju first, and from Gyeongju to the north for another 200 miles, you could reach the Hulushui Grand Canyon.

Under the cover of night, the Song army of 1,000 people is rapidly moving north along the Hulushui Grand Canyon, which is also a big river, crossing the Douling Mountains to form a canyon, this canyon is much wider than the Wudinghe Canyon on the eastern line, and there are more than ten miles at the narrowest point.

This time, the 100,000 troops of the Western Xia attacked the Great Song Dynasty in two ways, the main target was the Xihe Road in the west, where as many as 80,000 troops were invested, while the other road only had 20,000 troops, and the Shaanxi Road was attacked and harassed.

But in this way, the Qinfeng Road in the middle is relatively deserted, and the Western Xia Army has no plan to attack the Qinfeng Road from the north, and it is precisely for this reason that the Western Xia Army does not have many defenders on the western line of Hengshan, with a total of only 8,000 people, who are stationed at the Reward Transfer, Ta Cutting Village and Weizhou, and many other small dangerous passes are basically not garrisoned, the Song Army does not, and the Western Xia Army does not have it, which creates great convenience for the Scout Army of the Intelligence Department led by Yan Qing and Zhang Shun.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, the heat had gradually subsided, there was a trace of chill in the Hengshan Grand Canyon in the morning and evening, but the leaves did not fall, there were gurgling water and dense dark green woods everywhere, the scouts were very careful, they walked all the way day and night, but until they reached the north of the canyon, the scouts did not see any traces of people, but there were herds of antelopes in the canyon, which gave the scouts a lot of food supplements.

At noon that day, the scouts rested in a narrow valley, which was a derivative valley in the Hulushui Grand Canyon, like a capillary attached to the arterial blood vessels, the valley was about ten miles deep, but less than ten zhang wide, and on both sides were cliffs and peaks, and the overhead was like a line of sky.

A thousand Song soldiers ate their dry food and leaned against the stone wall to rest and wait, and several scouts had already taken the lead to investigate the enemy's situation.

Yan Qing and Zhang Shun sat in front of a large rock, studying a hand-drawn map, this map was very simple, only a few strokes, but it was very accurate and applicable, and all the information needed by the army was clearly marked on it.

"It's only three miles away from the Reward Transfer, and after the Reward Transfer, it's out of the canyon, it's very strange, all the way over, I didn't meet any Western Xia Army, what do you think is the situation?" Yan Qing frowned and asked.

Zhang Shun thought for a while and said: "It should be the judgment of the capital, the lack of troops in the Western Xia, I heard that the Western Xia and the Song army were in a big battle, although the Western Front Tong Guan was defeated, but the Eastern Front and the old breed of the strategy have won many battles, killing countless enemies, so that the Western Xia suffered heavy losses, and the Western Xia was also forced to pay tribute to my Song Dynasty, but not long after, the Western Xia fought with the Jin soldiers in Datong Mansion, and suffered more than 100,000 casualties. ”

"Maybe you're right, but it doesn't mean that we will be very easy, the Western Xia army is insufficient, and it will inevitably concentrate its forces to defend the important passes, so I don't know how many garrisons there will be at the Reward Pass."

Both of them were silent, the reward is notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack, when Tong Guan attacked the reward and lost 30,000 troops to capture, and the garrison of the reward was only two or three thousand at most.

At this time, Zhang Shun smiled bitterly and said: "If it is easy to capture the Reward Transfer, the capital will not send us over, and our advantage is to surprise and attack it unprepared." ”

Yan Qing laughed, she was thinking a little too much, the main role of the scout army was originally to sneak attack, otherwise how could they be sent here.

At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps outside, and a soldier announced, "The outpost is back!" ”

Yan Qing was overjoyed, and hurriedly greeted him, only to see two sentry soldiers walking quickly, kneeling down on one knee to report, "Return to the general, the enemy situation ahead has been investigated." ”

Yan Qing asked the soldiers to drink water, and then sat down and asked, "How is the situation of the reward shift?" ”

"General Hui, there is a cottage at the entrance of the reward, we climbed to the top of the opposite hill to observe, there are about 2,000 garrisons in the cottage, it can be seen that the defensive soldiers are relatively lazy, there are only a dozen people guarding the gate of the wall, and there are no soldiers in a lookout tower next to it."

"You mean that the enemy didn't notice our arrival?"

"I really didn't find it, the front of the gate was overgrown with weeds, and no one came out for a long time, we observed it all night and half a day, but we didn't see a team of patrol soldiers."

Yan Qing and Zhang Shun glanced at each other, and Yan Qing asked again, "Can you draw a map?" ”

The detective handed Yan Qing a simple sketch of the cottage, Yan Qing spread out the map and looked at it for a while, and smiled at Zhang Shun: "Who will take the lead tonight?" ”

Zhang Shun pouted, "We said before, I will fight the first battle, if you want to regret it, I can't help it." ”

"But I'm better at sneaking up on cottages, you have to be good at waterways."

"I can't say that, although I am personally better at water warfare, it doesn't mean that my subordinates are not good at sneak attacking cottages, I think it's more important to be trustworthy, since we have said it, don't change it."

"Why don't you draw lots!"

Yan Qing said with a smile: "I didn't expect that the first battle would be a reward, if I had known, I wouldn't have agreed, how about it, draw lots to decide!" ”

Zhang Shun was helpless, he couldn't believe any promises from this bastard, and he had to agree.

Yan Qing found two grasses, one long and one short, pinched the lower end, and smiled at Zhang Shun: "If you draw the long one, you will go!" ”

Zhang Shun didn't look closely, he pulled out one casually, Yan Qing helplessly opened his palm, Zhang Shun suddenly laughed, patted Yan Qing's shoulder, "Why bother!" On the contrary, it ruined his own credit. ”

"Get out of the way!"

Yan Qing sat down stupidly, picked up the kettle and turned her back to drink, she really didn't want to see this guy's smug face.......

It is the north exit of the Hulushui Grand Canyon, and it is also the narrowest part of the Grand Canyon, the narrowest place between the two mountains is only one zhang, the narrow river valley is about three miles long, the river rushes through the canyon, of course, you can pass through the canyon when it freezes in winter, but it is also covered by heavy snow in winter, it is difficult to walk an inch, and the Grand Canyon in winter is also impossible.

But the topography of the foothills on the left side of the valley is more special, and it suddenly retracts inward at the mountainside, so that there is a road that can get out of the canyon on the halfway mountainside, this mountainside road is flat and wide, and three carts can be paralleled, but the road up the mountain is not easy to walk, and the Xixia army built a cottage at the intersection near the south, just to cut off the road up the mountain.

The mountain road is in the zigzag shape of spiraling upward, it is very dangerous, the Xixia army is condescending, so that this mountain pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, more than 1,000 people can hold the cottage, when Tong Guan led the army to attack the reward port, the Song army suffered heavy casualties, and finally lost nearly 30,000 people to capture the reward port.

The assault was obviously unrealistic, and the only way was to sneak attack, since the Song army of 100,000 troops was wiped out in the Western Xia army eight years ago, the Song army did not appear in the Hulushui Gorge again.

Moreover, the Jin State attacked the Song Dynasty on a large scale, the Song Dynasty lost Hebei and Hedong in a row, and was forced to move the capital to Jiangnan, and the northwest three roads lost one and a half roads, the situation was already precarious, and the Song Dynasty was beaten to only parry, and there was no power to fight back, at this time no one would believe that the Song army would actually counterattack Western Xia.

Therefore, it is reasonable to appreciate the lax defense of the cottage, and at the time of the first watch, it is the most tired time at night, the gate of the cottage is brightly lit, and a few torches are burning.

There were more than a dozen defenders standing guard inside the gate, and the soldiers were all sleepy, each huddled in the dark near the gate and napping, and there were no soldiers to be seen on the guard tower next to the gate, not that there were no soldiers, but the soldiers were curled up in the corner and fell asleep, and only two soldiers stood guard in front of the gate.

Dozens of steps away from the gate, the firelight could not be illuminated, the mountain road was dark, the night insects suddenly stopped chirping, and dozens of black shadows had quietly approached the cottage.