The Yinshan Mountain area stretches from the north of the Yellow River Houtao Plain in the west to Duolun in the east, and is composed of Yinshan, Daqingshan and Chahar low hills, including the northern part of Xijing Road and part of the southern part of Shangjing Road.

The white Tatars were nomadic in the area of the Great Wall of Yinshan during the Liao period, and some of their nobles claimed to be descendants of Shatuo, and Li Keyong, the king of Jin in the late Tang Dynasty, took Li Keyong, the king of the fifth dynasty, as their ancestors, so they also claimed to be the descendants of the king of Jin, 'Shatuo Yanmen Jiedu Envoy', and regarded the Yinshan area as their homeland.

The White Tatars were mainly engaged in animal husbandry, and a few were engaged in farming. Liao set up post stations in their territory, opened up post roads to Mobei, and set up a field, a place and an official warehouse. Due to its location on the main transportation routes, the trade between the government and the people was developed, and some towns and villages were formed, and there were some simple handicraft industries for smelting copper and iron. Because they are among different cultures and ethnic groups, many people are multilingual and have a high level of education, and some people specialize in acting as interpreters.

In these chaotic years, they absorbed some Uighurs who moved from the Western Regions, the Khitans who died in Liao, and the neighboring Han and Western Xia people, and dominated the Yinshan area. Zhao Ta's first step was to restore the old boundary of Xijing, using Yinshan as a barrier to avoid the invasion of the north, and at the same time as an advance base for expanding to the west and north, so the strategy he formulated would inevitably collide with the area of activity of the White Tatars, and the conflict was inevitable.

After a few battles, Zhao Ta was not satisfied, and the generals also felt aggrieved, a feeling that the cannon could not fight the mosquitoes, and the Tatars wavered. The guerrilla attacks from east to west made it difficult for the Xijing army to capture the enemy. It can only be pursued passively, or the army can be deployed to defend in key areas. It is difficult to inflict a heavy blow on the enemy.

Zhao Ta understood that the enemy was in a weak situation and used guerrilla tactics against himself, which shows that the Tatars knew very well that they had encountered a strong enemy, and the tactical choice was also correct, which was the only feasible way for the weak to fight the strong and subvert the order. And as the strong side, although they have obvious advantages, it is by no means easy to win the anti-guerrilla war, and it is very difficult to annihilate them all in a short time.

Learn from the pain and face new enemies. Zhao Ta knew that he had to change his tactics, and as a special soldier in his previous life, guerrilla warfare and counter-guerrilla warfare were compulsory courses for everyone. At present, however, the guerrilla tactics of the Tatars are still in the initial primitive stage, relying on the instincts of life and production to fight, and there is still a big gap between them and the rich tactics and theories of guerrilla warfare that have been carried forward in later generations.

According to the theory of guerrilla warfare, the basis for the guerrillas' survival is the base areas, that is, they need the support of the local people. The key to success lies in eliminating and weakening the people's support for the guerrillas, so that the guerrillas lose their intelligence support, livelihood support, and manpower sources. In order to achieve victory in the guerrilla war. It is necessary not only to defeat the guerrillas militarily, but also to use all means to prevent the contact between the population and the guerrillas. Guerrilla warfare without the support of the people will hardly be able to achieve much and will not achieve its ultimate goal.

The winning mechanism of anti-guerrilla warfare lies in the asymmetry of tactical application. One of the major characteristics of guerrilla warfare is to compensate for the inferiority of weapons with numerical superiority. Having sufficient superiority in troops has also become an inevitable requirement for the success of anti-guerrilla warfare. That is, to concentrate on using all the advantages of one's own side to attack the weak links of the guerrillas. Battles are often organized by the method of fighting regular warfare. The lack of sufficient force superiority will only make the troops often passively beaten.

After careful consideration, Zhao Ta decided to mobilize the loyal and brave army. Concentrate the various units of the Xijing Forbidden Army in the Dezhou and Dongsheng areas. At present, the two brigades of the Krüd Army and the 5,000 men of the Forbidden Army were transferred to the defense, with the protection of autumn as the first priority. No longer take the initiative to attack the enemy, build fortifications on the main road to defend, and at the same time draw two battalions of the Krup Army as mobile troops, at any time to support the fortress attacked by the enemy, and after the autumn harvest is completed, the army will arrive and then fully switch to counterattack...

There is only a short month in the northwest autumn, the weather suddenly becomes cold in September, the rivers freeze, the tall Yinshan Mountains block the cold air in the south, here is much warmer than the northern foothills, the Tatar departments have transferred to the southern foothills to spend the winter, and at this time Zhao Ta formulated the battle called 'Winter Thunder' also launched.

The campaign was divided into two phases, the first stage was to dispatch a large army to quickly capture the prefectures and counties at the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain and control all key points; The second stage was to move to the stage of purging and consolidation, recruiting and surrendering the Tatar tribes, striking at the remaining forces that refused to submit, completely controlling the area, establishing grassroots power, and reintegrating it into the scope of Xijing.

In this campaign, a total of 60,000 soldiers and horses were dispatched from the loyal army and the Capture army, and at the same time, 20,000 forbidden troops and 30,000 tribal troops were dispatched to cooperate with the battle, making a total of 110,000 troops, known as 200,000. The whole army was divided into two routes. With Zhao Yi as the envoy of the Western Road, he led the 1st and 2nd brigades of the loyal and brave army of lion generals, tiger generals, leopard generals, wolf generals and 10,000 subordinate tribal armies, strengthened the 1st artillery brigade, and was responsible for capturing Fengzhou, Yunnei Prefecture and Tiande Army; With Zhao Yong as the envoy of the East Road, he led all the Kryu Army, the Dragon General of the Loyal and Brave Army, 20,000 Forbidden Army, and 20,000 Tribal Army, and strengthened the Second Artillery Brigade, which was responsible for capturing Fengshengzhou.

Zhao Ta led the Guards Brigade, the Teaching Brigade and the Baggage Brigade, as well as the 1st and 2nd Garrison Brigades of Dezhou to coordinate the operations of the two armies, and transferred the 3rd and 4th Brigades to Xijing Mansion to garrison the Beijing Division, in order to prepare for a sneak attack by the Jurchens, but also to prevent some people from making trouble and ending their own nests.

On the 10th day of the first month of September, Zhao Yong took the lead in attacking, and he concentrated his entire army to attack Xinghe County by suddenly entering Fengsheng Prefecture from Baishuiluo. The Jin army defending the city was only 1,000 people, and seeing that the Xijing army was strong, where did they dare to engage in battle, and they could not hold out, Zhao Yong transferred artillery to attack the city.

This kind of small county town is mostly built of rammed earth, the place is narrow, the city wall is low, where to withstand the bombardment of artillery fire. Only two rounds of artillery fire on the city wall was blown open a thirty steps wide opening, Xinghe defenders did not dare to fight again, abandoned the city to break through, but where could they escape, out of the city less than three miles was beheaded.

Zhao Yong left a thousand tribal troops to defend the city, the army Shangyi attacked and advanced, here is a pastoral area, scattered with countless tribes of different sizes, their strength is not enough to resist the advance of the army, Zhao Yong took the brigade as a unit to divide the various parts of his command into six roads, each road is thirty miles apart and marches forward in unison, forming a wide front of two hundred miles, so that the departments are easy to contact each other, once there is danger, they can support nearby, and it is also convenient for grazing, and solve the problem of grazing horses.

The Jin army of the Western Road went south to attack the Song Dynasty, all of which used Fengshengzhou as the advance base, so the Jurchens' strength was stronger here, but the small Jin army in the field did not dare to line up for a battle at all, even if they stuck to the stronghold, they could not resist in the face of the Xijing army rolling like an iron mill. Zhao Yong's army was like a bamboo, and it took only eight days to march thousands of miles, break through five county seats, crush the interception of the tribal forces, collect and subdue the people along the way, and capture more than 200,000 horses, 100,000 cattle and sheep.

In twenty days, the Eastern Route Army had reached Duolun and completed the objectives of the first phase of the campaign. The Jurchens scattered and fled farther north to Shangjing, or retreated across the Tanshan Mountains into Zhongjing. Zhao Yong left his troops to turn around and turn south, and after several days of fierce battles to overcome the dangers of Tianling, crossed the ancient Great Wall, entered the hinterland of Fengshengzhou, and captured Wangyun. At this time, the Jurchens mobilized 30,000 Jin troops stationed in Khan Prefecture, Yongxing, and Guihua Prefecture to stay in Longshan to block Zhao Yong's continued progress...

The Zhao Shame Division of the Western Route Army launched an attack three days later than the Eastern Road, but it adopted a different method of play. He strengthened the wolf general with a lion general, and the second brigade set out from the Heqing army in Dongshengzhou to attack the Tiande army; General Tiger strengthened the artillery and set off from Zhenwu in Dongshengzhou to attack Yunnei Prefecture; With a brigade of leopard generals and reinforced wolf generals, and a piece of artillery, they set out from Texas to attack Fengzhou.

Zhao Yan dared to divide his troops into a three-way attack, because he had gone through careful reconnaissance and an understanding of the enemy's situation. The Tiande army and Yunnei Prefecture were successively captured by the Western Xia and Jurchen. At that time, in order to let the party members contain the western army of the Song Dynasty for themselves, Zong Han promised them the two states, and later repented and personally led the troops to recapture the two states.

The White Tatars were weaker in combat effectiveness than the Jurchens, and the population was scattered, and most of them were nomadic, and the troops stationed in the cities would not be too many. Now that Zhao Yong's Eastern Corps has taken the lead in attacking, then these three states will also be isolated, and they will not be able to get reinforcements at all, and the troops transferred to Beijing will be isolated by the vast desert, and when they come, the cucumbers and vegetables will be cold.

Zhang Yue was ordered to lead the 2nd Wolf Brigade to cooperate with the lion generals, and his mission was to cross the Wuliangsuhai Desert to cut off the passage of the Tiande army's enemies to Western Xia. This desert is very familiar to him, because the desert is the territory of the middle road of the Great Song River, and their second brigade is a desert combat brigade, which often trains in this area. Back then, for the sake of the Western Xia betrayal alliance, the prince was ready to use troops against the Western Xia, and they conducted combat exercises with the Tiande Army as an imaginary enemy, and then the Jurchens grabbed it, and the matter was stopped!

This time, the deputy commander of the operation asked the second brigade to cooperate with the lion generals to fight, and only undertook the task of cutting off the enemy's retreat and cleaning up the remnants, which made Zhang Yue very unconvinced. Although their second brigade was divided into the infantry army, in fact, it was no worse than the horse army, each of them was also a double horse, a horse, a camel, and equipped with rapid-fire guns, and the firepower did not have to be inferior to any brigade, or even stronger than them.

But it is precisely because of the special equipment of the Second Brigade that it rarely has the right task, so as soon as he set off this time, Zhang Yue made up his mind to show a small hand... (To be continued......)