In the face of the sudden change, after Gao Zhong and Zhao Li urgently discussed, they immediately changed their original plan and decided to attack the city overnight, two infantry brigades attacked from the east gate and the south gate respectively under the cover of artillery fire, the dragoon brigade held the west gate, and the hunter cavalry brigade and archers of various nationalities set up an ambush ten miles outside the north gate. The enemy forces in the city of Woludo had no desire to fight, and they began to break through from the north gate without even an hour, and the Song dragoons then pursued and covered them and drove them into an ambush.

After a night of fierce fighting, the enemy was crushed, and Mosher escaped by taking advantage of his geographical familiarity, and more than 3,000 of his henchmen and the leaders of the Damiri and Jesus-Scraping tribes were captured alive. In this battle, the Northern Blockade Department not only lost its lair, but also lost most of the elite of the tribe, and the various departments refused to accept them. After his death, his sons each led a division with each other, and the Northern Blockade Division fell back into a state of division, and fled to the north under the encirclement and suppression of the Western Expeditionary Army.

Through a series of battles, the Western Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty defeated the Northern Blockade Division, which was enemy of the Song Dynasty, opened the way to continue westward advance, and caused a great shock in Mobei. The Damiri tribe and the Yassi tribe asked for surrender, willing to ransom their leaders with heavy money, and other small tribes flocked to vote, expressing their willingness to join the Great Song Dynasty, and were warmly welcomed everywhere they went, and they donated grain, grass and horses, and were willing to go with the army.

Just when the situation was very good, what everyone didn't expect was that Gao Zhong suddenly received an order from the imperial court to suspend the westward advance, and the Western Xia, who had been vowing to cooperate with the troops, wavered, and they did not send troops as promised. It turned out that Gao Chang also protected Brother Bilege, in addition to lobbying the Divination Department to form an alliance against the Great Song Dynasty, and also sent a request for help to Western Liao. I hope to rebuild the old good and fight the Song Dynasty together. Yelu Dashi has always been angry about being expelled from Gaochang by Song Xia and Song Xia, and now that he has the opportunity, how can he let it go. Immediately sent 30,000 troops into Gaochang and stationed troops in the Puchanghai area on the border between Gaochang and Western Xia.

Gaochang led the Western Liao soldiers into the border of the garrison. This made the Western Xia, who had been ready to pick up the bargain, panic, and Bilge invited the Ganzhou Uighurs, who had always been friendly with the Western Xia, to Xingqing Mansion to convey the message that they were willing to reconcile with the Western Xia, which made Li Qianshun half-hearted. At the same time of lobbying in many ways, Bilge also ordered people to carry a large number of jewels and beauties to carry out activities in the Western Xia, bribing the Western Xia courtiers and the leaders of the big clans, and Cha Ge, who advocated jointly sending troops to fight against Gaochang, was not in Beijing at this time to resolve the border conflict with Tubo, and the opinion of striking the army prevailed, so that the Western Xia could not send troops to attack the south of Gaochang as agreed, and realized the idea of a north-south attack.

At this time, it was the time when the 'abdication turmoil' was in full swing in China. The emperor openly expressed his willingness to abdicate the throne at the small court meeting, and everyone understood that it would be difficult to complete the western expedition without the emperor's support. This made some officials who 'did not know the truth' think that the Western Expedition was full of uncertainty, and what worried them even more was that the generals in the court had expressed their willingness to 'retreat' with the emperor, and the strength of the Western Expeditionary Army led by Gao Zhong was enough to sweep Mobei, once they refused to accept the establishment of another central government, it would bring more trouble, so they used the Western Xia to break the treaty and advocate stopping the Western Expedition.

Zhao Ta, out of his own considerations, concentrated the elite of the Western Expeditionary Army and had strong combat effectiveness. And Gao Zhong and Zhao Li's loyalty is unquestionable, and they can also be used as helpers to deter people with bad intentions in the country. Therefore, he agreed to temporarily stop the westward march of the Western Expeditionary Army, but his determination to destroy Gaochang did not change because of this. Therefore, the Western Expeditionary Army was not allowed to retreat, but made arrangements according to the changes in the situation......

Although he couldn't continue the westward expedition for the time being, Gao Zhong did not wait passively. Instead, he began to consider the situation in Mobei. The most puzzling thing is that Western Liao sent troops against the Song-Xia coalition forces, in the geopolitical field. Although their performance was far from perfect, they gained reliable allies in the Western Regions through wars and alliances. Together with the Song and Jin, they ruled the East Asian continent and formed a balance of power and quantity.

For the threat of war, although Western Liao cannot be said to sit back and relax, but it is definitely the least, as a military power in the Western Regions, any challenge to him requires great courage. Because of the crushing defeat in the war against the Song, the Jin State lost the strength and courage to continue to destroy the Liao, while the Song did not border with it and had no essential contradictions, and had always implemented the Jingsui policy towards the Western Regions, maintaining the trade routes to the outside world, and concentrating on dealing with the expansion of the Jin State and overseas markets. Although Yelu Dashi understood the difficulties of the expedition to the Jin Kingdom, he still remembered to restore the country, took strict precautions against the Jin, and was also vigilant against the rise of the Song Dynasty for historical reasons, but there was no substantive conflict between the two countries.

Western Liao could have achieved a 'peaceful rise' through stable development, but it would not be wise to choose to engage in a war with limited national interests. And now he is facing the situation is not very optimistic, according to the information held by Gao Chong, the Western Liao encountered a famine in the previous year, and has just ended a war with the neighboring small caliphate, but this caused the dissatisfaction of its suzerain, the Seljuk Empire, has decided to accept the invitation of the caliph lord Mahmud Khan to conquer the Western Liao, and called on neighboring countries to send troops together.

Although its well-trained and battle-hardened army may be able to gain an advantage on the battlefield, its lack of stock strength and lack of war potential doomed him to be unable to deal with the Song-Xia coalition's conquest of Gaochang with all his might, and they were only self-defeating in doing so, so it was not wise for Gao Zhong to end the expedition on the west on this ground.

During the period when the Western Expeditionary Army was stationed in the war, Gao Chong found that the people of all ethnic groups in the area of Mobei Zhenzhou lived in poverty and the people were struggling to make a living, but this was not because the land here was barren, on the contrary, the land was fertile and abundant, and it was by no means a "thousand miles of open land". Another important reason was Mosher's extortion.

After occupying Zhenzhou, Moshier adopted extremely barbaric and cruel methods to carry out national oppression and economic exploitation. All local and military officials were made up of their own tribesmen, who were free to plunder the belongings of the inhabitants, even their wives and daughters, and many tribes were annexed, their possessions were taken away and reduced to slavery. In order to prevent these nomads from becoming bigger, the Jin State also implemented a cruel policy of 'reducing the mouth', and every few years would send troops into the country to kill them, which made all the tribes hate it.

The Western Expeditionary Army was able to quickly achieve its first victory, not only because of their strong soldiers, but also because of the support of various tribes in Zhenzhou, who transmitted intelligence and donated food for the Western Expeditionary Army, which provided great convenience for the movement of the army. This shows that they want to rely on the Great Song Dynasty to change the state of being enslaved by Moshier and live a prosperous and stable life, which also provides an opportunity for the Great Song Dynasty to take the opportunity to resume management.

After some analysis, Gao Zhong decided to submit his opinion to the imperial court, hoping to continue the westward expedition, and at the same time include the conquered lands along the way into the Great Song Dynasty, laying the foundation for further consolidating the northwest frontier defense.

First of all, Gao Chong thought that for the long-term stability of Mobei, the county system implemented since the Han and Tang dynasties should be restored, that is, the policy of feudal restraint widely implemented by the Great Song Dynasty in the areas where ethnic minorities were concentrated should not be adopted, nor should it simply establish a military control system, but adopt the administrative management model of the interior, establish prefectures and counties, and dispatch civil and military officials to implement direct and effective management.

The disadvantages of the implementation of the fetter policy are obvious to all, allowing the hereditary system to enable a tribe to maintain a long-term rule in a certain area, and the relative independence of the economy and military can allow them to maintain a strong position. It is not appropriate to set up a pacification department only here, because this is similar to the nature of a military base, and the first official is a military post rather than a civilian position, that is, there are many officials who govern the army, and there are few officials who govern the people, and the military strategic significance is put in the first place, and people's livelihood and social development are not the focus. With the passage of time, the contradiction between government and military orders that cannot be coordinated will become more and more prominent, and it will not be suitable for development and progress.

Furthermore, Gao Zhong believes that the equality of the Fan and Han should be emphasized, and in the division of the enemy and the enemy, we should 'only distinguish between the good bandits, not the Han Yi, which is the long-standing rule and the foundation of the thief'. In order to restore the livelihood of the destroyed people, he advocated that 'seeking the benefit of the people first for the sake of government', and if the people want to eat and drink enough, the most important thing is to prevent the food in the people's fields from being taken away by the powerful and officials. In reforming the original management of agricultural taxes, we should refer to the practice of the hinterland and implement the practice of levying taxes on the mu. Due to the continuous wars and huge population losses and the loss of people, it is necessary to encourage the landless people in the interior to emigrate, and they can be exempted from paying certain taxes and given certain means of production by using the exemption from paying taxes implemented in the northwest in those years.

Due to the fierce eyes of the Jin State and other nomadic peoples in the surrounding area, it was necessary to maintain enough troops in Mobei, but the supply of the army could not be passed on to the local people. Therefore, Gao Zhong also advocated the implementation of tuntian, so that the army could produce and feed itself. The method of purchasing the grain grown in the tuntian area according to the price was adopted, which aroused the enthusiasm of the soldiers in the tuntian. Officers and soldiers can freely buy and sell surplus grain with the people. The vast world of Mobei and the abundant human capital of the soldiers make the army have a great advantage in production, and the army does not have to rely on eating imperial grain to live, which also reduces the burden of the people in the interior.

In the end, Gao Zhong thought that a special fund should be allocated to build a righteous school, so that the people of all ethnic groups could read and write, be easy to naturalize, spread the Confucian culture of the Central Plains, and know etiquette, righteousness and shame. In addition, special sessions were set up in Hedong and other places in the imperial examinations, the examination standards were lowered, and the scholars in the Mobei region were given priority to be admitted, so as to gradually bring them back to their hearts, so as to achieve the goal of consolidating the frontier and maintaining long-term peace and stability...... (To be continued......)