Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The capital of Western Liao, Husihan's ears.

The envoy of Xixia has not arrived yet, but the envoy of Khwarezm has arrived.

The envoy knelt on the ground and said to Yelu Dashi: "Great Jurhan, my king asks for your help and hopes that you can send troops immediately!"

Yelu Dashi asked: "He was defeated so quickly?"

The envoy explained: "The noble lords were afraid of the Seljuk Sultan, and they all turned against him. My king could only lead the loyal guards to temporarily avoid the edge of the Seljuk army, and now he has retreated to the grasslands of the Talas people."

"Why should I send troops to help him?" Yelu Dashi asked.

The envoy said: "As long as you can help my king regain the position of Shah, Khwarezm will be a vassal state of the Liao Dynasty in the future."

Yelu Dashi nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, you let Ajisi wait, the Seljuk Sultan will withdraw his troops soon."

After sending away the Khwarezm envoy, Yelu Dashi issued an official document to the army stationed in Khujand. He ordered the cavalry to repeatedly harass the Western Karakhanid Khanate, pretending to be about to attack Samarkand.

Besiege Wei to save Zhao.

Yelu Dashi, who was familiar with Chinese history books, did not need to start a war to force the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar to withdraw his troops.

As expected, Arsalan Khan, the monarch of the Western Karakhanid Khanate, was so scared that he frantically wrote to Sanjar for help, claiming that the Western Liao army was approaching Samarkand.

Sanjar was worried that his vassal state would be destroyed, and he thought that he was now short of troops, so he led his army to withdraw to Mulu to gather the army - he wanted to fight Yelu Dashi!

The Khorasan monarchs such as the King of Sigestan and the King of Gur, the King of Ghazni, and the King of Mazandaran responded to Sanjar's call at the first time and led their troops to Mulu to join. Sanjar was still gathering troops, and the troops of the more distant vassal states had not arrived. It would take at least half a year for the army to complete the assembly.

The decisive battle next year, with a total force of 200,000 on both sides, will determine who will be the overlord of Central Asia.

But Sanjar withdrew his troops from Khwarezm and left his nephew Suleiman as the king of Khwarezm.

This Suleiman had visited the Ming Dynasty a few years ago and lived in Kaifeng for more than a year. He left China only after the fall of the Jin Dynasty.

Suleiman became the king of Khwarezm and appointed military and political chiefs and city lords in various places.

The local nobles were afraid of Sanjar, so they chose to betray Ajis. But they never expected that the nephew left by Sanjar would actually airdrop officials to rob the interests of local nobles.

At this time, Ajis, who had just lost his son, returned to Khwarezm with his troops.

Those nobles who betrayed him came to him again.

Ajis chose to forgive, and took these nobles and troops to conquer cities and regain territory. Suleiman and the Seljuk officials were so scared that they fled with a small number of troops.

Then, Ajis led his army south to retaliate.

He captured the city of Bukhara in the Western Karakhanid Khanate, killed the governor, looted the city, and demolished the city walls.

This was equivalent to directly pointing out that Ajisi chose to join forces with Yelu Dashi to challenge Sanjar's hegemonic authority in Central Asia.

…

"Will the Ming Dynasty send troops to Xixia?" Yelu Dashi finally met the Xixia envoy.

The Xixia envoy said: "Our country has suffered from droughts for years, and it is a time of weakness. It also coincides with the death of the holy emperor. The Ming Dynasty went back on its word and chose to send troops at this time regardless of diplomatic relations."

Yelu Dashi asked: "How many Ming troops have come?"

The Xixia envoy said: "The Ming Dynasty sent tens of thousands of troops to sneak attack the three cities in Hexi of Daxia, and then approached the Weifu Army of Daxia. Next year, it may invade from Shaanxi. Please, His Majesty the Khan, send troops to rescue us, and it would be best if you can provide a batch of military rations."

"Next year?" Yelu Dashi felt very embarrassed.

He didn't know when the decisive battle with the Seljuks would take place. It might be next year or the year after. It all depended on when Sanjar would lead his troops to attack.

Anyway, within one or two years, Yelu Dashi would have no time to look east.

The Xixia envoy asked, "Does your Majesty know about firearms?"

Yelu Dashi nodded, "Yes."

The Xixia envoy said, "The Ming Dynasty defeated the Jin Dynasty by showing its power with firearms. And we, Daxia, also know how to make firearms."

"Really?" Yelu Dashi sat up straight.

The Xixia envoy said, "As long as the Khan sends troops to help, next year, regardless of victory or defeat, our country will offer the method of making firearms in return."

Yelu Dashi said, "Let me think about it carefully, you can leave now."

The Xixia envoy bowed and left, but Yelu Dashi was in a dilemma.

His original plan was to bring in Xixia and the Kerait tribe, and the three parties worked together to stop the expansion of the Ming Dynasty.

But the Kerait tribe first fought with the Mongolian tribe, and then fought with the Merkit tribe. The northern desert was already in chaos, and they had no power to move south.

The Western Xia also had a new king, a young ruler, and suffered from natural disasters and famine for years.

On his side, he had to fight a decisive battle with the Seljuks.

The tripartite alliance that was promised could only take care of itself now, and no one had the spare energy to lend a hand.

But if he didn't save the Western Xia, the Ming Dynasty would probably destroy the Western Xia, and Yelu Dashi's territory would border the Ming Dynasty.

After thinking about it, Yelu Dashi decided not to care.

Let the Western Xia be destroyed, but he had to overthrow the Seljuks first, which was related to the foundation of the Western Liao Dynasty in the future.

A few days later, Yelu Dashi called the Western Xia envoy: "There is a big country in the west, the Seljuks, who may send hundreds of thousands of troops to kill at any time. I can't spare any troops for the time being. Go back and tell the Western Xia monarch and ministers that if there is a danger of extinction, they can escape to me. No matter soldiers, civil servants, or monks, as long as they come, I will properly settle them and give them temples, houses, farmland and pastures."

The Xixia envoy wailed: "The Great Khan, my lips are dead and my teeth are cold! If Great Xia is destroyed, Emperor Zhu of the Ming Kingdom will definitely covet Gaochang. At that time, the Great Khan will be on guard against the Ming Kingdom day and night."

Yelu Dashi said: "I really don't have any extra troops in my hands, so you can return to your country and resume your duties. Any officials, people, monks and customs of Xixia can come to my Daliaoan home, and as long as they come, they will be given special treatment. All the foreigners here are foreigners, and you are all welcome when you come. They are all of the same race. Regardless of whether they are Dangxiang or Tubo, Han or Uighurs, they are all of the same race when they enter our land of Liao."

The Xixia envoy was still pleading, but Yelu Dashi stood up and left.

…

When the news of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong's victory came back to Luoyang, it was already early winter, and the first snow of the year had not yet fallen.

"Great victory, great victory!"

"General Han Shizhong and General Yue Fei, lead the troops to recover the three cities in Hexi and the land outside Taowai!"

The cavalrymen were galloping all over the city holding rubies. Passers-by stopped to listen, and many people came out of shops or homes.

Officials also posted posters announcing victory in various places inside and outside Luoyang City.

They also received temporary training to draw a simple map of the Hetao area and patiently explained the specific situation to the onlookers.

"This few-character bay is the Yellow River, and it has been the territory of China since the Qin and Han Dynasties..."

"General Han and General Yue set out here after joining forces. Do you know where this place is? It was the Shanyu Protectorate during the Tang Dynasty!"

"The two generals first conquered this place. It is now called Dongsheng Prefecture (Tuoketuo County). It was the city of Dongshou in the Tang Dynasty..."

"General Han led his troops to march westward and captured this place (Baotou) first. This was the headquarters of the Anbei Protectorate in the Tang Dynasty, also called Zhongshoujiang City..."

"General Yue led his army south and attacked all the way to the west. He defeated two cities in three days, leaving one city for friendly forces, and captured the land of the three cities in Hexi. This is an incredible place. Xixia and Liao have been fighting for hundreds of years..."

"This place was the Xishou surrender city in the Tang Dynasty, but it became the headquarters of the Xixia Weifu Army. They called it Wu La Hai City. Now, it has also been recaptured by two generals, and the Wu La Hai City defenders surrendered without a fight! "

"Why surrender without a fight? Because our soldiers have just won a great victory!"

"I only have more than 10,000 Ming Dynasty cavalry, and the remaining 20,000 are all cavalry from the grassland tribes. And Brother Richard, the king of Jin Dynasty in Western Xia, has an army of 300,000! But he said that Yang Yizhong, Yang Jin, Li Yu, and Liu Zhengyan The generals, each with 1,500 cavalry, charged towards the 50,000 Xixia soldiers..."

"At that time, General Han commanded and dispatched. General Yue, General Xu Qing, General Wang Gui, and General Li Shifu, with only two or three thousand cavalry, rushed straight into the Xixia army of 100,000 people. There were 8,000 iron kites alone..."

What he said was reliable at first, but later he turned into a braggart.

This was personally instructed by Ju Ming, and was not only promoted in Luoyang, but also in other state capitals.

Although the people of the Ming Dynasty are very angry now, Xixia is an old rival after all. The Hundred Years War between Song and Xia has tortured all the people. Various rumors are now emerging among the people. Even some officials are worried about something unexpected and are in urgent need of a hearty victory to appease the people.

Young and old men, young ladies and young wives from inside and outside Luoyang gathered more and more at places where the cloth was posted, listening to the official bragging with smiles on their faces.

Many people cannot understand simple maps and cannot figure out the geographical location.

They only knew that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had won another battle, and they were winning one victory after another. The Xixia army was beaten to pieces and suffered countless casualties.

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

After the officer finished bragging, he suddenly raised his arms and shouted.

The common people were stunned at first, then a scholar also shouted, so everyone cheered: "Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

The official shouted again: "Long live your Majesty!"

"Long live your Majesty!" the people's shouts became louder and louder.

After all, Luoyang is too far away from the front line, and the whole city in Lanzhou is already going crazy.

As long as Xixia is destroyed, Lanzhou can be transformed from the front line to the rear, and the lives of the people will be improved countless times.

Especially the businessmen celebrated spontaneously and invited music groups to play and play.

Fifty thousand troops have been gathered outside Lanzhou City, and there are tens of thousands of troops in the surrounding castles. There are 100,000 troops in Lanzhou Prefecture alone waiting to go to war next year.

A piece of cloth was sent to various military camps, and the officers announced it to the soldiers. This time there was not much exaggeration.

A series of battles between Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, including the decisive battle, resulted in the surrender of more than 30,000 enemy troops and the capture of more than 60,000 enemy troops. Seven state army cities were captured (one of which was captured by Yao Pingzhong), and 21 fortresses were captured.

The commander in charge of Lanzhou is Wu Jie. After reading the battle report in detail, he said with a smile: "As you all know, Ming Dynasty battle reports cannot be falsified. Even if someone does it, they don't dare to go too far. The Weifu Army of Xixia is real. It has been breached. Next year, Xixia will have to leave enough troops to defend Keyi Gate. The number of enemy troops we have to face will be greatly reduced. Do you have the confidence to follow me through the Hexi Corridor?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Shouts came one after another, and the morale of the Lanzhou Ming army was already as high as a rainbow.