btmnovel Chapter 2573 Destroy Xixia!
Chapter 2573 Destroy Xixia!
Chapter 2573 Destroy Xixia!
However, Wang Yue has been through so many worlds and has rich combat experience. Of course, he can't just wait there all the time. On the one hand, he is waiting for reinforcements, and on the other hand, he is also waiting for a strong wind.
Wang Yue chose this time to attack because the northwest wind could blow at any time. As long as the northwest wind blew, when he attacked eastward, the Xixia soldiers would be unlucky.
Therefore, he would not engage in a decisive battle unless a strong wind blew, after all, the casualties would be too great.
Since he was playing with ordinary people, he didn't want to bully them too much, so it would be better to play tactically.
So, when Li Yuanhao mobilized all the troops in Xingqing Prefecture to prepare for a decisive battle, Wang Yue got the news in advance and deliberately retreated a hundred miles.
The reason why he retreated so far was to get farther away from the Helan Mountains so that the wind would be stronger, while also leaving enough space for the battlefield.
Li Yuanhao knew nothing about this. He listened to the reasons given by his military advisor Zhang Yuan and felt that if they could not defeat the Northern Liang army as soon as possible, then their Western Xia would definitely be gone.
Therefore, Li Yuanhao launched a thorough campaign this time, basically recruiting all the young and strong men of the Dangxiang people, a total of 60,000 people, which is equivalent to the number of Wang Yue's current army.
When the number of people exceeds 10,000, it becomes endless. With 50,000 to 60,000 people on each side confronting each other, there is basically no end in sight.
The original wind direction was from the north, and Beiliang and Xixia were confronting each other from east to west, and neither side had an advantage.
Zhao Jian and Li Yuanhao's army arrived so quickly, so they asked worriedly, "Your Majesty, we may be at a disadvantage if we fight them now, but if we retreat further, we will reach the desert, which will also be disadvantageous to us."
What she hasn't said is that the morale of Western Xia is now high. If Beiliang fights with Western Xia at this time, the losses will definitely be great.
Wang Yue looked at the sky, then smiled and said, "Don't worry, the wind will come soon, and Wang Shiba and his men are already here. We just need to watch Li Yuanhao attack from here. When the two armies get entangled, it will be difficult for him to escape."
Zhao Jian was a little surprised to hear Wang Yue was so sure. She didn't know why Wang Yue was so sure, so she said uncertainly, "I don't know about the wind, but there is no sound of horse hooves behind my army, otherwise the scouts would have reported it long ago. Eighteen, could he be lost in the grassland?"
Wang Yue did not respond. Seeing that the wind had changed direction, he said calmly, "Just follow the order. Let your cavalry follow my guards. Although our reinforcements will arrive soon, we must firmly pin the enemy on the battlefield so that we can completely annihilate Li Yuanhao's army. So, it's safer for you to stay with me."
After hearing this, Zhao Jian did not refuse. He just called Le Shan and merged the female cavalry and the King of Beiliang's personal guards into one team.
Just after the adjustment was completed, Wang Yue saw that the wind had completely changed, and immediately picked up the alloy spear and rushed towards Li Yuanhao.
Li Yuanhao also felt that the wind had changed, but he felt that he was very powerful and the Dangxiang people were brave and good at fighting. He thought that the wind had not yet become strong, so he could just resolve the battle in advance.
Therefore, Li Yuanhao regarded himself as the arrow and wanted to directly penetrate the Beiliang team.
What he didn't expect was that even without cheating, Wang Yue's fighting ability was very strong. The two men's weapons just collided, and Wang Yue cut Li Yuanhao into two pieces, including his horse.
You know, Wang Yue and Li Yuanhao had already left their respective teams by dozens of steps, and even their personal guards were some distance away.
Therefore, many people on the battlefield saw the leader in front of the team at a glance, and were looking forward to this fight.
However, unlike what they had imagined, the two men would fight for several rounds. In just one round, Li Yuanhao, the top master of the Dangxiang, was chopped in half. This shock was too great.
You know, Li Yuanhao had just been deified and became the man destined by heaven, but such a god-man was actually cut in half by a single knife. Only superstitious people would understand the feeling of collapsed faith.
Therefore, the Xixia people's fighting power was originally at its peak because of their faith. If a person had a strength of 100, he could exert a fighting power of 120. But after the collapse of faith, the Xixia people's fighting power was halved.
In addition, the original north wind suddenly turned into a west wind, and the large amount of wind and sand made it impossible for the Western Xia soldiers to open their eyes.
Under such circumstances, panic and fear spread throughout the Western Xia army, so in the following battles, they were always suppressed by the Beiliang people. If there were no leaders commanding the troops, they would have probably dispersed in a swarm.
As a result, at this moment, Wang Shiba led the cavalry coalition from the Western Regions and rushed over. They directly outflanked the Western Xia army from both wings, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Thus, what was originally a barely evenly matched battle gradually turned into a massacre, and 60,000 young and strong men of Western Xia became lambs to be slaughtered.
……
After a war without suspense, the Northern Liang army completely wiped out the 6 troops led by Li Yuanhao, then bypassed the Helan Mountains and headed directly towards Xingqing Prefecture. When the people in Xingqing Prefecture learned that Li Yuanhao was going to the war, they were very excited, because they subconsciously felt that as long as their king went to the war, then the war would definitely be won.
What they didn't expect was that the first ones to come back were the deserters, and chasing after them were a large number of Northern Liang cavalry.
These fleeing soldiers didn't even have time to enter the city, and they just whizzed past the city from both sides.
The Beiliang cavalry also ignored these small counties and went straight south, finally surrounding Xingqing Prefecture.
Since he had decided to cut the Gordian knot and not give the Liao and Song kingdoms a chance to react, Wang Yue put on a full set of armor without hesitation, and took the vanguard soldiers who were also wearing armor with him, and charged straight towards the city wall.
Originally, the city wall could block foreign enemies, but although the armor Wang Yue was wearing was not fast, he was not afraid of bows and arrows at all. He quickly opened a gap in the city wall, and then more and more soldiers rushed in.
By this time, the city gate had been lost, and the soldiers guarding the city knew that the city had been breached, so they immediately notified the queen and the prince, wanting them to escape quickly.
But how could Wang Yue give this opportunity? After the city gate was opened, he immediately led his men into the Western Xia Palace. While some other soldiers encircled and wiped out the remaining forces in the city, the other part blocked the people outside the city and prevented them from escaping.
After all the dignitaries in the city were under control, Wang Yue ordered Wang Shiba to take the Xixia Crown Prince and Queen, the body of Li Yuanhao, and the leaders of various families in the capital, and rush to the towns along the way to solicit surrender.
This tactic was very effective. Wherever Wang Shiba went, the cities of Western Xia quickly surrendered.
Wang Yue's victory in one battle was decisive, and he took over all of Western Xia's territory without bloodshed afterwards.
To be on the safe side, Wang Yue didn't care whether they were Dangxiang people or Han people. He still used the old routine of beating the local tyrants and dividing the land. He used the heads of Xixia nobles to win the hearts of the Xixia people over time.
……
Just when Wang Yue was busy winning over the hearts of the people, both the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom had already reacted.
What surprised Wang Yue was that the Liao emperor actually took the lead in withdrawing the two teams of Xijing Road from the south bank of the Yellow River to the north bank, and then set up heavy defense at the foot of Yinshan Mountain. At the same time, he took the initiative to contact Song Emperor Zhao Zhen and talked about the idea of joining Song to fight against Beiliang.
In fact, this operation is very confusing, because Beiliang is now just a vassal state and nominally belongs to the Song Dynasty.
Even if Northern Liang had the power to destroy Western Xia, facing the Song Dynasty, the mysteriously confident imperial court did not believe that Northern Liang still needed the joint fight of Song and Liao.
In addition, how could the two countries' long-standing hatred be resolved so easily?
Therefore, Zhao Zhen sent an envoy to directly put forward a condition that he felt was impossible to agree to, which was to ask the Liao Kingdom to give up the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. Otherwise, there would be no talk of joining forces to deal with Beiliang.
Especially Fan Zhongyan, after returning to the core of the imperial court, he personally went to the northern border to guard it in order to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun as soon as possible. He even contacted the Bohai people on the sea, and the two sides agreed to jointly attack the Liao Dynasty.
As a result, at this critical juncture, the Liao Kingdom actually gave up the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and cancelled the annual tribute to the Song Dynasty in exchange for an alliance between the two sides. This stunned everyone.
However, if the Song Dynasty did not take advantage of such a good thing, it would seem that it was too cowardly. Therefore, although the Song Dynasty did not know whether there was a trap or not, for the Song Dynasty, the bait of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was still worth taking.
However, out of vigilance, when Fan Zhongyan led the Song Dynasty army to gradually enter the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, he found that the Liao army had already withdrawn, and even the Liao nobles and some other Liao people of status had all withdrawn.
Of course, some of these Liao people with status were actually former Han people. They wanted to live within the territory of Liao, so they followed the others and left. Only a few poor people were left behind, who wanted to occupy two acres of land while everyone else was gone.
In fact, it is not these people's fault, because the taxes of the Liao Dynasty were too low, which made the Song Dynasty seem too harsh on the people. This is also the reason why the Han people in the Liao Dynasty did not identify with the Song Dynasty.
However, some Han people from the Liao Kingdom took advantage of the chaos to come to Beiliang, of course, also because of taxes and land.
Therefore, after Fan Zhongyan took over all the important cities in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, he quickly wrote a memorial to the emperor to inform him of the situation.
After the Privy Council of the Song Dynasty saw the letter, they opened the gates of the imperial palace at night and handed the memorial to the emperor.
(End of this chapter)