In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

In July of the first year of Song Baoyuan, in the Helan Mountains, the wilderness was vast in the fierce west wind.

The sky was vast, the land was vast, and the wind blew through the grass and cattle and sheep appeared.

Groups of horses were arranged in neat formations, many Dangxiang chieftains gathered, and the Dangxiang soldiers on horseback were endless.

On the stage, Li Yuanhao looked down, raised the scimitar in his hand, and spoke passionately about the matter of becoming emperor.

A person under the stage had a heavy face, and there was no trace of joy for Li Yuanhao on his face.

Because except for him, almost all the Dangxiang chieftains and generals actually supported him, like a group of brainless reckless men, showing fanatical followers.

But who could know that the economy of Xixia now depends entirely on the support of the Song Dynasty. Once the Song and Xia become enemies and cut off the trade, the economic situation of Daxia will plummet in an instant, causing very serious consequences.

So as the only wise man in the crowd, Shan Yu Weiliang hopes to stop Li Yuanhao from becoming emperor.

But obviously this is very difficult.

Li Yuanhao was delighted to see that the army was ready. He immediately promised that after he became emperor, he would reward many chieftains and generals, and go south to invade the Song Dynasty, steal food, money, and women from them, and reward the army.

Under such a promise, many generals became more enthusiastic, cheering and shouting for their future emperor, which also made Shan Yuweiliang's heart sink to the bottom.

Seeing this situation, he finally couldn't help it, went on stage and knelt on one knee in front of Li Yuanhao, and persuaded him earnestly: "Your Majesty, you can't do it. If you become emperor, you will be at odds with the Song Dynasty and cut off trade, Daxia will definitely fall into trouble. You can't do this."

In fact, smart people should know that you can't persuade now. Going up now is a slap in Li Yuanhao's face. Even if you want to persuade, you should talk about it later.

However, Shan Yuweiliang had no choice, because it would be almost impossible to persuade him later.

Li Yuanhao had already wanted to be emperor in front of so many people. Even if he persuaded them, they would think that they had called everyone to be emperor the day before, but they did not do so the next day. Such a reversal of words would be a challenge to his prestige.

So persuading them afterwards would never work. It would only force Li Yuanhao to continue to be emperor. When the Song and Xia became enemies, the ones who would be hurt would still be Xixia.

If he went on stage now and stated the pros and cons, at least in front of everyone, there would be room for redemption.

But Shan Yuweiliang still underestimated Li Yuanhao's determination to be emperor. Facing his persuasion, Li Yuanhao was furious and said, "If they don't come to trade, then we will force them to trade. We will go south to kill and rob. The Song Dynasty is cowardly, and we Xia people are brave. Are we still afraid of them?"

"Your Majesty."

"Okay, I have made up my mind. There is no need to say more."

Li Yuanhao walked off the stage with his sleeves.

Shan Yuweiliang looked sad. He turned his head and looked at the many generals who looked at him with contempt. He could only leave the stage bitterly.

Helan Mountain is outside the city west of Xingqing Prefecture. Li Yuanhao held a meeting. The Tangut chiefs brought their men and horses. There were tents everywhere on the vast grassland. After the meeting, there was singing, dancing and feasting.

Shan Yuweiliang was sad at the banquet. He left the venue and returned to his tent halfway. His younger brother Shan Yuweixu came to accompany him when he saw his brother was depressed.

The two brothers chatted for a while. Shan Yuweiliang told his younger brother all his worries. Although Shan Yuweixu knew that his brother was right, he had no choice but to comfort him a few words and called some of his other chief friends to hold a small banquet in private.

Such a small banquet is inevitable to complain, and it didn't take long for the complaints to reach Li Yuanhao's ears.

Two days later, Li Yuanhao called Shanyu Weixu and told him to expose Shanyu Weiliang's rebellion, otherwise the Shanyu clan would be exterminated.

At this juncture, Li Yuanhao still did not dare to kill Shanyu Weiliang directly. Because Shanyu Weiliang was his cousin and an important official in the early Western Xia Dynasty. He served as the military supervisor of the left wing of Western Xia and had assisted his father.

It can be said that Shanyu Weiliang's status and prestige were still very high. If he was killed without reason, it would not only make the Western Xia tribes alienated, but also cause the Shanyu tribe to rebel and cause internal turmoil.

So letting Shanyu Weixu falsely accuse Shanyu Weiliang of rebellion was the best way, so that Li Yuanhao could legitimately eliminate Shanyu Weiliang and solve this worry.

But obviously after a brief struggle, Shanyu Weixu chose the latter between the tribe and his brother, and quietly sent someone to tell Shanyu Weiliang the news.

Shan Yuweiliang was very surprised to learn about this. He never expected that Li Yuanhao was so cruel that he would execute his uncle, a loyal old minister who had assisted his father for many years.

He was forced to take his wife, children and family, a total of 23 people, and secretly escaped from Xingqing Prefecture and fled to the direction of the Song Dynasty.

At this moment, in Yanzhou, the seat of Fuyan Road, Guo Quan, the newly appointed governor of Yanzhou, frowned with the letter in his hand. After Shan Yuweiliang escaped, he dragged his family with him and could not move so quickly, so he had to let his guards ride fast horses to the border of Song and Xia to hand over the letter, hoping that the Song army would come to support him.

But Guo Quan suspected that there was a fraud, so he found Li Wei, the governor of Heyang, to discuss it. These two were just cobblers. In history, it was these two who sent Shan Yuweiliang back, resulting in Shan Yuweiliang's death. The two were also held accountable and were pulled to the bottom.

But now there is a new change. Fan Zhongyan, the transfer envoy of Shaanxi Road, is in Linzhou next door. He has issued a death order before. If anything happens, he must be reported to him. After discussing it, the two decided not to make their own decisions, so they quickly went to Linzhou overnight. Ma sent the news to Luojiao County, Linzhou Government Office.

Luojiao is the Fu County in later generations, less than 100 kilometers away from Yanzhou. The knight galloped for a day and a night, passing through Fushi, Ganquan, Diaoyin and other fortresses and cities along the way, changing horses without changing people. On the second day, Fan Zhongyan Got the message.

After reading this information and the analysis of Guo Quan and Li Wei, Lao Fan hesitated for a moment, then immediately organized his troops and set off for Yanzhou in person.

In fact, from a God's perspective, Guo Quan and Li Wei were very stupid, causing the Song Dynasty to lose an important strategic figure who defected from the enemy. But from their perspective, it is human nature to suspect fraud.

Even Fan Zhongyan was a little hesitant because Zhao Jun had not told him about this incident. In other words, this incident happened unexpectedly to Fan Zhongyan. Whether it was true or not, he had to judge by himself.

But what is better than Guo Quan and Li Wei is that Lao Fan is not stupid enough to make an arbitrary decision immediately, but will wait and see the situation before deciding. And although Zhao Jun never told him about this, he did not mention any time during the Song-Xia war that high-level moles from Xixia pretended to surrender to cause sabotage.

This also means that except for Li Shibin who was deceived by falsely surrendering, even if Shanyu Weiliang falsely surrendered and was accepted by them, there should not be any serious consequences.

So with this idea in mind, Fan Zhongyan decided to observe the situation first before making a decision.

Soon a large group of soldiers gathered and quickly headed north to Yanzhou.

Three days later, when Fan Zhongyan arrived in Yanzhou with his army, Guo Quan and Li Wei had captured Shan Yu Weiliang's family alive, not in Yanzhou, but in Long'an Village north of Yanzhou.

Shan Yuwei Liang was lucky enough not to be mad at these two sleeping dragons and phoenix chicks. He had just taken out the wolf's den, and now he was in the tiger's den again.

Fortunately, Fan Zhongyan arrived in time.

Historically, Pang Ji asked Di Qing to build Long'an Village in the early years of the Qingli Dynasty. However, Fan Zhongyan came to the northwest in advance. At that time, he overlooked the terrain of Long'an Mountain and thought that a village wall could be built here to form a camp, so he asked Wang De to build a wall.

Compared with Di Qing, Wang De is still very experienced as a veteran. With his careful construction, Long'an Village is now as solid as a city.

The city wall stretches for one mile from the foot of the mountain, with a large number of fortresses, watchtowers and camps crisscrossing the rear. Taking advantage of Long'an Mountain's commanding position, and the clear water (Yanhe) flowing at the foot of the mountain, it occupies a favorable terrain, making it a solid barrier to resist the Xixia attack.

In the tent at the rear of Long'an Village, Fan Zhongyan personally met Shan Yu Weiliang. When he saw Shan Yu Weiliang, he believed him.

Because the other party defected with all his family members, including his wife and children, if the Song Army accepted him, his family members would definitely be placed in the rear. If it is a false surrender, once something happens, the whole family will suffer.

Unless Shan Yuweiliang is a ruthless person who would kill his whole family in order to fake surrender, otherwise, the credibility is still very high.

So when Shan Yu Weiliang was kidnapped and sent in by Wu Hua Da, Fan Zhongyan immediately stood up, glared at Guo Quan and said: "General Shan Yu can abandon darkness and turn to light. He is a person who understands the general situation. The Song Dynasty should have the tolerance to accept you." How can it be so stateless? It’s really unreasonable!”

With that said, he walked over to untie Shan Yu Weiliang himself.

Guo Quan and Li Wei were still a little dissatisfied and opened their mouths to say something, but seeing Fan Zhongyan's serious face, they finally swallowed their words.

Fan Xianggong was fully authorized to govern the northwest and had the power to appoint and remove all officials. If he was really displeased and directly reported to the court to have them removed from office, there would really be no reason to argue.

And these words were obviously meant for Shan Yu Weiliang, firstly to appease Shan Yu Weiliang, and secondly to express Song Dynasty's sincerity.

Shan Yu Weiliang's expression indeed softened a lot, and he said, "I have long heard that Fan Xianggong is a sensible person. When I saw him today, it turned out to be true. I admire him."

He spoke Chinese, and most of the Dangxiang nobles spoke Chinese, even in today's Liao Kingdom. Although Khitan is still one of the official languages, Chinese has long been popular among the upper classes of the Liao Kingdom, and those nobles can even compose poems. Wen is more Han than Han.

Fan Zhongyan untied the rope for him, then took Shan Yuweiliang's hand to sit on the banquet together, and said with a smile: "The general came to vote, it's his heart. I, the Song Dynasty, accepts all rivers, how can I be disrespectful to the general?" The people below are confused for a moment, I hope the general won’t blame them.”

This statement made Shan Yu Weiliang feel much better, and he also smiled and said: "Hu people outside Hua admire the customs of the Central Plains. I have always advised your Majesty that China has many soldiers, Guanzhong is rich, Huanqing is surrounded, and Yan Yan controls all the dangerous places on the border. If These cities and towns are fully prepared for attack and defense. I have no use for my bow and horse skills, and I have nothing to sell for my cattle and sheep. I will be trapped for a year or two. It is better to stay in peace with the vassals and enjoy the rich bequests every year, which is the blessing of the country. ,such a pity"

He sighed as he spoke.

Fan Zhongyan said: "Yuan Hao is arrogant, disrespectful to the people, and disrespectful of his superiors. He will be punished by heaven. The general is open-minded and able to turn from darkness to light. It is God's blessing for the party members. If Yuan Hao is defeated, it is still necessary for the general to work hard and shoulder the responsibility for revival. The responsibility of the party’s great cause.”

This is another hint to Shan Yu Weiliang that if Li Yuanhao really proclaims himself emperor, the Song Dynasty will definitely send troops in the future, and he will support Shan Yu Weiliang.

In fact, in a sense, from the standpoint of a party member, Shan Yu Weiliang is a traitor.

But as the saying goes, a country that is small but does not humble itself, a country that is weak but does not fear the strong, a country that is rude but insults its big neighbor, a country that is greedy and stubborn but does not make friends well, can perish.

If there is no disparity in power, who would want to be a traitor?

So after hearing Fan Zhongyan's words, Shan Yuweiliang was grateful and sighed: "It is a blessing for Song to have Fan Gong guarding the northwest, and it is also a blessing for Daxia."

"It is also a blessing for Xia to have a general person like the general."

Fan Zhongyan immediately ordered wine to be served, and the atmosphere gradually became warmer.

At the banquet, Shan Yuweiliang also explained the reason why he defected, told Fan Zhongyan that Li Yuanhao was going to become emperor, and also explained all the military arrangements of Xixia.

Although it was useless.

Because Li Yuanhao was not a fool, he would definitely change the deployment and adjust the tactics afterwards.

But Shan Yuweiliang's defection would undoubtedly cause turmoil in Xixia.

Therefore, in Fan Zhongyan's view, the strategic significance of Shan Yu Weiliang's surrender is far greater than the tactical significance.

Once Li Yuanhao's attack was frustrated or even defeated, there would definitely be different voices in Xixia, resulting in a large number of Xixia troops and generals defecting to the Song Dynasty.

At that time, not only would Li Yuanhao's strength be seriously weakened, but it would also be possible to counterattack and enter Xixia through these defectors.

If this is true, it will bring a huge strategic victory to the Song Dynasty.

With Fan Zhongyan's guarantee, even if Shan Yu Weiliang was officially accepted, the generals and officials below would naturally become active, toasting and talking, and the atmosphere of the banquet became much more harmonious.

By the afternoon, when Fan Zhongyan had just appeased Shan Yu Weiliang and was about to send him to the rear to settle down and listen to his analysis of the situation in Xixia, Di Qing suddenly came in and reported to him: "Report, there is a smoke rising from the direction of Ansaigu."

"It must be Yuan Hao coming!"

Fan Zhongyan was calm and shouted: "Order the three armies to line up to meet the enemy!"

"Woo woo woo woo woo!"

The whole camp was busy, and the sound of continuous horns resounded throughout the world. Teams of soldiers emerged from behind the battlements of the rammed earth wall, bows strung and swords unsheathed.

Everywhere was the sound of iron armor leaves clattering, anxious and angry urging, neat shouts, short and rapid orders and sharp whistles, making the wall a mess.

Almost half an hour later, the sound of roaring horse hooves on the wide road along the northern Qingshui coast had already approached the outside of Long'an Village, and countless black shadows emerged in the rolling smoke and dust.

The military flags covered the sky and the sun, as if there was no end in sight!

Li Yuanhao.

Leading the army into the border, they attacked!