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

This humiliating defeat of Xixia in the second year of Baoyuan obviously became the laughing stock of Song, Liao and Xia.

Historically, Li Yuanhao also invaded the Song Dynasty, but he attacked Jintang City instead of Kaolin Village. The scale was not that large. He led 30,000 people to launch a small-scale sneak attack.

In this battle, Lu Shouqin, the garrison guard of Jintang City, and the troops of Yan Road were under the jurisdiction of Lu Shouqin, and Liu Huaizhong, the patrol officer of Fu Yan Road who came to support from Kaocheng City, only had 5,000 defenders.

The Song army responded very slowly. The battle lasted for several days, but no reinforcements arrived, but in the end Li Yuanhao withdrew his troops.

It was not the arrival of reinforcements, but in this battle, a young general named Di Qing, who led hundreds of his troops, resisted the enemy's attack and fought bravely to repel Li Yuanhao.

After this battle, Di Qing was promoted four levels in a row, from a junior officer to a mid-level officer. The commander-in-chief Lu Shouqin also received the honorary title of Zuo Qiji, and was transferred to Shaanxi Province and returned to Yanzhou.

It can be said that this was the battle where Di Qing rose to prominence.

But then in the first month of the first year of Kangding in the following year, Li Yuanhao made a comeback. He first used a plan to defeat Jinming Village and captured Li Shibin alive. Then he surrounded Yanzhou, encircled the point and called for reinforcements, defeating the Song army.

This was the first major defeat of the Song Dynasty in the Song-Xia War, the Battle of Sanchuankou!

Therefore, although Li Yuanhao also withdrew his troops this time in history, he did not leave in defeat. At most, it was considered that the war situation was unfavorable and he withdrew his troops normally, unlike now, where the losses were so heavy.

Throughout the Song-Xia war, Li Yuanhao's most painful defeat was the third battle of Dingchuan Village.

At that time, he divided his troops into two groups. One group mainly attacked Dingchuan Village of the Zhenrong Army, and the other group attacked Weizhou with a partial force. When passing through Pengyang City, he was blocked by Jingtai, the magistrate of Yuanzhou, and his entire army of more than 10,000 people was wiped out.

It's just that the Song army also suffered heavy losses in the battle of Dingchuan Village, which obscured the fact that Li Yuanhao's partial division was also defeated, so it seemed that the Song Dynasty was so defeated.

But now the Song Dynasty has a full vision, and with the blessing of technology, the gunpowder has been highly purified and granulated, and its power can be called the pinnacle of black powder. After a few rounds of grenades, Li Yuanhao was blown away and lost.

If it weren't for the fact that the battle site between them was near the national border, and his troops were all cavalry and could withdraw to their border cities within a day, Li Yuanhao would have to answer for more than 100,000 people.

Even so, he became frightened. After escaping back to Hongzhou on the border, he didn't stay much and ran back to Xingqing Mansion almost non-stop the next day.

In the Xingqing Mansion, Li Yuanhao was furious and incompetent in the palace. Several slaves suffered the disaster of Chiyu, and he used it as an outlet to vent his anger. He was so angry that he drew his sword and chopped. Everyone was frightened and fled in a hurry. One of the slaves who ran slowly was killed. He chopped off the head.

Outside the imperial palace, Li Yuqi, Ye Li Wangrong, Zhang Yuan, Yang Su, Wei Ming Congshun and others were trembling and looked at each other, but they did not dare to enter the palace.

The crazy Li Yuanhao is really scary.

After about ten minutes, it finally became quiet inside. They heard Li Yuanhao roar angrily: "Everyone, get in!"

Everyone had no choice but to reluctantly enter the hall, salute him with Western Xia etiquette and say: "Your Majesty."

"Hoo ho ho"

At this time, Li Yuanhao looked ugly and was breathing heavily.

But to their surprise, Li Yuanhao did not get angry. Instead, he gradually calmed down and said in a deep voice: "Have the chiefs of the various ministries been appeased?"

Yeli Wangrong glanced at the corpse on the ground and whispered: "The chiefs of various tribes did have some complaints, but no one took the tribe away."

Although Xixia has completed the transformation from a primitive tribe to a country, and Li Yuanhao has also formulated the official system, military system, and etiquette, in the final analysis, Xixia is still an alliance country composed of various tribes in the party.

Strictly speaking, father and son Li Jiqian and Li Mingde were only the largest tribal leaders in the Dangxiang tribe. By conquering and annexing other tribes, they became kings in the hearts of the Dangxiang people.

But once this king is defeated and loses the strength to suppress various tribes, then just like Mongolia later, it will fall apart in an instant.

Therefore, what Li Yuanhao is most concerned about now is the attitude of the tribal leaders. If his defeat causes those tribal leaders to have dissent and leave with their tribal soldiers and return to the northwest grasslands, then he will really be ruined.

But fortunately, it seems that the development of things has not reached that point yet. After all, the Li Yuanhao family has been running the northwest for three generations, and this prestige is barely there.

Hearing Ye Li Wangrong's words, Li Yuanhao finally felt relieved and said: "That's good. I will summon many chiefs to meet again in two days to appease everyone. I must ensure that they will not betray me at this time. go."

At this time, he didn’t even call himself me.

Then Li Yuanhao said: "Let's talk about the most important issue now. I never expected that the Song Army had such firearms. Their firearms were not so powerful before, why did it suddenly happen?"

As he spoke, he sighed and said, "If I had known about this thing earlier, my men would not have been killed. For us, this battle was really a disastrous defeat, and it was too frustrating."

Zhang Yuan rolled his eyes and whispered: "I wonder what your Majesty wants to do in the future? Are you going to surrender to the Song Dynasty?"

"What do you mean by military advisor?"

Li Yuanhao frowned and said, "Are you mocking me?"

Seeing that he was not angry, Zhang Yuan boldly said: "I am not taunting your majesty, but I am asking your majesty whether your majesty will continue to fight with the Song Dynasty. If the defeated army seeks peace, I am afraid that the Song Dynasty will not only force your majesty to commit suicide." He was reduced to a king, but his Majesty was asked to surrender and surrender completely. "

"Am I still going to continue fighting with the Song Army?"

Li Yuanhao asked back.

"It depends on whether His Majesty still wants to continue to build an empire and call himself an emperor!"

Zhang Yuan said.

"Well"

Li Yuanhao pondered.

After all, he is the hero, and he does not want to continue to be a minister of the Song Dynasty. He has already ascended the throne as the emperor, who is willing to give up?

But if he sued for peace because of this disastrous defeat, he would probably be forced by the Song Dynasty to make himself a king. He might not even be a king, but would be given the position of Jiedushi at most.

So deep down in his heart, he definitely didn't want to surrender to the Song army, but still wanted to retain his position as emperor.

Even if he did not defeat the Song army and achieve the original strategic goal of capturing Shaanxi Road, he would at least retain his current title of Emperor of Xixia.

But when fighting the Song Army, he was frightened by grenades.

That thing is a nightmare for the cavalry. The reason why the cavalry is so powerful is that when the cavalry launches a charge, the infantry cannot stop it, and they can come and go freely, moving like the wind.

But when a grenade is thrown into a pile of cavalry, it explodes so fast that it is difficult to dodge. Even if the simultaneous explosion did not kill the cavalry, the loud thunderous sound could easily scare the horses and cause them to run around.

Therefore, Li Yuanhao said bitterly: "Of course I want to continue to be the emperor, but the Song army is strong, and after they cut off mutual trade, the border people complained. If I can't defeat them and force them to open the mutual trade again, I'm afraid that Daxia will also have to It’s a big mess.”

"Your Majesty has forgotten that if the Song Army becomes stronger, we will not be the only ones who are uneasy."

Zhang Yuan said calmly.

Almost at that moment, Li Yuanhao suddenly opened his eyes: "Liao Kingdom!"

Originally, with his intelligence, it was impossible for him to think of it so slowly, but he couldn't bear the defeat just now, and he was so frightened that he forgot this for a moment.

"good."

Zhang Yuan immediately said: "The Liao Kingdom has used force to intimidate the Song Dynasty for many years, but the gunpowder is powerful and restrains our cavalry. It also restrains the Liao Kingdom's cavalry. Your Majesty, think about it, will the Liao Kingdom feel at ease? If we pass this news to the Liao Kingdom , I’m afraid the leader of the Liao Kingdom won’t be able to sleep peacefully.”

Li Yuanhao nodded in agreement and said: "Yes, in the past, between Song and Liao, Liao was strong and Song was weak. The Liao State forced the Song State to pay annual tribute every year, and the Song State had to send a large gift to Empress Dowager Xiao on her birthday. Now the Song State The Liao Kingdom will never be willing to be strong."

Zhang Yuan said: "As long as we can unite with the Liao State, attack from two directions, and make the Song State be attacked from both sides, we may not be able to defeat the Song State, force them to pay us annual tribute, and reopen mutual trade."

"Um"

Li Yuanhao thought so.

Zhang Yuan said: "Even if the Liao Kingdom defeated the Song Army in Hebei, the Song Army would probably transfer its northwest troops to Hebei to defend the Liao Kingdom. The northwest would be completely empty, and we would still have a chance to capture the Shaanxi Road."

This is a big pie.

But this is what Li Yuanhao is doing now. Unless he doesn't want to be the emperor and continue to show off his power in the northwest, he can only eat this cake.

As for Li Yuanhao, he was naturally unwilling to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty, so he immediately said: "That's right, hurry up, tell me my will and send an envoy to Liao immediately."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Yuandao: "Strategic Advisor, how about you do it?"

He felt that if Zhang Yuan was eloquent, he would definitely be able to persuade the Liao Kingdom.

Zhang Yuan did not refuse, but just said: "I can send an envoy, but before the Liao State agrees to send troops, we still have to consider how to face the Song State. If nothing unexpected happens, the Song State may send people or even send troops directly. ”

"That's me."

Li Yuanhao frowned, then relaxed after a moment, and said with a smile: "Then I will surrender first."

Yang Su wondered: "Your Majesty, how can you surrender?"

Yeli Wangrong glanced at him and said: "You idiot (in Xixia language), your Majesty means to stabilize the Song Dynasty by surrendering."

"Your Majesty is wise."

Yang Su quickly patted the horse.

Li Yuanhao confirmed his plan, and his original fear of being confused about the future gradually calmed down.

After all, this battle was indeed too great for his losses.

The total number of troops in Xixia is only 150,000.

Nearly one-seventh of his body was lost in the first battle, which really made Li Yuanhao's body hurt.

The Dangxiang people really lost one if they died, unlike the Song people who had so many people.

But as Zhang Yuan said, what is before him now is nothing more than two paths, one is to surrender, and the other is to continue fighting.

The two sides have already broken each other's skin, and it is impossible for the Song Dynasty to continue to live in peace with him. The Song Dynasty may directly send troops to attack him, so he must be prepared.

Unless he no longer wants to be the emperor and can be content with being an envoy entrusted by the Song Dynasty, the only way to continue the fight is to seek help from the Liao Kingdom.

In the past, the Liao Kingdom might not have attacked the Song Kingdom because of the battles in Xixia. After all, for the Liao Kingdom, the Song Kingdom had many cities and border fortresses, which were as hard to chew as ox hair and turtle shells.

Anyway, Song State will give them annual coins every year. If they win, there won't be much benefit. It is impossible to go south and destroy Song State. If they lose, they will lose the coins, so why bother.

But now it is different. Song has developed powerful firearms. If Liao does not take action and waits for Song to hold back for a few more years and continue to explode the technology tree, Liao's capital will probably be blown through.

Therefore, Li Yuanhao is confident that he can win over Liao and fight against Song together.

But before Liao agrees to send troops, he still has to pretend to be a grandson. Otherwise, if Song takes advantage of the victory and kills Xingqing Prefecture, he will be finished.

At that moment, Li Yuanhao quickly made arrangements. He wrote a letter to Fan Zhongyan and presented a memorial to Zhao Zhen. In the letter, he said that he was blinded by his own greed and should not have claimed to be an emperor and should not have attacked Song. He asked Song to forgive him and he was willing to surrender.

At the same time, he immediately sent an envoy to Liao to explain the power to the Liao king Yelu Zongzhen. He also brought the only dud that Xixia soldiers picked up in the chaos on the battlefield as evidence.

In fact, there are still many such duds. Even the most advanced torpedoes in later generations have duds, not to mention grenades. During the Anti-Japanese War, due to the poor quality of grenades made in the border areas, two or three out of ten were duds, which made the soldiers miserable.

Even in later generations, there are still duds, not to mention ancient times.

The 8,000 troops led by Zhang Kang each carried two or three grenades, but only less than 10,000 actually exploded, which shows how high the probability of duds is.

One of them was thrown into the arms of a Xixia soldier in the chaos. The soldier had no time to throw away the dud during the tense and exciting charge, and then he was defeated and fled in an instant. As a result, a dud was taken back by this person.

However, even with the duds, the Xixia people could not research anything, because this thing is not something that you can make just by knowing black powder and making gunpowder. What is needed is a complete formula, high-purity raw materials, proportions and manufacturing methods.

So unless Zeng Gongliang was a traitor and leaked the complete formula, even if the Liao people got this dud, they still couldn't restore the formula and material ratio through the high-purity gunpowder in the dud.

But this dud can still explode, but the pull ring did not ignite the fuse inside. The Xixia people were not unaware of gunpowder, so they wanted to use this dud as evidence to show the Liao people.

As long as the Liao people verified the power of the grenade, I think as long as Yelu Zongzhen was not stupid, he should understand that it was the best strategy to unite with them Xixia and attack the Song Dynasty together.

So under this national policy, Li Yuanhao embarked on the strategy of uniting Liao to resist Song!