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

In September 1044, the fourth year of the Qingli reign of the Song Dynasty, a 100,000-man army of the Western Xia invaded Qingtang and was bravely repelled by the Song army.

Li Yuanhao retreated to the river mouth, reorganized his troops, and withdrew to Zhuolao City.

He could no longer continue to attack Qingtang.

First, Lanzhou City was defeated. Although the losses were not much, thousands of people were killed by muskets and cannons, but the morale and military spirit fell to the bottom.

Secondly, because Lanzhou City was not taken as soon as possible, the news had spread, and both the Zuosiluo and the Song Dynasty knew the situation.

The previous transport envoy of Qinfeng Road was Wen Yanbo, and now the new transport envoy is the former transport deputy envoy Yang Xie.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were 15 routes in the country, of which only one route was in the entire northwest, which was Shaanxi Road.

During the Song-Xia War, the court divided the original Shaanxi Road into five routes: Qinfeng, Fuyan, Huanqing, Jingyuan, and Yongxingjun.

At the same time, five transport envoys, appeasement envoys, and recruitment envoys were established, and they were commanded by Fan Zhongyan, the general of Shaanxi Road.

Among them, Fuyan, Huanqing and Jingyuan are the large area west of Yan'an and east of Guyuan in later generations.

Qinfeng Road is southeast of Lanzhou in later generations and northwest of Baoji, including Tianshui City, Dingxi City, Tongwei County, Huining County and other places, bordering Lanzhou controlled by the Qingtang regime.

Because Qinfeng Road is geographically located in the west, it did not become Li Yuanhao's attack point when the Song and Xia war broke out, so it has been relatively peaceful.

Only Fuyan, Huanqing and Jingyuan participated in the war.

Yang Xie had no chance to fight before, and had long wanted to make achievements. When he heard that Xixia had started the war again, he made a decisive decision and immediately dispatched troops to help.

Unexpectedly, the army heard the news of victory from below before it set off.

This shocked him.

However, the war was about to start, so he must not be timid.

He immediately led more than 30,000 troops from the seat of Qinzhou, which is Tianshui City in later generations, to the west to Xishi Town, which is the area of ​​Yuzhong County under the jurisdiction of Lanzhou in later generations.

At the same time, Zuo Silu also learned about the attack on Lanzhou, and also gathered 50,000 men, and followed the Huangshui River eastward to the river mouth.

This river mouth was called Kaluochuan in the Song Dynasty, and later it was the Zhuanglang River in Yongdeng County, where the Zhuanglang River and the Yellow River meet.

The Song Dynasty and the Qingtang regime, one in the east and one in the west, formed a pincer attack on Li Yuanhao in the north of Zhuoluo City, that is, in the direction of Yongdeng County, from the southeast and southwest.

This made the newly defeated Li Yuanhao even worse.

Although the total number of the coalition forces was about 80,000, even if the more than 10,000 people in Lanzhou City were included, it was almost less than 100,000, which was comparable to Li Yuanhao's current military strength.

The problem was that the battle in Lanzhou City stunned Li Yuanhao, and he didn't know where he lost, and he didn't dare to fight again.

Therefore, he could only hide in the city.

On September 8, after retreating from Lanzhou to Zhuoluo City, Li Yuanhao was already in a very bad mood.

He wanted to kill people in a rage, but he knew that getting angry at random at this time of demoralization would only cause division between the upper and lower levels, so he could only hold back.

In Zhuoluo City, Li Yuanhao's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water could drip out. Clan leaders such as Fangdang and Fei Ting were not present. When he held a meeting, he would only discuss with a few trusted advisers and the Yeli clan.

In the city lord's mansion, everyone gathered in the hall, and no one spoke. The atmosphere was obviously silent.

They could actually predict that if the Song army attacked on a large scale, it would be possible to lose.

After all, the Song army dared to reform so ostentatiously, so they must have something to rely on.

The firearm battalion was their reliance.

The reason why Li Yuanhao attacked Qingtang was actually to test the strength of the mysterious firearm battalion.

What no one expected was that they lost so badly.

Fifty thousand people besieged Lanzhou, but they were defeated.

If Li Yuanhao had not arranged another 30,000 people at the river mouth to support, there would be 20,000 people guarding Zhuoluo City. I'm afraid that the frontline has been destroyed by the Song army and Zuo Silu.

It's a great shame!

"My king."

After a long silence, Zhang Yuan said hoarsely: "At least in this battle, we did find out the strength of the firearm battalion. They only have a few thousand people, but they can stop the siege of tens of thousands of our cavalry."

"Yes, fortunately we didn't attack the Song Dynasty directly, otherwise facing so many of their firearm battalions, our cavalry would just die."

"Their firearm battalion can kill people at a distance of one or two hundred steps. Although it is not as far as artillery, it is extremely difficult for our artillery to turn. Once they attack from the rear, artillery will have no effect on them at all."

"We must also find a way to get such weapons, otherwise, we will never be able to defeat the Song Dynasty."

After the conversation started, Yang Su, Yeli Wangrong, Yeli Yuqi and others spoke one after another.

In essence, this battle is to test the strength of the firearm battalion.

If you see that the situation is not good, retreat immediately. If you find that you can fight, notify the Liao Kingdom to attack the Song Dynasty together.

What made Li Yuanhao collapse was that they originally thought that they would retreat at most, but they didn't expect to be crushed by one or two thousand people.

Losing too quickly and too humiliatingly was really hard to accept.

But this also reflected from the side that the Song Dynasty's firearms battalion was indeed strong. If they didn't have muskets, it would be a very irrational thing to fight against the Song Dynasty.

"Huhu."

Li Yuanhao took a few deep breaths, turned his head and asked Yeli Yuqi: "Did the soldiers below see clearly what they were using?"

"It's a long tube, and something can be shot out of the tube. I suspect this thing is a small cannon."

Yeli Yuqi gestured and said: "The craftsman said that a cannon is a cannonball that can be fired after the gunpowder burns. If the cannon is reduced to a size that people can hold in their hands, and the cannonball is also reduced a lot, it should be like this."

The principle of the musket is the same as that of the cannon. When the firearms battalion fights, the steel guns in their hands will also produce a lot of gunpowder smoke when shooting, so that when the white smoke is thick, it can even submerge the entire firearms battalion.

So the Xixia army will only see a piece of white smoke shrouded in a hundred or two hundred steps away, with occasional bangs, and then the comrades around them fall one after another.

This is very similar to the scene when the artillery position fires a cannon, which also emits a lot of thick fog. The difference is that the one in the hands of the people is a small steel pipe.

Therefore, when the soldiers below reported the situation layer by layer, these people could actually think of the principle of the musket.

"You mean, that thing is a reduced cannon?"

Li Yuanhao was shocked.

"Yes."

Yeli Yuqi nodded.

Li Yuanhao immediately thought rapidly in his mind.

As the king of field battles, artillery has been copied by the people of Xixia and Liao since its birth.

Due to the serious corruption in the army of the Song Dynasty, they really bought a lot of them. After being disassembled by craftsmen, they studied them thoroughly.

Now it seems that the Song Dynasty has gone ahead of them again.

"If it is just the same as artillery, does that mean that we can also copy it?"

Li Yuanhao asked hurriedly.

Yang Su said: "If we give the craftsmen some time, it should be feasible."

"Yeah."

Li Yuanhao nodded slightly and said: "If I have such firearms in Daxia, I will not be afraid of Song."

Zhang Yuan reminded: "Your Majesty, the matter of firearms still needs to be discussed again. Now Liao has given us a lot of sulfur. Whether it is a cannon or this new long barrel, we can make it in the future. The problem now is now."

"Hmm"

Li Yuanhao pondered. The problem now is that Qingtang Zuosiluo and the Song Dynasty have sent troops.

This is not something that he can solve by withdrawing his troops.

Because they are about to attack Zhuoluo City, whether they will let him go back is a question, not to mention whether there will be a chance to make firearms in the future.

Although Li Yuanhao thought that they had long barrels in the field, he put the remaining cannons on Zhuoluo City, and the enemy should not be able to break in. But the problem is that if the Song Dynasty is angered, what should the firearm battalion do from the border?

So the top priority now is to calm the anger of the Song Dynasty.

This is diplomatic mediation.

Li Yuanhao immediately said: "Then I will immediately send someone to the Emperor of Song to express that all this is a misunderstanding."

"Your Majesty."

Zhang Yuan smiled bitterly and said: "If our army is only a small defeat, maybe they will still be afraid, but..."

"But what?"

"But we were defeated by one or two thousand people, and the Song Dynasty will definitely look down on us. If we submit a report at that time, the Song Dynasty will definitely put forward various conditions."

"What do you mean?"

Li Yuanhao looked at him gloomily. Although he also wanted to send troops, it was all because of Zhang Yuan's instigation.

Zhang Yuan didn't notice Li Yuanhao's gaze, and lowered his head in deep thought.

This is actually a question of initiative.

If they submit the petition first, then the initiative will be in the hands of the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty will definitely control them.

The best situation is that the Song Dynasty will issue an edict to reprimand them first, so that they can find out the attitude of the Song Dynasty, and the initiative will be in the hands of Xixia, and Xixia can respond with words.

It doesn't matter if they lower their posture a little, but the most feared thing is the military threat of the Song Dynasty.

So after thinking about it, Zhang Yuan said cautiously: "I think we should send someone to contact Yang Xie, the transport envoy of Qinfeng Road, to express our intentions, hoping that he can withdraw his troops first. As for Zuo Silu, without the support of the Song Dynasty, he dare not attack our Daxia."

"Is that so?"

Li Yuanhao asked.

"Yes."

Zhang Yuan nodded.

"Well."

Li Yuanhao said: "Then let's do it."

He immediately sent an envoy to Xishi Town, hoping to communicate with Yang Xie.

Yang Xie had not received the imperial edict yet, and did not dare to make a decision on his own, so he did not reply immediately, but reported to the imperial court.

This had nothing to do with whether the generals were willing to fight.

It was simply that the imperial court of the Song Dynasty would never give frontline generals the opportunity to make decisions on their own.

"When the general is away, he may not accept the orders of the emperor" does not work at least in the Song Dynasty.

So far, there is only one person who has such convenience and can make decisions without consulting the imperial court, and that is Fan Zhongyan, the current co-director of the Political System Institute.

So in the face of Li Yuanhao's desire to communicate, he directly refused, continued to station troops in Xishi, and communicated with other transport envoys.

The governor of Shaanxi Road was a temporary position. After Fan Zhongyan came back, no one took up the post, and the five transport envoys were at the same level.

Zhao Jun thought that Liaoxia was going to attack again this time, and originally planned to let Pang Ji go, but now it seems that the situation is not going to fight, so he will wait and see for the time being, so Yang Xie's superior is the imperial court.

But Yang Xie didn't have to worry about it for long. The order from the Constitutional Council was issued soon, just like what he had chosen now, to ignore Li Yuanhao and continue the confrontation.

By the end of September, seeing that Yang Xie had not made any move, and the Song Dynasty court had not taken the initiative to issue an order to reprimand him, as if they were determined to continue the fight to the end, Li Yuanhao suddenly became impatient.

The Song Dynasty was strong and could maintain a military confrontation.

But he couldn't.

Even if it had become a little richer in the past few years, the army of 100,000 people was left to eat and feed the horses, and the young and strong did not go back to graze. In the long run, the national strength would inevitably decline.

Therefore, Li Yuanhao could only listen to Zhang Yuan's opinion and immediately sent envoys to the Liao Kingdom for help.

But distant water cannot save nearby fire.

Moreover, the power of the firearm battalion had been demonstrated. As long as the Liao Kingdom was not stupid, it would not end up like this. At most, it would help mediate.

So at this time, Li Yuanhao was also in a dilemma.

The main reason was that he couldn't figure out the attitude of the Song Dynasty court.

Let's fight.

The other side didn't seem to mobilize a large army to station troops on the border.

Let's not fight.

But there was no intention to withdraw the troops.

They didn't communicate with him either.

This made Li Yuanhao uneasy and he didn't know what to do.

As a last resort, he could only continue to send people to communicate with Yang Xie, and his words were more humble each time.

From the beginning, it was just a misunderstanding, and I hope the Song Dynasty will not take it to heart.

Now, there is even a hint of apology.

Unfortunately, Yang Xie always adhered to the attitude of ignoring, not refusing, not agreeing, not communicating, and not meeting, and did not give Li Yuanhao any face.

Now the offensive and defensive positions have changed.

In the past, the Song Dynasty had to win over the Western Xia to check the Liao Kingdom.

Therefore, in the early days, Song Zhenzong and Zhao Zhen had to be friendly to the Western Xia, fearing that they would collude with the Liao Kingdom.

Now the Song Dynasty has found that, let alone a small Western Xia, even the Liao Kingdom has to cede land and pay compensation in front of Fan Zhongyan, the military god of the Song Dynasty, and dare not claim to be the hegemon.

Coupled with the propaganda of newspapers and official reports, the self-confidence that the Song Dynasty had lost since the Battle of Chanzhou was picked up step by step.

Whether it is the people or the officials, their confidence has increased greatly and their fighting spirit is high.

After a few years of recuperation, many people believe that the Song Dynasty is now strong enough to easily deal with the Western Xia and the Liao Kingdom, and the voices of starting a war to destroy the Liao and the Western Xia are clamoring.

If Zhao Jun had not planned to launch the wars to destroy Xia and Liao in the past two years after thoroughly reforming the army and greatly improving its combat effectiveness, he would probably have followed public opinion and started a war.

Therefore, when the Northwest Army faced Xixia, its attitude was quite arrogant, and Yang Xie did not take Li Yuanhao seriously at all, and continued to follow the will of the court and left Li Yuanhao alone.

This situation continued until two months later, in December of the fourth year of the Qingli period, after another military meeting, Li Yuanhao had to start thinking about a plan to formally apologize to Zhao Zhen.

Because at this military meeting, generals from various departments such as Fang Dang and Fei Ting complained to him.

These generals said they were generals, but in fact they were all chiefs of various tribes. For example, Fang Dang Qiu Hu was the leader of the Dangxiang Fangdang tribe, and Fei Ting Gu Xi was the leader of the Fei Ting tribe.

Li Yuanhao's so-called army was actually a military action led by his Dangxiang Weiming tribe to burn, kill and loot.

If the war goes well, these tribes will naturally obey Li Yuanhao's leadership.

If it doesn't go well, then they will naturally have different intentions.

So this time, although they complained, they were actually putting pressure on him.

After all, the leader of the Dangxiang tribe was unwilling to fight the Song Dynasty again after several defeats.

This time, they thought they were only fighting Qingtang.

Now that the Song Dynasty is involved, coupled with a long-term confrontation, it will only cause serious internal friction. They can't afford to waste their national strength with the Song Dynasty, and the cattle and sheep of each tribe have to be sold to the Song Dynasty.

Once the Song Dynasty gets angry and cuts off the trade, the tribes will have to go hungry this year. Therefore, everyone hopes to cease fire and is unwilling to fight anymore.

Li Yuanhao was already in a difficult situation, and now he can't hold it anymore. He can only give up the initiative and send someone to Yang Xie to express his hope to communicate with Zhao Zhen.

And expressed the hope to communicate sincerely with the Song Dynasty court.

I had some business out of town and took more than 6 hours by car, so the update is late. I will code more tonight and hope to finish my work early tomorrow and go back early. It's a pity.