Volume 4 Chapter 67: The Steed
Excellent commanders and military advisers can smell changes in the situation.
After further completing the reconnaissance mission and ensuring that the Khitans had turned around and started, Hu Hongxiu vaguely felt that the Xixia people would definitely reveal certain flaws after the outbreak of the war with their current troop deployment without a nationwide mobilization. Then he wisely chose the key location of the Yellow River Gorge for observation, and finally found a fatal flaw that the Xixia people might have flashed.
It can be imagined that if this window of opportunity was missed, with the statehood of Western Xia, it would take at least three to five days, or at most ten days, for military deployment and reinforcements to complete the defense of the Xingling area (Yinchuan Plain) where their capital was located.
By the same token, after Yue Fei retreated to Haoshuichuan, he was ordered to seek an opportunity to fight. Although he followed reason and chose to go to Zhuolo City in the direction of Lanzhou, in an attempt to attack the Khitans from both sides to open up the Hexi Corridor, he still kept his attention on the direction of Xingqing Prefecture, so he chose to go to Quwu Mountain to Huizhou as a reserve to make a decision, which enabled him to meet Hu Hongxiu successfully.
At the same time that the entire Western Xia was under attack from three sides and had completely entered a state of all-out war, here on the eastern front, on the opposite bank of Puzhou, Wanyan Wushu and Wanyan Balisu also vaguely sensed something was wrong.
But they didn't know where this uneasy feeling came from.
Was it Li Yanxian's outstanding performance behind Zhongtiao Mountain that gave the Song army room to maneuver, or was it the slow march of reinforcements due to the harassment of the rebel army in the Taihang Mountains that gave the opposing Song army the courage to stop its reinforcement plan?
Or maybe it was in Hengshan and Yan'an that the Zhao Song government finally made up its mind to achieve some results regardless of the consequences? After all, the slogans were loud and clear, but if no results were achieved , how could they explain it to the country?
But no matter what, at this moment, Wanyan Wushu and Wanyan Balisu never thought about the other side of Western Xia, and did not even show such doubts... Until the fifth day of April, Wanyan Erluguan, the governor of Xijing (Datong) in the north who had direct communication channels with Western Xia, informed his brother of the news from Yinshan that caused unrest among the people of Western Xia at a slightly slower speed, with a slightly suspicious mentality and a slightly contemptuous attitude, but finally through military channels.
“It’s true!”
Wushu made a judgment immediately. "It's absolutely true! Yelu Yanshan and those Mongols are not bluffing. Yelu Dashi must have come from further west! The Song army must have left a large force in the west to attack him from both sides! The bluffing is here! It's on the opposite side!"
On the Stork Tower, which had long been the front-line command post of the Jin army, the surrounding Jin army generals looked at each other. Among them, another main general, Balisu, was silent for a moment, then took advantage of the bright sunshine in the morning to glance at the military camp across the river, and nodded heavily.
Obviously, Balisu also agreed with Wushu's judgment.
"Then what should we do now?" Wanhu Sali came to his senses and asked immediately.
Dozens of Wanhu, Meng'an, and a small number of Mouke present looked at the King of Wei and the Taiyuan Governor together… Although the former had the highest power, the latter was also the front-line commander and had considerable authority in military matters.
As expected, the pale-faced Wei Wang Wushu looked directly at the commander of the Western Route Army beside him and said, "I am confused. Balisu, tell me, what should I do now?"
"That depends on what His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei wants to do." Ba Lisu, with a sullen face, thought for a moment and answered frankly. "Do you want to preserve the overall situation, or do you want to save the overall situation? Or do you want to not give in and let the Song people's plan fail?"
"Can we still make the Song people's plan fail now?!" Wuzhu was cheered up.
"Why not?" Balisu drew his sword from his waist and pointed it at the other side of the river. "If the Song people left a large army on the western front to join forces with the Khitans, they would have to seize Hengshan and Yan'an, and hold on to Zhongtiao Mountain... Then I would like to ask Your Highness the King of Wei, how many soldiers are there on the other side of the river at this time? How credible is the statement made by the Goryeo Hammer that Yue Fei's troops were behind Pu Jin as a backup?"
Wuzhu's breathing became heavy.
Balisu turned a deaf ear to the enemy and pointed his sword at the other side, while speaking passionately: "The water in Pujin is slow. Although the island in the middle of the river is submerged, it is still roughly visible. Now that the summer flood season has not yet arrived, we can use some manpower to build several floating bridges, which will be enough for the army to pass. Then we can follow the example of Han Xin and send a detachment to cross the Longmen Ferry and attack the enemy from behind... The King of Wei has now ordered that only one Wanhu be left to guard the Hezhong Prefecture, and then the rest of the army will be sent out, regardless of casualties, to attack the positions on the other side! As long as we defeat this so-called elite army directly under the Zhao Song government before Li Yanxian and Han Shizhong come to rescue, I guarantee that the Song army will definitely abandon the damn Xixia and go back to defend with all their strength!"
Wuzhu's breathing became heavier, but he remained silent.
Balisu finally turned around and thrust the blade in his hand directly into the map on the table in front of Wuzhu, his face grim: "Send the troops, King of Wei! The Western Route Army has 50,000 to 60,000 troops here. With just one word from King of Wei, we will cross the Yellow River for the Wanyan clan! To avenge our previous humiliation!"
Wuzhu stared at Balisu, but Balisu was not afraid at all and stared at him coldly as well.
The two of them stared at each other across a table, a map, and a knife for an unknown amount of time. Finally, their breathing gradually calmed down. At this time, the surrounding Western Route Army officers, a few of whom were really smart, gradually understood what Balisu meant.
"Are you so afraid that I will fight the Western Route Army to death?" Wuzhu asked with a grim smile, his pale face finally showing some rosy and lively look. "Do you think that if I send two more Wanhu to Pujin, the Western Route Army will never recover?"
Now, everyone understood Balisu's position.
"I am not only afraid that the Western Army will lose two more Wan Hu and never recover from this, but I am also afraid that the King of Wei will be defeated here and won't even have a chance to speak when he returns to Yanjing." Balisu took a few deep breaths and looked at each other solemnly. "Fourth Prince, we have fought together since Nanyang. At that time, I seemed to be dissatisfied with you, but that was because my superior was Nianhan, my colleague was Lou Shi, my brother was Yin Shuke, and the person I was fighting against was Huo Nu. Moreover, you have a brother, the Second Prince, who has only passed away two years ago but is the best in military strategy. How can I look up to you?"
Wushu snorted coldly.
"But in the past few years, I gradually understood that there is no only war in the world. How can we win every battle like the ten years of Taizu? The generals are gradually dying, the soldiers are getting dull, food and money are getting tight, and there are military troubles everywhere. This is the complicated matter that a normal country should have... And at this time, the Great Jin Kingdom not only needs people who can fight, but also people who understand the country's major policies, people who know how to coordinate the various ethnic groups and armies, and people who dare to intimidate those old people in the center... In the past, the only one who could do this, let me say something unpleasant, is Nianhan, who has this talent and courage. You brothers and the Supreme Lord are not enough. Now that Nianhan has been killed by you, you are the only one who looks good!" Balisu said earnestly. "If you want to fight, it's not impossible , but just look at the pits dug and the forts built on the other side these days, you must be prepared for a bad battle, burying two Wanhu and losing the power of the court."
Wuzhu pursed his lips and said nothing, but after a moment, he almost cried, but finally burst into laughter.
Not to mention that he suddenly realized that he was once again fooled by the Zhao Song officials on the opposite side, and he really couldn't blame anyone for this; not to mention the current dilemma, making decisions has always been so difficult; the key is that the King of Wei of the Great Jin Dynasty really didn't expect that the first person to point out that he, Wanyan Wushu, was indispensable to the Great Jin Dynasty, but it turned out to be Wanyan Balisu, the remnant of Nianhan, the leader of the Western Army, who had unpleasantness with him on the battlefield.
But thinking about it the other way around, considering the current situation of the Great Jin Kingdom with its declining talent, although he is already the "one person" after "Nianhan", what about Balisu? Isn't he also a rare and useful national general?
Wuliebu is dead, Loushi is dead, Nianhan is dead, and Huonu has caused such a thing. Yinshu must be very old, and he has lost the trust of his superiors and subordinates. If they don't trust him in the military, who else can they trust?
Is Talan so lazy that he loses all his energy after one battle?
Or are they our own brothers who have never been on the battlefield many times, the so-called Sixth Prince E'luguan and others?
Or maybe Ali, Erlubu, Gao Jingshan, Wulindataiyu and others? Of course, these people are also talented generals, but unfortunately they are not named Wanyan.
After laughing for a long time, until the anger in his chest dissipated, Wushu finally sat back in his seat, looked at the white blade on the table in front of him and continued to speak, but his tone had completely calmed down: "If we don't cross the river for a decisive battle, what else can we say?"
"Of course we will sit back and watch the Xixia people lose Hexi... and then either take the opportunity to force Huo Nu to come back and abandon the affairs on the other side of the Yellow River, or send troops from the north to support the Xixia people in Hengshan." Balisu responded calmly.
"Although we have lost, we cannot let the Song and Liao gain too much... Move troops north, one Wanhu to Suide Army, two to Jinning Army, and one to Linzhou, to help Xixia stabilize the situation in Hengshan. As long as Hengshan and Xingling are not lost, Xixia can hold on... This kind of deployment is also a means to support Huo Nu when necessary." Wuzhu finally gave the order. "Then let Balisudu take unified command here. I will go to Yan'an in person. No matter how the situation develops, Huo Nu must hand over the military power first! He must be told clearly that the army belongs to the country, not for him to use to take revenge... Does anyone disagree?"
Several people looked at each other. This strategy was neither hasty nor slow, and it was very considerate of people's hearts. How could they have any objections?
Not only that, after a pause, Wanhu Wanyan Zhehe also reminded: "King of Wei, General, your arrangement is of course appropriate, but I have something to remind you, the Khitans have been in the north for a hundred years, and the Songs have been in the south for a hundred years, and their prestige is extremely high... If the two families fight the Dangxiang people together, and the Mongols get involved, the various ethnic groups in Xixia will definitely be jealous... Make arrangements quickly here, otherwise if something collapses, it will be too late."
Balisu shook his head repeatedly: "No matter how fast we go, tens of thousands of troops will have to move over obediently."
The surrounding generals hesitated to speak, and Wuzhu's face looked unhappy again.
Ba Lisu pulled out the knife on the table, and before putting it back on his waist, he looked at Wuzhu seriously again: "King of Wei... I just gave advice, but it was also the truth. If you want to maintain the overall situation, the most effective way is to lead the entire army to the other side now... If you really want to do this, although I don't agree with it in my heart, I will definitely enforce the order and go there first!"
Upon hearing this, Wuzhu raised his head and looked at the other side again.
In fact, he didn't even need to look, for he knew the situation there very well, because he had seen more and more clearly than anyone else in these days...From a horizontal perspective, the huge camp of the Song army expanded to an area of nearly thirty miles wide, almost covering all the areas suitable for landing in front of it, and from a vertical perspective, the fences, earth ramparts, trenches, antlers, and pits stacked one layer upon another were enough to scare any warrior on the battlefield.
The Kansai militiamen who came from the Unity Society and the Archery Society could rely on these things and demonstrate considerable combat effectiveness.
In comparison, the confusion between the roles of soldiers and civilians in the previous construction process seemed unimportant now.
At this moment, Wanyan Wushu and the other generals present knew very well that if the entire army forced a crossing at this time, there would be only two outcomes... One was to overwhelm the enemy in a short period of time and cause the Song army to fall into disarray, but because of the river crossing and fortifications, it would be impossible to pursue them effectively; the other was to allow the enemy to use effective killing to build up morale and discipline, and then really bury the two Wanhu on the river bank.
"It was all because of my ignorance that I was deceived by the Song people." After waiting for a while, Wuzhu said loudly, "If I had decided to cross the river to see the living girl, or if I had used Qin Xianggong's strategy and directly gave the broken land on the other side of the river to the Xixia people, how could we be in such a predicament today? Even if Tuhesu was attacked and the reinforcements were harassed, it was also the result of my unauthorized urging."
The generals looked at each other in silence, but instead felt respect in their hearts... At this point, everyone knew that Wuzhu and Balisu had not made any mistakes in judgment. It was just that the Song people on the other side were too cunning. However, Wuzhu took the initiative to take the responsibility, which made the generals of the Western Army breathe a sigh of relief.
At this moment, the generals were speechless.
Balisu put back his sword and went down to mobilize the troops. Wuzhu ordered another meal and ate it on the Stork Tower facing the dragon flag opposite. Then he went north in person to meet the living woman.
The Jin army marched north, and on the other side of Puzhou, the Song army camp not only did not relax, but became increasingly tense... No one knew whether the Jin army was playing hard to get, and no one knew whether they would make a surprise attack at night.
However, the Jin army did not come that evening, nor did they return the next day, and the beacon smoke that was set up at Longmen Ferry was certainly not lit.
But at the same time, going upstream along the Yellow River, a full thousand miles in a straight line, and an actual three thousand miles along the Yellow River, at a key location in the heart of Western Xia - the gorge, which is the location of the Qingtong Gorge in later generations, a beacon fire was successfully lit.
Moreover, the Western Xia garrison was very small, and the Song army took advantage of Zhang Xian's troops to bypass the upstream and launched a successful surprise attack. Then the entire army successfully crossed the river, but ultimately due to limited manpower, they were unable to prevent the Western Xia people from lighting the beacon fire.
Therefore, in the afternoon, beacons were lit and smoke rose into the sky, and for a time, warnings were sounded everywhere along the Yellow River in Western Xia.
"Let the governor know that Liu Fa... is Liu Zhengyan's father. He came here once before, but he was defeated by Weiming Cha Ge on the way to the front. When he retreated to this place, he was surrounded by Cha Ge and then his whole army was annihilated." By the evening of that day, the Song army had crossed the river despite the hardships. Hu Hongxiu, who had less sheep fat on his head, saw Yue Fei looking at the smoke from the distant large-scale bonfires without saying a word, so he stepped forward to explain. "After that time, the Xixia people even made beacon towers in places like this... In fact, after passing this gorge, you will reach the real heartland of Xixia."
Yue Fei shook his head slightly, holding his sword, and said in a deep voice: "I am not concerned about this beacon fire. It is inevitable when it comes to the heartland of the Xixia people... How far is this place from Xingqing Prefecture?"
"One hundred and eighty miles." Hu Hongxiu answered without hesitation.
"Forced march... for three days?" Yue Fei thought for a moment and asked again.
Hu Hongxiu immediately shook his head: "At least six days."
Liu Qi hesitated for a moment and took the initiative to interrupt and explain: "Yue Jiedu... The Dangxiang people have more tribes than households, and all the people in each tribe are soldiers. Even if the core warriors are not in Xingling at this time, with Li Qianshun's fifty years of authority as the ruler, a messenger can summon a male from a nearby tribe to come to the rescue. They ride a horse, hold a bow, carry a spear, and carry a bag of food and water, which is enough to form an army. And these foreign cavalry rushing into our army will surely die, but if we ignore them and allow them to harass the march and plunder the logistics, we will be the ones to die."
Yue Fei nodded immediately: "You two mean that we can only march cautiously, marching thirty miles a day?"
"Yes." Liu Qi responded.
"How many of those foreign cavalry will come to help?"
"It's hard to say." Liu Qi continued to look at him seriously. "It depends on how fast we go... If we can really go thirty or forty miles a day, in five or six days, by the time we reach the city of Xingqing, I'm afraid we'll have to have 20,000 people."
Hu Hongxiu hesitated for a moment and gave a brief reminder: "Jiedu, the more foreign cavalry gather, the slower our advance will be... and it's not just about how many foreign cavalry the enemy has, we also have to consider our military strength."
"Don't worry about it." Yue Fei shook his head. "Vice-Commander Wang is 40 miles behind us, a day's journey, so we will leave the gorge to him. Let's not delay, have a good rest today, and tomorrow morning, the whole army will move forward quickly to save time and distance."
Liu Qi and Hu Hongxiu thought about it, then nodded heavily. Even Qu Duan, who had just settled his cavalry, just waved his whip after listening to the previous few conversations and was speechless for a while.
Come to think of it, what else can I do now that I’m here?
The whole night was silent. The next morning, when it was light, everyone got up to eat, only to find that there was a Buddhist pagoda forest next to the Yellow River where they had rested yesterday. Many soldiers who believed in Buddhism ran over to worship.
The officers did not stop them, and many of them even couldn't help but bow. Only Yue and Qu looked at each other coldly and did not express anything.
"Jiedu, the Xixia people are coming!"
In the morning, the whole army was ready, and the baggage was pulled by rafts and moved in the river. The army lined up along the river according to the commander's personal arrangement. Just as they were about to set off, Li Shifu, who had been sent out in advance, suddenly turned back, went straight to the center of the army, then dismounted and reported a military situation to Yue Fei.
"How many people?"
Yue Fei, fully armored, asked seriously under the flag of the loyal patriot commander, his eyes obviously bloodshot.
"Four or five hundred... The surrounding tribes must have come on their own after seeing the beacon smoke." Li Shifu replied seriously. "These tribes are all local tribes in Xingling, and are the direct descendants of the Weiming clan. I tried to recruit them, but the two messengers were killed, so I had no choice but to disperse them... And at this rate, I'm afraid they will be able to gather two or three thousand people tomorrow, and then my men will not be able to easily disperse these lightly armed tribe cavalry for the army ."
"No problem." Yue Fei immediately responded. "Deputy Governor Li, if you can serve as a scout here, it will be a great achievement."
Li Shifu nodded immediately, but like the surrounding Guanxi generals, he could not hide his serious expression.
In this way, the army finally set off and headed north along the Yellow River.
However, they had only walked about ten miles and it was not yet noon. As the army turned the corner of the Yellow River, the terrain suddenly opened up. Yue Fei naturally noticed a conspicuous thing in the northwest of the army formation, so he turned his head and looked at Hu Hongxiu beside him:
"Minister Hu, that mountain is continuous and majestic, like a group of galloping horses. What kind of mountain is it?"
Although he knew that the journey ahead would determine life or death, and that he was a very straightforward person, Hu Hongxiu, who was wearing a headscarf, could not help but tease: "Emperor Yue said that the peaks of this mountain are like a group of galloping horses, so it must be the Junma Mountain..."
"So it's called Junma Mountain?"
"That's right!" Hu Hongxiu continued to laugh. "However, in the local Tibetan language, the word for horse is pronounced as Helan... Therefore, this mountain can also be called Helan Mountain!"
Yue Fei suddenly realized.
