Chapter 1071: War Begins

The Western Xia people had naturally known about Wang Yan for a long time and were very clear about his deeds. Some of their dignitaries were fans of Wang Yan's calligraphy and loyal customers of his incense shop.

They had known before that Wang Yan was different from other officials of the Song court. After all, too many people handled the Song Dynasty's financial data, so it couldn't be considered a secret. Moreover, it was announced during the Great Court Meeting, and everyone knew that the imperial court had become rich in the past two years. They were even more clearly aware of the political turmoil caused by Wang Yan. They even knew in detail how Wang Yan operated.

But it wasn't until Wang Yan became the Prefect of Yanzhou that the Western Xia people knew how powerful the name Wang Yan represented. They watched the great changes in Yanzhou before their eyes, and they also gritted their teeth watching the number of elite soldiers lost due to the duel actions Wang Yan initiated.

They determined that Wang Yan was a thorough war hawk, a war maniac who wanted to provoke a war between the two countries.

So they sent envoys to Cheng Kan first, and after not getting any effective response, they sent people directly to the capital, strongly condemning the Great Song for ignoring the peace treaty between the two countries, and threatening that if this continued, they would start a war.

They also bribed people, on one hand saying that Wang Yan privately associated with border generals and monopolized border power, and on the other hand saying that Wang Yan was arrogant and domineering, disrespectful to superiors, and also saying that border soldiers, people, and generals all praised him, saying Wang Yan was buying hearts and planning to rebel...

Obviously, Western Xia didn't want to fight at this time, but Wang Yan was determined to provoke a war, so they began to play tricks. What was even more obvious was that they knew the Song court very well; attacking the heart and sowing discord were a set of smooth combos.

Western Xia's tricks were still very useful, but unfortunately, this person was Wang Yan.

Even those who hated Wang Yan the most would not doubt Wang Yan's loyalty to the Song court. Because if Wang Yan had this intention, with his ability, he would just rebel directly; why would he go to such trouble to create tens of millions of strings of cash for the Great Song and encounter three assassinations? Why bother?

Although Wang Yan built medical halls, distributed piglet seedlings to the people, and earned both money and reputation, that was Wang Yan's concern for the people and for the good of those mud-legged people. Otherwise, why would he specifically go against the big families? That was Wang Yan's political proposition, written clearly in his books, and the slogan he shouted when he established his Dao several years ago; he was there to establish life for the people and open peace.

Furthermore, Wang Yan had also said that his individual strength was limited and requested the imperial court to allocate funds to establish a specialized department. Just kidding, how could that be possible? The Wang surnamed man wanted to be a saint, don't drag the imperial court to lose money...

If a person does one thing consistently, even if they hack at themselves with a blade, people have to admit his purity. Without a doubt, in the Great Song, Wang Yan was such a pure person.

However, the court officials in the capital all tacitly impeached Wang Yan, with the platform monitoring and reporting by hearsay, five impeachments in one day. Some took Wang Yan as a joke, and some took Wang Yan to fulfill their performance.

This made the Western Xia envoys very happy, feeling that their strategy had taken effect, but little did they know, Wang Yan, who received the news, directly sent an 800-li urgent memorial, stating that this was an excellent opportunity for war, and one battle could recover three hundred miles of land.

Two days later, Wang Yan sent another 800-li urgent memorial, saying that the enemy in Qingjian killed our people and humiliated our national prestige, and the soldiers were all loyal to the monarch and patriotic, good lads who protected the people, unable to bear seeing their compatriots suffer, unwilling to see the national character humiliated, and were filled with indignation, unable to be suppressed, and could change at any time.

Three days later, 800-li urgent, Yanzhou garrison troops all went out, Qingjian imperial guards were inspired, Zhong E was unable to restrain them, had to order an attack, combined with the garrison troops for a total of seventeen thousand, broke six thousand enemies, and requested the transfer of Di Qing, and the dispatch of another minister to preside over the situation...

"Prefect, is it really okay?"

Qingjian, on the city tower, Zhong E asked this question again.

He didn't look outside the city, but at the city. Densely packed, all were fully armed soldiers.

"Things have come to this, does Zi Zheng still have room?"

"Can the Prefect really protect us?"

"I already told you before, I can't protect you." Wang Yan shook his head with a laugh, "If we win, everything is easy to say, I will protect you from harm. If we lose, I cannot protect myself, so how can I protect Zi Zheng? Zi Zheng, no need to worry, only war, do human efforts, listen to heaven's will."

Zhong E shook his head; could he say he was forced?

It was Wang Yan who made something out of nothing, insisting that the Western Xia people on the opposite side shot and killed the people who ran over here to find sheep with random arrows, and then talked to the garrison troops, inciting the garrison troops to avenge their compatriots, and then his Zhong family army listened to Wang Yan's bluffing, prepared for two days, and then he had to put on armor and stand on the city tower with Wang Yan. He didn't have a choice, and he was still confused until now.

"Zi Zheng, if I were not a civil official, I would never give you the opportunity to lead troops. Remember, this battle must quickly take Suizhou, and then plan for Xiazhou. I will ensure the supply of grain and grass, and other places will also send troops, a full-scale war. While Western Xia hasn't reacted, you can take as much land as you can."

"My subordinate understands."

"Go, General Zhong, hold the blade and stand the horse, open the territory and expand the land. I am waiting for your good news."

Wang Yan stretched out his hands and patted the shoulder armor of Zhong E's armor forcefully, making a clattering sound.

Zhong E let out a long breath, finally accepting his fate that he could not control, knelt on one knee, and cupped his hands: "My subordinate will definitely not fail the Prefect's expectations."

"Go!"

Wang Yan nodded with satisfaction, stood on the city tower with his hands behind his back, and watched Zhong E pull a group of commanders in charge of fifteen hundred people to start a combat meeting.

Fighting a war is not a simple matter; there are careful plans. Of course, this first real battle was very simple, just a siege battle. As long as people were arranged, the Western Xia army's retreat was cut off, and they could directly attack the city.

For a general like Zhong E who left his name in history, these were all small matters. So very quickly, the army began to go out in batches. Not from the north gate, but from the south gate, making a big circle to completely surround the Western Xia army formation.

With a numerical advantage, it must be used.

Without a doubt, this battle was provoked by Wang Yan.

Because Western Xia's operations deeply demonstrated their fear of Wang Yan and their fear of starting a war; this point was a consensus among the high-level Song officials. In fact, the middle and lower levels also had a consensus, but in this kind of thing, whether they knew it or not didn't matter.

Of course, this was also because of Wang Yan. After all, if it were someone else, without Wang Yan's ability, and without Wang Yan's resume, and having caused so many things in Yanzhou, they wouldn't even need the Western Xia people to come over and secretly spread rumors. The platform monitoring would just impeach them for reporting by hearsay, and they would be handled.

The current Western Xia had the little Emperor Li Liangzuo on the throne, who was only seven years old this year, with his mother, the Mozang clan, listening behind the curtain, and her brother Mozang Epang holding the government. There were powerful ministers, there were internal fights; without powerful ministers, there were also internal fights. The emperor was young, the woman was in power, the uncle was in charge—this combination destined that the country would not have any enterprising spirit.

Li Yuanhao had only died six years ago; the late Li Yuanhao was quite cruel, and everyone hadn't lived a good life for long. The little emperor didn't understand things, the Mozang clan was busy playing with men, and Mozang Epang was busy grabbing power and excluding dissidents. At the same time, everyone up and down was busy making money; how could they want to fight?

So Wang Yan borrowed this point and requested to start a war, but in fact, it was a notification to the capital.

In the business of war, there are too many excuses to find. If it weren't for this wave of erratic operations by the Western Xia, he had intended to find any random excuse to start a war anyway. But it couldn't escalate so quickly.

Although they were all rule-breaking operations, the Western Xia people did give the big shots in the court and the Emperor on the dragon chair a certain amount of confidence, so that they wouldn't feel their scalps go numb when they heard about fighting, and even had some small expectations.

This was the small expectation he wanted.

Wang Yan deeply analyzed the strength of the enemy and himself, and very calmly boasted about his contribution of provoking Western Xia and causing over ten thousand enemy casualties, which was to give Zhao Zhen and others a reassurance pill.

As the saying goes, when the general is outside, the monarch's orders may not be accepted; he said when to fight, then when to fight.

However, for Wang Yan, this time was actually a bit sudden. Fighting Western Xia had been premeditated, but suddenly starting a war at this time was a temporary idea.

Zhao Zhen and others naturally understood Wang Yan's meaning; after all, Wang Yan didn't hide it at all, and the several 800-li urgent memorials were just two words: "Must win." Of course, it could also be four words: "If I lose, handle me..."

The soldiers were ready, and at the scheduled time, the main force in the city ran out of the city. Zhong E rode a white horse, draped in a red cloak, and slowly rode toward the opposite side.

The soldiers who came out one after another, led by military generals, rushed toward different targets. They carried scaling ladders, and pushed siege vehicles, shouting and rushing toward the opposite side, scaring the opposite side to hurriedly sound the gong to warn.

At this time, Wang Yan also beat the drumsticks, beat the war drums, and cheered for the fine lads...

Yeli Zhong was drinking with his subordinates, but unexpectedly, he suddenly heard the sound of the gong. He hurriedly ran out and heard people shouting: "The Song army is attacking, the Song army is attacking!"

"What's the situation?" Yeli Zhong frowned and looked at the subordinate who ran to report in a panic.

"The Song army has over ten thousand people and is already attacking the city, General."

"What? Over ten thousand people? Zhong E personally led the army?"

"Yes, from afar, I also saw Wang Yan beating the war drum on the city tower."

Yeli Zhong shivered; he was still cursing Wang Yan while drinking just now...

However, he was a qualified border general. He narrowed his eyes and quickly ordered: "Quickly send people to break out and ask for help."

"Yes."

"Someone, put on armor for me."

Watching his subordinates run far away, Yeli Zhong couldn't care about cursing Wang Yan anymore, and couldn't care about thinking how Wang Yan dared to fight. He casually split a stray arrow and shouted as he entered the room...

Yeli Zhong had thought of countless situations of meeting Wang Yan, either Wang Yan kneeling on the ground kowtowing for mercy, or he cutting off Wang Yan's head to kick like a ball, and then processing it into a wine vessel inlaid with agate... But he never thought that he would be the one kneeling in front of Wang Yan, refusing to surrender even in death.

"If you want to kill or slice, do as you please; I will absolutely not surrender." He said very hard.

Wang Yan laughed and waved his hand: "Allowing subordinates to shoot and kill the people, you deserve to die. Take him down first, slice off one of his hands, and greet him. As for the specifics, wait until after the war, the Emperor will decide."

He just wanted to see what the enemy general looked like; he had no intention of recruiting him. If it weren't for keeping him as a war merit to report and show the harvest of the war, this Yeli Zhong would have suffered a lot.

He didn't need the loyalty of Western Xia military generals; he needed the loyalty of Western Xia's three million people, to have ethnic integration, without distinguishing between Han and Qiang.

Watching Yeli Zhong being dragged away, Wang Yan strolled to the city wall again, stood with his hands behind his back, and watched the departing army, heading north all the way.

The Western Xia border garrison, rather than a city, was more like a village. It was a city wall built with large stones and yellow earth, only about three meters high. This height couldn't be called destroying a city; it could only be called pulling down a village.

The famous bloody siege battles in history were mostly ancient, large cities in the Central Plains located in important places. High walls built of bricks, stones, and clay, tens of meters high, were called strong cities, the so-called places that military strategists must fight for. Otherwise, the civil and military officials of ancient times were not fools; why would they keep attacking a city and fill it with human lives for no reason? There was always a reason why it must be conquered.

Naturally, the six thousand Western Xia troops on the opposite side were not a match for the Song army. Moreover, the Song army already had a numerical advantage, complete tools, and most importantly, the first-mover advantage. The distance of about five hundred meters was only a few minutes. Putting on armor, assembling, and engaging in battle—this time was not enough.

The power struggle and money-grabbing from top to bottom meant the slackness and collapse from top to bottom. And as early as a few months ago, the elites here had been killed by Wang Yan's garrison troops once, and even if they filled the vacancies later, they were not the original elites. And scaling ladders, siege vehicles, were all transported by Wang Yan's people during this time.

So the war started a bit temporarily, but the preparation work had already begun when he was playing biochemical warfare. This is called planning and strategizing...

And four days before the war started, Wang Yan calculated the time and distance and sent a copy of the urgent official document to the capital to Cheng Kan as well. It was just that they killed our border people, the masses were indignant, fearing that they couldn't be suppressed, fearing a great war.

Old Cheng didn't let Wang Yan down, because the first time he saw Wang Yan's official document, he cursed, and then he urgently summoned officials to discuss matters, transferred money, grain, and materials, sent letters to the front line, made deployments, and two days later attacked the Western Xia army on the opposite side, as well as the next attack target after the breakthrough.

Old Cheng was not trash, or rather, there was no trash among the players who reached Old Cheng's level; he was just old and didn't have the guts. Wang Yan forced him to the wall; did he dare not comply?

He could only bite the bullet and go up; if he didn't go up, the overall situation would be ruined by him.

However, Old Cheng definitely wouldn't indulge Wang Yan's bad habits and directly impeached Wang Yan for provoking the war, which was a heinous crime. He also knew that this official document wouldn't even be fit to pad the table when sent up, but he had to impeach; if he didn't impeach, he wouldn't be comfortable...

After a spiritual victory like Ah Q, Old Cheng moved his old bones and cursed as he whipped his horse to the front line. The next day, he received the news sent by Wang Yan, which was very short, just two words: "Start the war!"

The next day, the Shaanxi defense line, full-scale attack...

And at this time, Zhong E had already taken Suizhou, taking only three days, and then followed Wang Yan's order to head toward Xiazhou.

Western Xia had soldiers among the whole people, but soldiers who were not organized had no combat effectiveness. Along the way, Zhong E's joint force of garrison troops and imperial guards had already shown higher momentum, and no one could stop them.

Of course, the main reason was that they took advantage of the loopholes, which belonged to a surprise attack, and Western Xia had not yet organized a counterattack.

Moreover, the entire battlefield was not all smooth. On a small scale, Zhong E's troops were the smoothest. On a large scale, the Yanzhou defense line was relatively smooth, which was naturally because Wang Yan led the troops to duel and played biochemical warfare, killing over ten thousand people, most of whom were elites.

Elites are the soul of a unit, the vanguard, and the guarantee of combat effectiveness. Only the Yanzhou defense line had been dueled, so naturally, Yanzhou's advance speed was faster. And Wang Yan's logistics were also quite good, and the material support was very timely.

Relatively speaking, the war in other places was not so smooth. They had the first-mover advantage, but they couldn't fight a battle of annihilation that swept away the autumn wind. The enemy retreated quite calmly, retaining a considerable part of their effective strength.

And that side was closer to Western Xia's capital, Xingqing, so the support was more timely, so the war there was very anxious.

This itself was Wang Yan's purpose; he never thought about the beautiful thing of a full-scale great victory, as long as other places could contain Western Xia's troops, that was a great merit.

In this way, the vanguard troops led by Zhong E could stir up the situation; if they came in large numbers, they couldn't catch anyone, and if they came in small numbers, it wasn't enough to kill. It was impossible to cut off the retreat; Wang Yan still had six thousand garrison troops that hadn't been used. Other Yanzhou imperial guards, although under Old Cheng's command, were also constantly helping Zhong E share the pressure.

The troops here had all cursed at the front with Wang Yan and had all witnessed with their own eyes how the Western Xia people acted like turtles. Morale is a mysterious thing, but once it is up, it really has a bonus to combat effectiveness. Especially in their surprise attacks, they were basically great victories that swept away the autumn wind, which would further aggravate their psychological advantage. They wouldn't think that it was Wang Yan who killed the elites on the opposite side; they would only think that they were awesome and that the Western Xia people were not much.

What he liked most was actually national strength crushing, pushing all the way. But there was no way, a group of people holding him back. That was all he could do. Large parts contained the main force, small parts of elites pulled the enemy's deployment, playing the enemy to the point of wanting to die.

Why did Wang Yan waste saliva and push troops with Zhong E in the previous half-month? That was giving him a lesson. He really talked about many ways to mobilize troops and generals. Zhong E was a cultured person, not a pure rough guy, and he was also well-versed in military books, and his professional ability was not bad, belonging to one plus one greater than two.

At the same time, Wang Yan also sent out the cavalry unit of less than two thousand people that hadn't been trained, executing his signature cavalry Mobile Corps Commander warfare. Divided into many small units, they wandered around Zhong E's troops. If there were few people, they would shoot arrows and use blades to dry them. If there were many people, they would run, and they could report to Zhong E in time and run away in advance.

Just like this, before Song, Xia, and Liao had accepted it, the second Song-Xia war turned into a fight for half a month.

Various places outside Yanzhou were reporting emergencies, while Yanzhou was winning one victory after another. Once there was an emergency there, there would definitely be a victory here. It was also in this process that Di Qing, whom Wang Yan requested to transfer, came, and there was another unexpected, but reasonable person... ===== CHAPTER 1072 =====