Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 222: First Arrival of the Sui De Army

Su Yun didn't know if Jong Park was testing him, but what Su Yun said was the truth.

He really didn't want to stay in Yanzhou, but wanted to go to the front line to take a look.

Without investigation, there is no right to speak. He must go to the front line to see what the Song Dynasty is facing, or in other words, what the Song Dynasty’s army is like.

For some unknown reason, Zhong Pu tried to persuade Su Yun a few times, but seeing Su Yun's firm attitude, he had to give up.

On the second day, Su Yun set out from Yanzhou to Suide Army.

After leaving Yanzhou City, there are many forts along the way.

This was the result of the Song Dynasty's fortress construction.

It was also the result of the Song Dynasty losing Hengshan, its last barrier.

In the first year of the Kangding reign, Li Yuanhao led an army of 100,000 southward, broke through Jinmingzhai in the north of Yanzhou, and took advantage of the victory to surround Yanzhou.

The situation in Yanzhou was extremely urgent, and the prefect Fan Yong immediately sent people to seek help everywhere.

As a result, Li Yuanhao "surrounded the point and attacked the reinforcements", ambushed more than 10,000 Song troops who came from the surrounding areas at Sanchuankou, and buried them all at Sanchuankou.

Fortunately, heavy snow fell at this time, and the Xixia was short of logistical supplies and was forced to withdraw its troops, thus Yanzhou was saved. However, the areas north of Yanzhou and Hengshan were occupied by Li Yuanhao.

The defeat at Sanchuankou caused an uproar throughout the Song court.

The failure also caused serious divisions among the commanders of the Song army on the front line.

Han Qi believed that although the Song army had hundreds of thousands of troops in the northwest, if they were stationed in so many fortresses, it would be easy for the Western Xia to defeat them one by one. It would be better to take the initiative to attack and look for opportunities to fight.

Fan Zhongyan believed that an active attack was a military adventure and that a "cautious defense" strategy should be adopted.

Everyone in the Song court had their own opinions, but Li Yuanhao did not stop his invasion.

In the second year of Kangding, he led an army of 100,000 to Weizhou.

Han Qi hurriedly sent General Ren Fu to lead 18,000 men to resist.

As a result, Ren Fu underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, and was ambushed by the Xia army in Haoshuichuan. He was killed in the battle, and the Song army was almost wiped out.

After the Battle of Haoshuichuan, the Song court became more and more supportive of Fan Zhongyan's view of "prudent defense."

In the same year, Li Yuanhao once again led an army of 100,000 to attack the Zhenrong Army.

As a result, Wang Yan, the governor of Weizhou, who had not learned his lesson, sent Ge Huaimin to lead an army of 10,000 to actively meet the enemy.

Ge Huaimin was lured by the Xixia people into an ambush in Dingchuan Village.

As there was no water in the village, Ge Huaimin had to lead his troops to break out. As a result, he was killed in the battle and nearly 10,000 remaining troops were captured.

Li Yuanhao then took advantage of the victory to launch a large-scale invasion, penetrating six or seven hundred miles into Song territory, burning and looting as if he were in an empty land.

After all three defeats, the entire Song court suffered from summer phobia.

Everyone in the Song Dynasty court believed that it was absolutely impossible to fight a field war with Western Xia, so the strategy of building a fortress became a national policy.

Su Yun also understood this very well and approved of this strategy.

Because this is related to the characteristics of the Xixia people's wars. The Xixia people served as soldiers in wartime and served as civilians in leisure time, and they were self-sufficient in equipment, clothing and food.

When they went to war, they often only brought one month's rations. In addition to combat troops, they were also equipped with combat support personnel who were ready to plunder military supplies, food, prisoners, livestock, and property at any time to solve the problems of insufficient supplies for the army and shortage of labor and troops in their own country.

This method of logistical supply made the Xia army light and flexible. The Xia army's elite cavalry, the "Iron Harriers", could advance quickly and raid long distances, as well as maneuver through the hills and gullies in the northwest, leaving the Song army, which could only rely on their own legs, far behind.

However, the Xia army also had a fatal flaw, which was that its logistical support was extremely poor and it could not sustain its troops for a long time. Moreover, the more troops it sent out, the worse its endurance became.

All they had to do was take advantage of the Xia army's poor supply, clear the fields, and hold their ground to avoid the enemy's attack, and they would be able to force the Western Xia army to return empty-handed.

The people who used this method of warfare most successfully were Zhong Shiheng and Fan Zhongyan.

When Zhong Shiheng was guarding Yanzhou, a large number of outer forts had been abandoned, leaving Yanzhou in danger with no strategic location to defend.

Zhong Shiheng realized the importance of forts, so he built a new city based on the abandoned fortress 200 miles northeast of Yan'an to strengthen point defense.

During the process of building the city, Zhong Shiheng successfully solved the city's water problem by chiseling away the rocks underground and obtaining spring water, so he named the city Qingjian City.

After building Qingjian City, Zhong Shiheng continued to construct new forts, constantly pushing the Song army's defense front forward, forming a three-dimensional defense system in Yanzhou.

Zhong Shiheng's approach inspired Fan Zhongyan.

So Fan Zhongyan spread the experience of Qingjian City.

Practice has proved that this strategy is very effective.

Starting from Qingjian City, the Song army advanced steadily step by step, penetrated hundreds of miles into the territory of Western Xia and recovered a large area of ​​territory.

With the successful experience of Zhong Shiheng, Fan Zhongyan built Dashun City in the first year of Kangding, opened up the connection between Yanzhou and Qingzhou, allowing the two states to rescue each other, and this place also became a bridgehead for the Song army to penetrate deep into Western Xia.

Su Yun looked at these fortresses and felt a little emotional. No wonder the Song Dynasty threw so much military expenditure into them every year but heard no results. Looking at these man-made fortresses, the huge amount of money they cost was really unimaginable.

Su Yun could imagine that if he could look down from the sky at this moment, this densely packed man-made fortress would be extremely spectacular.

Su Yun and others passed through the fortress group and arrived at Suide Army in one day.

Suide City is also a fortress, guarding the confluence of Wuding River and Dali River. Its geographical location is very important.

Suidejun is a very classic military prefecture-county, and its level is actually equivalent to that of a county.

There were not many civil officials among the officials who came to greet them. There was only one county lieutenant and a military officer. The county lieutenant and the military officer were in charge of the six cases, warehouses, prisons, etc., while the others were basically military officers.

The Suide Army controlled as many as fifty or sixty cities, villages, passes and forts, each of which had a population of several thousand to several hundred. There was also a garrison of troops in Suide City, with a total of ten thousand people stationed there.

Therefore, many military generals came, including the commander-in-chief of the wing, the commander-in-chief of the army, the commander-in-chief of the army, the commander, the deputy commander, and the head of the army, etc., more than a dozen of them came to welcome him.

The reason why these people came in such a large group is that the commanders-in-chief of the four wings of the Beijing camp are of the fifth rank, while the commanders-in-chief of the four wings of the border army are two levels lower, generally from the sixth rank to the seventh rank.

Su Yun, the Minister of Counsel, was a sixth-rank official in the imperial court, one level higher than the commander-in-chief of the military wing.

The status of civil officials in the Song Dynasty was much higher than that of military generals. Xu Xi alone could suppress a general like Zhong Yan, not to mention the commanders of the border troops.

Moreover, Su Yun was the military commander of Fuyan Road and was their immediate superior.

So it can be said that Zhao Xu's skills in officialdom were really powerful. Giving Su Yun the post of military governor of Suide allowed Su Yun to avoid the control of Zhong Yan and act freely in Suide City. And the post of military commander made the border army generals dare not be negligent.

(End of this chapter)