Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 239 Passive Defense! (4k)

Although Su Yun and others treated each other solemnly, they were not overly worried.

The Song Dynasty used its abundant financial resources to build a large number of village-style fortresses on the northwestern border. The court allocated funds to allow the people to reinforce their own villages into fortresses, and at the same time they were responsible for defense.

As compensation, villagers will be exempted from most taxes and other benefits.

Therefore, this kind of semi-militarized village quickly sprang up in the northwest, forming a large number of large and small fortresses.

Qingbianzhai is the largest fortress near Hengshan, and near Qingbianzhai, there are many large and small folk fortresses that can support each other.

Relying on the fortress tactics, the Song Dynasty's ranger troops could quickly maneuver between the fortresses to harass, raid and cut off supply lines of the Western Xia army.

In this way, the advantages of both sides were transferred to each other, and the situation of the battle was reversed.

With the existence of these fortresses, defense becomes much easier, so Su Yun and others are not too worried and just need to follow the previous strategies.

But the following information made Su Yun and others really nervous.

The Western Xia army did not bypass the fortresses as usual and head straight for Qingbianzhai, Mizhizhai, Suide City, or even big cities like Yanzhou. Instead, they adopted a step-by-step approach to eliminate small fortresses one by one.

However, within a few days, dozens of forts were destroyed. Although they were all small forts, all the forts next to Qingbian Village had been completely destroyed.

Afterwards, the Western Xia army besieged Qingbian Village, which was a large fortress with two battalions of troops stationed there on a daily basis, as well as tens of thousands of civilians and abundant food and fodder.

Su Yun and the others have now figured out the Xixia people's routine. The Xixia people use this method to pull out nails one by one, so they don't have to worry about their food supply being cut off after they advance deeper. Moreover, after taking down these forts, all the food in the forts will belong to the Xixia army.

Moreover, Su Yun saw that the Xixia people began to rush to harvest rice near the fortress. Generally speaking, the Suide Army would be prepared to clear the fields before the Xixia Army attacked.

But this time the Western Xia army came too suddenly, and the spies in Western Xia did not send back any news, so they were overwhelmed.

"Let's discuss it. How should we deal with it?"

Su Yun summoned all the generals to discuss the matter and started by saying this.

"General, I think we should follow the old practice and hold the fortress firmly. When the Xixia army advances deeper, we can rely on the strength of the fortress to cut off their food supply. When they are exhausted, we can launch an attack!"

Su Yun looked at the person who spoke. The person was called Sun Rui, the commander of a battalion.

Su Yun looked at the others and said, "Whatever you think, please share your thoughts."

Military Commander Yao Shangzhi thought for a moment and said, "General, the Xixia army is large and good at field battles. We have no other options except to defend the fortress. I think it would be a good idea to use the old rules."

Su Yun looked at the others and asked, "Do you all think so?"

Most of the others nodded as well.

Su Yun looked at Qi Keyong and said, "General Qi, please explain the situation to everyone."

Qi Keyong said quickly: "The strategy adopted by the Western Xia army is different from before. Before, they usually targeted a large city and wanted to achieve success in one fell swoop. This has fallen into our trap. As long as they fail to capture the large city, it will only take ten days or half a month for them to fall into the dilemma of food shortage.

Now they are using the method of destroying the fortresses one by one. After destroying the fortresses, they use the food and fodder inside the fortresses to replenish them. As of today, they have destroyed fifty or sixty fortresses. At present, the main force of the Western Xia army has surrounded Qingbian Village. Qingbian Village is in danger!"

Yao Shangzhi, the military commander, said quickly, "That may not be true. The Xixia army has a force of 200,000 men. Just breaking down the fortresses to take out the food and rushing to harvest the rice will only delay the battle for a while, and it won't really solve the food problem.

However, the population of Western Xia is too small. If the 200,000 strong men delay here for too long, it will inevitably affect the insufficient domestic production of Western Xia. Therefore, they cannot be so patient to break down the fortresses one by one.

Therefore, I think this may be a trap set by the Xixia people. They first put on a posture of taking down the fortress step by step, then surrounded a large camp, forcing us to rescue it, and then surrounded the point and attacked the reinforcements, using the rapid mobility of their cavalry to annihilate our army!"

As soon as this was said, everyone nodded.

This guess is very likely. Su Yun has thought about it, but he is not particularly clear about the difficulty and cost of attacking the fortress, so it is difficult to judge whether this method is beneficial for the Western Xia army.

Su Yun asked: "What if the Xixia people use this posture to confuse us, make us stay put, let them do whatever they want, and then take the opportunity to destroy our main camp, what should we do?"

Everyone was stunned.

The military commander Zhai Zhihe frowned and said, "It's not impossible, but our stronghold is strong enough for the Xixia people to take it down. We can only trust that our comrades can hold on.

But if we send troops out, once they fall into the trap set by the Xixia people, we might lose a large number of troops, or even lose everything.”

Upon hearing this, Su Yun did not blame Zhai Zhihe, Yao Shangzhi and others for being afraid of fighting, because the Song army had indeed suffered such a loss.

During the Battle of Sanchuankou, Li Yuanhao sent a large army to pretend to besiege Yanzhou, and the Song Dynasty quickly sent generals Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun to reinforce.

When they arrived at Sanchuankou, they were ambushed by the Western Xia army and were heavily surrounded. So Liu and Shi had to lead their troops in a hard battle with the Xia army. Although the Western Xia army suffered heavy losses in this battle, the Song army also suffered serious losses, and thus lost the strategic initiative.

In the Battle of Dingchuanzhai, the Western Xia army tied down the Song Dynasty's border troops, leaving the Song Dynasty with no time to take care of the Guanzhong area. Then the Song Dynasty sent a strong force to take the opportunity to attack the Guanzhong Plain.

Li Yuanhao sent out two armies, one from Liufenbao and the other from Pengyang City to attack Weizhou.

Upon hearing the news, Wang Yan hurriedly sent Ge Huaimin and others to lead an army to reinforce Liufenbao. Li Yuanhao ambushed the Song army at Dingchuanzhai, and Song Yun was thus trapped in the siege of the Western Xia army. The Song army was defeated in this battle. Fifteen generals including Ge Huaimin were killed in the battle, and more than 9,400 Song soldiers were wiped out.

Battles like these occurred almost throughout the Song-Xia War, so the Suide Army generals were very wary of this.

Su Yun also agreed with the views of Yao Shangzhi and others, because he understood very well that with the Song army's field combat capabilities, if they fought against the Western Xia army outside the fortress, even if the Song army could win, it would only be a miserable victory.

The most likely thing was that it was just like the encounter he had experienced, where the Song army immediately collapsed as soon as the battle started.

After realizing this, Su Yun did not interfere any further. Veterans like Qi Keyong were naturally familiar with how to defend, so there was no need for him to comment. In other words, if he interfered too much, he would be suspected of being an amateur commanding experts.

Su Yun has read a lot of military books and has had several months of experience in the army, but if he thinks that he can command a large army in battle, he is courting death.

In this case, let Qi Keyong and others do what they are used to. However, Su Yun did not hide away, but took this opportunity to observe how Qi Keyong and others commanded the battle, how they arranged defenses, and how they handled military reports and intelligence.

Qi Keyong, Zheng Nian'an, Qi Ying and others also saw Su Yun's thoughts and explained them to Su Yun from their own perspective.

Su Yun therefore got an excellent learning opportunity.

What you learn from books is always superficial. You must practice it yourself to truly understand it.

Although Su Yun did not command personally, he observed from the side. While learning the command of Qi Keyong and others, he also connected the military books he had read and the half-understood military knowledge of later generations. Through this actual combat observation, he was able to integrate all of them.

Although he did not become a military master, he already had a preliminary understanding of war.

In this way, more than ten days passed, and Su Yun reaped great rewards, but the situation on the battlefield of the Suide Army became increasingly deteriorating.

Qingbian Village was not broken, but the Western Xia army continued to sweep the small fortress, and seemed to be enjoying it.

In the past ten days, nearly a hundred fortresses have been destroyed. Although the combined number of soldiers and civilians is no more than a few hundred, and some are even just small fortresses in small villages, a blank area of ​​dozens of miles has been cleared at the foot of Hengshan Mountain.

At this moment, not only was Qingbian Village isolated, but even the two extremely important fortresses, Funing City and Mizhi Village, had been exposed to the attack of the Western Xia Army!
Su Yun noticed that the expressions of Qi Keyong and others were becoming more and more solemn.

"How is the situation now?"

Su Yun asked. It was not that he couldn’t understand, but he wanted Qi Keyong and others to speak out so that he could get more information.

Qi Keyong said solemnly: "It seems that Xixia is determined to wipe out our fortresses this time. What they are doing now is to remove the fortresses one by one and take them for themselves as a forward fortress to attack us. In this way, our decades of efforts in the Song Dynasty may be in vain!"

Su Yun asked: "Can they hold on?"

Qi Keyong smiled bitterly and said, "Of course they can defend it, the Xixia people can also build a fortress.

In the fourth year of Xining, Liang Yimei heard that the Song Dynasty had newly appointed 42 generals in the five routes of Shaanxi and was preparing to launch a large-scale attack on Western Xia. He decided to make preparations in advance and built Luowu City to the north of Suide City to guard the important location of Hengshan.

Although it was lost once, it became the strongest fortress of Western Xia after it was recaptured. We have tried to attack Western Xia many times, but Luowu City has been an obstacle to our progress."

Su Yun nodded and said, "So, if we lose Qingbian Village, Funing City, and Mizhi Village, we will have to pay ten times the price to take them back in the future?"

Qi Keyong and others all nodded.

Su Yun nodded and said, "How did you solve this problem before?"

Qi Keyong smiled bitterly and said, "The Xixia people don't have this kind of perseverance. They just besiege the big city and attack the reinforcements. If they can't capture it, they will retreat in ten days or so."

Su Yun nodded and said, "So, the situation is indeed different this time, and you don't have the old rules to follow?"

Qi Keyong looked at the others, then nodded and said, "That's right."

Su Yun nodded and said, "In this case, let's discuss how to deal with it this time."

Everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke.

Su Yun called out Yao Shangzhi and asked, "General Yao, what do you think we should do?"

Yao Shangzhi frowned and thought for a while before saying, "What I mean is, continue to defend. Although the Xixia people have broken through many small fortresses, it is not easy for them to take down the big fortresses. If they can't take down the big fortresses, it will still be useless.

Moreover, after attacking so many forts, the Xixia people also suffered a lot of losses. If they suffered a major setback under a large fort, they might have to retreat. "

As soon as these words were spoken, the others also agreed and spoke in agreement.

Seeing this, Su Yun didn't say anything and agreed with the opinions of the others.

However, the next day, news came back from Mizhi Village that the Qingbian Village had been exhausted and was about to collapse.

After days of fighting, the soldiers in Qingbian Village suffered heavy casualties, as did the militia. The situation in the village is already unstable. I am afraid that in some time, even if the village is not breached by the Xixia people, a mutiny may occur in the village.

Su Yun asked Qi Keyong and others again, and they all looked pale. But when it came to sending troops to rescue, they shook their heads like rattles and refused to send troops no matter what.

But if you ask about the solution, the answer is stick to it. There is no other solution.

To be honest, based on Su Yun's estimation of the Song army's combat effectiveness, what Qi Keyong and others did might not be wrong. However, the reason why the Song army had such combat effectiveness was directly related to the actions of Qi Keyong and others.

If even the generals do not have a brave and courageous heart to fight, how can the soldiers have the courage to fight?

However, Su Yun's inner anger had reached its peak.

Over the past twenty days, the casualties Su Yun received every day had filled his desk. More than a hundred fortresses had been breached, with hundreds of people killed or a hundred killed in some. In total, more than 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers and civilians had been either killed or captured.

There were even many massacres in the fortress because the resistance of the military and civilians in the fortress was extremely fierce, causing heavy casualties to the Western Xia army. Once the fortress was broken, the Western Xia army carried out a massacre!

Su Yun was already furious when he saw the casualties, and the weakness of his generals made him unable to suppress his anger.

Of course, Su Yun still had some rationality in his heart. He knew that although Qi Keyong and the others were weak, the logic of their behavior was reasonable.

The existence of the Song Dynasty fortress is a war of attrition, and now it is just that Western Xia is willing to fight to the death with the Song Dynasty.

When the imperial court heard about Xixia's actions, they might have been celebrating.

After all, the cost of attacking a fortress is very high. The price Xixia had to pay for breaking through more than a hundred fortresses was naturally not small.

To capture large strongholds such as Qingbian Village and Mizhi Village would be enough to consume a large amount of Xixia's national strength. By the time Xixia's strength is exhausted, it would be time for the Song Dynasty to counterattack!
But Su Yun was still unwilling to give in.

(End of this chapter)