Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 296 National War! National War! (4.4k)

Su Yun's small step was a big step for the people of Song.

How could such a big thing as a mysterious cavalry attacking Xingqing Prefecture be kept secret? Just when Su Yun entered Yanzhou City, the news had already crossed mountains and rivers and reached Liao and Song countries.

We don’t know what the Liao Kingdom dared to do, but the Song Dynasty was in an uproar.

Because Zhao Xu was finally able to take charge of the affairs of the court of the Song Dynasty, a large-scale officialdom struggle was stopped. Wang Gui, Cai Que and others were all given copper coins to apologize for their crimes, and the oil in the frying pan had just calmed down.
However, what happened in the northwest was like a bucket of cold water that was suddenly poured into the boiling oil pan. With a bang, the oil pan exploded!
What place is Xingqing Prefecture of Western Xia?

What does it mean that the Jingsai Army led by Su Yun directly attacked Xingqing Prefecture?

Since the establishment of the Western Xia Kingdom, although it had its share of victories and defeats against the Song Dynasty, it ultimately occupied an advantageous position and thus maintained a strategic initiative over the Song Dynasty for a hundred years.

The Song Dynasty also struggled for more than a hundred years, trying every possible means to conquer Western Xia, but most of its efforts were limited to causing trouble south of Hengshan and near Xihe.

The most exciting event of the Song Dynasty was the five-way attack on Xia led by Zhao Xu in the fourth year of Yuanfeng. Among them, Liu Changzuo's troops in Jingyuan Road fought bravely and took advantage of the victory to reach the city of Lingzhou.

However, Gao Zunyu lacked an overall grasp of the battle situation, and blindly ordered Liu Changzuo to directly attack the city in the absence of siege equipment and insufficient logistics. The Song army stationed troops under the fortified city, but failed to capture it after 18 days of siege.

The Western Xia army released water from the Yellow River canal to flood the Song army's camp and cut off their supply of food and money. Many Song soldiers died of freezing, drowning, and hunger.

The Song court therefore ordered the army to return. In this battle, the Song army only occupied Yin, Shi, Xia, You and some military points on the north side of Hengshan, which made the Western Xia dare not cultivate more than 200 miles along the border of Hengshan.

Compared with the original intention of destroying Western Xia, the results of the war were indeed mediocre, but this was already the pinnacle of the proactive offensive against Western Xia in more than a hundred years.

——At least we’ve reached Lingzhou, right?

However, this five-pronged attack on Xia was the result of Zhao Xu's accumulation of power over more than ten years of reform. It was finally a sharp blow, but it ultimately failed.

But Su Yun, with three thousand Jingsai troops, actually marched straight to Xingqing Prefecture, put his knife to the heart of Western Xia, and even forced Empress Dowager Liang to hunt in the north!
Good guy!
The people of Song Dynasty thought that Su Yun's last expedition of thousands of miles to turn the five states of Dingnan in Western Xia into a candied haws was a feat comparable to that of the Han Dynasty's Guanjun Hou. But they did not expect that Su Yun would do something even bigger this time and actually went straight to the capital of Western Xia!

If this news had not been sent back through the court's many secret spy channels and from the various northwestern commanders, especially the Dingbian Army that Su Yun had borrowed to pass through, the court would not have dared to believe it!
Just imagine, if the Xixia people fought all the way to Kaifeng Prefecture...

The thought of this made everyone who knew about this tremble all over.

Later, more detailed battle reports were transmitted back. Su Yun successively defeated tens of thousands of Yanzhou troops (actually only five or six thousand), twenty or thirty thousand Jingzhou troops (actually only more than ten thousand), and twenty or thirty thousand Huaizhou troops (actually also more than ten thousand). Together, the three thousand Jingsai troops led by Su Yun defeated nearly one hundred thousand Western Xia troops along the way!
And then news came that Su Yun had occupied Yanzhou City and cut off the food supply of the 300,000-strong Western Xia army!

When this news came out, everyone in the court was speechless.

What kind of god of war is this?
Can our Song Dynasty produce a god of war of this level?
With only 3,000 cavalrymen, he tore the face of a country that had been able to take the initiative in fighting against the Song Dynasty for a hundred years into this state?
If we had brought more soldiers and horses, wouldn't we have destroyed the Western Xia?
Of course, this idea is just a thought.

In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that what Su Yun did was just to catch Xixia off guard.

But this did silence those who had attacked Su Yun before.

As for Zhao Xu, he knew more because Su Yun would write memorials to inform him of everything he had done in the northwest.

This time, Su Yun led the 3,000 Jingsai troops and defeated the 100,000-strong army of Western Xia. First of all, it was naturally because of Su Yun's superb command art, but the iron must be strong before it can be forged. Without the 3,000 Jingsai troops, no matter how powerful Su Yun was, it would be difficult to defeat the 100,000-strong army.

Therefore, Zhao Xu finally understood how powerful Su Yun’s large-scale military training in the northwest was!

But these are all things for the future. The most important thing now is to support Su Yun.

Su Yun cut off the supply route of the 300,000-strong army, leaving the five states of Dingnan isolated. At this moment, if he did not seize this opportunity, he would be letting down the blessings of his ancestors!

Zhao Xu immediately convened a small court meeting, summoning the heads of the three provinces and six ministries, the Three-Class Court, the Privy Council, the Hanlin Academy, etc. to discuss how to fight next.

Unlike the various voices before, the anti-war voices this time were much smaller. In the face of Su Yun's amazing performance and such a good opportunity, no one dared to talk about surrender anymore.

Therefore, Zhao Xu formulated a strategy to annihilate 300,000 Western Xia troops and capture the five states of Dingnan.

Zhao Xu deployed as follows:

The Xihe Route Army marched forward to attract the forces of Zhuoluo and the Southern Army Division;

The Huanqing Road Army advanced to attract the Xishou Baotai Army's forces;

The troops of Jingyuan Road advanced to attract the troops of Jingsai Army;

The Hedong Route Army advanced to attract the Xiangyou Army Commander and the Zuoxiang Shenyong Army Commander;
The Fuyan Road army confronted the Western Xia army head-on.

According to the battle plan, Jingyuan and Huanqing routes would jointly take Hongzhou and advance to Youzhou, Hedong and Fuyan routes would first capture Yinzhou and Longzhou and join forces at Xiazhou, and finally the four routes would retain Yanzhou and completely incorporate the five states of Dingnan into the territory.

Afterwards, Zhao Xu also asked Tubo to send troops to cross the Yellow River to capture Liangzhou in order to tie down the right wing of Western Xia.

This was actually another five-pronged attack on Xia, but this time Zhao Xu's strategic goal was not as big as before. He only wanted to capture the five states of Dingnan.

If we take over the five states of Dingnan, Western Xia will no longer have any strategic defenses. At that time, no matter whether the Song Dynasty wants to defend or attack, it will be able to gain a strategic advantage!
But this is difficult to comment.

After the Huanqing Army broke through Xiamazhai and took control of Qingyuan Military City, they contacted Yanzhou. When Su Yun saw the arrival of the Huanqing Army, he was overjoyed and handed over Yanzhou City to the Huanqing Army for garrison, while he took three thousand Jingsai Army out of the city.

Then it’s hunting time!

The Huanqing Army occupied Yanzhou, the Hedong Army attacked the Zuoxiang Shenyong Army, and the Fuyan Army targeted Yinzhou, completely locking up the 300,000-strong Western Xia army in the five states of Dingnan.

Of course, it’s not that they can’t escape, but if they do, they will have to hand over the five states of Dingnan.

And now is the time to close the door and beat the fallen dog. Su Yun is naturally unwilling to defend Yanzhou City to the death. The Jingsai Army he led is cavalry, and defending the city is the biggest waste!

At this moment, the Fuyan Road Army is the main force against the Western Xia Army. He needs to go back to take command and seize this best opportunity!

Su Yun returned to Yanzhou from Dingbian Army and received an order from Zhao Xu. Zhao Xu laid out the entire strategy and told Su Yun to defend Fuyan Road and cooperate with Li Changzuo of Huanqing Road and Lu Huiqing of Hedong Army Road to capture the five states of Dingnan. As for Li Xian of Qinfeng Road, Zhao Xu did not mention much about him. The purpose of that place was just to attract the military strength of Western Xia and it had little to do with the main battlefield of Fuyan Road.

After reading it, Su Yun made a brief guess and felt that this strategy was quite standard. It was certainly not radical, and was even a little conservative. However, if you think about what Zhao Xu and the Song Dynasty had experienced, you can understand why they were so cautious. There was no other way. They had suffered too much.

It's good to be cautious.

However, the emperor and his ministers in the court were cautious, but the generals on the front line had different ideas.

Li Changzuo, the governor of Huanqing Road, was relatively cautious, but his generals were very enthusiastic in requesting to fight. According to them, Western Xia had reached the point of national exhaustion, and they sent Su Yun with three thousand soldiers to break through the entire defense line. This showed that after three major wars in three years, Western Xia was already exhausted, and now was the time for them to make achievements!
Although Li Changzuo felt something was not right, after all, a war was imminent and it was a good thing for the soldiers to have high morale. He could only remind them to be careful and not to advance rashly, and then began to plan the attack.

The main task of Huanqing Road was to defend Yanzhou, but the generals under his command were not satisfied with this and insisted on sending troops to attack Hongzhou.

Li Changzuo still felt something was wrong. Although the court asked the Huanqing Route Army to assist the Fuyan Route Army in taking Hongzhou, Li Changzuo himself felt that with the strength of the Huanqing Route Army, they could only defend Yanzhou while defending Huanqing Route. If they had to divert troops to attack Hongzhou, they would probably not be able to capture either place.

But all his generals spoke highly of him, and even his trusted generals came to see him privately, and their words changed Li Changzuo's mind.

This general said: "Jinglüe, Yanzhou was handed over to us by Su Yun, and guarding Huanqing Road is our responsibility. We have not made much credit for doing these two things well.

In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, we launched five expeditions against Xia. Originally, our army had the most fruitful results, but in the end, we ended up with nothing good. You could have moved up a few steps, but instead you were sent here.

You are of course a man of high character. I am old and nothing special, but my brothers are still young and want to make achievements. Otherwise, how can they give their wives and children titles?"

After hearing this, Li Changzuo felt somewhat helpless. Blocking someone's financial path is like killing their parents, and blocking someone's career path is like digging up their ancestors' graves. If he insisted on stopping others from making achievements, even if he was a governor, he would eventually be hated.

Li Changzuo thought about it and agreed, but he still summoned all the generals and ordered: "The Western Xia are brave and valiant. Although we have the upper hand now, we still cannot be careless..."

Li Changzuo gave sincere and earnest warnings for a long time, but his generals did not appreciate it.

In the tent, everyone was submissive, but outside, some generals said privately: "Li Jinglie must have been scared out of his wits in the fourth year of Yuanfeng. Who knew that the time has passed and the situation has changed!
The Western Xia was indeed powerful at that time, but now even Su Yun with 3,000 people can directly attack Xingqing Prefecture. We are just defending Yanzhou and attacking Hongzhou. What does that matter?
Let's fight hard and show Li Jinglue what we can do!"

The other generals also laughed loudly.

Lu Huiqing in Hedong Road probably experienced something similar, but Lu Huiqing was extremely majestic. If a general objected, Lu Huiqing would directly arrest the person, tie him up outside the tent and whip him dozens of times. For a moment, the army was in silence.

Although Su Yun was facing the main force of the Western Xia army, he was not afraid at all and directly advanced towards Yinzhou.

Although the Western Xia army is said to have 300,000 troops, Yanzhou has been occupied and is surrounded by enemies. Therefore, the 300,000 troops can only be divided into garrisons in the five states of Dingnan and various major military headquarters.

Some people asked if it would not be better to gather the 300,000 troops together, and wasn't it a big taboo to divide the troops like this?

In fact, if the grain route is not cut off, it would be a good thing to concentrate it for use. But after the retreat is cut off, if you want to hold it, you must stabilize a relatively large area that can be used for maneuvering, also called a strategic buffer.

If an army of 300,000 were trapped in a very small area, the battle would be largely lost.

Therefore, the Western Xia army had to maintain the five states of Dingnan, and could only divide its troops to garrison and wait for Xingqing Prefecture to send troops to open up the Yanzhou passage. Once the passage was opened, their chess game would be alive.

A big battle is about to break out.

In mid-July, the Hedong Army marched westward to attack the Zuoxiang Shenyong Army Command, and another large army bypassed Mingtangchuan and headed straight for Xiazhou.

The Huanqing Route Army defended Yanzhou, and later another army began to attack Hongzhou.

Su Yun ordered the Bao'an Army to hold back Longzhou and focus their main energy on attacking Yinzhou City.

For a time, hundreds of thousands of troops began to fight each other in the small area of ​​Dingnan Five States.

When Su Yun was weak against a strong opponent, he basically relied on surprise tactics to win. But now he had 30,000 to 40,000 imperial guards trained by him, plus 50,000 to 60,000 garrison troops, foreign soldiers, archers, etc., a total of hundreds of thousands of troops at his disposal. He commanded the troops to attack Yinzhou with an upright formation.

Those who are good at defending a city are naturally also good at attacking it.

The various siege weapons of the Song army were not comparable to those of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties, and under Su Yun's command, the pressure put on the defenders of Yinzhou City was unprecedented.

When Qi Keyong talked about Su Yun's command ability with others in private, he always admired his various strange and bizarre fighting methods, but he did not say much about Su Yun's command of the army in a fair confrontation, because Su Yun did not really demonstrate his ability in this area.

In the battle of Mizhi, it was actually Qi Keyong himself who commanded the battle.

But when the attack on Yinzhou began, Qi Keyong witnessed Su Yun's ability in commanding large troops.

While watching Su Yun commanding the siege, he put himself in the shoes of the defender and thought about how to resist the siege commanded by Su Yun.

After doing this, I soon became sweaty.

Qi Keyong discovered that although there seemed to be nothing surprising about Su Yun's siege, he had a particularly good grasp of the rhythm, which was extremely pleasing to the eye. It sounded a bit mysterious, but it was understandable once it was explained clearly.

The so-called rhythm means that the coordination between various attacks is extremely harmonious, and the intervals between them are extremely clever. The attack of the Song army is orderly, and even the soldiers find it quite easy to execute it. But for the defenders, it feels that the attack of the Song army is as dense as a rainstorm!
Qi Keyong felt that if he were the defending general, just dealing with this attack would be enough to drain his brain.

In fact, the same was true for the Xixia defenders on the city wall.

The Xixia people were not very good at defending a city, but this Xixia garrison soldier was a Han Chinese who had been on many battlefields. The reason he was assigned to guard Yinzhou, the most important fortress, was naturally because he was good at defending a city.

But facing the Song army commanded by Su Yun, he became flustered and overwhelmed in just one hour.

In fact, there are quite a few defenders and sufficient defensive resources of all kinds in the city, but it still feels extremely difficult to deal with them.

What he didn't know was that the method Su Yun used was a technical means used by hackers in later generations, called DDos attack, which is an attack method that uses a large amount of redundant information to send a large number of requests to the target website, exhausting its server resources and preventing normal users from accessing the service.

Su Yun commanded the army to continuously launch attacks on the city walls using various means. Some of the attacks were probably not so effective, but he was always able to mobilize the troops on the city walls, making them overwhelmed.

In other words, Su Yun was actually testing the defender's brain functioning ability. When faced with a large amount of redundant information, the defender needed to expend a lot of brain power to think. Then on the second day, the defender felt that he could not hold on any longer and sent people to the rear for help.

(End of this chapter)