Chapter 328 Northwest Strategy
At the morning court session the next day, a group of civil and military officials finally stopped arguing about the issue of choosing a crown prince!
At this time, Western Xia had tens of thousands of troops deployed on the border, looking ready to take action, which frightened the officials in the court.

Although the emperor did not want to argue about the issue of the crown prince, he did not want to be invaded by Xixia, so he shouted:

"Don't you have any good ideas to repel the enemy?"

As soon as the emperor finished speaking, the whole court fell silent. A group of civil officials immediately looked at each other with a look of "What does this have to do with me?"

The military generals were different. They were all eager to take action and suggested leading troops to rush to the northwest!

Since the Qingli Peace Agreement, there has been no large-scale war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia for more than ten years.

Now that Western Xia has suddenly deployed troops on the border, the military generals and nobles are of course delighted, because only when a war breaks out will they have the opportunity to achieve great things!

However, as soon as the military generals and nobles opened their mouths, a group of civil officials ignored them, obviously not wanting the military generals to lead the troops into battle.

At this time, Duke Ying said: "Lanzhou is the gateway to the Western Regions and an important town on the Silk Road. How can the Song Dynasty give up such a good opportunity!"

When Wang Xianggong heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he understood what the Duke of England meant, and immediately said:

"What the Duke of England said makes sense!"

Afterwards, all the officials in the court immediately understood what the Duke of England meant and began to actively make various suggestions.

You say you want to beat him this way, he says you want to beat him that way, and then he says what you said is wrong and that you should beat him the way he says.

Moreover, each of them quoted from classics and spoke eloquently and eloquently, and all the exciting wars in the history books of the past were listed one by one for reference.

In the eyes of these civil officials, Xixia was as easy to deal with as a clay chicken or a clay dog. It seemed that as long as they opened their mouths, the enemy would automatically retreat five hundred miles!
However, they can only talk big. When it comes to real stuff, these military generals and nobles are still the professionals!
After an intense discussion, it was finally decided that Duke Ying would be appointed Jiedushi of Shaanxi, leading a group of nobles in Bian Jing and an army of 80,000 to rush to the support of Jingyuan Road and wait for an opportunity to act.

Although some civil servants still hadn't come to their senses, after being reminded by the people around them, they immediately understood the significance of it, and they also actively said:

"This matter concerns the safety of the Song Dynasty. We should let the Duke of Ying lead the troops to attack!"

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At this time, Western Xia was at its peak, and it controlled several states, including Xia, Yin, Sui, You, Jing, Ling, Hui, Sheng, Gan, Liang, Gua, Sha, and Su, namely northern Ningxia, northern Gansu, northern Shaanxi, eastern Qinghai, and parts of Inner Mongolia.

This time, they were ostensibly heading to Jingyuan Road instead of going to Yulin for support, so they naturally had other purposes!

More than ten years ago, Western Xia defeated Tubo and occupied Hexi and Lanzhou areas. Lanzhou was the gateway to the Western Regions and an important node on the Silk Road.

The Song Dynasty had long been eyeing Lanzhou and other places, and this unusual move by Western Xia naturally gave the Song Dynasty an excellent opportunity!

Once this trade route is opened, the entire court or the civil service group will benefit, and the military generals will gain military merit.

Afterwards, the Duke of Ying came to the camp, beat the drum to gather the generals, and announced the military order to rush to the rescue of Jingyuan Road. Lin Hao was appointed as the commander of the cavalry, leading 3000 armored cavalry of the Song Dynasty to set off in advance!

Before setting off, Lin Hao arranged two radio stations for the British Duke to use for communication with the rear!
Afterwards, Lin Hao came to a warehouse where there were a large number of prepared supplies. Lin Hao used the space equipment he made to frantically begin to transport food, supplies, bows and arrows, equipment and other supplies.

With space equipment, there is no need for civilians to transport supplies, so the cavalry can naturally travel light, and their mobility and flexibility are greatly enhanced!

As Lin Hao came to the farm of the Duke's Mansion again, the industrial base of Lin Hao had been improved in the past two years, and he was already able to carry out small-scale steel smelting. Therefore, Lin Hao had accumulated a lot of equipment in the past six months!

This time, Lin Hao plans to equip his troops with the best steel swords and armor. As for the replaced equipment, Lin Hao will also take it with him, as it will be of great use in the future!

Everything was ready, so Lin Hao led the cavalry and headed west!
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Afterwards, after half a month of travel, the 3000 cavalry led by Lin Hao finally arrived at Yongxing Road (Xi'an).

Don’t complain it’s slow. Lin Hao once thought that the cavalry’s marching speed should be able to cover 200 kilometers a day.

But after coming to this world and actually commanding the cavalry, he discovered that the speed of the cavalry was actually very slow.

Even in a forced march state, the daily distance was only 80 kilometers, while the normal speed was 35 to 50 kilometers.

This is still under good traffic conditions!
After Lin Hao arrived at Yongxing Road, he rested for two days and then set off again!
But they did not head west to Lanzhou, but instead headed north. After half a month of marching, they successfully arrived at Fuyan Road (Yan'an Prefecture)!
At the same time, an army of 80,000 troops from Bian Jing, claiming to have 200,000 troops, also arrived at Yongxing Road and continued westward to Lanzhou.

At this time, Western Xia had already received the news and knew that the Song Dynasty had sent an army of 200,000. However, they were unable to send out troops to fight!
Because since Li Liangzuo, Emperor Xia Yizong of Western Xia, ascended the throne, his mother, Queen Mother Mo Zang, and Mo Zang Epang have been in power.

However, Queen Mother Mo Zang was licentious and lustful. Because Li Shougui and Chi Duoji had competed for her favor many times, Li Shougui killed Queen Mother Mo Zang, and Mo Zang Epang wanted to kill Li Shougui, so now Western Xia was in chaos.

It was approaching August. After two and a half months of long march, Duke Ying finally arrived at Jingyuan Road. After resting for a few days, he marched to Lanzhou!

At this time, Western Xia had recovered from the chaos. Mo Zang Epang personally led 40,000 cavalry and 90,000 infantry, claiming to be an army of 250,000, and rushed towards Lanzhou in a mighty manner!
However, just after Mo Zang Epang led his troops to leave Xingqing Prefecture (Yinchuan), Lin Hao immediately received a telegram and then led the cavalry to continue northward towards the empty Jingbian County.

After taking Jingbian, Lin Hao immediately gathered the war horses with the Song Dynasty cavalry as the core, recruited Han people on the spot, and then quickly pulled out a cavalry.

Then he sent people to collect the supplies and concentrated them all in Lin Hao's space equipment, including killing all the cattle, sheep and livestock, and then throwing them into the vacuum space equipment as reserve military rations.

There were still a large number of Han people here at this time, so the recruitment was relatively smooth. Lin Hao used this model to head west.

Recruit the tribes you can from when you encounter them, fight those you cannot recruit, recruit again after the fight, and then harvest various supplies.

Lin Hao used this extremely cruel method to quickly raise a large cavalry team. The reason for using this method is that at this time, most places in Xixia still had a tribal system and they had no national consciousness or national consciousness.

As long as these tribes are given food and water and share the spoils, they will immediately attach themselves to the strong and plunder the weak. This is how they have always fought.

Lin Hao's speed of action was very fast. He would not stay in a place for too long after conquering it, and he acted in secret. Therefore, Xixia had not yet received the news of Lin Hao's surprise attack.

Fighting all the way like this, Lin Hao unexpectedly captured Yanzhou easily. Although Yanzhou also had a lot of troops stationed there, they were no match for Lin Hao!

At this time, it was less than 200 kilometers away from Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia.

Hundreds of tribes and villages of all sizes were raided along the way. Rumors began to spread in Western Xia that the Zhou army had invaded the country. Ordinary people began to panic, and Xingqing Prefecture also began to impose martial law.

Lin Hao's cavalry team has expanded to 30,000 people, and they cannot hide, so Lin Hao simply let the team rest in Yanzhou for three days before leading the troops to Xingqing Prefecture!
So much time had passed that Xingqing Prefecture naturally knew about the special force led by Lin Hao. However, at this time, the troops of Xingqing Prefecture had already been taken away by Mo Zang Epang, and only four or five thousand people were left behind.

But even so, the people of Xingqing Prefecture were confident in defending themselves. After all, most of the people Lin Hao brought were cavalry, and they had no siege equipment.

Therefore, after recruiting more than ten thousand civilians, they began to defend the city to the death!
However, what they didn’t know was that Lin Hao had prepared a big gift for them!
However, before that, Lin Hao still sent people to persuade them to surrender, but Li Liangzuo, the small ruler of Xingqing Prefecture, was stubborn and refused to surrender.

Therefore, Lin Hao didn't bother to talk nonsense with them and just took ruthless action!

"Boom boom boom!" Following several loud roars, a large section of the city wall of Xingqing Prefecture was blown off!

What Lin Hao used was not black gunpowder, but TNT that he made by himself. The amount used was not large but the effect was extremely strong!

Then the cavalry led by Lin Hao rushed straight to the collapsed city wall, and behind him was a large number of cavalry rushing straight to Xingqing Prefecture.

As for what the cavalry that rushed in would do, Lin Hao had no idea. Anyway, after he gathered the Han people, he would not care about anything anymore!
Three days later, the entire Xingqing Prefecture had calmed down. Then Lin Hao left more than 300 Song Dynasty cavalrymen and led 1,000 miscellaneous cavalrymen to garrison Xingqing Prefecture!

Lin Hao himself, with 2,500 Song Dynasty armored cavalry as the core, recruited more than 10,000 cavalry in Xingqing Prefecture. Together with the scattered cavalry he had gathered before, Lin Hao now had nearly 40,000 cavalry!

Lin Hao then used his illusion skills to lure the defenders of the four fortified cities of Lingzhou, Jingzhou, Huaizhou, and Shunzhou into surrender.

Every time he captured a city and accepted their surrender, Lin Hao would recruit cavalry.

As a result, the number of cavalrymen under Lin Hao's command increased, and became larger and larger!

But Lin Hao did not dare to delay too long, as the Duke of England had no strategic advantage in Lanzhou, so Lin Hao led 80,000 cavalrymen and continued to gallop southward!
With Lin Hao's capture of Xingqing Prefecture, Western Xia was directly divided into two parts.

In the northeast direction of the Hetao Plain, the Song Dynasty army in Yulin and other places also began to march towards Xiazhou, preparing to recover lost territory.

As for Lanzhou and the Hexi Corridor in the southwest, they were conquered by British troops!
At this time, Duke Ying was leading 80,000 troops to confront Mo Zang Epang in Lanzhou.

When the news of the capture of Xingqing Prefecture reached the Duke of England through radio waves, he was so happy that he went crazy.

His son has made a great contribution this time. As long as the army led by Mo Zang Epang is defeated, it will be a war to destroy the country!
So the Duke of Ying immediately gathered his troops and created a tense atmosphere in Lanzhou in order to prevent Mo Zang Epang from leaving with his troops.

Ten days later, the three armies of the Song Dynasty surrounded and trapped Mo Zang Epang near Lanzhou, but Lin Hao hurried over and arrived just in time for the Battle of Lanzhou!

At this time, Mo Zang Epang had already shown signs of defeat, because the news of Xingqing Prefecture being captured and King Li Liangzuo's death had spread throughout the army, so the soldiers had no will to fight.

Seeing that this was a rare opportunity, Lin Hao did not even bother to organize his cavalry and led them directly into Mo Zang Epang's army.

Lin Hao relied on his physical attributes that far exceeded those of ordinary people. He killed anyone who stood in his way on the battlefield. No matter how powerful the Xixia warriors were, they were no match for Lin Hao.

And with Lin Hao's sudden attack on Mo Zang Epang from behind, the news that Xingqing Prefecture had been breached was directly confirmed, and then Mo Zang Epang's army was defeated by Lin Hao!
After the battle, the Song army gathered the scattered horses. In this battle, they killed more than 20,000 Western Xia soldiers, captured more than 40,000 people, and the number of missing people was countless.

There were countless supplies seized, including more than 60,000 intact war horses. Together with Lin Hao's previous seizures, Lin Hao had a total of 120,000 war horses!
This time, Lin Hao also lost tens of thousands of cavalry, but Lin Hao didn't care about it. After all, most of them were Hu people, and he could just recruit more if they died.

In the Battle of Lanzhou, the Song Dynasty once again won a glorious victory. The key point was that this time was different from the previous times. This time, the enemy was annihilated in one fell swoop.

This is a war to annihilate a country!
Afterwards, the Duke of England, taking advantage of the great victory, led Lin Hao's cavalry as the vanguard, starting from Lanzhou, and marched westward along the Hexi Corridor, successively recovering Wuwei, Zhangye, and Jiuquan!
At this point the Hexi Corridor was recovered.

The other Song troops also launched a major counterattack and took over the entire Hetao Plain!
This battle lasted for more than a year. When Lin Hao originally wanted to continue fighting westward, he received a bad news!

According to news from the Liao radio station, the Liao emperor had repeatedly revealed in the court that he wanted to send troops south to threaten the Song Dynasty to give up its intention to attack Western Xia.

After all, Western Xia was like a needle. Every time there was a conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom, Western Xia would clash with the Song Dynasty on the border, consuming the Song Dynasty's energy!
The Song Dynasty was about to destroy Western Xia. What if the Song Dynasty, taking advantage of the victory, turned around and attacked the Liao Kingdom?
Soon, the latest news came from the Bian Jing Radio Station that the Song Dynasty court also intended to let them return to the court as soon as possible to guard against the Liao Kingdom!
Lin Hao knew that their battle this time was basically over.

In fact, Lin Hao himself knew that continuing to fight westward would not be worth the cost, after all, the Uighurs and Tubo were watching covetously.

Lin Hao really had the idea of ​​turning around to the northeast and continuing to attack the Liao Kingdom, but it was impossible this time.

After a year of fighting, the army was already exhausted and in urgent need of rest!
In fact, Lin Hao is already very satisfied with being able to fight to this point!
Afterwards, Lin Hao left some cavalry to temporarily garrison the Hexi Corridor, while Lin Hao himself led 50,000 elite cavalry and finally returned to the capital after a month.

When Lin Hao returned to the capital with 50,000 cavalry and the Duke of England returned to the capital with 60,000 infantry, both the emperor and the central government officials became extremely nervous!
(End of this chapter)