The consecutive victories in the first battle made the Song Dynasty monarchs, including Wang Chen, optimistic. They believed that the Xixia War could be resolved quickly, without the need for a year or several years as originally expected. Lingzhou has been captured by our army, and the army's front is directed at Zhongxing Mansion, the capital of Xixia. Zhongxing Mansion is the area around Yinchuan in Ningxia in later generations. Lingzhou is not far from Zhongxing Mansion. If the progress goes smoothly and no resistance is encountered, it will only take a few days to reach Zhongxing Mansion from Lingzhou. From the beginning of the war to the present, it has only been more than a month, and we have not encountered much resistance from the Xixia people. Many people despise the Xixia people and believe that as long as our army arrives at Zhongxing Mansion, the Xixia people will be subjugated. However, many times, things are not always smooth sailing, and soon came the news that our army's attack was blocked. North of Lingzhou, Han Shizhong's army forward was attacked by Xixia's elite cavalry. Although Han Shizhong was careful enough, he repeatedly ordered his generals to take adequate precautions to avoid being attacked by Xixia cavalry. However, the success of the continuous battles made many generals despise the combat power of the Xixia army. They completely forgot that before this, the Xixia army often beat our Song army. In order to seize the battle glory and not let others compete first, they marched north at a very fast speed, and the communication and cover between the various departments were not done well. As a result, they were severely damaged by the Xixia army who took advantage of the darkness to attack suddenly and suffered heavy losses. According to the troops reported by Han Shizhong, a total of three military guards were attacked desperately by the Xixia people. Although Han Shizhong personally led the main force to rescue him after receiving the distress signal, the desperate fighting style of the Xixia people still cost our army a heavy price. At the cost, nearly 25,000 Song troops were unfortunately killed in battle, and a large number of weapons and explosives were lost. These three military guards basically lost their combat effectiveness, and Han Shizhong was forced to retreat to Lingzhou. "Oh my God, Han Shizhong actually lost 25,000 troops?" After receiving the military report from Han Shizhong, Wang Chen and other colleagues were stunned. Such a huge loss. This was the most severe attack on the Song Dynasty's army in the past two years, which naturally surprised everyone. "However, after Wang Chen analyzed in detail all the battle reports sent by Han Shizhong and his own apology to the court for this, he probably analyzed the reasons clearly. A very important point is that the Xixia people lost no fewer people than our army in this battle. According to Han Shizhong's estimate, the number of Xixia soldiers killed in the battle was at least 30,000 to 40,000. It may even reach more than 50,000. The Xixia people secretly attacked the three military guards who were rushing forward at night. After receiving the distress message from the several military guards who were advancing forward, Han Shizhong devoted all his efforts to the rescue. In this way, the number of troops invested by our army was at least 100,000. , and this time the Xixia people also invested at least 150,000 troops, or even more. Moreover, the Xixia sergeants were completely desperate when charging and fighting, fighting to the death, and very few people surrendered. From the analysis of these situations, the Xixia people fought with our army with the determination of "rather to have their jade broken than to be destroyed." The troops they attacked should be the most elite troops in their country. From this point we can draw the conclusion that the Xixia people are risking their lives. They pressed forward with all their strength, attacking and killing at all costs. The purpose was to block our army far away from Zhongxing Mansion and prevent their country from being captured by our army. To put it another way, the attack of the Xixia army was a "destruction of both the jade and the stone" approach. If our army withstands the Xixia people's attack of mutual destruction, then the Xixia people's will to resist will be disintegrated. "Order Han Shizhong to immediately stop resting in Lingzhou and continue the northern attack!" Wang Chen decisively issued a new order. He also issued a mobilization order, ordering the supplementary military guards assembled in Shaanxi and Hedong areas to quickly go north for reinforcements and never give the Xixia people a chance to breathe. Xixia has a total of about 500,000 troops. If all of their people are soldiers, they will not exceed one million at most. It takes a period of time to mobilize all the people as soldiers, and it will also take a certain amount of time to assemble the half a million troops scattered throughout the country. Our army advanced rapidly. The Xixia army had no time to assemble, so the troops they sent to sneak attack Han Shizhong's troops should be the troops and horses that could be assembled temporarily with all the national strength. Han Shizhong's troops had already severely damaged the troops and horses that Xixia could assemble in a short period of time. If our army continues to attack the north regardless of casualties, the resistance of the Xixia people will become weaker and weaker. After analyzing this, Wang Chen did not blame Han Shizhong at all, and ordered the Han troops to continue the northern attack, and to speed up the attack, and strive to capture Zhongxing Mansion before the rest of Xixia troops gathered there. However, Wang Chen knew that the order he gave might be too late, and as a few days passed, the fighter plane might be lost. Han Shizhong¡¯s commanding skills are still a bit lacking. If he could recognize this when he was attacked, he should not have retreated to Lingzhou, but continued to attack the north at all costs when the Xixia army also suffered heavy losses. But Wang Chen also knew that as the commander-in-chief of the army, Han Shizhong had a lot to do with himself.After being attacked so fiercely by the Xixia people, the troops must have had some scruples, fearing that the Xixia troops would continue to reinforce them, so they were forced to retreat to Lingzhou. From another perspective, as the commander-in-chief of the army, it is understandable to make such a decision to clean up the remaining soldiers and rebuild their morale before fighting again. But Wang Chen can consider the problem from an overall perspective. After all, Wu Jie's men and horses are in the process of rapidly attacking to the west. Judging from the crazy actions of the Xixia people, they did not expect that Wu Jie's men and horses would attack from the east. The Xixia people The response was to use all our strength to resist the Song Dynasty's northern attack force. As long as Han Shizhong's troops attacked with all their strength, the resistance Wu Jie's troops encountered would definitely be negligible. Wang Chen reported his intention to Han Shizhong urgently, asking Han Shizhong to make a judgment based on the battlefield situation. If the situation allowed, he would continue to attack the north immediately. Han Shizhong received Wang Chen's reply on the third day after sending the emergency report of the attack. After carefully considering and analyzing the newly received intelligence, Han Shizhong immediately recognized Wang Chen's analysis and immediately ordered the entire army to continue. Attack the north and fight the Xixia people at all costs. Wang Chen's reply did not contain any intention of reprimanding or punishing him, which made Han Shizhong and his generals breathe a sigh of relief. After telling the soldiers that this was the Xixia people's last stubborn resistance, the soldiers were temporarily extinguished. The morale has been restored to a certain extent. When Han Shizhong's troops suffered a setback and continued to advance north after receiving Wang Chen's letter, Wu Jie's 100,000 elite cavalry were galloping on their way to attack Zhongxing Mansion. Because the Xixia people transferred all their troops to the south in an attempt to resist the Song army attacking from the north along the Fu and Feng lines, the defense on the eastern front of Xixia was very weak. It was as if they were in uninhabited territory and encountered almost no major resistance. . The only larger-scale battle was when Wu Jie personally commanded tens of thousands of cavalry to encircle and annihilate nearly 3,000 Xixia troops. It didn¡¯t take much effort for tens of thousands of cavalry to deal with the three thousand Xixia troops, and it hardly slowed down Wu Jie¡¯s attack. In the end, they reached the outskirts of Zhongxing Prefecture one day earlier than Han Shizhong¡¯s troops. Xixia's land area is not large, and Zhongxing Mansion is in the east of the country. Whether the Song Dynasty army attacks from the south or the east, the distance it has to travel is not very far. The place where Wu Jie's tribe started to attack was far away from Zhongxing Mansion. It was only six to seven hundred miles away, and the cavalry's rapid attack could reach it in a few days. The elite cavalry led by Wu Jie attacked from the east. This was something the Xixia people never thought of. Their newly assembled troops were defeated by the sudden attack of Wu Jie's army. Wu Jie's tribe quickly attacked the city of Zhongxingfu. After receiving the report from Wu Jie's people, Han Shizhong was shocked and ordered his troops to attack quickly at all costs, trying to work with Wu Jie's troops to defeat Zhongxing before King Qin's troops from Xixia arrived in large numbers. The government was breached. The Xixia army was attacked by the Song Dynasty army from the east and suffered heavy losses. About half a day after Wu Jie's troops attacked the outskirts of Zhongxing Prefecture, Han Shizhong launched a crazy attack on the Xixia army that was blocking them. attack. Those generals of the Song Dynasty who had suffered losses and lost face due to the Xixia raid, all led their men and horses to rush in desperately as if they had been given blood. Poor Xixia army, some of the explosives they captured that were originally equipped by the Song army became trophies of the Song army again before they could get familiar with them and put them to use. After three days of fierce fighting outside Zhongxing Mansion, the Song army finally annihilated most of the Xixia army and completed the siege of Zhongxing Mansion after paying a heavy price. It¡¯s just that Wu Jie¡¯s troops, who were rushing quickly, did not carry a large amount of siege equipment, while Han Shizhong¡¯s men and horses in front of the attack carried a limited number of siege equipment, including ladders and heartless cannons. If we rush to launch an attack on the strong city of Zhongxing Mansion, we will pay a heavy price. Therefore, after joining forces with Han Shizhong's troops, Wu Jie did not immediately issue an order to attack the city, but only surrounded Zhongxing Mansion. They sent personnel every day to yell at the city gates that Li Qianshun and the upper-level Xixia officials should surrender, and fired letters of persuasion into the city. This time, the results achieved by the two armies of the Song Dynasty in their rapid attack on Xixia were similar to the situation when the Jin people attacked south and quickly advanced to the gates of Kaifeng in the first year of Jingkang. It can be said that most of the military power in Xixia has not been destroyed yet. They still have the strength to counterattack, but the Song Dynasty army that attacked quickly has besieged their capital. This is the same as what happened to Jingkang Yuan. . The method adopted by Wu Jie was also similar to that of the Jin people, that is, they were not in a hurry to attack the city, but focused on attacking the heart first, preparing to negotiate with the Xixia people, forcing them to sign an alliance under the city, and in the process of forcing them, they continued to gather troops and prepare to attack. City tools. As long as the Xixia people are unwilling to open the city and ask for surrender, the Song army will fully attack the city. Naturally, the Xixia people did not expect that what happened in Kaifeng a few years ago would now happen to them. ??At this time, the King Qin's troops and reinforcements they had recruited from all over had not arrived. "One thing the Xixia people don't know is that now our Song army has invaded the territory of the Jin Kingdom and is fighting fiercely with the Jin army. The reinforcements from the Jin Kingdom that they long for will never arrive.