preface:
The Song-Xia War was intermittent, and according to the order of the reigning emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty, the war between the Renzong period and the Western Xia was classified as the First Song-Xia War, the Yingzong Period as the Second Song-Xia War, the Shenzong Period as the Third Song-Xia War, the Zhezong Period as the Fourth Song-Xia War, and the Song Huizong Period as the Fifth Song-Xia War.
Among them, during the First Song and Xia Wars, there were three large-scale battles such as Sanchuankou, Haoshuichuan, and Dingchuanzhai, all of which ended in the defeat of the Song army.
After the alliance of The Yuanyuan, the Relationship between Song and Liao entered a honeymoon period. The war that had lasted for thirty years between the two sides ended, and the border troubles in the north were greatly reduced. But wave after wave, wave after wave. After ending the war with the Liao, the border defense in northwestern Song ushered in a new enemy. He is Xixia.
The ancestor of the Western Xia clan, the Dang Xiang clan, originally lived in the southeastern part of Qinghai, and during the late Tang Dynasty, the leader of the Dang Xiang clan, Tuoba Sigong, assisted the Tang Dynasty in suppressing the Huangchao Rebellion, and was awarded the xia prefecture dingnan army jiedushi envoy, and was knighted as the Duke of Xia, and given the surname of Li. Since then, the Dangxiang clan has successively submitted to the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty as a fanzhen.
After Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne and became emperor, in order to eradicate the local threat to the central government, he took advantage of the internal instability of the Dangxiang clan to force the Dangxiang clan to sacrifice the land of the five states. Although, the leader at the time, Li Jiqian, raised the banner of self-reliance and recaptured his homeland in alliance with the Khitans. However, in the time that followed, the Dangxiang clan still maintained a vassal state posture towards the Song Dynasty.

Li Yuanhao, the son of Li Jiqian, was a good reader of military books, law, proficient in Chinese, Tibetan, sexually strong, and strategic, and the appearance of Li Yuanhao completely changed the situation in the northwest. After Li Yuanhao succeeded to his father's throne, he attacked Tubo in the south and Uighur in the west, and internally, he went to Li Zhi's surname, called himself the song name, and carried out a series of actions to call the founding of the emperor, and in the fifth year of Emperor Jingyou of Song Renzong (1038), Li Yuanhao broke away from the Song dynasty and established himself, after claiming the title of emperor, he went to the Song title, changed the Yuan "Heavenly Gift Law Yanzuo", and occupied northern Ningxia, a small part of Gansu, northern Shaanxi, eastern Qinghai, and parts of Inner Mongolia. History is called "Western Xia".
In the second year of emperor Renzong of Song (1039), Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao, wrote to the Northern Song Dynasty as emperor, hoping that the Northern Song Dynasty would accept this fact, and In June of that year, Emperor Renzong of Song issued an edict to remove Yuan Hao's official title and offer a reward for his arrest. Since then, the first Song-Xia War, which lasted for three years, broke out in full swing.
As early as before the establishment of western Xia, Li Yuanhao adopted the strategy of uniting the Liao and resisting the Song Dynasty, repeatedly raiding the borders of the Song Dynasty, plundering property, and using this to expand his territory and territorial area. Yanzhou is a place that is not only an important position on the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, but also the only entrance to and from the Song Dynasty in Western Xia. As a result, Yanzhou became Li Yuanhao's first war target against the Song Dynasty. Finally, in 1040, the Western Xia successfully launched the "Battle of Sanchuankou" against the Song Dynasty.
Sanchuankou was in present-day Shaanxi Province, where the three rivers of Yanchuan, Yichuan and Luochuan converged, hence the name "Sanchuankou". Li Yuanhao set up an ambush here, and his siege was Yanzhou City, a typical siege to help.
Li Yuanhao originally did not forget to send people to Yanzhou to surrender when he sent troops to surrender, so Fan Yong believed that Li Yuanhao would not commit Song's lies, and the garrison was weak, at this time the 100,000-strong army of Western Xia attacked, Fan Yong first thought of going to negotiate peace, but his men refused to obey, so they had to summon reinforcements to break the siege.
Those who received Fan Yong's request for help were Liu Ping, deputy governor of Huanqing, Shi Yuansun, deputy governor of Yanyan, Huang Dehe, the governor of Yanlu, and Wan Qianzheng and Guo Zun.
The Song army marched to the mouth of Sanchuan, where it was besieged by the main force of the Western Xia army, and the Song army lined up to fight.
So more than 10,000 Song troops vs 100,000 Western Xia troops.
At this time, the victory and defeat have long been predicted, and there is no suspense to speak of!
After the battle began, the Western Xia army crossed the Yanshui and fought, the Song army cavalry charged, especially the general Guo Zun, with an iron whip, iron gun, invincible, a whip killed the Western Xia general, the Song army cavalry followed Guo Zun back and forth to clash, the morale of the Song army was greatly boosted, but the number of Western Xia was too large, and the cavalry could not attack the core position of Western Xia.
When the Western Xia army was reorganized and besieged again, Liu Ping commanded the Song army to fire bows and arrows in unison, and at the same time, he was a pioneer and bravely stepped forward, during the battle Liu Ping was injured in the head and neck, the Song army was frightened and frightened, at this time it was already a big battle until dusk, Li Yuanhao grabbed the fighter, commanded the cavalry to attack the Song army position, the Song army retreated, at this time the capital supervised Huang De in the rear of the Song army, saw the Song army retreating, did not supervise the battle, but led the army to run first, Liu Ping's son pulled Huang De and horses, Ladu could not hold back, so the Song army collapsed.
This was a bitter liu ping, Guo obeyed, Liu Ping tried his best to prevent the retreat, leaving only a thousand people to continue to resist, and Guo Zundian escorted the Song army to retreat, alone into the Western Xia battle front, killing the Western Xia soldiers on horseback, the Western Xia could not resist, even retreated, even with the iron cable to try to stop, were interrupted by him, and finally the Western Xia army shot his warhorse with a bow and crossbow, besieged up, Guo Zun died on the battlefield.
Probably inspired by Guo Zun's death, although the Song army was defeated, it showed extraordinary courage, and these good boys followed the main general Liu Ping, retreated while fighting, fought fiercely for three days, and retreated to the southwest mountain and built seven fences.
In the night, two attempts were sent to persuade them to surrender, both of which were rejected by Liu Ping and his Song army, and Liu Ping led his army to attack the Western Xia army from behind the mountain, almost the entire army was destroyed, and Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun were captured.
Although Liu Ping's Song army was defeated at Sanchuankou, but it dragged the main force of the Western Xia army, the Song army defeated the Western Xia army many times in other places, the Song general Xu Dehuai even secretly attacked Li Yuanhao, the city of Yanzhou had not yet been breached, Fan Yong also knew that in the hold, the Western Xia army lost other battlefields, coupled with heavy snowfall, Li Yuanhao had to withdraw, and the siege of Yanzhou was lifted.
After Liu Ping was captured, he refused to give in and died of illness in Western Xia, while Shi Yuansun was released back to the Song Dynasty, feeling humiliated himself, and soon died of illness.
The Battle of Sanchuankou was a battle for Li Yuanhao to break away from the Song Dynasty and claim the title of empress, which began the prelude to the long-term conquest of Song and Xia. After this defeat, the Song army further attached importance to the border defense in the northwest. Western Xia rose with it, which in turn laid the foundation for the future three kingdoms of Liao, Song and Xia.