In November of the fifth year (1038) of emperor Jingyou of Song, Li Yuanhao, the head of the Dangxiang clan, with the support of Yeli Renrong, Yang Shousu and other trusted ministers, officially called the founding of the emperor at Xingqing Province (present-day Yinchuan, Ningxia), with the name of the country great Xia (historically known as Western Xia), and changed the Yuantian conferral ceremonial law Yanzuo.
However, the Northern Song Dynasty in the Central Plains was dissatisfied with Li Yuanhao's founding of the country, and not only did not recognize Li Yuanhao's throne, but also issued an edict to "cut off the official titles given to him" and stop mutual markets. At the same time, the Song Dynasty also posted lists on the border of Song Xia, offering a reward of heavy gold for the arrest of Li Yuanhao.
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Yuanhao had already used the policy of joining forces with the Liao dynasty to resist the Song Dynasty to attack the borders of the Northern Song Dynasty many times, plundering property on the one hand and expanding his territory on the other, and the humiliating concessions of the Northern Song ruling class also fueled Li Yuanhao's inflated ambitions.
After careful preparations, Li Yuanhao launched three major battles against the Northern Song Dynasty for three consecutive years, and all of them won great victories.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the first battle between Western Xia and the Northern Song Dynasty, the Battle of Sanchuankou</h1>
In order to force the Northern Song Dynasty to recognize the status of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao began a major attack on the Song Border. Yanzhou (延州, in modern Yan'an, Shaanxi) was both a military stronghold on the northwestern border of the Song Dynasty and a key point for western Xia access, so it became Li Yuanhao's first target in the war against the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the first month of the third year of the Western Summer Ceremony (Song Kangding, 1040), Li Yuanhao sent his dental colonel He Zhen to lead his troops to surrender to Li Shibin, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (present-day Northern Ansai County, Shaanxi), who did not recognize the conspiracy of the Western Xia and incorporated all these Western Xia soldiers into his army.
Seeing that the plan had succeeded, Li Yuanhao led tens of thousands of elite soldiers to violently conquer the security army (present-day Zhidan County, Shaanxi), followed by a non-stop attack on Jin Mingzhao, and those Western Xia soldiers who had surrendered also cooperated from the city and killed in large numbers, the Song army was defeated, and Li Shibin was captured alive by Li Yuanhao and cut off his ears.
After Li Yuanhao captured Jin Mingzhao, he marched south and went straight to Yanzhou. Fan Yong of Yanzhou Zhizhou panicked and almost wanted to negotiate and surrender, at this critical juncture, an elite Song army rushed to Yanzhou, led by the famous Song Dynasty general Yan Yan, Huanqing deputy governor Liu Ping, and Yan Yan deputy capital deployment Shi Yuansun (descendants of Shi Shouxin, the founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty).
This Song army was about 10,000 people, and when they reached Sanchuankou (三川口, in modern Yan'an, Shaanxi Province), five miles away from Yanzhou, they met the Western Xia army led by Li Yuanhao.
The Song army was originally small in number, and it was in a hurry to fight, although everyone fought bravely to kill the enemy, but the number of people in Western Xia was too large, and it was well trained, although it was also a heavy casualty, but it still killed one after another.
Huang Dehe, the capital of the Song army' rear army, saw that the Western Xia soldiers were numerous, and they fled after the battle, and the Song army collapsed.
Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun led the remnants of the Song army and the Western Xia soldiers to a fierce battle for three days, retreating all the way to the southwest mountain and setting up several villages to defend.
Li Yuanhao went to the front of the village to challenge and wanted to recruit Liu Pingren, but Liu Ping should not. Li Yuanhao led the cavalry to attack, the Song army was already exhausted, there could withstand the tiger and wolf impact, suddenly chaotic, was divided in two, Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun were captured, the remnants of the Song army were completely annihilated, and the Battle of Sanchuankou ended.
Li Yuanhao gathered heavy troops under the city of Yanzhou, but due to heavy snowfall and the strong walls of Yanzhou, the Western Xia cavalry did not have the corresponding siege equipment, and the Western Xia supplies could not keep up, so Li Yuanhao had to order the retreat.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the second battle between Western Xia and the Northern Song Dynasty, the Battle of Haoshuichuan</h1>
In February of the fourth year of the Western Summer Ceremony (Song Kangding II, 1041), Li Yuanhao led another 100,000 elite troops from The Folding Jiang (present-day Qianwangdong, Tongxin County, Ningxia) south to the Haoshuichuan (present-day northwest of Longde, Ningxia).
In order to give full play to the superiority of the cavalry, Li Yuanhao adopted the tactic of setting up ambushes and encircling and annihilating, ambushed the main force at the mouth of the Haoshui River, and sent a part of his troops to huaiyuan city (present-day Xiji County, Ningxia) to lure the Song army into the ambush circle.
Shaanxi Jingluo appeased the deputy envoy Han Qi when he learned that the Xia army was coming to attack, and ordered the deputy capital of Huanqing Road to deploy Ren Fu to lead tens of thousands of troops, detour to reach the Western Xia army, and wait for the opportunity to break the enemy.
On February 14, the Song army led by Ren Fu marched to the east of Yangmulong City (northwest of xinglong Town, Xiji County, Ningxia), found several silver clay boxes placed next to the road, opened the boxes, and more than a hundred sentry pigeons flew out, which was the signal of the Western Xia army to attack.
Before the Song army could be formed, it was attacked by the Western Xia cavalry. After a long period of fierce fighting, the Song army was confused and tried to resist according to danger. In the Xia army's formation, the two large banners were suddenly planted, waving left and left, waving right and right, condescending, left and right, the Song army suffered many casualties, ren Fu and other Song generals were killed.
On the same day, the Song generals Zhu Guan and Wu Yingbu marched to Yaojiachuan (the mouth of the Shizi Road River), and they were also under siege by the Western Xia army.
Wang Jue, the governor of the camp, led 4,500 people from Yangmulong City to support, but was also defeated by the Xia army. In this battle, the Song army was almost completely destroyed, and only more than a thousand people of Zhu Guan's army escaped.
After the victory of the Western Xia army, Li Yuanhao learned that Song Huanqing and Qin Fenglu had sent troops to the rescue, so he ordered him to return to the division.
In this battle, Li Yuanhao strategized, set up an ambush in advance, lured the Song army into submission, and then gave full play to the superiority of cavalry, made a surprise attack, and won a great victory in one fell swoop, which was a very successful ambush battle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the third battle between Western Xia and the Northern Song Dynasty, the Battle of Dingchuan village</h1>
After li yuanhao won two consecutive great victories against the Northern Song Dynasty, his momentum was even stronger, and he repeatedly invaded the northern Song borderlands.
In the autumn of the fifth year of the Western Summer Ceremony (1042), Li Yuanhao's adviser Zhang Yuanxian said that the elite troops of the Song Dynasty were gathered in the Song and Xia border areas, and the military strength of the Song Dynasty Guanzhong region was very weak, and if the Western Xia sent a force to tie down the army in the Song Dynasty border area, so that the Song Dynasty had no time to take care of the Guanzhong area, then a strong brigade could be sent to take the opportunity to capture Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi).
In late September, Li Yuanhao adopted Zhang Yuan's suggestion and sent 100,000 troops to divide into two routes and attack the Song again. He set out from Guyang City (southeast of present-day Guyuan, Ningxia) to launch an attack on Weizhou; all the way out of Liu Jianbao (northwest of present-day Guyuan, Ningxia), and attacked the Zhenrong army (present-day Guyuan, Ningxia), in an attempt to lure the Song army to attack and gather and annihilate it.
On the first day of the first leap month of September, Song Jingyuan Lu was slightly appeased and invited Wang Yan to learn that the Xia army was coming to attack, and ordered his deputy Ge Huaimin to lead an army from Weizhou (present-day Pingliang, Gansu) to WattingZhai (northeast of present-day Longde, Ningxia) to block the attack.
On the twentieth day, Zhao Xun, the governor of Jingyuan Road, believing that the Western Xia army was coming from afar and was conducive to a quick battle, suggested that the city of Malan (present-day northeast of Xunyi, Shaanxi) be grilled, strangled its way back, and held zhenrong to protect the grain route and wait for its soldiers to be tired. Ge Huaimin did not listen, and ordered the generals to divide their troops into four ways to settle the Sichuan Village.
On the 21st, Xiang Jin and Liu Zhanxing marched to Zhao Fuxin Fort (about northwest of present-day Guyuan, Ningxia), where they were intercepted by the Western Xia army and retreated to Xiangjia Gorge (near Zhao Fu New Fort).
Li Yuanhao took advantage of the situation and swung his army to advance towards the Song army. Ge Huaimin, Zhao Xun, Cao Ying, Ye Zhichun, and others guarded The Chuanzhai (present-day northwest of Guyuan County, Ningxia).
The Western Xia army destroyed the Banqiao, cut off the Song army's grain road and return road, and concluded that the water source of the Sichuan village was troublesome to the Song army.
Ge Huaimin led his army to attack in a column. Li Yuanhao gathered his troops to attack separately, when the fierce wind suddenly broke out, the flying sand was filled, the Song army was scattered, the camp was in chaos, and the soldiers were terrified and rushed to enter the city. Ge Huaimin was embraced by the public and was almost trampled to death. Zhao Xun led the sword and axemen and warriors to fight against the gate bridge, and the Xia army retreated slightly.
At dusk, the Western Xia army besieged the city. Ge Huaimin consulted with the generals and broke through the Zhenrong army. Zhao Xun was expected to be intercepted by the Xia army on the way, and he urged him to take it by surprise and detour to the city of Longde (present-day north of Longde, Ningxia), but the generals did not listen
At dawn on the twenty-second day, the Song army marched eastward, and when it was about to leave, some subordinates stopped the horse and asked for a change of lane, but Ge Huaimin did not allow it, and the southeast of the horse was driven for two miles, and the great wall trench bridge was broken, and the return road was blocked. Taking advantage of the chaos of the Song army, the Xia army cut off its rear road and rushed from all sides to kill them. Ge Huaimin and his generals Cao Ying, Zhao Xun, Ye Zhichun, Liu He and sixteen other Song generals were killed in battle, and nearly 10,000 Song troops were annihilated.
After Li Yuanhao won, he continued to march south, breaking through several villages in a row, reaching Weizhou, and in the 600-mile area, burning people's houses and destroying the city walled city, everywhere he went, the Song army defended itself.
In early October, Li Yuanhao learned that Fan Zhongyan led an army to help from Huanqing Road after being slightly appeased, but he was also held back by 200,000 soldiers on Shaanxi Zhulu, and did not go deeper, and plundered back.
In this battle, Li Yuanhao, anticipating the enemy's troops, first occupied favorable terrain and lured the Song army into battle, and then after cutting off its grain route and returning road, he gathered heavy troops to besiege and win in one fell swoop. The Song general Ge Huaimin did not understand the art of war, took the enemy lightly, and repeatedly refused the correct advice of the generals, which eventually led to the defeat and death of the soldiers.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the Western Xia victory, why did he go to the imperial title and claim the northern Song Dynasty? </h1>
These three major battles all ended with Li Yuanhao's great victory. Especially after the great victory of Dingchuan Village, Li Yuanhao was full of ambition, and even issued a message that "I want to come to Weishui in person, directly to Chang'an!" " words.
And when the news of the Song army's disastrous defeat on the battlefield reached the capital, Prime Minister Lü Yijian also exclaimed one after another, "One war is not as good as another battle, but it is terrible!" ”
During these three years, the Western Xia launched three large-scale wars against the Northern Song Dynasty in a row, and the Northern Song Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat, while the Western Xia all won victories.
However, what is unexpected is that after Li Yuanhao won, he proposed peace to the Northern Song Dynasty and declared himself a vassal to the Northern Song Dynasty.
Originally, although Li Yuanhao won on the battlefield, he also brought serious consequences to Western Xia: for example, due to the outbreak of war, the Northern Song Dynasty stopped the "gifts" of silver, silk, and money to Western Xia; closed the border farms and banned the entry of green and white salt produced by Western Xia, so that Western Xia not only lost its direct economic benefits, but also had a shortage of grain, silk, cloth, tea and other daily necessities in its territory, and the price was expensive.
Successive years of war have exhausted the wealth of the Western Xia people, the people's resentment has boiled over, and the tribal people in the territory have revolted or fled to the Song Dynasty.
At this time, the Western Xia forces were actually in the situation of "half of the people who died and created the ejaculates, and the people were trapped in the point collection", and it was already very difficult for Li Yuanhao to start a war again. Li Yuanhao also realized that defeating the vast Song Dynasty was no easy task.
At the same time, there was a dispute between the Western Xia and the Liao over the subordinate tribes, which led to the deterioration of relations and the beginning of the rupture of the alliance. Li Yuanhao felt isolated, and in order to avoid being attacked on both sides, he also had to make peace with the Song Dynasty.
Based on the above reasons, Li Yuanhao began to seek peace with the Song Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Qing calendar of Emperor Renzong of Song (1044), the Western Xia and the Northern Song Dynasty reached an agreement, known in history as the "Qing Calendar Peace Conference", and the peace treaty stipulated that the Western Xia would be subject to the Song and cancel the imperial title, and Li Yuanhao accepted the title of Song and called the Lord of Western Xia; the Song Dynasty gave the Western Xia 50,000 taels of silver, 130,000 silk horses, and 20,000 catties of tea every year.