On the eighth day of the first month of the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1067 AD), Emperor Yingzong of the Northern Song Dynasty collapsed at the Funing Hall, and Emperor Yingzong of Song's eldest son Zhao Zhongjun took the throne, known as Emperor Shenzong of Song (renamed Zhao Yan), becoming the sixth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty.
After Emperor Shenzong ascended the throne, he was deeply worried about the poverty and weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty, and he had always admired Wang Anshi's talents, so after taking the throne, he ordered Wang Anshi to implement the change of law and revitalize the Northern Song Dynasty, which was to change the law for Wang Anshi, also known as the Xining change law. Under the presidency of Wang Anshi, new laws such as uniform transportation, green seedlings, farmland water conservancy, exemption from military service, municipal easy, baojia, fangtian average tax, and baoma have been released one after another.
Since the Song and Xia dynasties celebrated the peace talks, the two sides have maintained peace for nearly half a century. In the song shenzong period, the Western Xia foreign relative Empress Liang and her brother Liang Yiburi were in power, the country declined, political corruption, the Western Xia people complained, and the people did not have a good life. Empress Liang repeatedly sent troops to attack the Song Dynasty, hoping to increase domestic political prestige, but all of them failed miserably.
At this time, Emperor Shenzong of Song considered Western Xia unreasonable and ordered the destruction of Western Xia. In November of the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081), the Song army defeated the Xia army at Gyeongju (present-day Qingyang, Gansu) and occupied more than 2,000 miles of land in Western Xia. Emperor Shenzong was overjoyed, and ordered Xu Xi and The Governor of Yandao Province to lead an army to attack Xia in September of the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082) and prepare to destroy Xia in one fell swoop.
Xu Xi and others led 25,000 forbidden troops, Jing Siyi had 4,000 forbidden troops, and another 40,000 van troops, with a total strength of about 70,000 people, invaded the Hengshan area of Western Xia and directly approached the Western Xia capital Xingqing Province (present-day Yinchuan, Ningxia). In order to eliminate the Western Xia, Xu Xi and others built Yongle City in Yongle River (in present-day Ningxia), believing that Yongle was not far from the ancient city of Yinzhou, with cliffs on three sides and no water springs, and lied that the construction of the city in Yongle was bound to fail. Xu Xi angrily rebuked Seed Chen, and went to the imperial court to impeach Seed Chen's arrogance. He also transferred the seed to Yanzhou, and the seed was resentful. By the sixth day of the first month of September, Zhucheng, Xu Xi ordered Jing Siyi to lead 4,000 people to defend the town, and he brought more than 8,000 people from the Chinese army, the Right Yu Hou Army, and the Right Army back to Mizhi.
Within ten days, the Western Xia Liang clan sent the commandery of the army Ye Shuma and Jia To bury them, leading 300,000 soldiers of the Sixth Supervision Army to attack Yongle City, and Qu Zhen was busy reporting Xu Xi. Xu Xi, together with Li Shunju and Li Ji, commanded troops to help, and ordered Shen Kuo to stay behind. His subordinate Gao Yongheng suggested that the Xia army raid the enemy army when crossing the Yongding River, and Xu Xi thought that "Wang Shi would not be able to form a column without drumming." "He refused, and with tens of thousands of soldiers lined up in the city. After crossing the Yongding River, the Xia army launched a fierce attack on the Song army, and the Song army was defeated and retreated into the city. Xia soldiers besieged Yongle City, cutting off the water source flowing through the city, Yongle City was short of water, "digging a well is not enough to spring", "soldiers are thirsty for the dead too half". Shen Kuo and the eunuch Li Xian and others were prevented from rescuing the troops. Because he resented Xu Xi, the chief steward of Yan Yan Dao, he did not rescue him. Gao Yongneng persuaded Xu Xi to do his best to recruit death squads, but Xu Xi did not listen. Qu Zhen, deputy governor of Yanyan Road, advised Xu Xi to break through, but Xu Xi did not listen.
On the night of the twentieth day, heavy rain fell from the sky, the newly built city wall was soaked in water and was crushed by the Xia army, the Song army was hungry and tired, the Xia army finally attacked Yongle City, Xu Xi, Li Shunju, Li Ji, Gao Yongneng and others died, "Song Poetry Chronicle at the End", volume 40, "Western Xia Soldiers" said that more than 200,000 soldiers and soldiers of the Song army were killed, and only Qu Zhen, Wang Zhan, Li Pu, and Lü Zhen escaped nakedly. It was criticized by the Song people as "the shame of Yongle".
"The Hou Hou soldiers did not dare to use it in the north, but tried a little in the west, the Battle of Lingwu, the loss of the master, and the destruction of millions of charcoal." Emperor Zhong's night was rewarded, up, circled around the bed, and did not sleep. "The act of extinguishing the summer has not been realized. Afterwards, Song Shenzong wept bitterly in public in the middle of the court. He had ambitions, worked hard to rule, wanted to destroy the Western Qiang, but he was not rewarded with his ambitions, and he died with regrets.
The losses of the Song army in this battle were about 20,000 to 30,000 combat troops, as well as the van army and baojia that remained in the city, and 200,000 were exaggerated for the political purposes of posterity. After the Battle of Yongle City, Song Shenzong began to repent and no longer spoke lightly of the war.
On the fifth day of the first month of March in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (April 1, 1085), Song Shenzong died at the Funing Temple at the age of 38.