After leaving Weizhou City, Zheng Lang suddenly said, "Go to Jingzhou."

With enough time, he told Di Qing to discuss with Zhong Shiheng that they were the strongest generals in Shaanxi. Sometimes Zheng Lang thought about it and felt very happy.

As the saying goes, three cobblers are like Zhuge Liang. The three of them are not three simple cobblers. Di Qing is invincible, Zhong Shiheng is a wise general, and he is extremely familiar with economy and people's livelihood. At least Zheng Lang feels that the three of them are reduced versions of the Three Heroes of the Western Han Dynasty.

Di Qing will play the role of Han Xin, Zhong Shiheng will play the role of Zhang Liang, and he will play the role of Xiao He.

But can this work?

We need to use future wars to verify.

However, after Zheng Lang left the city, he was still not relieved. He had talents under his command, but Yuan Hao had more talents.

Thinking of Zhang Fangping, there was another person, Zhao Xun, so it was said that Zhao Xun went to Zhenrong Army to discuss matters and then went to Jingzhou in person.

During this period, Zheng Lang's activities were mainly in Zhenrong Army, Deshun Army and Weizhou City, and Jingyuan Prefectures. Heard that Zhang Fangping was doing well in Jingzhou and fought with the Qiang people enthusiastically, and many Qiang tribes were convinced.

Overall, in terms of ethnic relations, Jingyuan Road is the best at present. The old generation dealt with the Qiang people and had a set of experience. Di Qing did not despise the Qiang people. He went to visit Weizhou many times, and the Qiang people did not feel bad about him. It must be worse, Teng Zongliang of Yuanzhou was a little worse. Teng Zongliang was not a mediocre official, otherwise Fan Zhongyan would not value him so much. He could do it.

If there had been no war, these civil officials and military generals would have quickly entered the stage of great governance.

That's impossible.

When he arrived in Jingzhou City, Zhang Fangping was not here. Like Zheng Lang, he went to the countryside for inspection.

Under the leadership of the yamen runners, Zhang Fangping was found in a village.

Seeing Zheng Lang coming, Zhang Fangping was a little happy on his face and walked over and asked, "Xingzhi, is it the war ahead that is going to start?"

Zheng Lang's face was very exciting and said, "Brother An Dao, do you really know how to associate?"

"Otherwise, if I'm in Jingzhou, what else can you worry about? Everything is in progress in Weizhou, and you suddenly come to Jingzhou. Why do you have to come for the sake of preparing for war?"

This is a very agile person.

He has civil and military talents in his heart, and he is like Zheng Lang's reading, and he will never forget everything he sees.

Because of his own self-appreciation, he was always underestimated and not valued among the officials of the Zhao Zhen Dynasty. He did not attach himself to the later Wang Anshi, nor did he attach himself to Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu and others. His political propositions also opposed the immutable ancient law, accusing the way of maintaining the whole world and following the old rules. However, his reforms must require people to be based on the doctrine of the mean, and the difficulties of the reform must not be underestimated. We must proceed step by step.

Are you very familiar?

It is very similar to Zheng Lang's political proposition.

In fact, this is the originator of the moderates. Su Dongpo and others were deeply influenced by it.

So Zheng Lang has always attached great importance to Zhang Fangping.

Not only did he advocate politically, he also wrote many memorials with great insights on military use.

But Zhang Fangping was not good at using troops in the last battle. Sima Guang once submitted a memorial to impeach Zhang Fangping because of Zhang Fangping's timidity in Qinfeng Road. This memorial was a product of party struggles, and it was not aimless to exaggerate Zhang Fangping's cowardice. Zhang Fangping was capable, and Zheng Lang overestimated Zhang Fangping's military talent. Of course, governing the people of one side and appeaseing the Qiang people was Zhang Fangping's best. Even if Zhang Fangping was overestimated by Zheng Lang, his military talent was stronger than Yin Zhu, Teng Zongliang, Wang Yan and Fan Yong.

Zheng Lang said: "Andao, I will take you to Zhenrong Army to discuss matters."

"good."

Take Zhang Fangping to Zhenrong Army.

Zhong Shiheng and Zhao Xun had arrived, bowed and sat down, Zheng Lang said, "Everyone, according to the scouts, the people of Xixia are preparing to send troops to invade the two prefectures of Lin Prefecture."

"Is the message accurate?" asked Lao Zhong.

"Accurate," Di Qing replied in a deep voice.

The two brought them by Wang Yong and the others were originally the people in the Western Xia territory. Later, they followed Wang Deyong to join the army. After Xingling and other prefectures were in danger, the two and their families never returned. They asked them to draw the mountains, rivers and fortresses in the Western Xia territory with drawings, but they did not have the ability. However, they were familiar with the customs and languages ​​of the Western Xia territory.

So Zheng Lang formulated a policy to let them sneak into Xixia with some goldware. Then he disguised himself as two small businessmen. The business could not be big. When he encountered officials who were harsh and pretended to be cowardly, he asked them to blackmail. He could make them blackmail, but he could not take the initiative to bribe. Even if he took the initiative to bribe, the number could not be large.

He was a small businessman, and he could extort much. But after extorting, the officials felt a little guilty. The people of Xixia were also humans, and their hearts were fleshy. He gradually became familiar with some low-level officials, soldiers and tribes.

But because he is a small businessman, the number of moves is small and it is not noticeable.

In short, it depends on two words, low-key.

They are not required to find high-level secrets, but the businessmen are familiar with some low-level officials and can hear some rumors. With this news enough, they can bring back the news they need.

There are still risks. The Song Dynasty captured the secret spies of the Xixia people everywhere, and the Xixia was also strictly investigating the secret spies of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, no important information can be heard, and they don’t need to come back to notify you.

I went there for a long time and only brought back this piece of information.

It doesn't look like the old monk's aura, but it's better than the long-term and safety.

The old generation's eyes were still very suspicious. Compared with the people of Xixia, the Song Dynasty was too backward in intelligence. Not to mention what happened in Xixia, even what happened on the border was slow. However, this situation was changing. Since Zheng Lang came to Jingyuan Road, he selected a group of elite cavalry as a ranger scout and spread all over the border. After hearing this, Fan Zhongyan also adopted this method. I don't know whether Pang Ji had adopted Yanfu Road or not.

It refers to the border, but not the territory of Xixia.

Looking at Lao Zong's suspicious eyes, Zheng Lang said: "This is a game of chess arranged before I left the capital, and General Di cooperated. The source of the news is absolutely accurate."

Unlike other scouts, Wang Yong and his family were all in the capital, so there was no need to worry that they would betray them. Moreover, they were acting in a dispersed manner. If one betrayed, the two would not be discovered by the Xixia people at the same time.

After confirming that the news is accurate, Zheng Lang then said: "Everyone, what are the good plans do you think?"

Zhang Fangping asked: "Xingzhi. What are you going to do?"

At this time, Zhang Fangping didn't know the cruelty of the war and his thoughts were relatively radical.

"I want to do a counterattack."

"Attack the northern Xixia military camp?" Zhang Fangping asked.

Fan Zhongyan did similar things, Pang Ji did similar things, and moved the fort forward step by step. Xixia did not attack, but made some counterattacks from time to time, nibbled some strongholds of the Xixia people, and captured the people in Xixia back to the rear to resettle.

This effect is not great. It does not even hurt the hairs of the Xixia people.

Zheng Lang shook his head and stared at Lao Zong and Di Qing with his eyes, Zhao Xun and Zhang Fangping came, and Zheng Lang asked them to make up for the missing. He valued Zhang Fangping's military ability too much, but Zheng Lang's cautious character was also afraid of civil officials talking on paper. This is the reason why Zhang Fangping was placed in Jingzhou in the rear.

But no matter what, Zhang Fangping would do a little better than Teng Zongliang.

Lao Zong was pondering. Zheng Lang looked at Di Qing again.

Di Qing said: "Mr. Zheng, Guan Jian Yuanhao brought in this invasion of Lin Mansion, and whether he had personally fought for the enemy. We don't know. If we don't know, it's hard to arrange the next step."

This is confidential information, not something Wang Yong and the other two could hear.

A hint of praise appeared in Zheng Lang's eyes. It was not a conservative statement, but he would be defeated by courage and impatience. Moreover, the enemy is so powerful.

Lao Zhong said: "It's better to send someone to inform the two states of Linfu first and let them prepare for defense."

"Okay." Zheng Lang called Qingqi and asked him to take the letter to the two states of Linfu.

The old clan said again: "Although the Zhe family in the prefecture has less than 10,000 troops, the Zhe family's army is very powerful. If Yuan Hao wants to invade the two Lin Mansions, he must lead the army himself. The number of troops he leads will not be small, but I can't guess how many troops he leads."

Zheng Lang sighed and said, "The army of Xixia is getting stronger and stronger as we fight. Take our dynasty as an example. At the beginning of the founding of the country, the reason why Taizu swept across the world was that it had the command ability of Taizu and the soldiers were the heroic troops of hundreds of battles. Xixia was quite similar to our dynasty when it was founding. Although it failed to fight against Tubo, it was lucky and always overcome difficulties. If you don't try to weaken it, then there is only one way to defeat it and make his heroic troops of hundreds of battles become a tired army. Just like Emperor Taizong fought hard for the Later Han Dynasty and went to conquer the Khitan again. The soldiers were exhausted and their morale was not high, so they were defeated in one battle. But that..."

Zheng Lang shook his head.

it's out of the question.

In that case, the Song Dynasty had to launch a lasting attack. With the ability of the Song Dynasty soldiers, many soldiers would have to die to achieve this goal. Zhao Zhen could not approve this suggestion.

Continuing, "So I want to take this opportunity to launch an attack."

But how to attack, Lao Zong and Di Qing were both in pain at the same time.

If you want to win a victory that can be on the surface and cannot fight or hit the border at a small scale, you must go deep into the enemy territory. At the speed of the Song Dynasty army, even if Yuan Hao takes away many main troops, there are still a large number of troops left in Xixia. If the attack is successful, how can you come back? You will inevitably be blocked by most of Xixia. A small victory will be won, and a big defeat will happen again.

Zheng Lang said again: "In the near future, the court will send a batch of new weapons."

"What weapon?" Di Qing asked.

Zheng Lang drew out the kind of sabre, horse-cutting axe, and hook and sickle spear, and said, "General Di, look at it. We can also make a batch of people on Jingyuan Road first and let some soldiers do a training session."

Several people gathered around to watch, but Zhao Xun didn't understand it yet, so he asked, "How did you use it?"

Zheng Lang gave a brief explanation.

How to hook and sickle, how to cut it. A special ring is made of a knife and axe, which can be used for short handles, for combat, and for long handles, for chopping horses.

The three types of weapons are purely used as weapons and are not very powerful. Some settings will become burdensome, but they will be effective against cavalry than the current various cold weapons of the Song Dynasty.

Several people talked for a moment, and Zheng Lang said again: "There is another kind of gunpowder that will be brought soon. You can see how to maximize its power."

Before Zheng Lang, there were already many gunpowder weapons, as well as tiger squat cannons that specialize in firing fireballs and gunpowder. It was precisely a cannon. It was not a real cannon like the Qi family army of the Ming Dynasty, but a stone throwing machine, also called tiger squat cannons, which can throw fireballs and gunpowder, or stones and black bricks.

Improvements were made on the original trench machine, and the cannon stand could be rotated, called the whirlwind cannon.

However, the operation is bulky and not very practical on the battlefield. Especially the seven-shot gun, which can throw a ten-pound stone bullet to fifty steps away. However, it takes two hundred people to operate at the same time, which is really troublesome.

However, the thrown stone bullets improve the ** bag, and the powerful ** bag will make up for the bulk of the tiger squat cannon.

Mostly used to defend the city.

There were also people from Xixia, and even invented a small trencher. He placed the trencher on the back of a camel, also called a whirlwind cannon, and he deliberately established an army called the Poxi Army.

Many historical books praise the story.

In fact, the Western Xia catapult technology is far less powerful than the Song army, and the combat effectiveness of the Poxi Army is not as powerful as recorded in history books. When fighting with the Song army, the Poxi Army has always played a very limited role. It is possible that this army is in its activity and can scare the Uighurs in the west.

Therefore, when the two sides fight, the power of the stone thrower is rarely considered.

It still has a useful effect. If the Song army obtains the accurate march route of the Xixia people in special circumstances, there is a canyon on the road, with mountains on both sides. From the mountain, it will fire black bricks, gunpowder, rockets and crossbows with tiger squatting cannons, which will achieve a brilliant victory.

It is just a theory, and the Song Dynasty has only succeeded once in history.
To be continued...