I will never be Renzong

Chapter 216 Hexi Corridor
To the east of Qinghai Lake, there is a very important geographical plate, that is, the Hehuang Valley. From Qinghai Lake along the Hehuang Valley, you will arrive at Qingtang City by walking eastward for more than 100 kilometers along the Hehuang Valley.

The geographical location of Qingtang City is extremely important. It connects to the Western Regions in the west, Qin and Long in the east, protects Gansu and Liang in the north, and connects Sichuan and Tibet in the south. It guards the transportation artery from the Central Plains to the Western Regions and is known as the "Throat of Haizang".

In 201 A.D., Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, ordered the hussar general Huo Qubing to go to Hexi twice in a row. After fierce battles, the Han army won a decisive victory, annihilating more than 3 enemies, and forced to land on King Shan Huan, King Chief Tu, Xiangguo, and Du. 2500 people including Wei and others captured 5 kings and 5 queen mothers, Shan Yuyan, 59 princes, and 63 Xiangguo, generals, households, and captains.The Han army only suffered more than 3 casualties.King Hunxie and King Xiutu fled with the remnant army.

Since then, the Han Dynasty has owned the vast Hexi Corridor, and the Hexi Corridor has become the most important outpost for the Han Dynasty to open up the Silk Road.

Although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened up the Hexi Corridor, the heroic Qiang people still lived near Hexi, and the threat to Hexi was still great.and

The Hehuang area extends in all directions, and can lead to all parts of the Han Dynasty. It can go to Longyou Guanzhong in the east, Songpan in Sichuan in the south, and the Hexi Corridor in the north.Once the enemy takes control of the Hehuang Valley and Xining, the four counties in Hexi cannot be protected, and the connection between the Central Plains and the Western Regions will be cut off.Shunhe Huanggu to the east to the Weishui River Basin will threaten the ancient capital Chang'an.During the Han and Tang Dynasties, Hehuang was highly valued, so Qingtang City was an important military town.

During the Tang Dynasty, Tubo began to rise under the leadership of Songtsan Gampo and became a unified and powerful empire. Since then, Tang and Tubo have frequently competed for the land of Hexi.

According to statistics, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo fought more than 30 battles in the Hehuang area, and there were no less than 5 battles in which the strength of the two sides exceeded [-].For example, in the very famous battle of Dafeichuan, Xue Rengui was defeated by Tubo.

After the Tang Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty had no time to take care of Hexi, and Tubo took the opportunity to counterattack and took the entire Hehuang area.After losing Hehuang, Hexi was also captured by Tubo, and the entire Western Regions were cut off from the Central Plains.The Tubo army even invaded Chang'an City all the way, and the Central Plains was shaken.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo Empire split and fell into civil war. In order to avoid the war, some Tubo tribes moved eastward to Hexi, forming the Tubo tribe headed by the Qing and Tang Tubos.

The strategic significance of the Hexi Corridor is very important, which directly determines whether the Central Plains Dynasty can connect to the Western Regions and whether it can implement subsequent rule.The Hexi Corridor is also one of the starting points of the Silk Road. Cultural exchanges in Central Asia, West Asia and even the West also rely on this road, so the economic and cultural significance of the Hexi Corridor is also very important.

During the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the support of Prime Minister Wang Anshi and presided over by Wang Shao, the Song Dynasty successively recovered the six prefectures of Dang, Die, Tao, Min, He, and Xi, which were called Xihe Kaibian in history.

The main strategic purpose of opening the Xihe River is to seize the land of Hengshan on the left side of Xixia, cut off the right arm of Xixia’s survival, take the land of Huangshan on the Xihe River, cut off the connection between Xixia and Tubo, oppress Xixia from the right-wing border, and completely solve the problem. Xixia threatened to eliminate the border troubles in the west.

It has to be said that if this military strategy can be realized, the Song Dynasty really has the opportunity to eliminate Xixia. However, although the Song Army occupied the land of Xihe, it has not been able to effectively solve the frequent resistance and rebellion of the local Tubo people. Therefore, the Song Dynasty The government had to invest a lot of manpower and material resources in the Xihe area.

During Wang Anshi's reform period, the military expenditure of the six prefectures of Xihe accounted for one-sixth of the fiscal expenditure of the Song Dynasty. This was undoubtedly a heavy expenditure for the Song Dynasty, which had not even solved the three redundant problems.

Later, Wang Anshi's reform came to a disastrous end, and the conservative Sima Guang came to power. The first thing Sima Guang did after he came to power was to kill all cats, black or white, as long as they wore cat skins. Therefore, all new laws were abolished.

Later, Sima Guang gave up the land of Xihe, which the Song Dynasty had finally conquered, so Sima Guang was charged with being a big traitor.

But it is not the case, because since the Song Dynasty set the tone of emphasizing literature over military affairs, it has been determined that the Song Dynasty will not be able to achieve an inch of mountains and rivers or an inch of blood.

The most important thing is that the Song Dynasty found that after taking the land of Hehuang, it was still unable to eliminate Xixia, because the economy of the land of Hehuang was very weak and could not support a large army fighting against Xia. long.Moreover, the geography of Xixia is very complicated. Even if it occupies the land of Hehuang, the Song Dynasty still cannot deal a powerful blow to Xixia.

The most important thing is that the five armies of the Song Dynasty attacked Xia, which suffered the biggest military defeat since the founding of the Song Dynasty. Nearly 20 people were killed and injured before and after the Song Dynasty, completely losing the vitality to eliminate Xixia.

In addition, the main threat of the Song Dynasty is still the Khitan people in the north. Therefore, after Sima Guang came to power, one of the biggest problems he faced was a serious financial crisis. In order to solve this crisis, Sima Guang had to give up the Song Dynasty and finally defeated it. The land of Xihe.

After Zhao Zhen came to the throne, on the one hand, he abolished and reorganized the army, reformed the imperial examinations, restricted favors, and streamlined the organization to expand military power and improve administrative efficiency.

On the other hand, Zhao Zhen established the royal caravan to encourage the development of industry and commerce, which made Song's finances increasingly loose and the overall national strength also increased day by day.

Zhao Zhen comes from a later generation, so he naturally understands that science and technology are the primary productive forces. Therefore, since the establishment of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the weapons and equipment of the Song Dynasty have been changed one after another, and the various water conservancy facilities of the people have also been further improved. Coupled with the addition of potatoes, corn, cotton, and the large-scale promotion of Champa rice, the economy and people's livelihood in the Song Dynasty improved greatly.

Originally, Zhao Zhen thought that the battle against Qingtang Tubo and Li Yuanhao would last for a long time, but he did not expect that these two battles would end so quickly, and the Liao Kingdom was busy suppressing the peasant uprising, so Zhao Zhen made a bold move , That is to mobilize the army to prepare for a strong military strike against Tubo, and the appointed coach is still very young Di Qing.

At the end of March in the ninth year of Tiansheng, the 15 separatist forces in Tubo formed a coalition with a total of 15 troops and attacked Qingtang City mightily. [-] heavy cavalry, [-] infantry, and [-] horses.

It was Di Qing's first time in command, so he was extremely humble. After discussing with the generals, he decided not to take the initiative to attack. After all, the Song army was not familiar with the real situation in Tubo, and coupled with altitude sickness, so the result of the initiative to attack To be worse.

Di Qing finally resisted all opinions and decided to wait for work with leisure, and waited for the 15 allied forces of Tubo in the land of Qingtang to show off.

(End of this chapter)