After traveling through time, I became Han Zhang’s grandson?

Chapter 270 Military Intelligence

Three days later, on the 20th of the first month of the third year of Zhiping in the Song Dynasty, Han Ming followed the team from Xiongzhou that was transporting grain and fodder northward and entered the Song army camp 50 miles south of Baigouyi.

Because the incident happened suddenly and Han had been silent since he separated from the delegation, the Song army camp had no idea that this gentleman had returned to the country in such a grand manner.

At this time, in the central military camp, Gu Tingye and others were starting a new round of military meetings, most of which focused on how to defend and repel the main force of the Liao Kingdom in front of them.

Pan Xiaoyan's army, originally serving as the right wing, encountered a part of the feint attack advance force left by Yelu Xiyin in Bazhou.

According to the original plan, Pan Xiaoyan's troops needed to defeat the enemy, advance to the vicinity of Liao Yongqing City, and then go around behind the main force of the Liao army to complete the sneak attack mission.

As a result, after defeating the advance army that launched a feint attack in the direction of Bazhou, Pan Xiaoyan encountered reinforcements from the Liao army in Yongqing and Anci cities, was directly defeated and retreated to the Bazhou defense line.

Later, in order to maintain the stability of the defense line, Gu Tingye urgently ordered the Baoding army to advance and cooperate with the Bazhou defenders to defend the city.

Although this ensured the defense of Bazhou's front line, it also reduced the depth.

Without the Baoding army to hold the second line of defense, if Bazhou was captured by the Liao army, there would be no large city garrison to protect it.

Even though there are still many large and small military camps in Bazhou, it is still unknown how long they can hold out against the Liao cavalry.

Fortunately, Yelu Hongji and Xiao Boyu did not take Bazhou as the main attack direction, so after briefly stabilizing the defense line, Gu Tingye transferred Pan Xiaoyan back to the central army to obey orders.

Later, the troops of the brothers Guo Zhongliang and Guo Zhongjian on the left wing were also transferred back. The main reason was that Yelu Hongji and Xiao Boyu were too cunning.

Although they were arrogant, their military deployment was still excellent. They had set up two lines of defense at the entrance of the Great Wall and near Yizhou City in advance.

Although the Guo brothers broke through the Liao army at the Great Wall, they encountered a large-scale Liao army near Yizhou City. As soon as the two sides met, the Song army was scattered and fled back to the Ansu army garrison in a panic.

It can be seen that in this large-scale cavalry field battle, the Song army was no match for the Liao army, and the gap between the two sides was outrageous.

If the Song army was able to suppress the Liao army before, it was mostly due to cities, military camps and various advance preparations, including the use of new firearms and hidden weapons.

However, if they were to move out of the fortress and engage in a field battle with the Liao Kingdom, they would be asking for trouble and bringing humiliation upon themselves.

Zhang Qiao was able to withstand the frontal attack of Yelu Hongji and Xiao Boyu's central army with a mixed force of infantry and cavalry, and his victory was also achieved by relying on the delay of the Juma River.

Even so, in the subsequent confrontation, Zhang Qiao's troops suffered a considerable blow.

Especially after the Liao army crossed the river, they launched a cavalry attack on the south bank, causing Zhang Qiao's army to lose nearly 30% of its combat personnel before completing the task of blocking the rear.

The gap is visible to the naked eye, and this is why Gu Tingye has been worried: the Song army cannot fight a field battle!

But this is normal. From the pre-Qin period to the present, most of the battles with foreign races have been more about defending than attacking.

However, this situation was particularly serious in the Song Dynasty. Other dynasties, after a period of accumulation after the founding of the country, quickly ushered in a period of growth and prosperity, and then began to prepare for a wave of outward expansion.

During the reign of Emperor Taizong, the Song Dynasty completely eliminated the remaining regimes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and completed the unification of the north and the south. After a period of preparation, it also wanted to recover its homeland and expand its territory.

As a result, they ran directly into the rising Liao Kingdom. This burst of weapons failed to penetrate the Khitans, but instead allowed the other side to almost destroy the newly born Song Dynasty.

Especially the last "Yongxi Northern Expedition", which was the second strategic offensive of Song against Liao during the Song-Liao War.

The success or failure of this strategic offensive not only brought about major changes in the military situation between the Song and Liao sides, but also had a significant impact on the internal affairs of the Song Dynasty.

The defeat in this battle caused the strategic relationship between Song and Liao to change from offensive to defensive, thus causing the Song Dynasty to "never recover" in its relations with Liao.

Simply put, during the period of the Song Dynasty's rise and expansion, it encountered the more powerful Liao Kingdom, which directly destroyed its will to expand its territory.

This shift from strategic offense to strategic contraction and defense also indirectly promoted the abnormal growth of the Song Dynasty's political and military.

If the Taizong Dynasty could complete this strategic military action to recover Yanyun, then Zhao Er, with his overflowing confidence, would not be so afraid of a military coup.

Nor would he have later, in order to maintain the government and his own rule, stretched the balance of power between civil and military to a situation where the civil was strong and the military was weak.

Ultimately, it was the strategic issues in the early days of the Song Dynasty that triggered a series of irreversible consequences.

In this situation, Zhao Er has problems, and Zhenzong, who took over his position, has even bigger problems.

Anyway, except for Taizu, basically the father and son who succeeded to the throne must take the blame. Of course, if you want to indirectly say that this strategic problem is also the fault of the Liao Kingdom, there is nothing wrong with that.

Who made them so good at fighting that they destroyed Zhao Er's positive and enterprising spirit?

In a word, this situation of the Song Dynasty being weak and the Liao Dynasty being strong has lasted for nearly a hundred years. If we want to change it overnight, it will take a lot of effort.

Good horses, cavalry, equipment, training, etc. are all indispensable, and of course the most important thing is logistics.

In this regard, although the Song Dynasty established a first-level wing army to improve it, it can basically be said to be quite poor.

Living a life of idleness and waiting for death, filling in the gaps, being cunning and deceitful, pretending to obey but actually disobeying, stealing from the employer... There are so many problems that Han frowned just looking at them.

Back to the current war situation, because the actions of the left and right wings did not achieve the most ideal results, they were defeated.

Gu Tingye could only concentrate the remaining forces and seek a strategic decisive battle with Yelu Hongji and others in the Baigouyi area.

As a result, there was a lot of noise right from the beginning. Everyone had their own ideas and no one would give in to anyone else. Everyone thought their tactics were correct. Most of them were deputy generals of the younger generation.

Amidst the clamor, a man named Han opened the tent door and walked in slowly, shaking off the snow on his shoulders.

While everyone was arguing, they saw someone coming in so leisurely. They were about to get angry and scold the guards outside the tent for letting someone in so casually.

As a result, when he looked up, he saw Han sitting down in an empty seat as if he was at home, and then waved his hand to let Yongzeng get some hot tea.

"What are you daydreaming about? You guys chat about your own things, I'm just here to listen."

Han Ming smiled slightly, signaling Gu Tingye and the others, who were still a little dazed, to continue the discussion.

The next second, the atmosphere in the central military tent was excited, and everyone finally realized that the person coming was Han Ming.

Cao Ping reacted the fastest, dashing forward and sliding down to his knees to get close to Han. "Brother Han! You're finally back!"

“Han Hou——!”

"My Lord——!"

"My Lord——!"

"..."

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? If your father and the Queen Mother saw this, they would think I did something to you."

"Get up! A man's knees are made of gold, why are you kneeling?"

Han Ming was almost frightened by Cao Ping's behavior. Although this kid seems a little jumpy on weekdays, his aunt is actually the current Empress Dowager Cao, a legitimate royal relative.

"Hehehe, I'm excited to see Brother Han!"

In terms of seniority, this man from the Cao family is on the same level as the current emperor.

However, his father Cao Yi, as the grandson of Cao Bin, was not the main lineage, but the second child in the family. He was also the prototype of "Uncle Cao Guo, one of the Eight Immortals" in mythology.

Therefore, he got married late and had children late. It was also a coincidence that Cao Ping and Han Ming were a good match at this age.

In addition, Han was deeply loved by the late Emperor Renzong and Empress Dowager Cao, and the Han and Cao families were old friends in the past.

"Don't give me that." Han Ming rolled his eyes, took the hot tea handed to him by Yong Zeng and took a sip slowly.

"Why are you not arguing anymore? Have you had enough?"

As soon as the next sentence came out, the whole tent fell into deathly silence. These young generals were very afraid of Han.

"If you're really that awesome, why haven't you ever seen anyone defeat the Liao army on the battlefield? Now you're just arguing here, do you think you're that capable?!"

Han Ming's words were filled with a hint of dissatisfaction, which scared everyone.

Only Yang Wenguang and Gu Tingye shook their heads and smiled bitterly. This was the deterrent power. These little bastards were very afraid of Han because they had been trained by him.

"This is a military camp, not your home. Even if your parents come here, they must follow the rules."

Han Ming rolled his eyes and gestured to Gu Tingye to preside over the military meeting.

"How about Jingyuan, you come?"

When Gu Tingye saw Han Ming return safely, he felt relieved.

"Don't get too close to me. I'm not the one leading the team this time."

Han Ming twitched his lips and continued, "I just came to ask about the situation of the delegation..."