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

"Zixin is right. Yelu Hongji and Xiao Boyu have a third option!"

As soon as Han Ming finished speaking, everyone shut their mouths tightly, with a hint of tension and suffocation in their expressions.

"I wonder if anyone can guess which way it is?"

Han smiled confidently, and if he were to wave his feather fan twice, his status would soar.

"Stop talking nonsense, kid. Just talk about the Liaoxi Jingdao army!"

Yang Wenguang didn't have the leisure to listen to Han Ming's jokes. He didn't think about this aspect at first, but it was because he was trapped in the war.

After Han Ming's reminder, he immediately realized the other party's back-up plan.

It should be said that the old ones are still the most experienced. Yang Wenguang could immediately realize where the problem was just by hearing it.

"The teacher is really amazing!" Han Ming smiled awkwardly and touched his nose.

"The Liaoxi Jingdao Army?!"

Gu Tingye's expression froze, and he immediately stood up and walked to the military map. He kept looking at the entire border line, and his face immediately changed.

"They're going to invade Song via the Hedong Road!!! This..."

Gu Tingye took two deep breaths and his brain started working rapidly, trying to find the nearest elite force to provide support along the entire Hedong Road and border line.

But after a long time, he had to give up thinking about it, because from the very beginning, since Hedong Road was not the main attack direction, the court did not send a second main elite force except for the original garrison.

"Don't worry too much. The imperial court has ordered the main force of the Western Army to be stationed in Shizhou. It will only take a few days to cross the border from Xixia. We can catch up."

Han Ming drank the hot tea happily and did not continue to watch Gu Tingye racking his brains.

"But the main force of Liaoxi Jingdao is definitely targeting the Daizhou line. It will take about ten days to travel from Shizhou to Daizhou day and night."

"If Xiao Yi is fast enough, Daizhou will probably be lost by the time the Western Army arrives!"

Gu Tingye knew the imperial court’s will, but that didn’t mean the Western Army could catch up.

"Don't be anxious. If you think more broadly, you might get a different result."

Han Ming's confidence made Gu Tingye feel a little relieved, and he couldn't help but start thinking about whether there was anything he had missed.

"The Western Army...passing through Xixia..."

"You can obviously move directly to Daizhou in the northeast from Yinzhou... Why go through Xixia..."

"Unless the Western Army's purpose is not to support the Hedong Road to consolidate the defense line!"

Gu Tingye was a little confused at first about the court's arrangement of the Western Army to Shizhou, but now he understood it immediately.

"The enemy!"

Han Ming raised his tea bowl and saluted Gu Tingye from a distance.

"You bastard, you are the one who messed up the arrangements of the Western Army!"

Gu Tingye also understood that Han Ming might have prepared all this in advance.

"Before I left, I discussed the deployment of the Western Army with the Emperor and the Ministers. Compared to their plan of defending the Hedong Road defense line, I prefer to take the initiative and attack."

"Therefore, I suggest that the emperor move the main force of the Western Army to Shizhou for garrison, thereby ensuring the safety of the Hedong Road from the flank."

"If the Liao army in Xijing Road does not move, then the Western Army will maintain its flank defense."

"If they dare to move, don't blame me for cutting off their retreat northward and reclaiming the Great Wall defenses in the areas of Shuo, Huan, Ying, and Yun provinces ahead of time!"

As soon as Han Ming finished speaking, the entire tent fell into silence, and everyone was stunned by this stroke of genius.

"But even if they can capture the four states north of Yanmen Pass, their right flank has no military facilities to block it, and they are still exposed to the Liao army's cavalry."

"This would require expending countless manpower and resources on the four newly acquired states, and we might not even be able to hold them."

Gu Tingye felt that this strategic deployment was very similar to the three-pronged attack during the "Yongxi Northern Expedition".

That is, Cao Bin was the commander-in-chief of the eastern route, leading the main force of 10 people out of Xiongzhou (now Xiong County, Hebei); Tian Chongjin led the army out of Feihu (now Laiyuan, Hebei) in the middle route; Pan Mei, Yang Ye and others led the army out of Yanmen in the western route.

The plan was to launch three simultaneous attacks, using the eastern route to contain the main force of the Liao army. After the central and western routes captured the states behind the mountains, they would turn eastward and encircle Youzhou with three routes.

During the battle, the Western Route Army successively conquered Huan (governed by Huanqing, now Mayi, northeast of Shuo County, Shanxi), Shuojiying (governed by Jincheng, now Ying County, Shanxi), and Yun (governed by Yunzhong, now Datong, Shanxi).

The Central Army conquered Feihu, Lingqiu (now in Shanxi), and Weizhou (governed by Lingxian, now Weixian County, Hebei);

The Eastern Army captured Gu'an (now in Hebei) and advanced to Zhuozhou.

Faced with the massive attack of the Song army, Empress Dowager Xiao of Liao personally went to Youzhou and led the resistance together with Emperor Shengzong.

The Song army adopted the strategy of concentrating its forces to first defeat the main force of the Song army in the east, and then attacking other routes. Taking advantage of Cao Bin's isolated and reckless advance and lack of food and grass, they harassed him when he was exhausted, forced him to retreat, and pursued him to Qigou Pass (now southwest of Zhuozhou, Hebei), where they defeated him and killed tens of thousands of Song soldiers.

He then sent the commander-in-chief Yelu Xizhen to lead an army of 10 to counterattack the Song army in the central and western routes, recaptured Weizhou, Feihu, Huanzhou, Shuozhou and other places, and captured Yang Ye.

The Song army abandoned Yun and Ying and retreated to Daizhou, and the strategic offensive against Liao failed.

"No, if I still had all the elite armies I had back then, then the three-pronged northern expedition strategy wouldn't be a problem."

Han Ming knew what Gu Tingye was thinking, and he spoke frankly without any reservation.

"But the current situation is that our Eastern Army has fallen into a passive defensive mode. If the Western Army adopts the same strategic deployment, it will only end up repeating the failure of the 'Yongxi Northern Expedition'."

"My purpose in taking over the four states is, first, to cut off the retreat of Xiao Yi's Southwest Recruiting Division army, completely trap the Liao army within the Song Dynasty, and weaken the military pressure in Hedong Road."

"Secondly, we will seize the opportunity to advance eastward and sweep across the five states of Wei, Xin, Wu, Gui, and Ru with lightning speed."

"Use the Zhao Great Wall and the remains of the Northern Qi Great Wall as barriers to consolidate our defenses and completely capture the entire northern section of Shanxi."

"Then we can look down from a high vantage point, overlooking the entire Xijin Prefecture from the west, and threaten the enemy at any time!!!"

Han Ming also didn't plan to wait for the completion of the national military reform. Since the opportunity was before him, it would not be his style not to take a bite of the Liao Kingdom's meat!

There is a saying in Han Moumou's dictionary: Those who have completed the reform first will go up first, and those who have completed the reform later will follow.

In short, the Western Army has been trained and reformed by himself in the past two years, and has been continuously strengthened in recent years. It has long been a top-level force that can be called the "No. 1 Army of the Song Dynasty."

Although the Xiazhou horse policy had only been implemented for three years, with the "tribute" and "support" from the Western Xia and Qingtang regions, an elite cavalry of more than 10,000 people could still be produced.

Since this level of military force has been mobilized, it is still a loss to fight a defensive war. Han thinks it is quite a loss.

Yelu Hong, Xiao Boyu, and Xiao Yi believed that the Song Dynasty would always maintain a defensive posture, so they dared to lead their troops south without paying attention to the flanks.

Then Han must teach the other party a lesson. Taking over the Jiuzhou area in the northern part of Shanxi is his great gift to Yelu Hongji!

"Ah this..."

The entire camp fell silent again. They found that ever since Han started explaining the strategy, their hearts began to beat uncontrollably.

Why is there a sense of relief amidst this oppression?

"Have you ever considered that if the Western Army's northward movement doesn't go smoothly, Xiao Yi and the others might seize the opportunity and defeat the Western Army within Liao territory?"

"After all, it's not just the Liao army that's alone deep in the enemy's territory; the Western Army is in the same situation!!!"

The court arranged for Yang Wenguang to be Gu Tingye's deputy because he relied on the old man's composure and stability.

The Song Dynasty always took the position of the inferior in the war with the Liao Dynasty, which means it was okay to fight on the defense, but the current Song Dynasty did not dare to think about fighting on the offense or taking the initiative.

"The teacher's idea has some truth to it, but this idea must be changed."

"The Liao Kingdom saw through the Song Dynasty's decline after Emperor Taizong's failed Northern Expedition and repeatedly provoked trouble."

"Isn't the 'Qingli Coin Increase' back then a living example!!!"

"The Liao believed that the Song Dynasty would not dare or would not resist, so they brought heavy troops to the border and forced the Song Dynasty to sign such a 'humiliating' treaty."

"So this time, Yelu Hongji wants to imitate his father and use similar tactics again, but he can't!"

Han Ming slammed the table and stood up, the coldness in his eyes swept across every general present.

"Even if we can't seize the opportunity to recapture the nine provinces of Shanxi, we must completely defeat Xiao Yi's southward-moving troops!"