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

At the end of May in the first year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty, the Song and Liao armies on the front lines of Guizhou and Youzhou launched a more fierce offensive.

The Northern Army of the Song Dynasty, which originally had little experience in fighting against the Liao Dynasty, also rose rapidly in these battles and demonstrated great adaptability to the Liao Army's tactics. This highlighted the Song Army's super strong adaptability after the military reform.

Han Ming and the entire Privy Council bureaucracy put in a lot of effort to always position the Liao army as the Song army's imaginary enemy.

Whether it was daily training or internal military exercises of the Song army, they were all carried out in accordance with the scale of the Song-Liao War.

In this way, after a brief panic at the beginning of the war, the Song army quickly adapted to the entire war environment.

On the other hand, the Song army was not particularly good at cavalry charges and horsemanship, and many of their riding tactical drills were far behind the Liao army to the north.

In ancient times, cavalry formations were equivalent to modern tank groups, and it was common for thousands of cavalry to create historic battles.

Therefore, the Liao Dynasty was able to dominate Asia and control both the north and the south, mostly because of its powerful cavalry units.

As for the Song Dynasty, although it had implemented horse policies for more than ten years, its horses were no less numerous or of higher quality than those of the northern nations.

However, in terms of living on horseback like the northern ethnic groups since birth, the Song army was still far behind.

Therefore, Guo Kui and Gu Tingye both hoped to draw the Liao army into positional warfare, using the methods that the Song army was accustomed to and good at, to slow down the impact of the Liao cavalry, and then attack the enemy step by step.

This is similar to the "dragging tactic" that Han Ming thought of before the battle. Both are slow-paced and the safest tactic for the Song army.

However, Emperor Shenzong insisted on his own way and wanted to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible. He believed that if they fought too slowly, the Liao army would have time to react, and whether the Song army could hold on would be another matter.

This was mostly due to Emperor Shenzong's serious distrust of the Song army after the military reform.

Or it could be said that the northern cavalry's suppression of the Song army's bloodline made Emperor Shenzong and other old Zhao family members feel powerless and fearful.

Under the urging of three consecutive gold medals, Guo Kui and Gu Tingye had no choice but to bite the bullet and launch a cavalry offensive against the current enemy.

Xiao Boyu and Yelu Asi on the opposite side also received orders from Yelu Hongji in the rear to fight a decisive battle with the Song army as soon as possible and not to delay, which would cause changes in the rear.

Xiao Boyu immediately demonstrated to Guo Kui opposite him what real cavalry tactics were. There were only a handful of people in the Song army who truly mastered this kind of tactical planning.

As for the person who is most proficient in this, he is still in his hometown to observe mourning, and keeps an eye on the situation of the Northern Expedition every day.

However, Emperor Shenzong insisted on his own way and refused to reinstate the other party. It seemed that he had made up his mind to take over the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun on his own.

. . . . . .

On June 12, half a month after the two sides launched a large-scale offensive, Zhang Yu, who was stationed in Zhending Prefecture to coordinate the rear, received a message from Daming Prefecture.

It was Han, who was now in mourning at home, who passed the report directly to Zhending Prefecture through Fan Chun, the judge of Daming Prefecture, without going through the Bianjing City.

After reading the contents of Han Ming's letter, Zhang Qie suddenly had an idea and realized that things might be troublesome.

When he was frantically trying to send a message to the front line to remind Guo Kui and Gu Tingye not to continue the attack, news came from the western front that the Song army had defeated the Liao cavalry and captured Guizhou.

Yelu Asi quickly led his troops to retreat and returned east to garrison in Shunzhou (Shunyi), handing over the entire Liaoxi Jingdao to Gu Tingye's army.

For a time, the whole Song Dynasty was in an uproar. This was an even greater achievement than that achieved by Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou and Emperor Taizong of Song in the "Yongxi Northern Expedition". It gave people the feeling that the Northern Expedition was about to succeed.

Zhang Qie fell into deep thought, because in his opinion, if the war progressed like this, there was really no need to worry about any problems.

Gu Tingye, who swept across Xijing Road, left behind garrison personnel and rushed thousands of miles, preparing to go straight to Shunzhou and Danzhou and completely surround the Youzhou front line.

They formed a siege from the north and the south, captured the two states of You and Ji in one fell swoop, and completely recovered Yanyun.

In July, Gu Tingye led his troops to advance into Shunzhou and entered into a second confrontation with Yelu Asi. However, Youzhou in the south had not made any effective progress after two months of offensive.

Xiao Boyu's cavalry tactics were a stroke of genius, repeatedly disrupting the Song army's attacks and making Guo Kui as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

In addition, Emperor Shenzong issued twelve golden medals urging him to fight for two consecutive months. Guo Kui finally decided to take a risky move, bypassing Xiao Boyu's defense line and launching a surprise attack on Xijin Prefecture (Youzhou City).

This time, Guo Kui did not say hello to Gu Tingye in the north, mainly because Gu's army was currently deep in enemy territory and it was difficult to get in touch with him. Guo Kui decided to break through the Youzhou defense line by himself.

On August 15th, when the entire Song Dynasty was entering the Mid-Autumn Festival, Guo Kui led his troops to go around behind Xiao Boyu and headed straight for the seemingly "deserted" Xijin Mansion.

At the end of August, Guo's army entered a place eighty miles outside Xijin Prefecture. When the news spread, Xijin Prefecture was in complete chaos, and everyone fled north with their families.

Just when Guo Kui thought that the sneak attack was successful, a fresh force appeared in Xijin Prefecture and first repelled the attack of the Song army.

Then he opened the city gate wildly and started fighting again with Guo Kui, who was leading a lone army.

At the first encounter, Guo Kui realized the terrifying nature of this army. All the members were covered in heavy black armor, with only two pupils as black as ink visible.

Heavy cavalry!!!

The Liao Kingdom had only one force, and that was the imperial guards guarding the capital of Liao, the elite of the elite commanded by Yelu Hongji, the Iron Army of the Liao Dynasty that had disappeared since the Treaty of Chanyuan.

Those selected are all descendants of close royal ministers, and all of them are powerful figures selected from hundreds or thousands of miles.

Its name is 'Iron Forest Army', and it is one of the five great iron cavalry on the same level as the strongest Jingsai Army in the early Song Dynasty.

The other three were the Iron Harriers of the Western Xia, the Iron Pagodas of the Jurchens, and the Mongolian Heavy Armored Cavalry.

Now, with the demise of Western Xia, the Iron Harriers were absorbed into the Western Theater Command and reorganized into the Song Dynasty Hexi Patrol Army, responsible for the security of the entire Hexi Corridor.

As time passed, the Jingsai Army of the Song Dynasty had long since ceased to exist in name only due to the lack of horses and personnel, and became a ceremonial guard in the city of Bianliang.

Han Ming had been planning to restart the 'Jingsai Iron Cavalry' very early on, but at that time the Song Dynasty's horse administration had been ineffective for nearly a hundred years, making it difficult to quickly produce high-quality horses, so the plan was repeatedly delayed.

The first to be deployed were the Western Army and the Northern Army, which were close to the water and had the upper hand. Originally, Han Ming planned to completely equip the "Jingsai Army" during the "Second Five-Year Plan" to complete his historical mission.

As a result, the death of Han Zhang and his wife, and Emperor Shenzong's arbitrary and dictatorial decision to start a war, meant that this goal was not achieved.

Now the Liao Kingdom has finally revealed its powerful trump card, but unfortunately, the Song army has no countermeasures.

Guo Kui could only watch as the Northern Army's cavalry phalanx, which had been finally formed, was torn apart and devoured by the "Iron Forest Army" and completely strangled at the foot of Xijin City.

After much difficulty in stabilizing the formation, Xiao Boyu behind him left the Song army to distract him and forced his way north to provide support, thus blocking Guo Kui's retreat.

Suddenly, the entire battlefield changed drastically. Guo Kui's cavalry might become the first organized unit to be swallowed up by the Liao army in this Song-Liao war...