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

At the end of September in the first year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty, the 50,000 Hedong troops led by Gu Tingye went against the trend and jumped out from the eastern part of the encirclement, heading directly for Jizhou.

Upon receiving the news, the high-ranking officers of the Song and Liao armies pursued from the north and south of Xijin Prefecture, trying to find a good strategy to defeat the enemy through mobile warfare.

For the Liao army, the almost perfect "siege and attack reinforcements" strategy was now led by Gu Tingye's army.

Although Yelu Hongji and Xiao Boyu were very angry, they also knew the truth that 'there is no constant in war'.

They speculated about Gu Tingye according to their own ideas, but he did not play by the rules. Knowing that everyone in Jizhou in the east was on alert, Gu Tingye still dared to act recklessly.

The war situation suddenly changed, which was unexpected. At the same time, both the Song and Liao sides began to quickly plan their next steps.

On the Song Dynasty side, the Hebei East Route Army led by Guo Kui advanced rapidly along Tong County and Sanhe areas, hoping to take advantage of the situation to support Gu Tingye when he broke out of the encirclement and arrived in Jizhou.

As for the Liao Kingdom, they took the Pinggu area and went straight to Jizhou. Compared with the river-dense area in the south where the Song army took the route, the Pinggu area in the north was a vast plain.

This created a gap in the speed of travel between the two sides, allowing the Liao cavalry to quickly move eastward from the plains to continue encircling Gu Tingye's army.

The development of the matter was beyond everyone's expectations, which made Emperor Shenzong, who was originally on the sidelines, even more delighted. He thought that a turning point had appeared, and then he kept sending orders to the front line, asking them to rush to support Gu Tingye.

As for Han Ming, who was trapped in Anyang, in addition to keeping a close eye on the crisis on the front line every day, he also kept sending messages to the court, hoping to be able to resume his official status in advance and go north to command the war.

However, the letter was like a drop in the ocean, without any response. From this moment on, Han Ming had a clearer understanding of Emperor Shenzong's arbitrary behavior.

Even without the later "Yuanfeng Reforms" to strengthen the monarch's centralization of power, the current Emperor Shenzong also revealed the zero tolerance of a great ruler towards powerful ministers.

The previous Emperor Renzong and Emperor Yingzong were able to work together with the literati to govern the world, but Emperor Shenzong might not be able to tolerate the imperial power being checked and divided by the power of the prime minister.

After receiving the information from Lü Haoqing regarding the recent court meeting, Han sighed helplessly, "Could this be historical revisionism?!"

. . . . . .

At the end of December in the first year of Yuanfeng, nearly two months after Gu Tingye led his army to break out of the encirclement of the Liao army, Han Ming, who had completed his mourning period, left Anyang and returned to Bianjing City.

Also arriving in Bianjing City was the follow-up news of the "Yuanfeng Northern Expedition".

It is said that after Gu Tingye led his troops to break through the encirclement, they marched to the city of Jizhou in half a month, and then launched an unprecedented bombardment and captured the city of Jizhou.

Subsequently, the Liao cavalry surrounded the city, Guo Kui's army came to the rescue, and Gu Tingye's army exploded in the center. The two sides launched a fierce battle near Jizhou.

In terms of results, the Tielin Army of the Liao Army is undoubtedly the strongest military branch in the contemporary era.

The Song army gathered nearly 100,000 troops led by Guo and Gu, but they still ended up in a bad situation and were defeated by the cavalry tactics of the Tielin army.

The heavy cavalry first separated and cut off the connection, and then the light cavalry surrounded and shot from the flanks, like flying a kite, constantly involving the Song army's formation. Under this slow wear and tear, the Song army was defeated.

That day, corpses were scattered all over the ground outside Jizhou City, and the earth was stained with blood. Under the powerful charge of the heavy cavalry, the ground was covered with meat-paste-like residue.

At the cost of losing nearly half of its troops, the Song army fled in panic and returned to the Zhuozhou camp, licking their wounds in silence.

When the news of the Song army's defeat reached the country, it instantly caused an uproar in public opinion both at home and abroad.

Especially the families of the military households in the three areas of Hebei East and West Road and Hedong Road, all of them wore mourning clothes. For a time, every household in the northern border was in mourning.

As for Emperor Shenzong, when he received the news, he was so heartbroken that he fainted in the court.

However, within just one year, the entire Song Dynasty was in turmoil.

With the front line defeated and the emperor critically ill, and in the chaotic situation of no leader, Emperor Shenzong finally remembered his old friend and immediately reinstated Han Ming.

He promoted him to be Privy Councilor, Minister of War, and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and all important military affairs on the front line were entrusted to him.

If some monarchs were the type who made mistakes, knew their mistakes, but did not correct them, then Emperor Shenzong had one advantage, which was that he "corrected his mistakes as soon as he knew them," and he did it very decisively.

Knowing that the situation on the front line was no longer under his control, he sincerely promoted Han, who had been abandoned before.

In order to better entrust military affairs, honorary officials such as the head of the Privy Council and the Minister of War were also given titles, in the hope that Han Ming could let go and put an end to this "Northern Expedition" completely.

Han Ming took up his post immediately after receiving the order. Without exchanging pleasantries with his old friends, he directly gave orders to Guo and Gu on the front line, ordering them to guard the city they had captured previously.

At the same time, the Zhong Yan army that advanced eastward and arrived near Yunzhou was required to support the Hedong army that withdrew from Guizhou and Xinzhou, and maintain the occupation of Yunzhou, Yingzhou, Shuozhou, Huanzhou and Weizhou.

In Han's eyes, if he paid such a huge price for this battle and ended up getting nothing in return, it would be a huge loss.

Taking into account the overall terrain and the western wing support of the newly added Ningxia Road after the destruction of Western Xia, at least the entire northern Shanxi can be recovered.

Then, relying on the ruins of the old Great Wall and the Ningxia Road, the army and food supplies from the rear continued to flow in, and they fought a war of attrition with the Liao army, completely cutting the Liao Kingdom's Xijing Road into two parts, east and west!

The biggest question now is, what will be the next move of Yelu Hongji, Xiao Boyu and others?

Are they planning to march south and attack Zhuozhou to completely wipe out the remaining troops of Guo and Gu?

Or should we lead our troops westward to recapture the vast cities and territories along the Xijing Road first?

Or should we advance on both fronts and attack the entire Song army's combat forces in Liao at the same time?

Han Ming stood in front of the military map in the lobby of the Privy Council, constantly thinking about the direction of the entire war.

Next to him was Fu Yaoyu, the Deputy Privy Councilor and Vice-Chancellor, who had changed his status and position. Seeing the man now with a beautiful beard on his chin, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"With Prime Minister Han here, I feel much more relieved."

Hearing this, Han Ming couldn't help but laugh, and reached out to stroke the long beard he had grown over the years.

"Our Master Fu is not someone who likes to flatter others, right?"

Fu Yaoyu's face turned red at Han Ming's teasing, and then he smiled bitterly.

"Prime Minister Han, please don't make fun of me. I have been living in fear all day long these past few years."

"Especially after the emperor suddenly announced the Northern Expedition against Khitan, I was practically up all night, not daring to relax for a moment!"

Fu Yaoyu was not a person who underestimated himself. After all, in the era when the imperial examination was popular, he was also a Jinshi and was considered an outstanding person among his peers.

However, as a scholar by origin, he had been moving back and forth between the two houses of the Censorate, or outsourced to local areas to do administrative and financial work, and had no contact with the military field at all.

As a result, as soon as he was summoned back to the court, he took on an important job - Privy Councilor.

Although he knew from the beginning that he was just holding a position for Han Ming, he didn't care. It was Mr. Fu's creed to do his job well.

But he never expected that he had just sat in this position for a short time before Emperor Shenzong gave him a bad job, which almost got him into trouble. In the end, he had no choice but to let Han clean up the mess.

"Let's not discuss the government's affairs any further. Time is short and the task is heavy. We need to carefully consider how to provide for the soldiers who died on the front lines..."

"Revenge this!!!"