The death of Li Siyuan's father and son also means that this war caused by the Jin army's raid on Yunzhou has come to an end.

After learning the news that Li Siyuan's father and son were killed in battle, Yang Wu couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

At that time, the relationship between Huainan and Hedong was actually very close, in order to fight against the common enemy Zhu Wen, Yang Xingmi and Li Keyong had cooperated in many aspects, and the two sides were real allies.

The Jin army's generals Li Chengsi and Shi Yan, because the road back to Hedong was blocked, had to lead the army south to join Yang Xingmi, which also provided the possibility for Huainan to establish a strong cavalry.

It's just a pity that as the common enemy of Zhu Wen gradually declined, the relationship between the two families became more and more estranged. The so-called alliance has long since died in name only.

And after the fall of the Liang State last year, the two families, as the strongest forces in the world, broke up completely.

From a former ally to a current enemy, Yang Wu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, allies are really unreliable.

After a while, he ordered the guards beside him to bury Li Siyuan's father and son, which can be regarded as a little comfort to the post-Tang Mingzong in history.

After that, Yang Wu ordered all departments to prepare for the return of the class to Luoyang.

Since the Northern Expedition in August last year, Yang Wu has been fighting abroad for more than a year, and the rear has been completely entrusted to the crown prince and the ministers of the court, and now it is time to return.

Of course, a more important point is that since the defeat of Houliang last year, there have been calls from the government and the opposition to persuade Yang Wu to ascend the throne and become emperor, but at that time, the Jin army raided Yunzhou, which made the focus of Wu State shift to the front war again, so the matter of being called emperor had to be put aside temporarily.

Now that the war against the Jin Kingdom has ended in a complete victory, the time is completely ripe for the emperor, whether it is the situation at home and abroad, or his own prestige, it is enough for him to ascend to the supreme throne.

So this time when he returned to Luoyang, Yang Wu's biggest purpose was undoubtedly to ascend the throne and become the emperor.

"From the time I crossed over to the present, I have been busy for nearly 20 years, and now this day has finally arrived!" Yang Wu sighed in his heart.

At this time, it was already the end of December, and it was only two or three days before the Chinese New Year, and it was obviously impossible to return to Luoyang before the New Year, so Yang Wu simply planned to wait for the New Year to be a teacher.

Of course, although it is impossible to return to Luoyang for the time being, there is one thing that cannot be delayed, that is, the reward for meritorious soldiers.

In order to win this battle, the bloody battle of the soldiers is the most crucial, and the wisdom of the commanders is less important in comparison.

Especially on that nameless hillside, in the face of the Jin army's tidal attack, if it weren't for the soldiers who resolutely resisted with great resilience and launched a counter-charge with the courage to die at the last moment, thus defeating the Jin army in one fell swoop, I am afraid that this battle would not have been fought so smoothly.

Later, the performance of the Jin army was greatly substandard, of course, because they were in a hurry to cross the river and withdraw their troops, but more because the previous counter-charge had completely broken their morale and morale, so they were easily defeated by the Wu army.

In any case, this time we must reward the meritorious soldiers.

The day after the capture of Yunzhou, Yang Wu ordered the generals of all ministries to quickly come up with a list of meritorious soldiers and let the officials of the military department review it as soon as possible.

At the same time, after discussing with the officials of the household department, Yang Wu decided to double the reward this time, and as soon as the news came out, the soldiers immediately became excited, and they all cheered loudly, "Long live".

……

In the city of Huaizhou, the camp of the Wu army.

Li Chengding was quietly listening to the report of the person in front of him with a serious face at this time.

"Dudu, my family marshal really wants to surrender to King Wu, a few days ago I planned to send a small one to send a table, but before it was time to set off, the king of Jin suddenly made a mistake and seized the city of my marshal. Now my family marshal led more than 1,000 remnants of troops to garrison Gaoping, besieged by the Jin army, and the situation is critical. Please also ask the governor to send troops to rescue immediately! ”

The person who spoke was a tall young man, although he was asking for help, but when he spoke, he seemed neither humble nor arrogant, calm and unhurried, so that Li Chengding couldn't help but have a good impression when he saw it.

He immediately asked, "What's your name?" What is your position now? ”

The man was obviously stunned for a moment, and then said: "The little surname is Guo Mingwei, and now he is the guard next to my family's handsome." ”

"Guo Wei?" Li Chengding nodded, thinking in his heart, I don't know what this person's ability to lead troops to fight is, otherwise his bearing alone will be worth his reuse.

Yes, the person in front of him is Guo Wei, when the Zhaoyi Army recruited soldiers at the beginning of this year, he went to enlist, and was valued by Li Jitao because of his excellent martial arts skills, and was selected as a trusted guard.

He is burly, brave, aggressive by nature, and likes to drink and gamble, which can be said to be a typical military soldier of this era.

Once he was wandering the streets, and saw a butcher who was bullying the market, very domineering, and he drank too much wine, so he took the initiative to go up to find fault, which led to a dispute and killed the butcher.

After Li Jitao learned the news, he admired his courage and boldness, so he let him go.

A few days ago, the king of Jin suddenly sent Shi Jingjiao to convey the edict, at that time, the news that the Jin army crossed the river and fought a decisive battle with the Wu army but finally returned from defeat has not yet come out, although Li Jitao already has a rebellion in his heart, but after all, he has not fallen out with the king of Jin, so he can only go to meet Shi Jingjiao in person.

However, what Li Jitao didn't expect was that after seeing Shi Jingjiao, Shi Jingjiao suddenly attacked, and led the three hundred cavalry around him to attack Li Jitao and others who came to greet him.

Li Jitao was caught off guard, he couldn't resist at all, and escaped with his life under the protection of the guards, but the army he had just recruited was taken over by Shi Jingjiao, so he had to flee south with the remnants of less than a thousand people around him, preparing to go to Huaizhou to join Wu.

However, when they walked to Gaoping, there was news from the front that Zezhou Assassin Shi Pei Yue had announced that he would respect the edict of King Jin and sent troops to intercept Li Jitao and his party.

As a result, the road to Huaizhou was blocked, and the army led by Shi Jingjiao pursued behind, Li Jitao could only hold on to Gaoping on the one hand, and send guards to Huaizhou from the small road to ask for help from the Wu army.

In the end, Guo Wei was the only one who was able to break through the blockade of the Jin army and successfully reach Huaizhou.

At this time, seeing that Li Chengding didn't pay much attention to the matter of sending troops to rescue Li Jitao, but was asking about his personal situation, Guo Wei couldn't help but be a little anxious.

"Governor, saving soldiers is like fighting fire, our army is not many, Gaoping is not a fortified city, it can't resist for long under the siege of the Jin army, please send troops to rescue immediately!"

Li Chengding waved his hand and said, "This is not in a hurry!" You will tell you in detail about Shi Jingjiao's sudden attack and the strength of the Jin army. ”

Guo Wei hurriedly spoke as requested, and then asked Li Chengding to send troops again.

Li Chengding said: "If you go down to rest, do you want to send troops immediately, the general has his own decision in his heart." ”

After sending Guo Wei down, his heart began to groan.

Of course, he had already known the news of Yang Wu's defeat of the Jin army in Pingyin, and while he was happy about the good news, Li Chengding was also thinking about the next strategy for using troops.

With the defeat of the Jin army, the Wu army will inevitably enter a period of large-scale counteroffensive, and to completely eliminate the Jin state, there are two options for sending troops.

The first is, of course, to directly send troops to Hebei, first seize Yecheng and other places, and then go all the way north to attack Youzhou; After Hebei is completely pacified, he will wave his army to capture Taiyuan, Luzhou and other places.

The second option is to first attack Taiyuan along Hezhongfu, Zezhou and other places to the north, and then wave the army to the east to capture Hebei.

If Hebei is attacked first, because the terrain of Hebei is flat and conducive to cavalry galloping, it is more beneficial for the Jin State to fight here.

If Taiyuan is attacked first, the terrain of Shanxi is relatively mountainous, although it is conducive to the infantry to play, but at the same time, it is also conducive to the defensive side to hold on to the danger.

In addition, this time the Wu army captured a large number of war horses, which also alleviated the weakness of the Wu army's cavalry to a certain extent, so for the time being, these two offensive routes have their advantages and disadvantages, and it is difficult to choose for a while.

However, this time Li Jitao came to ask for help, but for Wu Guo, it was an opportunity to penetrate his forces into Luzhou, and he really couldn't miss it.

Thinking of this, Li Chengding finally decided to send troops immediately and besiege Zezhou first, if Li Jitao was still holding on to Gaoping after Zezhou was taken, then he would relieve the siege, if Gaoping had been captured by the Jin army at that time, then he could only blame himself.

After making up his mind, Li Chengding sent people to quickly pass the news to Yang Wu on the one hand, and gathered troops on the other hand to prepare to attack Zezhou.

Zezhou is the Jincheng of later generations, located in the south of Luzhou, at this time only more than 2,000 troops guarded.

If in peacetime, if the Wu army attacks Zezhou, the Jin army can come to the rescue at any time, so this point of defenders is barely enough; But now that Luzhou is in turmoil, especially Gaoping was occupied by Li Jitao, the Jin army's road to Zezhou was cut off, and in this case, it was naturally much easier for the Wu army to capture Zezhou.

Two days later, 15,000 Wu troops crossed the Taihang Mountains from Tianjing Pass and officially launched an attack on Zezhou, and Guo Wei, as a messenger for help, also set off with the army.

In this battle, in the end, the Wu army successfully captured Zezhou and killed Zezhou assassin Shi Peiyo; However, before the Wu army arrived at Gaoping, the Jin army had also broken Gaoping, and Li Jitao and others were killed.

Guo Wei, who lost his old master, had no choice but to join the Wu army, and was appointed as the battalion commander by Li Chengding.

And his nephew Chai Rong later also joined the Wu army, and performed better than Guo Wei, and made great contributions in the war against the Khitans, and thus achieved the position of governor, becoming a rare famous general in the Wu army.

Of course, these things are already a story for later.

……

At the beginning of the sixteenth year of Wuyi, just after the New Year, Yang Wu led the army back to Luoyang.

At this time, after 100,000 people from the south of the Yangtze River moved in, Luoyang had regained its former prosperity; It happened that some time ago it was the New Year, so the people in the city were full of laughter.

And on this day, when Yang Wu arrived outside Luoyang City under the escort of the three thousand Yulin Army, the entire court and the central government suddenly became a sensation.

In the past year or so, Yang Wu led the Wu army not only to eliminate the Later Liang in one fell swoop, to expand the state of Wu from a country in the south to a great power overlooking the world today, but also to defeat the Jin army in one fell swoop, laying the foundation for the future unification of the world.

Such a great feat, even among the kings of the past dynasties, is rare, and many people have already compared Yang Wu and Tang Taizong Li Shimin openly and secretly, because the similarities between the two of them are too many.

Neither of them is the first generation to start a business, but they are both young to lead the army to fight in all directions, establish great achievements on the battlefield, and at the same time make great achievements in domestic affairs, which can be called a rare Ming monarch.

Even if in the future, even the temple numbers of the two may be the same - Yang Xingmi is the Taizu, and Yang Wu can only be the Taizong.

Of course, there is also a very different place between them, that is, Yang Wu is the eldest son of Yang Xingmi, and he inherited his father's inheritance as a son, while Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, left a notoriety of fratricidal in this regard.

This time Yang Wu returned to Luoyang, and the hundred officials in the city, from the crown prince Yang Jiong to the ordinary petty officials of six or seven grades, all came to fifteen miles outside the city to prepare for Yang Wu's arrival.

At this time, Yang Jiong, who was the crown prince, stood with his uncle Yang Longyan, third brother Yang Yu and others and waited patiently.

If you want to talk about the current court situation, anyone with a discerning eye knows that it has not been long since Yang Wu became emperor, but as Yang Wu's sons gradually grew up, the battle for the prince gradually became prominent.

In the past year, taking advantage of Yang Wu's absence in the court, Yang Yu has really attracted many ministers in the court, and there are many people among the generals in the army who are friendly with him, so Yang Yu's power can be said to have increased greatly.

In particular, a talented person recently took the initiative to come to him and asked to be his staff.

This virtuous man may not be very famous now, and many new people who have entered the court as officials do not know him, but if he is an old minister who has been an official in Wu for many years, he will definitely know this person.

This person is the original Jinling Mansion Yin Song Qiqiu.

In the court of Wu more than ten years ago, Song Qiqiu was deeply used by Yang Wu, and he held important positions in official positions at a young age, but unfortunately he was annoyed by some things later, and was dismissed from office, and let him go home to cultivate his mind, and he was not allowed to enter the office within ten years.

And as of this year, exactly ten years have passed.

It's a pity that today's Wu State is far from the Wu State that could only live in a corner of the south of the Yangtze River, and there are too many cultural relics and talents in the current Wu Kingdom, with Song Qiqiu's current identity, it is not so easy to achieve a high position.

However, today's prince dispute made him see a little hope, so he took the initiative to go to Yang Yu to recommend himself.

Yang Yu had already heard of Song Qiqiu's reputation and knew that this person was indeed very talented.

Although he was still a little worried about whether accepting this person would cause Yang Wu to be disgusted, after thinking about it carefully, Yang Yu finally agreed.

And this new staff member, the first plan he gave him made him overjoyed, and he felt that this staff member really deserved his reputation and he had earned it.