After the battle to destroy Xia, the confidence of the soldiers and civilians of the Great Song Dynasty in recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun increased greatly, and they were not as afraid of the Liao State as before.

And above the court, this phenomenon is also the same, and the power of the main battle faction led by Li Hao and others is unprecedentedly high.

Li Hao is quite satisfied with this, at least it shows that the monarchs and ministers of the Great Song Dynasty are still arrogant and arrogant.

It's just that Li Hao's focus is not here, but on the reward after the return of the army to the dynasty.

First of all, as one of the hosts of this battle, the British duke, he is now at the peak of the military general, and he is really unsealable.

After all, you can't give the British prince the king, so far, except for the Chai family, there has never been a living king with a different surname.

Li Hao didn't say much in this regard, after all, it was a relationship between Weng and his son-in-law, so as not to be said to be favoritism.

Moreover, if the king is also sensitive, now is the critical moment for the monarch and the ministers to work together to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, and Li Hao does not want to make waves because of this matter.

So under the deliberation of the important ministers of the court, he simply added the titles of Yue Guogong and Ji Guogong to the British Duke, and made up a real three dukes.

Of course, this is limited to this generation, and after the death of the British Duke, the titles of the Duke of Yue and the Duke of Ji will be withdrawn, and I believe that by that time, the Duke of the British will definitely be posthumously presented as a prince.

As for now, when the British Duke received the edict, he really withdrew from the court and retired with peace of mind.

The other is Ouyang Xiu, although he did not personally preside over the Battle of Pingxia, but as the prime minister, the function is naturally a big one.

The official rank has also been promoted to the third division of Kaifeng Yitong, the rank of Tai Division, and Zhengyipin, which can be regarded as a real extremely human minister, but this position cannot be transferred again.

Even Ouyang Xiu is already preparing for the shift, planning to wait for things to stabilize, then he can go to Shu Zhishi and hand over the rights to Li Hao.

The rest and Li Hao, Gu Tingye, Yang Wenyuan and others have also gained, such as Li Hao's promotion to the second grade of Dr. Jin Ziguanglu.

Gu Tingye and Yang Wenyuan took over as the commanders of the front division of the palace and the infantry division of the guards respectively, and the rest of Xiang Yuan Wenshao, Li Yixing and others also controlled real power in the army.

However, for the generals, under the suppression of Li Hao, there was no large-scale promotion of the official rank, after all, Gu Tingye and they are still young, if the official rank is promoted too quickly to the point that there is no seal, it will be troublesome.

It is possible to operate on the title, after all, among these people, many people cannot inherit their own titles.

Gu Tingye doesn't need it here for the time being, he is the Marquis of Ningyuan, and after recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun, he will be promoted to duke.

In the words of others, Yang Wenyuan, who was the commander all the way, was named An Yongbo, and three other people who performed the best in the war were also awarded the title of earl.

The rest of the people can only wait until Yanyun is recovered, and it is estimated that a group of counts will be able to pop up at that time.

After that, the succession in the court was also very smooth, Li Hao took over the post of Pingzhang under the Tongzhong Book from Ouyang Xiu, and began to officially lead the political hall and govern the six departments, so far the Great Song Dynasty has entered a new stage in Li Hao's hands.

The other is the candidate for the privy envoy, Li Hao is not Ouyang Xiu after all, even though he is now in a high position, he does not have much prestige among the old ministers.

Therefore, before Ouyang Xiu left, he helped Li Hao change the candidate for the privy envoy, and let Sheng Hong enter the privy council as the privy council, so that Li Hao could use this to have general civil and military power.

After Li Hao took office, he adjusted the functions and powers of the six departments, nine temples and five supervisors, and assigned the military weapons supervisor to the Ministry of War, which managed the production of ordnance in a unified manner;

Weiwei Temple, the capital water supervisor, and the supervisor will be assigned to the Ministry of Industry, unify the right of craftsmen, and also use this to control financial power, after all, these yamen are all big users of money, or they are well managed under their noses.

In addition, the strength of Taifu Temple has risen sharply this time, after all, the Western Xia has been recovered this time, and Shuofang and Zhenwu have been set up two roads, and the Great Song Dynasty has had a place to raise horses since then, and since then the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Regions have reopened the trade routes, and they can also get war horses from the Western Regions.

Therefore, in order to make up for the regret of the lack of military horses in the Great Song Dynasty for decades, Li Hao deliberately left the Taifu Temple as the yamen in charge of Ma Zheng, and appointed Sheng Changbai as the secretary of the Taifu Temple and entrusted him with important tasks.

After clarifying these things, Li Hao continued to devote himself to saving money for the Great Song Dynasty, knowing that the Liao State was different from the Western Xia, its national strength was far superior, and its territory was vast.

Even if he successfully won the sixteen states of Yanyun, he still needed to face a strong counterattack from the Liao State in the future, and the war would inevitably be protracted.

In the middle of this, Li Hao has always been amiable in the face of the people of the Liao State, and all the offerings are as usual, so as to paralyze the monarchs and ministers of the Liao State.

After three years, the number of military horses in the Great Song Dynasty had greatly improved, and Li Hao decided to expand the number of cavalry.

After all, the north is mostly plains, and the soldiers and horses of the Liao State are mostly cavalry, even if they are defeated by the Song army, if the Song army does not have enough cavalry, it will be difficult to expand the results.

Therefore, Li Hao's side needs to arrange a person to go to Zhenwu Road and train cavalry there.

It became a question who to choose, so Li Hao called Gu Tingye, Yang Wenyuan, Zhang Wen, Yuan Wenshao, Li Yixing and others over to discuss.

Of course, Gu Tingye and Yang Wenyuan came to consult for advice, and as the chief officials of the Sanya, it was impossible for them to be responsible for this matter.

But in the face of Li Hao's words, several other people didn't seem so positive, after all, even if Li Hao didn't say it explicitly.

But if you want to attack Liao in the future, you must also march in several ways, and the cavalry will naturally have to be disassembled and used at that time.

Even if he went to training, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of it, and he had to stay in the northwest for so long, so he simply avoided it one by one.

Seeing this situation, Li Hao didn't say much, and directly led everyone to a sand table next to him, which was a sand table that Li Hao specially ordered craftsmen to create a sand table about the topography of Xijing Road and Nanjing Road in Liaoguo according to the map.

Then he pointed and said: "This time to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, I still mean to march in three ways, all the way out of Hedong Road, through Yanmen to attack Shuozhou and Yingzhou, and then go straight to Datong Mansion, and after taking Datong, I will wave my army north to Yanggao and Jiaoshan according to the terrain and the Great Wall of Sui to resist the Liao army.

The other road goes out from Hebei East Road, passes through Xiongzhou to attack Xincheng and Zhuozhou, and then goes straight to Xijin Mansion, and after taking Xijin Mansion, it is also necessary to wave the army north to take Juyong Pass and Jinpo Pass according to the Great Wall, and completely drive the Liao army out of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures.

After all, once the war breaks out between these two places, the soldiers and horses of the Liao State will most likely support Nanjing Road, and the pressure here is even greater.

But we can't ignore it, the Liao State will go the opposite way, turn to support Datong Mansion, and destroy our plan all the way first.

Therefore, this last road is the general reserve, mainly cavalry, once the Liao army moves, it must immediately lead troops to support, and the responsibility is heavy.

Since this road is dominated by cavalry, the main general naturally needs to be someone who is familiar with cavalry warfare, right? ”

Hearing this, everyone began to scramble for the task of going to the northwest to train cavalry, there was no way, who made this bait too fragrant.

In the end, in a battle for me, this position was earned for Li Yixing.

Then Li Hao instructed: "I don't want you to start all over again this time, the front division of the palace and the guard pro-army infantry division, you will send Wu Qiancavalry to go."

Let them help you train in the northwest, and I ask that in two years, at least 40,000 cavalry be drawn to the northwest to fight. ”

Li Yixing agreed to Li Hao's words very happily.

In fact, at this time in the Great Song Dynasty, a large group of people of insight were preparing for this life-and-death battle with the Liao State.

On the eve of arriving at the big station, Li Hao counted the money and food that he had saved hard over the years, although the amount was indeed a lot, but the battlefield situation was changing rapidly, in order to have more certainty.

Li Hao hit the idea on the head of the pile sealing warehouse, anyway, this was originally for the money that Emperor Taizu saved to redeem the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Although it has been squandered by successive emperors for so many years, it is still somewhat usable, and it can be used now.

And Li Hao really felt that the emperor should not leave too much silver in his hands, otherwise there might be something out of it.

Regarding Li Hao's proposal, Zhao Zonghan was quite generous, and directly agreed.

But when Li Hao actually went to get it, he found that the silver in this pile vault was much less than he imagined, and it was better than nothing.

After everything was fully equipped, Li Hao officially decided in the court to start the battle to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

This time, with Gu Tingye, Yang Wenyuan, and Li Yixing as the commanders of the three routes, a total of 380,000 troops were dispatched, and the elite forbidden army was almost dispatched.

And this does not include the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in the north, if all of them add up to claim one million.

The only pity is that Li Hao, as the prime minister this time, is not good at the front line.

Let others go to the front line to supervise military affairs, Li Hao was not at ease, so this time Li Hao simply sent Sheng Hong out as the Hebei Xuanfu envoy to supervise local military affairs in Zhending Mansion.

Of course, Sheng Hong is obedient, but his ability to do things is not so reassuring after all, so Li Hao asked Yan Fu, Yan Jingwen, and Zeng Gong to help him.

In the case of Hedong Road, Li Hao invited Zeng Gongliang to be the envoy of Hedong Xuanfu to supervise military affairs in Taiyuan Mansion, and then let Sheng Changbai and Qi Heng go to fight.

As for Bianjing City, Li Hao really couldn't stay, so he simply encouraged Zhao Zonghan to move the imperial driver to the Daimyo's Mansion, where he watched the progress of the Liao and Song Wars.

In fact, at this time, the situation in Liao was much worse than Li Hao had originally expected, and the military strength was greatly reduced.

In the face of the large-scale attack of the Song army, although it was prepared, it did not have enough power to counterattack for a while.

The Hedong Road side went extremely smoothly, and it took only three months to capture the city one after another, and seize the Great Wall checkpoint, blocking the way for the Liao State to attack here from Shangjing Road.

However, the attack on the Nanjing Road side encountered some problems, although it had already taken Xijin Mansion, but after encountering the regrouped Liao army, and finally failed to take the Great Wall Pass in the first place.

The two armies fought in Jizhou and Danzhou, and at this time, the Liao State had a steady stream of reinforcements from Zhongjing Road.

At this point, if you don't block the Great Wall level, I'm afraid that in the end, it will really become the foundation of the competition, to see who has the strongest sustaining ability.

Although Li Hao is confident that with so many years of accumulation, the Great Song Dynasty can also consume the Liao State to death, but this will also hurt the Great Song Dynasty a lot.

Li Hao was reluctant to lose the family he had worked so hard to manage, so he did his best in one battle, rather than fighting a war of attrition.

When even if he ordered the garrisons in various places to change their defenses, they would take over Shuofang and Zhenwu with relatively high combat power Qin Feng and Yongxing Military Road, and then let Shuofang and Zhenwu take over the newly recovered Datong Mansion.

Release Yang Wenyuan's subordinates and support Gu Tingye and them.

In addition, a group of reinforcements were organized from all over the north, and the confident An army set out to attack Pingzhou, and then flanked the enemy in Jizhou on both sides.

Even so, it was after a bloody battle that the Liao army was finally driven out of the Great Wall and completely recovered this Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, which had been lost for nearly 150 years.

At this time, basically the goal set by Li Hao has been completed, and the next step is to manage the area that has just been recovered to appease the people's livelihood.

As for the next counteroffensive against Liao, it will have to wait for a while, and then it will be the final reckoning.

By the way, Li Hao plans to solve the Jurchen tribe together, although according to the current trend, it is impossible for the Jin Kingdom to rise to its original state, let alone destroy the Great Song Dynasty.

But the main thing is that Li Hao remembered this matter in his heart, and he was a little embarrassed, so it was better to solve it together.

This reward, promoted by Li Hao, coupled with Zhao Zonghan's excitement after recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun, is particularly rich.

Gu Tingye was promoted from the Marquis of Ningyuan to the Acting Duke of the Kingdom, and then there were nine earls this time, including Yuan Wenshao, Zhang Wen, Li Yixing and others.

As for Yang Wenyuan, he was not promoted this time, but he also added a lot.

But these are not the point, after all, the credit is really too great this time, and everyone has nothing to say about the crowning of the official lord.

It wasn't until Li Hao took advantage of the situation to propose that Gu Tingye enter the Privy Council and take over the affairs of the Tongzhi Privy Council, which caused controversy in the court.

It's just that this time Li Hao strongly suppressed dissenting opinions, anyway, now he is credited, and Gu Tingye's resume is also in the past.

Anyway, there are examples of generals entering the Privy Council itself, although the result of the last person is not very good, but there is a precedent.

In this matter, the military generals group can be said to be united, after all, it is beneficial for them to let Gu Tingye be the privy envoy.

In the end, under Zhao Zonghan's acquiescence, Gu Tingye successfully took office and squeezed out Sheng Hong.

Of course, Li Hao did not treat Sheng Hong badly, but he arranged Sheng Hong into the political hall and the secretary of the household department.

At this point, Li Hao can be regarded as fulfilling the promise of the year and helping the generals to fight for a higher political status.

After that, Gu Tingye was in the Privy Council for many years, presided over a series of wars against the Liao State, and finally hit the line of Changbai Mountain in the east, tried to seal the wolf Juxu in the north, and opened the Silk Road in the west.

Internally, Li Hao has been in charge of the government hall for more than 30 years, vigorously promoting the development of science and technology, and developing the steam engine.

Although it may not be perfect enough, with the path created by Li Hao, I think the follow-up development will be faster and faster.

At this time, the Great Song Dynasty had surpassed the heroic style of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and it was not in vain that Li Hao had worked hard for so many years.

However, at this time, Li Hao was also tired, and the relatives and friends around him left one by one, so that Li Hao was also ready to enjoy life.

When Li Hao was in the Cheng Garden, basking in the sun and reminiscing about the past, he fell asleep unconsciously.

As soon as he opened his eyes again, Li Hao was a little confused, because everything in front of him seemed to be something wrong.