My older brother is Gao Huan.

Chapter 555: Incapable of doing anything else
March twenty-fifth.

"Hahaha! Good!"

Gao Yu received a report from the front lines, informing him of Kezhu Hunyuan's surrender. He also learned that Kezhu Hunyuan had tricked Yao Xiong, the garrison commander of Huai County, into leading troops out of the city to provide assistance, only to be ambushed on the way.

In the end, only Yao Xiong and a few dozen elite cavalrymen fled in panic.

This is equivalent to Gao Yu taking Pinggao and Huai County in one fell swoop without bloodshed!
This will undoubtedly greatly reduce the pressure on the defenders of the Wild King!
Originally, Gao Yu had only taken down the jungler, who, judging from the map, was a small area that was 'protruding' outwards.

Apart from being backed by mountains to the east.

The entire area is surrounded on the west, north, and south sides.

Once Pinggao and Huai County are captured, Gao Yu can quickly send troops to garrison them, and Yewang will no longer be an isolated city in a prominent location.

At least the pressure from the south will be greatly reduced.

After all, with the fall of Huai County and Pinggao, Beizhong City would also face direct threats.

Erzhu Rong was well aware that although the Yellow River was known as a natural barrier, it could not actually serve as a shield to the north of Luoyang.

The northern barrier of Luoyang is the land of Shanxi, the land of Yan and You.

Despite the importance of the river bridge, once winter arrives and the weather gets a little cold, the Yellow River will freeze over. At that time, the army will not need the river bridge at all and can easily cross the frozen river directly to the south and invade Luoyang.

North Central City can be considered the last line of defense; if North Central City also falls...

Then he had to prepare for the Battle of Luoyang, and fight Gao Yu to the death outside Luoyang, at the foot of Beiman Mountain.

He is not prepared for this situation and cannot accept it. He can only rely on North Central City to hold out.

But if this happens...

With the southern garrison unable to invade Yewang, and the western Jinzhou army needing to guard against Yang Zhong's large army in Hedong, Yewang was actually not in great danger.

On the contrary, the army in Yewang City can go north without any pressure to seize the southern gateway of Bingzhou.

If Gaodu and Jianxing are captured, it means that Jinzhou and Jianzhou, which Erzhu Rong had forcibly separated from the area north of the Yellow River in Sizhou, will fall entirely into Gao Yu's hands.

The army from Bingzhou will be completely trapped within Bingzhou's borders, meaning that Bingzhou will become an isolated region.

"Fortunately, the prince and Daoyuan had an old friendship, otherwise it wouldn't have been so easy to persuade him to surrender."

Gao Huan shook his head, "It's mainly Erlang. Your capture of Ye Wang was too crucial, shaking Tianbao's prestige, which is why you were able to persuade Daoyuan to surrender so easily."

The reason why Erzhu Rong and these generals who were leading troops in the field were suspicious of each other was indeed because Gao Yu's outstanding achievements put too much pressure on them.

Erzhu Rong had lost his confidence, so he naturally became suspicious and paranoid. His suspicious behavior made his generals feel insecure.

This gave Gao Yu an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

Ultimately, it was because Erzhu Rong had lost too many times and gradually lost the ability to "promise" others, meaning that others no longer believed that Erzhu Rong could ultimately lead them to success.

"What are you going to do next?"

"Let Xiaoxian lead his troops to Huai County."

After a moment's thought, Gao Yu said, "Then we'll find another opportunity to seize Gaodu and Jianxing!"

For Gao Yu, taking Pinggao and Huai County not only relieved the pressure on Ye Wang, but also had another very important reason.

That would greatly reduce the cost of transporting grain.

After the Qinshui and Danshui rivers converge at Yewang, they change from flowing in a north-south direction to flowing in an east-west direction, eventually joining the Yellow River. The river mouth is located around Huai County.

After taking Huai County.

This means that if Gao Yu wants to transport supplies from the rear to Yewang.

The previous route involved transporting the grain to Dunqiu, then by water along the Yellow River to Jixian, where it would be unloaded and transported by land to Shanyang, and finally to Yewang. This route was mostly by land, and a great deal of grain was consumed along the way.

Once the grain supplies are delivered to Dunqiu, they can be transported entirely by water, traveling westward along the Yellow River and then upstream from the river mouth to Yewang.

This greatly reduced the logistical burden; the less food wasted on the road, the more rations reached the soldiers at the front. Gao Huan nodded, "After taking Jianzhou, the connection between Bingzhou and Luoyang will be severed."

"Then we will need to trouble you, my brother, to prepare more food and military supplies and transport them to the front lines."

Gao Yu has no plans to go to the front lines for the time being.

He has to learn to be a hands-off manager; he can't do everything himself.

Moreover, he will be inspecting the construction of water conservancy facilities in various parts of Hebei over the next two months. After all, he has the impression that there may be extreme drought in the next few years, so it is always good to be prepared in advance.

Not to mention the first imperial examination in Ye City, which he also needed to be present to serve as an examiner in the palace examination, so that the first batch of students would regard him as their mentor.

Furthermore, a group of people should be promoted, and the proportion of people from aristocratic families holding official positions in the court should be appropriately reduced.

This is undoubtedly an encroachment on some of the power of the aristocratic families. To do such a thing, Gao Yu needs to stay in Ye City. If he were to lead troops in battle outside, who knows what kind of trouble he might cause.

He also had to have laws made.

To rebuild the social order that had collapsed due to war.

This can be seen as laying the foundation for my future.

Each of these tasks alone requires a tremendous amount of effort, leaving Gao Yu with no time to go to the front lines to lead troops into battle.

"I'm just running errands in the rear. How can I compare to the soldiers who are fighting bloody battles on the front lines? The soldiers are risking their lives to fight the enemy."

Gao Huan shook his head.

"By the way, brother, I asked Chang Chu to prepare for the wedding of Xiao Xian, A Yang, and others. Sister-in-law... you don't have any objections, do you?"

Duan Shao is alright.

Gao Yang is Gao Huan's son, so logically his marriage should be arranged by Gao Huan and his family, and they should also be the ones to choose which woman he should marry.

Gao Yu's actions were undoubtedly overstepping his bounds.

However, in order to reassure Yang Changchu and highlight Gao Ze's status as the eldest son, he had no choice but to do this, which was equivalent to having Yang Changchu help Gao Ze win over this group of nephews and nieces who would definitely take command of the army in the future.

Gao Huan chuckled, "You know... A-Yang's relationship with me and Zhaojun isn't close, and it's also our fault for favoring A-Hui too much since childhood."

"That's exactly why it's most suitable for you to arrange A-Yang's wedding, as it best suits his wishes. Besides... Zhaojun and I were very satisfied with the weddings you arranged for A-Hui and A-Ying before, so how could we blame you?"

Gao Huan was telling the truth.

Gao Yang wasn't that close to them; in fact, they all felt that Gao Yang probably recognized Gao Yu as his uncle more.

In particular, Gao Yang always wanted to compare himself with Gao Cheng.

Gao Cheng's marriage was personally arranged by Gao Yu.

If Gao Huan were to forcefully interfere in Gao Yang's marriage, it would only displease Gao Yang.

Gao Huan knew he owed his second son something, so he simply stopped interfering.

not to mention.

Gao Yu's actions actually laid the foundation for Gao Yang's future status.

As Gao Ze was Gao Yu's successor, Gao Yang was the 'trusted minister' appointed by Gao Yu for Gao Ze. With this relationship, Gao Yang's future status could not be low.

Why should he jeopardize his son's future?

"That's good."

Gao Yu smiled and said, "Brother, don't worry. I won't interfere in other people's marriages. You and your sister-in-law can make the arrangements."

Gao Cheng, Gao Yang, and Gao Ying were raised by Gao Yu from a young age, so their emotional bonds are different.

Gao Huan's other sons were not that close to Gao Yu either.

(End of this chapter)