My father-in-laws are here.

After an afternoon, Gao Yuan already had a general idea in his mind.

Starting from the lowest level, it would still be five men to a squad, with one squad leader; ten men to a platoon, with one Squad Leader; one hundred men to a company, with one company commander and one deputy.

Five companies would form a battalion, with one commandant; five companies would form a brigade, with one Brigade Commander and two deputies.

Above a brigade, there would be a division, with one Division Commander and two deputies, commanding three brigades, plus a scout battalion, a medical battalion, etc., totaling eight thousand men.

Above a division, there would be an army corps, with one governor and two deputies, commanding three to five divisions, as well as directly subordinate scout battalions, medical battalions, etc.

Gao Yuan reorganized his forces:

The Annam Army Corps, with Liao Hua as governor and Xian Chong as deputy, commanding three divisions, totaling twenty-five thousand troops.

The Central South Army Corps, with Liu Rengui as governor and Hong Wantong and Huo Jun as deputies, commanding five divisions, totaling forty-two thousand troops.

The Lingnan Corps, with Ma Song as governor and Xian Xing and Mu Shun as deputies, commanding two divisions, totaling seventeen thousand troops.

The Diannan Corps, with Wen Pin as governor and Wu Ban as deputy, commanding two divisions, totaling seventeen thousand troops.

Finally, the Beiwei Army was reorganized into two ten-thousand-man divisions, plus Gao Yuan's fifteen hundred Cavalry, forming the Central Corps.

Gao Yuan personally took on the role of governor of the Central Corps; no one else dared to take this position besides him.

Xia Luqi served as deputy governor, Zhao Meng and Xue Linfeng as division commanders, and Xian Chong as commander of the Cavalry battalion.

Roughly calculating, Gao Yuan discovered that he actually had over one hundred and twenty thousand troops under his command.

This scale already exceeded the Jiannan Army; as a border army of Da Qian, the Jiannan Army's standing force was only eighty thousand.

However, it was only a matter of numbers; one must remember that he possessed such a vast territory.

Across the entire Southwest frontier of Da Qian, plus more than half of the Indochinese Peninsula, scattering over one hundred and twenty thousand troops across it truly didn't feel like much.

However, this was already the limit of what Gao Yuan could manage.

Because he had reduced taxes, abolished poll taxes, and city entry fees, his financial income was still very tight.

Coupled with the need to build roads in various places and resettle immigrants, supporting over one hundred and twenty thousand troops was already a huge burden.

While Gao Yuan was busy reforming the army, Lin'an City was a scene of peace and prosperity, with songs and dances.

Emperor The Emperor's Lin'an Palace was finally partially completed and ready for occupancy.

All of this was thanks to the congratulatory gift sent by Gao Yuan; those rare timbers were exactly what they urgently needed.

On this day, The Emperor hosted a grand banquet for his officials in the Xuande Hall, and just as a song and dance performance ended, a Red Plume Messenger rushed in.

The Emperor's heart sank, thinking which good-for-nothing was going to come and give him trouble again.

Although he really wanted to send the messenger away, he suppressed himself.

"Chief Eunuch, go and look at the report. If it's good news, read it aloud."

Chief Eunuch immediately understood The Emperor's meaning, walked down to receive the report, checked the seal to confirm it was correct, and then opened it to read.

After a few glances, Chief Eunuch revealed a brilliant smile and performed a kneeling bow to The Emperor.

"Your servant congratulates Your Majesty, and rejoices with Your Majesty! A great victory in Jiannan Circuit! Commander Song has sent a messenger to report the victory!"

"Hahaha, truly a double blessing! Read it, quickly read the victory report so all my beloved ministers can share in the joy!"

"Yes!"

Chief Eunuch got up from the ground and, in a high-pitched voice, began to read with dramatic intonation.

"Your servant, Song Ren, Military Governor of Jiannan Circuit, bows to the north... To inspire our Qian Army and people, I boldly send this urgent report of victory, and I hope Your Majesty will not blame me. I bow again!"

"Hahaha, no blame, no blame, hahaha!"

The Emperor's face was splitting with laughter; this great victory was too important to him.

All the officials attending the banquet also rose from their seats and came to the center of the main hall to bow and offer congratulations.

No one, including The Emperor and the officials, paid attention to one point—Yaizhou was lost, and Jiannan Circuit suffered heavy losses.

Of course, none of these old foxes, who had been immersed in court politics for many years, jumped out to spoil the mood at this time.

Nor did anyone jump out to question why Song Ren was able to turn defeat into victory without reinforcements.

Song Yehong and Zheng Ting exchanged glances, both seeing a hypothesis in the other's eyes.

"Could it be that our brother-in-law intervened?"

After the banquet, the two huddled together.

"Brother Ye Hong, do you think Gao Yuan sent troops? It shouldn't be; what benefit would he gain from reinforcing Song Ren?"

Song Yehong stroked his beard.

"Do you think those lost populations, money, and grain were taken by Gao Yuan?"

"Possibly. Otherwise, Song Ren wouldn't have been so ambiguous in his victory report."

"Then it matches up. Song Ren borrowed troops from Gao Yuan, and the price was those people and resources."

With such a simple analysis, the two actually figured out the general situation.

The only thing they didn't expect was that Song Ren wasn't actively offering those benefits; he was purely passively enduring it.

After all, in their world, everyone would discuss the price beforehand; there was no such thing as Gao Yuan just taking things without asking.

Within three days, Song Ren's imperial decree of enfeoffment came down; he was promoted.

He was ennobled as Duke of Xiao, Grand General of Champions, and transferred to the position of Grand General of the Left Golden Guard.

As for his position as Military Governor of Jiannan Circuit, it was given to Meng Zhenshan, the former Grand General of the Left Valiant Cavalry Guard.

Upon hearing this news of the transfer, Gao Yuan jumped up with joy.

Although Song Ren's aptitude was average, he was cautious and steady, and after many years of experience, his abilities were quite good.

Most importantly, he was part of The Emperor's retinue during his time as a hidden dragon, and could be said to be utterly devoted and loyal to this Emperor.

But Meng Zhenshan was different; he was an old veteran from the time of the previous Emperor, a brave general.

However, he was merely a brave general, excellent at leading the Valiant Cavalry Guard in charges.

If he were to be put in charge of the overall situation and control a region, Gao Yuan truly did not have high hopes for him.

Just as Gao Yuan was beaming with joy, Zheng Wan and Song Yao suddenly arrived at the main hall of the Governors Office.

Seeing their hesitant expressions, Gao Yuan thought something had happened and quickly asked with concern.

"Wan'er, Yao Yao, what's wrong?"

The two women hesitated and fidgeted for a while before speaking together.

"Husband, our... our family has arrived."

"That's good news! Aren't you always homesick? It's a good chance to catch up."

"The ones who came are our fathers?"

"Duke Zheng and Duke Song have arrived? That's perfect, I haven't properly paid my respects to my two fathers-in-law yet."

But looking at the two women, who still had hesitant expressions, Gao Yuan became somewhat confused.

"What's wrong? Do they want to take you back? That won't do, I absolutely won't agree."

Song Yao stammered, not knowing how to speak, and finally Zheng Wan spoke up.

"They said they want to live in County permanently, and they also brought many young descendants from their families..."

Zheng Wan didn't continue, but Gao Yuan knew what she wanted to say.

The old patriarchs of the Zheng and Song families coming to live here permanently, and bringing a large number of young family members.

The meaning was clear: they were preparing to invest more heavily in him.

But since they were investing, they would naturally expect a return, and that return would be a large number of official positions.

As second-tier aristocratic families of Da Qian, they dreamed of climbing one step higher, becoming first-tier or even top-tier aristocratic families.

However, this went against Gao Yuan's own philosophy; he did not want two behemoths capable of influencing court politics to emerge under his rule.

The Five Surnames and Seven Clans, the Wei and Du of Chengnan, and the Shandong gentry of the original timeline also existed in this timeline.

They monopolized most of the official positions in the Great Qian Imperial Court, so powerful that even the Emperor could not do anything about them.

Gao Yuan didn't think his abilities were stronger than Emperor Zhao Che's, much less comparable to Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin of the original timeline.

If they couldn't contend with those great aristocratic families, he had even less of a chance.

So, from the beginning, he wasn't prepared to let them grow, but now...