Tuoba Tao has been very annoying recently.
Beiyan is now in internal strife, Beiliang has also died of his son, and the country is caught in the battle for the storage position. According to the thoughts of the courtiers, of course, the lingering Beiyan will be destroyed first, and then the army will be sent to Beiliang.
In order not to fight on two fronts, we must first marry Princess Xingping of Beiliang back to stabilize the hearts of Beiliang, and then free up his hands to destroy Beiliang after he has dealt with Beiyan.
Whether it was for Beiyan or Beiliang, Tuoba Tao would definitely go on a personal expedition. Everyone was psychologically prepared for this, but the courtiers hoped that after he left, he would have a prince to supervise the country, so that he would not be alone. Walk the country without a leader.
'My son is only four years old, and he is in charge of a ball country! 'Tuoba Tao's heart was restless,' he would kill his wife as soon as he was established. These old men were afraid that Mrs. He would give birth to another son, and the He Lai family was the only one. '
He originally wanted to wait until Mrs. He gave birth naturally. She was pregnant for ten months. Mrs. He knew that she would not die and would eat and sleep well. She was in good health. Empress Dowager Dou took care of him. He used the last election to clean up the harem. Mrs. He There is no morning sickness, the person is plumper, and there is no sign of premature birth.
In this way, it will not be able to be produced until the end of the year.
However, because Beiyan temporarily surrendered to Wei, he gained a period of tranquility. Once Anyi would continue to fight for power, infighting began to appear in the country.
However, Feng Hong, the king of Beiyan, abandoned the prince, abolished the elders and established the young, established his beloved concubine Murong as the queen, and established Murong's son Feng Ren as the prince, laying the root of trouble for Beiyan.
Feng Hong's original wife Wang has three sons, the eldest son Feng Chong, the second son Feng Lang, and the third son Feng Miao. Feng Chong has been regarded as the crown prince for so many years. He is both the elder and the heir. He has received the support of many ministers, especially Han ministers. As a result, Feng Hong still established his youngest son Feng Ren as the crown prince. After Feng Chong failed in the struggle, he was named Duke Changle. Sent to the far western Liaoning guard.
As soon as the eldest brother failed, the other sons of the Wang family would not have a good life. They were made difficult by the Empress Murong and the crown prince everywhere in the palace, and they were frequently assassinated and plotted against each other.
Brothers Feng Lang and Feng Miao escaped from Longcheng, the capital of Beiyan, and secretly went to the west of Liaoning to seek refuge with their elder brother, crying to his elder brother: "Today the country is about to perish, no one knows, but my father listened to Murong's slander again. Abandoning the elders and setting up the young, my brothers and three will suffer disasters in the future, it is better to go to Wei Guo to help you get justice, and save your life is the best policy."
At this time, Feng Hong, the king of Beiyan, had not yet died, the Murong clan had covered the sky, and the crown prince was still the son of Empress Murong. No matter how the three brothers looked at it, their lives could not be saved, and they were saddened by the death of their mother. The idea of borrowing soldiers.
When Beiyan and Beiliang asked for submission, Tuoba Tao was attacking Rouran. He knew that if he did not accept the submission of the two countries, he might be attacked by the enemy, so he accepted these two countries as vassals, but he always thought about destroying Yan. Cool idea.
When his two sisters grew up, one title was "Wuwei" and the other was "Pingcheng", which implied that they would conquer Wuwei and Longcheng.
Tuoba Tao wanted to destroy Beiliang but had no excuse, but the three princes of Beiyan were frightened by the persecution of the Murong clan, and sent a letter of help to Pingcheng.
All the ministers in the DPRK agreed to attack Beiyan, and Tuoba Tao was even more concerned about Yantian, who was in the state of Yan, and immediately accepted the surrender of the three princes of Beiyan.
Beiyan is now a vassal state of the Wei state, and all appointments are nominally subject to the consent of the main state. Tuoba Tao immediately named his eldest son Feng Chong as the king of Western Liaoning, Jianyou and Ping Erzhou, and named ten counties in Western Liaoning, allowing him Lead the army south.
It is said that if you have a stepmother, you will have a stepfather. After Feng Hong received the news that his three sons were intending to surrender to Wei, he knew that Wei Guo would use his son as an excuse to attack the State of Yan, so he sent his general Feng Yu to arrest him. the three sons.
Feng Yu was sent by the pro-Queen, and the order to arrest became a chase. The three brothers knew that they could not resist the army from Longcheng, so they could only hide in western Liaoning and be protected by the elder brother's troops, and quickly sent a letter to Pingcheng for support.
When He Mulan was about to leave, the three princes of Beiyan had just delivered the letter to Pingcheng, and Cui Hao naturally knew that the reform would not change, because the war was about to take place.
Tuoba Tao was worried about the reason why he did not send troops to Beiyan to interfere in internal affairs. After receiving the letter from the three princes, he immediately issued an edict, ordering Tuoba Ti, the king of Yingchuan, to lead an army of 50,000 people from Montenegro to western Liaoning, waiting for an opportunity to attack Longcheng.
After the army of Montenegro was destroyed, it became an army stationed in the north. After Tuoba arrived in Montenegro, he reorganized the entire army, cleaned up the atmosphere, and sent back more than 10,000 old soldiers who were like soldiers, thus preserving the combat effectiveness of Montenegro to the greatest extent possible.
At this time, all 50,000 elites came out. They were all veterans who had attacked Rouran. In addition, it was still summer. Although the summer was cold in the north, it was not a problem. A prince, and captured the general Feng Yu.
Tuobati sent his lieutenant to lead 5,000 cavalry to continue to test Longcheng. Feng Hong was very frightened and immediately sent a messenger to Weiying, willing to accept a daughter like the King of Beiliang to seek peace.
As a result, Tuobati sent Feng Hong's proposal for peace back to Pingcheng.
If the King of Beiyan said that he wanted to make peace with the tribute and ceded the land, Tuoba Tao might still consider it, but as soon as he heard that he wanted to send his daughter, he immediately refused, and he replied with two conditions:
The first was to send Feng Ren, the prince of Beiyan, to Pingcheng as a hostage, and the second was to return the envoy Yu Shimen who had been imprisoned in Wei.
Yu Shimen was an envoy of the Wei Kingdom during the Ming and Yuan Dynasties. As a result, he was detained by Beiyan for 21 years. He would rather die than surrender. Tuoba Tao regarded him as Su Wu of the Wei Kingdom, and always hoped that he could be rescued back to China.
These two conditions are logically not harsh, because Feng Hong has many sons, and even Juqu Muqian voluntarily stayed as a proton in order to prevent Wei from attacking Beiliang, and the prince sacrificed nothing.
As a result, the letter was sent back to Beiyan. Feng Hong, the king of Beiyan, loved the prince Feng Ren, and the queen kept crying and obstructing him every day, so Feng Hong would rather die than give up his son. After persuading several loyal ministers, Feng Hong had his head cut off. .
It is said that the Sanqi Standing Servant laughed before his execution and said, "After I die, please hang my head at the west gate, and I will watch the Wei army enter the city."
Feng Hong wrote a letter to inform Tuoba Tao that his son was seriously ill and could not go there.
The matter of Feng Hong's dispatch of envoys could not be concealed from Wei's scouts. Tuoba Ti knew that the King of Beiyan could not obediently return, and completely handed over his national line to Wei's hands, so after receiving Yu Shimen An edict was issued to drive back the envoys of Beiyan, and prepare to go on a personal expedition.
Cui Hao and others all thought that because of the plague, Liu Song did not dare to interfere any further steps, and would not pay attention to Feng Hong's request for help. Liu Yilong also did not have the ability to rescue Beiyan, which was thousands of miles away. A farce, this kind of inference greatly increased Tuoba Tao's confidence, and only waited for the winter to take down Beiyan.
As a result, it came to the question of the prince.
The ministers in the DPRK did not want Tuoba Tao to go on a personal expedition after the Wei kingdom became more and more extensive. This is different from the previous state of Wei, which only had a small piece of land. Now the state of Wei is a colossus sitting on the territory of the three kingdoms of Hu Xia, Xi Qin, Wei, and Rouran.
Although Rouran is destroyed, it is still eager to move. Xiadi is still slowly governing the people. The population of the people in the Western Qin Dynasty has dropped sharply before the famine.
This is not the previous few months, and now there are more state affairs in a month than in the previous year.
After the establishment of the Chu Chu was put on the agenda, Beijing and China began to take action one after another. The harem did not say anything about it, and even Hanchen and Xianbei nobles began to walk with each other.
The prince must be Tuoba Huang, Tuoba Tao only has this son now. What everyone wants to grab is the position of the assistant minister and the official of the East Palace of the Crown Prince.
Cui Hao made his fortune from the East Palace and gradually reached the point where he was in power.
Surprisingly, the He Lai clan, who should have moved the most, did not move at all, and did not contact the palace for the storage of seats. It was as if Mrs. He died and had nothing to do with the He Lai family.
Apart from the routine greetings, the He Lai family still behaved as usual.
Lupi's mansion was also trampled by envoys from Beiyan who asked for help. Lu Pi's mother was Princess Lelang, sister of Feng Hong of Beiyan, and now Tuoba Tao, the aunt of the three princes, drove Beiyan's envoys out of Beijing, and avoided all people from Beiyan. The heart for help was used on Princess Lelang.
Princess Lelang was originally a well-known eldest princess among the four kingdoms. She was sold to Rouran by her father, and she married several times. She had no sense of belonging to her country, and she followed Lu. After Pi surrendered to Wei State and married Mr. Yang, he was even more unwilling to mix things up.
Maybe it was because Lu Pi still had Rouran's troops, maybe because Princess Lelang had a certain prestige in Rouran and Beiyan, which made people fearful. Tan's youngest daughter, Crescent Moon, was taken into the palace and accompanied Tuoba Tao's prince and daughter. In name, she liked Crescent Moon's intelligence, but in fact she was kept as a hostage, warning Rouran not to try to unite with Beiyan.
This hand hits Princess Lelang's weakness. After her daughter was sent to the palace, she would stay out of the house, and she would not receive any outsiders. She just hoped that her daughter would be safe and well in the palace, and she could often visit her in the palace.
In the case of such changes, Tuoba Tao announced that he would not go on a personal expedition. Instead, he ordered Tuoba Ti, the king of Yingchuan, to directly cut down Yan as the vanguard, and cut off the crops of Northern Yan before the autumn harvest. for military use.
Then he ordered the hussar general Tuoba Pi and other generals to command 40,000 troops as follow-up troops to attack Longcheng.
Beiyan is located in the north, which is now the three eastern provinces. The crops are ripe once a year. If Wei Guo harvested all the grains of Beiyan by force of soldiers and horses, there is no need to fight, as long as it is boiled for a year, Beiyan can be boiled out of the people change.
Helpless, Bei Yan, who was overwhelmed by the army, could only hide in all the cities, and could only watch Tuoba Ti divide his troops to collect food.
Tuoba Tao suddenly changed his mind and stopped expeditions in person. Even the matter of establishing the reserve was delayed, naturally because something more important happened.
The Gaoche people offered coal and iron refined in a furnace.
***
Wuchang Hall.
"Di Yefei, can these weapons really be mass-produced?" Tuoba Tao looked at the three-edged arrow in front of him in amazement. Although it was only a small arrow, he could feel the surface from the arrow. The breath of death comes.
Such a shape and toughness can only be made of extremely high-purity iron, and there are blood grooves on each edge. Once such an arrow is shot into the body, the blood will flow back immediately. It will cause secondary damage, and maybe even bones will be injured.
In the other tray was the tip of the gun. The State of Wei fought on horseback. The most used weapons were spears, spears, and lances. The tips of these spears were all made of fine steel. Even three layers of leather armor could easily pass through. Use more leather armor, such a spear tip is simply a big killer.
Di Yefei took more than half a month's leave after He Mulan left. In name, he went back to his hometown to visit his parents, but he actually took the Aqihuo clan to look for coal mines near Pingcheng.
As He Mulan said, the amount of coal on this land is astonishing. There is no need to investigate in many places at all. Just ask the locals and they will be able to point you to a large expanse of exposed coal mines.
In Rouran, Gaoche people had to travel long distances to Jinshan in the west to find coal and iron ore. In order to keep this secret from people, Gaoche people always called "coal" "fire seeds" and used Huimeng to cover them up. The secret of making coal to steel.
Everyone outside the Great Wall knows that Gaocheren's blacksmiths are highly skilled, but the ignorant Rourans don't know that Gaocheren's greatness is not in the craftsmanship of the blacksmiths, but because their furnace temperature is higher than other furnaces. The furnace is also different from that of ordinary Han people. It can withstand higher temperatures, so it can cast excellent weapons.
Since the coal was dug, Di Yefei had not had a good rest for a long time in order to keep this secret.
Biquge
Most of Gaoche's young and strong men were recruited into the Gaoche Tiger Ben army, and many of the remaining middle-aged people, old and weak women and children were doing business in Wei.
Di Yefei and his clansmen secretly smelted coal and iron in the blacksmith shop, and even a few blacksmiths almost died because they inhaled too much poisonous gas from coal refining.
However, Di Yefei was not going to claim credit to Tuoba Tao for this, he just said truthfully: "Yes, the reason why we Gaoche people are well-armed is because we are good at using 'fire'. This kind of fire was only available in Jinshan before. , but after arriving in Dawei, I found that the 'fire seeds' near Pingcheng are prolific, and their purity is better than that of Jinshan, and it is easier to refine."
"Our furnace itself is resistant to high temperature. With this 'tinder', the temperature reaches a very high level, and it becomes easy to shape. That's why such arrows and spear tips are made."
Di Yefei had asked He Mulan how to donate these things, and He Mulan told him that everything had to be done in secret, to avoid the eyes and ears of all the countries and those who were ill-conceived in the center, and then go to Cui when he succeeded. ho.
Cui Hao is the main battle faction, and naturally knows how to maximize the use of these things.
"Your Majesty, this is God's will, it is God who made us unify the Central Plains!" Cui Hao pointed to another plate of black cakes and said, "This kind of thing is rare in other places, but it was excavated in large quantities near Pingcheng. Isn't it God's arrangement to be discovered by a tall man who knows how to use it?"
Tuoba Tao was naturally excited. He grabbed a black cake and looked at it. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "This is... coal?"
The use of coal existed in the Han Dynasty, but because people were often killed, very few people except alchemists took the risk. Tuoba Tao's father was good at alchemy in his later years, and Tuoba Tao also knew this kind of thing.
Di Yefei and a group of Gaoche people showed admiration and nodded in awe: "Your Majesty is very knowledgeable, it is indeed coal. In order to keep the secret of coal refining, we Gaoche people call it 'fire seed'. We are responsible for exploring fire seeds. The tribe that preserves the fire is called Aqihuo, and Di Yefei is the Aqihuo of our generation."
"Aqi" is a Chile language, meaning "in charge". Tuoba Tao glanced at Di Yefei's beautiful face unexpectedly. He didn't expect this Mulan's friend to have this kind of ability, and he thought highly of him again. a bit.
"Is it difficult to make coal?"
Tuoba Tao asked: "I want to make a lot of iron, how many people and materials do I need to provide you?"
"It's not difficult to make coal, what's difficult is that it requires an absolutely enclosed space and an open space where poisonous gas can be discharged. When coal is made, exhaust gas and black smoke often fill the sky, and the smell is extremely foul, so we all make coal in inaccessible places. Although coal is produced near Pingcheng, it is really inappropriate to make coal in Pingcheng..." Di Yefei replied on behalf of the people.
"We need the right place."
Tuoba Tao glanced at Cui Hao: "Did you bring him here, have you found a suitable place?"
Cui Hao nodded with a smile: "Your Majesty is wise. There is a pottery kiln two hundred miles north of Pingcheng. It used to be the place where the utensils of the late emperor were fired, but now it's deserted and just used for coal smelting. Recently, Beiyan Just around the corner, Your Majesty can let the Gaoche people go out of the city in the name of 'training soldiers and horses', and escort the skilled craftsmen and the craftsmen who learn coal smelting to the kiln."
"On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry and the general supervisor need to start making the special blast furnace used by Gaocheren to make iron. Fortunately, we are about to use troops against Beiyan, and it is not dazzling to strengthen the military equipment at this time." Cui Hao smiled, " When the blast furnace is finished, the coal of the Gaoche people should be almost finished, and it is just time to transport them back to the casting weapons and directly equip them with the Hu Ben army and Yulin army."
Hu Ben Army and Yu Lin Army are two armies directly under Tuoba Tao. Wherever Hu Ben needs to move, Yu Lin Army only follows Tuo Ba Tao around.
Cui Hao said that the weapons should be equipped first among the two elites of the Hu Ben Army and the Yulin Army. Of course, he meant to show his favor to Tuoba Tao, and Tuoba Tao was really excited.
"Yes! When the Hu Ben army and the Yulin army are replaced with such weapons, they must be invincible and invincible! The Beiyan matter has to be put aside. Anyway, I can rest assured that Kumoti is on the front line." Ba Tao paced excitedly.
"I have to tell the egret officials to block the vicinity of the kiln, and I have to figure out how to explain the black smoke produced locally when the coal is smelted..."
He raised his head and asked Di Yefei who was beside him.
"How long does it take to refine coal?"
"The coal near Pingcheng has very few impurities, and there will be many fewer steps. Generally, we have a hundred people to refine a thousand kilograms of coal. It takes ten days as soon as possible, and half a month as slow."
Their Gaoche people mainly sieve out powder and lump coal, and then wash out various impurities in them through unique means, and then refine them.
Di Yefei had more minds than He Mulan, so he said a little more time at this time, in case the schedule requested by the emperor could not be completed.
"It's so fast?" Tuoba Tao was overjoyed: "Cui Taichang, immediately arrange to repair the kiln. Let the inner government declare that the palace needs a batch of silver wire charcoal, and say that charcoal is being burned north of Pingcheng, so the problem of black smoke is also It can be solved. I can't let other countries know about this matter, I'm afraid there will be troubles."
"Yes."
Cui Hao is also beaming.
"The Gaoche people have merited their offerings of refined iron and coal, but I can't appreciate them."
Tuoba Tao pondered for a while.
"Let's do it like this, Dendur Luguangdou was promoted to the marquis of Chile, and he was given land to stay in the city, and the grassland north of the city was also given to the Gaoche people to graze and settle down. Di Yefei was promoted to Huben Zuo Sima and Yuqian Lielang, leading Huben's entire army. But the front desk attendant…”
Tuoba Tao issued several imperial orders in a row. Because today was a secret offering and there was no Shiren present, Cui Hao personally laid out the paper and polished the ink to prepare the imperial edict. Tuoba Tao covered the imperial seal and Zhu's approval. Can be conferred.
Because of this incident, he is not going to drive the imperial conquest against Beiyan in person, and it is important to upgrade the military equipment first. Without his support in Beijing, there would be no way to provide Gao Cheren with all kinds of convenience, and the paper could not contain the fire, and the secret of Xintie would be exposed in a while.
Liu Song's skillful craftsmen are incomparable. As long as they know that coal can make the furnace temperature higher than that of charcoal, they will be imitated sooner or later.
He can't even believe the skilled craftsmen of Wei State now, so he can only use Gaoche people.
If he didn't go to Beiyan, the ministers in Beijing said they couldn't celebrate for a few days or nights. At this time, they were in a good mood, so little things like giving Gaocheren the grassland they stayed in the city in the north would not attract anyone's attention.
Since the Gaoche people were moved to Monan and Guanzhong by Tuoba Tao in large numbers, they have no fixed place and have been grazing for a living. However, the good water meadows and pastures have long been encircled by the Xianbei people. They are latecomers and often collide with ranchers from all over the world. Although they live much better than before, they are not as complete as they imagined.
Because of iron smelting, they now have a piece of land where they can reproduce, just as Xingcheng was to the Lushuihu people, and Xiurong was to the Erzhuqihu. They have a prefecture and a fief. This is the real thing. Wei people.
For a time, the old craftsmen who came to offer iron wares wept with joy, and attached to the ground to thank Tuoba Tao's kindness. Di Yefei also had mixed feelings in his heart.
The royal hunter is a sign of the emperor's great trust. He can enter the palace with a weapon and accept dispatches in front of the royal. Except when the hunter is leading the troops, he only needs to show his waist badge when entering the palace.
A hunter should not be a foolish and trustworthy disciple of the nobles. Cui Hao was the royal hunter of the late emperor back then.
With the fiefs and pastures of the Gaoche people, the cattle and sheep must be thriving, the population is prosperous, and the Gaoche people are good at smelting iron, and there will definitely be more rewards and income in the future.
Even for this fief, handing over Gaocheren's technology is a profit.
"I must live up to Your Majesty's Long En."
Di Yefei respectfully knelt down and thanked him.
He knew that as the most difficult step for a tall man to climb, he had already taken it.
Since then, the obstacles on the doorstep have disappeared in front of him.
He will not disappoint His Majesty's Long En, let alone Mulan's support.
This climbing ladder, he will definitely climb to the top, and then...
Beside him again.