Tuoba Tao has been annoyed lately.

Beiyan is now in internal strife, Bei Liang also died, and the country is caught in a battle for storage positions, according to the ideas of the courtiers, of course, it is to destroy the Beiyan who is still breathing, and then fight Bei Liang.

In order not to fight on two fronts, we must first marry Princess Xingping of Beiliang back to stabilize the hearts of Beiliang's people, and only after solving Beiyan can we free up our hands to destroy Beiliang.

Whether it is for Beiyan or Beiliang, Tuoba Tao must be going to drive the expedition in person, which everyone has been mentally prepared for, but the courtiers hope that after he leaves, there will be a prince to supervise the country, so that he will not leave the country.

'Lao Tzu's son is only four years old, and he is in charge of a ball country! Tuoba Tao was irritable in his heart, "As soon as he establishes the prince, he will kill his wife, these old men are afraid that Mrs. He will give birth to another son, and the He Lai family will be the only one."

He originally wanted to delay until Mrs. He gave birth naturally, and was pregnant for ten months, Mrs. He knew that she would not die and eat and sleep well, her body was very strong, and she was taken care of by the Empress Dowager Dou, and he took advantage of the last election to clean up the harem, Mrs. He did not even have morning sickness, she was plump, and there was no sign of premature birth at all.

In this way, it will not be produced until the end of the year.

However, because the Northern Yan temporarily surrendered to the Wei State, it was exchanged for a period of tranquility, and once it was comfortable, it would continue to fight for power, so that internal strife began to appear in the country.

However, Feng Hong, the king of Northern Yan, abandoned the crown prince, abolished the elder and the young, and set up the favored concubine Murong as the queen, and set up the son of Murong Feng Ren as the prince, which laid the root of the bane for Northern Yan.

Feng Hong's original wife Wang had three sons, the eldest son Feng Chong, the second son Feng Lang, and the third son Feng Miao. Feng Chong was regarded as the crown prince for so many years, both as the eldest and as the heir, and was supported by many ministers, especially the Han ministers, as a result, Feng Hong still set up his youngest son Feng Ren as the crown prince, and after Feng Chong's failure in the struggle, he was named the Duke of Changle and sent to Liaoxi to guard far away.

As soon as the eldest brother failed, the other sons of the Wang family did not have a good life, and they were made difficult by Queen Murong and the crown prince everywhere in the palace, and they were frequently assassinated and plotted, and Feng Hong's bad wife Wang also died.

The two brothers, Feng Lang and Feng Miao, escaped from Longcheng, the capital of Northern Yan, after narrowly escaping death, and secretly ran to Liaoxi to seek refuge with their eldest brother, crying to their elder brother: "Now the country is going to die, no one knows, and my father listened to the slanderous rumors of the Murong clan and abolished the elder and young, and in the future, the three of my brothers will suffer disasters, so it is better to go to the Wei State first to help seek justice, and it is the best policy to save your life."

At this time, Feng Hong, the king of Northern Yan, was not dead, the Murong clan covered the sky with one hand, the prince was still the son of Queen Murong, no matter how the three brothers looked at it, their lives could not be guaranteed, and they were saddened by their mother's death, so they simply moved to flee to the south and went to find the idea of borrowing troops from the suzerain, Wei State.

When Beiyan and Beiliang asked for submission, Tuoba Tao was cutting down Rouran, and he knew that if he didn't accept the submission of the two countries, he was afraid that he would suffer from the enemy, so he accepted these two countries as subject countries, but he always had the idea of destroying Yan Pingliang in his heart.

When his two younger sisters grew up, one was titled "Wuwei" and the other was "Pingcheng", which alluded to the meaning of conquering 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 a letter of distress arrived in Pingcheng.

All the ministers of the court and China agreed to attack the Northern Yan, and Tuoba Tao even thought about the Yantian of the Yan Kingdom, and immediately accepted the submission of the three princes of the Northern Yan.

Northern Yan is now a vassal state of Wei, and all Ren Li nominally requires the consent of the main state, Tuoba Tao immediately named his eldest son Feng Chong as the king of Liaoxi and You, the pastor of Ping'er Prefecture, and the ten counties of Liaoxi, allowing him to lead his army south.

People say that if you have a stepmother, you will have a stepfather, and after Feng Hong received the news that his three sons intended to surrender to Wei, he knew that the Wei State was using his son as an excuse to attack Yan State, so he sent his general Feng Yu to arrest the three sons.

Feng Yu was sent by the empress, and the order to capture it became a pursuit, and the three brothers knew that they could not resist the army from Longcheng, so they could only hide in the western part of Liaoxi to be protected by the eldest brother's men and horses, and the fire sent a letter to ask for support from Pingcheng.

When He Mulan was leaving, the three princes of Beiyan had just sent the letter to Pingcheng, and Cui Hao naturally knew that this change could not be changed, because there was about to be a war.

Tuoba Tao was worried about the reason that there was no soldier Beiyan to interfere in internal affairs, and immediately issued an edict after receiving the letter from the three princes, ordering Tuobati, the king of Yingchuan, to lead a Montenegrin army of 50,000 to Liaoxi, waiting for an opportunity to attack Longcheng.

Since the destruction of Rouran, the army of Montenegro has become an army stationed in the north, with very few battles and almost deserted. Tuoba mentioned that after reaching Montenegro, he reorganized the whole army, cleaned up the atmosphere, and sent back more than 10,000 old oilmen who seemed to be ruffians, preserving the combat effectiveness of Montenegro to the greatest extent.

At this time, 50,000 elites were exhausted, all of them were generals who had attacked Rouran, and now it was still summer, although the north was cold in summer, it was unhindered, and the Montenegrin army was like a bamboo, and directly hit Liaoxi, saved the three princes, and captured the general Feng Yu.

Tuobati sent his lieutenant general to lead 5,000 cavalry to continue to test Longcheng, Feng Hong was very frightened, and immediately sent an envoy to the Wei camp, willing to accept a woman like the king of Beiliang to sue for peace.

As a result, Tuobati sent Feng Hong's quest for peace and construction back to Pingcheng.

If the king of Northern Yan said that he wanted to sue for peace with the tribute and cede the land, Tuoba Tao might still consider it, but as soon as he heard that he was going to send his daughter, he immediately refused to agree, and wrote back with two conditions:

The first was to send Feng Ren, the crown prince of Northern Yan, as a hostage to Pingcheng, and the second was to send back the envoy Yu Shimen, who had been imprisoned in Wei.

Yu Shimen was an envoy during the Ming Yuan Emperor of Wei State, but he was detained by Beiyan, and he was detained for twenty-one years.

These two conditions are not too harsh according to reason, because Feng Hong has many sons, and even Fuqu Muqian voluntarily stayed in order to keep Wei from fighting Beiliang. [,！ Proton, the prince sacrificed nothing at all.

As a result, the letter was sent back to Beiyan, and Feng Hong, the king of Beiyan, loved the crown prince Feng Ren, and the queen cried and cried every day to obstruct him, causing Feng Hong to be willing to die rather than give up his son, and several loyal ministers persuaded him to cut off his head by Feng Hong.

It is said that before his execution, he laughed and said, "When I die, please hang my head at the west gate, and I will watch the Wei army enter the city."

Feng Hong wrote to Tuoba Tao to inform him that his son was too ill to go, and while the fire was sent back to Shimen to appease, he sent an envoy to Jiankang to beg for help from Liu Song.

Feng Hong's envoy could not be concealed from the scouts of Wei at all, Tuobati knew that it was impossible for the king of Northern Yan to surrender obediently, and completely handed over his national lineage to Wei, so after receiving Yu Shimen, he issued an edict to expel the envoys of Northern Yan and prepare to drive the expedition in person.

Cui Hao and the others all thought that Liu Song didn't dare to interfere with the chaos because of the plague, and they wouldn't pay attention to Feng Hong's request for help, and Liu Yilong didn't have the ability to rescue Beiyan thousands of miles away, this matter could only be a farce, and this inference made Tuoba Tao's confidence greatly increased, and he just waited for winter to take Beiyan before it came.

As a result, it came to the question of the prince again.

Since the territory of Wei became more and more extensive, the ministers of the court did not want Tuoba Tao to drive the expedition in person. This is different from the previous Wei State only had a small piece of land, and now Wei State is a behemoth sitting on the territory of Hu Xia, Western Qin, Wei, and Rouran.

Although Rouran is extinguished, it is still ready to move, the summer land is still slowly governed, the population of the people who encountered famine in the Western Qin has decreased sharply, and it is still in disaster relief.

It's not a few months anymore, and there are more state affairs in a month now than in a previous year.

After the matter of the establishment of the prince was put on the agenda, Jingzhong began to act one after another, and the harem was not to say anything, and even the Hanchen and Xianbei nobles began to move around each other.

The crown prince must be Tuoba Huang, and Tuoba Tao now only has this one son. What everyone wants to grab is the position of the assistant minister and the subordinate officials of the prince's east palace.

Cui Hao went from the East Palace to the point where the power leaned towards the government and the opposition.

Surprisingly, the He Lai family, who should have acted the most, did not act at all, nor did they contact the palace for the matter of the storage position, as if Mrs. He died and had nothing to do with the He Lai family.

In addition to the usual greetings, the Horai family still acted as usual.

Lubi Mansion was also trampled by envoys from Beiyan asking for help. Lu Bi's mother is Princess Lelang, the sister of Feng Hong of Beiyan, and now the aunt of the three princes, Tuoba Tao drove the envoys of Beiyan out of Beijing, and avoided all parties from Beiyan, and these people used their hearts for help to Princess Lelang.

Princess Lelang was originally the eldest princess of the four kingdoms, who was sold to Rouran by her father, and she was married several times, so she had no sense of belonging to her country, and she married Mr. Yang after returning to Wei with Lu Bi, and she was even more reluctant to get involved in this kind of thing.

Maybe it's because Lu Bi still has Rouran's troops in his hands, maybe it's because Princess Lelang has a certain prestige in Rouran and Beiyan that people are afraid of, the Empress Dowager Dou in the palace made a move, and took the young daughter Yue'er born to Princess Lelang and Da Tan into the palace, and accompanied the prince and princess of Tuoba Tao, nominally fancy Yue'er's intelligence, but in fact she was kept as a hostage, warning Rouran not to try to unite with Beiyan.

This hand is in the weakness of Princess Lelang, after her daughter was sent to the palace, she did not go out, and she did not meet any outsiders, but she only asked her daughter to be safe and happy in the palace, and she could often enter the palace to visit her daughter.

In the case of such changes in all parties, Tuoba Tao announced that he would not take the imperial expedition in person, but ordered Tuobati, the king of Yingchuan, to directly cut down the Yan as the vanguard and cut off the crops of the Northern Yan in advance before the autumn harvest for military use.

Then he ordered the hussar general Tuoba Pi and other generals to command 40,000 troops as a follow-up force and go straight to Longcheng.

Beiyan is located in the north, that is, the three eastern provinces are now the region, the crops are ripe once a year, if the Wei State forcibly harvests all the grain of Beiyan by means of strong soldiers and strong horses, no need to fight, as long as it survives for a year, Beiyan can be boiled out of the people's change.

Beiyan, who was helplessly overwhelmed by the army, could only shrink in all the cities, and could only watch Tuobati divide his troops and collect the grain in several ways, and he couldn't even do it in the clear field.

Tuoba Tao suddenly changed his mind and did not drive the expedition in person, and even the matter of establishing the reserve was delayed, naturally because of more important things.

The chariot man offered coal and iron that had been refined from coal in a furnace.

Wuchang Palace.

"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, but he could feel the breath of death from the pavement from this arrow.

Such a shape and toughness can only be cast by extremely pure iron, and each edge has a blood groove, once such an arrow is shot into the body, it will immediately return to bleed, and if it is shot into the bone, pulling the arrow will also cause secondary damage, maybe even the bone will be injured.

In the other tray is the tip of the gun. The Wei State fought on horseback, and the most used were spears, spears and lances and other horse-long weapons, the tips of these spears were made of stainless steel, even if the three-layer leather armor could be passed lightly, the southern Liu Song and the northern Liang mostly used leather armor, such a spear tip is simply a big killer.

Di Yefei took a leave of absence for more than half a month after He Mulan left, nominally returning to his hometown to visit his parents, but in fact he took the Aqihuo clan to look for coal mines near Pingcheng.

As Muller said, there is an astonishing amount of coal in this land, and many places do not need to be explored at all, just ask the locals casually and you will be able to point out a large area of bareness. [,！ ] of coal mines.

In order to keep this secret from others, the Gaoche people always called "coal" "tinder", and used the alliance to cover up the secret of their coal-making and steelmaking.

Everyone outside the Saiwai knows that the blacksmith skills of the Gaoche people are high, but the ignorant Rouran people don't know that the power of the Gaoche people is not the craftsmanship of the blacksmiths, but that their furnace temperature is higher than that of other furnaces, and their furnaces are different from ordinary Han people, and can withstand hotter temperatures, so they will cast sophisticated weapons.

Since digging the coal, Di Yefei hasn't had a good rest for a long time in order to keep this secret.

Most of the young strong men of Gaoche were recruited into the Gaoche Tiger Army, and many of the remaining middle-aged people, old and weak women and children were doing business in the Wei State, and the blacksmith shop was the most opened shop by Gaoche people.

Di Yefei and his people secretly made coal and iron in the blacksmith shop, and even a few blacksmiths almost died because they inhaled too much poisonous gas from coal smelting, so it was so difficult to get these iron tools.

However, Di Yefei was not ready to ask Tuoba Tao for this merit, he just said truthfully: "Yes, the reason why our Gaoche people are well-armed is because they are good at using 'tinder'. This kind of tinder used to only exist in Jinshan, but after arriving in the Great Wei, I am now producing a lot of 'tinder' near Pingcheng, and its purity is better than that of Jinshan, and it is easier to refine."

"Our furnace itself is resistant to high temperatures, and with this 'tinder', the temperature reaches an extremely high level, and it becomes easier to shape, which is why we have such arrowheads and spear tips."

Di Yefei asked He Mulan how to offer these things, and He Mulan told him that he had to do it in secret, avoiding the eyes and ears of the countries and the people with bad intentions in the center, and then when he succeeded, he went to Cui Hao.

Cui Hao is the main battle faction, so he naturally knows how to maximize the use of these things.

"Your Majesty, this is the will of heaven, it is God who allows us to unify the Central Plains!" Cui Hao pointed to another plate of black cakes and said: "This kind of thing is rare elsewhere, but it has been dug up in large quantities near Pingcheng, and it has been used by high-speed people, isn't it God's arrangement?"

Tuoba Tao was naturally excited, grabbed a piece of black cake and looked at it, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "This is ...... Coal?"

The use of coal existed in the Han Dynasty, but because people often died, few people except for Fangshi took risks. 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 high-speed car man showed an admiring expression, and nodded in awe: "Your Majesty is very knowledgeable, it is indeed coal, and we Gaoche people call it 'tinder' in order to keep the secret of coal smelting.

"Aqi" is a Ele language, which means "in charge", Tuoba Tao unexpectedly glanced at Di Yefei's beautiful face, he didn't expect this Mulan's friend to have this kind of ability, and he thought a little higher about him in his heart.

"Is it difficult to make coal?"

Tuoba Tao asked, "I want to make a lot of iron, how many men and materials do I need to provide you?"

"Coal smelting is not difficult, what is difficult is the need for absolutely enclosed spaces and open sites where toxic gases can be emitted. When making coal, exhaust fumes 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 not suitable to make coal in Pingcheng......" replied the Di Ye Fei people.

"We need the right place."

Tuoba Tao glanced at Cui Hao: "You brought him here, have you found a suitable place?"

Cui Hao smiled and nodded: "Your Majesty is wise. Two hundred miles north of Pingcheng, there is a pottery kiln, which used to be the place where the first emperor used to burn the utensils, but now it has been abandoned and is used for coal smelting. Recently, when the Northern Yan was about to move, His Majesty could let the Gaocha people go out of the city in the name of 'training soldiers and horses', and escort the skilled craftsmen and the craftsmen who learned to make coal to the kiln together."

"On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry and the General Supervisor need to start making a special blast furnace used by the Gaoche people for iron smelting, but fortunately, we are about to use troops against Beiyan, and it is not eye-catching to strengthen the armament at this time." Cui Hao smiled heartily, "When the blast furnace is made, the coal of the Gaoche people should be almost smelted, and it is just right to transport back the casting weapons to directly equip the Tiger Ben Army and the Yulin Army."

The Tiger Ben Army and the Yulin Army are the two armies that directly belong to Tuoba Tao, and the Tiger Ben is where to move to, while the Yulin Army only follows Tuoba Tao.

Cui Hao said that he could first equip the elite of the two elites, the Tiger Army and the Yulin Army, of course, it meant to show favor to Tuoba Tao, and Tuoba Tao was really excited.

"Yes! When the Tiger Ben Army and the Yulin Army are replaced with such weapons, they must be invincible and invincible! Beiyan's affairs should be put aside, anyway, I can rest assured that Kumoti is stable on the front line......" Tuoba Tao paced excitedly.

"I have to instruct the Egret official to block the vicinity of the kiln, and I have to think of an explanation of what happened to the black smoke produced in the local area during coal smelting......

He raised his head and asked Di Yefei on the side.

"How long does it take to make coal?"

"There are very few coal impurities near Pingcheng, there will be many fewer steps, generally we are 100 people refining coal for 1,000 catties, the fast is ten days, and the slow is half a month."

They mainly sift out the powder and lump coal, and then wash out the various impurities in it through a unique method, and then refine it.

Di Yefei's heart was more than that of He Mulan, and he said a little more time at this time, in case the emperor's request could not be completed.

"So fast?" Tuoba Tao was overjoyed: "Cui Taichang, immediately set out to arrange for the restoration of the kiln. [,！ Let the inner government declare to the outside world that a batch of silver silk charcoal is needed in the palace, and say that charcoal is burning north of Pingcheng, so that the problem of black smoke can also be solved. I can't let other countries know about this, and I'm afraid it will cause trouble."

"Yes."

Cui Hao is also beaming.

"The man of the high chariot has merit in offering fine iron and coal, but I cannot reward it."

Tuoba Tao pondered for a moment.

"In this way, Shenghu Lvguangdou is the Marquis of Eile, and the land is given to stay in the city, and the pasture north of the city is also given to the Gaoche people to graze and settle. Di Ye was promoted to the Tiger Ben Zuo Sima and the Imperial Hunter, leading the entire army of the Tiger Ben, and he could listen to the ...... in front of the Emperor."

Tuoba Tao issued several imperial decrees, because today is a secret offering, no one was present, Cui Hao personally laid the paper and polished the ink to prepare the edict, Tuoba Tao covered the imperial seal and Zhu Pi, tomorrow the court will send the order to the ministers can be awarded.

Because of this matter, he is not ready to take the imperial conquest of Beiyan in person, and it is important to raise his armament first. If he hadn't responded in Beijing, there would have been no way to provide all kinds of conveniences for the high-speed car people, and the paper wouldn't be able to contain the fire, and the secret of the new iron would have been exposed in a while.

Liu Song's skilled craftsmen did not know how many, as long as they knew that coal could make the furnace temperature higher than charcoal, sooner or later it would be imitated.

He now can't even believe the skilled craftsmen of the Wei State, so he can only use the high-chariot man.

He didn't go to Beiyan, and the ministers in Beijing said that they couldn't celebrate for a few days and nights, and at this time they were in a good mood, and such a trivial matter as giving the grassland in the northern city to the Gaoche people would not be noticed at all.

Since the Gaoche people were moved to Monan and Guanzhong in large numbers by Tuoba Tao, they have no fixed place to live and have been living by grazing. However, good water meadows and pastures have long been circled by the Xianbei people, they are latecomers, often rubbing with ranchers everywhere, although the life is much better than before, but not as perfect as imagined.

Because of iron smelting, now they have a piece of land for their own breeding, just like Xingcheng is to the Lushuihu people, and Xiurong is to Erzhu Qihu, they have a county prestige and fiefdom, this is the real Wei people.

For a while, the old craftsmen who came to offer the iron tools wept with joy, and they attached themselves to the ground to thank Tuoba Tao's kindness, Di Yefei also had mixed feelings in his heart, he could be said to have climbed to the sky at this time.

The emperor is extremely trusted, you can bring weapons into the palace, in front of the emperor to accept the sent, in addition to the time when the hunting Lang leads the troops, enter the palace as long as you show the waist card.

Hunter Lang is not a trustworthy son of a noble background, Cui Hao was the emperor's imperial hunter back then.

And with the fiefdom and pasture, the high-chariot people must be prosperous with cattle and sheep from now on, the population is thriving, and the high-chariot people are good at iron-smelting technology, there will definitely be more rewards and gains in the future.

Even for the sake of this fiefdom, it is earned to hand over the skills of the high-speed car people.

"I will live up to the Majesty's Longen."

Di Yefei respectfully knelt down and thanked him.

He knew that the hardest step to climb as a goker had already climbed it.

From then on, the obstacles on the door were gone.

He will not live up to His Majesty's Long'en, and he will not live up to Mulan's grace.

This ladder to the sky, he will definitely climb to the top, and then ......

Shoulder to shoulder with him again.