Winter goes to spring, and in a blink of an eye, it is February of the third year of Jianyan.

Cao Yun and Zhao Fujin's stomachs became more and more obvious, their bodies became more and more tired, and it was not easy to walk.

"Dongmei, go and urge the master, saying that the time is coming, let him hurry up, forget it, I'll go by myself! Hold me back. ”

The little maid hurriedly ran up to support Cao Yun, Cao Yun supported her waist with one hand, supported the maid with the other, and slowly walked towards the inner hall.

In the inner hall, Li Yanqing was still drinking porridge unhurriedly, he was a little distracted, he had been nervously preparing for war in the past few months, and it was about to reach the day of the Northern Expedition, but there were discordant voices in the court, and some ministers publicly expressed their positions, asking the official family to return to the emperor, although this voice was very weak, but it was definitely not a good sign.

Just after the New Year last month, the old marshal Zong Ze unfortunately died, he had 80,000 Chuzhou troops under his command, who was in charge of this army, it became the focus of the struggle between the official family and the emperor, once the emperor won the throne of the official family, the throne of the official family was in danger.

Judging from the current situation, the call for the rule of Liu Guangshi is the highest, Liu Guangshi's father Liu Yanqing is the confidant of the Emperor Zhao Ji, who participated in the Jiangnan Rebellion, and was deprived of all official positions by the imperial court after his death, Liu Guangshi was also implicated and sealed a virtual official of a great general, but the Emperor Zhao Ji insisted that Liu Yanqing was not guilty, forcibly rehabilitated Liu Yanqing, and posthumously named him King Yan, and was called Shanzhong.

This undoubtedly enveloped Liu Guangshi's heart, so that Liu Guangshi was grateful, more firmly loyal to the emperor, the current emperor has nearly forty percent of the courtiers have been drawn in the past, the Zhizheng Tang Lu Yihao, Fan Zongyin and Zhu Shengfei have openly sided in support of the emperor, Zheng Wangzhi said neutrality, which makes the power of the emperor rise day by day, last month, the Zhizheng Tang with three votes in favor, two votes against and one abstention, passed the signature seal, the will of the official family must be sealed by the emperor before it can be issued.

This means that in terms of imperial power, the Emperor Taishang has been on an equal footing with the official family, and the current Emperor Taishang is only relatively weak in the military, if Liu Guangshi succeeds in ascending the throne this time and seizes the military power of 80,000 Chuzhou troops, the situation will be extremely unfavorable to the official family.

Li Yanqing was a little worried that when he launched the campaign of Zhengxia, Emperor Zhao Ji would take the opportunity to launch a palace coup d'état and depose the Son of Heaven Zhao Gou and re-ascend the throne.

"Husband!"

Cao Yun walked into the lobby and saw that her husband was still distracted, and the bowl of porridge and a plate of steamed buns on the table barely moved, so she urged: "Husband, didn't you say that there is something important today?" Why are you still in a daze? ”

Li Yanqing woke up at this time, smiled apologetically, and hurriedly stepped forward to support his wife, "You are not in good health, just let Dongmei come over to remind you, you don't have to come by yourself." ”

"The doctor told me to walk more when I had a chance, husband, hurry up and eat!"

Li Yanqing hurriedly drank porridge and ate a few more buns, and then said with a smile: "I'm full, it's time to go." ”

Cao Yun tidied up his clothes, and said with a smile: "Didn't you say last year that you would return to the capital in the spring?" Why hasn't there been any movement? ”

The news of the expedition to summer was extremely tightly blocked, Li Yanqing didn't even say anything about his wife, and no one in the entire Jingzhao Mansion thought that a big war was about to happen.

"The situation in the court is a bit weird, the old man means that I don't want to go back for the time being, just wait and see!"

Cao Yun nodded, "It's up to the husband to decide for himself, let's go!" ”

"Then I'm leaving."

Li Yanqing kissed his wife's cheek, the maid and the female guard next to him hurriedly turned their heads away, and couldn't hold back a smile on their faces, Cao Yun pushed her husband away shyly, Li Yanqing laughed and walked away quickly.

A quarter of an hour later, Li Yanqing arrived at Jinglue Mansion under the escort of hundreds of cavalry, and as soon as he turned over and dismounted, Cao Ye greeted him, "Jinglue, news from the imperial court is here." ”

"How?" Li Yanqing hurriedly asked, the news coming at this time must have something to do with military power.

Cao Ye was just about to speak, but Li Yanqing stopped him, "Let's go in and talk!" ”

Li Yanqing came to his room and sat down, and then said to Cao Ye: "How is the situation in the court?" ”

Cao Ye bowed and said: "The military power has been decided, the Chuzhou army is divided into two, Liu Guangshi succeeded as the defense envoy of Chuzhou, the commander of the capital, and led 40,000 troops, and the other 40,000 troops were handed over to Yue Fei, the commander of the capital, to enhance the strength of Jingxiang's front line." ”

Li Yanqing's face was a little not good, there was not much difference between the 80,000 army and the 40,000 army, or Liu Guangshi won, he asked again: "What else is the news?" ”

"There is also the fact that Han Shizhong's department was transferred to Jiangnan to train recruits in Changzhou."

This news made Li Yanqing breathe a sigh of relief, this was obviously a remedy for Zhao Gou, using Han Shizhong to block Liu Guangshi's army from moving south.

"What else?"

"Nothing else."

Cao Ye presented a roll of pigeon letters to Li Yanqing, Li Yanqing opened it and read it, just as Cao Ye said, he thought for a while and said: "You draft a pigeon letter for me, just say that the Western Army supports the decision of the imperial court and resolutely defends the will of the Son of Heaven." ”

Cao Ye was taken aback, "Does Jingluo want to stand in line openly?" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "At this time, there is nothing to scruple about, and openly standing in line can delay the ambitions of some people a little and buy us time." ”

"Is Jingliu worried that something will happen to the DPRK during the expedition to the north?"

Li Yanqing walked to the window with his hands down, staring at the sky and white clouds, for a long time, he sighed slightly, "This is exactly what I'm worried about." ”

"Then do you want to cancel ......?"

Without waiting for Cao Ye to finish speaking, Li Yanqing waved his hand and said: "How can the country's decision be easily changed, everything will be implemented according to the plan." ”

"Then the capital ......." Cao Ye looked at Li Yanqing worriedly.

"There are some things that we can't control, don't think so much for the time being, and go all out to prepare for the war first."

"Ignorance, understood!"

.........

In the morning, Li Yanqing came to the Ordnance Division located in the north city of Chang'an, which has always been the ordnance manufacturing center of Shaanxi Road, covering an area of about 100 acres, composed of three workshops such as the bow and crossbow workshop, the knife and gun workshop, and the armor workshop, with nearly 1,000 craftsmen, who can manufacture all the weapons on the Great Song Dynasty's "Wujing General Essentials", more than half of these craftsmen are the good craftsmen of the original Bianliang Armament Supervisor, after the first defense of Tokyo, they began to evacuate, and most of the people were sent to Jingzhao Mansion.

The Ordnance Division began large-scale preparations for war in August last year, and nearly seven months have passed since then, and basically all the ordnance materials needed for the Northern Expedition have been completed.

Li Yanqing first came to the armor workshop, the reason why there is something today is because a ceremony will be held in the armor workshop today to celebrate the completion of the thousandth piece of cold forging armor, since four months ago with the help of two Qingtang Qiang, successfully created the first real cold forging armor, the three hundred craftsmen of the armor workshop began to go all out to create this treasure in the armor, in four months, they created a thousand pairs of cold forging armor, and the large horse chopping sword has been created three thousand, Li Yanqing can finally form his own heavy infantry.

When Li Yanqing arrived at the armor workshop, it was already a little late, the thousandth piece of cold forging armor had been completed, hanging on the deck, flickering in the light, next to him stood a group of officials of the Ordnance Division, and on the other side were several major craftsmen.

At this time, Li Yanqing walked briskly surrounded by a large group of people, and Sun Qigong, the director of the Ordnance Division, hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "Thank you for the attention of the Envoy to the Ordnance Division!" ”

Everyone knows that the envoy attaches great importance to the cold forging armor, not only after the success of the first cold forging armor to celebrate in person, but now the thousandth piece of cold forging armor has also come.

Under the attention of everyone, Li Yanqing delivered an enthusiastic speech, thanking the Ordnance Department for its support, thanking the craftsmen for their hard work, and hoping that the craftsmen would make persistent efforts to complete the 3,000th piece of cold forging armor as soon as possible.

This was followed by a demonstration of the power of the cold-forged armor, a performance arranged by Li Yanqing himself, allowing the craftsmen to see with their own eyes the power of the armor they made.

Li Yanqing waved his hand, the drum sounded, and a team of twenty crossbowmen rushed in line, each holding a divine arm crossbow, and the workshop was silent, and everyone held their breath.

Then. I saw a soldier appear a hundred steps away, burly, wearing black cold-forged armor, holding a horse-chopping sword with a length of feet, majestic and majestic, like a god.

Chopping horse sword is Mo knife, it absorbs the gold-filled forging method of Xia Guojian, and creates a blade five feet long, the middle is extremely strong and thick, the two sides are extremely sharp, can be split and stabbed, because it is essentially a long sword, so it inherited the name of the Shenzong era, chopping horse sword, it can cut off the horse's hooves with a light sword, and strive to split, it can be seen that the war horse is split in two, and it is a big killer against cavalry.

At this time, one of the escorts shouted: "Crossbow arrows ready!" ”

Twenty soldiers raised their crossbows with divine arms, and the cold twenty crossbow arrows aimed at the black-armored soldiers a hundred paces away.