"Everyone thinks this is an opportunity?" Li Yan asked the people around him in a low voice, and everyone nodded silently. Although the sound in the study was not loud, everyone's face was filled with surprise.

Li Yan turned his gaze to Shi Tianze, and he smiled and said, "Don't worry, our new Hedong army has expanded to 40,000. In addition, the veterans originally brought from Henan, there are no less than 80,000 soldiers to use on Hedong Road alone. Just wait for the autumn harvest to end, and with the order, we will be able to go south and north immediately.

Before Li Yan could see him, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wentong, smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the military expenses have been raised. These days, relying on the donations from the powerful families of Jiechi Yantian and the Hedong family (actually selling official positions), the military expenses of 1.3 million jin have been accumulated. When the autumn grain is collected, the military food will be settled."

Everyone heard the number of 1.3 million, but they didn't say anything. It was too difficult for Wang Wentong to get this money when Luo Ju was poor. However, the 80,000 army, of which 30,000 or 40,000 were the Long March soldiers that had to be paid (including the Shijia, Zhang family soldiers, and the Tang army that could not be returned home in Hedong Road were all considered the Long March soldiers). They also had to add some armor and equipment and purchase some military horses, which were all for money. In this way, the operation of these money to support 80,000 soldiers for one or two months was very difficult. If the attack on Yanjing failed, the consequences would probably be that the entire army would disintegrate.

However, as long as Chen Dexing's main force is attracted by Mongolia and the Song Dynasty, there is basically no big problem. Besides, the Tang Dynasty is actually a bystander. If the Ming army wins a great victory, then don't attack Yanjing and grab the territory of the pass and Henan. In this way, everyone will feel more at ease, at least there is no tough battle to fight. Thinking of this, everyone can't help but hope that Kublai Khan will fail. Grabbing territory is more comfortable than fighting Yanjing Jiancheng, right?

Li Yan nodded and smiled at Wang Wentong to express his praise. He stood up and staggered a little. Everyone found that Li Yan was much older than when he was in Yidu. Although there was still light in his eyes, he was already declining, as if he had been ten years old.

Thinking of the tradition of the Li family's brothers fighting each other, and the King of Zhao Li Yanguo who stayed in Yidu and controlled half of Henan Road. Everyone couldn't help but wonder, if this "Li Yuan" was gone, will the future Tang Dynasty be divided into two?

This thought flashed through the hearts of these senior officials of Li Tang, and they quickly calmed down and watched Li Yan walk around in the study.

He suddenly said in a deep tone: "In the next battle, it will directly affect who is in the world. Our Tang Dynasty must do our best. We cannot just make efforts from Hedong. Yidu must follow up... We have to send someone to Yidu to help the child of Yanguo make an idea."

He walked to Wang Wentong, and Wang Wentong immediately stood up and looked at Li Yan. Li Yan patted his shoulder: "Yidao, you are the grandfather of Yan Kingdom and the grandfather of Cuixian. Yidu will work hard for you. I will give you a sword of Shangfang. Whoever does not listen to your greetings will be killed directly... This time the matter is successful, Yan Kingdom must have a king of Yan. I will not be the emperor at that time. Go back to Yidu's hometown and will be raised for a few days. This world depends on Yan Jian and the two brothers of Yan Kingdom."

Li Yan was painting a cake for his third son Li Yan. Chen Dexing's core territory now is the territory of the Yan State during the Warring States Period. Letting Li Yan State be the king of Yan means that he would take over Chen Dexing's plate after the war. Li Yan's abdication naturally required Li Yanjian to take over early. With an old man in charge, Li Yanjian could only be imprisoned. This plan was very good, but it is hard to say whether Li Yanjian had the ability of Li Shimin and whether Chen Dexing was Dou Jiande.

The crowd of people were all complicated. No one had the confidence to win the future war, and they could only take one step at a time. It would be great if Li Yan could really be promoted to the throne of the common ruler of the North. If it didn't...

Of course, Wang Wentong was devoted to Li Yan. He focused on the key points, "Your Majesty, don't worry. I will definitely seize the opportunity when I go to Yidu this time!"

Only when all his ministers left the palace did Li Yan sighed exhaustedly. Naturally, a palace servant came up to help him massage his back and feet. His two sons also brought the ginseng soup and came over. He took a sip and said tiredly: "Prepare the carriage and horses, I have to go to the barracks to see it, which is always a worry..."

Of course, I couldn't let go of my heart. No matter how perfect the plan was, it would eventually be implemented by the army. Although Li Yan's army in Hedong was quite large, not many were truly useful and reliable. In the last battle of Jingxing, Li Yan's direct troops were completely damaged. Although he had added tens of thousands of troops in Hedong, where was the Yidu soldiers he trained to be useful? Moreover, the weapons and equipment were not good. I couldn't afford to be equipped with iron armor and leather armor, so I could only use paper armor to make up the numbers.

As for the high-quality crossbows, there is no time to produce them. They can only cut wood so smoothly. The composite bows are like horse lances. They are very time-consuming and labor-intensive. It only takes one or two years to process the wood. Li Yu couldn't wait at all and could only replace them with a long wooden bow. Although the long wooden bow is easy to produce (a skilled carpenter can cut a bow body in one hour), the requirements for archers are extremely high, and they must be played by strong men like Chen Dexing (not only is it difficult to pull the bow, but the long wooden bow itself is also heavy, and it is tiring to hold it). The new recruits recruited by Li Yu in Hedong could only barely use them. However, against Chen Dexing's steel armored soldiers, there is not much difference between the long wooden bow and the composite bow...

...

The emergence of Nanfengang has obviously had a huge impact on the military on this land of East Asia.

This is the first time that humans have mass-produced steel in history, and it can also artificially control the carbon content of steel. Although compared with the steel output of tens of millions of tons or hundreds of millions of tons in later generations, the current output of Nanfen Steel is so insignificant. However, less than 2,000 tons of crucible steel a year is still enough to put tens of thousands of soldiers on simple plate armor, making the bows and scimitars that the Mongolians are proud of have lost their place to use.

However, this does not mean that the Ming army with steel armor can rest assured and walk onto the battlefield with the mood of an outing. Because offense and defense complement each other, with a strong shield, someone will then create a sharper spear. With the Ming army with strong defense, then as the most powerful enemy of the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia naturally has to strive for weapons that can break through the steel armor.

In a newly opened schoolyard near Kaifeng, the Inner Mongolia Army, Semu Army and senior generals of the Han army gathered together. They were all neatly dressed, pressing scimitars, surrounded by Kublai Khan, and carefully looked at a large number of strange-shaped weapons. Most of them were silly and scattered objects. There were maces, maces, and meteor hammers with thorns. They were all slammed weapons. They were much more useful than Uz steel scimitars and were not expensive.

But the most eye-catching thing is the two tubular weapons placed on the wooden frame.

The two tube-shaped weapons are of different sizes and colors. One of them is black all over, obviously not cast in bronze, but a cooked iron tube with a slender shape and about five feet long, the thickness of an ordinary adult man's arm. At the end of the cooked iron tube, a wooden handle that can be held with his hands was tied with a hemp rope. This is obviously a rifle, a very primitive rifle!

Another tubular weapon is a small bronze cannon, five or six feet long and the thickness of a large bowl for rice. It is installed on a wooden rack that can rotate back and forth. The wooden rack is made into an arc shape, as if it is to be installed on the back of some animal to carry it to the battlefield.

Several Han people and Seme craftsmen were sweating profusely filling the two tube weapons with h medicine and lead. About twenty steps ahead of them, there were two wooden stakes standing up, and each wooden stake was hung with a pair of silver-shining steel armor. I don’t know what channel it was made?

The Mongolian generals whispered.

"Are these two firearms? I seemed to have used them in the last battle of Daqing River, which can break the steel armor!"

"It seems that I heard that the Khan ordered Semi-Man Zhan Siding to secretly build muskets in Jingzhao Mansion. It has been several months since the two muskets were sent by Jingzhao Mansion, right?"

"Why do we look different, and the materials seem to be different?"

"There is something special here. Do you see the musket with a wooden handle? It should be held in your hand. The musket with a wooden rack like a saddle should be pressed on the back of a camel."

"This Semen Man's brain is really useful! How did he come up with it?"

"It seems that he is not the only one. Hulagu Khan also sent a group of Semu craftsmen a while ago, all of whom were the best craftsmen in the Great Food Country, and several of them were quite capable..."

"If these two weapons can break the steel armor, we will not be afraid of being ignorant..."

Kublai Khan looked at the gun and camel cannon in front of him with his hands behind his back, and the generals were not impressed by the comments. These two weapons were used to restrain the Northern Ming Dynasty and might be able to use them to sweep the Western Regions in the future!
Chapter completed!