The Huai'an Army is still a new army, and with the presence of Shen Yi, the backbone who can convince everyone, apart from anything else, the army's execution ability is still very strong.
After the generals returned to their respective armies, they immediately began to do what they should do.
Zhou Huai's troops began to explore north along the coastal line.
The Dengzhou Navy specially sent people to contact Zhou Huai, and hundreds of warships of the Navy also headed north along the coast, preparing to cooperate with Zhou Huai in heading north.
The left and right armies of Ling Su and Su Ding no longer stubbornly defended themselves, but began to actively seek battle, striving to achieve a decisive battle as soon as possible.
Another thing that has to be said is that after Shen Yi was in the rear and talked with Pei Jun and Wei Xiong in detail for a whole day, these two generals from the Forbidden Army were divided into the left and right armies.
Among them, when Wei Xiong joined the right army, he completely obeyed Ling Su's command.
However, Pei Jun's rank was too high, even Shen Yi could not control him, and Su Ding naturally could not control him. Therefore, Pei Jun was near the Left Route Army and cooperated with the Left Route Army to fight, but in essence he still led the troops alone, just marching and fighting. Before that, we had to discuss things with Su Ding so that we would not fight alone.
With these two armies filling in the left and right armies, the Huai'an Army now has a combat strength of close to 200,000 people on the front battlefield.
Compared with Northern Qi, the military strength may still be slightly insufficient, but it is already the same order of magnitude.
With the two armies on the left and right actively seeking battle, and the Northern Qi's retreat routes becoming less and less, according to Shen Yi's estimation, the decisive battle will come soon.
It might be a month or two later, or it might be...
That's tomorrow.
As for Shen Yi himself, after taking care of the two generals who came from the Forbidden Army, he was not in a hurry to go to the front. He mainly stayed behind to deal with some baggage and gunpowder and firearms matters.
He wanted to send a large amount of gunpowder and firearms into every army to ensure their combat effectiveness.
What is gratifying is that through the joint efforts of the craftsmen of the Bingzhang Bureau and some foreign craftsmen, the first generation of flintlock guns has been basically produced.
However, this kind of flintlock gun still requires one shot to fill one bullet, and because basic science has not caught up, barrel technology and gunpowder technology are not up to date.
Therefore, the range and power are basically at the level of a matchlock gun.
but…
There is no need to ignite each shot like a matchlock gun, which greatly speeds up the shooting speed and makes this kind of musket somewhat useful on the battlefield.
However, I am afraid there is still a long way to go before we can truly dominate the battlefield.
At least, Shen probably won't need it during this Northern Expedition.
For this Northern Expedition, the only ones that were really useful were artillery and explosive shells. The muskets were far less useful than those cold weapons.
However, firearms and gunpowder will always be a small part of the battlefield supply. The other more important ones are food, clothing, medicinal materials, doctors, and other meat and vegetables that the army may not pay attention to, but Shen Yi pays more attention to.
Not to mention anything else, just supplying these things kept Master Shen and Zhao Jizhou busy for several days. In order to ensure the safety of material transportation, Shen Yi temporarily recruited an army in Shandong to escort the baggage.
Although Shandong did not recover for a long time, the Jiankang court did not collect a grain of land tax from them in the past two years, so people's hearts were still more on the side of Chen. In addition, serving as a soldier for Mr. Shen was a problem. Real wages could be obtained, so the people of Shandong responded enthusiastically, and it didn't take long for a grain transport army to be mobilized.
While Shen was busy in the south, preparing for the final battle, Mu Tuo had arrived at Yandu and met Emperor Zhaowu in the imperial city of Yandu.
At this time, Emperor Zhaowu was already a whole lot thinner than when he first ascended the throne. His eye sockets were sunken and he had two big dark circles under his eyes. His overall mental state was extremely poor.
It has even reached the edge of collapse.
This Emperor Zhaowu has not had a good sleep for many days.
Every time he closed his eyes, he would think, did he make a mistake when he rebelled and took over?
Is it better to give up the throne to the third brother, King Qi, so that he can succeed to the throne safely, so that there will be less turmoil in the court, and the Qi court will not be where it is today?
But now, it's too late to think about this.
Mu Tuo bowed and saluted Emperor Zhaowu with a respectful expression: "Your Majesty, Tatar and Daqi have been entangled for decades. Although the two sides have had some misunderstandings over the past few decades, they have been neighbors for decades after all. , the relationship is always much closer than with Nan Chen."
"A few days ago, I heard that Nanchen had occupied Taiyuan, and now they are marching into Datong. I see that they are about to hit the doorstep of my Tatar tribe."
"I'm sweating. I didn't want to fight with you, but now, Nan Chen has been pushed to the door of my Tatar tribe."
Mu Tuo leaned forward and said: "It turns out that the Great Khan has always abided by the agreement we made with Daqi. Even if Datong's defense is empty, we have not taken any action. But now, Datong will soon no longer be in charge of His Majesty the Emperor, so I Khan decided to send troops southward."
After hearing the last four words, Emperor Zhaowu opened his eyes suddenly. He looked at Mu Tuo, his voice was hoarse and a little murderous: "The last time your envoy came, you didn't mean to wait for the winner to be decided on the Hejian battlefield. What?"
Mu Tuo lowered his head: "Your Majesty the Emperor."
With a calm look on his face, he raised his head and looked directly at Zhao Kai, Emperor Zhaowu: "I, the Great Khan, feel that the Northern Qi Dynasty can even defeat Datong. The winner of the frontal battlefield has actually been decided."
Emperor Zhaowu's face turned red.
He slammed the table and said angrily: "My army, Zhending in Hejian, has repeatedly repulsed the enemy, with great results!"
A smile appeared on Mu Tuo's face: "But so far, I haven't even seen the border of Shandong."
"Is not it?"
After saying this, he lowered his head and said, without waiting for Emperor Zhaowu's reply: "Your Majesty, at this moment, I, the Great Khan, have led his troops south to Datong."
"Since your country cannot defend Datong and Taiyuan, let me, the Great Khan, defend it for your country."
Emperor Zhaowu squinted his eyes: "The Tatar Khan has already started to move?"
"yes."
Mu Tuo was not afraid. He lowered his head slightly and said, "We should be almost at Datong by now."
He smiled and said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, our troops are always supporting Da Qi. If Da Qi wins in the future, we can sit down and talk about anything."
"What our Great Khan means is that now our troops can go south and fight side by side with the Daqi army against the Huai'an army of Nanchen."
"After the work is completed, Your Majesty will just give us some rewards from the Tatar tribe."
Emperor Zhaowu said with a cold face: "What if I don't need it?"
Mu Tuo smiled and said: "If Your Majesty still persists in his stubbornness at this time, he is afraid that he will be attacked from both sides. In a few years, the entire Qi Dynasty will be wiped out."
Emperor Zhaowu took a deep breath and his face turned an unnatural flush. After a long time, he recovered and slapped the table hard.
"Speak like that in front of me! How brave you are!"
Mu Tuo lowered his head slightly and said: "The foreign minister is just telling the truth. If Your Majesty gets angry and kills the foreign minister, then I will have no choice but to cooperate with Nan Chen."
Emperor Zhaowu opened his eyes angrily and glared at Mu Tuo. After a long time, he waved his hand feebly.
"I'm tired."
"I'll have a detailed chat with your envoy in a few days."
He coughed muffledly, then covered his mouth with a handkerchief and waved his hand: "Back off...just back off."
Mu Tuo looked calm and bowed to leave.
After Mu Tuo left, Emperor Zhaowu couldn't bear it any longer and vomited a large mouthful of blood with a "wow" sound.
This blood, which he had been holding in his mouth just now, has now stained the imperial robe on his body red.
The eunuchs on the side were horrified and quickly gathered around, panicking: "Send to the imperial doctor! Send to the imperial doctor!"
Emperor Zhaowu covered his lips and his voice was cold.
"Go and inform some prime ministers..."
By the time the eunuchs called the prime ministers to the meeting hall, Emperor Zhaowu was already pale.
"Call to Nuoyong..."
"I want to see the results of the victory!"
"Let him give it to me and beat up the Southern bandit!"