Become a feudal king from today

"What, Xiliang surrendered to Beidi!"

In the study room of the palace, Zhao Xu was shocked after hearing the news from Yanguan.

According to Mo Yu, the Beidi envoys arrived at Yanguan, and Beidi troops once again pressed the border.

Liu Fu happened to be there too, and he looked embarrassed, "It is said that Beidi has been conquering Xiliang. Both sides have victors and defeats. They also fought back and forth with the Forbidden Army and the Ma family in Jinzhou. Why did they suddenly surrender to Beidi?"

Zhao Xu frowned and looked at the map on the wall, his eyes wandering over the locations of Dasong, Beidi, and Xiliang.

"Tall buildings cannot be toppled in a day. They must have decayed inside. If you think about it carefully, there are some clues. It stands to reason that Xiliang has occupied half of Jinzhou for ten years. But in the past ten years, Dasong has declined more and more, and Xiliang has not yet If there is any progress, it can be seen that the long-term war has made Xiliang strong on the outside. "

Liu Fu nodded lightly and praised Beidi and Xiliang, among which Xiliang was the weakest.

When he was fighting with Dasong in Jinzhou, he was also attacked by Beidi, so he naturally couldn't hold on.

Furthermore, Xiliang was at odds with Dasong due to the war to establish the country.

Even after being attacked by Beidi, he never thought of forming an alliance with Dasong.

Between the two, I would naturally choose Beidi.

But in the east, Beidi already had the vassal state of Goryeo, and now Xiliang has also become a vassal state of Beidi, and its strength has further expanded.

"It's just that as a result, Beidi will get help again and its strength will increase greatly. Its ambition to go south will probably continue to grow." The worry in Liu Fu's eyes almost overflowed.

King Yan had just taken control of the four northern counties and was about to stabilize and develop, when he did not expect such bad news.

I'm afraid that the situation in northern Xinjiang will become even more severe in the future.

After all, Xiliang soldiers were also brave and good at fighting, and half of Jinzhou occupied by Xiliang fell into Beidi's hands.

This is equivalent to the territory of Beidi extending into the territory of Dasong.

"Did they say what they were doing in Jinling?"

It is a fact that Xiliang surrendered to Beidi, and it is useless to be too angry.

What should be concerned about now is the purpose of the Beidi envoy.

"They only said they had important matters to discuss with the emperor, and they didn't want to say much else," the soldier said.

Zhao Xu snorted and said, "Just tell Mo Yu to let him go."

As the King of Yan, he did not have the right to reject the enemy's envoys and could only let them go.

"Yes, Your Highness." The soldier responded, turned and left.

After the soldier's figure disappeared, Zhao Xu fell into deep thought.

Now the two traditional enemies of Dasong suddenly merged into one, and the threat from the north increased greatly.

And now Liang has mastered the forging method of matchlock gun.

Naturally, he cannot fall behind.

In addition to artillery, flintlock guns that are more advanced than matchlocks must also be developed.

Just like artillery, he will not follow the rules and repeat the development path of these firearms.

There is no need for this.

Because there are many misguided paths in the development of these firearms.

With ready-made experience in his mind, he naturally wants to get it right in one step.

Do what you can currently do with your current technical capabilities.

For example, skip the matchlock gun and go directly to the flintlock gun.

After all, these two firearms are just different in the way of ignition.

A matchlock gun is equipped with a long rope for soldiers. This rope is like mosquito coils and can burn slowly after being lit.

When fighting, just use a lit match to ignite the gunpowder.

The flintlock gun uses flint, which is similar to the principle of a lighter, using the sparks generated by the impact of the flint to ignite the gunpowder.

But the difficulty lies in the firing device of the ignition.

This thing involves both materials and craftsmanship, so it may take some time.

But this is faster than equipping a matchlock first and then a flintlock.

Thinking of this, he shook his wrist, took a piece of paper and started drawing.

…

Jinling.

Zhao Heng was walking in the imperial garden, and beside him was Concubine Mi.

After the chaos in Yanzhou, he had lingering fears about the Yuan family.

And Zhao Xu stabilized Yanzhou and repelled the Beidi people, which made him breath a sigh of relief.

Compared with the Yuan family, he was more assured of his King Yan, so he decided to hand over the most important Yan Pass to Zhao Xu, and wait until Zhao Xu's training of new soldiers was completed before withdrawing the imperial army from Yan Pass.

In this way, he can dispatch more imperial troops to defend the powerful clans.

However, he still remembers what his father said to him before he died.

As a king, the only thing he can trust is the power in his hands. No one else, including his relatives, can trust him.

But even so, it is a fact that Zhao Xu greatly increased the royal prestige and made the Zhao family proud in the capital.

Therefore, he still had to show the emperor's grace and show his favor to him, so that King Yan could honestly guard the northern border.

After all, precaution is precaution, and favor is favor. For an emperor, this is not a contradiction.

And this favor from Zhao Xu fell on Concubine Mi in the palace.

In recent days, Zhao Heng often takes time to accompany Concubine Mi.

As the two were walking together, a eunuch came over and handed a letter to Liang Cheng.

Liang Cheng presented it to Zhao Heng again.

"It's Xu'er's secret." Zhao Heng showed it to Concubine Mi.

When Concubine Mi heard this, she immediately missed Zhao Xu, her smile faded, and she looked unhappy.

Zhao Heng saw her and said, "My beloved, I miss Xu'er."

"Speaking of which, it has been almost a year since Xu'er went to Yanzhou." Concubine Mi said, "There are many distinguished ministers who have come to see me these days, and they all want to marry their daughters to Xu'er. Speaking of which, Xu'er has passed She is seventeen years old, not too young, maybe it’s time to choose a princess among them.”

Zhao Heng nodded and said: "At present, Yanzhou is in chaos and Fangping is in chaos. Xu'er must have a lot of things to do. After a few days, when Yanzhou is settled, I will let him come back to visit relatives."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Concubine Mi suddenly smiled.

Zhao Heng read the memorial at this time and frowned when Zhao Xu mentioned the imperial merchant status of Yan County Trading Company. He frowned even deeper when he saw the maritime trade rights and the establishment of Yanzhou Navy.

But later, when he saw that he wanted to transport a batch of artillery to be dedicated to him, his brows suddenly widened.

Judging from the information he received, a large part of the reason why King Yan was able to retreat from the enemy at Yan Pass was because of artillery.

Therefore, he didn't say it with his mouth, but he had already thought about it in his heart.

At one point, he even wanted King Yan to hand over the art of forging cannons.

But when he thought about it carefully later, he gave up the idea.

The reason is simple. The current court is full of people from powerful clans.

When he obtained the art of artillery casting from King Yan, wouldn't it be tantamount to handing it over to the powerful clan?

In this way, wouldn't he be taking advantage of the powerful clan? Naturally, good things should be given to his imperial army first.

So after some deep thought, he decided not to use the art of casting.

But King Yan must supply artillery to the Forbidden Army.

Now that King Yan is so sensible, it seems that he can't refute King Yan's face.

After all, King Yan’s request was not excessive.

It's easy to talk about the imperial merchant's status, but I'm afraid the powerful people won't let go of their maritime trade rights.