Victory is not as far away as Ling Su thought.
The Northern Expedition seems difficult, but it is actually only three steps.
The first step is to dare to face Northern Qi directly, eliminate the fear of Northern Qi in the heart, and dare to swing the first sword at the Qi people who have always been victorious.
The second step is to surpass Northern Qi in overall combat effectiveness after a relatively difficult period.
The third step is a big victory. All it takes is one big victory and the war will come to an abrupt end.
Now, the first step has been taken when Shen Yi crossed the Huaihe River.
The second step...has now been basically realized.
After a few years, the overall combat effectiveness of the entire Nanchen Army is no worse than that of the Northern Qi Dynasty, especially the unit combat capability. The individual combat capability of the Huai'an Army is now no worse than that of the Qi people.
Moreover, the mentality of the Huai'an Army is completely different from that of the Huaihe Navy in the past when they would shrink their heads when they saw Qi people. Today's Huai'an Army dares to take the initiative to rush forward and kill the enemy when they see a similar number of Qi people. of.
In their eyes, the people of Qi were no longer ferocious and invincible ghosts and gods, but a man of military merit who walked on his own.
Now, Shen Yi and the entire Northern Expeditionary Army have actually stood up and are ready to take the third step. As long as Northern Qi reveals a fatal flaw, or a decisive battle with a great victory, the rest will be Just the ending.
Lord Shen has been quietly watching the entire battlefield, waiting for an opportunity or a strategic decisive battle.
A few days later, Shen Yi and Ling Su led five thousand-household camps all the way east from Guangping Mansion. In almost four or five days, they arrived at Dongchang Mansion, located in the far west of Shandong.
When they arrived at Dongchang Mansion, His Royal Highness the King of Yue had not arrived yet, so Shen Yi was not in a hurry and had a good rest in Dongchang Mansion for a few days.
It is worth mentioning that he has received news one after another in the past few days.
First, Su Ding had a few encounters with Zhou Shizhong in Hejian Mansion. The two sides fought several small-scale fierce battles, each with casualties.
Casualties came to a thousand.
In addition, there is news from Henan. Pei Jun's and Xue Wei's troops in Henan are fighting smoothly in Henan. They have won consecutive battles and are now approaching the city of Kaifeng.
However, there are many defenders in Kaifeng, and they will not be able to break the city for a while. They need to grind it out bit by bit.
In Henan, in addition to Xue Wei always sending battle reports to Shen Yi, Pei Jun didn't know where he learned the "rules" of the Huai'an Army. Basically, he would send a detailed battle report to Shen Yi in a day or two.
This gave Shen Yi almost an illusion, as if he did not have three main players, but four.
It's just that Pei Jun's journey is a bit too huge.
After waiting for two or three days in Dongchang Mansion, the convoy of His Royal Highness the King of Yue finally arrived outside Dongchang Mansion. Shen Yi went out to greet him personally. He saw a huge convoy outside the city, with dozens of large vehicles, headed by a young man. , riding on a big horse, after seeing Shen Yi from a distance, he jumped off the horse, walked forward quickly, cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Master Shen."
Shen Yi bowed his head and saluted: "I have met the prince."
The King of Yue, Li Yu, waved his hands quickly and said with a smile: "I don't dare to accept the courtesy of the Marquis. Has the Marquis been waiting here for a long time?"
He looked at the convoy behind him and said with some helplessness: "If Xiao Wang were alone, he would arrive quickly on horseback. Unfortunately, these things obtained from Jiankang need to be pulled by big horses, even if they are taken on the official road. It can’t be any faster.”
Shen Yi looked at the cavalry team and asked with a smile: "All the things that the prince escorted?"
"Mostly it's money."
Li Yu said with a smile: "There are also some cloths such as silk."
"Many of these coins are Hongde coins newly minted by the imperial court this year. Brother Huang specially asked Xiao Wang to send them to reward the soldiers who have made meritorious service in the army."
Shen Yi nodded.
It turned out to be a copper plate.
If precious metals like gold and silver could pull so many carts, he wouldn't have to worry about military expenses for several months.
While the two were talking, Shen Yi took a serious look at the grown-up King of Yue in front of him.
He is almost as tall as Shen Yi, and slightly taller than his brother Hong Dedi.
After watching it for a while, Shen Yi couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Time flies.
The first time he met the King of Yue, he was still a child who was less than fourteen years old. Later, when the Zhao Clan incident occurred and the King of Yue came to him in fear, he was only seventeen or eighteen years old at that time.
Now, he is an adult in his twenties, thirties or fourteens, and his speech and conversation are very different from before.
This is only a few years of work.
In another seven or eight years, the next generation Shen Yuan and the emperor's children will grow up and become the sons of Zhang Jian and Zhao Erna in Jiankang City. That will be the story of another generation.
Seeing that Shen Yi was in a daze, Li Yu coughed and said, "What is Mr. Shen thinking?"
Shen Yi came back to his senses, shook his head slightly, and said, "It's nothing, I suddenly remembered something."
"What I told Mr. Hou just now..."
Lord Shen was startled: "I didn't hear clearly."
Li Yu sighed slightly and repeated: "Uncle King Jin was suddenly bedridden at the beginning of the year. It has been several months now, and the imperial doctors are helpless."
When Shen Yi heard this, his heart skipped a beat.
Prince Jin has a close relationship with the Shen family. In his early years, he helped the Shen family a lot.
Especially my father, Shen Zhang, had been in charge of the Jin Palace for many years.
Calculating his age, he is only about fifty years old, so why...
Shen Yi frowned and asked, "Has your highness seen it?"
"That's my father's brother and Xiao Wang's uncle. I definitely want to go and see him."
"Uncle Wang can only get out of bed occasionally now. He is very weak."
"Brother Prince Mu has been looking for doctors everywhere, and he has aged several years all of a sudden."
Shen Yi sighed and said nothing more.
As the new generation like Li Yu and Shen Heng slowly grow up, the previous generation also begins to wither.
And Li Mu, the prince of Jin, who has a close personal relationship with Shen Yi and can be called a good friend, may be called Prince Jin after a while.
After a few words of emotion, Shen Yi asked: "How does Your Highness plan to reward the army?"
Li Yu said quickly.
"How do I understand this?"
"The Marquis gathered as many soldiers as possible in one place. I read out the imperial edict of the imperial court, and then handed over the imperial edict to the Marquis. Then I settled down and went back to Jiankang to deliver the edict."
"Honestly..."
Prince Yue shook his head and felt helpless: "It's not that the Tian family doesn't have suitable candidates, I don't even want to do this job."
Shen Yi smiled and asked, "Does Your Highness have any dealings with the Zhao family now?"
"Yes, there are some, but not many."
Li Yu said helplessly: "It's just that the princess sometimes goes back home. I won't go back with her. Now the Zhao family is in a miserable situation in Jiankang."
He paused and added: "No one likes to talk to them."
"No one has any contact with their family. I will be my prince honestly and I don't want to have any close contact with their family."
Mr. Shen nodded slightly: "Your Highness is wise."
After saying this, Shen Yi suddenly felt curious and asked, "Is the fourth sister of the princess married?"
Prince Yue coughed twice and his expression became strange.
"Master Hou has been away from Jiankang for a long time, so he may not know."
"My wife clan can now be described in four words."
"People hate dogs..."
………………
Li Yu's errand was done very quickly. After Shen Yi gathered the five thousand-household camps, he finished reading the imperial edict in front of everyone, and then handed the court things to Shen Yi. After having a meal with Shen Yi, he even stayed overnight. They didn't even stay overnight, so they just patted their butts and left.
Obviously, he was extremely afraid of his elder brother, fearing that he would misunderstand him and have any contact with the army.
And Shen Yi looked at the gift list of these gifts and felt a little helpless.
The imperial edict stated that cattle and sheep would be rewarded and the three armies would be rewarded, but this thing was probably not easy to carry. His Royal Highness the King of Yue made the decision himself and discounted it.
After taking Ling Su to study together, Mr. Shen patted the table.
"Let me buy cattle and sheep in Dongchang Mansion to reward the army."
After saying this, and thinking about the dozens of carts of copper coins, Shen Yi suddenly had some enlightenment in his heart.
Maybe Emperor Hongde also wanted to take this opportunity to spread Dachen's currency in the north.
Thinking of this, Shen Yi paused.
"I'll have a good meal with you guys. I'm going to the Henan battlefield to take a look."
