The scientific and technological strength, military strength, economic strength, and various other aspects of the strength of the Tang Empire are all growing steadily, and the application of various high and new technologies has made the Tang Empire take off in an all-round way. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Towards the end of the Chinese New Year, the third batch of large steam fleets to the Americas returned to Laizhou, and once again brought a large number of products from the Americas to meet the needs of the Tang Empire in all aspects.

Sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes and other crops began to be popularized in the Tang Empire, and the distant Jiaozhou and Yazhou also began to artificially propagate rubber trees on a large scale, and continued to plant adult rubber trees transplanted from the Americas, so as to obtain the rubber resources urgently needed by the Tang Dynasty as soon as possible.

In addition, due to the opening of the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge, all kinds of strategic materials required for laying railways, as well as a large number of labor, can be quickly transported to the south by virtue of the railway line, and greatly accelerate the construction progress of the railway to Jiaozhou, when the Chinese New Year is approaching, the railway artery from Luoyang to Jiaozhou is fully connected.

When the news first came back to the capital, Li An was excited to immediately enter the palace to face the saint, and asked to go to Jiaozhou immediately to start collecting rubber resources and carry out related research work on rubber materials.

"Your Majesty, rubber materials are very important to my Datang, and the early development of various rubber materials will help improve the performance of various machinery and promote the rapid development of my Datang Empire, so Weichen must go to Jiaozhou as soon as possible to see how the rubber trees there are and whether they can be mined."

Li An opened his mouth to ask for an inspection of Jiaozhou.

Li Longji didn't know how the rubber tree was used, but as soon as he heard that it was a tree, he took it for granted that it was wood.

"Li Shilang, what is the difference between this rubber tree and other trees, and why does Li Shilang value rubber trees so much?"

Li An knew that Li Longji didn't understand, and said: "Your Majesty, the useful part of ordinary trees is wood, and the useful part of the rubber tree is the colloid flowing from the bark, this colloid can be made into a variety of useful materials, especially the materials commonly used in various machinery, rubber is very needed, after using rubber materials, the machinery will become more reliable and stable, and the tires of the vehicle will become more stable after being used for rubber materials, and people will be more comfortable sitting in the car, and the vehicle can also run faster." ”

"Oh, it turned out to be colloids on the tree, and there will be colloids left on the peach tree, can't you use it?"

Li Longji often admires peach blossoms, and naturally knows very well about the peach tree flowing gum.

"Your Majesty, the colloids on the peach tree cannot be compared with the colloids on the rubber trees, the gap is too big, and the rubber material can also be used to make soles, and the soles made are strong and wear-resistant, much stronger than the soles made of mille-feuille cloth."

Ang Lee opened his mouth to explain.

"Oh, the colloids flowing from the rubber tree can also be used to make shoes, this small rubber tree has such a big effect, it's really unimaginable!"

Li Longji sighed in his heart, and also wanted to go to Jiaozhou in person, and see in person how amazing this so-called rubber tree is, but now that the Chinese New Year is approaching, there are many things in the imperial court that Li Longji needs to worry about, so he naturally can't take away his body to go to Jiaozhou.

"Your Majesty, the role of rubber is more than what Weichen said, in short, if Datang wants to become more and more powerful, it is absolutely inseparable from rubber."

Ang Lee said with certainty again.

"In this case, Li Shilang will go early and return early, and I will transfer two hundred flying dragon forbidden troops to protect Li Shilang, and in addition, let Guo Yang lead a team of ironclad artillery vehicles to accompany the guard."

Li Longji opened his mouth and agreed.

"Yes, Your Majesty, Weichen will go to prepare, and set off early tomorrow morning to Jiaozhou."

Li An can't delay too much time, before leaving, he still has a lot of work to explain, in addition to the family affairs, there are various things to deal with in the R&D center, in addition, he also has to deploy the relevant research and development preparations for rubber materials, so that after the rubber materials are shipped back, they can start research and manufacturing as soon as possible, and create various rubber products urgently needed by machinery as soon as possible.

After preparing for a whole day, Li An was tired of back pain, and when he returned to the other hospital at night, he didn't even have the mind to spoil Li Yaer, so he just lay down and fell asleep, and Li Yaer was quite disappointed, after all, Li An's favor was so intoxicating to her, he was used to being pampered by Li An, and suddenly he couldn't get the pampering, which was of course uncomfortable.

It's like being massaged by someone, it's a comfortable moment when it's itchy all over your body, and the other party suddenly stops massaging, which is really overwhelming, and Li Yaer feels like this now.

However, Li Ang really didn't have the energy to spoil her, so she could only be wronged for a while, after all, it would take a long time to go to Jiaozhou, and it would take ten days to come back.

"Husband, if you go, you may not be able to come back during the New Year, so you let our sisters celebrate the New Year at home!"

Li Ya'er closed her eyes when she saw Li An on the bed and asked.

Li An was not asleep yet, and when he saw Li Ya'er talking, he closed his eyes and responded: "Ya'er, my husband will try my best to rush back during the New Year, you don't have to worry, the main thing is that the rubber industry is extremely important, and my husband must go to prepare as soon as possible, which is very important to the Tang Empire, and it can't be delayed for a moment." ”

"Oh."

Li Ya'er answered, and asked in a low voice again, "Husband, are you tired?" ”

"I'm tired, it's been a busy day, I'll go to bed first, be good, go to bed early."

Ang Lee kissed Li Ya'er on the forehead, and then quickly fell asleep.

Li Ya'er clamped Li Ang's legs tightly, and slept sweetly in Li An's arms, although she didn't snap, but she snuggled up in Li An's arms like this, which felt very good.

Early in the morning of the second day, all the people who traveled were ready, and the Flying Dragon Forbidden Army personally dispatched by the emperor, a team of ironclad artillery vehicles under Guo Yan, and the relevant entourage were all ready, and as long as Li An ordered to set off, they could travel immediately.

Guo Yan's ironclad artillery convoy dispatched a total of ten ironclad artillery vehicles, three ironclad command vehicles, two ironclad reconnaissance vehicles, and dozens of supply vehicles, a total of less than 50 vehicles, and one freight train could accommodate them all.

There are two hundred people in the Feilong Forbidden Army, occupying the entire three soft-seat carriages, of course, their core task is to protect Li An's safety, and at the same time, they also take into account the responsibility of protecting all relevant technical talents.

The railway bureau prepared two separate trains for Ang Lee's trip, one is a passenger train and the other is a freight train.

Passenger trains are mainly loaded with people, while freight trains are loaded with accompanying vehicles and materials, such as ironclad gun cars, which must be loaded by freight trains, otherwise, they will not be able to keep up with the speed of the team.

"Li Shilang, everyone is ready to go."

At the Chang'an City Railway Station, Guo Yan walked to Li An's side and reminded him.

"The task of going to Jiaozhou this time is extremely important, the sooner you arrive, the better, give the order to go! Get in. ”

Ang Lee still plans to finish his work and come back for the New Year? Therefore, it is natural that there will be no delay in the time of travel.

In addition, the railway system has increased by at least fifty percent through several improvements, and it only takes six hours to reach Luoyang City, even if it is so far away from Jiaozhou, it only takes two or three days to do so, which refers to the express train, ordinary train, which does not have such a high speed.

After the orders were issued in turn, the two trains set off one after another and headed for Jiaozhou, the destination of the trip.

After getting into the car, Ang Lee has already begun to make relevant preparations, he is recalling all kinds of knowledge about rubber in his previous life, recording it on paper, and then analyzing this knowledge to find out the useful and worthwhile parts of the study, and carry out serious research.

"Li Shilang, what are you writing about! How I've never seen it, what a strange text. ”

Guo Yan stood next to him, saw Ang Lee writing and drawing, leaned over to take a look, and was dumbfounded, he didn't know what Ang Lee wrote at all, that is, he didn't know what Ang Lee was writing at all.

In fact, what Li An wrote was a simplified character of later generations, which is still very different from the text of the Tang Dynasty, and it is not surprising that Guo Yang does not know it, in addition, there are many chemical equations mixed in it, and Guo Yang is even more impossible to know.

Guo Yang didn't know these later generations of writing and scientific knowledge at all, so Ang Lee had no way to explain it, so he could only find a reason to prevaricate.

Guo Yang couldn't understand these things, so he had to sit bored and look at the flowing scenery outside the car window.

The advantage of the train is too obvious, the interior is very stable, it will not stop and go, and the speed has always been uniform, so when Ang Lee stays in the carriage of the train, he feels like staying in his office, and can calmly carry out all kinds of thinking and experiments.

While in Luoyang City, the train stopped for a quarter of an hour, and after coordinating everything, it changed tracks to enter the railway to Jiaozhou, and continued to travel rapidly.

At this time, it is the time of the Chinese New Year, and the weather is relatively cold, but the train keeps going south, that is, the further south you go, the warmer the weather becomes.

Soon, the cotton clothes on Ang Lee's body couldn't be worn, and in the end, even in the autumn clothes, his forehead was sweating, and he could only wear single clothes to be comfortable.

After arriving in Jiaozhou, all the officials of Jiaozhou came to the railway station to greet him, in order to show their attention and respect for Li An. To say that these Jiaozhou officials, all of them are very grateful to Li An, they were all demoted to the wild land of Jiaozhou, and since Li An asked to build a train to Jiaozhou, Jiaozhou suddenly became a star city, and it is no longer a wild place, after all, with the entry of the railway, a large number of businessmen poured into the city, bringing goods from all over the country, and at the same time, they also purchased a large number of local products, so that Jiaozhou began to become prosperous, and they did not feel that being an official in Jiaozhou was derogatory.

Li An did not have much interest in these superficial politeness, he first inspected the Jiaozhou Railway Station and vigorously affirmed the construction results of the Jiaozhou Railway Station.

To say that this Jiaozhou railway station, built is really very good, both the scale and the appearance are super-first-class, at least than the Jiaozhou Yamen institutions are much more magnificent, is the landmark building of the whole city.

The employees who work at the Jiaozhou Railway Station are quite bullish, and they seem to be even more awesome than the people in the yamen, especially the eunuch stationmaster, who is even more than the Jiaozhou Assassin History, and the highest local governors such as the Jiaozhou Assassin History, when they see the stationmaster of the railway station, they have to nod and salute, as if they have seen their superiors.

Of course, no matter how awesome the eunuch stationmaster is, he still has to be respectful in front of Li An, after all, Li An's status is super high, almost only lower than Li Longji, and even the top leaders of the railway bureau are very respectful when they see Li An, not to mention the little Jiaozhou railway station master?

After visiting the Jiaozhou Railway Station, Li An couldn't wait to go to the rubber plantation manor, after all, inspecting the rubber plantation was the main purpose of the trip, and everything else was not important.

What Li An didn't expect was that the rubber plantations in Jiaozhou were very huge, with at least thousands of acres of land, although most of them were very small rubber seedlings, and they could not start rubber tapping for the time being, but after a few years, when these rubber seedlings grew up, they could provide Datang with a steady stream of rubber materials.

In addition, there are many large adult rubber trees, which were specially transplanted from the Americas, and after a period of adaptation, they have completely survived, and they can even start tapping.

"Li Shilang, these are rubber trees! It really doesn't look good! ”

Guo Yang walked in the rubber plantation, looked left and right, and felt that the rubber trees were very ordinary, and even a little ugly, and they were very inconspicuous trees at all.

"Huh! The appearance of the rubber tree is indeed not very good, but the role of the rubber tree is very large, and it will not be long before you will know the huge role of the rubber tree, especially your ironclad artillery brigade, which is inseparable from rubber products. ”

Ang Lee said with a smile.

"These rubber trees can be used on our ironclad gun trucks, is it really possible?"

Guo Yan looked curious.

"That's natural, the iron wheels of the ironclad gun car are really bad, if you use rubber pneumatic tires, the effect is much better."

Li An opened his mouth and explained the great changes that pneumatic rubber tires can bring to the ironclad gun car after being applied to the ironclad gun truck.

Listening to Li An's explanation, Guo Yang suddenly didn't dare to underestimate these rubber trees, and even, he was respectful to these rubber trees, for fear that he would be careless and hurt a small sapling, so the loss would be great.

In addition, in addition to the huge rubber plantation in Jiaozhou, there is also a large rubber plantation on the small island of Yazhou not too far away, and the scale is much larger than that of Jiaozhou.