Ang Lee's plan for the Northwest Port is generally very detailed, almost all the problems that can be thought of, and preparations are made in advance for possible situations.

For example, in the case of a small number of people in the early stage, the road does not need to be very wide, and the temporary construction of a narrower road can save money, but the number of people in the city must rise rapidly, and this will be the trade center of the entire region in the future, and the land will be connected to Tochar, and the population explosion is inevitable, so in order to prevent the trouble of duplicate construction, it is also a good way to build a wide road to solve the problem at one time.

In other words, Ang Lee is more forward-looking and can take into account the situation many years later, while many officials who propose thrift practices are very short-sighted.

Li An remembered that when the new urban area was first built, because the road was very wide and there were not a few cars walking, it seemed very wasteful, and many people thought that this was a waste of money by the imperial court, so why not build the road narrower? But five years later, these people don't think so, as the surrounding houses rise from the ground, more and more people buy cars, the original very wide road gradually becomes crowded, the road is not only no longer wide, but also seems a little narrow, many people began to complain, why not build the road wider in the first place.

Only short-sighted people will keep complaining, first complaining that the road is too wide, wasting taxpayers' money, and then complaining that the road is too narrow and does not consider the convenience of taxpayers.

Even after the yamen decided to expand the road, these people were still not very satisfied, and would always say that the yamen would only build and demolish, and demolish and rebuild, so that they could get kickbacks! Wouldn't it be nice to build a wide road all at once?

The people who plan the city are ordinary people, not immortals, and no one can figure out how much traffic will be in a city in the future, and how wide the roads will be in different areas of the city.

In addition, there will be a lot of variables, such as several very large restaurants, suddenly closed, so that the road in front of the restaurant will change from extremely congested to extremely wide and wasteful.

Therefore, the planning needs to be adjusted in surprise, and there must be leeway, for example, in Ang Lee's planning map, there is a lot of leeway, and some of the streets of low houses, when necessary, can be demolished to expand the city road, the beach of the port, and can also be used as the expansion location of the wharf in the future, and there are many villa areas, which can also be adjusted to a certain extent.

And because only Ang Lee understands the characteristics of the city in later generations, only the city planning map designed by Ang Lee is the most reasonable, and others will not understand what the situation of the metropolis is like, so they are not capable of designing the metropolis.

After some explanation, all the subordinates understood Ang Lee's good intentions, and they were all willing to support Ang Lee wholeheartedly, and wrote their names in the recital to the imperial court.

After resting for the night, early the next morning, Li An prepared to lead the huge Tang fleet to leave the bustling port of West Tianzhu and head to the northwest.

"Li Shilang, all the boats are almost ready, and they will be ready to set off in half an hour."

The subordinates came to report, the purpose was to let Li An prepare in advance in the future and get on the ship earlier.

Li An nodded, walked out of the big tent, and asked people to immediately put away the tent and load it onto the ship and transport it away.

Before he reached the dock, Li An saw many officials from Xi Tianzhu, all standing at the dock, needless to say, the purpose of their standing there must be to see off Li An and others.

The port chief must be indispensable, and the king of Western Tianzhu, who claims to be the governor of the west, also came, in addition, there are more than a dozen civil officials, and more than a hundred soldiers who escort them.

King Xi Tianzhu was admiring the Datang steamship in front of him with relish at the moment, and sighed that Datang's shipbuilding technology was advanced and imitable.

"Such a big ship must not be very swaying at sea, much more comfortable than a small boat, but I don't know what it looks like inside."

King Xi Tianzhu opened his mouth and sighed.

"King, while they haven't left, why don't we go in and have a look!"

The harbor officer was also curious, eager to take a closer look at these behemoths, and even more wanted to understand the internal structure of these behemoths.

When King Xi Tianzhu heard this, he felt that there was some reason, and hurriedly said: "Why don't you go and talk to Li Shilang, let's get on the boat and take a look." ”

The port chief said happily: "Yes, king, I will go to Li Shilang." ”

After speaking, he turned around and saw Li An walking towards him, so he trotted to meet him.

"Li Shilang, are you leaving?"

The harbor officer asked politely.

Li An nodded and said, "I've caused you trouble these days, we should go, and we still have half an hour to go." ”

"Hehe, Datang's ship is really big, it's too spectacular."

The harbor chief complimented.

Li An seemed to see something, but he didn't bring it up, but continued to move on, completely ignoring what the port master wanted to say.

Seeing that Li An did not take the initiative to invite, the port chief felt that his face was very faceless, and his face was slightly cold, and then he walked towards Li An with a smile, and asked cheekily: "Li Shilang, can we go to the ship for a visit." ”

Hearing this, Li An stopped, looked at the port chief beside him meaningfully, saw the expectation and flattery on the other party's face, smiled lightly, nodded and said, "You can take a look, but time is running out, you have to watch and go back quickly." ”

"Thank you Li Shilang, I'll go and talk to them."

The port chief ran to tell the king of Xitianzhu.

"Li Shilang agreed to let us visit the ship."

The port chief reported excitedly.

King Xi Tianzhu said happily: "Okay, this is really good, we can go up and feast our eyes." ”

The two of them followed behind Ang Lee, and happily boarded the largest ship in the Tang fleet, that is, Ang Lee's boat, which can be called the flagship of the Tang fleet.

"Stop, you can't go up."

The Tang Dynasty soldiers blocked the Xi Tianzhu guards who wanted to get on the ship, even if Li An didn't say it, they also knew very well that they must not let foreign soldiers get on the ship, and let the Xi Tianzhu civil officials get on the ship, which would already be regarded as giving enough face, how could the guards be qualified to get on the ship.

"What's going on?"

The port chief asked.

A soldier of the Tang Army replied: "The guards can't go up, it's the rule." ”

The harbor officer nodded and walked up obediently.

Seeing all this, Li An said with a smile: "The ship is very safe, why do you need to guard, are you afraid that my Tang soldiers will not be able to protect you?" ”

"Yes, yes, with the protection of the Tang soldiers, we don't need to bring escorts on board, hahaha!"

The harbor chief immediately replied flatteringly.

"Oops! This deck is really big enough, and it is amazing that so many fruits and vegetables are planted on it, and even apple trees can grow on the ship. ”

"When we got up, we found that the ship was bigger than we thought! It's amazing. ”

"It's such a pleasure to be able to go to sea on such a big ship!"

Many West Tianzhu officials were quite excited after stepping onto the deck of Li An's ship, after all, for these people, this was the first time in their lives that they stepped on the most advanced steam ship in Datang.

King Xi Tianzhu, standing at the front of the deck, looking at the sea in front of him, the whole person felt different, there was a feeling of looking down on the world.

Looking back at the West Tianzhu naval ship not far away, it is simply a small toy, and there is no comparison at all.

Datang steam ships and Xi Tianzhu's small paddle boats, put together really has no comparison, the gap is not a generation or two can be described, if there is a war, the Datang steam ship does not need to fire, directly slammed into it, it is enough to hit the West Tianzhu warship to a pulp.

How could the king of Western Tianzhu not see this, but after all, Western Tianzhu is a country with relatively limited human and financial resources, and there is no advanced technology, and it is very unrealistic to want to build steam ships, and even if they want to buy from Datang, it is estimated that the funds are not enough, and the maintenance costs in the later stage can drag him down

Moreover, after looking at Datang's steam ships, they don't even have the courage to ask the price, and even if they boldly propose to buy them at a high price, Datang will not sell them, at least not at present, because Datang's own steam ships are not enough, how can they be sold to other countries, and steam gunboats involving force cannot be sold to other countries.

After the technology is improved and the output can keep up, especially the construction of overseas territories along the Maritime Silk Road, Datang can sell steam ships at high prices and earn a large amount of money for itself.

Steam ships have high requirements for maintenance and supply, and the relevant facilities in the Datang territory along the way are not in place, so the form of steam ships does not have enough security on this trade route, and what to do in case of a major breakdown, the ship will not be able to drive.

The Datang fleet led by Li An, because of its relatively large scale, carried a large amount of maintenance equipment, and maintenance personnel also came, which was enough to ensure the normal operation of the entire fleet, but if it was an ordinary cargo ship, it would not have these conditions, and once it broke down halfway, it would be very troublesome.

It is inevitable that a steam ship will break down in the middle of the way, and no one can guarantee that the steam ship will not break, and the solution to this problem is to build relevant maintenance and supply facilities in the overseas territories of Datang along the way, and help the steam ships that break down in the middle of the way, so as to reduce the loss as much as possible.

There are already three overseas territories of Datang, and the distance between each two is only more than 1,000 miles, which is not too far away, which is enough to ensure the maintenance and supply needs of steam ships.

As for how to deploy these equipment, Li An has already written the relevant plans, but because the current situation is not mature enough, there is no need to propose it to the imperial court, and in addition, there are many plans that can also be appropriately adjusted and revised to make the plans more reasonable.

Li An looked at these Xitianzhu officials who had never seen the market as if he were looking at a hillbilly, and when they finished sighing, he said: "What can be seen on the deck, the cabin is the real cave, everyone, please!" ”

"Oh, it's great to be able to go to the cabin, let's go!"

The officials of Xi Tianzhu were very happy, and one by one, they went to visit the cabin.

The cabin has a lot of space and is divided into many areas, including living area, kitchen area, dining area, storage area, power area and so on.

Ang Lee first took them to the power area, which is the core area of the entire steamship, if this area fails, then the whole steamship will break down.

Therefore, the power area is the core of the entire steamship, and it is also the most important thing, which must be guarded by someone around the clock, and there must be no accidents.

Looking at these huge machines and equipment in the power area, King Xi Tianzhu and others were all surprised, these equipment were very well-made, and many small parts were never seen before, and these small parts could be used as works of art when they were dismantled.

"Hey, aren't these all coal, we have them in Xitianzhu."

A Western Tianzhu official saw something familiar.

"That's right, it's coal, so much piled up here? No wonder these ships emit such a large amount of black smoke when they enter the port. ”

The harbor chief was surprised.

King Xi Tianzhu looked at these charcoal very curiously, and asked Li Andao, "What are these charcoal used for?" ”

Li An said with a smile: "These carbons are very important, they are used to drive ships. That is, the power of the boat, with these coals, there is no need for manpower to paddle, because the consumption is very large, so it is necessary to prepare more. ”

"How can these coals be used to make such a large ship sail, so powerful?"

King Xi Tianzhu continued to ask.

Ang Lee asked a soldier to open the boiler inlet, and a wave of heat gushed out.

Although the ship has not yet started, it is very close to the time to start the ship, so the boiler has already begun to warm up, and it only needs to add another ignition and adjust some valves, and the steamship will be able to drive away.

"There's such a big fire here, that's what makes a steamship power?"

The king of Western Tianzhu was stunned, and the rest of the Western Tianzhu officials were also very surprised.

Li An looked at these hillbillies and said: "This fire is the smallest, if you want to start a boat, you need to add charcoal to it to make the fire burn more vigorously, haha!" ”

"Awesome, it's amazing, it's amazing."

Everyone in West Tianzhu sighed and felt that Datang's steamship technology was too awesome.

After carefully visiting the power area, they walked to the storage area, on the steam ship, the storage area is very large, and there are a lot of materials, and a lot of materials are stored in it, and near the power area, a large amount of coal is stored for easy transportation, and the rest of the storage areas are stored with a large number of daily necessities, grain and fresh water.

Among them, there is a large storage area dedicated to storing fresh water, because fresh water is a necessary material for daily life, especially for sea navigation, fresh water is absolutely indispensable, otherwise, once the voyage becomes longer, there may be danger.