The distance from Luoyang City to Ezhou is still relatively far, more than 1,000 miles, hundreds of miles farther than Chang'an City to Luoyang, however, the current locomotive has been accelerated, so this distance only takes half a day to arrive. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

On the way to Ezhou, the scenery that can be seen is completely different from the scenery from Chang'an City to Luoyang, after all, this route is north-south, the further south the climate, the warmer the climate, and the types of plants are naturally different.

Along the way, enjoying the beautiful scenery outside the window and feeling the development of science and technology in the Tang Empire, this feeling is still very wonderful, at least Ang Lee is in a very comfortable mood now.

"Li Shilang, there are still three hundred miles to arrive in Ezhou, and the speed of this new locomotive is fast! It is at least fifty percent faster than the original locomotive. ”

Guo Yan sat opposite Ang Li and looked out the window happily.

As the brigade commander of the ironclad artillery car brigade, he led the whole brigade this time and was responsible for protecting the safety of Li Longji's southward journey, all the ironclad artillery cars were on the freight train behind, but Guo Yang, as the commander, sat in the emperor's royal train, of course, in the back carriage, and the five carriages in front were all owned by the emperor alone.

As an important minister of the imperial court, Li An can naturally be assigned to a separate private room, but Guo Yang can only be squeezed into a hard sleeper car with some small officials, and the official position is different, and the treatment cannot be the same.

"Three hundred miles? It only takes two or three hours to arrive, and before dark, the train will definitely be able to reach Ezhou, and today, we will be able to see the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge. ”

Li An's mood is also very excited, although in later generations, Li An has seen a lot of magnificent bridges, but in the Tang Empire, it is the first time to build a bridge on the Yangtze River, when I think of the emperor and ministers to see the shocked expression of the bridge, Li An felt excited, after all, this bridge across the river was designed by him personally, poured a lot of his efforts, and was affirmed by everyone, there will be a great sense of achievement.

"Li Shilang, this bridge built on the Yangtze River must be very magnificent, I really didn't expect that my Datang can actually build a bridge on the Yangtze River now, this is all the credit of Li Shilang!"

Guo Yang was excited, but did not forget to praise Ang Lee, which made Ang Lee quite happy.

"The Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge is just the beginning, and in the future, more large bridges will be built on the Yangtze River and the Yellow River to communicate the connection between the two sides of the strait, and even, we will go abroad to build bigger bridges on the big rivers abroad."

Li An put forward a more ambitious goal, which is also a necessary means to promote the development of neighboring countries in the future, and it is also a necessary thing for Datang to better control the surrounding countries.

"Li Shilang, this bridge on the Yangtze River has been built, the next step, should we first build a bridge on the Yellow River, the last time our army went to Hebei, it took a whole day just to cross the Yellow River, if the bridge is repaired, at most half an hour, all the vehicles of my brigade can cross the Yellow River, which can save a whole day."

Guo Yang still had some regrets about the last time he went to Hebei to rescue the Tang Princess, and felt that the Yellow River moat seriously restricted the movement of the ironclad artillery brigade and delayed a lot of time for the ironclad artillery brigade.

"This is natural, in the future, my Datang will build at least a dozen large bridges on the Yellow River, the reason why the Yangtze River Bridge was built first is because a large number of rubber materials needed for the industrialization of my Datang come from rubber trees, and rubber trees can only be planted in the warm south, so they can only be quickly transported to the north by rail, so the construction of large railway bridges on the Yangtze River is much more urgent than the construction of bridges on the Yellow River."

Ang Lee opened his mouth to explain.

When sending a fleet of steam ships to the Americas to find rubber trees, Li An was thinking about how to quickly transport rubber products from the south to the capital in the future, sea and railway are the fastest mode of transportation, and the speed of the railway is undoubtedly much more than sea transportation, if it is from Jiaozhou to Laizhou by sea, and then transported to Chang'an by rail, it takes a lot of time, from Jiaozhou directly to the train, through the railway directly to the capital Chang'an, this will definitely be many times faster, the efficiency will be increased many times.

After the railway from Beijing to Jiaozhou is unblocked, all kinds of materials in the capital can also be better transported to Jiaozhou, and the flow of personnel will become extremely fast, and Jiaozhou's status in Datang will become higher, and the feeling of being degraded as an official in Jiaozhou will not be so strong.

However, at present, there are too few rubber trees shipped from the Americas, and in a short period of time, they cannot meet the large demand for rubber products for the industrialization of the Tang Empire, fortunately, a larger fleet of steam ships has gone to the Americas, and according to Li An's requirements, bring back more rubber trees, so that while breeding and transporting from the Americas, the rubber trees of the Tang Empire will become more and more, and after a few years at most, the Tang Empire will have countless rubber tree resources to ensure the future industrialization process of the Tang Empire.

After talking about current affairs with Guo Yang for a while, Li An lay down on the soft sleeper to rest, closed his eyes and recuperated to recuperate, after all, he will soon arrive at the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge, and when the time comes, he will definitely spend a lot of energy to accompany Li Longji and the ministers and princes to inspect the bridge and give various explanations.

The time of two hours is very fast, Li An just took a short rest, Ezhou Railway Station arrived, and as the train slowly stopped, Li An was also woken up by the guards.

"Li Shilang, Ezhou has arrived."

Li An nodded, got up slightly, and slowly walked to the train, and went to the front of the train, waiting for Li Longji to get off.

Ezhou Railway Station is built on the north side of the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge, only a few miles away from the approach bridge of the bridge, as long as you get off from the railway station, even if you can reach the bridge quickly on foot, however, the length of the bridge is very long, if you go to visit on foot, it is too hard, especially the emperor and many ministers, are relatively old men, walking to visit the bridge, some are not realistic.

Before leaving for Ezhou, the imperial court had already taken this into account and sent a freight train in advance to transport the open-top carriage to the Ezhou railway station in advance to await the arrival of the emperor and ministers.

After the emperor and the ministers got off the car, they got on the carriage with excellent comfort newly developed by Li An, originally Li An was planning to develop a steam car, but the noise of the steam machinery was still too loud, and it was very noisy to put it on an ordinary vehicle that lacked sound insulation measures, so the use of the most primitive carriage would be very good.

The carriages were large and small, the largest carriage could accommodate ten people, and the smallest could accommodate four people, however, the emperor's royal carriage did not dare to ride together, only one driver was responsible for driving the horses, and the carriages behind were almost full.

"What a big bridge! There is no end in sight. ”

"Look at it like this, this bridge is at least ten miles long."

"Ten miles is definitely more than ten, at least fifteen miles, or even more than twenty miles."

"My Datang can actually build a bridge on the Yangtze River now, so it should be fast to build a bridge on the Yellow River!"

"Yes, yes, there must be several such bridges on the Yellow River."

During the tour of the bridge, the ministers expressed various emotions and longed for the Tang Dynasty to build a large bridge over the Yellow River to connect the two sides of the Yellow River.

The carriage traveled slowly, and after a while it reached the very middle of the bridge, which was the highest point of the bridge.

After reaching the highest place, Li Longji gently beckoned and signaled the carriage to stop.

After the carriage slowly stopped, Li Longji walked to the carriage with the support of the little eunuch, and walked to the guardrail of the bridge, looking at the wide river.

Li An and other court ministers hurriedly got out of the carriage and walked over, and a large number of guards also followed, to protect the danger that might arise at any time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, who else does you remember here?"

Li Longji asked.

"Your Majesty, the old minister remembers that forty years ago, His Majesty once passed through Ezhou and stood in Jiang Xin to write a poem, and at that time, the old minister accompanied His Majesty."

A minister spoke.

Li Longji nodded and agreed: "That's right, it's been forty years, I haven't been here for forty years, but this time I came here, I am even more happy, because from now on, after passing through Ezhou, I don't need a ferry, you can pass directly from the bridge, standing on the bridge and looking at the heart of the river, the feeling is completely different from standing on the ferry, and this is all due to Li Shilang." ”

Li An hurriedly stepped forward and said humbly: "Your Majesty, these are what Wechen should do, and in the future, Wechen will also design and build bigger and better bridges, so that the people on both sides of the river can come and go more smoothly." ”

Li Longji nodded and said: "Li Shilang should study it carefully, now there is a bridge on the Yangtze River, and next, a bridge will be built on the Yellow River, just near Luoyang City, Li Shilang should plan it well." ”

"Your Majesty, rest assured, Weichen has already been designed, just in Luokou, but most of the technical talents are concentrated here, so the Yellow River Bridge in the direction of Luokou has not started for a long time, and after the technical talents here withdraw north, the Yellow River Railway Bridge can be built."

Li An said.

In order to make the railway to the northern territory, the Yellow River Bridge must be built, this is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, only the construction of the Yellow River Bridge, in order to make the Tang Dynasty railway smoothly to the northeast territory of the Tang Dynasty, so as to increase the actual control of the imperial court in the northeast.

"So very good, so very good, the Yellow River Bridge opens as soon as possible, and whatever is needed, it will be transferred from the treasury immediately."

Li Longji has made up his mind and wants to build the Yellow River Bridge as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, there is a Pearl River in our kingdom, although it is not as wide as the Yangtze River in the Tang Dynasty, but it also seriously hinders the people on both sides of the Pearl River, so that the transportation cost of merchants has greatly increased, if the Tang Dynasty can build a Pearl River Bridge for our kingdom, the king and the people will be grateful to Your Majesty."

An envoy from a small western country asked.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, our kingdom also has a great river, wider than the Pearl River......"

"His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, my country ......"

Soon, several foreign envoys took the opportunity to ask the Tang Empire to send technical personnel to build bridges for their country.

If you want to say why there are so many foreign envoys, of course, it is because Emperor Li Longji is too showy, and he feels that since the Tang Empire has built a magnificent Yangtze River Bridge, it should be shown to the envoys of various countries to let them better understand the strength of the Tang Empire.

And these foreign envoys, after seeing the Yangtze River Bridge, were all deeply suppressed by the momentum of the bridge, and longed for the construction of such a magnificent bridge in their country to communicate the connection between the people in the country.

Li Longji was very happy when he heard that the envoys of various countries had asked Datang to send technical personnel to their country to build a large number of projects, but he would not send technical talents over for no reason.

It is possible to build large bridges for these small countries, but there are several most basic conditions that must be met, first, that is, all the costs of building bridges must be paid by the countries concerned, and it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to pay for them to build bridges, how can there be a free lunch in the world, and second, these countries must agree to a series of requirements for the construction of railways put forward by the Tang Empire, that is, these small countries must allow the Tang Empire to extend the railway lines into the interior of their countries, and all the interests along the railway, are all in the interests of the Tang Empire.

Only if these small countries agree to Datang's demands can Datang help them hypothetize bridges and railways and help them develop their domestic economies.

The envoys of these small countries immediately agreed with Li Longji's proposition, after all, this is what the Tang Emperor said, how dare they disobey, the powerful Tubo Empire, because of the provocation of the Tang Dynasty, was destroyed by the Tang Empire in a very short period of time, the strength of these small countries is very weak, and the Tang Empire only needs a light pinch to destroy these small countries.

Therefore, the envoys of various countries never dared to regard Li Longji's consultation as a real consultation, but a holy decree, and it was the will of the Tang Emperor that could not be violated.

Seeing that the envoys of various countries have agreed with the various propositions put forward, Li Longji was very happy, and agreed that in the future, he will definitely send technical personnel to neighboring countries to help them build large bridges, however, everything must give priority to the interests of Datang, before Datang's technical talents are too busy, or Datang's railways have not yet reached these countries, Datang will not build bridges for them too early, after all, the Datang Empire is now at the peak of construction, and there is a shortage of various technical talents. There is pressure to even meet Datang's own construction, and of course it will not satisfy other countries in advance.