In the letter received by Li Yuanjia, the matter of Hou Hongren opening up the communication line to Jiaozhou and Guizhou is just a very inconspicuous piece of news.

The reason is very simple, because the incident happened on Lingnan Road, the southernmost part of Datang.

Lingnan Province is very large, including most of Guangdong, and more than 1,000 years later it will be one of the most dynamic regions in China, with a large population and a developed economy, but now Lingnan is ......

Look at the news, still don't understand?

Jiaozhou is probably part of northern Vietnam and Guangxi, and as for Guizhou, it is later Guilin. The roads in these places were not very passable before, not to mention compared with the Central Plains' Guannei, Henan and other roads, even compared with Jiangnan Province.

In fact, the Datang Center really doesn't pay much attention to that side.

Including the time of the former Sui Dynasty, because the roads were not very smooth and the news was blocked, the Great Sui Dynasty was already finished, and the officials over there didn't even know it! In addition, like Sichuan at this time, most areas of Lingnan are gathering places for ethnic minorities, because of the harsh environment, the number of Han people is not large, so it is naturally not so important to the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, in the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan, Guizhou and other regions were never really included

Central Core Control Zone!

First, it is too far away from the Central Plains, and these areas are already somewhat beyond the control of the Tang Dynasty, and if you consider it from the military side alone, the military strength of the three provinces such as Guanzhong and Henan has accounted for eighty percent of the world, and the remaining dozen provinces are divided into the other two percent; Second, the minority people have come and gone, which makes the central side quite impatient.

Therefore, in this region, Datang has never had a strong local administrative body, and has used the fetter system to set up a fetter state.

The so-called fetters are razed to control raze, because they are commonly used to govern, which is very different from ordinary states and counties. If you have to find an example to compare, it is equivalent to the current autonomous region, but in fact, of course, it is much more scattered.

These states and counties are not accounted for.

Judging by the rough map of this era, Li Yuanjia can only roughly distinguish that Lingnan Province may include most of Guangdong, part of Guangxi and Yunnan, and a little north of Vietnam in the future.

Among them, Jiaozhou is the piece in northern Vietnam!

And the reason why Li Yuanjia knew that it was a piece of northern Vietnam was, of course, because there was a county with the name "Jiaozhi" under the current Jiaozhou Governor's Mansion!

Li Yuanjia had heard of this place name.

Now it still belongs to the Central Plains Dynasty, but in the future, because of the ridiculous reason of "ominous", it will eventually leave the embrace of China. Anyway, in the crossing, this land must be the kind that must be recovered.

It's just that for Li Yuanjia, of course, he has no interest in such a site.

Because in terms of Datang's current productivity, not to mention the "remote" areas of Jiaozhi, everyone is still unwilling to stay in many places in Jiangnan Province, and sending officials in the past was called "exile", and no one wanted to go. As for the common people, when the population of the Tang Dynasty is far from reaching its peak and the land of the Central Plains has not yet been divided, they are not even willing to go to places a little south, let alone places like Jiaozhi.

Of course, Li Yuanjia is not interested.

The key is that the south has not yet been developed on a large scale, and in addition to the murderous "barbarians", there are large areas of mountains, hills and primeval forests. In the primeval forest of this year, there are poisonous snakes, fierce beasts, and various parasites and infectious diseases that make Li Yuanjia smell even more, just think about it, it is goosebumps all over your body!

Therefore, it is not unreasonable that in ancient times, exiled prisoners were sent to the south.

The reason why Li Yuanjia sat up all of a sudden after seeing this news was only because he suddenly remembered one thing, that is, a plot or thing that often appears in the crossing - Zhancheng Rice!

Isn't this thing from Vietnam?

"Sizzle......"

Thinking of the huge role of Champa rice in China, Li Yuanjia couldn't help but take a sharp breath of cold air, and the whole person became excited.

Even after more than a thousand years, it is an unbreakable truth!

Otherwise, when various disasters occur, even if it is just some rumors, the common people will first go to find some rice, noodles, meat and vegetables and other things. This is not only for Chinese, but also for foreigners, but in contrast to them, they often have another thing, which is paper paper......

Because sufficient food is the foundation of human survival and reproduction.

Therefore, after thinking of the artifact of Zhancheng rice, Li Yuanjia was so excited about opening up the passage to Jiaozhou, or rather...... Value!

If you can get to Cochin, does it mean that you can go further south?

If people are offered a heavy reward in Jiaozhou, is it possible to get the rice seeds of Zhancheng rice to Datang hundreds of years in advance, just like the cotton seeds a few years ago?

"This ...... It's not impossible, right?! ”

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, Li Yuanjia clenched his fists excitedly, and his eyes began to shine non-stop.

Grain!

That's food!

Li Yuanjia still remembers a very interesting statement, that is, there have been two population explosions in China's history, once crossing the threshold of 100 million, and the other time reaching the level of 3 or 400 million.

The first time was from the Han and Tang dynasties to the Song Dynasty, and the population of the Tang Dynasty was only 70 or 80 million at its peak, never exceeding 100 million, and after the Song Dynasty, it soared to more than 100 million...... Although the military was very weak, the Chinese economy of the Song Dynasty was fierce.

The most important reason is the increase in grain production, that is, the large-scale promotion of Champa rice in China.

The combination of Champa rice and late rice made it possible to double cropping a year, which greatly increased the grain production of the Song Dynasty, provided the foundation for the rapidly increasing population, and also allowed the development of the south to enter a new era.

As for the second time, it is naturally the introduction of crops such as corn and potatoes.

In comparison, in fact, corn and potatoes are more awesome, but even if Li Yuanjia is out of the way, he doesn't dare to say in this life whether he can send people to the North American continent and then send them back! After all, the Bering Strait is too north, and crossing the Pacific Ocean is more like a dream!

But......

If you want to occupy the city, you can consider it!

Once there is that thing, not only can the rations of the common people be solved, so that Datang has a larger population and more national strength, but also can solve many problems that Li Yuanjia has been struggling with, such as......

Cotton!

When grain production went up, what reason did the emperor have for refusing to grow cotton?

"Hey, this Zhancheng rice, this king is going to be decided!"

After thinking for a while, Li Yuanjia gritted his teeth and made up his mind.

Li Yuanjia vaguely remembered that Champa was a country, and it was in the south of Vietnam, but now that it had reached the north, it would be a few hundred miles further south...... It may not be easy on land, but what about taking a boat?

What the Song Dynasty could do, there is no reason why the Tang Dynasty can't do it, right?

So after a few turns, Li Yuanjia quickly made up his mind: "This matter still has to be prepared as soon as possible!" It's not realistic to send someone over there by yourself, after all, it's too far away! But it's still the same sentence, there will be a brave man under the reward......"