The Juyong Pass in this era is not as majestic and strong as after the Ming Dynasty was rebuilt in later generations, it is just a dilapidated ancient Guan City located on the mountain road leading from Youzhou to Shanbei, and there is no winding Great Wall on both sides, just standing alone between the valleys. It's small, but it's dangerous.

After Fu Yanchao occupied the two prefectures of Fu and Ru, he renovated and strengthened Juyong Pass and Shimen Pass to the north of it, and both of them were guarded by barnyard generals with 1,000 men to guard against the movement of Youzhou.

Li Qi inspected Shanbei and ordered Fu Yanchao not to make a noise in advance, and did not enter Yanzhou, but went straight to Shimen Pass. In front of the pass, only Fu Yanqing led a group of generals to line up to greet him. After Li Qi arrived under the escort of the pro-army cavalry, he dismounted and returned the salute, smiled and met the generals, and said some words of encouragement to everyone. Immediately, accompanied by Fu Yanqing, he entered the Juyong Pass City and boarded the Guan City.

Fu Yanchao is the eldest son of Li Cunxian, a famous general of the Jin Army, and he is very eager to seize Youzhou in his heart, in this case, he is very likely to become the envoy of Youzhou Festival, become the commander of a town, and stand at the peak pursued by military generals in this era. As for going further, he still hadn't thought about it.

Now that the emperor has arrived in Yanzhou and gone straight to Guancheng, it also shows that he attaches great importance to Youzhou and has the intention of seizing the important town in the northeast here, which is the place he is looking forward to.

Li Qi glanced at the undulating mountains south of Juyong Pass for a while, and after taking a deep breath, he said to Fu Yanchao: "Big brother, now Li Siyuan is powerful, although the situation in Youzhou is unstable, but the surrounding southern troops are gathered, it is better to bear with it for the time being, and don't meddle in Youzhou." ”

Fu Yanchao bowed and said: "Then Zhao Dejun's subordinates can only use three thousand Khitan Congma direct army, and most of the garrisons in the city are under the ancestors of their fathers. ”

Li Qi saw that he was complacent, and his arrogance was exposed, so he didn't care, but shook his head resolutely: "Youzhou is easy to take, but it is easy to fight, but it is difficult to defend." Although Youzhou is a Xiongcheng in the north, there is no danger around, and it is easy to be besieged by the enemy's army. Moreover, the greatest danger now is not in the south but in the Khitan, and the Khitan is powerful, so it is necessary to consolidate the defense of the northern border of Yunzhou and Shanbei as the first priority. ”

"Does Your Majesty regard the Khitan as a great disaster?"

"This is natural, during the period of the first emperor, the Khitan besieged Youzhou three times, and actually went deep into the boundaries of Dingzhou and Mozhou, although they were defeated that year, but they were only expelled from the border. Over the years, their strength has developed again, and they have merged with the Bohai Sea in the east, and they have more than 300,000 soldiers and horses in the north, far superior to ours, and they have become a great disaster, and they must not be prevented, otherwise they will be worried about the collapse of the country in an instant. Li Qi said with a worried face, "I must first solve the border trouble in the north before Xu Tu can go south, and the eldest brother must not enter Youzhou lightly." ”

Li Qi said it very clearly, and Fu Yanchao was also full of regret and said: "The minister respectfully obeys His Majesty's will and temporarily guards the two states of Confucianism." ”

Li Qi was afraid that Fu Yanchao would make a move in Youzhou and disrupt his plan, so he made a special trip to Yanzhou and specially instructed him not to move lightly, so he began to return and go to Ulzhou.

His plan was to recruit Hebei and Hedong people to move to Shanbei and develop them in order to consolidate the northern border. However, the tradition of the Chinese people since ancient times is that it is difficult to leave their homeland, unless they really can't live, under normal circumstances, no one will have the courage to choose to leave their hometown and go to a strange place to fight for their future.

This recruits military households, and there is not much attraction.

Unless it's a road that makes it feel like it's convenient to get back and forth to your hometown.

Therefore, after arriving in Ulzhou, he ordered Zhang Wen, the assassin of Ulzhou, to recruit young men to cooperate with the Duzuoyuan to open the road leading to Lingqiu in Guangling County, Ulzhou, and required the width of the road to accommodate two carriages in parallel.

This is a chore, but although Zhang Wen is unwilling in his heart, he does not dare to refute the order of the Son of Heaven. Therefore, since May, he has taken more than 1,000 people recruited to start digging the mountain road between Guangling and Lingqiu. As long as the connection with the Flying Fox Road is opened, the land in the north of the mountain can be connected with Daizhou and Yizhou through the official road, and there is no need to detour to Yunzhou.

This can undoubtedly save thousands of miles of travel.

Guangling is only ninety miles away from Lingqiu, but it is blocked by mountains in the middle.

At the beginning, the road was built very quickly, and in a month and a half, it had extended more than 30 miles from Guangling to the south. At this time, the most difficult part of the road appeared, and these people had to dig nearly five miles of mountain roads to make a road connection to the south. The excavation of rocks made the progress of the project extremely difficult.

Fortunately, Li Qi ordered people to transport some supplies from Taiyuan and Yanmen from time to time, and the food provided for these coolie sellers was not bad, so that these young men could not have the idea of risking their lives to escape for the time being. Moreover, Li Qi had promised that as long as this road was built, they would be incorporated into military households, farmed fields, and removed their current status as slaves.

At the same time, Zhou Guangfu, the envoy of the Yanmen Festival, also levied more than 1,000 people, and the flying fox from the other side went to Guangling to build the road at the same time.

Most of the food and tools were brought in by the Flying Fox from Daizhou, and it seems that the road construction on the other side of the mountain is progressing faster than here......

Li Qi returned to Jinyang in early May.

The summer harvest in northern Shanxi is nearly half a month later than that in the Hebei Plain, and the winter wheat will not mature until late May.

On the second day after returning to Jinyang, accompanied by Prime Minister Zhang Xian, he went to Tang Ming Huangzhuang in Yangqu County to inspect the growth of summer wheat. The people regard food as the sky, and grain production is a major matter related to the country's capital at any time.

The wheat in the field has turned from green to green, and the surface of the wheat waves has also taken on a pale yellow color.

Zhang Xian squinted at this large area of farmland for a while, and then turned his face to look at Li Qi: "Since you took over this manor, it seems that a lot has changed in just one year. The crops in the field are growing very well, and it is estimated that the income per mu can increase by at least about 20%! ”

Li Qi smiled: "It's not a good thing to only increase the income by two percent, and my goal is to double the yield of wheat per mu this year to more than three stones." ”

"Huh? Three stones per mu?! ”

"What's so surprising about this, I heard that the grain output in Shu has exceeded four stones." Li Qi said.

"This is Hedong instead of Shuzhong, and I heard that even in Shu, if the yield per mu of this grain crop wants to exceed five stones, it also needs to be a year of good weather and wind and rain."

"This wind and rain can be adjusted through transformation, such as ...... now," Li Qi said, pointing to a main water diversion canal not far away, "This can ensure that in most years the fields can be irrigated, and grain production can be guaranteed to a certain extent." ”

"Your Majesty didn't expect that Your Majesty would place this group of Dingzhou troops well, at least nothing happened!" Zhang Xian looked at some soldiers who were working in the fields and smiled.

"Without him, just work and eat......"