People already regretted the long-distance railway, which was built in the water-networked south of the Yangtze River, and the inland shipping companies tried to belittle the long-distance railway.

Therefore, the railway bonds issued by the Datang Railway Company to raise funds for the construction of the railway were not much of a concern, and the 1 million taels of silver bonds scheduled to be issued were only sold for more than 100,000 taels of silver in the end, and most of them were purchased by the friendly friends of officials.

In the end, Datang Railway Company had no choice but to go to several major banks to find loans.

Naturally, they didn't look for those private banks, because those private banks didn't pay attention to them, they could only look for the Royal Bank and a few banks controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, but even these banks with official backgrounds need to be responsible for depositors, and it is impossible to make risky loan investments.

And now the railway is undoubtedly a very risky project!

There are all kinds of risks, and some people even say that this railway is built in a barren mountain, and this track will be stolen every minute.

The steel of this year is very before, and don't overestimate the morality of those Diao people, just dig out the rails and sell them as scrap iron, which is a high probability.

In the end, a few bigwigs from the Ministry of Industry personally pulled down their faces and found officials from the Imperial Assets Section and the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, saying that everyone was for the empire, and they had to help their brothers no matter what.

At the same time, the Ministry of Justice has also made some corresponding measures, and even added a new crime, called sabotage of railways, which is more serious than ordinary theft.

At the same time, the patrol department also said that they will set up relevant agencies to specialize in the protection of the railway.

Immediately afterwards, the Son of Heaven also made a decision himself, in order to balance the costs of the railway company, following the example of the Shanghai Port Company, allowing them to own a part of the land development rights along the railway line, especially the development rights of the area near the station.

Li Xuan's approach is to turn the railway company into an enterprise integrating railway operation, real estate development, retail and other service industries, even if the railway operation is at a loss, it can recover part of the cost through real estate, retail and other fields.

They thought that even if the railway lost money, no matter how bad the time comes, the railroad tracks, land or something can be sold, and they can save part of the investment, so that the loss will not be too serious, so in the end, the Royal Bank took the lead, combined with several state-owned enterprises controlled by the bank or securities companies and other financial institutions, to provide a total of 1 million taels of silver loans for the Datang Railway Company.

Tossing and turning, finally gathered funds, and Datang Railway Company finally started the first phase of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, that is, the construction of the Beijing-Town Railway.

The reason why the construction of the entire Beijing-Shanghai Railway was not rolled out all at once was because the railway was still a new business, and even Li Xuan himself was not sure whether the construction of the railway would be profitable in these years, after all, it was only used to pull carriages with horses, and the amount of goods transported was limited, at most it was just an upgraded version of an ordinary road, and no one knew what it could be done in the end.

The construction of the first long-distance railway began in the Zhili area, and the war in the north continued!

Li Xuan of Jinling City received battle reports from the north one after another, not only from the Ninth Army, but also some from other regions.

For example, in Gansu in the northwest region, a large number of Tatar cavalry movements were discovered, and even launched an attack on the northwest region at one time, although they were all repelled by the garrison, but this also proved that the Tatars would not be led by the nose of the Tang Army, and the Tang Army sent troops in Hetao, so they had to fight with the Tang Army in Hetao, and they could launch an attack in other directions.

However, although there were Tatar invasions in other areas, they were all in a controllable state, and the local armies probably wanted to go north to fight a little reluctantly, but if they relied on the direction of the Great Wall for defensive operations, it was relatively easy.

In this case, the core area of the war between the two sides will still be in the Hetao.

Judging from the battle reports collected by the Ninth Army, the Tatars drew more and more troops as they got older, from 40,000 cavalry at the beginning, to 50,000 and 60,000.

Today, the entire Hetao region is home to more than 70,000 Tatars.

However, there was also a process for the increase of the Tatars, and taking advantage of this process, Deng Xide had already led the troops to kill Dongsheng City, and rebuilt strong fortifications on the site of Dongsheng City.

Relying on more than a dozen fortresses along the way, such as Dongsheng City and Nanlimburg, a strong defense line was built, which made the Tatars very uncomfortable.

Because at this time, the main infantry of the Tang Army basically did not come out to fight with them on their own initiative, but were stationed in the city, and the only troops operating outside were the cavalry corps.

The main task of today's cavalry corps has also evolved into covering the logistics line, and because the Tatars are increasing their strength, the pressure on the logistics line is also increasing, so the Ninth Army even sent a full infantry division to act as an escort force for the transport force.

As for the many simple fortresses along the way, they were often invaded, many of which were breached, among which the South Forest Fort was breached three times, but each time it was breached, the Ninth Army would send heavy troops to recapture it.

Then in the process of repeated contention between the two sides, there was a large number of attrition battles, the Tang Army casualties were not small, in just two months, the rear has been replenished with tens of thousands of recruits, and at the same time, the Privy Council sent a main infantry division and two reserve divisions from other regions to form the second echelon to support the Ninth Army in the operation.

At present, the troops of the Tang Army fighting on this line have reached three main infantry divisions, five reserve divisions, one artillery brigade, and one cavalry corps, with a total strength of 100,000.

The casualties of the Tang Army were not small, and the cost was even greater, but the Tatars were not comfortable, and after a few months of attrition, the Tatars were killed and wounded by seven or eight thousand horsemen.

Because the Tang Army almost pulled the Tatars down the way they were best at fighting, that is, fighting positional warfare, not the mobile warfare that the Tatars were best at.

From a military point of view, the best option for the Tatars was not to fight hard and repeatedly fight with the Tang Army for those fortresses, but to send cavalry troops to attack the grain transport troops.

But the grain transport troops of the Tang Army are not so easy to attack, the Tang Army has formed a main division and two reserve divisions of the second batch of troops, the task of this second batch of troops is to escort supplies, the Tatars want to cut off the supply line, do not send tens of thousands of cavalry to kill, they can't beat at all.

And even if there is an advantage in strength, after rushing up, it will fall into a bitter battle, because at this time, the escort infantry of the Tang Army often defends on the spot, and then waits for the support of the cavalry corps.

In the face of transport troops with tens of thousands of troops, the Tatars are also very helpless!

Because in this case, even if they use 30,000 or 50,000 cavalry to rush up, don't expect to be able to break through their formation.

Even if you are not careful, you will be attacked from behind by the cavalry corps of the Tang Army.

When the time enters November, with the gradual completion of the defense system of Dongsheng City, it is basically a complete transformation of the strategic posture of the two sides.

Altan Khan spent several months, but he also failed to completely destroy the Tang Army's plan to rebuild Dongsheng City, he almost watched Dongsheng City being rebuilt, not to mention how uncomfortable it felt.

But in this process, he has no way at all!

The Tang Army was fighting steadily, and they didn't take the initiative to fight at all, let alone go deep into the grassland for hundreds of miles to pursue and fight, they just honestly built the castle all the way to the past, and finally planted the huge nail of Dongsheng City in the hinterland of the Hetao.

Sitting on horseback and looking at Dongshengcheng of the Southern Tang barbarians, Altan Khan sighed deeply!

This feeling of helplessness has not appeared for a long time, at least for decades, even when he entered the Central Plains, and was finally defeated by the Tang Army in Shandong and fled north in embarrassment, he did not have this feeling of helplessness.

At most, I felt that the benefits were not reaped, but in the end, I relied on the large number of border cities occupied when I entered the customs and negotiated with the Tang Empire, and obtained the benefits of the mutual market.

But now, it's not a matter of interests or not, but a feeling of powerlessness, and he can't stop the Tang Army from rebuilding Dongsheng City at all.

And he knew better that once the Tang Army was allowed to take root in Dongshengcheng, in the future, this huge Tumochuan and Hetao region would probably not be their Tatars.

The situation is very dangerous!

He knows this, but how can he change it?

He also knew that the best way was to conquer Dongsheng City and pull out this huge nail, and when the time came, without Dongsheng City, those earthen fortresses would have no mission at all.

Because he can see that the more than ten simple fortresses have only one function, that is, to act as a logistics transportation line for Dongsheng City, if Dongsheng City does not exist, then these earthen fortresses will have no strategic value.

Now they Tatars and the Tang Army have repeatedly fought for these fortresses, and the ultimate goal is to completely cut off the supply line of Dongsheng City, but unfortunately, they have been doing this kind of thing for several months, but they have never succeeded.

This supply line seems to be fragile, those fortresses are easy to break, but they can't hold it if they conquer it themselves, those Southern Tang barbarians will raise heavy troops for counterattack every time, and this fight has become a simple war of attrition!

But it is not easy to do this, when they are in the field, they are helpless in the face of the infantry phalanx of the Tang Army, let alone directly attack the city.

They are Tatars, and they are not good at siege!