Xu Shiyang, who was guessed by Zhang Mingyi to be about to make a move on the gentry, was preparing to inspect the whole country at this time.

It was a long journey, and he planned to take some of the Guards and officials belonging to the Six Ministries from Yanjing, west to Gan Province, then turn southwest to Gui Province, and then from Gui Province to the north to Jinling, and return to Yanjing after almost a circle of the empire.

Everywhere he went, Xu Shiyang would conduct spot checks on local military support (with a focus on the resettlement of demobilized soldiers), credit work in the financial system (with a focus on whether the interest on loans for immigrants exceeded the upper limit of control), civil security work, industrial construction work, and most importantly, the popularization of basic education.

It could take up to two years to plan the whole outing—no way, that's how shit is in this day and age.

In order not to disturb the people, all expenses of the inspection team were borne by the internal government, and no financial allocation was required.

In fact, this operation was also deliberately implemented in line with the empire's digestion of Jiangnan, so the popularization of basic education was the top priority of the work - Xu Shiyang wanted to compete for the ideas of young people and get rid of the old doctrines.

In addition to the daily work that needs to be dealt with in the past, in the past two years, Xu Shiyang will continue to find problems and solve them - even if they can't solve the stubborn diseases, at least they must be curbed from continuing to grow.

When he left Yanjing, Xu Shiyang got a statistical report that took almost two years of busy work across the country.

This report is the first time since the unification of the empire that a unified report has been issued that covers national data.

The main ones are:

By the beginning of 1797, the northernmost part of the empire's territory had long crossed the line of Lake Baikal and the Trans-Khingan Mountains, and a number of hunters from the Outer Tibetan Mongwu and the Outer Tibetan Sauron were gradually advancing north along the Lena River, and they were hunting for valuable furs from the primeval forests of the Northern Plains to supply the needs of the Han lands, which the Hube considered to be a very large market, which could bring more than 10 million taels of income per year.

In addition, a national expedition has been made along the Lena River to its estuary.

That is, the military boots of the empire have already stepped into the Arctic Ocean!

From here, the expedition brought back seven white bear skins and fifty-five seal skins, all of which were presented to the royal family.

Xu Shiyang was very pleased with this, not because of the value of those skins, but because it meant that the empire was gradually broadening its horizons, starting from a country that dominated East Asia to look at the whole world, even those areas where mankind had never set foot before.

So Xu Shiyang ordered that the first members of the expedition to arrive in the Ice Sea (Arctic Ocean) should all be upgraded to two levels of social status!

Slaves in the expedition were promoted directly to commoners, commoners to citizens, and citizens could even earn titles of nobility!

This rich reward will inevitably stimulate those with a sense of adventure to take risks in search of a new world that the Han Chinese have never seen before.

Perhaps, the New World is just around the corner?

This is really not impossible, because the imperial ocean expeditions have already crossed the North Sea (Sea of Okhotsk) to establish a series of temporary settlements on the North Peninsula (Kamchatka).

Not only was it the easternmost point of the empire's territory, but it also meant that the empire was about to reach the Bering Strait.

And the new continent on the other side of the Bering Sea will soon appear in the eyes of the Empire.

For the territory north of the Outer Khing'an Mountains, Xu Shiyang has always allowed people, including Waifan, to go and develop as much as possible.

In the past, Tsarist Russia had relied on the fur industry in Siberia to support a quarter of its finances, and there was no reason why the empire could not rely on the fur industry in the same region to obtain a large amount of wealth.

Anyway, Solon and Mughul were good hunters, and they didn't expect these Tartars to graze and farm in the ice and snow, so it was a good idea to tie them to the chariots of the empire's economy through hunting and furs.

Well, if you can successfully discover Alaska, you can add the gold rush industry when the time comes.

With this kind of support, I guess it will also stimulate the people to be more enthusiastic about finding new territories, right?

Back to our topic.

The westernmost point of the empire mainland was the Green Ridge.

According to the results of the deliberations between the Imperial Cabinet and the Qin Imperial Court, the dividing line between the empire and the vassal state of Qin was the Green Ridge, and all the territories west of the Green Ridge could be conquered and developed by the Qin State on its own, and then re-demarcated after fifty years.

If the subject states are also included in the territory, then the westernmost point of the empire is the Jade Dragon Jiechi on the shores of the Aral Sea.

In the southwest, the Jin kings had already occupied Dandsa (Qamdo) for a generation and had destroyed the main force of Ustubo in a crucial battle, but out of fear of altitude sickness, Xu Shiliu did not take advantage of the victory and stayed in Dandsa to recuperate, so that his troops could have more time to adapt to the plateau.

To the south, the southernmost part of the empire is still the Sansha Islands, where there are now small ports and supply points for fishing companies, which have little permanent population, but most of the year (except during the typhoon season) there are hundreds of fishing vessels for seaweed, coral, hawksbill turtles, sharks, and other fishing vessels, as well as navy patrol vessels and merchant ships for international trade, so it is also prosperous.

More importantly, the king of Chu is preparing to build up troops, and it is estimated that within a few years, he will be able to occupy the Nanyang Islands with the direct help of the navy, and by that time, it will become the southernmost point of the empire's territory, and the entire Nanyang will become the empire's inland sea.

In terms of territorial area, the empire is the most powerful country in the history of the Chinese system in this world, and there is no one.

Along with the size of the territory, of course, there is a strong military force.

After absorbing the huge population of Jiangnan, the total strength of the Imperial Standing Field Army has rapidly expanded to 600,000, in addition to 100,000 in the navy, 500,000 in the reserve, and 3.3 million in the registered militia!

The infantry armament of the field army has surpassed the world's three eras (cold weapons - arquebuses - flintlock guns - rifled guns), and the field artillery can also be comparable to the Mi army during the Civil War, but there is no railway, and the logistics capacity is much worse, in addition, because of the lack of mastery of the Rodman casting method, the heavy artillery in addition to the mortar has never broken through the upper limit of 50 catties.

Of course, now there are no targets in the world for super-heavy artillery to fight, except for Huaxia himself.

The navy already has many thousand-ton or even 2,000-ton sail warships, but the hundred-gun sail battleships have never appeared, and the navy's most gun-carrying warships are only 64, giving people the feeling of a big ship with small guns.

The reason for this is that there are still no targets that need to be dealt with by a hundred-gun battleship. The sail battleships of 64 guns were more than enough to easily overwhelm all opponents except themselves.

Rather than loading more unused cannons, the freed tonnage would be better served with higher cargo capacity or better living conditions for the crew.

Because the South had just begun to prepare for the formation of a new army, and the first batch of Southern soldiers had not yet been discharged, the reserves were mainly from the North, and most of them were equipped with the latest firearms - many of them were more advanced than the field army, because there was no need to consider mass production and rearmament.

At least Xu Shiyang had seen some early prototypes of rear-loading guns.