After more than ten days of travel, Zhang Lingyang and his entourage rushed to the old capital of Beiping Mansion.

It is said that although Zhang Lingyang is only in his thirties, his children are now in their teens. Returning to the old capital again, Zhang Lingyang naturally had some feelings.

Compared with before the relocation of the capital, the old capital has changed a lot.

Now the old capital is extremely depressed, without the prosperity of the past, and the limelight has been stolen by Tianjin Wei not far away.

Today's Tianjin Wei has become the largest city north of the Yellow River, where industry and commerce are developed, because people continue to settle there, and now the permanent population of Tianjin Wei has exceeded 500,000.

At this rate of development, it is believed that in a few years, the permanent population of Tianjin Wei will exceed the one million mark.

It is also for this reason that the current Tianjin Weiren jokingly call the old capital their back garden.

In comparison, the people of the old capital are extremely lonely. As people who grew up at the foot of the roots of the imperial city, they have always regarded themselves as superior.

But when the capital was moved, they found out that they couldn't even compete with Tianjin Wei.

However, the people of the old capital still have something to brag about, no matter how lonely the current Beiping Mansion is, it is also the capital city, and it is also a famous historical and cultural city.

The people of Tianjin Wei did not care about this.

It's like in later generations, someone told you a joke: "In China, you say that your hometown is a famous historical and cultural city." ”

Basically, most of the cities in China have a long history, even if it is an inconspicuous small county, it may have a history of more than 1,000 years.

And the cities that have been designated as capitals are not 100 but 80 if you calculate them carefully, so this is not something to brag about.

No matter how glorious it is, it has become a thing of the past, and the reason why the old capital is so lonely so quickly is that in addition to the geographical and political advantages no longer exist, the most important thing is that it has not found a suitable development positioning.

The arrival of the Son of Heaven in the old capital again was a rare event for the people of the old capital, so during the few days that Zhang Lingyang stayed in the old capital, the people of the old capital reciprocated with great enthusiasm.

Zhang Lingyang naturally felt the enthusiasm of the people in the old capital, so he couldn't help but stay for a few more days.

Half a month later, Zhang Lingyang's Luan drove sail again, crossed the Yanshan Mountains to the north, and arrived at the border of the Warat Prairie.

If the previous Warat was a huge threat to the Central Plains Dynasty, then the current Warat is a source of wealth for the Great Zhou.

Every month, a steady stream of cattle, sheep and horses are sold by merchants to various parts of the Central Plains, which not only brings huge profits to the merchants, but also makes the life of the people of Wara more prosperous.

Of course, it is the people of the Central Plains who benefit the most.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Household last year, but last year, Warat provided more than 3,000 head of farming cattle to various parts of the Central Plains.

Before the industrialization of agriculture, ploughing cattle were arguably the most important productive force in agricultural production. Therefore, the imperial court attaches great importance to the area of ploughing cattle.

Even, the imperial court also issued a clear decree that if the herdsmen of Warat provided a ploughing ox, the imperial court would also subsidize an additional tael of silver at the selling price.

Although one tael of silver is small, it is enough for a family of three for three months, and this is still an extra get, so the herdsmen are very motivated to raise cattle.

At the meeting with Zhang Lingyang, Warat Khan said with great interest: "Your Majesty, this year, we can provide more than 5,000 ploughing cattle and more than 3,000 war horses to various places. ”

"And what is the life of the people of Warat now?" Zhang Lingyang did not say anything more on the issue of ploughing cattle, but directly inquired about the lives of the local people.

Warat Khan said: "The life of the common people is very good, at the beginning of each month, there are caravans to our steppe to sell salt, grain, tea, silk, iron pots and other things, and buy cattle, sheep and horses, etc., our herdsmen's life is much more prosperous than before.

In addition, under the guidance of experts from the Royal Academy, more than a dozen milk factories have been established on our grassland, which will purchase milk from herdsmen's homes and make milk powder and sell it all over the country. ”

Warat Khan said with great interest, but what he didn't know was that in fact, Zhang Lingyang asked the commercial supervisor to secretly buy the milk.

The reason for this is not only to bring benefits to the local herders in Warat, but also to provide a glass of milk to the students in primary and secondary schools around the country.

There is also a very important reason, that is, in the mainland of the Great Zhou, the people do not have the habit of drinking milk and cannot afford to drink milk, so if milk is promoted through commercial means, I am afraid that in the end, it will only be empty.

"What about the education situation in the various ministries of Warat?" Zhang Lingyang asked again. A few years ago, Zhang Lingyang had already planned to build at least one primary and secondary school in the various ministries of Warat, and to provide them with teachers and books.

It's just that a few years have passed, and Zhang Lingyang doesn't know much about the development of Warat education, after all, how can he always care about a place when he can't deal with the government every day?

Speaking of this, Warat Khan had a headache.

Why?

Because the imperial court established not only primary and secondary schools in Warat, but also adult classes, mainly aimed at the nobles of the various tribes of Warat.

In Warat, not everyone understands Chinese characters, but the children are okay, they learn everything quickly, and they still have enough time to learn.

However, it is very difficult for an elderly person like Wara Khan to learn Chinese characters again, so the educational results of the adult class are not ideal.

Seeing Warat Khan's face, Zhang Lingyang guessed what was going on, and said with a chuckle: "The adult class is just to let you know a few more Chinese characters, so that you can better deal with businessmen in the future, and it doesn't matter if you don't learn it, I won't force it."

However, the children's education must not be relaxed, and the children will always have to go out to see the outside market in the future. ”

Zhang Lingyang's last sentence went to the heart of Warat Khan.

In the past few years, if it were not for the supervision of the imperial court, I am afraid that the herdsmen of Warat would have been pitted by the merchants and could not find the north, after all, whether it is what the merchants buy or sell, the pricing power is in the hands of the merchants, and the herdsmen can only accept it.

Therefore, Warat Khan always hopes that Warat Erlang can go out, at least in the future, he can have a certain say in business.

But the premise of all this is that the sons and daughters must be proficient in Chinese, and if they can't even do this, then going out is just an empty word.

After appeasing Warat Khan for a few words and inquiring about some local livelihoods, Zhang Lingyang let Warat Khan retreat......