Li Yuan couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this, and at the same time, his opinion of the little son in front of him changed again. Previously, out of his love for his youngest son, it can even be said that he was doting, so that when Li Yuan looked at Li Yuanji, he always treated him as a child who had not grown up. But now such words came out of his mouth, which made Li Yuan face Li Yuanji for the first time. At the same time, recalling that after the defeat of Li Shimin's militia in the past few days, the military attaches in the court were all arguing for Li Shimin and blaming all the faults on Liu Wenjing. This made Li Yuan have to ring the alarm bell in his heart, his second son's military power seemed to be a little too much, and he really needed to balance it well. Otherwise, I am afraid that I will not even see the day when the world will be pacified, and I will be killed by the coup d'état launched by my son.

Thinking of this, Li Yuan nodded and said to Li Yuanji: "Well, my son, you can say such words, so you must have really put some effort into this matter." A few days ago, my father told you that when you find a suitable military advisor, he will send you to lead the army to calm the world for your father, I don't know if you remember? ”

Li Yuanji never expected that his father would propose to put him in charge of the army at this time, so he nodded and said: "Since that day father, after you said these words to the child, the child has been visiting those hermits everywhere. In the eyes of the child, this military advisor is not much better than Fang Xuanling under the eldest brother's account. If the child can really be in charge of the army, then this person will definitely become the child's military advisor, after all, there is no more suitable person than him. ”

After Li Yuan heard this, he was extremely curious and asked Li Yuanji, "Who can get such praise from my son?" Who is his last name and where is he now? ”

"Back to my father, this person's surname is Jiang, and he is waiting outside the door at this time, and he told me that you must want to see him today, father, so he has been waiting outside the door until now." After Li Yuanji listened to Li Yuan's words, he also said to Li Yuan with a smile.

When Li Yuan heard this, he was shocked in his heart. I really wanted to meet this person, but I didn't tell Li Yuanji about it. Therefore, what Li Yuanji said should be true, so this so-called Mr. Jiang can actually expect his every move, and he must really have some real talent. But as a hero, no one likes their ideas to be figured out too thoroughly by others. So he gave up the idea of asking that Mr. Jiang to enter the mansion for a while, and said to Li Yuanji instead: "He said that I would want to see him, if I really invite him in, wouldn't it be as he wished?" I'm going to do the opposite, and if I don't see it, I'll be gone. Since you have already said that this person is the most suitable person, then this person should be decided. You go back and pack some bags, and five days later go to the south of the city to take your army to conquer the counties of Bashu for your father. You are solely responsible for the appointment and dismissal of officials in the newly subjugated Bashu County. Remember to be careful in this trip to pacify Bashu, the folk customs there are no less fierce than the land of Yan Zhao. When people are in the army, they must not act recklessly as they do at home, and they must put the overall situation first in everything. ”

Li Yuanji finally got his wish to enter the army, and the first goal of the commander was the most fertile land of Bashu, and how he talked to Mr. Jiang about this after he returned to his hometown, and how they prepared accordingly do not need to be detailed. In short, five days later, Li Yuanji and Mr. Jiang led the army in military uniforms from the Dianbing Field in the south of Chang'an City, and marched in a column in the direction of the land of Bashu.

In the first year after Yang Guang's death, the Central Plains was full of war and chaos. In contrast, all parts of the Western Regions under Li Wenyuan and the newly conquered Central Asia have become a paradise free from the scourge of war, and a large number of craftsmen have left their homeland and migrated to the Western Regions, wanting to mix a bowl of rice in the Western Regions when they are employing people. At this time, the Central Asian region of the Buddha in the heart of the Western Regions can be said to be in ruins, and the craftsmen in the eight counties of the Western Regions are far from sufficient, so anyone who has a little craftsmanship can get a good job and earn quite a good salary under the rule of Li Wenyuan in the Western Regions. However, even so, the productivity is still far behind the needs of development, and the shortage of a large number of laborers is always restricting the pace of development in the Western Regions. When Li Wenyuan had a headache about this, the shopkeeper Jin, oh no, it should be called Minister Jin now.

Minister Jin led a group of people from the Ministry of Industry to finally trial produce the first steam engine after countless failed experiments in accordance with the research direction indicated by Li Wenyuan. Of course, due to the backwardness of metal smelting technology at this time, even if the metal that meets the requirements can be created, it will require a lot of manpower and material resources. This made the first steam engine very expensive, almost equal to the weight of silver. As for the metal quality problems caused by the poor forging level, there are countless pipelines and steam chambers that will eventually be eliminated, but in any case, the emergence of this steam engine finally breaks the difference between the none, and the next thing to do is to compress the manufacturing cost of the steam engine as much as possible, and optimize and improve the structure of the steam engine, so that it can work at the highest efficiency.

The steam engine made by Li Wenyuan was different from the steam engine invented by the British in later generations, which was used to drain the stagnant water in the mine, and all this steam engine had to do was to transport the ore mined from the mine. After all, the northwest has been a region with little water and more arid since ancient times, and the groundwater level is much farther away from the ground than the plains because it is a plateau. Therefore, it will not be possible to pump the mine into the aquifer for a moment, so if we can replace the laborers who crawl out of the mine with steam on their backs, then we can once again enrich and have more people to build the newly conquered Central Asia.

After showing this steam engine to the small miners under his rule, it was enthusiastically sought after by the small miners. In Li Wenyuan's very humane labor law, it was much more expensive to serve those who transported ore back and forth between the surface and the bottom of the mine than a steam engine. In other words, the fewer people there are in the mine, the lower the cost and the higher the profit for these small miners. Therefore, they are naturally very interested in this kind of machine that can replace human labor and can work day and night, and they are willing to invest in this research.

(End of chapter)