Taking advantage of the opportunity of the endless flow of military supplies from north to south, the population and materials from the mainland to the former Lingnan city were accelerated, and began to build a straight road from Shantou to Guangzhou, connecting the land passage of the two large ports in Lingnan today, and playing an opportunity for merger and development. The newly appointed political envoy of Guangdong and Fujian even attended the construction ceremony of the first provincial highway in Lingnan, shouting for the joint development of the two provinces. Moreover, after stabilizing the internal completion of the land reform task, the two provinces began to aim overseas, picked up the overseas trade that had been interrupted for nearly a hundred years, and personally persuaded the Zhangjia, who came to Guangzhou to open a shipyard, and the local Ma family in Lingnan to establish a joint venture Lingnan Shipyard, headquartered in Guangzhou, and set up a branch in Shantou Port. After the news reached Chang'an, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi were relieved, under the market demand, someone finally carried the banner of Le Da in the shipbuilding industry, and it was not always following their own five wealthy businessmen, although according to Zhang Qishan's plan, Guangdong shipyards were still mainly building wooden sailboats in the early stage, but stimulated by the northern shipyards, the displacement of the newly designed sailing ships has exceeded the past, from about 1,000 materials to 2,000 materials, that is, converted into a displacement of about 1,000 tons. Moreover, we will continue to explore the construction methods of new cargo ships in the later stage, and even the dock and shore auxiliary workshops are based on the layout of Tianjin Shipyard.

The Zhang family started a new shipyard in Guangzhou, plus Xu Xingxia and Murong Hanhai prepared the Wuyang shipyard in Hangzhou, and basically the three major regions of the empire also had new shipbuilding enterprises, although they could not be compared with the Tianjin shipyard at present, but they represented a kind of hope, a hope for the conscious expansion and replication of industrial development.

Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi, who had put down their minds, began to seriously plan the secondary development plan of the industrial group, began to march along the upstream of industrial development, began to formulate research and production plans for various basic raw materials, built two large-scale coal chemical enterprises in Taiyuan Province and Fengzhou respectively, moved the coke manufacturing process in the laboratory of the industrial group to the factory, and began to let the machinery manufacturing factories in the Shenzhou area begin to manufacture new smelting blast furnaces, and comprehensively promote the innovation of new iron-making and other metal smelting technology. In addition, other ancillary products such as sulfides are produced in the coke production process.

"Big brother, you are not building two enterprises, this is clearly building two coal chemical bases." Qiaoxi looked at the plan of the industrial group made by Li Xuanqing and said with a smile: "Big brother, aren't you afraid of spending all our family's savings?" When the time comes, His Majesty the dignified Emperor of the Tang Dynasty can't afford to eat, then future generations will definitely laugh at us. ”

"Don't worry, I've asked Zhang Quanfu and Murong to notify several large steel mills and copper smelters to prepare to replace blast furnaces, and when Shenzhou puts into operation, all the blast furnaces of the country's five major steel plants will be replaced within this year, and then wait to collect the money." Li Xuanqing can't stand it anymore, so he will bother to let the industrial group develop the kind of blast furnace and attached blast equipment in later generations, the purpose is to raise the technical threshold of the empire's smelting industry again, and use his prescient advantage to artificially improve the technical level of this industry.

"Okay, you let Zhang Qiang and Mu Chen prepare as soon as possible, so that they can use the new steel before the Dalian shipyard is put into production." Li Xuanqing waved his hand and asked Qiaoxi to inform the industrial group to hurry up and prepare, get up and head towards Changqing Palace, today is the time for Wan Yi to come back from Hexi to report the preparations for the Western Expedition.

"Your Majesty, it's here so soon?" As soon as they walked into the gate of Changqing Palace, Wan Yi, Xu Tianxiang and Hu Xiaosi stood up, and the three of them had already chatted for a while in advance. Today's Changqing Hall has been renovated to become Li Xuanqing's office and a veritable pilgrimage place.

"Where's Mr. Shum?" Li Xuanqing glanced at it and said in surprise: "He should have arrived a long time ago." ”

"Mr. Cen can't come, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Water Resources and Environmental Protection are jointly signing the dredging plan for the southern canal, and Mr. Cen is deliberating the plan. It is said that the first batch of prisoners of war will all be registered as civilians this year, and I want to take this opportunity to let them exert their residual heat and complete the dredging of all the southern canals, which can be regarded as the last contribution to the development of the empire. Xu Tianxiang's words sounded so awkward, as if the imperial court had become a market for human traffickers. However, the southern canal does need to be dredged, and the navigable capacity of the northern canal has been greatly improved after it has been repaired by the construction company, and the central Xuanwu Army has also repaired it, but it does not meet the standards, and Cen Tianshi plans to use this opportunity to completely renovate the canal in sections.

It seems that Mr. Shum has a deep understanding of the key points of economic development and the importance of canals to the economic development of the empire today. However, this matter has to be arranged, and the canal is now full of boats, and once the construction is stopped, I am afraid that it will delay a lot of things. Hu Xiaosi sat there shaking his head and pointing. Because Gesang is pregnant, he is now also discouraged and stays in the Chang'an headquarters honestly, and the affairs of other regions are handed over to the deputy.

"Okay, senior brother, tell me about your preparations over there, right?" Li Xuanqing waved his hand to signal that this topic was over, and he had heard enough of the people from the military talking about the economy here, so he decisively changed the topic and asked. Now among the leaders of the military, Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun are in charge of downsizing and changing clothes, Chen Fan returned to Fengzhou to prepare to go to the northern border to see, if there is no problem, he will lead troops into the grassland after the end of the war on the southern front, and continue to drive the people of the Ques to the north and west, to ensure the stability of the northern border of the empire, and at the same time to subdue the hearts of the people of the entire Mobei, for which even Tahi, who is single-mindedly engaged in military management in the northeast, was taken away by him. On the northwest side, Wan Yi is left alone in charge.

"It should be said that the preparation on the Hexi side is not bad. The army has basically been put in place, and the 100,000 troops in the early stage have all been in place, and they are stationed in Hexi. In addition to military training, he assisted the local government in reclaiming farmland and water conservancy, and incidentally helped Zhang Quanfu to plant trees and grass to stop the spread of the desert. Wan Yi said with a smile, he strongly supported Zhang Quanfu in Hexi to plant trees and grass, and now Hexi alone has planted millions of saplings, not counting the spontaneous actions of the people, since the regulations prohibiting the felling of trees in the northwest region have gradually taken root in the hearts of the people, the green vegetation area on the Hexi Corridor is becoming more and more prosperous year by year, and many people have even begun to plant trees and grass in the city.

"Because the Changling Railway has not yet been completed, the speed of materials entering and leaving Hexi is slow, and there is also the Helan Mountain to block it, so the military supplies are basically self-raised. The Yelujia built three large-scale food processing factories in Hexi to ensure the supply of military supplies. It's just that if the army marches westward, I'm afraid of the problem of grain and grass, and I need to think of other ways. Speaking of this, Wan Yi's face was embarrassed, in fact, after the completion of the Changling Railway, I am afraid that the problem still exists, and the road from Lingzhou to Wuwei is enough for the logistics department to break his legs, and the passage of Helan Mountain is narrow and difficult to walk, otherwise Lingzhou would not have become a barrier to prevent the Wen Mo people from advancing eastward.

Wan Yi said this question made Xu Tianxiang and Hu Xiaosi's faces change, since ancient times, the strategy of the Western Regions is to test the logistics and transportation capabilities of a central dynasty, if the materials in the customs cannot be quickly sent to the front line in time, the front-line army will inevitably lose its combat strength because of logistics problems. Moreover, there are many desert areas in the northwest region, and many places cannot walk at all, even if you follow the Silk Road opened up by your predecessors, it is still a lot of difficulties.

"Let the Logistics Department, together with the Ministry of Communications, dig the Helan Mountain Passage after the opening of the Changling Line and build the railway to Hexi." Li Xuanqing also has no good way, but if the railway can be connected to Hexi, then it will be much easier, and there are several large prefectures and counties over Hexi, such as Ganzhou, Suzhou, Shazhou and Guazhou, but after entering the rest, they will face difficulties, but it is not impossible.

"In this matter, I will arrange for Tiancheng to dock with the Ministry of Transportation and extend the Changling Line to the west." Xu Tianxiang nodded and said: "In addition, the logistics department is also preparing, some military supplies will be handed over to several major commercial houses, and they will be responsible for transportation, plus local procurement will not delay the large military, as for the supply of weapons and ammunition, we have built a large weapons warehouse in Jincheng, Hexi, using the method of sporadic transportation and centralized storage, and it is expected to be fully loaded before the expedition of the western army." Tiancheng has been staring at this matter for this time, and I believe that there will be no problem. ”

"The army has not moved, and the grain and grass go first." After listening to their report, Li Xuanqing couldn't help but sigh: "If it is only enough to recover the 100,000 troops in the east of Guazhou, but the situation in Anxi is not so simple now, right?" ”

"What the emperor said is that the forces along the western expedition are complicated, not only the Uighur problem, but also our Han regime in the Western Regions, Suzhou Longjia and the Guiyi Army are among the representatives, I am afraid that when we conquer the west, we also need to send special foreign affairs officials to deal with the army." Hu Xiaosi began to summarize and distribute the information collected by Xuan Yingwei to the Western Regions to several people present, and began to explain: "The Ganzhou Uighurs are powerful, they are a branch of the steppe Uighurs in those years, and they moved to Ganzhou and other places after being destroyed by the Uighurs. The Wenmo people who were expelled by you before should also take root in the Uighurs, so you should be careful when the time comes. ”

Seeing Wan Yi nodding, Hu Xiaosi also knew that he had been in Hexi long enough, but he was afraid that he would know more about Ganzhou than himself, so he didn't say much, and continued: "Further west is Suzhou, and the actual controller of Suzhou is the Long family." This Long family is actually the descendants of the Yanqi people back then, as early as when the Tubo occupied the four towns of Anxi, they began to migrate partially, and later after Anxi was occupied by the Uighurs, the Yanqi King led part of the ethnic group to continue to move eastward to Suzhou, Ganzhou and other places to join the previous clansmen to form this Long family. The head of the Long family is a descendant of King Yanqi back then, calling himself the Dragon King. However, he was driven out of Ganzhou by the Uighurs shortly thereafter, and had to rely on the Guiyi army to establish a foothold in Suzhou. However, after the Long family took root in Suzhou, they replaced the Guiyi Army as the actual ruler of Suzhou, but the relationship with the Guiyi Army was still very good, so the two families could also be regarded as one. ”

"What about the Rebels?" Li Xuanqing thought for a while and asked, for this Han separatist force in the Western Regions, in fact, Li Xuanqing is very curious, after Zhang Yichao raised the banner of righteousness for the first time in Guazhou, at the peak of almost recovered most of the entire Western Regions, not only in the war against the Tubo Iron Cavalry, but also in the survival of the strong, the hearts of the Han people in the Western Regions were suddenly united, and became the hope of the Han people in the Western Regions after Anshi. However, after Zhang Huaishen, there were coups d'état within the Guiyi Army, which caused the Guiyi Army's power to decline sharply, and its sphere of influence also shrank to the vicinity of Guazhou and Shazhou.

"The situation of the Guiyi Army is not very good, since Zhang Huaiding took back control of the Yiyi Army, and now he is being vacated by Suo Xun, I estimate that the ownership of the Guiyi Army will soon change again. I, Xuanyingwei, have entered the territory of Guazhou to make arrangements, but the power of the Han people in the Western Regions is not as good as before, although there are a lot of them, but they are not the climate, but it is the other tribes around the country that have repeatedly invaded the territory of the Guiyi army, and the reason why the Ganzhou Uighurs and the Long family were able to break away from the control of the Guiyi army is caused by their internal strife. Hu Xiaosi couldn't help but sigh when he talked about it.

"In other words, if we can't fight it in a short time, will the ownership of the Guiyi Army change again? Why are the descendants of this righteous tide not as good as the next generation? "Xu Tianxiang really doesn't know these things, Xuan Yingwei is an intelligence agency that is relatively independent of Tiance Mansion, although it is under the jurisdiction of the General Staff, but it will only provide intelligence information when the General Staff needs it, otherwise it will only be directly responsible for Li Xuanqing himself. So when I heard Hu Xiaosi say this, I couldn't help but complain: "Zhang Yichao was so heroic in the past, why is it like this now?" ”

Li Xuanqing naturally knew the development process of the Guiyi Army, and in later generations, this separatist regime would not even have anything to do with the Zhang family. It's just that this force can still exist in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is really long-lived.

"Regardless of him, the reason why the Guiyi Army has repeatedly had civil strife is not only a problem of the ability of the leaders, but also a problem with their own system, coupled with the harsh environment, once they lose the enterprising spirit of the first generation, they will inevitably be taken advantage of by others." Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said, "Xuanyingwei will compile a copy of the information of the Western Regions to Senior Brother and the General Staff as a preparation for the next step of the Western Expedition. After finishing the command, he continued: "What about Anxi? ”

"Anxi-" Hu Xiaosi was stunned for a moment, and said hesitantly: "I'm afraid that there is some trouble over there, the erosion and influence of the Great Cannibals on Anxi is getting bigger and bigger, and the Uighurs are also converting more and more to the Heavenly Sect, but I'm afraid that the biggest enemy of our westward expedition is the Great Eclipse." Hu Xiaosi's words made Li Xuanqing gasp, and sighed secretly: "What should come is still coming, and I am afraid that I will have to face the troubles of the future generations alone." ”

"Go and inform the cabinet that after the canal is rested, immediately mobilize manpower and financial resources to extend the Changling Line to Jincheng or Yangguan in Hexi with the logistics department, and we must ensure the back road of the western expeditionary army." Li Xuanqing emphasized this matter again, which also made the faces of Xu Tianxiang and Wan Yi who were present more and more solemn.