"Your Majesty, a great victory in the northwest. Our Western Expeditionary Group Army broke the joint efforts of the Guiyi Army, the Longjia Army and the Uighur Army in Suzhou and occupied Suzhou. This is the military report that arrived in the starry night ahead. "On the seventh day of the seventh month of the third year of the Apocalypse, Liangzhou City ushered in a group of Hongling messengers, and then they were taken to see Li Xuanqing by the people of the political envoy's mansion. Because it was a great victory, the messenger gave a rare brief account of the battle ahead.

After Li Xuanqing received the military report handed by the messenger, the Hongling messenger bowed and saluted, then withdrew and continued eastward, heading towards Chang'an. And Li Xuanqing looked at the military newspaper in his hand, nodded thoughtfully, and said with a smile: "Senior brother, it seems that he is really careful." Well, Quanfu, this time you got tens of thousands of free labor. Think about where they are needed most. Qiaoxi on the side leaned over and swept it and said with a smile: "There are a lot, this time there will be no shortage of labor in Hexi Province, maybe it will be able to support Guanzhong." I heard that Mr. Shum is ready to start using Guanzhong as a model to promote the construction of straight roads. It is planned to popularize one or two provinces every year, so that each township can pass through the township road with two carriages in parallel, and the county road with four carriages in parallel between the counties, plus the state road and the straight road, basically realize the state of connecting villages and villages in Li Xuanqing's later generations, and the level is one level higher.

"If you are a prisoner of war, then build a road. By the way, several large state-owned pastures and farms have been built in Hexi, as well as tens of thousands of acres of large nursery bases, all of which require manpower. Zhang Quanfu nodded and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, I want to take advantage of this wave of support to talk to the He family and the Yuwen family about developing the mining and smelting industry in Hexi, I don't know if the emperor and the queen can give guidance." ”

Zhang Quanfu's words reminded Li Xuanqing of the Great Northwest Heavy Industry in later generations, and in later generations, Jiuquan, which is now Suzhou, is not a large-scale steel smelting base? Moreover, the northwest region is rich in mineral resources, and in fact there are even more heavy industries that can be built than in the mainland. So he nodded and said: "You discuss this matter with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and I will help you make an industrial development plan to establish the heavy industry in Hexi." You can start with the mining industry in the early stage, develop it simply, and then start to establish a complete development system after the plan comes out. ”

As soon as Qiaoxi heard Li Xuanqing's words, he naturally understood that Li Xuanqing was going to imitate the practices of later generations to establish an industrial base in the northwest interior, so he smiled when he heard this: "Lord Zhang might as well do what the eldest brother wants to do in this matter." The northwest region will not be worse than the mainland, as long as the water source is sufficient, the industry in the northwest is very marketable. However, you must pay attention to environmental protection, industrial pollution is large, the ecological environment in the northwest region is fragile, and you must ensure this while choosing to develop industry, otherwise Hexi will only be afraid of pollution everywhere in a few decades. ”

Zhang Quanfu, who himself manages the Ministry of Water Resources and Environmental Protection, is well aware of the new situation that will inevitably arise with the advent of the industrial age, so he immediately promised to pay attention to the problem of pollution while developing industry in the northwest. Li Xuanqing has nothing to advise on this, Zhang Quanfu himself has a lot of experience in afforestation and other measures to control pollution in later generations, and he has been practicing his own ideas over the years, so let him do it while not saying anything else. However, he thought more about the disposal of the Long family and the entry of the Long family army into Liangzhou mentioned by Wan Yi in the military report. According to Wan Yi's idea, it is better for the Long family army to be disbanded, and some of them can be repatriated to Suzhou, but the main force needs to be placed in Liangzhou and the interior east of it, and it must be dispersed. As for the Long family's descendants, he did not provide a way to deal with it, but according to Li Xuanqing's estimate, Tuoba Sijian should be able to handle this matter well. Li Xuanqing, who was in the rear, did not know as many details as the front, but through Wan Yi's method of breaking up and dealing with the Long family's army, he could also guess what problems might have in the Long family in the Battle of Suzhou. So thinking of this, Li Xuanqing directly recruited Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun, who organized logistics in Hexi, to explain this matter, and asked them to come forward to deal with the Long family's army, and the Long family's descendants will deal with it as appropriate after they arrive in Liangzhou.

Originally, Li Xuanqing planned to go back after dealing with the affairs of the Long family in Liangzhou, but a summary of the political situation sent by the cabinet immediately made him plan to return to Chang'an first. So after explaining a few words to Wang Houchun, he took Yang Tiancheng and began to return to the base camp by car.

"The emperor means that he plans to open Western trade?" Yang Tiancheng naturally saw the latest political information sent by the cabinet, but he didn't know what Cen Tianshi was paying attention to at this time, so he couldn't think of what the reason was for a while.

"The fourth brother doesn't know, Western trade is the trade place with the greatest benefits and the most benefits for my Tang Dynasty. On the western side, Pala and Nibora and other lands are prosperous, with a lot of gold and silver, strong purchasing power, and a large population, and all the goods and goods in Middle-earth need a stable market to support their continued development. That's where the best is. Qiaoxi sat on the side and watched the train speed eastward, and when he heard Yang Tiancheng's question, he immediately smiled: "And after the fourth brother goes back, he should need to start to let the navy set up a base on the West Sea as soon as possible, build a fleet, prepare to escort ships, fight the pirates on the West Sea side, seize various strategic positions, and incorporate them into the imperial territory." These are the guarantees of the Empire's maritime rights and interests for the next hundred years. ”

In later generations, the Western Ocean or the Indian Ocean trade was actually China's largest overseas trade route, not only because of the oil, but more importantly, because of the control of this maritime crossroads. In later generations, due to geographical reasons, it was necessary to detour to the southeast peninsula, but in this generation, the territory of the Tang Empire was already on the coast of the West Sea after the inclusion of the Piu and Mino countries. Therefore, Li Xuanqing did not plan to make a detour from the southeast peninsula at all, but in the name of developing the southwest, he planned to directly build a straight road to Mino, and then he could directly set up a shipyard and port on the west coast, so that the goods and other goods produced in the southwest could go to India through this port, which could quickly drive the development of the southwest region.

According to the current maritime trade, except for Japan and Sanhan, the Oriental trade is destined to not develop much unless Li Xuanqing instructs to cross the Pacific Ocean to colonize the Americas, otherwise it is destined not to develop much, as for the Nanyang trade that has been carried out, it was originally prepared for Western trade, and the southeast peninsula and the islands further south are estimated to be still in a primitive society except for mineral resources, so when Cen Tianshi planned to open Western trade, Li Xuanqing agreed directly without thinking about it. If the Western route is carried out smoothly, I am afraid that it will be much faster than taking the Silk Road. It's just that Li Xuanqing is very curious about how Cen Tianshi came up with the idea of opening Western trade. But that's not important anymore.

"Big brother, this Silk Road should be dredged soon, right? Do you say that it will conflict with Mr. Cen's Western shipping route at that time? Qiaoxi saw Li Xuanqing thinking about it here, and came over and asked.

"Conflict is not enough, after all, the Silk Road is not all yellow sand desert, there are many prosperous places. There is a great need for Central Plains products. Li Xuanqing knew what Qiaoxi was worried about, why the ancient Silk Road was obscene after the opening of the sea route, and the development of maritime trade in later generations hit the land Silk Road Li Xuanqing naturally also thought about it, in addition to the obstacles along the way, the biggest factor should be competition. But that's fine, the volume of maritime trade is destined to be much larger than that of land, and the cost will be much less. Now the craze for the sea within the empire is gradually rising, so Li Xuanqing has a way to adjust this. is also a guest from later generations, and Li Xuanqing naturally understands the method he said, so he didn't say anything more after asking.

In fact, when Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi were imagining maritime trade, Wan Yi and Tuoba Siji, who were on the front line of Suzhou, suddenly received a strange notice that the Guiyi army had sent an envoy.

The envoy of the Guiyi Army came to Suzhou to surprise Wan Yi, originally the Western Expedition Group Army had gradually recovered the entire territory of Suzhou in the past few days, and the next plan was to prepare to take advantage of the good weather in July to attack the sandbar and extend the battle line to the territory of the Guiyi Army. But what exactly does it mean that the other party sent an envoy to see you? If anyone who has a heart in mind about the strategic goal of the army today can analyze it, this can no longer be stopped by a mere delay. Therefore, Wan Yi and Tuoba Si decided to listen to what the other party had to say first.

It's just that after hearing it, what made the two even more puzzled was that the intention of the Guiyi army was to go to Chang'an.

"Deputy Prime Minister, what the hell is this Guiyi Army fighting? Pilgrimage to Chang'an? It's not that simple, right? It's been several months since we went out of the West, and a few days ago we defeated the opponent's 100,000 army in a battle, so this will send an envoy to Chang'an? Could it be that they still want the emperor to let them go? Since the other party directly proposed to go to Chang'an to see the emperor, Wan Yi and his party didn't ask anything specific, and several people in the handsome tent didn't understand the other party's thoughts for a while. Zhao Si on the side frowned, as if he had something to say, but when he opened his mouth, there was no sound.

"I said, Zhao Si, do you have anything to say?" Su Xiaohu sat beside Zhao Si and naturally saw it clearly, so he hurriedly asked.

"Your Excellency, Deputy Prime Minister, I think the Guiyi Army may be ready, and this is the rhythm of the showdown with us." Zhao Si said a little uncertainly: "The news from Xuanying Wei Guazhou says that the envoys of the Guiyi Army have frequently entered and exited Anxi during this time, but I am afraid that the Uighurs over there have already given a clear answer to the Guiyi Army. If my guess is correct, the Guiyi army may want to use Suzhou as the boundary and fight against us. As soon as Zhao Si's words were finished, Su Xiaohu beside him said disdainfully: "How is it possible, they have a problem with their brains, and they are still fighting against each other?" Why? ”

"With the hundreds of thousands of Uighur elites he brought from Anthy." Wan Yi took Zhao Si's words and said, "If the two Uighurs of Gaochang and Anxi are really succeeded in connecting with the Cao family, then we will face more than 300,000 elite cavalry, and if we add the headquarters of the Guiyi Army, it will be more than 400,000. In this way, it will be more than twice the number of the group army of our western expedition, and as long as the local battle can be delayed until the winter comes, they may turn the tables by virtue of their cavalry superiority. ”

Wan Yi's words made everyone in the Shuai Tent fall silent all of a sudden, if the number of the other party alone may not be in everyone's hearts, but the climate in the northwest region has become a huge problem, when the university closes the road, under the leadership of the Guiyi Army, this group of grassland cavalry will definitely attack the defense line of the Tiance Army everywhere and destroy the road materials. If so, this battle is really unfought. But at this time, there is no way to retreat, and once you retreat, then the place you took before will definitely be occupied by the Guiyi army. You must know that the Tiance army came all the way west, but it swept away the Longjia and Ganzhou Uighurs along the way, and even Tuoba Sizhi in this area has begun to end military management and prepare to reform according to the Hexi model.

"Hey, rest assured, how could the emperor agree to such a request? I'm sure that if the Guiyi Army had such an idea, it would definitely be in Chang'an. Su Xiaohu saw that everyone was silent and said: "It's just that we may have to enter a state of preparation in advance, or the marshal will apply to the General Staff to transfer the third battalion over, and if it doesn't work, we will transfer the first battalion." I've heard that they've got bikes equipped, and that thing we've played in the Eagle Brigade is really comparable to a war horse. ”

Su Xiaohu's words did not have a single interface, and the first battalion was transferred, don't you know that the first battalion is now experimenting with new weapons at the Fengzhou test site? If it really had to be transferred, wouldn't it mean that the Western Expeditionary Army would not be able to deal with this group of Uighur cavalry?

"Xuan Yingwei has been doing his best to find out the news from Guazhou in the past few days, trying to figure out what agreement the Guiyi army and the Uighurs have reached. In addition, someone was sent to summon the General Staff to report everything here. The envoys of the rebel army were postponed for a few days. Wan Yi waved his hand here, interrupting Su Xiaohu's follow-up words and ordered: "In addition, the whole army is ordered to prepare immediately, if it really doesn't work, we will fight a decisive battle in advance." ”

"Do you want to inform Gao Siji that they are going south from the grassland?" Liu Xuan asked while quickly recording Wan Yi's order.

Wan Yi shook his head and said: "Not for the time being, Gao Siji and they will definitely be able to detect the fighters, and let the Xuanying Guard's side strengthen the intelligence connection with them, and they will appear in the north at the most suitable time." "For the Gaosi Succession Corps, the original plan formulated by the General Staff was for them to break directly from the steppe to the Gaochang area and intercept the eastward advance of the Gaochang Uighurs. However, at this time, once the Uighurs came to the aid of the Rebels from the east of the Gaochang region, there was no room for the original plan to be implemented, and Gao Siji's character naturally proceeded from the actual situation and attacked the back of the Guiyi army north of Guazhou, so that the Guiyi army and the Uighurs could be trapped in a situation where the rebels and the Uighurs were attacked on their backs.

"Since the commander has decided to advance the fighter, then the things in the rear must also be prepared in a hurry. In addition to dealing with the affairs of the Long family, I think the reserve materials also need to be prepared in advance. Moreover, since you left the customs to fight, the supplementary corps has been stranded in Liangzhou, Hexi, did you notify them to come and join you? Tuoba asked after a moment's thought. Although the results of the First Battle of Suzhou were fruitful, the casualties of all units of the Western Expeditionary Army were also relatively large, and the replenishment of troops had reached the point where it had to be mentioned.

"Let the chief of staff and the deputy head take care of these things. All in all, when the latest information is fed back from Chang'an, we must make all preparations and drive into the territory of the Guiyi Army at any time. Wan Yi waved his hand, and his voice was sonorous and powerful, dispelling all the doubts before.