"Your Majesty, this is the southwest economic development plan formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Communications, I have been reading it for several days, and I always feel that the one-time investment is too big and I can't make up my mind, so I want the emperor to check in advance, if you can, you need to discuss it in advance with the political envoys of the southwest provinces before the imperial meeting next year." When Cen Tianshi found Li Xuanqing, it was already snowing heavily in Chang'an, and the climate in Guanzhong this year had dropped a lot compared to last year, and the heavy snow was much heavier than before.

"Southwest Economic Development Plan? What's wrong? Planning to take advantage of the development momentum of Xihai County to drive the southwest region to keep up as a whole? "Li Xuanqing has nothing to do these days, and the Guanzhong region has not asked much after the cabinet and the political envoy jointly issued a cold disaster relief, and now Datang has established a complete set of disaster relief institutions and methods because of itself, and everything can start the emergency rescue mechanism in accordance with the procedures. So He Qiaoxi looked at the plan jointly formulated by Murong Hanhai and Wu Zuodong with great interest.

This is a typical handiwork of Murong Hanhai, but because the Ministry of Communications occupies a very large proportion of the entire plan, it was organized into a joint plan of the two departments. Although Cen Tianshi felt that the investment was too great, in Li Xuanqing's opinion, this plan was very feasible, and along with this plan, Li Xuanqing also remembered another idea, so he was distracted for a while. But Qiaoxi nodded while looking at it and said, "Sir, this plan is okay, I don't think it's much of a problem." You see, on the basis of the straight road into Sichuan, the construction of the railway from Guanzhong to Sichuan, and then extend to the south, passing through the southern Zhao and southern Yunnan, and then connecting to the Lingnan railway, which has already started, is equivalent to the entire empire from the south to the north is connected, and from the southwest region to connect the whole country, does not let the southwest mountainous area embark on the road of rapid development? ”

"I also know that this plan is good, but there is too much to invest, and the empire can't afford such a big investment now." Cen Tianshi smiled bitterly, he has been the prime minister of the empire for five years, can he still not tell whether this plan is good or bad? But I'm afraid that the investment in this is only a huge amount of money, even if the war in the northwest of the empire can be temporarily stopped next year, the military expenses freed up will definitely not be enough to spend so much? Moreover, with the opening of the Western shipping route, the navy will inevitably increase investment, and this increase and decrease will not make it possible for the Ministry of Finance to put in a lot of money. So Cen Tianshi waved his hand to signal that the Ministry of Finance had no money to toss it like this.

"Then split it. Look, sir, the Hancheon Straight Road has already been repaired, so it shouldn't be a big problem to add a railroad on top of that, right? If there is a railway in Sichuan, the speed of Sichuan's development will definitely be much faster than relying only on land and the Yangtze River waterway, right? In this way, I think the cost of this railway will be recouped in less than two years. Qiaoxi snapped his fingers and smiled: "At the same time as repairing the Hanchuan Railway, we can let the Railway Department explore the construction conditions of the railway in southern Sichuan, plan the road path in the early stage, and build building materials factories and cement factories along the line, so that as soon as the railway is built, these places will not need to be planned at all, and everything will be done in one step." As for the straight roads along the way, the Sichuan government can repair them on their own, which is nothing to Sichuan Province. ”

Qiaoxi's words made Cen Tianshi fall into deep thought, but Li Xuanqing had already come back to his senses, looked at the railway line that started from Chang'an, passed through Hanzhong, and then went straight to Chengdu, and suddenly smiled, isn't this the marked artery in later generations? If you extend further south, you will directly reach Yunnan, which is very familiar. So he said with a smile: "I agree to this plan, but as Qiaoxi said, the construction of this plan next year will focus on Sichuan, so the cabinet should discuss with the Sichuan Embassy in advance and carry out preliminary planning and construction. But the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's stimulus plan could be rolled out in full swing. After all, there are no railways, and there are auxiliary roads such as straight roads and provincial roads, so as long as there is a road, it can be carried out for merchants. And the industrial group has already thought of a good way to solve this problem for them. In the future, in addition to railways and waterways, short-distance transportation will also need to increase land routes, and this land route is simply straight transportation. ”

Qiaoxi knew that Li Xuanqing was talking about trucks and the newly manufactured three-wheeled transport vehicles, so he smiled and said: "Sir, rest assured, the industrial group will be officially put into operation after the New Year, and then I know that the transportation can be more than twice as fast as it is now, and the freight volume will also increase." "The miniaturization of the steam engine is what the industrial group has been doing, what Li Xuanqing has to do is to make full use of the potential of the steam engine to develop transportation before the emergence of new power such as the internal combustion engine, and with the mass production of the latest steam engine and small water tube boiler jointly developed by the equipment department and the industrial group in recent years, in fact, now the Tang Empire has come to a very high level in this regard, which is why Qiaoxi finally decided to start promoting new vehicles. However, in this way, it will inevitably squeeze the market share of mule and horse vehicles, and will also force the upgrading and expansion of coal mining, transportation and storage industries, so that the energy industry of the entire empire will be adjusted accordingly, and even the distribution layout will become more extensive. Especially in the southern region, coal is not as good as the north, so in the current situation, the long-distance transportation of coal still needs to rely on railways and waterways, and even the long-distance transportation of bulk materials can only be solved by railways and waterways. However, Murong Hanhai's plan made Li Xuanqing very optimistic, at least there are not many coal mines in Hunan and Jingzhou provinces, and the quality is also good, except for the high-quality coal used in warships, there is no problem with others, which is also one of the bases for Li Xuanqing's final decision to implement this plan.

Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi's splitting method made Cen Tianshi agree very much, so that just a new railway would not be a big problem even if it was directly repaired to southern Sichuan. Although the imperial expenditure was very large, the two armies of Gauss Ji and Wan Yi in the northwest captured countless quantities of gold and silver back to the base camp, which not only alleviated the current situation of deflation in the empire, but also brought a large amount of cash to the treasury, and this money itself needed to be spent in order to be able to circulate in the market and then improve the embarrassing situation that the amount of money issued could not keep up with the speed of economic development.

"As for the economic stimulus plan launched by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, it can be rolled out in an all-round way. Establish a sound industrial base in Sichuan and expand the scale of industrial development in the southwest, so that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce can rely on the construction of railways to establish steel smelting and mineral mining as the main basic industries, and then develop the salt industry in Sichuan. Selling the patent means that although the cost of Sichuan well salt is relatively high, it can be made into refined salt and then sold. Li Xuanqing remembered the Sichuan well salt processing in later generations, especially the artesian well, and said to Qiaoxi: "Then add the mining and smelting of non-ferrous metals, Sichuan is rich in mineral resources, copper ore and gold and silver ore are relatively rich, let the Ministry of Land and Resources increase its efforts, I think it will take a year for the industrial scale of Sichuan to catch up with the north, and it is not a big problem." There is one thing Li Xuanqing didn't say, but Qiaoxi and Cen Tianshi both knew that after the construction of the railway to the south, there was another channel for transportation out of Sichuan through the railway, and after that, Sichuan, the center of southwest economic development, would be able to quickly get rid of the problem of export difficulties, and when the time came, it would take the western trade export channel of Xihai County, and even more obvious than the north, which was also the original intention of Murong Hanhai's southwest economic development plan.

Li Xuanqing's words opened Cen Tianshi's train of thought, and after going back, Cen Tianshi and Murong Hanhai turned out the map of the southwestern provinces overnight, marked out all the hundreds of minerals that the Ministry of Land and Resources had explored, and then searched for information and found out more than 40 of them that had met the mining requirements, and then the Ministry of Industry and Commerce made a plan overnight, these gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, lead, zinc and other mines began to be mined on a large scale in the following year, and then smelted and processed. With the ensuing other kinds of large-scale factories have also landed rapidly, whether it is state-owned or the royal family or the six major families headed by a large number of private capital into the southwest region, the proportion of the southwest region led by Sichuan in the empire's economic development has increased rapidly, and with the efforts of the cabinet and the provincial political envoys, the investment environment in the southwest region is also further standardized, and many places can even be comparable to the northern provinces, which has further promoted the speed of economic development.

However, at this time, after Cen Tianshi left, Li Xuanqing and his wife began to make a development plan for the southwest region, compared with Cen Tianshi and Murong Hanhai's plan, the couple was naturally more refined by themselves, and unlike the people of this era, the vision of the two later generations did not even need to think about it, and they could accurately divide the layout of each industry into the best position by directly drawing on the experience of later generations.

"Big brother, now that the army has all been reequipped with formal rifles, the demand for copper ore is getting bigger and bigger, copper bullets and all kinds of copper demand, relying on the copper mines in the northeast alone is not enough, the copper mines on the grassland with the current development speed, even if we now point to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, it is difficult to achieve results in the short term, so it is better to concentrate on the development of copper mining and copper forging and processing in Sichuan. There are many copper resources in the southwest region. Qiao Xi frowned and thought for a long time and said: "In this way, even if the Nanyang Fleet finds the Luzon piece, it will not cost too much to send it directly by rail." "With the deepening of the industrial plan of the scale and degree of more and more extensive, copper resources have begun to gradually have a more and more important position, even if Li Xuanqing has developed three copper mines in the northeast in the early stage, but limited by the difficulty of mining and the scale of mining, the annual output of copper ore is not enough for the army, this is still one of the copper ore itself belongs to one of the conventional resources in China, plus the huge copper money seized and exchanged in the early stage after all handed over to the logistics department, otherwise the Tiance army really can't afford to use copper bullets.

"Based on copper mines, we will increase the development and smelting and processing of non-ferrous metals in southwest China, and I think Sichuan's industrial layout has been completed, and the surrounding provinces will be able to connect the industrial chain with Sichuan at that time." Li Xuanqing put down his pen and took a breath and said with a smile: "In this way, the construction of this north-south artery is imperative." ”

"Yes, this artery of ours is more difficult than in the previous life, in the previous life, we built the Pinghan Line and the Guangdong-Han Line in the Eastern Plains, and we directly dug out a large artery of thousands of kilometers from the lofty mountains and mountains in the southwest, but I am afraid that it will not be able to be repaired in a few years." Qiaoxi shook his head, and he was also quite angry.

"No, Qiaoxi, you see, we have an advantage over the future generations of this artery, but you haven't found it." Li Xuanqing pulled Qiaoxi and pointed to the southwest passage and said with a smile: "This railway is built in the middle of the north and south, but every section can be put into use immediately, you see whether it is from the southern Nanzhao side or from Hanzhong to Sichuan to start connecting the railway lines that have already been formed, so that they can put the repaired railway into transportation in the first time, so that the financial pressure is not so great." As for the bumpy road in the middle and the disadvantages of the terrain, it is not too much of a problem, and I think the railway department and the railway company will have a solution. ”

Qiao Xi thought about the rolling mountains in the southwest, an iron dragon passed through the mountains, and suddenly smiled, the southwest railway to build up the economic pull is actually more cost-effective than in the east to build the railway, after all, there are canals and ocean transportation in the eastern region, and then the railway is easy to cause a waste of resources, and after the railway is repaired, it is equal to Chang'an and the southernmost Guangzhou into one, the northwest and southwest sea passage does not need to detour the entire north, which is equivalent to shortening the distance of thousands of kilometers.

"Does Big Brother have other ideas for this railway?" Qiaoxi suddenly saw that the railway that Li Xuanqing had sketched before seemed to be more than that, and after thinking about it, he suddenly smiled and said, "Could it be that the eldest brother still has ideas about the northwest?" The railway in the southwest can actually be built in the north, bypassing the Tibetan plateau and then enclosing that piece of land and connecting to the Safar side in the northwest, which is perfect. Qiaoxi's words also made Li Xuanqing smile, if this railway is built, then the unprecedented empire in his plan can be regarded as the starting point.

"You rest early, I'll go find Mr. Xia Cen, he will definitely not be able to sleep tonight, so I will simply help them to improve this southwest economic stimulus plan as soon as possible." Li Xuanqing touched his little head and stood up with a smile.