After handing over the matter at hand to the Cabinet and the General Staff Headquarters, Li Xuanqing took Qiaoxi and others to Tianjin Port to board Qiaoxi's newly ordered "Tang Princess" new cruise ship, and under the escort of three warships of the Navy, he set off for the renamed "Tokyo" port in Hokkaido with about 10 logistics freighters. For this kind of almost mischievous naming, this time it was not Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi who were making trouble, but Cen Tianshi solemnly issued an administrative order. Hokkaido, as the empire's special military region overseas, is also the location of Li Xuanqing's palace, and basically military and official ships come and go in peacetime, so Li Xuanqing simply didn't care whether this title conflicted with the concept of later generations, and accepted it generously.

The fleet from Tianjin Port entered Hokkaido along the Korean sea after a short rest on Tamna Island, Hakodate as a famous city in Hokkaido in later generations is also a natural harbor, at this time as the location of Tokyo, it is naturally renovated and under the design of Qiaoxi and Murong Feixue has become a resort similar to that of later generations, and because it is a palace, a large number of Chinese-style buildings have also risen here, so that Li Xuanqing can't help but nod. Because it was a palace, most of the accompanying logistics freighters and naval warships docked at another special wharf nearby, so that this peaceful harbor that looked like a piece of turquoise agate became a private place for Li Xuanqing's family at this time. Li Xuanqing didn't care much about this kind of serious waste of port resources, after he grabbed the lead, almost all the ports in the world could be taken down by the current Tang Empire as long as they could get by. Besides, there are countless good ports in Northeast Asia, and I don't care about this one. The family has been repairing here for half a month, and Li Xuanqing and his children also feel the taste of a beach vacation in the future, and by the way, they take the Apocalypse brothers and sisters to play on the beach every day, just like the people of later generations. Qiaoxi even designed a complete swimsuit for later generations, although it looks too alternative in this era, but basically except for Li Xuanqing's family, there are only some palace maids accompanying him, and even Murong Feixue finally couldn't stand Qiaoxi's bewitchment and shyly swam around in the shallow water in a swimsuit specially made for her by Qiaoxi.

Li Xuanqing and his entourage stayed in Tokyo for almost a month, and only when the time was approaching June did they leave for the Central Plains. However, when they just arrived in Tianjin, the newspaper from the cabinet side was also sent here, and the railway line from Luoyang to Ezhou and the north-south railway trunk line connecting Longhai line from Tianjin to the south through Shenzhou were also successfully completed in Bianzhou, so that another north-south traffic railway line from Bohai Bay can be directly connected to Ezhou, and the geographical transportation location advantage of the Central Plains is further improving.

"Big brother, this isn't the Jinghan line of later generations, right?" Qiaoxi frowned at the map and said for a long time: "Although this place in the Central Plains has been changed by the big brother, but in general, there is not much difference, so that the status of Luoyang will also be improved simultaneously, unlike the cities in the Central Plains in later generations because of the rapid development of heavy industry, but Luoyang, as the ancient capital, has gradually declined in the wave of industrialization." ”

Qiaoxi's words made Li Xuanqing nod for a while, in this life, the Central Plains Province was established as a separate province, Luoyang is not only the eastern capital of the empire, but also because the north-south east-west railway line intersects here, and the middle section of the Grand Canal has not been silted up, but because of the continuous repair and widening over the years, Luoyang has become the hub of water and land transportation in the Central Plains like Bianzhou, so that under the situation of key industrial development, the traffic arteries and Qiaoxi have allowed the royal assets to strip out the palace of Luoyang and turn it into a place for tourists to visit, Luoyang's economic development speed continues to rise, and Bianzhou and other places are not distinguished, or even more than a lot.

"That's fine, Ezhou is the Wuhan of the future, just let the cabinet change it to Wuhan next year, anyway, now that even Tokyo is out, it is not strange that another Wuhan will come out." Li Xuanqing shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "In this way, the Jinghan line can be regarded as complete, and when the railway from Sichuan will be repaired to the east across Shannan to Ezhou, the entire southwest railway trunk line will be considered to be fully planned." Li Xuanqing drew a picture on the map with his fingers, and then said with a smile: "Why do I think that Sichuan's development will be accelerated a lot?" ”

"Fortunately, the eldest brother split Sichuan at that time, Hanzhong was merged into Guanzhong, and Dongchuan was also drawn out like later generations, otherwise it would be a giant-level province sooner or later. Sichuan's location advantage is too obvious, especially after the repair of our southwest railway line, the north can directly enter Guanzhong, and the south can directly connect the South and the West, as the southwest economic center, I think this is an engine, and constantly drive the development of the entire southwest region. ”

Li Xuanqing didn't worry much about Qiaoxi's words, at present, Sichuan has really become the center of the southwest, but this worry is not much under the continuous development of traffic conditions. Therefore, Li Xuanqing kept pointing his fingers along the Yangtze River, and said with a smile: "Qiaoxi, you see, starting from Sichuan, once the three industrial centers of Sichuan, Ezhou and Huainan Province are all built, the industrial centers in the south can be implemented." ”

"Is it the industrial belt along the river in later generations? It is also said that the Yangtze River, a golden waterway, is more obvious than the advantages of the northern industrial belt that we have built with great difficulty. Qiaoxi nodded and said with a smile: "It's still early, why don't we take the train from Tianjin all the way south and go directly to Ezhou for a turn?" Then you can take the train back if you go back, and it is very convenient to go from Luoyang to Chang'an. ”

After Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi agreed here, they began to give up their original plan to return to Chang'an directly from the Fengzhou railway line, and took the train south to Luoyang first, and then arrived directly in Ezhou. Jingnanbu political envoy Cheng Wei also greeted Li Xuanqing and his party at the railway station. For the train to be able to go to Jingnan, Cheng Wei was excited for more than half a year, and went to Chang'an to report at the end of the year, for this matter, he took the initiative to invite the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Railways to have a good meal.

"Your Majesty, the Empress and the Imperial Concubine, Weichen can welcome the Son of Heaven at the train station, this is the honor of my life, and it is also the honor of my five million Li people in Jingnan." Cheng Wei has been doing a lot of work in Jingnan over the years, he is the same as Yang Xingmi in Huainan, he put his position very correctly after returning to Li Xuanqing, and he is also very talented, and he is very good at governing the local government, plus he is a native of Jingnan and serves as a parent official in his hometown, Cheng Xiao's mind is how to develop Jingnan's economy up. After Cheng Wei personally went to the countryside to use the methods of later generations to eradicate snails and schistosomiasis, Jingnan's population finally ushered in a great increase and successfully exceeded the 5 million mark. You must know that Jingnan Province drawn by Li Xuanqing today is not as big as Hubei in later generations, and a population of five million is already good for a perennial poor population like Jingnan. Moreover, under a series of policies of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to encourage childbirth, population growth will continue to rise year by year.

"Brother Cheng, I heard that a complete steel industrial base has been established here in Ezhou, right?" After the group came to the Buzheng Embassy's Mansion, Murong Feixue took the Apocalypse and they went to rest first, and sat in the lobby with Li Xuanqing to listen to Cheng Wei's report. However, compared to Li Xuanqing's side, he still had to know all aspects of Jingnan nearby, Qiaoxi was very interested in Ezhou, the steel base of later generations, so he asked after the topic between the two ended.

"Queen Qiyu, Ezhou Iron and Steel Base has indeed been established, and the steel plant and supporting forging and smelting plants have all been put into operation, but the overall scale is still relatively small, with an annual output of only 20,000 tons of steel." Cheng Xiao was a little ashamed when he saw Qiaoxi take the initiative to mention the industrial zone: "The main reason is that there is not enough labor, and the mining progress of the nearby iron ore plant cannot keep up, and the coking coal used in steelmaking needs to be transported from other places, which has been delayed before." Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi are very familiar with this steel base, and they have also arranged for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to re-plan before, so Li Xuanqing took this opportunity to say: "The Ministry of Industry and Commerce will assist you in re-planning the second phase of the project in Jingnan next year at the latest, to be precise, not only Jingnan's industrial planning will also involve the surrounding Jiangxi and Hunan and other places. The other two provinces will gradually establish supporting industries, your three provinces to move around the market, cooperate with each other to connect the industrial chain completely, only in this way can we do the same as the provinces in the northern industrial belt to cooperate with each other's industrial support, common development. ”

"Brother Cheng, I saw on the train that you only have the steel industry, but in fact, Ezhou is not only an iron ore, but also a lot of other mineral resources, you have to contact the Ministry of Land and Resources more so that you can build multiple industries, so as not to waste those mineral resources in vain." Qiaoxi thought about it and said, "After I go back, I will arrange for someone from the royal family to come over and help you, how about it?" As long as you make good use of the railway on the Jinghan Line. ”

"Thank you Queen Mother, when the time comes, Weichen will definitely help to handle this matter." Qiaoxi said that he was going to send someone over, Cheng Xi was immediately overjoyed, rubbed his hands and said with a smile: "What the emperor and the queen said is that Cheng Xi must remember the teachings and live up to expectations." ”

"Jingnan is located in the center of the empire, with convenient water and land transportation, and has been an important place on the southern route since ancient times, and the thoroughfare of the eight provinces, so it is necessary to make full use of the transportation advantages. You are guarding the Yangtze River waterway and the newly built railway line, and you must find a way to develop it, especially before the southern industry is officially launched, you have a huge market demand, so you must speed up the pace. Li Xuanqing is very satisfied with Cheng Wei's attitude, the other party belongs to a person who can do as much as he can, and he will go to Guanzhong and Fengzhou to study for a period of time almost every year over the years, thinking about how to develop Jingnan's economy. On the basis of the previous agricultural stability, he insisted on figuring out this Ezhou Industrial Zone, and his understanding of industry was even much better than Yang Xingmi's, so Li Xuanqing also had great expectations for him, so he had been asked to stay in Jingnan for so many years, just to let him do it.

In the next few days, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi visited the Ezhou Industrial Zone, pointed out the defects in detail, for the huge pollution of the iron and steel industry, Li Xuanqing asked Cheng Wei to go to the Ministry of Water Resources and Environmental Protection as soon as possible, and asked Zhang Quanfu to send a special person to guide them to carry out rectification, fortunately, this is the first phase of the project, and the Ministry of Water Resources and Environmental Protection has a set of relatively mature methods and measures to control pollution, which is just right to use at this time.

After inspecting the industrial zone, Cheng Wei invited Li Xuanqing and his party to a banquet in the Yellow Crane Tower, which also made Li Xuanqing and his wife feel the charm and momentum of this ancient building at close range for the first time, but Li Xuanqing looked at the scene of the Yangtze River flowing eastward in front of him, and suddenly remembered the Yangtze River Bridge in the future. However, it is precisely because there is no bridge, so at this time the Yangtze River to and from the north and south banks of the ship is endless, in the river ship can be inland river ship drawings were skillfully sent to several private shipyards, the two years of power ships and cargo ships on the Yangtze River has been more and more.

"The Yangtze River is thousands of miles away, and all that flows is gold." Thinking of this, Li Xuanqing was also full of emotion, until later generations, this waterway was still the main transportation artery running through the east and west, and it was always the most suitable for a large number of materials to be transported by waterway, which was also the key factor driving the economic development of the entire coast.

After returning to Chang'an from Ezhou, Qiaoxi and Murong Feixue began to arrange for people from the imperial family to go to Jingnan and other places to open new factories, and at the same time, because of the shortage of population and labor, Zhang Qiang even moved some skilled workers from Shenzhou and other places to Ezhou, so that the gunpowder factories and cement factories in Xiantao and other places near Ezhou also started construction soon. In addition to the gunpowder factory being taken over by the equipment department, the remaining dozen factories, large and small, were started in the second half of the tenth year of the Apocalypse, allowing Jingnan's original single industrial zone to gradually expand into a complete industrial system.

Li Xuanqing also began to discuss the construction of several other railways in the Central Plains with Wu Zuodong of the Ministry of Communications after the Jinghan Line was opened. Once the Longhai line has been repaired, the canal is about to arrive in Haizhou, and once it is completed, the materials and products in the northwest can be directly transported to the East China Sea, and then loaded in Haizhou and shipped to Japan and the South Seas. Although the large-scale construction of railways has put great pressure on the Ministry of Finance, but in the current situation of the empire's development in full swing, railway construction is not only a booster to promote economic development but also a weapon to maintain unity, so whether it is Li Xuanqing or Cen Tianshi, the cabinet has no objection to large-scale railway construction, and even like Wu Zuodong, who goes to the extreme, advocates that every province of the empire should be connected to the railway, and it is best that every state should be connected to the railway, only in this way will the railway really change the daily life of the people of the Tang Dynasty.

"The Jinghan line can actually be planned like this." Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi held a pen in the pavilion in front of the Qianqiu Hall to extend the Ezhou Railway all the way to the south, and finally the two laughed at the same time at this moment.