"Dashuai, the deputy prime minister has asked us to go over, and the political envoys of the five northwestern provinces have also gathered at the Shulebu political envoy's mansion, and the deputy prime minister plans to hold a joint meeting of the five provinces." Gauss hurriedly found Wan Yi early in the morning.

"A joint meeting of the five provinces?" Wan Yi frowned and said, "Could it be that the cabinet has promulgated a new development plan?" The time is not right, it is now the end of August, and the northwest is about to enter winter, and no plan can be implemented in the winter, could it be that the emperor has some instructions? Wan Yi's question, Gao Siji didn't know, because the two of them were unwilling to interfere with the command of Hamoud and Wusi'er on the front line, so they led the direct personnel of the command headquarters to withdraw from Genros to Shule early, and handed over all the coordination tasks to Liu Xuan, the chief of staff. As soon as the two of them came back, they were called over for a meeting, and it seemed that Tuoba Si's action was not small, not only the political envoys of the five provinces in terms of civil affairs, but also their military heads. So when the two of them arrived, they looked at Tuoba Siji and several provincial officials and suddenly smiled: "Your civil affairs department doesn't plan to make a big move in the northwest, right?" How many people are coming? Are you going to get us involved too? ”

"yes, what can avoid your military here in the northwest?" After Gao Chongmin and the others saluted Wan Yi and Gauss, Tuoba Si beckoned the two to sit down, and said with a smile: "I made a plan in the third month of Shule, and it has just been approved by the cabinet and the emperor, so I hurriedly summoned you to come here to solicit everyone's opinions, and on the other hand, I also plan to let the Northwest Military Administrative Region release the Northwest Economic Development Plan in the name of the joint meeting of the five provinces. ”

"Northwest Economic Development Plan?" Wan Yi nodded thoughtfully: "This should be the result of the deputy prime minister's work in the past few months, right?" I said, the reception work on the Aral Sea side can be thrown to our military, it turns out that this is a big deal. ”

"Deputy Prime Minister, please tell me about the specific plan, I and the marshal are the ones who command the army, so the civil affairs side is only understanding, and I and the marshal who need our assistance can help." Gauss nodded when he saw Wan Yi and spoke.

"First of all, I want to say that the plan that has been sent to you has been approved by the cabinet and the emperor, and will be implemented within the five provinces after today's meeting in the name of the joint meeting of the five provinces of the Northwest Military Administrative Region." Tuoba Sijian picked up the plan in his hand and said: "And what I want to explain is that because the cabinet's plan for this year is all full, and even next year's budget cannot arrange more funds to be invested in the northwest, so ninety percent of the funds needed for this northwest economic development plan need to be coordinated and raised by the five provinces." Tuoba's words surprised everyone, the central government could not support on a large scale, nearly ninety percent of the funds need to be raised by the provinces, which is at most two years after the recovery of the province of the five northwest provinces feel incomprehensible for a while, do not understand why Tuoba is in a hurry to launch this economic development plan, and the cabinet and the emperor can still approve the implementation? Could it be that there is something else in this plan? However, compared to the doubts and surprises of Qian Biao and Zhao Mingcheng and others, Gao Chongmin, a young man who was transferred from the post of political envoy of Fengzhou, nodded thoughtfully, as a provincial member who has been in charge of Fengzhou, the land of Longxing in the Tang Dynasty for many years, Gao Chongmin's task in Gaochang is to find new opportunities for the development of northwest industry, so he is different from others, in less than a year after coming to Gaochang, in addition to arranging Gaochang's local government affairs, he has also established close ties with Hexi. After the establishment of the industrial bases in the two prefectures of Gansu in Hexi, Gao Chongmin planned to rely on these two industrial bases to establish a complete set of industrial chains for equipment manufacturing and mechanical forging in Gaochang. This is hardly any difficulty for the already very mature model in Fengzhou, and at this time the territory of Gaochang was not as arid as in later generations, and the continuous flow of mountain snow water and the well digging technology transmitted from the interior of the Central Plains allowed Gao Chongmin to use enough foundation to develop industry while arranging the northwest reclamation.

"Let me start with the idea of this proposal." Tuoba Sijian stood up and said: "Everyone should also know that since the Northwest Railway was repaired to Shulejia at the beginning of the year when the big cannibals went to Chang'an Nagong, our Northwest Railway transportation has directly entered the climax, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Department of Railways, the Northwest Railway has now become the busiest transportation and trade line in Datang alongside the Fengzhou Railway Line, and dozens of trains will depart from Guanzhong to the northwest every day, and thousands of materials and commodities will be brought to the northwest. And our five provinces have also gained great benefits on this accelerated Silk Road. However, what I want to say is that the profits that can be obtained from transit trade are not the focus of the development of the Northwest, and if the Northwest wants to develop and become the help of Datang's economic take-off, it must have its own complete development plan and become a link in the economic development chain of Datang's interior, so as to further strengthen the connection with the Central Plains, make the Northwest an indispensable part of Datang, consolidate the people's hearts, and live up to the land that hundreds of thousands of soldiers have fought for several years. Tuoba's words made everyone nod for a while, and Wan Yi and Gauss sat up straight. In addition to letting the military supervise local civil affairs and prevent local civil affairs officials, especially those in the border areas, from having the idea of breaking away from the Central Plains and standing on their own after taking power, the more important thing is to use civil affairs measures to consolidate border stability and accelerate the process of integrating the northwest into the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

"I think the emperor must have felt the thoughts of the deputy prime minister, so he will approve a big move in the northwest when the development of the Central Plains is in full swing, right?" Wan Yi said with a smile: "Please also rest assured that the Western Expeditionary Army will cooperate with the measures of the provincial political envoys in the whole territory of the northwest to jointly manage the northwest and completely integrate into the mainstream economic circle of the Tang Dynasty as soon as possible." Wan Yi's assurance made Tuoba Sizhi nod with relief and smiled: "With the approval of the handsome, I think we will save a lot of worry." ”

"The linkage of the five northwest provinces can indeed complement each other economically, so that in a short period of time, we can use the advantages of regional coordination to introduce part of the industrial links of the northern industrial belt of the Central Plains into the five northwest provinces to form a certain scale." Gao Chongmin, who had not spoken for a long time, said at this time: "The emperor told me before I came to the northwest that the abundance of natural resources is definitely not inferior to that of the northern provinces, and if we can establish a certain industrial base in a place where the natural environment is suitable, and then connect well with the mature industrial system of the Central Plains, we will be able to develop similar to the mining industry, basic manufacturing industry, and some light industry and agricultural and animal husbandry processing industries while the transit trade is developing rapidly." ”

Gao Chongmin's words made Tuoba Sizhi look at the other party with appreciation, it is worthy of staying in Fengzhou, the most developed industrial development for so many years, this mouth directly said the core content of his economic development plan, so he nodded and said: "What the political envoy Gao Bu said is indeed good, if the northwest only relies on transit trade and simple agriculture and animal husbandry, it may be able to develop to a certain extent in a short period of time, but after a long time, it will inevitably become a depression because of the derailment from the Central Plains side more and more." It is precisely because the emperor is very clear about this that he asked me to find a way to develop the industry in the northwest according to local conditions. Therefore, I have formulated about 27 types of industrial projects totaling 137 industrial projects, which are distributed in the five northwestern provinces, and the specific projects allocated to each province are arranged by your political embassy and the development area can also refer to the area arranged by me. Tuoba Si said with a smile: "I think the political envoy of Gao Bu should have his own ideas in this regard, so he might as well talk to everyone." ”

"Thank you Deputy Prime Minister for your praise, Chongmin does not dare to show ugliness in front of you." Gao Chongmin saw that everyone looked at him with a rare shyness, but Tuoba Sizhi waved his hand and smiled: "You have been in Fengzhou for so long, you are a senior in this regard, and I still expect you to be able to guide everyone." ”

"In fact, Chongmin is not worth mentioning, but every year when the emperor comes to Fengzhou, he will mention one or two, and the queen will sometimes say some economic development truths, so I will understand a lot after listening to it." Gao Chongmin said with a smile: "Actually, the deputy prime minister just now has a sentence that the emperor often says, that is, adapt measures to local conditions. It is believed that the most important thing for the economic development of the five northwestern provinces is to adapt measures to local conditions, and our five provinces are relatively evenly distributed in terms of geographical location, and there are also the main lines of the Northwest Railway and the Central Plains, so economic development can be carried out according to the characteristics of each locality. For example, in the North Garden, which is governed by Brother Ming Cheng, animal husbandry and meat product processing can be used as a livelihood project, which has the characteristics of short and fast, and can achieve results in a short time. Moreover, the Ministry of Land and Resources should have a survey report on the Beiting side before, and if the mining industry can be developed, I think that a large amount of ore will directly drive the rapid development of the Beiting economy. Moreover, after the development of the economy, it can also guide the local tribes to move from nomadic herding to living in fixed points, so that once the population is stable, Beiting will also be able to stabilize. Gao Chongmin talked eloquently about how to change herders from nomadic life to fixed-point residence, and Fengzhou side because of his initiative to make thousands of herdsmen begin to change from free-range livestock to captive livestock, after the grassland stabilized, the economy developed rapidly, and this measure also spread to the northern provinces of Beihai, Tatar and Khitan in the shortest possible time, helping them quickly stabilize the population in the province and then restore development. So when Gao Chongmin said this, Zhao Mingcheng and Qu Chengmei's faces became extremely serious, which is the problem they are currently facing.

"Secondly, the geographical environment in the northwest is relatively harsh, many places are either deserts or grasslands, water sources are very important, so the development of industry on the one hand needs water sources, on the other hand, we must comply with the strict environmental policies formulated by the Ministry of Water Resources and Environmental Protection, so my opinion is that we can refer to the model of Hexi Province, and do the environmental protection work in front when it is necessary to establish key industrial zones, which should be paid attention to in Khotan and Anxi provinces." Gao Chongmin hesitated a little and said: "In fact, there is also Gaochang in charge of the government, I have communicated with Hexi before, and I plan to undertake part of the manufacturing and forging industries, and develop a manufacturing base in Gaochang, which must initially meet the general demand for machinery and equipment in the northwest provinces, so as to reduce the pressure on the manufacturing output of the Central Plains." With Gaochang as a foundation, other provinces can continue to develop downstream of this industrial chain, develop the final end of the finished product or carry out the final industry, convert the machine into equipment and then start building the end product. After Gao Chongmin's words were finished, the other individuals felt that their thinking suddenly became clear, except for Zhao Mingcheng, the others were all a generation from the past era, and it was impossible for Gao Chongmin to be so proficient in the new economic development, so many times their thinking was limited to their ideas.

"It is worthy of a person from Fengzhou who said the core in a few words." Tuoba Sijian looked at Gao Chongmin's young face and sighed a little, as if he saw the birth of another rising star of industrial development, there is no doubt that once Murong Hanhai is transferred in the future, this young man who came to Gaochang to govern will definitely enter the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and become the helmsman of this young empire's industry and commerce.

In fact, the deputy prime minister's plan is very detailed, the industrial layout is also very reasonable, and it saves money as much as possible, and uses private investment to maximize the participation of private funds, which is a big deal. Moreover, the most important thing is that the deputy prime minister has grasped the essence of economic development and put the greatest energy of the five provincial government embassies on transportation. Gao Chongmin was a little embarrassed by Tuoba Si's advice, and said.

"Indeed, one of the most important factors in economic development is transportation, especially in the northwest." Tuoba Si said with a smile: "We now have the Northwest Railway trunk line, but this is not enough, I want to say that next year, we must find a way to start Shule as the core, the establishment of a railway branch line that radiates the surrounding provinces, and use trains to completely connect the five northwest provinces." Tuoba Si's words can be regarded as letting Wan Yi completely understand the other party's intention of calling him, and the railway construction in the northwest is only afraid that what is needed most is tens of thousands of prisoners of war to reduce costs as much as possible. So he said with a wry smile: "The deputy prime minister means that the biggest goal of the army next year is to capture enough prisoners, right?" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is my plan for the construction of the Northwest Railway, which has been reviewed by the emperor, with Shule as the core, extending south through Khotan to the city of Khotan, and the main line is to cross the Humi into the territory of Safar, preferably to be able to connect to the Persian governorship. Heading north through Heishui Prefecture to Beiting, and westward through Broken Leaf into Genross, this huge railway construction plan would require millions of prisoners of war to be constructed without interruption in addition to financial pressure. Therefore, the matter of funds is coordinated by the five provinces of each other, and I will find a way to get the cabinet finance to subsidize a little, and then the construction will be carried out in three years. But within three years I need at least 500,000 prisoners of war to join the construction team. ”

"Dashuai, why do I think we have participated in a Hongmen banquet." Gauss Ji smiled bitterly: "500,000 prisoners of war? This is to force the Western Expeditionary Army to fight in Baghdad, which is too bullying. ”