In mid-April of the second year of the Apocalypse, Li Xuanqing and his entourage returned to Chang'an after bidding farewell to the voyage fleet and formally met with Qu Chengmei's brothers. Li Xuanqing also affirmed Qu Chengmei's behavior in Jiaozhou during the official reception, and it is rare to be able to maintain Han unification in a wild place, and the court of right and wrong in the past will deal with it impartially, so that he should not worry and study at the School of Administration with peace of mind. As for Qu Chengxing, he went to the Naval Academy in Tianjin, and according to his ambition, he was wholeheartedly preparing to enter the ocean.

After arranging these things, Li Xuanqing's energy gradually began to shift to domestic economic development, urging all localities to implement the development plans formulated by this year's Imperial Conference according to the plan, and striving to build several major economic centers to promote the development of the surrounding economic situation. Because of the long period of stability in the interior of the empire and the relatively good economic foundation of the empire, the interior of the empire and the southern part of the Yangtze River have gradually kept up with the pace of development in the north. The two places of Hezhong and Bingzhou have gradually entered the fast lane because of their resource advantages, and Fengzhou, the first economic center of the empire, are connected together, using the mature technological advantages of Fengzhou, preparing for the linkage of the three provinces, and the railway plan of the three provinces formulated by the Ministry of Communications and the political envoy Yamen of the three provinces has also begun to enter the actual exploration stage. In the face of the Ministry of Communications' ambitious railway plan, Li Xuanqing ignored it, and directly let the cabinet to discuss, and the roads in the state and Hezhong are rugged and complicated, if there is no railway to drive, I am afraid that the development momentum will be gradually surpassed by other provinces, and the development of Fengzhou also needs a fast channel, convenient for the transportation of goods and goods, and the fatal thing is that in the current exploration of mineable coal resources, these three places occupy the majority of the entire empire of coal mining, in the era of new power gradually popularized, The lack of a convenient and fast transportation channel for the transportation of coal was only afraid that it would seriously drag down the development of the entire empire's industry, which was the main reason why Cen Tianshi finally approved it when he was considering the railway plan of the three provinces of the Ministry of Communications. In fact, at this stage, the production of coal in Bingzhou must rely on the first officially operated railway in China, from Taiyuan to Shenzhou, and then transfer to the canal. Prior to the opening of the Bohai Bay Railway, coal mining throughout the empire was concentrated in these three provinces, and the amount of coal produced in other regions was too small to meet the growing market demand.

"Big brother, it seems that the political envoys of these three provinces have a good vision, and they have already thought of the idea of building a coal mining base." Qiaoxi saw Li Xuanqing sketching on the map, and said with a smile: "However, simple coal mining is not a long-term solution, although the empire has large coal reserves, but a single energy mining base is not advisable." I am going to move the industrial group's deep processing and further smelting measures to these three provinces, at least the current technologies can meet the production needs, and can also drive the development of other industries. ”

"Let Mu Chen arrange this matter, as long as the research results of the industrial group reach large-scale production, they can go to open factories for production, we can be regarded as initially establishing a set of industrial systems, and then it will be a process of continuous replication and derivation." Li Xuanqing asked Qiaoxi to arrange these things on his own, relying on the current market scale, there is no need to be afraid of saturation at all, plus the Nanzhao that is about to be included in the territory and the upcoming western expedition to Anxi, etc., the territory of the entire Tang Empire is gradually recovering to the extreme.

"Second Brother Xu is here, I'm afraid that there is news from Nanzhao." Qiao Xi was originally going to say something, and when he saw that Xu Tianxiang had already walked over at the gate of Changqing Palace, he suddenly smiled and said: "Big brother, let's talk, I'll go and arrange it, eat here at noon, and tomorrow I'll go to Mu Chen and ask him to arrange it as soon as possible." ”

"I really can't hide anything." Xu Tianxiang naturally heard Qiaoxi's words, walked over and said with a smile: "Xue Yang has entered the territory of Nanzhao Kingdom in advance as planned. According to the battle plan he reported, he planned to attack the Mangbu area from Mazhou lightly and attract the Nanzhao army to the Mangbu area, and he led the main force of the third battalion to make a detour behind the enemy and cut off the enemy's rear passage, so as to destroy the main force of the Nanzhao State that was currently confronting him at the border of Qiqi. ”

Li Xuanqing found a map of the south and looked at the geographical location of Mangbu, nodded and said: "This kid never intends to fight head-on, but this is okay, the surprise attack can be regarded as being able to speed up the course of the war, and this is the best and most difficult tactic for his road there." What about Chen Yu, did Chai Jia set off on time to contain the army in the south of Nanzhao Kingdom? ”

"Chai Jia has set off, and according to his plan, he is ready to attack Jianshui City directly, but Chen Yu does not plan to join forces with Chai Jia for the time being, he plans to start from Fengzhou in Jiaozhou Province and cut off the southern territory of Nanzhao Kingdom along the southern line, so that the Black Tooth Ten Divisions and Wendan City will become enclaves." Xu Tianxiang used charcoal to draw the target of the three-way army on the map, and said: "The main destination of Xue Yang's army is the Tonghai Governor's Mansion, Chai Jia is Jianshui City, and Chen Yu is Profit City and Mangnai Dao. ”

"It seems that the three of them have thought of going together. Once these three important towns are captured, they will inevitably be able to fundamentally cut off the way for Nanzhao to send troops from the capital to the east and fight for us, so that Nanzhao will really enter the brink of annihilation. Li Xuanqing nodded, and he put down his mind about Nanzhao's strategy, and said, "How much news have you found in Nanzhao?" What's the latest news on Xuan Yingwei's side? ”

Xu Tianxiang was about to answer, Hu Xiaosi's voice came from outside the door, this guy has always been elusive, and no one else expected it, so no one walked in and said with a smile: "The emperor forgives me, I have been with Gesang for the past two days, and I almost forgot to report the matter." ”

Li Xuanqing didn't bother to care about this guy's temperament, but smiled: "How is Gesang?" I heard Qiaoxi say that the harm is more serious, which made his old father so frightened that he came to Chang'an from northern Tibet. ”

Hu Xiaosi waved his hand and said with a smile: "Gesang is not much of a problem, I went to find the old dean of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to come and see, and it should be no problem after a while." You just talked about Nanzhao, Xuan Yingwei estimates that there is some information here, you two had better understand it, otherwise it is estimated that the front line will suffer at that time. ”

"Although the capital of Nanzhao is in Yangtho City, in fact, its administrative center has long been moved to Dali City in the Erhai region, which is the west of the Tonghai Governor's Mansion as you say. In fact, most of the real power in the country was delegated to the powerful minister Zheng Maihei. In fact, there are only 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses directly controlled by the lord of Nanzhao, and the rest are soldiers and horses of a few other tribes. Now Zheng Maisi has gathered the three tribal alliances of King Liu, King Hao and King Yang on the east bank of Erhai Lake, ready to officially face off with us. As for the army of Nanzhao in Mangbu and other places, it is actually a rabble of a few tribes within its borders, and they are hostile to us after being instigated by Zheng Maihei. After Hu Xiaosi said this, he continued: "But fortunately, Nanzhao attacked central Sichuan and Jiaozhou several times before, and was beaten by Li Deyu and Gao Biao, and the casualties of young and middle-aged people in the country are too great, and it is unknown how they have recovered over the years, but the national strength is definitely not too strong, otherwise they would not have sent envoys to Chang'an." And fighting with us is not necessarily what Long Xun meant, but Zheng Maihei's meaning, he originally planned to occupy the magpie's nest and drive Long Xun from power, but Long Xun has the only standing army in Nanzhao in his hands, so he has delayed until now, and we have taken the lead. ”

"Did you send this news to Xue Yang, Chai Jia, and Chen Yu?" Xu Tianxiang pondered for a long time and asked, "Your Majesty, do you need to remind the three of them to change their battle plan and join forces before the final combat goal is achieved?" ”

"When I sent my news back to Chang'an, I left a copy for their Xuanying guards who accompanied the army, and they got the news earlier than us, and it must be more detailed than us, and Xue Yang took advantage of the convenience of his son-in-law, so I am afraid that he will get much more news than us." Before Li Xuanqing could answer, Hu Xiaosi had already said: "As for Chai Jia and Chen Yu, you don't have to worry, when Nanzhao's army was at its strongest, there were more than 200,000 soldiers and horses in the country, do you think how many people they can have?" ”

Li Xuanqing nodded and said, "Xiao Si is right, there is no need to interrupt their plans, let them decide for themselves on the front line." If we can't defeat the more than 200,000 troops in Nanzhaoguo, then the Tiance Army will not have the face to call it the Tiance Army anymore. ”

"I also drew the terrain and roads along the route and gave them them. I think Chai Jia's journey should be the easiest. After all, they are the main channel for Nanzhao to connect with our Datang mainland. Although the other two places are not easy to walk, they have roads. Hu Xiaosi smiled: "That's all I can do." ”

"Xue Yang has the Qi people to lead the way, Chai Jia's route is the easiest, and Chen Yu has the old road of the old Nanzhao attacking Jiaozhou, which is not bad. I don't think Yang Hu's road repair brigade will have a chance to surpass the marching speed of the field army this time. Xu Tianxiang said with a smile.

"Go and inform Yang Hu, if you encounter a road problem that you can't solve, find a way to detour, and if you can't do it, you will temporarily change the road to repair. The terrain in the southwest is complex, and this time it is blocked by the Hengduan Mountains, so don't be too reluctant. Li Xuanqing also had a headache when he thought of the road conditions in this area in the future, and directly arranged for Xu Tianxiang to inform Yang Hu not to drill the horns.

In fact, when Xu Tianxiang was about to inform Yang Hu, he had a headache on the front line, and when he was building a road in the territory of Qiqi, he thought it was a difficulty, and this time when he arrived at the border of Nanzhao, he found that what he encountered before was a small problem, and there was a mountain after a mountain at every turn, and there were cliffs between the mountains, which did not meet the construction conditions at all, even if he used gunpowder to open the road, it would be useless, so he had no choice but to find another way, using the mountain roads before the Qiqi people and before Nanzhao to build simple roads. Deliver supplies to the front line as soon as possible. Fortunately, the army under the command of Xu Ying was protected along the way, and the Qiqi people continued to send people deep into the territory of Nanzhao to persuade their friendly neighbors to surrender, so they reluctantly let the army enter the territory of Mangbu.

However, the third battalion and the mountain battalion led by Xue Yang turned a blind eye to these high mountain dangers, and the 30,000-strong army was easily interspersed between the lofty mountains and mountains, and lay in ambush behind the arrival of Mangbu City in mid-April of the second year of the Apocalypse, waiting for the reaction of Nanzhao. At this time, Xu Ying's frontal containment has not yet been put in place, and the fighter still needs to wait.

The northern line is waiting for the opportunity, and Chai Jia, who has the best path, has crossed the border from Huzhou at this time, but what he encountered was not the regular troops of Nanzhao, but the harassment of a few tribes in various places, and the coalition composed of these minority tribes in the southwest even fought a decent battle with Chai Jia, but in front of the new muskets, these few tribes who still lived in the primitive society naturally did not take advantage of it, and the sound of those guns echoed in their ears like a nightmare to take away a fresh life, Chai Jia completely opened the road after the First World War, so that these few tribes were terrified, and the soldiers pointed directly at Jianshui City.

Compared with the smoothness of Chai Jia's side, Chen Yu's 100,000 troops set off from Fengzhou and encountered the most difficult march in history, even if there was a flying eagle brigade leading the way in front, they were still in trouble shuttling through the rainforest, the rain boots and rain gear issued by the logistics department were used, and many people were infected with tropical diseases, and were tortured by malaria and finally lost their lives, Chen Yu in desperation could only slow down the march, let the military doctors with the army speed up the treatment of the wounded and sick, and even in order to deal with the rainforest, Direct fire burns a path in the middle of the jungle. This way was a mess of chickens, dogs, and dogs, and it took more than ten days to march less than a few hundred kilometers. In the end, Chen Yu decided to let most of the wounded return to Fengzhou, and he personally led the elite 50,000 people to continue to set off, speed up, and use the old road to go their separate ways.

Although Chen Yu encountered unprecedented problems, he also summed up the essence of a series of tropical operations and marches, making up for the biggest gap in the Tiance Army's formation, and after the war, this unit was set up as a separate corps to fight in the tropical rainforest area.

At the end of April of the second year of the Apocalypse, Chai Jia's army was the first to arrive at the place of battle - Jianshui City, and the appearance of the Tiance army also had a huge impact on the domestic affairs of Nanzhao, Zheng Maisi even couldn't suppress the other six Jiedu envoys for a while, these people were used as strikers by Zheng Maisi in the face of the main force of the Tiance army, which consumed the combat power of the Tiance army and caused a strong backlash. By the time Zheng Maisi finally suppressed the internal backlash, Chai Jia was already preparing to attack the city. Because Jianshui City was already very close to Dali City, the appearance of 50,000 troops made Zheng Maisi make a strategic miscalculation, thinking that the Tiance Army on the North Road was a false army, so he transferred troops from the Mangbu area to the south to prepare to encircle Chaijia's department. This gave Xue Yang a rare opportunity to intercept the main army of Nanzhao from Mangbu when Xu Ying's main army had just arrived under Mangbu, and a big battle started in Mangbu.

On April 27, the second year of the Apocalypse, when Li Xuanqing attended the opening ceremony of the Yellow River Railway Bridge, the two battlefields on the southern front started almost at the same time, and the Nanzhao strategy officially entered the actual combat stage.