At the end of March of the sixth year, after the opening of the Shule Railway, the northwest side also set off a climax of prosperous development like the mainland, with nomadic animal husbandry and commerce as the leader, all kinds of caravans began to frequently haunt various places, not only from the Central Plains to transport all kinds of goods and all kinds of grain and processed food to sell to various places, but also began to according to the needs of the mainland, the northwest special products such as cattle, sheep and livestock, All kinds of mineral resources are also under the requirements of the caravan by the people around the excavation and then transported to the railway along the Yelujia opened a commercial house or directly to the local government yamen, and then aggregated and sent to the interior, in just over a month the northwest and the interior of this material exchange is more than last year, the Northwest Railway from the day of opening has entered the formal increase stage, a car of materials in and out of the bring infinite business opportunities and vitality. The promotion and complementarity of this trade to the industry and commerce in the interior also made Tuoba Sijian gradually put down his mind and began to assist the money village in laying the points. The northwest has always been prolific in gold and silver and other precious metals, in the case of the unification of the northwest, the unification of currency has become a top priority, in the early stage in Shule, Qiuzi and Khotan and other big cities, the money village has been laid in place, a large number of Tang coins accompanied by the exchange of gold and silver and the transaction of bulk materials also let the financial industry gradually prosper in the northwest. Although the northwest region is huge compared to the mainland, there are endless grasslands and deserts in the middle, but the development of finance has always been accompanied by the development of industry and commerce, so almost a city, the money village can return a large amount of gold and silver, the government of the Northwest Military Region also issued a unified currency in the northwest, ban the gold and silver trading instructions, and let the provincial government and the guard department of the government to take out a large number of manpower to crack down on the private trade of gold and silver, ban the black market trading in the underground market, and crack down on speculation. A large amount of gold was amassed in a short period of time by means of confiscation and fines, and special customs offices were set up in border cities to control the import and export of gold and silver. In recent years, many people are not aware of the benefits of finance, especially the unified currency, and the Datang financial department headed by Li Xuanqing has been formulating the kind of internal market similar to that of later generations in the financial Tang currency trading circle. Therefore, the demand for Tang coins in the northwest increased greatly in a short period of time, and those big food merchants and tribal merchants in other parts of the northwest exchanged the gold and silver stored in their hands into Tang coins in order to be able to trade with the Tang merchants, so that the Datang money house located in the headquarters of Chang'an even brought a large amount of cash to all parts of the northwest to facilitate the supply of the market.

"Big brother, are you planning to build a straight road from Shule south to Safar?" Qiaoxi couldn't help but be a little puzzled when he looked at the northwest traffic route map sketched by Li Xuanqing, because the Safar side has not arranged to establish a separate province for the time being, and it is still under military control, so the cabinet has not even changed its name until now, and still uses the name left by the Tang Dynasty Anxi Dadu, but the one drawn by Li Xuanqing started from Shule and then passed through Shuangqu City, and then passed through Khotan, all the way to the south, and coincided with the north-south artery connecting Safar and Khotan that is now being built. Once this road is built, it will inevitably make a fundamental change in the entire transportation system in the northwest, relying on this straight road, the northwest will be completely connected into a whole, and then Shule as the center and the mainland of the Tang Dynasty will be linked together, and it will be inseparable from then on.

"Let's build a straight road first, and if you can, you can build a railway." Li Xuanqing touched his mouth and pulled Qiaoxi together and said with a smile: "In this way, our railway framework has actually been completed, and the branches added in the later stage depend on how much money there is in the finance." ”

"That's right, but we have drawn this framework on a larger scale than in later generations, but I'm afraid that there is really not so much money in the finances. Even if the development of industry and commerce is getting better and better year by year, it is still not comparable to the economic scale of later generations. Qiaoxi frowned and said thoughtfully: "Unless you go to grab money to repair it, you have to have enough human resources, otherwise I'm afraid it won't be possible." ”

"Wang Shoutian should have come back, with him opening the Great Food Trade Route, I don't think it is a big problem to go to the Great Food to grab money, so I plan to let the Murong and Yelu families in the northwest try to see if they can bypass the Great Food to develop the trade of Great Qin." Li Xuanqing nodded and said suddenly, with a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth.

"This takes a bit of time, from the northwest to the west should be the Aral Sea and other places, and then west is not the Caspian Sea? Then we went to the Mediterranean, and there were basically Slavs along the way, and the tribes were some large and small principality city-states, which if we opened up a land passage, I don't think it would be possible to achieve anything in a short period of time by relying on caravans. Qiaoxi knew that Li Xuanqing wanted to use silk, porcelain and other things to knock open the Daqin market and then dump industrial products, which was equivalent to opening up the entire four major civilization empires, and the subsequent industrial development of the Tang Dynasty would also obtain a stable market, so as to start using industrial products to plunder the world's wealth.

"I suddenly feel that the world is so big, and our Datang population base can't swallow it." Qiaoxi's words made Li Xuanqing touch his head and smile bitterly.

When Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi of Chang'an were thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to build a major transportation artery in the northwest to plunder the wealth of Dashi, the fleet that returned from the distant Baghdad voyage finally docked in Xihai County, and the fleet that had been tired for more than two months caused a huge sensation after docking, and nearly 10,000 crew members and soldiers brought new news to this emerging city after getting off the ship, which was originally an immigrant city, and most of the residents were even prisoners who had just settled down or people who moved from other places in Nanzhao. But they still couldn't stop their curiosity about the various new news brought by the fleet, and the major restaurants and liquor stores in Xihai County became the most lively places at this time, and these crew members needed food and wine to eliminate the boredom and loneliness caused by the long voyage for more than two months, and along with the mouths of these people, the news from the distant Western Ocean also spread.

"Hurry up, hurry up and send all of these to Qianzhuang, and then hand over the list to Xuan Yingwei and let them send it to Chang'an as quickly as possible." Wang Shoutian couldn't care about the tiredness of his body, and commanded the naval officers and soldiers accompanying the ship to cooperate with the people of the Xihai County Assassin's Mansion to move all the gold and silver wealth brought back from this trip into the Qianzhuang warehouse before he could take care of drinking saliva. In addition to the income of the caravan to which they belong and then dispose of it, the proceeds from the breech guns attached to the logistics department and the military need to be directly handed over to the Ministry of Finance, and such a large-scale gold and silver wealth also needs to be converted into Tang currency in a timely manner, so there are a lot of procedures required in the middle, but Wang Shoutian's face was full of joy, and he didn't even bother to participate in the banquet with the assassin of Xihai County, and he muttered to Qu Chengxing to discuss the income from this trade.

"Minister Wang, if we want to make trade sustainable and long-term, we will at least set up more than three overseas strongholds along the way, in addition to the Lion Country, there are also the mouth of the Ganges River, Varabi, and even the establishment of a stronghold by the Pala Dynasty from Xihai County, so as to ensure that there are enough supply points for ships coming and going, and there are not many things that need to be prepared. Moreover, our Western Fleet also needs to report to the Admiralty and get the authorization of the General Staff to use the Marine Corps to occupy the land and then build the port. Qu Chengxing said: "My navigation diary has been sent to Chang'an, compared to these strongholds, it is now on the table of the General Staff. ”

"It's okay, I also rushed back to Chang'an as soon as possible, and organized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cooperate with you, now that the power of the Tang Dynasty is flourishing, some small places do not need the army to fight, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can take it with an envoy, and then as long as the follow-up caravan can bring enough building materials and workers to build the port wharf, there will be no problem." After Wang Shoutian's envoy, the definition of his foreign affairs department became a little clearer, so he said with a smile: "At most, your army is supporting you in the back, and I can go and show off my might." ”

"Don't say it, I need to take a break and rush back to Chang'an as quickly as possible, Da Shi said that he wants to come to pay tribute, can't we be slower than them, right? I need to send the latest news from inside Da Shi to the Emperor and the Prime Minister so that they can make the latest decisions. Wang Shoutian said this, Qu Chengxing didn't say much, he also needed to rush back to the Admiralty to report the specific matters of the voyage to Guo Chongtao, and ask for instructions on the next move of the Western Fleet. So after a hurried night's rest in Xihai County, the two hurried on the road, the two crossed Nanzhao, and then took a boat north at Lianzhou Port, and then took a train directly from Tianjin Port to Chang'an. The formation of this road between the two also made them staunch supporters of the construction of the Southwest Railway, returning to Chang'an from Xihai County actually went around the empire in a big circle, and the delay was too much, if you take the land route, you are afraid that it will consume more time in the case that southern Sichuan has not yet connected to the Nanzhao Qiqi.

While Wang Shoutian was heading towards Chang'an day and night, a special contingent from the northwest also began to come towards the Tang border, and was immediately discovered by the Tang border army and brought to the Uighur garrison.

"The Great Food Tributary Mission?" Hammud looked at the several big cannibal representatives in front of him and frowned, not that he had any prejudice against the big cannibals, but it was uncomfortable to see that the place was actually dressed up by the Tianfang cultists, but when he saw the customs clearance certificate of the Foreign Affairs Department in the lobby issued by Wang Shoutian, he finally nodded, sent someone to escort the mission to Shule, and quickly informed Wan Yi and Tuoba Siji, and then the news was sent to the Chang'an base camp along the railway. Because Wang Shoutian brought a lot of heavy gifts and a large number of commodities when he went to Dashi before, this time the Da Shiren also took a whole caravan to Datang, according to them, most of the middle was presented to His Majesty the Tang Emperor, and the rest were the specialties of the Dashi Empire, hoping to communicate with Datang. However, neither Hammud nor Tuoba Sizhi and Wan Yi didn't care about these words, Datang is now in the third year of the development of the five-year industrial plan, and it is fundamentally different from the agricultural era.

On the one hand, Wang Shoutian's representative Li Xuanqing and the cabinet issued customs clearance diplomas to people early on, and on the other hand, tribute is also a way to show the prestige of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, like Hamoud, Wan Yi sent a team of men and horses, regardless of the open mouth of the train that was large enough to stuff an egg when these big cannibals saw it for the first time, and stuffed these people onto the train back to Chang'an from Shule. In this way, when the mission of the Great Food Empire arrived in Chang'an, Wang Shoutian's side also happened to return, and the two sides arrived in Chang'an almost at the same time, and the two sides met at the Chang'an Railway Station.

As the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tang Dynasty, the matter of these foreign missions coming to Beijing itself was within their purview, so Wang Shoutian immediately arranged for the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send the delegation of the Great Food Empire to the post house designated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a temporary rest, and he urgently rushed back to the cabinet to report to Cen Tianshi.

At this time, Cen Tianshi had already received urgent news from Wang Shoutian and the northwest, so when Wang Shoutian reported, he pulled him to find Li Xuanqing together, so Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi also faced the real information of the Great Food Empire of this era for the first time, and the great empire that once traversed three continents.

I don't have any feeling about what Wang Shoutian said that the Great Food Empire is full of Tianfang Sect believers and mosques, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi, the other party is originally a **** country and it also relies on Tianfang Sect to start, and it is not surprising that most of the people in the territory are Tianfang Sects. On the contrary, it was a series of news about the customs and economic development of the Great Food Empire that Wang Shoutian said, which made the two nod silently, and through Wang Shoutian's personal account of the basic situation of the Great Food Empire, especially the black-clothed Great Food, Li Xuanqing had a relatively clear concept. The national strength of the black-clothed food at this time is really very strong, relying on the plunder of foreign wars, the big cannibals are very rich, and there are many slaves in the territory, so that the big cannibals can use these slaves to engage in heavy work and liberate more manpower to start a war, so the last big war was nothing to the other party, and the captured commander Ayebi was not even held accountable, indicating that the other party had enough strength to launch a second war on the one hand, On the other hand, I am afraid that it is also a temporary lack of preparation, especially for the lack of understanding of Datang, so I will choose a truce.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepares, since people are here to pay tribute, we can't go too far, and besides, you scared the other party with ironclad warships in Baghdad, and they are going to touch our bottom this time." Li Xuanqing smiled slightly: "However, there is a principle, that is, we have opened the internal market of Dashi, so whether it is a war or a truce, commerce and trade cannot be stopped, this is our bottom line." The Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Logistics have joined forces to select an up-to-date list of commodities suitable for foreign trade and export, and then vigorously develop trade with the Great Food Empire. ”

"Your Majesty, before I came back, I told Qu Chengxing, the chief director of the Western Fleet, about this, and he said that there is still a lot of preparation to be made if the Western routes are to be fully opened for a long time." Before Wang Shoutian's words were finished, Cen Tianshi smiled and said, "Isn't it just a matter of supplying the base." So many marines directly sent over to grab it, and then let the fleet go to transport the charcoal one by one, and even the charcoal we can go to the local area to grab it. ”

"Come on, if your cabinet has figured it out, go directly to Tianxiang and let the navy do it." Cen Tianshi's few words made Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi look at each other and smile.