"Okay, I won't send you when you leave, remember to say hello to the teacher when you go back, I got two snow fox skins from the northwest, you go back and find a master to make snow fox knee pads for the teacher." Wan Yi looked at Qian Ning and Xue Wanli's army outside Guazhou City, looked at Yang Tiancheng and the others and smiled.

Hu Xiaosi stepped forward and said with a smile: "Okay, my senior brother, didn't I leave Zhao Si and Xiaohu for you?" Don't be reluctant to me, after the New Year, wait for the railway to be repaired to Ganzhou, and then the army will come more, so many of our brothers may be able to meet in the northwest, and then eat your big family. ”

After a few people giggled and made trouble for a while, they began to lead the army back to the east, while Wan Yi arranged for all the officers and soldiers to assist Tuoba Sijian in handling the government affairs and local affairs on the side of Guazhou. There is no way to do without the deputy prime minister on the western expedition now, and Tuoba Siji also received an order from the General Staff to come to Guazhou as the next batch of main combat troops to listen to the order, so Tuoba Siji also pushed the personnel sent by the cabinet to replace him, and coordinated with Zhang Quanfu, who had already arrived in Suzhou, in Guazhou with peace of mind, to arrange for the winter.

"Deputy Prime Minister, it is estimated that the strength of a battalion of the National Guard arranged by Yang Yi will not be able to arrive now, so I plan to transfer a battalion of troops to you." After Wan Yi sent these people away, he found Tuoba Sizhi and shook his head and said: "This is the information sent by Xuanyingwei, the road through Wusheling Ridge has been blocked, and now it is being repaired urgently, and no one can come." ”

Tuoba Si said with a wry smile: "I had a hunch that something would happen over there, and when I came here before, I also planned to transfer people to repair the section of the road in Wusheling Ridge, but I didn't care about it for a while." Forget it, at least I can rest assured that your army is here, you can let the army take over the prisoner brigade left in Guazhou at that time, and take advantage of the winter to build roads, dig and mine or something, anyway, we have a lot of cold equipment, so as not to freeze them to death, so that they will not have nothing to do and cause chaos. ”

Wan Yi nodded and said, "My side has already arranged for Sima Daoxin to take people to repair the city defense and fortifications." By the way, has your cabinet's arrangement for Sima Daoxin come down? I heard Hou Chun say that he promised to be the history of Guazhou Assassin before, do you want this person to let Xuan Yingwei help investigate? ”

"There's no need, I've already read his basic information, although it's wartime and there's no way to send him to Chang'an School of Administration for further study, but it's still a good person, wait a few days for him to hand over the military affairs in his hands, and I'll take it for a while, and it won't be much of a problem to wait until next year's spring cabinet will give him a fully equipped government affairs team." Tuoba Siji put down the paperwork in his hand and nodded: "It's just that we have too many things at hand now, and we can only use them first, but fortunately, the main forces of the Guiyi army and the Uighurs were all wiped out in the previous battle, otherwise the military management of Guazhou will only last for a long time." After all, we entered in winter, and we have to continue to sprinkle materials into it without output, and I can't wait for the railway to be repaired directly to Guazhou at once, otherwise I'm afraid that after the heavy snowfall, we will be cut off from the Hexi side. ”

"Then organize these prisoners of war to build roads." Wan Yi said a little disappreciatively: "I have read the record sent by Xuan Yingwei, I am afraid that the winter here will last until April and May next year, and it will not get warmer until April and May next year, so long as it doesn't snow, let them go out to work, it's great that I will take someone to be the captain of this road repair brigade, and I promise that the traffic will not be cut off." ”

"Haha, my Wan Dashuai, this is what you said, there are a lot of things on my side, Yang Yi also went back to Hexi, it's all up to you." Tuoba Sizhi threw this matter to Wan Yi without hesitation, and said with a smile: "I plan to transfer some literate soldiers from the army to assist us in the past two days, and all the five counties under the jurisdiction of Guazhou will be done according to the reform plan. Do you know? I have taken a look in the past few days, the Guiyi Army has not done anything good in the past few years, the land in the Guazhou area is basically concentrated in the hands of a few big families, and the ordinary lower-class Han people have no land at all, and there are many places in the middle that are the territory of a few tribes. ”

Tuoba's words made Wan Yi startled, and he was stunned: "Do you mean that the living conditions of our Han people here in the Guiyi Army are even more severe than those areas ruled by a few tribes?" How is this possible? Anyway, they are also of the same lineage, isn't it because the Guiyi Army can survive in the northwest that it depends on the support of these Han people? Don't they know they're digging their own foundation by doing so? ”

"You don't know, since Zhang Huaishen's son Zhang Huaiding ascended the throne, all aspects of the Guiyi army have declined sharply, in the past, when the Guiyi army was at its peak, it was as far west as Yizhou, east as Liangzhou, north as the grassland, and in the south to suppress the counterattack of the Tubo people, crisscrossing thousands of miles in the northwest, with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. Look at the fact that now they are only left with this place of Guazhou and Shazhou, where Zhang Yichao started in the past. Tuoba Si sighed and said: "Over the years, in addition to foreign wars, they have been fighting internally, do you know where all the consumption comes from?" The continuous loss and shrinking of the territory has led to their huge expenditures having to be made up for from the common people in Guazhou and Shazhou, and since Suo Xun and now Zhang Chaofeng, they have basically changed the policies set by Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huaishen, and the status of the Han people under their command has declined sharply, and now they are not even as good as the tribes of other tribes in the territory, which is more obvious at the ordinary level. This time, Zhang Chaofeng was able to ascend to the throne as emperor, because he relied on the Heavenly Fang Sect to suppress the backlash of the people in the territory, otherwise he would not be able to stabilize the contradictions in the territory at all. ”

"So you want to use this reform to expel the influence of the Heavenly Fang Sect, win the hearts of the people in the Guazhou area, and make them turn their hearts to our Datang?" Wan Yi could hear the meaning of Tuoba's words, and said: "Are you sure that under the military management, if there is any repetition among the people, the army can be quickly suppressed and there will be no major changes?" But this is the front line, is it true that the Guiyi army on the other side is vegetarian? If the Uighurs can't survive the winter, can't the rebels come? The sandbar is only a few hundred miles here, is it good? ”

"I'm fishing for Xuan Yingwei, you know? Xiao Si, that guy left a back hand before leaving, and the people of the Flying Eagle Brigade have been lurking for a long time in the past few days, just waiting to give the people of the Tianfang Sect a ruthless blow. Tuoba Si Jian shook his head and said with a smile: "The group of people from the guard department can't catch up, and in the name of your Wan Dashuai's military management, simply let the Flying Eagle Brigade and them take action, and it is neat." ”

Wan Yi shook his head, obviously a little angry that Hu Xiaosi didn't greet him, and scolded with a smile: "This dead boy actually dares to hide from me to come here, go back and see how I clean him up." ”

"Forget it, don't I know you yet? He has been reluctant to participate in government affairs all these years, and he wants to be a pure soldier wholeheartedly, he doesn't want to bother you. After all, these are all government affairs, and his Xuan Ying Wei and the Flying Eagle Brigade are not under the jurisdiction of the General Staff, and are directly under the control of the Tiance Mansion and the emperor, so they will reduce the trouble for you. Tuoba Siji's reaction to this guy was a little funny: "Okay, you mobilize the army in the next few days, we will go hand in hand, and first escort the prisoners out of the city to build roads, so that the reform will be less difficult, and it will also reduce unnecessary trouble, some of the officers of those Guiyi Army are not positive characters, I am afraid that there will be chaos at that time." ”

"Don't worry, I'll take care of these things. I'm going to be the captain of the road construction team tomorrow. Let Liu Xuan cooperate with you in the rear. Wan Yi waved his hand and walked out of the Thorn History Mansion where Tuoba was thinking. Early the next morning, he ordered the Modao battalion to mobilize a battalion of men and horses to escort these prisoners out of the city from the junction of Guazhou and Suzhou to start building roads, although the northwest climate was cold in winter, but with the support of a large number of materials in Suzhou, the road repair project still started smoothly, because this generation basically has no road building materials, so Wan Yi decided to adapt measures to local conditions after discussing with Zhang Quanfu, directly build simple straight roads in the desert and grassland, and widen the roadbed on the basis of the original road. If the sand and gravel are not enough, they will send people to the desert Gobi to find them, and if they can't do it, they will go to bomb the mountains with artillery.

Wan Yi really learned to draw a road map on the map in just a few days, and planned all the roads in Guazhou and the surrounding counties, and even from Yumen Pass to Yangguan and Dunhuang, although it was not the kind of specification in the mainland that could have six to eight carriages in parallel, but at least four carriages were still enough. It's just that there are more deserts in this area, and it's still that type of quicksand, which makes people like Wan Yi who have never done this line of work suffer a lot.

Wan Yi worked hard to repair the road, and Yang Tiancheng and his entourage parted ways with Xue Wanli and others after arriving in Hexi, and they took the troops to Fengzhou by train to repair, and began to accept new weapons in Fengzhou by the way, while at the same time, the replacement troops also embarked on the journey of the westward expedition under the leadership of Chai Jia.

"I finally returned to Chang'an, but the temperature in the gate is more suitable for people to live in, and it still has a little humidity." Hu Xiaosi broke up with Yang Tiancheng and others at Chang'an Railway Station, and said with a smile: "You two go to the General Staff, I'll go home to see my wife and children, let's go to the emperor in the evening, I heard that Feixue is about to marry the emperor, let's hurry to have a glass of wine." Some nonsense made Yang Tiancheng helplessly pull Wang Houchun to report to the General Staff. It's just that when they went to look for Xu Tianxiang, they learned that the chief of the general staff had been dragged by the prime minister to the Changqing Hall to find Li Xuanqing.

"Forget it, I think it's time for the two of us to solve our personal problems while we have time." Yang Tiancheng said with a smile while taking Wang Houchun in the direction of Changqing Palace: "Old Jiu, shouldn't you think about your own big things?" Before his words were finished, Wang Houchun hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Don't be, fourth brother, you still think about yourself, or I will go back and let the third brother go to Xu's house to tell you to go in person, I heard that Xu Xingxia's sister has a good impression of you, and the last time people went all the way to Tianjin to see you, you left early." ”

The two of them made fun of each other while walking, and soon arrived at the Changqing Palace, but when he saw Zuo Tiancheng, the person who saw the head and the end of the dragon, was actually sitting inside, he suddenly guessed a little bit about what these people were discussing today. Yang Tiancheng walked in and saluted Li Xuanqing and said with a smile: "Tianxiang, has Lao Zuo done something recently, let the emperor and the prime minister catch it." ”

Zuo Tiancheng saw these two guys as soon as they entered the door, and he couldn't help but hammer Wang Houchun, who was sitting next to him, smiled and scolded: "I don't know if I committed a crime, but I know that the two of you have a wonderful trip to the northwest, especially you are thick, you have to treat yourself, this go and go shopping casually to bring such a big victory, I see that the emperor is going to give you more rewards during the New Year." ”

After a few people laughed for a while, Yang Tiancheng said with a straight face: "Your Majesty, are you discussing the issue of supply and transportation in the northwest winter?" When we came back, we heard that the construction of the railway was about to stop, and it was basically difficult to start construction in the northwest winter. As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Houchun took over the conversation and said: "But in fact, there should be no problem to the east of Wusheling Ridge, when we came back, we looked at it, and the Hexi Corridor was blocked by Qilian Mountain, and the climate over there was a little strange." ”

"That's not up to us, the Ministry of Communications and Yang Yi will deal with it at their own discretion." Cen Tianshi shook his head and said: "It's just that even if it can be repaired, I'm afraid that the progress will be much slower, so it's unrealistic to expect the railway." Now that a large number of materials in Hexi cannot pass, it will definitely affect the war in the coming year, relying on those oases in the desert in Ganzhou, how much output can be produced? ”

"What about walking from the steppe? Didn't Gao Siji clean up the southern Tatars before? Isn't the Datar province already doing well on the steppe? Wang Houchun shook his head and said.

"No, Houchun, you don't know, the grassland is only afraid that it is more difficult to walk in Hexi in winter, those Tatars rely on the edge of Hexi to survive the cold winter in winter, if Hexi is not taken down by us, they all have to go to Hexi to avoid the cold." Zuo Tiancheng said: "This is unrealistic, so the conclusion that our logistics department and the Yelu family have discussed is to use the method of ant moving, and transport the materials from Yangguan to Ganzhou little by little, and then relay them to Guazhou." Even if necessary, it can be considered to withdraw part of the army to Suzhou and other places, so as to reduce the pressure on transportation. ”

In fact, Li Xuanqing is also helpless about the traffic in the northwest, at this time, no matter what the railway or the straight road is, it is basically far away and can't quench the thirst of the near, so he waved his hand to signal Yang Tiancheng not to speak, and said: "The logistics department should do it according to its own plan, and when necessary, the General Staff can notify Wan Yi to withdraw part of the soldiers and horses of the Western Expeditionary Army to Suzhou and other places." However, the troops remaining in Guazhou must find a way to cooperate with Tuoba Si Zhi, although the winter is long and cold, it is not impossible to do anything, at least the people in the northwest can win over it. ”

Li Xuanqing's words made Cen Tianshi's heart move, and he was secretly surprised if Li Xuanqing's movements were faster, but what he didn't expect was that Tuoba Sizhi on the front line had already begun to clean up those scattered people's hearts, and the northwest also ushered in a completely different drastic change.