At the beginning of April 890, except for the cavalry corps on guard in the north, almost all the manpower of Tiance Mansion was released from the previous plan and mobilized for the annual spring ploughing. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Tiance Army took off their armor and joined the common people to help with farming. This tradition has been continuing for three years since Fengzhou, and has penetrated into the bone marrow of Tiance Mansion and has become a habit.

Li Xuanqing took Qiaoxi to Danzhou on the northern front at this time, which was the forefront of the confrontation between the Tiance army and the Khitans, but at this time, the infantry battalion of the Tiance army still turned over the land that had been resting for a winter with the people, and then sowed seeds. There are not many people in Danzhou, and there are less than tens of thousands of people in the whole area, and some of them are herdsmen, so this traffic artery located in front of the North China Plain to the northeast has less than 550,000 acres of cultivated land, and one of them is still a state-owned farm of 200,000 acres.

Since Tuoba Siji sent an infantry battalion to garrison Danzhou, the originally chaotic situation in Danzhou has gradually improved. After officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs took over the civil affairs, the government affairs here began to be as informal as those in the mainland. Recently, Datang Qianzhuang has also settled in Danzhou, as an important support point for the former grassland trade.

"Li San, how is the army's preparations at present?" Because Danzhou is the front line, it is garrisoned by field troops, and this infantry battalion is all the old man Li San, who is the first batch of old men who followed Li Xuanqing all the way from Lingzhou. At this moment, several people were helping the people plough the land while describing the army's preparations for war. Qiaoxi walked aside with a basket and poured water for a few people.

"Lord Qi, at present, the infantry battalion is basically preparing to defend the city, and the drills carried out are also in this aspect." Seeing Li Xuanqing's inquiry, Li San hurriedly explained the situation during this period of time, and said, "There are also several drills against cavalry. This side of the dark north is more suitable for cavalry legions, so there is no way to avoid this aspect. ”

"Danzhou is located on the front line, and the role of your infantry is not to destroy the enemy, but to defend the city and defend the people, and it can even be said that it is the last line of defense in Danzhou. It has been less than half a year since our Tiance Mansion came to Danzhou, and the people have just accepted us, so you are telling the people that Tiance Mansion is with the people and with Danzhou. Li Xuanqing was very satisfied with Li San's decent character, so he continued: "As for going out of the city and cavalry field battles, we have basically passed the predicament in the early stage now, and we have enough cavalry to fight with the opponent in the field. ”

"Big brother, Brother Hu is here." Li Xuanqing was about to continue to say something to Li San, when Qiaoxi came quickly with Hu Xiaosi.

Li Xuanqing's face was stunned, Hu Xiaosi came to find him at this time, did he understand the internal situation of the Khitans? So he didn't care about continuing to talk to Li San and hurriedly stepped forward.

"The latest news from the Flying Eagle Brigade, there is news from Yelu Hanxiong." Hu Xiaosi couldn't take care of it and said quickly: "Yelu Hanxiong plans to borrow a knife to kill people, let us help him defeat the opposition forces within the Khitan, and completely integrate the Khitan in one fell swoop." ”

"Is the information reliable? Is there any movement on the southern tribe side now? Li Xuanqing nodded thoughtfully and said, "Did you come directly or did you get angry with Chen Fan?"

"The news is absolutely reliable, Xiaohu and they secretly infiltrated Yelu Hanxiong's royal court, which is the news obtained by eavesdropping on the conversation between Yelu Hanxiong and his son Yelu Abaoji. Moreover, Abaoji has already commanded the Wang Tingwei to secretly go to the southern tribe border, probably to wait for the other party's army to fight with us, and they will move behind to kill those tribal elders who oppose Yelu Hanxiong. Hu Xiaosi continued: "At present, the southern tribes do not know about this matter, and are still preparing to go south, and the temperature has risen recently, their preparations have been basically completed, and it is estimated that they will go south in the near future." ”

"Lord, I have a plan." Hu Xiaosi saw Li Xuanqing silent, and said what he thought in his heart, "I want to go north secretly once, provoke the Khitan people to fight among themselves, and reduce our pressure." ”

Li Xuanqing suddenly raised his head, saw Hu Xiaosi's eyes, nodded and said, "This time, we will not only provoke them to fight, but also defeat the main force of the Khitans in one fell swoop." Let Chen Fan secretly go north in batches to cooperate with you, and when they are in the middle of infighting, we will send troops to the Youbei Grassland to defeat them completely. ”

Li Xuanqing's words were instantly comprehended by Hu Xiaosi, who smiled and said: "It's still the lord's brain, I'll go to Chen Fan immediately, and go north immediately after the calculation, this time I must defeat the Khitans." ”

Hu Xiaosi went to find Chen Fan, and Li Xuanqing didn't have the heart to continue to stay in Danzhou. After hurriedly explaining Li San's full vigilance during this time, he returned to Jizhou again.

At this time, Hu Xiaosi had already set off, and Chen Fan was studying the follow-up things in the Jizhou camp, and when he saw Li Xuanqing coming, he immediately told all his plans.

Chen Fan's plan still adheres to his usual character and strives for perfection. It is precisely because of this that Li Xuanqing will not worry about him. Cavalry combat, especially this time, it is not the planning ability of the commanding generals to take advantage of the chaos, but more of the courage and courage to make decisions on the spot, in fact, this matter is the most suitable for Wang Houchun to do things, but at this time it can only be handed over to Chen Fan.

Li Xuanqing's words also made Chen Fan understand the main points of this battle, but he continued to complete the pre-war plan one by one.

"Chen Fan, how many people are your cavalry concentrated?" Li Xuanqing didn't care about his pre-war planning, and a good pre-war plan was also good for the suddenness of the battle, so he didn't care much, but looked at the number of the cavalry regiment on his sand table and asked.

"I plan to mobilize the Seventh Army Corps, the Eighth Army Corps, the Fifth Army Corps and the Steppe Cavalry Battalion, and if I can, the Heavy Cavalry Battalion and the Artillery Battalion to complete the battle." Chen Fan said as he moved the number sign to Zhongjing, the seat of the southern Khitan tribe.

"Your move is very big, the cavalry battalion in Tarsi is now 20,000 people, which is almost 200,000 people." Li Xuanqing said with a smile: "But it's basically a cavalry unit, so it's okay." Immediately send someone to inform the General Staff Officer, and then keep in touch with Xiao Si's side. Let the troops go north in batches, and as for Tassi's men and horses, let him go directly from the grassland, this time it will be regarded as revenge for him. ”

"If the lord has no opinion, I want to leave as soon as possible, so that there is still time to adjust on the way." Chen Fan said: "This battle will inevitably defeat the main force of the Khitans, so that they will make a detour when they see the banner of our Tiance Army from now on." ”

Early the next morning, Chen Fan's side began to arrange for the troops to secretly go out of the city, and then make a detour to the northwest to enter the grassland.

At this time, Li Xuanqing came to Yizhou again with Qiaoxi, the track factory has been shipped, and the construction company has also begun to lay rails on schedule. The railway of later generations appeared in the world more than a thousand years ahead of schedule because of the unexpected appearance of the two of them, and it also appeared in the land of China.

"Big brother, would you like to tell you good news?" The two saw that sections of railroad tracks were off the line one after another in the rail factory, and then they were transported by workers to the construction site. Behind him, Qiaoxi walked over and smiled.

"Good news? What's the good news? Li Xuanqing was stunned for a moment, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Guess what, there's a prize for guessing." Qiaoxi playfully sat next to Li Xuanqing and smiled: "Don't guess what it means?" ”

"Then I need to know what the reward is." Li Xuanqing couldn't help but laugh when he saw Qiaoxi's smiling face.

Qiaoxi's face turned red when he saw Li Xuanqing's expression, and his voice suddenly lowered, and he said, "Then what reward do you want?" ”

Li Xuanqing doted on Qiaoxi in his arms and rubbed her little head, and said with a smile: "This is shy?" We've been married for over a year, right? The skin is still so thin. ”

"Big brother, you're necrotic, I won't tell you a secret." Qiaoxi saw the smile on Li Xuanqing's face, and immediately hammered his chest in annoyance, and said angrily: "I know how to bully me, hum, I will marry you a concubine another day, and see that you are still bullying me." ”

"Okay, okay, tell me, what makes you so happy?" Li Xuanqing stopped teasing her anymore, and turned the topic back to say.

"The masters of our industrial group have figured out the reduction process of iron. And most importantly, the era of alloy steel has also arrived, and samples of manganese steel have been made. Qiaoxi smiled.

Li Xuanqing touched his nose and smiled: "This is really good news, with manganese steel, many machines and equipment can also be started, it seems that the day when we lie down and make money has really come." ”

Qiaoxi patted her little chest and smiled: "How is it, my skills are still good, right?" With manganese steel, our shipyard can really start construction, even if we can't build a big ship, but we can build a ship that can sail to Ruben. ”

Li Xuanqing also smiled, his voice relaxed, and said with a smile: "In this way, we have done both water and land transportation, and we can be regarded as all alive." ”

After reveling outside Yizhou for a while, the two did not inform the others, but went all the way south along the canal to see the construction of the canal. After the spring ploughing came to an end, in addition to the return of the garrison, the construction company's brigade also began to return to the construction site, and continued to promote the canal project that had been completed for more than 200 miles.

However, although spring is getting stronger at this time, it is also more difficult for the canal, and the setting time and conditions of cement are much worse than in winter. In many places, the water seepage at the bottom was so severe that these craftsmen had to put down the large stones that had been made in advance and solidified with cement, and then find a way to rearrange the parts.

This method is not as good as the traditional method, and the use of cement makes the embankment much stronger. In addition, while the canal was being widened, bridge construction began in some areas. It's a lot easier to build bridges now than it used to be. After the advent of steel and concrete, a decent cement bridge was built ahead of schedule. The river surface is more than 20 zhang wide and the length of the auxiliary bridge is almost more than 30 zhang long. Considering the height required for the navigation of ships in the later period, the height of the long bridge of this unified system was six or seven zhang high. This bizarre bridge also opened the eyes of the people involved in the project. Strange is weird, but this unusually spacious bridge deck is very functional, imitating the passages laid out by later generations to make carriages, sidewalks hierarchical, and even arranged with four lanes.

Li Xuanqing looked at one of the completed bridges and snickered, this is a dream of his own. Walking across the bridge with Qiaoxi, he smiled as he walked: "Qiaoxi, this is much better than Zhaozhou Bridge, but I don't know if Zhaozhou Bridge is durable." ”

"Big brother, you don't plan to build a road, do you?" Qiaoxi looked at the cement pavement on the bridge deck and frowned and smiled: "That's right, now it's a bad road, the straight road in the northwest is already very good, but we found that there is no northwest road in the east." ”

"There are too many wars, and the rebellion in the Central Plains after the end of the Tang Dynasty is more serious than the border. In the south, even the people in Caizhou were used as food by Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan. Li Xuanqing sighed and said: "You will know in the future, the few lines recorded in the history books are a bloody reality in our time." Li Xuanqing didn't know the specific situation of the Caizhou generation at first, and it wasn't until Xuanyingwei's secret guard sent back the news that he knew that the lines of words that later generations read from the history books were really a pair of white bones at this moment.

"Big brother, our movements are fast enough, but sometimes the affairs of the world are not something we can control. For the sake of today, we should think about how we can end the war as soon as possible and restore peace to the people as soon as possible. Qiaoxi hugged Li Xuanqing's arm and said softly.

"We're already working on accelerators. The railway is the accelerator, as long as these economic development arteries are opened, then whether it is in this world or in the future, the land of China can enter the era of industrialization at least a thousand years in advance, and then we can use the world's resources to use it for our own use, and create the cornerstone of the millennium prosperity. Li Xuanqing changed his mind, suppressed the strange emotions in his heart, and said with a smile.

"Big brother was frightened by the hundred years of the dark age of the afterlife. Therefore, we will spare no effort to promote industrial development and win opportunities for the future. Qiaoxi said with a hint of a smile on his bright face: "I just don't know if I have crossed back in the West." But even if there is, there shouldn't be, let's do it. In what era did the West come at this time? ”

"It doesn't matter what era he is, when the time comes, let's go and see for ourselves, and go see their cathedral." Li Xuanqing pulled Qiaoxi across the long bridge, avoided the construction team along the line, and said with a smile: "Let's go, go to Cangzhou to have a look, I estimate that Zhu Quanzhong on the southern line may not be able to bear it, let's go and see Houchun, maybe this guy can't help but itch his hands." ”

"Hehe, this time I'm going to go to the battlefield to see how the war is fought." Qiaoxi grinned and laughed as he kept up with Li Xuanqing's pace.

"Okay, I'll take you to the battlefield this time, don't be scared when the time comes." Li Xuanqing laughed and turned over his horse and headed towards Cangzhou.