On the day of the official establishment of the Xuanyi Military Academy, Wu Zetian once again convened a meeting of his cronies, and the next day a large-scale military exercise of Wu Zetian's army kicked off at the Bashang Military Base (in the southeast of present-day Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, west of Lantian, and since the Qin and Han dynasties, it has been a military base in Chang'an and Xianyang).

A total of 180,000 troops from Chang'an, controlled by Wu Zetian, and 20,000 troops from Liu Renyuan and Liu Renliang, who are preparing to participate in the Eastern Expedition next spring, took turns to participate in the exercise, which lasted for three months and was held as usual during the Chinese New Year. The end of the military exercise was the beginning of the Eastern Crusade. During this period, the soldiers of the prefectures and counties who were ordered to go out on the expedition set out from their homes and gathered in their respective prefectures, where they were located, and then carried out military training and exercises in the prefecture. Three months later, the Eastern Expeditionary Samurai Army would set out one after another according to the distance from Silla, assemble at the Bohai Bay within the designated time, and then cross the sea in large sea ships to make an expedition to Silla.

The samurai army did not object to the conquest of Silla by Hsu Ching, and Gojong Yi Zhi did not oppose either, and Lee Zhi was very angry with Hsu Ching about Silla's secret support for Goguryeo and Baekje's rebellion against the Tang Dynasty, taking in the rebels in the two places, providing weapons, and after the Tang army withdrew from Goguryeo and Baekje, under the pretext that bandits were rampant in the rebellious areas and the people were suffering, in order to save the people, he sent troops to occupy the whole of neighboring Baekje and parts of Goguryeo. With the cooperation of Gaozong, the funds, combatants, logistics personnel, ordnance, military supplies, grain and grass, and war horses needed for the war were quickly prepared.

At first, Li Zhi did not consult Wu Zetian with him, so he took the initiative to send the military army to expedition to Silla, and he was very uncomfortable, and wanted to embarrass the military army in terms of appropriation and logistics support.

Xu Qing knew that the Tang Dynasty in history did not destroy Silla, but only beat Silla to the bottom of the vassals, the samurai army gathered in Chang'an, idle and had nothing to do, it would only find trouble with Xu Qing and the royalists, it was better to let the samurai army go to conquer Silla, this war could not be over in a year and a half, the samurai army would not win as Wu Zetian expected, on the contrary, it would consume part of its strength because of this war, and Xu Qing's Longmen Dart Bureau, the New Army, the Datang Trading Company and the soldiers of the two princesses' mansions could take advantage of this rare period of peaceful coexistence with Wu Zetian to develop and grow rapidly- Xu Qing expected that Wu Zetian would be honest for a while after the Wu Army's Eastern Crusade, but he didn't dare to guarantee that Wu Zetian would not have new conspiracies, and he still had to guard against her.

Xu Qing sent a letter to Yang Ziyan and gave Yang Ziyan two instructions, the first was to prohibit the samurai army from entering Goguryeo and Baekje, and the second was to transfer 1,000 people from Goguryeo and Baekje back to their hometowns for the New Year, widely publicizing the preferential policies of the Datang Trading Company to immigrate to Goguryeo and Baekje, the Datang Trading Company and the Longmen Dart Bureau provided housing, crop seeds, farm tools, and one-year rations and security for the whole family, and recruited Han farmers to go to Goguryeo and Baekje to reclaim the wasteland, and the wasteland reclaimed by the farmers belonged to themselves, and they did not need to pay land rent and land rent, and were exempted from forced labor. They are exempt from military service, but they have to join the militia, they cultivate when the farm is busy, train when they are not working, and the Datang Trading Company is responsible for the purchase of the crops harvested by the immigrants.

Cotton is Xu Qing's first cash crop, followed by wheat, rice, corn, sweet potatoes and other food crops, salt industry, cotton textile industry, silk industry, dyeing industry, ceramics industry, paper industry, mining industry, shipbuilding industry, iron smelting industry, steelmaking industry and weapons manufacturing industry are Xu Qing's main industrial projects. A considerable number of Han immigrants recruited by Xu Qing will also work as workers.

The origin of cotton is India and Arabia. Before cotton was introduced to China, there was only kapok for pillows, and there was no cotton for weaving. Before the Song Dynasty, China only had the word "cotton" next to the silk, and there was no word "cotton" next to the wood. The word "cotton" began to appear from the Book of Song.

At least 2,000 years ago in the Qin and Han dynasties, cotton fiber has been used as textile raw materials in Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other regions. However, in the Central Plains, for a long time, people only used cotton as an ornamental plant, and did not recognize its economic value. Suleiman, a famous Arab traveler in the 9th century, wrote in his "Suleiman's Travels" that the cotton seen in the area of present-day Beijing was still viewed as a "flower" in the garden. The Book of Liang? The Biography of Gaochang records: There is "grass, which is like a cocoon, and the silk in the cocoon is like a fine thread, and it is called Bai Diezi." It can be seen that cotton, an important raw material for today's textile industry, was originally regarded as flowers and grasses.

There are about 3 different ways for cotton to be introduced into our country. According to the analysis of flora and historical data, it is generally believed that cotton spread to the Central Plains from the north and south. Nanlu was the first Asian cotton of India, which was introduced to Hainan Island and the Liangguang region through Southeast Asia, according to historical records, at least in the Qin and Han dynasties, and then into Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan and other regions. The second route was introduced to Yunnan from India via Burma, around the time of the Qin and Han dynasties. The third way is that African cotton was introduced to Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor through West Asia, and the time was about the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, cotton spread to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River basin.

In the Tang Dynasty that Xu Qing traveled, nobles wore silk and commoners wore linen. The word "pounding" often appears in Tang poems, but in fact, "practice" is linen. Because the burlap fiber is very tough, it will harden after wearing it for a long time. So smash it with a mallet. In order to benefit the vast number of poor people and to open up a wide range of financial routes, Xu Qing decided to plant a large amount of cotton in the Han settlement areas of Goguryeo and Baekje, and then spun it into cloth, which was colored and shipped to the interior of the Tang Dynasty for sale.

Xu Qing sent people from the Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang to find more than 100 farmers who could grow and weave cotton cloth, and more than 20 craftsmen who could dye cotton cloth, and spent a lot of money to recruit them to the Datang Trading Company, and purchased a large amount of cottonseeds, escorted them to Goguryeo and Baekje together with the cottonseeds, and distributed the cottonseeds to the Han immigrants in the spring of the following year.

If the problem of clothing for the people of the whole country is solved, it will be difficult for Xu Qing to get rich or not. In the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, Xu Qing would be an omniscient god-like existence. When Yang Ziyan saw that Xu Qing listed a large number of planting cotton and weaving cotton cloth, which could solve the problem of difficult clothing for the poor in the Tang Dynasty, she was extremely surprised, and at the same time admired Ailang, I really didn't know where he learned so much knowledge, and couldn't help but be full of yearning for Shenzhou Kingdom.

When they heard Xu Qing say that they couldn't go home for the New Year and reunite with their families, Yang Ziyan and her sisters were disappointed, but Xu Qing said that in a month or two, when Chang'an stabilized, he would go back to Youzhou to visit them, and they were full of expectations.

Wu Zetian was determined to conquer Silla, and did not rule out the possibility that she suddenly changed her mind to crusade against the rebellious areas of Goguryeo and Baekje, and Xu Qing had doubts about whether the more than 23,000 people of the Longmen Dart Bureau and the Datang Trading Company could prevent the 80,000 samurai army from entering Goguryeo and Baekje, and decided that after the affairs of Chang'an had stabilized, before the samurai army set out on the expedition, he expected to return home in the first month of the first month -- in the Tang Dynasty, the Yanshan base was Xu Qing's home, and he tried to raise another 10,000 to 20,000 troops to increase troops to Goguryeo and Baekje. It is possible that Xu Qing will personally go to Goguryeo and Baekje to inspect the state of war readiness and prevent a possible invasion by the samurai army.

Dong Bijun plans to talk with Xu Qing for half a year to a year, and then get married after getting to know each other, but Xu Qing and the quasi-empress Wu Zetian, who holds the real power of the Tang Dynasty, are in full swing, and they want to marry Dong Bijun and Dong Xijun sisters as soon as possible, so as to form an unbreakable alliance with Mingjian Villa and quickly increase their strength. In addition, Xu Qing's iron smelters, steel mills, shipyards, and weapons manufacturing factories in Goguryeo and Baekje were all inseparable from the participation and support of Ming Jian Sanzhuang, a Tang Dynasty weapons supplier.

As for whether Dong Bijun is willing or not, he can't care so much. Even if she is unwilling, after marrying Xu Qing, she will still be a gentle and virtuous wife, and there is nothing to worry about.