Strictly speaking, the Ancient Tea Horse Road is divided into two, one starts from Sichuan, passes through Luzhou and other places, from Jianchang Mansion in Dali to southern Tibet, all the way to Nepal and Tianzhu, and the other starts from Weichu Mansion in Dali Buri Department (Pu'er), passes through Dali to Lijiang, and then goes to southern Tibet, Myanmar, Nepal, Tianzhu and other countries. These two roads have existed since ancient times, but the scale is very small, after the invasion of Dali by Tubo, want to operate Dali, after some expansion, later Tubo split, the Tang Dynasty declined, Nanzhao became independent, became the road of the caravan. However, it contains huge commercial value, and some people spontaneously built it and became this ancient tea horse road.

With a total length of tens of thousands of miles, many roads pass through the Peerless Domain, which is a miracle in the history of mankind.

However, the long road is only a trunk road, and there are countless branch lines of all sizes, which extend to Liangguang.

Therefore, there is no large-scale organization of construction by a single government, although the commercial value is huge, the transportation cost is too high, the roads are very rugged, and the military value is not great. Once expanded, the Song army could enter Dali directly from Sichuan.

Not only that, this prime minister will not only have this ambition, but must also be staring at the extension of the ancient tea horse road from Liangguang to Dali.

If this road is also built, then the Song army will drive straight into it at any time.

Zheng Lang said blandly: "You guessed it, the road from Yongzhou to your country must be expanded. ”

"Don't you ...... your country?"

"This time you guessed wrong, if you have ambitions for Dali, General Di will not go to Shanxian City to have an army of 10,000 soldiers, but an army of 100,000."

Dali's envoy's face changed dramatically.

Dali's permanent army is only about 20,000 people, of course. If you encounter a critical juncture, you can recruit warriors to participate in the war, or borrow troops from the 37th Department of Eastern Yunnan, Song Zhenzong Xiangfu seven years Jiaozhi ambition, want to attack Dali, Dali has organized 200,000 troops to resist, until Jiaozhi country. This extinguished Jiaozhi's ambition. However, as a result of this war, Dali's finances were tight, and he did not get any benefits. And there is a serious problem in Dali. It is not the dispute between Gaoyang and Yang, it is the 37th Department of Eastern Yunnan, although Dali occasionally borrows troops from the 37th Department of Eastern Yunnan. However, the 37th Department often launched rebellions, but was repeatedly suppressed by Dali. In fact, the 37 departments of eastern Yunnan have become a difficult area to rule under the constraints of Dali, which is also a hidden pain for Dali's monarchs and ministers.

Di Qing sat in the city of Shanyanfu, and some tribes in eastern Yunnan began to stir again.

If the Song Dynasty sent 100,000 troops and then contacted these restless tribes, it might not be able to subvert Dali, but even if Dali wins, it will be a tragic victory, and Dali may be divided because of this.

"Didn't you complain about my lax control in Hengshanzhai before, but now I have given you a chance in Dali. Why not agree? Zheng Lang asked lightly. Dali and the Song Dynasty have many fields, Yazhou, Lizhou, Jiazhou, Xuzhou, Changningjun, Yongzhou, Yizhou, Guanzhou, Hengzhou, Pennzhou, Dali merchants transported horses, animal husbandry products, metallurgical products, medicines and native products, in exchange for textiles, daily necessities, medicines, stationery of the Song Dynasty. Most of them barter, not money. Among them, the largest ones are Luzhou and Yongzhou Hengshanzhai. Dali merchants brought musk, bearded sheep, long rooster crowing, blankets, Yunnan knives and medicines, in exchange for brocade, leopard skins, documents and various strange and porous objects of the Song Dynasty, and the transaction volume was very large. But whether it is southern Sichuan or Liangguang, the imperial court has very weak control over this, and does not want to make trouble, let alone want these tribes to be more closely connected with Dali because of trade. After all, Nanzhao's play is also fresh in people's memories, the tiger does not hurt the jackal, and he is also worried that the jackal will hurt the tiger's heart, such as Jiaozhi. Therefore, they are not interested in trading, but they are only needed by the people, and they cannot be forcibly eliminated, so they can do all kinds of moderation measures.

"......" Dali, a child of the Gao family, can't speak again, there is such a thing, he sent an envoy to the capital of the Song Dynasty before, and deliberately mentioned it, but the emperor of the Song Dynasty did not agree. …,

Half a day later, he said: "If this is the case, we in Dali do not have the strength to build these roads. ”

"It's okay, I will send someone to provide you Dali with 20,000 bags of gunpowder totaling 400,000 catties, bomb the mountains and rocks, and reduce the difficulty of building roads."

The messenger of Dali was stunned when he heard this, and now he knows the power of that kind of gunpowder, with that kind of power, the cost will not be too small, 400,000 catties is not a small number, and asked stupidly: "Why?" ”

"Yes, as you feared, these two roads will be built and will have a military effect. But you Dali are safe and self-contained, and we will not be interested in your Dali and our Song Dynasty, this is the will of Taizu, and future generations will not dare to disobey. Unless you Dali is not treacherous. ”

"We Dali don't dare."

"Of course, do you dare to hit a stone with an egg?"

“……”

"The construction of the Ancient Tea Horse Road is not for military purposes, but for military purposes. In the long history of your Dali, half of the time is the territory of our dynasty, and it is only because of the decline of the Tang Dynasty that you are separated. You remember, don't be malicious to our court, my court will not be too thin on you. ”

"Yes, yes."

"Once it is built, it will play a great role in promoting the economic development of your Dali, even the tribes at the southern end of Tubo, as well as the southern Sichuan and Guangxi economies. I am developing Liangguang, so I have a strong interest in this ancient road, but the main trunk road of the ancient road is in your country, if you want to build, you must cooperate with Dali, and after the construction of this road, you have also strengthened the management of the 37 departments in eastern Yunnan, and our dynasty has also strengthened the management and control of the states of southern Sichuan and Guangnan West Road. It's a mutually beneficial move. This is my third condition, if I agree, General Di will withdraw immediately. He did not commit any offence against the nobles. Even if you Dali are loyal to my court, we will work together to deal with Jiaozhi. Relieve the pressure of the South for you. ”

"Do you dare to swear?"

"As long as you promise, you will write a fold, let Your Majesty make an alliance with you Dali, and the covenant will be engraved on a stone monument, and it will be placed on the boundary line between Temo Road and your most Ning Mansion."

If this is the case, it seems to be a good thing, but this person suddenly believed and doubted, and said: "This matter is very important, it is not for me to call the shots, can I go back and report to my emperor." ”

"Okay."

Sending away the Dali envoy, Zhou Xin asked curiously: "Zheng Xianggong does this, does he have other intentions?" ”

"Yes, once agreed. The construction of the highway is beneficial to both countries, and the south lacks horses and cattle. Zheng Lang shook his head. The people flocked to the court, and the banks also transferred money, and there was no shortage of money or people, but there was a shortage of livestock.

After Zheng Lang's various encouragement policies in the north, a large number of large livestock were purchased from the Western Xia and Khitan, and gradually more large livestock were used for cultivating land and more livestock for pulling goods. Still insufficient. But the gap is not serious, and now many horses can be seen on various roads in the north of the Song Dynasty, although these horses can no longer be war horses.

But the livestock shortage in the south remains severe.

In order to support the development of the two Guangzhou. Zheng Lang bought cattle from Jiangnan for three to five yuan, and purchased less than 10,000 head of cattle, and the actual cost of transporting them to the south reached seven or eight yuan. The waste is huge, and there is still not enough cattle. I can only stare at Dali, don't eat it as food, what a pity. There are no oxen, no horses, and a lot of dry land, and the south can also be used to plough the land and haul goods. Although the cost is high, it cannot be taken into account for the sake of efficiency.

He also said slowly: "The economy is the main thing. Compared with Jiaozhi, Dali is not so hateful, and only dares to make some small movements under his back. But it also has a military effect, and once the avenue is built, it is a deterrent in itself. If we make any more small moves, our army will be able to quickly move west with the help of the avenue. They have to be careful about this when they make small moves. Even if there is a checkpoint, the rapid collapse of the city wall of Shanyan Mansion is a warning. Then the southwestern border becomes easy to govern. ”…,

Not necessarily, if it is like the Great Wall built on the mountains. Or if you build the level on solid rock and can't dig a tunnel, it will work. However, this is a military secret, and when it is leaked out, Shi Heng will invent all kinds of artillery as soon as possible, and the level will be useless again. Gunpowder is easy to imitate, but artillery requires sophisticated technology and is not easy to imitate. If they were to imitate it, Gewuxue would develop in the Song Dynasty, and new weapons would be invented and created, and they would be left behind. But if you want to enter the era of real thermal weapons, with the current industrial conditions, it will not work without two or three hundred years, and Zheng Lang will definitely not see it.

"Wonderful, post-war?"

"It's kind of post-war."

Then Zheng Lang dealt with another thing.

Since spring, some merchants have been unable to wait and have planted sugar cane and developed some hills as tea hills.

In this regard, Zheng Lang does not exclude, as long as it is within the scope of the plan, it is encouraged, anyway, it is development, these businessmen allocate funds, how much they are saving money for the imperial court, and they can more or less collect a tax first.

But they reacted to one thing.

After September, the cane matured and they found that the sweetness varied, and the fertilized cane grew vigorously and had plenty of sugar. The sweetness of sugarcane with insufficient fertilization is far less than that of eastern Zhejiang, and most of them have no sugar extraction value. This issue is very important, next year the number of people will increase, the importance of fertilizer, the number of businessmen who grow sugarcane will also increase, the source of fertilizer will decrease, the sugarcane grown is not sweet, can not be frosted, and planting sugarcane is likely to become a loss-making business.

As he spoke, they brought some samples.

Zheng Lang stared at these sugarcanes, did not eat them, and then pondered. It's not necessarily a fertilizer problem, it may be that the cane seed has not evolved. But it is not necessarily wrong to say that there is no chemical fertilizer now, and the growth of sugarcane in the south is good, often three or four times that of sugarcane in the north, and the demand for fertilizer is greater. Could this be the reason why Panyu cane is not sweet?

I don't know, I don't dare to bet, if the sugarcane planted next year can't make frosting, it will bring serious problems, and after thinking for a while, he said: "There is a good plan." ”

"What's the solution?"

"When the Tang general Liu Renliang was the prime minister, Pei Kuanshu, the young government supervisor, was good at management, and in order to increase the country's wealth, he asked to sell the horse manure in the palace, which could bring 200,000 yuan of income to the country every year. The first background is that Guanzhong in the Tang Dynasty was densely populated, and there was a general lack of fertilizer on cultivated land, so manure could also be sold for money. The Tang Dynasty raised a lot of horses, so it could get 200,000 yuan a year by selling horse manure. The second background is that the income of the Tang Dynasty was far less than that of our dynasty, and the annual national income of Gaozong was only about 10 million yuan. 200,000 yuan was a lot of income for the Tang Dynasty. But Liu Renliang said that although the benefits are thick, I am afraid that future generations will say that the Tang family sells horse manure, and it is not a good name. So I gave up. ”

"What does Jung Sang-gong mean?" A few businessmen listened inexplicably.

"Of course, it is not a good name to sell horse manure as a royal family, but you are not royal."

"We ......" several businessmen turned white with fright.

"You are businessmen by nature, and you are in pursuit of profit. On the contrary, we can use money to buy livestock and poultry manure, and I will introduce some measures to encourage people to raise chickens, ducks and geese. With pigs, horses, cattle and sheep, no matter what, even if a large number of people have migrated over, the two Guangxi are still vast and sparsely populated. There are many barren slopes and wilderness that can be exploited for aquaculture. And Liangguang is far away from the capital, once developed, the cost of transportation to Beijing is too high. I can only produce and sell my own food, and the price of grain will be very cheap, which is why I set the tax at only 40 yuan for two buckets of rice. Not only will the price of food be easier. Salt is equally cheap. Meat is different, its price is always more expensive than grain, once there is a price difference. Shipping costs are negligible. Live livestock are inconvenient to transport, and salted meat can be transported. Now that even their droppings can be sold for money, will there be more people you say will raise them? ”…,

"Understood, understood, Zheng Xianggong is really a god." Several businessmen danced happily.

Zheng Lang also smiled bitterly, transportation has become the most headache in this era, so he encouraged the development of side businesses this time, and he was not interested in food. The lack of large livestock also doomed it to be difficult to grow food on a large scale, so should the Han people who migrated over also use foot plows to cultivate the land manually?

These are flexible. It is also a very ordinary strategy, and it also makes a cadre of officials feel relaxed. Don't think it's simple, it's not easy to think of it.

Dali quickly brought back the word that he could agree to Zheng Lang's covenant, but he had to have Zhao Zhen's handwritten edict.

Zheng Lang smiled.

It is easy to ask for Zhao Zhen's edict. Zhao Zhen himself didn't want war, and besides, this was a covenant with a lot of face, compared to the covenants with Western Xia and Khitan, I don't know how much better. How could Zhao Zhen not agree.

The two sides initialed a covenant and waited for the imperial edict.

Di Qing led the main army eastward and returned to Liangguang. It's just that Guo Kui stayed, and once the covenant came into effect, the gunpowder would blow up the rocks, and it would be his own people, and it would be impossible to hand it over to Dali. But in order to reassure Dali, only 500 soldiers remained.

Although there are few people, Dali definitely does not dare to touch half of their hair.

In fact, there is an intention, Guo Kuifei is an ordinary scout, he is proficient in military affairs, and he leads his subordinates to cooperate with Dali to build roads, and if he goes around, the terrain of Dali can be controlled. Don't be afraid of 10,000, just in case. This information may come in handy.

The song folded to the Kyoto Division.

Jingshi was relatively quiet at this time, and it should be the most beautiful year of the Song Dynasty, and the Song army fought to Shanxian Mansion, which was the biggest good news since the first battle of the Gaoliang River. Jiangdong Wei, together with the Sanbai Canal, and the farmland water conservancy law, created a large area of arable land.

A few years of disasters led to a gradual decline in grain, but with the two years of bumper crops, the price of rice in the capital fell to 75 wen a bucket, and the price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River fell to 320 wen per stone. This is also the political achievement, the happiest place for Pang.

After receiving Zheng Lang's report, a very favorable covenant was strictly said to have taken a big advantage, like the Temodao, Wusa, Wumeng, Yiniang, Manbu, Atou, etc. in the southwest, it is difficult to say that their territory is the Song Dynasty. This time it was clearly zoned within the territory of the Song Dynasty. Moreover, Zheng Lang explained the great meaning behind the surface. After fighting for so long, from Temo Road to Shanxian Mansion, only more than 8,000 people were sacrificed, of which more than 3,000 people still fell under malaria, and less than 5,000 soldiers were really sacrificed, which was a great victory.

After seeing the fold, I agreed.

When the people of the capital heard this, they also felt angry.

Many felt that the Song Dynasty stood up.

There are many miscellaneous dramas that have staged several battle stories in the south, but this time Zheng Lang is a supporting role, and the protagonist is Di Qing, a cold-faced general.

At this moment, a ballad came from the capital: Zheng Die(Di) Zhao, civil and military, fly south, return to the north.

I can't think about the first sentence, I think about the serious problem, and the other sentences say that Di Qing and Zheng Lang are both literate and martial, going to the south, and returning to the north. But instead of returning to the north, returning to the north, but returning to the north, and then there is a Zheng Dizhao, what does this Fu mean?

It is not a trivial matter, especially in ancient times, these inexplicable proverbs were often infinitely exaggerated, such as peaches and plums, winning the world; The queen went around Yangzhou and turned into a garden. Don't talk to it, who will say it? It may be a ballad released by Li Mi to show his orthodoxy. When Liu Xiu was the son of heaven, it was very likely that someone wanted to murder another national teacher, Liu Xiu, and said that Liu Xiu was the son of heaven. There will be a number of proverbs in the middle, but this sentence is a coincidence, and it has become a mystery for the ages.

Some emperors don't believe it and don't care, but some emperors attach great importance to it.

Four sentences, twelve words, proverbs that want people's lives, can't hide it, Zhao Zhen soon learned the news, he is not a faint king, others don't believe it, but he believes in Zheng Lang and Di Qing very much. Besides, if the two of them occupy the two broads with one article and one martial arts, can they really gain power? How many soldiers can be gathered, how many generals can be gathered, and where will the supplies and weapons come from? Even if you can get it, you will have to plan for several years, Zheng Lang doesn't have to wait until then, he will leave Liangguang after a year or two, how can something happen?

It's someone playing tricks.

He said angrily: "Send someone to me to investigate, who is slandering and spreading rumors." ”

Not only dare to slander Zheng Lang and Di Qing, the two meritorious ministers, but also a lot of things, this rumor arises, and the political career of the two may end here. Zheng Lang once said, the mess between Liangguang and Jinghu South Road was not more than 3 million yuan, if you add the funds allocated in the early stage, the war expenses, and the cost of repairing Jinghu South Road, it will reach nearly 70 million yuan. In the Tang Dynasty, if you have this wealth, you can send troops to launch a war of annihilation.

This person has a vicious intention.

Thinking of this, he said hatefully: "Call all the ministers and ministers to the inner palace to discuss matters." ”

Anyway, first stop the Yanchen's mouth. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )