When Wu Fu broke up with You Shiwei, he had almost reached the doorstep. He symbolically boarded the carriage and soon had to get out of the carriage again, and in the middle of the welcome of the family, he entered the inner house to change his clothes, and then took a break for lunch.

While waiting for lunch, Wu Fu should have listened to the butler's report so that he could know who had been here during this time, but at this moment he left the servant out and closed his eyes alone.

"I'm afraid I'm tired, master." The family speculated.

In fact, Wu Fu didn't feel tired, but vaguely saw an opportunity.

This is the opportunity for You Shiwei to personally deliver to the door.

The defeat of the Syr Darya River obviously affected the empire's business strategy in the Western Regions, and whether it was a fight or a fuss, a charter was always required. The meaning of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is to slow down and further increase the number of the main forces in the Western Regions, and even Wang Yi's tank division or Luo Yukun's Southwest Group Army can be transferred over.

This may make people wonder, why should the cabinet be consulted about the transfer of troops?

The key is that these soldiers have to be fed and clothed.

The Ming Dynasty was only established in Haixi, Nuergan and agricultural reclamation divisions. The name of the division is actually a peasant under militarized management. Other troops, whether the main force or the border guards, were not allowed to operate business or carry out cantonment.

Although the General Logistics Department of the Metropolitan Governor's Office can dispatch supplies and baggage, this requires the cooperation of civil affairs officials. In particular, whether Long Province can carry out land planning in a directional manner, shorten the supply line, increase the supply, and build the power in the metropolitan governor's office, but the operation is in the civil office.

If this matter alone was not enough for You Shiwei to come to Wu Fu.

What You Shiwei really hopes Wu Fu can help is the laying of the first long-distance railway line in Daming.

After the national change, because of the fall of Shenjing, a large number of people could not be mobilized, so that there was a shortage of labor. His Majesty, who was in the palace at the time, therefore greatly promoted the skills of the Mohists and used guò machinery to reduce manpower consumption. Replenish the military as much as possible. In the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, the four-wheeled heavy-duty Taiping car appeared in Shandong, and the track appeared at the same time.

The original track was made of wood, which not only required high timber requirements, but also had to be fully shaded, otherwise it was very easy to deform and rot. Not to mention the high cost of time. The carrying capacity is also not satisfactory. Railroad tracks followed, but they were also unsatisfactory due to the lack of metallurgical technology.

Later, with the strong rise of chemistry, metallurgy has made great progress, and finally can produce durable wrought iron rails, and with the increase of mines and smelters, the supply of wrought iron tends to be saturated, not only to meet the domestic military and civil iron, but also to be rich, and even exported.

Twenty-two years of Chongzhen. After four years of research and development, the successful trial production of steam-powered trains, although slower than human walking speed, and because of the excessive weight, there is no practical value at all, but after all, it opened the prelude to the advent of the steam age.

Now another eleven years have passed, with advances in mathematics, especially calculus. The efficiency of the steam engine of the Ming Dynasty has reached dozens of times that of the first engine, which fully meets the requirements of laying railways. It's a game-changing steam revolution.

In the fifteen years of research, the imperial court invested more than 20 million taels, and a total of 3,000 designers participated, and the capital of the private sector involved was innumerable. As a result, the imperial court obtained nearly 1,000 patents, and hundreds of patents were purchased from the private sector.

In October of the ninth year of Longjing, the test number jù showed that the train had finally reached the application standard. Now it only takes a hundred kilometers of railroad to perform the greatest wonder on earth.

However, the location of the railway has become a point of contention.

The southern ministers hope to be placed in the south, so that logistics can be accelerated and more economic value can be created. However, the topography of the south is characterized by mountains and rivers, which is too difficult for the nascent railway laying engineering team.

Same reason. The northern ministers also hoped that the railway would be able to go from Jingshipu to the door of their homes, not to mention the revitalization of the township, and it would also be convenient for them to go home to visit their relatives. Moreover, as far as the topography of the North China Plain is concerned, it is more suitable for workers to practice and accumulate experience. Nowadays, the highest call is for Jingshi to Zhangjiakou and Jingshi to Tianjin.

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Line is more difficult to build than the Beijing-Tianjin Line, and the distance is nearly twice that of the Beijing-Tianjin Line. From the perspective of economy and people's livelihood, it is obviously better to build the Beijing-Tianjin line first. However, Zhangjiakou is the gateway to the desert and the first line of assimilation of the Mongols, giving priority to the opening of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line and increasing the influence of China on Mongolia, which undoubtedly has more strategic advantages than the Beijing-Tianjin line.

Therefore, some people technically support the construction of the Beijing-Tianjin railway, and some people strategically insist on building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway first, but the Metropolitan Governor's Office starts from the actual needs of the war, hoping that the cabinet will support the military in building a railway from Lanzhou to Jiayuguan, preferably directly to Luntai.

In Wu Fu's opinion, this is because he wants to fly before he learns to walk!

However, You Shiwei also offered a very tempting price, if the cabinet could support the priority of laying railways in the Western Regions, the Metropolitan Governor's Office would give up the right to supervise the way.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Yangtze River, canals and other important waterways originally had river soldiers and Caoding. After the liberation, these human resources were naturally taken over by the military and incorporated into the troops directly under the logistics. According to this convention, after the construction of the railway, road soldiers will inevitably be needed, and it is natural that the metropolitan governor's office will control it.

Even if the cabinet wants to fight, it is neither in line with tradition, nor has a strong reason, and it seems to be a loss.

On the contrary, if the Metropolitan Governor's Office does not want this right of way, the defense along the way will be assigned to the prefectures and counties, at least a large part of the budget can be added. Moreover, large-scale military movements in the future will undoubtedly be influenced by civilian officials, and may even become a constraint.

"Master, there is a young gentleman outside who asks to see him, and he has two children." The butler cautiously came in and interrupted Wu Fu's nap.

Wu Fu raised his eyes unhappily and asked, "Who is the New Year?" ”

The housekeeper stepped forward and handed over a gilded name, Wu Fu took it casually, opened it and looked at it, immediately jumped up from the chair, and said in a loud voice: "Open the middle door and invite them in, and the middle hall welcomes guests." ”

The housekeeper had long felt that the person who had come was no ordinary person, that is, the two children were different. Seeing that his master was so cautious, he couldn't help beating a drum in his heart: This is not a prince!

Nowadays, among the Beijing divisions, there are many princes and county kings.

But for the New Year, which prince and county king will come to Shoufu's house? Isn't that harming others and oneself? made the first assistant uncomfortable for the New Year, and he was not comfortable.

The one who came was the current emperor, Emperor Longjing Zhu Cihong.

Zhu Cihong walked through the front hall, led the second prince Zhu Heqi and the third prince Zhu Heyuan, and walked into the middle hall.

Wu Fu was already waiting in the hall, bowing his hand, not knowing what to say.

"Good New Year, sir, all the best." Zhu Cihong said with a smile.

Wu Fu hurriedly returned the salute and said: "Good luck, God bless the emperor." ”

Zhu Cihong asked the two princes to pay New Year's greetings to Wu Fu, and then sat down in the seat of the guest of honor, and said, "Come and disturb a meal, the old gentleman doesn't mind." ”

"It's really shining!" Wu Fu suddenly realized that the emperor was wearing a royal blue robe, which he often wore in the Hidden Mansion, and he couldn't help but relax a lot. Speaking of which, he is also a hero who shares weal and woe with the emperor, and when Taizu and Chengzu were the ancestors, such relationships were like family members.

Zhu Cihong was obviously not polite, and when Wu Fu sat down, he said directly: "Have breakfast with You Du this morning." ”

It happened that the housekeeper came in with tea, and when he heard this, he suddenly trembled, and almost knocked over the teacup.

- At such a young age, he had dinner with the general of the country in the morning and at the house of the first assistant at noon...... King Ding and King Yong are now in Korea and Australia, how can there be a prince of such age in Jingshi? You can't be a liar, right?

The housekeeper peeked at Zhu Cihong while serving tea.

Zhu Cihong didn't mind, but didn't continue.

Although it was only a two-second delay, Wu Fu seemed to have passed a hundred years, and let out a dissatisfied dry cough.

The housekeeper hurriedly retreated.

Zhu Cihong continued: "During the banquet, You Du said that the Battle of the Syr Darya was the Talas of my Ming Dynasty. ”

- Anyone would think of it like that!

Wu Fu sighed in his heart, and saw that the emperor did not have any displeasure when he said this, and there was still a smile on his face, which was quite unconcerned.

"I, cough, if it's Talas, I think it's a glorious thing that is still glorious despite defeat." Zhu Cihong said with a smile: "You also need qualifications to fight thousands of miles away, right?" ”

"That's it! Like a weak Song, if you want to beat Talus, you don't have a chance! Zhu Heqi suddenly interjected. In fact, he still doesn't know what the defeat of Talas is all about.

Wu Fu couldn't help but smile.

The emperor also smiled and touched the hair that the second son had just raised. Now that the second prince Zhu Heqi has reached the time to tie his hair and prepare to study, he has to grow his hair long, comb it into a ponytail at the back of his head, and only after two years can he coil his hair in a bun. The third prince, Zhu Heyuan, who came with him, was only six years old, and he was still combing his horns, and he didn't know what the adults were talking about.

"The Song Dynasty is not necessarily weak." Zhu Cihong explained to his son, and continued to say to Wu Fu: "But this time the defeat was a little wronged, and You Du couldn't help it. ”

"Youdu is also too himself." Wu Fu said: "Soil generals and local soldiers, losing a battle is nothing. In particular, Heshute and Junggar are always a little unruly, and it may not be a good thing to suffer some small losses. ”

Zhu Cihong knew that You Shiwei originally meant the same, so he didn't let the Northwest Army follow. To be honest, if those Guards and cavalry armies in the northwest followed, it would be a question of whether Tulu Baihu and the monks fought.

"There are too many people dying, and it's mainly about the military flag." Zhu Cihong said.

"What flag?" Wu Fu didn't hear You Shiwei mention this.

"After canonizing Heshute and Dzungaria, I also gave them the qualification to play the Golden Dragon Red Banner." Zhu Cihong said: "This time the army is defeated, and the Golden Dragon Red Banner may be captured." ”

"Our army has never lost its flag!" Wu Fu also regretted that this was a stain on the red flag of the Ming Dynasty.

"Although I lost the military flag, I look at it from another angle: I haven't been beheaded." Zhu Cihong restrained his smile and said, "What's more, the battle is not over, there is always a chance to take it back." (To be continued......)