Li An's ultimate goal in laying the railway was to connect the main core areas of the Tang Dynasty and the important areas of the frontier with railways, so that it would be very convenient for the imperial court to control the whole country, and also facilitate the circulation of materials throughout the country, so as to promote the prosperity of commerce and trade, and stimulate the growth of wealth step by step. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

And to complete this idea, it is necessary to build enough railways, the railway to Shule Town, the main factory is eight thousand miles away, with this railway, it is very convenient for Datang to control the Anxi region, and the railway to Laizhou can also allow Datang to better control the core area of Shandong, in addition, the Northeast, Jiangnan and Shuzhong are very important, so it must be connected by railway.

First of all, starting from Luoyang City, along the direction of the Grand Canal, two railways were built to Yingzhou in the northeast and Hangzhou in the southeast, which can greatly relieve the pressure of the Grand Canal traffic, and also facilitate the transportation of vegetables and fruits and other products with poor insurance, so that northerners can eat fruits and vegetables from the south, and similarly, southerners can also eat vegetables and fruits from the north, so as to improve the living standards of the people in the two places.

In addition, Luoyang City can also build a railway in the direction of due south, passing through Chuzhou, Guizhou and other places, and approaching Jiaozhou, so as to control the entire southern region, so that the barbarians in the south can stop and stop.

The next step is naturally to the south, and enter Hanzhong and Shuzhong through the Qinling Mountains, so that this piece of the country of abundance can better connect with the capital, promote the circulation of materials on both sides, and facilitate the army to enter Shuzhong in time.

Moreover, the railway can continue southward from Shuzhong, to the Dongnu Kingdom, Nanzhao, and Pi Kingdom, and all the way to the Indian Ocean, and can build a port on the Indian Ocean, of course, the railway line to Jiaozhou can also go south along the sea, and all the way to the Strait of Malacca, and the Tang Dynasty controls the entire Indochina Peninsula.

The railway in Shule could continue westward, encompassing all the small states of the Land of the River, and further west, to the Great Eclipse and even to Europe.

The railroad in the city could also continue northward and be built from the north to the west, leading to a wider area.

Of course, although this plan is very huge, but the difficulty of operation is relatively large, many areas with complex terrain, some need to assume bridges, some need to dig tunnels, especially the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, the big water system, it is not an easy thing to build bridges on it, and it is not easy to build so many railways, it is not a short time to complete, it takes generations of Tang Erlang continuous efforts to gradually complete this important railway laying plan.

Li An drew all his plans to lay railways on the world map and presented them to Li Longji for viewing, which made the emperor who was so happy and had the urge to pave all these railways in one go.

Due to the current national strength of the Tang Empire, Li An had no choice but to persuade Li Longji not to make the old mistakes of Emperor Yang of Sui, and that the more railways should be built, the better, but once the limit of national strength is exceeded and the people are exhausted, the consequences will be very serious, and the chaos in the world at the end of the Sui Dynasty is the best proof.

Of course, Li An will definitely not directly cite the example of Emperor Yang of Sui, but persuade Li Longji through indirect means, so as not to anger this emperor who thinks he is a great achievement.

The construction of new artillery was very fast, and in just a few months, 100 new breech guns were built, and the 1st Artillery Brigade and the 2nd Artillery Brigade were replaced, so that the combat effectiveness of these two artillery brigades was greatly improved.

There are more new breech guns in the process of casting, and it will not be long before more troops can be replaced, thereby further improving the combat effectiveness of the Datang artillery unit.

The construction of another fifty ironclad artillery trucks has also entered the final assembly stage, and it will soon be able to equip the troops, and in these days, Li An has drawn elite artillery officers and soldiers from various artillery brigades and asked them to try to operate the experimental ironclad artillery trucks, so that they can form combat effectiveness faster after a large number of ironclad artillery trucks are equipped with troops.

Of course, in order to increase the production of agricultural products, Ang Lee never forgot about the American continent, and if he wanted to travel to the continent and bring back enough seeds and trees, he had to build large steam ships.

Therefore, when the construction of the railway to Laizhou had just begun, Li An had already sent some talents from Luoyang Shipyard to the bay of Laizhou to build a huge shipyard, and according to the drawings provided by Li An, he began to build the main body of a large steam ship, as for the steam power, large propellers and artillery and other important components, it was time to wait for some time, anyway, the number of large steam ships needed to go to the Americas was still very large, and building a large number of hulls first could greatly save time. It is convenient for the steam fleet to be formed faster.

On the train from Zhongshou City to the capital, Wang Zhongsi and Guo Ziyi, the envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, were sitting in the soft sleeper car and chatting happily.

In the past, they went to the capital, they were riding horses, the wind and sand on the road were very big, it can be described as miserable, now, the railway has been repaired from the capital to the city of Zhongshou, they no longer have to ride a horse to the capital, as long as they lie down in the carriage, more than a day of work can be successfully arrived in the capital, which is simply too convenient.

The purpose of their trip to the capital this time was, first, to report on the situation in the north, and second, to ask for artillery units to enhance the combat effectiveness of the soldiers and horses at the border passes.

In the autumn and winter of last year, there was another civil strife in the Turks, and Wang Zhongsi found the right time to immediately go north, and cooperated with the Hui and Qarlu tribes on the steppe to completely destroy the Turkic Empire.

However, with the demise of the Turks, another powerful tribe, the Hui, quickly grew in strength and took possession of all the lands that had originally belonged to the Turks.

Although the nascent Hui regime was relatively friendly to the Tang Empire and did not mean to be hostile to the Tang Dynasty, it was not necessarily a good thing to have a strong regime around it.

When Guo Ziyi went to the capital to do business, Li An had predicted that the Turkic Empire would fall and be replaced by the Hui Empire.

At that time, Wang Zhongsi was still a little unimpressed, after all, there were so many tribes on the steppe, why did the Turks have to replace them after the Turks disappeared? Could it be that there could be other tribes?

But the development of things is magical, according to the route set by Li An, the Turks really died out, and the Hui also succeeded in replacing them, and even, the strength is not weaker than the Turks, once it is hostile to the Tang Empire, it will inevitably bring great pressure to the Tang Empire.

Wang Zhonghei was greatly surprised by Ang Lee's strong strategic vision, and in addition, he also heard a lot of things happening in the capital at the border pass, a large number of magical machinery, railroad tracks and trains, as well as solar cookers, binoculars and other items, all of which were invented by Ang Lee.

How could a little Ang Lee have such a great ability, not only strong in force and good at fighting, but also with superhuman strategic vision, and even able to invent a lot of amazing machines, where did he learn this ability?

Wang Zhongsi is very curious about Li Wu, with his understanding of Li Wu, this ordinary man should not have such an excellent son, but in terms of appearance, Li An is indeed very similar to Li Wu, it should be father and son.

"How can this kid have such a high ability? It's also weird. ”

Wang Zhongsi looked at the golden desert outside the window and frowned.

"Jie Shuai, I also feel quite shocked by my humble position, Li Shilang is so young, he actually has so much ability, and the ancient sages don't have so much ability! However, this is also a blessing for my Datang, no matter what, it is a good thing after all. ”

Guo Ziyi can only explain it like this, he also thinks that Li An is quite strange, he can have so many extraordinary skills, he can completely kill all the ancient sages in seconds, so many complex machines, he feels a headache at a glance, Li An can actually design and manufacture, this skill can not be compared.

"After returning to the capital, I want to ask him well, ask him who he learned these skills from, and which master taught him."

Wang Zhongsi turned his gaze back to the car and said leisurely.

Guo Ziyi shook his head and said, "Jie Shuai, don't ask!" Many officials in the capital also asked, but as a result, Li Shilang only said one sentence and sent these people away. ”

"Just one sentence, what is it?"

Wang Zhongsi looked at Guo Ziyi very curiously.

"Li Shilang said that these things can only be told to His Majesty alone, and no one else can know."

Guo Ziyi said seriously.

"Only His Majesty can know? This is quite smart, in this way, no one really dares to continue to ask, otherwise, it is an attempt to be on the same status as His Majesty. ”

Wang Zhongsi grinned and praised Ang Lee's wisdom.

"Jieshuai, this is the first time you take a train, and it is also the first time to be humble, I have to say, sitting in this wide train, it is much more comfortable than riding a horse, and it is much faster, in the future, it will be much more convenient to return to the capital, and after this train, it is much more convenient to transport troops and grain and grass, which can greatly enhance the strength of my Datang, I heard that the new railroad tracks have been laid from Luoyang City and Yumen Pass respectively, and the destinations are Laizhou and Shule Town."

Guo Ziyi suddenly changed the subject.

"From Laizhou to Shule Town, the total length is more than 10,000 miles, I didn't expect to be able to pave all the rails, so that the Tang Dynasty's control over the east and west is more solid, the rails of this 10,000 miles are laid with iron, which requires too much iron, and I Datang actually has this strength, which really makes Ben Shuai happy, Ben Shuai remembers that five years ago he asked the court for iron materials to repair the damaged weapons in the army, but the court couldn't get so much iron materials, only half of them were allocated, and now, But you can take out so much iron to lay rails at one time, and the increase in national strength is not a little bit! ”

Wang Zhongsi couldn't help but think of the past many years ago, only a few years of work, Datang not only no longer lacked iron, but also rich enough to lay railroad tracks, the growth of strength made Wang Zhongsi extremely shocked.

"Jieshuai, this is also thanks to Li Shilang, he invented black medicine, and improved the blast furnace for iron smelting, as a result, the speed of iron ore mining has greatly increased, but the cost has decreased a lot, and now, the production of pig iron in Datang has increased more than a hundred times, so there is so much iron used to lay rails."

Guo Ziyi said with a smile.

"Yes! Wuxiao does have a great credit, but the increase in pig iron production is not all his credit, if it is not for the imperial court to mobilize a large number of manpower to mine the ownerless iron ore, how can so many nobles and local tycoons follow up? However, his credit is the greatest, there is no doubt about it, haha! ”

Wang Zhongsi said and looked out the car window again, this time, he saw a different scenery, a green meadow outside, and rolling mountains in the distance, which made him feel very good.

"In the blink of an eye, the train is out of the desert, well, really good!"

Wang Zhongsi laughed.

"Jie Shuai, lunch is here."

A soldier walked in with a dining cart.

"Huh! This train is good, eat, drink, Lazar and sleep, everything is ready, even if you sit on it for a year, there is no problem! Come, General Guo, let's dine together. ”

Wang Zhongsi was in a good mood and invited Guo Ziyi to dine together.

"Since the festival marshal said so, the last general is not welcome, how can this little wine and food be enough? Let the food truck add wine and food. ”

Guo Ziyi never regarded himself as an outsider, and directly ordered Wang Zhonghe's personal soldiers.

While eating and drinking, they discussed in detail how to open their mouths to the emperor and euphemistically ask for an artillery unit to increase the strength of the border army, after all, the strength of artillery is extremely strong, as long as the border army is equipped, it will definitely greatly enhance the combat strength of the border army.

After all, they had long known that the imperial court had set up eight artillery brigades in the capital, and that in front of the envoys of various countries, a large-scale artillery live-fire exercise had been held, and it was completely feasible to select one of the eight artillery brigades to be sent to Shuofang.

The train on which Wang Zhongsi and Guo Ziyi were riding approached Chang'an City step by step, and in Chang'an City, Li An began to think about how to deal with these obsolete artillery.

Now the 1st Artillery Brigade and the 2nd Artillery Brigade are equipped with advanced breech guns, moreover, with anti-recoil devices, the performance has improved a lot, but the 100 breech guns that have been eliminated have not been used for long, and it is obviously not advisable to abandon them like this, at least let these guys exert their residual heat.

And the best way for Li An to deal with it is to deploy these breech guns in the border army, and this coincides with Wang Zhongsi's idea, so that the combat capability of the border army can be greatly improved, and at the same time, the imperial court has more advanced breech guns, which can effectively control the soldiers and horses in these places, so that the central government will not be weak and the local will be strong.