After drinking a glass of wine, Yan Shu said: "Such a heavy weapon, if it was a few years earlier, why should the northwest be so embarrassed!" Hey—"

Everyone did not speak, and for a moment there was silence in the carriage, except for the sound of the other thing coming from the window. Du Zhongxiao also had nothing to say, in fact, he was not sure, even if he had a railway and could transfer troops, would he be able to defeat the party in the northwest. It is estimated that the war capability displayed by the Song army was to gather along the railway, push it all the way over, and use its national strength to pile up the core areas of the party.

This is also a way, the railway can give full play to the national strength and make up for the shortcomings of the frontier.

Ouyang Xiu said: "It's not too late. If the railway is overhauled, the northwest to Qinzhou, the north to Bingzhou, and the northeast to Bazhou, the situation will be different. ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head with a smile: "Xianggong, this is a railway, and it is paved with iron." Plus the car running on the road, how much does that cost? For thousands of miles, all the taxes of the imperial court were used to build roads, and there was not much to pave. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "The iron prison has paved hundreds of miles a year, and there is nothing. ”

Du Zhongxiao sighed: "That's the iron of the iron prison can't be sold, so it can only be like this." Now the iron used to pave the road is like dirt, and it cannot be counted as money. After a year or two, the iron market of the iron supervisor will be sold all over the world, and it will not be so easy to pave the road at that time. ”

At present, the railway centered on the railway supervision is a part of the infrastructure of the railway supervision, and the railway supervision department took money to build it in order to maintain production capacity. This railway can only reach Kaifeng in the north and Xiangzhou in the south. If you want to extend, the cost will be different from the original. Paving roads elsewhere, the cost will roll upward,

Once Tiejian's products are sold in large quantities and money is earned, everything will be different. The managers in charge will inevitably be important ministers, and the managers of the iron supervisors, of course, will not be like now, they are all officials without quality and rank, but there will be officials at all levels. Not to mention the increased money and food, they will be burdened with the task of the imperial court directly, where is it possible to be like now.

Now the production capacity of the iron supervisor has risen, but it has not made any money, and it has all been converted into fixed assets and infrastructure. There is no money on the iron supervisor's books, so the imperial court will let Du Zhongxiao do whatever he wants. Once there is money on the books, how can the three divisions be so laissez-faire?

Is the rail cheap? Of course, it is cheap to have production capacity, but once the price of other things produced goes up, the cost of the railway also goes up.

Du Zhongxiao thought about this very clearly, so he had to take advantage of the fact that he was not making money now and made every effort to lay the railway. After this meeting, seeing the benefits brought by the railway, the imperial court will definitely forcibly lay two lines. One is from Xiangcheng to Xuzhou, and then to Kaifengfu. The other is from the iron prison to Luoyang, Xijing. Luoyang City is the location of the Jingxi Road Transit Envoy, and the Transit Envoy will strengthen the control of the Iron Supervisor. Even, the imperial court will also lay a railway connecting Kaifeng Mansion and Henan Prefecture, and the two capitals will be connected, directly changing the pattern of the Central Plains.

Relatively speaking, although Xiangzhou is the deputy envoy of Jingxi Road, in the eyes of the imperial court, the priority is much lower. It can only be laid by the strength of local states and counties and battalions. From the words of Ouyang Xiu and Yan Shu, this trend can actually be heard. Seeing the benefits of the railway, the first thing the minister of the DPRK and China thought about was to pave the three roads along the border, and other places did not matter.

While talking, he drank wine, and unconsciously passed Ye County and turned into Fangcheng Mountain.

Looking at the rolling mountains on both sides, Song Qi said: "When Emperor Taizong was emperor, he wanted to open the Xianghan Cao Canal, so he passed through this pass. It took several states of manpower and spent countless money, but it was not dug up after all. Now that the railroad has been built, it can be regarded as another way. ”

Yan Shu said: "Not bad. From here, the two lakes and the Central Plains are communicated, and since the Warring States Qin and Chu contended, there has been this discussion. It's just too difficult, and I tried many times but it didn't work. Manpower is sometimes poor, digging ditches and building weirs, and lifting step by step, after all, it can be done. Compared to digging ditches, it is much easier to build roads. ”

In fact, there is another reason, the watershed dominated by Fangcheng Mountain, there are many heavy rains in summer, and the risk of building a weir and dam is too high.

In this era, the main purpose of communicating the Han River was not actually the two lakes, but the upper reaches of the Sichuan Gorge area. At this time, Hubei was sparsely populated, and Hunan was not developed, except for a few big cities, most of which were barbarian places. The two lakes are ripe, and the world is full, and it will be hundreds of years later. The Sichuan Gorge area, the land of abundance since ancient times, is rich in products and densely populated. Along the Han River and the Yangtze River, you can go to Xiangzhou and Jiangling, so you can go north, which is of great significance to the pattern of the world.

Speaking of this, Yan Shu suddenly felt a little disgusted, and hurriedly lowered his head. After a long pause, he raised his head and said, "Blame, why do you feel a little seasick!" To Dao in this car, can you still get seasick? ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "Although it is stable, this car is still a little shaky, but it is not similar to taking a boat!" ”

Du Zhongxiao hurriedly said: "If Xianggong feels unwell, you can sit by the window, open the window slightly, and blow the wind." ”

The train has been running for so many days, and Yan Shu is still the first person Du Zhongxiao has seen who gets motion sickness. In the final analysis, the current train speed is actually not fast, that is, it is faster than a horse-drawn carriage, and it is not so easy to get motion sickness.

The soldier next to him opened the window a little, and Yan Shu sat by the window. The fresh wind blew in and I immediately felt better.

Feeling the breath of spring, Song Qi said: "If you don't open the window, it's a little stuffy after all, and it's much better if the wind blows in." ”

At this time, it is late spring, and the peach and willow green outside are colorful. The crowd stopped talking and looked out the window.

When I arrived at Qingtai Town, I stopped for a while, added water and coal, and continued to move forward. In the afternoon, we arrived at Tangzhou City.

Zhizhou Li Fugui and Jing Yuan were already waiting at the station, waiting for the train to stop, and hurriedly got on the train to salute Yan Shu and the others.

Yan Shu leaned on the table and said a little sluggishly: "When I first got in the car, everything was fine, talking and laughing, it was very relaxing." I don't want to sit for a long time, and I feel that my energy is not good. It seems that although this car is good, it is still tiring after sitting for a long time. ”

The rest of the people didn't feel it, and one by one they were in good spirits. Even the older Liu Zhi is in good spirits.

After getting out of the car, Li Fugui said: "Ladies and gentlemen, Deputy Envoy Li of Jingxi Road and Fan Xianggong of Dengzhou, I heard that you are here today, and they are all waiting in the state office, waiting to catch the wind for you." Let's go to the post station, and the prince will clean up a little, and then go to the state office? ”

Yan Shu nodded: "Okay, that's it." I got out of the car and blew the wind, and my spirits improved. ”

At that moment, everyone followed Li Fugui and Jing Yuan to the post station and freshened up.

Lee Fu-gyu is the son of Li Shu, a Hanlin scholar, and has always been fame and forge ahead. This meeting in Tangzhou is not only a major matter, but also a rare opportunity for many important ministers to gather, and it is very attentive to run before and after.

Those who have already arrived in Tangzhou, in addition to Li Cheng, the deputy envoy for transport, include Fan Zhongyan, the governor of Dengzhou, Wang Zhu, the governor of Xiangzhou, Li Duanyi, the governor of Junzhou, Zhang Yu, the governor of Yingzhou, Xiang Zong, the governor of Suizhou, and Song Shouxin, the governor of the Xinyang Army.

Compared with the North Jingxi Road, the South Road is relatively unimportant, except for Fan Zhongyan, an important minister in Dengzhou, and Wang Zhu in Xiangzhou, who has a higher official position, except for Li Duanyi and Song Shouxin, two generals, whose official positions are all under Du Zhongxiao. However, even so, more than half of the people who participated in the assembly had a higher official position than Du Zhongxiao, and even higher than Deputy Envoy Li Cheng. The Song Dynasty Prefecture is the main political region, and the road level is only an auxiliary, which is the case.