Du Zhongxiao and Su Song took a group of officials and looked at the intersection. The red sun rises on his head, and he can't help but be anxious.

The railroad was built, and the railway supervisor was generous to the people of the various states who came to help build the road, which attracted the attention of the governors of the states. Including the transshipment envoy, he also feels that the iron supervisor now has strong financial resources. The retired Stretch Stretch Army is still coming one after another, and the focus of future resettlement will be mainly in Dengzhou and Xiangzhou. Then it was organized by the Transshipment Envoy Division, and Li Cheng, the deputy envoy in charge of Jingnan Road, came forward to convene the commanders of the state army involved and gather in Tangzhou with Du Zhongxiao.

Zhao Ji, the governor of Ruzhou, is already old, and the iron supervisor is originally a Ruzhou territory, so he did not participate. The other four prefectures that came out of Minfu a few days ago, Song Qi, the governor of Xuzhou, Liu Zhi, the governor of Caizhou, Ouyang Xiu, the governor of Yingzhou, and Yan Shu, the governor of Chenzhou, came to the iron prison together after meeting in Yuncheng.

Su Song has been promoted to the governor of Baiting, Liu Zhuo is the judge, and Du Zhongxiao has slowly faded out of the affairs of the iron prison. After meeting with the four governors, Du Zhongxiao and Su Song took a train with them and went to Tangzhou. The affairs of the camp are more onerous, and when Su Song leaves, he will add another supervisor and one more to do official business.

The four governors, none of them are important ministers of the imperial court, and the importance of this area can be imagined. Relatively speaking, Ouyang Xiu's qualifications are the shallower, and he has also worked as an intellectual. Liu Zhi has been a bachelor of Hanlin and the middle of the imperial history, the rebellion of Beizhou, Zhizhou Zhang Deyi is full of ugliness, because Liu Zhi is one of Zhang Deyi's masters, he was demoted, and he is still the official of the two provinces in the matter. Song Qi was a bachelor of Hanlin and was demoted from Beijing because of his opposition to the canonization of Zhang Guifei. He worked with Ouyang Xiu to revise the "History of the Tang Dynasty", which was more convenient to get closer. Needless to say, Yan Shu has been the prime minister for a long time, and he is very senior among the courtiers.

Du Zhongxiao has been on the throne for less than ten years, and among the four of them, except for Ouyang Xiu, who had some contacts before he ascended to the throne, everyone else only heard of his name. Dealing with these people is hard work, Du Zhongxiao is a little resistant. With his current political achievements, he no longer needs to be supported by others.

On the contrary, it was Su Song, who was familiar with these people because of his father Su Shen. When I was young, I had already seen them.

It was not until almost noon that Song Qi, the governor of Xuzhou, brought the soldiers and horses of Benzhou and arrived with the other three.

Du Zhongxiao took a group of officials and stepped forward to salute. Liu Zhuo handed over the documents and asked the soldiers and horses of Xuzhou to return, and they were escorted by the soldiers and horses of the iron supervisor.

The group didn't go far before it quickly ran out of people. There were no houses on either side of the road, and it looked very desolate.

Yan Shu looked at the south bank of the Li River, full of reed swamps, I don't know how many years it has been abandoned, and said to Du Zhongxiao: "Yun Juan, Mengzhai Town, which is not far from here, is overpopulated, how did you enter the territory of the Iron Prison, so desolate?" The two places are not far apart, and they should not be so different. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Every summer rainy season, the Li River swells, and there is a lot of sediment, which damages the farmland and houses. For 1200 years, there were no families on both sides of the river. Since the iron superintendent opened the mine and smelted iron, the few families here have moved to the mining place in the mountains to the south. ”

Song Qi said: "The land here is flat, and it is not far from the river, isn't it a pity to be barren?" The camp is open everywhere, why not arrange some people to come? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "If the water disaster is not removed, the land here will not be opened for a long time." The iron supervisor is preparing manpower to build a dam to hold back the water in the upstream area, turning the water disaster into water conservancy. When the dam is built, people will naturally come here to clear the land. At that time, there will also be rice mulberry everywhere here. ”

The four of them nodded, and didn't say much. Due to the geography and climate of this area, the rain is concentrated in summer, and the rivers and streams in the mountains to the south are so swollen that it is impossible to farm. That large swamp of reeds was formed for this reason. The vegetable garden of the iron prison was only able to be cultivated on the south bank by building a dam. Without that dam, farming would have been largely impossible on the south bank of the Li River.

All the way from Yuncheng, everyone was tired and had nothing to say all the way. After walking for twenty miles, there is a stone bridge on the Li River, which is the ancient road of the former dynasty, and everyone crosses the Li River and continues to move forward. After walking more than ten miles, it began to gradually become crowded.

Looking at the horse shop inns on both sides of the road, Liu Zhi said: "There are more people here, isn't it already in the iron prison?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "There are iron mines in this area, and there are merchants from afar, and some people have opened shops to make some money. ”

Liu Zhi and Yan Shu glanced at each other and couldn't help muttering in their hearts. Before I came, everyone said how prosperous and lively the Tiejian was here, but after walking twenty or thirty miles, it was still desolate. There are more than 20,000 households in the iron prison, and the land of a county should be densely populated.

After walking for a few more miles, suddenly a railroad track blocked the way. Every short distance, there are several cars connected together, and a few men stand on top of the cars, holding the car gang, looking very comfortable. The cart was full of ore, presumably mined from the mountains.

When Liu Zhi saw it, he hurriedly asked Du Zhongxiao beside him: "Yun Judgment, this is the railway that was built?" That's the train running on it? How is it different from what Liu Dujian said? He said it was a puffing machine pulling a cart, a long line. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Give it a thing, this section can also be regarded as a railway, but there is no train running on it." The steam engine was extremely difficult to make, and although the iron supervisor used more manpower, it was still insufficient. The minecart here needs to be pushed by someone. Loaded with ore, it is from a high place, so that it can be self-contained. Later, when there are more steam engines, it can run trains, and then there will not be so many people to transport them. ”

Everyone nodded. They had all heard of the train, and the most important feature was that it was loud and loud in front of them. There are even some people who say that it is the law of immortals and demons because of the continuous clouds and mist of the locomotive, and the iron car is on its own, which is extremely mysterious.

After this track, it will not be long before you reach the vegetable garden of the Iron Prison. There are people ploughing, people watering, and there are fireworks.

A short walk away, there is a huge barracks, neatly lined with houses. At this time, a relatively large state city is only a few thousand households, and it will not live together so densely. Seeing this scene, several Zhizhou were shocked.

At this time, it was work time, only the children and their relatives occasionally walked on the streets, and the whole camp was quiet and peaceful.

After walking for a while, but not coming to the end, Ouyang Xiu couldn't help but ask: "Yun Juan, I think this is the iron prison." Such a large area of barracks, neat and orderly, even in Kaifeng City, there is no such scene! ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Yes, I have begun to enter the iron prison." This area is the later stretch of the fiber box, and the south is the newly built smelting furnace. They came late and had to live outside, which is a little inconvenient now. After a long time, it will slowly become lively. ”

"This is still outside the Iron Prison?!" Ouyang Xiu was startled, and his jaw almost fell.

Du Zhongxiao said: "Yes, there are still a few miles to go to the Iron Prison Yamen." Just look at the other side of the river, lively, and then get to the place. ”

Everyone looked at the other side of the Li River, scattered a few houses, mostly inns and freight yards. It was only then that everyone understood why the road was so desolate. The concentration of the population here is far greater than they expected, and the vast majority of the population is concentrated in the core area.

For Du Zhongxiao, this is nothing. A population of several thousand households is just a large village in later generations. The entire 20,000 households in the iron prison are all gathered together, and it is just a town, far from being prosperous. But in this era, tens of thousands of households live together, and there are few such prosperous places in the world. Even if there are a few large cities, although the population is large and the area is large, the density is far less than here.

After the vegetable garden, it gradually became lively. The barracks on the south bank of the river are some distance from the official road, and the iron supervisor is not allowed to build houses along the street, and the road is quiet. On the other side of the river, it's different, one after another, all inns and freight yards, with all kinds of signboards fluttering.

After walking a short distance, I saw a forest of houses in front of me, a flow of people, and all kinds of cries and cries one after another. On the other side of the river, there are many shops, and several restaurants have risen from the ground, which is very magnificent. Everyone said in their hearts, this scene is worthy of the iron prison yamen they heard about.