Du Zhongxiao's explanation of his own arrangement did not convince Fan Zhen. Of course, there is no need for Fan Zhen to be convinced, Du Zhongxiao is no longer a down-and-out boy under the rule of him when he was the magistrate of the county. Fan Zhen only needs to go back to the court to repeat Du Zhongxiao's meaning, and the court will know the intention. With Du Zhongxiao's current status, even if the emperor and the prime minister don't understand it and don't involve important government affairs, they will acquiesce.

Railways have this benefit, in a way that ignores geographical distance, which used to be far away is now not far away. Without railways, supporting an army of 10,000 or 20,000 thousands of miles away was costly for the Central Plains Dynasty. After the railway was opened, Hequ Road could send 100,000 troops into the Western Regions, which was not a heavy burden. After the training of all the forbidden troops is completed, it will take a few years, and it will not be time to use troops against the party and the Khitan.

Another point, whether you agree with Du Zhongxiao's arrangement or not, really entering the Western Regions will have huge benefits for the prestige of the imperial court. Even if the Khitan and the party are close at hand, if they enter the Western Regions after hundreds of years, the imperial court can claim to reproduce the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties. It was difficult for the emperor and prime minister to resist this temptation.

On the second day, Fan Zhen crossed the Yellow River, went to Dongsheng County to take the train to Shazhou, carefully recalled what Du Zhongxiao said yesterday, and slowly began to understand the intention of doing so. In the past few months, the Hequlu army was invincible for a while, and it seemed that they could fight wherever they wanted, but now it is different. Most of the backbone of the army was withdrawn, and the veterans were decommissioned, and there was not a year or two for them to restore their prestige at that time.

After a series of victories, if the soldiers and horses on the meandering road are silent, and there is no external victory to maintain the momentum, it is not conducive to cohesion of the army. Especially when the whole army was being reorganized and its combat effectiveness was formed, Du Zhongxiao needed to have a clear enemy. But the army that can really go out to fight, even if it completes the first round of training after three months, will be at most 350,000 people. The meandering road is thousands of miles in circumference, and there are many places that need to be guarded. Thirty or fifty thousand people, the Khitan and the party are insufficient, but it is more than enough to fight Gaochang. Looking around at Hequ Road, Gaochang is the most suitable target.

Dongsheng County to Shazhou more than 200 miles, just after noon, Fan Zhen and his party arrived at the station. Zhizhou Zu Wuxuan and Wang Jingyang took the officials of the state and the east of Hequ Road to deploy Yang Wenguang to wait there early to welcome the state government in the city.

Here in Shazhou, the camp Tianxiang army and the people have not yet come, and the original households live in a concentrated manner, and there is not much public sentiment to observe. After walking around the city, most of them were garrisons, and there were even few shops, so after asking a few casual questions, Fan Zhen returned to the state office.

The sun was still high in the sky, and the cool breeze was blowing, which was very refreshing. Zu Wuxuan set up a wine feast in the back office to wash the dust for Fan Zhen.

Fan Zhen and Zu Wuxuan are both Jing You's five-year Jinshi Deng, Fan Zhen is the champion, and Zu Wuxuan is the third, and their friendship is not comparable to others. The officials and the guards were busy on one side, and the two sat under the trees, gossiping in the cool breeze.

Fan Zhen said: "Although Zezhi has suffered some misfortunes, this time he went to Shazhou to be the governor of the state, which is an opportunity." If there are no mistakes or omissions, it will inevitably be reused by the DPRK and China. ”

Zu Wuxuan smiled and said: "Huan Hai makes a living, what is it to suffer some hardships." Shazhou is a little remote, but it is the place where the imperial court has newly recovered, and it is just the Yinshan crossing, which is the place where our generation comes in. When Jingren entered the capital, many people didn't think about it, and gave "Long Howl but Hu Qi", which made the two ministers of the Great Song Dynasty and the Little Song Dynasty dare not make their own works, so they are famous. Here in Shazhou, just at the Baidaokou, Jing Ren can go there and let out a long howl, in order to be the new year. ”

Fan Zhen couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. A few years ago, because he offended the powerful, Zu Wuxuan was demoted to the governor of Yuanzhou by the transfer envoy, and when he came to Shazhou again, he was worried that he would be depressed, and it would be nothing if he could see it. Fan Zhen is a native of Shudi, and learned that Xue Kui of Yizhou appreciated it and brought it into the capital. When he first entered Beijing, many people felt that he couldn't afford Xue Kuizan. Once he worked with Song Zhen and Song Qi, and the title was "Long Howling but Hu Qi". Fan Zhen became the first, and after reading it, Song felt that his work was far from comparable, and it was not easy to take it out. The big and small Song Dynasty pushed Xu, and Fan Zhen spread far and wide because of this literary name.

The new land of Hequ Road is indeed not in good condition, but it is a good place to make meritorious achievements. If you do it here, you can reduce the grind in the future, and a little bit of achievement will be reused.

Shazhou is just Yinshan Baidaokou, and together with Fengzhou, it is an important place to guard the Yinshan intersection. However, in this era, the main road over Yinshan Mountain is in Fengzhou, followed by Shazhou. After the Song Dynasty, the White Road became the most important road across Yin Mountain. There is a green mound in Shazhou, and the place between the green mound and the state city is a plain, which is the center of this area in Hohhot.

The green mound has a special significance, occupying this place, marking the arrival of the northern border of the Qin and Han dynasties.

Tang poetry is the most prosperous, and one of the major genres is Biansai poetry, and a large part of Biansai poetry is to write about the north and south of Yinshan Mountain. It is with these places that this kind of psalm is produced. Many of the people who wrote the poems were these officials who went to the border to serve as officials.

With a large number of officials serving in Hequ Road, a few years later, the Song Ci mixed with the poetry style of Biansai will inevitably have another face.

After chatting a few words of gossip, Fan Zhen said: "Shazhou is just the Yinshan crossing, and the north of the mountain is the land of Tatar. This dynasty has won consecutive victories against the Khitan and the party, I don't know what the Tatars have moved? It is said that there are several tribal envoys, and it should be the proper meaning to pay tribute to Beijing. ”

Zu Wuxuan shook his head: "No, I don't even have a Tatar merchant here. After Yang deployed the garrison in Shazhou, he sent a department to build a city at the crossing in the north of the mountain, where there was originally the Khitan Shanjin Division. After the city was built, the Tatars disappeared within a hundred miles of the surrounding city. ”

Fan Zhen couldn't help frowning when he heard this: "What do you mean by Tatars?" Wang Shi came to the north, and they didn't move at all? ”

Zu Wuxuan said: "I think it's not like this, the current Tatars should be waiting." Since the rise of the Khitan, soon the Tatar tribes have submitted to it. The Khitan built a collapsed ridge and was stationed in various key places. Now the two Khitan emperors stand side by side, and the prince Yelu Hongji is based in Youzhou, and Yelu Ren, who supports Hongji, is stationed in Shangjing first. According to Datong Mansion, the empress dowager who supported Chongyuan was stationed in Zhongjing, and her power was comparable. Yeluren was originally an important Khitan minister, with more than 200,000 troops under his command, and the Tatars easily did not dare to provoke him. Chongyuan gathered more than 300,000 troops and horses in Datong Prefecture, and all the troops were gathered, and the Tatars also did not dare to disobey their command. There is Yelu Renxian in the north of Tatar and Yelu Chongyuan in the south, and it is too late to protect himself, so he can only avoid the soldiers and horses of this dynasty. ”

Fan Zhen nodded: "I see." When I went out of Beijing, some courtiers thought that the two Khitan emperors were fighting each other and should not be too oppressive. The party has recently negotiated peace, and the army has not yet undergone training, and it cannot start the war lightly. It was proposed that the Tatar tribes were not subordinate to each other, and that troops could be sent by Shazhou and Fengzhou, and after crossing the Yin Mountain, they would be given both grace and power to make them submit. In this way, if you do not start a war with the Khitan, you can cut its wings for the future. ”

Zu Wuxuan said: "This is a good plan. It's just that the Tatars live as nomads, migrate thousands of miles, and their whereabouts are unpredictable. To make it submit, it is necessary to have a large number of cavalry, deep into the desert steppe, to capture its tracks. There were a lot of rangers on the Hequ Road, but after being transferred by the imperial court, it was difficult to gather enough soldiers and horses for a while. After a year or two, it will not be difficult to subdue the Tatars. ”

Fan Zhen said: "Yesterday I talked to Du Jieshuai about the affairs of Hequ Road, and Jieshuai wanted to build a railway to Heishui City, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Gaochang Uighurs. I saw that the festival marshal's intention was very strong, and he did not mention the strategy of overturning the Yinshan Tatar system. ”

Zu Wuxuan thought for a while and said: "To the north of Montenegro is the Dangxiang Zhuanglang Department, and when the soldiers were approaching the Vultures Sea, their leaders surrendered the city with their clans. The marshal promised at that time that after Zhuang Lang's ministry was surrendered, the imperial court would support it. If Zhuang Langbu wants to become bigger, it can only compete with the Tatars for pastures to the north. Thinking that the festival commander wanted to use Zhuang Lang to make Tatars, so he abandoned the strategy of crossing the Yin Mountain. Moreover, going deep into the desert, it is necessary to have a large number of cavalry, and it is difficult to concentrate troops, which is inconsistent with the habit of being good at fighting big battles. The Uighurs of Gaochang were different, they farmed for a living, lived in the city, and it was much easier to use soldiers. ”

Fan Zhen said: "Another point is that although the Uighurs in Gaochang are far away, as long as the railway is built, it is convenient to transport materials. If you go deep into the grassland desert, you will not have this convenience. With the railroad as a sharp weapon, of course, the war will be fought along the place where the railway can be built. ”

Zu Wuxuan nodded: "That's right." Without the railway, there would be no way to garrison so many troops here in Shazhou, how could the Tatars flee from the wind? Without railways to transport grain, thousands of miles away, this dynasty even occupied the meandering road, and it was difficult to support the army. ”

With the popularization of railways, more and more people recognize the benefits of railways, and many officials also recognize the strategic role of railways. As long as the railway is repaired to the locality, many difficulties that could not be overcome before will no longer be difficulties. As soon as the party heard that the railway had been repaired to the Zhenrong army, he naturally relented and sacrificed Blackwater City without a fight. Even they also knew that there was a railway there, and the Song army could pile up the party even if it was a pile of people. Not to mention the tactics used in the past, such as frontal retreat, stretching the supply money of the Song army, and then sending partial divisions to cut off the grain route, which is useless.

Due to the disparity in national strength, the Khitan and the party did not dare to fight with the Song army for a while, and other small forces took it from the Song army, and they could do whatever they wanted. As long as the railroad is built there, there will be no suspense.

Du Zhongxiao aimed at Gaochang because it was the gateway to the Western Regions. The railway will be connected to Heishui City, and then further repaired to Gaochang, and there will be no more forces in the Western Regions to resist. Several big cities in Gaochang, Yizhou is the Hami of the later generations, Jiaohe Prefecture is the Turpan of the later generations, Yanqi is the Korla of the later generations, and the important places north of the Tianshan Mountains are all under control. To the south of the Tianshan Mountains, it is mainly the Khotanese state, and as long as it is helped to restore the country, most of the Western Regions have been restored.

The Western Regions is the place where the Central Plains and West Asian forces compete, and when the railway is built there, the manpower and material resources of the Central Plains can be continuously reached, and it occupies an absolute advantage. At this time, the Han forces left behind by the Han and Tang dynasties were still huge there. Unlike later generations, the current Gaochang is dominated by Han Chinese, and Khotan has been an ally of the Central Plains for more than a thousand years, and even immigrants to Tunbian have been saved.