Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Li Mi and Zhang Tianlun traveled across the desert from Jiuquan and finally arrived in Guazhou.

Guazhou, as the "Longxing" land of King Jianning, Li Mi saw a different style from Hexi.

The billowing smoke from the Dashuixia Iron Works, and the black smoke from coal burned for steelmaking, enveloped the entire city of Guazhou in smoke.

The Dashuixia Iron Works and the nearby blacksmith workshops are restricted areas, so naturally Zhang Tianlun and Li Mi couldn't get in. They could only enter Guazhou City.

Because the iron factories and blacksmith workshops required a large number of workers, and the pollution near the iron factories was too serious, a large number of people flooded into Guazhou City.

Outside Guazhou City, after the commuting carriages of various blacksmith workshops were filled with workers, they were sent to the workshops to work.

When it was time to get off work, the station was even more lively, with workers sent back from various workshops after get off work.

Nowadays, whether a workshop can recruit workers also depends on whether the workshop has a carriage to pick up and drop off work.

The benefits of the Dashuixia Iron Works are even better, not only the latest carriage pick-up, but also a special iron factory canteen next to the station, which can provide breakfast and dinner services.

The original station outside the city of Guazhou, where horse-drawn carriages were temporarily gathered, has been rebuilt. All of them have been paved with concrete floors, covered with sunshade roofs, and some benches have been placed so that the workers waiting for the train can sit and rest.

Zhang Tianlun and Li Mi took a long-distance carriage between Jiuquan and Guazhou. This luxurious carriage is very comfortable, and the shock-absorbing springs greatly reduce the bumpy feeling during driving, because it is a luxurious carriage with only two people in one carriage. You can sleep overnight with the back of the chair flat.

The carriage arrived in Guazhou City in the morning, and Zhang Tianlun immediately pulled Li Bi into the city.

"The smoke and dust outside the city is really too big, and it will be better when you enter the city."

Sure enough, after Zhang Tianlun entered the city, Li Mi also felt that his breathing became much easier.

At this time, as the saying goes, relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea, Guazhou, relying on the Dashuixia Iron Works and a large number of iron workshops, has become the iron manufacturing center of Longyou.

Almost the entire population of Guazhou City is engaged in work related to ironware.

Except for a small number of food and daily necessities stores, the shops on the street are almost all related to ironware.

Li Mi looked at the city curiously. The air in the city was filled with the smell of smoke and flames, but the city was still clean.

The cleaners hired by the yamen are sweeping the streets, and a large amount of garbage is collected and transported from the garbage points next to each household to donkey carts, and transported to the centralized processing station outside the city.

Li Mi saw the iron pipes under the eaves of each house. The doors of each house were open, and the housewives were holding wooden buckets to collect water under these pipes.

Li Mi pointed to the official road curiously and asked, "What is this?"

Zhang Tianlun glanced at it and said, "Oh, this, tap water."

"Tap water?"

Zhang Tianlun said: "It's the water diversion pipeline. Because the Dashui Gorge is cut off now, the Guazhou government dug a diversion canal to the river. After the river water is sent to the water tower for disinfection, it is sent to the people's homes through these pipes." .”

Li Mi was taken aback. He had seen similar facilities in Chang'an City.

However, only the royal family and dignitaries are eligible to use that kind of special water diversion pipe, but in Guazhou, it is actually laid directly on the street so that every household can use it.

Seeing Li Mi's surprised look, Zhang Tianlun said: "What's the matter, isn't it just a water supply system? It's a pity that the airtightness of these pipes is not good, otherwise the heating pipes can be erected. But I heard that Shazhou has already started Heating kangs are being used, and Guazhou is also repairing kangs to prepare for the winter.”

For the words that Zhang Tianlun didn't understand, Li Mi was too lazy to ask. He was just curious about how much money such a water supply system would cost.

Li Mi didn't believe it at first when he heard that Longyou was rich and prosperous in Jiuquan.

But after seeing it with my own eyes, Guazhou is already so rich, and Shazhou will definitely be more prosperous.

Zhang Tianlun said: "The tickets to Shazhou have been sold out. Let's stay overnight in Guazhou today."

Li Mi naturally has no objection to this arrangement, and he is also full of interest in the city of Guazhou.

Zhangye in gold and Wuwei in silver show that these two areas are very suitable for food cultivation and are agricultural areas that can feed a large number of people.

However, the construction of Jiuquan and Guazhou was entirely out of military needs.

Jiuquan is the exit of the Hexi Corridor, and Guazhou is the entrance of Longyou, next to Yumen Pass.

Both of these prefectures are "lower prefectures" on the roster of the imperial household, that is, sparsely populated prefectures.

But I didn't expect that Jiuquan and Guazhou would be more prosperous than those big cities in Guanzhong.

Zhang Tianlun took Li Mi to find a clean hotel, and after settling down, Li Mi called the waiter.

"Xiaoer, are there any local newspapers in Guazhou?"

The clever waiter immediately said: "Guest officer, there are several newspapers in Guazhou. Which newspaper do you want?"

Li Mi was a little surprised. Among the three towns in Hexi, Wuwei, Zhangye and Jiuquan had only one local newspaper.

Except for "Zhangye Daily", which is a daily newspaper, Jiuquan and Wuwei are published every two days.

Although for Li Mi, so many pages of news and articles can be assembled in two days, the editors of these newspapers are already amazingly efficient.

However, these daily newspapers are actually reposting news from the "Longyou Daily". The players of the Shazhou "Longyou Daily" are very angry at the copying behavior of the daily newspapers in various places, and even asked King Jianning to stop these local daily newspapers immediately. A behavior in Chinese translation.

However, this lawsuit has nothing to do with it before King Jianning, but the Longyou Governor's Mansion has issued an order that all newspapers that want to be published in the future need to be filed with the Governor's Mansion.

Unexpectedly, there are several newspapers in Guazhou.

Li Milai asked with interest: "Which newspapers are there in Guazhou, can you introduce them?"

The shop waiter is also smart, he said with a smile: "Then it depends on what kind of person the guest officer is?"

"What kind of person am I, does it have anything to do with what newspaper I read?"

The waiter smiled and said, "Of course it has something to do with it. Guest officer, listen to me slowly."

"We have several newspapers in Guazhou. The first is "Longyou Daily". This newspaper is for real officials and gentlemen."

"The "Guazhou Daily" is for people who think they should be officials."

"Daily Economic News is for people who are not officials, but who think businessmen should manage Longyou."

""Entertainment News" is for the wives of the official."

""Spring Weekly" is for people who don't care about who is the official, but only care about whether the stories and illustrations are attractive."

Li Mi was stunned for a moment, and then understood what the guy said.

He laughed and said, "Then buy me a copy."

The clerk took the money and walked out of the hotel happily, and came back with a pile of newspapers in a short while.

What Li Mi cared about was the major issues in Longyou, so the first-rate newspapers like "Longyou Daily" were the first to pick up.

The first edition is the latest big news in Longyou, the most famous of which is the news of the construction of the railway between Zhangye and Jiuquan.

This railway uses rails and reserves the design to use steam engines. It is a large project jointly funded by Zhangye Jiuquan.

In contrast to the Jiuzhang Railway, another major project was the successful short-run test of the steam locomotive at Dangjinshan Pass.

Although it was only ten kilometers away, everyone in Longyou seemed to attach great importance to this steam engine and regarded it as the most important weapon of the country.

Li Mi has never seen a steam engine, and he doesn't know what the steam engine does. According to the introduction in the article, it seems to be a water wheel driven by steam?
But to make Longyou pay so much attention, there should be something extraordinary.

In addition to these two current affairs news, another piece of news that Li Mi paid attention to was a policy theory published on the second page.

This policy theory uses a semi-vernacular language that is easier to understand than the ancient prose of the pre-Qin period. Li Mi knows that the entire Longyou is promoting the "Ancient Prose Movement" to simplify the way documents between the yamen are written, and try to use more concise "ancient prose". It is not "Jinwen" that pays attention to the rhyme of four or six parallel prose.

In Li Mi's view, this ancient prose movement also had a positive effect on improving the efficiency of officialdom.

It's just that I didn't expect that this ancient prose movement would become more radical in the newspapers, and such policies and arguments began to use half vernacular.

Although it was half vernacular, Li Bi still trembled when he saw the title.

"A Brief Discussion on the Historical Inevitability Behind the Anlushan Rebellion"

What's so interesting about this title?
Inevitability?
Does it mean that An Lushan will definitely rebel?
If this is the case, Li Bi also thinks it is not surprising.

When An Lushan first served as Jiedu envoy, Li Linfu, the traitor at the time, said that An Lushan would turn against him.

Li Linfu's prophecy was a bit exaggerated, but during the Tianbao period, An Lushan had already shown his rebellion, and the emperor also summoned An Lushan's eldest son, An Qingzong, to Chang'an as a hostage.

But after reading this article, Li Mi was shocked.

This article does not analyze the inevitable rebellion of An Lushan, or even analyzes An Lushan at all.

The article only lists the data. At the beginning of the establishment of Datang, the population of the world was less than 20 million.

However, during the Kaiyuan period, the government's registered population had reached 50 million, and this did not include a large number of monks, refugees, and sheltered hermits who were not registered, and the actual population had reached 80 million.

However, during the Kaiyuan period, the Tang Dynasty had already reached the limit of its territorial control. The theory of the limit of the empire's territory had made it impossible for the Tang Dynasty to expand its territory.

With such a heavy population pressure, the output of the land has not increased by leaps and bounds. It is already very difficult to feed the people on the land.

The wealth of the entire imperial court was concentrated in Chang'an, and the imperial court's long-term extraction of wealth from Hebei and Jiangnan exacerbated this crisis.

After reading the data, Li Mi felt that the point of view was deafening. He seemed to have seen the invisible hand in the fog of history to control the cycle of chaos!

This article even gave this crisis a name, which is "Jiang Lun's Population Trap".