Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 218 Li Yuanji: Do you want to follow me?
The more Li Yuanji thought about it, the more feasible it seemed to him, and he was also looking forward to it.

Once these noble families arrive, all the elites in the family will come together. Then the officials here will be greatly enriched, and he will not be bound by these noble families.

Once you come to him, you have to listen to him. Once these people choose to come, there is no other way out. The only way left is this one for them. There is no choice.

Secondly, colleges at all levels under the name of his Ministry of Education are being established one after another, and talents can be cultivated by himself. It just takes time. As long as the first batch comes out, the rest will come in a steady stream. He doesn't have to worry about the arrival of these aristocratic families leading to a talent monopoly.

Thinking of this, Li Yuanji was really looking forward to it. He was currently short of officials, and the shortage was quite severe. All the places he had conquered needed lower-level officials to execute them. If these people arrived, they could help him get through this difficult period.

Li Yuanji then looked at Cen Wenben.

"Jingren, please pay more attention to this matter. If there is anything you need my cooperation with, just let me know.

But remember, we can't take the initiative to win them over and let them come to us. If they don't come, it's okay, but we must take the initiative!"

Li Yuanji knew very well that the situation would be different if those people came on their own or if he tried to win them over to come. In one case, he depended on these people, while in the other case, these people depended on him. There was a huge difference between the two.

Cen Wenben smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I know this. I will definitely not take the initiative to contact them about this."

After chatting for a few more sentences, Cen Wenben left. Li Yuanji finally had the chance to sit down and open the system to check. His contribution points had now reached 132,325 points. Li Yuanji looked at what he wanted to redeem and found that he was still less than 70,000 points short.

"Fortunately, now that this task is completed, it's almost done. However, the contribution points required for the future are increasing."

Li Yuanji was filled with emotion. At this moment, he saw that the task had changed. The exchange point directly came to 232,325 points. Li Yuanji was immediately delighted.

Then he looked at the new task: As a fiefdom, how can we only have land channels? We need to open up water/sea channels between various prefectures. If completed, we can get 100,000 contribution points.

Looking at the new task, Li Yuanji felt a little disappointed. He actually wanted this to be a population task. After all, several million people had moved in from the Tang Dynasty, so completing the population task would be much easier.

As for this task, Li Yuanji was both happy and worried. He was happy because the task itself was not that difficult. Now the water transportation and shipping systems here have been gradually improved. The only thing is that the waterway must be opened, which means that docks and ports must be built.

This is not a big deal, but more importantly, should Yunzhou Prefecture and the four prefectures of Zhenla be counted? Last time, he didn't count these places, which caused him to lose a lot of contribution points.

If these prefectures are taken into account, the time will be really long, and the money and grain that need to be spent will be a huge amount.

After thinking for a while, Li Yuanji decided to complete the places currently recognized by the system first to see if he could complete the task directly. As for refreshing the task, Li Yuanji, who had suffered a loss once, really didn't want to use it again.

Li Yuanji then opened the item exchange column and looked at the items to be exchanged. He felt distressed, but there was nothing he could do.

He clicked on the exchange, and 200,000 contribution points disappeared in an instant. Looking at what he got: the basics of steam engine technology, Li Yuanji's eyes were filled with tears.

This thing is actually not very useful after it is exchanged. Only after the steam technology is applied can we truly have the foundation for opening the steam age. The current foundation is not enough to be directly applied to all aspects of life.

Li Yuanji had no choice. These technologies spanned several eras. Even if he exchanged them for more advanced ones, he would not be able to handle them without these basic supports. He could only exchange them step by step.

Going from scratch to something is too difficult. He himself doesn't understand these things, and no one can figure it out even if he asks others to do it. He can only figure out the basics and then let others study it.

"Two hundred thousand contribution points. The application of this steam engine must be researched by the people below. We need to train more talents in this field. I don't believe that we can't figure it out. If I am asked to exchange for steam applications, I really don't have that many contribution points."

Li Yuanji made up his mind. As for the application of steam, he really had no idea to exchange it in the short term. He asked someone to study it. He didn't understand the technology, but he could provide some ideas. The more contribution points were needed later, he had to use them sparingly.

Afterwards, he used the remaining 30,000 contribution points to exchange for some basic industrial facilities, and his contribution points suddenly reached 2,325 points.

Li Yuanji put away the system in dismay, and kept sighing.

"It's useless, even more useless than money. It takes time to earn money. Can't you just give me a few hundred million contribution points? Maybe I can even make an airplane by now. Sigh."

Li Yuanji was not in a good mood that day. He had exchanged for a groundbreaking technology, but he just couldn't be happy. The reason was that he had lost too many contribution points and he really didn't feel like doing it.

"My king, what's wrong with you?"

Xie Shufang made tea and looked at the depressed Li Yuanji, full of confusion.

Li Yuanji glanced at Xie Shufang and managed to perk up a bit.

"Shu Fang, you are still too young now. If you don't understand these, don't ask."

Li Yuanji drank a sip of tea happily. Xie Shufang was puzzled. He was still young? He was older than Li Yuanji. How could this man dare to say that he was still young?

It was because Li Yuanji was his king that he did not refute. If it were someone else, Xie Shufang would have to compete with that person to see who was better.

Then Xie Shufang said sullenly: "Your Majesty, Wei Yunqi has already set out, Feng Li has also set out to Gaoda with 10,000 troops, and Yu Minghe has also set out to Japan with 10,000 troops to find Su Dingfang."

Hearing Xie Shufang's unhappy voice, Li Yuanji put down his tea and suddenly laughed.

"Why are you so depressed? These are just appetizers. Don't worry. The fight between us and Li Er will not just be between Japan and Tibet. There will be more to come.

You should also be ready to lead the army at any time. Now that they are all out, if there is an accident in Tubo later, you will probably be needed."

Li Yuanji knew what Xie Shufang was thinking, because Xie Shufang did not hide anything from him. Now as he said, all the people under him had been sent out, and they all had their own things to do. Only Xie Shufang was left here, so it was inevitable that he would have some thoughts.

Today, Xie Shufang is the leader among all the generals. He has excellent abilities and is his trusted confidant. Even Su Dingfang and Xi Junmai have no intention of competing with Xie Shufang. The only thing is that Xie Shufang is too strong-willed and always wants to do something to prove himself.

Just then, a guard hurried in. "My lord, there's news from the Firearms Bureau that the explosives are ready."

The Firearms Bureau was a department established after he invented gunpowder. It had the same nature as the Ironware Bureau, except that it was only responsible for the research and development of firearms. Now it is just an empty shell.

After hearing this, Li Yuanji stood up immediately and looked at Xie Shufang with suppressed excitement.

"Shufang, go and bring Songtsen Gampo over now. Let's go together and see the power of this explosive."

Xie Shufang was to go and bring Songtsen Gampo, while Li Yuanji would call Cen Wenben and go to the Firearms Bureau together.

Inside the Firearms Bureau, someone had already made preparations as Li Yuanji had said. Li Yuanji looked at this scene and immediately hid behind a cover.

"Ignite it."

The people from the Firearms Bureau began to light the fuse. The fuse did not burn very quickly because Li Yuanji had not yet made a fuse that would burn faster. So they could only wait.

Not only Li Yuanji, Xie Shufang and Cen Wenben also had a look of anticipation on their faces and were very curious about this new type of explosive.

Songtsen Gampo, on the other hand, had a solemn and confused look on his face. He was originally thinking about something important when he was suddenly brought out by Xie Shufang. Then he saw Li Yuanji and hid away without saying a word.

Songtsen Gampo looked at the thick iron plates around him. In fact, they were steel plates. Songtsen Gampo had not seen them often, so he thought they were iron plates.

Songtsen Gampo was very confused. Was this necessary? Was this explosive so terrible?
Just when he was lost in thought, Li Yuanji's voice suddenly came.

"Cover your ears. If you get deafened by the explosion, I will not be responsible!"

Xie Shufang and Cen Wenben immediately followed Li Yuanji's movements. Songtsen Gampo did not dare to delay either. He had just covered his ears when he heard a loud noise, as if something had exploded right next to his ears. Even with his ears covered, Songtsen Gampo felt a brief loss of voice, followed by a constant ringing in his ears.

Songtsen Gampo's eyes were dull, and there was only one thought in his mind: what had just happened? What happened to him? Was he going to die?

At this moment, Songtsen Gampo seemed to see his great-grandfather, although he had never seen him before.

Li Yuanji was not feeling much better at the moment. The tinnitus in his ears persisted, and at one point Li Yuanji almost thought he was deaf.

He asked the people in the firearms bureau to prepare a bigger one in order to give Songtsen Gampo an unforgettable memory and also to see how powerful it was. However, he did not expect that his ears would suffer so much.

"My lord, is this caused by the explosion of explosives?"

Li Yuanji looked at Xie Shufang who was very excited. He saw Xie Shufang's lips moving but he didn't hear any sound.

"What did you say?"

Li Yuanji spoke very loudly, and he could even hear his own voice. However, in the ears of Xie Shufang and others, the voice was not so loud.

"My Lord, am I saying that this is the power of a dynamite explosion? (Very loud)"

When Li Yuanji heard it this time, he nodded excitedly.

"Yes! This is dynamite! (Very loud)"

Li Yuanji walked out immediately. Looking at the mess, he was still frightened. Although the formula of the explosives was not perfect, with such a large amount, the power was not small at all. He felt that if there were people standing nearby, they would probably be blown to death.
Songtsen Gampo was stunned when he saw this scene. Was this explosives? It was clearly a divine punishment from the god of thunder, right?

Looking at the pit on the ground and the mess around it, Songtsen Gampo swallowed his saliva. He couldn't imagine what would happen if the explosives Li Yuanji mentioned were placed in the army and exploded, or used to break through the door during a siege. Songtsen Gampo shuddered.

Although it was a sunny day, Songtsen Gampo felt extremely cold. He now understood why they had to hide so closely. If they had not hidden closely, they would probably be dead by now.
Even though he hid far away and was so careful, his ears still suffered severe injuries. Songtsen Gampo didn't dare to imagine what would happen if this power was put on the battlefield.

Xie Shufang and Cen Wenben were equally excited. This explosive completely overturned all their understandings. How could there be such a powerful weapon in the world?
After a long time, several people gradually came to their senses. At this time, the tinnitus in their ears was not as loud as before, and they could hear clearly what others said.

"Your Majesty, this explosive must be promoted throughout the army so that they can be used at any time. It will definitely be invincible when used on the battlefield. It can also be tied to a crossbow and shot out, or thrown out by a catapult. It will definitely cause heavy damage to the enemy!"

Xie Shufang said a lot. Anyway, how long has it been since the battlefield was used? Xie Shufang has already arranged it clearly, and he has already thought about how to use it.

Cen Wenben on the side spoke next.

"My lord, this explosive can also be used to build roads. It can be used for both opening up mountains and blasting rocks. With this explosive, the construction of roads in various prefectures can be much faster, especially when encountering some mountains, they can be directly blasted open!"

Xie Shufang talked about how to use the army, Cen Wenben talked about how to use it in people's livelihood, and how to use it directly in infrastructure construction. Anyway, it can be used in any way, and explosives must be produced in large quantities.

Only Songtsen Gampo was silent and bitter. He was originally thinking about the smelting technology here, but now seeing the explosives, he didn't have much thought in his mind. The original comparison of ordnance had already made him very helpless.

You have to know that the smelting technology of Tubo is not even as good as that of the Tang Dynasty. However, the smelting technology here is obviously better than that of the Tang Dynasty. They are not on the same level at all. Now such an explosive has been produced. If Li Yuanji really wants to destroy Tubo, isn't this like playing?
To be precise, the development of Tubo gradually improved after Princess Wencheng married into the country. Princess Wencheng's dowry and her own knowledge brought a lot of advanced culture and technology to Tubo.

Today's Tibet is a reflection of most of the countries surrounding the Tang Dynasty. The more remote a place is in the Tang Dynasty, the more backward it is.

Li Yuanji listened to the two people's voices and did not respond for the time being. Instead, he turned his head and looked at Songtsen Gampo with interest, who had complicated thoughts.

"Songtsen Gampo, are you interested in hanging out with me?"

(End of this chapter)