Late Tang

(Thanks to King of Bones, annyl1999, simon_s, Qi Zhen, Wuwei so-called, Mengmengmengmengmeng, There is a dream in the world, Wuwei so-called monthly ticket support and rewards, thank you everyone!)

Qianfu five years, July.

There are more than ten four-wheeled carriages and more than a hundred people walking on the official road leading to Dengzhou, the capital of the town.

A middle-aged man in his fifties was riding a horse at the front of the convoy. He was wearing a white folded round-neck gown and a black black veil on his head. On his slightly thin face, A pair of thick eyebrows, big eyes and piercing eyes, with a slight smile on the corner of his mouth with five long beards, his expression flutters between glances, coupled with the carved silver saddle and white horse, he is really a mature man full of elegance.

Also riding a white horse, closely behind this person were ten strong men lined up.The ten people are all in their [-]s and [-]s. Although they are all wearing blue robes, just looking at their stable posture on the horse, as well as their size and momentum, they can be known to be generals. senior staff.

The middle-aged man looked at both sides of the official road outside the Arc de Triomphe in Xindengzhou, and saw that there were row upon row of houses on both sides, including teahouses, restaurants, foot shops, butcher shops, bookstores, post offices, newspaper offices, taverns... The shop gates hung banners to attract business , Pedestrians of all colors crowded shoulder to shoulder, and the stream was endless. Compared with the prosperity of Chang'an City in Xijing, it was not inferior.He couldn't help showing surprise on his face, stopped the horse and sighed: "Wenhe, I can't wait to leave Dengzhou for three years. It's really surprising that the changes here are so earth-shaking."

The person who spoke was none other than Cui Yunqing, governor of Dengzhou three years ago.Three years ago, Cui Yunqing and Song Wei joined forces to pass on the position of Governor of Dengzhou to Song Wen, and went to Qingzhou to be promoted to Sima of the Jiedu Marching Army in Ziqing Town.Later, he was promoted to be the Jiedu Envoy of the Taining Army, and soon he was transferred to the Jiedu Envoy of Lingnan Dongdao, and casually transferred to the Observation Envoy of Jiangnan West Road. Southern Army Jiedushi.However, he didn't stay in Jiangxi for long. Not long ago, the imperial court ordered Cui Yunqing to be appointed as the Deputy Chief Protector of the Protectorate of Andong.In three years, I made a big circle and returned to Dengzhou.

But the ten strong men who followed him were not ordinary people.It was Song Wei and his old department.

Song Jirong, Song Wen, Song Xi, Yang Lin, Chang Bao, Liu Heng, Han Zhong, Liu Jian, Xu Cheng, Cui Decheng.

Song Jirong was Song Wei's governor, and Song Wen was the governor of Dengzhou and Zizhou.Song Xi, Yang Lin, Chang Bao and Liu Heng were all military envoys.

And Han Zhong, Liu Jian, Xu Cheng, and Cui Decheng are all Cui Yunqing's confidants and generals, and they have been following him for the past few years.Now returning to Dengzhou, Cui Yunqing not only brought back her four generals, but also Song Wei's six generals.

Just a month ago, Song Wei died of illness in Chang'an, and his confidant generals also ordered them to come to Dengzhou and belong to Li Jing's command.

Cui Yunqing came from Jiangxi, and Song Wen and others came from Chang'an. People from both sides met in Songzhou along the way, and then came together all the way.

Song Wen also reined in the horse's head, and sighed: "Cui Gong is right, Dengzhou is indeed changing with each passing day." Because Cui Yunqing is Li Jing's teacher, and Song Wei is Li Jing's adoptive father, and he is Song Wei. Wei's nephew, therefore, Song Wen is very respectful to Cui Yunqing, the old boss and senior.

Originally, there was a saying in the world that Yangzhou was the most prosperous place in the Tang Dynasty, while Chengdu, the southern capital, was the second.

According to the original ranking, if we only talk about commercial prosperity, then Yangzhou is the most prosperous, followed by Chengdu, then Guangzhou, followed by Chang'an, Luoyang, Taiyuan, and Jiangling.But now, Jiangling Mansion was destroyed by Wang Xianzhi, Guangzhou City was slaughtered by Huang Chao, and Yangzhou City was also because of Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi's previous invasion of Huainan, and Gao Pian's confrontation with Li Jing later, resulting in a drastic change in the situation.

Right now, Dengzhou, which used to be the largest port in the north of the Tang Dynasty, has now been under the operation of the town government for several years, and it has become the largest metropolis in the east of the Tang Dynasty. Some people even say that Dengzhou has surpassed Yangzhou .

Many people don't know that Dengzhou, which lives on the coast of the East China Sea, can have such a prosperous scene. It has surpassed Yangzhou in just four or five years, and it is entirely because Dengzhou City has become the center of the town.

In the east, surrounding Dengzhou, the town government has quietly laid down a large area of ​​land.

Ziqing Town, Zhenguo Town, Andong Dadu Hufu, and Yingzhou, Ping, Ji, and Tanzhou.

Surrounding the Bohai Bay, the township connects all the prefectures, and already owns the land of sixteen prefectures, covering thousands of miles, with a population of 500 million.

The sixteen prefectures are nothing to separate, but they can be combined together. Under Li Jing's standardized construction, relying on the benefits of commerce and trade, and the war dividends from the township, this large piece of land is indeed changing with each passing day.As the center of the entire town's anti-corruption forces, Dengzhou has also developed at an unprecedented speed.

Dengzhou has not only become the political center of the town, but also a cultural center, military center, and economic center.

A large number of family members of the town leaders are in Dengzhou. In addition, a large number of workshops opened by the town leaders are also concentrated here. In addition to the workshops opened by other businessmen here, the whole Dengzhou is only working in the workshops. There are nearly a million workers.Relying on Dengzhou Port, all kinds of raw materials produced in the sixteen prefectures under the township are transported to Dengzhou Port, and then sent to various workshops, where they are processed into various commodities, and then Shipped from the port to various places.

In the entire Dengzhou, the number of students in each military academy, technical school, and ordinary school has exceeded 20.In addition to the many scouts, there are also a large number of students from all over the Tang Dynasty who come to Dengzhou's academies and technical schools to study.The number of these foreign students has increased year by year, and currently exceeds [-].And the book boys brought by more than [-] people add up to a large population.

Coupled with the teachers, janitors, and their families hired by various schools, the population continues to increase.

Dengzhou's garrison town police, as well as the United Army and the township soldiers, have always maintained about [-] soldiers.

There are also a large number of warehouses and warehouses in Dengzhou Port, as well as many merchants.

A large number of workers and businessmen, as well as students, teachers, and soldiers, made Dengzhou's service industry more and more prosperous.

Hotels, restaurants, taverns, taverns, teahouses, etc., are thriving.

And a city with a million people has a huge demand for all kinds of food and living materials that are needed every day. As a result, the fields around Dengzhou have begun to grow vegetables instead of grain. extremely prosperous.

A city of 100 million people, Xindengzhou City is expanding outward at a speed that can be seen every day.

The original old Dengzhou city had already been surrounded into a city within a city.Even the new Dengzhou City, after expanding three city walls, finally the speed of building new walls could not keep up with the speed of urban expansion.Now, the old and new Dengzhou cities are combined, and there are four city walls, but outside the city walls, there are countless street shops.

The construction of Dengzhou City could not keep up with the speed of expansion. The town government was busy building roads and cities in Liaodong and Liaoxi, and there was a shortage of manpower. Li Jing had to order to temporarily stop the construction of the new city wall in Dengzhou.

Although there are four city walls in Dengzhou today, half of the bustling commercial areas and residential areas are still outside the protection of the city walls.

Dengzhou City may be the only semi-open city in Datang that is so prosperous but not protected by city walls.

On the west periphery of Dengzhou City, although there is no city wall, an imposing and tall city gate tower was built here, which is called the Arc de Triomphe by the people of Dengzhou.The Arc de Triomphe is the only way to enter the city from the west of Dengzhou. A thousand-step city wall was built around the city gate.

Starting from the Arc de Triomphe, the original yellow mud and sandy road was changed into a ten-foot-wide cement road, connecting to the Yangwei Gate in the east.

This flat avenue, which has amazed countless people after seeing it for the first time, is built with cement produced by the Panshi Cement Factory.It is faster and smoother to build roads with this cement.Dengzhou's four-wheeled carriages can't even feel the slightest bump when walking on such a road.

On both sides of the wide east-west main road, there are rows of slightly thin pagoda trees planted.Behind the trees, there are two two-foot-wide sidewalks. Behind the sidewalks, various shops have sprung up on both sides like mushrooms after rain.

The difference between these houses and those seen in other places is that they are all red brick and cement structures, tall and neat.

In the first half of the year, after the town captured Liaoxi and occupied Jizhou and Tanzhou, more businessmen came.

The Dengzhou expansion plan that Li Rang made for Li Jing included the construction of a total of [-] new shops and four large residential areas in the southeast, northwest, and four sides of Dengzhou. The entire Dengzhou city will expand again.

Amidst the shouting of shops, pedestrians are in a hurry, but they are very orderly.

Even in the streets, there are still many people directing vehicles, horses and pedestrians.After looking at it for a while, Cui Yunqing could see that all the roads on the street here are on the left side, so that the traffic will not be blocked.What is even more surprising is that the carriages and horses are all on the middle road, while the empty-handed pedestrians walk on the sidewalks behind the trees on both sides.In particular, with so many people and horses, the avenue is very clean, and there is no animal manure at all.After looking carefully, I found that the horses and donkeys on the street had a cloth bag hanging from their tails. After a little thought, I realized that this should be a dung bag specially used for carrying dung.

Even this is managed so well, Cui Yunqing kept nodding all the way.

Although she didn't know how all of this was done, with Cui Yunqing's intelligence, she quickly understood that all of this should be closely related to her student Li Jing.

He smiled at Song Wen and said, "My old man and Wen He have been governors of Dengzhou successively, but seeing the scene of Dengzhou again today, I really feel sorry for myself. When Ji Yu was in Shamen Town, he was able to A small island of exiled prisoners has turned into a golden mountain. I have known for a long time that Dengzhou will be governed by him, and it will be correct. But I did not expect that there will be such a big change."

Song Wen nodded, "The king of Andong County is outstanding on the battlefield, and his governance of the civil affairs is even more admirable. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I couldn't believe it. This is the Dengzhou where I left three years ago. .Gosh, it's a complete transformation."

"Wenhe, you see it's still early, we might as well have a rest in the restaurant in front."

Song Wen hesitated for a moment, and reminded: "Cui Gong, when you return to Dengzhou this time, King Andong will definitely come to welcome you."

Cui Yunqing waved her hand and said with a smile: "Ji Yu is still in Yingzhou, besides, I didn't tell them the details of the itinerary. Dengzhou is pragmatic and not unrealistic, and we don't need to engage in these red tapes. When we enter the city and settle down, tomorrow Just go directly to the commander-in-chief's mansion and report yourself."

Song Wen estimated that Cui Yunqing wanted to have a more detailed understanding of Dengzhou in private, so he just smiled and stopped talking. (To be continued.)