Late Tang

"This Longquan Temple enshrines Sakyamuni Buddha's tooth relics, and it is a holy place for Buddhism..." Yang Lihua seemed to be an authentic Yanjing expert at this time, familiar with the way, and was very happy to introduce Yanjing's history to his brother Yang Xingmi. customs.

In the sixth year of Qianfu, Yang Xingmi rescued hundreds of captured soldiers in Hu Douzhou of the Qin army, and made a relationship with Qin Wang Li Jing face to face.Yang Xingmi took the initiative to join him. Not only did he worship Li Jing as his teacher and became the twelve disciples of King Qin, but he also married his younger sister Yang Lihua to Li Jing.Facts have proved that his move is very good, and the investment has been richly returned.After that, Li Jing fully supported Yang Xingmi's operation in Huaixi.The dignitaries gave people, and money was given to them. Not only did they provide Yang Xingmi with a huge loan, but they also sent a military dispatch observation team, and sold armaments and armor. The two parties even reached many commercial cooperations in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

It was with Li Jing's full support that Yang Xingmi relied on this strong backing and sufficient financial resources to continuously expand his military strength. After that, with Luzhou as the center, he successively took over Hezhou and south of the Yangtze River. Just this year, he took down Shuzhou in the west and truly became a strong town in Huaixi.

Now Yang Xingmi is the official named Wu Guogong, and he is the envoy of Huaixi Jiedu. He controls the four prefectures of Lu, He, Shu, and Xuan, and has more than [-] soldiers and horses. It can be said that he is very powerful.Even Gao Pian in Huainan, he can stand against him. The former famous general of the Tang Dynasty and the overlord of Huainan, now only the two states of Yang and Chu are left, and his power is not even as powerful as Yang Xingmi.

However, Yang Xingmi also knew who he was relying on for his power today. At the very least, in Huainan, the strongest right now was neither Gao Pian nor Yang Xingmi, but Qin Wang Li Jing's power.After Li Jing led his army south to fight against Gao Pian, Li Jing has been occupying the three prefectures of Chu, Hao and Shou on the south bank of the Huaihe River, plus Xusi and other states on the north bank of the Huaihe River, as well as the Qin Army's navy on the sea outside Jiangkou. In fact, it has always been the strongest force in the Jianghuai area.

Right now, Gao Pianyue is getting fatuous and losing people's hearts.Yang Xingmi had the idea of ​​challenging the former God of War in the Tang Dynasty. This time Yang Xingmi took the initiative to lead a huge fleet to the north to congratulate Li Jing's birthday.However, it was still too early for Li Jing's birthday on the sixth day of September. He came three months early and raised a large amount of food and various gifts. It was obvious that he planned to come to Yanjing to obtain Li Jing's victory in sending troops to him. Program support.Li Jing warmly received Yang Xingmi's arrival at this time, and specially asked Yang Lihua and officials from the Ministry of Rites to accompany Yang Xingmi and his party to watch the scenery of Yanjing.

"Longquan Temple was founded in the Dali period of this dynasty. There is a Zhaoxian Pagoda specially built for enshrining Buddha tooth relics in the temple. The pagoda is in the shape of eight interpretations and is made of carved bricks. Around the base of the pagoda, there are sixteen niches with iron nails. On the west side of the pagoda is a well spring, about five feet deep and wide." Yang Xingmi and Yang Lihua listened to the introduction from the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and opened a corner of the curtain of the carriage to peek outside.When he was in Luzhou, Yang Xingmi sometimes felt that he was not what he used to be now, and that he had the strength to be on an equal footing with Li Jing.But when going out to sea along the river from Luzhou, when passing through Dengzhou, I already felt that the prosperity of Dengzhou was almost like a paradise on earth. After arriving in Tianjin, I realized that Tianjin was really a coastal fortress. It seems that there are countless shocking cities.

At this time, they could see that there were crowds everywhere, as if people from the entire Luzhou city had gathered together, and it was not as lively as in front of this temple.

Especially the carriage they were riding in at this time was even more unusual.This is not only a four-wheeled carriage, but also a rail carriage.On the roads in Yanjing and the suburbs, there are such carriage tracks that are level with the road surface, and steel rails are laid on them. The carriage runs on the steel rails, which is fast and stable. The same horse can pull the original two Double the weight of the carriage.According to my sister, although this kind of horse-drawn carriages has not been popularized on all roads in Qin Fan today, there are already carriages built in cities with more than [-] people.In urban cities like Yanjing, Tianjin, Dengzhou, and Dalian, there are many rail carriages, even in the suburbs.Not only ports and mines have specialized freight transport, but rail carriages in cities also serve as public carriages.

The fare is one penny for every ten miles, and one penny for getting on the bus.For example, the horse-drawn carriages in Yanjing City have even reached the suburbs of a hundred miles.From Yanjing to Tianjin City, the whole journey is 100 miles, and the entire track has been laid. By rail carriage, [-] people can be transported at a time, and the distance of [-] miles can be reached in one day, and the fare is only [-] cents. , there are twenty carriages going back and forth every day.This is even more convenient than taking a boat. When he first heard the news, Yang Xingmi couldn't believe it.

Qin Fan has become so rich and powerful, laying steel rails on the road?

He now occupies the most important section of the Yangtze River waterway, and is even a wealthy land of fish and rice, and he also monopolizes the distribution rights of countless Qin Fan products in this area, but compared with Li Jing, he is really nothing.Li Jing has already used steel to pave the way, and Huaixi Town is not completely self-sufficient in steel, and has to buy a large amount of steel and ordnance from Qin Fan at high prices.

The little bit of self-satisfaction when I came here was completely shattered at this moment!

"Just to load more carriages, go faster, and be more stable, so much steel is needed to pave the road? How much steel and manpower will it take?" Xu Wen opened his eyes wide and looked at the carriage in disbelief. Yang Lihua.

Yang Lihua smiled and said: "Don't underestimate this horse-drawn carriage. For example, in Huainan, the ordinary yellow dirt road can only take two-wheeled horse-drawn carriages. A strong cow can only pull eight stones at most, and an ordinary mother's year is five stones. Under normal circumstances, a cart drawn by two oxen is about ten stones. But if it is replaced by the cement road currently being built in the territory of the Qin Dynasty, then four-wheeled carriages can be passed, and the carrying capacity of the four-wheeled carriages can be increased by nearly three times. An ox-drawn cart can carry up to [-] shi. But if it is replaced with a tracked driveway, a double-ox cart can pull [-] shi at a time, and if it is replaced with a double-horse cart, it can even reach [-] shi. Count it, one hundred shi is equivalent to the carrying capacity of ten single-wheeled bullock carts on the yellow mud road. Can't you see the significance of this?"

Ships from south to horses from south, for Yang Xingmi and others, whether they were doing business or fighting, their transportation mostly relied on water transportation, so they were not very clear about the important reliance on logistics transportation for large-scale wars in the Northern War, but Yang Lihua explained it this way , or understand a lot.In any case, it can double the transportation by ten times, which is a remarkable figure anyway.

But thinking about cement roads and carriage tracks, Yang Xingmi still shook his head. Li Jing is the only one in the world who can lay cement and steel rails on the road. Others can't afford it.

The carriage moved forward all the way, and the extended carriage could not feel the slightest bump, it was extremely stable.The cup of tea on the small table in front of Yang Xingmi did not overflow at all.

In the car, Yang Lihua continuously introduced to Yang Xingmi and Xu Wen the various things and buildings they saw along the way, such as banks, post offices, schools, shops, and even a supermarket. I heard that this supermarket has all kinds of goods, and customers When you go shopping, you go in and choose by yourself. All the products are clearly marked with prices, and there is no counter-offering.Guests choose directly by themselves, and then go to the cashier at the door to check out.Yang Xingmi shook his head when he heard it, he couldn't believe it, how could there be such a business.

Yang Lihua was talking when she suddenly heard Xu Wen ask under her throat, "Then... what is that?"

She looked in the direction of his finger, and saw a procession in front of her, with countless people standing in the streets on both sides, but that procession was an army of beasts.The first one was a group of deer that made Xu Wen amazed like a countryman, a group of deer with a height of two feet.But the height of two feet did not make Xu Wen so pale. What surprised him was that the deer's feet were already taller than a war horse, seven or eight feet taller, and its neck was at least one foot high. At that station, the head of the deer had already towered into the sky.Moreover, Xu Wen, who has excellent eyesight, also found that this deer does not only have a pair of horns, but also a pair of inconspicuous horns behind his eyes and behind his ears, and some deer have a pair of horns in the middle of their foreheads.

God, what kind of monster is this, with seven-foot long legs, eight-foot long neck, and seven pairs of horns!

Yang Lihua smiled and said, "That's the giraffe. It is said that the sea merchants got it from the far south of the Sahara Desert. It is said that it is called Africa. We have a caravan passing through the southern tip of Africa." The Cape of Good Hope, when I came back, I brought back a group of African beasts, these are giraffes, lions, and hyenas."

"Africa?"

"Well, it is said that it is very far away from here. It is a huge continent, even wider than the Tang Dynasty. The people there are like black charcoal, blacker than our Kunlun slaves in the Tang Dynasty. The animals there It also looks different from that of Datang. Now Yanjing has built a new zoo imitating Dengzhou. There are all kinds of rare animals in it. There are ducks that are suckling. The kangaroos hopping forward with their hind legs, the giraffes with long necks, and the zebras with white spots on their bodies... The business of this zoo is very good. I don’t know how many people come to watch it every day. Woolen cloth."

The younger sister was elated, but Yang Xingmi gradually fell silent.

If you don't come to the Great Wall, you are not a hero, and if you don't come to Yanjing, you don't know how strong King Qin is!

Looking at his younger sister who is now full of joy, he even feels a little strange.At the beginning, he asked his younger sister to marry Li Jing for his own future. Although his younger sister agreed at that time, she was full of unwillingness.But now, she only found joy and happiness on her face.

Why is Li Jing always so unfathomable? His own sister married him as a concubine, but she was so satisfied. (To be continued.)