Tibet

The horse bandits on the Hexi Corridor were just a small episode and did not affect the Tang army's rapid march.

In mid-October, Li Ye's team passed through the Hexi Corridor and headed towards Liupanguan. Li Ye decided to take the Jingyuan Road, which would save three days.

On the last day of October, the team finally came out of Jingyuan Road. On the same day, a heavy snowstorm swept Hexi, Shuofang and Longyou. On the next night, the snowstorm moved south and also swept Guanzhong.

Fortunately, Li Ye's team entered Chang'an half a day early before the snowstorm came.

Li Ye stood in front of the study window, drinking fragrant milk tea, looking at the snowballs in the sky being caught by the north wind and dancing wildly in the wind.

At this time, Dugu Xinyue walked to her husband and smiled softly: "God also favored me and gave me the opportunity to go home."

Li Ye nodded, "I remember the first blizzard last year was in early November, but it happened earlier this year. Fortunately, we decided to take the Jingyuan Road, otherwise the team would have been trapped in Qizhou by the blizzard."

"Will your husband go to Anxi again in the future?"

Li Ye smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I don't know, but I have to find a way to shorten the time from Chang'an to Anxi as much as possible. The distance is too far, which is very detrimental to our control of Anxi."

"The best way is to set up a post station!"

Dugu Xinyue smiled and said: "I heard my father say that there is a post station every hundred miles, and horses and people are changed to run in relays, day and night. It only takes twenty days to reach Beiting, and about twenty-five days to Anxi. This It’s the fastest speed.”

What Li Ye had in mind was a steam train, but it is not realistic yet. The iron output cannot be reached, and the technical level cannot be reached.

Li Ye smiled and said: "You are talking about delivering letters. I was thinking about how to transport troops. This time we used a cart to transport wounded soldiers, which gave me an inspiration. We can build a longer cart, and each cart Fifty soldiers were seated, and eight draft horses were used to pull the cart.

At the same time, horse stations were set up along the way. Each horse station had thousands of horses. Horses were changed immediately at each station. Soldiers could lie down and sit in the carts, which was more comfortable.

In this way, 200 carts can be used to transport 10,000 people. I estimate that it will only take 20 days for the 10,000 troops to arrive in Beiting. "

"Isn't this the same thing as setting up a post station?"

Li Ye shook his head, "It's different. The post station changes people and horses, while the horse station only changes horses, not people. It is mainly to facilitate the transportation of troops."

In history, the Mongolian cavalry set a record of marching ninety kilometers per day. If this speed is followed, the cavalry can travel from Chang'an to Beiting in twenty days.

But that requires the habit of sleeping on horses, marching day and night, carrying mares to produce milk for food, horse dung for fuel, and endless grasslands.

Therefore, the Mongolian army's western expedition destroyed a large number of agricultural facilities in order to turn farmland into pasture to facilitate their march.

However, this method was not suitable for the Tang army. For the farming people, it was more convenient to use carts to provide supplies along the way, not only transporting people, but also transporting baggage, grain and grass, etc.

Dugu Xinyue smiled and said: "Then we have to build the road first! Build a very smooth Tangzhi Road leading to the river. This will take many years."

Without smooth roads, Li Ye's horse-drawn train plan was empty talk. But then again, Qin Shihuang's original intention of considering Qin Zhidao should be the same as his own, to send the army to the border as quickly as possible.

What the Qin State did at that time was not to build a new road, but to repair the existing official roads at that time and level the rough places. This reduced the amount of work a lot. Otherwise, the Qin Dynasty's national power at that time would not be able to withstand such a large-scale construction. Build roads.

You can also use the same method to repair and flatten the existing official roads. In fact, the key is not the roads, but the construction of horse stations, which must have a large number of horses.

At the same time, there are efficient standardized operating procedures and a complete management system.

The second is to have a sturdy, durable and technologically advanced cart, so that excellent craftsmen can find ways to improve the cart's manufacturing technology, reduce the level of bumps, and make walking smoother.

If you do these things well, your idea should be realized.

Li Ye thought about it repeatedly, and finally made a decision to turn his ideas into reality.

On the morning of the third day, the blizzard that had lasted for two days finally stopped, and Chang'an turned into a snowy world. Soldiers and people went out to sweep the snow and clear the snow on the streets and roofs.

In the morning, Li Ye came to his official room. This was him getting back on track after a few months.

The first thing is to listen to the reports from Li Mi, Liu Yan and others to understand the major events that have happened in the past few months.

"Reporting to Your Highness, the past few months have been relatively peaceful. After winter, the epidemic in Jianghuai and Yingzhou has ended, and Li Xiangguo has returned to Luoyang. In addition, the imperial court has appointed Zhu Si as the governor of Youzhou, and Prince Fanyang has recognized him. In response to Li Huaixian's replacement, Li Baochen and Tian Chengsi sent their sons to the court as hostages to apologize to the court, including Li Zhengyi, and the vassal rebellion came to an end."

"Has Li Zheng withdrawn from Qizhou?"

Li Mi shook his head, "I didn't quit!"

Li Ye couldn't help but sneer, "He came to the door with great momentum and ended up in disgrace. The imperial court really has a lot of face."

"This matter is indeed a coward. According to the information we got, the supervisory army should have secretly reported to the emperor that Guo Ziyi secretly made friends with the nobles in Yanzhou and Yunzhou, which made the emperor suspicious. At this time, Li Zheng had already written a letter to plead guilty. After sending another son to the court as a hostage, the emperor borrowed the donkey from Poxia and issued an order to recall Guo Ziyi's army. There is obviously something fishy in this!"

Li Ye nodded, "It must have been that Li Zheng had bribed the eunuchs, so the supervisors would attack. In fact, it's normal to think about it. The imperial court ordered Guo Ziyi and Li Zheng to confront each other and not fight. In their spare time, Guo Ziyi and the local nobles Fame will definitely lead to contacts. He obviously wants to have a good relationship with the local gentry and not affect the garrison. But as long as the supervisor changes his explanation and turns into a private acquaintance with the gentry, the crime will come. The root cause is the emperor's distrust of the general. "

Liu Yan also sighed, "The eunuchs are really the cancer of the imperial court!"

"Is there any other important news?"

Li Mi thought for a moment and said, "The other thing is, I heard that the emperor has a physical problem."

Li Ye perked up. This was the news he was most concerned about. He quickly asked: "What's wrong with your body?"

"This is the news from Dugu Ming. It is said that the emperor suffered from consecutive fainting in the inner palace!"

"What's the reason?"

"It must be that he is too addicted to women. It is said that after the emperor moved the capital to Luoyang, he held two consecutive drafts and consecrated more than two hundred concubines. Even a hard-core man can't stand it, not to mention that the emperor's body is already weak."

Li Ye could completely understand that the emperor Li Heng had been suppressed by the Supreme Emperor Li Longji when he was the prince. In order to eliminate his father's suspicion, he had to surrender and indulge in wine and women. At the same time, he also used wine and women to anesthetize him. Own.

Even if he became the emperor, he would often instinctively choose to drink and have sex in order to relieve his depression. With the instigation of the eunuchs and Queen Zhang, the emperor completely indulged himself. Within a year of going to Luoyang, he actually had two drafts.

Historically, Li Heng was a short-lived emperor, which was closely related to his addiction to wine and sex.

At this time, Li Ye thought of something and asked, "How are the preparations for next year's imperial examination going?"

Next March, Chang'an will hold a grand imperial examination to recruit talents from all over the world. More importantly, this imperial examination is also a test to see how much the world's nobles recognize King Qi.

Li Ye is extremely concerned about this matter, which can be said to be the most important event in Chang'an in the first half of next year.

Sima Chen Huan was in charge of the imperial examination. He nodded and said: "The plan has been drafted. Once Your Highness approves it, we will start making preparations!"