Ang Lee attached great importance to the construction of the underground passage in the capital. This underground passage played a great role in improving the traffic in the capital. The sooner it was built, the sooner the terrible traffic in the city could be improved.
Of course, in addition to the capital, there were too many traffic improvements in the Tang dynasty. Roads were being built all over the country. Railways, highways, and bridges were constantly being built. The imperial court was in charge of the major projects, and all the prefectures and counties were also building roads within the scope of their own abilities. Even many remote villages were building roads.
Regarding the improvement of transportation, Li An was in favor of both hands and gave the greatest cooperation. He carried out continuous research on various construction machines to increase the efficiency of construction and make the road construction faster and better.
Now, in the territory of the Tang dynasty, whether it was the Yangtze River or the Yellow River, railway bridges had been built. The railways had been connected in all directions of the Tang dynasty. The southernmost section had reached Jiaozhou, the northeast section had reached Yingzhou, the southwest section had entered Central Sichuan, and the northwest section had directly circled around the Tocharian region and continued to be built toward Dashi, which was the longest one. The north section had also reached the area of Surrendered City and continued to be built toward the north, so that the grassland and the interior could communicate better. The vast grassland in the north could really integrate into the Tang dynasty and become a part of the Tang dynasty. In particular, it promoted trade so that the nomads in the north could make a living without robbing. They could make a good living through trade and even come directly to the capital to develop.
"Assistant Minister Li, why are you looking at the map? Are you too bored in the capital and want to go out again?"
Li Yu asked when he saw Ang Lee take out the map from his arms.
This map was a world map, which was drawn by Ang Lee himself and often modified. After all, the traffic in the Tang dynasty was changing, so the marks on the map naturally had to be changed. Among them, the dark black lines were railway lines, the intermittent black lines were railway lines that had not been built yet, and some very thin black lines were the railway lines that Ang Lee planned.
Ang Lee said, "I'm thinking about which railway to build next. Now the railway capacity is too tight. Some lines are running at full capacity. It's time to add some more lines, especially the lines with the most limited capacity. If we build one more line, the pressure will be much less."
Li Yu came over and looked at the map. He pointed at a line at random and said, "Assistant Minister Li, from this map, there is a land connection between the Tang dynasty and the American territory. Why don't we set out from Yingzhou and build a railway directly to the American territory? In this way, a large number of goods in the American territory will not need to be transported by ship. They can be transported directly by railway."
It had to be said that this idea was really good. From the map, the Tang dynasty and the American territory did seem to be connected. In fact, there was a strait in the middle, but the map could not see it clearly.
"Gwangbyeong Of Gojoseon is really daring. If this railway is built, it will be much longer than the railway to the Western Regions, but the pressure of building this railway will be too great. It will drag down the national strength of the entire Tang dynasty. Moreover, the land is not connected. There is a strait in the middle that is 100 to 200 miles long. It's much wider than the Yangtze River. How can it be so easy? Besides, the north is a cold place. In winter, a drop of water will turn into ice. No one can live here. Building a railway requires a lot of manpower to go to such a distant place. We also have to prepare a lot of clothes and food for the people who work. The cost is too high. Maybe in 50 years, we will have the strength to do so. "
Ang Lee said.
In fact, even in 50 years, Ang Lee did not want to build such a railway, because it was too weak. The cost of building it was extremely high, and it was not necessary. As long as there were enough large cargo ships, materials and personnel could be transported stably. It would not have much impact on commerce and trade. As long as the imperial court had a navy, it could control the ocean. Why would they need an additional land connection? Moreover, even if there was such a land connection, it would be easy to cut it off. In this way, the loss would outweigh the gain.
"In 50 years, I'm afraid we won't be able to see that day. I just think that taking a ship is not very reliable. If there is a strong wind, it will be very dangerous. But the railway is different. After all, it is on land. Even if there is a situation, there is a good way to deal with it. At least we won't be fed to the fish."
Li Yu said.
This idea was not wrong. Sailing on the sea, once there was a storm, it would be very dangerous. If the ship capsized, all the people on board would become fish food. If there was danger on land, at least they would not be eaten by the fish. People could walk freely on land, but their movement in the water would be greatly restricted. Therefore, it was safer to walk on land than on the sea.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "From the perspective of safety alone, it is indeed safer to walk on land. But the cost of this railway is too high, and the benefits it can bring to the Tang dynasty are not enough to offset the loss. In addition, the railway in the Tang dynasty is already short of capacity, and there are many railways that are not connected. The most important thing is to solve the urgent need of railways inside the country first. The railway to America can only be delayed."
Li Yu said, "Since Assistant Minister Li sent a fleet to discover America, there are now 500,000 people in America. Most of them are concentrated in the three major cities near the sea, and some are in the small towns near the mines in the inland. The development speed is very fast, and the population will increase in the future. If there is no railway to connect them, who knows what will happen?"
What Li Yu of Gwangbyeong Of Gojoseon was probably independence. In a place where the Emperor was far away, it was easy to form a separatist regime. Once such a separatist regime was formed, everything that the Tang Empire had done would be in vain. Wouldn't it be a wedding dress for some people?
For example, the Great Qin Empire had spent a lot of national strength to open up Lingnan, but because of internal problems, it was difficult for Lingnan to become independent, and it was a wedding dress for some people. If the Great Qin Empire could save the 500,000 soldiers it had used to open up Lingnan, perhaps the internal peasant uprising could be suppressed, and the Great Qin Empire would not be destroyed.
The Tang Dynasty naturally wanted to avoid such a thing from happening. America was a very large land, and both its climate and resources were very good. Once the population reached a certain scale and the industrial development was complete, it would definitely have the strength to resist the central government. In fact, it might not even be weaker than the central government of the Tang Dynasty. In the future, America was just a colony of a European island country. It was because of the development of a perfect industry and a large number of immigrants that it finally declared independence from the European island country. After independence, it immediately became a vast superpower, leaving its motherland behind.
The Tang Dynasty had to avoid such a thing from happening. From how Ang Lee saw it, the best way to avoid such a thing from happening was to control technology. Advanced technology could only be left in the Tang Dynasty. America could have advanced machines, but it could not have research and manufacturing units. At most, it could only have small workshops for repairing machines and ships, and the workshops for manufacturing ships and machines could only be in the Tang Dynasty.
America had to be the source of the Tang Dynasty's raw materials and resources, and it also had to serve as a market. It definitely could not form a perfect industrial force, but it lacked machines and tools, so it could be directly transported from the Tang Dynasty. The money earned from transporting America's resources to the Tang Dynasty was enough to buy all sorts of machines and tools, so there was no need to form a perfect industrial system in America.
Not to mention America, even in the Tang Dynasty, only a few areas had a perfect industrial force. For example, the capital was the most perfect area. Secondly, Luoyang and Laizhou were also good places. Luoyang was the auxiliary of the capital, while Laizhou's main system was in shipping and navigation. It did not dabble in other aspects, so it did not want to develop too well and overshadow the capital. The capital was the core of the empire, so the best and most advanced technologies naturally had to be left in the capital. The rest of the industrial systems had to be developed around the capital.
There were three large cities near the sea in America. These cities all had three walls and one port. About 100,000 people lived in each city, which was not a small scale. It could be considered a large city in the Tang Dynasty, but it could not be compared with a super big city like the capital. The indigenous villages in America had at most a few hundred people, and almost none of them had more than a thousand people. Therefore, they naturally did not have the strength to fight against the Tang Dynasty soldiers guarding the cities. The gap between their forces was huge, and they were not on the same order of magnitude.
At the same time, the Tang Dynasty pursued the idea of win-win cooperation. They would not rob the American indigenous people of their property. Instead, they would negotiate with them and use the unique products of the Tang Dynasty to exchange for the products in their hands. They would even directly hire the local indigenous people and let them work in the mines of the Tang Dynasty. In this way, they would have more manpower to develop America's resources.
At the same time, America could not form a unified administrative structure. For example, the three coastal cities were all independent counties. There was no one leader leading all three cities at the same time. This was to prevent one person from taking over the whole of America. If that happened, America would face the risk of being divided.
According to Ang Lee's estimation, America's territory was so large that it would be divided into at least three to five hundred counties in the future. Only in this way could it be easy to rule. At this time, because the Tang Dynasty's control over America was still limited to a certain area, the number of counties was still very small. In the future, with the gradual increase of manpower and the expansion of the control area, new counties would gradually be established. With the vast America, the Tang Dynasty would inevitably be able to achieve rapid development.
Although there was a powerful superpower in America in the future, the premise of this happening was that this superpower had a relatively complete industrial system from the beginning and did not rely on certain resources to grow. It was very difficult for an empire that relied only on resources to develop rapidly. America was so large in the future, and there was more than one superpower with a large area. Why was there only one superpower, and the other vast countries were relatively weak?
There were obviously many reasons for this, but the most fundamental reason was probably that only one empire had a complete industrial system, and its industrial output was far greater than that of all the other superpowers. Those superpowers that relied on resources and a single industry naturally did not have the strength to compete with a superpower that had a complete industrial system.
If the European island country could have strictly limited the industrial development of its colonies when it controlled the American continent, allowing the colonies to only do some simple things and transporting all the necessary equipment from the mainland, then the colonies under its control might not have become independent. Instead, they could have continued to provide a large amount of resources for the mainland.
Of course, the European island country in the future was not the only superpower facing the competition of many European industrial superpowers. Even if it wanted to control the industrial development of its colonies, if the people in the colonies were determined to develop their industries, they could also obtain equipment and technology from the hostile countries. In this way, the effect of the blockade would be relatively poor. Moreover, the hostile countries would definitely hope that the island country's colonies could be separated, so they would spare no effort to support the island country's colonies, thereby reducing their own pressure.
Obviously, the Tang Empire would not encounter these problems when it established the American continent. The powerful Tang Empire was the only superpower, and its advanced technology was also unique. There was no rival industrial country that could match it. Therefore, as long as the Tang Empire was willing to control the industries in the American continent and let the American continent only repair and produce the most basic raw materials, then the American continent could only forever be a vassal of the Tang Empire. It would never be independent and would never have the ability to compete with the mainland of the Tang Empire.
Although the American continent was located in the same place as the Central Sichuan, or even much more than the Central Sichuan, the navy of the Tang Empire was strong enough and had a very large fleet. The power of the coastal cities in the American continent was far inferior to the power of these fleets. The troops stationed in the American continent were not permanently stationed. Basically, they would be rotated once every five years. Even Ang Lee's highest-ranking generals had to be rotated into the American continent. They would not have the opportunity to stay in the American continent for generations. Otherwise, it would be really easy to form the consequence of a big tree with deep roots.
The American continent was a land that urgently needed to be developed. Many businessmen and people with foresight had entered the American continent, but more powerful people still did not care about the American continent. After all, the American continent was too far away. It would be difficult to deal with if something happened when they went there to buy industries.
If they went to the American continent to settle down, it would be no different from being exiled. The capital was the core of the Tang Empire, and the Central Plains was the foundation of Hua Xia. No matter how beautiful the American continent was, in the eyes of many powerful people, the American continent would always be a barren land, a virgin forest that had not been developed yet. They were unwilling to take the risk to buy industries there. When they thought of drifting in the sea for more than a month to reach the other side, they felt very unreliable.
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