While Yan Ruyu and the others were shocked, they all had their own thoughts. On one hand, they were amazed at how their wife was so charming that she would be favored by beauties wherever she went. At the same time, they naturally felt a trace of jealousy. If their husband had another person to share him with, the amount of love that they could receive would naturally be less.
"Husband, what does His Majesty mean? Does he agree with what the memorial said, or does he want you to make your own decision?"
Yan Ruyu asked.
Ang Lee smiled awkwardly and said, "Who knows? What do you think? "
Yan Ruyu said first, "There are not many opportunities to let a country take the initiative to withdraw its title and merge into the Tang dynasty. How can His Majesty not agree? If Sister Zhao is willing to come to our house, I am willing to give up my position."
"We don't have any objections. Isn't it just one more pair of chopsticks?"
"Yes, it will be more lively with more people in the house."
"Sister Zhao is beautiful. We also like her very much."
The madams said one by one.
Li An smiled and scratched his head. With a narcissistic look, he said, "Since the ladies have said so, what else can I say? Let's just do it! "
After that, he looked up at the sky proudly.
"Hee hee hee …"
The madams were all amused. They rushed up and hugged Ang Lee together. They gently pinched Ang Lee's big ears and laughed at Ang Lee's fickleness and that he was a complete playboy.
Soon, Ang Lee replied to the Emperor, saying that he was completely obedient and was willing to accept Zhao Yefu. He also said that he would take care of this matter.
Then, the imperial court said that the Central Sichuan Railway had encountered difficulties. Ang Lee felt that this was an opportunity. He could go to Central Sichuan in the name of guiding the construction of the railway. He could also go to Dongnu Province on the way to solve this matter and have fun. He was bored to death staying in the capital.
After reporting to the Emperor, Ang Lee set off with a group of attendants. In order to serve himself, he specially brought two newly bought little maidservants. They were both thirteen or fourteen years old. They were just in line with Ang Lee's taste. Why did he bring the newly bought maidservants? Naturally, he was more interested in the fresher ones. He would get tired of eating meat every day. Naturally, he would get tired of seeing a familiar person every day. Only by playing with the fresher ones would he have the feeling. He could forget about the poor who did not have the means. Since Ang Lee was so rich, why should he deliberately suppress himself? It was not necessarily a good thing to always hold it in.
At this time, the railway had been built to Songzhou in Jiannan Province. Next, it would go all the way south from Songzhou, passing through Yizhou, Maozhou, Hanzhou, and finally entering Yizhou. After reaching Yizhou, it would continue to be built to the south, passing through Meizhou, Lizhou, and other Central Sichuan provinces and prefectures until it reached Nanzhao. Then, it would continue to be built along Nanzhao to the further Pyu Autonomous Region. After passing the Pyu Autonomous Region, it would reach the sea. In this way, from the capital of the Tang Dynasty, it could directly reach the Indian Ocean. The construction of this strategic passage played a very important role in the prosperity of the Tang Empire. The previous construction of the Sea Silk Road had already achieved great benefits. If this road was unblocked, it could bring even more benefits to the Tang Empire. Just thinking about it made people very excited.
Because the railway had been built to Songzhou, Ang Lee could comfortably take the train to Songzhou Railway Station. Then, he could only use other means of transportation. If the road conditions were bad, he might even have to ride a horse. But for Ang Lee, this was not a big deal. It was a small matter.
The railway from Beijing to Central Sichuan was first built to the west, then through Luogu Road to Hanzhong. After that, it continued south to Songzhou in Central Sichuan. There was still some distance between Songzhou and Yizhou, the core of Central Sichuan. After the construction of this section was completed, the old emperor would definitely visit Central Sichuan. This would not take too long, because this section of the railway had been laid in sections. Because of the miasma, only the section in Maozhou was built. The rest of the sections were under intense construction. It was estimated that it would be open to traffic in half a year. If there was miasma, this section could be quickly repaired, and the opening time could continue to be brought forward.
In addition, the railway from Nanzhao to Pyu had also been started. As for the railway from Nanzhao to Nanzhao, it was still in the stage of exploration and measurement. After entering Nanzhao, the terrain became even worse. There were mountains and rivers everywhere. Not to mention building a railway, even building an ordinary road was also very difficult. Building a road on this kind of road was simply difficult. In particular, the mechanization level of the Tang dynasty was still very limited. In order to make up for the difficulties of the lack of machinery, as much as possible, road-building craftsmen had to be mobilized. For this reason, almost all the idle farmers around the railway would be mobilized every time a railway was built.
Mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people to build a railway was a very common phenomenon, especially the people near the railway. They were assigned the most labor. Almost all of their free time was used to build the railway except for the busy farming season and the Spring Festival. As for the wages, they were basically not paid. They even had to bring their own food. If they were not paid, they still had to work. No matter how one looked at it, it was a loss. However, as long as the railway was built, all the people along the railway would become the beneficiaries. The railway was built for the convenience of the imperial court's rule, for the convenience of the merchants' trade, and at the same time for the ordinary people to travel. As long as the railway was built, everyone would benefit.
It was precisely because everyone was a beneficiary that everyone had to invest. The imperial court's investment was undoubtedly the largest. So many railway tracks and construction machinery were provided by the imperial court. These were all supported by a huge national treasury. The common people could not provide the materials, machinery, or money, but they could contribute. It was not enough to just have materials, they also needed to have labor, and the common people were the people who could contribute.
In addition, the merchants were also beneficiaries, especially the merchants along the railway. They would all benefit from the railway. Therefore, when the railway was built, the merchants also had to donate some money or practical things. When the common people were short of food, they had to donate some food to the road construction army. These were the things that the merchants needed to do.
In short, all the people who benefited from the railway had to contribute to the construction of the railway. No one could avoid it. As long as they had the ability, they had to contribute more or less. Many times, ten-year-old children and women also went to work, leaving only the elderly and children under the age of ten in the family. This was almost the strength of the whole nation. If not, it would not be so urgent. In the absence of machinery, using a large amount of manpower could also make up for the lack of machinery. With the black gunpowder, it was not so difficult to build roads in the mountains. The efficiency was much higher than before. When there were no explosives, it was necessary to use a chisel to dig holes little by little. With the black gunpowder, one only needed to dig a small hole and put the explosives in it. With a bang, it could blow up a large area. The increase in efficiency was very obvious. As long as one was willing to pay the cost, it was not impossible to blow up a whole mountain. With enough black gunpowder, it was possible to blow up a mountain in a very short time.
Of course, when using explosives, the cost had to be considered. A small mountain could be blown up if it was in the way, but if it was too big, it was best not to blow it up because the cost was too high. Building a railway also needed to consider the cost. If the cost was too high, then it would be unbearable. Therefore, the inspection of Nanzhao's territory had not ended because the terrain of Nanzhao was too rugged. It needed to blow up many roads one after another on many mountains. The cost could be imagined. With every additional tunnel and bridge crossing the river, the safety of the railway would be a little more dangerous. The collapse of the tunnel and the breaking of the bridge would cause the entire line to be paralyzed. The terrain of Nanzhao was like this. The terrain was too bad. Even in the middle of Sichuan, it was only slightly better than Nanzhao. The terrain was also relatively bad. Therefore, building it would consume a lot of resources and manpower. If the people of Sichuan had not been mobilized, it was really hard to imagine how long it would take to build it.
Nanzhao's royal family was happy to build the railway in their territory. Although this way, Nanzhao would be more affected by the Tang dynasty and lose some of its independence, the huge benefits it could bring were obvious. Nanzhao's terrain was very bad, which made it difficult for business to develop well. If business was not developed, the country could not be rich. Without the stimulation of business, it was difficult to mobilize the enthusiasm of the people.
If they wanted to increase the wealth of Nanzhao, they must pay attention to business. If business wanted to develop, it was necessary to improve the transportation conditions. Without good transportation, it was difficult to transport goods, and business could not develop well at all.
Since ancient times, rulers had emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, and Nanzhao was no exception. However, when they saw the great achievements of the Tang dynasty after it encouraged business, they became very restless. Their understanding had changed a lot, and they had realized the huge role of business in prosperity. In addition, Nanzhao also had a lot of local specialties and minerals that were popular in the Tang dynasty. If these resources were transported to the Tang dynasty by oxen and horses, the transportation cost alone would be very high. If the cost was too high, they would not be competitive. However, if Nanzhao had a railway, it would be a different situation. A large number of local specialties and mineral resources could be sold to the Tang dynasty at a low cost, which would bring huge practical benefits to Nanzhao and make Nanzhao richer.
After that, if the railway continued to be extended to the Pyu, Nanzhao could gain even more benefits. If Pyu's local specialties wanted to be imported to the Tang dynasty, they had to pass through Nanzhao. It was not excessive to charge a toll. In addition, many Pyu's products could be sold to Nanzhao at a lower price, which would bring great benefits to Nanzhao.
The railway was built by the Tang dynasty. How the railway was used, how the profits were distributed, and how the roads were built were, of course, the Tang dynasty had the final say. However, if the railway was built in other countries, other countries would definitely put forward their own conditions. As for how to distribute the profits, this needed to be discussed.
For example, if the railway was completely built by the Tang dynasty and its maintenance in the future was also the responsibility of the Tang dynasty, then Nanzhao would not gain any benefits. However, if Nanzhao provided a large amount of labor to support the construction, then it would gain some benefits. If Nanzhao was willing to provide some resources and financial assistance, then the benefits it would gain in the future would be higher. As for how much Nanzhao was willing to pay and how much benefits it would gain, these all needed to be discussed. At present, it was also in the stage of negotiation. Moreover, a preliminary consensus had been reached, but there were still some details and requirements that needed to be discussed. There were also differences in the choice of the road.
For the construction of the railway in Nanzhao, the Tang dynasty naturally hoped that the cost would be as low as possible. It would be best if the railway went straight to the Pyu in the southwest, so as to open up a land passage to the Indian Ocean. However, Nanzhao naturally did not think so. They hoped that the railway from Central Sichuan to Nanzhao could take a longer detour and connect all the major cities in Nanzhao. This way, Nanzhao could gain the greatest practical benefits.
The dispute over the distribution of benefits and the route ran through the entire negotiation process. In fact, the essence of the dispute over the route was also a dispute over benefits. Nanzhao and the Tang dynasty considered different benefits. Nanzhao considered more about improving the traffic conditions in its own territory, while the Tang dynasty considered more about opening up the most convenient land passage to the Indian Ocean. This contradiction was real and could not be settled without a certain amount of time.
Fortunately, the railway in Yizhou was still under construction. The imperial court was also under great financial and resource pressure, so they could not take care of the situation in Nanzhao for the time being. Therefore, the relevant officials still had enough time to negotiate. The technicians also had enough time to repeatedly explore the terrain in Nanzhao and provide specific data for the final construction.
These surveyors who were active in Nanzhao not only had to survey the straight road to Pyu according to the requirements of the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, but also had to survey the data of the important cities along the way according to the requirements of Nanzhao. Both sides worked at the same time. These surveying and mapping data were naturally for the purpose of building the railway, but at the same time, these surveying and mapping data could also be a powerful help for the imperial court of the Tang dynasty to easily attack Nanzhao in the future. With these detailed data, the difficulty of attacking Nanzhao would be reduced a lot. Naturally, they would be able to know the enemy as well as themselves. According to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, knowing one's own strength and the enemy's strength would ensure victory in a hundred battles. Now that they knew Nanzhao's terrain and road conditions, it would be easy for the Tang dynasty to take Nanzhao with the powerful military force of the Tang dynasty.
Of course, the Tang dynasty would not attack Nanzhao for no reason. This would bring a lot of pressure to the other affiliated countries. Obviously, if the Tang dynasty attacked Nanzhao with a groundless accusation, it would be difficult to convince the public. Even if they attacked Nanzhao, they had to have a good reason and a good reason.
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