Since ancient times, inspection work had always been the most comfortable and enjoyable job. As a leader, he could visit his subordinates to inspect them. Not only was it comfortable, but he could also increase his knowledge. He could also go sightseeing, and his subordinates would even treat him well. There was probably nothing more comfortable than this in the world.
Therefore, since ancient times, the favorite job of leaders was to inspect everywhere. They called it a business trip, but in fact, who could tell what they were actually doing? Using the business trip to sightsee, flirt with women, and visit brothels to experience what it was like.
Of course, Li An was still quite responsible. Although he spent most of his time enjoying the scenery and relaxing, he at least walked around all the carriages as a formality. He also walked around the train station for a while and gave some guidance on the falling leaves. He was considered to be very qualified.
Dinner was naturally full of delicious food, but it was still slightly inferior to the food in Ang Lee's residence. After dinner, Ang Lee brought a few guards to a high platform in the train station to enjoy the night scenery.
In order to ensure safety, there were guards patrolling the train station at night. In order to find suspicious people in time, there was a fire pillar at a certain distance from the train station, which could light up the surrounding space of dozens of steps.
Li An took out his binoculars and conducted a detailed inspection of the entire Luoyang Railway Station. He found many hidden sentries and praised the station master who rushed over. He said that the station master had done a good job in the defense.
The inspection went very smoothly. The next morning, Ang Lee took the train back to Chang 'an City and returned to his residence in the evening.
Two days before the Emperor's inspection of Luoyang City, the operation of the railway was suspended. Most of the trains were used to transport the twenty thousand soldiers of the Dragon Martial Army to Luoyang City and immediately take control of Luoyang City and the surrounding strategic areas.
A small number of soldiers were stationed in the counties and cities along the way to ensure the Emperor's safety.
Of course, when the Emperor went out, there were even more soldiers on the train to protect the Emperor.
This time, Li Longji's inspection of Luoyang City was mainly because the railway system had been a great success. Li Longji wanted to experience the feeling of a long-distance train ride. Furthermore, it had been many years since he had last visited Luoyang City.
In the early days of his reign, Li Longji often went back and forth between Chang 'an and Luoyang City. He had lived in Luoyang City for eleven years. The reason was very simple. Chang' an City's supply of resources was too difficult. In order to save the country's resources, Li Longji often lived in Luoyang City.
The resources mentioned here were mainly food. The food in Guanzhong could not satisfy the millions of people in Chang 'an City, and the main food production area of the Tang dynasty was Jiangnan.
Thanks to the Great Sui Empire, the Grand Canal led from Luoyang to Hangzhou in Jiangnan. There was also a canal that led to the northeast. Therefore, Luoyang City could obtain large amounts of resources from the northeast and Jiangnan. It could be said that the resources were abundant. However, it was very difficult to transport these resources from Luoyang to Chang 'an.
In order to save some resources, Li Longji often brought the entire imperial court to Luoyang to eat. As he grew older, Li Longji's physical strength and energy were not as good as before. He could not bear the bumpy journey of half a month. Then, under Li Linfu's persuasion, he did not go to Luoyang City and lived in Chang 'an City for many years.
Now, the railway had been completely laid out to Luoyang City. With a sufficiently powerful locomotive, it only took twelve hours to reach Luoyang City. Moreover, sitting in the train, one basically did not feel any bumpiness. For Li Longji, inspecting Luoyang City became extremely easy. Of course, he left as soon as he said so.
This time, the majority of the officials in the imperial court would accompany him. Li Longji was even more generous, allowing the officials to bring their families along to accompany the imperial concubines and concubines in the palace and relieve their boredom.
Ang Lee originally wanted to bring Yan Ruyu to Luoyang City to relax. However, when he thought of Yan Ruyu's big belly, it would be inconvenient for her to travel. In addition, the maids in the house also had to take care of Yan Ruyu, so they could not accompany him. Zhao Liu was the housekeeper, so of course, he could not leave the house. Thus, Ang Lee could only travel alone and accompany the Emperor on his journey to the east.
Although Li Longji had previously said that when traveling, the number of people should be limited to around five thousand, he had already given the order to allow the families of the officials to accompany him. Thus, the number of people would definitely be far more than five thousand. Fortunately, the railway had already stopped operating. All the trains would serve Li Longji's journey to the east. With the capacity of these trains, not to mention five thousand people, even thirty thousand people could be transported in one go.
In addition, after arriving at Luoyang City, they would need to stay for a period of time. For this reason, the various items that the imperial family and officials needed to use had to be brought.
The number of these items was not small. Fortunately, with the powerful freight trains, it would not be a problem to transport these items in one go.
Before the Emperor set off, a large number of eunuchs, palace maids, and guards had been busy transporting all sorts of items onto the freight trains. This way, when the Emperor set off, they would be able to keep up with him in time so that he would not be unable to find these items after arriving at Luoyang City.
A freight train carried fifty carriages. In order to transport all sorts of items, the railway used three trains to load all the items onto the train.
The passenger train was even more exaggerated. A total of fifteen trains were used.
Other than the most luxurious train used by the imperial family, there were also two purple trains used by the nobles. The rest were all ordinary trains.
After the imperial train was improved, it carried twenty carriages. Among them, there were three carriages that were exclusive to the Emperor. One was a sleeping carriage, one was a dining and leisure carriage, and the last carriage was decorated into a small imperial court. It was not a problem for the Emperor to attend court in it.
In addition, in order to prevent noise infection, the Emperor's carriages, from the third to the fifth carriages, were all soft sleeper carriages used by the palace maids and eunuchs. Inside, one could listen to music and rest, and could also store all sorts of items that the Emperor needed to serve the Emperor at any time.
From the sixth carriage onwards, there were continuous soft sleeper carriages that could accommodate the ministers and concubines in the harem. This depended on the Emperor's intentions. Of course, they could not be arranged at the same time. The ministers and concubines could not be mixed together. Finally, there were the dining and stables carriages.
For this trip, Li Longji brought a lot of people, including many concubines. However, he planned to put all the concubines on the nobles' purple-red train and let them travel with the nobles' womenfolk. He only brought Yang Yuhuan, who had not yet been conferred a title, with his side. From this, it could be seen that he deeply favored Yang Yuhuan.
Because the operation of the railway had already stopped, for this trip, the Emperor could use both railways. It was a double line, but it had to be guaranteed that there was no other train beside Li Longji's imperial train. This was to avoid blocking the line of sight and affecting Li Longji's appreciation of the scenery outside the carriage.
In order to ensure that the Emperor's eastern tour of Luoyang went smoothly, all the staff of the railway were extremely busy. The train stations of Chang 'an and Luoyang were being cleaned at all times.
After all the preparations were complete, the Emperor set out on time, leaving the Changan City railway station at the northern gate of the Daming Palace.
Facing the rising sun, Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan boarded the imperial train and entered the third carriage. Ang Lee and the Prime Ministers entered the sixth carriage, each of them having a small compartment to prevent them from disturbing each other.
As everyone boarded, the train slowly began to move toward Luoyang at a constant speed.
"Saburo, can we really reach Luoyang before nightfall?"
Yang Yuhuan looked at the scenery outside the window and asked.
"The railway has already been running for ten-some days. Of course we can reach Luoyang in twelve hours. Ah Man has no doubt about this. We will reach Luoyang very quickly."
Li Longji earnestly said.
"Saburo, let's take a walk in the other carriages!"
Yang Yuhuan discovered that there were other carriages in front of the imperial carriage, and she very much wanted to take a look.
Although the first two carriages were for palace maids and eunuchs, because it was an imperial train, the facilities were rather luxurious, and it was also the Emperor's personal space.
"Saburo, Assistant Minister Li is truly considerate! Even the palace maids and eunuchs' living quarters are so luxurious. "
Yang Yuhuan walked in the first carriage and said with a smile.
"Assistant Minister Li is an outstanding talent of the Tang dynasty. He has always been considerate of Us. We will not treat him unfairly."
"Saburo, do you think that Assistant Minister Li will invent a pair of wings? That way, we can fly in the sky like birds."
Yang Yuhuan curiously asked.
"Ah Man, you want to fly in the sky? Haha! I must ask Assistant Minister Li if he can invent a pair of wings. "
Li Longji laughed. He felt that Yang Yuhuan was too whimsical. Flying in the sky was exclusive to birds. How could people fly in the sky?
When they walked to the fourth carriage, they saw a more luxurious dining room and a larger study, which increased the comfort a lot.
As soon as they entered the fifth carriage, they saw luxuriously decorated curtains. Lifting a corner of the curtain, Li Longji immediately saw the Dragon Throne. In addition to the Dragon Throne, there were more than a dozen purple wooden chairs in the carriage, and the rest was empty space.
"Your Majesty, there is a Dragon Throne here. This must be the place where Your Majesty holds court. Your Majesty can also summon officials in the carriage like in Zichen Palace. Assistant Minister Li is really considerate."
Yang Yuhuan walked around the spacious and empty carriage.
Li Longji reached out to touch the luxurious Dragon Throne and gently sat on it.
"This concubine pays respects to Your Majesty."
Yang Yuhuan walked to Li Longji's side and bowed to Li Longji sitting on the Dragon Throne.
"Rise, haha!"
Li Longji helped Yang Yuhuan up and hugged Yang Yuhuan as they returned to the third carriage.
This time, the first five carriages were their area of activity. It was much more comfortable and convenient than the last two carriages.
After accompanying Yang Yuhuan for an hour, Li Longji walked to the fourth carriage and sat on a chair by the window, calling for Ang Lee.
"Your Majesty."
Ang Lee nodded in greeting.
"Assistant Minister Li, there is no need to stand on ceremony. Have a seat."
Li Longji had Ang Lee sit.
Ang Lee did not stand on ceremony and directly sat down, waiting for the Emperor's inquiry.
"Assistant Minister Li, do you see it? The people outside the window are plowing and preparing to plant wheat. The seeds they use are all allocated by me from the national treasury. Even if there is no harvest, these people will not lose anything. "
Li Longji looked out of the window and said proudly.
Although he did not know if the wheat would be frozen to death after being planted, he believed in Ang Lee's judgment. Therefore, he did not hesitate to allocate wheat seeds from the national treasury to let the people try to plant it. The harvested grain would belong to the people. If there was no harvest, the loss would be the Imperial Court. Only in this way would the people be motivated to plant wheat.
Looking at the scene of cattle plowing outside the window, Ang Lee said respectfully, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. My judgment should not be wrong. If these wheat are planted, it will definitely mature before the spring plowing. As long as the people taste the sweetness, all the people will rush to plant wheat after the autumn harvest. In this way, the grain output in Guanzhong is expected to double, and there will be no shortage of grain in Guanzhong."
"I also hope so. If it is true, the national strength of the Tang dynasty will increase a lot, and the population will be more prosperous."
Li Longji looked even more excited.
Ang Lee looked out of the window and saw the people struggling to drive the cattle. Seeing the hard work in the field, he suddenly said, "Your Majesty, it will be hard for people and cattle to plow the land with cattle. Moreover, the efficiency of plow is very slow. I plan to develop steam machines to replace cattle so that the people can plow the land more easily."
"Oh, Assistant Minister Li can also develop machinery for plow the land. That's great. Assistant Minister Li can boldly do it. I will fully support you. Hahaha!"
Li Longji was overjoyed when he heard that. If powerful machines could replace cattle, the burden of plow the land would be greatly reduced. In this way, the same laborer could take care of more fields. Of course, the grain output would be greater. The Tang dynasty was not like the later generations. There were still a lot of undeveloped wilderness.
"Yes, Your Majesty. When I return to the capital, I will immediately start the development. I will definitely succeed before the spring plowing next year. By the way, in addition to developing machinery for plow the land, I will also develop pumping machinery. In this way, we don't have to use the cumbersome waterwheel. Even in the drought season, we can also draw water from the rivers and lakes to irrigate the dry land."
Ang Lee looked at the waterwheel outside the window and suddenly thought of the pumping machinery. As long as there was power, it should not be difficult to build the pumping machinery.
"Pumping machinery? It can directly pump the water from the river into the fields? How much more efficient can it be compared with the waterwheel? "
Li Longji was still very concerned about the projects related to the people's livelihood.
"Your Majesty, as long as we can build a bigger one, we can drain all the water in the Supreme Liquid Pool in a few days."
Ang Lee gave an exaggerated analogy.
"Drain all the water in the Supreme Liquid Pool in a few days? It's so powerful. Assistant Minister Li must do his best to develop it. As long as we have such machinery, our Tang dynasty will no longer have to worry about drought in the future."
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