According to the instructions of General Zhengxi, countless machines, fuel, workers, and technicians gathered from all over the country to Chang'an. They will build here the industrial base for the Red Shirt Army's strategic westward march, including aluminum plants, iron plants, coal mines, machine factories, etc.
A factory site was planned on the Guanzhong Plain.
In order to cope with this large-scale migration, the Yellow River was dredged, the railways were paved farther, and the official roads between cities were dug with drainage ditches and paved with stone slabs and sand. People no longer have to worry about mud on rainy days. Liu Ziguang used overseas
With the money earned from the stock market, all of this was built, which led to the major road construction movement in various provinces across the country. In order to sell raw materials to the factories in Zhenwuhou, local governments carried out large-scale construction and construction of roads, and leveled the farmland and built it into a road where eight horses could walk abreast.
The road is rolled back and forth with stone rollers and then sprinkled with gravel. Although it is not as good as modern asphalt roads, it is still quite advanced.
Shanxi had already fallen into the hands of Liu Ziguang. The Kangxi regime hurriedly went northward, trying to reach Longxing in Liaodong via Mobei to start over again. However, the Mongolian grassland was already dominated by woodmen and cavalry, pitiful hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians of the Eight Banners.
In the vast desert, they were killed by the Mongols in a state of embarrassment. It was better for the large group of people to walk together. Countless people who were alone were either beaten by wild wolves on the grassland as a sacrifice or captured by the Mongols as slaves. Even Emperor Kangxi also
He had to accept the request of the current Chahar Khan Zhamuhe and left one million taels of gold and silver treasures looted from Shanxi to pay for the road. Then he bypassed the desert, crossed the Daxingan Mountains and arrived in Liaodong. Along the way
There were heavy casualties, hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Liaodong, and only a handful of 50,000 were left. Of course, these are things for a later date.
Jinzhong is a prosperous place, and the imperial court cannot allow Liu Ziguang to take over. Therefore, when the good news of Shanxi's recovery came, the cabinet quickly drafted the candidates for Shanxi Province's Chief Secretary, Press Supervisor, and Commanding Envoys, and appointed a highly respected senior official.
After reporting to the emperor for approval, Liu Ziguang rushed to Taiyuan Prefecture at night to take up his post. However, Liu Ziguang moved faster and plundered all the money that the Manchus had not taken away. Shanxi's famous business and bank accounts were also restored to the name of Zhenwu Hou
Next, the signboard and personnel remained the same, but Mr. Hou re-injected capital and took full control. Since then, Liu Ziguang has a large-scale bank account in his hands - Dadexing.
Fighting against Xixia is different from fighting against the Qing Dynasty. The Western Region is thousands of miles away from the Central Plains. There are many desolate areas along the way. There are no roads and lack of water sources. It is difficult to ensure the supply of the troops. Especially for a modern army like the Red Shirt Army, it seriously restricts the display of its power. Therefore,
Liu Ziguang now devotes all his energy to infrastructure construction, spending all his financial and material resources to build the railway from the Central Plains to Chang'an. As long as the steam trains come in, the transportation of large equipment will not be a problem. Liu Ziguang will use the resources of several provinces he controls
By coordinating operations with tens of millions of dollars in silver, coupled with his own iron-fisted control, all problems were easily solved.
When laying railways, people's fields or ancestral graves are often encountered. If the route is detoured, the cost will increase greatly, and once the precedent is set, it will be uncontrollable. Therefore, Liu Ziguang instructed that generous compensation be given to those who requisitioned the land in such cases.
Compensation for twice the area of fields with the same soil quality elsewhere will be provided. Not only will the expropriated cemetery help move the tombs, but a cemetery made of white marble will be built for free. In addition, thousands of taels of silver will be given as condolence money. Logically speaking, such conditions are reasonable.
This is considered lenient, but there are those who are unwilling to open their eyes and stay on the road. They work hard to obstruct the construction of the railway. Some people want more compensation, and some people really respect their ancestors and are unwilling to touch their ancestral graves. Regarding the former situation, Liu Ziguang
The instructions of the government are that those who dare to extort money will be sent to the police for strict punishment, not even a penny of compensation will be paid, and they will have to spend several years in prison. The latter situation is more difficult to handle. After all, the social atmosphere is such that people's ancestral graves have been touched.
It is a great shame and humiliation. First of all, the railway side is unreasonable. This happened when the railway was just built from Xuzhou Prefecture to Shangqiu, Henan Province.
According to the plan, the railway needs to expropriate the ancestral graves of a large local family. This family is rich and powerful, so naturally they don't care about compensation and are unwilling to expropriate the land even to death. However, if the railway is to be rerouted, it will have to dig into the mountains and dig tunnels. The cost will be astronomical, and the construction period will be longer.
The delay was huge, and the small leader in charge of the construction was forced to panic. He led his workers to injure the servant who was guarding the grave of a large family. This was a big disaster. The family immediately notified a relative who was a high-ranking official in the capital.
The relative of the high-ranking official was none other than Hou Xun, the Minister of Rites of the dynasty. When Hou Xun heard that Liu Ziguang was going to dig up their ancestral graves, he became furious. Wasn't this an obvious attempt to destroy the feng shui of the old Hou family? Fortunately, one of his sons was manipulated by Liu Ziguang.
Not only did he become an eunuch, but now he is bullying his ancestors again. This is really unbearable!
Hou Xun immediately contacted a group of people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate and read a lot about Liu Ziguang. Even the emperor felt embarrassed about this matter. If he didn't move the grave, it would affect the plan of the Western Expedition. If he moved the grave, it was really unjustifiable. He weighed it again and again.
The school decided to give Hou Xun the face, and an edict was sent to Liu Ziguang, instructing him not to damage the Hou family's feng shui.
If the matter escalated to the point of filing a petition, most people would have given in, but Liu Ziguang was not like that. Precisely because the other party was the Hou family, his old enemy, he would not suffer from this, so an overland viaduct was built from the Hou family's ancestral grave.
It crossed over the top, but not a single stake was driven into the Hou family's land. This is the latest elevated cable-stayed steel cable bridge, the first of its kind in the world, and it was also a move forced by the Hou family. This is great, it's popular.
Wheels and carts passed overhead every day, making the ancestors of the Hou family unable to sleep peacefully. The effect was worse than moving their graves. The Hou family was furious and went to Beijing to complain again. But this time the emperor no longer supported them. They were a fool.
It's not even set up in your old forest, so what's the fun? The Hou family suffered a dumb loss and had to leave in anger, but Hou Xun hated Liu Ziguang even more from then on. Of course, these are all stories that will happen slowly in the future, after all
Building railways does not happen overnight.
Railway construction is not something that happens overnight, and the same goes for conquering Xixia. It is a huge project. Zhu Youxiao understands this very well. Recently, he is following Huang Zongxi to learn the historical story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's northern attack on the Xiongnu. Huang Zongxi told it wonderfully. Zhu Youxiao
While Yu Xiao was listening attentively and his heart was surging, the young emperor unconsciously compared himself with Liu Che. He felt that he had many similarities with the greatest emperor in the history of the Han people.
They were all suppressed by the Queen Mother. When they grew up, they worked hard to govern, annihilated the rebellion internally, and expanded the territory externally. They were regarded as a generation of British masters. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan and Liu Ziguang, who were preparing for the Western Expedition in Shaanxi, were also naturally imagined by Zhu Youxiao as themselves.
Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, one is mature and prudent, the other is enterprising. With these two generals here, coupled with the overwhelming power of the Ming Dynasty, there is no need to worry about the injustice of Xixia and the border troubles. After the Xixia people are driven to the far west,
During the Ming Dynasty, the world was at peace, and all nations came to visit. I am afraid that even the Hongwu period did not have such majestic weather.
"At that time, I will definitely climb Mount Tai to enshrine the Zen and tell the world about the great achievements of the Tianqi Dynasty!" Zhu Youxiao vowed to make his great ambition. At the same time, he told Wei Zhongxian: "Secretary Qin's actions should be slowed down for now.
We need people to open up new territories." Wei Zhongxian lowered his eyebrows and said yes, while Huang Zongxi next to him just smiled but said nothing.
The cavalry of the Western Army marched westward along the Hexi Corridor and soon occupied cities such as Tianshui in Longxi. The Xixia Army was busy with civil strife and had no time to go east for the time being. However, the Ming Army cavalry, which was only equipped with muskets, bows and arrows, was unable to attack a large city like Lanzhou.
city, so the two sides temporarily reached a tacit truce. Yuan Chonghuan even got in touch with the Xixia rebel Chu Hubu Ubas, and was willing to support him with weapons and money, in order to achieve the purpose of prolonging the civil strife in Xixia.
The longer it goes, the greater the Ming's chances. Liu Ziguang neither agrees nor objects to Governor Yuan's Confucian wisdom. After all, everyone has their own way of playing, and he cannot say that Governor Yuan's strategy is wrong.
This is the situation in Shaanxi. The Western Army and the Red Shirt Army are each doing their own thing, holding each other's breath to see who can fight better. The follow-up forces of the Western Army are constantly arriving. These new soldiers are all soldiers Wu Sangui went to Huguang to recruit again.
, Hunan people are brave, good at fighting, loyal and disciplined, which has greatly enhanced the strength of the Western Army and improved the composition of the army.
Liu Ziguang was also expanding his army. The martial arts lecture hall in the capital, the military preparation school in Zhending Prefecture, as well as the recruit training camps in Luoyang Prefecture and Chang'an City were all crowded with newly recruited soldiers. A large number of Yanzhao disciples were recruited into the army. However,
The identity is not the Red Shirt Army, because the Red Shirt Army is Liu Ziguang's private army. The expansion to 30,000 people has already made some people in the court look at him, so it must be restricted. These newly recruited troops can only be given to the court's regular imperial army.
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Outside Chang'an City, thousands of soldiers stood upright on the school grounds. It was already hot in June, and the strong sun was hanging in the sky, making people dizzy. However, the soldiers wore thick fat coats and armor.
He had been standing there motionless for an hour. The soldiers who occasionally fainted and fell to the ground were quickly dragged down, and the others didn't even look at him.
"The quality of this batch of recruits is very high." Liu Ziguang praised.
"They are all solid farmers with a lot of tenacity. No one dares to move if the commander says they won't let them rest," said the officer in charge of training them.
"Haha, not just farmers, but also scholars, don't they have the same tenacity after entering our Chang'an University?" Liu Ziguang said with a smile.
This is true. Among the queues was a group of students from the advanced class of the Kungfu Lecture Hall in the capital. Xia Wanchun, Liang Shiyi and others were also wearing armor like ordinary recruits and standing under the scorching sun. These former elegant and elegant scholars with delicate skin and tender flesh passed by.
After several months of baptism, he has become a warrior with bronze skin and resolute eyes. He no longer trembles when he sees the rain of arrows in the sky, and he no longer feels sick and vomits when he sees beheadings. However, his combat skills and physical fitness still need to be improved.
Liu Ziguang was sitting under the pergola, wearing sunglasses and holding a cigar, watching the recruits training. His goddaughter Xue Xiangying was wearing a bellyband and playing on the mat behind. Several maids were waiting on her. The little girl was only three years old. Because she no longer had her mother, Liu Ziguang
She was particularly doting on her. She grew up in the military camp and was the adopted daughter of the Marquis. You can imagine how much love the little girl received. She wanted the stars but not the moon. Under the doting of these rough old men, the little girl grew up.
An unruly and bad-tempered person.
For some reason, his goddaughter started crying again. Liu Ziguang frowned and was about to comfort his daughter in person when suddenly the guard came to report: "Commander Qi, the condolences delegation from the capital has arrived."
Liu Ziguang was stunned. The guard looked at the commander's face and added, "Master Dong personally led the team."