The merchant players unified the idea of entering the four towns of Anxi and organized a development business group to march to the four towns of Anxi.
However, players in the official stream have great differences on how to develop.
After the great victory, Li Yan asked the officials of Shazhou and Guazhou to write a letter stating his suggestions for the future development of Bafu.
Li Yan's desk was clogged with letters, and officials from the two states proposed a variety of methods, which made Li Yan dizzy.
This is roughly divided into several factions.
The loudest voice was the Northward Faction. Taking advantage of the influence of the great victory, they went northward to Gaochang and Yiwu, and then continued northward to control Beiting.
This plan also had the largest number of supporters. The governors of Gaochang and Yiwu were all unknown in the history books. With the great reputation of their victory over Tibet, it was not a big problem to go north to seize the two states.
Then he can take over the Beiting Protectorate and completely control the northern part of Longyou East Road.
But this plan met with fierce opposition from Cui Tao.
Cui Tao also wrote a letter analyzing that the two cities of Gaochang and Yiwu were plundered by the Uighurs all year round, and it can be said that they were completely destitute.
The Beiting Protectorate and the Captive Guards were all mobilized. If King Jianning really went north, he would have to take over the defense of the Uighurs after taking over these places.
Given the current awkward position of King Jianning, the emperor is not in good health, the prince is powerful, and the prince is sworn brother to the Uighur prince, taking over the defense of Beiting at this time is a big pitfall.
Anyway, the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs have a friendly relationship now, and the Uighurs will not invade Beiting in a large scale. It is better not to take Beiting for the time being, but to take the four towns of Anxi first.
The four towns in Anxi on the Longyou East Road are prosperous and important nodes on the Silk Road. The occupation of the four towns in Anxi will be more helpful in expanding Li Yan's power.
In addition to this factor, Guo Xin, who stayed in the Anxi Protectorate and temporarily led the Jiedushi of the four towns in Anxi, was the nephew of Guo Ziyi, the pillar of the Tang Dynasty.
Guo Ziyi is also the teacher of King Jianning. With this relationship, it will be easier for King Jianning to control the four towns of Anxi.
There are also many supporters of the Westward Expansion faction. Cui Tao and Shang Bo, the two players with the highest official positions, both support the Westward Expansion plan.
In addition to heading north and west, there are also some players advocating the eastward plan.
The plan to advance eastward is to enter Yangguan, enter Shuozhou, and attack Lingwu and other cities in Shuofang.
This plan was thrown directly under the table by Li Yan. Attack Shuozhou with such little strength?
Lingwu was the place where he used to be, and it is also the source of troops that the emperor now relies on. If he is really bold enough to attack Lingwu, he will definitely be sprayed to death by the people in the world.
When the time comes, his teacher Guo Ziyi will take the lead and blow his head off.
In addition to attacking Lingwu, some players also suggested going south to Tibet and attacking India directly.
There are also nonsense about going north to the Uighurs and riding horses to the shores of Lake Baiga.
These suggestions were all thrown into the brazier by Li Yan, treating them as the players' nonsense.
Most of the players in the official stream were debating whether to go westward, and Li Yan himself was a little undecided.
After all, both factions have their own reasons and have put forward their own executable plans.
But now that Jinshan Pass has been won, there are still many things to deal with, so there is no rush to decide whether to go north or west.
Just when the players were intensely debating whether to go north or west, two players made a suggestion that shocked the players.
Cui Ruoyun, a female soldier in the Bafu, and Jian Xia, the supervisor of the Dashuixia Iron Works, jointly sent a letter of recommendation to the Bafu.
They proposed to test the laying of railway tracks between Guazhou and Shazhou.
Nowadays, players have not yet made a steam engine by hand. This railway track is a horse-drawn train.
However, according to Cui Ruoyun and Jian Xia's calculations, using horse-drawn trains can greatly increase the cost of cargo transportation between Shazhou and Guazhou, and can also deepen the connection between the two places, making it easier for the Bafu to control the two states.
The other two people also suggested building a railway from Dangjin Pass to Shazhou City. With this railway, if Tibet attacked Dangjin Pass again, the troops from Shazhou City could be sent to Dangjin Pass within one day.
Technically speaking, the difficulty of producing rails is not high. The stretch from Shazhou to Guazhou is also a plain. There is no need to dig mountains and cross bridges. The only thing required is manpower.
Speaking of manpower, the two thousand Tibetan captives who had just taken part in the Jinshankou victory were all excellent young and strong laborers. They were originally sworn enemies of the Tang Dynasty. If we didn't find something to do for them, it would be difficult to manage them.
It's better to let them build the railway.
The Shagua Railway also accumulates technology to build more complex and longer railways in the future. If players can break through the technical difficulties and invent a steam engine, they can turn the horse-drawn train into a steam train.
This suggestion sounds a bit fanciful, but if you think about it carefully, it seems feasible.
Moreover, what Cui Ruoyun and Jian Xia said is correct. This railway has no technical difficulties. It can be regarded as accumulating the technology of railway construction, and the two thousand Tibetan captives can also be used to some extent.
Originally, according to Xue Cheng's suggestion, all 2,000 Tibetan captives were killed and built into a temple in the river valley to intimidate the Tibetans.
However, Cui Tao and other players feel that killing and surrendering is ominous, and these Tibetan labor forces can also play a role.
Originally, he was going to send them to the mine to mine, but Cui Ruoyun and Jian Xia's plan made Li Yan change his mind.
When building railways, even horse-drawn trains have a carrying capacity that is more than ten times that of ordinary horse-drawn carriages.
What would it be like if we occupied the entire Longyou and built a railway from Guazhou to Dashi in the future?
On the third day after the victory at Jinshankou, King Jianning ordered the establishment of the Shagua Railway General Administration, and Jiang Lun was responsible for coordinating the construction of the Shagua Railway.
He also appointed Qinchuan as the road construction envoy and led two thousand Tubo slaves to build roads.
Cui Ruoyun and Jian Xia also joined the General Administration of Railways and were responsible for solving technical difficulties in building railways.
Bafu sold the trophies of cattle and sheep captured in the First World War at Dangjin Pass in the market to raise funds to build the Shagua Railway.
As soon as this order came out, the players were shocked.
There was endless debate at the forum between going north and going west, but in the end the plan to build a railway was approved first?
We haven't built guns yet, but we have to build railways?
But this plan seems to be really feasible? The technical difficulty of the horse-drawn train is not high, and the output of the Dashuixia iron ore is high, which has driven down the price of iron in the entire Shazhou Guazhou.
In this era, there is not so much steel consumption, so there is no need to use so much iron except for casting cannons.
However, this cannon is made by turning sand into molds. There are not many players who can turn sand into molds. They can only build one or two cannons a day at most.
Moreover, because there were no saltpeter or sulfur mines in Guazhou, Shazhou, the gunpowder inventory was also tight, so even though there were so many cannons built, there was no gunpowder to fire them.
Building rails is also a good way to consume steel production capacity. Historically, the surge in steel production in industrial countries has been accompanied by the movement to build railways.
A railway was built in Longyou, and the ships in Jiangling Mansion were also completed.
King Yong looked at the fleet stretching on the river and couldn't help but feel proud. He said to an old man with a white beard next to him:
"Lady Qinglian, can you write a poem to congratulate the lonely king?"