The pier along the way is not only a watchtower or garrison point, but also a supply and maintenance point.

In the future, there will always be a convoy to set off from the Tumot area to Ulyasutai, that is, Quetunan City. This is a very important point and may not be of great use within a few years. However, after decades of development, when the Weila people came ambitiously, the importance of this city was highlighted.

However, the city of Nan is very important for controlling the north of Mo, the Tianshan Mountains, and then controlling the entire Western Regions in the future.

Even now, the construction of these two cities is equivalent to adding two big locks in the western part of the desert, excluding all hidden dangers from the two big locks.

The route from Qingcheng to Nancheng is also a must-pass way to incorporate large areas into rule. This large area can be directly controlled by Hutchison. Whether it is military farming or grazing, it can be used very comfortably, and it is more casual than the land you stolen.

He is very confident in mastering these places.

The manpower, financial resources and material resources are sufficient, and there is no reason not to succeed.

As for Zhang Han himself, he had never considered the possibility of failure.

In the late Qing Dynasty, this was once one of the commercial routes of Dashengkui Business. This company in Zhangjiakou, Shanxi controlled most of the trade between Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia. At its peak, this company had five or six thousand merchants and friends in Outer Mongolia, more than 20,000 camels and horses, constantly traveling between Qingcheng and Kulun, and of course, Chaktu and Ulyasutai. This company was controlled by a group of Shanxi merchants from Zhangjiakou. They effectively grasped the dominance of Mongolia's trade in the late Qing Dynasty. Before they broke it, they had accumulated more than ten million taels of silver from trade with Mongolia.

It is more than 4,500 miles from Zhangjiakou to Ulyasutai. Those Shanxi merchants traveled back and forth at most twice a year, driving the camel and horse teams back and forth on the vast grasslands, constantly making wealth under the threat of Mongolian tribes and wolves. Can even achieve the achievements that a group of ordinary merchants achieve, their organizational and force are better than today's Hutchison?

In early September, when the first snow fell, Zhang Han and others arrived in Nancheng.

However, for the first time, Zhang Han did not stay in Nancheng for too long. Because he had to come to Nancheng on his return journey, he only stayed in Nancheng for a few days. He met the garrison personnel, looked at the city defense project that was about to be completed, inspected and received the garrison personnel from nearby Huoludun, and at the same time comforted the baggage soldiers who were sending supplies along the way... The convoy came from Kulun direction, and it was more than a thousand miles away. It was not easy to travel back and forth. Fortunately, the supply points and maintenance points along the way have been repaired, which is much more convenient in terms of supply. When he went on the first expedition, the South Army was fine, but the North Army suffered enough of the unfavorable supply.

However, it also proves that Hutchison's soldiers can still maintain relatively high morale while hungry, and there is no large-scale complaints or depression, let alone unstable military morale, large-scale violations of military discipline, or even mutiny.

After the capture of the Quetu Khan army, the military and political and military industry departments, and the military command departments, under the unified guidance of the Military Orders, determined the plan to build the South City and the North City through the meeting of political affairs officers, and at the same time, they began to determine two supply lines along Kulun to the South City and the North City.

Before the city was built, it took several months to open up the supply channel, clear out a small number of horse thieves, suppress and attack those small tribes who were unwilling to accept it, and at the same time, the construction of supply points along the way was built. The project started in spring and was not completely completed until September, mainly because the early supply route took a lot of time.

Of course, there is also huge manpower and material supply. From the beginning of this year to autumn, Taiwan has invested a lot of money, and there is no feedback, but the financial pressure has decreased.

This is due to the increase in account revenue. Now the account funds in the entire north have already exceeded one million, and are impacting the huge number of two million taels.

It can be said that the money in the Ming Dynasty treasury may not be more than Hutchison, and it is even far less than that in many cases.

If Hutchison started and developed in the south, the size of the account might have exceeded one million.

This half year has been a prosperous half year, and Hutchison's rapid growth.

The fiscal deficit last year was slapped a lot, reducing Taiwan's revenue, but increasing the dumping of goods, accounting and insurance industry revenue. In addition to the small-scale war against the Quetu Khan department in the past six months, the defense was mainly on the defensive everywhere, and military expenditures were greatly reduced. This also made Tian Jitang relieved and began to support the financial resources to the Military Industry Department to accelerate the production of military supplies, and at the same time increase investment in the buildings in the Quetu North and South City, shorten the time.

In addition, the mobilization and investment on the Western Front have also accelerated, the supply line has been lengthened, and multiple military forts and piers have been built.

Further down, the Hutchison will not regard the construction of military fortresses as a major event. It is estimated that within two or three years, the old Wuyuan City, Yunneizhou, Jining City, and Shangyi City will be rebuilt into large cities with a radius of more than five miles, becoming central cities on the grasslands, using these cities to lead the surface to accelerate the development of various places.

Tunken, mine, and plant various crops, wheat, millet, sorghum, beans, including new crops, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, all of which are of large quantities of planting value.

The cash crops are mainly tobacco and cotton, and the planting area is gradually expanding.

Sweet potatoes can also be regarded as cash crops. After all, Han merchants and Hutchison on the grassland are all using sweet potatoes to make wine. Russians have a huge demand, and they will make a lot of brewing.

It is said that the soju brewed by sweet potatoes has a great impact on the wine market in Russia. This is inevitable. Soju brewing is cheap and large in quantity. Unlike the current vodka brewing materials in Russia, the raw materials and complex processes are extremely low, which makes the wine production very expensive, which makes the price of vodka quite expensive. Russians' alcoholism is world-famous in later generations. After the entry of sweet potato soju, it has a great impact on their own wine. Fortunately, there are too many people who are addicted to alcohol. For the time being, the production of the Chinese merchants in Hutchison Grassland is far from enough to meet the demand of the Russian market. After the short-term impact, it is estimated that the wine market will be formed separately for high-end and low-end people. These things do not need to be interfered with too much, and the market will self-regulate.

In addition, the tobacco planting area has also been greatly expanded. Seriously speaking, Inner Mongolia is not suitable for planting. The climate and environment required by excellent tobacco cannot be provided by the grassland.

But since Liaodong is able to plant a value these days, why can’t it be on the grassland?

People in this era are not as rich as those of later generations, and they have sufficient capital to pretentiously. Nowadays, many people smoke leaves. Real tobacco will be sold even if it is inferior. In addition to dumping tobacco from Russians, the excess production capacity will be sold to the northern market. Although Zhang Han feels that it is not good to trade tobacco, tobacco is not a drug after all, and his moral cleanliness is not heavy, at least not as heavy as if he is not profitable.

In addition to supplying Russians, the potential large customer group of tobacco and inferior soju are also Mongolians. They are like alcoholism and are in a bitter and cold place. They often get stuck in yurts when they get snow in winter and can't leave for many days. Such a group is destined to be a loyal customer group of wine and tobacco, and there is no exception.

This time, from northwest to Ketunan City and Beicheng, we also need to open up the business path for the Mongols in the west. The Weila people are not strong and have little ambitions now, so they will also send camels to trade. If a trade center is established in Ketunan City and a trade city is built, the advantage is that they can radiate to most tribes in the west, and even import their influence into the Western Regions in advance.

If Zhang Han and his subordinates could do some work twenty years in advance, they would be happy.

In any case, after regaining Mobei, the next goal is of course to the Western Regions and the former land of Nuergandusi.

Zhang Han's ambition in the territory is as strong as that of the Russians. He has a sense of urgency and responsibility unique to traveling through time. There are many things that may not be his responsibility, but since he has worked hard to this point, he will not be able to overcome the obstacles in his heart if he doesn't try it.

When he first arrived in Nancheng, Zhang Han only made a short stop and went directly to Beicheng. In Beicheng, he mainly inspected the defense, met the chief officer of the garrison troops in charge of the northern defense, inspected the baggage team, and inspected supply points. After inspecting the area of ​​Beicheng for seven days, Zhang Han went south again. This time he was to meet the leaders and elders of more than 20 small tribes who had received notifications nearby in Nancheng.

The Zasaktu Khan tribe, the Tohwait tribe, the Forest Urianha tribe, the Hurgate tribe, and the Hoshuot tribe... These are just the general terms of the large tribes. Each large tribe will be divided into several small tribes, each with its leaders. The Mongolian organization in the north of the desert is more scattered and broken than in the south of the desert. The Huit tribe is strictly a branch of the Weilat Mongolia, but it usually has close contact with the Khalkha tribes. They are active on the left side of the Sainnoyan tribes and hand over the Khalkha ranch in the Tanuwulianghai. They usually have small frictions, and most of the time they are in peace.

The Hoshuot tribe is the closest place among the four Weilater tribes to the eastern Mongolia. The ancestors of the Weilater people grazed in the upper reaches of the Yeseni River, thousands of miles away from Mongolia. When Genghis Khan was on the rise, the Weilater tribe composed of four thousand households began to get along with and intermarry with the Mongolian tribe, and eventually surrendered to the Mongolian tent. However, they were essentially nomadic peoples different from the Mongols, saying that they were just a historical phenomenon, not a truly strict ethnic distinction. Strictly speaking, the Weilater people were not Mongolians at all.

The focus of the Khashuot people was on the north side of the Tianshan Mountains, and later turned to the south side under the oppression of the Junggar tribe. Sometimes they would run to the north side, clash with the Kazakhs and Russians there, and compete for the pastures.

During the period when the Weila people were most powerful, the Kazakhs, Kyrgyzstans, Tibet, and the Western Regions were all under their control, and they established a powerful Khanate of more than 7 million square kilometers. If it were not for the Qing Dynasty, the entire world pattern of the future generations would have been different.

It is said that the Heshuote sent a few Taiji to pay homage to him, but the disappointment of the senior military officials was that they did not send one of the "Eight Taiji" personally conferred by Gushi Khan, but just ordinary small Taiji came.

Bataiji is the eight sons of Gushikhan. They were enfeoffed by Taiji and each of them was divided into one side. Judging from the number of Taiji and the territory they controlled, Gushikhan and the Heshuo Special Division they controlled were not below the three Mobei tribes, and they should have the strength to mobilize at least 70,000 to 80,000 cavalry.

Of course, Mongolian cavalry cannot look at the numbers completely, but depends on the number of elite numbers in armor. The number of pure cavalry is not very meaningful.

When he returned from North City, two consecutive snowfalls had already fallen.

Fortunately, the snow was not heavy, and the clear sky after the snow melted a large area, and there were only obvious traces of residual snow on the shady grass slopes.

This time when Zhang Han turned back to Nancheng, the crowds were obviously much denser.

The number of auxiliary troops has increased, and it seems that it is constantly transporting various materials to Ketunan City.

Nancheng is close to completion. After completion, its mission is actually heavier than North City. North City is very close to Kulun and can arrive in a few days with light cavalry along the way. It is bordered by weaker Huite and other departments, so the mission of North City is much easier than that of South City.

"Ma Wu and the others are here."

Jiang Yi squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. The endless grasslands easily brought visual fatigue to people.

The advantage is that the traces of people and horses can be found far away, and whether they are comrades or enemies, they are easily discovered, allowing Jiang Yi to deploy and deal with it calmly.
Chapter completed!