Du Zhongxiao's explanation of his arrangements did not convince Fan Zhen. Of course, Fan Zhen did not need to be convinced. Du Zhongxiao was no longer the down-and-out boy under his rule when he was a county magistrate. As long as Fan Zhen returned to the court to repeat Du Zhongxiao's meaning, the court would know the intention. With Du Zhongxiao's current status, even if the emperor and the prime minister do not understand and do not involve important government affairs, he would agree.

The railway has this benefit, which to some extent ignores geographical distance. The places that were far away before are not far away. Without railways, supporting 100,000 or 20,000 troops a thousand miles away is expensive for the Central Plains dynasty. After the railway is opened, Hequ Road can send 100,000 troops into the Western Regions, which is not a heavy burden. It will take several years for all the imperial guards to complete the training, and it will not be time to use troops to Dangxiang and Khitan.

Another point is that whether you agree with Du Zhongxiao's arrangement or not, entering the Western Regions will have great benefits to the court's reputation. Even if the Khitan and Dangxiang are close to you, and if you enter the Western Regions again hundreds of years later, the court can claim to be the prosperous era of the Han and Tang Dynasties. This temptation is difficult for the emperor and the prime minister to refuse.

On the second day, Fan Town crossed the Yellow River and took the train from Dongsheng County to Shazhou. He carefully recalled what Du Zhongxiao said yesterday and slowly began to understand the purpose of doing so. In the past few months, the army of Hequ Road was invincible. It seemed that he could fight wherever he wanted. Now it was different. Most of the backbone of the army was taken away, and the veterans could not restore their power at that time in less than a year or two.

After a series of victories, if the troops on Hequ Road are silent and do not maintain their momentum with victory, it is not conducive to gathering the morale of the army. Especially when the entire army is reorganized and combat power is formed, Du Zhongxiao needs to have a clear enemy. But even if the army can go out to fight, even if the first round of reorganization is completed in three months, it will be at most 30,000 to 50,000 people. Hequ Road is thousands of miles in radius, and there are many places that need to be defended. 30,000 to 50,000 people are not enough to fight the Khitan and the Dangxiang, but it is more than enough to fight Gaochang. Looking around Hequ Road, Gaochang is the most suitable goal.

Dongsheng County is more than 200 miles from Shazhou. Just after noon, Fan Town and his party arrived at the station. The prefect Zu Wuze and the magistrate Wang Jingyang took the officials of this prefecture and Yang Wenguang from the east of Hequ Road to wait there early to welcome the city to the Zhongzhou Yamen.

The Yingtianxiang Army and the people in Shazhou have not arrived yet, and the original foreign households live in concentrated areas, and there are not many people's sentiments to observe. After a round of the city, most of them are garrisons, and even few shops are rare. After a few questions, Fan Zhen returned to the prefecture yamen.

The sun was still hanging high in the sky, and the cool breeze blew, which was very refreshing. Zu Wuze set up a banquet in the back yamen to welcome Fan Zhen.

Fan Zhen and Zu Wuze both became the Jinshi in the fifth year of Jingyou. Fan Zhen was the top scholar, and Zu Wuze was the third place. The friendship was beyond the same as others. The public officials and soldiers were busy, and the two sat under the tree and talked in the cool breeze.

Fan Zhen said: "Although Zezhi suffered some mistakes, it is an opportunity to become the governor of Shazhou this time. If there is no mistake, he will definitely be summoned to the court to pay more."

Zu Wuze smiled and said, "What is it to do to live in the officialdom? Shazhou is a little remote, but it is the new place of the imperial court. It is just the intersection of Yinshan Daokou, and it is the place where we use our skills. When Jingren entered the capital, many people didn't care. He wrote "Chang Xiao Ku Ku Qi", which made the two ministers of the Song and Song dynasties dare not make their own works, so he became famous. In Shazhou, it is just the intersection of Baidaokou, Jingren can go there and roar to meet the past."

Fan Zhen couldn't help laughing when he heard this. A few years ago, Zu Wuze was demoted to Yuanzhou by a transferee for offending the powerful and wealthy people. He came to Shazhou again. He was worried that he was depressed and could not see it easily. Fan Zhen was from Shu. He learned that Xue Kui in Yizhou was appreciated and brought it into the capital. When he first entered the capital, many people felt that he could not bear Xue Kui's praise. Once he wrote a poem with Song Xiang and Song Qi, which was titled "The Long Scream of the Hu Qi". Fan Zhen was first formed, but after reading it, he felt that his work was far inferior to that of the Song and Song Xiao, and Fan Zhen was famous from this.

The new land of Hequ Road is indeed not in good condition, but it is a good place to make achievements. If you do a job here, you can reduce the grinding and survey in the future. If you have a little bit of results, you will be reused.

Shazhou is just the Baidaokou of Yinshan Mountain. Together with Fengzhou, it is the important place to guard the Yinshan Mountain intersection. However, in this era, the main road that crossed Yinshan Mountain was Fengzhou, followed by Shazhou. After the Song Dynasty, Baidao became the most important road to cross Yinshan Mountain. There are Qingzhong in Shazhou. The middle of Qingzhong and Zhoucheng is a plain, which is the center of Hohhot in the later years.

The Qing Tomb has a special significance and occupies here, marking the arrival of the northern border of the Qin and Han Dynasties.

Tang poetry was the most prosperous, and one of the major schools was frontier poetry. A large part of frontier poetry was written on the north and south of the Yinshan Mountains. Only with these places did such poems emerge. Many of the people who wrote frontier poetry were officials who went to the border areas to become officials.

As a large number of officials served in Hequlu, a few years later, Song Ci, which had been mixed into the frontier poetry style, would inevitably have another appearance.

After chatting for a few gossips, Fan Zhen said: "Shazhou is the intersection of Yinshan Mountain, and the north of the mountain is the land of Tatars. This dynasty won the Khitan and Dangxiang in a row, and I wonder what the Tatars were doing? In other words, several tribes sent envoys to the capital to pay tribute should be the right intention."

Zu Wuze shook his head: "No, I don't even have a Tatar merchant here. After Yang deployed the troops to Shazhou, he sent a member of him to Daokou in Shanbei to build a city, where there was originally a Khitan Shanjinsi. After building the city, the Tatars disappeared within a hundred miles of the surrounding area."

Fan Zhen couldn't help but frown: "What do the Tatars mean? The king came to the north, and they didn't make any noise?"

Zu Wuze said, "I think that's not the case. The Tatars are now waiting and watching. Since the rise of the Khitan, the Tatar tribes soon surrendered to him. The Khitan established a collapsed ridge Jiedushi and stationed troops in key places. Now the two Khitan emperors were united together, and the prince Yelu Hongji was based in Youzhou, and Yelu Renxian, who supported Hongji, was stationed in Shangjing. The crown prince Chongyuan occupied Datong Prefecture, and the empress dowager who supported Chongyuan was stationed in Zhongjing. The forces were comparable. Yelu Renxian was originally an important Khitan official, with more than 200,000 troops under his command. Chongyuan ordered more than 300,000 troops in Datong Prefecture, and all the troops gathered, and the Tatars did not dare to violate his command. There were Yelu Renxian in the north and Yelu Chongyuan in the south. It was not enough to protect himself, so he could only hide from the troops of our dynasty."

Fan Zhen nodded: "So that's it. When I left the capital, some court officials thought that the two Khitan emperors should not be too oppressed. Dangxiang recently negotiated peace, and the army had not yet been trained, and the war could not be easily started. So he proposed that the Tatar tribes were not subordinate to each other, and they could send troops from Shazhou and Fengzhou. After crossing Yinshan, they could use their kindness and power to surrender. In this way, they would not go to war with the Khitan, and they could cut their wings for the future."

Zu Wuze said: "This is a good plan. It's just that the Tatars live a nomadic life, migrating thousands of miles, and their whereabouts are unpredictable. To make them surrender, they must have a large number of cavalry, go deep into the desert grasslands, and capture their traces. There were originally many cavalry on the Hequ Road, but after being transferred by the court, it was difficult to gather enough troops for a while. One or two years later, it would be not difficult to suppress the Tatars."

Fan Zhen said: "Yesterday, I talked about Hequ Road affairs with Du Jieshuai. Jieshuai wanted to build a railway to Heishui City, and the troops pointed directly at the Gaochang Uighurs. I saw Jieshuai's intentions were very strong, so I did not mention the strategy of turning over Yinshan into Tatars."

Zu Wuze thought for a while and said, "Narrow of Heishan Mountain is the Zhuanglang tribe of Dangxiang. When the troops were approaching Wushuhai, its leaders promoted their tribe to offer the city and surrender. Jieshuai agreed at that time that after Zhuanglang tribe surrendered, the court would support it. If Zhuanglang tribe wants to grow, he can only compete with the Tatars north for the ranch. I think Jieshuai wanted to use Zhuanglang tribe to build Tatars, so he abandoned the Yinshan strategy. Furthermore, when going deep into the desert, there must be a large number of cavalry, which is difficult to concentrate troops, which is inconsistent with Jieshuai's habit of fighting big battles. The Gaochang Uighurs are different. They farm for a living, live on the city, and use troops much more convenient."

Fan Zhen said: "There is another point. Although the Gaochang Uighurs are far away, as long as the railway is built, the material transportation will be convenient. If you go deep into the grassland and desert, you will not have this convenience. With the powerful weapon of railways, the war will of course be fought along the places where railways can be built."

Zu Wuze nodded: "That's true. Without railways, there would be no such many soldiers in Shazhou. How could the Tatars escape by looking at the wind? Without railways, it would be thousands of miles away. Even if this dynasty occupied Hequ Road, it would be difficult for the army to support it."

With the popularity of railways, more and more people realized the benefits of railways, and many officials also realized the strategic role of railways. As long as the railway was built to the place, many difficulties that were insurmountable before would no longer be difficult. When Dangxiang heard that the railway was built to the Zhenrong Army, it naturally softened and gave Heishui City without fighting. Even they knew that if the railway was opened there, the Song army could pile up their best friends even if they used a pile of people. Not to mention the tactics used before, such as retreating head-on, lengthening the Song army's supply money, and then sending partial troops to cut off the food road, which was useless.

Due to the huge disparity in national strength, Khitan and Dangxiang did not dare to fight with the Song army for the time being. Other small forces took the Song army and did whatever they wanted. As long as the railway was built there, there would be no suspense.

Du Zhongxiao glanced at Gaochang because it was the gateway to the Western Regions. The railway was connected to Heishui City and further built to Gaochang, and there was no force in the Western Regions to resist. Several major cities in Gaochang, Yizhou was the Hami of later generations, Jiaohezhou was the Turpan of later generations, and Yanqi was the Korla of later generations, and all the important places north of Tianshan were in control. South of Tianshan was mainly the Kingdom of Khotan. As long as it was helped to restore the country, most of the Western Regions would be restored.
Chapter completed!