The army moved forward slowly. At this time, Xia Nuan was upright and Shuzhou was picturesque. As we walked along the way, we saw beautiful scenery.

Yu Jiuling sat in the carriage, swaying his legs and looking in front. He didn't see the scenery, but he stared at the butt of the horse pulling the carriage.

Li Chi glanced at him and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Yu Jiuling said: "Master, am I sick?"

Li Chi felt nervous and hurriedly reached out to grab Yu Jiuling's wrist, wanting to take Yu Jiuling's pulse.

Although he is not a master of medical skills, he is studious and has some understanding of art.

Yu Jiuling shook his head and said, "I'm not that sick."

Li Chi raised his hand and touched Yu Jiuling's forehead with a worried look, and then said, "I don't have a fever."

He raised his finger and pointed at the horse pulling the cart: "Original, look at the horse's butt, is it so charming?"

Li Chi: "..."

He sighed and said, "You are not having a fever, you are being slutty."

Yu Jiuling said: "No, even if I'm sexy, I shouldn't be facing a horse's butt..."

Li Chi said: "But then again, if you hadn't reminded me, I would have never noticed that my butt was so round and so big."

Yu Jiuling reached out to touch Li Chi's forehead. Li Chi glared at him, and Yu Jiuling laughed and said, "You are the leader of the family..."

At this moment, Gao Xining came from behind and got on the carriage and asked, "What did you send?"

Yu Jiuling said: "I'm rich."

Gao Xining reached out and said, "Give it."

Li Chi: "..."

Gao Xining said seriously: "I have to save money for you. If you save enough, you will get married for you."

Li Chi: "Don't you just want to save some private money?"

Gao Xining: "That's right, I just saved it for you before I got married, and I just saved it for you after getting married."

Li Chi: "I thank you."

Gao Xining sat down next to Li Chi, looked in front of him, and then said to himself for a moment: "Why is this horse's butt so big?"

Yu Jiuling laughed with a squeak.

When a person rides a horse, he naturally cannot see the horse's butt twisting while walking.

Only by sitting in the carriage and observing can you find that Yu Jiuling's feelings are not unreasonable.

They were about two days away from Meicheng at this time, and the speed of the army was naturally not comparable to that of light chariots.

The vast team moved forward, and the front had already walked out for more than ten miles, but the last team had not set off.

Since entering Shuzhou, there have not been so many difficult wars that are expected to be fought.

Before entering Shuzhou, when Li Chi discussed with his generals, he agreed that it would be extremely difficult to defeat the terrain of Shuzhou.

In Shuzhou, there will be many tough battles, many tough battles, and many bad battles that may kill many people.

However, the time has been quite short in Shuzhou since its battle, but it has never been a bad battle.

The Dan Tai side made rapid progress. After destroying Yan Yusheng's Shuzhou army, it was only a matter of time before it captured the entire southwest of Shuzhou.

Therefore, the atmosphere in the army is relatively relaxed, and I talk and laugh along the way.

On the carriage, Yu Jiuling asked Li Chi, "I heard that Meicheng's hot pot is the best in the world. After the beating is done, you must have a good meal."

Li Chi sighed: "You have been looking at the horse's butt for a long time and want to eat hot pot. If the horse knows, you probably think you want to get some meat off its butt."

Yu Jiuling smiled and said, "That won't work. If you take such a good butt, it's not beautiful or not."

Gao Xining: "My ninth sister, you're so angry."

Yu Jiuling: "It's a little bit..."

"Report!"

At this moment, a cavalry who was summoning him from the front came over, looking dusty.

The cavalry approached, jumped off the horse's back and took off the package behind him.

He took out the military newspaper and handed it to Li Chi: "Lord, General Tang's military newspaper."

Li Chi reached out and took the military newspaper and said, "Don't rush to report, go to the carriage behind to rest. I'll have someone prepare some food for you."

The soldiers who sent the military newspaper bent over and thanked him, and then went to the back to rest.

This is an urgent report from Tang Pidian when he left Qingzhou.

Now all the people in the Central Plains are returning to the Ning King, and military posts in various places have been re-arranged, and there is an inn every hundred miles.

The reason why the military post delivers letters is that they change people and horses, one person runs a hundred miles, and then the next military poster replaces people and continues to run.

In this way, you can stay up day and night.

So it only took a month to send news from Qingzhou, which is so far away. If the marching speed is calculated, it would take a year for a large group of people to go from Qingzhou to Shuzhou.

Originally, the military posts of Chu State were much worse than they are now, in terms of quantity and personnel configuration.

What Li Chi cares about the most is the military affairs of the northern and western Xinjiang, so two or three years ago, Lian Xiwu built more stations in the northwest and north.

If there is a war in the northern border, it will only take more than ten days to send it to the Chang'an City under construction.

Li Chi also planned to build two straight roads in the north, one from the western border to Chang'an, and the other from the northern border to Chang'an.

If these two straight roads are repaired, the speed of sending troops to support the frontier can be doubled.

However, if we want to build a straight road from Xijiang to Chang'an, there will be an extremely dangerous section.

The State of Chu originally planned to build it, but it has not been completed for so many years.

Road construction is a major project, especially road construction that crosses mountains and ridges. With the destruction of the late Chu State, this project has become a means for officials to make money.

So much so that after the renovation, the Ministry of Revenue could no longer provide the money to support it.

When Yang Jing's father was in power, the Ministry of Revenue could not stand it anymore, so he submitted a memorial to the emperor, requesting a thorough investigation of the money to repair the straight road in the Western Xinjiang.

The old emperor handed over the case to the eunuch Liu Chongxin, the officials of the Ministry of Works, and the officials in the western Xinjiang region, the silver given to Liu Chongxin was said to be several million taels.

In order to report to the old emperor, Liu Chongxin did not move any of the officials with higher positions and more filial piety, but only moved the small officials below the fifth rank. Poor Liu Chongxin did not expect that if he investigated these small officials, arrested hundreds of people, and the dirty silver he collected was nearly tens of millions of taels.

The Xijiang Strait was built for too long, and it took decades. Those officials made enough money and gave enough filial piety in this project, and then transferred them, either promoted or simply went home to become rich men.

An official from the Ministry of Revenue once calculated that according to the original Ministry of Revenue budget, it would cost about 15 million taels of silver to build this straight road.

As a result, after decades of repair, the amount of money distributed over 25 million taels of silver was not completed.

Li Chi later sent someone to check there, but he didn't know if he didn't check it. Only after checking it did he realize how cruel the methods of those black-hearted officials were to make money were.

According to the rules of the Chu court, if an accident occurs, the compensation for civilians and craftsmen who were requisitioned by the court will be 200 taels of silver per person.

Emperor Taizu of the Great Chu who initially set this rule did not expect that the rules he had originally formulated to protect and compassionate with the people would become a means for the officials of the Great Chu to make money in the future.

Those officials forced a large number of civilians to climb to the cliff and dig it out on the grounds that the construction period was tight, and did not equip them with complete protection tools.

Even more unscrupulous officials will let their subordinates cut off ropes on them, causing the craftsmen to fall off the cliff and die.

When the Western Front was first built, the average number of casualties reported to the court every year was about thirty or forty.

By the time Yang Jing's father was in his later years, the number of deaths reported in Xijiang actually reached more than 3,600.

After Liu Chongxin found out, he became angry and said that these sesame officials were even more vicious than him.

That was also the first time that Liu Chongxin had launched a massacre to rectify the law. Although he was responsible for some officials under the fifth rank, he was considered to have found some comfort for the dead.

After Liu Chongxin completed the investigation, the project on the Xijiang Strait stopped.

After Li Chi sent Lian Xiwu to the northwest, Lian Xi

Wu personally walked around the Xijiang Strait.

He concluded that the initial estimate of the silver that the Great Chu court was enough, but it was not entirely because the officials wanted to make money from it.

That place was really difficult to repair. The craftsmen had to hang it on the cliff and dig it out, and heaving it out a passage.

The width that can be used for two carriages to travel side by side is how many people are needed and how many hammers are needed.

So Lian Xiwu felt that even if he started re-repairing now, it would not be possible to repair it in a short period of time.

So this matter was temporarily put on hold because Li Chi hadn't saved enough money yet...

At this time in Shuzhou, Li Chi's desire to build a road was once again aroused.

In Shuzhou, more than half of the people live in the mountains and ridges. If the road is difficult to walk, they will not be able to solve their poverty.

Shuzhou has abundant resources and no road construction can be built, so many good things cannot be transported out.

While Yu Jiuling was staring at the horse's butt, Li Chi was thinking about how much investment it would take to improve the lives of the people in the mountains of Shuzhou.

And where should these investments come from?

You can't put all your hopes on Pei Qi alone...
To be continued...