After the inspection of the "Liujiaxia Industrial Zone", Li Su and his party, led by Xu Shu, walked into Lanzhou City proudly.

There are actually sixty miles from the downstream of Liujiaxia to Lanzhou City, but Li Su didn't feel slow when walking. Because more than half of the river banks were planned on both sides, it could last at least thirty or forty miles in the future.

The last twenty miles outside the city valley was originally the battlefield where the water attacked Hansui last year, but it has now been planned as a construction site. In the future, several ports and terminals will be built here for trading and distribution, as well as many cotton-woven workshops, as well as handicraft workshops in other industries that do not require water energy.

In short, the sixty miles upstream of Lanzhou City will be a continuous industrial zone in the future. However, the investment scale is still very small now, and a lot of land is only planned and reserved, and there are not enough official workshops or private wealthy businessmen to invest.

In addition, in order to occupy as little as possible in the low-lying and flat river valley, the planning is also a mess of workers and farmers. Try to use the hills that are relatively high, dry and irrigated, and not flat enough to build a factory. For the time being, those who can farm are still used to farm.

After all, it is still an agricultural society, and Xiliang is not rich. It is difficult for foreign land to transport grain from thousands of miles away, so the food must be self-sufficient.

Zhuge Liang followed the way and finally sighed: "The investment of the government and wealthy businessmen is still too slow. With such good conditions, water conservancy is being relied on its own. What a pity if we don't make full use of it as soon as possible?

I really want to write a letter to my second sister, asking her to come to Lanzhou in person, and open a large cotton workshop with thousands of looms. Anyway, the business in Yizhou is still stable and relied on its old capital. Just hand it over to the manager of the mansion. In two years, my third brother will understand something a little, and he can help you check the accounts."

Zhuge Liang said this, obviously because he was used to the great world created by super wealthy businessmen, and knew how fast the "Yizhou speed" was in industrial construction. In his eyes, Guan Yu was so slow in Liangzhou, and the key was still a problem: the money was not in place.

The government does not invest much because the government cannot see how much investment in construction here will be in the future, and it will be too slow to make a profit. However, since there are so many hot money and clear-eyed businessmen who can see the trend of profit, they should enter the market with profits at this time.

When Li Su heard this, he thought to himself: This method is good. Perhaps these families will become industrial capital oligarchs of the Han Dynasty in the future, but they are not caring about it now.

The chaebols are not necessarily bad. If they can accelerate the construction of national industries and the country needs to expand their influence to areas where political accounts cannot be settled in marginal areas, the chaebols will be the chaebols.

Although the female relatives around Li Su didn't understand this, they saw that they thought that the people of Xiliang who were bitter and cold, who were lazy and could live so positively. They worked vigorously under the government organization, and they were quite emotional. Even though they were a little bit worldly and worldly aversion to life, they were a little more positive.

After entering Lanzhou City, Li Su did not see Guan Yu coming to greet him. After all, the two of them had similar identities, so Guan Yu might be really busy. Li Suzhi entered the provincial government office. Guan Yu received the notice and went to the door to greet him. As for Zhuge Liang and others, they handed him over to Guan Yu's other aides to receive him casually.

Mainly, Guan Yu was appointed as the governor of Liangzhou by Liu Bei after his victory in the Northern Expedition to Guanzhong, and was the earliest governor of Liu Bei's camp. Even though Xiliang had not yet been restored at that time, Guan Yu had stationed in Tianshui County to prepare for the Western Expedition. Therefore, Guan Yu did not witness Zhuge Liang's two highlights later.

His understanding of Zhuge Liang's latest growth progress was even later than that of Zhang Fei, and he was still at the point of "Zhuge Liang is just a very powerful talent in craftsmanship and mathematics."

Li Su didn't pay attention to these details for the time being. He directly asked Guan Yu with a smile: Could it be that there is another military emergency?

Guan Yu didn't make much politeness and sighed: "It's really busy. All counties in Xinding, Liangzhou have to persuade farmers to teach the people to grow cotton. There are also some areas that have not been completely pacified last year, so we have to use a little force to intimidate them. Fortunately, the matter of persuading farmers was running around, so I was a little more leisurely.

Now, I’m calculating money and grain again, and seeing how much surplus can be achieved in the autumn harvest of each county last year after eating this year’s summer grain. We also live within our means and use the surplus grain as military rations so that Boqi and Zijun use their troops to subdue more Di people, Qiang people, and Southern Xiongnu tribes. In this case, these tribes may be able to catch up with the spring plowing this year, and they will plant cotton, or even Linyi rice.”

Last year's Battle of Liangzhou only eliminated several evil forces, but the government rule in Xiliang was not completely established. There are also many tribes who do not rebel or fall under the jurisdiction of the court. Some tribes are even stronger than last year because they fill the power vacuum left by the large forces that were eliminated.

In this case, the troops must be moved, but they cannot rely on force alone. Instead, they must use suppression and extermination, pull and fight, cultivate a tribe of agents who are willing to obey the court, and gradually naturalize the barbarians into mature men.

Guan Yu, the governor of Liangzhou, should be busy with these things.

Logically speaking, Li Su has just taken Zhuge Liang to see the farming industry in Liangzhou this year and see if the development of the cotton industry can be improved. Li Su doesn't have to worry about these military operations.

However, since he met him, Li Su didn't mind giving Zhuge Liang some opportunities to think, and just regarded it as a social practice for high school students. Only then did he remember that Zhuge Liang had just been taken to drink tea and eat fruits, so he quickly asked Xu Shu to call Zhuge Liang back.

Seeing this, Guan Yu couldn't help but be curious: "Oh? Boya, could this nephew Zhuge have made great progress in the past two years? He can even gain some knowledge of foreign affairs such as military strategy and the promotion of the barbarians? You have great expectations for him.

I remember that he made some achievements in the siege of Chang'an two years ago, planning the position of the building to help us clearly grasp the distribution of enemy situations in Chang'an City."

Li Su smiled and explained: "It's hard to say at the moment, but I think he reads the general principles and does not seek much understanding. Perhaps he learns everything very quickly. Give him more opportunities to see and experience, which is not a bad thing. Even if he can't come up with any useful ideas for the time being, at least he will check on you and me for years."

Guan Yu touched his beard again, smiling without refuting, but from the fact that he said on his own, he could tell that he was still a little unbelievable without waiting for Zhuge Liang to take this attitude.

Guan Yu continued to introduce as if no one was around: "This year I have sent two troops to clear the stable places. One is Boqi's cavalry, sent to the 'Yinchuan Basin' in Beidi County to expel and conquer the local Southern Xiongnu, Qiang, Xianbei people, and establish a reclamation area.

However, due to insufficient military rations, he was not allowed to dispatch his entire army, and only seven or eight thousand cavalry were used in total. Most of the prisoners captured by Guo Si were still in military farming and dike construction, and only a few who had been renovated and reliable were allowed to follow the army.

The second group of troops, led by Zijun (Wang Ping), was along the Huangshui River and surrendered all the Di people in Huangzhong who had not surrendered last year. He was not short of troops last year, and only occupied Poqiang County, and then went upstream but could not clear it."

From Guan Yu's words, Li Su was briefly shown several main steps to expand the ruling area of ​​Liangzhou this year: Ma Chao would solve all the fertile farming areas equivalent to Ningxia in the future and establish a rule. Wang Ping would solve the Huangshui River Basin, the main economic zone of Qinghai Province in the future.

After all, the Western Expedition last year was equivalent to taking over a later generation of Gansu Province, and the two surrounding areas of Ningxia and Qinghai were not completed.

The conquest of these places does not necessarily require a lot of troops, but the benefits are not small, and the profit is small. For example, a Yinchuan Basin is 8,000 square kilometers of fertile arable land, equivalent to 12 million mu, which is nearly 30 million mu of Han mu.

The tax system of the Han Dynasty was calculated based on the male population occupying 100 mu of land. 30 million Han mu was not enough to accommodate 300,000 strong men. Including women and children, it would be fine to support 700,000 to 800,000 people. The entire Liangzhou only had 600,000 to 700,000 Han people, 1300,000 Qiang and Di.

Just after Guan Yu introduced the situation, Zhuge Liang had already been brought by Guan Yu's aide Ma Xuan, and he happened to hear the situation clearly at the door.

Ma Xuan is the boss of the "Five Constant Ma Family" of Jiangling's wise men. He and his second brother Ma Kang are both adults. They are the talents who came to join him when Guan Yu attacked Yiling and Wuling in Jingnan a few years ago. That is, they followed the locals of Dong He, Xiang Lang, and Li Yan.

Perhaps because of their similar tempers and easy-to-use, the Ma brothers were left by Guan Yu as staff and led them around. They kept Dong He, Li Yan, Xiang Lang and others in Jingzhou, and later followed Zhao Yun.

When Guan Yu first pacified Jingnan, only Ma Xuan became an official. After a few years, Ma Kang also did some civilian work when he became an adult. In history, Guan Yu had a good relationship with Ma Liang, and he also liked to appoint these "scholars who are not considered famous families but have self-taught talents". However, Ma Liang is still young now, and it will take at least five or six years to do things.

At this moment, when Li Su saw Zhuge Liang coming in, he induced Guan Yu to talk about some more about Ma Chao and Wang Ping pacifying the situation of Beidi County and Huangzhong area, the enemy situation, and the preparations before the war. After Guan Yu introduced in detail, Li Su turned to Zhuge Liang to take the exam:

"A Liang, the opportunity is rare. There are several Di kings in Huangzhong who are hesitant and resist the court. What strategy do you think should the prince be pacified? In addition, when Ma Boqi attacks the Qiang people in Yinchuan and the Southern Xiongnu, what do you think should be paid attention to? Don't be afraid of saying something wrong. Now I and the former general are still there to check for you."

Zhuge Liang was not nervous, and sorted out all the information he had just heard and talked: "To surrender to the Di people in Huangzhong, the key should be to take advantage of the enemy of Yang Qianwan, the Di king who was flooded with the three armies in the battle of Lanzhou last year.

Last year, Yang Qianwan's troops were drowned by General Guan in the Battle of Lanzhou, killing and wounding most of them. The remaining three or four thousand were captured and became hard labor.

According to the military situation mentioned just now, the Huangzhong troops are just lucky and want to pretend to ignore the imperial court. Relying on the dangers and distance, they feel that it is difficult for the imperial army to station and restrain themselves all year round. However, if they are forced to surrender, there is no need to let Prince Jun station troops all year round. They can also lure them with the benefits of growing cotton and the benefits of mutual market.

For example, if a tribe surrenders first, if they give them cotton seeds, some tribes will definitely hold the idea that "after cotton becomes popular, they will definitely get cotton seeds from other channels", so they feel that they are not in a hurry to surrender. Then we will further fund their enemies to first surrender the tribe and then surrender the tribe.

Of course, although this method can make the Di people bite each other in a short time and facilitate our rule, we must also be wary of this. Once the tribes in Huangzhong are annexed and unified, they will unite and resist the court. Therefore, in the long run, it is still necessary to ensure that the permanent troops of the court are stationed in Huangzhong to ensure their differentiated supervision.

So the key is how to prevent the permanent troops from forming financial burdens. I think that they can set up official caravans or private caravans that pay escort fees to the garrison to support the war with business, monopolize the foreign trade of cotton and wool in Huangzhong, and purchase and transport them to Lanzhou for processing and value-added by the official waterwheel spinning factory.

In addition, I read the geography of the previous generations, saying that there are many salt ponds and salt lakes that cross the Longyi Mountain at the end of the Huangshui River. There are many salt lakes in Liangzhou. There are salt shortages in all parts of Liangzhou. The well salt in Yizhou and salt salt in Hedong are very expensive to transport. Although there are occasionally small salt lakes in the local area, the output is not high, which is also a restriction on the population reproduction of Liangzhou. If the Huangyuan Salt Lake is mined and escorted by the garrison, the permanent garrison will not increase the financial burden on the court."

The more Guan Yu listened, the more he looked solemn. Finally, the brick asked Li Su: "Did you write the 'geography and monsters' books he mentioned?"

Li Su spread his hands: "I don't have time to write so much. I wrote the geography book "The Entrance of the Dajiang Zhengyuan". But this is how Aliang is reading. After reading a book, he would find a bunch of things to spread and compare them. It is normal for him to know more things."

To be honest, Li Su himself also knows that after the source of Huangshui has crossed the watershed, it will be the Qinghai Lake basin. In addition to Qinghai Lake itself, it is a saltwater lake, there are also many small salt lakes with extremely high concentrations. As long as the transportation is solved, it is indeed worth developing.

However, Li Su never wrote these pieces of geography knowledge points into books. In fact, some people knew about these things during the Han Dynasty. It is not surprising that all geniuses who read books know a little about it.
Chapter completed!