Chapter 432: Moving the Capital

With the help of the Zhou army, Buddhism and Taoism began to spread rapidly in the Western Regions. The Western Regions countries once again recalled the fear of being dominated by the Han and Tang dynasties.

Various small countries began to spontaneously learn Zhou culture, and many kings converted to Buddhism and Taoism. After conquering the Western Regions, the army did not attack westward again. At this time, it had been more than three years since the Western Expedition Army set out from Kaifeng. Many soldiers began to miss their hometowns, which was human nature.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong both wrote memorials saying that the soldiers missed their hometowns, and Guo Rong could not force the soldiers to stay in the Western Regions. This matter was considered when the army was on the Western Expedition. At that time, Richard and Guo Rong told the soldiers who were willing to stay in the Western Regions that the court would be responsible for sending their relatives there, and each person would be promoted by three levels, and land and pasture would be allocated.

The court would not stop those who were willing to come back, and those who were willing to stay in the Western Regions were also welcomed by the court. Basically, all the soldiers who stayed in the Western Regions were promoted by three levels, and 300 acres of land and 100 acres of pasture were allocated.

Many people think that the Western Regions are a bitter and cold place, but in fact, the Western Regions during this period were much wetter than in later generations. Lop Nur is still the second largest saltwater lake in China, and many rivers that have dried up in later generations still have plenty of water at this time.

Richard is going to send a large number of water control officials to the Western Regions to control water. He personally went to the Western Regions to check. Although the Western Regions are dry, it is not a problem to develop tens of millions of acres of arable land.

Even the Ili River Valley alone can easily reclaim millions or even tens of millions of acres of land, as well as more grasslands.

In the future, all soldiers in the Western Regions must be proficient in riding and shooting. After all, the area of ​​the Western Regions is too large and the population is small. If it is a small-scale war, the four towns can deal with it by themselves, but if it is a big war, the four towns must cooperate with each other. And cavalry is the best choice.

The Western Regions are thousands of miles away from the Central Plains. It is difficult for the court to maintain a large-scale garrison, so Richard and Guo Rong discussed and decided to set up the Anxi Four Towns here.

Each of the four towns has 5,000 people under its jurisdiction, namely Shule, Qiuci, Yutian, and Suiye.

Among the 5,000 people in each town, 2,000 were government soldiers, and 3,000 were sent from the Central Plains to guard the border. The 30,000-strong army of the Western Expedition had hundreds of casualties caused by fighting, crossing the desert, and not adapting to the local conditions for two years.

In addition to those who died on the battlefield, there were more than 26,000 people in the end. In the end, there were 10,000 soldiers willing to stay in the Western Regions. Richard and Guo Rong redispatched the army to the Western Regions to guard the border and replace the soldiers who were unwilling to stay in the Western Regions.

The court was preparing to move the capital to Luoyang. When building Luoyang City, the court also conscripted labor to repair the ancient road of Xiaohan.

The ancient road of Xiaohan is an important passage connecting Guanzhong and Guandong. In the future, the Silk Road will be opened up, and this ancient road will be very important. After inspecting the ancient road of Xiaohan, Richard decided to build a wooden track carriage on this ancient road, which is the widest, and can only accommodate two carriages side by side.

The technology of wooden track carriages actually appeared very early. In the pre-Qin period, the Qin State built a large number of tram carriages to connect the world.

Tram carriages have many advantages over ordinary carriages. They are more convenient to transport goods, faster, and have a large cargo capacity. Moreover, tram carriages can be made into four-wheeled carriages.

Therefore, when the court was building Luoyang, Richard also began to build tracks connecting Luoyang and Chang'an. Although wooden tracks have many disadvantages, they are cheap, low in construction cost, and easy to maintain. It took only one year to successfully build a rail carriage.

After the wooden track was laid, Guo Rong personally tested it. Because it uses a four-wheeled carriage, under the same load, the tram carriage can easily run sixty miles with twice the load of a two-wheeled carriage, and the speed and endurance are also three times that of an ordinary carriage.

The biggest problem with carriage transportation is the endurance of the horse. When an ordinary carriage is driving, half of the force is on the horse, so the carriage needs to rest frequently during long-distance transportation, and the load capacity is limited.

After using the tram carriage, the cargo volume of the carriage can be easily doubled, and the speed is more than twice as fast. If rest stops are set up along the way and horses are rotated, the carriage can easily transport hundreds of miles in one day.

This cargo volume is comparable to water transportation.

After seeing the data of this tram carriage, Guo Rong immediately realized its huge strategic value. The problems of long distance and logistical difficulties in the past will be greatly solved.

The control of the court can be directly increased several times. In the past, the court could only rule in some remote areas for various reasons. Now with the tram carriage, the court can completely send officials to govern.

"Sir, this tram carriage is really a magical tool! Sir, you are worthy of your ability to rule the world, and you can think of such a wonderful way." Guo Rong said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, this tram carriage is not what I thought of." Richard said with a smile while looking at the tram carriage.

"Oh, I don't know which great talent came up with it? Can you recommend it?" Guo Rong asked in surprise, and he immediately had a heart of love for talents in his heart.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid you will never meet the person who came up with this idea." Richard said with a smile.

"Why?" Guo Rong asked in surprise: "Does this person have any requirements, or is he unwilling to serve as an official?"

"Hahaha, Your Majesty, this person is from the pre-Qin period and has long passed away." Richard said: "This tram is not invented now. In fact, trams have already appeared in the Qin Dynasty."

"What, trams actually existed in the pre-Qin period?" Guo Rong looked at Richard with disbelief.

"Of course!" Richard said lightly.

"In the pre-Qin period, the First Emperor laid some trams, but after the Han Dynasty, these trams disappeared."

"Why is that?"

"Because those local noble families and powerful people don't want it to exist!" Richard said lightly.

After hearing this, Guo Rong understood it instantly. The emergence of trams allowed the court to dispatch troops faster and increase its control over the local areas several times, but this was obviously not what those local noble families and powerful people wanted to see.

In the past, the court could only rely on them to control places that it could not rule, but with wooden rail carriages, the court could directly bypass them to rule in many places, so it would be difficult for local powerful people to become local emperors.

"As long as there are places where trams can be laid, they must be laid!" Guo Rong made up his mind instantly.

"Your Majesty, we can first lay trams in important areas, and then promote them to other places. Although the cost of this tram is higher, if it is laid in prosperous areas, it won't take long to make back the money."

The road between Guanzhong and Guandong is difficult to travel, one of the main reasons is that the road is narrow and the speed of travel is slow. The canal is also difficult to pass because of the steepness of the Yellow River Sanmenxia.

In the former Tang Dynasty, because of the difficulty of transporting grain in Guanzhong, the emperor had to go to Luoyang with his civil and military officials to eat. The problem of grain transport was not solved until the demise of the Tang Dynasty. Later, due to war, the grain transport from Luoyang to Guanzhong was abandoned.

It is very difficult to dig Sanmenxia and dredge the waterway. You know, it was not until the founding of New China that later generations used explosives to blast the rocks in the Sanmenxia waterway, which solved the problem of waterway transportation.

In this era, only extraordinary people like Richard or Lu Dongbin can do it, but if they do, it will go against his original intention.

Now with the rail carriage, the cargo transportation efficiency between Luoyang and Chang'an has increased several times. Even if the Sanmenxia River cannot be dredged, the cargo transportation problem can be solved with the help of the rail carriage.

In addition to the rail carriage from Luoyang to Chang'an, the rail carriage from Chang'an to Hexi also needs to be laid.

Hexi is an important node connecting the Western Regions. It is very difficult to build a rail carriage from Hexi to the Western Regions. Other methods can be tried in the future, but the rail carriage from Hexi to Chang'an must be built.

Hexi is thousands of miles away from Chang'an. If a rail carriage is laid, the Central Plains army and baggage can be transported to the Western Regions, which can save a lot of time.

This is also conducive to the court's control of the Western Regions.

So at Richard's request, the track from Dunhuang to Chang'an was laid as soon as the Luoyang rail carriage was laid.

At the same time, the rail carriages from Luoyang to Youzhou were also laid. As an important town in the north, Youzhou has an important location. At the same time, this rail carriage can also drive trade between the two places.

Although the cost of laying and maintaining the rail carriages is very high, the commercial value it brings is far more than the cost.

When laying the rail carriages, a rest point should be set up almost every 60 or 100 miles for the horses to rest and eat. After all, horses are not machines and cannot run all the time. Although the rail carriages can reduce weight, horses still need to rest.

Just after the laying of the rail carriages from Chang'an to Luoyang was completed, after three years of construction, the new Luoyang City was finally built.

The entire Luoyang City is located on the banks of Yi and Luo River. The city is built very large and is divided into the imperial city, the inner city and the city walls. The imperial city is naturally the area where the royal family lives, while the inner city is where the dignitaries and clan members live, and the city walls are where ordinary people live.

Special government offices are divided in the inner city, which is the residence prepared by the court for the officials in Beijing. The government offices were built near the imperial city to facilitate these officials to go to court. The government offices were divided according to different levels.

As for the higher-level cabinet ministers, they had special government offices to live in.

The construction of government offices made many poor officials very happy. After all, it was not easy to live in the capital. The monthly rent alone was not a small amount. Now this money could be saved. This made it much easier for many officials to spend money at home.

Many officials were looking forward to the completion of the construction of Luoyang so that they could move there as soon as possible.

After the construction of Luoyang was completed, Guo Rong personally inspected it and immediately led all the civil and military officials, the harem and the government offices to move to Luoyang.