The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

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.

Small countries began to learn Zhou culture spontaneously, and many kings converted to Buddhism and Taoism. After conquering the Western Regions, the army did not attack westward again. It had been more than three years since the Western Expedition Army set out from Kaifeng, and many soldiers began to miss their hometown, which is human nature.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong both submitted memorials saying that the soldiers missed their homeland, 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, Li Chongjin 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 three levels, and land and pasture would be allocated.

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

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

Richard was going to send a large number of water control officials to the Western Regions to control the floods. He had personally visited the Western Regions and found that although the Western Regions were dry, it was 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 even larger amounts of grassland.

In the future, all soldiers in the Western Regions must be proficient in horse riding and archery. After all, the Western Regions are too large and have a small population. If it is a small-scale war, the four towns can handle it on their own, but if it is a large-scale war, the four towns must cooperate with each other. Cavalry is the best choice.

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

Each of the four towns had a command of 5,000 people, namely Shule, Qiuci, Khotan and Suiye.

Each town had 5,000 people, 2,000 of whom were government soldiers and 3,000 were sent from the Central Plains to guard the border. The 30,000-strong Western Expedition Army had suffered hundreds of casualties in the two years of fighting, crossing the desert, and being accustomed to the local conditions.

Including those who died in battle, there were more than 26,000 soldiers. In the end, 10,000 soldiers were 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 imperial court was preparing to move the capital to Luoyang. While building the city of Luoyang, it also conscripted labor to repair the ancient Xiaohan Road.

The Xiaohan Ancient Road is an important passage connecting Guanzhong and Guandong. This ancient road will be very important in the future when the Silk Road is opened. After inspecting the Xiaohan Ancient Road, Richard decided to build a wooden track carriage on this ancient road, which is wide enough for only two carriages to run 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.

Compared with ordinary horse-drawn carriages, horse-drawn trams have many advantages. They are more convenient to transport goods, faster, and can carry more goods. Moreover, horse-drawn trams can be made into four-wheeled carriages.

Therefore, when the court was building Luoyang, Richard also began to build a track 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 track carriage.

After the wooden track was laid, Guo Rong personally conducted a test. Because it used a four-wheeled carriage, under the same load, the tramcar could easily run 60 miles with twice the load of a two-wheeled carriage, and its speed and endurance were three times that of an ordinary carriage.

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

After using trams, the cargo capacity of carriages was easily doubled, and the speed was more than twice as fast. If rest stops were set up along the way and horses were rotated, the carriage company could easily transport hundreds of miles in a day.

This cargo volume is comparable to water transportation.

After seeing the data of this tram, Guo Rong immediately realized its huge strategic value. It will greatly solve the problems previously caused by long distances and logistical difficulties.

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

"Sir, this tram is truly a magical device! You are truly a man of great ability, to have come up with such a wonderful idea." Guo Rong said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, this tram was not something I came up with." Richard said with a smile as he looked at the tram.

"Oh, then I wonder which talented person came up with this idea? Can you recommend one, sir?" Guo Rong asked in surprise, and he immediately felt a desire to attract talent.

"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 requests, or is he unwilling to serve as an official?"

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

"What? Horse-drawn trams have existed since the pre-Qin period?" Guo Rong looked at Richard in disbelief.

"Of course!" Richard said calmly. "In the pre-Qin period, the First Emperor laid some horse-drawn trams, but after the Han Dynasty, these horse-drawn trams disappeared."

"Why?"

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

After Guo Rong heard this, he understood it instantly. The emergence of the tram allowed the court to dispatch troops more quickly and increase its control over the local areas several times, but this was obviously not what the local aristocratic families wanted to see.

In the past, the imperial court could only rely on them to control places that it could not rule. However, after the invention of wooden track carriages, the imperial court could directly bypass them to rule in many places. In this way, it became difficult for local tyrants to become local emperors.

"As long as there is room for horse-drawn carriages, we should pave them all!" Guo Rong made up his mind instantly.

"Your Majesty, we can first install horse-drawn trams in important areas, and then promote them to other places. Although the cost of horse-drawn trams is higher, if they are installed 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 being that the road is narrow and the speed of travel is slow. The canal is also difficult to travel because the Sanmenxia section of the Yellow River is extremely steep.

In the pre-Tang Dynasty, due to the difficulty of grain transportation, the emperor and his civil and military officials had to go to Luoyang for food due to the shortage of grain in Guanzhong. The grain transportation problem was not solved until the end of the Tang Dynasty. Later, due to wars, the grain transportation from Luoyang to Guanzhong was abandoned.

It was extremely difficult to dig the Sanmenxia Canal and dredge the waterway. You should know that it was not until the founding of New China that explosives were used to blast the rocks in the Sanmenxia waterway, which solved the problem of waterway transportation.

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

Now with the rail carriages, the efficiency of cargo transportation in 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 rail carriages.

In addition to the construction of the rail carriage line from Luoyang to Chang'an, the rail carriage line 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. We can try other methods in the future, but the rail carriage from Hexi to Chang'an must be built.

The Hexi area is thousands of miles away from Chang'an. If trams were laid, it would save a lot of time for the Central Plains army and supplies to be transported to the Western Regions.

This would also help the imperial court control 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 completed.

At the same time, a rail carriage line was laid from Luoyang to Youzhou. As Youzhou is an important city in the north, its location is very important. At the same time, this rail carriage line can also boost trade between the two places.

Although the cost of laying and maintaining horse-drawn carriages is very high, the commercial value they bring far outweighs the cost.

A rest stop is set up every 60 or 100 miles on a tram, so that the horses can rest and eat. After all, horses are not machines and cannot run all the time. Although trams can reduce weight, horses still need to rest.

Just after the laying of the tram from Chang'an to Luoyang was completed, the new Luoyang city was finally completed after three years of construction.

The entire Luoyang City is located on the banks of the Yi and Luo Rivers. The city is very large and is divided into the Imperial City, the Inner City, and the City Wall. The Imperial City is naturally where the royal family lives, while the Inner City is where dignitaries and royal family members live, and the City Wall is where ordinary people live.

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

As for higher-level cabinet ministers, they have special offices to live in.

The construction of the government office made many poor officials very happy. After all, it was not easy to live in the capital, and 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 are looking forward to the completion of Luoyang’s construction so that they can move there as soon as possible.

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

(End of this chapter)