The research team does not involve physical issues.

It is quite similar to the Hanlin Academy in later generations, and only involves theoretical research.

Of course, their research will be printed into a book and then released.

What they do now is very simple, which is to verify the content in the textbook. This verification will help them start to truly master the content in the textbook and finally turn it into their own use.

For some people, they are not good at dealing with others and are only willing to do things they like behind closed doors. The treatment of the research team is quite generous, and for them, it is enough to make a living.

At this time, Chen Zhengye had already begun to recruit craftsmen.

Erpigou has already had a lot of experience in major projects, but this time the project is even bigger, requiring coordination of all walks of life and a lot of labor, and there are countless types of labor.

If it were the early years, the only one in the world who could have such organizational capabilities would be the only one in the court's Ministry of Works.

But even the Ministry of Works will take countless time to prepare for such a thing.

But now, people like Chen Zhengye in Erpigou may not have no idea when doing these things! After all, they have experience and backbones, and know what kind of people they want to find, how to allocate human resources, how to contact various workshops, and prepare for the start of construction.

But even so, Chen Zhengye still felt that this matter made his hair white. He had not been able to close his eyes for many days. Even in his dream, he was thinking about countless chores.

There were many people coming to apply for the recruitment, and the labor recruited from all over the Chen family soon received thousands of considerable personnel.

Of course, these thousands of people are just engineering personnel, and there are countless other labor forces involved in workshops such as sleepers, wooden rails, and steel.

In the workshop, many styles of sleepers and wooden rails have been designed. After many tests, the standards for the rails have been completely set, and then the order is placed and construction is ready to start.

Of course, before starting work, as Chen Zhengtai’s instructions, these laborers will be gathered by their respective foremen for a brief exercise.

In addition...a new thing was applied, namely the musket in the gunpowder workshop.

The structure of the musket is very simple, but when Chen Zhengtai sent this thing to Li Shimin, Li Shimin sneered at it.

Because this thing... the range is not high, in Li Shimin's opinion, it is not very useful, and it seems like it is just a useless thing.

What's more, this thing is more expensive than bows and arrows. The iron cavalry of the Tang Dynasty already has suppressive power against the enemies in the desert. Why do you need a musket? Can this thing be used immediately?

Chen Zhengtai was full of passion, but he was poured a basin of cold water by Li Shimin.

Since I don’t want it in the army, then... Chen Zhengtai just used it for these laborers.

After simple military exercises, these people immediately asked someone to teach them how to load medicine and how to keep the queue.

After all, many materials still need to be prepared and someone needs to survey and map, so the laborers have one month to do nothing.

Now, they are not paid their salaries, but they are provided with three meals a day. The only thing they do is to train in queues.

Everyone lined up from morning to night, naturally... this made many complaints grow in the hearts of many laborers.

They were originally here to work, hoping to support their families, but they came to join the army.

In the Tang Dynasty, people did not discriminate against warriors. Of course...the real warriors are admirable.

However, there is a trend of discriminating against auxiliary soldiers in the market. The so-called auxiliary soldiers are actually just traitors. Once they are fighting, they are recruited. The warriors ride horses, and they feed the horses behind them. The warriors charge, and they are rushing to follow behind with their swords.

It is almost difficult for such people to obtain military merits on the battlefield. After the war, they almost disbanded and returned home to farm.

For these laborers, they felt that what they were doing now was auxiliary soldiers, so they complained.

Fortunately, the Chen family has enough prestige in Erpigou, so it will not cause mutiny. Moreover, the food is pretty good after three meals a day, so even if the exercise is harsh, it is only limited to a controllable range.

Chen Zhengye obeyed Chen Zhengtai's explanation. After all, the memory of digging coal at the beginning was too terrifying. Although the head of the family was young and talented, he could do anything.

Therefore, Chen Zhengye was very careful. Chen Zhengtai told him five points before he could rest assured until he was nine points.

The wives and concubines at home complained at first, but they soon calmed down. After all, they were not willing to let their men get beaten by family law.

Most of the men in the Chen family have a mind, that is, they must be serious in doing things. On the one hand, it is a psychological shadow caused by digging coal, and they may be sent to the coal yard again. On the other hand, it is also the experience in the coal yard. To some extent, it has also allowed them to learn to endure. Those who have endured such hardships will not suffer in other things.

In the grassland thousands of miles away, the number of people coming out of seclusion is increasing, and the pastures have expanded from three or four to four, and the cultivated farmland has also begun to grow gradually.

A lot of labor began to look for opportunities in Shuofang.

The city walls of Shuofang have begun to take shape, and some merchants have also followed. For merchants, the transactions here are the best. Most of the people in the pass are self-sufficient. The things ordinary farmers may buy throughout the year are just some needles and threads.

But outside this barrier, laborers and craftsmen have salaries, but they cannot be self-sufficient. All living needs can only be purchased and exchanged to obtain. Therefore, although there are only tens of thousands of people here, their consumption capacity is huge. Even in an ordinary city with hundreds of thousands, if those luxury and nobles are not added, their consumption capacity may be far less than that here.

With the arrival of many merchants, many excellent tea shops and inns appeared in Shuofang City.

After all, businessmen are rich and are willing to use money to enjoy a luxurious life, so they have attracted many guruses here. The gurus plays the pipa and sings pleasantly. At night, the city is decorated with lights, playing music and singing, and it looks very lively.

The river leading to the city slowly descended, and there were many boats floating above it. There was a large amount of cargo piled up on the boats. At this time, there was no wind and sand at the grassland. Although it was cold, it was only at night. If you didn’t look at some details in the city, you could see a few fireworks in March.

The only thing that makes people worry is that in the Turkic camp outside the city, there were more and more disputes between the Turkic and Han people.

Na Tuli Khan was originally happy to see the Han people coming out of seclusion. In his heart, the Han people were just building a military fortress, which was irrelevant to him. On the contrary, once the Han people came out of seclusion, they would definitely bring more demand for mutual markets. There was a lot of supplies on the grassland. In the future, the Turks could use this to exchange their fur and cattle and horses with the Han people in exchange for a large amount of tea, salt, and even luxury goods.

But gradually, he began to reminisce about it.

It turns out that my brother was not planning to come to trade with each other at all. The Han people actually came here to farm and even opened ranches here. They... wanted them all.

This vigilance gradually began to spread, and Tuli Khan did not dare to be disrespectful to the Tang Dynasty. He did not want to be attacked by the Tang army.

But... this does not mean that he is not scheming and can be slaughtered!

The request attached to the original request was just to get the support of the Tang Dynasty and to gain a foothold in the grassland. But once... the grassland cannot gain a foothold, then... where will the Turks go? As the leader, should he really become a Tang minister?

So he simply began to let the conflict between his tribes and the Han people, and no longer had the strict constraints as severely as before.

Many Turks and Han shepherds had more and more conflicts with each other, and even large-scale plundering occurred.

The Chen family in Shuofang City began to negotiate with Tuli Khan, and Tuli Khan just made a fuss and expressed his apology verbally, saying that he would definitely investigate the person who caused the accident, but... this only stayed verbally, and what should be done!

Therefore... negotiations have no effect, and the Han shepherds began to fight back. However, the Turks, who originally protected Shuofang, have now become an obstacle for the Han people, and more and more reports have appeared on the desk of Heli, the chief manager of Shuofang.

Qi Mi Heli was extremely grateful to Chen Zhengtai. He never expected that Chen Zhengtai would value him so much. He was just a dog of a family, so he was relieved to let him come to Shuofang to lead his troops. From then on, he would become the chief supervisor of Shuofang and be in charge of the security of the entire Shuofang City.

This made Qi Mi Heli feel like a soldier died for his confidant. He was determined to hand over his life to Chen in this life.

Looking at the news, he was annoyed, but at this time, He Li, who was no longer the leader of the Tiel tribe, had become much more cautious than before. Although he often had passion and blood, he knew that the Turks at this time were still ally of the Chen family. Although this alliance was not stable, once the conflict intensified, it would inevitably cause Shuofang to be in danger.

Not to mention that the Turks are directly hostile, once the Turks no longer protect Shuofang City, it will also cause a lot of trouble!

Now Shuofang... has not really begun to gain a foothold in the desert, which poses a huge potential danger to the Chen family's operation in the desert.

Therefore, Qi Mi Heli chose to be temporarily tolerant. On the one hand, he continued to negotiate with Tuli Khan, and even went to Tuli Khan's tent to drink alcohol several times. However, soon he realized that... the problem was more serious than he had imagined before.

At a recent banquet, the drunken Khan of Tuli began to tell Qibiheli about the origin of the Tiel tribe, and then asked him, "You are the descendants of the Khan tent of the Tiel tribe, how can you succumb to the Han people?"

Qi Mi Heli just laughed and concealed the past. He wanted to accuse Tuli Khan. You Tuli Khan, don’t you also possess the Han people? However, since you swear allegiance to Emperor Tang, you are now saying such a rebellious statement, and calling him a slave of the three surnames is not an exaggeration.

Qi Mi He Li has learned to make some adjustments now. Although he has something to say in his heart, he still chose to remain silent!

But after drinking, when he returned to Shuofang City, he immediately began to order the city's defense to strengthen, and began to organize the craftsmen and laborers in the city to take turns to practice.

Then, he immediately wrote a letter and asked someone to send it to the inner city.

Chen Zhengtai on the other end read the letter after answering the letter, his face calmly and did not seem to be surprised.

For him, Qi Mi Heli's loyalty is not to be questioned. The reason why he dared to entrust this person with important responsibilities was that he knew that Qi Mi Heli was a loyal person. Since surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, he had no intention of rebellion and even had deep feelings for the Tang Dynasty.

As for the Turks, it was completely different. Although Tuli Khan called him brothers, they all knew it. Not to mention that Tuli Khan chose to abdicate the Tang Dynasty was actually just a temporary solution. After all, he was unwilling to accept it.

Originally, if the Tang Dynasty did not go deep into the desert and had only adopted the strategy of restraint, perhaps Tuli Khan would have been willing to endure it all the time.

Once the Tang Dynasty hopes to directly intervene in the entire desert, it will inevitably trigger a strong backlash from Tuli Khan.

The question now is no longer whether the Turks will defeat the alliance, but when will they defeat the alliance?

Chen Zhengtai naturally understood this very well, and this matter was not just a matter of the Chen family, so he immediately reported the matter to the court.

Soon, Li Shimin summoned Chen Zhengtai to the imperial front.

Chen Zhengtai was prepared and soon entered the palace. However, the father-in-law and son-in-law met today and felt a little embarrassed.

Of course, there are some things that everyone knows in their hearts, but it is better not to pick them up. So Li Shimin pretends to be stupid and Chen Zhengtai also pretends that nothing has happened.

Li Shimin didn't talk nonsense and said straight to the point: "Have the Turks' intentions reached this point?"

"Yes." Chen Zhengtai said seriously: "I think that with the increasing expansion of Shuofang, sudden gains will inevitably be unbearable, and wars may be provoked at any time."

Li Shimin frowned and gently patted the desk with his hands. His rhythm was very rhythmic. Usually, this time was when he started to think.

After a long time, Li Shimin looked at Chen Zhengtai and said, "What do you think?"

"We must try our best to be prepared." Chen Zhengtai continued: "The best way is to take action first and simply take down Tuli Khan while they are not prepared."

When Li Shimin heard this, he shook his head and smiled, "You are so decisive and have a very good temperament."

Chen Zhengtai immediately said modestly: "People say that the son-in-law looks like a father-in-law."

"Is there such a thing?" Li Shimin was stunned and racked his brains to find this allusion from his poor knowledge.
Chapter completed!