In fact, the lower reaches of the Volga River are not suitable for large-scale agricultural development. They are mainly desert and semi-desert terrain, but they also have their local advantages, that is, this Volga River.

The Volga River is a typical plain river with a small drop, which is especially suitable for shipping. In the lower reaches of Zhenbeicheng, the river flow rate is particularly slow, with sandbanks and shallows distributed. After transformation, it is fertile fields. The grain produced is transported along the river to Zhenbeicheng, and through the Tianjin-Ukrainian railway, it is transported to the two largest cities in the northwest harbour of the Empire.

Zhenbeicheng is now focusing on developing the canned industry and taking advantage of its unique advantages. The tin-plated iron required for canned food is produced by Wucheng, and technical support comes from Xijin. The canals and railways deliver the surrounding livestock and grain. At the same time, the fuel required for processing canned food is provided by coal produced in Wucheng. The Volga River itself is a river with extremely rich fish resources, and the freshwater fish it produces is also a popular consumer product in the surrounding market.

Li Junwei visited many farms in the downstream of Zhenbeicheng. Most of these farms were investments from other places, mainly from provinces within the Empire. The biggest local advantage is actually the policy advantages.

The farmland renovation plan is directly linked to the construction of the Volga River embankment, and the manpower used by the farm is closely related to the planning of resettlement in the remote borders and training of the Turkuts. Even the mechanization of its use is supported by technical support provided by Xijin, and the maintenance and maintenance of all agricultural machinery is also sent by Xijin.

The greater policy driving force comes from the construction of the "Grassland Railway". A branch line was divided from Zhenbeicheng, crossed the Volga River and Ural River, headed southeast, penetrated deep into the Kazakh Grassland, and finally arrived at the Hezhong Appeasement Zone.

This railway is under construction. Because the capital investment is mainly borne by the far-reaching regions, the funds provided by Shenjing are intermittent, so the construction speed is not fast, mainly because its economic benefits are limited. However, as long as it is opened, it will also be a great help to the agricultural development in the lower reaches of the Volga River.

The reason is that the railway is opened, and the production model of agriculture and animal husbandry will change. Animal Husbandry is no longer in the vast wilderness, and cattle and sheep will be seen on the grass. Livestock will become economic commodities because of the railway opening. The cattle and sheep will also begin to change to the two directions of meat use and fur production. As long as it becomes economic commodities, it cannot just eat grass, and it needs feed.

In fact, among the crops produced by these farms near the Volga River, wheat is only one aspect, and feed crops such as corn, soybeans and sorghum also occupy a considerable scale.

At the beginning, Shen Changhe accompanied Li Junwei to inspect. Li Junwei intended to ask him to do his job, but Shen Changhe was always worried. But soon, Shen Changhe took the initiative to ask to go back to Zhenbei City because he couldn't accompany him anymore. King Yu was inspecting and playing. Seeing that the lotus on the Volga River was excellent and the scenery was also good. He carried a camera to play around and asked someone to buy a fishing rod, and turned into a fisherman on the spot.

Seeing that King Yu was so interested, he might not be able to leave for a few months. Shen Changhe still has official duties and can only return to Zhenbei City.

"Prince, Prince..." In Hekou City at the mouth of the Volga River, Li Junwei was wearing a hat and was fishing. When he heard horses running in the distance, he screamed in a thick and bold voice, and Ata came to Li Junwei.

Li Junwei said with a dismayed face, "Ata, my fish scared you, this fool."

"That's really my sin." Ata's face apologized.

He is a straightforward and honest man, scratching his head with regret. Li Junwei didn't really blame him, but said, "You are so busy that you rushed back from Kazakhstan?"

"Autumn is coming soon. I'm afraid I won't see you if I come too late. I haven't seen you for many years. It's really not easy to see you once." Ata said emotionally.

Li Junwei smiled and said, "What did you do when you see me? I am not a beautiful woman. But your son Yongzhong wanted to bring you to see you. It has been a few years since he left you, but Zhao Cheng really couldn't live without him. The two of them are still busy in Odessa at this time."

"It is his blessing for Yongzhong to serve the second son. I am just such a promising son. I am very happy that I can have the opportunity to train overseas and serve the country." Ata said excitedly.

Li Junwei looked at the face that was destroyed by the wind and frost and said, "Ata, we are all old. During the Western Expedition, I was still a heartless young man who played in the world. You are also a young man. I didn't expect time to pass so quickly."

"Since I haven't been in front of the prince, I haven't been so happy." Ata also missed the days of that year.

Li Junwei asked Ata to clean it with river water, rest for a while, and took a bus to Hekou City. This small city is located in the mouth of the Volga River. It was originally named Astrakhan. It was the capital of the Astrakhan Khanate. It was later destroyed by Russia and once became the focus of the competition between Russia and the Ottomans. It is now a small city deep in the territory of the empire.

The city is not large in size and life is very quiet. In the late summer, the whole city is filled with leisure. Li Junwei likes this feeling very much. The two returned to the hotel where Li Junwei stayed, called for food and drinks, and chatted for a long time, but after all, it was not just old friends who met, but they also talked about work.

Because the snow disaster last year froze to death, Ata went to the Kazakh prairie to inspect the winter storage work after the spring training of the vassal army this year. It mainly looked at the warehouses for disaster preparation in various places. Because of the stored food, bedding, fuel and medicines, Ata is a very direct person and the inspection is not regular. Whenever he arrives at a place, he goes straight to the official warehouse, takes out his order of General Jingyuan, and checks the quantity of materials according to the account book, and ignores the procedures on the official side.

Ata was not the first day when he became General Jingyuan. The flag servants from all over the country knew his temper and prepared early. Although the winter storage work was somewhat negligent, it was generally satisfactory. The reason why Ata did not come back directly was mainly because he discovered some other problems on the grassland, which attracted his attention.

"After the reform of the foreign vassal states, there were cases where the Tianfang vassal states and the Tianzhu vassal states did not concentrate according to the plan. There were various places, especially in some larger towns. It was particularly obvious that there were many disasters now. If they were not solved, the problem would be even more serious in the future." Ata said worriedly.

Li Junwei asked: "What's the specific?"

In the empire's border areas, all the flag sects were divided into production flag sects and vassal flag sects. The flag sects were no different from ordinary people in various provinces, and there was no difference between paying taxes and grains. The flag sects were essentially military households and did not have to pay taxes, but they had to bear military obligations and provide military sources for the vassal army.

The vassal flag assistants are divided into two types: inner vassal and outer vassal. The outer vassal flag assistants are those who have feudal privileges for their military merits. However, after the reform of the outer vassal, all of these flag assistants changed from the private property of the nobles to the direct jurisdiction of the empire, and all became inner vassal flag assistants.

With the reform of the foreign vassal states and the implementation of policies such as demarcating borders with neighboring countries, the military functions of the border areas have actually been reduced a lot, so there is no need for such inner vassal states to assume military obligations. Because after the reform of the foreign vassal states, a large number of inner vassal states have become production flag assistants. In order to understand the military power of the foreign vassal states and to remove slaves, the people depended on them after the reform, most of the outer vassal states have been changed to production flag assistants.

But the problem arises, essentially because the composition of the foreign flag sect is very complicated.

There are mainly two types of production flags and sects in the far-distance region. One is the inner and western Xinjiang regions, mainly Mongolian ethnic groups, with Khalkha and Weila tribes, as well as national immigrants from various provinces in the country. The second is the tribes of the Turkut tribe during the reform of the foreign vassal states.

There is not much problem with these. The key is the foreign vassal flag sect. The backbone of these vassal flag sects is the Mongolian ethnic group migrated from the inner Xinjiang region and the Western Krainian region. However, during the Western Expedition, they received a large number of rewards from the people of the vassal. These vassal flag sects were mainly tribes of the Kazakhstan, Tajiks, Tatars and other tribes in the conquered areas. The men of these ethnic groups were sent to the Hindustan Khanate, and all the women and children were left behind. However, during the long-term rule after the Western Expedition, small tribes and communities distributed in various places were gradually found and were annexed by the foreign vassal flag sectsects.

During the Western Expedition, Li Junwei also had a population exchange with his brother Li Jundu. The population exchanged from India was divided into ten surnames slave tribes, enriching the population of the far-reaching Kernel. Most of these were also rewarded and formed the foreign vassal flag assistant.

Therefore, among the foreign vassal banners, the Mongolian ethnic group was diluted on a large scale, and these ethnic groups who believed in other religions became the mainstream. During the foreign vassal rule, this was nothing. After all, no belief or bloodline was too strong. Naturally, the slave owner had the final say in dealing with his own slaves.

Now, when the foreign vassals are reorganized, all slaves and corpses have restored their freedom. These beliefs that have been curbed for more than 20 years have begun to rise. After the foreign vassals are reorganized, in order to facilitate management, the officials responsible for the reorganization have gathered them together according to their ethnic groups, causing a large number of ethnic minorities to gather. The main ones are the Kazakhs and Tatars who believe in the Tianfang Sect, called them Tianfang Sect, and those from India are called Tianzhu Sects.

Originally, these people had given up their religion because of the rule of the Yellow Cult and the Mongolian nobles, or began to believe in the Yellow Cult, but because of the restoration of freedom, they were able to live in a group and restored their original beliefs in the absence of supervision. In Ata's view, this was a great regression in the rule of the imperial harbour.

"Ata, you are right. This is a huge regression, a very big regression. We must solve this problem, and we must solve it." After listening to Atta's report, Li Junwei felt that this guy was not stupid at all. He could see the problem at a glance. Although the gathering of two major vassal groups has not caused any major problems, it is always wrong to prevent problems before they happen.

Ata nodded repeatedly, saying, "When I was in Kazakhstan, I saw those people sticking their butts on the roadside and doing those religious rituals. I felt something was wrong. It was too lack of management, but I didn't know how to do it. My subordinates said that they should kill the leaders and disperse them, but I think this is completely wrong."

"Why do you think this is wrong?" Li Junwei asked with a smile, wanting to know Ata's logic.

Ata scratched his head and said, "Because when Bei Zhi followed the prince, he saw more serious situations than this, and the prince did not do this at that time. Moreover, at that time, the prince did not do anything and was disdainful of it. Now Bei Zhi cannot do such illegal things, which will make the prince slander it."

"It's right, you did it right." Li Junwei smiled and raised his thumbs up at Ata.

Ata continued: "I think we must first bring the Religious Bureau and first control the religious people in the gathering places of these vassal people. Bei Zhi has been in Luntai for so many years, and there are many Tianfang religious people there and in the Yarkand area. However, with the improvement of the Religious Bureau, we have actually gotten along well with the people of all ethnic groups. Many unlawful rules have long been abolished. Prince Ying also set up a girls' school in Luntai, and even girls of all ethnic groups from Yarkand came to school."

"Yes, the management of the Religious Bureau is very important, but Ata, you must pay attention to it, especially to your subordinates." Li Junwei said.

"You said, I will do it now."

Li Junwei looked downstairs and saw that in the first floor of the hotel, there were many merchants in white robes. Most of these merchants came from Ottoman and Persia. Because of the railway and river transportation, Ottoman merchants could come here from Xijin. Hekou City was only one Caspian Sea from Persia. This inland lake called the sea, because it was between the river and the North Caucasus, and the river transportation became quite developed.

The land in the river passes through the Caspian Sea and obtains industrial products from the direction of Xijin, while the cotton produced locally is imported into the empire's northwestern border area through the Caspian Sea, facing Xijin, a major textile industry center in the entire Europe.

The development of inland shipping brought many foreign merchants. Li Junwei pointed to the Persian merchants and said, "You must be careful of them."

"What's wrong with them?" Ata asked.

Li Junwei said: "In fact, the Tianfang Cult has undergone hundreds of years of evolution in the Central Plains and has become quite secular. The Yarkand region was originally the same. It was only because more than a hundred years ago that a group of people went to Persia, Ottoman and other places to make pilgrimage, which was the birthplace of the Tianfang Cult. They brought their thoughts there to Yarkand, which changed the local religious environment."

"You mean those saints, those old charlatans who deceive people?" Ata asked.

"Yes. It's those people. Because of our mistakes in work, the settlement of the people of Tianfang is not a big problem. We were originally a national environment for large and small settlements. But if they contacted these Middle Eastern people, the religious environment would be completely changed. At that time, it would be difficult to change them again."
Chapter completed!