After this point was pointed out, not only Jiang Chong, but even Huo Guang felt a headache.

He said earnestly, "Your Highness, this place is not suitable. Not only is it desolate, but the desert strata are also fragile. How can we build a palace here?"

Liu Tan smiled and said, "Back then, you thought it was impossible to build a city in the Western Regions. What do you think now?"

This example was so powerful that no one knew how to refute it.

But the question is, why doesn't Liu Tan go to such a good place and why does he always have to compete with himself?

In fact, Liu Tan had a certain idea in mind when choosing this place. If it went east, the geographical location was too close to Qusou Xi'an Yangdu, even closer than Shuofang City. So which one would be considered the capital then?

In fact, his decision to choose the Hetao Desert was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. He had done some research before and found that the climate environment in the Hetao Desert was not too bad.

Although it is called a desert, it is basically still in the form of Gobi. There are some records of this place in the early Shang Dynasty. At that time, it was not as dry, cold and windy as it is now.

Liu Tan speculates that climate change may have started recently.

Of course, this recent period also refers to the Warring States Period, when natural changes were basically short, measured in hundreds of years.

If this is the case, the current Hetao Desert can actually be saved because it has not formed a real desert, although people have begun to call it the Hetao Desert.

However, if the rate of deforestation in Shuofang continues, it will be very easy to form a real desert.

Liu Tan wants to save the Hetao Desert mainly because he wants to increase the cultivated area, or to increase the diversity of vegetation here. The more natural resources there are, the more ways out there will be. We can't rely entirely on minerals.

Minerals have a certain quantity, but what happens after they are mined?

Liu Tan chose this place as the palace, so he would have a legitimate reason to do anything he wanted in the future - as a prince, couldn't he beautify his family environment?

He could openly build water conservancy facilities and divert water from the Yellow River.

Yes, the reason why this place is called Hetao Desert is because it is close to the Yellow River!

Liu Tan was not in a position to explain these things, so he simply said, "The available area in those places is too small. This place is big enough! My palace can't be smaller than Shi He Garden, right?"

Huo Guang: ...

Okay, this reason is so convincing that even Huo Guang cannot refute it.

The areas enclosed by those places are indeed the minimum specifications of the princes' palaces.

But the problem is that Huo Guang thought Liu Tan didn't care about the size of the palace!

Just now, Liu Tan was not even that interested in the construction of the palace.

For a moment, Huo Guang felt that Liu Tan was even more difficult to deal with than his father, because Liu Che still had a set of logic in doing things. As long as this set of logic could be sorted out, there would basically be no problem. But the problem was Liu Tan's logic... no one could sort it out!

When you think he has this idea, he may have no idea where he is jumping to.

Huo Guang said expressionlessly, "I understand. I will give the order right away."

Liu Tan suddenly asked, "Is there any place in Shuofang...where limestone is produced?"

Huo Guang was stunned and didn't know how to answer. Finally, he said, "Your Majesty...Your Majesty doesn't know..."

He thought he had made sufficient preparations, but he was still stumped by the question.

Seeing that he was in a bad mood, Liu Tan said, "I haven't seen any information mentioning it before, but it doesn't matter. Limestone isn't a precious thing, so it should be easy to find. I'll have someone look for it later."

Quicklime is the foundation of his infrastructure construction. It must be found and he must find more of it, and the natural direction to look is the Yinshan Mountains.

However, when thinking of the mountains, Liu Tan suddenly thought of a very important thing - bricks.

Bricks are more regular and easier to use than stones, but bricks are made from fired clay and are generally only available in relatively humid areas, so the production in the south is relatively large.

It is true that Shuofang is dry, but the terrain and climate are quite complex.

First of all, there is the Yellow River, so water resources are not actually very scarce. Secondly, there is an entire Yinshan Mountain Range here. The climate of the Yinshan Mountain Range is different from west to east. The west is relatively dry, and the east Daqing Mountain is much more humid.

However, it is still about six or seven hundred miles away from Shuofang City. Alas, it is not obvious from the map. Now Liu Tan realizes that his Northern Border Kingdom is really huge. The distance is often over a hundred miles. In this era of inconvenient transportation, it is really a headache.

There was no other way, Liu Tan could only ask people to look for clay near the nearest Wolf Mountain.

Of course, when it comes to clay, many people certainly don’t know what it is, but clay has another nickname - Guanyin clay.

It is the soil that people often use to satisfy their hunger during famine. However, Buddhism had not yet been introduced at that time, so it is more appropriate to call it kaolin.

After Huo Guang wrote down Liu Tan's request, he saw that Liu Tan was about to speak, so he couldn't help but say, "Your Highness... wait... wait a minute."

Liu Tan looked up at him: "What's wrong?"

Huo Guang coughed lightly and said, "We don't have many people with us. Your Highness already has too many things to do. Let's take it slow."

In just such a short meeting, Liu Tan caused so many troubles.

The things that need to be found include purple-red rock, kaolin and limestone, and then the palace needs to be built, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources.

There is no need to worry too much about material resources. Not only is Liu Tan rich himself, but the palaces of the princes are actually built with money from the imperial court.

Given how much Liu Che loved Liu Tan, he would probably give Liu Tan any amount of money he needed to build the palace, not to mention that Chen Ajiao kept giving him private money.

But the problem is that there are not enough people. We cannot conscript everyone to build the palace. Although there is little arable land in Shuofang, it is not non-existent. If everyone comes to build the palace, who will farm the land?

Moreover, according to the local climate, the autumn harvest would be approaching soon, and by then the people would probably be too busy with their own affairs to handle. If he imposed more corvée labor on them, Huo Guang was worried that the people would riot.

Liu Tan felt that there seemed to be a lot to do. After a moment's contemplation, he said, "The purple-red rock is of primary importance. Finding it would solve a large part of the problem. Then there's the palace... Let's build a foundation first. There's no need to rush. Wait until we're sure there's enough limestone and kaolin in the Northern Territory before moving on. If that doesn't work, we can expand the county seat first and make do with it."

Huo Guang was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Liu Tan would put the purple-red rock, whose purpose was unknown, in the front.

After Liu Tan finished speaking, he looked at the sky and said with a smile, "Let's all stay for dinner tonight."

Everyone was going to try to decline, but Liu Tan said directly, "I'm sorry to have you all come here with me and endure all the hardships. How can you not even provide a meal? Apart from anything else, the food here is quite good. I'll prepare some working meals for everyone later to give you some more motivation."

Don’t mention it, this motivation is really enough. Liu Tan doesn’t have many special dishes here, but every one of them will make you linger on it once you have tasted it.

Even Sang Qian started to think after finishing the meal whether he should learn from Huo Guang. What if he continued to do tricks and was discovered by the King of the Northern Territory? What would he do if he couldn't enjoy such a good meal anymore?

Liu Tan probably could not have imagined that such an ambitious young man, a court official who intended to restore order, could be bribed by him with just a meal.

The only thing he is concerned about now is the coal mine... Can he find it?

However, the coal mine he had been paying so much attention to was nowhere to be found. Wei Buyi, who was in charge of overseeing the construction of the royal palace, came running over and said breathlessly, "Your Highness, great joy, great joy!"

Liu Tan looked up at him in confusion: "What good news makes you so happy?"

Wei Buyi was very excited: "Your Highness, we just discovered copper mines when we were digging the foundation pit!"

Liu Tan: ?????

Wei Buyi looked at Liu Tan with admiration, "No wonder His Highness insisted on locating the palace in the Hetao Desert. It turns out he had foreseen this!"

Liu Tan: I’m not, I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense!