My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 315: Just what I wanted, go with the flow
The train runs exactly one round trip a day, bringing 1,200 tons of iron ore to the industrial plant, just meeting the production needs of the plant.

In order to avoid having an empty train on the way to Maling, officials from the Department of Industry and the Ministry of Households decided to load the goods needed for Maling onto the train after unloading the iron ore. In this way, the efficiency of the train could be maximized with one round trip.

Moreover, the technicians found that even when fully loaded, the locomotive still had surplus power, so they considered adding five more carriages to carry passengers.

In this case, a bus station had to be built. After some investigation, the location of the bus station was decided and construction began.

At the same time, the second train of the Ming Dynasty was also being built overtime.

The great success of the first railway filled the court with confidence. Even many officials from the Jiangnan aristocratic families submitted memorials requesting the construction of railways between the various prefectures in Jiangnan.

Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of the mentality of the aristocratic civil servants. They did not support industrialization in unison with him, but rather saw the huge benefits in it.

Among the gentry, except for those stubborn old fogeys, all the other scholars and merchants were extremely shrewd. If they could not stop the Industrial Revolution, they might as well go with the flow. If they could not defeat it, they would take the initiative to join it. After all, no one could refuse the huge benefits brought by the railway.

In addition to full granaries, fresh fish and fat crabs, the prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River also had very developed sericulture, silk weaving, and textile industries. It can be said that Jiangnan alone supplied more than 80% of the silk and more than 50% of the cloth in the entire Ming Dynasty.

In addition, a large number of textile products were exported to Ryukyu, Japan, Siam and other countries, earning huge profits.

This is also why Lao Li suggested using sugar to replace silk as the first item of official maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty when maritime trade first began.

If the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River are connected by railways, the circulation efficiency between various places will be more than ten times faster than before. Whether it is the amount of goods transported at one time or the speed of transportation, it will be much faster.

Once the railway is opened, trade between various parts of Jiangnan and the Jianghuai, Huguang and other areas outside Jiangnan will increase exponentially!
This was something Zhu Yuanzhang had planned long ago. Starting from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, after several migrations of people to the south, the Jiangnan area gradually became a new prosperous place. Until now, Jiangnan is still the richest place in the country.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if a rich land didn’t have railway transportation?
The gentry wanted to seize the railway and make huge profits from it, but they didn't know that they were also inviting the "wolf" into the house.

Zhu Yuanzhang also wanted to use the railway to break the monopoly of the gentry in Jiangnan and completely bring Jiangnan under his rule.

Because the operation and management of the railway belonged to the Railway Bureau, and the Railway Bureau was a newly established government agency under the Ministry of Industry, and was under the management of Li Min. Li Min's words showed that he was firmly on his side.

Of course, there is another important reason. After the opening of the railway, the dependence of Jiangnan’s cargo transportation on water transport will be greatly reduced.

Since the opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, water transport in various places has developed rapidly and formed its own system. At its most prosperous time, it even reached the point where it would obey orders but not announcements.

As an emperor with great military strategy and autocratic decisions, Zhu Yuanzhang could never tolerate this!

He could not tolerate the existence of a huge organization independent of the court within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

But a single move affects the entire body. Although the grain transport was nominally under the management of the government, in reality it was managed independently. There were many grain transport gangs and countless secret societies in various places. As the old saying goes, the food and clothing of millions of grain transport workers depended on the railway. The only way was to use the railway to slowly reduce the impact of the grain transport in various places, and then find an opportunity to completely take over the grain transport.

Therefore, after the officials of the aristocratic family made a petition, Zhu Yuanzhang followed the trend and immediately decided to implement the railway plan in the Jiangnan area from that day on. After discussing with Li Min, Yang Siyi and several second-rank officials of the aristocratic family, it was decided to build two railway transportation centers in the Jiangnan area, one is Yingtian Prefecture and the other is Songjiang Prefecture.

Yingtian Prefecture is currently the imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty and the industrial center of the country. Its geographical location is unshakable. As for Songjiang Prefecture, it was because Zhu Yuanzhang's plan was to combine railway and sea transportation.

Because Songjiang Prefecture not only has the largest Songjiang Shipyard in the Ming Dynasty, but also the best port in the Ming Dynasty is under construction. The gentry also fully supports this. In this way, the cost of transporting silk from all over Jiangnan to Songjiang Prefecture and then going out to sea will be greatly reduced.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang had another reason for building Songjiang Prefecture into a second transportation center. Because of the construction of the Songjiang Shipyard, Songjiang Prefecture was the one that was most easily under his control in the entire Jiangnan area.

After the technical staff conducted a survey and determined the route and stations of the railway, the second railway of Daming officially began construction.

This railway runs from Yingtian Prefecture to Songjiang Port in Songjiang Prefecture, with a total length of more than 600 miles, passing through two prosperous prefectures, Changzhou and Suzhou.

As soon as the news was announced, the prefects of Changzhou and Suzhou burst into laughter. They had already witnessed the power of railways in Yingtian Prefecture. Now that they were going to build a railway through the areas under their jurisdiction, it was truly a blessing from heaven!

Just when the construction of the second railway line was in full swing, one day, a great news came from the Ming Dynasty: the second batch of sea trade fleet returned!
The port was once again crowded with people watching the fun, but this time, they were much calmer.

"Look at our Ming Dynasty ships. They are really magnificent!"

"I wonder how much money they made from overseas this time?"

"I heard that you can earn a lot of money by going out to sea. I wonder if the government still wants sailors. I want to go with them next time they go out to sea!"

"Come on, you think you can be a sailor? If you can get seasick on a flower boat, don't even dream about it!"

"Hahahaha!"

However, when they saw the soldiers of the Musket Battalion escorting the sailors to carry boxes of gold, silver and various foreign goods off the ship, they were shocked again.

The box after box of gold, silver and treasures were simply dazzling. However, when they saw Duke Xin Tang He get off the boat with an angry look on his face, and then lead his subordinates straight towards the palace, they were a little puzzled. Who had offended Duke Xin?

As shareholders of the Ming Dynasty Maritime Trade Co., Ltd., the nobles had to work hard for maritime trade in order to be evaluated for performance. In the first maritime trade, Xu Huizu won the highest honor and was listed on the imperial palace honor roll. In the second maritime trade, since Xu Da, Li Wenzhong and others had to march south, Tang He volunteered to participate in the second maritime trade with his eldest son Tang Ding.

Since the fleet's leader, captain, first mate, navigator and sailors were all fixed, and with the experience of the first time and the assistance of the sextant, navigation was not a problem at all. Therefore, Tang He and Tang Ding only needed to be responsible for escort and trade.

However, this time, Tang He did not cross the Strait of Malacca as originally planned to open up trade routes with India and the Arab world, but returned empty-handed in the Strait of Malacca.

Because they encountered pirates in the Strait of Malacca!

(End of this chapter)