The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 135 Wu Wangdu

On April 1784th of the 6th year of Xianning (June 7th of the Western calendar, ), Zhu Jianxuan's fleet arrived in Australia and entered the North Bay of the royal capital.

Zhu Jianxuan came to the deck of Changfeng and looked at the surrounding scenery.

According to the map of the area around Wuwangdu that Zhu Jianxuan had seen before, he knew that the North Bay of Wuwangdu was the bay in the north of Sydney city in the previous life.

Sydney's core business district, later known as the CBD, and the very distinctive Sydney Opera House are both located in this bay.

But now all I can see are large construction sites, endless fields, and villages scattered in the fields.

The fleet continued to slowly move deeper into the bay, and the overall width of the bay became narrower and narrower.

However, after passing through a bottleneck area about 500 meters wide, the water surface of the inner bay became wider again.

When Zhu Jianxuan saw this terrain, he suddenly realized that this was the location of Sydney CBD in his previous life.

Australia built the Sydney Harbour Bridge in this bottleneck area.

But now there are no modern high-rise buildings around this area, only a large number of chimneys spewing smoke.

This is now a steam-era factory.

The factory with the largest area may be the shipyard next to the dock.

Several semi-finished ships under construction are lined up on several docks and slipways.

One of the ships being built in the dock was of unusually large size.

It is larger than the Changfeng, which has a displacement of 3,000 tons.

At this time, the upper hull has not yet been completely closed, and the internal structure of the hull can still be seen directly.

Its frame support structure appears to be steel.

Only the various planks and hulls are still made of wood.

In a dock next to this large battleship, there are two battleships with a displacement of five to six hundred tons, which appear to be built of pure steel.

There was no wood material piled around at all.

When Zhu Jianxuan saw these three ships, he was quite satisfied with the situation in Australia.

Australia is already able to build large ships of at least five or six thousand tons, and its industrial level should be developing in tandem with that of the Ming Dynasty.

The distance between Ming Dynasty and Australia is not far, especially after the invention of steam sailing ships, it only takes two months to travel back and forth, which is similar to the travel between the two capitals in the north and the south in classical times.

At the same time, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty fully supported Australia, and the Ming Dynasty's local technology, manpower and market were all completely open to Australia.

The majority of the population in Australian cities are immigrants who moved directly from the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the development and construction of Australia is equivalent to building a new residential area on a piece of wasteland within the Ming Dynasty system.

And it is a place with a more comfortable environment than Nanyang.

It is only natural to build a city that is no different from the local area and construct a number of factories of the same level as the local area in about six years.

If Australia can build such ships, then Ming Dynasty can certainly do it too. There will definitely be more ships being built simultaneously in multiple ports.

The craftsmen who decided to follow me in Australia did not disappoint me.

A pure steel structure warship was directly designed.

The Changfeng, the ship that Zhu Jianxuan was on, docked at the pier opposite the Wangdu Shipyard.

Half a month before Zhu Jianxuan arrived at the palace, he arranged for a steam sailboat to come to the capital to report in advance and asked the officials in the capital to clean the palace and prepare to receive him.

Today, the main civil and military officials of the Wu Kingdom, as well as the main craftsmen of the King of Wu's laboratory, have been waiting at the dock for a long time.

The Changfeng slowly came to a stop, the escort corps lowered the gangway, Zhu Jianxuan walked down the gangway in his princely uniform, and the civil and military officials and craftsmen on the scene bowed together in salute:
"See you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Jianxuan raised his hand seriously:

"Be flat."

Civil and military officials and craftsmen stood up at the same time.

Zhu Jianxuan boarded a special carriage and headed to the palace under the guidance of guards.

The King Wu's Palace is located slightly west of the bay directly south of the pier.

It is basically located in the middle of the narrowest part of the front of the peninsula, sandwiched between the north and south bays.

Unlike the American royal palace which had no formal planning, the Wu royal palace was directly organized and constructed by the Ministry of Works under the arrangement of the Ming Emperor.

There were originally a large number of virgin forests around Wu Wangdu, with abundant timber resources. However, due to Zhu Jianxuan's personal preference, he requested that reinforced concrete be used as much as possible, and timber was used at most for furniture and decoration.

Therefore, the Wu Palace became the first Ming-style palace built mainly with reinforced concrete.

The construction of the King of Wu's Palace was not fast, mainly because of the preparatory work before construction, which required building a steel plant and a cement plant first, which took a lot of time.

But with sufficient materials, the construction speed of reinforced concrete buildings will be faster than traditional brick and wood buildings.

After the wood is cut down, it needs to be dried in the shade and trimmed, which is time-consuming.

Reinforced concrete materials are not needed.

The preparation for the construction of the King of Wu Palace took three years, and the main construction took less than two years, and was basically completed in the second half of last year.

By the beginning of this year, the basic decoration and renovation were completed.

With the construction of steel mills and cement plants, the construction speed of other engineering projects also increased.

The palace walls and the city walls outside the palace walls have also been built simultaneously, both using reinforced concrete.

The wall adopts the size standards of traditional palace walls, and horses can be run and troops can be transported on the wall.

The palace wall is 900 meters long from north to south and 720 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of ​​648,000 square meters.

The wall of the royal city is 2,600 meters long from north to south and 2,000 meters wide from east to west.

Taking into account the performance of reinforced concrete and the actual situation in Australia, the Ministry of Works did not directly change the traditional rammed earth-wrapped brick walls to rammed earth-wrapped concrete walls.

The interior of the concrete wall was not filled with soil, but was used as a troop transport passage and a large material warehouse.

If necessary, it can also be used as a military camp.

Zhu Jianxuan's motorcade entered the royal city from the main gate, passed through the building areas reserved for various departments and institutions of the kingdom, and entered the royal palace that belonged exclusively to the king.

After ascending the throne in the Chengyun Hall of the royal palace and accepting the worship of civil and military officials and craftsmen, he directly ended the ceremonial audience.

Zhu Jianxuan went straight back to his bedroom to rest, and the officials and craftsmen also immediately took their leave and went back to work.

Two days later in the morning, Zhu Jianxuan once again formally summoned civil and military officials and craftsmen to formally familiarize himself with and handle the affairs of the kingdom.

After the civil and military officials and craftsmen bowed and paid homage, each of the three parties sent a representative to present a report on the current situation in Australia.

After Zhu Jianxuan asked the guard to take it, he sat on the throne and slowly looked through it.

Currently, in the entire Wu Kingdom, excluding North America, the total number of Ming immigrants is about 1.6 million.

That's more than the number of indigenous people in Australia.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty arranged for a group of civil servants to come to Australia, but they all came as garrison officers, responsible for managing the victims sent to Australia by the garrison organization.

Both the Wu Kingdom and Australia currently have no civil servants in name, and the entire country is still managed according to the garrison system.

The entire Wu Kingdom currently has a total of forty guard corps.

There are two guards each in the Yingzhou Islands and the Baiyun Islands, and the other thirty-six guards are all on the Australian continent and its surrounding areas.

There are sixteen guards near the royal capital, with a total of about 640,000 people, responsible for the construction and production of the core industrial zone, as well as cultivating the farmland in the plain west of the palace.

The Cumberland Plains, which were once the west of Sydney, are now located between the urban area and the mountains in the west. They have now all been developed into farmland.

There are four guards near the Beihe Mine, with a total population of about 160,000 people. They are mainly responsible for the mining of iron ore and coal and steel smelting, as well as cultivating the farmland around the mine valley.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's plan, only the steel industry was placed near the Beihe Mine, and other factories were placed in the royal capital city.

There are four guards in South Australia Bay, with a total population of about 160,000. They are responsible for cultivating the South Australian gold mines and nearby farmland, and also mine some nearby lignite to supply the city.

To the west of the mountains west of the royal capital, to the north of the mountains north of the South Australia Bay, and in the large basin behind the coastal mountains, there are four guards scattered around, with a total of about 160,000 people.

In areas relatively close to mountains, where farming is relatively suitable, people will plant crops. In more arid inland areas, where farming is not suitable, people will concentrate on grazing.

In the northernmost part of the eastern part of the Australian continent, in Brisbane, Australia in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, and its surrounding areas, there are now four guards scattered around, with a total of about 160,000 people.

This area was developed to accommodate local disaster victims in the past two years. Their current task is to reclaim land and cultivate crops to feed themselves.

There are two guardhouses in southwestern Australia, with a total of about 80,000 people, responsible for the management of coal stations on the western and southern coasts of Australia, as well as the cultivation of farmland in the southwest.

Finally, there is a 40,000-person force in the northern region of Australia, responsible for the management of several coal stations on the north coast of Australia.

There is also a guard on Nan'ao Island, preparing to mine the local iron ore and coal mines.

(End of this chapter)