The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 31 Times have changed
When the Ming Emperor Zhu Zhonglin received the map and report, it was already the autumn of the 31st year of Xianning.

The emperor gave it a rough look and then asked the Tongzhengsi to send it to the Bingbu Zhifangsi, who would copy it and distribute it to the departments in need.

Three extra copies were specially prepared and sent to the emperor himself, Crown Prince Zhu Jiancan, and Prince of Wu Zhu Jianxuan for review.

After the copy was submitted, the emperor waited another five days.

Then he called the Crown Prince and the King of Wu to the Qianqing Palace where he lived to discuss the development and construction plans of Australia.

The main purpose is to know what the King of Wu thinks, especially where he wants to place the capital, which is the main direction of future development.

The Australian continent is huge, even larger than the entire Ming Dynasty today. Of course, it is impossible to carry out comprehensive development all at once.

The imperial court would nominally only provide 300,000 immigrants, and there was no way to carry out comprehensive development.

We can only concentrate resources to build a starting point first, and then extend a few key colonies from the starting point.

Connect your colonies with roads to gain control of the entire area.

This is a typical plan for the Ming Dynasty to expand overseas.

As the king of a vassal state, Zhu Jianxuan’s royal capital was naturally the starting point.

The emperor asked the eunuch to bring a square table and spread the large map of Australia on the table.

The emperor scanned the map and muttered with emotion:
"Australia's geography is really bad, with the east coast getting rain but blocked by mountains.

“There are plains behind the coast, but the moisture from the sea cannot get in.

“Most of the interior should be grassland or even desert, so there are no large rivers of sufficient size.

“There are only a few corners where conditions are still acceptable.

"Xuan'er, have you decided where to place your capital?

“So where do we plan to start developing?”

Zhu Jianxuan is seven years old now. He is obviously much taller than he was two years ago and can see things on the table while standing normally.

Zhu Jianxuan had already made plans in his mind and had also chosen the location of his future capital.

Now he just needs to tell his father, the emperor, and his brother, the prince, to start contributing money, manpower and resources to help him develop and build.

Since the Chongzhen period, the level of Ming Dynasty's draftsmen has risen sharply.

All maps drawn after that were based on longitude and latitude, and were completely modern maps.

The Australian coastline mapped out during this survey was accurate enough that Zhu Jianxuan quickly found the place he was looking for after getting it.

In the southeast of the Australian continent, there is a small valley surrounded by mountains. The mouth of the valley faces the coast, and there are two adjacent bays on the coast.

This is the location of Sydney, the largest city in Australia in Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life.

Zhu Jianxuan stretched out his hand and circled here:
“I plan to put the capital here, or rather the palace here.

“Then we will look for suitable places around here to build future industrial bases.”

The emperor and the prince looked at the position of Zhu Jianxuan's finger and were both obviously surprised.

The emperor pointed directly at the southeastern corner of Australia, the southernmost bay below the continent, which was the location of Melbourne in Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life:
"According to the layout of the Australian map and the information in the exploration report, the conditions here are the best in the entire continent.

"Only here in the entire Australian continent does it have both a certain amount of rainfall and a certain size of plains.

“It has a deep bay and is surrounded by mountains, but it’s not completely locked down.

“On the east, west and north sides, there are plain areas that can be easily connected.

“We will first build the national capital at the bottom, and in the future extend it in three directions: east, west and north.

“Build three interconnected cities at appropriate locations in these three directions.

"This way, we can control an area almost as large as a province in the mainland."

Zhu Jianxuan understands his father's plan, which was a natural plan in the agricultural era, but now times have changed.

Zhu Jianxuan seemed quite helpless as he explained:
"Father, if we choose the capital based on the criteria of cultivating land, we should indeed place it next to this bay in the south.

“But Australia is not suitable for farming.

“In my plan, the focus of Australia’s future development is industry.

“The foundation of industry is the steel industry, which, in addition to iron ore and coal, also consumes a lot of water resources.

“Nowadays, it may take ten tons of water to make one ton of steel.

“After the improvement of blast furnace technology, coal consumption has dropped significantly, and the cost of offshore transportation of iron ore and coal is barely acceptable.

“But using a boat to pull water is really life-threatening.

“Only the eastern coast of Australia has more rain, so the industrial base can only be located in the east.

“At the same time, the latitude of the area I chose is closer to the Jiangnan region of our Ming Dynasty, and the climate should be more comfortable.

"And the latitude of this bay in the south is close to Hebei Province." Finally, to the north of the place I chose, there is also a river valley that goes deep inland, and we should be able to cross the mountains by following the river valley.

“There should be plains behind the mountains, and this is where we can reclaim land and grow crops.

"Plus, these good places in Australia are all by the sea, and since the capital is here, you can go to the bay in the south at any time.

“Future settlements will not necessarily have to be connected by roads on land.

"We can also rely on maritime connections, just like in southern Zhejiang, coastal Fujian, and most of Guangdong.

"The products of the steel industrial base can also be transported to various colonies by sea."

The reasons Zhu Jianxuan gave were indeed true, but they were deduced based on the results of his previous life and were not entirely his own thinking.

What Zhu Jianxuan actually paid attention to was the estuary more than a hundred miles north of Sydney.

Newcastle was the world's largest coal export port in the past.

Going upstream along the river in Newcastle city, on both sides of the river about 100 kilometers from the coast is the largest coal mine in Australia in the past life - Newcastle Hunter Valley.

Because the coal resources here are extremely rich, Australia chose this place when it tried to develop the steel industry in history.

The early steel industry consumed more coal than iron ore, so it was usually a priority to build steel mills near coal mines.

Plus, the steel industry does require a lot of water resources.

Even in the 21st century, producing one ton of steel only requires one ton of coal and less than two tons of iron ore, but still requires three to four tons of water.

In this era, the starting weight is at least ten tons.

Therefore, the location of the steel industrial base should be located in an area with abundant water resources as much as possible and definitely not in a desert.

At the same time, according to the general geographical knowledge in middle school textbooks, Australia's iron ore is mainly distributed on its western edge.

But in fact, there are iron ore mines in other parts of Australia, but they are not as concentrated as in the west.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's vague memory, there may be small-scale iron mines near the Hunter Valley, but he doesn't know where exactly.

If we could really find usable iron ore in the Hunter Valley, we could develop a complete steel industry in this place.

If no iron ore is found here in the end, or the iron ore is not convenient to mine under current technology.

Then go to Spencer Gulf in southern Australia to open a mine, and then use steam sailing ships to transport the iron ore to the Hunter Valley for smelting.

This is how Australia has chosen in its history.

After hearing Zhu Jianxuan's explanation, the emperor and the crown prince both showed expressions of sudden enlightenment.

Then the emperor was still a little unwilling, or kindly reminded:

"Xuan'er, what you said does make sense, but we can't not develop this piece of land in the south with the best conditions, right?

“Although Australia is not suitable for farming, I still have to give it a try.

"It's good to have a guaranteed source of food, so we won't starve if the sea transportation is cut off."

The prince also suggested:
"The people of the Ming Dynasty all like land suitable for farming, and land suitable for reclamation is the most convenient for recruiting immigrants.

"So, Brother Xuan, you can focus on industrial construction in the east, and recruit free people to open up wasteland in the south."

Zhu Jianxuan looked at his concerned father and brother, feeling quite helpless in his heart, but on the surface he could only smile and explain:

“The South does need to be developed, but I don’t think we should directly recruit freedmen.

“The basis of industry is mining, so I will first arrange an exploration team to look for minerals in the place I have designated and around the southern bay.

“If you can find coal, iron, or even gold and silver mines in these two places, open the mines first.

“Then consider developing areas without mines into farms.

"If they distribute it to immigrants first, and then gold mines are discovered in these places, it will be a big loss if we spend money to redeem it."

Zhu Jianxuan actually knew that there was indeed a gold mine here.

Therefore, before the gold mine is opened, this place really cannot be directly distributed to immigrants for farming.

The two officers, Cao Zhendong and Liu Biao, have no chance to make money privately.

It is also possible that I will have to continue working for Zhu Jianxuan.

The emperor suddenly realized:

"That's right. We still have to see if there are any mineral deposits first. If there really is a gold mine here, Xuan'er won't have to worry about money in the future."

The prince smiled and said:
"Brother Xuan no longer has to worry about money. The patent licensing fees over the years have made him the richest child in Ming Dynasty."

The emperor laughed out loud when he heard this.

(End of this chapter)