Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 229 Inspection Work
"By the way, second brother, why didn't Yang Chen come with you?"

Zhu Biao was unwilling to interfere in Zhu Chong's decision to cut his hair short. It was his brother's business, and he had no right to make decisions for him no matter what choice he wanted to make.

On the contrary, his opinion was almost exactly the same as Queen Ma's, and he thought his brother looked more energetic with short hair.

Isn't this a good thing?

This shows that this once dissolute prince of the Ming Dynasty is indeed on the path of reforming himself.

"Brother Yang? He is busy at the dock installing a steam engine on the ship. This is a major event in Zhenjiang Prefecture recently. How about we go over and take a look later?"

Steam engines can already be used as the power system for trains, so Yang Chen naturally wanted to go a step further and have steamships appear in Ming Dynasty ahead of time.

Now the Ming Dynasty as a whole still uses sailing ships as its power.

Although many treasure ships can now cross 99% of the oceans on Earth, there are still some places called the doldrums.

This place is near the equator, distributed between 5° north and south latitude near the equator. Because the sun is almost directly shining all year round, the average annual surface temperature is the highest, forming an equatorial low pressure belt.

The trade winds converging from the subtropical high pressure to the equatorial low pressure strengthen the vertical movement of air, but no wind is felt on the ground, thus forming the equatorial doldrums.

If you want to go to Australia, you have to cross half the globe. What if the ship is blown to this place by a gust of wind and there is no wind on the sea? Then for the era of sailing ships, the doldrums is a cage made of iron walls that imprison people.

There is absolutely no other way except waiting to die.

It is precisely because of this consideration that Yang Chen believes that changing the ship's power is urgent.

So, taking advantage of the emergence of the steam engine, he quickly arranged for everyone to conquer the power of the ship.

"I didn't expect that Brother Yang has so many things to consider. But what should we do with these people when he is not here? Who will take them on a tour later?" Zhu Biao turned and looked at the group of officials behind him.

They came to Zhenjiang Prefecture not just to sightsee, but mainly to learn about Zhenjiang Prefecture's new management model.

So that after the other party returns, he can understand in the capital how to implement the orders he issued next.

Facing this question, Zhu Chong smiled calmly, waved to the people behind him and said:
"Minister of Organization and Minister of Propaganda, come out!"

"coming!"

"coming!"

Two middle-aged men soon emerged from the line of Zhenjiang government officials.

"I pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Your Highness, I am Wang Chao, the head of the Organization Department of Zhenjiang Prefecture (I am Huo Wei, the head of the Propaganda Department)"

The two introduced their names in unison.

After learning about the two's basic situation, Zhu Biao raised his hand and asked:
"I think you two should know why I asked you to come here, so I'll leave the rest to you."

"Your Highness is too polite. This is the responsibility of a minister. Why should I ask for a favor?"

The two men knew very well that besides Zhu Biao, there was also the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Unless they were crazy, how could they dare to let Zhu Biao be so polite to them.

Zhu Biao turned around and looked at the group of officials who had come from Nanjing City and gave them final instructions.

"Gentlemen! For the next three days, you will all follow their arrangements for your daily lives. I know that some of you may be dissatisfied with them because of your official positions, but I want to make it clear in advance that when you come to Zhenjiang Prefecture, you should not bring your arrogance from the capital with you, otherwise I, Zhu Biao, will never let you go.

We all work for the court, and the court is responsible for the majority of people in the world. If the court is biased between you and the people, then the Ming Dynasty will perish. I don't want the Ming Dynasty to perish because of the uprising of the people, so you can only do what I say, otherwise I will punish you severely!"

"do you understand!"

Zhu Biao showed a serious face, which was unusual for him. How could the rest of the people not know what they should do next? They quickly answered in unison:
"Minister! Understood!"

"Wang Chao, Huo Wei, I leave them to you." Zhu Biao looked at the two of them and then turned aside.

"The Crown Prince has ordered me to do so. My colleagues, please follow me. There is a carriage ready outside the station. Let's go to our accommodation first and have dinner later. I will show you around Zhenjiang Prefecture tomorrow."

"Thank you for your help."

A group of civil servants began to follow the two men out of the station, and the originally bustling station suddenly became deserted.

When there were fewer people, Zhu Chong's face immediately showed anxiety.

"Brother, Father, Mother, I heard that the third child seems to have disappeared in the South China Sea. What is going on?"

It was exactly the same thing that the group of civil servants were discussing on the train just now.

However, when this matter was mentioned, Zhu Biao's family all had serious expressions on their faces, and they had no idea what the situation was.

"The third brother" Zhu Biao pondered for a moment, and finally decided to tell the truth.

"Not long ago, my father sent the third brother to Wanli Shitang to carry guano. You know that the third brother's ambition was determined last year. He must explore all the overseas territories to facilitate your choices in the future.

But he never expected that he had just completed exploring all the small countries in Southeast Asia and was preparing to cross the Strait of Malacca and head further south.

I heard that they were already preparing to go to Guinea, Indonesia, and East Timor, wanting to officially enter Australian territory, but they disappeared near the South Pacific halfway.

My father sent a navy to the South Seas to search, and finally found some ship fragments on an isolated island near the Indian Ocean. There were obvious traces of artillery on the fragments, which meant that the ship must have been attacked by the enemy.

(The map that Daming is using now is the modern map drawn by Yang Chen. Some small countries were not even listed during the Hongwu period of Daming. Except for the famous kingdoms like Luzon, countries like Jakarta and Surabaya were all in the tribal era.)"

Upon learning that someone might have attacked his brother's ship, Zhu Chong became furious.

"What? Which blind country dared to attack the Ming navy? Could it be those guys in Europe? But that's not right. I remember the second brother said that he had not had any contact with those European guys in the Far North, and the Khanates in the northwest had not had any direct conflict with us, even if there was any conflict.

Their territories are all in the inland, so how could they possibly extend their reach to the sea?

This is unscientific!"

In addition to handling most of the affairs of Zhenjiang Prefecture himself, Zhu Chong also paid close attention to the overall situation in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially when he learned that his younger brother had won the title of "Ming Bear King" in the Far North, he was even more excited.

I wondered if he would be able to make a name for himself in Europe and America someday.

However, the affairs of Zhenjiang Prefecture cannot be separated from him for the time being, because he can only gain experience in Zhenjiang Prefecture.

In fact, he already has the ability to rule a country, but he has too many things to do and cannot spare the time.

Zhu Biao knew very well that the Ming Dynasty was powerful. Logically speaking, no one in Southeast Asia should dare to take action against the Ming Dynasty.

Now the Chen Dynasty, which is later Vietnam, has been completely annihilated. Chen father and son were all killed by Mu Ying's men. The remaining Chen Dynasty people who refused to submit to the rule of the Ming Dynasty were either thrown into the sea to feed the fish or transported to Japan in ships to work as miners.

The rest of the Chen Dynasty people who were willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty stayed in the local area to cooperate with the construction of the Ming Dynasty people.

It was necessary to thoroughly plan the entire Chen Dynasty territory into the provincial government of the Ming Dynasty. Annan was connected to Thailand, of course, Thailand is not called Thailand now.

Instead, it is called the Sukhothai Dynasty, and its ruler is Dhammaraja III Sailuktai.

The Chen Dynasty was annihilated by the army led by Mu Ying. Now there are two territories bordering the Ming Dynasty and Sukhothai, one is Yunnan and the other is Nan'an, which was formerly Guangxi.

Sai Lutai saw many orphans of the Chen Dynasty royal family fleeing to his territory from the border, so he quickly sent people to the border to guard these people.

When Mu Ying led his generals to the border, he quickly and proactively handed over all the Chen Dynasty relics, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would not come into direct conflict with the Sukhothai Dynasty.

And from the news brought back by Mu Ying, it seems that Sai Lutai also wants to find an auspicious day to rush to the capital, wanting to submit a letter to the emperor and ask Zhu Yuanzhang to grant him a name.

For thousands of years, most rulers in Southeast Asia hoped to be enthroned by the orthodox emperor of the Central Plains. Sailutai was no exception. He knew very well that as a minority ethnic group, he had no right to have any conflicts with the Han people.

Because the example of the destruction of the Chen Dynasty is right before our eyes.

"Third brother, our father has already sent eldest brother Li to handle this matter. Let's just wait here for good news. The ship wreckage is near the Strait of Malacca, and we don't see any floating body debris. I think third brother will be fine." Now that things have come to this, before seeing the body, they can only hope that this is a good thing.

Zhu Biao tried his best to relax his brows.

"Big brother is right." Zhu Chong agreed with what his brother said. Besides, it was useless for them to be anxious. It would only cause internal friction and affect state affairs.

"Father, Mother, it's a rare occasion for you to come to Zhenjiang Prefecture. I will arrange for Guanyin Nu to take you around. Zhenjiang Prefecture is very different from what it was two months ago." No matter how Zhu Chong changed, he still kept his head down when speaking in front of his father.

No one knows what kind of shadow Zhu Yuanzhang cast on his sons that made these brave and capable sons dare not raise their heads.

"Guanyinnu?" Zhu Yuanzhang was confused when he heard the name of his former 'daughter-in-law'.

"Zhongba, let's talk on the way." Empress Ma took Zhu Yuanzhang's arm and walked forward. Not far ahead, there was a mature woman who was graceful and elegant in her words and actions.

The other party brought Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang to a carriage.

At present, Zhenjiang Prefecture does not have the ability to manufacture steam-powered automobile engines.

Yang Chen also predicted that within the next five years, it would be impossible for the Ming Dynasty to assemble steam engines on cars that could carry people.

It's not just because of the materials, but also because the productivity of various industries is not enough to support the emergence of this thing.

The two elders brought their two grandsons into the car. In the car, they learned how Guanyin Nu went from being Empress Ma's personal maid to Zhu Chong's current secretary. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately showed a smile on his face.

“Let’s just say this guy is a bastard!
At the beginning, we told him about this marriage. Guanyin Nu was a good girl, but he didn't want to treat her well. He was so cruel to her. Now Guanyin Nu has returned to him to help him. I think this kid is really shameless. "

"I believe it. I have so many personal maids around me, so I don't need a Guanyin slave. And I asked Guanyin slave at the beginning, and she thought that since she could learn some knowledge that the Ming Dynasty didn't have, she would be happy to help anyone."

When Guanyin Nu, who was driving the carriage outside, heard these words, he actually had complicated feelings towards Zhu Chong.

Since she started working with Zhu Chong, she has indeed seen the changes in Zhu Chong, from his initial fear and anxiety to his final calm attitude.

And the other party didn't say anything about what happened in the past.

This is also her determination to take up the position of secretary to the mayor.

Seeing that they had no objections, Zhu Yuanzhang did not say anything and looked at the scenery outside the car.

It was exactly the same as Zhu Chong said. Compared with two months ago, Zhenjiang Prefecture had a different look.

First of all, there were many strange sewer manholes on both sides of the street. Of course, he knew that these things were used for drainage, but he had never seen this kind of thing before.

Logically speaking, apart from the imperial palace, the only places that installed this kind of drainage device were the homes of the wealthy and powerful.

Unexpectedly, Yang Chen could arrange all these for the entire Zhenjiang Prefecture.

This is enough to show how courageous he is.

In addition, the clothes people wore were not "new clothes" that were patched hundreds of times. At most, some clothes had holes in them.

This actually shocked them.

I found out after asking.

The amount of cotton cloth produced in Zhenjiang Prefecture every year is now enough to provide everyone with new clothes.

If it weren't for the shortage of cotton or some raw materials for making clothes, Zhenjiang Prefecture's production capacity could be further improved.

The emergence of the steam engine has greatly improved the productivity of water-powered textile machines.

Every winter, Zhenjiang Prefecture would give a cotton coat to some people whose income did not reach a certain level.

This alone shows the grandeur of Zhenjiang Prefecture.

What surprised Zhu Yuanzhang even more was that the streets on both sides were no longer made of wood, but were all built with modern materials such as reinforced concrete.

There are buildings of this type lined up in an orderly manner on both sides of the street.

Each building is about thirty meters high and has five floors in total.

The first floor is where commercial goods are sold. There is plenty of space on both sides of the road so about eight carriages can drive side by side without being crowded.

It made him feel that the capital city was just like that.

After asking, he learned that in the first six months, Zhenjiang Prefecture had been able to produce large quantities of high-quality steel from the steel plant.

Some of these steel materials were forged and rolled into various parts to overcome steam engine shrinking technology, advanced machine tools, cast iron ships, forged steel bars, etc.

As a result, Zhenjiang Prefecture gradually began to build various reinforced concrete houses.

Zhu Yuanzhang was lost in thought for a moment, and could not help but sigh:
"Sister, the Ming Dynasty is really changing with each passing day. Who knows, my old bones might really be able to fly to the sky in the future."

"Who said it wasn't? It's only been two months since we last met, and Zhenjiang Prefecture has changed so much that I almost didn't recognize it." Queen Ma nodded in response.

Zhu Xiongying spoke freely and swore an oath to the two old men with great enthusiasm.

"Grandpa and grandma, Xiongying will definitely let you two go to heaven to see the beautiful scenery in the future. My second uncle told me that the wind in the sky is a good thing that can make people feel refreshed!"

Looking at Zhu Xiongying sitting on his lap, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and tapped his forehead.

"Nonsense! The sky is so dangerous. You want to be the emperor, you can't go!"

After hearing the same answer again, Zhu Xiongying turned around angrily and didn't want to pay any attention to this grandfather.

(End of this chapter)