Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 508 An Unprecedented Change in Three Thousand Years!

Resources are the foundation of everything and the fundamental support for all progress in civilization.

Throughout human history, from slash-and-burn agriculture to the roar of steam engines, the acquisition and utilization of natural resources have been indispensable.

Without resources as a foundation, any economic prosperity is merely a castle in the air and will ultimately be difficult to sustain.

The land of China is not a land of scarce resources.

On the contrary, China is a vast and abundant land, rich in resources, and has been an enviable and prosperous region since ancient times.

However, precisely because this land is so suitable for human survival and reproduction, people have lived here since ancient times, practicing slash-and-burn agriculture.

Human footprints have long been found throughout the mountains and valleys of China, which has led to the continuous exploitation and intensive use of land and resources.

China boasts the world's oldest civilization, which also means that this land has endured the longest and most extensive resource exploitation.

Many originally abundant natural resources have been overexploited over thousands of years, gradually depleting them and even leading to a situation where the ecosystem is difficult to restore.

Taking the Loess Plateau as an example, its current barrenness and desolation are not its original appearance.

In ancient times, that place was a lush, green ocean with abundant forests and aquatic plants.

However, as generations of people continuously cut down trees, cultivate land, and farm, the fertility of the soil is depleted day by day, and the vegetation is unable to repair itself, eventually leading to land collapse, exposed mountains, crisscrossing gullies, and a landscape full of devastation.

Even with the best efforts, the harvest in these areas is extremely limited if farmers continue to cultivate the land.

Even more seriously, this loss of soil fertility continues to deepen, becoming more severe year by year.

Without fundamental intervention, the future of agriculture will become increasingly bleak.

Zhu Yuntong was well aware that only by leveraging modern technology to develop truly efficient chemical fertilizers could the trend of soil degradation be curbed at its root and the vitality of arable land restored.

However, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight. Developing fertilizers, conducting experiments, and promoting them all require time and patience.

The only thing we can do right now is to rely on what nature provides.

The ancient bird droppings on Guano Island are natural fertilizers formed over millions of years of sedimentation, with high nitrogen content and long-lasting fertilizing power.

It's even better than synthetic fertilizers!
Transporting it back and using it for farmland conservation, while not a long-term solution, can serve as an important supplement for the present.

As for key strategic resources such as coal, iron ore, copper ore, gold and silver, and even natural rubber, although the Ming Dynasty also has reserves, they are mostly hidden in remote mountains and forests or geologically complex areas, making them extremely difficult and costly to mine.

Furthermore, the Ming Dynasty is densely populated with extensive farmland. Large-scale mining of mineral resources would inevitably disrupt the ecology and affect people's livelihoods, with unbearable costs.

In contrast, many overseas regions are still uninhabited wilderness and no-man's land, rich in resources and inexpensive to develop, and less likely to cause social conflicts.

Therefore, it was undoubtedly the best choice for the Ming Dynasty to explore overseas resources.

According to Zhu Yunwen's overall plan, although a large number of exploration teams are still being dispatched to conduct detailed investigations of various mineral resources within the Ming Dynasty and to cooperate with preliminary development to meet some immediate needs, in the longer-term vision, the mining of most mineral resources within the Ming Dynasty will be gradually reduced or even stopped, with only continuous exploration work remaining.

Those resources that have been surveyed and confirmed will be systematically sealed, registered, and treated as national strategic reserves for unforeseen circumstances.

The major mineral resources that the Ming Dynasty truly needed were imported from overseas as much as possible.

Anything that can be imported should be imported first.

In this way, the mountains and soil within the territory can be preserved, the environmental burden can be reduced, and the lives of the people can be avoided due to large-scale mining development.

After all, heavy metal pollution that accompanies mining, once it spreads, can cause damage to soil and water at best, and death and destruction at worst, with extremely serious consequences.

To achieve this strategy, the primary task is to develop a large-scale maritime transport system.

This depends primarily on the improvement of shipbuilding capabilities.

Today, the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty is showing an unprecedented prosperity.

The number of ships built each year is almost several times that of the previous year, and the rate of growth is astonishing.

Once upon a time, Jinling Shipyard was the largest shipbuilding base in the Ming Dynasty, boasting superb skills, advanced equipment, and a wealth of talent.

However, with the development of the shipbuilding industry, there are now several emerging shipyards that far exceed the scale of Jinling's shipyards.

After all, Nanjing is located inland, bordering the Yangtze River but without a coastline.

Since ocean-going vessels are huge and have a very deep draft, the construction process requires extremely high standards for berths, waterways, and even logistics, making it more suitable to locate shipyards on the coast.

This does not mean that the shipbuilding capacity of Jinling Shipyard has declined.

On the contrary, the number of ships being built by Jinling Shipyard now is several times that of the past.

It was only because the new shipyards along the coast were too strong that they surpassed Jinling Shipyard.

Having strong maritime transport capabilities alone is far from enough.

If overseas goods cannot be quickly and efficiently transported to various provinces and regions in the interior after arriving at the seaport, it is all in vain.

Therefore, the construction of a land transportation network is equally indispensable.

Significant progress has been made in the construction of highways, with crisscrossing cement roads connecting the north and south.

Even with numerous improvements, the horse-drawn carriage's transportation capacity was still severely limited before the invention of the internal combustion engine and the mass production of automobiles.

In the agricultural era, the flow of goods was limited and the demand for transportation was relatively low, so it was barely manageable.

However, with the acceleration of industrialization and the surge in cargo volume, traditional transportation methods are becoming increasingly inadequate.

In the past, in agricultural societies, transporting millions of bushels of grain from south to north required mobilizing a vast fleet of ships, carts, and countless people to barely complete this enormous undertaking.

Today, the amount of coal that needs to be transported each year is no longer in the millions of shi (a unit of dry measure), but in the millions of tons, tens of millions of tons, and will be even more in the future, reaching the hundreds of millions of tons, or even the billion tons!

Other resources, such as iron ore, copper ore, machinery parts, and textiles, are even more numerous and vast.

The demand for material transportation has increased tenfold, a hundredfold, or even a thousandfold compared to the past.

If we still rely on horse-drawn carriages, even with tens of millions of fine horses, it would be difficult to support such a huge transport capacity.

It can be said that the modernization of the transportation system has become a key step for the Ming Dynasty to enter a true industrial civilization.

The development of internal combustion engines is naturally not something that can be accomplished overnight.

Moreover, the oil extraction and refining system has not yet been truly established, and the relevant technologies are still in the exploratory stage.

Against this backdrop, the only way to improve the efficiency of domestic transportation is through railway construction.

The earliest railway loop line to begin construction is now taking shape. Although not yet fully operational, several key sections have been put into trial operation, with steam trains frequently passing through, their roar echoing across the fields, stirring the hearts of travelers.

The main railway line from Nanjing to Beiping has officially started construction, and several other transportation lines extending from coastal ports to the inland areas are also under construction at the same time. The people along the line are all eagerly anticipating the railway's opening to traffic.

The Da Ming Daily had already done a lot of publicity and popular science about this novel giant machine monster, making the people full of hope for it.

With the experience gained from building the first railway line, subsequent projects were naturally much easier.

Many new routes are also undergoing detailed surveying and planning.

The grand vision for the future transportation network of the Ming Dynasty is already beginning to take shape.

After the invention of the generator and its gradual application, the technological development of the Ming Dynasty entered a completely new stage.

The widespread use of telegraph machines greatly improved the efficiency of information transmission, making military and political dispatching increasingly rapid and efficient.

Carbon filament lamps are also widely used for lighting.

Although the lifespan of this type of light bulb is at most a few hundred hours, and most of the time, it is only about forty or fifty hours.

After its lifespan is exhausted, the carbon filament will burn out and a new bulb will need to be replaced.

But compared to the candles of the past, it is still a huge improvement.

After all, candles provide light for a shorter period of time.

Furthermore, the brightness of a light bulb is far superior to that of a candle.

Of course, due to the high production cost, the need to constantly replace the light bulbs, and the limitations of the power lines, they were mainly used in the Ming Academy of Sciences, some important government offices, and public facilities in Jinling City, such as streetlights.

When the streets of Nanjing were lit up by light bulbs.

Not only ordinary people, but many officials were also stunned.

With the rapid advancement of smelting technology, the steel produced by steel mills is not only much tougher than before, but also has significantly improved strength and corrosion resistance with the addition of new metallic elements such as chromium and manganese.

Many chemical elements have been purified and named, and the related knowledge system is becoming increasingly complete.

In that same year, microscopes began to be mass-produced and quickly became popular in research institutions and academies, becoming an important tool for dissecting biological mysteries and uncovering the secrets of nature.

In the same year, under the personal supervision of Zhu Yunwen, scientists from the Ming Academy of Sciences drew the world's first periodic table of elements.

This also awakened Zhu Yunwen's long-forgotten memories of his past life. He used the fragmented knowledge from his past life to fill in and correct the charts, and finally drew a more scientific and accurate "periodic table of elements".

This table is hailed as a national treasure in the field of chemistry in the Ming Dynasty, and is the "supreme secret" that promoted the systematic and systematic development of the Ming Dynasty's scientific system!
At the same time, the military industry has also achieved a major breakthrough.

After countless trials and failures, the Ming Dynasty's military factory finally succeeded in developing a new type of high-powered explosive using glycerin as a raw material.

This nitroglycerin explosive has a far greater explosive power than the black powder used in the past, making it a revolutionary invention.

However, the initial finished products are extremely unstable, and the slightest carelessness may cause a violent explosion, which could easily result in heavy casualties.

However, under Zhu Yunwen's strict orders, the researchers of the Academy of Sciences were not afraid of death and resolutely devoted themselves to the experiment and scientific research. Even if they faced the risk of being blown up at any time, they did not back down.

After nitroglycerin explosives were developed, in just a few months, at the cost of the blood and sacrifice of more than 30 researchers, the formula for nitroglycerin explosives was finally stabilized, and a new type of nitroglycerin explosives that was both powerful and relatively safe was successfully manufactured.

The controllability and storage properties of the new explosives are far superior to those of traditional gunpowder.

This practically signaled the end of the era of gunpowder!

Also in that year, researchers at the Daming Academy of Sciences, with their deep understanding of optics and chemistry, successfully developed the world's first camera using materials such as a camera obscura, a convex lens, and silver chloride.

The initial products, due to the immature technology and extremely long exposure times, could only be used to photograph completely still objects; the image would become blurry if there was even the slightest movement.

However, even so, this groundbreaking invention still shocked countless people.

The profound scientific research foundation of the Daming Academy of Sciences soon became apparent.

Upon learning of this, Zhu Yunwen immediately ordered more funds to be invested to expand the research scale and to mobilize more technical personnel to participate in the improvement experiment.

As a result, batches of skilled craftsmen and learned scholars devoted themselves to the project, working day and night to overcome the challenges.

Through countless experiments and failures, they gradually improved the photosensitive materials and lens structure, significantly shortening the exposure time and rapidly enhancing the camera's practicality.

……

New inventions and gadgets emerged in endless streams, constantly challenging the perceptions of officials and ordinary people.

Many things that were never imagined have become reality in the blink of an eye, and have even become topics of conversation among ordinary people.

Thanks to Zhu Yunwen's advance planning and skillful guidance and publicity of public opinion, these scientific and technological achievements were not rejected by society, but instead aroused great interest and praise.

Whether high-ranking officials and nobles or ordinary people, everyone was filled with wonder and anticipation for these "miracle artifacts".

When the first steam train, billowing thick smoke, roared from the end of the tracks, its wheels colliding with the rails with a deafening roar, countless people spontaneously gathered along the railway line, eager to witness this epoch-making moment.

Exclamations and cheers rose and fell, children ran around shouting, and the elderly had tears in their eyes, as if they were witnessing the miracle of the world changing and everything being renewed.

An official wrote in his memorial to the throne: "The establishment of science is truly a great change unprecedented in three thousand years!"

"Your Majesty, as the founder of science, has made outstanding contributions, surpassing even Yao and Shun. In the past three thousand years, no one has been able to benefit the world as much as Your Majesty."

"Today, the Great Ming Dynasty is stepping into a new era unprecedented in history!"

Yes, the Ming Dynasty is radiating vitality at an unprecedented speed.

Zhu Yunwen witnessed all of this and was extremely excited, his heart filled with great ambition.

However, at that very moment, a shocking alarm suddenly came through.

On the morning of the thirteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the government affairs office received urgent telegrams from the governors and inspectors of Shandong and Henan respectively.

The telegram stated that since the beginning of July, torrential rains have continued in the Yellow River basin, plunging Henan, Shandong, and even several upstream provinces into devastating floods.

The Yellow River's water level rose steadily, and by the 13th, the dike in the Guide Prefecture section could no longer withstand the pressure and collapsed with a roar.

The raging floodwaters swept across thousands of miles, instantly submerging countless villages and fertile fields within Guide Prefecture. The people suffered heavy casualties, and countless others were displaced.

The floods are still ongoing, with breaches still gushing water and the torrents sweeping everything away. They are rapidly spreading downstream, threatening the safety of dozens of prefectures and counties along the river.

……

(End of this chapter)