Bringing the Railway to Daming

June 20th, the 26th year of Hongwu (1388).

The weather was clear and cloudless.

The Ming Dynasty's Western Sea Commandery and the Jin army, totaling more than 50,000 men, besieged Tunis. They then captured this ancient North African city in just half a day, taking the newly enthroned King Tab and many other nobles of Hafs prisoner.

In the 12th century, the Berbers rebelled against the tyranny of Arab rule and established the Kingdom of Al-Muwahid.

A century later, the Kingdom of Almowahid split into three, one of which was the Kingdom of Hafs, with its capital in Tunis. It lasted for 165 years before coming to an end.

However, although Hafs's rule was ended, it did not mean that the State of Jin possessed the former territory of Hafs's kingdom.

When the Jin army entered Tunis, not only were the more than 10,000 French troops who had come to their aid still looting in various parts of Hafs, but many local lords also declared themselves independent.

For the Jin vassal states, they were, after all, foreigners from the east, and it was difficult for them to pacify other places after winning a decisive victory, as they had in China.

Therefore, after this summer, the Jin Kingdom will likely need to engage in numerous battles to bring the remaining territories that originally belonged to the Kingdom of Hafs under its control...

···
As August arrives, the summer heat lingers, but the mornings have already become cooler.

On the third day of the eighth lunar month, Liu Kuan got up at six o'clock again. After washing up and having a simple breakfast, he carried his laptop, tablet and mobile phone in his backpack and headed to the cross-river bridge.

Twelve years into the Ming Dynasty, Liu Kuan was almost forty, but the bridge across the river remained exactly the same as before, with little change.

As before, Zhu Biao accompanied Liu Kuan to the bridge to wait for the strange fog that might appear.

"Brother-in-law, it's been four or five years since the last strange fog appeared, hasn't it?"

Liu Kuan nodded, "To be precise, it's been four years."

"Four years have passed, and I wonder if that strange fog will fail to appear again this year."

Liu Kuan chuckled and said, "Your Highness, that strange fog never made any promises to us, so how can it be considered a breach of promise?"

Zhu Biao said, "I'm just worried that the strange fog won't come again. If that happens, you probably won't be able to play the videos and movies stored on your computer many times. Not to mention, the Ming Dynasty still has a lot of technology-related information that needs to be obtained from the internet in the future."

Liu Kuan said, "Even if the strange fog doesn't come again, the Ming Dynasty has now embarked on the path of science and has a certain technological foundation, so its future development will definitely not be bad."

Zhu Biao said, "But compared to later generations, it is still far behind—if we had the technology of later generations, my mother's health should be able to recover, right?"

Liu Kuan pondered for a moment and said, "I am not a doctor, so I can't say for sure about this matter—I can only say that with the medical level of the future, it will definitely be no problem to extend the Empress's life by a few years."

"Ah~"

Zhu Biao sighed and said nothing more.

Although Empress Ma's health has improved since the arrival of spring and she is able to go out and about, she is clearly much weaker than last year, and it is hard to say whether she can survive this winter.

At least the renowned doctors in the capital held a pessimistic view.

The phrase that has been mentioned many times before is "too little, too late".

If Empress Ma really doesn't make it through this winter, Liu Kuan will feel regret, but at least it's better than in history, where someone fell ill and died after a month or so – with the buffer of last year and this year, Zhu Yuanzhang should at least be able to accept this matter somewhat.

Just as Liu Kuan was pondering this matter, he suddenly heard a nearby guard exclaim, "It's foggy!"

Liu Kuan and Zhu Biao were both startled awake. Looking around, they indeed found a faint mist inexplicably appearing on the bridge.

Liu Kuan immediately turned on his phone, connected to the internet, and asked Zhu Biao to use his laptop to download videos and other materials.

Although based on previous experience, the duration of the strange fog's appearance had been consistently shortening, Liu Kuan, after spending a few minutes downloading the necessary technology information on his phone, couldn't resist checking the news from the future. "Huayu Home Intelligent Robot D6 Launched, Premium Edition Pre-order Price 66888 Yuan! Online Pre-orders Exceed 100,000!"

"The meteorological department predicts that after the start of autumn, North my country, Central China, and South China will experience two more rounds of high temperatures, with some areas reaching a maximum of 40℃!"

According to statistics from relevant organizations, the proportion of birth defects in Japan has risen to 7.6% this year, while the birth rate continues to decline.

"Large-scale robot attacks have occurred again in cities including Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle! At least tens of thousands of robots have been damaged, thousands injured, and 17 people have died in the clashes..."

Liu Kuan watched the news for a while and found that the world seemed more chaotic than it had been ten years ago, especially abroad.

In addition, the weather in the future seems to be more abnormal than before he traveled through time.

As for technology, it has undoubtedly become more advanced, and intelligent robots will soon enter every household, just like computers did back then.

While Liu Kuan was browsing the news, Zhu Biao continued to use Bilibili to find and download various videos.

Following Liu Kuan's instructions, he first followed several content creators who primarily focused on technology and quickly downloaded some of their videos.

Then he went back to the homepage of Bilibili to find some videos he thought were valuable to download.

Of course, he inevitably glanced at those videos that attracted him with just their titles and covers.

"Grassland Special Forces, Da Ming Ye Bu Shou? 5 men launch a night raid on 3000 cavalry, all-around skills in horseback riding, archery, and wilderness survival. How powerful is Da Ming Ye Bu Shou?"

"Understand Yuan Shu's confidence in confronting the entire world in 9 minutes?"

What would it be like if World War III broke out?

"How powerful are modern mushroom bombs?"

"···"

As Zhu Biao watched, he became completely engrossed, only to find that the network connection stopped working after watching just a few videos.

Having gained experience, Zhu Biao looked up and around, and sure enough, he found that the strange fog had dissipated at some point.

At this moment, Liu Kuan also put away his phone and sighed, "The duration of the strange fog is indeed about half a minute shorter than last time."

Although Zhu Biao also felt regret, he was in a better mood than Liu Kuan at the moment, and said, "Didn't my brother-in-law advise me to take it easy before? How come you are regretting it now?"

Liu Kuan stood up, looked at the rolling river flowing eastward under the bridge, and said, "I just want to know more about the situation in the future—the time spent online is really too short."

During this time, Liu Kuan didn't forget to take a look at his older brother's WeChat Moments. Fortunately, judging from this year's posts, his brother's family was doing well.

As for his parents' situation, he didn't see it on his WeChat Moments because his older brother's Moments only showed posts from the last six months.

Liu Kuan could only silently wish his parents well.

Accompanied by Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan stood by the bridge for several minutes before packing his things and heading back to the city together.

Liu Kuan was still sitting in the same carriage as Zhu Biao.

On the way, Zhu Biao said, "Brother-in-law, let's plan a movie screening this Mid-Autumn Festival. I want to take advantage of Mother's good health and let her enjoy the happiness of being surrounded by her children and grandchildren while watching a movie together."

Liu Kuan nodded, "I will prepare well." (End of Chapter)