The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 624 It's too hot and my scalp itches
Luzon is very hot.

It's already the end of September, and it's still incredibly hot here.

And it's been raining every day right now.

If you're outside and it suddenly rains heavily, your wet hair will stick to your scalp, and your head will feel incredibly itchy, as if you have lice.

Around 1:00 PM that day, Wanli originally planned to take Zhu Changxun ashore to see the soldiers of the garrison building granaries.

To their surprise, just as they were about to set off, the sky suddenly darkened, followed by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, and large raindrops began to fall in a pattering downpour.

Emperor Wanli frowned slightly as he looked out at the torrential rain pouring down.

This weather is too troublesome for development; the soldiers of the garrison mustn't catch a cold from the rain.

Little Zhu Changxun in his arms couldn't help but sigh softly, "Alas, we can't go out to play again, Father. Why is it raining so much here?"

The heavy rain here isn't a major problem.

The key issue is that the weather here is too hot.

They now have to send hundreds of shuttle ships to transport ice from Liaodong just to barely keep the temperature under control on this Weiyuan warship!

This is still Luzon Island. Further south, in places like Malacca and Phrom Rai Island, it's unimaginable how hot it would be.

He originally wanted to visit Malacca, and then take a trip to Penglai Island and Fangzhang Island.

But the temperature really scared him, and he didn't dare to go there now.

The temperature here is over 30 degrees Celsius during the day, while in Malacca and Phonglai Island it is at least 34 or 35 degrees Celsius.

He estimated he could barely stand that temperature, but Xiao Zhu Changxun definitely couldn't. Once the ice ran out, he would definitely get sick from the heat.

This place is already seven or eight thousand li away from Liaodong Commandery, and Malacca is at least twelve thousand li away from Liaodong Commandery. Transporting ice over such a long distance is a bit unrealistic. Just traveling thousands of li in the hot weather of Southeast Asia, who knows how much of a ship's ice would melt.

So he waited here.

He was waiting for the temperature to drop, and also for Xu Guangqi, Wang Xiangjin, Li Zhizao, and others. Besides, the battle reports from the Americas hadn't arrived yet.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty is now so vast that it's really troublesome to govern.

Wanli glanced at the map on the table and couldn't help but sigh slightly, "Xun'er, being an emperor isn't easy. Don't always think about playing around."

"Once the vast empire of the Ming Dynasty is handed over to you, you'll have nothing to do with playing games. You'd better get used to this kind of life without any fun."

Being an emperor is truly not easy, especially for the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, whose territory is now vast.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but lower his head and stare at the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, a Imperial Guard suddenly rushed up from the first floor, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Lord Xu, Lord Wang and Lord Li have arrived."

Xu Guangqi, Wang Xiangjin, and Li Zhizao finally arrived.

Upon hearing this, Wanli said without hesitation: "Announce."

Soon, Xu Guangqi, Wang Xiangjin, and Li Zhizao arrived together.

The three of them seemed to have gotten a little wet in the rain; their hair was all stuck together, and their official robes were also a bit damp.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli said with concern, "Someone, bring me dry towels. Zixian, Zijin, Zhenzhi, you can wipe yourselves down first. It's much colder in here than outside, so don't catch a cold."

The three thanked him repeatedly and then took the dry towels to wipe themselves.

Seeing that they had almost finished wiping, Wanli asked, "Zhenzhi, you've been here several times. Do you know when it will get cooler here?"

Uh, is it getting colder?

Li Zhizao thought for a moment, then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, this is already considered a drop in temperature. It was even hotter here in July and August. If we want it to be less hot, it will be at least November or even December."

what?
Does this mean we'll have to wait at least two more months?

Upon hearing this, Wanli couldn't help but frowned slightly.

Xu Guangqi, however, said with great interest: "Your Majesty, the weather is wonderful, perfect for planting rice."

"I've long heard that rice can be grown three times a year in Qiongzhou Prefecture, and it seems there's even less of a problem here, given the ample rainfall."

The heat and rain have somehow turned into a good thing for you!
Wang Xiangjin nodded repeatedly, saying, "Yes, Your Majesty, many fruits and vegetables also thrive in heat and rain, so they can probably be grown here all year round."

People so obsessed with the Tao seem indifferent to even the worst weather. Fine, as long as you like the weather here.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How is the situation at the Nurgan Regional Military Commission? Have you tried planting anything suitable for the Sanjiang Plain?"

Xu Guangqi nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have tried it. There is no problem growing rice, wheat and corn there. Moreover, the soil there is very fertile, and with ample fertilizer, the yield is even higher than that of the Songnen Plain."

Wang Xiangjin nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have also tried it. There is no problem growing cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. there are no problems. The yield of Chinese cabbage, potatoes and sweet potatoes is even more astonishing."

That's good.

The development of Nurgan Commandery is no longer a problem; all that's needed is to bring people over.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slightly and then decisively said, "Then you can try planting rice, melons, fruits and vegetables here."

Don't even consider Penglai Island and Fangzhang Island yet. Penglai Island is too hot, and Fangzhang Island is too far away. Neither is suitable for large-scale cultivation of grains, fruits, and vegetables.

You should focus all your efforts on developing Luzon Island. I have already ordered people to roughly measure it. The vast plain from Manila to Cupan has at least 300 million acres of land.

"If we can develop these 300 million mu of land, this place can become the granary of the entire Southeast Asia. Then we won't have to worry about transporting grain from Liaodong Commandery and Nurgan Commandery anymore."

This area covers more than 300 million mu!
Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi and Wang Xiangjin's eyes lit up, and they nodded repeatedly.

Developing this area is not actually that easy.

Wanli thought for a moment, then explained in detail: "The weather here is indeed suitable for growing rice, melons, fruits and vegetables. It would probably be no problem to grow them all year round."

The problem is that planting like this will reduce the soil's fertility, and the yield of the crops will inevitably decrease.

In this situation, we would have to consider using a lot of fertilizer. We can forget about the fertilizer produced in Nurgan Commandery, as the journey is too far and the cost of transporting it would be higher than the value of the grain produced.

We can only try to make fertilizer here. We don't need to worry about the fish bone meal problem anymore; I have already ordered fishing boats to try it in this area.

There are plenty of fish in the waters around here; it's not a problem to catch millions or even tens of millions of kilograms a day.

The problem now is, there aren't large swamps here, and not enough silt. Can we produce fertilizer in large quantities?

This is actually not a big problem.

Wang Xiangjin thought for a moment, then carefully said, "Your Majesty, actually, the silt in the sea can also be used to make fertilizer, and the silt in the sea is more fertile than the silt in swamps and rivers."

Can sea silt be used to make fertilizer?
Upon hearing this, Wanli asked in surprise, "Isn't seawater salty? The silt in the sea must contain a lot of salt. Won't applying too much fertilizer made from the silt in the sea turn the fields into saline-alkali land?"

There is, of course, a way to do that.

Wang Xiangjin explained in detail: "Your Majesty, the silt in the sea can actually wash away most of the salt water."

The simplest way is to dig a huge pit by the river and use sluice gates to control the river water for irrigation, using the irrigation method to wash away the salt water.

We can dump the silt dredged from the sea directly into the giant pit, then pour in a large amount of river water to rinse and soak it for about a day, allowing the salt water and silt to separate. Then, we can open the sluice gate on the other side and release the water.

After washing it three or four times, the silt in the sea will have very little salt water left, making it perfectly suitable for making fertilizer.

The problem is that sea silt is difficult to dredge, so people generally don't use this method to make fertilizer unless there's a silt beach right by the sea or river mouth.

Digging silt out of the sea is really troublesome.

But it's not a big problem.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wanli pondered and said, "The silt in the sea here is not difficult to dredge."

"I have already ordered people to measure it. In many places, the depth in this bay is only a little over three zhang (approximately 13 meters). If our specialized dredging machines are mounted on the flying shuttle boats, they can be powered by steam to dredge the silt."

This is a good idea.

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiangjin nodded excitedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. This way, we won't have to worry about fertilizer anymore."

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing's eyes lit up even more, and he was eager to try.

Seeing this, Wanli simply said, "Chang Geng, why don't you help Zijin? You'll be in charge of the dredging boats, the fertilizer workshops, and the salt washing pools."

You'd better build the fertilizer workshop right next to the salt washing pools. That way, you can continuously produce fertilizer simply by installing a sludge dredging machine into the pools.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

(End of this chapter)