The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 647 The Mighty Ming Dynasty
Alunhe Guard, which is also the name of the original Nurgan Regional Military Commission Guard.

Its location is roughly at the confluence of the middle and lower reaches of the Nenjiang River, about 100 li to the west of Xing'alin and about 600 li to the southeast of Beiwangcheng.

If we only consider the distance between Arun River Guard and the Northern Royal City, in the past when transportation was inconvenient, it would have taken five or six days to transport goods by horse-drawn carriages. Now that there are steamships, it would take less than a day to travel from the Northern Royal City.

On the first day of the fifth month, around 5 PM, a massive fleet consisting of hundreds of Weiyuan warships and thousands of flying shuttles arrived at Arun River Guard.

On the flagship, Wanli looked around through his telescope and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The river is so wide here! This section of the river near Weicheng is more than ten miles wide!

He raised his binoculars again and swept the area south of the Acropolis, a look of shock appearing on his face.

The combined camp of nearly a million people was truly spectacular; the densely packed tents seemed to stretch to the horizon, and even telescopes could not see the end of them.

Xiao Zhu and Chang Xun couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, so many people and so many tents!"

The Northern King Zhu Changxu was also extremely excited.

This time, he was going to lead the army on a campaign with Grand Marshal Qi Jiguang, and he had never commanded such a large force before.

Before long, the flagship docked at the pier, the cabin door was lowered, and Ma Gui and Dong Yiyuan, who had received the order, quickly stepped aboard.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli invited everyone to sit down and then solemnly said, "This campaign against the Oirat Mongols is not only about completely pacifying the northern barbarians, but we also need to build railways to connect the entire north."

The construction of this railway requires a large number of people, so we must first select and expand the garrison.

Yuan Jing, this is your responsibility. I have brought more than 3,000 flying shuttles this time. After these flying shuttles unload the railway sleepers and Shenji Battalion soldiers, they will go to various places to recruit able-bodied men. You will lead the Shenwu Battalion soldiers to conduct a thorough selection.

"The able-bodied men of the Nurgan Commandery should be able to be brought over gradually by tomorrow. We need to complete the selection by the end of May, and we'll set off for the expedition in early June."

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli then pointed to the map on the table and explained in detail: "There is also the construction of railways, which will be the responsibility of Chang Geng."

Construction will begin today. We will first complete the railway from the dock to the station, and then construct the railway from Alunhewei to the former Hailar Thousand Household Office. We aim to complete the construction by the end of May.

General Ma, you will be in charge of assisting Chang Geng in directing the garrison troops to lay the railway.

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

He hasn't even commanded an army of thousands yet, and the garrison here already has 300,000 soldiers, not to mention who knows how many more will be selected later.

Ma Gui nodded without hesitation and said, "This subordinate understands."

Emperor Wanli nodded slightly and then carefully instructed, "Yiyuan, you will lead the cavalry of Jizhou Town and Liaodong Town to transport grain and fodder."

This refers to the provisions for the garrison battalion. The soldiers of the garrison battalion had to spread out along this mountain road for thousands of miles to build the railway, and the provisions could only be transported by grain carts.

I have brought 100,000 Shenji Battalion soldiers and 20,000 grain carts with me this time. Adding them to the grain carts that were already here, that makes 40,000. That should be enough.

Be careful of the Oirat cavalry harassing the grain carts and even the garrison troops, especially at the exit of the railway west of Xing'alin.

Upon hearing this, Dong Yiyuan nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

That's about it. They need to hurry up and direct the unloading.

Wanli thought for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, everyone go about your business."

The generals and commanders quickly stood up, clasped their hands, bowed, and took their leave.

Song Yingxing excitedly followed Ma Gui off the boat.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Changxu, the Prince of the North, said a few words to the Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan with some reluctance, and then got up to follow Qi Jiguang.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun, who was in the arms of Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, excitedly waved his hands and said, "Father, your son wants to go too."

What are you going to do?

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "We'll wait until the Shenji Battalion has set up their camp before going down. For now, let's stay on the ship and keep watch." With that, he stood up, took the binoculars from the Jinwu Guard, and walked to the window to scan the area.

At this moment, the soldiers of the garrison battalion were all mobilized to the densely packed docks on both sides to begin unloading the rails and sleepers.

The soldiers of the Shenji Battalion also drove the grain carts off the ship and quickly rushed to the open space reserved next to the dock to unload the grain and supplies, and then began to set up camp.

Song Yingxing was on the large dock next door.

The kid was holding a blueprint and explaining it to Ma Gui while pointing things out to everyone.

Ma Gui nodded repeatedly, frequently giving orders, and was very obedient.

Song Yingxing's general idea was to first connect and secure the Weiyuan warship that was pulling the train to the dock, and then lay the tracks on the shore according to the spacing of the tracks on the Weiyuan warship.

Under Ma Gui's command, the soldiers of the garrison carried over rails, sleepers, and rubble.

They brought only this modified Weiyuan warship with them, and they brought a whole train with them on this trip.

Because there is no railway here yet, no matter how many trains are brought over, they cannot be pushed onto the platform. Moreover, the capital is only about 3,000 li away from here, and it would only take the Weiyuan warship six or seven days to make a round trip.

It would take them a month or two just to lay the railway here, but a single Weiyuan warship could easily pull it back and forth without delaying anything.

The other five hundred-plus Weiyuan warships were hauling away gravel, piles of gravel as high as mountains. The garrison soldiers didn't know how many days it would take to unload it all.

The rails and sleepers on the shuttle were unloaded that very night.

Early the next morning, Qi Jiguang ordered the flying shuttle boats to go and fetch able-bodied men.

This is the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, and there are already many military posts along the Nenjiang River. It would be incredibly fast to send a shuttle boat to fetch supplies here.

The military households of the Nurgan Garrison were the most numerous.

In the past two years, the garrison households here have been living a life of plenty, and the young and strong in their families have grown up incredibly fast, with a large number of people coming to enlist.

On the second day alone, more than 3,000 shuttle boats brought back and forth over 100,000 able-bodied men!
The numbers kept increasing, sometimes tens of thousands, every single day, seemingly without ever stopping.

Most of the able-bodied men brought over were qualified. After Qi Jiguang selected and reorganized them, they were ready to be used for laying railway tracks.

Song Yingxing's ranks of able-bodied men were growing ever larger, and the tracks around the port were taking shape at a visible speed, continuing to extend into Xing'alin.

This kid even came up with a way to install the locomotive of the second train upside down behind the first one.

With this modification, the train could now travel in both directions.

In this way, the soldiers of the garrison no longer had to carry rails, sleepers, and gravel for dozens or even hundreds of miles.

All they had to do was load the rails, sleepers, and gravel onto the train, and then let the train carry these things to the front of the railway where it was being laid, where people would unload the goods.

This made the construction of the railway much faster.

Originally, they planned to build 30 to 40 miles a day, which would be considered good.

Even if the garrison has a large number of soldiers, the maximum manpower can only transport rails, sleepers, and rubble for about 30 to 40 miles a day.

Now that trains are used to transport rails, sleepers, and gravel, most of the physical labor is saved, and their main workload is now digging the foundation.

At this point, the train wouldn't be able to run very fast. A hundred li in an hour is equivalent to fifty li in an hour. There's no need to dig a very deep foundation; a depth of about ten feet is enough. This depth is extremely easy for hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Even if only 100,000 garrison soldiers were digging the foundation, with ten soldiers densely arranged to dig every zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), they could still dig at least 60-70 li (approximately 30-35 kilometers) of foundation per day.

Moreover, the garrison already numbered more than 100,000 soldiers.

The speed at which the railway was built was incredibly fast; traveling 60 or 70 li a day was considered low.

The Ming Dynasty is so powerful now, with plenty of money, grain, and manpower. The speed at which it builds railways is astonishing.

(End of this chapter)