Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1188, the role of the railway
"woooo~"

"Kengcha~Kengcha!"

Accompanied by bursts of sirens, the train was running on the rails, and the early cold in October in the Beijing-Tianjin area could not dampen the heated discussions among the passengers on the train.

"It's really a kind of enjoyment to take the train to appreciate the great rivers and mountains of my Daming!"

Emperor Hongzhi looked at the scenery outside the window. It was already October, golden autumn in October, and the earth was dyed golden yellow. Looking up, there was an endless field, golden mountains in the distance, and curls rising from villages everywhere. The smoke from cooking, the endless stream of horse-drawn carriages on the cement road...
All this in front of him made Emperor Hongzhi mesmerized.

Although this kind of scenery is too ordinary, it is not easy for Emperor Hongzhi, who lives in the palace, to go out for a walk. What's more, it is the first time to take a train, and the feeling is very different. up.

"Haha, Your Majesty, in the future, I will build such railways from east to west, north and south, and it will be very convenient for Your Majesty to go wherever you want in the future. At that time, you can take the train to see the north and south of the great river."

Zhang Mao on the side also said with a smile, he has never been second in the matter of flattery.

"The carrying capacity of trains and railways is so powerful. If there are a large number of railway connections in the north and south of our Ming Dynasty, as well as at home and abroad, then our Daming country will become extremely strong."

"These railways are like meridians, firmly connecting the vast land of our Ming Dynasty together."

Li Dongyang also nodded straightly.

It is difficult to understand the powerful carrying capacity of a train without taking a train in person.

Only by taking a ride in person and feeling the powerful carrying capacity and terrifying speed of the train, you will understand its importance to a country, society, and economy.

Especially for such an era where people rely on their legs to go out and pick up goods, the appearance of trains is definitely an epoch-making thing.

"Your minister also supports me in Da Ming's overhaul of the railway. In the future, wherever my Daming Railway goes, our country will become extremely strong, and at the same time it will become more prosperous."

Liu Jian also nodded solemnly.

"Naturally, the railway needs to be built, but the way to build it is very critical."

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, pondered for a while and said.

Then he looked at Liu Jin and said, "Liu Aiqing, you built the first railway in Daming. You have the most right to speak. Tell me."

Hearing what Emperor Hongzhi said, everyone looked at Liu Jin in unison.

"Your Majesty, gentlemen~"

"My Ming Dynasty has a vast territory. Not to mention the Golden Continent and Australia, just on the Asian continent, it is nearly [-] miles from Liaodong, the easternmost part of my Ming Dynasty, to Nanyun Province, the westernmost part of my Ming Dynasty."

"The north and south of my Ming Dynasty, from the northernmost Arctic Circle to Xianglin Province and Zhenghe Province, are also more than [-] miles long. With such a vast land, this is definitely the largest empire in history."

"If you include the Golden Continent and Australia, it will be even bigger and unbelievable."

Liu Jin took out the world map, pointed to the map and said.

Everyone nodded slightly while listening.

"The train has an extremely powerful carrying capacity, whether it is used to transport people or goods, it is very convenient and fast."

"This is very helpful for strengthening our Ming Dynasty's control over the entire huge land, and it can also promote our Ming Dynasty's prosperity and prosperity."

"To give a very simple example, now my Ming Dynasty is about to enter winter, and when the cold winter comes, the vegetables and fruits in the Beijing-Tianjin area will disappear all of a sudden."

"But in Ryukyu, Luzon and other places in the south, where they are located in tropical and subtropical regions, they are not too cold even in winter, and they can still grow vegetables and fruits."

"However, due to traffic restrictions, it takes several days to arrive in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and vegetables and fruits are seasonal and cannot be stored for a long time."

"If we can build a railway that runs through the north and the south, relying on the railway, it only takes three or four days to transport a large amount of vegetables and fruits from the south to the Beijing-Tianjin area."

Liu Jin drew a line on the map, basically along the Beijing-Shanghai line of later generations, which is the most valuable line.

"Hmm~"

Everyone nodded after listening.

As the top of the Ming Dynasty, they are of course very aware of this. Every year in winter, when there is no season for vegetables and fruits in the Beijing-Tianjin area, there will be ships transporting a large amount of vegetables and fruits from Ryukyu, Nanyang and other places to Beijing. Jin area.

Not to mention the extremely expensive prices, the key is that they are not considered fresh, but even so, vegetables and fruits are still in high demand during the winter, and there is no need to worry about selling them.

"Another example is from the westernmost Nanyun Province, Hezhong, and the Western Regions to the Beijing-Tianjin region of our Ming Dynasty."

"This route is very long. If you use a four-wheeled carriage to transport the goods, it will take two or three months to reach the capital."

"As for this area, the Nanyun and Hezhong areas are fertile and produce a lot of grain. At the same time, there are extremely good pastures. I don't know how many cattle, horses and sheep are produced every year."

"There are many pastures in the Western Regions, and the output of cattle, sheep and horses is very large. In addition, the Kazakh Khanate attacks our Ming Dynasty with [-] war horses every year."

"At the same time, this area is the most important cotton producing area of ​​our Ming Dynasty. Moreover, there are few Han people in these areas, and there are many tribes. Our Ming Dynasty's rule is not stable."

"Because of the vast territory and inconvenient transportation, although there is an extremely rich grain output, cattle, sheep and horses, it is too far away from our Central Plains, and transportation is inconvenient."

"There is simply no way to transport the cattle, sheep and horses here to the Central Plains on a large scale, causing great waste."

"The Beijing-Tianjin area and the Central Plains of our Ming Dynasty have a huge population, but they lack high-quality meat, milk, and animal power such as cattle, sheep, and horses."

"If we can build such a railway and use the train to transport cattle, sheep, horses and grain, the grain, cattle, sheep, horses, cotton, etc. from these places can be transported to the Central Plains on a large scale."

"Not only can we balance the diet structure between different regions, but eating more meat can strengthen our Daming people's physique, and using a lot of horses and cattle can save manpower. This is of great significance to our Ming Dynasty."

"And as long as there are trains and railways, if there are turmoil in the Western Regions, Hezhong, or border areas in the future, the imperial court can also dispatch troops as quickly as possible to quell the turmoil and consolidate the border."

Liu Jin drew a line from east to west in the area.

To be honest, this is the railway that Liu Jin wanted to build the most. Daming's rule over the Western Regions, Hezhong, and Nanyun Province was actually relatively fragile.

Because there are so few Han people in these places, there are only a million newly migrated Han people in each place, and the local tribes account for the majority of the population.

And these places are rich in products, the most important of which are the output of cattle, sheep and horses. There are too many high-quality pastures here.

The north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the rich and vast rivers, not to mention Nanyun Province, so that the cattle, sheep, horses, etc. produced here are simply inexhaustible, and there is a large amount of surplus. Dried meat has also become a unique kind here. specialty.

If there is a railway running through the east and west, the situation will be completely different. The cattle, sheep and horses here can be transported to the Central Plains one by one to enrich the diet of the people of Ming Dynasty.

Eating is important.

Whether a person is tall, strong or well-developed has a lot to do with what he eats.

The reason why Europeans and Americans in later generations are generally tall and big is because they eat a lot of meat, beef, mutton and so on, and they can be made casually, because most of their countries are sparsely populated and have a lot of high-quality pastures. The yield of meat is very high.

In contrast, we look very short, and the average height is far lower than that of Europeans and Americans. This situation has continued until the 21st century. With the development of the country, people's living standards have improved, and people eat more meat. The height of the new generation of children has only increased rapidly, not to mention catching up with Europe, but they are also much taller than before.

This is enough to illustrate the importance of eating.

To improve the physical fitness of Ming people, the proportion of meat is very important, and the pastures in the Western Regions, Hezhong, Nanyun Province, Northern Grassland Province and other regions are very critical and important.

“Not bad~”

Everyone nodded after listening, the reason is very simple.

"In addition, as I said before, the weather in our Ming Dynasty is controlled by the subtropical high pressure, so there will be various natural disasters in our Ming Dynasty every year."

"Floods in the south and droughts in the north or droughts in the south and north floods, in the past, once there was a famine, there would inevitably be refugees everywhere, and the flames of war would easily cause great turmoil in our Ming society."

"But if every province has trains and railways, our imperial court can calmly dispatch food, materials and manpower from surrounding areas to provide disaster relief and relief."

"It used to take ten days and a half months to transport food. With trains and railways, it may only take two or three days. Even if there is a severe famine, I, Ming, will not need to worry about anything from now on."

"Because my Ming Dynasty has a lot of production areas. The traditional Central Plains, Jiangnan, Liaodong, Western Regions, Hezhong, and Nanyang. If there is a problem in one place, the impact will not be great. Other places can quickly support the food."

After talking about this, Liu Jin continued to talk about the important role of railway trains in disaster relief and relief.

In later generations, there will also be floods every year, but the impact on the whole society and the country has been minimal, but for the Ming Dynasty, if there is a famine in any place, it is a terrible thing, because there will inevitably be all kinds of chaos. Like, even the flames of war, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang kept pouring out.

(End of this chapter)