Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1426, Canal Progress

When Daming was thriving and developing rapidly, it was here in Egypt, which was thousands of miles away from Daming.

In the hot desert, hundreds of thousands of Egyptian migrant workers are working in full swing in the hot desert. A wide river divides the land into two sides like a scar on the ground.

Egyptian migrant workers work very seriously, full of passion and energy.

They were originally the lowest-level farmers in Egypt, or the kind of farmers who lost their land. In the past, even food was a problem, so there were frequent peasant riots in Egypt.

The peasants who couldn't get enough to eat almost overthrew the rule of the Mamluk Kingdom.

Fortunately, the excavation of the Egyptian canal was like a shower of rain falling on the heads of the Egyptians, and huge funds from Ming Dynasty were continuously poured into this dry land.

Hundreds of thousands of people were employed, including food and housing, and received dozens of pennies a day. They could earn almost one or two taels of silver for a month of work.

Such a good thing suddenly caused the whole of Egypt to boil. Countless farmers who lost their land and had no life to rely on came to the canal construction site and became a member of the canal digging army.

The capital and technology of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the food continuously transported from East Africa, Tianzhu, Nanyang and other places of the Ming Dynasty, revived the Mamluk Kingdom that was on the verge of extinction.

At this moment, Kansu II of the Mamluk Kingdom is leading a group of Egyptian officials to inspect the Egyptian canal. The general manager of the canal, Tong Yuan and chief technical engineer from the Ming Empire, is also accompanied by Zhan Qi, who graduated from the Daming Institute of Engineering. Beside.

Kansu II looked at the huge scene of hundreds of thousands of people in front of him, and his whole face was full of smiles. After several years of excavation, the Egyptian Canal is getting closer and closer to its official opening, and he can sit and collect money by then.

Of course, for Kansu II, he hoped that the canal could be dug longer, so that he would have time to clean up the Mamluk feudal nobles in Egypt.

In the past few years, by supporting the big project of the Egyptian Canal, Kansu II has gradually begun to grasp the right to speak, and using some other means, he has gradually mastered all the power in Egypt.

However, he still does not intend to let the feudal nobles of Toure go, not only because these people controlled power at the beginning and emptied themselves, but more importantly, he is now learning books and knowledge from Ming Dynasty every day, and he has a deep understanding of the problems existing in Egypt .

That is the tiller has no land!

In layman's terms, land annexation is too serious.

Egypt itself has very little land, and even less arable land, which is distributed on both sides of the Nile River Basin and the delta area downstream.

There is very little land that can be cultivated, but the internal land annexation is extremely serious. The Mamluks were originally military feudal nobles when the country was founded. hands.

A large number of peasants have lost their land and have no support for their lives. Naturally, various peasant uprisings will arise one after another. A slight disaster will immediately ignite a raging fire and completely destroy this dynasty.

Kansu II was not aware of this problem at first, but the newspapers and books from Daming, coupled with the fact that he often talked with Tong Yuan, a Ming official, about the way of governing the country, also gave him a comprehensive understanding of this aspect. understanding.

Therefore, Kansu II is now very clear that there are only two paths before him.

One is to crack down on the Mamluk feudal military aristocrats, crack down on land annexation, and return the land to farmers who urgently need it.

The other is to embark on the road of external expansion just like Daming, acquire land from the outside, and then relocate the population.

The first way is to attack the Mamluk feudal military aristocrats. Naturally, it is necessary to attack, but the foundation of the Mamluk Kingdom itself is built on these feudal military aristocrats.

Originally, the Mamluks were slave soldiers sent by Ha~~li~~ in the Middle Ages, and then gradually developed into a powerful military ruling group. The Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt was established on this basis.

Attacking the Mamluk feudal military aristocracy is not to destroy it, but to attack those hostile forces that do not listen to their own words, and the ultimate goal is to bring these feudal military aristocrats under their own hands.

It is impossible to really dig out the ruling foundation and roots of the dynasty. Of course, land annexation is obviously to be restricted, and these feudal nobles cannot be allowed to annex land endlessly.

The second path is the path Kansu II really wants to take. The internal land annexation has been extremely serious, and a large amount of land has been concentrated in the hands of a small number of feudal nobles.

Peasants lose their land and have no reliance for survival, so they must be given land so that they can stabilize.

External expansion is obviously a good choice.

Through external expansion, internal contradictions can be passed on, and at the same time, it can also take the opportunity to integrate the forces within the dynasty and consolidate its own rule, which can be said to have many benefits.

Of course, the premise is that you can win the battle. If you are defeated every time you expand abroad, you will not only be unable to transfer internal conflicts and consolidate your own rule.

It may even detonate its own internal contradictions and shake its own rule at the same time.

"Master Tong, how long will it take for the Egyptian canal to be completely dug through?"

When Kansu II came to inspect the canal this time, he mainly wanted to find Tong Yuan to see if he could obtain powerful weapons and weapons from the Ming Empire, so that he would be more confident when expanding abroad.

"Your Majesty, it will probably take more than a year to dig through all of them."

Tong Yuan took out a map, pointed to the position on it and said: "We have now dug through the section between the Red Sea and the Bitter Lake. This is the most difficult section and the longest section. The next step is to dig It is estimated that more than a year will be enough to connect the section of the Mediterranean Sea to the Bitter Lake.”

"In the [-]rd year of Hongzhi, navigation will be realized!"

Tong Yuan looked at the prosperous construction site in front of him, and he was also amazed.

It was originally planned to spend seven or eight years digging the Egyptian canal, but who knew that these Egyptians were so active in their work, and it was very easy to recruit manpower. Hundreds of thousands of people are digging the canal here, which is faster than the budgeted time. Fast forward to more than two years, and the canal can be dug in less than five years.

Hundreds of thousands of people are busy at the huge construction site in front of them. On both sides of the canal, there are still a large number of family members following them, so that an extremely spectacular shanty town has been formed in this hot desert.

There are a large number of women, children, and old people in the shantytowns. These are the families of these Egyptian workers. The farmers who lost their land have no land to live on, so they can only wander around.

The backbone of the family came here, and they followed.

The wages of these Egyptian workers can be paid in two ways, one is to give silver directly, and the other is to convert grain according to the price of grain and pay with grain.

For these Egyptian workers, many people would choose the second method. They have food in their hands and don’t panic in their hearts. Their families will also have food and drink when they come with them, and they will not starve to death.

At the same time, follow over here, hundreds of thousands of people are here, and they are all workers with stable incomes. This is also an extremely huge market.

There are a lot of people doing business here.

There are restaurants here in the shantytowns. These workers are tired of the food on the construction site, or they can invite a few friends to the restaurant next time on the rest day, a luxury.

There are also a large number of brothels and Chu houses here, which are dedicated to these workers, and there are also a large number of freelance women to relax and relax these hard-working migrant workers.

In addition, there are more shops of all kinds. As long as you have money, you can buy anything here. With a huge market of hundreds of thousands of people, no profitable businessman will let it go.

In history, when the French dug the Egyptian canal, because the wages they paid were very low, they even defaulted on the wages for no reason. In addition, they did not dig a canal to divert fresh water in advance, resulting in a lack of drinking water, resulting in a large number of deaths. , various diseases frequently broke out.

Therefore, the excavation of the Egyptian canal was also strongly opposed by Egypt. It has been very unsatisfactory all the time. There are not enough people, and there are always various problems. The speed is very slow. It took more than ten years to dig. Pass.

It's different now. If you want money, you have money, and if you want food, you have food. There is so much food in Tianzhu, East Africa, and Nanyang, and the price of food is super cheap. Even if it is shipped here, the price is still not expensive.

In addition, Liu Jin had instructed in advance to dig a large-scale freshwater aqueduct first, and a large amount of fresh water was brought in from the Nile River, which not only met the huge demand of the construction site, but was even redundant, so that around the aqueduct Some villages have also formed, and some people are actually farming.

The Mamluk Kingdom of Egypt is also very cooperative. The canal is much smoother when dug. Not only is it fast, but it also drives the economy of Egypt and saves the endangered Mamluk Kingdom.

"It will take more than a year~"

After listening to Kansu II, he pondered for a while and calculated silently.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Master Tong, dig slowly, don't rush, the channel of this canal can be dug wider and deeper, so that larger ships can pass through it."

"If I remember correctly, your Daming Morning Post reported that your Daming side has a new type of steamer. The size of this steamer is getting bigger and bigger. We have to take this into consideration. The ships in the future may be bigger than the current ones. The ships are much, much bigger."

"It is indeed the case. I also considered this point, so I also widened and deepened the canal channel, and completed it at one time, so as to save money and expand it later."

Tong Yuan looked at Kansu II, who did not expect him to know and care so much about the affairs of Daming, even knowing about the steamship.

(End of this chapter)