Daming Crazy Emperor

The Irtysh River originates from the southern foot of the Altai Mountains and is more than [-] miles long. It is the largest tributary of the Hubei River.

At the beginning, Taichang didn't know how big the Irtysh River was, because its downstream and middle reaches were only two or three miles wide, and it looked no different from other tributaries of the Hubei River.

However, that was not the case after the fleet sailed southeast for about two days.

The channel of the Irtysh River is getting wider and wider, from two or three miles to five or six miles and then to more than ten miles, and the channel of more than a hundred miles has become like a lake.

Moreover, this side has penetrated deep into the vast mountains of the Western Regions, and has not been invaded by the cold wave at all, and the temperature has almost risen to more than ten degrees.

Taichang felt the cool wind blowing in front of him, turned the binoculars and glanced around, and then couldn't help asking: "Zhensheng, is this the place you're talking about?"

Sun Chengzong shook his head slightly and said, "Your Majesty, it's not here. What I'm talking about is Zhai Sangbo."

Zhai Sangbo?
Taichang was quite puzzled and said, "What does Zhai Sangbo mean?"

Sun Chengzong quickly explained: "Zhaisang is an official position in the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties. It is the transliteration of the word prime minister. Zhaisangbo means prime minister lake."

Prime Minister Lake?
Is this an allusion borrowed from the prime minister's belly that can punt a boat?
Taichang turned his head to look at the map, and then asked curiously, "Where is Zhaisangbo, why isn't it on the map?"

Sun Chengzong quickly pointed to the map and said, "Your Majesty, Zhaisangbo is more than three hundred miles south of here. Because we didn't have a boat at that time, and the telescope couldn't see the opposite side of Zhaisangbo, so I didn't draw it indiscriminately. on the map."

The telescope can't see the opposite side!
How wide is this Zhaisangbo?
Taichang really couldn't figure out how there could be such a big lake among the vast mountains.

He was full of curiosity and anticipation.

If there is such a big lake here, then the ships in the Xibo Province will not have to run back in winter.

There is no problem with armed merchant ships passing through the main road of the Irtysh River. Except for dreadnoughts and Aegis ships, other ships can stay here.

After the fleet sailed south for more than three hours, the front suddenly became clear, and an endless water surface suddenly appeared in front of them.

What a big lake!

Taichang couldn't believe his eyes.

He turned the binoculars and scanned left and right, then looked forward, and he couldn't see the end in three directions!

Where is this a lake?

This is a vast ocean, right?

He was stunned for a while, and then asked: "Zhensheng, where should we go?"

Sun Chengzong said without hesitation: "This lake runs from east to west. If we drive more than 200 miles to the east, we can see the upstream river channel. Moreover, there is a large mountain basin over there, which can be used to build a city. "

More than 200 miles?

Taichang looked at the sky, and immediately ordered: "Li Qing, order all the dragon warships to sail eastward at full speed, and the Spike warships will follow."

It's past the end of the day, if they drive slowly with the Spike warship, it will take at least two hours.

It will be dark by then, and they won't be able to see anything at all.

The Flying Dragon Battleship is different, it takes more than an hour to arrive at a distance of more than 200 miles.

After a wave of command flags, forty dragon battleships immediately rushed out and galloped towards the southeast.

Yuan Keli was quite experienced. The reason why he ordered the Flying Dragon to sail southeast instead of going straight east was to see how wide the lake was.

Sure enough, about a quarter of an hour later, they faintly saw the south bank of the lake.

At this time, the fleet was almost in the center of the lake, and the telescope could only faintly see the lofty mountains on both sides.

In other words, the distance between the two sides is about [-] miles, and the width of Zhaisangbo is about [-] miles!

It's really a big lake.

It's a pity that Zhaisangbo is surrounded by lofty mountains, otherwise a large transfer base like the Shenwu Camp could be built.

Taichang looked back at the map, thought about it carefully, and then asked, "Zhisheng, do you think we can build the railway from Jiayuguan to here?"

Uh, this.

Sun Chengzong shook his head helplessly and said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this won't work, not to mention that Jiayuguan is thousands of miles away, and the terrain in the middle is quite complicated.

Not to mention anything else, just say that the channel of the Irtysh River has nine twists and eighteen bends, and twists and turns.

If roads are built, it may not be a big problem, but if railways are built, it will definitely not work. "

Well, it is true that the road can twist and turn, but the railway cannot twist and turn.

Taichang could only sigh slightly: "It's a pity, if the railway can be built from Jiayuguan, then the whole of Central Asia and even the Caspian Sea can be connected to the local railway network of Daming through the channel of the Irtysh River and the canal we built. gone."

This seems not difficult, right?
Sun Chengzong looked at the map carefully again, and then said carefully: "Your Majesty, do you still remember the location of the mountain pass we came in?

It happened to be on the edge of the vast mountains, and it seemed to be less than a thousand miles away from Shenwu City.

If we can build a city there, and then build a railway from Shenwu City to there, wouldn’t the Irtysh River be connected to the local railway network of Daming? "

Yes, the railway can be built westward from Shenwu City to the Irtysh River Basin!

In fact, the Irtysh River can be connected to the railway network of the Ming Dynasty through the main trunk of the Ob River.

However, if you take the trunk of the Irtysh River to the north and enter the trunk of the Hubei River, and then turn to Shenwu City, it will be seven or eight thousand miles.

It would be different if a railway was built from Shenwu City to the west, it would be less than a thousand miles in total!

Moreover, Zhaisangbo is less than two thousand miles away from Sankou in the north, so it will be very convenient to transfer supplies in or out.

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help nodding his head and said: "Yes, we can build a railway going west from Shenwu City, connecting it to the Irtysh River.

We can even dig another canal along the railway to connect the Hubei River and the Irtysh River from the middle.

In this way, it only takes three days for the ship to travel from Shenwu City to here.

Moreover, we don't have to detour the river in the north, and we don't have to worry about being frozen.

If the cold current is not so strong, this channel can even pass for more than half a year. "

Uh, another canal nearly a thousand miles away!

Is the emperor addicted to digging canals?

However, the construction of this canal is still very valuable, at least it can allow more than a month of navigation time in the south of Xiber Province.

Sun Chengzong looked at the map again, and suddenly had an idea: "Your Majesty, you see, this tributary of the Irtysh River just flows from the direction of Shenwu City. Although the location is somewhat north, its source is not far from Shenwu City. It's two hundred miles away.

We can widen this river and connect it with Shenwu City, so we only need to dig a canal of about two hundred miles. "

Uh, that's a really good idea.

However, widening the river seems not so simple.

Taichang thought for a while, and then asked: "Is it easier to widen the river than digging a canal? There is water in this river, how can people go down and widen the river?"

Sun Chengzong looked at Yuan Keli's hesitation, and said modestly: "This Li Qing should understand better than the humble minister. After all, Li Qing has commanded the navy for decades, and most of our navy used to operate in inland waterways. of."

Yes, there is also a navy commander here.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty almost gave up the open seas, and naval ships generally moved in the inland waterway, so people must be very familiar with how to widen the waterway.

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help looking at Yuan Keli expectantly.

Seeing this, Yuan Keli quickly explained: "Your Majesty, the widening of the river depends on the specific situation and specific needs.

If the river channel itself is wide enough, but not deep enough, we can mobilize some ships to use some things in leaky iron buckets to fish up the sediment from the bottom of the river, just like dredging river sand.

If the width and depth are not enough, then generally the river will not be too large. We can build a temporary dam to block the river, drain the water inside, and dig directly in. "

It turns out that widening the river is not very difficult.

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help pointing at the map excitedly and said: "In this way, we can still connect the main trunk of the Irtysh River with the large tributary to the west through the small tributary in the middle.

Anyway, there are a lot of tributaries in the middle, we only need to find one or two that are close to each other, and it is estimated that we can connect the two sides without digging a canal for a hundred miles.

In this way, the defense line from Shenwu City to the Ural Mountains is less than two thousand miles away.

Moreover, the ships of Shenwu City can also quickly reach Central Asia and even the Caspian Sea through the canal. "

Well, it seems that the emperor is really addicted to digging canals.

Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli could only cheer up and discuss with Taichang seriously.

Unknowingly, more than an hour passed, and a huge trumpet suddenly appeared in front of the fleet, which meant that the east coast of Zhaisangbo had arrived.

Sun Chengzong hastily turned the binoculars to search in the southeast direction, and then said excitedly: "Your Majesty, look, this is the basin that I am talking about.

Weichen had led his army to station there for a day to recuperate, and there are still many traces of buried pots and cooking. "

Hearing this, Taichang turned the binoculars to take a look, and couldn't help but beam with joy.

The intermountain basin is really big enough, and the location is quite good, just next to the main trunk of the Irtysh River.

He scanned it carefully, then nodded in satisfaction and said, "Very well, we will build a Zaisang city here."

He also thought about the name.

The city built next to Zhaisangbo could have been called Zhaisang City directly, but this name was left by Meng Yuan, which is a bit inconsistent with the customs of Ming Dynasty.

And it seems a bit too weird to be called the prime minister's city.

Therefore, he simply took a word and directly named the city here as Zaisang City.

Early the next morning, more than [-] Spike warships began to search for a suitable place to build a port on the shore of the lake near the basin.

It didn't take long before hundreds of Spike warships hoisted down the brackets for the construction of the temporary dock row by row, and began to build the official dock.

Immediately afterwards, Taichang took Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli and others ashore, began to plan the scope of the city, and prepared to dig the foundation.

There are actually quite a few of them, there are more than [-] sailors and soldiers alone, and they also brought over the reinforced concrete needed for the construction of the port and the city.

However, because there is no steam machinery, the speed at which they build ports and cities is not very fast.

Fortunately, there are hundreds of thousands of elites from the South Camp behind them.

After these people rushed over, the construction speed of the port and the city more than doubled immediately.

What Taichang planned for this place is a city of 20 people, a dock for one hundred Spike warships and a dock for one hundred large ships.

This amount sounds a bit scary, but it is far from enough.

Because this place will become a harbor for all the ships in the Xibo Province to escape from the severe cold in the future, and the rivers in the Xibo Province are full of rivers and water transportation is developed, and there will definitely be more and more ships in the future.

The more than [-] ships they brought over the two hundred docks alone can't stop.

In the future, it is estimated that one or two thousand piers will be built here!