I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 962: Riverboat Heading West
On April 26, the 11th year of the Wanli reign, a huge iron-hulled ship was anchored at the Wusong River Wharf outside Shanghai.

The ship is 86 meters long, 12.4 meters wide and has a displacement of 3,200 tons.

It has three decks, two chimneys in the middle of the hull, and is equipped with two steam engines.

This is an all-iron-hulled steam engine ship of the Ming Dynasty built by the Wusong Shipyard of the Jiangnan Shipyard Bureau and used for Yangtze River shipping.

The speed is 20 kilometers per hour, and it can carry a mix of passengers and cargo, and can carry 800 passengers and 2,000 tons of cargo.

This type of ship is called Jiangning Type 1 inland passenger and cargo mixed steam ship.

The ship looked brand new, and must have been launched not long ago. The three words "Danyang" and a line of words "China Merchants Shanghai Transport No. 068" were painted on the bow.

It indicates that it belongs to the Hujiang Company of China Merchants Yangtze River Shipping Company.

Today, it has become the ship used by Zhu Yijun and his entourage. It sets sail from the Wusong River Wharf in Shanghai, enters the Yangtze River at Wusongkou, then goes upstream, passing Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Wuhu, Anqing, Jiujiang, and directly reaches Wuchang.

The dock was heavily guarded. Zhang Siwei, Lin Zeyou, Ye Mengxiong and other officials from Huzhou and Zhejiang respectfully saw Zhu Yijun and his party off on board.

Li Zhi, Yang Lingde, Hu Zongpu and other local officials from Nanjing, Jiangsu and Anhui also boarded the ship. They will disembark in Guazhou and Nanjing one after another and return to their respective posts.

Zhang Siwei and Yang Jinshui continued to stay in the southeast to complete their tasks.

Yu Dayou rushed to Ningbo and, on behalf of Zhu Yijun, commended the army and navy officers and soldiers who participated in this joint sea and land exercise.

The boat started slowly and soon went along the Wusong River to Wusongkou, where it turned west.

The water police boats, consisting of twelve Guazhou-type II steam-engine ships of the Nanjing Brigade of the Water Police Detachment, were fully armed, with four in the front, four in the back, and four cruising on the left and right for escort, moving forward at a speed of sixteen kilometers per hour against the wide waters of the Yangtze River.

The top floor of the third deck in front of the Danyang's cabin is the place with the best view of the entire ship.

It is one level lower than the cab and will not hinder driving.

And it is in front of the chimney, so it won't absorb coal ash and soot.

A canopy was set up here with three tables. Zhu Yijun, Xu Zhenming, Pan Yinglong, Hu Gongru, Li Zhi, Yang Lingde, and Hu Zongpu sat at one table; Li E and others sat at another table; and Zhu Xuanni and the four princes and princesses sat at another table.

The table was filled with tea, fresh fruits and local pastries.

Everyone sat on rattan chairs, enjoying the river breeze and the magnificent river view.

"The Yangtze River rolls eastward, its waves wash away all heroes. Yang Sheng'an (Yang Shen) was a brilliant writer, and this poem Lin Jiang Xian will come to mind for anyone who travels on the river."

Li Zhi said, stroking his beard.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Sheng'an is a man of outstanding talent and learning, and a man of great character. I am delighted to read his wonderful writings, which make him even more brilliant and will live forever.

If the Minjiang River had not produced any great people, it would have been fine. But if it had, they would have been Li Zexian, Su Poxian, and Yang Shuxian, who were outstanding figures in the Tang, Song, and our dynasty. How strange!

Zhu Yijun laughed: "Mr. Zhuo Wu highly respects Mr. Sheng'an. What you just said about the beauty of the Minjiang River is very representative. Not only the Minjiang River, but the entire Yangtze River is like this.

The Minjiang River is the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In the middle reaches there are Huguang, Jiangling and Xiangjiang River. There are Master Zhang (Zhang Juzheng) and Fengwu. In the former Song Dynasty, there was Duke Jing (Wang Anshi) in Jiangxi. In the current dynasty, there is Duke Dongli (Yang Shiqi), a veteran of five dynasties who assisted in the government for forty years. There is Duke Shuangya (Zhou Chen) who established the square meter method during the Xuande period. There is Duke Yian (Wang Zhi), an important minister during the Zhengtong period. There is also Duke Guizhou (Xia Yan) and Duke Jiexi (Yan Song), the chief ministers during the Jiajing period. There are many talented people.

Not to mention Anhui, southern Anhui, and Huaiyou in the lower reaches, Jiangsu and Nanjing are even more full of talents."

All the ministers listened to it and couldn't help but look at each other.

Yang Shen was a fierce man who, during the Great Ceremony Dispute in the third year of Jiajing, shouted in front of Zuoshun Gate: "The country has nurtured scholars for a hundred and fifty years, and it is time to die for justice!"

As a result, he was deeply hated by Emperor Shizong and was exiled to southern Yunnan for the rest of his life, where he died of old age in a foreign land.

Xia Yan became the chief minister of the cabinet in the 18th year of Jiajing's reign. He was in power for nine years. He was attacked and framed by Yan Song and sentenced to death.

Yan Song was even more famous. He served as the Prime Minister for 20 years. During this period, he took advantage of Emperor Shizong's personality of "being resolute in punishing and protecting his own shortcomings" to anger Shizong and kill dissidents for his own benefit.

It was not until the 41st year of the Jiajing reign that the emperor, who was still the prince of Yu, took advantage of the right time, place and people and took decisive action to first eliminate Yan Shifan. Then the powerful Yan Party collapsed within two or three years.

People thought that the emperor would instigate Emperor Shizong to pursue the victory, but they did not expect that the emperor secretly reached an agreement with Yan Song, using the remaining strength of Yan's party to help the emperor obtain the military and financial power in the southeast, and the emperor would ensure the safety of Yan Song's family except Yan Shifan.

These three names were once taboos in the court.

Li Zhi was a straightforward person, and he took advantage of the emperor's sigh to mention Yang Shen.

The emperor not only praised him, but also brought up Xia Yan and Yan Song, explaining that all the old accounts from the Jiajing period were written off.

Now that the new Wanli Dynasty has ushered in a new atmosphere, we will no longer dwell on old grievances.

At the same time, the emperor's words also conveyed a message.

The conservative forces of Chen Li's old Confucianism have been almost completely eradicated.

Since the 43rd year of the Jiajing reign, the new school of education represented by Longhua Academy and Xiangshan Academy has been implemented for 16 years. Many new school talents have become pillars of the court and have the ability to compete.

Young people who have received new education since childhood and whose way of thinking is completely different from the old one have begun to graduate from university and become the main force and backbone of building the Ming Dynasty.

All scholars in the world know that only by learning new knowledge can one achieve great success in official career and financial prospects.

The Four Books and Five Classics were compressed into a part of the Chinese textbook.
Chen Li, an old Confucian scholar, no longer has the power to turn things around.

The emperor has taken action to clean up the scum of the Shaofujian faction
Therefore, the emperor's words also show that he and the court have stopped "cracking down" on Chen Li and the old Confucianists, and those old people who are willing to keep up with the new era can make use of their remaining energy.

If we continue to reminisce about the past glory, we will die of old age and eventually disappear in the dust of history. Everyone had different thoughts, and Zhu Yijun continued.

“So the Yangtze River is one of the mother rivers of the Chinese nation, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, and has also become one of our totems.

It brings us good harvests, but also disasters. It brings us floods, but also conveniences. From ancient times to the present, the Yangtze River water transport has made this land flourish.

Steam-powered ships were now available and could travel upstream with full cargo. The dangerous shoals and reefs in the Three Gorges were blasted away by Yin Yangshi (Yin Zhengmao), clearing the bottleneck.

Ships could go directly from Shanghai to Yibin, and the prosperity of shipping was unprecedented in history.

But it also brought a big problem. It became a natural barrier between the north and the south.

The Jinghan Line was originally the Jingguang Line, but was divided by the Yangtze River into the Jinghan Line and the Wuguang Line. The Jinpu Line was originally the Jinghu Line, but was also divided by the Yangtze River into the Jinpu Line and the Huning Line.

Zhu Yijun knew best that the two Yellow River bridges built by the Ming Dynasty in Jinan and Zhengzhou used technology from another world, the technology used to build the original Jinpu and Jinghan lines in the late Qing Dynasty. It was an advanced bridge construction technology in the late 19th century.

It is currently a world-leading technology.

There is no problem in using it to deal with the rivers in the north, but it is completely inadequate when facing the big rivers in the south.

The Yangtze River, Qiantang River, Pearl River, and even the Han River only dare to build a railway bridge in the middle and upper reaches.

It will take another 20 to 30 years to build a railway bridge across the Yangtze River and connect the north and south railways.

After chatting for a while, Zhu Yijun got down to business.

“The new fiscal and tax reform, decentralization of administration to provinces, and the establishment of the House of Representatives are being implemented together.

I mean to implement it along the railway. After the trial in the three provinces, one capital and one prefecture in the southeast, we will make a good summary, and then Luanzhou, Hebei, Liaoxi, Liaodong, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Hunan will start the second round of trials.

Xu Zhenming and other important ministers looked at each other. The emperor was still as far-sighted as ever.

The provinces to which power was delegated all had access to railways, and access to railways also meant access to wired telegraphs.

With railways and telegraphs, the emperor and the central government’s control over the local areas was doubled.

In the past, if there was any matter below, even if it was through special channels, it would take several days to reach the emperor at an express delivery of 600 miles.

Now, any disturbance can be known to the Emperor in Xiyuan within an hour through a telegram.

If there was anything unusual, the imperial envoys from the cabinet and the Censorate would arrive by train on the same day, and the dispatched troops would also arrive on the same day.
With such control, the emperor began to delegate power, carry out fiscal and tax reforms, and decentralize administrative power.
In addition, the provincial examinations had allowed the independent recruitment of officials, and the degree of delegation of power was very large. It could be said that this was the largest delegation of power from the central government to the local governments since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and could be compared with the local power during the Qin and Han Dynasties.

The emperor was very generous, because he knew very well that if he gave you these powers, you would not be able to do anything. Moreover, he also set up a provincial council to control the provincial governors from the bottom up by means of civilian officials.

The subsequent local decentralization trials will definitely follow the railways.

Wherever the railway was built and the telegraph was connected, he would delegate power to that place.

The provinces expected to receive the third round of decentralization are Shanxi, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Gansu and Jiangxi, where railways are about to be built.
Due to geographical reasons, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan should be the last provinces to be connected by railways in the Ming Dynasty, and they may also be the last to be decentralized.

Zhu Yijun changed the topic and mentioned the railways in Anhui.

"Hu Futai, the railway in Anhui, the Hefei-Fengyang Hefeng Railway is under construction and will be completed next year. By then, the Hefeng Line will be connected to the Jinpu Line, and Hefei can transfer to Shandong, Tianjin and Pukou via Fengyang.

According to the plan of the Military Railway Bureau, Hefei should have a railway directly connected to the Yangtze River, directly connecting the Huaiyou and central Anhui regions with the Yangtze River. This will make it easier for Anhui to access the Yangtze River economic zone and be better pulled by the southeast locomotive. "

"Yes, Your Majesty. The Anhui Provincial Government has been negotiating with the Ministry of War about this railway line."

"I heard there's controversy?"

“Yes, Your Majesty. What the Anhui Provincial Government wants is that the railway from Hefei to the Yangtze River should go northwest and directly to Anqing. This will facilitate the development of Shucheng, Lu’an, Huoshan, Tongcheng and other areas west of Chaohu Lake.

This area has been outside the jurisdiction of the country since ancient times due to inconvenient transportation. Our Anhui plan also complies with the emperor's principle of providing timely assistance in railway construction.

However, the Ministry of War, in order to save money, took the southeast route and took a shortcut to Yuxi Town on the other side of Wuhu. This indeed saved a lot of distance.

It's just that they are trying to save trouble. In name, they added a new railway to Anhui, but in fact, it didn't improve the traffic conditions in Anhui much. It can only be said to be icing on the cake."

Zhu Yijun nodded.

Anhui’s idea is not without reason.

When building a railway, we must take into account both improving transportation and building costs. At the beginning, I corrected the Ministry of War's original plan to build a railway along the canal.

The transportation in Chao County was originally quite convenient. Ruxu River was the river connecting Chaohu Lake to the Yangtze River since the Three Kingdoms period, making it convenient for shipping back and forth.

Building another railway is the same as building a railway along the canal.

But from the perspective of the Ministry of War, I have already built a local railway within the province of Anhui for you. No one else has it. What are you still comparing with?

"Okay, Anhui's idea is correct. Although the Chaoxi plan costs more, it is indeed a timely help, and it can be extended to Nanchang and Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province. When the technology matures and a Yangtze River Bridge can be built, Anhui and Jiangxi can be connected.

Isn’t the land of the two rivers connected together?
I have made note of this matter. I will discuss it with the Minister of War, Mr. Wang (Wang Daokun) after I return to Beijing."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)