Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 481 Mission to Henan
"Isn't Envoy Li coming back to China with us?"

On the Yuanwang, Gao Qiang, who had already packed his things and was preparing to go to China with them, suddenly asked a question.

Wang Dayuan explained, "He's not leaving for now; His Highness has given him another task."

"Oh, I see." Gao Qiang saw that Wang Dayuan didn't elaborate, so he didn't ask any more questions. He said goodbye to his brother and son and boarded the Yuanwang ship to return to China.

Although they have left, things will still be busy in Xinjin Prefecture for several months.

Then there's Lin Yuan, the son of Lin Shuheng, a Chinese merchant in Champa. He originally thought that Li Bin and his group were just merchants, sent by his father to work as Li Bin's assistants and translators. Who knew that these people were actually officials of the Chinese government? Their ships were loaded with so many soldiers and armor, and when they fought, they killed without blinking an eye. First, they killed the pirates, then they took the initiative to destroy a small country, and even usurped its territory. It was simply terrifying.

But now that he knows Li Bin's true identity, he can't let him go easily. So Li Bin keeps him in Xinjin Prefecture (Wangkasik) to work for him. If he does well, he might be able to get an official position in the Celestial Empire in the future.

Lin Yuan nodded obediently and naturally dared not object. However, under Li Bin's supervision, he wrote a letter to his father, saying that he was managing a business in Southeast Asia with Li Bin and would be able to return in a year at most. He did not dare to write about what they were doing in Southeast Asia. Then he handed the letter to Wang Dayuan and asked him to take it back to Lin Shuheng when he returned to Champa.

Moreover, in Xinjin Prefecture, Li Bin replanned the urban area of ​​the already destroyed Gowa Kingdom, demolished some stilt houses, and used the dismantled timber to build a wooden military camp in the style of a military camp, which served as the administrative center of Xinjin Prefecture.

There are also plans to build a bridge and a wharf on the inland river to connect the two banks, which will facilitate defense and troop deployment. Other things can be built gradually later when there is time.

The more than 2,000 Javanese Chinese who participated in the operation all officially settled in Sinkan Province. Those who were allocated land were taxed at a rate of 1/4 of the land area, which is about 7%, the same as the rate for 50 mu in China. Others were not subject to a head tax, but everyone had to serve in the military because the population here was too small and there were not enough soldiers to defend the area.

Liu Gang was appointed commander, and he led several officers to train the militia during the off-season. At the same time, they were responsible for the defense of Xinjin Prefecture. They drove hidden stakes at the mouth of the river to prevent any seagoing ships from sailing directly into the inland waterway and entering the core area of ​​Xinjin Prefecture like they had done. They also built watchtowers near the river mouth on the coast and sent people to the watchtowers to stand guard every day. When they saw a ship coming, they would beat the drum to sound the alarm.

In this way, even if someone attacks Xinjin Prefecture, it will be difficult for them to penetrate directly into the land. They will have to land and assemble on the coast first, which gives Liu Gang and his men time to react and calmly gather their forces and set up defenses.

The naval commander, Zhao Yu, was also busy. He and Gao Qiang's brother, Gao Hong, used the two captured ships and the two ships that Gao Qiang had borrowed from Java—a total of four ships—to frequently travel between Semarang and Sinkan in Java. They sold the captured Gowa people as slaves, then brought the Chinese families who participated in the operation to Sinkan, and also bought some daily necessities and livestock.

Moreover, Zhao Yu also planned to buy another ship as a temporary main force for the navy, but they didn't have much money, so they had to be careful with their money and find a suitable ship. In addition, the large-scale relocation of more than 2,000 people would keep them very busy.

Meanwhile, the Yuanwang ship returned to port smoothly. As agreed, Wang Dayuan first went to Brunei and met up with the two envoys from Brunei. Although Mahmud Shah was not very wealthy, he was willing to go all out to go to China to pay tribute and form an alliance to fight against Sulu. He sent two envoys named Dayasaka and Varmobmi.

In terms of tribute, in addition to the livestock and various crop seeds that Li Bin had mentioned before, they also prepared camphor, pepper, and dwarf elephants, a specialty of Kalimantan. These elephants are half the size of ordinary Asian elephants and about the same size as British Shire horses. There was one male and one female elephant, and also elephant trainers were sent along with them.

Other live animals include the white-legged water buffalo, a specialty of Brunei. It is a natural hybrid of local wild buffalo and domesticated water buffalo, and is larger than ordinary water buffalo, but with shorter horns.

In addition, Brunei also had its own native rice varieties, as well as peas—yes, the kind that's called Dutch peas in China and Chinese peas in the Netherlands, but actually comes from Thailand—which Brunei obtained from maritime merchants.

Other valuable gifts included rhinoceros horn, ivory, giant clam shell, thirty hawksbill turtle shells, and a full bushel of seawater pearls. In addition, there were the weapons that Li Bin had mentioned earlier. Mahmud Shah also prepared a serpent spear and a gold serpent sword inlaid with gemstones. These items were all Southeast Asian specialties and were influenced by Indian culture.

With so many gifts, they showed their sincerity. They even brought two ships with them to accompany the Yuanwang ship to China.

When the fleet arrived in Champa, the tribute from Champa was rather meager. Although there were still two envoys and some servants, the gifts were only things like ebony, agarwood, rhinoceros horn, ivory, pearls, and crocodile skin.

According to one of the envoys, Jaya, just a few days after the Yuanwang ship left, the Dai Viet Kingdom in the north attacked their Champa again. The current Champa king, Cha Hoa Budi, personally led the army to fight back and just repelled the Viet army. The envoys and gifts were arranged in a hurry, and because they were often at war, their country was indeed poor, which is why the gifts seemed rather meager.

Wang Dayuan didn't complain much and boarded the Champa envoy's ship. The fleet of four ships headed towards China.
Time flew by, and it was already the end of the first month of the fourteenth year of the Zhizheng era, 4051 AD, 1354 AD. During the few months that the Yuanwang ship set sail, Lu Jin in Jiankang was also very busy.

With the capture of several provinces in the autumn and winter battles of last year, the main force of the Yuan army in the south has been annihilated, and the remaining areas can be taken at any time. As long as there is another northern expedition, the Yuan dynasty can be established. At this time, the Yuan court in Dadu is simply powerless to resist the attack of the Shengwu army.

It was clear to everyone that Lu Jin becoming emperor was a foregone conclusion, so people began to urge him to take the throne. Even Li Shanchang was urging him to do so, saying that before pacifying Liu Futong, it would be best to declare himself emperor first. This reason was exactly the same as his advice last year to Lu Jin to declare himself king first before pacifying Xu and Song.

Lu Jin wasn't entirely opposed to it, but he still wanted to deal with Liu Futong and Li Chahan in the Central Plains first, as long as he declared himself emperor before the Northern Expedition.

Moreover, it's not so simple to actually become emperor. Offering sacrifices to heaven and issuing edicts are minor matters for Lu Jin. The real big deal is the imperial court. At the very least, you have to set up the framework of the various departments of the court, right?
There's also the imperial palace. Lu Jin doesn't even have an imperial palace yet, and he directly proclaims himself emperor. It seems like a very makeshift operation. The place to live isn't the main issue; the key problem is the lack of a place for the court to conduct its business. You don't even have a place to hold a court meeting.

Li Shanchang suggested that the Southern Song Dynasty's temporary palace in Jiankang be repaired first, to serve as a temporary court, which would not cost much. As for the Jinling Academy mentioned by Lu Jin, preparations for its construction could begin now, and Lu Jin agreed to this.

Then there was the preparation for building the academy. Lu Jin ordered that not too much woodwork be used and that bricks and tiles be used as much as possible. This required the preparation of many other building materials, such as soil, cement, gravel, river sand, steel bars, and glass.

Cement made from clay is easy to make. It can be produced using the original lime kilns from ancient times. The only difference is that before firing, lime and clay are mixed together, then put into the kiln to burn into clinker. After that, it is crushed and ground into powder, and then some natural gypsum is added for modification. It can then be used directly. Cement made in this way is even more advanced than Portland cement in England.

Lu Jin explained the method and handed it over directly to Xu Jichuan of the Construction Department to carry out.

River sand can be dredged directly, and existing steel rolling mills can be modified to make several hydraulic steel rolling mills. Since thin steel plates can be rolled, it is the same to carve a few grooves on the rollers and use them to roll steel bars. However, the most difficult thing here is not steel bars and cement, but crushed stone.

Stones are easy to find, and it's not impossible to break them into pebbles by hand, but the output would be too low and too labor-intensive. There's no other way. For the time being, Lu Jin can only have prisoners do it, unless he can develop a steam engine and a crusher right now, but that will take time. For now, he can only use manpower.

However, when Tao Guangyi learned of this, he proposed another method. It seems that his physics lessons were not in vain. He suggested that a pit could be dug in the quarry, with an anvil placed inside and a wooden frame attached to it. A cast iron hammer could be lifted using a pulley system and then dropped into the pit to crush the stones. Workers would then only need to collect large stones from the mountain and transport them into the pit by vehicle.

The idea of ​​this rudimentary crusher is not bad. In comparison, Lu Jin is too rigid, always thinking about copying modern things. Tao Guangyi, an ancient man, is much better at applying what he has learned. Lu Jin praised him and then asked Tao Guangyi to design and make the thing himself.

Fortunately, there are quarries, and even small iron and limestone mines in Jiankang, so crushed stone and cement can be supplied nearby.

The last item was glass, which was very important. It was used not only for building houses but also for making chemical apparatus and optical instruments. Lu Jin was worried about where to find someone to research the glassmaking process when Song Lian gave him a suggestion. "Is the glass Your Highness talking about the medicinal jade?" Song Lian asked, pointing to a jade pendant hanging on his belt.

Lu Jin took it and examined it carefully. He immediately nodded and said, "That's right. This is artificially fired, isn't it? It should be this. However, the craftsmen in China are all studying how to use glass to imitate jade. Little do they know that the real purpose of this is to pursue purity and transparency. It would be best if it could be fired to be transparent and colorless, just like this glass cup. Do you know where there are such craftsmen?"

Song Lian immediately replied, “Your Highness may not know this, but Banyang Road (Boshan, Zibo) in Shandong is known as the hometown of glass. Its glass, medicinal jade, and jade chess pieces (glass chess pieces that imitate jade) were once tributes to the imperial court. I imagine there must be skilled craftsmen there.”

"I see. Then issue an imperial decree to Shandong to find glass artisans. Only those with superb skills should be selected, and they should not disturb the people. Once they arrive, they will be assigned jobs."

"Yes."

After securing all the building materials, Lu Jin then assigned Tao Kai, the Vice Minister of Rites, to oversee the architectural layout and design of the academy. Tao Kai was put in charge and could find some craftsmen to help. The design was to meet the needs of the court's offices while also facilitating its future conversion into a university. The blueprints were to be drawn up and submitted to Lu Jin for approval. Once Lu Jin was satisfied, a model and sand table would be made, and construction would officially begin once the materials arrived.

Besides the preparation for the construction of Jinling Academy and the renovation of the Jiankang Palace of the Southern Song Dynasty, Lu Jin also had his students work on the steam engine, which was in the preparation stage. At present, they are still tinkering with machine tools, that is, industrial mother chickens. Without first solving some simple processing machine tools, it is absurd to talk about steam engines.

The good news is that the machine tool designed by Lu Jin can now produce brass lead screws with a certain precision. The current progress is that the second-generation cast iron machine tool has been made using this batch of brass lead screws. All wooden parts have been removed, and it can finally be considered a proper lathe.

Next, we need to put this industrial machine to its full potential and start replicating more lathes and other metalworking machinery. The machinery in the hydraulic workshop by the Qinhuai River will gradually become more abundant. Once we have assembled the corresponding machine tools, we can officially start building steam engines.

Meanwhile, Lu Jin had previously ordered Liao Yong'an of Hunan to lead the Third Army north to Luzhou to strengthen the encirclement of Liu Futong's forces in the Central Plains. By January of the fourteenth year of the Zhizheng era, all the troops had been mobilized and the encirclement of Liu Futong had been completed.

The Privy Council originally planned to resolve the war situation in the Central Plains in the first half of the fourteenth year of the Zhizheng era, so as not to delay the Northern Expedition in the autumn. Now it is the end of the first month, with only five months left. There are still two forces besieged in Henan. If they want to launch a decisive battle against Li Chahan in Bianliang, they must first deal with Liu Futong in Runan. Whether they fight or pacify, they cannot delay any longer, lest Liu Futong interfere and steal the spoils when the fighting starts here.

So the Privy Council held another small meeting, and Feng Guoyong asked directly.

"If Your Highness wishes to offer Liu Futong and Du Zundao positions through appeasement?"

To everyone's surprise, Lu Jin asked after hearing this, "Is Du Zundao still alive?"

Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged bewildered glances, wondering why Lu Jin would ask such a question. Feng Guoyong, however, looked directly at Bao Yu, who was in charge of intelligence. Bao Yu immediately said, "I haven't heard any news of Du Zundao's death. Could it be that Your Highness has heard something? Should I send a message to have the spies in Runing Prefecture investigate?"

"Oh, no need." Lu Jin thought to himself that he must have remembered wrong. He forgot which year Du Zundao died, but it seemed to have happened after the two of them welcomed Han Lin'er back. It was only 1354 now, and Han Lin'er had not yet been found by them, so Du Zundao should still be alive. In fact, Lu Jin was also afraid of the butterfly effect he had brought. What if this guy had died long ago?

Seeing that everyone looked puzzled, Lu Jin explained, "I heard that Du Zundao was once a student of the Imperial Academy of the Yuan Dynasty and served as a staff member for two prime ministers, Bayan and Tuotuo. He was influenced by what he saw and heard and learned the habits and manners of a powerful minister. He has always been domineering and arrogant among the rebels in the Central Plains and is at odds with Liu Futong."

"However, this man has little military power, and Liu Futong, who is in charge of the troops, naturally dislikes his powerful ministerial style. If the conflict between the two intensifies, Liu Futong might kill him at any time. I asked just to confirm whether he is dead or not."

Everyone suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."

Feng Guoyong asked thoughtfully, "Does Your Highness mean that we can devise a counter-espionage plan to sow discord between the two and cause them to kill each other, so that our army can take advantage of the situation?"

Lu Jin shook his head. "Things are different now. With our army's current strength, we no longer need to play these petty tricks with the enemy. We can just send an envoy to pacify them. If they want to submit, they can submit; if they don't want to submit, then we'll fight them. Anyway, there has to be an explanation. We need to get rid of him within two months and then launch a decisive battle against Li Chahan."

"As for the conditions for surrender, they are the same as those for Xu and Song. Liu Futong and Du Zundao were the first to join the Red Turban Rebellion and made great contributions to the anti-Yuan cause. If they are willing to surrender, they will also be granted the title of Marquis. Even Xu Shouhui, who has now declared himself emperor, is only a Marquis. Giving them two Marquises is already quite generous."

"The remaining generals and soldiers under their command must accept the reorganization and reduction of our army. At most, they will be given the strength of one army and two divisions, which is 27,000 people. The rest will be directly dismissed and reduced to civilians."

"These are the conditions. Who among you is willing to go on a mission to Runing?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other. Zhan Ding had been sent by Lu Jin to Huguang as the Provincial Governor. As prime ministers, Feng Guoyong and Li Shanchang could not possibly do such a thing. Bao Yu was in charge of intelligence from all sides and could not be left behind. So, among these advisors, only Xia Yu and Ning Anqing were left to take on this role.

The two quickly realized this as well, exchanged a glance, and volunteered almost simultaneously.

Xia Yu spoke first, “Your Highness, it was I who contacted and pacified the generals of Xuzhou before. I have experience, so please let me go.”

Ning Anqing also cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, since I surrendered from Wuzhou, I have not yet made any contributions. Please give me a chance to make a contribution."

"Moreover, with our army pressing in on the border and eager to pacify the Central Plains, if the negotiations fail this time, Liu Futong may resort to desperate measures, such as detaining or even killing the envoy."

“My talents are inferior to those of Minister Xia. If I die, I will die. Your Highness will send a large army to avenge me. I can advise Your Highness on military matters, but Minister Xia must not be absent, and he should not be put in danger. Therefore, let me go this time.”

Xia Yu was deeply moved upon hearing this and quickly looked at him, saying, "Why would Physician Ning do this?"

Ning Anqing did not reply, but kept bowing and clasping his hands to ask Lu Jin for permission.

Lu Jin thought for a moment before saying, “Ning Qing is commendable for his loyalty and bravery, so let’s send him this time. However, you don’t need to take too many risks. Just explain the greater good to them and state the advantages and disadvantages. If they are unwilling to submit, that’s fine too. You don’t need to provoke them with your words. Just make sure you are safe and come back alive. We have hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in the Central Plains. Are we afraid that Liu Futong and his men can turn the world upside down?”

Ning Anqing was deeply moved upon hearing this. He hadn't expected Lu Jin to also tell him to try his best to save his life, so he bowed and agreed once again.

"Yes, Your Highness, I will do my utmost to persuade the two to return."

(End of this chapter)