The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 266: Exploring the North American Interior
After reading the report, Zhu Jianxuan said:
“Let’s not talk about the most exaggerated plan No. 4 for now.

“Scheme No. 1, which seems to be the simplest, cannot be completed by simply and crudely building an artificial barrier lake. We must build a dam and arrange ship locks artificially.

"In order for the British to continue to travel to and from Montreal in the future, we ourselves must continue to use the St. Lawrence Seaway.

"So we need to build a normal dam that's fifty meters high?"

Jiao Xun, the craftsman responsible for data collation and plan formulation, is 28 years old this year, but he has been working in the King of Wu Laboratory since he was 16 years old.

Later, he followed Zhu Jianxuan to North America and stayed there. Now he holds a very high status among North American craftsmen.

When Jiao Xun heard Zhu Jianxuan's question, he immediately introduced more details:

“Your Highness, if Plan 1 uses the simplest artificial barrier lake, we can ask the British to take the New York route to Montreal in the future.

“There is no need to build locks on the Old River (St. Lawrence River), the British might declare war on us for this.

"It is impossible for them to be enemies with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty has dozens of military farms in North America and can quickly organize hundreds of thousands of militiamen.

“If the British dare to declare war, we will just take Canada and there will be no need to discuss it with them.

“The main cost of Option 1 is the flooded river valley land, but we don’t have large-scale settlements in the old river valley.

“The area with the most people flooded is Montreal.

“After the American War, many North American immigrants who were still loyal to Britain moved to Montreal and nearby Quebec.

"We just need to fight them again and drive them inland."

Zhu Jianxuan was a little surprised.

Jiao Xunxun: You are a craftsman, how come you speak in such a martial spirit?
But what this guy said does make sense.

Not to mention that after the St. Lawrence River was blocked, they were reminded to take the New York Channel to go to Montreal in the future.

Even if the Ming Dynasty said nothing and simply blocked the river to prevent them from leaving, the British probably would not dare to declare war on the Ming Dynasty directly for this.

These dozens of military garrisons in North America are no joke:
“That’s true, but we don’t have to do that.

“Directly blocking the Laohe River is not the best option for us, we still have to set up ship locks in the end.

“From this perspective, the one with the lowest engineering difficulty is Plan 2, right?

“Then is this Plan No. 3, a 20-kilometer-long dam that is 10 to 50 meters high, really feasible in terms of engineering and cost?”

Jiao Xun immediately continued to explain what he knew:
“Your Highness, if Plan 1 adopts a normal dam and builds a large ship lock for navigation, then Plan 2 is indeed the easiest engineering difficulty.

“But Plan No. 2 requires at least 70 kilometers of river embankments, and large dams and sluice gates for diversion near the river.

“So the construction cost of Option 2 will be higher than Option 1, which is to build the dam normally.

“Plan No. 3 is feasible based on the data currently obtained.

“Although the surface of Qinglong Lake is only 75 meters above sea level, the lakeshore and most of the banks of the Laohe River are over 100 meters above sea level.

“Only the Laohe River, which is about two or three kilometers long, needs a 50-meter-high dam.

“For the part on the river bank, thirty meters at most is enough.

“In fact, more than half of the 20-kilometer-long dam is made up of 10- to 20-meter-high embankments.

“Our purpose is navigation rather than power generation, so we can use an overflow dam and set up water holes on the dam to further reduce the pressure on the dam.

“The engineering difficulty will not be higher than the normal Plan 1, and the construction cost will not be higher than Plan 2.

“The shipping efficiency after completion is second only to Plan No. 4.”

Zhu Jianxuan did not continue asking questions. Instead, he flipped through the plan Jiao Xun gave him and read it over and over again.

Plan 1 is of medium difficulty and the lowest cost, but it has the largest flooding range, medium efficiency, and requires some diplomatic coordination with the United Kingdom.

Plan No. 2 has the lowest difficulty, medium cost, the smallest flooding range, and medium efficiency. Just tell the British.

Plan No. 3 has medium difficulty, medium cost, medium flooding range and the highest efficiency.

If Americans in history had a choice, they would most likely choose the second option.

But the one making the decision now is Zhu Jianxuan:
“Okay, then based on Plan No. 3, we will start a more detailed and comprehensive survey and assessment.

"Confirm the specific amount of work and cost and report to me for approval."

Peng Yuanrui and Jiao Xun bowed together and agreed, and today's meeting ended here.

The Qinglong Lake Dam Project has entered the stage of formulating an implementation plan.

In the following few days, another arrangement of Zhu Jianxuan was officially implemented.

The American court, which was also the Ming Dynasty's North American Liaison Office, cooperated with the judicial institutions of the North American free states to begin trying and dealing with detained Ming Dynasty peddlers.

Due to the special international relations at that time, the European officials in the free states of North America were a little at a loss when facing the Ming people.

Therefore, the actual trial process was led by Ming officials from the Liaison Office, assisted by Ming affairs officials from various free states.

Most of the Ming Dynasty's peddlers did not commit many crimes. Most of them made huge profits through deception and fraud, which aroused public anger among the local old farmers.

The current punishment results are basically refunding the money and apologizing.

At the same time, they all received warnings from the Ming Dynasty's North American Garrison Office, reminding them that this time the final punishment would be lighter because they were first-time offenders.

From now on, if anyone commits the same crime, the punishment will be increased according to normal standards.

Due to Zhu Jianxuan's request, the sentencing was very quick this time, and a group of more troublesome European criminals were also dealt with.

Zhu Jianxuan's goal was to prevent this group of people from continuing to damage the overall image of the Ming people, and at the same time to infiltrate the Ming Dynasty's governance methods and moral framework into the bottom of the Free State.

In this process, many grassroots officials and judges in the Free State were objectively saved.

Many things that had them scratching their heads were simply and roughly solved by Ming officials from the royal court.

After more than ten days, Zhu Jianxuan had basically finished looking through the data he wanted to see, and the accompanying personnel were also ready.

On the first day of June in the 45th year of Xianning, Zhu Jianxuan officially set out for an inland inspection.

Go inland to this wild and untamed land that is legally your own.

The entourage included some officials from the Ming Dynasty, some officials from the North American Liaison Office, and the heirs of all the North American nobles, including those of Ming and European descent.

They were escorted by a main force division from the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jianxuan took all his entourage out to sea by boat, first sailing around to the mouth of the Laohe River (St. Lawrence River).

The length of the old river mouth is more than 600 kilometers, and the width gradually expands from 20 kilometers to 100 kilometers. The water depth in most places is more than 20 meters. Outside this outlet, there is a semi-enclosed bay surrounded by the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland Island, and Labrador Peninsula.

If the old estuary and the outer bay were at the latitude of New York and continued to connect to the Great Lakes, the locational advantages of the land on both sides of the estuary would be the best in all of North America.

In that case, Zhu Jianxuan would not have to consider the canal, and of course he would not put the land on the other side of the river up for trade.

Unfortunately, the actual latitude is too high, and the Labrador cold current passes through, so Laohekou is frozen for at least four months every year, and there may be floating ice for five months every year.

On the island outside Laohekou, Zhu Jianxuan changed to a smaller special passenger boat and went upstream along the Laohe River.

Logically speaking, when entering an inland river, one should change to a flat-bottomed inland boat.

However, there are five Great Lakes in the interior of North America. They are not only huge in area, but also have a depth of hundreds of meters, making them a small freshwater sea.

Large areas of lake water will form larger waves. Pure flat-bottomed inland boats cannot withstand wind and waves and cannot be used in the Great Lakes.

Therefore, the ships used in North America now are specially made, and are all inland ships with certain characteristics of sea vessels.

Zhu Jianxuan knew the logic behind this, but he couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
Once the canal is built and large ships can enter directly, the carrying capacity of this "freshwater sea" can be fully utilized.

Zhu Jianxuan comes to the deck every day to exercise, observe the natural environment and terrain on the shore, and enjoy the scenery and breathe fresh air.

The river channel in the middle and lower reaches of the Lao River is wide, with the water surface exceeding two kilometers in most places and the water flow is relatively gentle.

The fleet maintained a normal sailing speed of 25 kilometers per hour.

Most of the area on both sides of the river is covered with endless virgin forest, with only some buildings and farmland around Quebec and Montreal.

Opposite the two cities, there is a centurion's office of the Ming Dynasty.

Responsible for transmitting information, guarding warehouses, providing supplies to passing ships, and simple ship repairs.

Zhu Jianxuan gave orders in advance, asking the fleet to slow down in the river beside the two centurions, and even let his own ship drop anchor directly here.

Zhu Jianxuan did not send anyone to greet the British in Quebec and Montreal.

Instead, he sent people to notify the officers of the Ming Dynasty's Hundred Households Unit, and brought the heads of each family in the Hundred Households Unit on board to pay a visit to their king and the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jianxuan took his seat in the hall of the cabin in a formal manner and accepted the worship of these low-ranking officers and soldiers.

Then he said a few words of encouragement with a smile and gave them a wave of rewards on the spot.

A centurion and company commander received one thousand silver dollars, and a soldier received one hundred and twenty silver dollars, which was equivalent to one year's military salary for each of them.

For these grassroots officers and soldiers, simple words of comfort and encouragement mean little.

But combined with an extra year's salary, it would perk up everyone enough to make them remember their words for years to come.

Zhu Jianxuan felt that this kind of thing was very necessary, especially for those who worked in remote areas.

The military farms in North America would regularly arrange cargo ships to transport supplies to the inland areas.

There is no need to worry about not being able to buy things even if you have money.

Zhu Jianxuan appeased the officers and soldiers and ordered the ship to weigh anchor and set sail again.

After passing Montreal, the fleet continued upstream for a hundred kilometers. The river narrowed to about one kilometer, there were more islands in the river, and the water flow became more turbulent.

In order to avoid islands and shoals, the fleet's speed was reduced to ten kilometers per hour.

Until the ship approached Qinglong Lake (Lake Ontario), the water became wide again, but there were also more islands in the river.

The height difference between the river bank and the water surface became increasingly larger, exceeding twenty-five meters in many places.

Just as Jiao Xun had reported before, the river bank here is much higher than the river channel, and the deep river channel is cut out by water erosion.

When people stand on the deck, they can't see what is on the shore a little further away.

It was not until the fleet entered Qinglong Lake and the river and lake banks on both sides disappeared that the surrounding scenery became clear again.

But it soon became too wide and no land could be seen in front.

The fleet seemed to have entered the sea again.

There was also a centurion's office on the north side of the entrance to Qinglong Lake. As usual, Zhu Jianxuan let them go ashore to receive their reward, and then led the fleet to set sail again.

The fleet maintained a speed of 20 kilometers per hour and continued sailing in this freshwater ocean for most of the day.

The next morning, the fleet sailed to the southwest end of Qinglong Lake, close to the mouth of the Longque River (Niagara River), which is the river extending from the bottom of the Niagara Falls.

On the land on both sides of the river, traces of human beings finally appeared.

The boundless forest that had already made people feel numb suddenly had large areas of empty space here, turning into endless wheat fields and pastures.

Zhu Jianxuan and everyone on the boat immediately became alert after seeing the change in scenery.

There is also a small European-style castle at the mouth of the river, which was probably originally built by the French to control the passage between the two lakes.

It fell into British hands after the Seven Years' War and has now become a stronghold of the Ming Dynasty.

The fleet continued to sail south along the river for about ten kilometers and finally docked at an inland port on the east side of the river.

From here, the river channel narrows rapidly as it continues to move southward, and the water flow speed increases rapidly. Further ahead is the pool under the waterfall.

Conventional ships have no way to continue sailing upstream and can only go ashore at the riverside where the water flow is slow, and cross the waterfalls and the areas with the most turbulent water flow from land.

The efficiency of land and water transportation is extremely different. Especially in the absence of railways, the entire fleet cannot quickly cross the falls.

However, when Zhu Jianxuan arrived here, he was not in a hurry to leave.

The Longque Isthmus between Qinglong Lake (Lake Ontario) and Zhuque Lake (Lake Erie) was a key area for development by Ming Dynasty immigrants in the Great Lakes region.

This place is between two large lakes. Whether it is passing through by land now or building a canal in the future, the site will be selected in this area.

Building a canal requires a sufficient number of people, and the canal will continue to generate benefits after it is completed.

In any case, there should be a city here in the future, and it will definitely become a larger city, similar to Buffalo in the United States in the previous life.

Therefore, the North American Garrison Office made a special plan and successively sent two military farms here, with a total of more than 100,000 immigrants.

So far, nearly two thousand square kilometers of land have been developed.

After Zhu Jianxuan and his entourage went ashore, they changed to a horse-drawn carriage or rode horses directly and walked south along the dirt road along the river bank.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the farmlands and pastures around him, the adults working in the farmlands and pastures, and the groups of children occasionally passing by, and felt as if he was in another world.

This short journey of more than half a month was like entering a barbaric world from a civilized world, and now returning to civilization.

(End of this chapter)