The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 281 Oil, Canal and Qianlong
The special examination in the spring of the first year of the Tiangong era, the first imperial examination of the Tiangong era, was officially held in Shuntian Prefecture.

Ming Dynasty scholars from the Ming Dynasty, Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa, and America can all participate.

Whether a place is a colony or a homeland depends on whether the local people can enter the upper echelons of their homeland or motherland through normal channels and in a relatively fair manner.

In fact, in the original history, whether it was the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in China, or the major colonial countries in Europe, most of the time they did not treat the colonies as normal citizens.

British North America and Australia were often places where criminals were exiled, and Britain never gave North American immigrants the right to vote, which led to the outbreak of the American War of Independence.

In this world, whether in the middle or late period of Chongzhen, under the leadership of Emperor Chongzhen, the Ming court, vassal states, and the people expanded in Southeast Asia.

It was not until the end of the Xianning period that the Ming Dynasty expanded into Australia, North America, and Africa under the leadership of Zhu Jianxuan.

Neither Chongzhen nor Zhu Jianxuan distinguished between overseas and local concepts.

The two never prohibited the Ming people who immigrated overseas from entering the Ming court through the imperial examination.

Both of them were even inclined to encourage overseas immigrants to take the imperial examinations, and even allow local natives to take the examinations.

Because in their view, the process of taking the imperial examination is the process of integrating into the traditional system of the Ming Dynasty, including the political system and the cultural system.

Those who cross the class barrier through the imperial examination and enter the ruling group, no matter what their original background is, will protect this system after entering this system.

At the same time, following Zhu Jianxuan's instructions, official manufacturers began to reduce export volumes.

The handicraft products originally intended for export were directly purchased by the central court supply agency.

Of course, after the imperial court purchased these things, it would definitely not throw them directly into the sea as theoretically the easiest option.

Instead, it was given as a prize and welfare by the imperial court to officials and clerks with outstanding performance, managers, stewards, and workers in state-owned factories, and officers and soldiers in military farms.

When the war broke out on the European continent, the Ming Dynasty was still continuing its construction in full swing.

The Persian Oil Company was officially established in the spring of the first year of Tiangong, and immediately organized a drilling team to explore for oil in the Persian Gulf.

The drilling team has more guards than the craftsmen directly involved in the exploration and drilling.

While protecting the drilling team, they were also responsible for conquering the local Bedouins, who were the desert oasis people in the Saudi Arabia region in later generations.

The oil reserves in the Persian Gulf region are very rich, and the cost of extraction in later generations is also very low.

However, the overall difficulty of mining is not particularly low, mainly because many oil fields are buried at a relatively deep depth.

For example, Saudi Arabia’s largest onshore oil field is buried at a depth of between one thousand and one thousand five hundred meters.

Drilling an oil well more than a thousand meters deep is difficult in this era.

The key point is that conventional explorers don’t know whether there is an oil field here, where exactly the oil field may be, or how deep the oil field is buried.

In the absence of mature exploration technology, we can only rely on the "drill and see" approach, and it would be very difficult to find these oil fields by drilling.

They may drill in areas where there are no oil fields, they may give up after drilling a few hundred meters, or they may drill dozens of wells several hundred meters deep in a row.

In the past, American companies that went to Saudi Arabia to explore for oil fields drilled many wells in succession.

However, they could not reach the depth where the oil field was located and kept wasting time above the oil layer. The drilling company was almost bankrupt.

It was only then that someone drilled to 1,500 meters and discovered a self-flowing well with extremely rich oil.

It cannot be considered an artesian well, but a straight-flowing well, like a fountain, continuously gushing oil out for years.

Now the Ming Dynasty's drilling team is under the instruction of Zhu Jianxuan.

So they drilled directly in the right place to a depth of 1,500 meters, and as a result, they struck oil directly from the first well.

Then they start loading the oil into barrels, cans and ships for transport back home, while continuing to drill more oil wells.

The Ming Dynasty now has cargo ships with a displacement of over 10,000 tons, and can now mobilize a large number of large ships loaded with oil to return.

Industrial development and construction in the Central Plains, Northeast China, and Northern China of the Ming Dynasty entered the second stage.

Basic internal combustion engines including diesel engines and gasoline engines, as well as industrial and agricultural machinery driven by internal combustion engines, entered the factory mass production stage after Zhu Jianxuan's acceptance.

The Ming Dynasty court built multiple agricultural machinery factories and motor vehicle factories in the four major regions of North China, Northeast China, Jiangnan, and Guangdong.

In the future, various motor vehicles will be mass-produced and supplied to construction sites across the country.

To meet the production and use needs of these machines, more steel mills, refineries and chemical plants began to be built at the same time.

By the beginning of the third year of Tiangong, this batch of factories began to go into production one after another.

At this time, the main projects of the inner and outer layers of Shuntian Prefecture have been basically completed, and the asphalt hardening projects of the main streets in the inner and outer cities have basically been completed.

Zhu Jianxuan also began to replace the horse-drawn carriage he rode daily with a gasoline-powered vehicle.

With fairly modern industrial machinery and transport vehicles, the construction speed of various projects has once again increased by leaps and bounds.

When these machinery factories were put into production one after another, Wang Lai, who was in charge of the North-to-South Water Diversion Project, found Zhu Jianxuan.

In the office of Wenhua Hall, Wang Lai saluted Zhu Jianxuan with great excitement and anticipation, and handed over a thick document:

“Your Majesty, the overall planning of the North-to-South Water Diversion Project has been completed.

"Now I ask Your Majesty to approve the start of the second phase of the project, which is the Songjin Canal project."

Zhu Jianxuan flipped through the document in his hand, first looking at the table of contents and the overview section at the front.

The North-to-South Water Diversion Project, an unprecedented large-scale water conservancy project, has been explored and calculated for so many years under the leadership of Wang Lai, and now the entire plan has finally been completed.

The entire project can be generally divided into four parts.

The first part is the Sanjiangze Lake.

Block the Heilongjiang River's entrance to the sea, store water within the Sanjiangze area, and build a giant artificial lake.

The key is to allow the river water to converge and then flow upstream, moving south along the lowlands in the middle of the Northeast Plain, into the Bohai Sea or continue to be diverted to other places.

Now the first phase of the project has been basically completed, and the main part of Sanjiangze has been submerged by the Heilongjiang River.

A giant artificial lake has been formed, and water will continue to be stored to raise the water level in the future.

The second part is the Songjin Canal.

Canals and river embankments were built starting from the middle reaches of the Songhua River to guide the water of the Songhua River to the Jinzhou area at the northern end of the Liaoxi Corridor.

It includes more than 100 kilometers of canals and nearly 500 kilometers of levees.

The third part was called the Yanshan Canal by Wang Lai.

River embankments were built along the Liaoxi Corridor and the foot of Yanshan Mountain, allowing river water to pass through the Liaoxi Corridor and Shanhaiguan and finally reach the Shuntian Prefecture area.

The fourth part is called Taihang Canal by Wang Lai.

A river embankment was built along the foot of the Taihang Mountains to allow the river water reaching Beijing to continue flowing south and eventually merge into the main channel of the Yellow River.

The abundant water resources of the Heilongjiang River are used to flush out the silt of the Yellow River and supply water for the Grand Canal.

Zhu Jianxuan already had an idea of ​​what this project was all about, and now he just needed to look at the specific data.

Including the estimated project volume, required manpower and funds, and the expected final completion time, etc.

Zhu Jianxuan roughly read through the report, then looked up at Wang Lai who was standing in front of him:

“Is this third phase really feasible?”

The most difficult part of the entire project was not the Sanjiangze Lake or the Taihang Canal, but the Jizhou part of the Yanshan Canal.

Build river embankments parallel to the foot of the mountain, and use the space between the embankments and the mountains to construct a canal.

The most critical condition is whether the slope of the flat area at the foot of the mountain is appropriate. Whether the slope is too large or too small, the amount of engineering work will increase sharply.

Although the Taihang Canal is long, the slope at the foot of the mountain is suitable, so the amount of work is actually not large.

The Jizhou area has too many changes in altitude and slope.

Wang Lai nodded seriously:
“According to the calculations of students, classmates and engineers, it is feasible with the engineering machine invented by Your Majesty.

“The canal does not run along the foot of the mountains in the Jizhou area, but passes through the mountains behind Jizhou.

"To this end, the water storage height of Sanjiangze Lake will be raised to 145 meters overall." Moreover, regardless of whether the Yanshan Canal is finally built, the Songjin Canal itself will always be useful.

“After the Songjin Canal is completed, ships can go up from Jinzhou directly to the Songhua River and Sanjiangze Lake.

"The Jiaodong Peninsula, the Bohai Sea coast, and the entire Northeast region can now be connected by water transport."

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the relevant data again:
"Okay, if it's feasible, let's get started. What other support do you need?"

Wang Lai said urgently:

"Students... want machines from Liaodong Machinery Factory... all machines..."

Zhu Jianxuan smiled when he heard this:

"Okay, I'll give you most of the products from the Liaodong Machinery Factory, but not all of them will be used to repair the canal. The Liaodong Military Farm will also need them.

"I will issue an edict to appoint you as the governor of Liaodong River Channel Development, in charge of the military settlements in Liaodong to cooperate with the canal project.

"The agricultural machinery produced by the Liaodong Industrial Base was distributed to the military garrisons that were used to open up wasteland in Liaodong.

“The industrial machinery produced locally was allocated for use in the Songjin Canal project.

"The military settlements in Liaodong were busy with farming during the busy farming season, and they built levees and canals during the slack season.

Wang Lai bowed excitedly and gave the order:

"Students obey."

After Wang Lai, who was in charge of the North-to-South Water Diversion Project, submitted an application and Zhu Jianxuan approved and ordered it, the second phase of the North-to-South Water Diversion Project, the Songjin Canal Project, officially began.

As soon as Zhu Jianxuan's appointment decree was issued, Wang Lai immediately took his companions and sailed to Liaodong and drove to Shenyang.

A meeting was convened in Shenyang with officials and shopkeepers from the surrounding mines, machinery factories, and military farms.

Zhu Jianxuan's imperial edict was read out, and he was given the power to coordinate all affairs in Liaodong, and then the canal project was officially started.

Then Wang Lai first ordered all military settlements to allocate land according to the planned canal route and to reclaim additional wasteland on the planned land.

However, instead of using human and animal power as in the past, agricultural machinery was directly arranged to carry them out.

Next, Wang Lai took the officials of the garrison to the machinery factory to collect all the machines that had been produced and distributed them to the garrisons below for use.

Arrange for each guard to select smart young people to learn the operation.

Mainly general-purpose diesel tractors, as well as matching plows, seeders, harvesters, trailers, etc.

In fact, Zhu Jianxuan did not need to remind him specifically. As a traditional craftsman and intellectual of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Lai knew that sharpening the knife would save the effort of chopping wood.

For a huge project like the Songjin Canal, if we want to complete it safely and securely with quality and quantity, we must not rush for quick results.

We must first gather the labor force to cultivate land along the canal route so that they can live a normal life there.

The most important food supplies for the workers were directly supplied from the land along the project line.

Then let the workers start working when they are free.

Before the advent of agricultural machinery, this arrangement would not be very efficient, but with agricultural machinery, things are completely different.

Agricultural machinery is several times more efficient than livestock, and the key is that it is tireless.

With the agricultural machinery, most of the labor force in the garrison could be freed up. Originally, the busy farming season was calculated on a monthly basis, but with the agricultural machinery, it could be calculated on a daily basis.

However, these transfers have nothing to do with the workers in several coal and iron mines in Liaodong.

As steel mills and machinery factories have been put into production in recent years, the amount of coal and iron ore needed has increased sharply, and the work in the mines has become more and more difficult.

Zhao Hongli, the former Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, dragged his aging body in his eighties to serve meals to the workers in the canteen of the Fushun mine.

Zhao Hongli had a special identity and, to some extent, was a spiritual symbol within the old Qing system. He was the reason why former Qing officials who were not directly conquered by the Ming army surrendered.

Therefore, before the Ming Dynasty's control over the Northeast, grasslands and other regions was sufficiently deep, the former Qing emperor and Mongolian Khan were still somewhat useful.

In addition, Zhu Jianxuan's original promise was to give all Qing Dynasty high-ranking officials a way out, which meant that they could not be killed directly.

Therefore, as long as Zhao Hongli was alive, no one would take the initiative to kill him.

And Zhao Hongli survived beyond everyone's expectation. He is now 85 years old and still has no serious illness.

But after all, he is old and has no strength left to do the work down the mine.

The officer in charge knew that Zhu Jianxuan had no good feelings towards the Qing court, and of course he couldn't let Zhao Hongli really spend his old age here in idling.

He was assigned the job of serving meals in the canteen to the workers who were once Zhao Hongli's ministers.

At the beginning, many former Qing nobles and officials had an instinctive fear of Zhao Hongli, and when they saw him, they lowered their voices and shouted "Long Live the Emperor".

However, after working in the mines for a long time, and with no way of seeing future changes, the personalities and habits of these former Qing Dynasty high-ranking officials gradually changed.

I started to habitually swear, complain about everything all day long, and hate my former companions.

From the highest emperors and princes to the lowest soldiers and officers, everyone could be the object of resentment from others.

He resented the incompetence of others and their inability to defeat the former Ming Dynasty, which led to him becoming a prisoner.

That morning, Zhao Hongli stood behind a row of large barrels as usual, serving steamed buns and stews to the workers.

Zhao Hongli had no strength in his hands, and when he was picking up a steamed bun for a worker, one of the buns fell to the ground.

Zhao Hongli quickly bent down to pick it up, but the worker opposite him became inexplicably angry and kicked Zhao Hongli in the waist:
"You useless dog, you can't even hold the things I give you—"

Zhao Hongli fell to the ground with a cry, and then tried to get up several times, but he didn't have the strength to support his body.

The surrounding workers were shocked when they saw this, and many of them shouted:
"What's going on? Are you crazy?"

"Which flag are you from?"

"How dare you hit His Majesty!"

The man immediately shouted:

"I am from the Bordered White Banner, a descendant of the Prince of Yu's Palace, which means I am from the original Bordered Yellow Banner!
"The one I'm beating up today is that old bastard Hongli!
"If Prince Rui or Prince Yu had been made emperor, how could the Qing Dynasty have ended up like this today!"

The Prince Yu of the Bordered White Banner was obviously Duoduo, Dorgon's half-brother.

Zhao Hongli was a descendant of the Huang Taiji and Shunzhi lines.

The three brothers Ajige, Dorgon and Doduo initially managed two flags, the Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Yellow Banner.

After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, he changed the organization of the two white flags led by himself and the two yellow flags led by Dorgon brothers, but the people remained basically unchanged.

The flags of Dorgon's brothers were changed into two white flags, and the emperor's flag was changed into two yellow flags.

After Shunzhi came to power, he seized Dorgon's original Zhengbai Banner, and the upper three banners controlled by the emperor were formed.

Duoduo still led the Bordered White Banner. The senior officials of the Bordered White Banner believed that Huang Taiji had seized the throne from Dorgon and were not on good terms with the Shunzhi faction.

Now this worker who came from the Bordered White Banner felt aggrieved and couldn't help but kick Zhao Hongli.

But Zhao Hongli was emperor for decades and had his own loyal ministers and filial sons.

When the relatives and ministers of the Shunzhi lineage heard the workers here introduce themselves, many of them rushed forward in anger.

"Even if Duoduo is here today, he can't hit His Majesty!"

"Everyone, stand together and kill this traitor!"

The scene suddenly became chaotic. Zhao Hongli was stepped on several times in the chaos and could not get up at all.

Many people do not necessarily want to support Zhao Hongli, they just simply want to find an excuse to vent.

When the officers who were responsible for maintaining order came with the pickets, they pulled apart the former Qing high-ranking officials who were in chaos.

He found that Zhao Hongli had collapsed on the ground, and the air he was breathing in was less than the air he was breathing out.

The officer asked someone to find a doctor from the garrison to treat Zhao Hongli, but Zhao Hongli died before the doctor arrived.

(End of this chapter)