The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 35: st Regiment, st Australian Division

On October 5th and 6th of the 31st year of Xianning in the Ming Dynasty, the new achievements exhibition of King Wu’s Laboratory was held again.

The exhibition venue is still in the laboratory.

The first day is for royal family members, nobles, officials, and eunuchs, and the second day is for well-known craftsmen and businessmen among the people.

The effect of the exhibition was very good.

The laboratory's patent management office became busy again. Large authorization orders were issued quickly and a large amount of cash and silver bills were received.

Because a large amount of gold and silver continued to flow into the Ming Dynasty, the value of gold and silver would not continue to rise, and hoarding gold and silver was generally unprofitable.

More importantly, the Ming Dynasty central government encouraged industry and commerce, and private industry and commerce were very developed.

All in all, wealthy people prefer to exchange gold and silver for assets or equity rather than hoarding gold and silver directly.

In order to find investment funds, businessmen had long since dug out the gold and silver hidden in the cellars of local rich men.

Whether it is normal lending money, attracting them to invest, or simply cheating them, businessmen have a much broader mindset than local rich people.

Starting from the Chongzhen period, Emperor Chongzhen learned the skills of Europeans in minting gold and silver coins and began to uniformly issue officially minted Ming gold and silver coins.

Private transactions no longer use silver to denominate money, but instead use the pure amount of gold coins, silver dollars, and copper coins.

At the same time, the preparations for the first batch of immigrants of Wu State were finally completed.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty promised King Wu five guard corps, each with no less than 60,000 immigrants.

The first group is the Australian Central Guard, which consists of 12,000 immigrant households and a total population of more than 70,000 people.

All of them came from the core and fundamental areas of the Ming Dynasty’s central court, namely Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places.

They will be sent to Australia in five batches.

On October 10, the first batch of immigrants from the Jianghuai region of Zhili set off from Songjiangfu Wharf on sailing ships organized by the imperial court.
Nominally there are 1,000 households, but there are more than 2,000 households in total, totaling more than 15,000 people.

This included more than 2,000 regular troops who had already received training, nominally corresponding to the organization of a regiment of one thousand households.

The regular army of this regiment set sail first on four steam-powered paddle-wheeled armed sailing ships with a displacement of 600 tons.

Other ordinary immigrants and militiamen set off in normal order on traditional sailing boats.

Among them were two junior officers, Cao Zhendong and Liu Biao.

When Liu Biao returned to Ming Dynasty from Australia, he chose not to report the gold mine he discovered, and Cao Zhendong did not make a special report on it.

Cao Zhendong actually also wanted to occupy the gold mine and make gold privately.

After a brief discussion, the two of them applied to join the Wu Kingdom's guard corps and prepared to send their entire families over.

The capital of the Wu Kingdom was located in the southeast corner of Australia, which was the end of the world compared to the Ming Dynasty.

The distance from Ming Yingtian Prefecture to the capital of Wu is as far as the east coast of Africa.

The flight distance is nearly 12,000 kilometers.

Moreover, on the way to the capital of Wu, whether going there or not, there is at least one section of sailing against the wind and the current.

The route to the east coast of Africa was basically smooth sailing.

In addition, Australia's barren land has long been known far and wide, and this place has never been popular among the Ming Dynasty's military and civilians.

Most of them are really broke and want to go out and try their luck, so they consider signing up.

Since Cao Zhendong and Liu Biao are willing to go, they are of course welcome.

Especially since the two of them had already participated in the exploration of Australia and had experience in sailing and exploring Australia.

Not only did they pass the review quickly, they were also entrusted with important tasks.

Cao Zhendong was promoted to the next level and appointed as the commander of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of Australia, and his rank was raised to the fifth rank.

The normal rank of a team leader should be the fifth rank, and the deputy team leader is the junior fifth rank.

Cao Zhendong is now actually in charge of two regiments of soldiers, and he will definitely be promoted one or even two levels in the future.

The current dispatch is the First Division Vanguard and the First Fleet Admiral.

Liu Biao was also promoted to a higher position, serving as the battalion commander of the first battalion of the first regiment, and his rank was promoted to the sixth rank.

He also served as the captain of the prospecting team around the southern bay.

The current official status of the Ming Dynasty is divided into four aspects: title, rank, position, and dispatch.

The titles of nobility are Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Gentleman, and Scholar, which determine the official's lifelong honors and benefits in the Ming Dynasty, as well as his status in official occasions.

The rank is divided into nine grades and eighteen levels, which determine the actual salary and benefits of officials while in office, and also determine their status in the absence of a title. The positions are civil and military positions such as division commander, regiment commander, prefect, and county magistrate, which determine the official affairs that officials usually perform, as well as the upper limit of their positions.

The mission is to be the team leader, captain, pioneer, admiral, governor, to know something, to be in charge of something, etc., usually special matters that the official is additionally responsible for.

Cao Zhendong’s “vanguard” and “admiral” are both “dispatches”.

An officer who is in charge of a fleet or an officer in charge of an overall mission, regardless of his specific rank or position, can usually be called an admiral.

Liu Biao's captain is also a dispatched officer who performs a one-way task under the overall mission, and is usually directly called the captain.

The two were dumbfounded after receiving the arrangements from the court.

The imperial court did not place the capital of Wu in the southern bay, but chose a small valley in eastern Australia.

The key point is that Liu Biao was also asked to take people to the southern bay to explore for minerals.

Liu Biao immediately suspected that Cao Zhendong had reported his discovery of the gold mine to the court.

So when the two met at the time of reporting, the straightforward Liu Biao went straight to Cao Zhendong and asked:

"Admiral... no, Captain, have you reported what happened to us?"

Cao Zhendong also asked helplessly:

“At first I thought you had secretly reported it yourself, but I soon figured it out.

“If you report the situation, the court will directly point out the place you mentioned to open a mine.

“There doesn’t need to be a general request to prospect for minerals around the bay as is the case now.

“The point is, neither you nor I received any special rewards, and everyone got promotions in rank and official position.

“The original officers who are willing to go to Australia to open up new land will be directly promoted one level on the spot.

"Besides, we are actually the military of Wu State, not the military of the central court. In fact, we are inferior to the central army.

“So it’s obvious that the court wants to first check whether there are any mines in the area, and then consider whether to open up wasteland for farming.

"It wasn't that one of us took the initiative to report it..."

Liu Biao was not very stupid and he quickly understood what was going on.

If Cao Zhendong reported the gold mine to the court, he would most likely be assigned to be responsible for gold mine exploration.

However, Cao Zhendong’s current mission is to lead the first batch of regular troops of the Wu State and station them in the future capital.

From then on, he was the central army of Wu State and had basically no chance to leave the garrison near the capital.

So Liu Biao couldn't help but ask:

"So what should we do now, Admiral? How should we carry out this mission?"

Cao Zhendong sighed and said:
"What else can I do? Are you still thinking about secretly mining for gold?
"When you get there, go directly to the place you visited last time, and then come back immediately to report that you have discovered gold ore.

“If you do this, you can also get the credit for discovering the gold mine and reporting it.

"If you continue to hide it, and other explorers discover the gold mine and report it, you won't even get the credit."

Liu Biao was stunned for a moment, then understood the truth and nodded in agreement helplessly.

After Liu Biao followed Cao Zhendong on board, they came to the side of the deck of the ship.

Liu Biao looked at the huge chimney and paddle wheel on the ship and sighed:

"Captain, don't say anything, our Highness... no, the King's invention is truly miraculous.

"With this steam engine and paddle wheel drive, we no longer have to worry about going against the current."

Cao Zhendong also talked about what he knew:

"I heard that if the wind is favorable and the steam engine and paddle wheel are turned on, the maximum speed can reach 30 kilometers per hour."

Liu Biao was shocked:
"So, our journey to the capital of the Kingdom of Wu in southeastern Australia, which originally took half a year, can now be completed in less than 20 days?"

Cao Zhendong shook his head:
"They said that I can't keep it running all the time, otherwise it will easily overheat and break down. Now I have to stop and inspect it after running it for one or two days.

"Besides, the coal storage on the ship is limited, so we have to stop at islands along the way to refuel. Anyway, we can't keep going."

Liu Biao continued:
"That's pretty impressive... Even with all the repairs and coal, it shouldn't take two months to get to the capital, right?"

Cao Zhendong nodded:
"It should be about the same."

(End of this chapter)