The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 424 White Tiger Mansion and Taiping Mansion

Baihu Lake is Lake Michigan in Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life, the only one of the five Great Lakes that belongs entirely to the United States.

At the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan is the famous big city of Chicago, which is now the location of the White Tiger Right Guard of the Ming Dynasty.

From this region southward to the vicinity of the low hills north of the confluence of the Great River of North America with the American (Ohio) River.

It is probably the area of ​​Illinois and Indiana in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life in the United States.

The overall terrain of this area is relatively flat, and the annual precipitation is close to that of the Shenzhou Jianghuai region, basically fluctuating around one thousand millimeters.

The local original vegetation type is a transitional area between temperate broad-leaved deciduous forest and temperate long grass grassland.

There are large areas of long grass grasslands interspersed with forests.

Without considering cold waves and other extreme weather, the local average high temperature in summer is around 30 degrees Celsius, and the average low temperature in winter is around minus 7 degrees Celsius.

This is almost the most suitable place for reclaiming land and farming in North America.

The moist, long-grass prairie land was naturally fertile and easily cultivated, and the sparsely distributed forests provided early building and tool materials.

Heat and precipitation are mainly concentrated in summer, which can provide the heat and water needed for the growth of various crops.

This area is naturally also the Ming Dynasty’s key development area on the North American continent.

The Ming Dynasty's pioneering efforts in the interior of North America began with several key nodes in the Great Lakes region and on the east coast of North American rivers.

At the southwest, southeast and south ends of Baihu Lake, three early military garrisons, namely Baihu Zuowei, Baihu Youwei and Baihu Qianwei, were first established.

The three garrisons reclaimed land in three directions of the lake, gradually formed stable residential areas, and gained a firm foothold on the great plains.

Then the newly arrived immigrants took the three garrisons as starting points and continued to open up the land in the southeast, southwest and south directions.

The goal in the southwest direction is to connect with the development areas along the major rivers in the southwest, and the goal in the south direction is to connect with the development areas of Zhongdu Taipingwei in the south.

The goal in the southeast direction is to connect with the development areas west and south of Zhuque Lake (Lake Erie).

Therefore, after the two military garrisons, Zhuque Right Guard on the west bank of Zhuque Lake in the east and Zhuque Vanguard on the southwest bank, were basically stabilized, they began to simultaneously expand the development area westward.

The military settlements on the banks of the middle reaches of the great rivers in North America also focused their development towards the east, with the goal of opening up the Baihu Lake development area.

In the early days, these development points continued to extend their respective goals, and were gradually connected with other development areas according to plan, and ground transportation lines were also established between the development areas.

New immigrants who arrived later began to expand outward along the transportation lines between the development points, gradually forming a larger mature development area.

This process has lasted for more than 20 years, and the total area of ​​the development zone has reached 300,000 square kilometers, basically covering this vast plain area.

Of course, these places are still very different from the mainland of Shenzhou.

These mature development areas are not entirely farmland, but still retain a large amount of scattered original forest and grassland vegetation.

Because clearing land in forest areas requires digging up tree roots, but this is not necessary in grassland areas sandwiched between forests, the overall difficulty of clearing land is lower, and of course, grassland reclamation should be given priority.

At the same time, the extent of wasteland in North America is almost limitless, and the guards, companies, and people in the frontier areas will not take the initiative to compete with the forest unless they want to obtain timber.

Nor would every piece of land be carefully turned into farmland, but large areas of wasteland or orchards would be left between farms of different ownership, intentionally or unintentionally.

The three earliest military settlements on the shores of Baihu Lake were gradually abolished in the past few years and turned into four counties under the newly established Baihu Prefecture.

In particular, Baihu Youwei has now become two counties in the same city, called Younan County and Youbei County respectively.

The White Tiger Mansion is also located at the original location of the White Tiger Right Guard.

When the train carrying the fifteen princes entered the built-up area of ​​Baihu City, the princes looked at the surrounding scenery with great curiosity.

There are rows of buildings, bustling crowds, many smoking factories in the distance, and a large number of motor buses and trucks nearby.

There is also a wide canal that runs through the city, and there are a large number of various ships in the river, sailing forward with smoke spewing out.

The princes felt that this city was quite prosperous. Apart from several large industrial areas in the Ming Dynasty, it was also a relatively large provincial capital.

It was nothing like the wild and remote overseas lands they had imagined.

The White Tiger City and surrounding areas are also one of the key research areas of the princes in North America.

So the princes got off at the train station in Baihufu City and went into the city, and began to understand the situation in Baihufu and its subordinate cities and rural areas.

The main officials of the White Tiger Palace naturally had to come out to greet them, and then accompany the princes on a tour and explain the general situation here.

The area surrounding Baihufu is the largest agricultural area in inland North America, with large farms within hundreds of kilometers around the city.

However, Baihufu itself is also a transit station for the Great Lakes and the major rivers of North America, and is also the earliest and most important city in this area.

There are still enough people in the local area, so naturally they have taken on the task of basic construction.

Baihufu City has large river and lake ship terminals, shipyards for inland river and lake shipbuilding and repair, and supporting steel mills, machinery plants and agricultural machinery plants.

There are also textile mills that process local agricultural products, food factories, and factories that produce basic living facilities.

However, what is special is that most of the factories, whether shipyards or steel mills, are built on the banks of the canal, not on the banks of Baihu Lake.

There are only farms and residential areas along the lakeshore.

According to local officials, these were all special arrangements made by the emperor, prohibiting the construction of factories near the lakeshore and discharging wastewater directly into the lake.

The treated wastewater can be discharged into canals, sent through them and eventually into the sea.

The officials did not quite understand this arrangement, but the princes who had just arrived understood it immediately.

The courses for the princes were arranged personally by Emperor Zhu Jianxuan.

The geographical knowledge content of natural history includes knowledge about the renewal and pollution of water bodies.

The water state of large inland lakes is irreversible over periods of hundreds of years.

Humanity will not be able to completely clean up large polluted lakes in the next few hundred years.

The situation of rivers is much better. The water basically maintains a one-way flow and always flows outward for a long time.

Pollutants settle more slowly than in lakes, but are renewed much faster than lake water.

Therefore, all polluted water sources that cannot be properly treated are discharged into the sea first, and then into lakes. Discharge into inland lakes is prohibited.

After the princes learned about the situation, they visited the dock area by the lake and found that the water level of the lake was very high.

It is only spring now and the rainy season has not yet begun, but the water level of the large lake is only about two meters above the urban ground.

This White Tiger Temple also built a long dam in the lakeside area, apparently to prevent the waves in the lake from overflowing onto the ground.

According to local officials, the water level of Baihu Lake was not so high before. In the past, the water level of Baihu Lake and Ziwei Lake was 176 meters above sea level, and there was at least six meters of space between them and the land near the lakeshore.

It is difficult for waves in the lake to directly affect facilities on the ground.

In order to facilitate the construction of the canal, reduce construction costs and improve navigation capacity, a dam is built between Ziwei Lake (Lake Huron) and Zhuque Lake.

The water from the two large lakes was intercepted and flowed into Zhuque Lake, raising the lake levels of the two lakes to 180 meters.

By repairing the tributaries of the river near Baihu Lake, Baihu Lake can become a water source for the upper reaches of the river, providing a stable water source for the relatively water-scarce upper reaches of the river.

After years of continuous deepening and repairs, 10,000-ton inland ships can now sail from the Great Lakes into the North American rivers.

The princes stayed in Baihu Mansion for more than half a month, and then took an inland passenger ship south along the canal to Zhongdu Taiping Mansion, the core of the North American continent.

Today, the trough valleys of the middle and upper reaches of the major North American rivers and the Great River have all become canals.

Except for a lock every few hundred kilometers, the river behaves like an extremely long reservoir in other places.

In most places it is about five kilometers wide, with a water depth usually between six and twelve meters, and its navigability exceeds that of all natural rivers except the Amazon River.

The passenger ship carrying the fifteen princes sailed downstream and entered the Taiping Prefecture when early summer arrived.

The vast majority of other cities, whether in the Old World or the New World, developed on the basis of agriculture.

Only with agriculture can there be population, technology and industrial demand.

In the classical era, cities that could rely on pure commerce to survive were an absolute rarity.

Taiping Prefecture is a very rare new type of city that was specially planned and built with the goal of industrial and commercial development.

The city's core area is located on both sides of the largest tributary of the North American river, and is generally located in the middle of a semicircular hill.

If you dig less than one meter below the ground, you will find gravel of various shapes.

The soil is too shallow to be suitable for farming, but is suitable for construction.

The foundation does not need to be dug particularly deep, as long as it is inserted into the gravel and rock layers below, it can ensure the stability of the industrial building itself.

Therefore, Zhu Jianxuan made special arrangements to make this place the industrial center of the North American continent.

Most of the industries in the Ming Dynasty can be found in Taiping Prefecture or its surrounding areas.

Taiping Prefecture has coal mines, steel mills, chemical plants, shipyards, agricultural machinery factories, civilian motor vehicle factories, and aircraft manufacturing plants.

There are power plants, electrical appliance factories, textile factories, food factories, and various daily necessities factories.

Even the military industry is relatively complete, including rifle and artillery factories, military machinery factories, military vehicle factories, flight machine manufacturing plants, and so on.

The only thing missing is the oil exploration and extraction industry.

Or maybe it's because there really seems to be no oil in this area.

For a city that is undergoing such rapid and comprehensive industrialization, the size of its built-up area will naturally expand rapidly.

The pace of development and construction was too fast, and there was no long-term stable agricultural era, so Taiping Prefecture did not have a clear provincial capital and county town.

The urban population within the large built-up areas on both sides of the Mei River now exceeds three million.

It is definitely a megacity in the whole world or in the Ming Dynasty. Among all the cities in the world, there are only a handful of cities with a population of over three million.

Moreover, these cities are basically located in the Ming Dynasty.

The main overseas cities are Taiping Prefecture and New York Prefecture in North America, Wuwangdu in Australia, and Yinhe Prefecture in Linzhou.

The passenger ship carrying the princes sailed along the Great River of North America, turned into the Great River at the confluence of the Great River and the Beautiful River, and went upstream, and soon entered the urban area of ​​Taiping Prefecture, the central capital of America.

Most of the princes couldn't help but sigh that this Taiping Prefecture was very similar to the big cities in their hometown.

There are docks, buildings, factories and vehicles everywhere, and it is a busy scene everywhere.

Taiping Prefecture had become the capital of the North American continent, and most of the ministers and university scholars of the North American Garrison had originally stayed in Taiping Prefecture.

The cabinet system of New York City has now become a branch of the Taiping Cabinet, specifically responsible for handling the affairs of the free states and dominions on the eastern coastline.

Moreover, after receiving the notice that the princes were coming for training, the grand secretaries and ministers who stayed in New York also came to Taiping Mansion in advance to wait and welcome them.

The mentality of local officials now is similar to that of Guangdong Provincial officials two years ago. They now don’t know why more than a dozen princes were sent to America together.

Many officials wondered in their hearts whether the emperor was dissatisfied with the current situation in America and wanted to change the status quo.
After all, the imperial court has just established the Asia-Europe Liaison Office and split up Guangdong in the past two years.

However, no matter what you guess in your heart, you must cooperate on the surface and show your full support.

The princes arrived at Taiping Prefecture, which was the location for this round of practical training.

The formal handover procedures had to be carried out, especially since the princes' positions this time were specially appointed by the emperor and needed to be made clear to the local subordinate officials.

Ministers and cabinet ministers from America, along with the main officials of the Taiping Prefecture, welcomed the princes at the dock.

After the two sides met and exchanged greetings, the princes first took out the appointment letter and handed it to the existing governor and other officials for confirmation.

American grand secretaries and ministers led and escorted the princes into the city and sent them to the North American palace, where a simple welcoming ceremony was held.

Zhu Jianxuan already had a palace in New York, and as the capital, the Taiping Guards could not be without a palace.

So the local officials submitted a memorial to Zhu Jianxuan, requesting permission to build a new group of palaces in Zhongdu Taiping Prefecture.

There should be a suitable venue for decision-making meetings on major local affairs in America and the reading of imperial edicts to senior American officials.

Whether or not the king himself came to live in the palaces in the Americas, the political significance and ritual function of these palaces always existed.

At that time, Zhu Jianxuan had already become emperor, and the palace he built for himself in America should be built according to the emperor's standards.

However, Zhu Jianxuan specifically requested that it be built according to the standards of a prince.

Zhu Jianxuan first considered that he would be away from North America for a long time, and it would be a hassle to put an emperor-level palace in North America.

Sooner or later, active or accidental encroachment will occur.

If they don't build a palace in North America, they will reduce the possibility and level of usurpation of power by one level.

After the princes confirmed their identities with the local ministers and grand secretaries, the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun read out an imperial edict, which was a direct order from the emperor to them.

The Grand Secretaries were obviously stunned after hearing this. According to the imperial edict, these princes were equivalent to the Grand Secretaries of America.

At the same time, they obviously have decision-making power far beyond that of ordinary university scholars.

What about the existing university scholars in America?
(End of this chapter)