Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 159: Go to the Future World One by One

Two days later, Empress Xu underwent a tumor removal surgery and rested in the hospital.

It’s actually quite uncomfortable.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to deify himself, although he allowed Empress Xu to come to modern times for treatment, he did not allow her to access any modern information.

In private hospitals, there are also separate wards, and all televisions and other equipment have been removed, and there are no electronic devices.

The doctors and nurses only came to observe the situation every day, and asked Queen Ma to accompany them, which was almost equivalent to surveillance, not giving her the opportunity to know that this was the future and not the world of cultivation.

Therefore, Empress Xu's life after the operation was very boring. Every day she just chatted with Empress Ma and looked out the window at the green vegetation, blue sky and white clouds outside.

Even Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He felt that Zhu Yuanzhang was abusing his daughter-in-law.

But for Empress Xu, even so, she was already very happy. She was very happy every day, with a happy smile on her face.

Can also understand.

Modern people cannot get used to life without computers and mobile phones every day. Without entertainment and information input, they will feel mentally depressed and almost go crazy.

However, the ancients, especially the queens and concubines, were kept in the palace and did not have much freedom.

The information received was also very one-sided, and many people didn't even know how large the territory of the Ming Dynasty was.

I'm used to this kind of captive life, so it doesn't matter to me.

What's more, Empress Xu herself already knew that according to history, she would die this year, and now she has a chance to survive and continue to accompany Zhu Di.

Not to mention being imprisoned, she would be willing to endure any amount of suffering.

From a modern perspective, Lao Zhu is indeed a bit bad. But from the perspective of the ancients, being alive is good enough, so why would they need a bicycle?

A few days later, in the Qianqing Palace of the Hongwu Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting behind his desk reviewing the memorials submitted by the Jinyiwei in recent times.

Now the Ming Dynasty was entirely governed by Zhu Biao, and all that was left for Zhu Biao to become the emperor was to ascend the throne.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not pass the throne to Zhu Biao and become the emperor emeritus.

Once the economy improves, all kinds of problems will arise. An increase in food production means an increase in productivity. The large-scale liberation of the labor force in recent years is bound to cause various problems.

We must find jobs for the people.

If you have no job and just wander around the streets all day doing nothing, it will cause serious social security problems.

Therefore, it was necessary to open mines, build factories, lay railways, repair roads, develop handicraft manufacturing industries as well as primary manufacturing industries such as steam engines, spinning machines, and electric motors.

Especially the textile industry.

In the early days of our country, half of our industry was supported by the textile industry.

The other half is steel.

Therefore, textile mills and steel mills are now the top priority.

But Rome was not built in a day, and industry could not spread across the country so quickly.

Zhu Biao has already made many industrial plans in various provincial governments across the country, including many national projects, but there are still many well-fed and idle people in society.

The most important thing is that the steel industry has adopted advanced productivity and directly uses electric arc furnaces to produce steel.

The Ming Dynasty also continued to introduce power generators and electric arc furnaces from modern times, which were many times more efficient than traditional steelmaking methods, resulting in the Ming Dynasty's steel industry not requiring so many industrial workers in its early stages.

The result is that productivity has increased too quickly, leaving the excess labor force with no time to transform, and social security has become a problem.

When people have enough to eat but have nothing to do, trouble will arise.

The local Jinyiwei had to go out and solve these troubles in order to maintain the stability of the Zhu family's rule.

Zhu Biao was also forced to suspend the introduction of electric arc furnaces and instead build traditional converter steelmaking.

Although efficiency has been reduced, the number of jobs has increased significantly.

The phrase "millions of workers depend on food and clothing" may seem light, but in fact, there are countless families in need behind it.

Therefore, sometimes there is no way to achieve industrial scale using backward technology.

As the cornerstone of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang controlled the Jinyiwei, which meant that there was another sharp blade hanging over their heads to supervise officials and the people.

As long as Zhu Yuanzhang does not abdicate, the person holding the sword will be watching them all the time.

Therefore, Zhu's presence in office is more conducive to deterring corrupt officials and the evil forces that may quickly emerge in local areas than his absence.

After all, in later generations of our country's crackdown on gangs and evil, except for special periods, if no one was killed, the main culprit would be sentenced to death at most, and the other accomplices would be convicted based on their mistakes, and it would not be a matter of killing them all.

But Old Zhu doesn't care about that.

If you organize evil forces in the Ming Dynasty and collude with local officials and powerful people to oppress the people, not only the participants, but even their families may not be able to be protected.

Under such circumstances, if Zhu Yuanzhang did not abdicate, he would play the role of a stabilizing force, and his prestige and appeal would be amazing.

At this moment in the study, Old Zhu was quickly reviewing the memorials that had been sent to him.

These have basically been reviewed by the local Jinyiwei, Dali Temple and local government offices, and confirmed by higher authorities.

There may be a very small number of wrongful convictions, but there is definitely nothing wrong with most of the verdicts.

The Dali Temple, the Inspectorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had all examined the matter, and as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang signed, many people were beheaded.

At this moment, Zhu Biao walked in.

He came to Zhu Yuanzhang with some official documents in his hand and said, "Father."

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, put down the brush in his hand and asked, "What's wrong?"

“These are the statistics from last year.”

Zhu Biao put down the document and said, "The departments have completed the planning content and data statistics that I assigned them two years ago. They have been submitted today. Show it to father."

"Oh?"

Zhu Yuanzhang took it and began to read it.

In fact, data statistics existed in ancient society, which originated in the Qin Dynasty and developed in the Han Dynasty.

In the Han Dynasty, grassroots statisticians were called Ji Li, and the officials in charge of data statistics in each prefecture were called Shang Ji Yuan.

Sima Yi and Deng Ai both held this position before they became successful.

During the Song Dynasty, a department similar to the later Ministry of Statistics was even set up, called the General Statistics Bureau. However, the Three Departments also had statistical functions, and the functions overlapped, so it was abolished after only one year.

However, ancient statistical data was rather rough, only counting population, land, grain, warehouses, taxes, public security, prisons, etc., with relatively few statistics on other data.

Now that it is a new era, we have to count steel production, textile production, number of workers, agricultural population, GDP and so on.

For this purpose, Zhu Di established a new General Administration Department to coordinate national data and observe the situation.

of course.

It must be localized.

For example, statistical terms such as GDP, GNP, NDP, GNI, etc., the statistical methods and calculation methods are the same as those in later generations, but the names must be replaced with the names of the Ming Dynasty. This year is the 17th year of Hongwu, the fifth year of Zhu's contact with the modern world.

The first three years can be said to be laying the foundation.

Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He brought a large number of improved seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides from modern agriculture, which brought about an agricultural revolution in the Ming Dynasty and liberated a large amount of productivity.

Then a large number of power generation equipment were brought in from modern times, including hydropower and thermal power facilities.

There are also various modern technologies.

Such as steam engine technology, steelmaking technology, textile technology, sewing technology and so on.

In the past three years, Daming has begun to digest these technologies and built a large number of steel mills and textile mills. Even at the beginning of this year, Daming’s first bicycle factory was officially established.

This marked that the Ming Dynasty had begun to be able to independently produce steel, textiles, bicycles, steam locomotives, steam ships, etc.

Zhu Biao's goal this year is to master bridge-building technology, such as Zhan Tianyou's "pneumatic caisson method", and use modern machines to build bridge piers, thus building a modern reinforced concrete bridge.

In addition, we encourage the development of private business and, through modern technology, invest in research and development to independently produce hydroelectric generators to meet industrial needs in various regions.

Although steam trains and steam ships are both powered by steam.

But electric power is the trend of the future. Investing resources and technology in electric power may not produce results in the short term, but it will benefit future generations in the long run.

of course.

Relying on the advantages of modern technology and equipment, it is impossible to fail to achieve results.

In fact, the processing plant in Huangzhuang can make a small generator in a few days through the generator principle and design drawings.

The difficulty lies in mass production.

A qualified hydroelectric generator requires more than a dozen large parts and hundreds of precision small parts, not counting the transformer and turbine.

Huangzhuang encountered the same problem as AK: precision parts could be stamped and polished, but they could not be mass-produced. The manufacturing efficiency would be relatively slow, and it might not be possible to produce a large hydroelectric generator set in a month.

Even if it were possible to manufacture the first generation of hydroelectric generators in the 19th century, their efficiency could not be compared with modern generators, so it was not easy to quickly develop hydroelectric power.

However, thermal power generators are simple, and their principle is the same as that of steam engines. Zhu Biao plans to develop thermal power generation first, and then improve hydropower generation technology.

According to last year's data, both steel production and power generation increased exponentially compared to the previous year.

For example, steel production was only over one million tons the year before last, but it increased to over three million tons the year before last, and increased to over eight million tons last year. It can be said to be a direct leap.

The power generation has increased from more than 100,000 kWh per day in previous years to more than 1 million kWh per day today. The entire city of Nanjing has been equipped with electric lights, and even home appliances such as electric fans have begun to appear on the market.

In addition, grain production, population, industrial personnel and manufacturing levels in various regions have also increased significantly compared with previous years. For example, the steel industry is mainly concentrated in Hebei.

All I can say is that there was nothing before, there was no room for decline, only room for growth.

"Yes, Not Bad."

After reading the data report, Lao Zhu nodded with satisfaction and said, "The country's development is on the right track. Yunfeng didn't lie to me. If this continues, it is possible that the Ming flag will be planted all over the world in 20 years."

After that, he sighed again: "What a pity, I don't know if I can live for another 14 years. In history, I will be dead in another years. The future belongs to you, Biaoer."

"Father was originally in good health. Historically, it would have been caused by mental and physical exhaustion. Now with modern medical care and none of the things that happened later, given Father's health, he would have lived a long and healthy life, probably more than a hundred years old."

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "Besides, it won't take 20 years. We can build steamships ourselves now. In a few years, when the shipbuilding industry in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian matures, ironclad ships will be easy to make. As long as we carry more coal on board, we can go anywhere."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "Okay, okay, let's build more ships in the next few years, build military bases all over Southeast Asia, and then control the whole of Southeast Asia. This vast territory is also a fertile land."

"Yes, my child understands."

Zhu Biao nodded.

Although swallowing up the whole of Southeast Asia is a bit too greedy.

However, domestic industrial development is in full swing, grain production has increased dramatically in recent years, and there has been a baby boom, with more than four million babies born last year alone.

Thanks to the Barefoot Doctor's Manual and the advent of penicillin, the mortality rate was greatly reduced.

There will definitely be more and more newborns in the future.

It is estimated that in the next fifty years, the population of the Ming Dynasty will exceed at least 400 million to 500 million.

Therefore, taking over Southeast Asia now will not only provide us with granaries, but also mines, rubber plantations, cotton gardens, and mountains of gold and silver, and will also lay the foundation for the future.

After all, Southeast Asia's rubber, fruits, spices, timber and Australia's mines are indeed attractive.

"I'm at ease leaving the Ming Dynasty to you."

Zhu Yuanzhang put the document in his hand on the table, then seemed to remember something and asked, "Where are Yunfeng and the others?"

"In modern times."

Zhu Biao said: "They haven't come here much these past two days."

"I'll go find them."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up.

Zhu Biao wondered, "Father wants to see them for something?"

“There are some things”

Zhu Yuanzhang responded, but then seemed to feel that he was being perfunctory, so he sighed and said, "I'm old."

Zhu Biao said hurriedly: "Father is not old yet, he can live for a long, long time."

"What's the point of living a long life if you can't walk?"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and shook his head, saying, "If you want me to go fight the world, I can't do it anymore. I can't stand the bumps and bruises. Sitting in the palace giving orders and letting the generals fight? I want to do something else now while I'm not too old to move."

"Something else?"

Zhu Biao was puzzled and asked, "Who is the father?"

"Let's go to other Ming dynasties. I want to go to the late Ming Dynasty and the Southern Ming Dynasty."

A cold light flashed in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

The Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu period was already on the right track, and Zhu Biao's governance had become very mature. All that was left was time for the Ming Dynasty's industry to advance to a higher level, and then to travel around the world with its powerful ships and guns, using artillery to open the door to the West and allow them to open up for free trade.

So Zhu Yuanzhang felt that there was nothing he could do anymore, except killing some corrupt officials and solving local security problems. Zhu Biao was already better than him in terms of ability to govern the country.

Why not take a look at the other Ming Dynasty now while you are still under 60 years old?

Go one by one.

See what the future of our Ming Dynasty will be like.

If you come to the world of the late Ming Dynasty or the Southern Ming Dynasty.

For Lao Zhu himself, this might be the happiest moment for him. Even if he died there, he would not feel any regrets.

(End of this chapter)