Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 257 Hard to tell
The items sent to Zhu Di all had production dates and places of origin.

After all, there are so many products; you can't possibly erase the production date and place of origin for each one.

Therefore, both the production date and the place of origin have been preserved.

However, Zhu Yunfeng and his group did not believe that Zhu Di could understand the meaning of the Gregorian calendar.

The place of origin is easy to say.

Take Zhu Yuanzhang for example. After establishing the Great Ming Dynasty in the celestial realm, he simply changed the place names in the celestial realm to be the same as those in the mortal realm.

As for the production date, it goes without saying that although it has appeared in the West, it has not become widespread.

my country uses the sexagenary cycle and reign titles for dating, but the Gregorian calendar was not adopted until the early Qing Dynasty when missionaries brought it to China.

So from the discovery of the Jianwen reign in the thirteenth year of the Hongwu reign until Zhu Di's ascension to the throne, seven years had passed.

For seven years, the younger Zhu Di confidently and boldly sent supplies to the elder Zhu Di.

Unexpectedly, even so, he still discovered it and accurately calculated the time point to be six hundred years later.

The three children were puzzled for a moment.

Seeing the three of them looking at each other in bewilderment, Zhu Di smiled smugly.

During these seven years, not only did the Hongwu reign develop rapidly, but the Yongle reign also made great strides.

Although his Yongle reign lacked electricity compared to the Hongwu reign, it still benefited from the foundation laid by the Hongwu Emperor over thirty years, and an agricultural revolution led to an explosive increase in productivity.

With low grain prices, the handicraft industry developed rapidly, small commodities on the market increased significantly, and various silkworm breeding, mulberry and hemp industries, and weaving industries flourished.

In this context, increasing international exchanges is a logical step.

Zhu Di was also an enthusiast of going to sea. With the domestic economy growing rapidly, he followed Zhu Yunfeng's advice, lifted the maritime ban imposed by his father, and actively developed foreign trade.

Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean officially began.

In the third year of the Yongle reign, Zheng He embarked on his first voyage to the Western Ocean. Unlike the historical tributary trade system, this time he switched to dumping goods for exorbitant profits.

The Ming Dynasty sold its various silk fabrics, porcelain, tea, and wine to the locals at high prices, in exchange for large quantities of gold, silver, jewelry, spices, and raw materials, making the Ming Dynasty extremely wealthy.

It was during this period that the Ming Dynasty began to make contact with the West.

Although the Americas had not yet been discovered in the West at this time, the beginning of the Age of Discovery had already begun, and a large number of Western explorers began to explore the East because of Marco Polo's legend that the East was full of gold.

The Americas were discovered by Western explorers during this exploration process, which led to a large influx of Western colonists into Latin America and the Americas.

Many Europeans have yet to embark on their journeys, but the Middle East has been a trade hub since ancient times, with many Westerners active on the Anatolian Peninsula between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Zheng He's fleet now had a world map, and sailed through the Strait of Malacca, along the Indian subcontinent to the Persian Gulf, where they met many Europeans. They even brought back some Western missionaries on their return journey in the sixth year of the Yongle reign.

It was this voyage that brought back mountains of gold and silver for Zhu Di. There were thousands of ships and more than 50,000 people on the way there, and countless gold, silver, jewelry, and spices on the way back.

It also broadened Zhu Di's horizons, making him aware of the existence of the West.

Western missionaries have now settled in Beijing and have been granted permission by Zhu Di to carry out missionary activities. Naturally, they have brought with them many Western texts, including the Christian calendar.

The eldest Zhu Di was a clever man. Seeing that this year was Christ's Birthday 1409 in the West, and considering that the things brought by the young Zhu Di were produced between 2025 and 2030, he could naturally make connections between the two.

of course.

He wasn't entirely sure either.

After all, he was wondering what Western dating had to do with the East.

So it was just a bluff.

Little did they know that the three youngsters were not as shrewd as the middle-aged Zhu Di, who was much more cunning. With just a little trickery, they could tell the outcome just by looking at their expressions.

However, the three children's lack of cunning was only apparent to the middle-aged Zhu Di.

In reality, having reached this point and gained such a broad perspective, they are already quite different from ordinary people, and their minds are much more meticulous; it's just that they are too lazy to think about it normally.

Therefore, the change in their expressions was only instantaneous, and Zhu Yunfeng and the others immediately figured out the reason.

"Western missionaries?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked tentatively.

Zhu Di remained expressionless, only asking noncommittally, "What kind of world will it be six hundred years from now?"

Little Zhu Di quickly realized what was going on and said, "As expected, you discovered it. That's right, Yunfeng and the others are indeed from six hundred years in the future, and they are our direct descendants. They should be the twenty-sixth generation. Father traveled across the river of time, knowing a thousand years before and a thousand years after, and knew that Yunfeng was an outstanding descendant of the Zhu family in later generations, so he went to six hundred years in the future and brought him here."

"I see."

Zhu Di smiled, knowing he couldn't ignore those who were supposed to cooperate with his performance.

Although Zhu Di quickly reconciled his logic, he remained skeptical about the existence of the celestial realm.

After all, apart from witnessing the other party's ability to appear out of nowhere in the underground palace and that Tesla electric circle, he had never seen any other miracles.

Legend has it that immortals can fly and disappear into the earth. Seeing is believing, and if you can't see anything, you'll naturally have doubts.

However, he wouldn't take it too seriously.

Firstly, it's good for him.

Secondly, no matter what, there's still the mountain of Old Zhu looming over us.

Even if he was truly deceived and there was no such thing as a celestial realm, that was not something he should question.

When Zhu Yuanzhang first arrived, it was actually the best opportunity for him to kill him. If he had just said that the founding emperor was an imposter, the soldiers under his command who were waiting for the credit for their service to the emperor would have swarmed him.

That's no longer possible.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang had attended the New Year celebrations of the Yongle reign many times, everyone knew that he was the real Zhu Yuanzhang. With his prestige, even the most loyal guards would hesitate at his word.

Therefore, Zhu Di had to think carefully about this matter. There was no need to delve too deeply into it. In any case, the appearance of the old Zhu was not a bad thing for him, so it was better to play dumb for now.

"Since Yunfeng comes from the future, he must know about the situation in the future. Why then does he use the Westerners' calendar?"

When Zhu Di thought of this, he couldn't help but frown.

"There was no other way. As you know, the Ming Dynasty was later occupied by the Jurchens outside the Great Wall. The Jurchens were more wary of the Han people than of the rivers, so they closed the country off and stopped communicating with the outside world. Meanwhile, the West developed rapidly, not only developing a large number of new guns and cannons, but also turning steel into machinery and producing more things."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled bitterly: "Taking advantage of its military strength, the West plundered the world on a large scale, and our great China was reduced to a semi-colony of the West. Many coastal areas were divided up by Western countries. Even the Japanese pirates from the East were able to get a share of the pie, and later they even invaded on a large scale, killing tens of millions of our Han people. We have a blood feud."

"Ok?"

Zhu Di frowned: "There's such a thing?"

"Yes."

Zhu Yunfeng said, "Under the rule of the Jurchens, the country was impoverished and weak, its vast territory was occupied, and countless people were wantonly bullied. If it weren't for a gentleman who stood up later, China would probably have ceased to exist long ago and become the land of Japanese pirates."

"Humph."

Zhu Di sneered, "These little Japanese pirates are really giving us too much face."

"After the war, because the West remained powerful, it set the world's discourse power, and all standards were based on the West."

Zhu Yunfeng continued, "We can only use their standards for all kinds of measurements, distances, weights, and dates. Although we are slowly developing our own standards, it is still difficult to change them."

What many people don't know is that centimeters, decimeters, and meters are not actually traditional Chinese units of length; they originated in France at the end of the 18th century.

Other units of weight, area, volume, etc., also originated from Western countries. Therefore, in our own lives today, some older generations may still know about the units of measurement that our country used to have. However, young people are generally unaware of units of volume, length, and weight such as shi, dou, hu, jun, kui, ren, she, and xun.

But there's really nothing we can do about it.

When the new era was first established, it was extremely poor and had to start everything from scratch.

Without industrial capacity and foundation, it is impossible to formulate rules and standards on our own. Moreover, at that time, the international order and rules were monopolized by the West, so we could only use others' rules.

Therefore, including production dates, they can only follow the Western calendar established by Westerners.

"Well"

Emperor Zhu Di pondered for a moment and said, "In this world, might makes right. If the Western barbarians are powerful, then we must obey their laws, is that so?"

"um, yes."

"hehe."

Zhu Di laughed and said, "What about the Western barbarians now?"

"so so."

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a moment and said, "The West was still in the late Middle Ages at this time, and the Age of Discovery would not begin for several decades. It can be said that the West was very weak at that time."

"In that case, the rules should be set by our Great Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Di declared domineeringly, "From today onwards, I will make the whole world use the measuring system and calendar of my Great Ming Dynasty. What do you think?"

“We have no objection, but you have to make sure the Westerners have no objection either.”

Zhu Yunfeng spread his hands and said.

"It's alright, I will make sure they have no objections."

Zhu Di said, "But right now I still feel that the Ming Dynasty is not strong enough. It would be great if we had the weapons from your side."

The three children exchanged a glance.

As expected of an emperor, Zhu Di, he certainly thought a lot.

Little Zhu Di could never have imagined that he would become so capable, able to quickly grasp the key issues.

Hongwu relied entirely on modern industry for supplies, and it took him a long time to develop bolt-action rifles and automatic rifles.

Yongle will have to start all over again; how long will that take?

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "It's difficult. We definitely can't buy weapons from our side and have them sent over because the higher-ups won't allow it. If we start from scratch, I estimate we should be able to achieve it by the time Zhu Qizhen dies."

Zhu Qizhen?
Zhu Di had visited the Zhengtong era and even beat up that unworthy descendant of Zhu Qizhen. Calculating the time, it was now the 8th year of the Yongle reign, which would be almost 50 years later.

"It takes so long?"

Zhu Di asked doubtfully, "Making a weapon shouldn't be difficult, right?"

"It's not difficult, but you need a complete industrial system to support it. Otherwise, how can you go all over the world? You need a complete shipbuilding industry. Otherwise, how can you conquer the world with just wooden boats?"

Zhu Yunfeng spread his hands.

Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) already possessed abundant martial virtue.

At that time, the West was still in the Middle Ages, and even if it had completed the First Industrial Revolution in the 18th century and clashed with the Ming Dynasty, it would have been doomed.

But it's not easy for Zhu De to lead his troops to the west.

Because the shipyard is still in the stage of building steamships, although it has steam power, it requires a lot of coal and water as a power source.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's current goal is actually only one thing—Southeast Asia.

Zhu Biao had already considered that the Nanjing Shipyard would mass-produce steamships and then rapidly expand the entire Southeast Asia by force, bringing Southeast Asia into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Then, using Southeast Asia as a raw material production base to supplement coal and water, they would circle around the Indian peninsula and seek to seize India, West Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Once the Middle East is secured, its abundant oil resources will support the Ming Dynasty in initiating its second industrial revolution.

Transform steam energy into fossil fuels.

As for the Americas and Europe, they are simply too far away.

Although it is possible to travel directly to the west coast of the Americas and the Gulf of Alaska along the North Pacific Current, the entire journey takes only about a month.

But the middle part is all sea, with no continent and only a handful of islands.

Moreover, theory and practice are two different concepts.

Zhu Yunfeng was able to tell them the location of the Pacific Warm Current from the perspective of future generations.

However, Hongwu's side had neither observation methods nor location capabilities, so even if they were told the location, they probably wouldn't be able to find it.

Therefore, many things cannot be decided on a whim. To govern a country, one must proceed steadily step by step. Unless it is a unilateral exploration rather than occupation, one cannot be impatient for quick success.

If this was the case under Hongwu, then it goes without saying that it was even more true under Yongle.

Upon hearing Zhu Yunfeng's words, Zhu Di frowned and asked, "What is an industrial system?"

"Industrial construction encompasses many aspects; it's not just about building machinery, but also about providing power and energy."

Zhu Yunfeng curled his lip and said, "It took the West more than two hundred years from the start of industrial construction to the completion of the Third Industrial Revolution. In addition to invention and creation, the most important thing in this process was the popularization of knowledge. Education is needed to settle down and allow more people to engage in this industry so that technology can be accumulated. It is true that we have ready-made technology over there, but you don't have industrial workers or technical talents. Even if we bring you ready-made machines, you won't be able to use them."

Little Zhu Di nodded repeatedly, deeply moved, and said, "That's true, Hong'e. When Father was in the Celestial Dynasty, he also wanted to carry out construction in this area immediately so that the mortals of the Celestial Dynasty could also enjoy the convenience brought by the development of the times. But haste makes waste, and it is difficult to achieve."

"Is there no other way?"

Zhu Di frowned.

"There is a way."

"any solution?"

"Let's cooperate."

Zhu Yunfeng began to promote his plan, saying, "Anyway, with the protection of our ancestors, our descendants will directly provide manpower and resources to help you. Are you still afraid that our ancestors can't protect you?"

Should we cooperate directly with future generations?

Zhu Di immediately began to think quickly.

Just as Zhu Yuanzhang had originally thought.

The primary concern of those in power is always the concern about their regime.

If the dynasty were to become so powerful in the future, wouldn't it be easy for them to annex his Ming Dynasty?

However, if his father can truly protect him, it's not something he can't consider.

But can it really provide shelter?

That's hard to say.

Zhu Di fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)