Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 263 Development and Future

After calling his mother, Zhu Yunfeng lay on the sofa and chatted with Zhu Biao and Zhu Di for a few minutes.

Actually, there's not much to talk about; I just want to ask about the current progress of the Ming Dynasty's development.

He had been confined to the Wu Prince's Mansion for the past few days. Even though Yunfeng Group was heavily involved in the construction of the Ming Dynasty, as its chairman, he was almost completely clueless about it, so he naturally had to ask questions.

Zhu Di sat behind the tea set and brewed tea in a very proper manner. This tea set alone cost hundreds of thousands of yuan. Zhu Biao sat on the sofa diagonally opposite Zhu Yunfeng.

"They sent their railway planning department over and planned new railway lines while retaining the original railway construction. After all, our railway planning was actually copied from the modern one, so it was naturally the optimal solution."

"The highway construction is really beyond my imagination. They can build a cement plant, a brick plant and a steel plant in a few days. Then the trucks in front push the roadbed and the trucks behind fill in the soil and lay steel and cement. It is the first time I have seen what it means to push the road surface sideways."

"There's also the city center planning; what used to be undeveloped land has now been leveled. The city is full of potholes, but this has only been a few months. It is estimated that Nanjing will be completely transformed in the next few years."

In response to Zhu Yunfeng's question, Zhu Biao said, "We've been troubled by the inability to build a bridge across the Yangtze River, but do you know how they plan to build it?"

How do you plan to build it?

Zhu Yunfeng was curious.

"With fully prefabricated assembly and automated construction, we expect to build a bridge over Nanjing in about two years, while simultaneously constructing an underground tunnel beneath the city."

Zhu Biao accepted the tea offered by Zhu Di and said with envy, "According to the chief designer of the bridge and tunnel, these two years also include more than half a year of preliminary and final preparations such as design, foundation, main structure and acceptance. In other words, the completion time is only one year and a few months."

"."

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head, surprised by the speed of the country's technological development.

I remember when a bridge was being built in Changsha, it was across the Xiang River. It took anywhere from 2 to 42 years. But the Yangtze River Bridge is much more difficult to build than the Xiang River Bridge, and it usually takes about four or five years to complete. The fact that it can be built in two years is definitely a testament to technological progress.

In fact, building a cross-river bridge is no longer as complicated as it used to be. Nowadays, when building a Yangtze River bridge, the main structure of the bridge is built directly on the shore, and then a double-walled steel cofferdam is constructed.

After that, the bridge piers were built in the cofferdam using reinforced concrete, and then the main body of the bridge was spliced ​​onto the piers to complete the bridge assembly.

The principle is similar to building blocks.

However, the technological level involved is very high, which inevitably requires a lot of hydrological research and geological testing in the early stage.

The ability to shorten the construction period was entirely due to the use of precision instruments to conduct thorough preliminary research.

Then comes fully prefabricated assembly construction, 24-hour continuous operation, and BIM technology, along with the most advanced intelligent engineering currently available, using computers to operate the entire assembly process, thereby reducing the construction period.

Although my country completed the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge within two years in its early stages, the scale, span, and functional complexity of the bridge at that time were not as advanced as they are now.

The simplest example is that its environmental protection, earthquake resistance, wind resistance, and flood control functions are much worse. Therefore, it can be said that the difference between then and now is like heaven and earth.

"I underestimated our country's capabilities."

Zhu Yunfeng sighed and said, "I've been working for nothing all these years as the chairman of this manufacturing group. I don't know anything. After I get married, I have to go to the construction site and see how they're doing it."

Zhu Biao rolled his eyes at him and said, "You're just a hands-off manager. What do you do all day besides eating, drinking, and having fun?"

Zhu Yunfeng, however, said calmly, "I do what I'm capable of. I may be playful and lazy, but I haven't betrayed the country or the working class. In times of national crisis, whether it's the Ming Dynasty or now, I will do everything in my power to help. My Yunfeng Group has the best treatment for its workers, providing them with the best benefits and conditions. There's no unpaid overtime or the 996 work schedule. They have high wages, housing, and medical insurance. Most of the profits are used for taxes, helping the Ming Dynasty, and paying employees' wages and bonuses. I think that's good enough."

Zhu Biao paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement, saying, "You're right."

If you are not in your position, you will not seek your government.

Zhu Biao was the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty and its future successor, so naturally he was concerned with the affairs of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Zhu Yunfeng had a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty and was even a descendant of the royal family, he was essentially no different from other princes in the Ming Dynasty and did not hold any specific position, so there was no need to care too much about him.

This was actually caused by Old Zhu being too wary of him back then.

Moreover, Zhu Yunfeng himself is a lazy person, and in his opinion, Old Zhu's initial cautiousness in guarding against him was a mistake.

As a member of Generation Z, he has long since learned to lie flat and not want to be forced into anything.

Did he think he wanted to seize Zhu Yuanzhang's empire by relying on his modern resources?
it is ridiculous.

This worry is as absurd as a farmer in the field holding his hoe, fearing that the emperor will take away his broken hoe.

To put it bluntly...

Unless one is forced to travel back to ancient times and cannot return, or one's desire for power has reached a point of near-paranoid abnormality.

Otherwise, with a double passageway, you could have made a fortune by moving goods back and forth between the two sides and come to the modern world to be a tycoon. Wouldn't that be more comfortable than being an emperor in ancient times?
So Lao Zhu eventually realized this and felt a bit ridiculous, so he thought of giving Zhu Yunfeng the power to help him out.

Unfortunately, Zhu Yunfeng was already rich by then, so why would he help you? At most, he could offer some advice or act as an advisor.

They really get to work.

You should go by yourself.

However, although Zhu Yunfeng is a lazy person, he has never been ambiguous on matters of principle.

Perhaps it's because the money came too easily, or perhaps it's because I've been rich and poor before, so I'm more open-minded about many things and don't have the vampire-like stinginess that self-made capitalists possess.

They provide their employees with the maximum level of benefits.

The average salary in their area is around 3000-4000, but he doubled it. The lowest-level ordinary employees generally earn around 6000-8000.

Jobs requiring even a little technical skill are now paying 10,000.

For those in more dangerous jobs, such as mining, metal smelting, chemical engineering, and equipment maintenance, the salary is generally over 10,000 yuan.

Some particularly dangerous jobs, such as furnace operators and charging workers, cost over 15,000 yuan, while the domestic average is around 8000 yuan.

The best part is that there is no overtime work and the national holiday regulations are strictly followed.

Even if you have to work overtime, you will receive a high amount of overtime pay.

Therefore, although he became very wealthy and made his fortune very quickly, his secret to success was never exploiting his employees, but rather using the profits he earned from trading back and forth between the two sides to treat his employees well.

As a result, the employees genuinely took their jobs seriously, and gradually, in an era of economic downturn, a corporate miracle emerged, giving birth to a giant worth hundreds of billions.

In addition to being good to employees.

With the international situation becoming increasingly tense, competition intensifying, and the economy sluggish due to the overall environment.

At this critical juncture, Zhu Yuanzhang originally did not intend to make contact with the modern world immediately. He planned to implement the plan in his later years, around the 27th or 28th year of the Hongwu reign.

However, Zhu Yunfeng saw that the development of the Ming Dynasty had reached a bottleneck, and progress was slow due to a lack of high-quality talents.

Secondly, the international situation is not looking good.

The current situation is a result of efforts to promote cooperation and mutual benefit for both sides' development interests.

So although Zhu Yunfeng is a lazy person, he has lived up to the expectations of the country and the expectations of the hundreds of thousands of employees in his company.

Even the common people of the Ming Dynasty were grateful to him.

If it weren't for his strong admonition to Zhu Yuanzhang to reduce the killings, limit the power of many officials, and significantly strengthen public security, how many more innocent people would have been implicated in the major cases during the Hongwu era, and how many more Ming Dynasty citizens would have been oppressed by the government? Therefore, in a sense, Zhu Yunfeng, seemingly doing nothing, appeared to be playing around here and there every day.

But in reality, he used his influence to accomplish many things in the process. These included designing reforms to the political system, altering the course of some major historical events, and freeing the people from Zhu De's constraints.

Many people only see his playful nature on the surface and ignore these facts.

Including Zhu Biao.

If he hadn't persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang to relinquish power, Zhu Biao would still be a crown prince with a very stable position but no real power, and would never be able to truly govern a vast empire like he is now.

Therefore, Zhu Biao cannot really say that Zhu Yunfeng only knows how to play all day.

Just then, the front door was suddenly pushed open.

Two people walked in.

Everyone was stunned.

Because they saw that Ji He actually had his arm around Zou Ting's waist.

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di frequently visited the modern era, so they naturally knew Zou Ting. They even registered under the Yunfeng Group as foreign Chinese citizens.

At that moment, ten eyes met. Ji He immediately let go of Zou Ting's waist and said casually, "Everyone's here? Why didn't you say you were coming?"

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh"

Zhu Yunfeng and Zhu Di, as two members of the iron triangle, first exchanged a glance, and then let out a strange cry in unison, as if they understood each other perfectly.

Zou Ting's face flushed red instantly, and she said, "I'll go organize the documents first."

He then fled the office to the next room as if escaping.

Ji He, with skin thicker than a city wall, walked over and plopped down, asking, "What happened, three teachers Zhu?"

“I knew they were having an affair.”

"I noticed it a long time ago too."

"Hey hey hey."

Zhu Yunfeng and Zhu Di continued to laugh strangely, which made Ji He's skin crawl. He rolled his eyes and said, "You two seem to have some serious illness."

"This was expected. Never mind, you two should have a serious talk and get married soon."

Zhu Yunfeng waved his hand.

He actually understood why Ji He was with Zou Ting.

Now that they've reached their current status and wealth, their assets are in the hundreds of millions, so they don't lack women, especially beautiful ones.

These people are fine for casual flings, but not for marriage.

Firstly, marrying a pretty face won't help your career at all. Secondly, there are plenty of pretty faces like that; there's no need to give up the entire porcelain factory for one.

Finally, and most importantly, wealthy business owners are very concerned about the intellectual inheritance of their descendants.

Therefore, observing the top billionaires in China reveals that their wives are either the women who helped them build their empires in their early years, or the highly educated top talents they married after their divorces.

Only a minority of people marry big stars or pretty but talentless women.

Ji He and Zou Ting are about the same age and status, and they were classmates and worked together. Whether from an emotional or professional perspective, they are naturally the most suitable to be together.

On the contrary, Zhu Yunfeng's marriage was truly beyond his control, and there was nothing he could do about it, since he still had his great-grandmother and grandmother to rely on.
"what's the topic?"

Jihe changed the subject.

Zhu Yunfeng said, "Isn't this a forced marriage? Come over and call my parents to invite them over, and while we're at it, tell them about the construction project."

Ji He chuckled and said, "Tingting and I were just talking about this. Our company has really benefited this time."

"Oh? What do you say?"

"Thanks to our relationship with Daming, and the fact that our company headquarters is in Lansha Town, we have a natural advantage. The core technical staff and the main work will definitely be done by senior technical departments of state-owned enterprises, but we have contracted most of the smaller projects. We expect that the profits from the projects we have contracted this year alone will reach tens of billions of yuan. This is only the first year, and there will be many more mining and infrastructure projects in the future."

"Brilliant."

Zhu Yunfeng gave a thumbs up. During this period, he had been "confined" by Empress Ma and spent his days playing games at the Wu Prince's Mansion, so he hadn't really kept up with the group's development.

Jihe continued, "Right now, the Ming Dynasty is mainly developing by mining its own mineral resources. However, we are already building large shipyards for them. As you know, our country's shipbuilding industry has long surpassed South Korea to become the world's number one. If nothing unexpected happens, in two years, not to mention cargo ships, we may be able to build large warships. Then we can go to Australia to haul minerals."

"The key is population."

Zhu Yunfeng sighed, "There's gold everywhere over there now, but it's hard to say if the world's population there is even a billion. Even if it's colonization, you need people to dig holes everywhere."

The population will reach 80 billion by 2032.

However, this is the world in 1387. At that time, with the help of Zhu Yunfeng and others, the Ming Dynasty had undergone an agricultural revolution and experienced a baby boom. The total population had just reached 100 million.

The 14th century was the time when the Black Death was rampant in Europe.

It is said that the total population of Europe at that time was only over 70 million. By the time the Black Death ended in the 17th century, the population had decreased by one-third, leaving less than 50 million.

Even in the late Ming Dynasty, there was a large-scale outbreak of plague in the capital and other places, which was very likely brought by Europeans.

But that's not a big problem right now.

my country had long had effective medicines against the plague, and the Black Death did not affect the Ming Dynasty.

But the population is not growing that fast.

Even ancient civilizations with long histories have a population of only 100 million, the whole of Europe has only tens of millions, and the indigenous people in other parts of Southeast Asia, the Americas, South America, and Africa, which have not yet developed advanced civilizations, may have a population of one or two hundred million.

To mine, you need a population.

Even with abundant food supplies and a baby boom, such population growth would still take decades.

Therefore, the country's current plan is clearly to first develop the shallow mineral resources within the country, and then conquer the world once the population of the Ming Dynasty increases.

"Let's just get started. Anyway, we already had an agricultural revolution in the twelfth year of the Hongwu reign, and after the thirteenth year of the Hongwu reign, a baby boom occurred, and the population is growing explosively. It is estimated that in another seven or eight years, there will be a large number of new laborers."

Ji He said, "Besides, there are indeed fewer people over there, but we have plenty of people here. We've already sent nearly 100,000 over, so how could we not send hundreds of thousands or even millions in the future? Let's take it slow."

"Ah."

Zhu Yunfeng nodded.

With the basic requirements of technology, population, and land area met, the development and future of the Ming Dynasty can be said to have been adequately and far-sightedly considered.

This future is something that can be seen and touched, and it always fills people with anticipation.

(End of this chapter)