Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 265 The Big Wedding
On May 11th of the 20th year of the Hongwu reign (1380), construction officially ceased at all construction sites in Nanjing.

I heard that Zhu Yunfeng married eight wives, and people are cursing him on the internal network every day.

If over 100,000 modern people were to travel back to ancient times, they would be unable to visit brothels, leave construction sites, or flirt with ancient women, which would breed resentment.

If everyone were like this, it would be fine. It's not scarcity that's the problem, but inequality. We're all in the same boat, so we'd feel more at peace.

But now that Zhu Yunfeng, this heretic who married eight wives, has appeared, it's bound to infuriate people.

On the internal forum, with only a little over 100,000 users, there were hundreds of thousands of posts criticizing Zhu Yunfeng, with the most popular post having over a million replies, demonstrating the extent of the resentment.

The higher authorities have naturally taken note of this.

This includes the modern office stationed in Daming, as well as Zhu Biao and his team. After all, Zhu Biao also goes online and spends his free time reading everyone's comments on the intranet.

Although political topics are strictly controlled on the internal network, no one is afraid to criticize Zhu Yunfeng, because even the internal network's monitors turn a blind eye, and even personally participate in the criticism.

As long as it's not a direct and vulgar expression like "Tian Wenjing, I'm going to work at 8 a.m.," various sarcastic or mocking remarks are not prohibited.

Zhu Yunfeng has basically become an outlet for resentment, and he is subjected to cyberbullying every day.

However, Zhu Yunfeng took these things in stride. He had made money and married eight wives. He couldn't have all the good things, so it was only right that he got scolded a bit.

The wedding is tomorrow, and Zhu Biao and Zhu Di personally came to the Wu Prince's Mansion, bringing with them officials from the Ministry of Rites, to confirm the wedding arrangements for tomorrow with Zhu Yunfeng.

The wedding was held at the newly built Daming Gate Square.

The location there is equivalent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. After exiting the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, there are huge artificial lakes surrounding the Nanjing Imperial Palace on both sides. The various government offices are located here today.

Continuing south along the main road leads to the Daming Gate, so the section from the Daming Gate to the Meridian Gate was actually the location of the central government offices and operating institutions of the Ming Dynasty.

The area outside Daming Gate used to be a street, but it has long been demolished and replaced with a huge square for flag-raising ceremonies and grand events.

This place will be used for military parades and diplomatic ceremonies in the future.

Holding Zhu Yunfeng's wedding here is equivalent to holding a wedding outside Tiananmen Square, and it is also the first time that such a grand event has been held at Damingmen.

Of course, although the venue is large, Nanjing's population has now exceeded three million, and with the more than 100,000 people coming from modern times, it is impossible to invite them all. Therefore, the number of participants is temporarily set at 200,000.

In addition to the more than 100,000 modern people, there were all the civil and military officials of Nanjing and their families, as well as a large number of selected ordinary people. All the elderly over fifty years old were invited to participate, and the rest were some respected people recommended by each street.

However, to appease the feelings of those who did not participate, Zhu Yunfeng would also take a carriage to the current residential area in the northwest of the city and parade through the streets, scattering Ming Dynasty copper coins along the way. Restaurants throughout the city would also hold large-scale banquets that would last all day.

It's safe to say that the people of Nanjing won't need to buy groceries for the rest of tomorrow. They can just go to any restaurant on the street, and Mr. Zhu will pay for everything. There's no need to worry about whether they'll have enough to eat.

The amount of money spent on such a large event is secondary.

Today, the Ming Dynasty under Hongwu is rich in resources and is cooperating with modern times. Its productivity can be said to be progressing by leaps and bounds, if not sluggish.

Last year, the annual steel production from electric arc furnace steelmaking was only a little over ten million tons, which is less than one-tenth of the annual steel production of Tangshan City in later my country.

This year, thanks to the rapid steelmaking technology, production has tripled. However, this was only because the cooperation was short, lasting only about three or four months, and steel production was not fully expanded.

If iron ore mines across the country start operating, and a large number of mines are established, with countless mining machines rumbling towards the mines, steel production will achieve a leap forward, easily reaching ten or even a hundred times that of last year.

Needless to say, copper and silver coins are worthless in modern times, while gold prices have skyrocketed due to the tense international situation in recent years.

The Ming Dynasty could easily export gold mines and import copper and silver to maintain its domestic economy. Furthermore, with its massive silver dollar reserves, Zhu Yuanzhang and his regime were even planning to reintroduce paper currency to cope with the rapidly developing economy.

On the contrary, the abundance of food and money led to many people being well-fed and clothed, with little money left to buy other goods, which in turn stimulated the development of handicrafts.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty had to import a large number of industrial products from modern times.

These are all exempt from import and export taxes, and can fully realize domestic fast-track transportation, thereby boosting my country's currently relatively sluggish manufacturing economy.

However, the infrastructure of the Ming Dynasty is still under construction and transportation is underdeveloped. At present, only the Jiangnan region benefits from modern industrial products, including various furniture, kitchenware, and daily necessities. It cannot be rolled out to the whole country for the time being.

In the future, the Ming Dynasty will also establish its own machinery manufacturing industry. The Ming Dynasty's market may be occupied by modern technology, but the global market will be occupied by the Ming Dynasty. In this way, there will be no need to worry about the Ming Dynasty's own industrial problems.

Therefore, spending tens of millions of silver dollars to hold this grand wedding for Zhu Yunfeng is really nothing.

The real problem is managing so many people on-site.

In the end, they got help from Chief Wang, who, together with Xu Da, developed a work plan for on-site coordination.

This includes drone surveillance and military control at intersections to strictly prevent stampedes.

Fortunately, Zhu Yunfeng had many places to go, and the city was mostly demolished. Only the temporary residential area in the northwest was a bit troublesome, but as long as order was maintained, solving the problem was not too difficult.

After watching the entire wedding ceremony, Zhu Yunfeng felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.

Ancient weddings were much more complicated than modern weddings.

There's no need to worry about the Three Letters and Six Rites.

For royal weddings, the Imperial Clan Court was responsible for issuing the three letters and six rites, and the Empress herself would personally present the betrothal gifts and set the wedding date.

The key is the process.

In ancient times, weddings were held at dusk, hence the name "dusk wedding".

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ceremony was held in the morning, but the complexity of the event remained unchanged. The bride would go out to fetch the groom in the morning, followed by a procession through the streets in a sedan chair carried by eight men.

The bride enters the house and pays respects to heaven and earth, followed by a banquet that lasts until evening, and finally, they enter the bridal chamber.

Compared to a commoner's wedding, Zhu Yunfeng's wedding was more complicated as a member of the royal family, especially since he was marrying eight women at once. He had to go to the princess's house first, and then to the houses of the seven concubines one by one.

The journey to fetch the bride alone would take a lot of time, and they would also have to tour the entire city of Nanjing to ensure that Zhu Yuanzhang could enjoy himself with the people.

By the time the wedding procession is over, it will probably be afternoon.

At this time, the banquet had already started outside the Daming Gate, and the meal lasted from noon until evening. When Zhu Yunfeng returned from his parade, he would have to go on stage to hold the wedding ceremony.

At that time, many people, including Old Zhu, Empress Ma, Zhu Biao, that elderly deputy-level official, and Chief Wang and Xu Da, will be present.

The speech process shouldn't take too long, but with so many people speaking and the ceremony included, it'll probably be past 10 p.m. by the time it ends.

"It's so hard for me."

After reviewing the entire process, signing the confirmation, and having the Ministry of Rites officials leave, Zhu Yunfeng plopped down on the sofa in his living room, his eyes vacant, looking as if he were about to die.

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di sat on the sofas on either side of him. Zhu Di laughed and said, "Your wedding is quite grand. My wedding back then was a small affair. My elder brother's wedding was just a meal at the palace. You've invited the whole city to a meal."

"This is outrageous! I'm being attacked online. I haven't even had time to eat all day at my wedding. How can this continue?"

Zhu Yunfeng said lazily.

"You deserve to be scolded. Everyone else is still single, unable to even go to a brothel if they wanted to. Yet you've married eight wives. Who wouldn't be jealous?"

Zhu Di chuckled.

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head and said, "By the way, when will brothels be completely abolished? What did the ancestors say?"

Zhu Biao said, "The policy will be released next year." "Isn't it too fast to abolish it now?"

Zhu Di said, "It seems the cabinet discussed this before. It's bound to cause a huge uproar among the people. Wouldn't it be better to proceed gradually?"

"There's nothing we can do about it. Now is the best time. It will only get more and more troublesome later."

"That's true."

"It's fortunate that our ancestors were alive and powerful enough to ensure that such policies could be implemented; otherwise, it would have been difficult."

Zhu Yunfeng sighed.

If we consider his marriage of eight wives as respect for ancient customs in modern times, then the brothel industry would indeed be unbearable.

It's not that modern forces are interfering with the Ming Dynasty, but if things continue like this, those below will soon be unable to control it.

The civil engineering industry is inherently a tedious and closed-off field. Construction sites are full of men, and they experience a great deal of repression in that area.

It's still okay now because the people selected are all key personnel over thirty or forty years old, and most of them are married with families. They're used to this, so there haven't been any major problems yet.

But this can't go on forever.

The lessons of history are there for all to see; many traditional industries have grown and developed because of the rise of the construction industry.

For example, under Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, the United States experienced the so-called Golden Decade, and then in the 1940s to 1960s, it had a Golden Age.

It was during this period that the American sex industry flourished and the entertainment industry thrived.

The fact that Xiaozhaizi started by providing comfort to American troops was just the beginning. The real boom and prosperity came in the 1950s and 60s when Xiaozhaizi's infrastructure expanded rapidly, which spurred the rapid growth of the industry.

This is not an isolated case. The reason is that large-scale infrastructure construction inevitably drives economic development. When workers have money in their hands, they naturally have demand in this area.

At present, modern technology companies are only selecting a portion of highly skilled technical personnel.

Once it is fully opened up in the future, and the number of people increases significantly, there will be many unmarried or married people who want to have affairs, and there will inevitably be quite a few who target ancient brothels or ancient women.

Therefore, looking at history, similar things will inevitably happen in the Ming Dynasty as well, so we must take precautions.

Although it is better to guide than to block.

In an era of explosive productivity, abundant food, and a strong emphasis on morality and decency, many women would certainly be unwilling to participate in this profession, leading to a surge in crimes and forced acts.

The key issue is that modern people have a huge demand for this kind of service. If many women are forced into this industry, what's the difference between that and providing sexual services to American soldiers?
The moral decline of the Ming Dynasty may have occurred in an instant, and its etiquette and culture would have been severely impacted, leading to the corruption of thought and morality.

Therefore, considering the overall situation, a complete ban on brothels is imperative.

As for how to solve the demand, it's simple.

During the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the population decreased sharply due to war, resulting in a situation with more women than men, a situation unique to the post-war period.

The Ming Dynasty encouraged marriage, and the people resolved their own needs.

Modern people are given regular holidays, and they all sign confidentiality agreements, report their travel plans in full, and return home immediately after a few days.

It's not like we're going abroad.

After the holiday, we went directly from Nanjing through the stone tablet to Lansha Town.

At this time, Lansha Town is already planning a high-speed rail station and an airport. Even though they are not yet completed, it only takes an hour by car to get to the county's high-speed rail station and a few hours to get home.

Therefore, some decisions still need to be made.

"Recently, the other side seems to be in a more urgent need for cooperation."

Zhu Biao continued, "I'm afraid that after your wedding, we'll have to discuss even more projects, the most important of which will be agricultural projects."

"Our country's food self-sufficiency rate is not yet 100%, and this extra large area of ​​land is just for show. The Ming Dynasty doesn't have that many people consuming that much food. How can we not be happy?"

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "In another two years, the cost of pork, beef and other food in our area will probably drop significantly again, which will be a great thing for people's livelihood."

"That's right, that's correct."

Zhu Biao added, “I saw that they suggested we build the Three Gorges Dam, but some people on the internal network are saying that the Three Gorges Dam is useless and we should just build the Motuo Hydropower Station. What’s going on?”

"That's just nonsense from short-sighted people."

"How to say?"

"In fact, all of them need to be repaired, and the Three Gorges Dam is even more important."

"why?"

"You know that we experienced a massive flood in 98, right?"

"know."

"But since the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 06, there have been no more such exaggerated floods."

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a moment and said, "The power generation of the Three Gorges Dam is secondary; its primary function is water regulation. Essentially, it is a water conservancy project designed to alleviate floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The massive flood of 98 caused extremely serious damage, but after the Three Gorges Dam was completed, the floods in 2010, 2012, and 2016 were even more terrifying than the one in 98, yet the damage was far less. The Three Gorges Dam played a huge role in this."

The Three Gorges Dam is certainly not a panacea; it cannot completely prevent floods. However, its crucial role in flood control is undeniable.

If it weren't for the Three Gorges Dam, the damage caused by the floods in 10, 12, and 16 would have been even greater than that of 98.

Therefore, it would be short-sighted to think that its only purpose is to generate electricity.

"I see. It seems we still need to fix it. We're leaving now."

"Alright, you should get ready now."

Zhu Di stood up and said, "Tomorrow is your big day, but we still have to go back to report to Father and Mother."

As he spoke, he winked and said, "Take it easy tomorrow night, don't break your back."

"Fuck you uncle."

Zhu Yunfeng kicked Zhu Di in the butt.

"Hey hey hey."

Zhu Di chuckled and followed Zhu Biao out the door.

Watching them leave, Zhu Yunfeng lay on the sofa, feeling quite hopeful about the future.

The next day.

Zhu Yunfeng got married.

(End of this chapter)