Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 240: Southern Airlines Completes Its Mission! Nurgan and Beiyang [Please Subscribe]

Important warehouses in the city, such as granaries, armories, and ammunition depots, were all built with bricks, stones, and cement. Although Chen Zhongming and others knew that cement was more convenient, unfortunately, cement was still a secret of the court, and the craftsmen of the exploration fleet did not know how to make cement.

As for other houses in the city, most of them are made of wood, and a considerable part of them are built with rough logs.

The construction time of Mingchang City was too short. Although it was a small city, it was a good thing that the city walls and other major buildings were built in less than three months. Some minor buildings could only be built with log houses as a transition.

In addition to building the city, Chen Zhongming and others also reclaimed more than 6,000 mu of land outside Mingchang City, including 5,000 mu of paddy fields, 1,200 mu of dry land for rapeseed, sesame, soybeans, and more than 300 mu of vegetable fields.

With the strength of more than 3,000 people in the exploration fleet, cultivating this little piece of land is just a side job.

In addition, a large dock was built at the port three or four miles west of Mingchang City, and a rammed earth road was also built.

When Chen Zhongming sent people to investigate the situation within thirty miles of this place, he discovered five indigenous tribes.

The largest tribe has more than 800 people, and the smallest has more than 200. The total population of the five tribes is more than 2,000!
The large tribe of more than 800 people was considered the overlord of this area. Except for a tribe that had a long-term marriage alliance with it, the other three tribes were all oppressed by it.

Perhaps because they were used to being domineering, the people of this tribe started fighting directly after they came into contact with the Ming soldiers who were exploring, trying to capture the exploration team of only ten people.

As a result, not only did they fail to capture anyone, but they also angered the exploration fleet. After Chen Zhongming figured out the situation of this tribe of 800 people, he led his men directly through a forest of more than 20 miles and wiped out the tribe.

More than 100 of the 300 young and strong men in the tribe were killed, and the remaining 200 were captured.

In addition to dozens of elderly people, women and children who died while resisting the Ming army's attack, the remaining more than 400 people were also captured.

Afterwards, the few people who escaped from the tribe went to their allied tribe and instigated the tribe to attack the Ming army.

The second-largest tribe had over 500 men. Perhaps deceived by the escaped members of the first-largest tribe, its leader seriously underestimated the strength of the Ming army and planned to lead over 200 tribal warriors in a night attack. (Indians primarily eat meat and are well-suited to night battles.)
The result was naturally that the night attack failed and they were defeated by the Ming army. Dozens of people were killed and they fled in panic.

So the next day, Chen Zhongming took his troops to destroy the tribe of more than 500 people.

Afterwards, he sent Zhang Bingyi to communicate with the remaining three small tribes and make them submit to the Ming Dynasty.

The population of these three small tribes was no more than 400 people at most. After learning that the other two tribes had been destroyed by the "Da Ming" tribe, they all surrendered obediently.

After annihilating the two tribes, the exploration fleet not only captured about a thousand native captives, but also found corn and sweet potatoes, two American crops that Zhu Yuanzhang specifically asked them to find, as well as many other American grains such as pumpkins and peanuts.

It can be said that the exploration fleet's mission was more than half completed at that time...
On this day, Chen Zhongming, Zhang Bingyi and other senior fleet officials were handling official business in the government office in the city.

Captain Han Bin came in with a delighted look on his face, clasped his fists, and said, "Commander-in-Chief, General Zhang Xian and his men have discovered rubber trees over eighty miles to the south!"

Hearing this, Chen Zhongming was overjoyed and immediately stood up and asked, "Did they bring back the rubber saplings or seeds?"

Han Bin said, "We brought back more than a dozen saplings and collected hundreds of kilograms of rubber, but we didn't get any seeds. They said the seeds were not yet mature."

As the head of the exploration fleet, Chen Zhongming knew that if Daming wanted to plant rubber, the most reliable way was to bring back seeds. If they brought saplings, because they were taking the North Pacific route, the saplings might not be alive when they returned to Daming.

"Someone, go notify Zhang Tongzhi, Wang Jianjun, and Li Tongzhi to meet up at the barracks!"

After leaving this order, Chen Zhongming took his personal soldiers to the military camp first, ready to personally inquire about the situation of Zhang Xian and others.

Half an hour later, Chen Zhongming, Zhang Bingyi and others asked Zhang Xian, the general flag, about the whole process of discovering the rubber tree, and then returned to the government office together.

Chen Zhongming spoke first, "To be on the safe side, we'd better wait for a while until we get mature seeds from the rubber trees."

Li Mingqi said, "Commander, if we have to wait for the rubber trees to bear seeds, we won't be able to return north this year."

Chen Zhongming said decisively, "Then we'll return north next year."

Zhang Bingyi had been thinking about this and said, "Commander-in-chief, we must send people to garrison the area where the rubber trees grow. In addition, we need to transplant more saplings and plant them near Mingchang City."

"Also, if the fleet does not return north this year, I suggest continuing to explore southward while the weather is just beginning to cool."

"According to the manual provided by the imperial court, corn, sweet potatoes, rubber trees, and potatoes (which have yet to be found) are all native to South America."

"Of the several American products His Majesty has specifically requested, only potatoes and the Golden Chicken Cream remain. Let's head south to find them all and strive to return to the Ming Dynasty with all our success next year!"

Chen Zhongming thought Zhang Bingyi's suggestion was a good one, but he still asked, "What does Supervisor Wang think?"

Wang Shun said, "If we can find potatoes and golden chicken cream to complete the task, that would be the best."

"Does Tongzhi Li have any objections?"

"I also support China Southern Airlines."

In this way, the First Long-distance Exploration Fleet decided to continue sailing south to search for potatoes and golden frost.

Ten days later, it was September 22, the 17th year of Hongwu.

Chen Zhongming left three ships and more than a thousand people to garrison Mingchang City, and took the remaining six ships and two thousand people to continue sailing south along the west coast of America...
Golden autumn October.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Hall.

Liu Kuan stood in front of the blackboard and said, "After the courses I've taken recently, I've taught you all the electromagnetic theories I know."

"Next, I hope that students can set up an experimental project team to develop a generator, just like they did with the hot air balloon research."

"Students can participate in project groups and conduct experiments related to various electromagnetic phenomena, striving to improve the electromagnetic theory taught by the teacher, and then build a simple generator based on this theory."

“Do the students have confidence?”

Although Liu Kuan said that the electromagnetic theory he was talking about needed to be improved, in fact he had already explained it almost completely. At most, it was because the students in the main hall had an incomplete knowledge system that they were confused about some extended knowledge.

So, upon hearing his question, Zhu Tan, Zhu Xiongying and the others immediately responded loudly, "Yes!"

Liu Kuan smiled and nodded. "Okay, this time, Xiongying will still be the project leader and be in charge of this experimental project. Actually, this generator is not difficult to make. I can make it myself, so I hope that the students' experimental research can produce results as soon as possible!"

"Do you have any questions about this, students?"

Most of the students had no questions, but seven-year-old Zhu Quan raised his hand. After receiving permission, he stood up and asked, "Teacher, if we develop a generator, what use will it have in the Ming Dynasty?"

Liu Kuan laughed and said, "That has many uses, such as the invention of the electric light, the telegraph, and even the telephone—all three of which you've seen in various videos and movies before."

"Electric lights can replace oil lamps and candles, bringing brighter light at night; telegraphs and telephones can achieve instant communication - even two places thousands of miles apart can contact and communicate in a very short time through telegraphs and telephones."

"It can be said that with the coordination of telegraphs, telephones, railways, and ships, even if the Ming Dynasty's territory were to double or triple, the imperial court's control would not weaken, but would instead become stronger!"

Although the other students knew that the use of electricity could bring many benefits, they still couldn't help but feel fascinated after listening to Liu Kuan's explanation, and all of them looked excited.

"Do you have any other questions? If not, let's end the get out of class."

"No more." Not sure if it was really gone or if they just wanted to end the get out of class, the students all shook their heads.

Seeing this, Liu Kuan picked up the lesson plan and other items and said, "Okay, get out of class is over!"

"Stand up!" Zhu Xiongying and a dozen other students from the main hall stood up and said together, "Goodbye, teacher!"

"Goodbye, classmates!"

After leaving the main hall, Liu Kuan couldn't wait to go home.

Today, his daughter Liu Ruoxu and son Liu Ruoxuan (pronounced the same as Xuan), although both are less than one year old, are no longer the pink and wrinkled appearance when they were just born, but are now tender and cute.

Therefore, Liu Kuan has been quite homesick for the past six months. Whenever he finishes his official duties, he goes home.

However, although Liu Kuan has not been very busy in the past six months, the pace of development and progress of the Ming Dynasty has never stopped.

On March 27, the 17th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty established the Nurgan Regional Administration.

It administered Chahe, Taining, Duoyan, Fuyu, Wuzhe, Tunhe, Jianzhou, Maolian, Shuangcheng, Oduolun, Kaolangwu, Xishen, Gelin, Fushan, and Nurgan, a total of 15 garrisons, and the Dusi Yamen was located in Nurgan.

It is worth mentioning that these fifteen garrisons were composed of soldiers and civilians from the local Jurchen tribes who surrendered.

If a garrison had a strength of 3,000 regular soldiers, the Ming Dynasty would send 300 garrison soldiers of Han origin to garrison there, and the rest would be recruited from the Jurchen tribes.

The main tasks of the garrison were three.

One was to levy corvée labor on the Jurchen tribes to cut down trees, reclaim wasteland, and establish military settlements. The land obtained from the reclamation would be distributed to the military households in the garrisons, and the felled trees would be purchased by the court at 70% off the market price.

Whether it is surplus grain or the money earned from selling large timber, it is all counted as funds for the development and construction of the garrison.

The second was to collect taxes in kind from the tribes that had submitted to the Ming Dynasty and to suppress any disobedience. As for the taxes collected, they naturally handed over most of them, just like other garrisons, and retained a small portion.

Third, they established local schools, requiring Jurchen leaders to send hostages and a certain number of young men to attend. These schools offered only three subjects: Confucianism, archery, and mathematics.

Its purpose was to promote sinicization among the Jurchens and select young people with mathematical talent, sending them to the capital for training so that they could be used by the court.

On the sixth day of May in the seventeenth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty established the Beiyangdusi.

It had a total of five garrisons under its jurisdiction, namely Kuwu North, Kuwu South, Ezo West, Ezo East, and Liugui. The Dusi Yamen was located in Ezo West Garrison. The "Liugui" here is a homonym of Liugui, which means the former site of the Liugui Kingdom.

As for the policies implemented by the Ming Dynasty in the various garrisons of the Beiyangdusi, they were similar to those of the Nurgandusi, but the taxation would be much lighter than that of the Nurgandusi.

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)