Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 241: The sun is too high to sleep, Lao Zhu actually uses a storyteller [Please subscribe]

On the seventh day of the eighth month of the seventeenth year of the Hongwu reign, the three Ryukyu kingdoms of Zhongshan, Beishan, and Nanshan, as well as the chiefs of various tribes, jointly submitted a petition requesting to submit to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang approved it.

Subsequently, an imperial decree was issued to establish the Dongfan Prefecture, which was under the jurisdiction of the Fujian Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office and temporarily governed the three counties of Penghu, Dayuan, and Liuqiu, with its capital in Dayuan.

At the same time, Langjiao Guard, Jilong Guard, and Sanshan Guard were established and placed under the jurisdiction of Fujian Dusi. Among them, Sanshan Guard was located in the Ryukyu Islands and consisted of three thousand households: Nanshan, Beishan, and Zhongshan.

Not long ago, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to establish the Mijin Guard (later Laval in the Philippines) in the northwest of Luzon Island, and set up several thousand-household and hundred-household offices along the northwest coast of Luzon Island.

The Honey Gold Guard is temporarily under the direct jurisdiction of the Navy Governor's Office.

In Liu Kuan's view, the establishment of the Mi Jin Guard marked the beginning of the Ming Dynasty's march into Southeast Asia...

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The ninth day of October.

Liu Kuan played with Su Caiwei for a long time last night, so he didn't wake up until noon.

When he opened his eyes, he felt that there was no one around him, which was not surprising. He turned sideways and saw Su Caiwei was already dressed neatly and sitting at the table checking and calculating the accounts.

Looking at Su Caiwei's god-like profile and her serious attitude when settling accounts, he couldn't help but think of what happened last night.

Last night, when they played games, Su Caiwei was defeated repeatedly and begged for mercy repeatedly before Liu Kuan let her go and rested together. Now, seeing that Su Caiwei had gotten up early, Liu Kuan couldn't help but suspect that she had faked her defeat last night.

Thinking of this, he asked, "When did you get up?"

Su Caiwei stopped what she was doing, looked over and said with a smile, "I got up at noon - Master, do you want to get up?"

Liu Kuan was feeling refreshed at this moment, but he still shook his head, "It's a rare day off today, so let me stay in bed for a while."

Before Liu Kuan came, most officials of the Ming Dynasty had to get up in the middle of the night to attend the morning court, and they had few days off a year - according to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, officials could only close their offices and take a break on certain holidays.

Apart from these, there were only leave granted by the emperor, as well as sick leave, celebration leave, and bereavement leave. There were no special rest days like in later generations.

Liu Kuan had been an official of the Ming Dynasty for a while and felt that something was wrong, so he naturally made relevant suggestions to Zhu Yuanzhang.

So starting from the 15th year of Hongwu, the 9th, 19th and 29th of each month became statutory holidays in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, whether it is a statutory holiday or other holidays, if the court needs you, you still have to work overtime, and there is no overtime pay.

Su Caiwei said, "If the master doesn't get up and doesn't sleep, then I will make a plan."

Liu Kuan said, "You fight, I'll watch."

Su Caiwei smiled and shook her head, then started calculating with an abacus.

Liu Kuandan felt hungry after just looking for a while and his stomach started growling.

After hearing this, Su Caiwei smiled and said, "Master, you'd better get up. If you sleep any longer, you'll have to wait for lunch."

Liu Kuan touched his protesting belly and said, "Well, get up."

Then Su Caiwei personally helped him change his clothes.

After Liu Kuan washed up and had some breakfast, he played with his two children. It didn't seem long before Xia He came to ask if lunch was ready.

Although Liu Kuan was not hungry, he knew that Zhu Huilan and Su Caiwei had eaten breakfast early and were probably hungry, so he asked them to have lunch as usual.

After lunch, Liu Kuan took a short rest for half an hour, then went out shopping with his servant Liu Rong, followed by Wang Guangyue and others.

If holidays are not counted, he only has three days of vacation a month. Naturally, he cannot stay at home all the time with his wives and concubines. He has to go out for a walk or even go to the countryside outside the city to see the current development status of the Ming Dynasty.

Compared to three years ago, the streets of Daming are now obviously more prosperous - there are more people and vehicles, and more shops on the street.

As for the street vendors, Liu Kuan hadn't seen any yet. Because the Ming Dynasty also had city regulations, only fixed markets allowed people to set up stalls.

After walking around for a while, Liu Kuan noticed a snack shop and walked in immediately.

When the shop assistant saw Liu Kuan dressed in brocade clothes and accompanied by servants and guards, he knew that Liu Kuan was not an ordinary person. He immediately came forward and asked with a smile: "Sir, would you like a pair of 鏆鏆? Our shop is an old shop handed down from the Song Dynasty. The craftsman's skills are excellent."

Liu Kuan asked, "I saw there's a glass sign on your takeout sign. Where is it?"

Since glasses were still considered a luxury at that time, they were all placed in boxes in shops. In addition, no one had used glass display windows yet, so Liu Kuan naturally could not browse various glasses as he could in eyeglass stores in later generations.

The shopkeeper came over and said, "Sir, please take a seat. We will bring you the delicacies one by one for you to taste."

As they were talking, the shopkeeper led Liu Kuan to a small flower hall specially reserved for guests and asked the servant to serve him tea and snacks.

Afterwards, he asked the servant to bring a sandalwood box and personally opened it to show Liu Kuan.

When Liu Kuan saw the glasses inside, he was surprised at first, and then looked disappointed.

Because inside was a pair of "sunglasses", or tinted glasses.

As for the fact that the frame of his glasses was similar to those in later times, he was not surprised - he had traveled to the Ming Dynasty for more than three years, and the officials had already ordered people to imitate his glasses, and they had spread to the people.

"Are all your glass glasses colored? Are there no pure and transparent ones?" Liu Kuan asked.

At this time, it was common for people to call glasses "叆叇". The shopkeeper heard this and said, "Clear glass glasses do exist, but they are not as good as those made of crystal. However, these colored glass glasses have been very popular among young men since they came out this year."

"So, when I heard the guest asking about glass glasses, I mistakenly thought that he wanted to buy these colored glasses as well." The shopkeeper explained and asked the servant to get a pair of the best glass glasses and a pair of the best crystal glasses.

After the work was brought, Liu Kuan took a look and found that the crystal glasses were indeed clearer and more transparent.

"It seems that the glass manufacturing level of the Ming Dynasty still needs to be improved."

Liu Kuan sighed, bought three pairs of plain colored glasses, and left.

The pair of glasses he brought from the future was almost due for replacement, but he knew that it would be difficult to exchange them for a better pair in the Ming Dynasty, so he might as well make do with them.

After leaving the shop, Liu Kuan happened to hear the worker from the nearby glass shop talking about business with the manager of a wealthy family.

From what they said, it turned out that this wealthy family really wanted to install glass windows and needed to customize some flat glass.

"Old Zhu didn't even use glass windows in the palace, and now the wealthy families outside have started using glass windows? I wonder if Old Zhu would mind if he knew."

"But the Ming Dynasty laws shouldn't stipulate who can use glass as a building material and who can't, right?"

Shaking his head to drive the question out of his mind, Liu Kuan went to the teahouse he often visited and drank half a pot of tea - drinking tea was secondary, he mainly wanted to listen to the storytelling in the teahouse and listen to the tea drinkers chatting.

When Liu Kuan arrived, he happened to catch the storyteller starting another show.

There was a sound of the startling wooden stick, and the storyteller began to speak in a rhythmic and cadenced manner.

"Today we will discuss the former Ryukyu Kingdom, thousands of miles across the East China Sea, now known as Ryukyu County in the Ming Dynasty. Do you know why Ryukyu submitted to the Ming Dynasty?"

Liu Kuan was shocked when he heard this beginning.

I thought to myself, this storyteller is so bold, he is willing to risk his life to make money, he even dares to use recent political events as the subject of his story?

Aren’t you afraid that the Jinyiwei will catch him?
But after listening for a while, Liu Kuan understood - this storyteller was most likely a member of the Jinyiwei, or he was specially arranged by Zhu Yuanzhang to explain the "truth" about Ryukyu's surrender to the people.

Because according to this storyteller, King Zhongshan and King Nanshan of the Three Kings of Ryukyu were both ambitious people who intended to annex the other two countries.

So the two of them first conspired to divide up the Beishan Kingdom. However, due to uneven distribution of the spoils, they fought against each other, making life miserable for the people of the Ryukyu Islanders.

The prince of Beishan Kingdom fled to the Ming Dynasty and cried to the court. Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang learn about the Ryukyu incident. He sent troops to stop the war between Zhongshan and Nanshan and helped Beishan Kingdom restore its national destiny.

The Beishan Kingdom later worried that if the Ming army left, their national destiny would be lost, and even their lives would be lost. Some tribal chieftains outside the three Ryukyu Kingdoms also worried about being drawn into another war between the Zhongshan and Nanshan Kingdoms.

So they jointly submitted a petition requesting to submit to the Central Plains.

Although Zhongshan Kingdom and Nanshan Kingdom were unwilling, they could not bear the large number of people who jointly submitted the petition, and they did not dare to offend the suzerain state. In addition, the people of the two countries also hoped to submit to the Ming Dynasty and become Ming people, so Ryukyu submitted and was established as Ryukyu County.

After hearing this, Liu Kuan laughed.

Although what the storyteller said was nine-tenths true and one-tenth false, it was that one-tenth falsehood that made Zhu Yuanzhang a great man and made the Ming Dynasty a benevolent and righteous suzerain state in the traditional perception of the people.

"I haven't even told Lao Zhu about this publicity thing. How could he have learned it on his own?"

'sharp!'

Just as Liu Kuan was secretly lamenting that Zhu Yuanzhang used storytellers as "propagandists", the servant Liu Hu entered the private room.

"It's good that you are here, sir."

Liu Kuan asked, "You're out of breath. Is there something urgent going on at home?"

Liu Hu said, "An eunuch from the palace has arrived, conveying His Majesty's oral order, asking the master to come to the palace to see the emperor as soon as possible."

Liu Kuan's heart twitched when he heard this, and he grumbled inwardly: "Today is my day off, why am I being asked to see the emperor again? Is there still law? Is there any humanity left?"

After yelling, he left immediately, ready to go home and exchange officials for the palace.

As a result, the eunuch who came to deliver the oral order said that there was no need to change into official uniform and that they could just go directly.

So Liu Kuan entered the palace wearing his casual shopping clothes.

When he arrived at Fengxian Hall, he found that Zhu Biao and Zhu Di were both there, which made him even more depressed. He thought to himself: Could it be that Zhu Di came back and wanted to hear about the "glorious deeds" of his descendants, so he called me over?

No matter how he complained in his heart, Liu Kuan still bowed to the three of them one by one.

Then Old Zhu asked, "Liu Kuan, it's almost mid-October, and the exploration fleet hasn't returned yet. Could something have gone wrong?"

Liu Kuan asked, "Did His Majesty's order to the exploratory fleet require them to return this year?"

Old Zhu shook his head. "The benefits and consequences of long-distance voyages are unpredictable. Why would we give them a death order? We simply asked them to go to America and do their best to find crops like corn and the rubber tree and Coreopsis."

Liu Kuan said, "Corn and other things are native to South America. They may have spread to Central America, but they probably haven't spread to North America. It's normal for the exploration fleet to spend a year searching for these things."

Old Zhu smiled after hearing this and said, "Hearing you say that, I feel much more at ease."

Liu Kuan knew that Lao Zhu must have asked him to come over not just to give him peace of mind.

Sure enough, then Lao Zhu said, "Liu Kuan, Biao'er and I have a matter that we're undecided about, and I'd like to hear your opinion."

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)