Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 419: Guard Zheng He, the Situation in Japan [Request for Subscription]

Tsushima Island.

Nanmawei City, Supervisory Office.

Today, Nanmawei City is much more prosperous than when it was first built, because it has become a place where merchants from the Ming Dynasty, Japan and the former Goryeo gather and trade.

Although the Dushifu is one of the largest mansions in the city, it does not have a plaque because "Dushifu" is not an official title, but a private name used by the soldiers and civilians of Nanmawei.

From the time when Zhu Di was in charge of Japanese affairs, to the time when Prince of Chu Zhu Zhen, Prince of Tan Zhu Bo, and now the Crown Prince Zhu Xiongying, all lived in this mansion, making it the actual power center of Tsushima Island.

It can even be said to be a major political center of the former Goryeo and Japan.

In the study of the mansion, seventeen-year-old Zhu Xiongying read the telegram sent by Zhu Biao, thought for a while, and then showed a helpless smile.

He could tell that Zhu Biao wanted to ask about his health and whether he was used to his life. However, Zhu Biao asked about a lot of Japanese affairs first, and only casually asked about his personal situation at the end.

He is seventeen years old. He has eaten well since he was a child, and the food can even be said to be rich and balanced in nutrition. He also practices martial arts every day. Even though his physical foundation is a little weak, he is in very good health now.

Not to mention, the medical team that accompanied him to Shaanxi and Gansu last year has now also come to Tsushima Island.

In this case, how could there be anything wrong with his body?

He felt that instead of worrying about his health, Zhu Biao should pay more attention to his own health.

"I remember my grandfather said that in history, my father seemed to have passed away due to illness in the 25th year of the Hongwu reign... Although my father seems to be in good health now, I should remind him to be more careful and not overwork himself on state affairs."

Thinking of this, Zhu Xiongying picked up the brush and began to write a reply to Zhu Biao.

Half an hour later, he finished writing the reply.

"Someone is coming."

A young guard, about twenty years old, came in upon hearing the noise and clasped his fists, saying, "What are your orders, Grand Prince?"

Zhu Xiongying handed over the sealed telegram and said, "Send this telegram to the communications team and have them send it to the capital. Also, have the guards and personal soldiers prepare something. I need to go to the docks for a while."

"Yes."

The guard responded, took the envelope, and left quickly.

Not long after, Zhu Xiongying changed his clothes, left the mansion with dozens of guards and hundreds of personal soldiers, and headed for the dock outside the city. Today, another merchant ship responsible for "immigration" affairs was transiting from Nanmawei, and he wanted to go over to understand the situation.

He learned a truth from Liu Kuan a few years ago: to truly understand something, one cannot rely solely on written text or oral narration from others, but must also conduct on-site investigations.

In order to facilitate observation, Zhu Xiongying traveled on horseback.

However, he was dressed like a guard and stayed among the guards. With his personal soldiers leading the way, his safety was still guaranteed.

In Zhu Xiongying's eyes, although the current permanent population of Nanmawei City is only 20,000 to 30,000, it is a very prosperous small city because the city was well planned during its construction and the public security is top-notch in this era.

This can be seen from the many shops and restaurants on both sides of the street and the constant flow of pedestrians on the street.

When we arrived at the port outside the city, there were even more people.

Zhu Xiongying turned around and headed to one of the more remote docks - there were more than a dozen large sea vessels moored in front of the dock, replenishing fresh water, vegetables, dry food and other supplies.

"Zheng He."

The young guard who had delivered the telegram earlier clasped his fists and said, "I'm here."

"Go to those ships and pick a few people at random: a ship owner who has taken on immigration matters, a sailor, a Japanese woman, and a Japanese man. Remember, don't look for them all on one ship."

"Yes."

Zheng He responded, handed the horse to other guards, and ran quickly towards the ships.

As Zhu Xiongying watched Zheng He's back, he couldn't help but recall the historical events he had learned from Liu Kuan. As Liu Kuan had said, Zheng He's original surname was Ma, and his family had been minor officers under the Yuan Liang Prince. After his father died fighting against the Ming army, he was captured by the Ming army.

If we follow the historical trajectory, Zheng He, who was only ten years old at the time, should have gone through processes such as "ideological education", "obedience training and testing", and then been castrated and entered the palace.

But Zhu Yuanzhang specifically ordered people to pay attention to him, so his experience was naturally different from that in history - although he also underwent ideological education, loyalty and obedience training and screening, he did not become a small eunuch, but a reserve guard.

Three years ago, he was trained and became a formal guard. Zhu Xiongying, who learned about this, asked him to be his personal guard.

Three years of interaction had made Zhu Xiongying realize that Zheng He was indeed a gifted man, a man with great potential. If he were properly nurtured, he might become a capable general or minister in the future.

About a quarter of an hour later, Zheng He came over with four people.

The ship owner was knowledgeable. When he saw Zhu Xiongying with so many guards and elite soldiers around him, he immediately realized that the young man in front of him was of noble status.

"I, Gu Shun, greet you, sir."

The sailor realized it later and followed suit, saluting. As for the Japanese girl and young man, they were even slower and saluted in a panic.

Zhu Xiongying smiled calmly and said, "No need to be so polite—how many ships do you have, and how long have you been in this immigration business?"

The ship owner said, "I only entered this business three years ago, and currently I only have two ships."

"So how many Japanese women and young men have you signed indentures for? And what were the prices?"

Although the ship owner was curious about why Zhu Xiongying asked these questions, he did not dare to refuse to answer.

He said, "The immigration business in Japan is getting harder every year. This time, I only signed the indentures of 300 women, some of whom were married and had children."

"As for the young and strong, we only owe about two hundred of them. It's hard to sign people, and the price is getting higher every year. An unmarried girl wants ten strings of cash, and those who have been married and have children want five strings of cash or more."

"Young and strong men are cheap, only three or five strings of cash are enough, but we won't make much money shipping them overseas. We might even have to pay them back when they make money overseas in the future."

Zhu Xiongying frowned slightly and asked, "Then do you know why the immigration business is getting harder every year?"

The ship owner sighed, "The reason is simple. Japan's population is much smaller now than it was back then, and there are even fewer people willing to immigrate and who meet the immigration requirements. Naturally, the immigration business is getting harder every year."

After listening to this, Zhu Xiongying fell into deep thought.

Ever since he accepted the task of "supervising Japan's rice-to-mulberry conversion and immigration affairs", he knew that these two things are not as easy to handle as they were a few years ago.

From this point of view, it is not necessarily that Zhu Bo was unwilling to do the work during those months when he was in charge, but he may have really been helpless.

Because in the past few years, many people have died in Japan due to years of famine and war, and batches of young girls and middle-aged people have been "migrated" abroad, which has left even fewer young men and women in Japan.

The sharp decline in young men and women has caused a sharp drop in the number of newborns in Japan - many people die or go abroad, but very few are born, so Japan's population has naturally plummeted.

According to the intelligence of Guangmingwei, Japan had a population of about 10 million before it was affected by the "conversion from rice to mulberry" and "immigration" incidents.

According to the intelligence obtained by the Guangming Guards last year, Japan's population may only be over 6 million now, a sharp drop of half!

With such a large population decline, especially among the young and middle-aged, even if the Ming Dynasty continued to promote the "rice-to-mulberry" policy, the people would have plenty of land to grow food. Even with the influence of Ming Dynasty merchants and Japanese feudal lords, the food farmers grew was still not enough to eat, but the severity of the famine began to decrease.

If there were no way to make a living in their hometown, the Japanese would not be willing to go overseas where the future is uncertain.

After all, in the past few years, those young girls and young men who went out to sea never came back. At most, they asked someone to send a letter or bring back some things to prove that they were still alive.

As for the few letters sent back, saying that they were living well overseas, few Japanese people today actually believe them.

First, those people, especially the women, praised life overseas too much. Second, if they were really doing well overseas, why didn't they return home?

Therefore, fewer and fewer Japanese people are willing to go abroad.

Although Zhu Xiongying had learned about these things from various documents and intelligence before, it was only after hearing the specific situation described by a maritime merchant who was engaged in the "immigration" business that he realized that "immigration" was now more difficult than he had expected.

(End of this chapter)