Bringing the Railway to Daming

"Slave, go now!"

The eunuch guarding the gate almost crawled away because the boat was shaking so violently that it was difficult to stand steady.

Zhu Tan was originally holding the table with one hand to steady himself as the boat swayed, but the boat suddenly swayed in the opposite direction, and he lost his balance and fell down. He didn't know what hit his head, but he felt a sharp pain and then lost consciousness.

Before he lost consciousness, he seemed to hear Tang Xiuzhen's scream.

At the same time, a thought flashed through my mind: 'Am I going to die like this?'

"The great cause is not yet accomplished..."

When Zhu Tan regained consciousness and woke up, he no longer felt the shaking.

He opened his eyes and found that he should still be in the cabin and there was no water around him, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Then Tang Xiuzhen was heard saying in surprise, "The king is awake? Go and call Doctor Wang!"

Zhu Tan struggled to get up, but found that he was in pain in several places on his body, especially the back of his head.

He used to be the one who couldn't stand pain, but now he couldn't care less and asked hurriedly, "How's the fleet? What's the damage?"

When Tang Xiuzhen heard this, the joy on her face disappeared immediately. She opened her mouth, as if she didn't know what to say.

Zhu Tan said anxiously, "What's the situation? Tell me quickly!"

The fleet is related to his cause of establishing a vassal state. If the losses are too severe, he may have to return to the Ming Dynasty and start over again - but the problem is that if something like this happens, I am afraid his father will not allow him to go out to sea to establish a vassal state again.

So he was really anxious.

Tang Xiuzhen said, "Your Majesty, I don't know the situation of the fleet. Last night during the storm, our ship somehow got separated from the fleet and is now stranded on a deserted island."

The Zouyi was separated from the fleet?
Stranded on a desert island?
Zhu Tan was stunned for a moment, then asked anxiously, "Have you asked the telecommunications team to send a telegram to Commander Qi?"

Tang Xiuzhen smiled wryly and said, "Last night, the telegraph team was ordered by the king to contact Commander Qi, but the telegraph machine broke."

Zhu Tan was stunned for a moment, then angrily asked, "What's the point of the telegraph team? Don't they know that the telegraph machine is more important than their lives? Also, the telegraph team brought some spare parts with them. If the telegraph machine breaks down, don't they know how to fix it?!"

Tang Xiuzhen said, "They say that several core components of the telegraph machine are severely damaged and can no longer be repaired."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Tan was so angry that he sat up and slammed the bed, cursing, "Waste! All of them are waste! I'm going to kill them right now!"

Tang Xiuzhen was startled when she heard this. She quickly closed the door and came back to whisper, "Your Majesty, please calm down. Don't act rashly right now. The Zouyi is now stranded on a deserted island, and the only people we can rely on are the two or three hundred people on this ship."

"Now that the telegraph is gone, we can't communicate with the court. If the king insists on doing things his own way and angers the people, I'm afraid that..."

Thinking of a certain situation, Tang Xiuzhen didn't dare to continue.

Zhu Tan was a smart man. He instantly thought of some things that might happen in the current situation. His face turned pale and he even trembled.

He immediately grasped Tang Xiuzhen's hand and said, "Princess, you are right. We are in an extraordinary period now, and I must be careful. Otherwise, my life and mine may be in jeopardy."

In view of the historical record of Zhu Tan's absurd behavior of indulging in women, refining elixirs and taking drugs to kill himself after he became a vassal, Zhu Yuanzhang kept a tight control on Zhu Tan's private life.

Although his marriage to Tang He's second daughter was arranged early on, he was not allowed to marry Tang Xiuzhen until he was nineteen years old.

Because they are rarely together, Zhu Tan and Tang Xiuzhen have a good relationship. However, even after more than two years of marriage, Tang Xiuzhen has still not given birth to children for him.

Tang Xiuzhen added, "Let Doctor Wang examine the king again later. If he is alright, the king needs to leave early to calm people down."

Zhu Tan nodded first, then thought of the current situation and sighed with a sad face, "Why am I so unlucky? My fourth, third, sixth, and seventh brothers all went out to sea to establish their own vassal states, and nothing happened. But it's my turn to get into trouble."

At this point, Zhu Tan thought of something and asked hurriedly, "By the way, is Zou Yihao still okay?"

Tang Xiuzhen sighed and said, "The Zouyi ship is also damaged. Fortunately, Cheng Qianhu said that as long as there is enough wood, it can be repaired in a while."

"But the Zouyi ran aground on a small, deserted island, mostly covered with shrubs and no large trees. If we want to get wood to repair the ship, we'll probably have to go to the larger island to the south."

"There's a big island in the south?" Zhu Tan blinked. "Could it be the island where we're going to be established?"

Tang Xiuzhen said, "I don't know either. Your Majesty, please go out and take a look and you should be able to find out."

At this point, Doctor Wang who was on the ship came over.

He felt Zhu Tan's pulse and checked the wound on the back of his head, then said, "Your Majesty is basically fine. It's just that the wound on the back of your head can't be exposed to water for the next few days, and the bruises on your body need to be rubbed with medicinal wine."

After saying that, he took out a small glass bottle of medicinal wine and placed it on the table.

"Thank you, Doctor Wang." Doctor Wang was surprised by Zhu Tan's politeness and said, "Your Majesty, you are too polite. This is my duty."

Zhu Tan took the opportunity to ask, "Doctor Wang, do you know what everyone on the ship is thinking right now?"

Doctor Wang said, "I'm naturally worried. I don't know if I can contact the fleet again. But most of those on board are your guards and escorts. As long as your majesty is alright, I believe everyone can rest assured. Your majesty can go out for a walk later."

"Okay, I'll leave the cabin right away."

The difficult situation actually aroused Zhu Tan's fighting spirit.

Tang Xiuzhen advised: "Your Majesty, please rub yourself with medicinal wine before going out."

"Come back and wipe it... Come and help me change my clothes."

At the beginning, Zhu Tan took into consideration that no force around the fiefdom had a navy, let alone a strong navy, and the funds for building the fiefdom were limited, so he only ordered four ordinary warships from the Treasure Ship Factory in the capital.

The largest warship among them was his flagship Zouyi (Zouyi, one of the capitals of the Gulu Kingdom).

However, even the Zouyi only had 3,900 tons of toll, less than 4,000 tons - and this was because Zhu Tan considered that large ships were safer to sail.

The other three warships had only more than 2,000 tons of tonnage, and like the Zou Yi, they were not covered with iron armor and did not use steam engines and paddle wheels as auxiliary power.

If comfort is not taken into consideration, the Zouyi can carry seven or eight hundred people.

However, as the flagship, the Zouyi was indeed mainly responsible for ensuring the quality of life of Zhu Tan and Tang Xiuzhen at sea, so the total number of eunuchs, palace maids, guards, escorts and sailors on board was less than 300.

Due to the need to operate the ship and control the sails, there are more than a hundred sailors among them.

The rest were a hundred guards, thirty imperial guards, eight eunuchs, and sixteen palace maids.

Finally, there were 32 people including ship doctors, cooks, craftsmen, etc.

After changing ships at Xuanguanwei, although the capacity of the new Zouyi was reduced to 3,500 tons, it was still more than enough to accommodate these people.

When Zhu Tan put on his clothes and came to the deck where his cabin was located with a few guards, he saw guards standing everywhere, looking vigilant.

Soon, the captain of the guards, Cheng Feng, came up from the lower deck, saluted, and asked, "Is the king alright?"

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious." Zhu Tan said, "Were there any casualties or missing persons on the ship last night?"

Cheng Feng said, "Two sailors are missing. Besides that, dozens of people were bruised and bruised, but fortunately, no one was seriously injured."

Hearing this, Zhu Tan first breathed a sigh of relief, then asked, "Are the positions of the two missing sailors important? Can anyone replace them?"

"Have."

Zhu Tan nodded, then turned and looked at the big island in the south - it was indeed a big island and not land, because Zhu Tan could see the east and west edges of the island.

"How far do you think the island is from here?"

"I've measured it, it's about twenty miles."

Cheng Feng was in charge of one thousand of the Lu clan's three thousand guards, and therefore he was on board the Zou Yi with Zhu Tan, responsible for the actual command. He was a naval officer with professional skills, and his estimate of about twenty miles was probably correct.

Zhu Tan then took the guards and Cheng Feng and others to inspect the two decks.

First, to tell everyone that he had woken up and reassure them; second, to observe the situation on the deserted island where the Zouyi was stranded.

Finally, standing on the edge of the deck on the other side of the ship, Cheng Feng said, "I've already sent people to explore this deserted island. It's about four or five miles long from east to west, over a mile wide at its widest point from north to south, and only about three hundred paces at its narrowest point."

"There are almost no trees on the island. We must go to the big island over there to get wood for repairing the ship."

"Fortunately, during last night's storm, only one of the eight speedboats on board the Zouyi was lost, and one was damaged, leaving six still available."

"My suggestion is to send people with tools and speedboats to the big island to cut down trees and collect fresh water. If we can find fruits and kill prey, that would be even better."

Zhu Tan took out a telescope and looked at the big island opposite again.

After watching for a while, he saw a faint smoke rising from the island and said, "This island is quite large, and there are probably native people living there. For safety reasons, it's best to send people to explore the island first. Once we understand the situation on the island, we can make a decision."

Cheng Feng felt that even if there were natives on such a larger overseas island, they would not be a match for them. Zhu Tan's arrangement was too cautious.

But he didn't refute it. Instead, he said "yes" and went to arrange for the staff. (End of this chapter)