Bringing the Railway to Daming

When the summoned eunuch arrived at Liu's house on a fast horse, Liu Kuan had already finished dinner and was chatting with his family in the side hall of the central courtyard, while also guiding his two children with their homework.

Upon learning that Zhu Yuanzhang had urgently summoned him to the palace, Liu Kuan immediately went to the palace even though he didn't know what had happened.

When Liu Kuan arrived at Fengxian Hall, he found Zhu Biao was also there, frowning and looking worried.

Without waiting for Liu Kuan to salute, he said, "Is my brother-in-law here? Come on, give me some advice! The Lu Fan fleet has been hit by a storm, and my tenth brother and his flagship, the Zou Yi, have disappeared!"

Zhu Tan is missing? !

Liu Kuan was also shocked when he heard this. Without even bothering to salute, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and asked, "Your Majesty, what exactly is going on?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang also looked worried, he was not as anxious as Zhu Biao. He said, "You will know after reading the telegram."

Li Gui handed the telegram over. Liu Kuan read it quickly, then frowned and started thinking.

After a while, he said, "Although His Royal Highness Prince Lu disappeared in the storm along with the Zouyi, since the other ships in the fleet are fine, it means the storm was not very severe. Therefore, the possibility of the Zouyi being destroyed and the people on board is relatively small."

"I believe the Zouyi was most likely lost in a storm and separated from the fleet. I don't know where it went."

"Your Majesty, you can order the Lu clan to search the Gulf of Mexico and even the Caribbean Sea in the future. Perhaps you can find His Royal Highness Prince Lu and the Zou Yi."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao also said: "My brother-in-law is right. Zou Yihao is just missing, it doesn't necessarily mean he has been in trouble. We should do our best to search for him now!"

Zhu Yuanzhang knocked on the imperial desk and said in a deep voice, "We must indeed search for Zou Yihao, but the most important thing right now is to stabilize the morale of the Lu clan. Without the Tenth Prince, the Lu clan is now leaderless. If morale is lost, chaos may break out, and the court may not be able to control it."

Then he quickly wrote something on the imperial desk and handed it to Li Gui.

"Go and have the telecommunications office reply to Lu Fan according to this."

"Yes."

Li Gui immediately arranged for someone to do it.

Zhu Biao asked curiously, "How did the emperor respond to Lu Fan's telegram?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "We will appoint Sun Jie, the military advisor of the Lu vassal government, as the internal historian of Lu, Cheng Jing, the commander of the Lu vassal garrison, as the lieutenant of Lu, and Tang Nai as the imperial envoy of Lu. Let these three form the Lu internal cabinet and be responsible for handling the military and political affairs of Lu until we can find the Tenth Brother."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao and Liu Kuan were stunned for a moment, and then they began to admire him.

Even though his son was missing, Zhu Yuanzhang not only managed to remain calm, but he was also able to come up with a way to stabilize Lu Fan in such a short time. This was really not easy.

Zhu Biao then asked, "Do we need to ask Xuanguanwei to send someone to support us?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "In order to replace that brat Lao Shi with a sea vessel, the Xuanguan Guards almost used up all the sea vessels they had accumulated in the past. Now there are only a few large ships that can go out to sea in Xuandong Port."

"Even if they were asked to send people, they could only send a few ships, which wouldn't be of much use."

"Now, I just hope that Old Ten, that scoundrel, will be blessed with good fortune and survive this disaster. By the way, Liu Kuan, in what year did Old Ten die of illness in the original history?"

Liu Kuan only remembered that in the original history, after Zhu Tan became a vassal, he was no longer restrained and began to indulge in women. Then, probably because he found that his health was not good, he began to make elixirs, take medicine, and believe in the art of sex. Not long after, he died from taking too many pills.

As for how old he was when he died, Liu Kuan had no idea.
He then shook his head, "I don't remember."

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, "This kid is not someone I can rest assured about - the same goes for the second brother. I should give him some more instructions."

Having said that, Zhu Yuanzhang simply wrote another letter and prepared to ask the Telecommunications Bureau to send it to the Yongfan Telecommunications Group.

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When Zhu Chong received the telegram from Zhu Yuanzhang from the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Yong clan was also in crisis.

Water shortage crisis!

At this time, more than forty days had passed since the Yongfan fleet left Xuanguanwei.

The fleet sailed south along the west coast of South America. Although the journey was not smooth, it did not encounter any storms.

Zhu Chong originally thought that he could reach the planned vassal state so smoothly, but after the fleet entered the southern half of the west coast of Peru in later generations, it became difficult to find fresh water on the coast.

Although the fleet seized every opportunity to replenish fresh water after realizing the crisis, when it entered the Atacama Desert, which later connected Peru and Chile, the huge fleet was still on the verge of running out of water.

This day.

After the fleet anchored in a natural harbor for half a day, more than a dozen teams that went ashore to look for water returned one after another, but they all found nothing.

Two of them even suffered from heatstroke due to lack of water and were carried back by their companions, dying.

Upon seeing this, Chief of Staff Yang Qian said to Zhu Chong, "Your Majesty, we can't continue to sail a short distance before sending people ashore to search for water. With so many people on the fleet, every extra day of waiting will consume a lot of fresh water."

"I observe that this stretch of coast is entirely desert. Even if we could find fresh water, I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough for tens of thousands of people."

"In that case, why not give it a try before the fleet runs out of fresh water? Sail south at full speed and try to cross this desert and reach the water on shore as soon as possible!"

Although Zhu Chong was cruel and brutal when he was the King of Qin in Xi'an, he became hesitant when faced with such a moment when he needed to make a decision.

He frowned and said irritably, "Mr. Yang, it's easy for us to say that. What if we continue sailing south for a few more days and the fleet runs out of water but still hasn't reached a place with fresh water? What if we miss a place with fresh water in the middle?" Hearing Zhu Chong say this, Yang Qian felt really disappointed and didn't even want to persuade him anymore.

Fortunately, Guanyinnu and Deng arrived at this time.

Deng said, "Your Majesty, I think we should listen to Mr. Yang and head south with all our might. I've seen on the map that this place is only two or three thousand miles away from the place Your Majesty has chosen to establish a vassal state. I don't believe that such a long coastline would be entirely desert!"

Zhu Chong gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, then I will order the fleet to sail south at full speed starting today until we are out of the coastal desert!"

When Zhu Chong's order was given, the fleet quickly set sail and headed south with full sails.

Zhu Chong returned to the cabin and looked at the map again. Seeing that only Deng and Guanyin Nu were by his side, he couldn't help getting angry.

"It's all Liu Kuan's fault. He didn't tell me that there's such a long stretch of the west coast of South America where fresh water is hard to find, and there's even thousands of miles of desert where there's no water at all. I think he just wants to kill me!"

Upon hearing this, Guanyin Nu couldn't help but say, "The king must have misunderstood Liu's husband. He probably doesn't know the details of this new west coast of South America."

Deng said, "Your Majesty truly thinks highly of yourself—what has become of you that would warrant the Marquis of Jiangning's murder? What good would it do him if we were killed?"

Zhu Chong looked unhappy for a moment and didn't know what to say.

In fact, he was just holding back his anger and wanted to curse someone to vent his anger.

After a moment of silence, Zhu Chong wanted to say something again when he heard the eunuch guarding the gate say, "Your Majesty, His Majesty has sent you a telegram from the capital."

Zhu Chong was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then his expression changed and he became happy.

"Father actually sent me a telegram of his own accord? Send it in now!"

The eunuch delivered the telegram and then retreated to continue guarding the door.

After reading the telegram, Zhu Chong laughed and said, "I was wondering why the emperor thought of sending me a telegram. It turns out that something happened to the tenth brother."

Deng asked curiously, "What happened to Prince Lu?"

"He encountered a storm on his way from Xuanguanwei to Jianfan territory. The Zouyi ship he was on became separated from the Lufan fleet, and we couldn't contact him by telegraph. Now, it's unknown whether he's dead or alive."

"Ah?" Deng and Guanyin Nu were both shocked. Deng immediately asked, "What should we do?"

Zhu Chong said, "How should I know? Anyway, we have always been operating along the coastline, so there is no need to be too afraid if we encounter a storm."

Guanyin Nu made a gesture of praying to Buddha and said, "I hope the Bodhisattva will bless my tenth brother to turn misfortune into good fortune and contact Lu Fan's fleet as soon as possible."

Zhu Chong thought that Zhu Tan was his half-brother after all. Although they had some unpleasantness in the past, they came to America together to establish a fiefdom.

Now he is facing the crisis of water shortage, and Zhu Tan and Zou Yihao are missing together, so they can be considered as brothers in distress.

Then he began to feel a little worried about Zhu Tan's situation.

At this time, Mrs. Deng reminded: "Your Majesty, won't you reply to the telegram to Your Majesty?"

"Oh, I'll go back right away... Should I tell the old man that we're going to have to cut off the water? Forget it. Old Ten alone is enough to worry him, so I'd better not let him worry too much - if he really knew about this, he might send another telegram to scold me."

The Yongfan fleet sailed at full speed for two or three days, but finally ran out of water.

People on each ship began to fall ill due to lack of water. As for the livestock such as horses and oxen on the ships, a number of them died of thirst because they were the first to be cut off from water.

On the flagship Yongliang.

Zhu Chong's lips were dry from thirst, and so was Deng, who was in the same cabin with him.

"I can't stand it anymore, I need some water!"

Zhu Chong said this in a dry voice and was about to take the water bag on the table - although the fleet was out of water, Zhu Chong, as the King of Yong, must have stored some water.

But even so, he had started to drink water sparingly a few days ago, and now he even counted by the mouthful.

Just as he got the water bag, Deng held him down. "Your Majesty drank from it just an hour ago. Why are you drinking again? The children are almost out of water!"

Zhu Chong said, "I only took a small sip before, what good is that?"

As he said this, Zhu Chong pushed Deng away.

Deng was a strong man who had learned martial arts from his father and brother, so he immediately started fighting with Zhu Chong.

"You fierce woman, believe it or not, when we get to Jianfandi, I will destroy you!"

"Are you useless? We're dying of thirst anyway, if you make me useless, we'll die together!"

Although both of them had little strength due to lack of water, they gradually started to fight.

At this moment, cheers suddenly came from outside! (End of this chapter)