Bringing the Railway to Daming

This day.

Zhu Tan was sitting on a folding chair under the shade of a tree to enjoy the cool air when Counselor Zhang Ting, the only aide who had fallen on hard times with him, came over.

"Your Majesty, the Zouyi doesn't carry much food. The natives on this island mainly rely on fishing and hunting, and only grow a small amount of crops similar to yams and sweet potatoes."

"Plus, the weather on the island is very hot. Although we destroyed four native settlements before, we didn't seize much food."

"We don't know how long we will stay on Xuanwu Island. For long-term planning, I ask Your Majesty to allocate some of our men to find a suitable location to cultivate farmland and plant crops such as rice, corn, and sweet potatoes."

Zhu Tan didn't ask questions like "There are plenty of fish, turtles, shrimps, etc. on the beach, and you're worried that everyone will be hungry."

Because when he was studying in the main hall, he learned relevant knowledge from Liu Kuan - it is not good for people to eat only meat for a long time, especially since everyone on Zou Yihao is accustomed to eating rice and wheat as their staple food.

This can be seen from the fact that the natives on the island collect and plant a crop similar to yam and sweet potato.

Therefore, if they will stay on Xuanwu Island for a year or even several years, it is necessary to grow crops such as rice.

Thinking of this, Zhu Tan said, "Counselor Zhang is right. I will dispatch fifty sailors and one hundred young and strong natives to your command to find a suitable place to cultivate the land."

"The climate on this island is similar to that of Lingnan and Nanyang. We can try to grow some sweet potatoes first, then focus on growing rice, and then some corn."

"As for other vegetables, if there are seeds on the Zou Yi, you can plant some."

"Your humble servant obeys your command," Zhang Tingxian agreed, then added, "Your humble servant observes that the crops grown by the natives are quite well adapted to the climate and soil of this island, and can be cultivated. If we leave the island in the future, it will be considered as finding a new grain crop for the Ming Dynasty."

"This is all thanks to Your Majesty. Please give this crop a name."

Zhu Tan showed a look of satisfaction after hearing this, and thought to himself: This Zhang Ting is really sensible. It is worthy that I value him the most and bring him on the Zou Yi.

He thought for a moment and said, "Since the edible part of this plant is also a rhizome that grows in the soil, similar to sweet potatoes, but its texture is similar to some tree roots, with more wood grain, let's call it cassava."

Zhang Ting praised again, "The name of cassava is apt, Your Majesty is wise."

"Hahaha," Zhu Tan laughed happily, then suddenly remembered something and said, "Counselor Zhang, you said we don't know how long we'll stay on this island, maybe even several years or even ten years. But I remembered something more important."

"The princess and I have been married for two years, but we haven't been able to give birth to an heir. I don't know if it's her problem or mine."

"When we were in the capital, the princess and I were young, so it was not appropriate for us to ignore Duke Xin's feelings. But now that we are stranded on this overseas island, for the long-term benefit of Lu, I have no choice but to consider this matter."

Zhang Ting understood immediately and asked, "Your Majesty, do you wish to take a concubine?"

Zhu Tan said, "Now, the women on this island, apart from the dozen or so palace maids on the Zou Yi, are all native women. How could any of them be worthy of being my concubine?"

"My intention is to first select two from the palace maids, and then select a few outstandingly beautiful women from the native women on the island, and let them take turns to sleep with me. If anyone can give birth to a child for me, it won't be too late to make her a concubine."

Zhang Ting thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty is very concerned... I will find a suitable opportunity to bring this matter up in front of the princess."

Zhu Tan was even more satisfied and nodded, saying, "Counselor Zhang is indeed the one who understands me the most among all the staff. When I contact the fleet in the future, I will definitely entrust him with important tasks."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhang Tingxian bowed in thanks, then said, "Your Majesty, we can actually do this together with another matter."

"What's the matter?"

"Of course, it's to take native women as concubines for the soldiers. Now that the soldiers have lost contact with their families, it's inevitable that they'll feel uneasy if time passes. Therefore, it's necessary to allow them to have a concubine or even a child on the island."

After hearing this, Zhu Tan looked at Zhang Ting suspiciously and thought: Could it be that you wanted to take a concubine just because you saw that I was selecting a concubine?

But he knew what Zhang Ting said made sense, so he nodded and said, "Okay, then let's do both things at once."

Zhang Ting retreated.

Although Zhang Ting was somewhat fawning in front of Zhu Tan, he was able to distinguish the priorities. He did not rush to choose a concubine for Zhu Tan or to give concubines to the men of the Lu clan. Instead, he had people secretly gather everyone's opinions and spread some rumors.

His top priority was to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land.

There is a lake two or three miles east of the northern part of Xuanwu Island where Lu Fan landed. The surrounding terrain is relatively flat, and there is a mountain range separating it from the seashore, which can block the sea breeze. It is considered the most suitable place for reclaiming land and farming nearby.

The largest of the four native settlements they captured had previously settled by the lake.

Therefore, Zhang Ting led the reclamation team to renovate the huts of the original indigenous settlement and reclaim land and cultivate crops by the lake.

Three days later, Tang Xiuzhen, who was staying on the deserted island Zouyi, was boredly flipping through a book she had read called "Overseas Scenery".

Then her personal maid, E'er, came in and said stealthily, "Your Majesty, E'er has heard some rumors these past two days and I'm not sure if I should tell you about them or not."

Tang Xiuzhen said, "Now that you've said that, what else is there to say?"

E'er's pretty face flushed slightly, and she said, "I heard some soldiers talking privately, saying that we don't know how long we will have to stay here, or even live here forever - in this situation, the king doesn't even have a child, it's really hard to feel at ease." Hearing this, Tang Xiuzhen's face turned pale.

This has always been a concern for her - she and Zhu Tan are both young people, and they have been married for three years but have no children, which has long been a knot in her heart.

The most important thing is that she was indeed in poor health before. She had a serious illness before marrying Zhu Tan. Fortunately, there was a famous doctor in the Beijing Hospital who treated her and she recovered from the illness.

Two years ago, she began to prepare to follow Zhu Tan to establish a fiefdom overseas. She was trained by the teachers hired by Zhu Tan for more than a year before her health improved.

But her physical condition is not good after all.

Therefore, Tang Xiuzhen also thought it was her fault that she couldn't get pregnant.

She also knew that the maids E'er and Xueliu who came with her as a dowry were even more anxious than she was - these two were two or three years older than her, had grown up with her since childhood, were like sisters to her, and had even entered the Prince of Lu's Palace together with her as dowry maids.

Zhu Tan tried to make moves on them many times, but they were worried that she would get pregnant first and embarrass Tang Xiuzhen, so they made various excuses to shirk their responsibilities.

However, both of them are now in their twenties. If they delay any further, not only will Zhu Tan be dissatisfied, but they may also be looked down upon by Zhu Tan due to their old age and fading looks, and there will be no chance for them to sleep with him again.

It can be said that although these two personal maids did not mention it, they were anxious in their hearts.

Coming back to her senses, Tang Xiuzhen saw E'er seemed hesitant to speak, so she said, "Are there any other rumors? Tell us all about them."

E'er sighed and said, "Some soldiers are still talking about how they're stranded here, separated from their families, with no one around to help them, and how hard it is to live."

"But the king hasn't chosen a concubine yet, so it's not easy for them to find another one..."

At the end, E'er couldn't continue.

Because that's bullshit—what's that saying that if Zhu Tan doesn't choose a concubine, it's hard for them to find one? Is there a necessary connection between the two?

Therefore, even with E'er's knowledge, she realized that these words might have been spread by Zhu Tan.

Tang Xiuzhen was not stupid. She understood it after a little thought and thought that Zhu Tan disliked her. Her face suddenly turned even paler.

Seeing this, E'er quickly comforted her, "Don't think too much, Your Majesty. These are just trivial discussions. Don't take them seriously."

Tang Xiuzhen shook her head and said with a wry smile, "I'm not stupid... There's no smoke without fire. E'er, have someone prepare the boat. I'm going to the big island."

"Huh? Yes."

It was the first time the princess had set foot on the big island. Although supplies were scarce in the small Lu Kingdom, Zhu Tan still arranged an open-air banquet to celebrate.

At the banquet, Tang Xiuzhen took the initiative to suggest that Zhu Tan choose a concubine.

Zhu Tan half-heartedly refused, but finally gave in reluctantly, saying that he would first choose a few people to sleep with him.

Zhu Tan had some feelings for Tang Xiuzhen after all, and also wanted to rely on the power of Duke Xin, so he let Tang Xiuzhen choose the palace maids, and he himself selected two of the most outstanding ones from dozens of native girls.

Tang Xiuzhen took the opportunity to give E'er and Xueliu the title of serving as her emperor in bed.

In this way, Zhu Tan built his small kingdom of Lu on the island while living a happy life surrounded by women. Because there were too few things for him to deal with in small kingdom of Lu, he became more and more obsessed with women without realizing it.

He was not satisfied with the two native girls he had chosen before, so he asked Cheng Feng to lead the guards to search for and attack the native settlements on the island and capture the natives for forced labor, on the grounds that the construction of Lu State required more labor.

Every time a native woman was captured and taken to the prisoner camp, he would go and look around to see if there was any prettier one, or one that could arouse his interest...

···
The third day of the eighth month in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu.

Liu Kuan led Zhu Biao and the others to the cross-river bridge again before 8 a.m. and waited patiently. Unfortunately, when the sun was almost at its zenith, the strange fog still did not appear, so they had to return home with regret.

Autumn came in a blink of an eye and it was October.

The entire Ming Dynasty was a scene of bumper harvest.

In addition, after the development of the past ten years, industry and commerce have flourished in important provinces and cities in the Ming Dynasty, and people have more opportunities to make money.

The grain harvest was abundant, making money was easy, the administration was quite clean, and public security was also very good. It could be said that the Ming Dynasty had truly entered an unprecedented era of prosperity!
On this occasion, Srivijaya, a vassal state in Southeast Asia that once paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty, sent an envoy to submit maps, national yellow books and other information, and submitted a petition requesting that it be included!
However, due to the repeated advances of Srivijaya in Majapahit, even the capital city of Jambi was on the verge of collapse.

In addition, there were many people in the country who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Even the king was yearning for life in the capital because of the good things sold by various Ming Dynasty merchants, as well as the articles and picture books describing the scenes of the capital.

So, after much debate, they finally decided to annex the Ming Dynasty. "Isn't Majapahit very powerful? I don't want to play with you anymore. Let me, the Ming Dynasty, play with you, okay?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally very happy when he "learned" about this.

He pretended to refuse at first, but finally accepted Srivijaya's request for submission after repeated persuasion from his ministers and the former Goryeo kings Wang Xia and Li Chengdong, who set precedents for submission.

Then he sent the Great Ming angel to Southeast Asia to reprimand the King of Majapahit and demand that Majapahit return all the occupied Srivijaya territories. (End of this chapter)