Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Kuan was not surprised to hear Zhu Yuanzhang's question.

Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance for military generals abusing local officials may be slightly higher than that for civil officials taking bribes and abusing the law, but this is relative. In history, there are many military generals who were punished or even killed by Zhu Yuanzhang for their misconduct in local areas.

He said, "Your Majesty, the reason I know about Madam Shexiang's deeds is because the song 'Madam Shexiang' was very popular some time in later generations, so I specifically looked it up online."

"As for who the Guizhou commander-in-chief was at the time, I honestly can't remember. Besides, the incident hasn't happened yet, and the imperial court's control over Guizhou far exceeds that of history. So why would Your Majesty insist on finding that commander-in-chief?"

Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his beard and thought.

Two years ago, that is, in the 22nd year of Hongwu, there was indeed a drought in Guizhou.

However, because the Ming Dynasty court now had stronger control over the local areas, and transportation and communications were more convenient, the drought in Guizhou was reported in a timely manner. The court not only exempted taxes in areas severely affected by the drought, but also allocated money and food and sent people to provide disaster relief.

In this way, the situation in which the commander-in-chief levied taxes on ethnic minorities regardless of natural disasters and forced the Yi people to the point of almost rebelling did not happen.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty now has two major places for military deployment, the Western Regions and the South Seas; even in the border areas of Beidusi, Guangxi and Yunnan, there are opportunities to make military achievements; at worst, one can follow the vassal kings to overseas and become a hero in the development of the vassal state.

Therefore, the military generals of the Ming Dynasty are not too short of opportunities to make meritorious deeds.

In addition, although the Jinyiwei's supervision of the Ming Dynasty is silent, low-key and inconspicuous, it is more rigorous, in-depth and broad. The three generations of Zhu, Zhu Biao and Zhu Xiongying have made the foundation of the court's rule stable, and no one dares to mess around openly.

However, after a moment of hesitation, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "The story of Lady Shexiang in the original history still gives us some reminders."

"The current situation of our Ming Dynasty is different from that of the past. Places like Guizhou, Gansu, Mobei, Liaoning, Yunnan, and Guangxi, although they have many ethnic minorities and have not been interested in Han culture for many years, are now considered part of the core population of our Ming Dynasty."

"Local officials, whether civil or military, must no longer view these ethnic minorities with the same stigma as they did ten years ago. They must genuinely govern and care for these ethnic minorities in the same way as Han Chinese."

Liu Kuan was slightly surprised at first, but then he felt that it was natural for Zhu Yuanzhang to say such words.

The Zhu Yuanzhang in history did lack knowledge in certain areas, but the Zhu Yuanzhang of today has greatly broadened his horizons and even his mind because of his arrival.

Moreover, the military and economic strength of the Ming Dynasty are very strong now, and it is fully confident in treating those ethnic minorities as one of the basic population base. With the Han people as a large basic base, there is no need to be as cautious and guard against this and that as the Qing Dynasty.

He then saluted and praised, "Your Majesty is wise!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Okay, enough flattery. Let's talk about how many videos and movies you prepared this time."

Liu Kuan thought to himself: I don’t want to continue flattering you.

He said, "Your Majesty, I have prepared four videos and a movie."

"It's a bit small, but the strange fog hasn't come for several years. I guess there isn't much stock in your computer, so we won't be too demanding." Zhu Yuanzhang said, and motioned Liu Kuan to go down.

Because the palace servants had already cleaned up and set up the "home theater" with tables and chairs.

After Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma, and their entire family sat down, Liu Kuan found the prepared video on his tablet, placed it on the table, and played it on the touch screen.

He didn't introduce it before the show because it wasn't necessary.

When Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao and others saw the video start, they immediately focused on watching it.

I saw the video title appear at the top of the screen——

"The Wumeng Mountains are connected to ___, and the Chinese are changing the mountains!"

The master is the [Planetary Research Institute] that they are familiar with.

Knowing that this grandma’s videos are always well-made, the Zhu family immediately started watching them with great anticipation.

"It's a leg!"

The sentence and picture at the beginning of the video scared Lao Zhu and his family. For someone like Lao Zhu who had seen the dark side of the chaotic world at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he thought it was a human leg.

When the video revealed the full appearance of the leg, it was discovered that it was a pork ham.

Then the scene changed, and a man was sitting among many hanging hams, holding the ham and playing it like a pipa.

Looking at the label on the picture, it is "Xuanwei Ham".

"When it comes here, it will become boiled ham, steamed potatoes with ham, ham and mushroom soup, Yunnan ham mooncakes, and fried ham with dried peppers."

"This is a drop of water. When it arrives here, it will ride the wind and waves with the momentum of its source and become China's second largest river - the Pearl River!"

"This is a flower. When it comes here, it will be transformed into rapeseed oil, rapeseed honey... All of this is closely related to a grand plan, which is to 'explosively transform Wuwumeng Mountain'!"

As the video continues, shots of things that were originally ordinary but became extremely beautiful and attractive through special effects continue to appear in front of everyone, accompanied by the woman's commentary.

After the opening credits were over, everyone realized that these scenes were all from Qujing, Yunnan, and from the Wumeng Mountains on the border of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces.

The video then plays a distant mountain song as background music, presenting the Wumeng Mountains in a three-dimensional image, followed by a bird's-eye view of the mountains. Just as Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma had seen in the song video, the mountains are shrouded in mist, creating an ethereal scene that seems unearthly.

"If we want to transform it, where is the first step?" "If you put China's tallest building in this canyon, and stand on its top floor, you will see something like this."

The video first shows a deep ravine of several hundred meters, and then a close-up shot spirals up from the bottom of a moving skyscraper, quickly reaches the top of the building, and shows a bridge flying over the ravine.

At the same time, an explanatory text appeared next to it - Xuanwei, Beipanjiang Bridge!
Speaking of which, the Zhu family had seen this bridge more than once in the video played by Liu Kuan. It was obviously a building that China was proud of in later generations.

It is also a building that makes the Zhu family marvel every time they see it, because compared with the cross-river bridge that "fell" into the Ming Dynasty, this Beipanjiang Bridge undoubtedly has more "fairy-like atmosphere".

They had never seen it so clearly as they did this time.

Among the peaks shrouded in clouds, the blue and white bridge bases are like towers built on the peaks by immortals with great magic power. The red bridge is like a straight ribbon, crossing the deep ravine and connecting the peaks under the pull of countless "precious threads".

"Welcome to the world's tallest bridge - Beipanjiang Bridge!"

"Since its completion and opening to traffic in 2016, it has dominated the world's bridge rankings for eight years at a height of 565 meters."

"The Nizhu River beneath the bridge cuts through the Wumeng Mountains, carving out this over 500-meter-deep canyon and creating a treasure trove for countless extreme sports enthusiasts..."

After the introduction of the Beipanjiang Bridge, the video showed several shots that the Zhu family found incredible and even difficult to understand.

I saw someone jumping down from the top of the mountain, from the edge of a deep ravine, carrying a bag on his back, amid the cheers of many people around him!

Zhu Yunhuan, who was sitting behind Zhu Xiongying, couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my God, is this guy trying to kill himself?!"

Old Zhu was wondering if those people behind him were enemies, forcing this man to jump off the cliff to avoid being captured.

But looking at the expressions of this person and the people around him, they don’t look alike?
Just when Lao Zhu was puzzled, he saw the video camera swooping down with the man, and it felt like he was jumping off a cliff. Although Lao Zhu and his family had watched many videos, this was the first time they had seen such a shot.

For a moment, the concubines, princesses and others behind him couldn't help but scream or cover their mouths, as if they couldn't bear to see the tragic scene of the man falling off the cliff and turning into a pool of meat.

However, immediately afterwards, they saw the man pull on the backpack, and an "umbrella" floated out!

parachute?

Zhu Xiongying and others had heard Liu Kuan talk about the princes and grandchildren of the emperor who had various "flying equipment" in later generations, and this term popped up in their minds.

But before this, Liu Kuan only said that people in later generations would parachute from airplanes, but he did not mention that they could parachute from such a dangerous cliff - what if they hit the cliff of a mountain?
Skydiving is not enough. The footage then shows scenes of rock climbing, wing flying, pole jumping, diving and other extremely thrilling sports, all from a first-person perspective.

The Zhu family was completely shocked.

But then, the picture changed again, and the quality of the picture was obviously much worse. It was a scene of children from later generations with schoolbags on their backs, standing at the bottom of the cliff and looking up. Then they climbed the cliff with ropes, or slid to the other side through simple rope bridges.

"But this height difference of over 500 meters is also the height that children here have to climb. In the past, if they wanted to go to school, they had to use their hands and feet to climb up, or take the risk of crossing deep ravines using simple rope bridges."

“But now everything has changed…”

The video then introduces how, in addition to the construction of the Beipanjiang Bridge, later generations also built elevators to facilitate going up and down the deep ravine, as well as flying cable cars that were safe enough to cross the deep ravine. They also built roads, railways and even high-speed railways in the mountainous areas of Qujing, such as the Wumeng Mountains!
"This reform project is not just about improving the education of a mountain village, but also about changing the fate of more than six million people in Qujing!"

"Since then, Wumeng Mountain is no longer an insurmountable barrier – today, if you're in the prosperous Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the vegetables on your table might come from Qujing."

"Qujing's products have long since broken through the mountains—over 10,000 tons of vegetables, fruits, and melons are shipped out from here every day and delivered to the Greater Bay Area and even more distant places like Beijing and Shanghai..."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and others had long known about the development of transportation and logistics in later generations, they were still surprised to hear that vegetables from Qujing, surrounded by mountains in the southwest, could be eaten in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and other places.

They were even more shocked by the rapid development of Qujing brought about by its convenient transportation.

Then, the video content took a turn and talked about the development history of Qujing.

First, it explains that the environment of Qujing with its towering cliffs, winding rivers and numerous waterfalls is caused by the special carbonate geology.

As early as more than two thousand years ago, our ancestors began to continuously transform this mountainous area through various means they knew.

Many rivers converge into the Pearl River, which flows into the sea at eight gates, making it a powerful force; there are also roads cut through mountains, terraced fields in dams, and so on.

Although the Zhu family did not know much about photography, they could clearly feel that the camerawork of this video was of a higher standard than before. In addition, since it talked about all kinds of "strange things", the Zhu family was stunned for a moment, like a badger eating melon.

But they didn't expect that they would get to eat the "melon" of the Ming Dynasty in the middle.

In the video, an old copper coin is thrown up and down.

"It appears to be just an ordinary copper coin, the Jiajing Tongbao. But in fact, its diameter is over half a meter, making it the largest ancient copper coin in the world!"

In the video, there is a huge copper coin displayed under the light like a treasure, mysterious and amazing.

"It was cast during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and is a symbol of Qujing as the Copper Capital of Southern China. During the Qing Dynasty, the copper industry in Qujing Huize reached its peak, accounting for over 60% of the country's output!"

Huize?

Both Old Zhu and Zhu Biao instantly remembered this place name. (End of this chapter)