Bringing the Railway to Daming

After talking about the development history of Qujing Copper Industry, the video once again mentioned local specialties such as Xuanwei ham, and used special camera shots to make it look mouth-watering.

The video then enters the last section.

"Just like this, for two thousand years, our ancestors have pioneered the four corners of the world, bringing favorable geographical conditions and harmonious people. Now, a 'legion' from the sky will appear. They will bring the right timing and push this transformation to the clouds!"

Then the video screen changed, and a thick sea of ​​clouds like cotton appeared.

"See? This obvious cloud band is the quasi-stationary front."

"Because the highest point of Wumeng Mountain in Qujing is over 4,000 meters above sea level, the cold air mass is exhausted by the time it climbs all the way from Guizhou, but it still has to meet the peak of another warm air mass coming from the southwest."

"Under the stalemate, a very slowly moving interface is formed..."

The video, accompanied by magnificent aerial views and computer special effects, explains the formation of the quasi-stationary front and the completely different climate environments on both sides.

Then it talked about the various wild animals living in Wumeng Mountain and its surrounding areas, as well as Qujing's cultural history, local customs, etc. - although they were all quickly glossed over with a few shots and a few words, the people, objects and scenery in the shots still left a deep impression on the Zhu family.

"Could this be another video aimed at promoting a place and attracting tourists?"

This thought suddenly popped up in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

The video also comes to an end at this point.

"This is the Wumeng Mountain Reconstruction Project in Qujing, Yunnan—it's the tenacity and courage of six million people who have forged a vast new world out of the mountains, defying fate and changing their destiny..."

After the video was finished and the curtain fell, the Zhu family came to their senses.

Zhu Biao was the first to ask, "Son-in-law, why are those people in the video parachuting off a cliff? And that wing-shaped flight thing at the end is too dangerous. What are they trying to do?"

The others also looked over when they heard this, and almost all of them had a puzzled look on their faces, even Old Zhu was no exception.

Liu Kuan knew that someone would ask this question.

He smiled and said, "Your Highness, do you remember what those people called what they did in the video?"

"Extreme sports?"

"That's right." Liu Kuan nodded. "The kind of skydiving in the video is a type of parachuting, called rappelling. There are also wing-flying, rock climbing, and so on. I won't list them all for now."

"As for why they do this, their motives are complex, but the most important one is to seek excitement through this extreme risk-taking behavior, to overcome their own psychological barriers, and to gain a huge sense of pleasure and accomplishment."

???

Having said this, Liu Kuan looked around and found that the Zhu family still looked confused.

Come to think of it, extreme sports are difficult for many people to understand in later generations, let alone in the Ming Dynasty.

Sure enough, Zhu Yuanzhang also spoke up: "Seeking excitement through extreme risky behavior? Don't those people fear death? If they are orphans, it's okay. If they have families, have you ever thought about how sad their parents, wives, and children will be after their death? Who will take care of them?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, please listen to my humble explanation. Extreme sports haven't been around for very long. They can be said to be a category of sports that emerged only after technological advancement and material abundance reached a certain level."

"Even in later generations, many people don't understand these athletes. Globally, they call them 'future sports' – meaning they will remain non-mainstream and niche sports in later generations."

"Let's put it this way: many people in later generations have comfortable living conditions and no longer have much to pursue in terms of material things. Therefore, it's difficult for them to gain much pleasure and sense of accomplishment from material things and normal social activities."

"That's why they choose this adventurous sport to seek excitement, pleasure and a sense of achievement."

"As for whether those people are afraid of death—I'm not an extreme sports enthusiast, but I think everyone is afraid of death. Those people are just more courageous."

"Also, extreme sports have become much less dangerous thanks to the advancements in technology and equipment. Of course, they are still dangerous, and in fact, every year some extreme sports participants die from various causes."

The Zhu family looked at each other, still looking very confused.

Zhu Biao shook his head and said, "Even if you're seeking excitement or surpassing yourself, you shouldn't do something so dangerous. Isn't it better to live a good life?"

Zhu Xiongying asked in confusion, "Material life is so good that you have to risk your life for excitement? People in the future only have one life, right?"

Liu Kuan said, "Some principles cannot be understood to conform to one's behavior - just like there are always some wealthy children who like to do some absurd things, such as indulging in alcohol and sex."

"Don't they know it's wrong to do that? Of course they do, but some people still can't help themselves because that's what brings them happiness."

"Of course, extreme sports are definitely different from indulging in alcohol and sex – they seek to overcome psychological barriers and transcend oneself, while also embodying the beautiful idea of ​​returning to nature, which has certain positive significance."

Zhu Biao wanted to ask more, but Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted him, saying, "That's enough. We don't have to understand the extreme sports of later generations. But the children of our Zhu family can't do that kind of thing anyway."

"Life is given by our parents. Unless it is absolutely necessary, how can we risk it? Liu Kuan, play the next video."

Seeing that Lao Zhu still found it difficult to understand the ideas of extreme athletes, Liu Kuan did not force him - he actually just had a normal understanding and had no intention of doing those dangerous things.

Unless his safety can be guaranteed.

When the second video started, its title also caught the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang and others.

"The Chinese, the gods in charge of farming in the East!" Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a farming family, knew that agriculture had always been the stable foundation of the Ming Dynasty and the most important thing that needed attention. He immediately perked up.

“Who is the best farmer on the planet?”

A question emerged against the backdrop of darkness, and then the answer was given.

"This ten-minute video will show you how the Chinese people have used ten thousand years to change their destiny!"

Another attempt to change one's fate against the will of heaven. People in later generations really love to change one's fate against the will of heaven.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart.

But if you think about it, he is actually a person who refuses to succumb to fate and likes to change his destiny. In other words, there are always many people like him in China.

The video shows the Earth under the starry sky, and then the camera moves downwards to show the land of China in the future. Judging from this beginning, the style of the video is quite similar to that of the [Planetary Research Institute], and it is obviously another excellent work.

"As we delve into the memories of Earth's ancient ancestors, we will witness a devastating flood. How can we escape this devastating flood that sweeps away everything?"

"The answer of the Sumerians, the ancient Babylonians, the Hebrews, and the ancient Greeks was to become the lucky ones chosen by the gods, abandon their homes, board a large ship, and escape for safety."

"Only in China can we find Nüwa refining stones to mend the sky, and Dayu dredging rivers to control floods. The people of this land will never leave everything to fate!"

Liu Kuan once talked in the main hall about the differences between China and other ancient civilizations in their response to the great flood, in order to inform the princes and grandchildren of the uniqueness of Chinese civilization.

These princes and grandchildren told others about this matter, so the Zhu family was not unfamiliar with what was said in the video.

But now I still feel a sense of honor and pride when I hear it.

The Earth reappeared in the video and expanded to the Chinese region, then turned into a three-dimensional picture.

"You ask, how to defy the will of heaven?"

"Looking out, this 9.6 million square kilometer mountainous region stretches 5,500 kilometers from north to south and 5,200 kilometers from east to west. Temperate and subtropical zones account for 72 percent, stretching out in three terraced layers from west to east."

"Thus, snow-capped mountains stretch westward, spring waters flow eastward, winds roam the northern desert, and misty rains blanket the south. The planets and the sun work together to shape the vastness of China, creating one of the most naturally resource-rich countries on this planet..."

The video shows beautiful scenes of mountains and rivers, describing some of China's advantages in geographical environment, but also some of its shortcomings and disadvantages, as well as the many natural disasters that have occurred on this land from ancient times to the present.

"At the same time, this land is plagued by many disasters: floods, droughts, locust plagues, wind disasters, frost disasters, snow disasters, plagues, earthquakes..."

"China was once one of the countries with the highest and most severe natural disaster incidence in the world. From the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Shang Tang to 1937 AD, a period of 3,703 years, there were 5,258 recorded natural disasters!"

"On average, there was a famine every six months, including 1,074 droughts and 1,058 floods..."

Although the video mainly used pictures to show various natural disaster scenes, the exaggerated data still shocked Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiongying and others.

The younger people were, the more surprised they were, because in their memories, disasters had not been so frequent in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the ten years after Liu Kuan's arrival. There were fewer and fewer disasters that could make the court nervous, and naturally there was less talk about them, giving people the feeling that the disasters themselves had become less frequent.

But people like Zhu Xiongying who have sufficient understanding of the government know that it is not that natural disasters have decreased in the past ten years, but that the harm caused by natural disasters has become smaller.

"... Therefore, Western scholars once called ancient China a 'land of famine.'"

"So, how did the Chinese people survive and thrive on this fateful land for generations, defeat numerous rivals, and create the most brilliant and long-lasting agricultural civilization on Earth?"

At this point, the video enters the second section and begins to tell the history of agricultural development in China.

"Twelve thousand years ago, the ancestors of Wannianxianrendong and Diaotonghuan in Jiangxi domesticated wild rice from the swamps into cultivated rice."

"Eight thousand years ago, the ancestors of Xinglonggou in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia, discovered millet from a handful of grass."

"China is undoubtedly one of the three major origins of agricultural civilization. Starting from this, around 4,000 BC, people began to sow millet..."

Watching the video about the origins of various crops in China today, everyone was amazed, from Zhu Yuanzhang to children who had just started reading.

Many of them subconsciously thought that even if the various crops in the Ming Dynasty were not originally there, they must have been passed down for tens of thousands of years.

Unexpectedly, rice, the longest-domesticated crop by our ancestors, has a history of only over 10,000 years, while the others have only a few thousand years. Wheat, the staple food of northern China, was introduced to China from Central Asia only over 2,000 years ago.

However, when people think about the American crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes that were brought back after the Ming Dynasty discovered the American continent, they feel that this is reasonable.

If so many crops were not obtained bit by bit by our ancestors through "fighting" with heaven and earth, how can it be said that they were defying heaven and changing fate?

"Before the Industrial Revolution, China's deep-rooted agricultural civilization represented the pinnacle of agriculture on Earth."

"If you expand time and space, you'll see that for thousands of years, China's grain production per unit area has consistently been higher than Europe's during the same period. At its peak, its total grain production was twenty times that of Europe!"

"Even during the distant Qin Dynasty, per-acre yields were more than six times that of Europe during the same period!"

Seeing this, everyone was proud. (End of this chapter)