Bringing the Railway to Daming

Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Xia Yuanji and others also looked over, wanting to know if Liu Kuan had any good ideas.

Liu Kuan said: "Now that we know how the problem arose, we can naturally solve it in a targeted manner."

"First, we will have the relevant authorities strengthen the review of the qualifications of private individuals to purchase steam engines, and appropriately reduce the sales of various steam engines, especially textile and loom machines."

"This will regulate the textile industry, reduce competition within the Ming Dynasty textile industry, and alleviate problems such as falling cloth prices and overstocking."

"Secondly, we must find ways to boost the people's purchasing power to increase domestic demand for cloth. In my humble opinion, the Ming Dynasty has only temporarily solved the people's food problem."

"I say temporary because population growth takes time. Before the population reaches the upper limit of Ming Dynasty's grain production, there won't be any major problems with food."

"What about clothing? Do the people of the Ming Dynasty really need more cloth to make clothes these days? Last month, when I was inspecting a research institute outside the city, I passed through a village. I remember that most of the villagers were wearing coarse cotton clothes, and many of them were old clothes with patches on them."

"If this is the case in the capital, let alone other places like Shaanxi, Gansu, Guizhou, and Guangxi, which are remote and impoverished."

"I have heard that in the past, due to a lack of clothing at home, some fathers, sons, and brothers would share a single set of clothes. If one person went out to work, the others would have to lie down at home to hide. In some places, people were worried that their clothes would be damaged while doing farm work, so they would sleep during the day and go to work naked at night."

"The Ming Dynasty has indeed developed better in recent years, but have the things I just described really disappeared? I'm afraid not."

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Xu Da, Zhan Hui and others all fell into deep thought.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, and Tang He were all from impoverished families. Even if they weren't the poorest, they understood the conditions of the lower classes when they were extremely poor. Therefore, they knew very well that although it was the Ming Dynasty, not the Yuan Dynasty, there were definitely still people as poor as Liu Kuan described.

Liu Kuan continued, "If the villagers in the suburbs of Beijing were willing to buy a few nice clothes for daily wear, and if the poor people in remote and impoverished areas had the money to buy one or even several clothes for their entire family, how much cloth would the people of the whole country need in a year?"

"At that time, even if there were twice as many government-run and private textile mills in the Ming Dynasty as there are today, they might still be able to sell all the cloth they produce."

"To achieve this, the imperial court needs to find a way to enrich the impoverished people in remote areas, and make ordinary people in places like Yingtian, Suzhou, and Hangzhou even more prosperous."

"Of course, at the same time, we should also try to guide customs and ideas so that people are willing to buy cloth and wear new clothes."

"Well said!" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but slap the table in praise. "Our Great Ming now has a population of over 80 million (due to the annexation of Srivijaya and the secession of some of Majapahit's population). As long as the people are prosperous, why worry about a shortage of people buying cloth?"

Although Zhan Hui had been persuaded by Liu Kuan's words, he couldn't help but remind him, "Your Majesty, making the people prosperous has been what the imperial court and local governments have been doing for years. Although Ming Dynasty science and technology have made great achievements and various industries are developing rapidly, it is still difficult to make tens of millions of people prosperous."

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang indeed remembered the video that Liu Kuan played on the second day of the Chinese New Year, which showed that China had lifted more than 2 million people out of poverty in later generations.

He said unhappily, "So you're just not going to do it when it's difficult? If that's the case, why does the court have so many officials? Just to let them ride on the people's heads and act like masters?!"

Zhan Hui didn't dare to say anything more.

He is the Minister of Personnel, responsible for selecting and training officials. If all the officials of the Ming Dynasty are incompetent, it is mostly his fault as the Minister of Personnel - the blame is too big for him to bear.

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted before looking at Liu Kuan. "Go on, tell me, besides the two points you just mentioned, what else do you want to do?"

Liu Kuan said, "In addition to boosting domestic demand, we can also explore overseas markets. As far as I know, our Ming Dynasty sells a lot of cloth overseas every year, but demand still exceeds supply. Why has there been a backlog of goods in the past two years?"

"There are two main reasons for this," Zhu Biao continued. "First, both land and sea transportation have limited cargo capacity. Second, the Golden Horde, Timur, the Ottoman Empire, and other countries control the trade routes, making it difficult for us to sell large quantities of goods to Europe."

Liu Kuan had a pretty good understanding of this information, so he asked, "Your Highness, what are the routes through which Ming Dynasty goods are sold to Europe now? What are the general links?"

Zhu Biao ordered the palace servants to bring a large screen with a map of the Asian, European and African continents on it, and began to explain based on the map.

"There are two main trade routes: sea and land. The land route goes through the Western Regions, past the Golden Horde and Timurid Empire, into Eastern Europe and Western Asia, and then into Western Europe."

"Because this trade route is entirely land-based and requires passing through mountainous terrain and deserts, only horse and camel caravans can be used. Even vehicles can only be used for a small part of the journey."

"So, although there are many merchants traveling overland, the amount of goods transported is not very large, and a round trip takes quite a long time."

"The sea route goes from Suzhou and Songjiang, Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and other places, through the South China Sea to India."

"Before the Ming Dynasty opened its seas, Ming merchant ships could only reach the large islands of Sumudara and Java in the South Seas, and very few could reach India." "After reaching India, Chinese goods had to continue along the coastal route to the southern coast of what was once Persia, and then enter Persia before being brought to Europe by Persian merchants."

"In fact, even the maritime trade route from Persia to Southeast Asia was previously controlled by Persian merchants. Even on the route from Southeast Asia to Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou, etc., there were many Persian merchants."

"However, since the Ming Dynasty opened the seas, the navy has spread its power throughout the world and intimidated the evildoers. This situation has changed."

"Today, from the coastal ports of our Ming Dynasty to the South Seas and then to the east coast of India, the main traffic is from our Ming Dynasty merchants. Only the sea route from the west coast of India to Persia, or to West Asia and North Africa, is still dominated by Persian merchants."

"As the Timurid Empire grew, most of the former Persian territory came under its control, including the land and sea trade routes."

"In recent years, relations between the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire have deteriorated. Furthermore, Ming merchants have been sending their goods to India and the Western Regions, reducing the profits of Persian merchants. Therefore, the trade routes have actually shrunk compared to before."

Liu Kuan nodded, finally figuring out what was going on with the two Silk Roads by sea and land.

He thought for a moment and said, "That is to say, if we want to sell our products in the Ming Dynasty to Europe now, we almost have to go through the Timurid Empire?"

Zhu Biao smiled bitterly, "Let alone our Ming Dynasty. I've looked through relevant ancient books and found that almost from the time the Silk Road was opened up by sea and land, it has been difficult to bypass Persian merchants."

Liu Kuan looked at the huge map of Asia, Africa and Europe on the screen, and his eyes soon fell on West Asia and Northeast Africa.

He then smiled and said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, it was indeed difficult for us to bypass Persian merchants in the past, but that may no longer be the case. The Jin Clan and the Xihai Guard have established a firm foothold in Northeast Africa and West Asia. We can completely use them to sell Ming Dynasty goods to Southern Europe and even Western Europe!"

As he was speaking, Liu Kuan came to the map.

"As long as we can protect the Ming Dynasty's merchant fleet in the Indian Ocean, we can control the entire Maritime Silk Road. We won't have to let Persian merchants profit from the price difference, and we won't have to be strangled by the Timurid Empire."

Zhu Biao said, "If that's the case, I'm afraid a war between the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire is inevitable. Furthermore, if the Jin Clan and the Xihai Guard want to deliver goods to Southern Europe or even Western Europe, I'm afraid they'll also need sufficient military protection to do so, right?"

Xu Da said at this time, "The Timurid Empire is far away in Central Asia. If we were to send troops from the Western Regions to fight them, the logistical pressure would be enormous."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Then we won't fight them on land. We only need to defeat them at sea and cripple Timur's navy."

"As for the Jin Clan and the Xihai Guard—the Third Brother has always had the ambition to lead his troops to Europe. I'm sure his army will be fully trained by next year."

"The imperial court will expand the Xihai Guard into the Xihai Dusi and increase the number of troops. Protecting the trade routes to Europe will not be a problem."

"If that doesn't work, we can have the Jin Clan and the Xihai Commandery send troops together to destroy a few European countries and make an example of them!"

Domineering!

Liu Kuan gave Lao Zhu a thumbs up in his heart.

Destroy a few European countries to make an example of them. Only Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, is qualified to say this in today's world.

On the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, looked around at the people in the hall, and said, "If you have no other suggestions, this matter is settled."

Xu Da, Tang He and the others exchanged glances, then all bowed and said, "We have no objection!"

···
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Northeast Africa, the capital of the State of Jin, Jinyang (Cairo).

Zhu Gang still lived in the original Mamluk palace, but he redecorated its interior to give it some Han style.

In the past two years, Zhu Gang has lived the life of the old Zhu, working day and night to govern the country.

That day, he was processing memorials in the Qinzheng Hall when he saw Crown Prince Zhu Jihui walk in with a document and a happy look on his face.

"Father, an important telegram has arrived from the capital!" (End of this chapter)