Bringing the Railway to Daming

After listening to Liu Kuan's words, everyone fell into deep thought again.

After a moment, Zhu Biao said, "I originally thought that our Great Ming Dynasty had developed enough overseas territories, but now it seems that if we look at it from the perspective of hundreds or even thousands of years from now, it may not be enough."

"In this prosperous era, the Ming Dynasty has not only enjoyed internal peace in recent years, but the living standards of its people have also improved year by year, and the population has grown rapidly. According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Revenue last year, the population has exceeded 90 million, and it will probably break 100 million in a few years!"

"If such peace and prosperity last for three hundred years, and the country does not restrain population growth, I'm afraid the total population of the Ming Dynasty may reach four or five hundred million, or even more."

"To feed such a large population and even enable people to live a relatively good life, a lot of territory and resources are indeed needed."

Liu Kuan nodded, "Your Majesty is right, that is indeed the truth. Moreover, vast overseas territories and resources are the foundation of a country."

"With a deep enough foundation, even if the country declines in the future, it can still remain strong for a long time."

"For example, Britain in history, as the last country to have the title of 'the empire on which the sun never sets,' once colonized the world and plundered countless riches."

"Therefore, although Britain gradually weakened after World War II, it was still one of the world's top-ranking countries in terms of strength before I came to the Ming Dynasty, which was 60 years after World War II."

"Furthermore, due to its history of global colonization, British culture has a wide influence around the world. For example, many places that have become independent countries still use English as their official language, and their customs, culture, and beliefs have been accepted by people in many other places."

“Until I came to the Ming Dynasty, English was still the most widely used language in the world, and it could even be said to be a foreign language that every country had to learn.”

Upon hearing this, Lan Yu couldn't help but ask, "The England that Marquis Jiangning mentioned should be the Kingdom of England today, right? Looking at the map, this island nation is not even as big as the former Japan, yet it has had such a great influence in history?"

Liu Kuandao said: "The full name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in later generations is the present-day England, Scotland and Ireland. Its mainland is not large, but through the Age of Exploration, it has occupied vast overseas territories around the world over several centuries."

“As in later North America, it was originally occupied by Britain and France, with Britain as the main force. Although European countries such as Spain and Portugal also participated, their power was not as strong as that of Britain and France.”

"However, later, British immigrants in North America had a huge conflict of interest with their homeland, and thus became independent as the United States of America."

"The Indian subcontinent, which is now known today, was historically a British colony and was called the jewel in the crown of the British Queen."

"Even, Britain once wanted to turn China, that is, the Qing Dynasty after the Ming Dynasty, into its colony, just like India at that time. It can be said that it was half successful."

"But because China is different from India, and because the First and Second World Wars broke out one after another, the evil plan of European powers such as Britain and France to partition China failed."

Xu Da, Tang He, Lan Yu, and Mu Ying were all hearing about this for the first time and found it hard to believe.

Xu Da frowned and said, "These Western barbarians actually wanted to partition China, and they've even succeeded halfway? Are they really that treacherous?"

Tang Heze said, "These barbarians deserve a severe beating! No, they should be exterminated! Only in this way can we prevent future troubles!"

Lan Yu then stood up and clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I request to lead troops to Europe, first to help the Prince of Dai and several other vassal kings destroy France, and then to completely destroy England, Ireland and other countries to eliminate future troubles!"

Mu Ying then rose and clasped his hands in a fist salute, "Your subject is also willing to lead troops there!"

Liu Kuan was shocked and thought to himself: Good heavens, if Lan Yu and Mu Ying really lead 100,000 Ming troops to Europe and sweep across the countries, the Europeans will probably cry out again that "the Scourge of God" has arrived.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and pressed his hands down, saying, "Alright, everyone sit down—what Liu Kuan said is all based on historical events. Why get so agitated? Our Ming Dynasty is completely different from what it was in history. Our national strength is far greater, and our territory is far larger than that of the Han and Tang dynasties. How could we allow historical events to repeat themselves?"

"Besides, aren't the Prince of Dai and his people currently trying to establish vassal states in Europe? Europe is full of small countries. For example, the Kingdom of France is lucky if it can field 200,000 regular troops. Other countries are even more inadequate. The Prince of Dai and his people are enough to handle things. Why does the court need to send troops directly?"

In fact, Lan Yu and Mu Ying were both moved by their emotions and impulsively stood up to volunteer.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's advice, they all calmed down.

But as Zhu Yuanzhang said, the Ming Dynasty will never allow history to repeat itself.

Besides, what were the Prince of Dai and his men doing in Europe establishing vassal states? They couldn't possibly be establishing vassal states there too, could they?
Then Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Through this video, we can see that although our Great Ming is strong and has a vast territory, we still have a long way to go. Even if there is no more land on Earth for us to explore, our Great Ming can follow the example of later generations and venture into outer space to explore the moon and Mars."

"Therefore, you few, as top military generals and dukes of the Ming Dynasty, not only must you not be complacent, but you must also educate future generations not to rest on your laurels and live off your achievements." "You must let them know that the universe is vast, the world is boundless, and there is much to be done!"

Xu Da, Tang He, Lan Yu, and Mu Ying immediately stood up, clasped their hands in greeting, and said, "Your Majesty, we will remember your teachings!"

Seeing that all four looked sincere, including Lan Yu, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in satisfaction and said, "Alright, you can discuss the matter in the video later—Liu Kuan, play the next video."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan agreed, picked up his tablet, and pulled up the second video he had prepared.

Before the video even started playing, Zhu Yuanzhang and the others noticed the main and subtitles on the video's cover.

The main title is: The larger the territory, the more marginalized it becomes.

The subtitle is: The economic predicament behind Russia's three-hundred-year expansion.

Those who had some understanding of later history, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, would immediately think of Russia, China's neighbor in the north that occupied vast territories in later history, upon seeing this title.

I guessed this video must be about Russia.

Xu Da, Tang He, and others were somewhat confused, thinking: How can a larger territory become more marginalized? Could it be that the Marquis of Jiangning is trying to remind the court of something? This contradicts his previous statement that the country needs to occupy vast overseas territories to accumulate strength.

Then the video started, and they realized there was another official title.

"The national curse behind the Goose-Uzbekistan conflict: Why can't Russia, which is twice the size of China, ever get rich?"

At the beginning of the video, the host first talked about the origin of Russia, which made Xu Da and others who originally knew nothing about Russia understand what kind of country Russia was in later generations.

"The reason why Russia embarked on the path of 'exchanging geopolitical breakthroughs for economic benefits' was initially due to the pressure from agriculture."

"In 882 AD, in order to control the key trade route from Byzantium to Northern Europe, Rurik, the leader of the eastern branch of the Vikings, established a state centered on Kiev—Kievan Rus'."

"It is the common origin of today's Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Therefore, Russia is actually a country founded by the Nordic people."

"But these Vikings who went south and their families back home encountered the same problem: the environment was too harsh, which prevented them from producing enough food."

"Therefore, the main source of revenue for Kievan Rus' at that time was actually the profits and taxes from the trade in furs, honey, spices, silk and other goods."

“If that’s not enough, then we can learn from our Viking ancestors and go to the conquered tribes to plunder them, and call it ‘traveling around to collect tribute.’”

Upon seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and many others couldn't help but smile, thinking: Isn't this similar to the Northern Wei, Liao, and Jin dynasties established by the northern nomadic peoples of China in the past?
Maybe even worse.

But think about it, Europe was a barbaric land, and Russia's ancestors were Vikings from Northern Europe, so they must have been even more barbaric. It's not surprising that they used "tribute collection by tours" as a source of national revenue.

The old woman continued, "That's not surprising—agriculture is mainly dependent on latitude. Higher latitude areas are not suitable for agriculture because the higher the latitude, the worse the sunlight, accumulated temperature, and soil fertility."

"Some people say that Western Europe is also at a high latitude, but it benefits from the Atlantic Ocean current, so it is relatively warm, and agriculture can thrive there."

"But by the time the Atlantic Current reaches Ukraine, it's basically at its weakest point. Not only are agricultural yields low, but high-latitude regions also have another important problem: they are very susceptible to natural disasters."

"For example, cold waves, frost damage, and snow disasters can wipe out an entire nation in one major disaster. Russia experienced this once in history, and it even led to a change of dynasty."

"On February 19, 1600, a volcano in southern Peru suddenly erupted on a tremendous scale, and the sound could be heard as far away as Lima, a thousand kilometers away."

"The most critical issue is that this eruption continued into March, spewing tens of millions of tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere, severely impacting sunlight..." (End of Chapter)