Bringing the Railway to Daming

Zhu Yuanzhang simply wanted to eliminate any threats to the Ming Dynasty, without rejecting Zhu Biao's idea—he even felt that Zhu Biao's approach was indeed more in line with the current state of the Ming Dynasty.

Lan Yu actually agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang's approach, but he also didn't refute Zhu Biao's words—refute the emperor in the early Ming Dynasty? That's something only a fool would do, and Lan Yu wasn't a fool.

Lan Yu said, "If we can defeat Vietnam, I request to lead the troops into battle!"

Zhu Biao laughed and said, "Don't worry, Duke of Liang, if we send troops to Vietnam, we'll definitely need your generals."

"Hahaha, then I'll be waiting—Japan Island is a nice place, but if you stay there too long, you'll get so bored that your whole body aches."

Mu Ying did not volunteer for the position. Although he was stationed in the southwest, he was always facing the Burma side. Most of the preparations he made were for the court to take over the whole of Burma in the future, so he did not compete with Lan Yu for the position of commander-in-chief.

Of course, he will definitely listen to how the court arranges things, and he is willing to assist Lan Yu if asked to.

That concludes our discussion of the Zhu family's plans for the Indochina Peninsula. After all, once Annam fell, other countries would be unable to stop the Ming army. Some sensible countries might even request to be incorporated into the Ming, thus avoiding war and preserving some of their wealth.

At that time, it will be a natural progression for the Ming Dynasty to take over the entire Indochina Peninsula.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Liu Kuan, are you planning to make a fourth video?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Liu Kuan picked up the tablet and brought up the fourth video.

He explained, "This video was taken by a British woman who traveled to China in later years. It mainly shows that China had already surpassed foreign countries in terms of urban construction and technology at that time."

Upon hearing that the video was about future cities and technology, not only were Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Xiong Ying very interested, but so were Xu Da, Tang He, Mu Ying, and Lan Yu.

Although they had seen some scenes of the future in the previous videos, they were like fleeting glimpses, barely perceptible.

However, they were extremely curious about the future where Liu Kuan originally lived, especially Xu Da, Lan Yu, and other ministers from other clans.

After Liu Kuan put the tablet down, he casually touched the screen to play the game.

At the beginning of the video, a foreign guy with blond hair got off the plane and entered Shenzhen International Airport, and then Liu Kuan's voice came on.

Unfortunately, Liu Kuan downloaded this video more than ten years ago. Although it has Chinese subtitles, it only has the uploader's English narration. Although most people present can understand simplified Chinese characters, there are definitely some characters they can't understand, not to mention that people sitting in the middle and back rows can't see the words on the tablet at all.

Therefore, Liu Kuan had to put in a lot of effort to add Chinese narration when editing the video.

“Look at this airport, it’s incredible. Look at that screen—it’s probably the clearest screen I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Following the direction the foreign guy pointed, everyone saw the extremely wide "roof" of Shenzhen Airport filled with countless "lights," and the borderless monitors that seemed to float in mid-air!

People like Lao Zhu, who were familiar with many terms from later generations, immediately thought of one word—sci-fi feel.

Young people, especially Zhu Xiong Ying, couldn't help but get excited by the futuristic feel of the airport in the video.

Tang He, Lan Yu, and others were completely stunned—they had thought that the cross-river bridges and railways from later generations were impressive enough, but they never expected that this airport from later generations would be so strange yet so awe-inspiring.

In the video, the foreign guy first strolled out of Shenzhen Airport in a sightseeing manner. After some forward-looking, quick shots, he began to introduce some basic information about Shenzhen and its famous buildings and attractions.

"Pengcheng has transformed from an ordinary fishing village into a huge and futuristic metropolis, setting a model in the history of modern urban development."

"This evolution has happened slowly over the past few decades, thanks to visionary policies, investment, technological innovation, and the well-known 'China speed'."

"Today, Shenzhen is a megacity with a population of 1700 million and one of the cities with the highest GDP in China."

"It is known for its futuristic city skyline, including its financial center—one of the world's top-ranked buildings."

"As a leader in 5G technology, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles, Shenzhen continues to shape the future of China's economy..."

As the foreign guy was explaining these things, the video showed skyscrapers that seemed to pierce the sky, as well as other equally tall buildings around them, and various scenes involving future technology.

Putting aside the technological aspects of later generations, the mere statement that "Pengcheng is a supercity with a population of 1700 million" was enough to shock Xu Da, Mu Ying, and others who were learning this information for the first time. Before this, they could never have imagined that a city could have a population of ten or twenty million!
Even now, they can hardly imagine what that scene would be like.

In particular, Xu Da and Mu Ying had some experience in governing local areas and knew that a city's population often required a lot of external resources to support it, and the more people there were, the more difficult it would be to provide for them.

Even the capital of the Ming Dynasty today has a population of just over one million.

They could hardly imagine how Shenzhen, a city of 1700 million people, operated and maintained itself.

In the video, the foreign guy begins to tour and introduce some places in Shenzhen, such as Gangxia North Metro Station.

To later generations, this subway station seems like something out of a science fiction movie. To the people of the Ming Dynasty, it was like seeing a strange "fairyland," and they found everything incredible.

From the ceiling to the floor and the walls, the interior seemed unlike anything in the human world to Tang He, Lan Yu, and the others.

Interestingly, during this process, the foreign guy didn't forget to bring out subway videos and photos taken in the UK and the US for comparison, to show that China's infrastructure has surpassed those countries.

Next, the foreign deliveryman demonstrated how he had a drone deliver his food to him in a park in Shenzhen.

The foreign guy first ordered food by scanning a QR code on a machine in the park, and soon a drone delivered his "takeout"—a drink.

This scene once again shocked everyone.

Lan Yu couldn't help but murmur, "So it seems that iron birds in later generations can be used as servants?"

Mu Ying couldn't help but sigh inwardly: the technology of later generations is truly incredible. No wonder the court is now vigorously promoting science, and it has almost replaced Confucianism.

In the video, the foreign guy went to a place that was even more shocking to everyone – the China High-Tech Exhibition held in Shenzhen!

Here, the first thing visitors see are all sorts of intelligent robots, such as those that can manually brew coffee and then create a pattern of the customer's photo on it.

Upon seeing this, even Old Zhu couldn't help but exclaim, "Incredible skill!"

Then there were all sorts of high-end monitors, drones, robot dogs, game consoles and other products, each of which left a deep impression on everyone, even making them obsessed.

Eventually, various humanoid robots even appeared.

Seeing that the robots of later generations were made to look like real people, and that the women were dressed so "revealingly," even Lan Yu couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

The video is not long, only about ten minutes long.

In addition, the various scenes shown inside were too shocking for Lao Zhu and the others, and they were in a state of astonishment. Therefore, everyone felt that the video was over in no time.

After a long while, Lan Yu asked first, "Marquis Jiangning, are the scenes of the future in this video all real?"

Liu Kuan didn't expect Lan Yu to ask this, but still said, "Of course it's true, and these are all scenes from more than ten years ago—nowadays, there should be even more incredible things in later generations."

Lan Yu thought of the lifelike robot woman in the video and couldn't help but ask, "If later generations made robots that looked like real people, wouldn't it be possible to pass for the real thing if they went a step further?"

Liu Kuan laughed and said, "In fact, nowadays, robots can be made to look incredibly realistic if they are willing to do so. Of course, in order to distinguish them from real people, they are generally not made to look that realistic."

At this moment, Mu Ying couldn't help but ask, "In later generations, were robots ever used as soldiers and deployed in the military for warfare?"

Liu Kuandao said, "Of course there are, but they are often not humanoid robots. For example, the drones and robot dogs shown in the video are commonly used weapons of war in later generations."

Using drones and robot dogs as weapons of war?
Xu Da, Tang He, Mu Ying, and Lan Yu were all stunned. They then tried to imagine the war scene and felt a chill run down their spines. They all realized that if the Ming Dynasty were to fight against them, given their future strength, the Ming Dynasty would be powerless to resist!

Zhu Yuanzhang did not want Lan Yu and the others to continue asking about this matter—he had been deeply shocked and despaired by the strength of the new dynasty in the past, and he did not expect that Lan Yu and the others had the same idea.

He immediately changed the subject, asking, "Liu Kuan, the video started by saying that Pengcheng was just a small fishing village decades ago?" (End of Chapter)