Bringing the Railway to Daming

As usual, everyone ate first and then watched the movie.

Li Wenzhong, Xu Da, Tang He, and Lan Yu were all summoned by Zhu De, but Mu Ying was not present this year.

The Ming Dynasty was already making moves in the Indochina Peninsula. As a general guarding the southwest, Mu Ying had many things to do during the New Year, so he was unable to return to the capital.

On the contrary, Lan Yu, although he was scheduled to participate in the war to retake Annam, has not yet taken office, which is why he had time to attend this movie screening banquet.

During the meal, Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao inevitably talked about some national affairs with everyone.

In the past year, the Ming Dynasty has not launched any major wars on the borders. Most of the time has been spent sorting out internal affairs, or rather, carrying out civil administration.

Firstly, when Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan went to Suzhou for sightseeing in the spring, they discovered that the local officials at the lower and middle levels were clearly corrupt. As a result, they launched a nationwide campaign to rectify officialdom and also carried out a crackdown on organized crime.

Secondly, it is necessary to deepen educational reform.

For example, a six-year compulsory education system was piloted in Zhili, along with a three-year compulsory education system for girls—previously, the Ming Dynasty did not mandate that girls attend school.

For example, in other provinces of the Ming Dynasty, the importance of publicity and education was emphasized, and people were guided and encouraged to send their children to school.

For example, strengthening the construction of literacy classes for adults in the private sector to further improve the literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty, and even launching literacy campaigns in various places.

Thirdly, we will continue to invest heavily in basic transportation infrastructure.

For example, under Liu Kuan's guidance, new railways were built step by step; and, following Liu Kuan's suggestion at last year's movie banquet, more official roads were built in the southwest region—the southwest is mountainous, and road construction often requires cutting through mountains, which often requires a huge amount of manpower and resources when the use of gunpowder is not yet mature.

However, the technology of gunpowder blasting in the Ming Dynasty has also improved, making it sufficient to open up mountains and build roads, which can be said to have brought great convenience to the construction of official roads in the southwest region.

Fourthly, there was the routine disaster relief and water conservancy facility construction.

The Ming Dynasty was too vast; with such a large territory, almost every year one or even several major natural disasters would occur. As for minor natural disasters, they happened even more frequently.

Therefore, disaster relief has now become a routine task for the Censorate of the Ming Dynasty, and it has even established a special office to supervise disaster relief.

As for domestic affairs, only Liu Kuan and Xu Da could talk to Zhu De and Zhu Biao. Li Wenzhong would occasionally say a few words, while Tang He and Lan Yu did not participate at all—these two were not interested in domestic affairs.

As for military matters, the biggest military action of the Ming Dynasty last year was probably the formal establishment of a vassal state in Europe by Prince Zhu Gui.

“A few days ago, the thirteenth brother telegraphed us, saying that almost all French people believe in the religion of Quran, and that Quran has a great influence among the people, surpassing Taoism and Buddhism here, and even comparable to the influence of Confucianism in the past.”

“If the Kingdom of Dai does not accept the religion of Qutan, or even allows the religion of Qutan to exist as the Kingdom of France did in the past, it will be difficult to win the hearts of the French people.”

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, everyone fell into deep thought and remained silent.

Only Lan Yu blurted out, "Isn't His Highness the Prince of Dai mistaken? He's going to Europe to establish a vassal state and expand overseas for our Great Ming, not to become king for the French. Why insist on winning the hearts and minds of the French?"

"In my opinion, the Prince of Dai should directly order the expulsion of the Ketu sect members within the territory of Dai, and carry out a 'King of Dai destroys Ketu' to minimize the influence of the sect on the people of Dai."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang said speechlessly, "Isn't this just like asking us to ban Confucianism when it was still flourishing?"

"If the thirteenth prince really does as you say, I'm afraid the French in the Dai territory will rise up in rebellion in less than two months. Even if the thirteenth prince can suppress it, the Dai territory will probably be severely weakened and its population will be drastically reduced."

What use is a large territory if there are no people?

Lan Yu chuckled and said, "I just think it's more straightforward this way."

At this point, Liu Kuan said, "I have heard that the Prince of Dai recruited Taoist priests and monks in the Ming Dynasty before the new year. He probably wanted to use Buddhism and Taoism to assist Confucianism and gradually eliminate the influence of the Jidu religion among the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed heartily, "Liu Kuan, you truly are the thirteenth prince's teacher! You guessed it right away—the thirteenth prince is indeed planning to do that." "By the way," he continued, "in your opinion, would Europeans be interested in our Taoism and Buddhism? If Taoism and Buddhism were to enter Europe, could they compete with the Church of Jesus?"

Liu Kuan said, “Your Majesty, Quechua has a long history in Europe, dating back to the Western Han Dynasty, which is a thousand years ago.”

"Although Buddhism and Taoism both have a history of over a thousand years, they originated in China rather than Europe, and they often experience some culture shock when they first enter Europe. Even with policy support, they may not be able to gain many followers, and it would be difficult for them to compete with Christianity."

"However, if the two religions only play a supporting role to Confucianism, Dai Fan's persistence over a few years should be able to eliminate some of the influence of the Ketu religion—the longer it goes on, the more obvious the effect will be."

At this moment, Li Wenzhong couldn't help but ask, "Marquis of Jiangning, what kind of sect is this Jidu sect? How does it differ from Buddhism and Taoism?"

Liu Kuandao said, "I don't know much about the Ketu religion. I only know that it is more xenophobic than Buddhism and Taoism, and it is used to interfering in national politics."

"Historically, the Ketu Church sent priests, who were equivalent to ordained professional Taoist priests and monks, to spread their faith around the world along with European colonists."

“Some small countries in Southeast Asia used to be Buddhist, then converted to Brahmanism, and after the European colonists invaded, they converted to Ketu.”

"Even in the late Ming Dynasty in the original history, the religion of Ketu was introduced into China. They attracted the gentry and landlords to join by using some Western culture and knowledge, and attracted the poor people to join by giving them money and food. In the end, they turned these people into believers of Ketu."

"Because the Ketu religion emphasizes monogamy, meaning that men are not allowed to take concubines, there was a gentry in the Ming Dynasty who was a devout believer in the Ketu religion. He divorced his concubine who had been with him for many years and had given birth to his son to continue his bloodline, causing the concubine to commit suicide out of shame."

"What he didn't know was that although Europeans who practiced Catholicism adhered to monogamy, many nobles and wealthy merchants kept mistresses, that is, extramarital affairs, which were actually similar to concubines here, except that they didn't even have the status of concubines."

At this point, Liu Kuan couldn't help but shake his head with a sigh.

People like Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao, who already had some understanding of Europe and Ketuism, were fine. But Li Wenzhong, Lan Yu, and others who were learning about Ketuism for the first time couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment. They couldn't understand why such a religion could have spread and become so deeply rooted in Europe for thousands of years.

They couldn't understand how, in the late Ming Dynasty, someone could have believed in such a religion as the Jidu religion and even divorced his concubine.

It's simply unreasonable.

Next, the group discussed other matters concerning Europe and Quechua before ending the conversation.

The luncheon lasted for about an hour. Afterward, everyone left the table, and Empress Lü instructed the palace servants to clear away the dishes and rearrange the tables and chairs.

After the "home theater" was set up, Lao Zhu led everyone to take their seats in order.

Liu Kuan then pulled up the prepared music video collection—just like last year, he selected six songs that he had played before.

In any case, the songs and videos were only for the enjoyment of Emperor Zhu and Emperor Zhu Biao, and were of no use to their governance of the Ming Dynasty. Even if they were played repeatedly, they would not say anything.

In fact, even when these song videos are replayed, Old Zhu's family listens to and watches them with great interest.

As for Tang He, Lan Yu, and others who watch less, they wish they could just crawl into their tablet screens.

Finally, after half an hour of song videos, it was time to play the video.

Without Lao Zhu asking, Liu Kuan pulled up the first video he had prepared and began to introduce it.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this first video is a science fiction novel recreated by AI in later generations. The author of this novel is the same person as the author of 'The Wandering Earth,' who can be considered a master of science fiction in China in later generations."

Old Zhu, Zhu Biao, and even Zhu Xiong Ying, who had seen the first two parts of "The Wandering Earth," perked up upon hearing this and showed anticipation for the next video.

Although others had not read "The Wandering Earth," they were curious about the "articles" written by later science fiction masters.

Amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, Liu Kuan placed the tablet down, and the video's title appeared before them. (End of Chapter)