Bringing the Railway to Daming

The following content of the video seems to have provided Zhu Yuanzhang and others with the answer to this question.

"It nurtures breathtaking scenery and can be called the central garden of Europe. It fosters civilization and influences the course of European history. To understand European civilization, one must understand what happened in the Alps."

This segment of the video is accompanied by stunning views of the main scenic spots in the European Alps region.

Although Xu Da, Tang He, and others did not think these landscapes were more beautiful than some of the landscapes in the Ming Dynasty, they still couldn't help but mutter: So this is why the land in Europe is so fertile and lush with water and grass. No wonder the Prince of Dai and his men wanted to establish their own vassal states in Europe.

Then, the man narrating the video arrived at the Matterhorn, the highest peak in the Alps.

"Once you cross this snowfield, you'll see the iconic Alpine landscape—a horn soaring into the sky, that's the Matterhorn. Now, let me take you on a climb, and you'll see just how steep it is."

The video then showed the steepness and treacherousness of the Matterhorn from the perspective of a drone flying along the climbing route.

This kind of video from a drone's perspective was something Xu Da, Tang He, and Lan Yu had never seen before, and they were naturally amazed.

"The ridge is as thin as a knife edge, and the slope of the face often exceeds 60 degrees, making it difficult to stand. Because of this, hundreds of people have paid the price of their lives in the past when climbing this peak."

"What force sculpted the mountain into such a rugged shape? We'll answer that later. Let's first look at its altitude: 4478 meters."

"Compared to the peaks of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which are often seven or eight thousand meters high, the Alps are not particularly high in altitude, but they are already a kingdom of ice and snow. Their glaciers extend down to an altitude of more than 2000 meters."

"This is because the Alps are a natural cradle of ice and snow. They are influenced by the moisture from the North Atlantic Current, resulting in exceptionally abundant snowfall. What's even more surprising is that its latitude is similar to that of Heilongjiang, so summer temperatures are not high, and much of the snow remains year-round."

"They have accumulated into 1200 modern glaciers, with an ice reserve equivalent to 2.5 times the capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir."

"And 2 years ago, at the height of the Ice Age, its ice reserves were nearly a thousand times greater than they are now!"

At this point in the video, a combination of real-life scenery and computer-generated special effects was used to showcase the spectacular scene of the Alps when their ice reserves were a thousand times greater than they are today.

In the video, the once towering Alps have been almost completely filled with ice and snow, turning into a snow-covered plateau!
"The ice and snow have filled the valleys, and the land is almost flat. When the glaciers were at their peak 2 years ago, as far as the horizon, most of the mountains and valleys were filled with ice and snow. It would have been easy to fill the Sichuan Basin!"

Regardless of how shocked Tang He, Lan Yu, and the others were upon seeing this, they certainly had some questions in their minds.

The video repeatedly mentions that 20,000 years ago was the "Ice Age," with glaciers almost covering the earth. So how did people at that time survive in such extreme cold?

Did they all migrate to the warm south and then move back to the north?
The video then went on to explain the reasons for the Ice Age.

"It takes more than one cold day for ice to freeze three feet deep. This long ice age began 11.5 years ago. At that time, some periodic changes in the Earth's orbital orientation significantly reduced the solar radiation absorbed by the Northern Hemisphere, leading to a sharp drop in temperature in the Northern Hemisphere and the arrival of the Ice Age."

"2 years ago, when the glaciers were at their most powerful, the entire Alps were covered by a massive ice sheet 2000 meters thick!"

"If such a glacier appeared today, no skyscraper would escape destruction. Geneva, Zurich, Innsbruck would all be buried under the glacier!"

"Milan, Munich, and Turin will also be 'besieged by ice'!"

The video then moved to the third segment, titled "Reshaping Europe," which tells the story of how glaciers dramatically altered the landscape of Europe.

In this section, the video not only showcases the landscapes of Europe in later generations, but also displays the pastoral scenes of various ethnic groups, which indirectly demonstrates the "richness" of the European land.

Then, the video reached its final segment—the survival of the snow kingdom.

"Today, while human construction is in full swing, the Alps are facing a life-or-death moment. Because the fragility of ice and snow is far beyond human imagination."

"Can you imagine the Alps without ice and snow? In recent years, the ice and snow at the foot of the Matterhorn have completely melted every summer. But a hundred years ago, there was a glacier here that never melted."

Scientists predict that global warming will cause half of the glaciers in the Alps to disappear by 2050, and all of them to vanish by the end of this century.

"These glaciers swept across the mountains with hundreds or thousands of times their size during the Ice Age, leaving behind a kingdom of giant peaks. Then, Homo sapiens arrived, and within ten thousand years, agriculture, animal husbandry, villages, towns, industry, and cities emerged."

"But from now on, we may have to say goodbye to glaciers and snow-capped mountains one by one over the next few decades..." "For the Alps, this is just another change of clothes, because it has long been accustomed to the changes in the Earth's temperature."

"We are not immune to this—losing glaciers means not only losing a beautiful landscape, but also potentially facing frequent droughts, sudden floods, and various unpredictable geological disasters."

"This is a massive transformation that we all face! Fortunately, in the Alps, people have already begun to take action, green and low-carbon living has become a consensus, and more and more countries and companies are participating..."

The video ended after explaining how later generations used various methods to mitigate global warming.

While Xu Da, Tang He, Lan Yu, and others were still immersed in the shocking scenes in the video, Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao had already begun asking Liu Kuan questions.

Zhu Biao asked first, "What is the relationship between the Ice Age mentioned in this video and the Little Ice Age that lasted from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty in history?"

Liu Kuan said, “Your Majesty, the Ice Age, also known as the Ice Age or the Great Ice Age, is a type of glacial period, just like the Little Ice Age. It is a geological era caused by the cyclical changes in the Earth’s rotation.”

"As explained in the video just now, the Ice Age was caused by the shift in the Earth's rotation angle, which reduced the amount of sunlight received by the Northern Hemisphere. This, along with a series of other factors, resulted in a large-scale and significant cooling."

"According to later scientific research, the Earth has experienced at least three major ice ages since its birth, and each ice age lasted for at least several million years and sometimes hundreds of millions of years."

"During this period, most parts of the Earth will become very cold and covered by glaciers."

Zhu Biao listened but asked in confusion: "Why did the video just say that the Alps were covered by ice and snow 115,000 years ago and then gradually disappeared in the last 10,000 years? If that's the case, then it's only been about 100,000 years?"

"Your Majesty, although the Ice Age lasted for at least several million years, the global temperature was not always extremely cold and unchanged during this period, but rather fluctuated between hot and cold."

"The most recent major ice age is said to have started more than a million years ago. During this process, the Alps may have been covered by glaciers several times—the 11.5 years mentioned in the video is probably the beginning of the last period of glacial growth in the mountains."

"I see," Zhu Biao said, suddenly understanding.

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Liu Kuan, based on your previous descriptions of the impact of the Little Ice Age on the Ming Dynasty, the Little Ice Age has already had a significant impact on humanity, and could even have caused the demise of a dynasty."

"Judging from this video, if one were a general during the Ice Age, it would be like the end of the world. Even with the technological level of the future, it would be difficult to survive, right?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, although the level of technology in later generations is high, if we encounter a major ice age or even enter an ice age, we will certainly suffer a major blow, and there is even a possibility of civilization regression or even extinction."

Zhu Yuanzhang: "In that case, have any scientists in later generations studied how long it will be before the next ice age arrives?"

Liu Kuan pondered for a moment and said, "Although scientists in later generations have studied this issue, because it involves too many aspects and the Earth has only experienced a few major ice ages before, they have not obtained a reliable answer."

"However, research shows that we are actually at the end of the Quaternary Ice Age—meaning that over the next many years, the climate will generally show a trend of gradual warming over a long timeline."

"Even if a mini ice age like the one at the end of the Ming Dynasty occurs, it does not represent the general trend of temperature change."

"In fact, before I came to the Ming Dynasty, the earth had been warming for over a hundred years, and summers were getting hotter year by year."

"And the period between the two major ice ages is known to later scientists as the interglacial period—and its duration is also not short."

"The previous interglacial periods lasted for two or three hundred million years. Even if the duration of the later interglacial periods changed, it must still be calculated in tens of thousands of years."

"Human beings have only had written records for a few thousand years, and interglacial periods, which are measured in tens of thousands of years, are already very long for humankind."

"Therefore, instead of worrying about the arrival of a major ice age, we should think about how to deal with the increasingly warm climate—after all, whether it is warming or cooling, it will bring many natural disasters that affect human survival."

After listening to Liu Kuan's explanation, Zhu Yuanzhang fell silent for a moment.

He never imagined that both the Ming Dynasty in history and the present-day Ming Dynasty would be plagued by the Little Ice Age, while humanity as a whole would have to face the problem of global warming year by year.

It can only be said that compared to the changes in nature, human civilization is ultimately somewhat fragile. (End of Chapter)