Bringing the Railway to Daming

After chatting with Liu Kuan and the others about flood control for a while, Old Zhu said, "Alright, let's leave it at that—the kids seem a bit impatient, let's start the movie."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan responded, picked up the tablet, and brought up the prepared movie.

He also gave a brief introduction, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the movie I have prepared for you this time is 'The Wandering Earth 3'."

The Wandering Earth 3?!

Xu Da, Tang He, and Lan Yu, who hadn't seen the first two films, were still trying to figure out the meaning behind the movie title, while Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and others who had seen the first two films were already showing expressions of surprise.

Before the movie started, Lan Yu couldn't help but whisper to Zhu Xiong Ying beside her, "Your Highness, what's 'The Wandering Earth 3' about? Is it good?"

Zhu Xiong Ying smiled and said, "This is a science fiction movie from the future, it's super good. As for how good it is, Duke Liang will find out in a moment."

The word "super" was naturally learned by Zhu Xiong Ying from Liu Kuan, and Lan Yu understood it, immediately becoming excited about the movie that was about to be shown.

Liu Kuan didn't say anything more, adjusted the volume and brightness, and then started playing the movie.

The Wandering Earth 3 was released in 2027, a time in the future. The content naturally continued from the first two films, and some of the actors also appeared in the film.

The film opens with a battle between drones controlled by digital lifeforms and the United Government forces over the ruins of Shanghai, revealing the problems left over from the Space Elevator Crisis—the United Government has actually split into the "Earth faction" and the "Interstellar faction."

The Earth faction insists on the "Mountain Moving Plan," which means taking Earth with them to escape the solar system and head to a new home.

The interstellar faction proposed the "Spark Project," which involved building spaceships to carry a small group of human elites to escape Earth in order to ensure the continuation of Earth's civilization.

In "The Wandering Earth 2", Liu Peiqiang (played by Wu Jing), a major character, becomes a digital life form by accident and gains partial control of the quantum computer 550W.

The main storyline naturally revolves around Earth encountering a series of crises while escaping the solar system.

If the moon were destroyed, it would form an 8000-kilometer-long "four-king chain around the earth." If the earth wanted to escape, it would have to be aware of the debris obstacles in its direction of travel.

For example, as Earth moves forward, it faces the crisis of being captured by Jupiter again. Humanity chooses to actively detonate a hydrogen bomb to change its orbit and escape capture. The yield of this explosion is 17 times that of the one in "The Wandering Earth 1"!
Because of the sheer scale and excitement of a science fiction film like "The Wandering Earth 3," almost everyone was in a state of constant shock with their eyes wide open and mouths slightly agape during the viewing.

Two hours later, after the movie finished playing and the credits were all rolled, Lao Zhu and the others gradually came to their senses.

Lan Yu was the first to be unable to hold back, saying, "The sun is going to explode? And take the Earth with it to escape? These people from later generations are really too daring!"

To be honest, although Lan Yu had long known that people lived on a planet, her subconscious still held onto the old perception that the earth was flat and boundless and did not move.

Therefore, it's easy to imagine how impactful the story and scenes of "The Wandering Earth" were for him.

Zhu Biao lamented, "I never imagined that even in such a great crisis, humanity would still be unable to unite completely, with disagreements leading to divisions and even creating various problems for each other."

Old Zhu said, "I think that the 'Mountain Moving Plan' and the 'Spark Plan' should have been carried out at the same time—you can't put all your eggs in one basket."

"Whether it's the Mountain Moving Project or the Fire Seed Project, their ultimate success is uncertain. If they are implemented simultaneously, if one fails, there's at least the other."

"The two factions fought each other because of limited resources and manpower. As for the so-called digital life faction, they could actually coexist with real humans—for humans at that time, having more choices meant having more paths."

Zhu Xiong Ying pondered and said, "I think it's best if Earth doesn't actually encounter the crisis depicted in the movie, otherwise it might not behave as well as the humans in the film."

Upon hearing this, Liu Kuan said with some emotion, "In fact, the fact that Earth has been able to exist in the universe for billions of years and give birth to many life forms, including human civilization, is a miracle with an extremely low probability."

"Because there are too many cosmic disasters that a planet can potentially face. For example, asteroid impacts are commonplace for many planets in the universe."

"The Earth is located in the middle of the major planets in the solar system, and it has the Moon as its satellite, which greatly reduces the probability of it being hit by an asteroid." "Even so, the dinosaurs, which dominated the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, became extinct due to the disaster caused by the asteroid impact and the drastic climate change."

"No one knows how long Earth can safely exist in this cosmos in the future. Therefore, humanity can only actively develop technology so that it will have more solutions when disaster strikes."

Zhu Xiong Ying smiled and said, "As you say, although our Great Ming Dynasty is now leading the world in technological development, we cannot be complacent."

"Firstly, the path of technological development has no end; even in later generations, we have only just begun to explore it. Secondly, no one knows what kind of crises humanity will face in the future; the higher the level of technology, the stronger our ability to protect ourselves."

Although Liu Kuan realized that Zhu Xiong Ying wanted to use this opportunity to get Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao to increase their support for the technological development of the Ming Dynasty, he still nodded and said, "Your Highness is absolutely right."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao knew the principle that "haste makes waste." Moreover, some videos that Liu Kuan had previously released also illustrated that there were some pitfalls on the road to developing science and technology. If one were to accidentally step into one, it could lead to the annihilation of the entire country and even all of humanity.

Zhu Yuanzhang then said, "No matter how important technological development is, we have to take it one step at a time—haste makes waste, and haste makes waste. Don't you understand these principles?"

Zhu Xiong Ying did not refute, but smiled and said, "Grandson understands."

At this moment, Li Wenzhong, who had been silent until now, suddenly said, "I think it would be nice to be a digital life like in the movies—having the consciousness of a living person, being immortal, but with relatively low environmental requirements."

"If that's the case, wouldn't it mean that digital life forms could have plenty of time and energy to pursue what they really want to pursue? It would even be more convenient to study technology in that 'virtual world'?"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head upon hearing this, saying, "No matter how good digital life is, its foundation is still in reality. If the humans in the movie really lean towards the development of digital life, they will definitely pay less and less attention to development in reality, which may eventually lead to the extinction of all the humans who have become digital life due to a small disaster."

"Therefore, in our view, the path of digital life is usable, but it should never be taken as the main path of human development, otherwise it will lead to self-destruction!"

Liu Kuan smiled to the side, not participating much in the discussion.

He found it quite interesting to listen to the "ancients" discuss various issues concerning later generations and even the future.

Unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was not very interested in this topic, which had little connection to reality. So after discussing it for a while, he announced the end of the banquet and sent everyone out of the palace to go home.

···
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The fourth year of the Wenlong reign of the Ming Dynasty (1398).

With the participation of the Ming Dynasty's Guangming Guard, Ho Quy Ly, a powerful minister and relative of the Vietnamese imperial family, seized the throne at a faster pace than in the original historical records.

In the first year of the Tran Dynasty's reign in Vietnam, Ho Quy Ly was so eager to force Tran Ngum to abdicate in favor of his son, Tran An.

Although Trần Định had ascended the throne ten years earlier, the retired emperor Trần Định held power at that time. He had finally outlived Trần Định and then encountered the powerful minister Ho Quý Ly. He never felt the true power of an "emperor" and was unwilling to easily abdicate and become a retired emperor.

Most importantly, his son Chen An is only three years old.

Hu Jili forced him to abdicate in favor of Chen An; his true intentions were as clear as day.

However, the Vietnamese government and even the military were mostly controlled by the Ho family, and even though Tran Ngum was unwilling, he still agreed under the pressure of death.

Shortly thereafter, Hu Jili, imitating Zhao Kuangyi, wrote a poem implying that Chen Yong should commit suicide. Chen Yong refused, so he sent the General of Chariots and Cavalry to strangle him.

Historically, due to different circumstances, Hu Quy Ly pretended to be a powerful minister for two years after Trần An succeeded to the throne.

However, the involvement of the Ming Dynasty's Bright Guard has led Hu Jili to misjudge the situation.

Just a few months after killing Trần Định, in July, Hầu Quý Ly deposed the young emperor Trần Định, and carried out a large-scale massacre of the Trần clan and former Trần officials who refused to serve him. On July 27, he usurped the throne and claimed to be a descendant of Hầu Định, a figure from the time of Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, he changed the name of his country to "Dai Ngị".

The Ming court had been closely monitoring the situation in Annam. Upon learning of Hồ ọ Thị's usurpation of the throne, Zhu Biao immediately issued an imperial edict, dispatching a large army to conquer him... (End of Chapter)