Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Ruoxue and her group retrieved their horses from the inn's stables and headed out of the city toward Puan Prefecture.

Although Guizhou Province is mostly mountainous and densely forested, some cement roads have been built, and many old-fashioned official roads still exist. At least, there is a direct official road from the provincial capital Guiyang to Puan Prefecture, with post stations and inns along the way.

Although the group was not in a hurry to travel, they still arrived at the capital of Puan Prefecture in just a few days.

Historically, Guizhou did not establish a provincial administration office until the eleventh year of the Yongle reign (1413), ending its "military control" status.

In this timeline, as early as the 13th year of the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Guizhou Province. Although the Guizhou Military Command still existed and was stationed with a considerable number of garrison troops, since a province was established, it naturally focused on civil administration.

However, places like Puan Prefecture are not only too far from the Central Plains, but also mostly dangerous mountains and dense forests. Therefore, the city of Puan Prefecture is very small, with a circumference of only six or seven li. The total population of the county and the city is less than ten thousand.

In reality, Puan Prefecture could only govern the prefectural city and some surrounding Han Chinese immigrant villages or naturalized minority villages. As for the Tusi (chieftains) and the uncivilized tribes, they were still under the jurisdiction of Puan Guard.

Dou Zhiyuan, the prefect of Puan Prefecture, was already in his early fifties. He had entered officialdom from a clerk position in the early twenties of the Hongwu reign, but due to limitations in his own abilities and background, he remained a prefect even after so many years.

That day, Dou Zhiyuan was handling official business in the yamen when the gatekeeper brought him a visiting card, saying, "Sir, a few young men have come from outside. They say they are graduate students from the capital university and have something to discuss with you."

"A graduate student from Peking University?" Dou Zhiyuan asked in surprise. "Why would a graduate student from Peking University come to Puan Prefecture?"

The clerk replied, "This humble servant doesn't know either."

Seeing this, Dou Zhiyuan simply took out the visiting card and opened it.

The visiting card was presented by Liu Ruoxue in her capacity as the leader of the expedition team. She did not conceal her family background, but directly stated her identity as the eldest daughter of the Duke of Ningguo in the visiting card. In any case, she was only asking the state government to introduce her to a chieftain because of her family background, and she was not seeking personal gain, so there was nothing wrong with it.

Therefore, after reading the visiting card, Dou Zhiyuan stood up immediately, and asked with surprise and doubt, "It's actually the daughter of the Duke of Ningguo?"

The clerk looked completely bewildered.

Dou Zhiyuan didn't explain, but asked directly, "Where are those people now?"

"Reporting to Your Excellency, it's right outside the yamen."

"Quickly invite them in... no, I'll go greet them myself."

Although Dou Zhiyuan felt it was beneath his dignity to personally go out to greet a woman, he couldn't care less about that when he thought that the eldest daughter of the Duke of Ningguo was among them, and that this might be an opportunity for him to break through the bottleneck in his official career.

When Dou Zhiyuan arrived at the entrance of the prefectural government office with several yamen officials, he saw a group of young men and women waiting patiently there.

His gaze swept across the crowd and quickly settled on Liu Ruoxue, who was at the head of the group.

There's no other reason than that Liu Ruoxue's temperament is simply too outstanding. Even dressed as a man and with a tan complexion, it doesn't diminish her exceptional temperament in the slightest.

Dou Zhiyuan smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, saying, "I am Dou Zhiyuan, the Prefect of Pu'an. Are you all graduate students from the Imperial University of Peking?"

Liu Ruoxue led everyone in bowing and saying, "Student Liu Ruoxue greets Prefect Dou—only four of these people behind me are my classmates, and the other two are my guards."

Dou Zhiyuan nodded slightly, then said, "This is the first time that students from the Imperial University of Peking have come to such a remote place as Puan Prefecture. Why don't you all sit down in the government office, have a cup of tea, and then we can talk about business?"

Liu Ruoxue: "Then I'll have to trouble Prefect Dou."

The group followed Dou Zhiyuan into the yamen and sat down in the side hall where Dou Zhiyuan handled official business. Tea was served, and Xu Xuan and the others introduced themselves.

Dou Zhiyuan exchanged a few perfunctory words with Xu Xuan and the others before turning to Liu Ruoxue and asking, "Miss Liu, as the daughter of a Duke, what brings you to Puan Prefecture?"

Liu Ruoxue said, "To be honest, we came to Puan Prefecture for our graduation thesis—we've heard that the Maling River Grand Canyon in Puan Prefecture has unique landforms and many plants and animals that don't exist elsewhere. Exploring it would be very helpful for completing our thesis." "Therefore, we came to visit Prefect Dou hoping that he could introduce us to some local chieftains so that we can find some reliable guides to facilitate our travels in the area."

Dou Zhiyuan's expression changed upon hearing this. "Maling River Grand Canyon? I've heard of that place. It's said to be a dangerous place, and even the locals rarely go there. It's extremely dangerous."

“Even if Miss Liu wants to go on an adventure, there’s no need to go to a place like that—there are several other unique places in Puan Prefecture where safety shoes can be found. Why don’t you go somewhere else?”

Dou Zhiyuan originally wanted to help Liu Ruoxue, but when he heard that Liu Ruoxue wanted to go to the Malinghe Grand Canyon, he hesitated.

He thought to himself, that place is so dangerous. If this eldest daughter of the Duke of Ningguo is taken to that canyon by his introduction and something happens, he will be in deep trouble.

Therefore, he had made up his mind that if Liu Ruoxue listened to his advice and moved to a safer place, he would help introduce her to a chieftain. If Liu Ruoxue did not listen, he would have no choice but to keep his distance.

Liu Ruoxue smiled and said, "It's precisely because the locals rarely go there that we're going. Besides, we've already done a lot of preparation for this expedition, so it's really not appropriate to change the location."

“I see,” Dou Zhiyuan stroked his beard, then looked apologetic and said, “Miss Liu, you may not know this, but the chieftains are all under the jurisdiction of the garrison. So, in terms of familiarity, Commander Qin and others from Pu’an Garrison are more familiar with them. Why don’t you go and ask around in the garrison town?”

Liu Ruoxue could tell that Dou Zhiyuan didn't want to help, so she said, "I see. Then we won't bother Prefect Dou any longer."

After saying that, he immediately got up and took his leave with his companions.

Dou Zhiyuan was surprised that Liu Ruoxue left so abruptly. She barely drank any tea or talked about anything else. He felt disappointed and a little annoyed, but in the end, he could only feel helpless. After all, she was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Ningguo. Even if she was "rude", what could a mere prefect do?

He then smiled and saw Liu Ruoxue and her group out.

Liu Ruoxue was decisive and efficient. She immediately led her companions to visit Commander Qin Hu in Puanwei City on the other side of the river.

Unlike Dou Zhiyuan, Qin Hu didn't think that much. After learning what natural history was all about, he was quite impressed by Liu Ruoxue's adventures as the daughter of a duke and immediately agreed to help.

He assigned a deputy commander with two hundred garrison soldiers to escort Liu Ruoxue and her party to the vicinity of the Malinghe Grand Canyon.

This deputy commander was named Hu Gongru. He was a bit of a chatterbox, and in addition, he wanted to use Liu Ruoxue to climb the social ladder to the Duke of Ningguo. So, he kept introducing the local situation and some interesting hearsay along the way.

"Young lady may not know, but the nearest garrison to the Maling River Grand Canyon is called Xingyi Garrison, which was only established ten years ago."

"That place is located at the southernmost part of Puan Prefecture, and is inhabited by many barbarian tribes. When Xingyi was established, it suffered many attacks from the barbarians."

"It wasn't until those barbarian tribes were defeated and subdued by our Ming army, and all the tribes were summoned and submitted to the court, and some rules were established, that Xingyi finally settled down..."

Although Liu Ruoxue and the others found Hu, the deputy commander, to be a bit long-winded, they were happy to learn about the local situation from him.

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Three or four months passed in the blink of an eye, and Liu Ruoxue returned to the capital before May.

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Liu Kuan called all of Liu's sons back to have lunch together.

After the meal, Liu Ruoxue was about to leave when Liu Kuan called her back.

"Ruoxue, come to my study with me."

Liu Ruoxue nodded and followed.

After arriving at the study, Liu Kuan sat down and looked at his eldest daughter's face, which had become even rougher. He couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache, and then said, "Now that you've returned to the capital to finish your graduation thesis, you should graduate with your master's degree, barring any unforeseen circumstances. What are your plans after that?" (End of Chapter)