Bringing the Railway to Daming

"Why are there two completely different monkey groups separated by only one river? What forces influence their survival and evolution? The answer is the Amazon River where I am."

"However, being on the shore, we cannot fully appreciate its vastness. Only by raising our perspective higher and higher can we see the full panorama of this largest river on Earth!"

In the video, the man first appears on the bank of a river by boat.

As he narrated, the camera zoomed out, expanding the field of vision, and the audience was able to see the Amazon River clearly, eliciting gasps and even whispers from the crowd.

"It's really big!"

"It does look wider than the Yangtze River."

"I never imagined that such a great river existed in the world..."

The video eventually shows the entire South American tectonic plate, clearly displaying the entire Amazon River basin and providing commentary.

"As the Nazca Plate continued to subduct into western South America, it formed the Andes Mountains, which stretch for more than 8,900 kilometers."

"Its northern mountain range, together with the nearby plateau, forms the Amazon Basin, the largest drainage basin on Earth today. This basin guides meltwater and precipitation, which converge in the low-lying areas to form 15,000 tributaries of varying sizes, eventually forming the Amazon River, which is over 6,400 kilometers long!"

"Although its length is slightly less than the Nile, ranking second in the world, its water volume is astonishing, reaching 7.2 trillion cubic meters per year, more than seven times that of the Yangtze River..."

Although everyone already knew from the previous videos and explanations that the Amazon River was longer and larger than the Yangtze River, they were still surprised to hear that its water flow was seven times that of the Yangtze River.

"In this way, the world's largest river and the world's largest rainforest are closely intertwined. For humankind, the Amazon River and its numerous tributaries are the golden waterway to enter all areas of the rainforest."

"But for other animals living here, the water is teeming with dangerous creatures like piranhas, anacondas, and caimans; it's a minefield of death traps..."

"Moreover, the numerous wide waterways make it difficult for plant seeds and animals to cross, forming natural barriers that divide this rainforest into countless isolated islands of life."

"Many creatures, including squirrel monkeys, are trapped on isolated islands and unable to cross rivers to reproduce. As a result, they accumulate genetic mutations and evolve into different species."

"This is biological reproductive isolation caused by river geography, an evolutionary mechanism that constantly creates new species."

"The Amazon rainforest is thus home to more than 10% of the planet's known species, and may even harbor many more undiscovered species..."

The video then quickly pans across shots of various birds, beasts, fish, insects, and plants, each one incredibly novel. Some of them don't even look like creatures from Earth, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Xiong Ying, and others feeling as if they had broadened their horizons.

The video then moved into its final segment, "The Canopy of Trees."

This section begins with the narrator encountering a sloth in the forest, using the introduction of the sloth as a starting point to describe the canopy layer of the Amazon rainforest.

"The canopy provides animals with shelter from countless branches and vines, as well as abundant food from countless leaves, flowers, and fruits. It is an aerial world where sloths and many other animals, and even epiphytes, can live independently away from the ground."

"Moreover, for the earth, the canopy also blocks sunlight and wind from the high altitude, and makes it take longer for rainwater to break through the layers of branches and leaves to fall to the ground."

"This creates multiple microenvironments beneath the canopy, each with varying light levels, temperatures, and humidity, capable of supporting diverse life forms..."

After introducing the forest canopy, the video then moves on to content related to humans.

In the video, a South American aborigine appears in front of the man, and the camera follows the aborigine's steps into an aborigine tribe.

"For thousands of years, the Amazon has been home to humankind, and nearly four hundred indigenous tribes still live there today. They have created an extremely diverse culture and still retain more than three hundred different languages."

"They also domesticated cassava, cocoa, peanuts, cinchona trees, and other plants here, profoundly influencing the evolution of human history..."

The video then uses the indigenous people's cultivation of cassava as a starting point to explain their concept of harmonious coexistence with the rainforest, and then elevates the discussion to the issue of environmental protection.

"Today, the Amazon rainforest is also threatened by human activities—large-scale agricultural activities and increasingly severe dry-season fires caused by global warming are constantly eroding its vitality." "However, in recent years, countries surrounding the rainforest, including Brazil, have been establishing more rainforest reserves, continuously improving agricultural technology, and reducing the area of ​​rainforest clearing."

"Human society as a whole is also continuously expanding the application of new energy sources, which will gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby reducing the frequency of extreme heat and drought events, reducing the damage of fires to rainforests, and giving rainforests a chance to repair themselves..."

The video ends here with another aerial view of the Amazon rainforest.

People naturally didn't feel much emotion about a science video from a place so far away from the Ming Dynasty.

At most, some people will just sigh and say, "The world is so big, there are all sorts of wonders."

However, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of something else through this video. He sighed and said, "The Amazon rainforest still has such primitive storms in later generations. It seems that it is quite difficult to cultivate it."

Liu Kuandao said, "Not to mention that the Amazon rainforest is located in the tropics and subtropics, and its dense vegetation and seasonal climate, which is either arid or flooded, makes it unsuitable for farming."

"Therefore, for thousands of years, only some indigenous tribes have survived there, and no more productive nation has been developed."

Zhu Xiong Ying pondered, "Teacher, this video, and many others I've seen, all place great emphasis on environmental protection. It seems that industrial development has caused considerable damage to the environment. Shouldn't our Great Ming Dynasty also begin preparations in this regard sooner?"

Liu Kuan thought for a moment and said, "It's certain that industrial development will damage the environment, especially in the early stages when the industrial model was more extensive. But in the early stages, we certainly shouldn't suppress industrial development because of this; we just need to make good plans."

"Now that the Ming Dynasty has a vast territory, it is entirely possible to reduce the environmental damage caused by industry to a certain extent through good planning."

"In this way, when industry and technology develop to a higher level in the future, we can reduce the damage to the environment and even give back to nature—this is how large-scale afforestation, the transformation of the Gobi Desert, and the purification of rivers were carried out in later generations."

Zhu Xiong Ying nodded after listening and fell into thought.

The rest of the people, only a few such as Lao Zhu, Xu Da, and Li Wenzhong, would think about such issues concerning the "century-long plan" of the country. The rest even found the video quite boring, except for the strange animals and plants that were interesting to them.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Zhu Yuanzhang signaled Liu Kuan to play the next video.

After Liu Kuan pulled up the second video, he still started with a brief introduction.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this second video tells the story of Africa in later generations."

Africa?

After listening to Liu Kuan's introduction, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Xiong Ying, and others perked up, while a few princes and grandsons who intended to establish vassal states in Africa became even more engrossed.

Once the tablet is placed with the signature, the cover and title of the second video are also displayed.

"Why is the matchmaking system for the African region so absurd?" [Chronicles of Nations 59]

The title left everyone puzzled, but thankfully the video started soon afterward.

A young man from the future appears in the video, and as the screen switches to scenes related to Africa, he begins to narrate.

"Amin, Bokassa, Mobutu, Gaddafi—Africa has its own unique 'shining era of human stars,' yet its GDP has collectively plummeted."

"In 2024, out of more than 50 African countries, only three made it into the top 50 in global GDP rankings. The rest were quite poor, especially the sub-Saharan region, which was mostly outside the top 100."

Why is Africa, the cradle of humankind, still struggling at a low level for so many years? It's basically a bunch of weaklings fighting each other, with no one able to carry the team.

"Today, let's take a look at a hellish survival scenario in Africa!" (End of Chapter)