Bringing the Railway to Daming

The video creator is very young.

Even though Zhu Yuanzhang and others had been in contact with Liu Kuan for decades, many of the old woman's words were still "new words" to them. But this is where the advantage of Chinese characters comes into play—even new words can be understood intuitively.

The video then goes on to explain, from geographical, historical and other perspectives, how African countries have fallen into their predicament.

"The Earth gave Africa two SSR talents: 'abundant resources' and 'vast land,' giving it 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land, 13% of its natural gas, and 7.2% of its oil. Yet, it also gave it a 'hellish climate' debuff."

"North Africa and West Africa are better off. They are larger in area and have the moisture from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, so agriculture can still be done."

"Once you head south across the Sahara Desert, you enter a hellish mode, and whether it rains or not depends entirely on the whims of the heavens."

"For example, in the Sahel region south of the Sahara, the annual rainfall is only between 200 and 600 millimeters, and most of the crops planted there will die from drought."

"Under such conditions, agriculture simply could not have developed in ancient times. Even great powers like the Mali Empire and the Ghana Empire, which were built with great difficulty, could not support the food needs of such a large country when they encountered drought."

"Thus, a cycle of expansion, drought, and collapse ensued, rain became a luxury, and hunger became the fastest knife to cut down a civilization."

"Not only is the weather challenging, but Africa's topography is also a major obstacle. The saying goes, 'To get rich, build roads first.' But the African continent is fragmented by the Sahara Desert, the East African Rift Valley, the Congo rainforest, and countless plateaus."

"Geographically, all the people I matched with were poor guys; they couldn't even travel the roads to buy grain from outside..."

After discussing the limitations of Africa's natural conditions, the video then recounted Africa's tragic history of development.

"If China's vast territory and abundant resources were a good start for Europe, then Africa, which is also vast and abundant, seems to be cursed with bad luck, as it was invaded by European colonists as early as the 13th century."

"European colonists not only plundered people in Africa, but also plundered resources on a frenzied scale. If Latin America was like a blood vessel being cut open, then Africa was like a wilderness being overrun."

"The colonists established a one-way channel here: 'resources-port-home port,' keeping Africa firmly on the supply chain of low-priced raw materials."

"They aggressively promoted cash crops, leaving many African countries reliant on a single crop for survival. High-tech processing industries were located domestically, while low-tech gathering industries were moved to Africa, turning Africa into a raw material warehouse without production lines..."

This video is nearly fifteen minutes long and covers everything from Africa's geography and climate to its development history, from countries like Egypt in the north to South Africa in the south.

It tells both stories of some African countries passively accepting the humiliation and oppression of European colonizers, and stories of African people resisting colonization and tyranny.

But regardless of the approach, none of them ultimately changed the overall poverty situation in Africa...

After the video finished playing, most people were whispering among themselves, while only a few, including Lao Zhu and Zhu Xiong Ying, seemed to be deep in thought.

Several princes and grandsons who had originally intended to establish their fiefdoms in Africa thought to themselves, "Judging from what this video says, Africa is not a good place to establish a fiefdom."

The local people there were all dark-skinned, and the natural conditions were also not good. Even farming seemed to be quite difficult.

Zhu Xiong Ying, however, thought: Africa's geographical conditions seem destined to make it difficult to establish a large country, but more suitable for establishing a small one. Thus, for the Ming Dynasty, it seems to be a good place to establish a fiefdom.

After about a minute, Zhu Yuanzhang finally spoke: "Liu Kuan, the content of this video is not very good. Many of the things said in it sound reasonable, but they are actually all nonsense."

"Leaving aside other things, they say that Africa's geographical conditions are bad and unsuitable for agricultural development, while they say that China is vast and rich in resources." "But they never think about what kind of geographical environment China had in ancient times—the Yellow River and the Yangtze River flooded all year round, and the Guanzhong Plain and the Chengdu Plain were not fertile land before the large-scale water conservancy projects."

"South of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, there are almost dense forests and large lakes and swamps, while the eastern part is mostly submerged by seawater."

"While luck played a part in creating the fertile plains and countless fields we have today, the majority of the credit goes to our ancestors who fought against nature."

“We see that although Africa’s geography and natural conditions are not as good as China’s, if the local people are hardworking and intelligent, they will definitely be able to develop into a large and powerful country.”

"It is the iron deficiency in North and South America that truly limits their development. Otherwise, their civilizations would probably be no less advanced than those in Eurasia."

Upon hearing these words, Liu Kuan was quite surprised, never expecting Zhu Yuanzhang to say such a thing.

However, he wholeheartedly agreed with what Lao Zhu said—China's natural conditions are better than most parts of Africa, but not by much. The fact that it was able to develop a brilliant civilization ultimately depends on the indomitable struggle of countless ancestors.

Therefore, after regaining his composure, he said, "Your Majesty is right, there are some inaccuracies in the content of this video. However, I really don't have many videos available right now, so I used this to make up the numbers."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "It's not so much about filling a quota—the video isn't entirely without merit."

"For example, it repeatedly emphasizes the importance of agriculture, saying that African countries have focused on developing industry to boost their economies, but have neglected agriculture. As a result, neither agriculture nor industry has been well developed, the national governments have been unstable, and the economy has never been able to take off."

"This shows that even in later generations, a country must have a sufficiently solid agricultural foundation if it wants to develop and become strong."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Xiong Ying and said very seriously, "Xiong Ying, we know you value science and technology and industry, but you must not neglect agriculture. You must understand that agriculture is the foundation of national stability, and only with national stability can industry develop!"

Zhu Xiong Ying said, "Grandson will definitely remember this!"

Zhu Xiong Ying was not just making excuses; he was genuinely reflecting on Zhu Yuanzhang's words—in the year or two since he ascended the throne, while he hadn't completely neglected agriculture, he hadn't paid much attention to it either.

Looking back now, it was truly inappropriate.

He decided that after the government offices reopened on the eighth day of the month, his first priority would be to make the cabinet pay attention to agricultural issues and ensure that no mistakes were made in this area.

After finishing this matter, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that there was nothing else worth discussing in the video, so he listened to the others chatting about some minor topics. After a few minutes, he said, "Liu Kuan, play the next video."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan responded, picked up the tablet, and pulled up the third video.

After setting up the video, he introduced it, saying, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this video is about the history of Lanfang Kingdom."

Lanfang Kingdom?
Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Xiong Ying, and others were slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

Zhu Xiong Ying then asked, "Teacher, where is Lanfang Kingdom? Is it anything special?" (End of Chapter)