Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Kuan pressed the buttons repeatedly, even pressing another unrelated button, but the screen remained black.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been watching him, also noticed something was wrong and asked, "What's wrong? Is your phone broken too?"

Liu Kuan frowned deeply. "It might really be broken."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's white eyebrows furrowed.

Liu Kuan tried other methods, such as tapping the phone, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get the phone screen to light up again.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Didn't you bring your tablet?"

Liu Kuan explained helplessly, "The tablet is very laggy now, inconvenient to operate, and I don't know when it will break down, so I didn't bring it with me."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Of all the three modern tools you have—computer, mobile phone, and tablet—it is the tablet that you used the most that lasted the longest. This shows that modern technological products, just like people, need to be used more and more to have a longer lifespan."

Liu Kuan remained silent.

If we're talking about the least used items, it's the mobile phone, but the laptop was the first one he bought, and the tablet was the last. He thinks that's why the laptop, mobile phone, and tablet broke down.

Ultimately, no matter how careful you are when using it, it can't withstand the inevitable lifespan of certain parts.

Liu Kuan gave up trying, put the phone in a box, and then put it in a bag.

At this moment, he looked up and examined the surrounding mist, about to say something, when he saw the mist dissipate at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, "Last time we came to the bridge, we encountered strange fog, and our laptop broke; this time, we encountered strange fog on the bridge, and our cell phone broke too. Could it be that Heaven is deliberately targeting us?"

Although Liu Kuan was also upset, he still comforted him, saying, "Your Majesty is overthinking it; it's just a coincidence."

"maybe."

Now that the strange fog had appeared, Liu Kuan and Zhu Yuanzhang no longer needed to wait on the bridge, so they left with their entourage.

On the way back, Liu Kuan and Lao Zhu rode in the same carriage.

Seeing that Old Zhu's spirits, which had been high when he was encouraging him on the bridge, had waned, he said, "Actually, even if the tablet breaks down in the future, as long as this strange fog continues to appear, it will still be useful."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately perked up and asked, "Oh? How can we use it?"

Liu Kuandao said, "We can establish relevant research institutes to try various studies on the strange fog. For example, research on radio transmission and reception—if many years later, the Ming Dynasty also has a network, we can also try to conduct research on the network."

Zhu Yuanzhang was not pleased upon hearing this. Instead, he remained silent for a while before saying, "If it is truly connected to future generations, I fear the fortunes and misfortunes will be unpredictable."

Liu Kuan saw Zhu Yuanzhang's worries and said, "This is just an idea of ​​mine. Even if we do conduct relevant research, we don't know if we can get any results. Even if we can, it will probably be several hundred years from now."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed upon hearing this, "Several hundred years? According to you, this bridge only has less than twenty years left to live. The strange fog is also appearing for shorter and shorter periods each time, and it will probably not appear again in a few decades."

"maybe."

Liu Kuan ended the conversation with a quote that Zhu Yuanzhang had made earlier.

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After encountering the strange fog on the bridge, Zhu Yuanzhang's health deteriorated further in winter, and he spent most of his day bedridden.

In the blink of an eye, another year has passed, and it is now the fifth year of the Yongle reign (1410).

Despite being cared for daily by the Ming Dynasty's top medical team, Zhu Yuanzhang eventually passed away after a year of illness at the age of eighty-three.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Xiong Ying held an extraordinary national mourning ceremony, ordering the people of the whole country to mourn for forty-nine days, while he himself observed three months of mourning for Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, Zhu Xiong Ying was, after all, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so he only reduced his time for handling government affairs and personal rest, spending two or three hours each day in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's memorial hall to observe mourning and fasting during this period.

The day after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Xiong Ying sent a telegram to the various vassal kings overseas, requesting them to come to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to pay their respects to Zhu Yuanzhang.

After all, the vast majority of the overseas tribes were Zhu Yuanzhang's sons, with only Zhu Yunwen being a grandson. Now that Zhu Yuanzhang had passed away, they should rightfully return to pay their respects…

The capital of the Yan Kingdom, Yanjing (Kolkata).

Speaking of which, after Zhu Di established his vassal state in India, he initially set up his capital in Dhaka, which later became Mumbai. However, more than a decade ago, in order to better control the country, he moved the capital to Calcutta, which he renamed Yanjing.

Dhaka was renamed Yan Port. Within the smaller building, almost entirely modeled after the imperial palace in Beijing, was the Qin Zheng Hall, where Prince Yan, Zhu Di, handled his daily government affairs.

At this moment, Zhu Di sat on a golden armchair with four claws and a coiled dragon, staring at the telegram in his hand in silence for a long time.

Zhu Di is now fifty-one years old. Because he often leads troops into battle, he still looks strong and energetic, but he has some gray hair and looks old.

Not far from his desk, diagonally to the west, there was another desk of almost the same size, with a grand chair behind it, where a slightly overweight man was sitting.

The slightly overweight man had a short mustache and appeared to be in his thirties; his face was much rounder than Zhu Di's.

This man is none other than the current heir apparent of the Yan Kingdom, Zhu Gaochi, who is only thirty-three years old this year. He only looks slightly older because of his many years of handling government affairs.

Seeing that Zhu Di's expression was not right, Zhu Gaochi asked, "Father, has something happened on the Ming side?"

Zhu Di sighed, "Your imperial grandfather has passed away."

"Huh?" Zhu Gaochi stood up in surprise and asked, "Didn't you send a telegram a few days ago saying that Grandfather should be able to make it through this winter?"

Zhu Di said, "Since you say it should be possible, then there is naturally the possibility that it might not be able to withstand it."

Zhu Gaochi's memory of Zhu Yuanzhang's face had become somewhat blurred, but he still remembered several important conversations with Zhu Yuanzhang when he was studying at Dabentang. At this moment, he couldn't help but feel sad and fell silent.

After a moment, he asked, "Does the court intend for my father to return to the capital to offer sacrifices?"

Zhu Di said, "Even if Xiong Ying hadn't issued this imperial edict, I would still have returned to the capital—you don't need to, stay and oversee the country."

Zhu Gaochi asked, "Should the war against the Delhi Sultanate be suspended?"

Zhu Di said, "Why stop? We have already made many arrangements and are about to launch the war while the winter weather is cool. With the current strength of our Yan Kingdom, even if I am not here, the war against the Delhi Sultanate will not have any major problems."

"Furthermore, I will be taking a telegraph team with me to the capital, so we can keep in touch with Yanjing at any time. If you have any difficult decisions regarding military or political affairs, just send me a telegram."

Zhu Gaochi nodded, "Your subject understands."

Zhu Di was the first prince of the Ming Dynasty to establish a vassal state overseas in the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), which is now twenty-five years ago.

Twenty years earlier, due to the restrictions of the twenty-year agreement, after Zhu Di expanded his territory to its limit, he exploited the loopholes in the regulations on vassal states established by Zhu Yuanzhang to continue expanding his territory by using affiliated city-states.

But a few years later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to reprimand him, and Zhu Di then restrained himself and began to devote himself to domestic affairs such as civil administration, industry and commerce, science and technology, and education.

Five years ago, the twenty-year agreement was fulfilled, but it coincided with the death of Zhu Biao and the ascension of Zhu Xiong Ying.

Zhu Di knew his nephew quite well and worried that if he was too eager to expand the territory, he would become Zhu Xiong Ying's number one target for suppression. So he endured it for several years and secretly made various preparations before preparing to launch another war of territorial expansion.

In fact, the actual area under the control of the Yan vassal state is already quite large.

Looking at later maps of the Indian subcontinent, the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and the southeastern part of Nepal, Meghalaya, Assam, and Tripura to the north were all part of the territory of the Yan state.

In terms of land area, it is already a "large country" spanning thousands of miles, occupying about one-fifth of the total area of ​​the Indian subcontinent.

As for the Delhi Sultanate, it was weakened even more than in its original history due to repeated raids and attacks from both the Yan vassal state and the Timurid Empire.

At its peak, the Delhi Sultanate directly and indirectly controlled (and controlled local states) an area encompassing most of the northern and southern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Today, almost all of the Delhi Sultanate's dependent states have broken away, and the territory it directly controlled is now only the later states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Madhya Pradesh, as well as a small part of eastern Pakistan.

Although the territory still appears large, the country's power has declined, and military nobles from the central government to the local level have shown signs of independence. The royal court has very few troops under its actual control, and their combat effectiveness is also quite average.

How could such a country be a match for the Yan vassal state, which had been recuperating for more than ten years?

How could Zhu Di possibly take them seriously?

Of course, Zhu Di's appetite for this territorial expansion war was also very large.

He planned to seize the vast majority of the territory currently directly controlled by the Delhi Sultanate, and even continue westward expansion to contend for territories controlled by the Timurid Empire. (End of Chapter)