The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 237 Jinling Prosperity
Thousands of miles of warblers sing green and red, water villages, mountains and Guojiu flag wind.

There are four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasty, and there are many towers in the mist.

The spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is shrouded in mist and rain, and is as beautiful as a painting.

It was during this picturesque time that Wanli arrived in Nanzhili and Jiangnan.

Early in the morning at about 1 a.m., when it was just getting light, a huge fleet left the Yangzhou Canal Wharf and entered the Yangtze River.

At this time, mist was rising from the surface of the river, and the passing ships and the water villages and hills on the shore were all vague, as if in a dream.

Wanli couldn't help but pull the imperial concubine Qin Lan to the bow of the ship to appreciate the scenery on the north bank.

They couldn't see the south bank at all at this moment because the Yangtze River was four or five miles wide.

It was precisely because the Yangtze River was four or five miles wide that they dared to paddle on the hazy surface of the river.

If you were paddling on the Grand Canal, which is over a hundred feet wide, with this kind of visibility, you could really collide with passing ships.

Wanli watched as more and more boats came and went on the river and couldn't help but ask, "Yunqing, when can we reach Jinling?"

It’s hard to say.

Deng Zilong looked at the canal boats behind him and said carefully, "Your Majesty, this place is still over a hundred miles away from Jinling. If the navy's centipede boats row at full speed, they will arrive around noon.

However, the canal boats behind us can't keep up. At their speed, we probably won't reach Jinling until around 4 p.m.."

There were war horses of the imperial guards on the canal boat, as well as most of the imperial guards and Jinyiwei soldiers. If they abandoned the canal boat and rushed over, their manpower would be reduced by more than half.

Wanli thought about it and said decisively: "Then let's go at the speed of the grain ship. As long as we can reach Nanjing today, it will be fine."

As the sun rose, the sky gradually brightened and the fog gradually dissipated. There were more and more boats on the river, so many that they formed long lines.

Their fleet of 600 large ships did not seem out of place at all, and no one on the passing ships looked at them in surprise. Everyone seemed to be used to it.

Wanli passed by in a hurry last time and didn't pay much attention.

This time he took a closer look and was quite surprised.

There are so many ships on the Yangtze River. He has seen at least a thousand of them along the way.

He couldn't help but ask, "Yun Qing, why are there so many boats on the river?"

Is this what you call many ships?
Deng Zilong thought for a moment, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, most of these ships go to and from Jinling.

There are a lot of people in Jinling. There are more than 300,000 registered households and more than 1.2 million people. It is rumored that if you add up those who are not registered, there are more than one million households and more than four million people.

The food rations these people consume in a month alone are as much as three or four million dan. If they use 800-ton grain ships to transport them, at least 500 ships would be needed. In addition, there are all kinds of meat, fruits, vegetables, etc., and it is unknown how many ships will be needed.

Furthermore, Jinling has numerous workshops and even more shops, and the number of ships carrying goods is even greater. There are tens of thousands of ships docked at the riverside piers from Yanziji to Moling Town, and who knows how many more are passing by."

Does the Ming Dynasty still have so many ships now?
This is true. There were tens of thousands of grain ships in the Ming Dynasty.

The problem is that it is a bit exaggerated to have tens of thousands of ships docked at a dock near a city all year round.

Wanli couldn't help but ask in surprise, "You mean there are tens of thousands of ships docked near Jinling City every day?"

This is indeed true.

Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, Jinling has been prosperous since ancient times. Since Sun Quan of the Eastern Wu established his capital here, Jinling's water transportation has become increasingly prosperous. The "Book of Jin: Five Elements Records" records that under the Stone City, thousands of ships were moored, their bows and boats covering the river, and their masts like a forest.

Jinling is certainly more prosperous now than it was a thousand years ago. The records in the Book of Jin may be slightly exaggerated, but there are indeed more than ten thousand ships docking at the Jinling city dock every day."

If there are tens of thousands of ships docked in Nanjing every day, then the Ming Dynasty has at least hundreds of thousands of ships.

Why did the navy have to work so hard to produce two hundred centipede ships?
Upon hearing this, Wanli fell into deep thought.

At around noon, when the red sun was at its highest point, the surface of the river suddenly turned, and a city wall that stretched as far as the eye could see appeared on the south bank of the river ahead.

This is the outer wall of Jinling City.

Jinling is different from the capital.

The capital city actually has only three layers of walls, namely the imperial palace, the imperial city, and the inner city. The outer city of the capital city is to the south of the inner city and does not enclose the inner city.

The outer city of Jinling City is outside the inner city, and the outer city wall surrounds the inner city. Therefore, the city wall of Jinling City is four layers, and the outer city is even more terrifying.

Wanli raised his telescope and scanned, but still could not see the end of the outer city wall.

The outer city wall of Jinling is more than 120 miles long, with each side being 30 to 40 miles long!
This is considered the territory of Jinling, but it is not yet the city of Jinling.

Because their destination was the imperial palace in the city, which was still fifty or sixty miles away from the Jinling Imperial Palace, their journey was only halfway through.

The northeast corner of the city wall of Jinling Outer City is Yanziji Wharf. From Yanziji Wharf all the way to Moling Town in the south of Jinling City, there are densely packed docks of all sizes along the way.

This was the busiest time of the day. The pier on the river was full of large and small boats, some of which were even waiting at the pier but couldn't get to dock.

When Wanli saw this grand scene, his eyes were full of contemplation.

There are so many civilian ships, but there are so few warships in the navy. Why is that?
The fleet continued to go upstream, and after rowing for thirty or forty miles, it finally turned south and entered a river channel about one or two miles wide.

The so-called Jiajiang means that there is an island in the middle of the river, dividing the river into two parts, the wider one is the main trunk and the narrow one is the Jiajiang.

This Jiajiang is the waterway leading into the city of Jinling. Three or four miles into Jiajiang, turn east and you will reach the Qinhuai River.

If you don't turn east and continue south, you will reach another river, Longjiang.

The reason why Longjiang is named separately is that the Jiangxinzhou on the west side of Longjiang is dozens of miles long, which means that the Jiajiang where Longjiang is located is also dozens of miles long.

Wanli never came here.

In fact, the Longjiang Treasure Shipyard is near the entrance of Longjiang River.

However, Wanli did not order the fleet to row over immediately.

Because he was not familiar with the place at all and he could not accomplish anything if he rushed over there rashly, he decided to stay in the Jinling Palace first.

The fleet sailed along the Qinhuai River, which was like a moat, and headed southeast beside the towering city walls. It passed Mochou Lake and Stone City, and then entered from Xishui Pass, finally entering Jinling City.

This time, Wanli was stunned.

The streets on both sides of the Qinhuai River are bustling with traffic and lined with shops, which is dazzling and overwhelming to look at. The flow of people is much denser than that in Beijing.

This is nothing. When you reach the Confucius Temple section of the river, the number of cruise ships and pleasure boats on the river suddenly increases, and there are countless talented men and beautiful women reciting poems, composing couplets, and playing the zither and the qin in harmony on the boats.

The streets along the river were crowded with people, shoulder to shoulder, as densely packed as an ant colony.

There is such a prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty!
Wanli felt extremely complicated. He felt that the prosperity of Nanjing seemed to have nothing to do with him as the emperor, just like he had nothing to do with those civil servants.

It's like they live in two different worlds.

What exactly went wrong with the Ming Dynasty?
Why is Jinling so prosperous?

Compared with Nanjing, the capital city can only be described as depressed. Even this was the result of his efforts to increase the income of the Beijing Camp, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Imperial Guards. If the capital city before the tenth year of Wanli was compared with Nanjing, it would not be depressed at all, it would be incomparable.

Perhaps, the officials in the capital are hiding their wealth.

Nanjing is not the land of the emperor. Since the reigns of Renzong and Xuanzong, it seems that only Wuzong and Zhengde suddenly visited here. It seems that other emperors have never been here.

Since the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not come to Nanjing, the officials of Nanjing naturally did not need to hide their wealth, including the scholars with official titles. They did not need to pretend to be poor. Here, they could have fun and revel every night.

At this time, no one in Jinling knew that the emperor had arrived, so everyone was having a great time.

Wanli watched all this silently, and a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes again.

Jinling is so prosperous, isn’t it?
That is of course good, it is the sign of a prosperous age.

If the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty could be so prosperous, then the Ming Dynasty would be a true golden age.

The question is why Nanjing was the only one in the Ming Dynasty that was so prosperous.

He has been to many places. The nine frontiers of the Ming Dynasty were so poor back then that he wanted to cry.

Now the soldiers on the border can finally make some money to live on, but it is still far from the prosperity of Nanjing.

How can we make the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty as prosperous as Nanjing?
This issue is indeed worth pondering.

(End of this chapter)