The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 504: Southwest Emergency

After Wanli regained the imperial power, he was aggressive and aggressive, and he fought wars everywhere to expand the territory.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty underwent earth-shaking changes.

This change occurred not only on land, but also in inhabited areas. The vast sea areas surrounding the Ming Dynasty also underwent earth-shaking changes.

Originally, due to the implementation of the maritime ban, it was rare to see a ship in the vast sea area surrounding the Ming Dynasty. Even when Emperor Longqing opened the sea, only a small group of people could go out to sea to make profits, and there were still very few ships on the sea.

Things are different now. The Ming Dynasty has really opened up to the sea, and all the shipyards under the Ministry of Industry are working at full capacity to build ships.

Now, ships can be seen everywhere in the vast seas surrounding the Ming Dynasty, just like stars filling the entire sky.

In the inland sea of ​​the Ming Dynasty, from the northern Zhili to Liaodong, there are groups of fast ships traveling back and forth from the south to the north, shuttling across the sea like dragons. There are simply too many ships.

Around noon, when the red sun was at its highest point, thousands of centipede boats emerged from the mouth of the Haihe River, lined up in a row, and headed straight for Liaodong along the coastline.

These centipede ships seemed to be carrying boilers. The semicircular iron lumps were neatly arranged on the deck, and each ship seemed to be carrying quite a few.

In fact, Wanli's entire family was also in this fleet.

They happened to catch the shipment of this batch of boilers, so naturally they took them with them.

Anyway, the Jinyiwei and imperial guards they brought with them only numbered about 20,000, and with only about 20 of them scattered on each ship, they didn't take up much space at all.

Their whole family was also on a boat with a boiler.

It was lunch time, and the cabin was extremely lively. The little princes and princesses were excitedly nestling in the adults' arms.

They were so happy. This time they were going to travel to Nurgandusi, thousands of miles away. They had never been so far away before.

Xiao Zhu Changxun was also very happy.

However, he was still better. He still knew that he was holding a stewed chicken leg and gnawing on it. His younger brothers and sisters had to feed him, and he kept nodding at it. After taking a few bites, he would dance and nod a few times.

Seeing this, Wanli didn't say anything.

The royal family is also normal people, and children should play happily. He will not use etiquette and morality to restrain the royal family into abnormal people like those civil servants.

Emperor Hongwu often scolded and even beat people, and Emperor Yongle often beat his own sons with his own hands.

If measured by etiquette and morality, these two are not qualified emperors.

The problem is that the Ming Dynasty only had these two great emperors who expanded the territory, but those who followed them and listened to the civil officials and talked about etiquette and morality in everything could not even keep their family business.

He would not suppress the nature of his children, including little Zhu Changxun.

This little guy just likes to grab things and eat them, and he eats meat with big mouthfuls. He has never said that this is against etiquette and morality.

Seeing that the little guy had almost finished gnawing on the chicken leg, he took a towel to wipe the little guy's mouth and hands, fed him some soup, and asked with concern: "How is it, Xun'er, are you full?"

This chicken leg is big enough.

Little Zhu Changxun nodded slowly, looked out the window at the navy officers and men rowing hard, and then asked, "Father, the boat seems to be going much slower now."

You also need to understand this.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Yes, our flow has been bad since we came out of the Haihe River.

The Chaobai River flows southward, and the Beiyun River also carries some thrust from the Chaobai River and the Wenyu River. The Haihe River flows directly into the inland sea, so we sailed with the current all the way.

The thrust of water is much greater than the force of the soldiers rowing. When sailing downstream, the soldiers only need to row a little harder and they can row hundreds of miles every hour.

It's no use now. The wind is from the north and the ocean current is to the south. We are sailing against the wind and the current. Even if the navy row hard, it will be difficult to reach hundreds of miles per hour.

It's easier in the sea because the current isn't very strong, but going upstream in the river is even harder. Even if the sailors rowed as hard as they could, they could only row about fifty miles per hour at most."

It seems like the fleet entering the Liaohe River is going upstream.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, then asked, "Father, are we going to rush there day and night?"

There's no need to rush this time.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "The navy officers and soldiers will be very tired if they row the boats day and night. Even if there are two groups taking turns, it will still be very tiring.

Therefore, unless necessary, we generally do not rush day and night, especially when the distance is relatively long. The navy soldiers will be too tired to row day and night for several days.

It would be great if we had a steam-powered ship. A steam engine is tireless and can sail on the sea at night as long as the moon is dim and the stars are sparse."

Unfortunately, the steam engine had not yet been developed, so they could only rely on manpower to row the boat.

Little Zhu Changxun silently estimated for a while, then asked, "Father, doesn't that mean it will take us six or seven days to reach Zhaozhouwei?"

Oh, that’s quite accurate.

Wanli nodded with satisfaction and said, "Yes, it will take at least six or seven days.

This was the case after the Grand Canal was completed. If there was no Songliao Grand Canal, we would have to go ashore and take a horse carriage when we reached the north bank of the Liaohe River, which would have taken at least two more days.

Furthermore, it would be very difficult for us to carry these boilers and iron pipes over, because horse-drawn carriages cannot carry heavy objects. The cargo carried by these thousands of centipede ships would require at least 50,000 to 60,000 horse-drawn carriages."

Fifty to sixty thousand carriages!

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun nodded slowly and said, "That's indeed very troublesome. It will probably take a whole day just to load it onto the truck."

This little guy is thinking more and more comprehensively. Wanli nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "This is the benefit of the construction of the Grand Canal.

The boilers and iron pipes we brought are nothing. They only weigh tens of millions of pounds in total, and can be transported in one trip by 50,000 to 60,000 horse-drawn carriages.

The amount of grain that will be produced in Nurgandusi is truly terrifying. The plain we occupy now alone can produce 100 to 200 million mu of land, and at least 300 to 400 million dan of grain a year.

Calculate how many carriages are needed to transport 100 million dan of grain, and how many carriages are needed to transport 200 million dan of grain."

How can so much food be produced there?!

How many carriages would it take to pull this?

A horse-drawn carriage can only carry ten stone of grain in one trip.

In other words, if you want to transport the entire grain in one trip, you will need 10 million horse-drawn carriages to transport 100 million shi of grain, and 20 million horse-drawn carriages to transport 200 million shi of grain!
This is too scary.

Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, then suddenly said, "Father, I understand. The main purpose of building this Grand Canal is to transport grain."

You finally understand.

I didn’t tell you in detail last time.

I have to talk to you carefully this time.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Yes, the reason why we spent so much manpower, material resources and financial resources to build the Grand Canal is mainly to bring the grain produced there.

That place is like a big granary, the big granary of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

You haven't read the history books yet, so you don't know how many famines there were in the Central Plains dynasties throughout history.

Throughout the dynasties, it was not uncommon for the Central Plains dynasties to suffer from famine due to natural disasters or wars.

Once a famine breaks out, people will suffer misery, with corpses of starving people everywhere and a sharp decline in population. It is not uncommon for people to rebel due to hunger.

With this large granary, we no longer have to worry. The grain produced here will not only feed everyone in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, but at least when natural disasters strike, we will have no problem providing relief to tens of millions of victims."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He had indeed not read the history books, but he had heard of the rebellion of hungry people.

The huge granary of Nurgandusi could actually provide relief to tens of millions of starving people. How big was that granary?

The fleet sailed northward through Liaodong Bay, Liaohe River, and Songliao Grand Canal for six or seven days before finally arriving at Zhaozhouwei.

At about 5 p.m. that afternoon, as the sun set, the tents scattered across the confluence of the Nenjiang and Songhua rivers finally came into view.

The little ones cheered happily in the adults' arms.

They were a little tired of riding the boat after several days in a row, and now they just wanted to get off the boat and play.

Wanli stood on the deck holding little Zhu Changxun, raised the telescope with one hand and glanced around, and couldn't help but nodded slightly.

The canal's terminus was now quite different from when he had left it.

The ruins of the Zhaozhou Post Station have been cleared away, and the docks along the river are densely packed like a comb, with rows of houses on the shore still under construction.

When Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan heard that they were about to arrive, she had already waited at the dock with Prince of the North Zhu Changxu.

Minister of Works Zeng Tongheng, Qi Jiguang, Zhang Yuande, Qin Bangping and others also came.

As soon as their ship docked at the pier, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan couldn't wait to fly over, hugged the little Prince of Nan Zhu Changzhi from Princess Yunhe's arms, and kissed her endlessly with tears in her eyes.

She really missed this precious little boy so much.

Seeing this, Wanli hurried forward to comfort him, and then carried little Zhu Changxun off the boat.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, he winked at Li Xuancheng.

Li Xuancheng immediately took out the imperial edict and read it aloud.

The Grand Canal is a great achievement that will last for generations to come. Minister of Works Zeng Tongheng worked day and night to lead everyone to complete the construction of the Grand Canal, so he was naturally rewarded handsomely.

According to the previous rules, the Minister of Works could be promoted one level if he presided over the renovation of the imperial palace.

This time, Wanli directly promoted Zeng Tongheng two levels and made him the first-rank grand tutor!
Zeng Tongheng was extremely excited.

This is a great honor. During the more than 200 years of the Ming Dynasty, there were only a handful of people who were granted the title of Three Dukes while still alive, and even fewer who were granted the title posthumously.

Being a first-rank official brings honor to the family, honor to the family!

Zeng Tongheng was so excited that he was shaking on the ground.

Seeing this, Wanli hurriedly pulled Zeng Tongheng up with his own hands.

He was just about to greet everyone when a navy clipper came rushing towards them.

Immediately afterwards, a postman with a command flag on his back leaped from the boat, walked over quickly, knelt on one knee, and said urgently, "Your Majesty, this is an urgent message from the Yunnan Provincial Administration Commission, traveling 800 miles."

Yunnan?

Wanli took the envelope and opened it, and his expression changed slightly.

The Myanmar Xuanwei Office assembled an army of over 100,000 to attack the Mengyang Xuanwei Office, and the southwest was in crisis!
(End of this chapter)