Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 442 Circumnavigation
"This is a model of a steam engine ship and a steam locomotive in the future. Look at it like this..."

Standing in the research institute of Taixue, Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanhe looked at an empty room with interest.

There are subject models and subject content in the room. Its area is not large, but it stores hundreds of subjects of different sizes.

These topics range from agriculture to industry, covering almost all aspects that Zhu Di and others imagined.

From simple soil fertilizers to urea, to phosphate fertilizers and potassium fertilizers, it is just a series of agricultural issues. Once overcome step by step, it is very likely that the Ming Dynasty's grain output per mu will increase by more than 30%.

Based on the current environment and land conditions of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the cultivated land area does not increase, more than 650 million acres of cultivated land can feed a maximum of about 130 million people.

If the grain yield per acre increases by 30%, the current cultivated land can feed 40 million more people.

This is just the current situation of cultivated land. If the situation of cultivated land in Guan Nei during the Qing Dynasty and the Northeast and Jiaozhi during the Republic of China is added up, then the cultivated land that the Ming Dynasty can cultivate during this low temperature period will not be less than 2 billion acres, which can feed 400 million people. The three achievements of growth are to feed more than 100 million people.

Food is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also the best means for the Ming Dynasty to control most of the vassal countries in the future.

"Can this tractor really reclaim dozens of acres of wasteland a year, as you said?"

The father, son, grandfather and grandson wandered around Taixue for an hour, and finally left here reluctantly.

Grandpa and father are still here, so I still have to pretend to be grandson or son. When they leave, I will be the eldest.

Not to mention steamships, which can greatly shorten the sailing time of ships and help the Ming Dynasty rule Southeast Asia.

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu also looked at him and said, "There are more than 36,400 people in the school, and there are only four classes. The number of graduates varies every year. This year, there are more than 6,700 people."

"If it can be done, it will definitely be able to reclaim dozens or even hundreds of acres of wasteland. However, with the court's technology, it is still not up to standard."

Although Zhu Gaoxu could use a steam engine tractor, he had never seen a steam tractor, and steam power requires fuel and water, which is very inconvenient for farmers.

I can't wait for a hundred years, but I can wait for a few decades.

Zhu Gaoxu is not arrogant. Many technical standards of internal combustion engines are not what the Ming Dynasty can achieve today. They cannot even understand the most basic thermal efficiency of steam engines. Asking them to study internal combustion engines is like asking future generations to study aerospace aircraft carriers.

The emergence of steam engines has made Zhu Di realize that future wars may completely change.

He had heard from his father in the research institute just now that many things in the research institute would take more than ten years, even decades, or hundreds of years to develop.

Thinking of these, Zhu Di, who was sitting in the big carriage, couldn't help but sigh: "With these things, our children and grandchildren in the future will definitely be able to surpass you and me."

Due to the opening of Jiangning and Shangyuan middle schools, Taixue has stopped recruiting primary school graduates. Therefore, although there are tens of thousands of students in the outer city of Taixue, they may be the last batch of students from Taixue.

After they graduate, Taixue will become a place dedicated to research regardless of inner and outer cities.

The reason why the Ming army's artillery did not have a special ballistics program and chose to let the artillery explore on their own was because the artillery standards were inconsistent. Each artillery was slightly different, and the ballistics of each artillery would also be different.

Seventy-one years old, this is a long life for anyone.

Today's tanks can be used to defend against artillery and require manpower to push them, with soldiers hiding behind them.

The success of the steam train was an important step. It established the self-confidence of the Taixue Research Institute and allowed the three generations of current and future kings Zhu Di, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Zhanhe to see the limitless possibilities of science.

Therefore, he did not leave the subject of steam tractors, but directly left the subject of internal combustion engines and internal combustion tractors.

This is true for artillery, not to mention muskets and internal combustion engines.

Zhu Di has already seen the means of current war. Trains can replace the long supply of manpower that once traveled thousands of miles. With it, the Ming army can even conquer the barren Western Regions, and can dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops from the Central Plains to quell rebellions at any time.

"After they graduate, they teach in middle schools, right? How many are there now?"

Although the times are different, the basic materials and theoretical knowledge required to limit science and technology are roughly the same.

Then when the chariot can move on its own in the future, the soldiers can also hide behind it and use the chariot to resist the cannonballs.

For a king, the role of the train can be military, it can also be for people's livelihood, and it can even be used for the emperor's tours and entertainment. Its advantages are irresistible to anyone.

Even if you don't live to be seventy-one and live to be in your sixties, you can still witness the rapid changes in the future.

Especially for people like Zhu Zhanhe who have almost never left Yingtian Mansion from birth to now, its attraction is undoubtedly fatal.

The quality of steel required for internal combustion engines can be achieved, but reaching it does not mean that it can be mass produced.

Zhu Zhanhe secretly rejoiced in his heart. At the age of twelve, he didn't know how uncomfortable it was to be separated from life or death, nor did he know how heavy the burden on his shoulders was.

If it were not for the successful research on steam trains, they would probably have deep doubts about what they have learned.

"Many of these topics and models are prepared for tens or hundreds of years to come. Now as long as we can make good use of the steam engine, we can bring the Ming Dynasty's national power to the peak of ancient and modern times."

Compared with him, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu are concerned about the situation outside the big train.

In fact, most of the topics within the project are just Zhu Gaoxu's personal "whimsical" descriptions, or models with corresponding appearances.

In addition, Zhu Di also saw a chariot. Although Zhu Gaoxu said that it was unlikely to be researched during the lifetime of his father and son, Zhu Di knew very well that internal combustion engine chariots and tanks were nothing more than upgraded versions of current chariots.

He only had a rough idea of ​​the throne, and only saw power, not responsibility.

Zhu Zhanhe was quite eccentric, and seemed to be secretly happy about his age for the first time.

Zhu Gaoxu put the tractor model in Zhu Di's hand on the table, and then took Zhu Di for a walk.

Standing in front of the model, Zhu Di picked up a model of a tractor, and the shape of this model was similar to most of the later tractors during World War II.

Thinking of this, Zhu Zhanhe had already imagined the scene of him taking a ship and train to travel all over the world in the future.

For students of this era, even though they have studied ten years of primary and secondary education courses, things like airplanes, trains, and ships are undoubtedly a fantasy to them.

Zhu Di was talking about him and Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu smiled after hearing this and did not refute.

He had long learned about human lifespan and genes in his middle school biology class. If what was written in the book was true, then as long as he had no diseases, he might be able to live to the age of the emperor.

"After they graduate, they will be sent to Qingzhou, Beijing, Shanxi, Xi'an, and Chengdu to teach in middle schools."

"The imperial court's tentative plan is to have one middle school in each province and each capital, and two under direct control."

"Middle schools will be set up based on the implementation of the New Deal and the needs of middle schools."

"Basically, in the provinces mentioned above, a large number of students will graduate in the next one to two years, and there will be a demand for middle schools."

"95% of the 36,400 students in Etherology will become teachers after graduation. They correspond to about 300,000 middle school students, and it is very likely that the enrollment will be insufficient."

Middle school is not compulsory, so it is unlikely that a white body family with no sense of the overall situation will continue to choose to support its students, and Zhu Gaoxu is not prepared to force ten years of education.

In his opinion, five years of compulsory education in primary school is enough. It's not that he doesn't want to go to higher education, but that Ming Dynasty cannot afford such a heavy education pressure.

The current education funding has reached more than 12 million yuan, accounting for one-third of the total expenditure of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a tipping point because so many civilians are uneducated, so there must be a lot of pressure to recruit students in the first place.

Zhu Gaoxu suspended the implementation of the New Deal in Jiangxi and was prepared to wait for one more year.

If he waits one more year, students enrolled in places like Liaodong, Shandong, and Sichuan will graduate. The number of subsequent students will not be as large as at the beginning, and there will be more free time for teaching.

These freed up educational resources can be transferred to Jiangxi, thereby reducing education expenditures.

At present, the number of registered teachers in Ming Dynasty is more than 420,000, and the number of students is more than 6 million.

This is still the result of the failure to implement the New Deal in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Huguang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan.

The combined population of these provinces totals more than 34 million, with at least 4 million students and more than 200,000 needed for education.

Ming Dynasty could no longer recruit so many teachers, so it could only delay the speed of new policies in each province.

In the current education basics, the number of students graduating from Beijing, Beijing and seven provinces this year is about 900,000, and next year it will be more than 1.2 million.

From then on it increased year by year, reaching the highest level of 1.36 million in one year.

The corresponding enrollment is relatively stable, about 500,000 per year, and the required teaching is enough to maintain 20,000 people.

As they graduate, the number of extra teachers in the basic base will also increase little by little from more than 20,000 people this year to more than 30,000 people next year.

By the time the first batch of students graduates, the number of students from the two capitals and seven provinces will be basically three million, and it will be enough to maintain teaching at 200,000.

The remaining 220,000 teachers will be transferred to Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces in batches over the next five years.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's estimation, after another seven years, the most difficult stage of education will be over. By then, education funding can drop to less than 10 million yuan, and then expenditures will increase as the population gradually increases.

However, correspondingly, the gradual increase in population also meant that the court's tax revenue continued to increase.

In order to carry out the New Deal well, Zhu Gaoxu will not use troops in other places except the chieftains in Guangxi and Yunnan in the next few years.

The old man's march north had already defeated the Oara tribe, and they would not be able to recover within ten years.

Ten years later, the Ming Dynasty will be a Ming Dynasty that is unparalleled in the world and dominates all barbarians.

Thinking about the future, Zhu Gaoxu's mood also changed from depression to relaxation, and the large train they were riding in also sailed towards the palace... "Gu... Gugu..."

Almost at the same time, when Zhu Gaoxu and the others returned to the palace city in the afternoon, Zheng He on the other side of the ocean walked tiredly into the stone house.

Sitting on the bed, he could hear the party cheers in the distance and could vaguely see the bonfire in the distance.

This is the capital of the Eastern Kingdom, and Zheng He had just completed the canonization of Eastern King Atu during the day.

Wang Ren was right. Several civilized countries on this continent were indeed easy to talk to. After seeing the fleet and troops led by Zheng He, Atu agreed to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and at the same time conduct tribute trade with the imperial court.

The sound of footsteps sounded, and Zheng He looked around, and sure enough he saw Yang Zhan and Wang Ren walking into the stone house one after another.

After they walked in, they sat down and closed the door. The door was guarded by Ming army soldiers who had not drunk.

"That Atu is just afraid of the imperial court's strength. You stay in Dongzhou and have to guard against it."

Seeing them sitting down, Zheng He also spoke to Wang Ren and Wang Ren nodded:
"When I translated the matter of surrendering and paying tribute to them today, I saw something wrong with their expressions. If it hadn't been for the troops you brought, I guess they wouldn't have agreed easily."

After Wang Ren finished speaking, the taciturn Yang Zhan finally spoke: "The Xuanwei Division in Dongzhou must have troops and horses stationed there. When Chen Xuan and the others arrive, Chen Xuan and the others will take a boat to the east to return to the imperial court and make some suggestions to His Highness. "

"At least two guards must be stationed to maintain the imperial court's deterrence in Dongzhou and Beizhou. One less will not work."

Yang Zhan's words won the recognition of Zheng He and Wang Ren. At the same time, Zheng He also set his sights on Wang Ren again.

"The Eastern Kingdom has been solved. The Northern Kingdom (Aztec) has a small population as you said, so it should be easy to solve. What is not easy to solve now is the Southern Kingdom (Inca) in the south."

"Are you sure there is gold in the southern country?" Zheng He asked the question he was most concerned about, and Wang Ren nodded without thinking:
"There must be. There are a lot of gold ornaments there, and the gold mining methods are rough. Without a large amount of gold, it would be impossible to produce so many gold ornaments."

"In addition, I searched for silver mines according to the mine map given by His Highness, and found that there are indeed silver mines in the southern country, and they are easy to mine."

"It's a pity that across the Great Ming Ocean, we can't bring enough people to mine locally. In addition, we can't conflict with the Southern Kingdom, so we can only rely on the strength of the Southern Kingdom to mine silver mines."

Due to the weak military force of the Southern Kingdom, Wang Ren was full of thoughts of invading the Southern Kingdom, but Zheng He knew that this would be difficult.

"It's best not to!" Zheng He explained: "The current focus of the imperial court is on the southwest and Nanyang, and it cannot distract Dongzhou."

"Besides, Dongzhou is too far away from the imperial court and difficult to control. Even if it cultivates power, it will be easy to separatist power."

"It is better to follow what His Highness said and use the power of the Three Kingdoms to mine gold, silver and copper mines within the borders of the Three Kingdoms to solve the domestic money shortage problem."

"It doesn't matter if the southern country's methods are rough. There are millions of them and they are all interested in our products. That's enough."

In Zheng He's opinion, the Ming Dynasty was too far away from Dongzhou and Beizhou, and these places were not like Nanyang where Han people had migrated south since the Song Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty had at least hundreds of thousands of Han people as its base in Nanyang, but there was nothing in Dongzhou.

Nanyang is very close to the Ming Dynasty, but in the past seven or eight years, the Ming Dynasty has only increased the number of Han people from the original hundreds of thousands to less than 500,000 Han people, not to mention Dongzhou and Beizhou, which are several times farther away than Nanyang. Continent.

Moreover, with the implementation of the New Deal and the gradual stabilization of the domestic economy, even population migration in Nanyang and Jiaozhi became difficult. The number of people migrating normally every year continued to decline. The only way to consolidate overseas land was through the implementation of the New Deal and the migration of wealthy criminal households.

Under such an environment, it is really difficult to gain a foothold in Dongzhou and Beizhou.

Thinking this, Zheng He rubbed his brows and said, "Okay, in the next few days we will trade with various city-states in the Eastern Kingdom. After that, we will go to the Northern Kingdom, and then go south to the Southern Kingdom."

"By the way, Lord Yue..." Zheng He looked at Yang Zhan with an apologetic expression:

"It's enough for Wang Ren and I to go to the Southern Kingdom. Dongzhou City needs you to be stationed to receive the Dongyang Fleet."

"Leave it to me." Yang Zhan nodded in agreement without saying much. The once chirping young man in the teaching field had long since "died" before Jingnan.

Seeing him agree, Zheng He gradually felt relieved.

After a while, everyone dispersed, and began to organize trade the next morning, setting up a trade market outside the capital of the Eastern Kingdom.

Due to the long sailing distance, brown sugar and other difficult-to-preserve commodities had long been sold by Zheng He. The main items that could be transported to Dongzhou were porcelain and ready-made clothes.

Regarding the Three Kingdoms of Dongzhou, Zhu Gaoxu gave a relatively clear explanation. In order to let the local people accept the Ming culture, they would not sell cloth to them, but only the luxurious clothes of the Ming Dynasty.

If the local area is relatively hot, then sell cool clothes. In short, let them wear Han clothes and use Han products, and subtly change the other party's culture.

It has to be said that porcelain and ready-made clothes have been extremely popular. After all, Europeans have been able to exchange goods with local city-state tribes based on the coarse linen clothes they have worn in history. There is no reason why the more beautiful and more comfortable Ming Dynasty ready-made clothes cannot be used.

In addition to porcelain and ready-made clothes, some iron farm tools and weapons were also popular.

For trade, Zheng He only received gold and silver, as well as crop seeds needed by the Ming Dynasty, as well as rubber, cinchona bark and other goods.

Time passed little by little. Within half a month, Zheng He made away a lot of gold and silver from the Eastern Kingdom, but Zheng He also returned some through trade in rubber and cinchona bark.

After going back and forth like this, the people of Dongguo finally thought that Zheng He and the others were stupid. Some tree bark could be exchanged for beautiful and decent clothes, while Zheng He pretended that he had not made any money.

Of course, the nobles were not fools, and they could not hide the visible decrease in gold. But Zheng He said that he had not made any money, so there was nothing they could do. After all, there were five thousand soldiers with bright armor standing behind him.

After seeing the bravery of hundreds of people including Wang Ren, Atu and the others knew clearly what these five thousand people represented, which was the power that could destroy the Eastern Kingdom.

In desperation, they can only enjoy the goods and complain about the passing of gold.

Fortunately, Zheng He and others were not just doing business. They directed the Dongguo people to build many water conservancy facilities locally, and gave Atu the cattle that had been transported from the Middle East with great effort.

When giving them away, they also showed them the farm tools of the Ming Dynasty, let the cattle plow the land, and taught them how to irrigate and grow crops.

It has to be said that the new countries Wang Ren helped them find were all pretty good, at least they could grow wheat.

They also saw Zheng He's help to them, and gradually became less resistant to becoming a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

Through Wang Ren's translation, Zheng He also promised that if the local area suffered from famine, as long as they opened their mouths, the Ming Dynasty would definitely find a way to bring food and try its best to solve their problems.

Of course, these words were just polite remarks. Zheng He did not think that he could carry millions of stones of grain across the Great Ming Ocean and transport the grain to Dongzhou.

However, although food is not good, non-staple food is.

The new capital of the Eastern Kingdom is less than a hundred miles away from the Great Ocean. It only needs to open a post road to develop as far as possible towards the Great Ocean.

With the fishing methods of the Ming Dynasty, if there is a famine in the Eastern Kingdom, the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division can completely mobilize ships to fish, and one ship can solve the non-staple food problem of tens of thousands of people.

In addition, the oil produced by peanuts will also solve most of the problems. As long as all the grains in Dongguo are not extinct, then there are really many ways that Ming Dynasty can help Dongguo.

If grains in the East were to die out, then Ming Dynasty would probably have no time to take care of itself. After all, the climate is global.

With these promises, Atu gradually got closer to Zheng He and began to take the initiative to learn Mandarin so that he could ask for help from the Ming Dynasty in the future.

It's not surprising that they did this, after all, the previous alliance only died a few decades ago, and the reason was famine.

As long as the Ming Dynasty can help the Eastern Kingdom survive the famine, then the advantages of the Eastern Kingdom's proximity to the Ming Dynasty outweigh the disadvantages.

Because Atu was enlightened, the relationship between the two parties increased sharply.

At the same time, Wang Ren and Yang Zhan also took the time to send envoys to the Northern Kingdom. For the Northern Kingdom with only a few hundred thousand people, five thousand Ming troops were not something they could provoke. Naturally, they accepted the conditions of the Ming Dynasty and accepted the Northern Kingdom. At the same time, he called his subjects, paid tribute, and carried out trade.

Time passed little by little and soon turned from April to July. During this period, Zheng He also took the lead in leading four thousand Ming troops and Wang Ren south to the Southern Kingdom because he could not wait for Chen Xuan for a long time.

For more than half a month after they left, Yang Zhan often traveled back and forth between Dongzhou City and Dongguodu.

Seeing that the Dongyang Fleet did not appear for a long time, Yang Zhan couldn't help but worry about whether the fleet encountered a hurricane at sea.

Fortunately, his worries were unnecessary. As time came to July 17, when the bell of Dongzhou City rang, Yang Zhan, who was still sleeping, immediately got up, put on his middle coat and ran towards the city.

Dongzhou City has been continuously reinforced by more than a thousand people led by Yang Zhan. At this moment, it looks a bit like a city.

Yang Zhan ran out of the yard and saw the soldiers running towards the city on the street.

He did not waste any time and took the lead in running up the ten-foot-high city wall, snatching the telescope from a general and looking towards the sea level.

"you……"

The general who was robbed was about to curse, but when he saw that it was his own prince, he immediately shut his mouth.

Yang Zhan didn't pay attention to this. He just searched the sea for a moment and saw several ships in the distance.

"Mom, I've been waiting for more than three months, and I'm finally here for you!"

Looking at the several ships approaching gradually, Yang Zhan showed a smile on his face. He knew that these were the vanguard ships of the Oriental Fleet.

Since they appear, it means that Chen Xuan is not far from here.

Their appearance also means that half of the mission to the East and West has been completed.

"Ring the bell to make them hurry up!"

After leaving these words, Yang Zhan happily walked down the city wall, ready to go back and change clothes, and quietly waited for Chen Xuan and the others to arrive.

He can now imagine the scene of Chen Xuan bursting into tears when he came ashore...

(End of this chapter)