Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 467 North Korea Special Offer
"Woo!"

On the ninth day of winter in the seventeenth year of Yongle, accompanied by the sound of a steam whistle, a huge concrete building suddenly appeared in the east of Beijing on the vast plain.

This building is twelve miles away from Chaoyang Gate in the east of Beijing. The entire building consists of a main hall running north and south.

The main hall is four feet high, half a mile long from north to south, and thirty feet wide from east to west. The walls of the hall are pushed out of the building, the cornices are raised in the sky, and the height of the roof of the hall is proportional and well-proportioned.

The roof of the hall is covered with green glazed tiles, with a pair of light blue sitting dragons entwined at both ends of the main ridge, and dark green owl kisses squatting on the vertical ridge.

At the north and south corners of the side hall stand a three-story, five-foot-four-corner attic, which is exquisite and clear and has a unique charm.

The main hall has two tall gates, one for the exit and one for the entrance, and both are guarded by soldiers.

Walking into it from the outside, the high space and reserved glass lighting windows make the entire hall look bright.

Upon entering, the first thing you will undergo is luggage inspection. There are four male and female inspectors and eight inspection gates.

After the inspection, I entered the waiting hall and saw rows of wooden benches, enough to accommodate five to six thousand people.

There are public toilets everywhere in the station and twenty ticket gates. The ticket gate is separated from the outside by an iron fence. A station sign is hung high on the ticket platform, recording the cost of going to each station.

There are currently twelve stops listed on the sign, and the cost of each stop is about ten cents.

"The Beijing East Railway Station can accommodate tens of thousands of people. The platform has three platforms and four lines. It is now connected to the Northeast Railway and the Beijing-Beijing Railway."

"The two railways run from Jiangpu in Yingtian Prefecture to Songyuan in Zhaozhou Prefecture, with a total length of 4,820 miles. If you want to take a train from Jiangpu to Songyuan, the ticket price is 820 wen per person."

"However, two railways are currently under construction starting from Beijing East Railway Station. Currently, only three stations of the Beijing-Beijing Railway, Yongqing, Bazhou and Baoding, are connected, with a mileage of 160 miles."

"There are also four stations on the Northeast Railway: Tongzhou, Yingzhou, Jizhou and Yangfan, with a mileage of 150 miles."

In the Beijing East Railway Station, Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, was introducing officials from the six ministries, six prefectures, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, including Zhu Di, Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaosui, Zhu Zhanji, and Xia Yuanji.

He led everyone through the waiting area and onto the platform.

There are two railways between the three platforms, leading to the north and south respectively.

A train on the railway that had been waiting for a long time was parked quietly on the track, and Huang Fu led the team to visit the train first.

"This is a train. Although it is only a train transporting road construction materials, its speed can already reach a full load of 360 miles a day, and it can travel 30 miles every hour."

"With the speed of this train, it only takes five hours to reach Yangfan and Baoding."

"The current train can carry nearly two hundred tons of cargo, or five hundred people, at a speed of thirty miles per hour. If the cargo box is unloaded and it is just driven by the locomotive, the speed can reach ninety miles per hour. Only It takes two hours and a quarter or two to reach Yangfan and Baoding.”

While the ministers were still sighing at the steel body of the train, Huang Fu's words made everyone speechless.

Carrying 500 people, it can still cover 360 miles a day. The ministers are all officials who receive memorials and documents from various yamen all year round, so they naturally know the mileage of post stations in various places in the Ming Dynasty.

Nowadays, the distance from Beijing to Nanjing is more than 1,600 miles, and even from Beijing East Railway Station to Jiangpu, it is only about 1,700 miles.

According to Huang Fu, if something happens in Nanjing, wouldn't Beijing be able to send troops to Nanjing within five days?

And this is just one train. If there are ten or one hundred trains, it can send 5,000 or 50,000 troops to Nanjing.

This kind of projection power is so terrifying. It can be said that wherever a railway is built, the local area will face the threat of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops projecting.

It was only 5,000 miles from Beijing to Jiaozhi City. It would take at most half a month to send tens of thousands of troops from Beijing to the local area. Even if any rebellion broke out, it would probably be suppressed before it could expand.

For a time, many officials looked at each other.

The construction of the railway began at the beginning of last year, and the laying of the rails began in July this year. Now it has been completed in just over four months, 1,560 miles from the north to the south. At this rate, it will be three years and four months at most, two years later. The Beijing Railway can be fully connected.

It will take at most four years and five months for the entire Northeast Railway to be completed.

Thinking of this, the ministers were all speechless, thinking that local officials might not have a good time in the future.

"Okay Huang Fu, let someone connect the locomotive to the passenger car and take us for a walk."

"I accept the teaching order!"

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, Huang Fu made people move.

Soon, as the whistle sounded, a black train made a shrill whistle and pulled the solid wood carriage onto the railway track in front of everyone.

Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di walked in first, and the officials followed carefully and got into the "monster"'s belly.

Because it was an experience, this locomotive only pulled one carriage, and one carriage was nine feet wide. Except for the two-foot-wide aisle in the middle, two people could sit on the three and a half feet left and right.

So when you walk into the car, you will see two seats on the left and right. The chairs are made of solid wood, with a sewn cushion and backrest. They are stuffed with cotton, so it is okay to sit on them.

The carriage is eight feet long. Excluding the ten feet occupied by the passage and toilet, the length for sitting and resting is seven feet. The distance between each row is three feet. There are twenty-two rows in one carriage and it can accommodate 88 people.

The number of officials who came to visit this time was about thirty, so it was still a little sparse after sitting down.

After Huang Fu, Minister of Industry and Industry, taught how to wear a seat belt, he squatted down and asked Zhu Gaoxu who was sitting there: "Your Highness, this speed..."

Since it was not fully loaded, the speed of the train could be increased, so Huang Fu asked specifically.

"Drive as fast as you can!" Zhu Di was afraid that the problem was not serious, but Zhu Gaoxu quickly interrupted: "80% of the highest speed is enough."

"Yes..." Huang Fu didn't dare to listen to Zhu Di. If something happened to the train, he would be finished.

"Woo-"

Not long after Huang Fu got up and left, the train whistle started to sound. Most people frowned, obviously not very used to the harsh sound.

They opened the windows made of thick glass, and the scenery slowly began to recede.

Except for the stifling steam when setting off, everyone quickly got used to this feeling.

Since it carried less than one-tenth of its full load of passengers, the train picked up speed very quickly.

Not long after the train left the train station, the surrounding scenery began to move backwards crazily.

Every other mile, the ministers could see a post, which was the Railway Troopers and Horses Division post that protected the railway tracks.

"Isn't this speed more than thirty miles?"

"Brother Weizhe, I feel like vomiting..."

"Meng Ming, hold on, we'll be here soon..."

There were constant discussions in the carriage, all reaching the ears of Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu.

Fortunately for Zhu Gaoxu, he had been in a car before and would not get carsick at all. Although Zhu Di could get carsick, he experienced it from time to time and gradually got used to it.

Now seeing the embarrassment of the ministers, his face was filled with joy.

"Second brother, I can't do it anymore..."

Zhu Gaochi was the first to react. Zhu Gaoxu looked back and saw that not only Zhu Gaochi but also Zhu Gaosui had reacted. Only Zhu Zhanji was fine.

"Don't worry, I've prepared things for you, Yisha!"

Zhu Gaoxu ordered Yishuha, and Yishuha immediately asked several soldiers to start distributing wooden buckets for the ministers to use for vomiting. There were a lot of sawdust in them to cover up the smell.

"vomit!!"

"vomit……"

After getting the barrel, many civil servants who were motion-sick began to vomit. For a while, the carriage was filled with the sound of vomiting one after another.

The sound was quite contagious. Many people who didn't want to vomit at first couldn't help but vomit when they saw others vomiting.

It was just pity for the soldiers, who kept going to and from the toilet with vomit in their hands without touching the ground.

Fortunately, the vomiting only lasted for a while. As the busy period passed, the ministers could no longer vomit anything and could only sit quietly and enjoy the receding scenery outside the window.

"Isn't this speed eighty miles?"

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu curiously, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded: "Absolutely."

While the two were talking, the train began to climb higher, and they came to the top of the North Canal.

This section of the river is one mile wide, but because it is a man-made canal, its water depth is only seven or eight feet.

The Ministry of Industry started building a high bridge here at the beginning of last year and it was not completed until August this year.

The bridge is eight feet above the water. This bridge alone cost nearly three hundred thousand dollars.

Feeling the bridge quickly crossing the North Canal and looking at the ships in the distance, not only the officials were shocked by this scene, but also the ships passing by looked up at the speeding train.

Before everyone could feel it, the train had already crossed the bridge and slowly slowed down.

The ministers were still wondering why they had slowed down, but they saw that they had entered a place surrounded by walls.

Soon, the platform appeared again, but the sign hanging on the platform here was not Beijing East, but Tongzhou.

"Arrived in Tongzhou?"

"Twenty miles, so fast?"

"This... doesn't seem like even half an hour?"

For a moment, the ministers felt like they were in another world, and Huang Fu appeared again, teaching them to take off their seat belts.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu walked in front and got off the train first, and the ministers followed their footsteps and got off the train.

When their feet stepped on the platform of Tongzhou Station and looked at the peasants who were carrying food to get off the train, they believed that they had arrived at Tongzhou Station.

"Isn't this... too fast?"

The ministers sighed, but Zhu Gaoxu thought it was just ordinary.

For those who have never experienced it, the speed of the train just now was like a thousand miles per day, something that even a horse could not match.

But for those who have experienced it, the speed just now is just a little faster than the electric bicycles that were speed-limited in later generations.

If there were no speed limit and the road conditions were better, a person could even drive an e-bike past the train they just rode without looking back, and they wouldn't even be able to see the e-bike's taillights.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu felt a little sad, while the ministers blushed and excitedly discussed with their colleagues around them what the appearance of the train meant.

"Second brother, those people from Taixue can actually research this thing." "If there is such a thing, wouldn't it only take me three or four days to get back to Changsha?"

Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaosui were sitting behind Zhu Di and the others, and naturally heard their conversation with Huang Fu, as well as their conversation about traveling at seventy miles an hour.

Seventy miles an hour, more than eight hundred miles a day, Zhu Gaosui can be sent back to Changsha in four days at most, and Zhu Gaochi can be sent back to Kunming in six days.

"That's the theory, but the imperial court doesn't have that much money to build a railway to the southwest."

"Besides, you are only going to return in one carriage. I'm afraid that the dozens of guards you have with you won't be useful if something happens."

Zhu Gaoxu attacked the two brothers' ideas, but Zhu Zhanji said:

"If you bring two to three hundred guards, it will only take you eleven or two days to reach Beijing or Kunming, right?"

"I wonder if my nephew will be able to see the train from Beijing to Kunming in the future?"

Zhu Zhanji suddenly spoke, and Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him, thinking of the age at which he died.

"Of course I can. My eldest nephew is strong and has no problem living to be sixty or seventy years old!"

Zhu Gaoxu opened his eyes and told lies. Zhu Gaochi was still grinning when he heard the words. Only Zhu Zhanji felt a little weird.

"My nephew will be very satisfied if he can live to sixty."

Zhu Zhanji was "modest", and Zhu Gaoxu smiled awkwardly after hearing this.

As far as the eldest nephew's performance in history is concerned, let alone sixty or fifty, it is difficult...

"Your Majesty, since you have arrived in Tongzhou, how about checking Jingcang?"

Xia Yuanji's face was a little pale. He had vomited a lot on the train just now, and now he felt exhausted.

But even so, he still dutifully reminded Zhu Di to go to the Beijing warehouse.

When Zhu Di heard what he said, he thought it made sense, so he said, "Wang Yan, Yi Shiha, is driving the capital warehouse."

"My slave, take your orders!" Wang Yan and Yi Shiha agreed, and immediately began to arrange the convoy to Jingcang.

Since we had arranged to come to Tongzhou early in the morning, soldiers and horses from Shangzhi arrived here early in the morning to wait.

When Zhu Di and others came out, the carriage was ready. Zhu Gaoxu got into a carriage alone, while Li Shi, Richard and others chose to ride horses to relieve the discomfort of motion sickness.

After walking a certain distance, the two of them came up shamelessly and said with a smile: "Your Highness, can this Northeast Railway be built to reach Liucheng and Jilin City?"

"Yes, Your Highness, we are not short of the two or three hundred miles. It will be more convenient for us to go home."

"Go home?" Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the two of them and said disgustedly: "You guys just barely moved the six cities back to the pass."

"Just go back and take a look, see the things and miss the people."

The two people were not well-educated and used idioms casually, which made Zhu Gaoxu shake his head helplessly, but in the end he still said:
"Don't worry. Jilin Shipyard is very important. A railway to Jilin will definitely be built in the future. You don't have to worry."

"Yes!" When the two of them saw that their goal was achieved, they immediately smiled and slowed down their horses.

Watching them leave, Zhu Gaoxu also had a smile on his face.

Jilin... Why doesn't he want to see the place where he started?

"How is the situation in Jilin Prefecture now? Are the people living well?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the scenery outside the window and asked without looking back.

Yishiha sat aside, keeping a smile on his face: "Your Highness, don't worry, I often send people back. Jilin Mansion currently has more than 50,000 households, more than 320,000 people, and more than 3 million acres of cultivated land. The people's lives are better than those in the pass. The people are even better."

"More than three million acres?"

Zhu Gaoxu did not expect that Jilin Prefecture still maintained an average of ten acres of cultivated land per capita. This shows that the local animal power is still developed, otherwise it would be impossible to cultivate ten acres of land.

"Jilin has always responded to His Highness's call. With this promotion of new crops, many people have planted sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and peanuts, and they have all enjoyed the benefits."

As Yi Shiha explained, Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said, "Tell them that I will go back to see them when the railway is completed."

"Yes!" Yi Shiha agreed, and at this moment they also arrived at Jingcang in Tongzhou.

Tongzhou Jingcang was built by Zhu Gaoxu. There are five warehouses in the east, west, north and south. Each warehouse can store millions of stones of grain.

In other words, if the grain in the Beijing warehouse is full, it will be enough to feed the entire people of Beijing for nearly twenty months.

Zhu Gaoxu got out of the car and followed Zhu Di. After checking, everyone walked into the capital.

The design of Jingcang was imitated by Zhu Gaoxu and later generations. Some materials that could not be found were replaced with inferior ones.

Every month, Jingcang transports hundreds of thousands of stones of grain to the capital via the canal, and at the same time, grain from the south will also arrive here for replenishment.

So walking in the fence between the grains, you just have to reach out and grab the grains.

Zhu Di inserted the grain tube in his hand into the grain pile and reached the bottom.

When he took it out, he couldn't help but nod: "It's last year's grain, not bad."

After he was satisfied, he continued to inspect Jingcang, one after another, until all five inspections were completed, everyone returned to the train station in Tongzhou.

Before returning, Zhu Di also asked the officials if they wanted to eat. Upon hearing this, the officials quickly shook their heads like a rattle.

They would rather die with an empty stomach than vomit in the car and lose their face.

Although their face has been lost, they can still regain it if they are shameless.

When Zhu Di saw that they refused to eat, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful. He also wanted to see the embarrassing appearance of these old barbarians again.

Seeing that the officials didn't take the bait, he could only take the bus back to Beijing without interest.

After running around for a day, Zhu Gaoxu had no time to go to Qianqing Palace for dinner with Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi and the others. Instead, he hurried back to Chunhe Palace to deal with the memorial.

Perhaps because of a tacit understanding, Guo Yan seemed to know that he had not eaten, so he specially cooked a meal of three dishes and one soup for Zhu Gaoxu.

When she arrived, the sky had turned dark. Zhu Gaoxu lit the lamp and processed the memorial. It was not until the eunuchs on duty sang the song that he looked up and saw Guo Yan coming.

"Didn't you eat?"

Guo Yan took the dinner plate from the female officer's hand, and upon seeing this, Yi Shiha quickly cleared the table.

Although Zhu Gaoxu was not allowed to eat at his desk, he was used to eating and processing memorials at the same time, and others did not dare to criticize him.

"I didn't eat. The officer from the Sixth Department vomited all the way in the car. The smell made me lose my appetite."

"But now that you've delivered it, I have an appetite."

Zhu Gaoxu put down his pen with a chuckle, and Guo Yan also laid out the food for him.

A plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, a plate of fried mutton and minced beef with chili pepper, and a plate of three fresh soup.

Zhu Gaoxu ordered the imperial chef to make these meals, but he didn't expect Guo Yan to also learn this skill.

"It's all what I like to eat."

Zhu Gaoxu said, picked up the rice bowl and started eating.

Guo Yan didn't say anything or do anything, just looked at him quietly. It wasn't until he finished eating that Guo Yan started to clear the table for him personally, and then squeezed his stiff shoulders.

"The doctor at Sunchon Hospital told you to move around more. Look at your shoulders. They are getting stiffer and stiffer, but even I can't hold them anymore."

"For things like today's trip to Tongzhou, once the train is built, you can experience it a few more times. It's not good to be stuck in the palace all the time."

Guo Yan expressed concern both inside and outside her words. Others didn't know it, but she was very aware of her Highness's body.

Although he still looks energetic and vigorous, Zhu Gaoxu often suffers from migraines when he is only thirty-seven due to the disadvantages of not getting enough rest.

"I don't trust people below me to handle things. Even if they handle it, I will find faults and make changes. It's better for me to do it myself."

"There is a limit to what you can do by yourself. Please be careful and don't strain yourself."

As the couple chatted, Zhu Gaoxu also breathed a sigh of relief:

"With trains, government affairs will be much easier. When the time comes, we will let them go. Even if there is a problem, we can report it in time. It will not be like before, it will take several months for the policy implementation to be reported back."

"in addition……"

Zhu Gaoxu always talks about government affairs, while Guo Yan only acts as a listener and rarely puts forward his own opinions and views.

After all, before he married Zhu Gaoxu, Guo Ying told her that the harem was not allowed to be involved in politics. After he became the crown prince, Guo Ying told her many times.

In this way, she will naturally remember it deeply.

If Empress Xu hadn't died early, she wouldn't have taken over the affairs of the harem.

"By the way, in the harem, North Korea, Japan, Siam and other countries each sent many beautiful ladies and palace ladies. I originally wanted to tell His Majesty the whereabouts of these beautiful ladies, but yesterday His Majesty said that he would retire to the throne of the Supreme Emperor in the near future. For his position, his concubines and maids will be taken to the Daming Palace."

"There are too many palace maids and eunuchs sent here this time. It would be better to stay and take care of you then."

When Guo Yan talked about this, Zhu Gaoxu asked, "How many did you send?"

"Almost twenty beautiful ladies, more than six hundred palace maids, and more than five hundred eunuchs, from all over the world."

As she spoke, Guo Yan massaged Zhu Gaoxu's stiff shoulders, but after speaking, she chuckled:

"As for the palace maids and eunuchs, the ones from Korea are more convenient to use. The Japanese ones are a little short, and the skins of Siam and Champa countries are too dark to be used to it."

Seeing Guo Yan saying this, Zhu Gaoxu touched her hand and comforted her:
"Tomorrow I will issue an edict so that countries such as Japan and Champa do not need to send palace maids and eunuchs. From now on, North Korea will exclusively provide them."

"In addition, you should calculate how many eunuchs and maids are needed in this harem early, and pay traveling expenses to the maids who are over twenty-five years old and send them out of the palace."

"If you are worried that you won't be able to get married, find some good men in the army to marry them."

"Over in North Korea, please explain in the future that they should choose eunuchs who are over ten years old and palace maids over thirteen years old to pay tribute. If they are too young, they will not be sensible."

After the explanation, Zhu Gaoxu chatted with Guo Yan for another quarter of an hour, and then reluctantly watched her leave, leaving him to deal with the memorial with only a sigh.

(End of this chapter)