Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

No matter what era it is, those in power are actually more willing to pursue stability. After all, "sharing the blessings of peace" is the policy that best suits their core interests.

Zhu Youtang, who was sitting on the dragon chair, slowly sipped tea, his mind as clear as a mirror.

Although I have continuously trained this group of important ministers over the years, and have often eliminated some important ministers, many officials present may still disagree with such a large-scale project deep in their hearts.

It's just that they can't be entirely blamed for this matter. After all, the cost of this project is indeed astonishing, and can even be described as shocking in the past.

If we build a railway from Hangzhou to Beijing, it will not only require the efforts of the whole country, but also a large amount of debt. In particular, the problem of pig iron has become more serious.

If they have to deal with this super project, not only will they have to spend a lot of time and effort, but they will also probably lose their hat due to work mistakes.

Comparing their feelings, they are naturally unwilling to take such a big risk in their current position, and would rather enjoy a peaceful life comfortably.

Zhu Youtang felt the fragrance of tea and his eyes became sharp.

Although he can understand the unwillingness of some important ministers to make progress, if the Ming Dynasty wants to truly take off and lead all mankind to light up the technology tree, it must suffer this kind of pain.

If you don’t even have this pioneering spirit, if you can’t earn the reputation of being an infrastructure madman, then what will Ming do to dominate the entire world?

"You only see the difficulties of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, but if we complete the construction of this railway, how much convenience will it bring to the north and the south? Most of you adults are from the south. I must have experienced the journey to the capital to take the exam. We keep saying that we want to create peace for all generations. Now that Mingjun is here, shouldn’t we overcome all the difficulties and build a railway that connects the north and the south?" Chen Kun, the minister of industry, said with tears in his eyes, but he was playing the emotional card.

As soon as these words came out, Song Cheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, and other officials began to think seriously.

Although this is indeed a very ridiculous project, it is full of endless charm.

If the Ming Dynasty could build a railway connecting the two places, not only would the exchange of goods and people be closer, but it would also be more convenient for them to return to their hometown.

Although the Ming Dynasty already had the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal that connected the north and south waterways, this canal was greatly affected by the seasons and was incomparable with the railway in terms of efficiency and safety.

In particular, the railway uses the power of coal, while the canal relies on manpower. Having the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway will greatly reduce the transportation costs between the two places.

"Chen Shangshu is right! Today, the Ming Dynasty is in the best situation. If we don't repair it now, do you think the new dynasty will repair it in the future?" Cabinet minister Jia Jun has half-stepped into the coffin and is standing at the moment. Come out and support your successor.

It is said that as people get older, they become more greedy for life and afraid of death, but they also open up to many things. Life is only a hundred years long. If you don't do more practical things during your lifetime, you will only have room for regret when you die.

Based on his understanding of the court, if he had not met a wise king like Zhu Youtang who served the country and the people wholeheartedly, he would not have been able to find such a difficult thing to challenge.

"The future kings and ministers will definitely not have this kind of courage!"

"Don't talk about the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, even if the Beijing-Tianjin Railway may not be built!"

"If we don't set a leading role for future generations, Ming Dynasty's dominance of the world may be far away!"

…

As if someone from a dream was awakened by the words, cabinet minister Li Yu and other officials suddenly realized that they could not count on others who came after them, and they immediately started making fun of him.

The person who is really interested in this dynasty is actually not their group of important ministers, but the talented and ambitious empire in front of them. Only with him at the helm can the Ming Dynasty prosper.

If it was something that could not be accomplished in the hands of Emperor Hongzhi, it would be a fool's errand to expect that others would succeed.

"If we build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, it is indeed a great achievement, but the investment is too big, at least 100 million silver dollars, right? Can we get so much money?" Liu Xuan, Minister of the Ministry of War, seemed to be trapped by money, looking bitter The ground worriedly said.

One hundred million silver dollars?

Although Song Cheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice, and others supported this plan in their hearts, they still couldn't help but take a breath of cold air when they thought of the astronomical project funds.

In the past few years, they had been arguing over the five million silver dollars for the Ming-Myanmar Highway. Now the project cost they faced had reached 100 million silver dollars.

If the Ming Dynasty did not now have the right to mint coins, given the current fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty, I don’t know how many years it would take to collect this astronomical sum of money for the project.

But just thinking about such a huge investment now makes them feel unsure. Is it really okay to spend these 100 million silver dollars?

"My lords, you all seem to have a misunderstanding! Even though the project cost of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is 100 million, we can actually build it section by section. In fact, we don't need to raise 100 million silver dollars all at once. For example, if we have 10 million silver dollars every year, we First build a section from the capital to Shandong, so that our financial pressure will be much reduced!" He Cong, the Minister of Revenue, saw the reaction of everyone and pointed out the key point.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be compared to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Not to mention that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal only reached its current scale after many dynasties, even though it was also built in sections at the beginning.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty is able to build large-scale projects such as the Ming-Burma Highway and the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is precisely due to the Ming Dynasty's healthy finances, which have a fiscal surplus every year.

In addition to the large amount of tax revenue that can be collected each year, there is also the mining of overseas gold and silver mines.

Once the gold and silver mines in America are successfully mined, they may not be able to raise this astronomical 100 million silver dollars while the project is in progress.

"Seriously, these words wake up the dreamer. We don't even have to shell out 100 million silver dollars!"

"If we invest in batches over ten years, our pressure will indeed be much less!"

"Ten million silver dollars a year, and we can also issue national bonds. This money issue may not be unsolvable!"

…

After being reminded by He Cong, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, officials such as Shi Wanyi, Zuodu Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, reacted one after another and suddenly became optimistic about the project.

They have never been afraid of difficulties, and are willing to do more practical things for the country and the people. If they can build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, they are destined to leave their name in history.

Now that they can find ways to slowly raise money, they have no reason to stop this project that benefits the country and the people.

"Even if funds can be provided, we have used up all the pig iron to build the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, and continuous purchases from overseas can only solve the pig iron gap. If the pig iron required to build the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is said to be doubled, so How to deal with the huge amount of pig iron?" Liu Xuan, Minister of War, shook his head gently and raised the core problem again.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Chengqing, Duke of Jingguo, took the lead to express his position: "Aren't our Tangshan iron mines always being mined? If the pig iron mined in Tangshan is not enough, then each vassal country will be asked to increase the amount of pig iron they pay tribute. Naturally, they will be protected by us. Share the burden for our Ming Dynasty!"

Because he was a military commander, his character showed a strong character. He was not polite to the surrounding vassal countries, but preferred to speak with his fists.

For example, in the earlier war in Ryukyu, he was a staunch fighter.

Now that North Vietnam, Champa and South Vietnam all have iron mines, and North Korea and Japan can produce iron, they are naturally obliged to provide a batch of pig iron to the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with asking for money at home, he prefers overseas. He can obtain large quantities of pig iron from these vassal countries through various means.

"That's right. If it's not enough, just ask the vassal country for it!"

"Since they are under our protection, they will naturally pay tribute to us!"

"For the sake of the people of the world, I am willing to lead the army to conquer the vassal countries that do not pay tribute!"

…

Zhao Chengqing, Duke of Jingguo, has become the leader of Wu Xun. Now facing the possible problem of pig iron, he has also expressed his position one after another.

-

In fact, they can already see that now is the best era to make achievements. As long as they are willing to contribute to the country, with the Ming Dynasty's invincible army, they can simply be given military honors and titles.

No matter how much pig iron the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway needs to invest, as long as they mobilize resources from all countries, pig iron will no longer be a problem at all.

Because of this, they also tend to ask for pig iron from neighboring countries. If any country refuses to give it, they will launch a war like the Ryukyu Kingdom.

"In this case, I don't have any problems. I also support the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway this time!" Liu Xuan, Minister of the Ministry of War, was not a stubborn person and immediately changed his attitude.

The reason why he stood up and raised these pointed questions was that he had always participated in discussions, and he wanted to raise the issue for everyone to solve together.

Since the money and pig iron court were confident that the matter could be properly resolved, he accepted it even if the Ministry of War under his control would have some financial difficulties in the coming days.

After all, once the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is completed, each of them will be remembered in history, and Liu Xuan, as an important member of the Hongzhi Dynasty, is even more proud of his ancestors.

"We agree to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway!" Cabinet minister Jia Jun also quickly reached a consensus, but unanimously agreed to this epic project.

Seeing that everyone had unified opinions, Yin Zhi, the chief minister of the cabinet, said respectfully to Zhu Youtang who was sitting on the dragon throne: "I think that the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be built, please ask for the Holy See!"

No matter what the attitude of these important ministers was, the real talker in this dynasty was always the talented and strategic Emperor Hongzhi in front of him.

Now that their group of important ministers have reached a consensus, whether to implement it next depends on the true thoughts of the emperor in front of them.

Zhu Youtang glanced at the important ministers present and found that his painstaking efforts were not in vain. These important ministers were not the kind of people who were content with enjoying themselves.

Without their own intervention at all, this group of important ministers were able to collectively pass the proposal to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, which is enough for this team to truly dare to do practical things.

Zhu Youtang was very satisfied with the pioneering spirit of the current ministers, and solemnly nodded and said: "It's accurate! All yamen will cooperate with each other, and the Ministry of Industry will take the lead, and immediately start formulating a plan to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway!"

Nothing can be accomplished overnight. Even if Ming Dynasty decided to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway, it would still require a lot of time and personnel to conduct on-site inspections in order to formulate a feasible construction plan.

Fortunately, the Imperial College of Engineering is currently cultivating a large number of talents. As long as the imperial court has the courage to promote such projects, there will be no shortage of talents in this field.

With the current work efficiency of the Ministry of Industry, I believe that a set of construction plans for the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway can be produced before the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is completed, and Ming Dynasty will officially embark on the road of becoming a transportation powerhouse.

"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" Wang Yue and other important ministers bowed their hands respectfully when they saw that the emperor agreed to the proposal.

The ninth year of Hongzhi ended with the trial operation of the steam train. The biggest achievement of this year was not that the Ming Dynasty gained a foothold in America, nor that Japan sent a steady stream of silver jewelry and women, but that the steam train was launched.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty is constantly expanding, especially the Ming-Burma Highway is about to be completed, so the geographical barrier between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Indian Ocean is about to be opened.

Now that steam trains have emerged, the Ming Dynasty can closely connect various places through the railway network, and will also provide transportation support for the Ming Dynasty to rule the world in the future.

The Beijing-Tianjin Railway is just a starting point, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Railway is also just a beginning. A railway network spanning Asia, Europe and Africa is the ultimate form.

In the tenth year of Hongzhi, there was a great meeting on New Year's Day.

As the national power of the Ming Dynasty became more and more powerful, the Ming Dynasty gave up on sharing the blessings of peace, and instead destroyed the world at the slightest disagreement with the surrounding countries.

Now more and more vassal states are sending envoys to attend the Great Court Meeting. Even the wild Jurchens have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and have paid tribute with the most valuable items from their countries or tribes.

Since Wang Zhi had made a name for himself in the Indian Ocean and attracted some countries or forces to pay tribute, this time an Arab representative sent a large amount of treasures and an Egyptian beauty.

Zhu Youtang did not deliberately consolidate the harem, but more and more countries were paying tribute to stunning women, which made it difficult for him to refuse. Unfortunately, deep down in his heart, he was still worried about Jue Si's fate, so he still worked hard to change his fate every night.

As for those countries that sent rare and rare animals, Zhu Youtang did not look down upon them.

Under the secret manipulation of various important ministers, their only requirement for envoys from various countries was that they pay tribute to pig iron. The more pig iron they paid as tribute, the more they could win the friendship of the Ming Dynasty.

"Stop paying tribute to pig iron?"

There were still some surprises in this matter. Faced with Ming's request for pig iron this time, he was met with a thorn and even refused to pay tribute.

The matter was quickly transferred to the Supreme Council, and the officials of the Supreme Council unanimously approved the crusade proposal.

When the bill was passed by Zhu Youtang, the Military Machinery Pavilion was responsible for formulating the combat plan, and then Zhu Youtang finalized the choice of coach.

Just after the Spring Festival of the tenth year of Hongzhi, the first external work began. (End of chapter)