My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 287 Rebellion
At this time in the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Funing was filming the scene where Li Ming goes to the court to pay homage to the emperor after being conferred an official title.

At this moment, all the civil and military officials were standing in the hall in an orderly manner. The difference from the past was that their expressions were not serious at this moment. Instead, they had half-smiles on their faces, and they all found it quite amusing.

Before this, Zhu Yuanzhang had already told them about making a movie, and the ministers expressed great interest. They had watched documentaries a long time ago, and many of them were invited by Zhu Yuanzhang to watch "Drawing Sword".

When I thought about being filmed in a movie, my glorious image would be like Li Yunlong in Bright Sword, and could be seen by the people of the entire Ming Dynasty. That’s what it means to be famous!
Of course, there are also some stubborn civil servants who think that making movies is simply not doing their job properly. How can a dignified official of the Ming Dynasty be seen by the people like an actor?

However, no matter how reluctant they were, they could only keep it to themselves, and no one dared to offend Zhu Yuanzhang.

At this moment, there were many people standing in the hall who would never have dared to enter the Fengtian Hall in the past.

These people were naturally Zhu Funing's makeshift team, but they stood in the Fengtian Hall and saw the civil and military officials of the court for the first time. Although they were filming a movie instead of attending a formal court session, they all lowered their heads in fear and dared not look at anyone.

At this time, all the ministers found it interesting to see Zhu Di being scolded by Zhu Funing. Many of them covered their mouths and laughed secretly, but did not dare to laugh out loud.

"Fourth brother, I've told you so many times that you shouldn't call yourself 'me-me'. Why can't you change?" Zhu Funing put one hand on his waist and pointed at Zhu Di with the other hand.
"Although your character is a craftsman, he is also familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. He just doesn't aspire to take the imperial examination, so he should speak in a refined and elegant manner, unlike you who speaks like a warrior now. Start over!"

Zhu Di immediately became unconvinced, "I just speak like this, so what? Can't the person I play be both civil and military?"

"Zhu Laosi, you, humph, Father, look, Fourth Brother doesn't listen to orders at all!"

Seeing that Zhu Di was acting like a rogue, Zhu Funing complained to Zhu Yuanzhang with a look of grievance. Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help laughing when he saw the two siblings bickering.

"Old Four, be serious. This is the first time that our Ming Dynasty has made a movie. You have to perform well and don't embarrass the royal family!"

Zhu Di was still somewhat dissatisfied after listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's reprimand, and then Zhu Yuanzhang used a powerful weapon.

"If you continue to be so careless, I will call your Xu Miaoyun over!"

Zhu Di immediately shrank his neck, "Dad, don't, can't I just act well? You don't know, these past two days, whenever I went home, Miaoyun would drag me to audition, and she scolded me badly!"

Zhu Di's words immediately caused laughter in the room. Everyone just thought it was funny and that it was a good idea to make a movie.

Normally, the Fengtian Hall is solemn and dignified, and laughter is seldom heard. This experience is also very rare.

In this way, the filming of the movie continued with bumps and bruises. Zhu Funing's voice was almost hoarse. Either this minister moved in the wrong position, or that minister said the wrong lines. Her voice could be heard from time to time in the entire Fengtian Hall.

The ministers thought it was just a way to cheer up the princess, but they didn't expect that this makeshift play would cause such a storm in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, there were not many scenes in the Fengtian Hall, and after several days of hard work, we finally finished filming.

However, some ministers felt that it was not enough. There were not many opportunities to slack off in the court. They all thought that they would find opportunities to submit memorials to His Majesty in the future and make more movies. Well, they decided to shoot in Fengtian Hall. But this made Li Min suffer. He had to keep an eye on the progress of the railway project, and at the same time he had to be dragged by Zhu Funing to play himself. He was so busy that he couldn't stop. Zhu Yuanzhang felt distressed, fearing that his precious daughter would tire out his important ministers.

After preliminary survey by the Ministry of Works, the site and route have been selected, and an auspicious day was chosen to officially start construction.

The captives escorted back from Annan were all sent to the construction site, and the smelter continued to produce rails. After being transported to the route, the captives laid the rails on the road under the guidance of skilled Ming Dynasty technicians.

Despite the technicians' explanation, the prisoners still couldn't understand why the best steel was used to pave the road. It was such a waste of resources to use such good steel to pave roads instead of making weapons!
Moreover, where in this world can there be a vehicle that can run by itself without being pulled by horses? It is called a train and can run by itself by burning a stove. Even a three-year-old child would not believe this. Is the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty crazy?
I didn't understand it, but since I was a prisoner, I just had to do whatever I was told.

At first the project progressed smoothly and the prisoners worked honestly, but after a while, something unexpected happened.

At first, the prisoners only complained about working too hard all day, being exposed to the sun and rain, not having enough to eat, and sometimes being whipped if they worked too slowly.

As the project progressed, the deadline became increasingly tight. Li Min ordered to speed up the progress, and the supervisors under him could only desperately urge the prisoners to work. Anyone who slacked off would be whipped.

As time went by, some people would inevitably feel resentful. They were originally from Annan and were taken as captives to a place where they were unfamiliar with. They were already dissatisfied with the Ming Dynasty, and now they were treated like animals by the Ming Dynasty. It was inevitable that they would feel resentful.

As resentment accumulates day by day, it spreads like a virus, and more and more people are filled with anger. Once a person feels resentful and dissatisfied, it is inevitable that he will have other thoughts in his mind.

Some Annan military officers secretly plotted that if they built a railway for the Ming Dynasty, they would die sooner or later, so they might as well rebel against it and maybe they could find a way to survive.

As soon as this idea was put forward, it was immediately agreed upon by other prisoners. Soon they made a plan and began to work together.

Some people were responsible for observing the patrol patterns of the Ming army guards, while others looked for opportunities to ask the technicians about the surrounding terrain and routes.

They secretly saved up the few rations they had to use as dry food during their escape. At the same time, they looked for opportunities to hide their tools, including hammers and even nails.

Late one night, they felt the time was ripe, so they took advantage of the supervisor's fatigue and killed him. After hiding the body, they sneaked out of the construction site under the cover of darkness.

Having avoided the patrolling Ming army, they moved forward step by step. Just when they thought everything was going well and they were about to escape, they unexpectedly heard a few crisp "click" sounds.

They were very familiar with this sound. When Annan was fighting with the Ming army, as long as the clicking sound was heard, it meant that they were about to meet the King of Hell!

They knew clearly that this was the sound of the Ming army pulling the bolt to load bullets!
However, they were clearly doing it secretly, so how did the Ming army discover them?

Then, they heard a shout: "You want to escape? I want to see who is faster, you or my bullet!"

(End of this chapter)