Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 158: Liu Kuan and his wife have a physical examination, Lao Zhu wants to explore America [Please subscribe]

Forbidden City.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly as he watched Fang Xiaoru leave Fengxian Hall.

Song Lian, a student, was quite famous for his literary talent in eastern Zhejiang. Zhu Biao originally wanted to recruit him to be a minister of the Eastern Palace. After all, Zhu Biao and this person were nominally brothers in the same school.

However, after meeting him today, although this man is handsome and his words and deeds, as reported by the Jinyiwei, can be considered decent, he is overly devoted to Confucianism.

If Liu Kuan wasn't there, he would be very happy to see such a person.

Because in the past, ruling the world required the help of Confucianism, and a pure Confucian like Fang Xiaoru could consolidate and maintain the rule of the Zhu family.

However, the Ming Dynasty now has to vigorously develop science and technology, and its way of governing the country is also different from the Confucian tradition.

Zhu Biao was deeply influenced by Confucianism. If he arranged Fang Xiaoru in the Eastern Palace, he might become an obstacle to the development of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

After retracting his gaze, Zhu Yuanzhang said in a loud voice: "Draft an imperial decree and order the Ministry of Personnel to issue a document to recruit Fang Xiaoru as a clerk in the Ministry of Rites (ninth rank)."

The Hanlin scholar waiting in the hall sighed inwardly, feeling sorry for Fang Xiaoru missing this opportunity, but said nothing and polished an edict according to Zhu Yuanzhang's wishes.

Li Gui then passed it to Zhu Yuanzhang for review.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished reading it and stamped it, Li Gui called a young eunuch and took the order to the Ministry of Personnel to convey it.

The cabinet has nothing to do with this.

Because the cabinet at this time was not the cabinet of the middle and late Ming Dynasty in history, the decrees issued directly by the emperor did not need to be stamped by the cabinet.

Shortly after the eunuch who conveyed the imperial edict left, Zhu Biao arrived at Fengxian Hall.

After Zhu Biao paid his respects, Zhu Yuanzhang signaled the Hanlin and other miscellaneous personnel in the hall to leave, leaving only Li Gui.

Then he asked, "How was Liu Kuan's experiment? Was he able to connect to the internet of the future?"

Zhu Biao sighed, "No."

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression remained unchanged as he said, "Tell me about Liu Kuan's words and deeds here."

Zhu Biao immediately told Liu Kuan about everything from when he caught up with him at Loujiang Gate to when he and Liu Kuan separated near the Forbidden City. He also told him about Liu Kuan's words, actions, and even emotional expressions during this process.

He finally said, "Father, I believe Liu Kuan's inability to connect to the future network isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Ming Dynasty. It's just that this incident has destroyed one of his hopes, which has made him unhappy."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. "Not being able to connect to the future network isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Ming Dynasty. With science and technology so advanced in the future, who knows if the court will somehow find out about this and send someone here?"

"If they can send one person, they can send more. Then, will this beautiful land still belong to our Zhu family?"

Having said that, both father and son fell silent for a moment.

The more they knew about future generations, the clearer it became to the father and son that with the current strength of the Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible for it to fight against the court of future generations.

Not to mention that the imperial court in later generations must have used various means to make many people abandon the Zhu family.

Therefore, for the sake of the Zhu family's country and people, the power of the imperial court in the future must never be allowed to reach the Ming Dynasty!
After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly said, "Hui Lan and Liu Kuan have been married for a year, why is there no sign of pregnancy?"

Zhu Biao felt a little embarrassed when Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly mentioned this matter, and said, "I don't know either."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "The reason Liu Kuan still cares so much about his family in the future is simply because he has no children in the Ming Dynasty. You are also a father, and you should know that when a man becomes a father, his thoughts change."

"It's not convenient for you and me to talk about Huilan's matter, but this is no small matter. It seems that you should ask your mother to summon Huilan to the palace to ask her about it."

Zhu Biao felt that he was not in a position to comment on this matter, so he brought up another matter.

"By the way, Father, when we parted ways, Liu Kuan said he didn't have many videos or movies. If he wanted to show something in the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he could only choose a documentary about America."

"Documentary?"

Zhu Biao explained: "It is said that it mainly recounts facts, and the content is a bit boring, but the advantage is that it contains valuable information."

The father and son had heard Liu Kuan mention the term "dry goods" before and both understood its meaning.

Zhu Yuanzhang then laughed and said, "Let it be a documentary. We just like to watch the actual stuff."

···
Two days later.

After a busy day, Liu Kuan returned home and learned that the imperial physician Lou Ying was waiting in the living room.

Liu Kuan first went to the middle courtyard to see Zhu Huilan and asked, "Why is Imperial Physician Lou here? Is your wife feeling unwell?"

Zhu Huilan said, "I am fine. Imperial Physician Lou is here to examine my husband."

Liu Kuan was puzzled. "I'm not sick, why would I need a physical examination?"

Zhu Huilan said, "Didn't my husband say before that people in later generations should have regular physical examinations? Now that my husband has been in Daming for over a year, it's time for a physical examination."

In fact, in later life, Liu Kuan never took the initiative to go for a physical examination, except when the school organized it and when the company required it at work.

But the imperial physician had come to his house, and it was free, so he had no reason to refuse.

So he smiled and said, "Okay, I'll go ask Imperial Physician Lou to take a look."

The Imperial Medical Bureau still has four imperial physicians. Although Lou Ying's medical skills are slightly inferior to Dai Sigong's, he has more experience due to his age.

Liu Kuan came to the living room of the Second Hospital and exchanged a few words with Lou Ying, then let him take his pulse, observe him, and ask questions.

After Lou Ying had used all the medical methods of observation, auscultation, and palpation, Liu Kuan asked, "Doctor Lou, am I feeling well?"

Lou Ying smiled and said, "Prince Consort Liu is indeed fine, but he has a little liver fire and a weak spleen and stomach, probably due to the recent torment from official duties."

"I'll prescribe a conditioning prescription. Prince Consort Liu, take the medicine according to the prescription for three days, eat a light diet, and get enough rest. You will recover in a month or so."

Hearing this, Liu Kuan couldn't help but sigh, "The railway is going to open this year, and there's so much going on. How can I, the deputy director of the Science and Technology Department, not be busy? I'm so busy that I don't even have time to go to a teahouse."

"The more capable you are, the more work you should do." Lou Ying replied with a smile. After writing the prescription, Lou Ying left Liu's house.

He did not return to the Imperial Hospital, but entered the Forbidden City. After being informed by the palace servants, he was taken to the Kunning Palace.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were having dinner together.

After Lou Ying paid her respects, Empress Ma asked, "How are Huilan and Kuan'er?"

Lou Ying said: "They are all considered healthy."

Empress Ma was in her fifties, the mother of many children, and she was not shy about anything. She then asked, "Are the two of them infertile?"

"There are no common infertility symptoms." Lou Ying first replied, then added: "However, the matter of pregnancy is inherently difficult to explore, and I dare not conclude that Prince Consort Liu and the Third Princess are definitely free of hidden illnesses."

Queen Ma frowned and remained silent for a moment.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Thank you for your hard work, Doctor Lou. Please go down."

"Yes."

When Lou Ying turned around, Zhu Yuanzhang said again: "Today's matter must be kept secret."

It was autumn, and Lou Ying had a little cold sweat on his forehead. He replied "yes" and then retreated.

Empress Ma came to her senses and asked the servants to step back before she said, "Zhongba, I understand your desire for Kuan'er to have a child as soon as possible, but children are not something you can just have if you want them."

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Sister, you should know that Liu Kuan has no children in the Ming Dynasty, so he can't take root there."

Empress Ma thought of something after hearing this, and after a moment's hesitation, she said, "Hui Lan has come up with a plan."

"Oh?" Zhu Yuanzhang became curious.

"Take a concubine." Empress Ma uttered two words, "If she is infertile, taking a concubine for Kuan'er should help him get pregnant. On the other hand, if Kuan'er takes a concubine and still has no children, then you can forget about expecting him to have children."

The meaning of the following sentence is very clear. If Liu Kuan is unable to have children even with a concubine, it means that he is suffering from infertility.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "Take a concubine? Who should he take as a concubine? We can't marry our daughter to him, right?"

Empress Ma laughed and said, "Since you're taking a concubine, there's no need to choose from among the daughters. Besides, Xuanle is already married to Ouyang Lun, and the other children haven't even reached marriage age yet. Even if she's promised to Kuan'er, she won't be able to have children for a while."

"When Huilan mentioned this to me, she said Caiwei was a good candidate—she could help Huilan manage the household, and her figure looked good for bearing children. However, she was a little old, and she was afraid that Kuan'er would dislike her."

There were many female officials around Empress Ma. Although Su Caiwei had a beautiful appearance and a good figure, she was not as good-looking as Zhu Yuanzhang's younger concubines. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had a vague impression of Su Caiwei.

But Lao Zhu doesn't care whether Su Caiwei is pretty enough.

He said, "It's better to be older, so that you don't have to compete with Huilan for favor in the future."

Empress Ma was amused. "Look at what you said. Huilan is your daughter. Who dares to compete with her for your favor?"

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment and said, "We can't just allow Liu Kuan to take a concubine without any reason. If there's no reason, I'm afraid Li Qi, Mei Yin, and Ouyang Lun will all want to follow suit."

"It just so happens that the train has been built and should be operational by the end of the year. Then we can commend Liu Kuan for his great achievement and grant him the right to take a concubine as a special honor."

Queen Ma nodded and said, "Your idea is quite good."

···
···
When people are busy, they always feel that time passes quickly.

In a blink of an eye, it was August 15th.

On this day, Liu Kuan and Zhu Huilan were called to the palace again to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with the Zhu family.

At the banquet, Liu Kuan thought that he would have to play music on the tablet again, but Queen Ma prepared a band and played music such as "Jiuzhou Tong".

Although the musical instruments of the Ming Dynasty had not yet developed to the level of later generations, and there were some shortcomings in playing music such as "Jiuzhou Tong", they sounded more ancient and had a unique flavor.

After having dinner while listening to music, everyone watched the documentary prepared by Liu Kuan together.

The documentary is titled "America Before Columbus" and is divided into two parts, totaling one hour and forty-five minutes.

It mainly tells the customs and culture of the American continent two years before it was discovered by Europeans. If Liu Kuanfang's version of the American customs and culture during the Dragon Boat Festival was a ten-minute brief version, this time it is a detailed version.

Some European customs and practices of the same period will also be interspersed in the film for comparison.

The young princes and princesses were quite excited at first, but after half an hour, some of them began to doze off.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Empress Ma and others watched the entire documentary with great interest.

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang called Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan, Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Ying, and Zhu Tan, several princes over ten years old, to a side hall to discuss state affairs based on the contents of the documentary.

"From what you said before, I thought that even though the Native Americans had the best seeds of sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, they wouldn't be able to grow them well, and the yield wouldn't be as high as you said."

"From what I've seen in this documentary, some of those tribes have probably been farming for thousands of years. Their corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes look quite large."

Hearing this, Liu Kuan had to interrupt and explain: "Your Majesty, the documentary was actually performed by people from later generations, and the crops used in it are also from later generations. The corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes in America at that time definitely didn't look as good as they do in the film."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Even if it doesn't look as good as in the movies, its yield is definitely higher than that of rice, wheat and other grains, right?"

Liu Kuan nodded after hearing this. "Due to their characteristics, the current grain production cannot be compared with the three major crops in America."

Zhu Yuanzhang continued, "What I want to say is that the sooner we can get these good seeds from America, the sooner our Ming Dynasty can free its people from the worry of famine."

"Our original plan was to first destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty, then conquer Korea and Japan, and then launch the Great Voyage of Discovery and send people to America."

"But now I think about it, taking it step by step is too slow. It's not that I have to complete this in my lifetime, but I don't think I have to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty before I can explore America."

"Biao'er, Liu Kuan, do you think this is the truth?"

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)