Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 162: Unwavering Determination! Talking about the Opium War [Please Subscribe]

This intelligence report written by the Jinyiwei Intelligence Bureau contained a lot of content, and Zhu Yuanzhang read it at a glance.

There was a moment of silence after reading it.

Just as Mao Xiang, Li Gui and others in the hall were feeling the obvious pressure, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly smiled and said, "The common people are ignorant and don't understand the principles of train operation, so it's understandable that they say some absurd things. Once the Zou Wuhao returns to the capital, these rumors will be self-defeating."

Hearing this, Mao Xiang and Li Gui felt relieved and a little surprised.

Based on their understanding of this person, even if they knew that the people did not spread rumors intentionally, they might still impose severe punishment to serve as a warning to others.

But now he treated it with caution, which made Li Gui and Mao Xiang feel that Zhu Yuanzhang's style of doing things had changed slightly.

However, just as the two men relaxed, they heard Zhu Yuanzhang continue, "Before the train issue is settled, the Jinyiwei should strengthen their monitoring of public opinion in the capital."

"Once you detect signs of someone deliberately fabricating or spreading rumors, you must identify the source as quickly as possible!"

Mao Xiang bowed and replied, "As you wish!"

···
Sunset.

Liu Mansion.

Liu Kuan ate dinner quickly, rinsed his mouth, and then Xia He and Qiu Yue helped him tie his cloak and prepare to go out.

Zhu Huilan said, "It's very cold at night. My husband should put on his cloak. Taoyao, go and get the black mink cloak that was given as a gift from the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival."

After giving Taoyao instructions, she personally served a bowl of old hen soup and handed it to Liu Kuan.

"My husband has been very busy these past few days, so he should take care of his health. This chicken soup uses aged mountain ginseng, which is very nourishing. Please have another bowl."

"I just rinsed my mouth." Liu Kuan was a little helpless, but still took the soup bowl, drank it in one gulp, and then rinsed his mouth again.

Zhu Huilan smiled and said softly, "There are some bad rumors circulating, my husband, please don't take them to heart. We've been preparing for the train for so long, I believe this time it will be a success."

Liu Kuan was already worried that there would be an accident on the first train trip, and some bad rumors had been circulating in the past two days, which naturally made him feel even more stressed. He went to the train station after dinner, hoping to be the first to know that the train had returned to Beijing safely.

Zhu Huilan's words were somewhat comforting.

Liu Kuan smiled slightly after hearing this and said, "Then I will take advantage of your good wishes."

At this time, Taoyao brought a sable fur cloak, and Liu Kuan tied it on and strode out.

When he arrived at the second floor of the train station building, he found Su Quan was also guarding there.

"I will leave this place to watch over you. Doctor Su, why don't you go home and rest?"

Su Quan hadn't slept well these days, and he was in his forties, so his condition was naturally far worse than Liu Kuan's.

Su Quan smiled bitterly when he heard this. "The train hasn't returned yet, and I won't be able to sleep even if I go home. I might as well stay here and feel at ease."

Liu Kuan said, "There's a lounge over there with a bed. Since Doctor Su doesn't want to go home, why don't you go in and take a nap?"

"also may."

Su Quan went to rest.

The only people left on duty at the train station were minor officials and clerks. No one dared to come and chat with Liu Kuan, so he stood by the big window, staring blankly at the railway outside.

Near the train station, there is a wooden pillar more than ten feet high every ten steps on the railway, with two big red lanterns hanging on it, and white words "ban" or "stop" are pasted on the lanterns.

Under the red light, the rails glow coldly and dimly, giving off the atmosphere of a horror movie set in the early twentieth century.

When Liu Kuan traveled through time, his motherland had already developed very well and had a bright future.

So sometimes he would think that he had traveled here and changed many things, pushing the history of this time and space away from its original trajectory. He didn't know what this world would be like six hundred years later, and whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing for this land and its people.

But he cannot just be a spectator of history because he is afraid of the possibility that the future will turn bad.

What's more, the way he traveled through time was too bizarre and sensational, so Lao Zhu and his son would not allow him to be a spectator of history.

Therefore, he could only try his best to make this land develop in a good direction during his lifetime...
"Vice-Lang Liu, the Crown Prince is here!"

After an unknown amount of time, a small official in a green robe who was on duty downstairs ran up and reported to Liu Kuan.

Liu Kuan didn't expect Zhu Biao to come here at night. He was stunned for a moment and hurried downstairs to greet him.

As soon as he went down the stairs, he saw Zhu Biao had already entered the first floor hall.

After the ceremony, Zhu Biao took Liu Kuan's arm and said, "I heard that my brother-in-law would be staying here tonight, so I came to see him. He has been really hard-working these past few days."

Liu Kuan said: "These are all my humble duties, and the hard work is justified."

Zhu Biao looked around and said, "Let's go upstairs and talk."

So he went to the second floor with Liu Kuan. There were tables and chairs here, and at Zhu Biao's signal, they sat down.

Zhu Biao said, "Calculating the time, if the Zou Wu doesn't return tonight, it should be back tomorrow, right?"

Liu Kuan said, "If everything goes well, we can return to the capital before midnight tonight."

It was almost midnight, but the train hadn't returned yet, and Zhu Biao felt quite uneasy.

He said, "The Jinyiwei have already investigated the source of those rumors circulating in the streets about the Zou Wu ship being in trouble. They are all gossips by ignorant people, spread by word of mouth and exaggerated. Don't take them to heart."

Liu Kuan said, "Your Highness, it doesn't really matter what the people say. What matters is that the Zou Wu can truly return safely."

Zhu Biao gestured to his attendants to move away before saying, "My father asked me to tell you something. Even if the Zou Wu really does have an accident, the railway transportation will not be stopped."

"My father and I will fully support you until this is accomplished!"

Although Liu Kuan had seen a lot in later life, he was still moved when he heard these words.

He said, "Your Highness, rest assured. Since this railway and I have come to the Ming Dynasty, even if there is one accident, let alone ten, I will not change my determination to develop railway transportation in the Ming Dynasty!"

After saying this, Liu Kuan and Zhu Biao looked at each other and both smiled brightly.

Zhu Biao then asked his attendants to step back further and said, "I heard you say earlier that the Qing Dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, causing China to miss out on the great changes that hadn't happened in three thousand years. Science and technology lagged behind the West by hundreds of years."

"But from the video you showed, China seems quite powerful and technologically advanced in later generations. They've even completed mega-projects like the Zhoushan Port, the Three Gorges Dam, and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Many of these achievements are considered world firsts."

"By then, Chinese technology should have been not much behind that of the Western barbarians, right? Could it be that the Western barbarians were even more advanced than China appears in the video?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Before I traveled through time, China's science and technology in many fields were not only not behind the Western Yi, but even reached the world's leading level, and even ranked first in the world."

Although Zhu Biao had some guesses about future events, he was still surprised to hear this. He immediately asked, "How many years have passed since the Qing Dynasty was invaded by Western powers until you traveled through time? And how many years have passed since the establishment of the Xin Dynasty in later generations?"

Liu Kuan said, "If we count from the First Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was opened to the Western powers in 1840 AD. Before I traveled through time, it was 2024 AD, so there was only a gap of 184 years."

"As for the Xin Dynasty of later times, it had only been established for seventy-five years before I traveled through time."

"Less than 184 years? Seventy-five years?" These two periods were much shorter than Zhu Biao had expected, surprising him. He frowned and asked, "What about the Opium War?"

Liu Kuan was a little speechless after hearing this and said, "If we talk about the Opium War, it will be far away from what Your Highness asked before."

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "It's a long night anyway, so let's talk about whatever we want. Why bother about whether it's off topic? This isn't an imperial examination essay."

Liu Kuan thought so too.

Then he said, "Didn't I say that when I was discussing opium after watching Operation Mekong? Historically, opium has been flowing into China since the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Even Emperor Wanli smoked it."

"After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, I don't know whether they were truly unaware of this, or if they knew but ignored it, allowing opium to circulate freely, leading to an increasing number of people taking it."

"In the late Qing Dynasty, Western powers, in order to profit from China, even participated in the opium trade as states, and soon six out of ten people in China's coastal cities became opium addicts."

"Not only that, for thousands of years, China has been selling silk, porcelain, tea and other products to Europe, which has led to the influx of silver and other wealth from European countries into China."

"After Western nations began selling opium to China on a large scale, the opium trade alone changed this situation, causing Chinese silver and other financial resources to flow into the West, reaching hundreds of millions of taels a year!"

"It was only then that the Qing government realized the severity of the opium problem and that it could threaten its rule, so it ordered a nationwide ban on smoking. It also specially selected a Han official as an imperial commissioner to Guangdong to oversee the ban."

"Because the Qing Dynasty, despite its policy of seclusion, used Guangzhou as its only port for foreign trade, Guangdong was not only the most flooded with opium at the time, but was also the main route for opium to enter China."

"This Han official forced Western opium merchants in Guangdong to hand over their opium, and he also confiscated all the opium from the people and destroyed it in Humen, thus declaring China's determination to ban smoking."

"Britain, the leading Western power at the time, was unwilling to accept this and, through various espionage activities, became fully aware of the Qing court's corruption and incompetence and China's weakness. It then used the opium suppression issue as an excuse to launch a war against China."

"Britain at that time had both huge ships and powerful artillery and muskets, as well as a modern army."

"The Manchus, wary of the Han Chinese, deliberately suppressed the development of Chinese firearms. At the time, firearms were even inferior to those of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and they mostly used swords, arrows, and cavalry to fight against the British army."

"At that time, the British army attacked Guangzhou first. Although the Chinese soldiers and civilians fought bravely, their weapons and equipment were far inferior to those of the British. In addition, the senior generals were Manchus, and the middle-level generals and officials were mostly corrupt and incompetent. They suffered repeated defeats, allowing the British to easily capture many artillery forts and camps outside the city and reach the gates of Guangzhou."

"So the highest Qing military commander in Guangdong at the time, the Guangzhou General, sent people out of the city to beg for peace from the British."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao could not help but exclaim in surprise: "So this is begging for peace?!"

Liu Kuan showed a complicated smile, "That's how it was in history."

Zhu Biao was incredulous. "The British hadn't taken any other cities by then, hadn't they? They'd just taken the outer forts of Guangzhou, and yet this Qing general in Guangzhou was begging for peace? How could this be possible?"

"Besides, even if Guangzhou falls, Guangdong still has so many cities, and China has dozens of provinces similar to Guangdong. How can we beg for peace from the British over such a small defeat?"

"Isn't he afraid of being blamed by the Qing Emperor?!"

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)