Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 203: The Ming Dynasty also needs to build infrastructure, mushroom clouds in the desert! [Please subscribe]

These scenes of large-scale infrastructure construction shrank one after another and finally merged into a shocking picture that filled the entire flat-screen!

Then the picture turned into four big words - China Infrastructure!
With inspiring background music playing, the video screen then switched to show an elevated railway, with a large Chinese character "Lu" appearing next to it, and two lines of small characters in the lower left corner.

The China-Laos Kunming-Vientiane Railway will be fully opened to traffic on December 2021, 12!

The video continued to switch, and scenes of various railways, highways, and high-speed railways after completion appeared one after another.

Sichuan-Tibet Railway, Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed ​​Railway, Beipanjiang Bridge, Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, Beijing-Li High-Speed ​​Railway, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed ​​Railway, Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-Speed ​​Railway, China-Myanmar Railway, China-Europe Express,...
Then various water-related infrastructure achievements were captured one by one.

Shanghai Yangshan Port, Ningbo Zhoushan Port, South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Three Gorges Dam, Xiaolangdi Hydropower Station, Baihetan Hydropower Station, Dezhou Dingzhuang Reservoir Photovoltaic Power Station, Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, Wufengshan Bridge, Wujiang River Bridge, Bailongzhou Bridge, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge...
Finally, there are the infrastructure achievements related to the sky.

Beijing Daxing Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Beidou Satellite Navigation System, Mengtian Experimental Module, Shenzhou series rockets, Tiangong Space Station...

The Zhu family originally thought that the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge that "fell" in the Ming Dynasty was already a man-made miracle. However, when the 21st-century Chinese infrastructure achievements appeared one after another in the video, they realized that there were so many infrastructure achievements in later generations that could be called miracles!

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help blushing when he thought about his previous speculations that China would waste money and labor on infrastructure projects in the future, which would lead to rebellion among the people.

Now it seems that not only did future generations not collapse because of the several large infrastructure projects he knew about, but they became more prosperous and powerful, and carried out more and more difficult large infrastructure projects!
"Can it be true that massive infrastructure construction can really strengthen the country and enrich the people?"

"But why did the Qin Dynasty fall after building the Great Wall and the Straight Road, and the Sui Dynasty fall after building the Grand Canal?"

"No, building the Great Wall and the Grand Canal was only one of the many reasons for the fall of the Qin and Sui dynasties, not the main reason!"

"But it would certainly not be possible for the Ming Dynasty to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction like later generations - the technological level and national strength are far behind."

While Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking about these things, a woman's voice in the video introduced China's infrastructure achievements in later generations in a proud and exciting tone.

"At the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were 2023 kilometers of roads, of which only 543.68 kilometers were paved. However, by the end of , the total length of China's domestic roads had reached million kilometers!"

"When the People's Republic of China was first established, the total length of China's railways was 2.18 kilometers, of which only 1.1 kilometers were operational. However, by the end of 2023, the total length of China's railways had exceeded 16 kilometers, of which more than 4 kilometers were high-speed railways!"

"In addition, over the past 70 years since the founding of New China, hundreds of thousands of highway and railway bridges have been built, including dozens of sea-crossing bridges!"

At this moment, even if some people present did not understand the difference between kilometers and miles, they were shocked to hear this series of numerical comparisons.

Let’s not talk about railways, let’s just talk about highways, or roads.

The roads of the new China must have been inherited from previous dynasties, or left over from multiple previous dynasties. These roads add up to 80,000 kilometers.

Yet, New China has built over five million kilometers of roads! That’s seventy times the number of roads left over from previous dynasties!
Similarly, the railways built by New China are seventy to eighty times more than those left over from the previous dynasty!
After seeing this comparison of numbers, the Zhu family finally understood why the video title called later China a "infrastructure maniac" - in just one day, the roads and railways built were seventy to eighty times more than those left over from previous dynasties. Isn't this an infrastructure maniac?
In addition, when hearing the first two pieces of data, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others were still wondering how many years it took for the new China to achieve such amazing infrastructure achievements.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao knew a little more about later generations. They thought that even if later generations had advanced technology and were far more advanced in building roads and bridges than previous dynasties, it would take at least more than a hundred years to build so many roads, railways, and bridges.

As a result, when the woman's third report came out, Lao Zhu and others were naturally shocked again when they heard that New China had only been established for more than 70 years.

It is incredible that we have achieved such impressive infrastructure achievements in just over 70 years!

As everyone was deeply shocked, the video came to an end.

The video shows that the time is February 2024. Another Lunar New Year is approaching. Workers from all over the country are preparing to go home for the New Year, and some families are preparing to travel to other places during the New Year holiday.

Some people buy tickets online and use their electronic tickets to get on the train at the train station or high-speed rail station. Some people take ships or planes. Many people drive on the highway by themselves, and there are also cement roads winding to remote rural areas.

Scene after scene of ordinary people traveling tells us that after years of crazy infrastructure construction, China's transportation has become many times more convenient.

Finally, the video shows aerial shots of natural scenery - continuous peaks, high mountains and deep valleys, the Gobi desert, snow-capped forests, and the vast strait.

It also includes subtitles.

"There are no roads in the world, so let's create one!"

"Towards the snow-capped mountains, towards the forests, towards the deserts, towards the coast..."

Matching these "towards something" subtitles are more grand infrastructure scenes.

Finally, the video camera zooms up to the sky, showing various basic transportation facilities such as roads and railways that have been built or are under construction, forming a dense transportation network that covers the map of China in later generations, almost covering every corner of the map!
However, at the end of the video, two lines of text appeared:
“Thank you to every worker who builds our motherland!”

"We also thank every citizen who supports the development of our motherland!"

After the video was over, the Zhu family was still staring at the tablet screen, unable to come back to their senses for a while.

After about two or three breaths, Zhu Xiongying was the first to speak and break the silence.

"Teacher," Zhu Xiongying looked at Liu Kuan, his face full of seriousness as he said, "Da Ming will also become an infrastructure maniac in the future."

Liu Kuan smiled and nodded. "Teacher, I believe this. Since Dayu's flood control, the idea of ​​infrastructure construction has been deeply rooted in the Chinese nation."

The calm but firm conversation between the teacher and the student brought everyone back to their senses.

Zhu Yuanzhang lamented, "If the level of science and technology is sufficient and the national strength allows, building more roads, bridges, reservoirs and other infrastructure will indeed benefit the country and the people."

"It's a pity that our Ming Dynasty has only just begun developing technology, and our national strength still needs to be accumulated. This large-scale infrastructure project will probably have to be handed over to... Xiongying's generation."

Zhu Xiongying immediately stood up and bowed to Old Zhu, saying solemnly: "Xiongying will definitely live up to the emperor's expectations!"

"Okay!" Zhu Yuanzhang laughed, "I also believe you can do this well!"

When Zhu Di saw this scene, he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. He touched Zhu Gaochi's head beside him and thought to himself: If Liu Kuan had not arrived, the throne would have belonged to my lineage.

He then tried to dispel this thought and criticized himself. "Zhu Di, how could you think like that? If Liu Kuan hadn't come, not only would my nephew Xiongying have died of illness, but my mother would have also passed away."

"Even if you sit on the throne, but you want uncles and nephews to kill each other, your children and grandchildren will also do the same!"

"Your lineage only allowed the Ming Dynasty to enjoy a reign of more than two hundred years, but in the end, the barbarians seized the throne again!"

"Besides, now you have the opportunity to go overseas and establish a vassal state, like your father did, to create a kingdom of your own. Isn't that a good thing?"

"You now may be even more dazzling than you were in the past!"

On this side, Zhu Biao asked thoughtfully: "It seems that later generations attach great importance to ordinary people?"

Liu Kuan nodded. "Indeed—Your Majesty just said that future generations' ability to develop large-scale infrastructure will primarily rely on sufficiently advanced technology and a strong national strength. While that's correct, it also missed one point, which is that future countries will be able to fully mobilize the power of their people."

"If we can't mobilize the power of the people, even if we have advanced technology, our national strength may not be strong, and it will be even more difficult to build so many miraculous infrastructure projects."

"In fact, even before I came to the Ming Dynasty, the most technologically advanced and powerful countries in later generations performed far worse than China in terms of infrastructure."

Liu Kuan pointed out the shortcomings in Zhu Yuanzhang's words in public, which surprised Zhu Su, Zhu Zhen and others.

What surprised them even more was that Zhu Yuanzhang showed no sign of anger at all. He just smiled and asked, "Do you have any good suggestions on how to mobilize the power of ordinary people?"

Liu Kuan said, "In fact, Your Majesty has done a very good job in this regard. If you use the Lijia system to control the grassroots, you can not only better collect taxes, but also fully mobilize the human and material resources at the grassroots level."

"Historically, the Han and Tang dynasties did quite well in this regard in the first few decades after their founding. Therefore, although their populations were smaller than in the middle and late stages of the dynasties, they were able to mobilize more people, and their national strength was undoubtedly much stronger than in the middle and late stages."

"The same is true of the Ming Dynasty. Since Your Majesty founded the nation, the national strength and military power have been extremely strong for decades, intimidating all the barbarians."

"But by the late Ming Dynasty, the population had doubled and tripled, and the northern and eastern barbarians, as well as the southwestern barbarians, were a major threat, but the Ming Dynasty couldn't solve any of them."

"One of the main reasons for this situation is that the imperial court lost control over the grassroots level – a situation later described as 'imperial power does not extend below the county level.'"

"That is, the Ming Dynasty's imperial power only extended to the county seat, while the vast rural towns and villages were ruled by the landlords and gentry."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but ask, "You said before that the Lijia system we developed is conducive to controlling the grassroots. Where are the Lizhang and Jiazhang at that time?"

"It exists in name only." Liu Kuan answered concisely.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed with coldness when he heard this. He said, "It's the landlords and gentry again! They are indeed the cause of the country's demise!"

This was not the first time that Zhu Biao had heard Liu Kuan and Old Zhu discuss the harm that landlords and gentry posed to the country, so he remained calm.

Zhu Di seemed to be thinking about something.

I thought to myself: Are landlords and gentry a great threat to the country? It seems that when I establish my own vassal state in the future, I must be on my guard against them. If only I could prevent them from appearing in my vassal state.

The other older princes also seemed to understand after hearing this.

After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang asked again: "Liu Kuan, if our Ming Dynasty wants to build infrastructure, what suggestions do you have?"

Liu Kuan said, "Now that the Ming Dynasty has cement, a powerful construction tool, I believe we can first use cement to repair riverbanks across the country and then build more reservoirs and ditches to reduce the damage caused by floods and droughts to the Ming Dynasty."

"Then cement was used to build official roads. Together with the railway construction, transportation between various regions and major cities in the Ming Dynasty became more convenient."

"Finally, we can build more educational facilities like schools and public libraries. As the saying goes, 'Education is the foundation of a long-term plan.'"

"If the Ming Dynasty wants to be strong enough, it must not only have a large enough population, but also improve the education level of the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly and said with a smile: "Your thoughts are similar to ours."

Then, Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it and found that although the video was shocking, there was not much content worth pondering or for the Ming Dynasty to learn from.

So he said, “Put down a video.”

Liu Kuan responded "yes" and found the second video to play.

This video was downloaded by Liu Kuan on August 3rd. Because some of the content was not suitable for Lao Zhu to watch, Liu Kuan made some minor edits.

Under the gaze of Lao Zhu's family, the video begins, but it is a shot with poor image quality, with white spots and rustling sounds.

In a desert, many soldiers from later generations wearing green military uniforms were busy with something - among them there were some strange machines, and Lao Zhu and others could clearly tell what they were.

Just when Lao Zhu couldn't help but want to ask a question, he heard a man counting.

"Five, four, three, two, one, detonate!"

With a deafening roar, the air waves surged in all directions, and a huge mushroom cloud bloomed in the desert and in the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang and others!

　I had terrible luck yesterday.

　　The cable was dug up at around 12 noon and it still hadn't been repaired until pm - all other areas had been repaired, but our area couldn't be fixed.

　　I drove to visit a friend in the evening, but just as I left the community, I found that my tire was punctured for some reason, so I had to go get it repaired. By the time I got to my friend's place, there was no time left to write.

　　I will update this chapter first today, and make up for the owed chapter when the situation warrants.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)