Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 226: An army composed entirely of scholars? Later Luzon could not support million people [Please subscribe]

"The 1998 flood was actually a major nationwide flood. It affected not only the Yangtze River basin, but also the Nenjiang and Songhua River basins in Liaoning Province, experiencing a once-in-a-century flood."

"If I remember correctly, twenty-nine provinces were affected by floods at the time, with Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Heilongjiang being the worst hit. Heilongjiang is the area south of the Hunhe River and the middle and upper reaches of the Songhua River in the Liao region of the Ming Dynasty today."

"According to subsequent statistics, as many as 200 to 300 million people were affected by the disaster, 6 to 7 million houses collapsed, and 4,000 to 5,000 people died!"

Originally, when Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Di heard Liu Kuan say that 29 provinces were affected by the disaster, with four provinces suffering severe damage and as many as 200 to 300 million people affected, they were all shocked and subconsciously worried that the new dynasty in the future would suffer from civil unrest.

In their view, it would be difficult to provide disaster relief to even two or three million people, let alone two or three million affected people.

If the victims of the disaster cannot survive, chaos will naturally occur.

As for the two or three hundred million disaster victims, I am afraid that even the new dynasty in the future will be unable to provide relief.

But when Zhu Yuanzhang heard Liu Kuan say that only four or five thousand people died, he could not bear it anymore.

"Wait!" Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and glared, "You said only four or five thousand people died? How is that possible?!"

Liu Kuan said helplessly, "Your Majesty is judging future events by the standards of today. Back then, technology was already quite advanced, and most people's houses were built of brick and stone. Flood news could be transmitted more quickly. A devastating flood that killed several thousand people may not be considered a large number, but it was still a tragedy for the Xin Dynasty in later times."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless.

Indeed, Liu Kuan had talked about similar things before and reminded people that the situation in the future would be different from now, but he still habitually looked at things in the future with the perspective of the present, and it was difficult to change for the time being.

After coming to his senses, he asked, "Are those soldiers who braved the danger and stood firm in the flood a force specially formed by the new dynasty to fight floods?"

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang thought so was because the Ming Dynasty had similar flood prevention forces. In order to understand the flood situation in a timely manner, he set up garrisons in some flood-prone areas and ordered these garrisons to pay special attention to the flood situation and report it immediately if there was any flood situation.

Of course, even these military households chose to evacuate when the flood came. It was impossible for them to ignore the danger and build a human wall to block the flood at the gap in the dam as shown in the video.

The reason is simple - how can human power defeat nature?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Liu Kuan shaking his head, "It's not a force formed specifically for flood control, but firefighters, armed police, local troops, and possibly a small number of border guards."

Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely surprised when he heard this. "The general ordered his soldiers to do such a dangerous thing. Wouldn't the soldiers riot?"

Liu Kuan said: "In later generations, not only are military disciplines strict, but military style is even better than Yue Fei's army - officers and soldiers are not allowed to bully the people or take even a needle or thread from them. This is a basic requirement."

"In addition, soldiers are often organized to help people affected by disasters, such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons and other natural disasters. These soldiers are usually the first to fight."

"Also, in future generations, when responding to disasters, many civil and military officials will set an example by staying on the front lines and commanding."

"This, coupled with the long-term military style construction and ideological education, naturally makes the soldiers not afraid of sacrifice and take it as their responsibility to protect the lives and property of the people."

"By the way, if soldiers unfortunately die fighting against disasters, the new dynasty in the future will not only provide them with a very generous pension, but will also widely report their deeds, publicize their spirit, give them the title of hero, and make them admired by the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang murmured after hearing this, "No wonder—they demand strict discipline and work style from the army, while providing them with sufficiently high salaries, pensions, and even status and honor, yet they also want to prevent the army from becoming arrogant and domineering."

"But achieving this level is probably extremely difficult. The success of the new dynasties in the future, apart from the generals setting an example, should be attributed to the important role played by the ideological education you mentioned?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty is wise, and that is exactly the case. In future armies, ideological education will be paramount."

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered again, "The army is full of rough men who only care about their wives and children, food and clothing, and warmth. Teaching them to be loyal to the emperor and serve their country is already extremely difficult, and teaching them to be willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the people must be even more difficult."

Liu Kuan shook his head again. "Your Majesty, the soldiers of later generations are not a bunch of rough men. Your Majesty has forgotten that the literacy rate in later generations is extremely high. By my generation, it can be said that everyone can read. How can they be rough men?"

"Even in later generations, as the weapons they used became more advanced and their warfare became more scientific, the cultural requirements for their soldiers became higher and higher."

"Ordinary soldiers are fine; a nine-year compulsory education is enough, and a high school or college degree is even better. Sergeants and generals in the army are almost all top graduates from professional military universities."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, he didn't hear Lao Zhu respond. Then he realized that Lao Zhu's family were all staring with disbelief.

Zhu Biao then couldn't help but speak up, "Scholars these days, after ten years of hard study, have the chance to pass the imperial examination and consider themselves scholars. If what my brother-in-law said is true, wouldn't all the soldiers in the military in the future be scholars who have studied for at least ten years?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Highness, it's fine if you understand it this way."

The Zhu family looked at each other in surprise.

An army composed entirely of scholars or literati... Isn't this too shocking and too terrifying?
Zhu Yuanzhang muttered to himself: Why is it that the more I learn about future armies, the more difficult they seem to be to deal with? If they really attack, won't the Ming Dynasty have no choice but to surrender?
After coming to his senses, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "We understand the video about the flood relief and the earthquake relief, but what are those people in white coats and masks doing in the background?"

Liu Kuan explained: "About five years before I traveled to the Ming Dynasty, a major epidemic broke out that swept almost all countries in the world."

An epidemic sweeping the world?
Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others, who already knew how big the earth was, were shocked again.

They could hardly imagine how contagious an epidemic would have to be to sweep across such a large planet.

"Those wearing white coats and masks during the epidemic are future medical staff, that is, doctors and their assistants."

"Because the population in later generations is too large, once an epidemic breaks out, many people will become sick and hospitalized in a short period of time."

"Even if the medical resources of later generations were tens of thousands of times greater than those of the Ming Dynasty, there would still be a shortage of medical equipment and medical staff in such a situation."

"As a result, many medical staff had to fight on the front lines of the epidemic day and night, and some even died from exhaustion at work."

"It was thanks to these selfless medical workers and the unity of the entire country that the Xin Dynasty was able to overcome this pandemic. This incident even allowed the rest of the world to recognize the excellence of China's Xin Dynasty system and its strong organizational and mobilization capabilities."

After listening to Liu Kuan's story, Lao Zhu immediately asked, "What kind of plague could sweep the world? Is it possible that such a terrible plague would break out at this time?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, please be aware that the reason why epidemics can sweep the world in the future is mainly due to the extremely convenient transportation in the future. Not only is there frequent movement of people between major cities in China, but there is also frequent exchange of people and materials between countries around the world." "So, even if an epidemic breaks out in places far away from China like Africa, Australia, and the Americas in the future, it could easily spread to China."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, "According to what you said, convenient transportation has both advantages and disadvantages."

Liu Kuan said, "Many things in the world have two sides: advantages and disadvantages, good and bad, yin and yang. However, the overall benefits of convenient transportation far outweigh the minor drawbacks."

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao asked a few other simpler questions before giving up.

"Liu Kuan, you prepared several videos today. What are they about?"

"Your Majesty, these are videos that primarily reflect governance issues in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Egypt."

Puzzled, Old Zhu asked, "If I remember correctly, the Philippines should be the Luzon Islands, right? Then where are Bangladesh and Egypt?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, Bengal is located between what would later become Myanmar and India. Egypt is located in northeastern Africa, on the lower reaches of the Nile River, and is the only land route from Africa to West Asia."

Old Zhu almost had the global map of later generations imprinted in his mind, but he didn't know the names of some places. After hearing what Liu Kuan said, he immediately understood the locations of Bangladesh and Egypt.

He said, "These three places are considered to be key locations in the world. Their future development is worth observing."

After saying that, he signaled Liu Kuan to play it.

Liu Kuan found the prepared video and played the one about the Philippines first.

Before the video started, the name appeared in front of Lao Zhu and others through the cover.

"The game starts at Hell difficulty, and the Philippines can't feed 1.16 million mouths!" - [Earth Knowledge Bureau]

The video begins with a bird's-eye view of a surging crowd in the Philippines.

At the same time, a man with a slight northeastern accent began to explain.

"What does 1 million people mean? It's equivalent to four Australias, 2.5 Canadas, one Henan Province, or less than one Philippines."

Just by hearing this opening sentence, Lao Zhu had a deeper understanding of the concept of population explosion in later generations.

Apart from anything else, Henan has a population of 100 million, no wonder it is called the era of population explosion.

"Population size is relative to resources. In the impoverished and frigid Sakha Republic of Russia, a million people is close to the carrying capacity limit."

"India is smaller than Sahara, yet it has a population of 14 billion and could even add another million. Clearly, land alone cannot sustain people; water and heat resources are crucial."

"It is precisely because of its powerful hydrothermal resources that the Asian monsoon region feeds half of the human population within a relatively small geographical area..."

Soon, the video got to the point and talked about the situation in the Philippines.

"The Philippines, with a population of 1.16 million, is not conspicuous among Asia's monsoon countries, but it is a complete outlier."

"Vietnam and Thailand, both located at the same latitude, are renowned rice exporters, but the Philippines imports millions of tons of rice every year, and the figure is increasing year by year..."

"In the Philippines, 20 million people regularly eat food made from kitchen waste."

"Although both are tropical farming communities, the Filipinos still can't get enough to eat. There's both a hellish natural start and ruthless class oppression..."

Next, the video begins to explain the population changes in the Philippines from three periods: the indigenous tribal period, the colonial period, and the period after independence.

The focus is on its modern population changes and analyzes the reasons for the Philippines' out-of-control population.

The video was only 12 minutes long, but the Zhu family watched it very carefully and it felt like it was finished in just a moment.

This time, Zhu didn't sigh, but sneered, "While neighboring countries have all realized the crisis of population explosion and even out-of-control, and have formulated relevant national policies to deal with it, this later Luzon is confined by the religious rules of the Western barbarians and unable to control population growth. As a result, the population is out of control, and the productive land is trapped by food. It's really ridiculous!"

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di couldn't help but smile when they thought of the main reason mentioned in the video that Luzon in later generations could not control population growth, which was that Western doctrines prohibited birth control, and Luzon in later generations did not know how to adapt.

Of course, according to the video, Luzon’s inability to support a population of more than 100 million in later generations was also due to natural disasters.

Zhu Biao then said, "Father, the Luzon Islands are so prone to typhoons. If the Ming Dynasty wants to develop this area, I'm afraid it won't be appropriate to do so too quickly."

"Firstly, some places are prone to typhoons and are not suitable for settlement. Secondly, our Ming Dynasty's technology and industry are still in their infancy, and we don't have many solutions to deal with typhoons."

Old Zhu nodded, "Biao'er is right. There's really no need to rush the immigration and reclamation of the Luzon Islands. We can just occupy a few good locations first. We can wait a hundred years to develop the value of the other places."

As he spoke, Old Zhu turned around, looked at the other older princes, and asked, "What do you think after watching the video?"

Zhu Chong, who was fortunate enough to participate in this gathering again, still acted as a transparent person and did not say a word.

Zhu Ying scratched his head and said, "Father, whether we look at the land annexation cases throughout the dynasties or the uncontrolled population of Luzon in later generations, an overpopulation is not a good thing for a country."

Zhu Yuanzhang was dissatisfied and said, "Third Brother, your understanding is too superficial. Even Yunwen can see it."

When Zhu Yunwen heard Old Zhu mention his name, he nodded subconsciously, not knowing that he had offended Zhu Ying.

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)