Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 29: Beijing-Shanghai Railway? [Seeking follow-up reading]

Zhao Chengdao said, "The Emperor said that Young Master Liu has just arrived in the Ming Dynasty and is alone. He is afraid that he has many personal matters to deal with. Therefore, he allows you to resume your duties in two days, that is, on the eighth day of the first lunar month. As for attending court, you can start on the tenth day."

Knowing that I was a new arrival, you only gave me two or three days to buffer?
You are worthy of being called Lao Zhu.

But it is not bad to let him go to court again on the tenth day.

Today is the fifth day of the first lunar month, which means he has three to five days to learn the etiquette and rules of attending court.

Thinking of this, Liu Kuan said, "Eunuch Zhao, I don't understand the induction process, the etiquette of attending court, etc. Could Your Majesty please send someone to teach me?"

Zhao Cheng smiled and said, "The Emperor has also thought of this. Look, I came here not only to bring Master Liu's official uniform, but also to teach him the etiquette and rules of court meetings."

"As for the onboarding process, on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, when Young Master Liu goes to the Ministry of Works, someone will be there to guide him."

Liu Kuan thought it would be better if someone he knew could teach him the etiquette of the court meeting, so he bowed and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Zhongguan Zhao."

"Mr. Liu, you're welcome. If you have nothing else to do, why not try on your official uniform first? Speaking of which, in the Ming Dynasty, the court usually provided money or cloth for the official's uniform, and the official would have someone take his or her measurements and have it made."

"The Emperor, mindful of Young Master Liu's loneliness in the Ming Dynasty, instructed the Empress to have someone sew these sets of clothing, socks, and hats for him overnight."

After hearing this from Zhao Cheng, Liu Kuan was not moved, but he couldn't help but sigh that Old Zhu really cared about him.

Next, Liu Kuan learned court etiquette under Zhao Cheng's guidance in the morning and afternoon.

After dinner, I spent more than an hour copying materials related to steam engines, ironmaking, and steelmaking with Qiuyue and Chunlan, and thinking about the division of the six departments...
Two days passed in a flash.

It was the seventh day of August.

That afternoon, after Liu Kuan took a nap, he was learning the etiquette and rules of court meetings with Zhao Cheng, when a eunuch came and conveyed Zhu Yuanzhang's oral order, asking him to go to the palace quickly.

On the way, Liu Kuan tried to get some information from the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict, but unfortunately the young eunuch knew nothing.

Come to Fengxian Hall.

Liu Kuan discovered that in addition to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and eunuch Li Gui, there was also a general of the personal army.

"Your Majesty, your humble servant, pays homage to His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Liu Kuan bowed.

"Stand up." Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand slightly, then pointed at the general of the imperial army and said, "This is Sun Ge, a centurion of the imperial cavalry guard. He has already found the end of the railway in Jiangnan."

Upon hearing this, Liu Kuan understood why Zhu Yuanzhang was so anxious to call him into the palace to discuss matters.

He was also anxious to learn about the railway.

He bowed to Sun Ge and said, "Excuse me, Captain Sun, where is the end of the railway?"

Sun Ge already knew that Liu Kuan was the strange man who appeared along with the cross-river bridge and the strange road that day.

Upon hearing this, he said, "It's west of the Huangpu River and north of the Wusong River in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Biao'er has some simple maps drawn by Sun Tiehu and others when they explored the railway. You can take a look at them."

Liu Kuan immediately came to Zhu Biao's desk.

Zhu Biao spread out several extremely simple "maps" on the table.

This "map" is basically composed of graphics like lines, triangles, squares, and circles. Although there are Chinese characters marked on it, they all seem to be traditional cursive scripts, which Liu Kuan cannot recognize at all.

I was speechless for a moment.

Seeing Zhu Biao looking at him expectantly, Liu Kuan said, "How about Your Highness the Crown Prince help me explain it?"

Only then did Zhu Biao realize that Liu Kuan did not understand the simple map on the table. Although he was a little surprised, he did not think much about it.

He first took out a map and said, "This is a map of the area around Shanghai County. Look, this is Shanghai County, and this is the end of the railway."

Liu Kuan finally matched this scribbled map with the vague one in his mind and nodded immediately, saying, "This end should be the old Shanghai Railway Station in later generations."

Then he looked at Sun Ge and asked, "Captain Sun, you've been exploring along the railway. You must have passed through many mountains and rivers, right? How did you get there? Is the railway broken?"

Sun Ge said, "This is strange... Wherever the railway passes, all the hills and slopes, no matter how high or small, are broken open as if carved by ghosts and gods."

"If it passes through a river, there will be a strange bridge similar to a cross-river bridge, carrying the railway across the river."

"It's just that a few of those strange bridges didn't exactly cross the river, so parts of the railway were flooded or washed away by the river."

Although Liu Kuan had some expectations about the situation after the railway crossed into the Ming Dynasty, he still couldn't help frowning after hearing Sun Ge's description.

The earth and mountains are not static, especially rivers. Six hundred years later, it is normal for rivers to have changed in width, narrowness, and even position.

However, the location where the railway bridge crossed was obviously not able to be changed flexibly, so that part of the railway bridge could not function, causing the railway to be flooded or washed away by the river.

Fortunately, the mountains have not changed much, and the mountains where the railway passes have become chiseled out - if the railway passed directly through the mountains, it would be buried and would be useless.

While Liu Kuan was thinking about these things, the Fengxian Hall was quite quiet and no one disturbed him.

When Liu Kuan came to his senses and looked at the other "maps", Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask, "Master Liu, can those railways that were flooded and washed away by the river be repaired and used?"

Liu Kuan said, "We have to check the actual situation before we can confirm it. Even if it can be repaired, we don't have the talent in this field in the Ming Dynasty right now. And it will take at least a dozen years to train relevant talents."

Zhu Biao frowned after hearing this.

He said, "Jiangnan is a region with many rivers. According to Captain Sun's report, five or six sections of railways in Jiangnan have been flooded or destroyed by rivers. If they can't be repaired, doesn't that mean that all the railways in Jiangnan are temporarily useless?"

Liu Kuan said, "It's not useless. If it really doesn't work, we can build a few more trains in the future and run them in sections."

Can this be done?
Zhu Biao's eyes lit up and his brows relaxed.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "The troops have already explored Xuzhou along the railway in Jiangbei. According to reports, there is no railway bridge when the railway passes through the Yellow River, so a large section has been washed away."

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, Liu Kuan was stunned at first.

Then I realized that the Yellow River had changed its course in later times and now flows into the sea through the Huai River, passing through Xuzhou, Huai'an and other places.

In this way, there will not be a "Yellow River Railway Bridge" in the Xuzhou section of the Yellow River.

However, when Liu Kuan opened his mouth, he asked about something else.

"Your Majesty, the Yellow River didn't burst its banks, did it? Are the people on both sides safe?"

When they heard Liu Kuan first question the people, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and Sun Ge were all a little surprised.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes looked at Liu Kuan more gently - this question showed that the safety of the people occupied a very important position in Liu Kuan's heart, even more than the railway.

Zhu Yuanzhang always showed more kindness to those who truly cared about the people.

He said, "Don't worry, the Yellow River has not burst its banks because of the railway, and the people on both sides of the river are safe."

"That's good." Liu Kuang breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the railway crossing does not necessarily have anything to do with him, he would definitely feel bad if the railway crossing the Yellow River caused a dike burst, causing innocent people to suffer and become displaced.

Fortunately, this did not happen.

Then, Liu Kuan asked Zhu Biao to explain several other "maps", and he finally had a more reliable guess about the railway that he had crossed with.

He said, "Your Majesty, based on what we have discovered so far, if nothing unexpected happens, this railway that crosses into the Ming Dynasty should be the 'Beijing-Shanghai Railway' of later generations."

Zhu Yuanzhang: "What is the Jinhu Railway?"

Liu Kuan explained, "It's the railway from Beijing to Shanghai—Beijing is abbreviated as Jing, and Shanghai is abbreviated as Hu, hence the name."

After saying that, Liu Kuan simply borrowed Zhu Biao's brush and wrote the words "Beijing and Shanghai" on a piece of white paper.

Zhu Biao almost couldn't help laughing when he saw it.

Because Liu Kuan's handwriting was uglier than he had imagined.

When Li Gui brought the paper to the imperial desk, Zhu Yuanzhang, upon reading it, could not help but laugh. He said, "Liu Kuan, your handwriting is simply unbearable to be seen in public. Could it be that in later generations you are a lazy, poor student who hates studying?"

Although Liu Kuan expected that his calligraphy would be laughed at, he did not expect Zhu Yuanzhang to "misunderstand" it in this way.

He explained somewhat speechlessly, "People in later generations no longer use brushes to write, but hard pens. Also, once you leave school and work outside, a lot of writing is done on high-tech devices like mobile phones, so there's no need for handwriting anymore."

People in later generations didn’t use brushes to write?
No need to even write?
Liu Kuan's words surprised the people in Fengxian Hall.

At the same time, I also understand why Liu Kuan's calligraphy is so ugly.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't ask about such trivial matters as writing. He looked at the ugly characters "京沪" and said, "Beijing has been the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, and other dynasties. It is understandable that it is one end of the railway."

"But Shanghai County was only established in the early Yuan Dynasty. It's just a small county on the southern edge of the Yangtze River. How can it be compared with the capital city of several generations?"

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(End of this chapter)