Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Kuan knew about these two newspapers.

"Selected Current Essays" appeared in Suzhou as early as the 19th year of Hongwu. As its name suggests, it mainly publishes poems and articles by literati and scholars.

Although there are many scholars in the Ming Dynasty now, not many of them have a solid foundation. In addition, after Liu Kuan came, Zhu Yuanzhang strongly supported the scientific approach, and the number of young people willing to study traditional literature became fewer and fewer every year.

"Selected Current Affairs" had relatively high requirements for the poems and articles it published, so since its publication, its works have been unpopular.

Liu Kuan bought a copy that year, but he looked at it a few times and then stopped reading it - he really couldn't appreciate it.

But since this spring, the sales of "Selected Current Affairs" have increased rapidly, whether it is because a big sponsor joined or some changes were made, and it has also gained some fame in the capital.

Since he met a newspaper seller this time, Liu Kuan bought one to read.

As for the newspaper "Tianxia Shuo", he was more familiar with it because it was founded by King Zhu Chun of Shu and King Zhu Bai of Xiang last year, and they had asked him for advice on this matter.

This newspaper is somewhat similar to "Overseas Scenery". It mainly introduces the scenic spots, folk customs and people of various provinces and prefectures of the Ming Dynasty. It also publishes some unofficial history, strange stories and legends from various places.

In Liu Kuan's opinion, "Tianxia Shuo" is the first entertainment-oriented newspaper in the Ming Dynasty, and it is quite worth looking forward to.

"Tianxia Shuo" is published biweekly. He hadn't read it for three or four issues, so when he came across it, he thought about buying a copy.

Liu Kuan first returned to Tiangongyuan, explained his official duties, and then went back home for lunch.

After dinner, he didn't feel sleepy for a while, so he drank tea and read the newspaper.

He first flipped through the "Selected Current Affairs" for a while, then found the one he had bought before and compared it. He found that the current "Selected Current Affairs" not only had better paper, but the printing and typesetting were also obviously more refined, almost catching up with "Natural Science" and "Overseas Scenery".

In addition, its page size has doubled.

The extra part was actually used to publish poems and articles by young literati and even students. Since this was the case, the standards for accepted poems and articles were naturally lowered a lot, and thus a large number of readers, mainly young literati and students, were gained.

After all, the Ming Dynasty had only been promoting science for less than ten years, while traditional literature based on Confucianism had been popular for thousands of years and still had many supporters in the court and the country.

However, even when reading relatively simple articles written by young people, Liu Kuan felt sleepy after only reading for a while.

He was just about to take a nap when he saw Su Caiwei coming with a big belly.

"Why don't you take a nap?" Liu Kuan asked.

Su Caiwei didn't sit down either, but stood beside him, holding her belly with one hand and said, "I want to tell you something, Master."

As he spoke, he handed over an account book.

Liu Kuan took a quick look and found that they were the accounts of his own soap factory.

Although Ming Dynasty soap-like items existed, both in high-end and low-end varieties, the good ones were not as cheap as soap, and the cheap ones were not as good as soap. So, two years ago, Liu Kuan used the information in his computer to get the Liu family to invest in a soap factory.

After the soap was produced, it was not as popular among the people as described in some online novels, but it was not difficult to sell either. Therefore, in the past two years, Liu's Soap Factory has been producing and developing step by step and has not expanded rapidly.

Just last year, based on soap, we developed a variety of "soaps" as mid-to-high-end products.

Even so, Liu's Soap Factory now has two to three hundred employees and makes a profit of tens of thousands of strings of cash every quarter.

At this time, Su Caiwei showed Liu Kuan the profits of the soap factory in the spring of the 22nd year of Hongwu. Liu Kuan turned to the end and found that the profits had reached more than 27,000 strings of cash!
He looked up and asked, "Why is the profit so much higher this year?"

Su Caiwei smiled and said, "I sent someone to investigate. On the one hand, our soap has become more and more popular because of its reputation."

"On the other hand, it seems that the people of Zhili are a little richer than last year. They have more money on hand, so they are naturally willing to spend it."

Liu Kuan paused for a moment and said, "It's probably because the promotion of new crops last year has given people a sense of better prospects in life, so they've become more generous with their spending."

Su Caiwei is not very interested in national affairs, nor does she think that women should care about or talk about such things. She cares about family matters.

"Master, the soap factory is now quite profitable, and the reputation of the soap has spread. I would like to take this opportunity to build a factory to produce perfumes - if the soap is more profitable than the soap, then perfumes must be even more profitable."

As a person from later generations, Liu Kuan naturally knew how profitable perfume was, especially in times of peace and prosperity.

The Ming Dynasty has entered a golden age, and compared to previous history, the Ming Dynasty will be more tolerant of women. It is certain that women will be a major consumer group in the Ming Dynasty for decades or even hundreds of years to come.

Among these, products such as perfumes, skin care products, cosmetics, bags, etc. will definitely occupy a very important share.

The Liu family does not make money from this, but other merchants and powerful people do.

Nowadays, most people in the Ming Dynasty either spend their money enjoying themselves or hoard it, or even hide it away by exchanging it for gold, silver, jade, and other jewelry. Even if they invest it, it is usually to invest in their children's education, buy land, and finally invest in industry and commerce.

It would be better to let the Liu family earn this money. While increasing the Liu family's wealth, it can also contribute to the development of the Ming Dynasty and the welfare of the people. Thinking of this, Liu Kuan saw Su Caiwei's big belly and said, "It's okay to build a perfume factory, but you are already nine months pregnant and may give birth at any time. Wait until you give birth and have a rest before starting this project."

"Master~" Su Caiwei rarely acted coquettishly with Liu Kuan, "In that case, once the preparations are completed, the factory will probably not open until next year."

"The preparations aren't that tiring anyway, and I don't need to go out to do anything, so why not get ready now?"

Liu Kuan said, "That's fine, but you have to take care of your health."

Seeing Liu Kuan's agreement, Su Caiwei was very happy and said, "Master, if the perfume factory is built and sells well, I will go into the cosmetics industry and use the factory model to produce rouge and powder."

Liu Kuan said, "The competition in rouge and powder in the Ming Dynasty must be very fierce right now. If you don't have a good formula, even if you produce it in a factory model, you may not be able to compete with those old brands with many years of reputation."

"In my opinion, it would be better to invest in developing skincare products and start a skincare industry. I see that although you guys use some things to care for your skin, you mostly send people out to pick the ingredients and make them by hand."

"If you can develop effective skin care products and then market them as a brand, it will definitely make more money than making cosmetics."

Su Caiwei's eyes lit up when she heard this, revealing her pearly teeth as she smiled, "Master, your idea is still the best—I'll listen to you."

···
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At the end of April in the 22nd year of Hongwu, Su Caiwei gave birth to another son for Liu Kuan, named Liu Le'an.

At the same time, the news of the Ming army's victory in conquering the Western Regions and capturing Heidehuozhe Khan and the Islamic high priest also spread to the seventeen provinces and ten major military governors, and the court and the public naturally celebrated again.

In early May, Timur the Lame personally led an army of 70,000, claiming to have 100,000, and marched eastward in the name of supporting the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, intending to make inroads into the Western Regions.

After Duke Feng Sheng of Song learned the news, he led more than 50,000 Ming troops to intercept them near Atebashi, south of the Rehe Sea.

In a large-scale battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops, Timur the Lame, who had already made a great name for himself in Central Asia, suffered a crushing defeat and fled westward with only more than 10,000 elite troops.

In this battle, the Ming army killed more than 20,000 enemy troops of the Western Chagatai Khanate and captured more than 20,000.

Nearly 30,000 war horses were seized, and the amount of livestock such as cattle and sheep, weapons, armor, and other supplies was incalculable!

After the battle, Feng Sheng ordered the vanguard generals Yongxinbo Gucheng, Yong Wang Zhu Chong, Lu Wang Zhu Tan and others to lead troops to pursue the defeated soldiers, and took the opportunity to capture the four cities of Andian, Yangyi, Dashigan and Shaluhaye in the upper reaches of Huozhan River (later Syr Darya River), expanding the territory by a hundred miles!

In June, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an imperial decree to establish the Anxi Province, Gansu Province and Beiting Regional Military Commission.

The former capital of the Western Chagatai Khanate, Yilibali, was renamed Gongyue City (this name was used during the Tang Dynasty) and established as the capital of Anxi Province.

Beshbalik was renamed Tingzhou (this name was used during the Tang Dynasty), which became the seat of the Beiting Dusi.

In addition, Turpan has been changed back to its name "Xizhou" during the Tang Dynasty, and a large number of cities such as Hashahar, Yaerkan, and Sarikuer have been changed back to their names during the Tang Dynasty or the Han Dynasty.

Even the Central Asian city of Samarkand, which was now under the control of the Western Chagatai Khanate, was renamed "Kangju" by Zhu Yuanzhang in advance. In the Tang Dynasty, Samarkand was the seat of the Kangju Governor's Office.

The area of ​​Shaluhaha and Dashigan, which had been captured by the Ming army, was the former site of the famous Dayuan Kingdom and the location of the Dayuan Governor's Office. Today, Shaluhaha has also been renamed Dayuan...
···
Time goes back to the middle of May in the 22nd year of Hongwu.

When the Ming Dynasty brought the Western Regions back into the rule of the Central Plains dynasty, a huge fleet appeared on the Red Sea tens of thousands of miles away.

However, it was the vassalage team of Jin Wang Zhu Gang (please forgive me for the typo in the previous article) and the team of the Ming Dynasty court to establish the Xihaiwei, who finally arrived in Africa after a five-month voyage.

Although West Asia northeast of the Red Sea and Northeast Africa southwest of the Red Sea are not all tribes and there are some countries, except for the Mamluk Empire, they are all small countries.

These small countries had no concept of navy at all, and did not even have a naval force. Therefore, the huge immigrant fleet of Jin Fan and Xihaiwei sailed unimpeded on the Red Sea and directly to the Port of Suez.

As a kingdom that once dominated Northeast Africa and West Asia and bordered the Mediterranean Sea, the Mamluks naturally had a navy.

When Zhu Gang was on the deck of the Jinyang, looking at the port of Suez through a telescope, he saw hundreds of wooden ships docked there.

After watching for a while, he started laughing.

"Aside from merchant ships, there are also Mamluk warships in those ports, right? Haha, they're all rotten fish and shrimp. The largest one we see is less than 800 tons."

A staff member nearby laughed and said, "Most of their warships are only used for coastal operations or in the Nile River, so they are naturally not very large."

At this time, a messenger came over and said, "Your Majesty, Commander Lin has sent a flag signal, asking my troops to cooperate in firing at the ships in the harbor. We don't need to hit them, just to scare them."

Although Zhu Gang was a prince, he knew nothing about naval warfare. Therefore, along the way, all the fleets were commanded by Lin Feng, commander of the South China Sea Fleet.

After five months of cooperation, Zhu Gang had full confidence in Lin Feng's sailing and naval combat abilities, but upon hearing this, he couldn't help but wonder, "No need to hit him?"

A staff member nearby speculated, "Your Majesty, Commander Lin must have decided these ships are not a concern and that it would be better to intimidate them into submission." (End of this chapter)