Bringing the Railway to Daming

The Hongwu period was five or six hundred years away from the era before Liu Kuan traveled through time, so the difference between the Cantonese at that time and the Lingnan dialect at this time was quite obvious.

In fact, at that time, there were many Lingnan dialects, and no mainstream dialect had yet been formed, and there was no such thing as Cantonese.

In addition, Lingnan dialect at this time retains more of the ancient Chinese accent.

In this case, for the Zhu family, listening to the Cantonese songs of later generations is really the same as listening to the dialect tunes of a certain place, purely for the feeling.

But the songs Liu Kuan chose were classic Cantonese martial arts songs after all. After listening to "A Lifetime of Love", "Tie Xue Dan Xin" and "The Difficult Sutra" one after another, both Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, who had lyrics for reference, and the concubines, princes, princesses and others who had no lyrics for reference, all praised them highly.

"This song sung in Lingnan dialect is really good. When will we go to Guangzhou to find some singing girls?"

"Hush, be careful if father hears you, he will give you a good beating."

"I'm just inviting him to the capital to perform, not buying him into my house. What are you afraid of?"

"···"

On the throne, Empress Ma was particularly fond of the "Difficult Sutra" that had just been played, and asked Emperor Zhu to play it again.

"This song is not only beautiful, but also combines Buddhist principles with the Taoist philosophy of freedom. Although it is just the lyrics, it is also a rare masterpiece. It may be sung for many years in the future and become a true classic."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "The lyrics are indeed quite artistic. I remember Liu Kuan once said that martial arts golden songs are the soundtracks of martial arts films and TV series in later generations, but I don't know what kind of martial arts drama this song is suitable for."

Empress Ma smiled and said, "After we finish listening to the songs and have lunch, you can ask Kuan'er and you'll know the answer."

"Alright."

After listening to "The Difficult Sutra" twice, the sixth song appeared.

An exciting prelude dominated by suona sounded, but the video was edited from a pigtail opera. Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and felt disgusted when he saw it.

It wasn't until the song started that his disgust dissipated a little.

"The sky is already dark, the moon is just like the first..."

Below, although Liu Kuan had no idea how many times he had listened to this song, it still brought back childhood memories. He had almost finished eating, so he couldn't help but pull Liu Ruoxue and Liu Ping'an to hum along with the song.

"The blood is gone, Hua Chenyu..."

Liu Ruoxue couldn't help but stop and ask, "Daddy, who is Hua Chenyu? Why is he so unfashionable?"

Liu Kuan laughed and said, "It's 'Turn into dust and soil'."

After saying that, he dipped his hand in the wine and wrote three words on the low table.

Liu Ruoxue took a look and suddenly understood.

A few minutes later, the theme song of "Tai Chi Grandmaster" "Who's the Hero" was played. Although Zhu Yuanzhang liked this song very much, he didn't like watching videos edited with pigtail dramas, so he didn't play it again.

Empress Ma ordered the palace maids to serve the two of them hot dishes in addition to the cold dishes. (She didn't serve them first because she was afraid they would get cold after the song.)
More than half an hour passed before Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma finished their meal.

Then Empress Ma asked the palace maids to clean up, and Zhu Yuanzhang waved to Liu Kuan to come over and talk.

Liu Kuan came to the side of the imperial throne and heard Zhu Yuanzhang ask, "Why are there four martial arts classics played this time sung in Lingnan dialect? Could it be that songs sung in Lingnan dialect are very popular in later generations?"

I learned the word "popular" from Liu Kuan.

Liu Kuan was very impressed when he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was able to guess some future events based on just a few songs.

He said, "Your Majesty, during the First Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty, a small piece of land and many islands south of Xiatunmen in present-day Dongguan County (Xin'an County was added during the Wanli Emperor's reign) were ceded by the Qing government to the British."

"It was not until the rise of the Xin Dynasty that the British were allowed to return this place, but it had already been ruled by the British for more than 150 years."

"Due to various historical issues, the local customs are quite different from those in the mainland. As a result, the entertainment industry flourished for a period of time. The film industry was even internationally renowned at one point, rivaling the films of superpowers like Bald Eagle."

"Additionally, Guangdong has a geographical advantage in maritime trade and has always been at the forefront of Chinese trends. Therefore, when the entertainment industry developed in the new dynasty, Cantonese songs were quite popular for quite a while."

"Hmph, the British again," Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly. "It seems that in future history, apart from Japan, it is the British who bully us the most. Sooner or later, they will be punished."

"By the way, Britain should exist now, right?"

"This..." Liu Kuan recalled his limited memory of foreign history and said, "It should exist. As for which dynasty it was in, I don't know."

At this time, Empress Ma coughed, which made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that he had asked the wrong question.

So I asked again, "The four Cantonese songs you chose... all sound good, but 'The Hard Sutra' has the best artistic conception. Can you tell me what martial arts drama this song is based on?"

"Your Majesty, 'The Difficult Sutra' is the theme song from a certain version of the TV series 'The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'."

Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?

Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma looked at each other and thought to themselves, this is indeed related to Buddhist principles.

Empress Ma asked, "Kuan'er, could you give us a brief account of the content of The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?"

Liu Kuan said, "The Empress is well versed in Buddhist principles. She must know that the Eight Immortals in Buddhist scriptures refer to eight kinds of non-human gods and monsters."

"And this novel of the same name is a martial arts novel written by the author using these eight gods and monsters as allegorical symbols to express the suffering of all living beings."

"The novel is set during the Song-Liao conflict, when the Three Kingdoms of Western Xia, Tubo, and Dali already existed. It features Qiao Feng, the new leader of the Beggars' Sect; Xu Zhu, a disciple of the Shaolin Temple; and Duan Yu, the son of the Prince of Zhennan in Dali. "Each of these three has a secret history. Qiao Feng is actually a Khitan. His father, a Khitan martial artist, was mistakenly killed by a Central Plains martial arts expert and survived falling off a cliff, leading to Qiao Feng being raised by Han Chinese."

"Xu Zhu was an orphan on the surface, but in reality he was the illegitimate son of the then Shaolin Temple abbot and a female villain. Neither the abbot nor Xu Zhu knew this."

"Duan Yu is not the biological son of the Prince of Zhennan, but the son of the former Crown Prince of Dali and the Princess of Zhennan..."

After briefly introducing the three people's life stories, Liu Kuan suddenly felt something was wrong and stopped talking. "Your Majesty, the novel 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils' has many characters, almost all of whom have unique backgrounds and fascinating stories."

"If I were to tell you, I'm afraid it would take days and nights to finish. Why not wait until there's an opportunity to tell Your Majesty and the Empress later?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma became quite interested in "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" just by hearing the bizarre life stories of the three protagonists, they still restrained the idea of ​​asking Liu Kuan to narrate the novel.

In their eyes, Liu Kuan was a talented person who could continue the Ming Dynasty, and he could not be regarded as a storyteller.

Just at this time, the palace servants had almost cleared away the plates and other items for the lunch, so Empress Ma ordered them to set up the tables and chairs.

Zhu Yuanzhang took this opportunity to ask, "How many videos and movies have you prepared this time?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, I have prepared five short videos of over ten minutes each, as well as an animated film."

Five short videos?
Zhu Yuanzhang was delighted when he heard this - Liu Kuan had only prepared three videos on the second day of the Lunar New Year last year, so he was naturally happy to have two more this time.

"Okay, let's take our seats and get ready to watch the video."

Soon, the Zhu family sat in a row according to the rules of previous years, but this year the family of Prince Jin Zhu Gang was missing, which made Zhu and Empress Ma a little disappointed.

Fortunately, Liu Kuan quickly played the prepared video, diverting the two people's attention.

The video title still appears on the screen before it plays.

"With a 25-fold increase in population, how did Yunnan transform itself?"

The population has increased 25 times? Or is it about Yunnan?

After seeing the title, Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly stopped Liu Kuan, who was about to touch the screen to play, and said, "Wait a minute - Xiongying, go get someone to bring some paper and pen and write down the key points of this video."

"Yes."

Zhu Xiongying immediately stood up and told the palace servants to do something. After a while, he brought a blank "notebook" and a Ming Dynasty fountain pen, and even asked the palace servants to bring a small table and chairs.

Then, the people in the rows behind Lao Zhu had to move to make room for Zhu Xiongying to watch the video and record.

After Zhu Xiongying sat down and nodded, Liu Kuan played the video.

"What does 50 million people mean? One Spain, two Australias, or one Yunnan Province."

"Can you imagine? Yunnan's population density is close to that of Thailand, higher than Myanmar, and even 3.8 times that of Laos."

"You have to know that Yunnan is a completely mountainous province, with very few plains. Those larger flat areas can only be called plains..."

Just watching the beginning of the video, Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao, a father and son who have some knowledge of Yunnan’s population, looked surprised.

Because a few years ago, when the Ming Dynasty just pacified Yunnan, the registered population was only more than 300,000.

Even though the Ming Dynasty had worked hard to register local people of all ethnic groups in the past few years and continued to immigrate to Yunnan by establishing garrisons, the population only increased by more than 300,000.

In other words, Yunnan now has a population of only about 700,000.

And the video actually said that Yunnan had a population of nearly 50 million in later generations!
Even though Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao had known that China would have a population of 14 billion in the future, they were still shocked when they heard this data.

As the video says, Yunnan is a completely mountainous province. There are not many places suitable for growing crops. How does it feed nearly 50 million people?
Even if there were crops like sweet potatoes and corn suitable for growing in the mountains of Yunnan, it would probably be difficult to feed nearly 50 million people, right?

What did later generations do?

It can't be that they rely solely on aid from the court, right?
Thinking of this, Old Zhu and Zhu Biao watched more attentively.

Zhu Xiongying, who was already seventeen years old, also knew the importance of this matter and quickly wrote down some key points.

"If you look at the grain self-sufficiency rankings of various Chinese provinces, Yunnan is not only self-sufficient, it can even export!"

"How can such a small piece of land support so many people?"

"In fact, for most of history, Yunnan's population was much smaller than it is now..."

There was only a timeline on the video, and the earliest one was actually the 1393th year of Hongwu (71). It showed that there were only people in Yunnan at that time, which was less than the nd year of Hongwu in this time and space.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, after experiencing several wars, Yunnan's population reached 180 million.

Although it was still only 4% of Yunnan's population in later generations, it made Zhu Lao, Zhu Biao and other members of the Zhu family proud - in history, during the more than years of Ming Dynasty's rule over Yunnan, even without new crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, Yunnan's population increased several times.

However, the changes in the timeline and Yunnan's population data in the following video made the Zhu family feel that the Ming Dynasty's achievements in governing Yunnan were nothing special.

"But by 1850, Yunnan's population had already reached 1949 million; in 1600, it was close to 2023 million; and in 4673, it exceeded million!"

"In just three hundred years, Yunnan's population has soared 25 times, and it has become self-sufficient. This is truly an agricultural miracle!"

Although they already knew the data from the title, watching the video with explanation still made Lao Zhu's family wonder: Can sweet potatoes and corn really feed so many people in Yunnan?
Next, the video starts from the end of the Ming Dynasty to talk about the history of agricultural development in Yunnan... (End of this chapter)