Bringing the Railway to Daming

At this time, there were several large maps hanging on the screens in Fengxian Hall.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao came to one of the maps and said, "I think the provincial boundary can be drawn from a point several dozen miles north of Kaifeng to Wonsan on the east coast."

"Incorporate these two areas into the plan and merge them into one province. The southern part of the Korean Peninsula, which is just mentioned, will temporarily become one province."

Later on, Zhu Biao drew two circles on this map.

The first circle is southeast of the Liaodong Peninsula watershed and east of the Yingna River, namely the Wuchong River and Shaozi River basins, and the Caohe River and Dachong River basins, plus the Kuandian area.

The second circle is the Shuangchengwei of later generations and the dozens of miles around Vladivostok.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at it and nodded slightly, then asked: "Why is it divided like this?"

Zhu Biao said, "The current Liaoning Province and Jilin Prefecture are too large after all. In addition, the purpose is to quickly eliminate the influence of the previous administrative divisions within Goryeo."

"In fact, I believe that after conquering Japan in a few years, we can also carve out the coastal area of ​​southern Goryeo and establish it as a province along with Kyushu, Shikoku, and parts of Japan's main island."

In order to prevent local forces from becoming too powerful and out of control, ancient dynasties rarely used natural mountains, rivers, and seas as boundaries for administrative divisions. Sometimes, they even deliberately divided a naturally integrated area into several parts administratively.

This is what Zhu Biao is doing now.

In fact, not to mention ancient times, even later countries had this custom in administrative divisions.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in satisfaction after listening to Zhu Biao's explanation and said, "You have considered it quite comprehensively and long-term. In this case, do you have any ideas for the names of the two provinces of Goryeo?"

Zhu Biao laughed and said, "During the Han Dynasty, Lelang Commandery was established in Goryeo, and during the Tang Dynasty, Andong Protectorate was established in Goryeo."

"Therefore, I think it would be better to call the northern part Andong Province and the southern part Lelang Province."

"Change the name of Xijing back to Pyongyang, and make it the capital of Andong Province; change the name of Kaijing to Pyeongsun, and then change the name of Nanjing to Hancheng, and make it the capital of Lelang Province."

Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Goryeo would later be divided into two countries. The capital of the southern country was originally named Hancheng after the Joseon Dynasty, but later it was changed to Seoul because of admiration for foreigners.

Therefore, after hearing what Zhu Biaojun said, he couldn't help but praise: "These name changes are good, let's do it this way."

As long as the division of provinces and the renaming of several cities were not too wrong, the ministers generally would not raise any objections, and Zhu Yuanzhang could make the decision on his own.

After the meeting, Zhu Biao left Fengxian Hall and went to the harem to visit Empress Ma (Zhu Biao was allowed to go to the harem during the day).

Since Empress Ma relieved herself of the burden of managing the affairs of the harem, Zhu Biao, in addition to greeting her every morning, also visited Empress Ma in the harem and chatted with her more often than before.

Firstly, he was worried that Empress Ma would be in a bad mood or even fall ill from idleness after she no longer presided over the affairs of the harem; secondly, Empress Ma's health was indeed not as good as before, and he did not know when Empress Ma would die, so he wanted to show more filial piety to her.

It was only when he arrived at Kunning Palace that Zhu Biao learned that Empress Ma was in the Imperial Garden.

He was not surprised - after Empress Ma had some free time, she followed Liu Kuan's advice and tended flowers and plants in the imperial garden. With one or two smart and well-behaved children to keep her company, she was not idle.

When he arrived at the Imperial Garden, Zhu Biao discovered that Zhu Huilan, Liu Changan and Liu Ruoyue were also there.

The two children are less than two years old, but they can already walk and even run, but they are not very stable. They can also speak a lot.

In addition, they look similar, both are delicate and exquisite, which makes them very lovable.

Zhu Huilan also cared about Empress Ma's health. After the spring, she often brought her two children into the palace to spend time with Empress Ma.

The two children were seen playing with flowers, plants and mud. Some of the flowers and plants were damaged. Queen Ma was not angry, but had a kind smile on her face. When the children ran, she stepped forward to protect them, obviously afraid that the children would fall.

Zhu Huilan was reading a book nearby.

Zhu Biao listened for a while and asked curiously, "What story is Third Sister telling?"

Zhu Huilan paused and replied, "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils."

"The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?" Zhu Biao was surprised. "My brother-in-law wrote this martial arts novel?"

Zhu Huilan laughed and said, "He's so busy, how could he have the time to write? I asked him to write an outline of the story, then asked someone skilled in storytelling to revise it. After he reviewed and approved it, I read it to my mother."

Zhu Biao also knew that Empress Ma was interested in the novel "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", so he said, "Third sister and brother-in-law are interested."

Zhu Huilan said, "As long as the Queen Mother is happy, this is nothing."

Empress Ma said, "Kuan'er has a lot of things to do. Please don't bother him with such things in the future."

Zhu Huilan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you may not know this, but my husband also wants to write some martial arts novels for future generations, but he just doesn't have the time."

"He was very happy that his daughter did this. He said that after finishing The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, he would have someone write the entire Legend of the Condor Heroes trilogy."

Zhu Biao asked curiously, "What is the Condor Heroes trilogy?"

"They are three other martial arts novels written by the man who later wrote 'The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'. They are mostly set in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. The character relationships and stories are consistent. They are considered my husband's four favorite martial arts novels."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao became even more curious. "Is there a film set in the Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Huilan recalled what Liu Kuan had said and said, "Actually, it's not set in the Ming Dynasty—that's the last film in the Condor Heroes trilogy, called The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber."

"It tells the story of the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when people were living in dire straits. The righteous sects, led by Shaolin, Wudang, and Emei, and the Ming Cult, known as the Demonic Cult, were hostile to each other. At the same time, both the righteous sects and the Ming Cult were at odds with the Yuan court."

"The protagonist's father is Zhang Cuishan, the fifth true disciple of Zhang Sanfeng of the Wudang Sect, and his mother is Yin Susu, the daughter of the Eagle King, one of the four Dharma Kings who protect the Ming Cult."

"The two met through fighting, and because of a dispute over the Dragon Slaying Sword, they were stranded on the overseas Ice and Fire Island with Xie Xun, the Lion King, one of the Four Dharma Kings of the Ming Cult. They then fell in love, married with the Lion King as witness, and gave birth to the protagonist Zhang Wuji..."

Zhu Huilan recounted the general plot of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" that she had heard from Liu Kuan.

Although it was just a rough outline of the plot, Zhu Biao, Empress Ma, and even the palace maids who were closer were all fascinated by it. Even Liu Ping'an and Liu Ruoyue seemed to understand it, and they stayed obediently by the side, looking up at Zhu Huilan.

After Zhu Huilan finished, Empress Ma smiled and said, "The Left and Right Envoys of Light, the Four Dharma Kings, the Four Gates of Heaven, Earth, Wind and Thunder, the Five Wanderers, the Five Elements Flags—the structure of the Ming Cult in this novel is actually more rigorous than the real thing."

Zhu Huilan asked in surprise, "Mother, is it possible that these positions don't exist in the Ming Cult in reality?"

"Of course not," Empress Ma said. "As far as I know, the Ming Cult back then only had a main temple and branch temples, and the organization was far less strict than the novel you described. Many people claim to have joined the Ming Cult, but in reality, they are merely flying the Ming Cult's banner."

"Later, when the Red Turban Rebellion rose up, it was a similar situation."

Zhu Huilan shook her head and laughed, "No wonder my husband said that most of the content in novels is fabricated and can't be trusted."

After they chatted for a while, an eunuch from Zhu Yuanzhang's side came over with a telegram.

"Her Majesty the Empress, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan has sent another telegram."

Several people knew that Zhu Yuanzhang must have read the telegram before sending it over.

Zhu Biao took the telegram and said with a smile, "Fourth brother writes at least one telegram every month. Calculating the time, this month's telegram should have arrived. Will your son read it to mother?"

Empress Ma laughed and said, "It's all in your hands. If you don't read it, who will?"

Zhu Biao immediately read out the contents of the telegram.

In the telegram, Zhu Di naturally first greeted Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma and Zhu Biao's family, and then gave a brief account of the situation of his own small family.

As the superiors, Zhu Di's family naturally had it very good.

In addition, he happily said in the telegram that the daughter of an Indian princely state lord whom he married had given birth to a son for him.

Next, I will talk about the general actions of Yan State in India in the past month.

Although Zhu Di had established his vassal state in India for two years at this time, considering that he had few officials and troops under his command, he adopted the advice of his staff such as Daoyan and currently only occupied a small plain area west of the lower reaches of the Ganges, which is less than 100 miles around Dhaka.

Including Dhaka, there are only four decent cities.

Of course, Dhaka has now been renamed "Yanjing".

So far, the registered population under his rule is about 500,000 - this figure is not low, after all, the territory of Yan State is not large, and there are still many households in remote areas that are not included in the yellow book.

In addition, this territory was basically conquered by Zhu Di two years ago. He spent the whole year of last year sorting out internal affairs, cultivating land and training troops, and developing "industry" - the reason why "industry" is put in quotation marks is because Yan State currently only has handicrafts.

Among these three matters, Zhu Di regarded military farming and military training as the top priority.

Military farming is related to food security - although he seized a lot of food from the Sultanate of Bengal, it was still not enough.

Therefore, in the past two years, he not only developed large-scale military farming, but also sent caravans and merchant ships to various forces to purchase grain.

In addition, starting from the truce and defense two years ago, he recruited 30,000 local young and strong men, organized them into garrison troops, and carried out extensive military training.

After more than a year of training, these local garrison troops had begun to demonstrate combat effectiveness. Zhu Di decided to train them for a few more months, and then, after the autumn harvest, to begin Yan's second round of territorial expansion.

In this war of expansion, he wanted to occupy at least half of the territory of the former Bengal Sultanate...

Although Zhu Di mentioned good things in the telegram, Empress Ma did not look happy after hearing it.

She sighed, "Swords are merciless on the battlefield, and the fourth brother is going to conquer all directions again. It's really worrying."

Zhu Biao consoled her, "Mother, my fourth brother is a skilled warrior, and he has the weapons and armor he brought from the Ming Dynasty. He may not be invincible in India, but no force can put him in danger."

"Besides, he has many powerful generals under his command. Even if he wants to expand the territory again, he may not need to lead the army in person."

"He won't lead the army?" Empress Ma shook her head. "Do you think I don't know what he did in history? You and your father should give him some more instructions."

Zhu Biao thought to himself: He is so far away, will he listen to our instructions?
But he agreed.

At this time, Empress Ma looked towards the southwest with worry, muttering, "I wonder how the third and seventh sons have fared this month." (End of this chapter)