Bringing the Railway to Daming

Han Li, a captain of the guards, rode up to Zhu Bo and shouted, "Your Majesty, the snow is falling so heavily, and we don't know when it will stop. We are still nearly two hundred miles from the nearest Acropolis. Why don't we retreat to Samawei?"

Zhu Bo and his group advanced at a speed of 300 miles a day and rested in the Acropolis at night - in fact, only the Acropolis could accommodate their thousands of troops and provide them with food and fodder.

Although Qianhu Suo can be considered a small city, it is quite difficult to accommodate more than a thousand soldiers.

Zhu Bai looked back and saw that the snow and wind had blocked the way. He said, "If we turn back, wouldn't we have walked over a hundred miles in vain? Follow my orders, keep moving forward, and try to reach Sanhaiwei before dark!"

Han Li wanted to persuade him again, but seeing Zhu Bai's determined expression, he could only follow his orders.

"The snow is strong, everyone stay close to the team and don't fall behind."

"It's very dangerous to get lost in the snow alone!"

"Try to speed up and reach Sanhaiwei as soon as possible!"

Under the loud shouts of Han Li and other guard officers, the team not only did not slow down due to the wind and snow, but moved even faster.

This made Zhu Bo suffer even more.

Although he had practiced horse riding since he was a child, he was still not as good as these guards.

At the same time, he also understood that although Zhu Yuanzhang accepted Liu Kuan's advice and changed the way he raised the princes, they were not spoiled. But compared with these soldiers, the "hardships" they had endured were nothing.

Therefore, although Zhu Bai had a hard time riding in the wind and snow and his inner thighs began to hurt, he did not say anything. Instead, he tried his best to control the horse so as not to slow down the team.

Finally, they arrived at Sanhaiwei not long after dark, and the wind and snow finally subsided.

After Zhu Bai revealed his identity, he was naturally welcomed in by the commander of the Three Sea Guards. More than a thousand of them no longer had to camp on a snowy night.

The commander of the Three Sea Guards is Zhu Bo’s relative, named Zhu Zhengshan, who is a bit of a talkative person.

After warmly welcoming Zhu Bai into the city, he set up a banquet to entertain Zhu Bai and several of the top guards, imperial guards, and attendants, including Han Li. He also asked several commanders and assistants of the Sanhai Guard to attend the banquet.

"Your Highness, the Prince of Xiang, braved the bitter cold and came to inspect Mobei, thousands of miles away from the capital. This is truly admirable. I offer you a toast!"

After Zhu Zhengshan finished drinking, he didn't care about Zhu Bai's reaction and drank the wine in the bowl in one gulp.

Zhu Bo was in a bit of a dilemma - he was not good at drinking, and it could even be said that he would not drink unless it was necessary.

Fortunately, Captain Han Li spoke up at this time and said, "Commander Zhu, the king doesn't like to drink, so I will drink this cup for him."

Don’t like drinking?

Zhu Zhengshan stared blankly for a moment, then reacted and slammed the table, saying, "Hey, Your Highness, why didn't you tell me earlier? I have no intention of forcing a toast on you. Someone, bring Your Highness a pot of hot tea!"

Zhu Bai said, "Commander Zhu is too polite."

Zhu Zhengshan picked up a leg of lamb and started chewing it. Then he said, "Your Highness Prince Xiang, you don't know how cold it is in Mobei, especially in winter. If you don't drink at night, you'll be freezing and unable to sleep."

Zhu Bo asked, "Can ordinary soldiers also drink wine?"

"Yes," Zhu Zhengshan wiped the oil from his mouth and continued, "Speaking of which, at first, only officers of high enough rank in the Mobei Garrison could drink alcohol, and we had to drink sparingly. Even in winter, we would only have a few sips on snowy days."

"Because this wine is all shipped from Hebei, a long way away, even the inferior wine becomes expensive. Kumis is not scarce in Mobei, but we can't get used to it."

"Later, we planted potatoes according to the imperial court's instructions, and with the guidance of the imperial court, we tried to make wine from potatoes. Only then did we have enough wine to drink."

"Of course, potato production is limited nowadays. We have to use it mainly as food, and we can't use it to make wine."

"So, ordinary soldiers were only given a certain amount of alcohol in winter to ensure they could have a few sips every night to warm themselves up."

In ancient times, there was a saying that drinking was forbidden in the military, but firstly, that was a wartime regulation, and secondly, the garrison troops were half-farmers, half-soldiers, so there was no prohibition on alcohol in non-wartime. Of course, if you were inside the Great Wall, the garrison would definitely not provide alcohol, so soldiers who wanted to drink had to buy their own alcohol, which was not cheap.

Therefore, the soldiers stationed inside the pass would not buy alcohol unless it was a festival, a happy event, or they were entertaining relatives and friends.

The weather in Mobei is bitterly cold, so the garrisons use potato-brewed wine to distribute to the soldiers in winter to keep them warm. This is considered a benefit for these soldiers guarding the bitterly cold land of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Bo still felt a little worried after hearing this and asked, "The guards are distributing alcohol to the soldiers. Aren't you afraid that some of them will lose control and get drunk and cause trouble?"

Zhu Zhengshan chuckled and said, "With so many people in the army, there must be some greedy ones who get drunk and make mistakes. But if we discover such a situation, we will punish him according to the regulations."

"First, he must be punished by having to work more, and second, his next order of wine and drinks must be confiscated. Your Highness thinks that such a greedy person must be a wine lover. In order to receive his wine and drinks on time, he must control his drinking."

"Of course, if there are those who refuse to change despite repeated warnings, or who make mistakes due to drunkenness, we will also deal with them severely. We will punish them if they deserve it, or even exile them to Luohuang to do hard labor, as a warning to others!"

After hearing this, Zhu Bai still felt that it was not right for the soldiers of the Mobei Guard to rely on drinking to ward off the cold - not that they couldn't, but that it couldn't be the main method.

Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the soldiers of Mobei and Luohuang Guards have the conditions to keep warm in cold weather.

Thinking of this, Zhu Bai asked again, "After I entered the city, I saw a lot of coal slag in the citadel. Commander Zhu also has a floor heating system in this room. I wonder if the soldiers are cold inside?"

Zhu Zhengshan said, "Your Highness, Prince Xiang, you may not know that although heating was taken into consideration when the Acropolis was built, and every household has a kang, coal and firewood cannot be burned all the time."

"Especially in our Sanhaiwei area, firewood is almost impossible to come by. In the past, herders could only burn dung, which doesn't burn well at all and is very difficult to burn."

"Later, we arrived and, following the imperial court's orders, found a place with coal and opened a coal mine. However, we were short on manpower, so our output was very limited. Not to mention the herdsmen, even in our garrison, many soldiers' homes burned a mixture of sheep dung and coal."

After hearing this, Zhu Bo felt that some things were indeed difficult to understand clearly based on information obtained from paper alone, and he still had to go and listen and see them in person.

He then said, "Tomorrow I will go to the brewery, coal factory, and coal mine under your guard to take a look."

"No problem." Zhu Zhengshan agreed readily, and then couldn't help but say, "Your Highness, Prince of Xiang, don't you want to try this wine? We brew it with potatoes. It's not very good, but it has a unique aroma and a special flavor."

After Zhu Zhengshan's persuasion, Zhu Bai was really curious, so he picked up the wine bowl and took a sip. He immediately felt the spiciness making him feel dizzy, and his facial features wrinkled.

He noticed that several garrison officers on the opposite side seemed to be peeking at him, and even had smiles on their faces. He felt that he could not be looked down upon, so he simply drank the rest of the wine in the bowl in one gulp.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Xiang is amazing! He even drinks the potato stew so cleanly!"

"Come on, come on, His Royal Highness the Prince of Xiang has already drunk a glass, let's all drink a glass too!"

"drink!"

Soon, under the flattery of the three sea guards' officers, Zhu Bai drank two more bowls, and then he began to feel dizzy and could not understand what everyone was saying.

Fortunately, Zhu Zhengshan did not say anything serious afterwards. Instead, he told some dirty jokes about the grassland, which made all the generals laugh.

Not all of Zhu Bo's guards drank alcohol - there was a deputy captain on duty tonight who did not attend the banquet at all, and Han Li was also a man with an amazing alcohol tolerance but drank very little.

After the banquet, Zhu Bai helped Han Li and several guards back to their room.

Zhu Zhengshan arranged for two maids who looked like Japanese women to serve him, but the guards refused. As guards, they did not dare to let women of unknown origin have close contact with Zhu Bai.

First, they were worried that these women had evil intentions and would assassinate Zhu Bai; second, they were worried that these women of unknown origin had some diseases and would infect Zhu Bai; third, if these women accidentally became pregnant with Zhu Bai's child, they would also be held responsible.

Therefore, the two eunuchs who were responsible for serving Zhu Bo washed Zhu Bo's face and feet before carrying him to bed to rest.

Zhu Bai slept soundly that night.

I woke up naturally the next morning with a splitting headache. (End of this chapter)