Bringing the Railway to Daming

There are now more than 800,000 people and tens of thousands of households in the capital.

Even if a small number of people do not accept electricity for various reasons, there are still more than 100,000 households that need electricity.

Providing electricity to so many households was a complex and arduous task for the power bureau, so they adopted a piecemeal approach, starting from the inner city and moving outwards.

Once electricity is connected to every area, the next few days will surely be much more lively, just like the workshop in Shitiaoli, with laughter and joy mixed with some noisy conversations about family matters.

In the days to come, people will smile more.

By early May, all registered residences in the inner and outer cities of the capital had completed electricity supply.

At nightfall in midsummer, standing on a high building in the Forbidden City, you will find that the lights in all directions are as bright and charming as a galaxy on the ground.

Therefore, that night, Zhu Yuanzhang took Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiongying, and summoned Liu Kuan, and went to the top floor of the Meridian Gate Tower together. They used the latest telescope developed by the Mirror Manufacturing Bureau to watch the night view of the capital.

After watching for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang said with emotion: "Now that electricity is available, the night view of the capital is more beautiful than before."

In Zhu Yuanzhang's impression, after nightfall, most places in the capital were pitch black, and only the lanterns carried by patrolling soldiers could be seen.

Liu Kuan said, "Electricity is secondary. The most important thing is that most people in the capital are now richer than before and are willing to spend money on lighting and electricity. Perhaps, before the electricity was connected, the night view of the capital was not bad, but Your Majesty just didn't notice it."

"Hahaha," Zhu Yuanzhang laughed, "you are quite good at talking."

Liu Kuan added, "Actually, the night view of the capital is quite ordinary now. When the power bureau installs street lights in the inner and outer cities in the future, the night view of the capital will be truly beautiful."

"Install streetlights?" Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly surprised. "Wouldn't that be a bit wasteful? Will the power plant have enough electricity?"

Liu Kuan said: "Nowadays, most of the electricity in the capital of the Ming Dynasty is used for lighting. After the second expansion of the thermal power plant, it is no problem to provide lighting electricity for the entire capital."

"As for the waste, I believe that compared to the convenience and sense of security that streetlights provide to the people, consuming a little electricity is nothing. Many Western countries later had streetlights very early on."

In fact, the Ming Dynasty also had "street lights," but most of them were privately owned. For example, before electricity was available in the imperial city, lanterns were hung in many places; the same was true in the mansions and gardens of some dignitaries.

At this time, Zhu Biao said, "Speaking of which, the people in the capital are much richer now. Can we completely lift the curfew?"

After Liu Kuan arrived, the curfew in the capital of the Ming Dynasty has been changing.

Initially, the curfew was lifted on certain holidays, then it was changed to 9 pm, and finally delayed to 12 pm.

The curfew was gradually relaxed, naturally in order to develop the city's night market economy and promote commercial development. Night markets were very developed in the Song Dynasty, and the Northern Song Dynasty capital Bianliang was even known as the city that never sleeps.

At this time, Zhu Xiongying also said: "Grandpa Emperor, as far as I know, the Zhao Song Dynasty lifted the curfew in the third year of Emperor Taizu of Song's Qiande reign. Since then, the night market in Bianliang has been open all night long."

"Grandpa Emperor is far more wise and powerful than Emperor Taizu of Song. It has been 24 years since the founding of the country. If the curfew is not completely lifted, some people may think that Grandpa Emperor's confidence in controlling the capital is not as strong as that of Emperor Taizu of Song."

Zhu Yuanzhang was in a good mood and said with a smile, "You kid, you're actually bullying me - did I say I disagree with your father's suggestion? Even if your father didn't say so, I'm ready to completely cancel the curfew."

Liu Kuan said, "Lifting the curfew does require some courage—it's a test for the imperial patrol troops, the police, the fire department, the power bureau, and other government offices."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "It's good to have a test, otherwise we would be a little lazy."

After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang, for some unknown reason, asked, "Liu Kuan, now that our Ming capital is fully electrified, how do you think it compares to life in later generations?"

Liu Kuan was speechless and asked, "Your Majesty, do you want to hear the truth?"

Zhu Yuanzhang glared, "Of course I want to hear the truth—am I the kind of person who likes to be lied to by fabricated lies?"

'Who doesn't like to hear nice words?'

Liu Kuan grumbled to himself, then said, "Although the capital now has electricity, the convenience of life is definitely still far behind that of later generations."

"What aspects are wrong?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked half curiously and half dissatisfied.

Speaking of which, although he has watched many videos and films of later generations, there has never been a video that specifically talks about the lives of people in later generations in detail. Although some of them are reflected in the videos and films, for Zhu Yuanzhang and others, it is like a cursory glance and they don’t understand very well.

Not to mention, when watching videos or movies, they mostly focus on the main content and don't think about the partial reflections on the living conditions of future generations.

When he was bored, Liu Kuan didn't mind letting the three generations of the Zhu family broaden their horizons, so that they wouldn't become proud of the current development achievements of the Ming Dynasty and become lazy.

"Human life consists of nothing more than food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Let me start with clothing. In later generations, there are many clothing stores on the streets, also known as ready-made clothing stores. They have a wide variety of clothes, and people can go in and buy clothes that fit them."

"Not to mention, there's the internet in later generations, so people can shop online."

"Online shopping?" This was the first time Liu Kuan and the other two had mentioned the term. Liu Kuan glanced at Zhu Biao and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince once went online with me during the strange fog. You should have seen it. There are a lot of pictures and videos online."

"So, people later put photos of clothes and even videos of real people trying on clothes online, so that people can choose the clothes they like online, pay online, and then have the logistics staff deliver them."

"Logistics can be seen as a development from today's postal services, primarily used to transport various supplies. Before coming to the Ming Dynasty, I rarely went to physical clothing stores to buy clothes; I always bought them online."

The three were surprised at first, but then they imagined buying clothes online and having them delivered to their homes soon after, and their eyes lit up.

Zhu Yuanzhang then asked, "If clothes can be bought online, other things should be able to be bought online as well, right?"

"That's right." Liu Kuan nodded. "For example, my cell phone, tablet, laptop, telescope, and even the clothes I was wearing were all purchased online."

Hearing this, even though Zhu Yuanzhang had previously compared himself with later generations, he couldn't help but exclaim: "This is really convenient."

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "There are two words in later generations, called 'otaku' and 'otaku girl', which refer to a certain type of people who stay at home all the time, and can stay at home for dozens of days or even months without leaving the house."

"Of course, this man doesn't have servants like some of the young masters in the Ming Dynasty. Instead, he relies on online shopping and takeout to meet all his needs in life. He can even work at home through the Internet."

After hearing this, Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Xiongying thought about it and found it hard to imagine staying at home for months at a time.

Zhu Xiongying couldn't help but ask, "Teacher, isn't that like putting yourself under house arrest?"

Liu Kuan said, "If you were to place yourself under house arrest in the Ming Dynasty, you would have no other entertainment at home except reading, or enjoying the singing and dancing of your own singing and dancing girls."

"But in the future, you stay at home, with an almost endless supply of novels, videos, and TV dramas available online, as well as numerous games to play. You can even chat with friends and family through messaging apps—can this be considered house arrest?"

Zhu Xiongying was stunned for a moment. After he came to his senses, he couldn't help but envy the life of otakus in later generations.

Even though he was now the crown prince, he could only watch a few videos or a movie during the Lunar New Year. As for playing games, he had the chance to do so when he was in class at the main hall, but now he couldn't even think about it.

In fact, in order to extend the service life of the tablet, Liu Kuan had long ago removed the "borrowing tablet" from the rewards of the main hall.

Liu Kuan didn't want to go too far off topic, so he took the initiative to say, "Let me talk about food. Not only can you get meals prepared by restaurants and bars in the city through takeout, but you can also buy snacks, fruits and other foods from other cities through online shopping."

"Even cooking is much more convenient than in the Ming Dynasty - in the Ming Dynasty, people had to use coal to cook and boil vegetables, while in later generations, people used electricity, coal gas, and natural gas."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao couldn't help but say, "I know that coal gas and natural gas can be used for cooking, but can electricity also be used for cooking?"

"Of course, people in later generations mostly use electric rice cookers to cook, and only a very small number of elderly people in rural areas still use wood-fired cookers. Therefore, people in later generations in cities still think that wood-fired rice is delicious, and they certainly don't go to the countryside to pay a high price for wood-fired rice."

Old Zhu, Zhu Biao and Zhu Xiongying were all surprised and found it unbelievable when they heard this.

The cooking that they take for granted today has become a rarity in later generations, and one has to spend a lot of money to experience it - it's really strange!
Liu Kuan continued, "There are rice cookers for cooking. There are smart ones that can wash the rice in advance and put it in the pot. When the time comes, you can control it remotely and let it cook. Then you can eat when you get home."

"For cooking, there are induction cookers, and even gas and natural gas are much more convenient to use than firewood, and there's no need for someone to light the fire."

Old Zhuye Saner continued to imagine based on Liu Kuan's description, but found that he could not imagine such an extremely convenient life scene at all.

But Liu Kuan said, "Of course. People in later generations still feel that life is not convenient enough. Before I traveled through time, artificial intelligence and robots were developing rapidly. Many people wanted to invent practical household robots as soon as possible."

"If such a robot really appeared, buying one would be like having a home assistant or servant who would never get tired and would strictly follow your instructions."

Lao Zhu and the other two didn't react much to this.

After all, for them, it is normal to have dozens of servants to take care of their daily lives, let alone one.

Just as the three of them were thinking this, Liu Kuan paused for a moment before continuing, "As for housing, I don't think there's much difference compared to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang perked up when he heard this and asked, "What do you mean?"

He actually wanted Liu Kuan to explain in detail, but he held back in the end.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Although people in later generations live in buildings made of reinforced concrete, they are still houses in the end. They are not fundamentally different from the wooden and brick houses before the Ming Dynasty."

"Of course, even ordinary people in later generations would have appliances like fans, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and running water, so overall life would be much more convenient than in the Ming Dynasty."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was greatly disappointed - he thought he would hear negative comments from Liu Kuan about this aspect of future generations' residence, but he didn't expect Liu Kuan to "show off" again.

At this time, Zhu Biao asked, "Sister-in-law, I have heard you introduce fans and air conditioners, but as for refrigerators, washing machines, and tap water, I can guess a little, but I don't know the details. Could you explain them to me?" (End of this chapter)