The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 710 The Emperor's Responsibility for External Affairs (The Finale)

And so Wanli set off.

He immediately led a massive fleet, 100,000 soldiers of the Divine Martial Camp, and over one million civilians, heading towards Fangzhang Island.

This time, he also brought along Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan and Prince Xiao Nan, Zhu Changzhi.

They traveled day and night, passing through Dongfan, Luzon, and Penglai Island, for more than twenty days. That afternoon, around 5 pm, as the sun was about to set, the Southern King City finally came into view.

On the flagship, Prince Zhu Changzhi of the Southern Kingdom was so excited that he danced around in the arms of Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan.

He thought he was here to have fun, just like last time.

The little guy hadn't realized that this time he was leaving his parents' embrace and staying behind alone to take up his post.

When the fleet docked, the civilians were overjoyed and flocked to disembark.

Qin Yiming, Princess Rongchang, Dong Yikui, and others, who had been waiting at the dock for a long time, hurriedly boarded the flagship and went to the second floor.

Upon seeing Princess Rongchang, Prince Zhu Changzhi of the Southern Kingdom exclaimed with delight, "Elder sister, what are you doing here?"

Princess Rongchang snatched the little one from Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan's arms and said affectionately, "What's wrong? Isn't it nice for your older sister to play with you here?"

Prince Zhu Changzhi of the Southern Kingdom nodded repeatedly and said, "Good, good, how could it not be good?"

Seeing this, Wanli smiled slightly, then invited Qin Yiming and Dong Yikui to sit down before solemnly asking, "Yiming, how is the construction of the princely mansions and residences of the vassal kings and imperial family members progressing?"

How do you say this?

Qin Yiming thought for a moment, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, boats are inconvenient here, and we could only travel by carriage when we went there."

In addition, the princes and royal family bought a lot of cattle and sheep in the pastoral area 500 li away, which delayed us a lot. It took us more than a month to reach the designated area 2,000 li away.

Fortunately, General Dong had enough carriages, so we managed to get all the garrison soldiers, princes, royal family members, and their in-laws over in one trip. Otherwise, some of them probably still wouldn't have arrived by now.

Your Majesty, there's nothing there. There's not even coal. We have to quarry stone from the mountains and cut timber ourselves, relying entirely on manual labor.

We've only dug the foundation almost completely; the stones haven't even been fully filled in yet. I really don't know when this princely palace and residence will ever be finished."

That was a godforsaken place, with nothing there, so it was naturally very difficult to build a royal palace or residence.

I had anticipated this long ago, otherwise I wouldn't have brought over 500,000 garrison troops.

The key now is to ensure the food supply for so many people.

Wanli nodded slowly, then asked, "Yi Kui, do you have many carriages?"

Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, we have many carriages."

The soldiers had nothing to do during the off-season, and the area was sparsely populated, so visiting relatives often involved traveling dozens or even hundreds of miles. Moreover, transporting grain and coal required horse-drawn carts.

Therefore, every soldier's family built a horse-drawn carriage, and some soldiers' families even had more than one horse-drawn carriage.

We already had over 100,000 carriages, but upon hearing that His Majesty planned to bring hundreds of millions more civilians, I ordered my soldiers to build even more. Now we estimate we have nearly 200,000 carriages.”

So many carriages!

The grain supply should not be a problem. Even if one carriage can carry ten shi of grain, 100,000 carriages can carry one million shi of grain.

The problem is, are there enough horses to pull the cart?
Emperor Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "You've built so many carriages, are there enough horses to pull them? Are the soldiers even using their warhorses to pull these carriages?"

How can you use warhorses to pull chariots?

Dong Yikui shook his head slightly, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, the weather here is so good, it's perfect for grazing, and our horses are breeding very quickly."

Originally, we had only about 300,000 warhorses, old horses, mares, and foals. However, in the first year, we bred nearly 100,000 horses, and in the second year, we had over 100,000 horses.

We now have over 600,000 horses. I estimate that by next year, when the foals born here are ready to give birth, our horse population will likely reach 100,000 to 200,000 per year.”

This place is indeed suitable for grazing, and the key is that there are no natural predators of herbivores here.

Later, it was rumored that someone brought over a few wild goats, and the wild goats here quickly multiplied to the millions. Someone brought over a dozen rabbits, and the rabbits here quickly multiplied to the tens of billions!
This place is a paradise for herbivores, so horses naturally reproduce quickly here.

Horse-drawn carriages are indeed a pretty good mode of transportation.

Especially in sparsely populated areas, having a horse-drawn carriage is indeed much more convenient.

He hasn't planned to build a railway here yet, because they don't want the feudal lords and royal family to secretly take the train and run away.

Moreover, there are plenty of mineral deposits along the coast, so there's no need to build railways inland to transport minerals.

He didn't even order anyone to explore for minerals inland.

It seems that won't work now. The princes, their royal families, and their relatives by marriage number as many as four or five hundred thousand. Moreover, if we don't build proper palaces and residences for these guys, they will definitely try every means to escape.

With so many people wanting to build their houses, it's impossible to know how many bricks and timber will be needed. Cutting firewood to make bricks is definitely not an option, nor is cutting timber by hand.

They would have to mine coal and fire bricks on the spot, or even use steam to power the sawing machines; otherwise, it would be impossible to know when the palaces and residences of the princes and royal families would be completed.

The longer the night lasts, the more complications may arise; he must ensure that the princes and royal family settle down here as soon as possible.

Wanli thought for a moment, then got up and took out the mineral distribution map to look at it. He then asked, "Yi Kui, are the drill bits that the Shenji Battalion used for prospecting still there?"

Dong Yikui nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, all two thousand sets of prospecting drill bits are here. I have ordered them to be oiled and then wrapped tightly in oiled paper. They are ready to be used now."

That's good.

Wanli nodded slightly, then pointed to the mineral map and said, "Look, there are large open-pit coal mines near the sources of these two major river tributaries."

It turns out we've only been exploring near the coast, not beyond this mountain range inland. I suspect these two large open-pit coal mines might extend inland beyond this mountain range.

"Send men to explore the vicinity of the sources of these two major tributaries to see if any coal mines can be found. If so, it will be much easier to transport coal to the garrison troops for brick making."

Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

There's a high probability that this coal mine can be discovered, and there's also the issue of processing timber.

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "Yi Kui, do you have a saw here? Could you spare some for Yi Ming and the others?"

Uh, this.

Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui cautiously replied, "Your Majesty, we do have quite a few saws here, but they are all powered by waterwheels."

"We're sawing timber and drawing water for irrigation at the same time. Your Majesty, please forgive us, but transporting the waterwheel-powered saw over there is extremely troublesome."

That's true. Waterwheels are huge machines, and disassembling and assembling them is very troublesome. The key issue is that they are also difficult to transport.

Wanli nodded slightly, then decisively said, "Kemai, when you go back this time, send the Flying Dragon Ship to the Summer Palace to pick up ten small boilers and one hundred steam engine-driven saws."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zigao nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

That should pretty much solve the problem of building materials.

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "Yiming, are the princes and members of the imperial family still well-behaved after they moved here?"

Would they dare to be dishonest?
Qin Yiming nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, they are all behaving themselves. As soon as Ru Song chopped down a few of the bad-tempered ones, they became obedient."

Well, I'm the one who plays the bad cop; I have to cut my paycheck.

Upon hearing this, Li Rusong couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Hmm, not bad. Rusong, just keep chopping. Chop down the ringleaders, chop down those who want to escape. Chop down a few more and they will be completely obedient."

Li Rusong nodded repeatedly and said, "This subordinate understands."

Wanli then asked, "Yi Kui, how many cattle and sheep did they buy from you in total? Have you calculated that?"

There are many more.

Dong Yikui explained in detail: "Your Majesty, you said you would sell them at most half of their cattle and sheep, and they really did buy half of them."

This place is perfect for grazing, and our cattle and sheep numbers have more than doubled. We originally had over six million sheep and over three hundred thousand cattle.

They bought more than three million sheep and more than one hundred thousand cattle. The soldiers sold them at double the price, with sheep costing about three or four ounces each and cattle costing about fifty or sixty ounces each.

"The princes and royal families are truly wealthy; even our herding soldiers have made a fortune."

These guys are incredibly wealthy; I just want the soldiers to earn more.

They bought so many cattle and sheep that they couldn't possibly eat them all.

These guys are well-fed and well-dressed, the weather is great, and life here couldn't be more comfortable. Moreover, the area is quite large, and they can travel dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of miles without any problem. It doesn't feel like they're under house arrest at all, so it's unlikely that these guys are thinking about escaping.

Wanli thought about it carefully for a moment, then asked, "Yi Kui, how is the gold mine production here?"

Uh, this.

Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui cautiously replied, "Your Majesty, there are only tens of thousands of prisoners being exiled so far, and we can only produce a few hundred thousand taels of gold per month."

Well, there's no rush. The Ming Dynasty isn't short of money right now. As long as we can ensure we don't lose money here, that's fine.

Wanli nodded slightly, then pointed to the map and solemnly said, "Yi Kui, the development of this area is a long and arduous task."

We need to relocate at least 20 million civilians to this area, which spans 1,000 to 2,000 miles in the middle of the river.

Furthermore, with so many mineral deposits around here, we need to build ports and docks to bring the Japanese here to mine. Then you'll have to send people to guard them.”

With so many mineral deposits, if we bring in the Japanese pirates to mine them, how many people would I have to send to guard them?
Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui cautiously replied, "Your Majesty, I have already sent all my men to guard the mines, so I'm afraid there aren't enough men to guard the princes and members of the royal family."

This is a problem that should not be taken lightly.

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then decisively said: "Yiming, from now on, dispatch 100,000 soldiers of the Shenwu Camp every year to take turns guarding the princes and members of the imperial family."

There are many ships and convenient waterways in the Americas, so there's no need for cavalry. Don't send the Shenwu Battalion there; instead, send the Shenji Battalion and Shenshu Battalion in rotation.

Upon hearing this, Qin Yiming nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Seeing that they had finished their conversation, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan cautiously said, "Your Majesty, this place is isolated overseas and not very safe. Shouldn't we arrange some personal guards for Zhi'er?"

Oh, he hasn't thought about that yet.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then slowly nodded and said, "Yes, Zhi'er should be assigned personal guards, and Luo'er and Xu'er should also be assigned personal guards. If we follow the standards of dukes and nobles, a duke's personal guards should be five thousand, and a prince's personal guards should be ten thousand."

At this time, the Ming Dynasty still had many external problems, including not only the development of overseas territories, but also the deployment of personnel, the distribution of goods and even machinery, shipping, and the threat from Russia and other European countries.

Emperor Wanli spent the entire year traveling. After resolving the development of Fangzhang Island and the issues of exiling and resettling princes and members of the imperial family, he led the capital garrison to resolve the issue of the Russian Empire, seized the Siberian Khanate, and established the final line of defense in the north.

Immediately afterwards, he led Zhu Changhao, the Prince of the West, and the capital garrison to the Western Regions.

He was actually a free spirit who liked to travel around and didn't want to be confined to the palace by court affairs.

Under his reforms, the Ming Dynasty grew stronger and stronger.

"The Complete Book"

(End of this chapter)