Chapter 1037: Prequel to the Tyrant Empire (First update, please subscribe)

The exclusive royal territory of the Persian Gulf!

This is probably the most barren land in the Ming Empire.

It can even be said with certainty that without the royal subsidies of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, the empire's rule here would simply be unsustainable.

A place suitable for human survival must first have water. In the deserts all over the west coast of the Persian Gulf, fresh water is extremely precious. Water is everything here. Only with water can there be an oasis, and only with an oasis can people live.

But here in the vast land, from the seaside to the inland, there are worthless deserts everywhere. Only a few oases on the seaside or in the desert are suitable for human life. This is why the Arabs' resistance failed - without the oasis, they can only wait to die in the desert.

The French crushed the resistance of the Arabic people by destroying oases, confiscating scimitars and prohibiting the possession of weapons. In fact... the Ming Dynasty did much the same.

However, compared to the vast land from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf owned by the French, the Ming Dynasty only had a desert. The only city on this land was Kuwait City. Other than that, it was either desert or seaside fishing villages.

This "exclusive royal territory" has become a joke since the day it was occupied by the Ming Dynasty. After the once huge Ottoman Empire was disintegrated, the "Imperial Alliance" each received their own rewards. The biggest winner was Russia, which contributed the most. In addition to the independence of Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, they occupied almost all the land belonging to the Ottoman Empire north of Anatolia. The second was France - France obtained Syria, southern Anatolia, the entire Mesopotamia region and the eastern coast of the Red Sea, which were all designated as France's sphere of influence. As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which claimed to have suffered a great loss, it also obtained Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Only the Ming Dynasty - which became the most embarrassed in the "Imperial Alliance" - had only a worthless desert, which made the divisional occupation simply a matter of making up the numbers.

"After all your efforts, you are only making wedding clothes for others in the end!"

Faced with such irony, Emperor Zhu himself did not care at all that the Ming Dynasty only got a desert. In fact, it was he who asked for the desert as a "reward". Moreover, no one knew better than him what was buried in the heart of this seemingly worthless desert - endless wealth!

For this reason, at the beginning of the occupation of Kuwait, Emperor Zhu Da began to plan for this place. In the 13th year of Shengde, Kuwait was already a "big city" with a population of 10,000, and the governor of the territory was none other than Emperor Zhu Da's eldest son Zhu Zhenwen. He is now a 20-year-old young man. His appearance combines the advantages of Zhu Xianhai and Elizabeth. He is tall, handsome, and elegant. When he was in middle school in Nanhua, he had fascinated countless ignorant girls. In addition to his appearance, he also has an extremely smart brain. After graduating from the Imperial Army Officer Academy at the age of 17, he served in the General Staff for a year, and then served in the African colonies for two years.

After being promoted to major a few years ago, he was transferred to the governor of the Royal Exclusive Territory in the Persian Gulf.

To outsiders, this was just a gilded journey for the prince.

However, Zhu Zhenwen knew very well why he came here - the French Royal Petroleum Company was established at the suggestion of Emperor Zhu. Although the Ming Dynasty did not have any shares in the Royal Petroleum Company, it had the rights to explore and exploit oil in the Basra area.

Two years ago, at the instruction of his father, his mother invested in the establishment of Mingfa Oil Company, whose main business is to find and develop oil in Basra. And the reason why Young Master Zhu came to Kuwait.

It's for this very purpose.

With the world's annual automobile production breaking through the 500,000 mark two years ago, the era of oil has fully arrived. Before that, the greatest use of oil was to extract kerosene to replace whale oil for lighting, and the demand for fuels such as gasoline was limited.

However, with the development of the automobile industry, especially the automobile factories in Daming have begun to use production lines, the annual output will soon exceed one million vehicles, and the demand for oil will further increase. And his father also told him with certainty that oil will definitely become an important industrial raw material in the future and will become black gold!

It was for this reason that Zhu Zhenwen came to this desolate land with his newlywed wife. His wife was three years older than him. She was Elizabeth from the Thun and Taxi family of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her mother Helen was called Princess Nana and was the elder sister of Princess Sissi. Three years ago, when she came to Daming to visit her aunt, she met Zhu Zhenwen at a dance party and then became his little fan girl. Zhu Zhenwen also had a good impression of this beautiful girl.

Unlike other fans, Elizabeth even pursued him all the way to Africa, where they got engaged. Before coming to Kuwait, they held their wedding in South China.

At this time, he brought his newlywed wife to the Mesopotamian swamp in the north. This swamp belonged to Iraq in another world, but now it belongs to the Ming Dynasty. The reason for asking for this land was ultimately to obtain water.

It was sunset, and the western sky was like a golden purple silk, blooming with bright brilliance. The swamp was also gleaming with light, and under the setting sun, the lake reflected mottled light and shadows.

Such a swamp is extremely rare in a desert. It is located at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and was formed due to summer flooding.

"My dear, look..."

Pointing at the swamp, Zhu Zhenwen said.

"In the next few years, we will build canals to drain the water from the swamp and transport it to Kuwait City. After the swamp is drained, the land here can be reclaimed and used to settle immigrants. By then, this place will become a land of fish and rice, the Jiangnan of the Middle East."

Although there are hundreds of thousands of indigenous people living here, their population has been greatly reduced in the past few years. For Zhu Zhenwen, what he cares about is that this land can be used to accommodate hundreds of thousands of immigrants - this is the most important thing.

Looking at this wetland and the buffaloes and other animals grazing in the wetland, all this seems to indicate that this land will become the place where the Chinese people will live and multiply in the future.

"This place is so beautiful... Jiangnan? Is Jiangnan beautiful?"

Elizabeth said as she looked at her handsome husband. She fell in love with him when she first saw him three years ago. She chased him all the way to Africa and finally married the prince charming recognized by the Ming Dynasty. I don't know how many noble ladies of the Ming Dynasty were heartbroken by this.

"Jiangnan is very beautiful, nothing can be more beautiful than Jiangnan..."

Looking in another direction, Zhu Zhenwen's words were full of a certain yearning. There were many articles and poems about China in the Ming Dynasty, and those poems were filled with a hint of homesickness.

Yes, it’s homesickness!

China is the root of all Chinese people!

Even for a Ming Dynasty new generation like Zhu Zhenwen who has never been to China, he has that invisible root in his heart.

Just like the northerners who migrated south, even after a hundred years, they still miss the beauty of their hometown and everything there.

(End of this chapter)