Chapter 107 Opening Ceremony
Chen Hainiu introduced to Zhao Xiao that their tribe was currently the largest tribe on the island, with a total of more than 3,000 people, occupying most of the island's area.
The island is rich in resources, with all kinds of fruits available all year round. The islanders mainly make a living by fishing and growing rice, and occasionally hunt for food. However, there are no large wild animals here, mostly snakes and birds.
“Is there a tree on the island that sheds tears?”
Chen Hainiu pointed to a thick tree nearby and asked, "Is this the tree the general is talking about?"
There were several cuts on the tree, and a lot of white sticky liquid flowed out and was collected by the locals in wooden barrels.
"We can apply this stuff on our feet to make a pair of waterproof rubber shoes, but wearing this kind of shoes will easily rot your feet, so we only wear them on rainy days."
“How long will it take for this tree to grow into timber?”
Chen Hainiu had never observed it, but their tribe had someone who was specifically responsible for planting, so he sent someone to invite him to inquire.
The two of them talked for a long time, and Chen Hainiu said, "General, it takes five or six years for this kind of tree to produce tears."
Five or six years is too long. Once they come back from England and take the seeds back to Lingnan to plant them, it will probably take seven or eight years before rubber can be collected.
Instead of replanting, they decided to just make this their land and send these locals to collect rubber for them.
Zhao Xiao said: "Your Majesty wants to collect this kind of things. You lead the local people to collect them. We will come here again next year or the year after and bring these things back."
"Yes, sir!" Chen Hainiu's face was flushed with excitement. This was an order from the emperor. How could he be worthy of working for the emperor?
Zhao Xiao didn't want them to work for nothing. He took these natives to the shore and ordered the soldiers to get some cloth and porcelain from the boat.
When Chen Hainiu saw the Hope, he excitedly raised his hands above his head, fell to the ground and shouted "Long live the Hope". The natives were so frightened that they didn't know what to do, and fell to the ground trembling, thinking they had seen a miracle.
"General, is that our Daqi ship?"
"yes."
"Oh my God, our country can actually build such a majestic ship!" Chen Hainiu felt both excited and proud.
Soon the soldiers came back with the goods in a small boat. Zhao Xiao said, "Princess Chen, these things are given to you by me on behalf of His Majesty. I hope you can complete the task assigned by His Majesty."
"General, rest assured, we will do our best to complete it!"
The fresh water supply has been completed, and the soldiers picked a lot of fruits and vegetables on the island and sent them to the ship. Zhao Xiao got on the boat and prepared to return.
Before leaving, Chen Hainiu kept waving his hands, shouting "General, have a safe journey" and hoping that Daqi's ship would come again.
*
Song Yuzhu, who was far away in Shangjing, was reading memorials when he suddenly heard a ding-dong sound in his ears.
He was stunned for a moment, and remembered that this seemed to be the sound of a map opening. It had been a long time since he ascended the throne since he heard this sound. What place was opened?
Song Yuzhu immediately opened the map in her mind and was stunned by the message in front of her. She saw that the sea area around Daqi had been opened at some point. The most terrifying thing was that there was an open map near the Strait of Malacca, thousands of miles away from the border, with Johor written on it.
Did Zhao Xiao conquer the Malay Peninsula? !
Song Yuzhu couldn't wait to click on the map. The loading time of dozens of seconds seemed like several hours. Finally, after the map was loaded successfully, a vast expanse of green came into view.
Song Yuzhu controlled her gaze and looked around. Where was Zhao Xiao? He should be here.
When he thought that Zhao Xiao might be here, Song Yuzhu's heart beat faster with excitement. However, looking for someone on the island was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He simply gave up the island, zoomed in on the map and searched for the Hope along the coast. If he found the ship, he would definitely find the person!
Sure enough, not long after, he found the huge Hope five nautical miles from the island.
The familiar ship was floating on the sea. Seeing it again, Song Yuzhu felt very close to it. After looking around the ship, he didn't see Zhao Xiao, but only his cousin Song Yutang.
There were many soldiers on the ship transporting goods to the cabin below. Song Yuzhu followed the passing boats back to the shore and finally found Zhao Xiao on the shore.
After not seeing each other for more than four months, Song Yuzhu's eyes instantly turned red. She thought she would not be able to see him again for at least two years, but she did not expect to meet him so soon.
Unfortunately, the system did not have a touch function, so he could only look at Zhao Xiao, not daring to even blink.
He was thinner and darker, but looked in good spirits. His dark eyes were bright and his slightly upturned mouth was smiling. He was talking to the natives about collecting rubber.
After listening for a while, Song Yuzhu finally realized that the native man with strange clothes was speaking Mandarin. Was he also from Daqi?
Zhao Xiao called her Princess Chen, which must have meant that he had sealed off a county here. The system automatically determined that this place was Daqi's territory, so it opened the map.
Song Yuzhu realized later that this was the famous Malay Peninsula in later generations! Because of its special geographical location, this place was later called the throat of the maritime lifeline.
But now it is just a deserted island, and it is inhabited by local indigenous people.
There is no man who does not yearn for the Age of Discovery, and Song Yuzhu is no exception, otherwise he would not have spent a huge amount of money to build the Hope for a long voyage.
We must form a navy to guard this place. When maritime trade develops in the future, this place will play a great role!
In later generations, this place was invaded by Western powers and became their colony. The West held the throat of the sea and imposed many restrictions on the maritime trade of Asian countries.
Now that there is an opportunity to turn this place into the territory of Daqi, Song Yuzhu will naturally not let it go. He wants to completely incorporate this place into the Daqi plate!
Zhao Xiao didn't know that his unintentional act had influenced future generations for thousands of years. At the end of the 17th century, maritime trade developed and this place became the largest trading port in Daqi and even the world.
*
The time spent together is always short. After replenishing fresh water on the boat, Zhao Xiao boarded the small boat and returned to the big ship.
The Hope weighed anchor and continued sailing. When the ship was ten nautical miles away from Johor, the system automatically determined that it was beyond the map and the picture turned into a bunch of mosaics again.
Song Yuzhu was forced to stay where she was and could only watch the boat go farther and farther away, and her heart seemed to drift away with it.
After feeling uncomfortable for a while, Song Yuzhu turned off the system and continued to read memorials. Now was not the time to be sad, because the Ministry of Works had just reported that the railway from Beijing to Jizhou had been completed and was ready for trial operation.
This is great news. After three and a half years, the first railway has finally been built!
This railway was named Beijing-Hebei Railway, starting from Shangjing, passing through 13 counties and reaching Jizhou Prefecture. The total length was 200 kilometers, and it cost a total of 4 million taels of silver and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to build it.
This railway is of great significance. It is not only an important symbol of the agricultural society's entry into the steam society era, but also the key to the economic take-off.
The train is a double-ended steam train with eleven carriages in the middle. Except for the front and rear carriages which are used to carry coal fuel, half of the remaining nine carriages can be used for passengers, and the remaining half can be used to transport goods.
On average, each carriage can carry 1,000 dan, or 50 tons, which is equivalent to the cargo capacity of 50 horse-drawn carriages! Four carriages can carry 20 tons of cargo! The passenger carriages can carry 300 people per carriage.
The maximum speed can reach 45km/h. It takes less than three hours to get from Shangjing to Jizhou. You should know that it took two days to get there by horse carriage in the past.
Railway stations were built in both places. The railway station in Shangjing is located on the south side of the city. It was previously the royal horse farm of the previous dynasty.
Song Yuzhu didn't like hunting and wasn't good at riding horses, so he just requisitioned the land and turned it into a railway station. He even drew the blueprint himself and built it according to the appearance of a railway station in later generations.
Not only is there a spacious and bright waiting hall here, there is also a ticket office. In the future, when trains are open to the public, tickets will also be sold here.
On the first day of October, a grand opening ceremony will be held at Shangjing Railway Station, hosted by the Ministry of Rites and attended by all civil and military officials in the court.
In order to hold the opening ceremony, the Ministry of Rites began preparations three days in advance and even went to the Ministry of Military Industry to borrow eight short cannons, which were filled with blank shells for use as salutes.
Before daybreak, all the civil and military officials of the court arrived early and waited at the entrance of the train station for Song Yuzhu to arrive.
The officials gathered in twos and threes to discuss trains. Last time, everyone had seen a scaled-down version of a train model and were still very curious about the real train.
As the inventor of this car, Shen Lun naturally became the focus of the crowd. He was surrounded by officials and answered questions in a hurry.
Minister of War An Changrui couldn't bear to watch and waved his hand, "Old Shen, come here!"
"Hey." Shen Lun quickly got out of the crowd and walked over here. All the officials here are above the third rank, and those with lower ranks dare not come over.
"Wipe the sweat from your head." Lord An took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it over.
"Thank you very much." Chen Lun wiped the sweat off his face, a cheerful smile on his face. Although he was a little annoyed by being asked repeatedly, today was the day to witness the results. He wanted to let all the officials know that the money given by the emperor was not wasted and the scientific research department was not a useless department.
Soon Song Yuzhu's carriage arrived, followed by many people who were watching the fun. They did not dare to get too close and stayed several dozen feet away from the carriage.
Song Yuzhu specially wore a crimson round-necked robe today for good luck and hoped that the first opening of the road would go smoothly.
All the officials knelt on the ground, kowtowed and shouted: "Long live the king, long live the king, long live the king."
"My dear ministers, please stand up."
Liu Jingshan, the Minister of Rites, stepped forward and asked, "Your Majesty, can we begin?"
Song Yuzhu nodded.
Someone immediately went to fire the salute, and the rumbling sound of the cannons was as deafening as thunder in the sky, frightening the officials, not to mention the ordinary people outside. These people covered their ears and lay on the ground, not daring to move, and only dared to get up after a long while.
Someone in the crowd said, "That was a dragon's roar just now. It must be a dragon's roar! I once heard a storyteller say that our current emperor is the reincarnation of a golden dragon!"
"This is an auspicious sign from heaven! Long live the emperor!" The people knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the emperor". The voices were louder and louder, and they all reached the yard of the station.
Song Yuzhu was confused and asked the eunuch next to him, "What happened outside?"
Li Dehai hurried out to inquire, and soon came back with a smile on his face: "Your Majesty, the people are saying that the emperor is the reincarnation of a golden dragon, and he just used dragon roar to dispel evil spirits."
Song Yuzhu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't expect that the Ministry of Rites fired a few salutes and accidentally confirmed his identity. However, it would not harm him if the news spread, so he just let it go.
(End of this chapter)
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