In the 38th year of the Dagong of the Ming Dynasty, in the spring of 1716 of the Western Region, a certain place in Huaibei Province of the Ming Dynasty.

"Bang, bang, bang"

This is the sound of cast iron wheels with the protruding outer rim rolling on the I-shaped cast iron rails!

The Grand Duke closed his eyes and sat in a spacious and bright train car, while resting on his mind, listening to the most wonderful sound in the world. This is the industrial baby cry, the horn of the new era, and the loudest applause he has received for the country and the people in his life. However, this baby cry, this horn, and the applause is still a bit imperfect because it lacks the roar of machines.

Zhu Hezhi is now riding a horse-drawn rail carriage, not a steam engine-driven train. Who made him a "magic" in his previous life, not a "mechanical master"? His "magic" can greatly accelerate the development of the metallurgical industry in the Ming Dynasty, but cannot greatly accelerate the development of the "mechanical technique" of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past thirty or forty years, Zhu Hetian has also managed to solve the problems that have plagued the iron smelting industry for many years in the process of rebuilding the Ming Dynasty. In addition, he has established a metallurgy and mining major in Jinling University and Guangzhou Haizhu University, specializing in cultivating metallurgy and mining masters.

In addition, he also took advantage of the opportunity of implementing equalization of fields across the country to place a large number of areas where iron ore and coal mines could be buried into the "Guantian District", and also reserved a "Guantian District" that can build railways and kilometers between major cities, ports and mining areas in the territory.

Stimulated by the above measures, when time entered the 1720s, the output of coal, pig iron, and crucible iron (barely considered steel) in the Ming Dynasty not only ranked first in the world, but also accounted for 60% of the world's total output. It was the first quasi-industrial country in time!

Because the output of pig iron and crucible steel has increased and the prices are relatively cheap, it is feasible to build a "carriage railway".

This kind of carriage railway first appeared in the urban areas of Nanjing, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Songjiang, Hankou, Nanchang and other cities, as well as various mining areas, port areas, and large workshop areas, which were used for short-distance carriage transportation. The first long-distance carriage railway was the Beijing-Huai Line, which is the railway between Beijing Yongdingmen and Huai'an North Wharf. The reason for such a railway was built because after the Dagong built an artificial river channel into the sea in the early years, the canal north of the Huai River was interrupted because the Yellow River was diverted into the Huai River during the Song and Jin Dynasties, causing silt and sediment in the lower reaches of the Huai River, and the riverbed continued to rise, gradually becoming a hanging river. In addition, the water volume of the Huai River was large, and once the dam was overflowing, it would bring huge disasters to the two sides. Therefore, the diversion of the Huanghuai River into the sea became the best choice to save Huainan and Huaibei.

However, once the Yellow River and Huai River divert, the mud and sand from the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River cannot go wide and have a large amount of water into the sea, and can only go through a narrower and less water into the new river channel. This will not only cause the riverbed of the new river channel to rise too fast, but will also rush a large amount of mud and sand into the canal that meet it, causing the canal channel to be silted quickly.

Since the imperial court was stationed in Nanjing after the Ming Dynasty, Beijing was just a sub-capital, so it did not need the absolutely reliable lifeline of the Grand Canal. Therefore, Zhu Hetian chose to protect the Huai River and cut off the canal in the early years of the Dagong. He temporarily gave up the canal north of the Huai River, and changed the sea route from north to south. In the original history, until the 21st century, the engineering ability of the infrastructure maniac was useless. However, because the Yellow River changed from Shandong to the sea, the canal could extend to Shandong. In the early years of the Dagong, the Ming Dynasty only dug a river channel parallel to the Huai River and about 200 miles long, and was very close to the Huai River, so there was no need to extend the canal to Huaibei.

This policy of abandoning canals to protect the Huai River is of course beneficial to the areas on both sides of the Huai River. The land on both sides of the Huai River avoided floods for years and also preserved the channel of the Huai River. The ancient Huai River had a very good channel of sea entry. Even in the late Ming Dynasty, Huai'an was still a harbor. Chen Tingyang in the late Ming Dynasty carried out maritime transportation from Huai'an to Tianjin, Shanhaiguan and Dengzhou during the Chongzhen period. However, for the canals along Huaibei, Shandong and northern Zhili, the loss of losing the canal would be great. Not to mention the development of industry and commerce, even the external transportation of agricultural products was a problem. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty during the Dagong period was a time when the people were rare and the land was expensive. In addition, the north had few people and many lands could not be hungry. Moreover, after wars in the north, the population density was lower, and industry and commerce were even less developed, so there was no big impact on whether there was a canal. However, it was not much impact. It was short-term, and it was still necessary to have a major transportation artery in the north and south for a long time.

Of course it is impossible to restore the canal, so Emperor Zhu could only hope that there would be no steam locomotives on the railway, and it would be better than not!

Moreover, the practical steam engine has been developed by the machinery-related institutions of Jinling University, and has been put into operation in the coal mine and iron mine in Liguo County, Xuzhou.

Now Zhu Heying was riding a Beijing-Huai Line railway carriage. On the way to Liguo County, Xuzhou, he was going to Liguo County's coal mine to watch the practical situation of the Jinling brand steam engine produced by Jiangnan Machinery Equipment Factory. After reading it, he decided whether he would invest a huge amount of money to the Jiangnan Machinery Equipment Factory located in Shanghai County!

In order to promote the progress of institutional technology in recent years, he not only formulated the Patent Law to protect inventions and creations, but also invested huge sums of money to establish an institutional magic foundation. It seems that it is a entrepreneurship fund for a startup company that specializes in the development of chemical and mechanical technology. Not only can the merchants, magicians and institutional teachers of the Ming Dynasty get investment from this foundation, but overseas engineers are willing to engage in development in the Ming Dynasty and come up with a good enough design plan, they can still get a large investment from Emperor Zhu.

The steam pump put into use at Liguo Iron and Liguo Coal Mine this time is the third generation product designed by a British engineer named Thomas Newcomen. The cylinder bore of these two steam engines is three feet high, and can perform 24 reciprocating movements per minute, with a power of more than 15 horsepower!

If these two machines can perform normally, then the Liguo Iron and Liguo Coal Mine, which have been flooded many times, can drain the accumulated water and put into full production. Because of these two iron ore, the coal mines are very close to each other and the transportation in Liguo County, Xuzhou is convenient. Not only are there railway carriages passing through the mining area, but there are also canals leading to Haizhou, which can transport products to all parts of the country by sea. Therefore, once the Liguo Iron Plant is built, it can produce a large amount of steel at a very low cost. With a large amount of cheap steel, carriage railways, and even steam railways in the future, it will develop greatly!

The era of industrialization is finally coming.

When Zhu Heying thought of that exciting era, he had no intention of continuing his writing. In the past two years, with the maturity of the prince Zhu Yixin, the older Zhu Heying threw all the cumbersome government affairs to Zhu Yixin before the death of Zhu Tianwang three years ago, using the reason of "filial piety in front of the bed", and he himself devoted his main energy to venture capital and creating a strange book called "Ques and Answers of King Zhuge Wu".

As the name suggests, this book "Question and Answers from King Zhuge Wu" was written in the name of Zhu Heying and Zhuge Sanhe who had long passed away. The book is divided into three parts: one is to explore and predict the development of spells; the second is to explore and predict the development of mechanisms of prophecy; the third is to "fiction" a timeline without Zhu Heying. He was preparing to pass this strange book to Zhu Yiyin and Lu Siniang, the "Taoguard" of the Ming Dynasty!

This is also the last thing he can do for the Celestial Empire he founded.

Now the "spell" and "organization" parts of "Zhuge Wu King's Q&A" have been completed, and only the "fiction" part is still slowly being written. As soon as he put down his brush, he heard a burst of rapid horse hooves, and then with a neigh, the sound of hooves disappeared. After a while, Zhu Heying's minister Guo Qian walked in with a memorial.

"Master, the Sun King has passed away!"

"Sun King" Zhu Heying touched his gray beard and sighed, "It's his turn!"

His tone sounded a little sad, and of course it was inevitable.

With the death of Louis XIV, Zhu and Chan are the only ones left in the "Three Heroes of the World" back then!

Moreover, the big names who have left the world in recent years are not only Louis XIV, but also Zhu Heying's old bean Zhu Tianwang, the Aztecs' hero Montezuma, the first God of Buddha who revived Indian Buddhism, Kangxi Khan's wife, the Queen Anne, who was determined to make the "Little British Empire" great, and the heroes who accompanied Zhu Heying to reopen the Great Future, a large number of them have also withered!

Zhuge Sanhe has long been gone. Mr. Yu, Yang Qilong, Su Yong, Zhao Zhongyi, Chen Jinnan, Qiu Hui, Qiu Rong, Su Zhanshan, Su Zhanhai, Zhao Hongkui, Guo Youde and others have all passed away one after another in recent years!

Of course, these people died a good end. Zhu Heying fulfilled his promise not to kill the heroes. Even if some people were not very clean after taking power, they were just idle and dispersed by him.

"Qian'er, take it here!" Zhu Hezang waved to Guo Youde's son Guo Qian and asked him to give the memorial to himself, "Who inherited the throne of the Sun King?"

"Of course it's Louis XV," Guo Qian smiled, "Louis XIV is lined down, of course it's Louis XV."

When Louis XIV was first elected Emperor Frank, he followed the title of Emperor Shenluo, which was Louis V. Later, he completely merged the Frank Empire and the Kingdom of France, and changed the title back to Louis XIV.

Louis XIV's heir, of course, is Louis XV!

Zhu Heying was a little funny by Guo Qian's half-joking words, and the minister continued to report: "Sage, the Bourbon dynasty has been in bad luck in recent years. Many people have died. Louis XIV's prince Louis, the crown prince Louis, and the great-grandson of the emperor, are all ahead of him, so the emperor's great-grandson Louis, who is now the emperor's great-grandson Louis, who is only six years old this year."

Although several traditional Chinese medicine practitioners were introduced in the Palace of Versailles in Louis XIV, the Bourbon dynasty, who were short-lived, still did not save Louis XIV, the Bourbon dynasty, also became in danger due to the death of such a large number of people.

If a few more deaths are needed, the dynasty will be cut off!

Zhu Heying thought for a while and said, "A six-year-old child cannot lead the Second Great Southern War!"

The Second Great Southern War was a war launched by the Sun King in his later years to seize Constantinople. The scale of this war was extremely large. Not only did the Frank Empire dispatch an army of 300,000, but the Rakshasa Kingdom also joined the war under the leadership of Peter I, dispatching 200,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on Crimea, Modavia, and Wallachia!

The war began two years ago. Although the Ottoman Empire lost the Crimean Peninsula, Modavia and almost the entire Transylvania, it withstood the fierce attacks of the Frank and Rakshasa coalition forces in Wallachia.

In addition to the steadience on the battlefield, Frank and Rakshasa were also in a diplomatic disadvantage.

Britain, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands, these European powers that participated in the First Great Southern War, were out of this war. The Great Mongolian Kingdom also became "peace-loving" after Kangxi Khan's death. The Southern Emperor and Northern Khan all declared neutrality and did not launch an attack from behind the Ottoman Empire. Of course, it did not launch a war to conquer Persia.

In this case, the Frank Empire, which had lost the Sun King and might be in dispute within, could only seek a ceasefire with the Ottoman Empire.

"Qian'er," Zhu Hezhi said again, "draft a letter to Queen Mother Kong, asking her to mediate the conflict between the Ottoman, Frank and Rakshasa. In addition, write a letter to our envoy in Istanbul, asking him to persuade the Ottoman Sultan to seize the opportunity to cease the war and even if he loses some land, he cannot continue to fight!"

Guo Qian was a little confused, "Master, why can't you continue to fight? The Ottoman Empire finally managed to kill the Sun King, and now is the time to counterattack. If you are lucky, you might be able to get back Transylvania."

Zhu Hezang shook his head and said, "The Frank Empire will most likely fall into division when the Sun King dies. For example, the Polish-Lithuanian parliament is unlikely to elect a six-year-old child as a king and a grand duke, the German princes will be ready to move, and the Hungarian nobles may also elect their own kings. However, this division is based on the minimization of the threat from the Ottoman Empire. If the Ottoman Empire now launches a counterattack and is defeated by the Frank officials who assisted Louis XV, the unification of the Frank Empire will be strengthened.
Chapter completed!