There was an evenly rhythmic "clang, clang" noise in the carriage, which was the sound coming from the junction of the railroad tracks, and it also caused the table to shake. Xiaohe made the tea, put a silk handkerchief on the table, and then put the teacup there. Orange-red tea is in the cup, rippling from side to side.

Zhu Gaoxu watched her careful movements, and said, "Do you know why, I gave you this name?" ”

Xiao He Shuiling's eyes looked at him and shook his head.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "In the past, there was a palace maid named Xiaohe, who was a bit like you when she made tea. I was only in my thirties at the time, so I was so young......"

Xiaohe in front of him was surprised: "That must have happened decades ago." ”

Zhu Gaoxu nodded.

Xiaohe said: "Holy Lord, what kind of person is she, is she very beautiful and beautiful?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu couldn't answer, and even the appearance of the palace maid was very vague in his mind, but he still remembered that she didn't seem to be very beautiful. For a while, he couldn't tell whether he still remembered Xiaohe or remembered his young years.

Xiaohe asked curiously again, "What happened to her?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "What else? Fifty or sixty years have passed since I met her, and she died of old age in the palace. ”

Xiaohe let out a stupid "oh".

At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu suddenly reached out and pressed his chest to feel a sharp pain, and even breathing became difficult. Xiaohe was shocked.

"Don't scream." Zhu Gaoxu gritted his teeth and said.

Xiaohe opened her mouth and looked at him at a loss.

Zhu Gaoxu slowed down for a while, gasped hard, and said weakly: "I can't do anything about these problems, and it's useless to call the medical officer in the car." Then they will have to stop, otherwise who will be responsible? Waste time. ”

Xiaohe said: "Is the saint better?" Drink some water. ”

"It's better." Zhu Gaoxu said slowly, "Actually, I only have one problem, that is, I am old. ”

What Xiaohe said again, Zhu Gaoxu didn't hear clearly, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair to rest. After a while, he felt someone put a blanket over him.

Recently, he has been very sleepy, and he slept for an unknown amount of time before waking up. found that Xiaohe was still guarding by the side.

"In my dream, I remembered the time when I went on a northern tour a long time ago, and I also went to Beijing with the Beijing Division. At that time, it was still called Beiping. Zhu Gaoxu said.

Xiaohe brought a bowl of soup and listened attentively.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu said: "If I weren't the emperor, a girl like you would definitely not want to listen to my ramblings." ”

Xiaohe said: "The words of the saint are so insightful, and I am willing to talk to the slave maid, the slave and maid are very lucky." ”

Zhu Gaoxu smiled and closed his mouth.

He turned his head to look out of the window, and when he saw that the sun was already setting, he thought to himself about the past.

After that northern tour, the Ming army fought a battle with the Mongols, and it was after that Concubine Ashali came to Jingshi. She may not have thought that she would never leave Zhu Gaoxu for the rest of her life. Asari was a Semu who gave birth to a mixed-race daughter to Zhu Gaoxu, who later married Veda's son.

Thinking of these things, Zhu Gaoxu's memories gradually became clear. At that time, the Warat people Mahamu took the opportunity to attack the Tatars, but they were defeated by the armies of Adai Khan and Arutai, and Mahamu himself was killed.

Mahamu's son, Tohuan, succeeded to the position of the leader of the Warat tribes. Tuhuan supported a puppet Great Khan, and he was inseparable from Arutai. After more than a decade, he finally took revenge, killing Arutai and Adai Khan on the battlefield, and wanted to expand to the northeastern part of Liao, and the Warat people completely lost their balance on the steppe. But at that time, the Ming army carried out another innovation, stronger than before, and drove Tuhuan back to the west again.

The Uliangha people nominally got the pastures of Arutai that year. Because the national policy of the Ming Dynasty is to develop the entire Liaodong region, they need to slowly give up the land.

Now Liaodong already has a large area of fertile land and factories, and there is no nomadic land for a long time. On the steppe, the Mongol tribes finally became a plate of scattered sand, and they were successively managed by the Ming government, and they mainly produced meat products, leather, wool, dairy products and other goods; Entered the industrial chain of the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, and life was not bad, and not many people wanted to fight. Those men and horses who were engaged in looting were not only beaten by the Ming army, but even the people of the Mongol tribes were also dealing with them.

When livestock production is reduced due to weather conditions, commercial grains from Liaodong will help them tide over, and some tribes will migrate to Australia to reduce population pressure on northern pastures.

After the Ming army discovered the Australian mainland, there are now a group of immigrants there. In addition to the Han Chinese, there were also Mongols, as well as bankrupt peasants from various countries, mainly engaged in animal husbandry.

A few years ago, after the steam engine was put into practical use, the Longjiang Shipyard first built a steamer. The Ming army crossed the vast Pacific Ocean and reached North America, establishing a port stronghold called "New State", which Zhu Gaoxu thought might be near Vancouver, Canada.

The introduction of new crops from the Americas to the Ming Dynasty changed people's diets and increased food production, further stimulating the industrialization process in the country.

A large number of natives were found in North America, who were supposed to be "Indians", but Zhu Gaochu called them "Yin people". The imperial court sent officials to preach everywhere in the area, telling the locals that there was a continental shelf on the sea that could be walked from Shenzhou to North America. Therefore, the Yin people were the population who migrated from the land of Shenzhou during the Yin Shang Dynasty; In this way, the locals will be wooed and the conflict will be reduced. But after Zhu Gaoxu saw Yin Ren coming, he felt as if he was talking nonsense.

However, benevolent governance is still being implemented. Due to the long distance, which is tens of thousands of miles long, the port of New Wales has very few military households and fewer immigrants. The imperial court needed the population of the Yin people to develop in North America as soon as possible. Otherwise, in a few years, people from Europe may also go, and once they start to emigrate, it will be more than ten times easier.

The Ming Dynasty's control over Europe was minimal, still because it was too far away, and it was currently dominated by trade, and if it wanted to expand further, it would have to be a long time away. In recent years, the focus of the imperial court has been mainly in Egypt. In addition, the imperial court has established many governors' palaces in East Africa, India, Nanyang and other places, and in order to consolidate the sea power in the east, it has been somewhat powerless.

When the Ming army and the Mamluk army broke out, the Ming naval expeditionary force defeated the Mamluk army several times over, completely controlled the eastern region, and supported a local force in the Nile Valley, sent officials and garrisons, and built a fort. The Mamluks fled in all directions, and some fled to Europe, Muslim areas to become mercenaries.

But the imperial court wanted to open up the Suez Canal, which was not as easy as imagined. The canal has not been built until now, and a lot of money and grain have been spent.

Ten years ago, Muslim power in the eastern Mediterranean expanded westward, capturing Constantinople and destroying Eastern Rome. The Eastern Roman king had sent envoys to Egypt to ask for help from the Ming army, promising a large number of benefits that could not be realized. But the situation there was very complicated, and the imperial court only provided a batch of arms in the name of selling after weighing it.

Because if Daming's goods go around Africa, the freight will increase exponentially. So a "western port" was established in the Mediterranean, and after the goods transported by sea from the east reached the Red Sea, they were transported overland in Egypt to the western port, and then traded with middlemen.

Most of the local middlemen are Muslims and Portuguese. Tearing the face of the imperial court and the Muslim region will lose huge profits in the short term and cause domestic economic turmoil. What's more, the Ming army in Egypt had very few numbers and reinforcements tens of thousands of miles away, and the navy had to go around Africa, so even if it directly joined the war, it might not have much effect.

Muslims are also doing good business with the Nestorian region, and they have a saying that "gold is gold, God is God".

In the end, Constantinople failed to change its fate, and fell to the roar of heavy artillery and flintlock pistols. The wave of the Renaissance also accelerated to spread to the European continent.

The Ming Dynasty could not completely stop the outflow of technology, especially the flintlock pistol and artillery, which were relatively easy to learn, and they were only an improvement for the people in the Muslim and Nestorian areas, who already had the low-level technology of casting cannons and guns. The countries of the west continue to engage in military conflicts, with particular emphasis on changing weapons.

Over the past half century, Zhu Gaoxu has also done a lot in China. For example, the Tui En Law allows the clan vassal states to be demoted from generation to generation, and the county king can then do business and find his own way out.

The descendants of these feudal lords were resentful at first, but later they found a way out, relying on some potential privileges of the clan, and some capable people made the business bigger and bigger, and became veritable imperial merchants. At the same time, there were also some gentry and large landowners who became big merchants, and the former merchant gangs joined in the soup, and the noble forces were no exception. These rich people all stuffed spokesmen into the imperial court by supporting the imperial examination.

The hereditary lineage of military officers has long been abolished, and officers are now mainly selected through various criteria such as examinations and descendants of military merits. Because of the innovation of technology and system, the situation of deducting military salaries in previous dynasties has been greatly improved, and it is extremely risky for officers to do this kind of thing, and the specifications of military salaries will be known to non-commissioned officers in the form of internal newspapers.

Military status has become a sweet tooth, even if there is a danger of dying on the battlefield, but the income is stable. The huge economic scale of the Ming Dynasty at home and abroad has fully guaranteed the welfare and equipment of the army.

Compulsory education for civilians has long been rolled out, and the Ministry of Rites invests a lot of money every year to make up for it.

The stall is too big, and with the sting of interests, even if Zhu Gaoxu wants to control it, he can't control it.

When Zhu Gaoxu was in power, with his prestige in the army and years of prestige, he was probably able to suppress all forces. As long as you don't want to die, you have to pay taxes honestly and obey the imperial decrees. But what will happen in the future, Zhu Gaoxu is really powerless. There may be no one in control.

The empire should also have its own destiny, and mankind has never had a thousand-year empire; Just as people themselves have to face death when they reach old age.

Zhu Gaoxu felt a little tired, not to mention that no matter what, the national fortune should not be any worse.

When he came back to his memory, he found that the light outside had dimmed.