The most arrogant in history

Chapter 679: Full of martial virtue.

Ye Kun also communicated with Ma Zhao several times. He acknowledged Ma Zhao's foresight, but he also had confidence in the Chinese mainland.

After all, the technology of the Chinese mainland is developing rapidly, and it is not something that a few scattered pirates can resist.

With the cohesion and powerful strength of the Chinese mainland, the South Pacific Islands cannot compete with it.

Ma Zhao called back again, saying that the people on the southeast coast were tough and full of martial virtues. Once these people sailed out to sea and gained strength, they would seize islands and establish themselves as kings.

A hundred years later, it will become too powerful to be eliminated and will definitely compete with China.

In fact, Ma Zhao’s worries are justified.

However, Ma Zhao's vision and mind were greatly limited.

He only considered the long-term stability of the Chinese continent, but did not consider the overall reproduction of the Chinese people.

After Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, he implemented the policy of hereditary rule, and the entire world belonged to the Zhu family.

All descendants of the Zhu family, no matter who they were, had fiefs and salaries.

More than two hundred years later, there were millions of descendants of the Zhu family across the country. These millions of people did not pay taxes, occupied a huge amount of fertile land, and received salaries from the court.

Eventually, the entire Ming Dynasty's finances collapsed, forcing Emperor Chongzhen to hang himself on Coal Hill. The Chinese nation fell into the hands of northern barbarians and was cut off from human rule.

In addition, the Zhu family did another thing.

After Zheng He's voyages to the West, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the people along the coast of China had expanded to the South Pacific Islands through trade and adventure, and were thriving overseas.

However, the Ming Dynasty court went overseas to suppress bandits, united with the natives of the South Pacific Islands, and killed all the overseas Chinese.

The reason is that these Southeast Asian Chinese will establish an empire overseas and threaten China.

All the smart descendants of the Chinese have been wiped out, the indigenous people of the South Pacific Islands have not yet been civilized, and there will be no threat from the southeast to the Chinese mainland!

This incident directly led to the isolation of the Nanyang Islands and China, and cut off the hope of Sinicization of Nanyang.

It was not until the beginning of the Western Age of Navigation that Southeast Asia became a Western colony.

Ye Kun came with the perspective of future generations and could understand the ideas of Ma Zhao, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di and others, but he could not be limited by their vision and mind.

So Ye Kun sent another extended telegram to Ma Zhao, explaining the pros and cons.

The South Pacific Islands are a land bestowed upon China by God.

If the Chinese people do not take it, foreign civilizations and empires will emerge in the South Pacific Islands in the future.

At that time, foreign civilizations would also pose a threat to the Chinese mainland and block the way for the Chinese descendants to go out to the ocean.

Instead of doing this, it would be better to train a group of Chinese pirates to seize the South Seas.

Moreover, when Chinese people go out to sea, they are not necessarily pirates, and they do not necessarily disobey the orders of the Chinese mainland court!

After a long tug-of-war with Ma Zhao, Ye Kun finally convinced Ma Zhao.

Ma Zhao agreed and the nine ministries conducted further research and then conducted a trial for three to five years to see the results.

Ye Kun had no time to explain these things to Guo Ping and others.

Since Guo Ping asked, Ye Kun thought that he should find some time to discuss it in detail.

After entering Chongqing, Chunhua and Yulian became excited and asked, "Your Majesty, our hometown Fuling is just across the river. We two sisters want to go back and take a look..."

Ye Kun smiled and said, "I'll give you half a month off. You can go back to your hometown to relax, and then go to Chengdu to meet me."

Chunhua was greedy: "Your Majesty, won't you accompany us? Don't you want to see the changes in Fuling now? It is also the territory of the Han Dynasty. You must treat it equally."

Ye Kun pointed at Chunhua and said, "Okay, I'll go with you and bankrupt your family!"

The mountains are high and the roads are long, making transportation difficult.

Ye Kun also knew that this might be Chunhua Yulian’s last time returning to her hometown.

It's not too much to ask someone to accompany you.

Chunhua was overjoyed and nodded, saying, "I know the emperor treats everyone equally. Then I will prepare gifts and wait to return to my parents' home."

Ye Kun nodded: "You and Yu Lian, go prepare the gifts first."

In the lobby of the prefectural government, Ye Kun chatted with local officials but did not ask about his political achievements.

The next morning, Ye Kun began his detailed inspection, starting with the urban construction.

The urban area of ​​Chongqing has now expanded a lot.

Satellite cities have been built in Jiangdong and Jiangbei, close to the Yangtze River and Jialing River.

There are four large docks around, which are also ferry terminals with busy ferries.

Ye Kun stood by the river and suddenly had an idea: "Is it possible for us to build two bridges here, one across the Yangtze River and one across the Jialing River? If there are bridges, it will be convenient for travel between the two sides."

The Yangtze River and Jialing River sandwich Chongqing.

Chongqing's water transportation conditions are unique.

However, these two major rivers also block land transportation, and ferries are needed to travel between the two sides.

Guo Ping was startled and his eyes widened.

Hou Qi smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you are not joking, are you?"

"No, I'm serious. I thought about it many years ago."

Ye Kun asked: "Do you know how wide the narrowest part of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River is?"

Hou Qi thought for a moment and said, "The narrowest part of the Jialing River is still seven miles upstream, and the river surface is about twenty feet wide. In the dry season, it is less than twenty feet wide.

The narrowest part of the Yangtze River nearby is two hundred feet wide..."

Ye Kun smiled and said, "Forget about the Yangtze River. However, we can build a pedestrian bridge on the Jialing River that can accommodate horse-drawn carriages. It is not technically difficult and can be built."

Guo Ping asked: "Your Majesty, I heard that the longest bridge in the country, the Grand Canal Bridge, is only ten feet long. How can the Jialing River Bridge, which is more than twenty feet long, be built?"

"More than twenty zhang, that's also seventy or eighty meters. We won't build a stone arch bridge, we can build an iron chain bridge, it won't be difficult."

Ye Kun was confident: "Build high platforms on both sides, and connect them with more than a dozen thick iron chains. Lay wooden boards on them, and set up iron chain fences on both sides of the bridge. There will be no problem for carriages to pass through!"

In fact, the iron chain bridge that Ye Kun mentioned is the Luding Bridge in later generations.

During the Qing Dynasty, the Luding Bridge was built on the Dadu River, which was a remarkable project at the time.

The metallurgy and steelmaking technology of the Han Empire today has surpassed that of the Qing Dynasty; its steel production has also surpassed that of the Qing Dynasty by 18 miles.

Since the Qing Dynasty was able to build the Luding Bridge, which is more than 100 meters long, Ye Kun could naturally build the Jialing River cable bridge, which is less than 100 meters long.

Not to mention using iron cables and chains, even if you use hemp ropes and imitate the structure of Luding Bridge to build a cross-river bridge, it would take two years!

Hou Qi thought for a moment and said, "If we use a thick iron chain, we can indeed connect the two banks. But how much iron would it take?"

Ye Kun laughed: "If we can build one mile less of railway, it will be more than enough."

Compared with a railway, building a cable bridge is just a drop in the bucket.

Hou Qi was very happy: "Your Majesty, let's call the technicians and go to the upper reaches to take a look. After hearing what Your Majesty said, I was also tempted. I also wanted to walk on the bridge before I died!"

"Don't worry, we'll have enough time. There's no technical difficulty in building a cable bridge. We can finish it in a year."

Ye Kun comforted Hou Qi and went to the riverside to check.

Road and bridge technicians from Chongqing also arrived one after another.

Ye Kun drew a sketch on the spot and discussed with everyone:

"Technically, a 100-meter cable bridge is not difficult to build. The quality and quantity of steel can be guaranteed. What we need to calculate now is the average daily passenger flow after the bridge is completed.

If the daily passenger flow is too low, there is not much point in building a bridge.”