The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 130: Enthronement Ceremony and Departure Arrangements

September 1783th, the 10th year of Xianning, October 15th, in the Western calendar.

Zhu Jianxuan's coronation ceremony was held in the American Palace.

Zhu Jianxuan arrived in New York in February of the 36th year of Xianning and has lived in North America for 19 months.

The two originally bare palaces have become a basically complete royal palace.

The construction of palaces during the Ming and Qing dynasties was slow, mainly due to the lack of timber in the Central Plains. The process of transporting timber from afar to Beijing wasted a lot of manpower, material resources and time.

If you look at history, you will find that except for the early stage of technological exploration, the construction of large palaces became faster and faster.

The construction period of the Daming Palace in the Tang Dynasty was only a dozen months.

With sufficient wood and stone available and close to the construction site, the construction of China's traditional wooden palace can be done very quickly.

In particular, Zhu Jianxuan requested that complex decorative patterns be unnecessary in order to save on the scarce labor force in North America.

So it only took a dozen months before the other supporting facilities of the palace were completed.

It was also sprayed with oil to prevent water immersion, insect infestation and corrosion, and painted in the color of traditional Ming Dynasty palaces.

The palace now has a wall, but for now it only has an ordinary brick wall.

The traditional city walls on which horses can run will probably not be repaired. If conditions permit in the future, they can be directly replaced with reinforced concrete.

Nowadays, working with rammed earth and bricks is much more troublesome than working with wood.

More manpower should be used to open up new areas, and we should not be working on things that have little meaning.

The wall is 900 meters long from north to south and 720 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of ​​648,000 square meters, or about 973 acres.

This is almost a 10% discount on the price of the Ming Dynasty's Forbidden City.

Zhu Jianxuan had a special status and the United States was an independent country, so as long as he did not exceed the indicators used by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he could do whatever he wanted with other things.

Outside the palace, there is another larger circle of wall.

The American Kingdom government agencies, American laboratories and colleges, Zhu Jianxuan and the American Kingdom treasury were all surrounded inside along with the royal palace.

On the morning of September 20th, Zhu Jianxuan put on the crown and robes of the Prince and King of the Ming Dynasty.

It looks very similar to the emperor's, but the number of patterns is lower than that of the emperor.

For example, the emperor’s crown has twelve strings of beads (twelve tassels), while a prince-level king can only have nine strings (nine tassels).

Representatives of Ming and European American nobles, officials, and common people who attended the ceremony also wore pure Ming-style formal dresses.

All the representatives accompanied the king to the newly built Altar of Land and Grain outside the palace gate.

The king ascended the altar alone and, at the reminder of the Minister of Etiquette Peng Yuanrui, worshipped the five directions of heaven and earth in turn.

Then sacrifices were offered to the Taimiao, the Sheji, the wind, clouds, thunder and rain, the mountains and rivers within the borders, the City God, the flags and banners, the Five Sacrifices, and the Altar of the Dead.

After the sacrifice, the king returned to the top of the steps in front of Chengyun Hall to accept worship from all the nobles, officials, and representatives of the people.

Then the formal decree of accession to the throne was read, most of which contained content that had already been discussed before.

However, a number of copies of this new edict will be made and sent to European countries.

Then all the nobles were publicly ennobled on a large scale again.

A special edict of reward, with the names of all the founding nobles listed on it, was read out in full by a ceremonial official and then specially archived.

Then, separate new edicts, as well as matching seals, crowns and clothes, were issued to the nobles who were qualified to be present on site.

The same standards were applied to all nobles, including those of Ming descent and those of European descent.

The new edict was no longer a standard edict. It listed the general situation of the recipients and explained their specific contributions to the country.

With some compliments, the king eventually conferred a certain title on him.

After the new imperial edicts, seals, crowns and robes are distributed, all the standard imperial edicts given to them last year must be returned.

Of course, this is only limited to senior nobles who have received individual introductions. The ordinary nobles who received the edicts in batches last year did not receive new edicts this time.

There are also a very few lucky people who were not ennobled last year but now have the opportunity.

You will directly receive a complete new edict.

For example, James Cook and Horatio Nelson, both of them were prisoners when Zhu Jianxuan first became king.

Afterwards, they returned to the UK to complete the retirement procedures and came to the United States to be conferred the title. The titles of both were not high, but they were recruited by Zhu Jianxuan himself, so they also had the opportunity to directly participate in the ceremony.

The entire ceremony lasted for most of the day, mainly because the reading of the imperial edict took up too much time, and it was already mid-afternoon when everything was over.

As the king, Zhu Jianxuan first returned to his harem to rest, and then the etiquette officer announced the end of the ceremony.

All the people, officials, and nobles left the stage one by one.

At this point, all the procedures for Zhu Jianxuan to become the King of America have finally been completed.

It's time to leave North America temporarily.

On the morning of the second day after the ceremony, Zhu Jianxuan convened a royal meeting in Chengyun Hall.

All the cabinet scholars, ministers of state, representatives of the states, and representatives of the Dutch and Belgian Dukes were summoned.

Zhu Jianxuan went straight to the point and arranged future matters:
“Things in North America and Europe are now basically settled.

"Ming Dynasty signed a twenty-year friendship and alliance treaty with Spain. In the next twenty years, the United States should focus on developing the Great Plains.

"We will continue to absorb immigrants from Europe and the Ming Dynasty, and continue to open up wasteland and cultivate land to accumulate population.

“Regarding future European affairs, the personnel in charge of relevant affairs of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Wu Kingdom, and the American Kingdom must maintain a neutral and non-interference stance.

"Using the four trading ports on the European continent as windows, we will trade equally and freely with the people of all European countries and will not interfere in internal disputes in Europe.

“So I have to leave North America temporarily and return to Australia to sort out the affairs of the Wu Kingdom.

"During the time I am away from North America, all matters concerning the American Kingdom will be decided according to this decree."

Zhu Jianxuan said these words in person, and then asked Cabinet Scholar Dong Hao to stand up and read out a draft of the king's decree.

The main purpose is to adjust the relationship between the US central court and the cabinet.

At this time in Britain, as in most modern parliamentary countries, cabinet members were basically ministers of various departments, and most of the cabinet was a joint meeting of ministers.

Zhu Jianxuan's America also began to adopt a similar model, bringing together ministers from various departments to hold meetings and treating them as a cabinet.

Now we return to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty central court and separate the ministers of various ministries from the cabinet positions.

Once a minister enters the cabinet and becomes a Cabinet Bachelor, he cannot serve as a minister of specific affairs, and when he serves as a minister of affairs, he also cannot enter the cabinet.

Transform the Cabinet into the King's secretariat.

At the same time, the Cabinet is the King's representative in the kingdom and is appointed and dismissed by the King himself without being restricted by any other conditions.

When the king is not in the kingdom, matters that originally require the king's decision will be decided by the cabinet members through collective consensus and temporary handling opinions.

It was handed over to the ministers of various ministries for execution, and the files were kept on file and sent to the king for his knowledge regularly.

The internal logic of this arrangement is to separate decision-making power from administrative power, similar to separating the power to command troops from the power to mobilize troops.

In general, vassal states of the Ming Dynasty did not need to think too much about this kind of checks and balances of power. If a powerful official really appeared, they could directly ask the Ming Dynasty court for help in dealing with it.

Therefore, many of them do not separate decision-making and administrative powers, which would actually be more efficient.

But the United States is a nominally independent country. The key is that it is too far away from the Ming mainland, so the issue of checks and balances needs to be considered.

Zhu Jianxuan estimates that European countries should focus on dealing with long-term natural disasters in the next few years.

I probably don't have the energy to do anything else.

Even if there is trouble in Europe again, the Ming Dynasty should try not to interfere and try to focus on doing business in a neutral manner.

Stabilize the three existing trade ports and continue to export Ming Dynasty goods.

In the next few years, there should be nothing in North America that needs to be dealt with specifically by ourselves.

Unless a war suddenly breaks out with the Qing Dynasty and Spain, or the French Revolution breaks out suddenly in some unexpected way.

Now I should go to Australia to take over and organize my core territory.

Complete the latest round of new technology verification and implement the inventions and creations of recent years.

By the way, see if I need help from my father and eldest brother to deal with the problems with the Japanese and Omanis.

If it is not necessary, then we can accumulate strength in Australia, and when the five-year global disaster is basically over, we can send troops to the North.

After Zhu Jianxuan read out the decree of the King of America, all the nobles, officials, and representatives present bowed together:
"I will obey your orders!"

(End of this chapter)