The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 271 America's Backyard

Zhu Jianxuan planned to spend the winter in Taipingwei and get a deeper understanding of the situation in this area.

We first went upstream to inspect the coal mine which had just been put into production, and also to appreciate the valley and mountain scenery in the upper reaches of the Mei River.

The areas where the main streams of the middle and upper reaches of the major North American rivers and their western tributaries flow through are mostly plains, while the areas where the American rivers flow through are mostly hilly terrain.

The annual precipitation in the basin is basically above one thousand millimeters, and the subtropical humid climate provides relatively even rainfall throughout the year.

Therefore, compared with the main stream and other rivers in the west, the scenery along the Mei River seems completely different, more like the scenery of the Jiangnan region of the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to the lack of strong monsoons, the temperature difference between winter and summer is much smaller than that in the Ming Dynasty.

If there were no frequent sudden cold waves, hurricanes and tornadoes, the environment here would be more livable than the Jiangnan region of the Ming Dynasty.

But there is no if.

Now with large coal mines, the ability of the settlements on the Great Plains to withstand blizzards and cold waves has greatly increased.

While exploring for coal mines, Taipingwei's prospectors also discovered fluorite mines.

Fluorite itself is bright in color and has a smooth and regular crystal surface, which looks very beautiful, but it is not hard enough to be called a gemstone.

Therefore, when the craftsmen of Taiping Zuowei reported this matter to Zhu Jianxuan, they did not take it too seriously.

But this was a pleasant surprise for Zhu Jianxuan.

Although fluorite is not quite qualified as a gemstone, its main component is calcium fluoride, which is the only mineral that can contain fluorine in large quantities.

It can be used to assist in steel smelting to remove impurities, and can be used as an auxiliary material to make smoother and more delicate glass and enamel.

Cryolite can be produced through chemical reactions and is an important catalyst required by the electrolytic aluminum industry.

It can be used to produce uranium hexafluoride and to purify uranium 235.

It can be used to produce hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen fluoride, and is a catalyst required by the petrochemical industry.

Fluorite is a very important industrial raw material.

Zhu Jianxuan couldn't remember where the fluorite mines were in North America, but he didn't expect that there were some here.

Then Zhu Jianxuan also remembered that there seemed to be a uranium enrichment plant in Kentucky, USA in his previous life, and the south side of Taipingwei was the westernmost tip of Kentucky.

It seems that the banks of the Mei River where Taipingwei is located are indeed suitable as an industrial area.

After Zhu Jianxuan completed his inspection and returned to the Taipingwei base, he received a report from New Orleans.

Written by Magistrate of O County and Charles Martin, it contains news about the visit of Haitian representatives, the situation of the Haitian Revolution, the situation of the other party and their purpose.

One of the richest colonies in the Caribbean now offered its allegiance.

However, Zhu Jianxuan did not feel the slightest bit of surprise. Instead, he began to worry and even felt disgusted.

If the Caribbean Sea in the past life was the backyard of the United States at that time, then Haiti, located in it, is the cesspool of the United States' backyard.

A septic tank that could never be covered again after it was completely blown open.

It’s not that Zhu Jianxuan doesn’t have ways and ideas to circumvent or even solve Haiti’s problems, and the Americans in their previous lives also had them.

But the input and output are not proportional, so I am not willing to do it at all.

Zhu Jianxuan didn't want to see any news about Haiti, and even hoped that a revolution would not break out in Haiti as it had done in the past.

But such expectations are unrealistic. The contradictions within Haiti are real and cannot be fundamentally reconciled. Revolution is inevitable.

Before the Haitian Revolution, Haiti was the pearl of the Caribbean and France's richest colony in the Americas.

At that time, Haiti produced 60% of the world's coffee.

After the success of the Haitian Revolution, it became an African country existing in America.

Haiti defines itself as a purely black country, and they killed almost all white people during the independence process.

This was indeed what the French white slave owners deserved.

The blacks destroyed almost all the plantations and no longer needed to work on the plantations. They were liberated by nature and returned to a life close to its primitive state.

But this is America, the Caribbean Sea, not the African continent.

The indigenous people of Haiti were almost completely wiped out, and their deaths were more numerous than those of the white people.

Zhu Jianxuan would rather the island of Haiti remain in its original state, with only the original indigenous people living on the island.

Zhu Jianxuan was not very interested in occupying this land.

Unfortunately not.

Zhu Jianxuan pondered the report for a long time, wondering whether he should take care of Haiti's troubles.

Although Haiti itself had little value, the various plantations were basically destroyed during the slave uprising.

However, once Haiti truly becomes independent, it will provide strong inspiration to other Latin American regions.

"A group of black slaves have become independent, so why can't we be independent too?"

In the original history, the independence of Latin America broke out under the guidance of the American Independence, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution.

Zhu Jianxuan wanted land in South America, which may be the most arable native land in the world.

The La Plata Plain in South America covers an area of ​​about 1.5 million square kilometers.

It is equivalent to the area east of Xuefeng Mountain, Wushan Mountain and Taihang Mountain in the Ming Dynasty, extending from Hainan Island to Beijing.

It is roughly the third geographical step in the previous life, the part south of Yanshan Mountain.

The soil, water and heat conditions of the land here are very good, even better than those of the Great Plains of North America.

The La Plata Plain is at a lower latitude than the Great Plains of North America, with higher annual accumulated temperature and precipitation.

There is also a more suitable large river running through it.

The Mississippi River in North America flows from areas with low precipitation to areas with high precipitation, and there is no way to provide large-scale water replenishment to areas with less water.

Agriculture in the Great Plains of North America often relies on groundwater for irrigation.

The La Plata River in South America is the opposite. It flows from areas with high precipitation to areas with low precipitation, which is just right for replenishing water in areas with more water shortages.

The annual runoff of the La Plata River is about 800 billion cubic meters.

It is larger than the Mississippi River, 80% the size of the Yangtze River, and a little more than twice the size of the Pearl River.

It is equivalent to a large river with a flow slightly smaller than that of the Yangtze River, flowing from Guangdong through the southern China region all the way to Beijing, and can nourish the temperate plains with tropical and subtropical water resources.

The plains of South America also have a more favorable environment and climate.

Not only are there no tornadoes like in North America here, it is also one of the few places with almost no hurricanes and typhoons, and cold waves are not as frequent as in North America.

This is the dreamland of traditional Chinese landlords.

Zhu Jianxuan had always wanted to get it, even if it would be difficult for the imperial court to directly govern it in the future, so he could divide it among his descendants to establish their own country and set up a vassal state.

In the future, we will send tens of millions of Ming people there to turn the original Latin America into a prosperous region.

It's just that there has never been a suitable opportunity.

But what does this have to do with Haiti?
The question Zhu Jianxuan had to consider was whether he should seize South America from Spain and Portugal, or wait until South America was generally independent before taking action.

South America was broken up into a group of small countries from the colonial empire, which seemed to be easier to conquer than the colonial empire.

But it is easiest to acquire land from traditional colonial empires.

Fighting for colonies was an internal war among the colonists. What they were fighting for was not their homeland, but a land asset.

Since the war does not involve the participation of the entire nation, the fighting will of the corresponding army will not be very strong.

Once Latin America becomes independent, it will directly transform into a nation-state.

A nation-state that has been tempered by a war of independence will form a group of officers and soldiers who have experienced a long career of war.

If we try to seize the land of these countries at this time, we will be fighting for their native homes.

For these newly born countries, this is a war against invasion. They will have the advantage of location and people, and the scale of the war will become difficult to control. The key is that they may penetrate deeply into the local area and even form a guerrilla war.

The cost of such a war is difficult to estimate.

At the same time, in the original history, Latin America did not form a unified country, which was also influenced by external factors.

They did not have a strong enough enemy at the time, and the United States did not yet have the ability to control South America.

So after driving out the rulers of the Spanish Kingdom, the Latin American independence movement quickly split internally.

Then the situation of being shattered into pieces in later generations occurred.

If the Ming Dynasty took over and continued to invade and seize land in South America when Spain retreated, it might stimulate them to continue to unite and fight.

In order to avoid this situation, Zhu Jianxuan felt that it should be seized from Spain.

Therefore, we must reduce the independence tendencies and psychological expectations in Latin America and curb the independence movements in countries like Haiti.

But how should it be curbed specifically?

It would be a waste to directly send a group of Ming Dynasty's main forces there.

There is a high probability that we can easily win the frontal battlefield, but we will most likely still have to face bandit suppression and jungle warfare.

When fighting on a tropical island, non-combat casualties can be severe.

When the Ming army went to Haiti, it was difficult for the local slave owners to provide sufficient and widespread support as their population was too small.

The biggest problem in Haiti is that there are too few white people in the ruling class. The number of black slaves is more than ten times that of black slaves, so the white class can be destroyed violently.

For example, the number of white people in the United States is several times that of black people, so black people have no way of carrying out a violent revolution.

Zhu Jianxuan couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he called in the main accompanying civil and military officials including Fei Chun, Duan Yucai, Cao Zhendong, and Zhang Xu.

They were circulated with a briefing on the Charles Martin report to understand the basic situation in Haiti.

Then Zhu Jianxuan raised his own question:
“Please all offer your suggestions on how to control the current situation in Haiti at the lowest cost.

“Pay special attention to the fact that there were 400,000 to 500,000 black slaves on that island, and they were relatively concentrated in large plantations.

“There are probably more than 100,000 people who have joined the riots, and others may continue to join.

“There were only about 40,000 white Europeans in the area, and thousands of them had been killed.

"Most of the slaves should be young and strong, there won't be any old or weak ones."

Cao Zhendong spoke first:

"Your Highness, I believe that 30,000 Ming main forces are enough to annihilate these hundreds of thousands of rebellious slaves."

Zhu Jianxuan gave a somewhat speechless reminder:

"I'm asking for the lowest price. It's simply not worth it to use our main division to fight these rebellious slaves head-on."

Cao Zhendong quickly replied:
"Your Highness, please forgive me. I only know how to fight. If you give the order, I will go to fight. I am not good at anything else."

Zhu Jianxuan knew that Cao Zhendong was not incompetent, but was deliberately distancing himself from government affairs.

He is already the top military official in the Ming Dynasty. He may be becoming more and more sensitive mentally and have a stronger sense of self-protection.

Zhu Jianxuan no longer paid attention to Cao Zhendong and looked at the other officials.

The American university scholar Zhang Xu spoke at this time:

“Your Highness, I think that the American militia can participate in the war, or even mainly the European militia from the Eastern Free States.

"This would increase their vigilance against American slaves, accumulate experience in suppressing slave rebellions, or begin to restrict the use of slaves."

In fact, there is another reason that has not been mentioned, which is to consume some European immigrants.

Zhu Jianxuan was not surprised by this suggestion, and he had also thought about letting American militia participate in the war.

However, the reasons and logic given by Zhang Xu surprised Zhu Jianxuan a little.

Increase vigilance against black slaves?
Most of the senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, especially those from the United States and the Wu Kingdom, knew that Zhu Jianxuan did not like black slaves very much.

Zhu Jianxuan actually did not want the United States to continue to introduce and use black slaves.

But due to the original agreement, it was not easy to forcibly interfere in the internal affairs of the Free State, so no order was issued to ban it.

The southern United States continued to introduce black slaves to engage in plantation production, and there were also many slaves in the north working on farms or serving as servants for immigrants.

Plantation owners were still breeding slaves like they were raising livestock, and some in the North were proposing to free the slaves.

They were not very wary of black slaves.

Directly requesting a ban would encounter enormous resistance and might even directly trigger a civil war.

Even if it is just to restrict its use, there should be an excuse.

The slave revolt in Haiti was indeed one.

Let the American slave owners see what was done after the slave revolt in Haiti.

The manifestation of violent revolution and resistance is violence.

Especially when the overall level of social civilization was low, the violence of the Haitian Revolution was an extreme.

Murder, arson and robbery are the most basic things, rape and infanticide are not uncommon, and dismemberment and piercing corpses with long poles are also common.

Let the American slave owners see these threats firsthand. Will they dare to use black slaves on a large scale when they return?
At that time, we can take the opportunity to propose a law to restrict black slavery in the United States. As long as it is not a complete ban, it should have a chance to be passed smoothly in various free states.

For this reason alone, the slave owners should be allowed to go through this process. Even if the intervention fails, it is worth it.

But we should not intervene with just this purpose in mind.

So Zhu Jianxuan did not express his opinion and continued to watch the officials on the scene.

They continued to think and discuss in low voices for a while, and Fei Chun from the Ming Dynasty tried to speak up and make a suggestion:
“Your Highness, I believe that the slave uprising in Haiti is difficult to control. The main reason is that there are too few white people in Haiti. In fact, it is a small tribe facing a big country.

“The two sides were totally disproportionate in strength and had vastly different images. The white slave owners could not escape even if they wanted to, nor could they integrate into the rebellious slaves.

"Once both sides are completely hostile, it will be a life-and-death struggle, with no possibility of compromise.

“The image of both sides is the identification method. Just by looking at their faces, you can tell who is the enemy and who is the comrade.

"Then can we let American black slaves join the war and suppress the black slave uprising in Haiti?

“We promised that after the war was won, they would be allowed to stay there and become free men.

“If you have made contributions, you can get local black slaves as rewards and become a local slave owner.

"So both sides on the battlefield had black slaves, most of whom should have come from West Africa and might have spoken a similar language.

"In particular, American slaves could be sent to infiltrate the Haitian slave community to cause sabotage.

"It made it impossible for Haitian slaves to trust each other and to simply judge who was the enemy based on the skin color of each other."

As Fei Chun expressed his thoughts, several officials at the scene couldn't help but look sideways.

This idea is indeed feasible.

Let American black slaves serve as thugs on the Haitian battlefield, muddying the waters where the enemy and us were clearly defined.

Duan Yucai couldn't help but ask:
“Instead of this, why don’t we directly contact the rebellious black slaves in Haiti?
“The white people in Haiti have no control over the situation at all. Without the support of outside forces, it is only a matter of time before they are killed.

“The black rebellion has in fact been successful, but there is certainly fear of retaliation.

“If Ming and the United States are willing to provide asylum, they should be willing to become a state of the United States directly.

"Now that the Ming Dynasty has accepted it, Britain and Spain should not dare to interfere.

“France is now even more overwhelmed.

"In the future, if anyone in South America wants to break away from their suzerain country, they can consider actively approaching Ming or the United States."

(End of this chapter)