The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 273 Help His Majesty Louis catch some rebels

When the French revolutionary government learned of the Haitian riots, it naturally decided to intervene.

The French government arranged for Etienne Polverel, Léger-Félité Sontonax and others to form the Haitian Revolutionary Committee.

The two served as specialists in the north and south of Haiti respectively.

Together with the new Haitian Governor Jean-Jacques de Esparbes, accompanied by 6,000 army soldiers, they crossed the ocean to Haiti.

Their main task was to implement laws granting citizenship to people of color in the colonies.

At the same time, based on local conditions, they tried to restore local control over the colonies and find ways to get the slaves back to the plantations.

Although both commissioners were abolitionists, the French revolutionary government had not yet issued a decree to liberate slaves, and the mission of this trip did not include liberating slaves.

In the original history, after they arrived in Haiti, they found that they had no way to control the situation and had to announce the liberation of the slaves.

He then worked with the leaders of the black slave rebels to stabilize the situation in Haiti.

But now they arrive in Haiti, the situation is completely different from what it has been historically and what they expected.

After more than half a year of fighting, the Ming-US coalition forces arranged by Zhu Jianxuan have basically controlled Haiti's main towns, ports, transportation lines, and large plantations.

Through dozens of large-scale defeats, about 80,000 black slave rebels were eliminated one after another, and more than 60,000 black slave rebels were captured.

After their main force was defeated, tens of thousands of black slave rebels fled in all directions and escaped into the dense forests inland of Haiti.

Several local rebel leaders, including André Rigaud, Toussaint Louverture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, were killed directly on the battlefield.

After half a year of heavy attacks by the 50,000-strong Ming-American coalition force, the rebellion was forcibly suppressed.

The core of the Ming-American coalition forces was 10,000 bolt-action rifle infantry, while the black slave rebels did not even have enough flintlock muskets. There was already a gap of two eras between the two sides.

In the original history, before the mid-nineteenth century, European countries did not have the ability to forcibly conquer the indigenous peoples of Africa.

But by the late 19th century, it took them only a dozen years to complete the division of the entire African continent.

The most crucial reason is technological innovation, which gave European regular troops a greater advantage over African natives, and dozens of people could destroy a tribe.

The Ming-American coalition forces found large plantations still intact and white slave owners still alive.

These people were both frightened and surprised. They were frightened by the fighting power of the Ming army, and they were surprised that the Ming had actually succeeded in forcibly suppressing the riot of hundreds of thousands of people.

Regardless of whether the attitude they initially expressed through De If was sincere, now they can only be subjects of the King of America.

Cao Zhendong also bluntly maintained martial law in Haiti and continued to be on guard and alert.

Polverel, Sontonax, Esparbes and their troops from mainland France landed on the dock, welcomed by the former Governor of Haiti, Philibert François Roussel de Blanchelande.

Then they were immediately surrounded and controlled by the Ming-US coalition forces.

Sontonax, who was held by several soldiers, was horrified when he saw the Ming soldiers appearing around him, and then he shouted to the former Haitian Governor Blancheland:
"You... betrayed France! You defected to the Ming people!"

Blanchland was a little embarrassed, but she immediately calmed down and said loudly and confidently:
"Only the Ming and American armies are within reach, and only they can rescue us immediately.

“Otherwise, by the time reinforcements from mainland France arrive, we’ll all be dead.

"The point is, what can these 6,000 people you brought do? There is no way they can be a match for the hundreds of thousands of black slave rebels.

“Only the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty and the United States can help us suppress the rebellion of black slaves.

"We can only choose to be loyal to the King of America."

Sontonax was stunned for three seconds, then turned to the Ming officers:

"The American army has intruded into France's Haitian colony without permission and arrested French officials and troops. Are you officially declaring war on France?"

Zhao Chengdong, the highest-ranking officer at the scene, said with a smile:
"We did not declare war on France, and the Kingdom of France did not declare war on Ming and the United States.

"The legitimate King of France, His Majesty Louis Joseph, cannot return home because of you traitors, and is currently visiting Shuntian Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty.

"We are only helping His Majesty Louis Joseph to eliminate some black slave rebels and arrest a few fake officials and traitors.

"Wait until the situation in the Kingdom of France is settled, and then hand it over to His Majesty Joseph for trial."

Sontonax was stunned again before he realized that the former French Crown Prince Louis Joseph was still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty recognized that Louis Joseph was the legitimate king, so people like them were pure traitors.

If the Ming Dynasty fully supports Louis Joseph, and other European countries interfere, can the current French revolutionary government still hold on?
If the current revolutionary government eventually falls, this group of people will definitely be liquidated by the future king.

Zhao Chengdong didn't care what Sontonaks thought. After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and instructed the soldiers on the scene to put Sontonaks and others into the prisoner camp.

Of course they cannot be left idle. A large number of plantations have been abandoned due to the war and now need manpower to repair them.

The three men of Santanax and six thousand French soldiers, as well as the sailors and soldiers of the fleet that transported them, were all imprisoned in prisoner camps and assigned to work on the plantations.

They have all been arrested, and it is impossible for mainland France to know the specific situation in Haiti in a short time.
-
Zhu Jianxuan spent the winter of the 45th year of Xianning in Taipingwei, and set out on an inspection tour again in the spring of the 46th year of Xianning.

Zhu Jianxuan's fleet once again entered the North American River from the Mei River, and then went south along the main channel of the lower reaches of the river.

This time, Zhu Jianxuan truly experienced what twists and turns meant.

The river channel below Taipingwei is really like a giant python twisting back and forth on the plain. It should be said that its winding degree is even more serious than that of a python.

The python would have broken bones if it was bent to this extent.

The fleet sailed along a circular route, stopping at three major farming points downstream for inspection.

Finally arrived in New Orleans and changed to a larger ship.

New Orleans is located in the delta region of a major North American river, and in a sense it can even be considered a coastal city.

But on the waterway, it is still 150 kilometers away from the real estuary.

This large area is muddy flats and swamps.

We must continue sailing along the waterway washed out by the river to truly enter the deep and infinitely wide ocean.

Then follow the coastline eastward, bypass the Florida Peninsula and turn north, returning to the capital New York.

The North American continent has vast plains, and the coastal areas are basically alluvial fans, so the south and southeast sides are basically muddy coasts or lagoon coasts.

The coastal areas are basically mudflats or sandbars formed by silt accumulation, forming narrow lagoon shallows outside the coastline.

South of Norfolk on Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, there are few natural harbors.

These important ports in southeastern North America, including New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, are essentially inland ports.

Go out to sea along the deeper channel washed out by the river.

If the Mississippi River, a great river in North America, is a version of the Yellow River with a larger volume of water, then all other river dams are just shrunken versions of the Yellow River.

Only north of the New York area, where the Pashan-Appalachian Mountains meet the coastline, are some natural deep-water harbors with rocky foundations formed.

For example, New York, Newport, Boston, Portland and other areas.

This is also one of the important reasons why Zhu Jianxuan chose New York as the capital of the United States.

Zhu Jianxuan continued to stay in New York for a while and carefully handled new requests from various parties in the past year.

Then he made clear instructions for major engineering construction plans such as the Qinglong Lake Dam Project, the Longque Canal Project, the Xuanwu Lake Iron Mine Project, the North American Great River Valley Waterway Project, the Taipingwei Industrial Center Project, and the Taipingwei Zhongdu Palace and Yamen Project.

After I leave, North American officials can continue to implement the new round of industrialization construction step by step. In addition, the allocation of subsequent immigrants has been adjusted.

Priority will be given to supplying the industrial population needed by Taipingwei, and then more settlements will be built on both sides of the Mei River, both sides of the North American rivers, both sides of the Qiaogong River, and in the Great Lakes region.

Connect the original settlement points into lines and build roads on land.

Zhu Jianxuan stayed in New York until October.

Cao Zhendong returned to New York with 10,000 main Ming troops to report to Zhu Jianxuan.

Report to Zhu Jianxuan the general process of the operation, specific casualties and gains, as well as additional discoveries.

Zhu Jianxuan was quite satisfied after listening to this, and ordered Zhang Xu to draft an order:
"The embargo on Haiti must continue, and no one will be allowed to send black slaves to Haiti in the future, and the existing black slaves in Haiti must be gradually purified.

"Order the Royal Army of North America and the Free State Army to rotate regularly with the Haitian garrison.

"By vigorously publicizing the evil deeds of the Haitian rebels through newspapers, everyone gradually realized the destructive power of black slaves when they got out of control.

“After the Free State Army that participated in suppressing the rebellion in Haiti returns, we will gradually limit the number of black slaves sent to the United States, and strive to completely ban their import within 20 years.

“American plantation owners were encouraged to replace black slaves with wage workers of European descent.

"It can be suggested that the Free States try to collect a slave security tax, that is, the cost of security preparations to prevent the slaves from getting out of control."

Zhang Xu and Cao Zhendong did not ask Zhu Jianxuan why he did this, but they both felt in their hearts that Zhu Jianxuan really did not like black slaves.

Not only did they dislike using black slaves, they even disliked seeing them.

The existing black slaves were the wealth of the local slave owners. Zhu Jianxuan had no way of clearing them out directly, so he patiently allowed them to remain as they were.

Through this war, we can see that the rebellious black slaves were just a mob and could be suppressed with just a few tens of thousands of regular troops.

The number of black slaves on the North American continent today is not much more than that on the island of Haiti, probably only about 600,000.

Even if all these black slaves rose up in rebellion, they would definitely be suppressed.

There is no need for such high-profile special warnings and measures.

In the history of the United States, there have indeed been more than 200 slave uprisings, the largest of which involved several thousand people.

But none of them triggered the chain reaction that Haiti did.

Because the United States was vast and sparsely populated at the time, the rebellious slaves had no way to quickly gather more companions.

At the same time, there were several times more white people than black people in the United States, and almost every American at that time carried a gun, and each state had a large number of militias that could be called up at any time.

Most of the small-scale slave uprisings initiated by dozens of people could be resolved by the slave owner's family, brothers and neighbors.

Even if it was a slightly larger uprising, the Americans in a town could handle it.

Indeed, slave revolts in the United States never gained momentum.

Haiti is only tens of thousands of square kilometers, but the number of slaves is not much different from that of the entire United States, and the plantations using slaves are very dense.

That is why it is easy to expand and scale.

After Zhu Jianxuan gave his orders, he once again summoned all the European nobles, that is, the top leaders of all the free states, before leaving.

Cao Zhendong was specifically asked to select eloquent junior officers from among the returning officers to introduce to them the process of the war in Haiti.

In particular, it focuses on the things done by the rioting black slaves.

When the officers had almost finished speaking, Zhu Jianxuan gave them a final reminder to take precautions when they returned.

At the same time, we should try to reduce the use of black slaves in the future to avoid tragedies similar to Haiti.

A group of nobles were horrified and doubtful after hearing this.

Many slave-owning nobles immediately expressed their gratitude for His Majesty’s reminder and said they would hire more security personnel as soon as they returned.

But John Adams, who was born in the North, turned his thoughts in another direction at this time:
"Your Majesty, I believe that the fundamental way to avoid a slave rebellion is to liberate the slaves directly.

"If all black slaves become free men, there will naturally be no black slaves rebelling."

The United States has had abolitionists since before its independence. Before the Civil War, many northern states had abolished slavery to varying degrees.

Starting from the New York axis, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, and Rhode Island have all made similar provisions:
All children born within the state were free, even if their mothers were slaves, or even escaped slaves from the South.

Pennsylvania even stipulated that slaves who lived in the state for more than six months would automatically become free persons.

This gradual abolition of slavery, even the abolition that directly threatened the interests of the South, was one of the many factors that led to the Civil War.

We wanted to capture the escaped slaves, but when we got to your place, not only did you not cooperate, but you said they were already free.

The historical slave states in the South would of course be very disgusted.

The northern states felt that the South's slave production method was too outdated and inferior.

Now some people in the northern states thought that Zhu Jianxuan had abolitionist tendencies, so they quickly came out to speak up.

However, what Zhu Jianxuan wanted to do was not to abolish slavery and release the slaves, but to get rid of the black slaves.

Zhu Jianxuan did not think that the southern states were willing to abolish slavery on their own initiative, but they could put some pressure on them and increase their cost of use.

Reduce the import and breeding of black slaves as much as possible.

When Zhu Jianxuan heard Adams' proposal, he immediately waved his hand and said directly:

"You are just wishful thinking. The reason why slaves rebel is not whether they are free, but more importantly whether they live comfortably.

“It’s obvious that life as a slave can’t be too comfortable, but life as a free man won’t necessarily be comfortable either.

“Whether slaves or freemen, workers or peasants, all are likely to rebel because of the pressures of life.

“However, the peasants and workers of Ming and European descent, who come from the civilized world, may know the purpose of their rebellion and they will fight for a purpose.

“Once their goal is achieved, they can stop the confrontation and there will be a chance for compromise. They will not just keep destroying and killing.

"However, the black slaves who came from the barbaric tribes in Africa would rebel in a more barbaric way, and would wreak destruction without any bottom line or purpose.

“This is the difference between humans in the civilized world and humans in the savage world.

"The soldiers who just returned from the frontline have been introduced here. More soldiers will be coming back after their shifts. You will be able to get more intelligence then.

“So I suggest that you use as few slaves as possible in the future and reduce or even stop importing black people from Africa.

“In fact, the cost of using slave labor is not low. The nobles who run plantations can do the math themselves and see whether it costs more to hire workers or use slaves.

"As a king, I don't want too many African savages in my kingdom, and the same goes for free blacks.

“They are all destabilizing factors.”

Zhu Jianxuan spoke more and more bluntly, and Adams fully understood that Zhu Jianxuan did support abolition, but not the abolition of "slavery", but the abolition of "slavery" itself.

The expressions and feelings of the slave owners in the South were a bit complicated. It turned out that His Majesty the King disliked black slaves so much.

But they can understand...

If black slaves were not more suitable as a labor force, no one would like black slaves as human beings.

(End of this chapter)