The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 293 Brazil and La Plata

Prince Jose, Crown Prince and Regent of Portugal, received responses from his younger brother and Prime Minister, and carefully inquired and analyzed the conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

Jose discussed with the main nobles and officials of Portugal for a whole day, and in the end they basically agreed that becoming a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty would have more advantages than disadvantages.

Under the current circumstances, even if Portugal continues to maintain its alliance with Britain, it will no longer be enough to protect Portugal's security.

The power of the Ming Dynasty was enough to protect the security of Portugal. The Netherlands and Belgium were adjacent to France but remained neutral, which directly demonstrated the power and credibility of the Ming Emperor.

In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has begun to rebuild the tribute trade circle of the Celestial Empire and gradually tightened its import and export trade with other unrelated countries.

In the future, Ming vassal states will only be allowed to trade in the form of tribute.

The potential benefits of being able to trade directly with the Ming Dynasty, both now and in the future, are enormous.

If it becomes a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, it can continue to retain and manage Brazil's assets and immigrants. If it refuses, it may completely lose Brazil and the country will lose half of its population.

Portugal could never be a match for the Ming Dynasty. Even with the same technical level, the Ming Dynasty could easily defeat all the Portuguese with its line infantry.

Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty also had huge technological advantages.

The chaos in Europe has long been tiring, and joining the Ming Dynasty system can be regarded as another beginning.

Portugal has had dealings with the Ming Dynasty for at least three hundred years. In fact, the governors in the East had already paid tribute to the Ming Emperor in the name of Portugal in order to obtain trade qualifications.

The Portuguese were also familiar with the Ming Dynasty's religious management methods, and everything would be fine as long as they didn't speak ill of the emperor in public.

After making up his mind, Jose made some preparations and on the morning of the third day, he personally took several ministers out of the city to meet Zheng Ruian.

In the name of the Crown Prince and Regent of Portugal, Jose expressed his acceptance of the Ming Dynasty's conditions.

Zheng Ruian was also very happy. He immediately arranged for the fleet's staff and clerks to come out and draft a temporary peace treaty with the Portuguese officials.

At the same time, he arranged for people to return to Morocco and report to Shuntian Prefecture by telegram.

When Zhu Jianxuan received the news, he was a little surprised, but not too shocked.

At this time, Portugal was just an empty shell and would fall down with just a kick.

Portugal was originally a relatively marginal and weak country on the European continent, and had little resistance to the Ming system.

Zhu Jianxuan immediately called the Cabinet, the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple to prepare a set of procedures for conferring the title of Prince.

Including the imperial edict of enthronement, crown, robes, seals and scrolls, etc., someone was arranged to send them to Portugal for formalities.

And the troops preparing to attack Brazil were changed to landing and taking over.

Immigration from Africa will be suspended first, and in the next few years, we will focus on sending immigrants to Brazil, with at least three million people being sent within three years.

In the future, Brazil will be used as a base to seize the Spanish colonies in South America.

Finally, Zheng Ruian was arranged to immediately send someone with Portuguese representatives to inform European countries of the news that Portugal had joined the Ming Dynasty.

Especially Spain, France and the United Kingdom.

Portugal withdrew from its alliance with Britain and the anti-French alliance, and warned France and Spain that declaring war on Portugal meant declaring war on the Ming Dynasty.

After Portugal accepted the reality, it naturally cooperated with all its strength.

The British were somewhat overwhelmed. First, because Britain and Portugal were traditional allies, they were shocked when the Ming Dynasty attacked Portugal and had no idea how to respond.

The key thing is that the British were worried that the Ming Dynasty would join the alliance with France, and then Britain would be isolated from the whole world again.

Before the British came up with a solution, Portugal once again became a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty in turn protected Portugal.

But for the UK, this outcome is not a bad thing.

At the very least, the Ming Dynasty did not really form an alliance with France and then join France to deal with itself. This was not the worst outcome.

When the Spaniards and French received the news, they were so shocked that they were speechless for a long time.

It has only been a few months, and the Ming Dynasty has just been on his side, and now they are going to fight against Portugal together.

Now she is supporting Portugal and warning herself not to touch her.

After the Ming Dynasty made such remarks, Spain really did not dare to move. Spain understood the combat effectiveness of the Ming army better than Portugal, and declaring war on the Ming Dynasty was tantamount to seeking death.

The King, Queen and Prime Minister of Spain could only finally say that they understood and would not have any more disputes with Portugal in the future.

Napoleon of France hesitated for a long time, but finally accepted this strange reality.

France's main goal was to dissolve the anti-French alliance. Portugal not only withdrew from the anti-French alliance, but also dissolve its alliance with Britain. France's goal was actually achieved.

Naturally, there is no need to continue fighting.

Napoleon also responded positively to the Ming Dynasty, saying that he would continue to abide by the armistice agreement with the Ming Dynasty. Since Portugal was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, France would naturally not be its enemy.

After solving the Portuguese problem, Napoleon arranged a force to cooperate with Spain to try to capture British Gibraltar.

British Gibraltar is a narrow point where large-scale troops cannot be deployed, and there is no point in deploying more manpower.

Napoleon himself led the main force of the army northward into the area east of the Rhine, and cooperated with Jourdan's Northern Corps to defeat the main force of the German Alliance headed by Prussia.

Continue to occupy more German states, abolish the original state monarchs including bishops, integrate territories that are too small, and establish more than a dozen new republics.

Seeing that the anti-French alliance was about to fall apart and that it could not stop the French attack, Prussia signed an armistice agreement with France and withdrew from the anti-French alliance again.

The Habsburg monarch, who held the title of Holy Roman Emperor, signed an armistice agreement with France, and Prussia, as the leader of the Alliance of German Princes, also withdrew from the war with France.

After the formation of these two treaties, the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation system basically tended to disintegrate.

In the last year of the eighteenth century, the only major European country still at war with France was Britain.

However, Napoleon's actions did not stop. He continued to lead his troops to attack the northeast and even invaded the territory of the Elector of Hanover of the British royal family.

The Hanoverian and British armies were unable to withstand the French offensive, and each encounter with the French ended in defeat.

It was only a matter of time before France occupied all of Hanover.

The British royal family was of course angry about the occupation of their ancestral land, and senior British aristocrats and businessmen were also very angry.

Because Hanover was an important channel for British goods to be imported into Germany, losing Hanover meant losing most of the German market.

After France occupied both sides of the Rhine, Britain could no longer export goods to Germany through the Netherlands of Ming Dynasty and the Rhine waterway.

If we lose Hanover now, we will almost completely lose the German market.

The king and politicians were helpless at this time. Austria, Prussia and Spain had all withdrawn, and the British Army was no match for the French.

Although the British Navy had a huge advantage, it could assist the British army in expeditions to America and seize colonies from Spain and France.

Although it is difficult to directly seize land on the American continent, there are opportunities for isolated islands such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

However, the colonial wars in America had almost no direct impact on the situation on the European continent.

So soon people began to call for peace with France.

The British king and prime minister did not think long before deciding to send representatives to negotiate with the French. The two sides eventually signed a contract that neither side was satisfied with.

France withdrew from Hanover, Britain gave up Gibraltar and Malta, stopped harassing French and Spanish colonies, and stopped attacking ships from both countries.

In the first year of the nineteenth century, war on the European continent came to a temporary end.

After Napoleon's successful operation, he directly occupied and indirectly controlled most of Germany.

When Napoleon returned to Paris, he was once again given an exceptionally warm welcome.

Napoleon used his further rising prestige to continue to push for further political reforms in France and personally participated in the compilation of the formal French Civil Code.

Continue to pay attention to and urge the research of the Academy of Sciences, and strive to master the steam engine technology and the corresponding technology of the Australian repeating rifle as soon as possible.

And let French scholars discuss and prepare for the implementation of a Ming-style imperial examination system.

Many people thought that the French Republic had reached its peak, had achieved unprecedented victories, and had basically restored the territory of the Frankish Kingdom.

The future task is continuous development and construction.

But Napoleon was not satisfied with this, he had more ideas in his mind.

The key point is that the British on the island will not be convinced unless they are directly conquered by their own army.

The British made many prevarications about the implementation of the treaty, mainly the demands to withdraw from Gibraltar and Malta, and never really cared about implementing it.

The British have been delaying, and there will definitely be war in the future.

So if Napoleon wanted to land in Britain, he could only completely conquer the British by landing on British soil.

To achieve this goal, France must build a strong navy.

The French navy was once powerful. Although weaker than the British navy, it was at least in the second tier.

But during the Revolution, a large number of naval commanders were executed, the naval system suffered great losses, and now needed to be rebuilt.

The Ming Dynasty is also building a new generation of warships.

In the autumn of the seventh year of Tiangong, the two sister ships of the Ming Dynasty's first aircraft carrier were put into service one after another and began to cooperate with aircraft in reconnaissance exercises.

Equipped with four triple-mounted 160mm guns, the new generation of artillery battleship Kaifengfu type also entered service at about the same time and officially entered the navy sequence.

More warships of the same specifications were also started to be built in various shipyards in the Ming Dynasty, gradually replacing the original old warships.

Although they are called old warships, in fact most of them are only a dozen years old and are far from being directly eliminated. It’s just that the Ming Dynasty’s new warships continue to be replaced too quickly.

Therefore, these old warships will not be dismantled, but will be distributed to vassal states or directly transferred to civilian use.

The development of America and Africa requires a large number of ships. The current annual transportation volume of about one million people is still too small compared to the population of the Ming Dynasty.

It takes a hundred years to export 100 million people. This speed is really too slow.

Therefore, both official and private shipyards in the Ming Dynasty have been working hard on shipbuilding in recent years, and supporting industries have also been expanding continuously.

Four shipbuilding bases were formed in Liaodong around Lushunkou, in northern Zhili around Yongping Prefecture, in Jiangnan around Zhoushan County, and in Guangdong around Xin'an County at the mouth of the Pearl River.

A large fuel-powered transport ship with a displacement of 20,000 tons has now begun construction.

However, the speed of Ming Dynasty’s immigration output has already frightened all other countries. Ming Dynasty is no longer on the same level as other countries.

On the fifth day of the eighth month of the seventh year of Tiangong, 100,000 Ming immigrants arrived in Brazil.

However, instead of going to Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, the immigrants came to the southernmost coastline of the Brazilian region and landed in small estuaries along the local coast.

The terrain in Brazil is quite special. The highest part of the Brazilian Plateau is very close to the coastline, while the terrain becomes lower as you go inland.

The area where São Paulo is located is only fifty or sixty kilometers away from the coastline, but its altitude is over eight hundred meters.

Moreover, the increase in altitude is mainly concentrated over a distance of several kilometers. In the most extreme place, the altitude rises by 600 meters within a distance of less than one kilometer.

The plateau edge with such a huge drop and steepness looks like a huge wall blocking the inner side of the Brazilian coastline, making transportation between the inland and the coast very difficult.

(3D satellite map of Sao Paulo area.)
This peculiar terrain is called the Brazilian Shield, and transportation problems on both sides of the shield are a big problem in the 21st century.

You can only climb up the slope horizontally on the side of the cliff.

With the current level of technology, there is no way to quickly transport people to the plateau.

In the northeast and southeast corners of Brazil, the shield drop is significantly smaller and the slope is gentler.

In addition, Zhu Jianxuan’s next target was the Spanish Viceroyalty of La Plata in the south, which was the core area of ​​Argentina in later generations.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's early immigrants in South America were first sent to the southernmost tip.

After gaining a foothold in the local area, they would continue to move south to the Viceroyalty of La Plata to establish more military farms and development areas.

(Divisions of the Viceroyalty of La Plata.)
At this time, the eastern part of the Viceroyalty of La Plata was basically developed around Buenos Aires.

The area more than 100 kilometers south of Buenos Aires already belongs to the local indigenous people (Mapuche people).

Spain and Portugal were not very strong in Europe, and the Mapuche were particularly good at fighting among the indigenous people, so the Spanish had no way to conquer the Mapuche by force.

Finally, in 1641, the Treaty of Quillín was signed with the Mapuche, recognizing that the land south of Buenos Aires belonged to the Mapuche.

In the original history, it was not until after the Latin American independence movement that Argentina and Chile began the "Southward Movement" and completely conquered the Mapuche people in this area.

At the southernmost tip of South America, the legendary Patagonia Plateau has a climate so harsh that it is not suitable for human survival.

But the area north of the Patagonia Plateau and south of Buenos Aires is still more than 300,000 square kilometers and belongs to the Pampas.

The local climate is similar to the Great Plains of North America south of the Great Lakes.

The annual precipitation is between 500 and 1,000 millimeters, which is similar to the area between the Huaihe River Basin and the North China Plain in the Ming Dynasty.

This area is currently owned by local indigenous people.

The Spanish did not have the ability more than a hundred years ago, and now have no motivation to conquer these indigenous peoples.

But the current Ming Dynasty has the ability and motivation.

The Pampas is also a grassland with long grass, which is the most suitable and fertile land for cultivation.

The Ming Dynasty sent hundreds of thousands of immigrants here, and then conquered and absorbed the local natives, and should have quickly accumulated a population of millions here.

Find a suitable opportunity in the future to directly capture Buenos Aires and control the entire Viceroyalty of La Plata.

The total population of the entire Spanish Viceroyalty of La Plata at that time was only over 500,000, which was considered a lamb to be slaughtered in the eyes of the Ming people.

With Brazil and the Viceroyalty of La Plata, and by conquering and controlling the surrounding areas where indigenous peoples live, we can basically control the entire La Plata River basin.

This is the most suitable place for farming in South America and even in the world. It is equivalent to turning the Pearl River and Yangtze River basins into plains.

Then use the Yangtze River to connect with the Huai River and the North China Plain from south to north.

(End of this chapter)