The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 309: The End of the War in Europe

After Zhu Jingjian finished giving instructions on the important matters, he began to chat with Joseph and the Charles brothers about other seemingly casual topics.

The two brothers didn't know what kind of personality Zhu Jingjian had, so they spoke very carefully, fearing that they would anger this Ming prince whose words revealed his ferocity.

Zhu Jingjian soon felt that there was no point in chatting with the two of them. He asked a question and they answered it one by one, just like machines.

So I chatted for a while, asked them a little about their knowledge of France, and then just waved my hand and left.

Joseph and Charles were both tense. They watched Zhu Jingjian's back go away and chat with other officials and nobles before they slowly relaxed.

Then Charles approached his brother and said carefully in French, in a voice that only the two of them could hear:
“Your Highness’s suggestion to kill half of the Europeans may be a threat, but it may not be true…

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has no intention of doing so now. What if the Sixteenth Prince succeeds to the throne in the future?"

Joseph also knew that the Ming Dynasty no longer had a crown prince, and the new emperor had to succeed to the throne according to the emperor's will, so Zhu Jingjian might not be without a chance to succeed to the throne.

So now, after hearing my brother's guesses and reminders, my spirit, which had been slightly relaxed, became tense again.

The prince who was originally sober had left, but now we have to start caring and paying attention to him, and try to observe and analyze his character.

Joseph was heavy-hearted throughout the rest of the journey and secretly observed Zhu Jingjian carefully.

Zhu Jingjian was very relaxed. He had finally managed to go on a long journey and had more free time. He didn't have to go through military training every day and was living a very comfortable life.

Apart from attending cultural classes on time every day, I spent the rest of my time running around on the ship and chatting with everyone I met.

Zhu Jingjian himself didn't think too much about it, but the people around him were very worried, fearing that they would get into trouble.

As time passed, this huge fleet sailed out of Malacca, crossed the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and entered the Mediterranean.

A large passenger ship docked at the port of Taranto at the southern tip of Italy, where the new vassal monarchs whose fiefs were in the Italian region disembarked.

After replenishing and resting, the fleet continued westward, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean, and then turned north.

On August 1807, the 9th year of Tiangong, September 25, in the Western calendar, the fleet arrived off the coast of the Netherlands and split into three parts.

The feudal monarchs whose fiefdoms were in the eastern inland region of Germany sailed into the port of Rotterdam with a fleet carrying 100,000 militiamen.

Then they transferred to inland boats and went upstream along the Rhine. The militia assisted the existing inland garrison and cooperated with the newly arrived vassal monarchs to strengthen control over the southern German region.

The new feudal monarchs whose fiefs were in northern Germany and the officials responsible for handling the enthronement procedures for Napoleon and others went to Hamburg with the relevant documents and items.

Let the local battlefield commander Yang Yuchun arrange personnel to escort them to their own fiefdoms according to local conditions to handle the procedures for Napoleon's enthronement.

Finally, the princes of the Ming Dynasty, the Joseph brothers of France, and the officials in charge of French affairs boarded a ship and disembarked in Antwerp.

The princes of the Ming Dynasty first adapted to the environment in Antwerp, and then went to learn about the local situation and the surrounding Europeans.

The Joseph brothers had more trouble as they had to readjust to French life.

It is of course objectively and physically true that Brother Joseph is the son of Louis XVI, the former legitimate King of France.

But after all, he has been away from Europe for more than ten years, and now he has to make others believe that they are real again.

Let the original French nobles and court officials match the two little princes who were less than ten years old in their memories with the two adults in front of them.

Let them claim and prove to others that the two Joseph brothers are real.

Zhu Jianxuan and the officials of the Ming Dynasty knew this, so they did not simply take the Joseph brothers away.

Initially, it was arranged directly by Louis XVI and his wife themselves to supervise and serve their son, and to have a team of maids to take care of their daily life.

At that time, they were all packed up and taken away by the Ming Dynasty, and now these people are being packed up and taken back together again.

The Joseph brothers, accompanied by these former servants and officials, and under the accompaniment and arrangement of Shen Fu, the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty, first summoned the exiled French nobles in Antwerp.

Let them both confirm each other's identity with the help of servants and officials who are always present and then confide in each other.

Talk about the things that everyone knew back then, the things that they participated in together, to strengthen mutual trust and further confirm each other's identities.

Talk about the pain of these years, bring them closer together, and establish basic identification.

Finally, Joseph followed the reminder of the Ming officials and made a promise to the exiled nobles who had lived in Ming City for more than ten years.

When I return to Paris and become the King of France, I will grant them official positions.

Then, with the support and protection of the Ming Dynasty, restore the social order in France, and learn from the Ming Dynasty's system and culture to build a more civilized new France.

Not to mention that there was no problem with Joseph's identity, these exiled nobles were all sure that Joseph was the crown prince.

Even if Joseph, the crown prince, is fake, as long as he can get the support of the Ming Dynasty and promise benefits, these exiled nobles who have almost nothing will support him.

Even if Joseph was indeed an imposter, they could get better promises and share more benefits in the future.

Now that Crown Prince Joseph is real, they can only get relatively conventional benefits.

Next, Joseph held a banquet with the impoverished nobles of France and invited exiled nobles from other countries to attend.

Let's share painful and repressed emotions, reaffirm each other's identities, and imagine the future.

The French Legion specially prepared by the Ming Dynasty, which was also the force to escort Joseph back to France and restore order in France, also regrouped and trained in the camp in Antwerp.

They began to wait for the official order to march into France.

By this time, large-scale wars on the European continent had basically ended, with only sporadic confrontations and rebellions in a few inland or marginal areas.

While the Ming Dynasty's delegation was being prepared, Zhu Jianxuan's response to Napoleon's arrangements had already been sent to Europe via telegram.

Napoleon would certainly not be very satisfied. After all, he was about to become the commander-in-chief of the whole of Europe, but now he was forcibly suppressed by the Ming Dynasty and became the King of Poland.

But Napoleon could only accept this arrangement with great gratitude. After all, it was already very good compared to the conditions initially offered by the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the Ming Emperor conferred titles on all of Napoleon's brothers, which made Napoleon even more grateful.

Moreover, the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the Ming Army has now surrounded Berlin.

The legendary super-raptor, armored vehicle, flying machine, and super-bomb have all come into play.

It is impossible for him to defeat the Ming Dynasty on the front battlefield.

So after receiving the response, Napoleon only considered it for less than two hours before formally responding to Yang Yuchun and saying that he could accept the conditions.

Then Napoleon began to cooperate with the Ming army's actions.

He ordered the French occupation forces in Italy and Germany to evacuate one after another when the Ming army arrived, and go to Poland to join his large army.

The Ming army also slightly relaxed the siege on the east side of the Berlin area, allowing Napoleon to lead his troops to retreat to Poland on their own.

After Napoleon arrived in Warsaw, he confirmed that the Ming army had not crossed the border and had not entered Poland.

He immediately sent people to convey the message to the troops remaining in mainland France, asking them to obey the orders of the Ming army and the Bourbon royal family in the future.

Another original copy of the relevant information and orders was also delivered directly to Yang Yuchun, who passed it to Wang Tingzhen.

The actions of both parties can almost be regarded as a "handover of occupied territory", but it was not all smooth sailing.

Napoleon became consul and even the president by gaining the support of middle and lower-level civil and military officials and the people through the great prestige he gained from continuous victories in foreign wars.

The order he issued now was to retreat upon seeing the Ming army. Although he did not say it directly, it was no different from surrender.

Some officers were unwilling to retreat, and some even refused to follow orders and engaged in secret fire with the Ming army.

Therefore, the Ming army responsible for taking over the French-occupied areas will still have to continue to participate in some battles, although the scale will of course be much smaller than a full-scale forced occupation.

Napoleon's main force could not withstand the attack of the Ming Dynasty, let alone these sporadic disobedient troops. At the same time, after the Ming Dynasty announced its official participation in the European war, European countries led by Britain also joined the war one after another.

Most of the exiled monarchs and nobles in the United States, as well as the remnants of the royalists hiding in the French-occupied areas, also revolted with joy.

Their natural plan was to follow the powerful Ming army to fight and take back the land that once belonged to them.

At first, the plan seemed to be going smoothly.

After the main force of the Ming Dynasty joined the war, it quickly defeated the main forces of the French occupation forces in various places.

The Ming militia followed the main force of the Ming Dynasty and quickly expanded the results of the battle, seizing and controlling the land occupied by France.

But soon someone discovered that there was something slightly wrong with the situation on the battlefield.

The Ming army was extremely tough, even completely unreasonable, and directly ignored the rights of the original owners of these lands.

Although they did not explicitly express their intention to occupy these lands, they only claimed that as soldiers they were only responsible for carrying out orders.

As to who would eventually govern these lands and cities they took over, they had to wait for the orders of the Ming Emperor.

However, they also stated firmly that before the order of the Ming Emperor was issued, any foreign army that entered the area controlled by the Ming army without permission would be regarded as an enemy and would be attacked and eliminated by any means.

Based on the previous style of the Ming Emperor, most of the exiled monarchs, nobles and royalists of various countries believed that the Ming would not directly annex these areas.

But since the Ming army had already occupied it by force and deliberately refused to hand it over to them directly, it was most likely preparing to demand a certain price from them after the war.

So these people began to speculate anxiously about what price the Ming Emperor would eventually demand in order for them to return their territory.

However, no matter what the specific price is, the more land the Ming Dynasty helps him take back, the higher the price he will have to pay.

If we can take as much land as possible now and rely on the power of the Ming army as little as possible, we should be able to pay less price in the future.

Of course, they did not dare to go to war with the Ming Dynasty directly, nor did they dare to forcibly seize the occupied areas already controlled by the Ming Dynasty. They could only concentrate their forces on the French occupation forces.

They once again organized more traditional troops and tried to attack the French garrisons in various places before the Ming army.

As a result, they suffered another heavy loss and realized a problem.

It seemed easy for the Ming people to beat the French, but that had nothing to do with me, because I was no match for the French.

The war in Europe was still completely dominated by the Ming Dynasty, and they had no say in it.

They could only follow behind the Ming army and pretend to do so.

With the end of the secret negotiations between the Ming Dynasty and Napoleon, the French occupation forces began to withdraw on their own initiative and in fact handed over the occupied areas to the Ming Dynasty.

The area Napoleon needed to control also decreased rapidly, so he was naturally able to concentrate more forces to continue fighting against the armies of other traditional monarchs in Europe.

During the wars of the past few years, Napoleon's generals had occupied a large amount of land that originally belonged to Poland.

Napoleon now set out to retake all of Poland's pre-1772 territory.

According to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the land originally belonged to Poland and was occupied by Napoleon, it could be given to Napoleon.

At the same time, after discussing with Berthier, Napoleon arranged for Davout to attack East Prussia in the north, try to capture Königsberg, and completely destroy Prussia.

Because Prussia was once a vassal of the Polish king, the East Prussia region where Königsberg is located can barely be considered as Polish territory.

Napoleon's advisers even proposed trying to restore Poland's territory before 1667 or even 1629.

Only by getting the land first will we have a chance to fight for it from the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, most of the main forces of European countries were no match for Napoleon on the front battlefield.

In history, it was Napoleon who advanced deep into the Russian interior in 1812 with the aim of forcing Russia to surrender. Napoleon won victory after victory during his advance.

However, Russia was always unwilling to surrender, and eventually used its vast depth to build a strong defense and clear the countryside, and with the help of the cold winter, it exhausted Napoleon's army.

Napoleon's goal now was to seize the surrounding territories rather than force Russia to surrender, so he would not go deep into the Russian interior at all.

Although Napoleon's army had been cut off from mainland France, he was now fighting in the name of the King of Poland.

He led French officers and veterans, together with new local Polish soldiers, to recover Poland's former lands on the battlefield, and the army's morale was still quite high.

Napoleon had not personally fought on the front lines for a long time. Now that he was in direct command of the war again, he immediately demonstrated his tremendous destructive power.

Russia, Austria and Prussia were all shocked and angry at this time, but the key was that they were powerless.

The army could not stop Napoleon head-on and was defeated on the battlefield. It was forced to give up piece of land after piece. It was useless to be shocked and angry.

However, the Ming Dynasty's envoys who happened to arrive gave Russia and Austria some relief.

At this time, Davout had already captured Königsberg, and the Prussian King William Frederick III did not have time to escape and was captured directly by Davout.

After the Ming Dynasty delegation arrived in Hamburg, Yang Yuchun asked Napoleon's envoy left in Hamburg to go back and report.

Napoleon returned to Warsaw immediately after receiving the notice.

Filled with emotion and regret, Napoleon first signed a series of documents, announcing that he would give up titles such as Grand Commander of France, King of Italy, and King of Germany.

Then a ceremony was held to accept the Ming Emperor's enthronement, and the crown, edict, seal and golden book of the Ming Polish King were accepted.

Finally, he signed the vassal treaty between Ming and Poland on behalf of Poland.

The Ming envoy returned to Hamburg to report to Yang Yuchun, carrying the documents and treaties signed by Napoleon, and then took a boat to Antwerp.

At this time in Antwerp, the Ming Dynasty French King Louis Joseph and the French exiled nobles living in Antwerp had quickly established basic recognition and trust.

The order Napoleon sent to the French mainland garrison, requiring them to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty and the Bourbon royal family, had already been delivered here.

Now the document signed by Napoleon giving up his leadership was also delivered.

Now the time was ripe for France to act, so on October 1807, the fourteenth year of Tiangong, or November 11, 1 in the Western calendar.

King Louis Joseph of France, accompanied by the old French nobles who had lived in Antwerp for more than ten years, set out from Antwerp to France under the escort of the Ming army.

The French army had a total of 120,000 people, but only 30,000 of the Ming main force divisions.

Among the other 90,000 were 30,000 Korean servant divisions, 30,000 Japanese servant divisions, and 30,000 American mixed-race and European legions.

The vanguard army that directly escorted Joseph and others was led by Tian Yiming, consisting of 10,000 Ming main forces and 30,000 Japanese servants.

The troops simultaneously flew the flags of the Ming Dynasty and the Bourbon royal family.

There were planes in the sky conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, and machine gun and armored vehicles on the ground clearing the way. Joseph and other senior officials rode in Ming Dynasty's mobile buses and walked in the middle of the large army.

Four princes of the Ming Dynasty, including the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun and the sixteenth prince Zhu Jingjian, also went there in a special bus accompanied by a doctor.

The princes' mission was to visit the largest city on the European continent and learn about the actual situation of the city during and after the turmoil.

Due to concerns about the health conditions in Paris, the princes were not only assigned a personal physician, but were also divided into four groups to take turns visiting the city.

Before Tian Yiming led the vanguard corps to the border, he sent people across the border to meet Soult, commander of the French Northern Corps.

The envoy brought copies of orders and documents signed by Napoleon, as well as a copy of the imperial edict from the Ming Emperor conferring Napoleon as the King of Poland of the Ming Dynasty.

Soult was asked to cooperate in conveying these documents to all officers and soldiers of the French Northern Army.

The officers and soldiers who were willing to follow Napoleon went to Poland, those who were willing to accept the Bourbon leadership waited for the reorganization of the Ming Dynasty, and those who were unwilling to continue serving in the army were disbanded and returned home.

If none of these demands are accepted, then prepare to fight the Ming army.

(End of this chapter)