The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 318: Cities and Lords of Shinra
On May 15, the 15th year of Tiangong, Habsburg's crown prince Franz and Foreign Minister Metternich once again went to the European Governor's Office to meet with Wang Tingzhen.

Franz and the other man explained with sorrow the conditions that Habsburg Austria wanted.

The Habsburgs could accept the original conditions of the Ming Dynasty and were willing to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty as a whole and become an external vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

However, they hoped to obtain the Papal States, including the city of Rome, plus the promise demanded by Joseph II to ensure the integrity and inheritance of the Habsburg territory.

Wang Tingzhen was a little surprised to hear that the other party was willing to surrender as a whole, and his attitude changed slightly:

"The territory of the Papal States cannot be given to you. His Majesty has already granted it to the nobles of the Ming Dynasty.

“However, from now on, the Pope of Rome and all the bishops in Europe must give up all their territories and all their secular power and become subjects of the Ming Emperor.

"After you pledge allegiance to the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty will grant you a mandate to take over all bishoprics within your own territory.

"I can also apply to His Majesty on your behalf to give you the bishopric south of the Danube in southwestern Bavaria.

"As for those promises, I can also ask the Honglu Temple and ask His Majesty whether they can be given to you."

Wang Tingzhen acted quite generous and seemed very easy to talk to, but Franz and Metternich were not very surprised. Instead, they felt more depressed.

Wang Tingzhen's gentle yet radical attitude further proves that the Ming Dynasty really needs to reorganize and rest.

Franz hesitated for a few seconds and then expressed the idea he had considered before:

"Your Excellency the Governor, the Russians have contacted us and invited us to attack the Ottoman Empire together with the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty is willing to accept this invitation. Now that the Habsburgs are about to become subjects of the Ming Dynasty, can the Ming Dynasty support the Habsburgs in participating in the war?"

Wang Tingzhen frowned when he heard this question:
“According to the requirements of His Majesty, any country that wishes to become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty must withdraw from all existing alliances and pay tribute independently under a peaceful state.

"If you have already formed an alliance with Russia or declared war on the Ottoman Empire, there is no need to continue our negotiations.

"We can maintain the status quo in the occupied areas and talk again after you end this war.

"But the current conditions will not always be preserved for you."

Franz knew that this argument was useless. After confirming Daming's attitude, he immediately bowed and said:

"Your Excellency, please forgive me. Our Majesty is not sure about the attitude of the Ming Dynasty, so he has not yet accepted Russia's invitation.

"If the Ming will not intervene and will not allow the Habsburgs to intervene, then the Habsburgs will not participate."

Wang Tingzhen seemed quite satisfied and said:
“The Emperor has asked us to end all wars as soon as possible, stabilize the situation in Europe and America, and not interfere in the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

"I will ask His Majesty for instructions on how to deal with the guarantee you want. If you have nothing else to do, you can go back and wait for news."

Franz did not dare to stay long, so he could only quickly stand up, bow and say goodbye.

Wang Tingzhen wrote the Habsburg's request into a report and sent it back to Shuntian Prefecture via the telegraph system, which was then delivered to Zhu Jianxuan by the Tongzhengsi.

After reading it, Zhu Jianxuan casually wrote a reply and asked the Ministry of Public Security to send it back:

“The vassal agreement can be accompanied by corresponding commitments, but Tuscany must establish a separate country and sign a separate agreement, and the royal family and the Habsburg branch will inherit independently.

"Franz must transfer the Dukedom of Tuscany to his brother."

The land of the Duchy of Tuscany faces the Mediterranean Sea directly, and the coastlines of other territories of the Habsburg family are all in the Adriatic Sea. Placing a fleet between the Italian peninsula and Greece can directly block them.

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was originally semi-independent, and neither the Habsburg or Austrian emperors could hold the position concurrently. In history, it was Franz's younger brother who inherited Tuscany.

So after this response was sent back to Europe, Franz and Metternich did not say anything and formally signed a vassal agreement with Wang Tingzhen.

The total war in western Europe is over, and a new situation under the control of the Ming Dynasty is being established.

The main officials of the Ming Dynasty in Europe, as well as the monarchs and officials of European countries, began to turn more of their attention to politics and, more importantly, economic recovery.

One of the most important effects of the Napoleonic Wars was the destruction of church influence in Europe.

Including the Papal States, the lands that were originally directly ruled by the church are now directly taken over by the nearest monarch in accordance with the orders of the Ming Emperor.

Without direct control over the land wealth and coupled with the Ming Dynasty's control over religion, the influence of the European Church plummeted.

In the foreseeable long-term future, church organizations will no longer be able to directly interfere in secular affairs.

When it comes to the power of the church, the Ming Dynasty and the European monarchs have the same stance.

Therefore, except for those countries that were completely destroyed, most of the monarchs who are still alive can be said to be happy.

Another important role of the Napoleonic Wars was that they swept away the traditional feudal forces in Europe and shattered the feudal system that had lasted for thousands of years.

Now the monarchs of European countries are busy rebuilding their countries and establishing new systems that can adapt to the times.

Zhu Jingjian, who has already reserved the position of King of Hanover, held an engagement ceremony with Charlotte, the only granddaughter of the King of England, in London.

The two then went to Hanover accompanied by British and Ming diplomats.

More than a dozen of Zhu Jianxuan's sons also went to the Hanover area at the same time and began their visit and tour of the German region.

At the northernmost tip of the Hanover region, in the Daming City of Hadlen, which originally belonged to the Ming European Provincial Administration Office, Zhu Jingjian was officially conferred the title of King of Han of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the King of Hanover.

In addition to the Ming-style enthronement edict, prince-level seals, crowns and robes, and golden books, there were also vassal agreements and kingdom maps prepared for Europe.

After all, Zhu Jingjian is Zhu Jianxuan's biological son. Although asking him to marry out and become king means eliminating him, he is still closer to him than the royal family and meritorious families of previous generations.

Therefore, the territory of the newly established Han Kingdom was certainly not just the territory of the original Elector of Hanover.

Zhu Jianxuan first ceded the two cities of the Holy Roman Empire sandwiched on both sides of Hanover, namely Bremen and Hamburg, to Zhu Jingjian.

Then he thought that the two larger cities were located in the border areas of the kingdom and were obviously difficult to manage.

So Zhu Jianxuan continued to add more land to his fiefdom outside the two cities.

In the west it extended directly to the border of the Netherlands, and in the east the regions of Holstein and Lübeck were also given to him.

Plus Brunswick and other small states among these lands.

The scope of the fiefdom that was finally formed was basically based on the Lower Saxony of Germany in later generations, plus the three regions of Hanover, Bremen, and Holstein.

The total area is almost double that of the original Hanover.

(Approximate range)
After the enthronement ceremony, Zhu Jingjian showed the map to his fiancée Charlotte, his future father-in-law, the British Crown Prince of Wales, and British Foreign Secretary Grenville.

Twelve-year-old Charlotte felt that her husband's territory was much larger than the original Hanover, so she was very happy.

The Prince of Wales and Grenville were stunned.

Bremen and Hamburg are both famous cities in Germany and are among the wealthiest places in the region.

Grenville first said somewhat uncertainly:
"The three free cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck are not circled in different colors. Does that mean they will also be given to His Royal Highness the King of Han?"

Shen Fu, the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty, gave a direct affirmative answer:
"Yes, according to the Ming Dynasty's map-drawing rules, all the lands within this borderline belong to His Royal Highness the King of Han.

"The Ming Dynasty generally does not allow administrative regions to nest within each other to form enclaves.

"Bremen and Hamburg, together with inland Hanover, form a triangle in the center of the fiefdom.

"They can serve as the three state capitals that are responsible for other surrounding areas."

The Prince of Wales was stunned for a few seconds, but now he had recovered:
"His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is really generous to His Royal Highness the King of Han. As Charlotte's father, I am very happy..."

The Prince of Wales subconsciously wanted to say that he was worried that such an arrangement might cause problems in the future.

These former free cities of Shinra were originally highly autonomous and were independent political entities.

It can be considered an independent state within the Holy Roman Empire.

The local administrative system in modern Europe is very different from that in the Shenzhou Dynasty.

The free cities of the Holy Rai are the most intuitive manifestation of this difference.

The cities and villages of the Ming Dynasty belonged to the same management system. The city was usually the core of the entire area and was the political, economic and cultural center.

The suburbs provide the city with basic living materials.

Farmers in the suburbs would also come to the city to buy and sell things, and the affairs of the suburbs were also governed by the state and county officials living in the city. Merchants and craftsmen in the city would also buy land outside the city. The suburbs and the city were not two completely opposite worlds.

Suburbs and urban areas also belong to the same manager, and all managers belong to the same ruler.

The Emperor was the final and undisputed arbiter of all persons and things.

For the people of the Ming Dynasty, this was a reality that was taken for granted and it was all nonsense to talk about it, but this was not the case in most parts of Europe.

Cities and villages in Europe, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, usually belong to two completely different management systems.

The city is the city, and the countryside is the countryside.

Various forms of free people, such as merchants, craftsmen, and adventurers, live in the cities, while feudal lords and their serfs live in the countryside.

The city and the countryside are two completely different worlds.

A city is not the center of an entire area, but an isolated organization independent of all surrounding areas.

The rural areas surrounding cities are not “suburbs” of the city waiting to be developed.

The real center of the countryside was the castle of the lords.

Typically, the area directly ruled by a feudal lord was limited to the estate around his castle.

Cities are usually autonomous, and the larger the city, the higher the degree of autonomy.

The serfs who escaped from rural areas in the Middle Ages, or adventurers in the original sense, usually aimed to escape to autonomous cities.

Seek protection from the autonomous city guild and town hall, become a free citizen of the city, and avoid being captured by the lord.

So much so that lords would sometimes lead their armies to rob cities that nominally belonged to them.

The power of a lord is usually limited in a large city, even if the ownership of the city clearly belongs to the corresponding lord.

City administrators are usually not officials appointed by the lord, but a town hall composed of various guilds and citizen representatives, and the organizational form usually has a certain democratic nature.

It’s not that the feudal lords didn’t want to directly manage the cities within their jurisdiction, but they had to make concessions due to various social reasons.

In Europe, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, there are actually three rulers for one person or one place.

The lords of local lands, monarchs of entire nations, churches throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

When a place gradually forms an industrial and commercial cluster of a certain scale due to convenient transportation, various forms of industry associations will also be formed.

Local lords would directly govern and collect taxes, but merchants naturally tended to evade jurisdiction.

It just so happened that Shinra's three-headed rule gave businessmen opportunities.

The city merchant association could contact the church or the king and offer to pay taxes directly to the king or the church in exchange for autonomy for the entire city area.

It was also difficult for the king and the church to directly rule a distant city, but that did not prevent them from trying every means to obtain taxes from this distant city.

The obvious option was to exchange fiefs for local lords and make the city land their own.

If the king and the church's plans succeed, the corresponding cities will naturally become kingdom or church free cities.

If the local lord is unwilling, he can take the initiative to negotiate with the city merchant association, give the merchants autonomy and avoid interference from the king and the church.

Over time, many cities in the Holy Rai became various forms of free cities.

Although the form of free cities began to decline after entering modern times, a large number of free cities were annexed after the Napoleonic Wars.

But such annexation usually only changes ownership and does not completely change the autonomous status of the free city.

It’s just that because the Holy Roman Empire is gone and the power of the Church has been destroyed, most of the free cities belonging to the Church and the Empire have become free cities belonging to local monarchs.

It is no longer possible to jump back and forth under the three heads, and the degree of autonomy will naturally be slightly reduced, but autonomy has become a tradition.

The monarchs also didn't know how to change the way the city was governed.

In this environment, Hamburg and Bremen have persisted into the modern era and have become first-level administrative regions in Germany as individual cities, which are municipalities in the Western sense.

This type of autonomous city was also seen in other parts of western Europe, and traces of it have survived into modern times.

The concept of "city" in the UK and the US is essentially a self-governing city.

The New York metropolitan area is an alliance of autonomous cities formed by signing contracts among several counties with the most developed industries and commerce, including Manhattan in a narrow sense of New York.

As for the rural counties surrounding New York, they have nothing to do with the New York metropolitan area and are under the jurisdiction of New York State.

New York City, with its tens of millions of people, is not the capital of New York State. The capital of New York State is Albany, which has less than 100,000 residents.

The capitals of many states in the United States are in inconspicuous small towns, and many ordinary people don’t even know where the capital of their state is.

Because the capitals of various states in the United States correspond not to the big cities in ancient Europe, but to the manors and castles of monarchs and feudal lords.

China's modern prefecture-level cities are not European cities, but the revival of the prefectures of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Now Zhu Jianxuan handed over Hamburg and Bremen to a local king for direct rule, and also used them as centers to assume the responsibility of governing the surrounding rural areas.

This is to directly apply the Ming Dynasty's prefecture, state and county system to Hanover.

This is not a simple adjustment of the territory, but a direct subversion of the local administrative system.

So the Prince of Wales was worried that the town halls, associations, merchants, and citizens of free cities such as Bremen and Hamburg might not be able to adapt.

But the Prince of Wales immediately realized that even if this way of governing might cause problems, these places were already the fiefdoms of his daughter and son-in-law.

Even if Zhu Jingjian and Charlotte cannot control the city in the future, they can continue to collect normal taxes as lords who do not interfere in city affairs.

Unless the two cities cause too much trouble, unless they can be transformed from free cities of the Holy Roman Empire to free cities of the Ming Emperor.

Otherwise, his daughter and son-in-law, and even the UK, will not lose out in any case.

If I take the initiative to express my concerns now and specifically explain to the Ming Dynasty the differences in the administrative divisions of the two sides, it may cause the Ming Emperor to revoke his order.

Anyway, just get the ownership first, and we will deal with problems later.

After the ceremony officially ended, Zhu Jingjian and his fiancée stayed in Hadlun Daming City for a few days to familiarize themselves with and understand the situation of the future ruling center of both parties.

Then, he and his brothers went to visit Hamburg, an important port city in Germany.

The main force of the Ming Dynasty's German region was also stationed in Hamburg at this time.

Just as Zhu Jingjian was on his way to Hamburg, what the Prince of Wales was worried about had already happened.

At the same time as Zhu Jingjian's enthronement ceremony was held, the Ming occupation forces in Zhu Jingjian's fiefdom also received a notice.

The occupying forces immediately posted notices in cities and villages to inform local people of the news.

Representatives of the original city halls of Hamburg and Bremen immediately went to meet with the generals of the Ming occupation forces and asked to negotiate the issue of the city's status with the Ming.

When Napoleon occupied these places, he did not change the status of the cities, but simply required them to pay taxes according to the original standards.

Napoleon's reforms were mainly concentrated in the countryside, with little impact on large cities like Hamburg.

The autonomous system of these large cities was inherently in line with revolutionary ideas.

Hamburg and Bremen are both highly commercialized autonomous cities, whose residents are free citizens and do not make a living from agriculture.

After the Ming occupation forces arrived, they did not temporarily change the original order.

It was just that military control was added, and the Ming army took over the original city’s police system.

The original city hall and the city's residents also temporarily accepted this relationship and waited for the final disposal.

Now that the Ming court's decision has come, the Ming occupation forces are naturally prepared to carry it out as a matter of course.

But the local town hall, guilds, merchants, and citizens did not want to accept it.

(End of this chapter)