The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 42: The Conflict between Americans and French
John Adams returned to Philadelphia two years ago and made Ming's conditions public at the Continental Congress.

Most of the congressmen at that time had an attitude similar to Adams's towards inviting the princes of the Ming Dynasty to be king.

Most of them did not strongly oppose it. If the Ming Dynasty could really provide strong support, most of them felt that the compromise plan was feasible.

Even when Zhu Jianxuan asked for both New York and New Jersey, the representatives of New York and New Jersey did not strongly object.

It's not just because Zhu Jianxuan promised that they would be able to get the title of nobility first.

The key point is that a few months ago, the core area of ​​New York had been lost by Washington, and areas including Manhattan and Long Island were occupied by the British army.

The Continental Congress discussed for several days and the delegates reached a preliminary consensus.

The highest option is not feasible, and the lowest option has too little benefit. You can accept a compromise solution, but you cannot accept it directly and completely.

This should be taken as the bottom line for negotiations, and more favorable conditions should be sought on this basis, especially to impose sufficient restrictions on the king's power.

It took them almost two months to slowly discuss what they thought were reasonable restrictions.

Then, based on the general direction of cooperation with the Ming Dynasty, the details of the Declaration of Independence were slightly revised to leave room for the monarchy.

Formal approval and signature, published in major newspapers.

Benjamin Franklin, armed with a copy of the Declaration of Independence, traveled to France to seek direct help.

Then it's all about waiting.

It is hoped that the Continental Army will win a great victory as soon as possible. This is not only a condition for Ming Dynasty to join the war, but also a condition for France and Spain to join.

As a result, before the great victory came, Washington lost Philadelphia again.

Philadelphia was the seat of the Continental Congress and the de facto capital of the newly independent United States of America.

A group of representatives had to evacuate Philadelphia. Some representatives had new ideas about the Ming Dynasty's cooperation plan and believed that the Ming Dynasty should be brought down as soon as possible.

Otherwise, what if the British flattened it in one wave and the Ming Dynasty and France were too late to respond?
There is no need for any restrictions or compromise plans. Just use the highest plan to get the Ming Dynasty to join.

But there are also more people who think that they should hold on a little longer, maybe there is still a chance to turn the situation around, and it is too scary to just give the highest option directly.

"The reason we want to rebel is that we don't want to be governed by the governor of the King of England. If the rebellion succeeds, will we let the governor of the King of Ming govern us?"

"We used to pay taxes to the King of England, but now we will pay taxes to the King of America established by the Ming Dynasty. Isn't our independence in vain?"

"The King of England is far away in Europe. We have plenty of ways to evade taxes and smuggle. From now on, the King will be watching us..."

"Rather than accepting a dictatorial ruler, we might as well surrender directly to Britain!"

"It's different. We have fallen out with the British king and government. We will be punished if we surrender now, but not if we become independent."

Both sides insisted on their own opinions and the argument became fierce.

According to the highest plan, half of the thirteen current colonies in the United States would be directly governed by the king, and in other places the king's power would be equivalent to that of the King of England.

And Zhu Jianxuan has already specified the list of colonies he wants.

The views of the representatives of the colonies that are not on the list cannot be said to be very different from those of the representatives of the colonies that are on the list. They can only be said to be completely different.

Fortunately, the efficiency of the Continental Congress was low enough, and the situation took a turn for the better during the process of wrangling among the representatives.

The Continental Army, led by Horatio Gates, deputy commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, with the assistance of militia, surrounded nearly 10,000 British soldiers in Saratoga.

Due to various reasons, the British army lost almost half of its manpower and finally had to surrender to Gates.

This is the famous Battle of Saratoga.

The representatives of the Continental Congress were ecstatic when they heard the news, and they immediately re-examined the conditions with the Ming Dynasty.

The great victory that the Ming people had been seeking had come. So they unanimously agreed to change the conditions back to the compromise plan that had been discussed.

He immediately sent people to France and Ming Dynasty to push France to join the war as soon as possible and to push Ming Dynasty to make a decision as soon as possible.

John Adams, who had been on a diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty, was once again entrusted with an important task.

Adams first went to France and told Franklin the news directly, inviting France to sign an alliance agreement.

The French have been preparing for war for more than ten years in order to avenge the Seven Years' War.

In order to increase their chances of success, the French certainly hope to find a battlefield that is unfavorable to Britain, and preferably find an auxiliary that can cooperate with them.

Therefore, the restless American talents came into the French sight.

But after the United States and Britain officially took action, the French continued to wait and observe for more than two years.

The main purpose is to see the quality of the United States.

If the Americans were just a bunch of mud, France might not have participated in this war.

Instead, they looked for another opportunity to cause trouble for the British alone.

The French didn't want to have to rescue the American trash while they were fighting the British, as that would be like fighting two people at once.

Now the great victory of Saratoga has proved that the Americans still have some ability and should be able to cooperate with us. They are not complete waste.

Naturally, the French no longer hesitated and immediately decided to participate in the American war.

So on February 1778, 2, Franklin and Adams, on behalf of the newborn United States, formally signed an alliance with France in Paris.

France officially recognized the independence of the United States and gave the United States the right to trade freely with France.

After the remaining war preparations, France is expected to officially declare war on Britain in June this year.

The two sides agreed that neither side could make peace or truce with Britain alone without the formal consent of the allies.

After the French signed the alliance, the first thing they wanted to do was to get their Spanish brothers to join them in fighting the British.

The Spanish do want to deal with the British, but Spain is in some trouble now.

A group of large sailing ships that were heading from America to Ming Dynasty for trade had just set out to sea and were expected to return to Europe next year.

If Spain declared war on Britain now, these cargo ships might be robbed by British bandits on the way, which would result in huge losses.

Therefore, Spain has stated that it will have to wait until at least next year to join the war.

The French are so anxious.

On the American side, Franklin remained in France and continued to push France to join the war as soon as possible.

Adams told the French that he would go to Ming Dynasty to try to persuade Ming Dynasty to join the war, and asked whether France would send a representative to accompany him.

The French will not refuse the opportunity to make things more difficult for the British, and more importantly, they will not refuse the opportunity to increase their chances of victory.

The French have been engaged in aggressive military expansion in recent years and are already heavily in debt. They also want to borrow money from the Ming Dynasty.

French King Louis XVI accepted Adams' advice and arranged for French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier to serve as his special envoy to travel to the Ming Dynasty with Adams.

According to the plan, France should have declared war on Britain while the two were on their way to Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in order to avoid being alerted or even intercepted by the British Navy, the envoys of the two countries, led by Gravier and Adams, specifically sought out Dutch merchant ships.

After drifting on the sea for half a year, the two finally arrived in Yingtian Prefecture in September of the 32nd year of Xianning.

(End of this chapter)