The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 429: American Local Servant
At nine o'clock in the morning on June 5th, the twenty-ninth year of Tiangong, in the Chengyun Hall of the American Palace, fifteen princes from the Ming Dynasty formally met with local nobles and officials.

Under the throne in the main hall of Chengyun Hall, two rows of fifteen armchairs were newly placed for the fifteen princes to sit on, and the noble officials of America saluted together.

After the ceremony, the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun stood up and read out the emperor's order again, explaining the mission of the princes' trip.

From now on, the meeting of the princes will be responsible for making decisions on American affairs.

In the past, matters that required the approval of the central court or even the emperor were first decided on the spot by a meeting of the princes and then sent to the central court agencies for backup and archiving.

This is the emperor's edict, and people present should not have any objections, but there will always be various thoughts in their minds.

Some people have instinctively speculated that these princes will be in charge of American affairs in the future, and the American Kingdom may begin to break away from the direct jurisdiction of the Ming Emperor.

The nobles and officials of America bowed their heads and received the order with different emotions.

Zhu Jingkun asked the nobles and officials to sit on both sides of the hall, and then prepared to briefly inquire about the situation in America, the Free State, and New York.

In such a serious and formal occasion, we would not discuss too many complicated issues in depth.

If anyone at the scene wants to discuss something with the princes, or if the princes want to learn more about something, they should greet each other privately after the formal meeting.

Many things are really not suitable for direct public discussion before they are roughly studied, as public opinion may hijack the judgment and decision of the parties involved.

However, at today's meeting, someone seemed to have no idea of ​​the seriousness of the matter and directly asked a very sensitive question.

John Adams, Marquis of Boston, was the one who went to Ming Dynasty in person to persuade it to join the American War and promoted the independence of America.

He was already eighty-seven years old this year, which was definitely a very old man in this era. He stood up with the support of his son and bowed to the dozen or so princes:

“I ask you, Your Highnesses, to be more discerning and not be misled by rumors fabricated by villains.

“Your Highnesses, please uphold justice and prohibit all proposals to change the status of Massachusetts and other free states.

"The American free state system was drafted by His Majesty himself, and these are laws that cannot be easily changed."

When Adams said this, the princes present were obviously stunned.

The old nobleman's attitude is very clear. He does not want the current situation to change, and the key is that he does not want to give up his status as a free state.

The key point is that the princes read the information in New York newspapers and found that there seemed to be general public support for changing the free state into a dominion.

Adams also mentioned the public opinion in his words, which seemed to be supportive.

But as a noble, he strongly opposed it. He came out to oppose it on such occasions in order to prevent the princes from following the popular trend.

An 87-year-old man, as the saying goes, has one foot already in the coffin, but he still clearly opposes this matter, which shows that he really cares about this matter.

As soon as Adams finished speaking, several other old nobles around him quickly stood up and supported Adams' request with their own reasons.

Together, they asked the princes to give guarantees that the royal court would be prohibited from continuing to discuss the issue of changing the status of the dominion.

The eldest prince took a quick look and found that these people included not only European nobles but also some nobles of Ming descent, but there seemed to be no ordinary officials.

While the prince was still considering how to respond to this, the ninth prince had already started to question:

"As far as I know, most New Yorkers support the change to a free state, but you are righteously opposed to it, so you'd better explain your reasons clearly.

"The real reason for your opposition is not the empty rhetoric or the veiled words used to disguise it.

"If you tell us the real reason, we can discuss and study it. If you are just waving the flag, then we can only ask the emperor for his decision."

The eldest prince glanced at his nosy younger brother, but did not confront the ninth prince in public. Instead, he added in agreement:

"Well, since you brought up this topic, let's talk about it now.

"What are your thoughts and views on the issue of free state status that is currently being hotly debated among the public?"

John Adams is really too old. He is okay when it comes to preparation, but when it comes to on-the-spot responses, he is a little behind the times.

Let his son Quincy Adams stand up and answer the princes' questions on his own behalf.

Quincy looked at the group of princes and carefully chose his words:

“Your Highnesses, please be aware that in recent years, among the new immigrants to America, especially the businessmen among the immigrants, there are more and more people with bad conduct.

"They are always trying to be cunning and opportunistic, and are increasingly unwilling to run their business with integrity.

"Now each free state handles its own local affairs, which are supervised by local nobles and officials of high moral character.

“They cannot yet do as they please in the Free States.

“So they stirred up conflicts between the common people and the officials and nobles, advocating that all free states should be changed into dominions or even provinces.

"The royal court directly governs all provinces and dominions, and cannot be as detailed as the local governance of the Free State.

“In other words, the effectiveness of the civilian supervision mechanism will be greatly reduced.

“This way they can get more room for speculation.

“Therefore, we suggest that the Royal Government should control public opinion and arrest those who spread rumors and advocate change.

"And thus forbid them to make any move on the question of Free State status."

The princes listened to these explanations and did not show any direct reaction on the surface, but several of them had already begun to complain in their hearts.

Your seemingly righteous words and seemingly very logical reasons are all one-sided.

The adult princes headed by Zhu Jingkun had received a very special education. It was not traditional books of sages at all, but a very straightforward realistic philosophy.

Their practical experience from the bottom of society also enables them to quickly distinguish what are typical one-sided statements.

Then, based on the one-sided account, we can think in reverse and roughly find the groups that have conflicts of interest with these parties, and then guess where the interests of the corresponding groups lie.

So much so that several princes felt that they had probably found the real contradiction here.

Then you can reinterpret the hidden meaning in their words.

Adams and others are criticizing the new generation of immigrant businessmen.

Being sneaky and opportunistic can be replaced by being thoughtful and creative.

Unwillingness to run a business with integrity can be replaced by being energetic, but the key is that you may not want to obey them.

Respected local nobles and officials presided over the affairs of the Free State, but in fact it was these local tyrants who firmly controlled local administration.

New foreign merchants who come in must first pay their respects, accept their control and share the profits.

The new generation of businessmen want to change the free state into a dominion in order to crack down on these local tyrants and let the royal court manage the local area instead of them.

The so-called reduction in supervision capabilities at the local level actually means that they cannot do whatever they want.

The actual situation is similar.

Most of the first wave of American aristocrats, such as Adams, were originally local bosses in the original North American colonies.

Many of them originally controlled large amounts of assets and industries in their colonies.

When the United States was first established, if these people did not personally participate and agree, local taxes would not be collected at all. The federal government of the United States at the beginning of its founding was just an empty shell.

In this world, they obtained the title recognized by the Ming Dynasty by falsifying the American War of Independence.

Similarly, use your status and power to strengthen your position.

Naturally, they were all directly elected as the relevant executive, judicial and legislative leaders in their respective areas through nominally fair elections.

They all directly, openly and legally control the power in their respective areas.

The northern United States is a place with a strong business atmosphere, but businessmen will not refuse to allow themselves to become feudal bureaucratic capitalists.

They occupied the vast majority of the market share in many local industries, and through internal coordination, they formed a rough sphere of influence in accordance with the boundaries of the free states and the distribution of aristocrats after the independence of the United States.

The borders of the Free State are the borders of their respective spheres of influence, and they do not want to break this pattern.

The establishment of free states and dominions under the Ming American Kingdom was the result of a compromise between the then Ming court and these local tyrants.

The basic legal principle of the free state is that they can do whatever they want locally.

The Ming court did not take the initiative to interfere with them.

The American War of Independence in history can be regarded as an expansion of the British bourgeois revolution and is also a bourgeois revolution.

The newly born United States at that time could be considered the purest capitalist country in the world.

But this bourgeois revolution was still incomplete.

This led to the American Civil War, which made the United States completely economically independent and reduced the power of local isolation.

The same contradictions exist in this world.

As industrialization in the United States spread rapidly, the population growth rate, which was mainly composed of immigrants, continued to soar.

There are more and more new generation businessmen in the private sector, and conflicts have arisen between these vested interests and new immigrants, and the conflicts have become increasingly acute with the development of the economy.

In fact, pure businessmen without bureaucratic backgrounds pursue unification and standardization of the legal system.

That is to seek a stable, fair and relaxed business environment.

Most of the new generation of businessmen in America are like this.

They hope that they can operate freely in any area and that the laws in every area are exactly the same.

I don’t want to face completely different rules just because of different regions.

Bureaucratic capitalists with official backgrounds tend to deliberately create differences between regions and engage in regional protectionism in the places they are most familiar with.

Monopolize specific industries within the area that you can influence.

Most of the founding fathers of the United States, such as Adams, have already achieved such a status in the past few years.

Therefore, the new generation of businessmen and ordinary people are relatively more supportive of changing the free states into dominions or even provinces of the kingdom, so that the laws in America can be more unified and standardized.

The key is to hope that the royal court will take action and use the pressure from the Ming Empire court to break the local protection of aristocratic merchants such as Adams.

Most ordinary officials in the court of the Kingdom of America who did not have a local aristocratic background also supported this view.

Eliminating the free states and breaking down local protectionist forces can enhance the authority of the royal court.

Instead of the situation now, the orders of the royal court are only of some use within the autonomous region, and not many people care about them when they reach the remote free states.

The current contradiction in the United States is the contradiction between these local old aristocrats and the new generation of industrial and commercial groups.

From this perspective, the free states of the North and the South are even communities of interests.

The northern aristocratic merchants also opposed the Free State reforms, also hoped to maintain their current status, and also had conflicts with the new generation of merchants.

Therefore, there will probably be no Civil War in America in this world, but there will be deeper and more extensive social problems.

The princes ultimately did not express any opinions directly, as they now had to make decisions together.

This requires them to separate the process of collecting problems and handling them.

First, we need to receive the problem without expressing our opinion, then make a final decision through internal discussion, and finally respond to the parties involved and handle the matter in practice.

After listening to this, the eldest prince hesitated for a few seconds and looked at the other American nobles present:
"Does everyone here have similar ideas? Those who support the father and son of Boston County Hou can raise their hands."

The American nobles at the scene hesitated for a moment, and then a large number of people raised their hands one after another.

The eldest prince Zhu Jingkun asked the accompanying clerk to compile the list and said

"Okay, we know your intentions. Next, we will seriously consider your suggestions and conduct more targeted investigations based on them.

“After you go back, you can continue to write a more formal and complete report and hand it over to us through the Kingdom’s Cabinet.

"If everyone has nothing else to do, let's end today's meeting here."

The eldest prince did not make a direct statement, but said he would seriously consider it, which is a very typical tactic of shirking responsibility.

Adams and others did not expect the princes to express their opinions directly. They brought up this matter directly at the meeting today just to leave a first impression on the princes.

The intention is to allow the princes to think and judge from their perspective when making actual decisions later.

So now no one said anything more, they all stood up, bowed and left.

The bureaucrats and nobles at the scene left, and the princes went directly to the back hall and held a routine discussion meeting in the conference room inside the palace.

After the princes sat down, without waiting for the eldest prince, the host, to speak, the seventh prince spoke first:
"I think it's time for the United States to reduce its feudal lords. Aren't these so-called self-governing territories just feudal lords?

"Aren't the attitudes and behaviors of these local tyrants the same as those of the former Ming dynasty tyrants?

"Use their own power and position to directly control the dominions they are in.

“Ordinary businessmen who want to do business in their jurisdiction will definitely encounter all kinds of difficulties and troubles.

“So more ordinary businessmen sought to change the Free State into a dominion or even a province.”

Europeans are not very sensitive about this matter, but the princes of the Ming Dynasty are too sensitive.

So much so that the Ninth Prince Zhu Jingtan, who was used to being the opposition, hesitated for a moment and then directly expressed his approval:
"It is indeed time to reduce the power of the vassal states. These free states should not have existed in the first place. We just need to find a suitable reason and be prepared for a civil war."

The eldest prince heard this and said with a smile:
“The reason is ready-made. The logic of the free state is local autonomy. Now most local officials and people support changing the free state into a province.

"But these local officials and nobles are against it, which is really going against the grain.

“We do need to be prepared as well.

"We can continue to conduct in-depth research while asking for the emperor's attitude and requesting military support.

"Be prepared for them to fight to the death."

The other princes nodded one after another and quickly reached a consensus on this issue.

(End of this chapter)