The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 442 Florida
The local American nobles and officials who visited the Ming fleet had basically correct ideas and directional judgments in general, but there were great deviations in specific details.

After the naval fleet open day in New York Harbor ended, the Ming fleet continued to rest in New York for three days.

Three days later, on the morning of December 15, the 30th year of Tiangong, all the representatives who were preparing to visit the Ming Dynasty received notices from the Ming Cabinet and the New York Government.

Let them bring their families and luggage to the New York passenger terminal to prepare to board the ship.

Among the passenger ships that arrived in New York with the fleet, there were two large passenger ships of 40,000 tons, which were prepared for the prince and their representatives.

All passengers boarded the ship in the evening of the same day, and the fleet officially weighed anchor and set sail the next morning, sailing out of the New York Bay one after another amid the farewell of New York citizens.

After entering the open sea, the fleet accelerated to a cruising speed of 30 kilometers per hour and headed south along the American coastline.

When all the passengers, including the princes, boarded the ship, the officer responsible for guiding them, checking their luggage and confirming their identities gave everyone a general itinerary.

This public itinerary came as a surprise to most of the passengers on the ship.

According to the itinerary, the fleet will not go directly to the Ming mainland, but will first visit Florida and then celebrate the New Year in Florida.

It is already mid-December. Although it is time to prepare for the Ming New Year, it is impossible to reach the Ming mainland before the New Year.

Then why are you in a hurry to set off before the New Year? You can just wait until after the New Year to set off.

The key point is why go to Florida specifically to celebrate the New Year?
Can’t we celebrate the New Year in New York?

During the thirty years that the Ming Dynasty gradually took control of America, its main development focus was in the area around New York in the north, the inland Great Lakes region, and along the major rivers of North America.

Because compared with the forests and grasslands in inland areas, subtropical swamps are relatively difficult to develop.

However, the location of the Florida Peninsula is still relatively important. It is an important sea gateway to and from the Gulf of Mexico, and it must be firmly controlled by the court.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty always maintained regular exploration and construction activities here.

As with other newly acquired areas, the imperial court first established five development zones in the East Florida region through concentrated development through military settlements and garrisons.

Taking these development areas as starting points, the government continued to use official and private forces to systematically send more immigrants to the local areas and continuously expand the scale of the development areas.

After three decades of construction and development, by the time the princes came to America for training, the number of registered residents in East Florida had exceeded two million.

The figure of two million is not a small number in Europe and America, and is very close to the population of several major dominions in the southern United States.

But the total area of ​​East Florida is more than 100,000 square kilometers, which is basically equivalent to Shandong Province in the Ming Dynasty.

The population of Shandong Province has now exceeded 50 million, while Florida has only 2 million residents, which is less than the population of a prefecture in the Ming Dynasty.

So now, apart from a few major developed areas, most of the coastal areas are still desolate beaches, and most of the inland areas are still endless swamp jungles.

Most of these places are still paradises for wildlife, and are far from the typical image of a holiday and leisure destination in later generations, unless the form of holiday is adventure.

Most American intellectuals know that Florida has a fairly mild winter, making it the warmest place on the east coast of America.

But if they were asked to choose a place to vacation, they would rather go to New York than Florida.

Although the passengers on the ship had various ideas, most of them were speculations rather than complaints, and no one felt that they should question the Ming Dynasty's arrangements.

There must be some special meaning behind Ming Dynasty's arrangement.

The arrangement made by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty does have some special significance. It is to advertise Florida through this action and make Florida a holiday destination.

The warm winter is the biggest natural advantage. As long as the infrastructure is in place, we can advertise to attract people to come for winter vacation.

Moreover, Florida was a province of the kingdom and a direct territory of the emperor and king.

It is also the most convenient to manage.

The fleet sailed on the sea for two days and two nights, entered the Florida waters early in the morning of the third day, and docked at the pier at the mouth of the Slow River at noon.

This so-called slow river is the longest river on the Florida Peninsula, the St. John’s River in Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life in the United States.

The straight-line length of the Florida Peninsula from north to south is only about 500 kilometers, but the total length of this river is actually more than 500 kilometers because the river channel can increase its length by winding and bending.

Because the terrain of the Florida Peninsula is very flat, the highest altitude is only more than 30 meters.

The total drop in the entire Man River basin is only nine meters. There are a large number of lakes in the middle and upper reaches, and a long section of the river is a lake.

The width of the lake river in the middle reaches is very large, but the overall drop of the river is very small, which causes the water flow in the middle reaches to be very slow, so it is called the Slow River by immigrants.

Rivers are natural transportation lines. The Slow River has a wide surface and a gentle flow, making it an excellent transportation platform.

At the same time, the width of the more than 30 kilometers of the Slow River's lowest reaches suddenly narrowed from several kilometers to several hundred meters, while the river channel became significantly deeper.

The water depth of this more than 30-kilometer river ranges from six to fifteen meters.

The southeastern coastline of America is mostly muddy and mudflats, and there are few places directly on the sea that are suitable for building ports.

Most of the ports in the southeast are located in rivers close to the coast.

Within this particular framework of restrictive criteria, the conditions at the Slow Estuary are excellent.

If the channel of the Man River is dredged slightly, large sea-going ships of tens of thousands of tons will be able to sail directly into the inland river port.

With such conditions, after the Ming Dynasty took over Florida, the Slow River Basin naturally became the Ming Dynasty's top priority development area here.

In the past thirty years, the Ming Dynasty has successively established fifteen garrisons here. After the population in the early garrison development areas became large enough, they were gradually abolished and changed into counties.

There are now five counties on both sides of the river with a population of over 100,000, and ten new-generation garrisons that are still under development and construction.

Almost half of Florida's population of more than two million people live in the Slow River Basin.

This port, located at the mouth of the Man River, is also an important naval base of the Ming Dynasty in southeastern America. It controls and protects the estuary of the Man River and the inland river docks.

In Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, this place was probably the location of the United States Mayport Naval Base.

According to the itinerary provided by the fleet, the Ming Navy's fleet will be open to residents of the Manhe River Basin for visits at the river mouth dock.

Representatives on the passenger ship can get off the ship and visit the county towns along the Slow River.

Strictly speaking, there is really nothing fun about this place now. At least compared to places like New York, it is completely rural.

There are millions of people in the entire basin, but they are scattered over an area of ​​nearly 20,000 square kilometers.

Most people live in rural areas, and several county towns have a population of less than 100,000.

You can only experience the rural charm here.

But it is indeed warm here. Even in December, the coldest month of the year, the daytime temperature is still over 10 degrees.

And except for the people in New York City, the representatives of other free states don’t usually live in any particularly large cities.

The southern free states are all large rural areas, while people in the northern industrial cities can experience warm winters.

If these people come here to play, they won't be too disappointed.

However, there is a small problem. If the nobles from the Free State reveal their identities, they may not be very welcome here. Because this is the northernmost tip of Florida, close to the southern border of the American Free State.

If new immigrants from the Southern Free State cannot stand the tyranny of the local nobles, this is also their first destination for second migration.

Therefore, in the county town of the development zone in the lower reaches of the Slow River, there are many immigrants who have voluntarily moved there from the Free State. These people do not have a good impression of the Free State nobles.

This also led to the Ming Dynasty immigrants here having a bad impression of the Free State nobles.

The navy was open here for three days, and the passengers on the passenger ship played below for three days, and some nobles were despised in the city.

However, these three days were not a long time, and the proportion of nobles among these representatives was not very high, so no one immediately realized that this phenomenon was quite common here.

Three days later, the fleet set sail again and continued sailing south along the Florida coastline.

The place where the Ming Dynasty arranged for the American representatives to celebrate the New Year was not the largest development area, the Man River Basin, but the isolated development area at the southernmost tip of the peninsula.

Near Miami, Florida, in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, this world's current Haihu County was transformed from the avant-garde of Florida in the Ming Dynasty.

Outside the coastline, the tidal action of the waves continuously rolls up the mud and sand, piling up to form a sand dam parallel to the coastline.

The sand bar continues to lengthen and thicken, eventually connecting to the coastline at one or both ends.

The sea water between the sand bar and the coastline is separated from the sea, forming a lake next to the sea.

The official name of this type of lake is lagoon. There are many lagoons on the southeast coast of America, but there are very few such coastal terrains in the Ming Dynasty.

Ordinary immigrants in the early days did not know what to call it. The name of the lagoon was difficult to say, write, and understand, so ordinary people preferred to call it a sea lake.

When the state of Foshan was abolished and changed into a county, the commonly used name of Haihu County was chosen between Foshan County and Haihu County.

The registered population of Haihu County now exceeds 300,000, while the urban population is less than 100,000.

Most of the residents grow oranges in the surrounding countryside.

Elites from all over the Americas were specially arranged by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to be sent to this small county town to celebrate the New Year.

Of course, this place was not a resort at that time, but just a remote development area with basic living facilities.

There are beaches and lagoons in front of the development area and large swamps behind it.

The altitude of the land in the middle is only one to two meters. If it were not for the sand dam in the lagoon blocking the tide, it would be impossible to live here.

That is, starting from last year, the princes included Florida in the key development area, and Mar-a-Lago County, as the southernmost tip of the Florida Peninsula, also received some special care.

Especially in the past two years, more houses and basic living facilities have been built, making the city look a bit like a city.

The American elites who came on the ship were arranged to live in the newly built courtyards in the past two years, and then began their first vacation life in Florida.

After they settled down, they found that life here was indeed quite comfortable, except that the entertainment facilities were not as convenient as those in big cities.

The main thing is that although it is supposed to be winter, there is still a very warm sea breeze blowing here, and the ambient temperature is very comfortable at around 20 degrees.

The beach is also very beautiful under the sun and moonlight. At this time, the population here was not large, and it didn't feel particularly noisy.

After lying here for a few days, most of the American elites realized the purpose of Ming Dynasty's arrangement.

Maybe they want them to help recommend products and speed up immigration and development in Florida.

Most of these people are not short of money, so after they realized what was happening, they started to ask if they could buy land and build houses here.

The urban functions here are lacking now, and most people would not be happy if they were asked to live here all year round.

But it would be nice if you could come here to play for a few days during the Chinese New Year or in the winter.

Local officials in Hai Hu were a little confused when they heard these inquiries.

Of course they would like to have more immigrants come here, but they don’t know what to do if they just buy land and build houses here without settling down.

But it happened that the princes were here, and their appointment to preside over American affairs had not been revoked, so they could decide these matters directly.

So the magistrate of Haihu County wrote a special letter of request and went to the princes' residences in person to ask for instructions.

The princes also basically understood their father's intentions and knew that he hoped to use various methods to attract more civilian immigrants to the development area.

However, the princes were undecided about the situation where they just wanted a place to live but not to settle down.

The princes knew that their father was very sensitive about land ownership.

In previous classes, I specifically explained to them the logic of land recovery and asked them to manage land ownership carefully.

There was a government-run land company in the Ming Dynasty that had the right of first refusal in private land transactions.

The land around Shuntian Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty was prohibited from being traded freely by the public. Only meritorious officials could be allocated or buy a small piece of land.

Ordinary people can only rent land in Shuntian Prefecture.

The princes thought about these things and then discussed and came to a compromise decision.

Immigrants who do not settle down cannot buy land here, but they can lease land-use rights for a maximum period of fifty years.

The vote was passed by a majority, but the prince did not immediately reply to the Haihu County Magistrate. Instead, he sent it to Shuntian Prefecture as a routine decision-making report.

They now know that their emperor father will most likely take the time to read their reports, but he may not necessarily respond specifically after reading them.

However, if the emperor was not satisfied with their decision, he would definitely respond and educate them.

This time is usually within two days. If there is no response within two days, it is most likely that the person does not care.

After the princes submitted their report, they waited for two days and indeed received a reply.

After receiving the telegram, the princes immediately held a meeting to discuss it.

Zhu Jianxuan did not deny the land leasing arrangement, but gave them a few additional reminders on this basis.

First of all, not only the land can be leased for operation, but also the built houses can be leased.

Remind them that they can set up a sea-and-lake land company specifically to build and operate vacation villas and resort hotels.

The managers of factories and businesses were relatively wealthy but not extremely wealthy; they did not have enough money to directly rent land and build houses.

But if you rent a house or even a room and live there for a few months or even a few days, you can probably afford it.

At the end of these reminders, an arrangement was made that puzzled the princes.

The company that operates the land leasing, Haihu resort villas and hotels in the Haihu area is funded and operated by these fifteen princes, and the shares belong entirely to them.

The previous suggestions were in line with the princes' expectations, but the final arrangement made the princes think of many possibilities at once.

After a brief silence at the meeting, the fifteenth prince muttered with a complicated and tangled expression:
"Why did Father arrange this? Does Father intend to let us...stay in America like this?"

(End of this chapter)