The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 97: His Majesty Arrives in New York

Representatives of the Continental Congress and major North American businessmen such as Hancock successively received news conveyed by the Ming Expeditionary Force.

The news, including the main contents of the Yingtianfu Peace Treaty and Zhu Jianxuan's upcoming arrival, quickly appeared in newspapers in major towns in North America.

The King of England Surrenders!

"Victory to the North American people!"

Celebrate the birth of the United States!

《His Majesty the King of Wu of the Ming Dynasty is about to arrive in the warm North American continent! 》

《Long Live Mingmei Friendship! 》

《Warmly welcome His Majesty the King of Wu who led us to victory! 》

Most titles use exclamation marks to express excitement, and the specific content of the articles is also mostly filled with joy.

Hancock and other big North American businessmen were preparing to invite Zhu Jianxuan to be king.

After the siege of New York ended, various publicity channels were used to continuously promote and introduce His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu of the Ming Dynasty.

First, Zhu Jianxuan is portrayed as the embodiment of wisdom, technology and enlightenment.

Special emphasis was placed on Zhu Jianxuan's background, claiming that Zhu Jianxuan was the prince of the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

In order to make it easier for European immigrants in North America to understand, Zhu Jianxuan was given several Western titles.

The son of the Emperor of Shenzhou, the Prince of the Ming Empire, the King of the Wu Kingdom, the King of the Southern Continent, the Master of the Pacific Islands, the greatest inventor in the world, and the richest king in the East.

And since he is the king, he should be addressed as Your Majesty, not just Your Highness.

The higher Zhu Jianxuan's status, the more valuable the titles bestowed upon them in the future will be. The aristocratic circle is similar to many other circles, where people carry people in fancy sedans, recognize and promote each other, and thus form a cycle.

Now Zhu Jianxuan is about to officially arrive in North America, and the latest peace talks news has also been received.

Hancock and others immediately added fuel to the publicity channels, once again raising the heat of the related news.

Zhu Jianxuan added a few more titles:
Lord of Canada, Lord of Florida, Liberator of North America and Central America, Governor-General of the Ming Dynasty's colonies in North America and Central America.

The liberator of the North American continent placed the most critical factor for the victory of the American War of Independence on the full support of Zhu Jianxuan himself.

It was claimed that it was Zhu Jianxuan who upheld justice for America and pushed the Ming Empire to join the war. With the leadership of the Ming Expeditionary Force, the Thirteen Colonies in North America were able to defeat the British regular army.

In fact, the Ming Emperor initially decided to intervene in the American War of Independence in order to find a good fiefdom for Zhu Jianxuan.

So the propaganda of Hancock and others cannot be considered wrong, but it is obviously not the truth, and most people have no way to verify it.

In this enthusiastic atmosphere, people from many other colonies in North America, after learning that Zhu Jianxuan would land in New York, also rushed to New York Harbor in advance to watch the excitement.

The entire New York colony may have a population of 300,000 or even 400,000, but most of them are scattered in rural areas. The local population in New York City originally was only more than 20,000, but has recently skyrocketed to nearly 40,000.

On February 1782, the 4th year of Xianning in the Ming Dynasty, April 5, in the Western calendar, Zhu Jianxuan's fleet officially entered the New York Bay.

Zhu Jianxuan asked his servants to notify John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and asked them to go up to the deck with him.

When Zhu Jianxuan was on the road, in order to show his importance, he allowed the American representatives headed by Adams and Franklin to live on his flagship.

Zhu Jianxuan would occasionally chat with them and exchange ideas about North America, but he spent most of his time teaching students.

The two also knew that Zhu Jianxuan had officially accepted thirty-two disciples and had begun teaching students, so he would not often chat with them.

The two of them didn't think that a king should chat with them often, so they didn't feel left out.

The two now know that the ship has arrived in New York and that their mission has finally been completed, so they are a little excited.

After receiving the invitation, the two immediately dressed and went to the deck to meet Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan's great uncle Zhu Bohai, officials of the Ministry of Rites headed by the Vice Minister of Rites, master craftsmen headed by Song Wendao, and Zhu Jianxuan's students such as Li Rui also came to the deck one after another.

A group of people surrounded Zhu Jianxuan and stood on the bow of the boat to observe the surrounding scenery.

The sea on both sides of the bay was filled with private small boats, which were approaching the Ming fleet from afar.

The Manhattan Island pier was also crowded with people, and it was a noisy sea everywhere.

Zhu Jianxuan stood on the deck of the Changfeng, looking out at New York, a city full of hope.

New York, the largest city in the European and American world in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life and the most important financial center in the European and American world, is now just an inconspicuous small town.

Manhattan Island, where every inch of land was valuable in the past, is now mostly farmland, with only a low-rise residential area at the very front.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the scene for a while, then casually asked Adams and Franklin beside him:

“What is the current population of the New York metropolitan area?”

Adams and Franklin felt a little embarrassed at once. Adams had lived in Ming Dynasty for more than two years, and Franklin had also lived in Yingtianfu for a few months.

Both of them have already experienced how prosperous Yingtian Prefecture and the surrounding cities are.

Compared with Yingtianfu, New York can only be regarded as a town at most, and a relatively poor town at that.

The two of them immediately became a little worried. Would His Highness regret his decision after seeing the actual situation in American cities? Would he no longer want to be king?
Adams hesitated for a few seconds and slightly exaggerated the population of New York City:
"Your Highness, please forgive me. I am not from New York and am not very familiar with the situation in New York. I only know that the town's population is about 30,000."

Zhu Jianxuan did not speak, and Song Wendao next to him casually replied:
"Only 30,000 people? It's equivalent to the size of a township in the densely populated areas of Ming Dynasty, or a small county in a remote area."

Adams and Franklin were even more embarrassed because this was indeed the truth.

There are no big cities in North America with the concept of the Old World, and there is no town with a population of more than 100,000.

Zhu Jianxuan's judgment that the economic foundation of North America is self-employed farmers is absolutely correct.

The vast majority of the population lives in rural areas, cultivating their own land, and there are very few industrial and commercial population.

There are less than 30,000 people in New York City, and a large portion of them are farmers who grow crops in the surrounding farmland and just live in the city.

But in fact, after hearing the answer, Zhu Jianxuan is in a pretty good mood:

“Mr. Song, please don’t despise me. In fact, small towns have many advantages. At least they have pastoral scenery and a good natural environment.

“So New York, as a European-style town, should be much cleaner than Paris and London in Europe.”

Zhu Jianxuan now couldn't imagine how bad the environment could be in London, a city with a population of nearly one million that still maintained medieval hygiene habits.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's vague historical impressions from his previous life, London's environment would reach a critical point in 1800. Various infectious diseases began to break out one after another, and the death rate of the urban population continued to soar, quickly exceeding that of rural areas by more than twice.

Although it hasn’t reached that level yet, it’s definitely not getting any better.

European cities, which had neither modern concepts of public health nor traditional hygiene habits, would have turned into huge garbage dumps in the pre-industrial era when the population was rapidly concentrated.

The situation in Paris, which now has a population of at least 600,000, is not much better.

As a history enthusiast and politician, Zhu Jianxuan has browsed the personnel information of the royal families of various European countries on the Internet.

It was discovered that many princes and princesses died from tuberculosis, a typical dirty and infectious disease.

Louis XVI's eldest son Joseph died of tuberculosis, and his second son Louis XVII also eventually died of tuberculosis.

Zhu Jianxuan now doesn’t dare to get close to London and Paris. Even if he has the magic medicine garlic, he will still feel uneasy.

Allicin can kill tuberculosis bacteria, but cannot repair existing lung nodules.

Therefore, it can only be used to prevent tuberculosis and cannot treat damage caused by the disease.

Zhu Jianxuan's fear of the imaginary London and Paris made him prefer the rural New York.

So Zhu Jianxuan said to Adams and Franklin with great emotion:
"Since New York is still a rural environment, we can build it into a relatively clean city according to our own ideas.

"Not the kind in London and Paris in Europe... I heard they are very dirty. Do Mr. Adams and Mr. Franklin know the details?"

Adams and Franklin discovered that Zhu Jianxuan had found the advantages of New York himself, and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter what His Highness thinks, at least he is not extremely disgusted and does not want to come at all.

Franklin immediately agreed and said:

“In Paris and London, except for a few aristocratic and wealthy areas, most places can only be considered dirty.

"It's very dirty. Most cities in Europe are like this. The more populous a city is, the dirtier it is. There are almost no exceptions."

Adams also echoed:

“So your highness is right. Our new cities in North America should all be built into cleaner cities according to Ming Dynasty standards.

"Instead of Paris and London, where sewage and urine are everywhere..."

Zhu Jianxuan subconsciously said:

“We should still retain some of the characteristics of European immigrants. If we want cleanliness, we don’t necessarily have to follow the Ming Dynasty’s urban plan.

“We should combine the advantages of the East and the West to build a new urban form with the characteristics of the New World…”

But when Adams heard this compromise, he inexplicably showed a hint of rebelliousness:

"Your Highness, I think our capital should be built like the Yingtian Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty. There is nothing good about retaining the so-called European immigrant characteristics.

"We don't actually have any unique features. They were all built haphazardly by a group of uneducated civilians."

Zhu Jianxuan was a little stunned. Are you a radical or a conservative?

Want to be completely enlightened? You can't do it.

As the saying goes, the economic base determines the superstructure, the current situation in North America cannot be fully understood.

In the end, it will naturally take the route of reform and compromise.

However, Zhu Jianxuan felt that there was no need to argue with them verbally, so he did not respond.

Just then, the Changfeng was getting closer and closer to the dock, and Zhu Jianxuan could see the people on the dock clearly.

So Zhu Jianxuan gently waved to the crowd on the opposite dock.

The people closest to the dock saw Zhu Jianxuan's actions and immediately waved their hands vigorously and cheered loudly.

Although the other people around didn't know what was going on, they subconsciously joined in the cheering.

The news that "His Royal Highness the King of Wu is waving at us" spread quickly among the crowd after the cheering began.

The cheers also became louder.

Zhu Jianxuan could see that Americans in New York were very welcoming to him, the prince from the Ming Dynasty.

The Changfeng slowly approached the dock, lowered the cable and slowly approached the dock.

Zhu Jianxuan saw the crowd waiting at the dock.

Although there were crowds of people around the dock, there was still an empty area in the core area in the middle.

There was a group of Ming expeditionary forces and North American militia that isolated the civilians.

There was a group of people standing in the middle of this area. In addition to senior officers of the Ming Expeditionary Force, there were also senior officials from the thirteen colonies in North America.

After the Changfeng finally stabilized, the sailors of the Changfeng lowered the gangway, and Zhu Jianxuan's guards escorted Zhu Jianxuan and his party off the ship.

Qin Nanxing and Li Anbang had already landed in advance. At this time, they brought all the officers together to greet Zhu Jianxuan again:
"See you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Jianxuan was a vassal king and a prince in actual fact. No matter whether they were Zhu Jianxuan's direct subjects or not, everyone could call him "Your Highness". The title of "Your Highness" might not be appropriate.

The high-ranking officials of the North American colonies nearby seemed to have been prepared for this as well, and they all bowed and greeted him at the same time:
"See Your Majesty."

To the leaders of the North American colonies, since Zhu Jianxuan was already the king, he should be addressed as His Majesty.

This also implies that Zhu Jianxuan is directly regarded as the king of the United States.

Zhu Jianxuan stood up straight, bowed in response with a smile, and glanced at the colonial representatives.

Many of the founding fathers of the United States, whose portraits I had seen in my previous life, were here.

People like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hancock and others are among them.

There were many faces that he was not familiar with, but they were certainly well-known figures in the various colonies.

Adams' cousin, the one who directly planned and led the Boston Tea Party, should have been among this group of people.

(End of this chapter)