Bringing the Railway to Daming

Although the Kiel Thousand Household Office where Mickey was stationed was adjacent to the Higashiyama Thousand Household Office where Dai Er was stationed, there were still forty or fifty miles between them. Even on horseback, it would take more than an hour, not to mention that there had just been a light snowfall and the road was not easy to travel.

Therefore, when he saw Mickey arrive, Dale knew that the other party must have something to talk to him about, and it was unlikely to be as simple as just drinking.

Mickey, however, said, "Come on, try this red wine first. I wouldn't dare drink it myself."

Dai Er picked up the silver wine bowl, smelled it, tasted it, and said, "It's really good."

In fact, neither Dai Er nor Mickey knew anything about red wine. They had very little experience drinking wine before, so they couldn't tell whether it tasted good or bad.

But the two deliberately feigned elegance.

Mickey, in particular, really knew how to appreciate fine wine, laughing and saying, "I told you it was good! Come on, let's—what's that called in Chinese again? We're not going home until we're drunk!"

“That’s called ‘no going home until we’re drunk.’” The two were originally chatting in French, occasionally interspersed with a few words of Chinese, but Dai’er’s “no going home until we’re drunk” was pronounced very authentically.

“Yes, let’s drink until we’re drunk.” Mickey imitated the phrase in a strange and unrecognizable way, and then filled Dai Er’s cup again.

The two of them downed several bowls of wine, and as the atmosphere warmed up, Mickey said with emotion, "Brother Dale, according to the old French way of saying it, we can be considered noblemen now. After all, I have more than a hundred acres of land, and you have more than three hundred acres. We each manage a lot of farmers under our command."

"But we don't even have a third of the power that the nobles used to have. To be honest, life is a bit dull."

Dai Er wasn't drunk. He glanced at Mickey and said, "You and I used to be farmers, working for noble lords. Even after a year of hard work, we might not be able to save a single silver coin."

"But now, the annual military pay is over a hundred silver coins, and the harvest from the fields is purely surplus. Aren't you satisfied?"

Mickey said, "I'm just comparing him to the nobles of the past—I just can't understand why His Majesty doesn't bestow titles upon nobles like he did before."

"At that time, he will only need to manage a few high-ranking nobles, who in turn will manage the lower-ranking nobles. How simple is that? We will also be free to do whatever we want in our territory."

Dai Er said, “It’s normal for Your Majesty to dislike the old French system since you come from the Ming Empire. Moreover, I think it’s fine as it is now—the great nobles govern the lesser nobles, which is essentially fighting their own battles. Under those circumstances, the Dai Kingdom might not have such a powerful army as it does now.”

Mickey added, "It's not so bad that we officers don't have as much power as the nobles used to. What bothers me the most is that we Frenchmen are restricted in our promotions in the military."

"Tell me, how many merits have we made since we joined the escort army a year ago? If we were Han Chinese, you would probably be at least a deputy commander, and I would be at least a chiliarch."

"But those Han Chinese, and even those from the Western Sea, can get promoted as long as they make a little contribution, or even without making any contribution. It's unfair, so unfair!"

Dai Er thought to herself: Fairness? Where in this world is there true fairness?

He said, "Mickey, you're drunk."

“I’m not drunk!” Mickey downed another bowl of red wine. “I know saying these things might affect my future, but I feel uncomfortable keeping them to myself.”

After a pause, Mickey suddenly whispered, "Brother Dai'er, sometimes I think that when the Kingdom of France collapsed, so many duchies, marquises, and counties broke away and were recruiting soldiers."

"If we hadn't joined the Prince's retinue, but instead enlisted in the armies of other nobles, such as the Duchy of Burgundy, do you think we would have already distinguished ourselves and become new nobles by now?"

Upon hearing this, Dai Er looked at Mickey as if he were an idiot.

“Brother Mickey, it seems you’re really drunk—not to mention how difficult it is to become a nobleman through meritorious service in those duchies and earls, look at these countries, how many of them can defeat our Dai Kingdom?”

"If we had actually gone to those countries to serve as soldiers, we would either be rotting corpses or prisoners of war, working as laborers for the Dai Kingdom."

Upon hearing this, Mickey was stunned and remained silent for a moment.

Afterwards, the two drank for a while and chatted about other things before he saw Mickey off.

Standing on the castle wall, watching Mickey ride away on horseback, Dai Er seemed lost in thought.

He felt that something bad might have happened to Mickey, and it might even pose a threat to the country.

'Mickey wouldn't be thinking of betraying the King of Dai and going to Burgundy or some other country, would he?'

Thinking of this, Dai Er frowned.

He wanted to remind his boss, but he didn't know how to say it—after all, it was just a guess, and Mickey was still his friend.

Although his relationship with Mickey had actually grown distant over the past six months, to outsiders they were still friends—betraying a friend would not earn him a good reputation.

After some thought, Dai'er could only decide to pay close attention to the centurions under the Dongshan Thousand-Household Office, trying to prevent any officers like Mickey from developing ill intentions.
···
Daikin (Toulouse).

Zhu Gui, who had already won the loyalty of a group of French people through a series of policies and means, was discussing with Princess Xu the matter of taking a concubine.

Given Zhu Gui's personality, and now that he has formally established a vassal state, he should be able to take concubines as he pleases.

However, perhaps considering Zhu Gui's personality, Zhu Yuanzhang betrothed Xu Da's second daughter, Xu Miaoqing, to him.

With her father-in-law being the Duke of Wei, the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and a Grand Councilor of the Ming Dynasty, and her brother-in-law being the Prince of Yan, Zhu Gui would find it difficult not to respect Xu Miaoqing.

Fortunately, Xu Miaoqing was not an unreasonable woman. On the contrary, she was well-educated, intelligent, and resourceful.

Previously, when Zhu Gui was in Xihai Commandery, in order to win over the local guards, he wanted to take a noblewoman from a prominent local family as a concubine. Xu Miaoqing agreed after learning about this.

This time, Zhu Gui used the same reason to "ask for instructions" from Xu Miaoqing.

"Miaoqing, look, we've already established a country in France, and we have over 50,000 French soldiers under our command. If we don't take a French woman as a concubine, I'm afraid the French soldiers in the army will always treat us as outsiders."

Xu Miaoqing nodded in agreement. "What Your Majesty says makes some sense. Is there a suitable candidate?"

Although Zhu Gui knew that Xu Miaoqing was well-educated and reasonable, she did not expect her to agree so quickly. For a moment, she felt slightly uncomfortable and couldn't help but say, "Isn't the Princess jealous at all?"

Xu Miaoqing chuckled, "Your Majesty takes concubines for the sake of the country. Besides, which vassal king doesn't have several concubines? I heard that the Prince of Qi has taken more than a dozen local women as concubines in the Lion Kingdom. Your Majesty has only taken a few, why should I be jealous?"

Zhu Gui felt even more uncomfortable, thinking that Xu Miaoqing didn't care about him at all.

But he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he got down to business. "Your Highness should know that the customs in Western Europe are very different from those in the Ming Dynasty. Not only do women have the right to inherit titles, but sons-in-law can also inherit them."

"Therefore, we want to select the daughter of the ruler of one of the neighboring countries as a concubine, so that we can rightfully annex that country in the future."

Xu Miaoqing, who had just agreed to everything, shook her head upon hearing this, saying, "Your Majesty's idea is inappropriate—although the Western barbarians have their own rules, Your Majesty is a vassal king of the Ming Dynasty and should act in accordance with Chinese customs."

"Your Majesty, think about it. If word gets back to the Ming Dynasty that you have taken a concubine here and annexed the country of the concubine, what kind of reputation will you have? I'm afraid that it will be difficult for Your Majesty to recruit talents in the Ming Dynasty then."

hiss~
Zhu Gui gasped upon hearing this, then said with relief, "Miaoqing, thank goodness you reminded us, otherwise we would have almost made a big mistake."

“I remember a year ago, one of the advisors under the Prince of Su wanted to use the customs of Western Europe to have us enfeoffed by the King of France in order to establish our own vassal states. As a result, we were criticized by everyone. I never thought that we would make the same mistake today.”

Xu Miaoqing said, “Since Your Majesty has had this experience, you should always be mindful of this in the future—although we have come to this barbarian land of Western Europe, we must not be tainted by the barbarian customs of Western Europe. Otherwise, over time, we will also become barbarians.”

"We will keep this in mind." Zhu Gui nodded, then pondered for a moment and said, "Since we cannot annex other countries by taking concubines, what kind of French woman should we take as a concubine?"

Xu Miaoqing pondered for a moment, then said, "I have heard that in the past, during the Kingdom of France, Toulouse and Baudol were both prosperous commercial cities."

"Take Toulouse as an example. Although it is directly under the jurisdiction of the royal court, the affairs of the city are actually managed by the church and the maintenance committee composed of merchants."

"Although Western Europe is a land of nobility, when the king established his kingdoms, the nobles in this region were either defeated or fled. Nowadays, apart from the church, only the big merchants have a lot of influence."

"The Ming Dynasty has made great efforts in both agriculture and commerce, which has resulted in abundant tax revenue. If Your Majesty wishes to manage the Dai Kingdom well, I fear you will also need to pay attention to commerce in the future."

"In that case, why not find a wealthy merchant in Daijing or Xiping (Bodor) who is both powerful and has a good reputation, and take his daughter as a concubine?"

"Further publicity about this matter will not only win the hearts of the French soldiers in the army, but also win the hearts of the merchants and others in the country."

Zhu Gui's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he couldn't help but put his arm around Xu Miaoqing's slender waist, saying, "Miaoqing, you are truly our virtuous wife."

After Xu Miaoqing helped determine the criteria for taking a concubine, Zhu Gui immediately summoned relevant civil officials to handle the matter.

Because there are not many large cities within the Dai Kingdom at present, and only Daijing and Xiping are prosperous in commerce, the candidate was determined in just over half a month.

However, Chloe Maupassant, the daughter of the wealthy merchant from Westminster, was chosen.

Fred was known in Westpin for his wine business, but he was also a maritime merchant with considerable wealth, reportedly possessing tens of thousands of gold coins in assets—in this era, having that much wealth made him a truly great merchant.

As for his daughter Chloe, she was fifteen years old and beautiful.

Zhu Gui and Xu Miaoqing were very satisfied with the portrait and issued an order to prepare for the ceremony of taking a concubine. (End of this chapter)