Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 368 The Emperor Attends the British Parliament

Chapter 368 The Emperor Attends the British Parliament

When Zhu Houzhao arrived at the Port of London, it was early summer with a warm breeze. The entire port was filled with the smell of fish and rust, as well as endless ships and a constant flow of capitalists and dock workers.

Henry VIII's reforms had brought initial signs of capitalist development to England at that time. Zhu Houzhao was deeply aware of the complete system of shipbuilding industry and developed maritime trade.

The English citizens in the Port of London were no longer surprised by the appearance of Han people from the Ming Dynasty.

Just like the citizens of Rome when they saw Xia Yan and other Han people, the citizens of England were still amazed at the wealth of the Han people.

For ordinary citizens of England, they welcomed the arrival of the Han people from the Ming Dynasty, because the arrival of the Han people from the Ming Dynasty often meant high-quality and low-priced industrial products, such as cheaper textiles, food additives that could enhance the freshness of food, and perfumes that could make people more hygienic and fragrant.

What's more, the current King of England is a member of the royal family of the Ming Empire. It is undoubtedly an honor for the citizens of England to be able to marry into the rich and powerful Eastern Empire.

Some of England's great nobles also thought so, otherwise they would not agree to let a member of the Ming royal family become the King of England.

But the local bourgeoisie in England were naturally hostile to the Ming Dynasty. After all, when Ming Dynasty goods entered Britain, they had a great impact on England's local industry and commerce. However, because England was far away from the Ming Dynasty and because of its cheap labor, its local industry and commerce did not go bankrupt completely.

In any case, Zhu Houzhao's arrival was a big event for the whole of England.

King of England Zhu Zaiquan, the King of England's Chief Secretary and Ming Dynasty Junior Secretary Xu Wei, Junior Secretary and President of the English Privy Council Roger and other English nobles were already standing at the harbor waiting for Zhu Houzhao to appear.

Zhu Houzhao saw these people as soon as he arrived at the port, but when these people, some wearing Hanfu and some wearing Western clothes, stood together, Zhu Houzhao felt it was very strange.

The army that was accompanying the King of England at the port was still the army of the Ming Dynasty. It was a regiment of elite guards, with about 2,000 people. They were the military force that Zhu Houzhao had ordered to be selected to volunteer to guard England. They were also the guarantee that the King of England Zhu Zaikun could have the status of king in England.

"Father, why did you suddenly come to my place? I thought I would never see you again in this life."

After the grand ceremony, King Ying Zhu Zaikun asked about Zhu Houzhao with some joy.

Zhu Houzhao, supported by the King of Ying, walked towards the carriage that had been prepared in front of him: "I heard that you, the king, are no different from a puppet. Father will naturally come to help you, otherwise you may be killed by your mother's family in the future."

When Prince Zhu Zaiyun heard what Zhu Houzhao said, he couldn't help but smile: "Father, you worry too much. Although the parliamentary system has repeatedly hindered me, it has not yet reached the point where you want to get rid of me. Right now, it's just a sectarian dispute, which is nothing."

"Don't underestimate this religious dispute. It will eventually turn into a dispute over secular power. Since you are the King of England, you must act like a king and cannot let others steal your power."

As Zhu Houzhao said this, he got into the carriage and while educating his son, he looked at the streets of London.

Zhu Houzhao could see that the entire city of London was certainly not as orderly as Beijing, and seemed to be more free and casual. There were wealthy aristocratic merchants hiding in the gorgeous castle to peek at Zhu Houzhao's procession, and there were also many poor people in ragged clothes hiding in the corners and eating black and hard bread.

The entire city was obviously much dirtier and messier than the cities of the Ming Dynasty, with a lot of slums. Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask Zhu Zaiqi: "It can be seen that the majority of your citizens are not very wealthy."

"Father, you don't know. This is mainly due to the enclosure movement. Many landlords drove the farmers who had the right to use the land from the countryside to the city in order to develop their farms. These farmers were driven to the city and became vagrants, or worked for the rich in the city."

King Zhu Zaiyun of England analyzed.

Zhu Zaiyun, who had been king in England for many years, naturally had a better understanding of England, otherwise he would not have discovered that his royal power was obviously restricted by Parliament.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. He was familiar with the enclosure movement in England. He knew that this was a "sheep eating people" incident that occurred in England during the stage of primitive accumulation of capitalism. Specifically, due to the rise of the textile industry and the increase in wool prices, the bourgeoisie in England found that it was more profitable to give the land to farmers than to use it for livestock and planting and then trade. Therefore, they forcibly claimed the land used by the farmers as their own, used violence to drive these farmers to the city, and then made them exploited workers.

"As the King of England, you are the master of all English people. You should liberate them!"

Zhu Houzhao said to Zhu Zaiyun.

Zhu Houzhao knew that although the "Enclosure Movement" was cruel and tragic for English peasants, it was beneficial to the fate of the English nation. After all, it further strengthened the power of the English bourgeoisie, which in turn enabled them to resist the royal power and carry out constitutional monarchy reforms in the later period.

Zhu Houzhao had to stop this process because he didn't want England to rise again.

Zhu Zaiyuan was also young and impulsive. After hearing what his father said, he nodded and said, "Of course I want to liberate them, but my power is limited. If I don't pass it through the parliament, the edict I issued will not be recognized."

This is the biggest problem Zhu Zaikun is facing now.

Although he is the King of England, he is a descendant of the Zhu family who was educated in the Ming Dynasty. He has the ideal of becoming a sage monarch of England in his bones. At the same time, as a king, he naturally wants to strengthen the royal power and expand his own interests.

But today's England is not the England of history. It can participate in foreign plunder to increase the interests of the king. In addition, the King of England can also bribe nobles and capitalists with the profits from foreign plunder to strengthen the royal power.

Therefore, Zhu Zaiyun also knew that he could only win over the lower-class civilians to seize benefits from the nobles and capitalists and increase his power to distribute benefits.

That is why he said he also wanted to liberate the peasants of England.

"What are you afraid of? You have your father and the entire Ming Dynasty behind you!"

Zhu Houzhao also analyzed for him: "The first thing we need to do now is to strengthen the royal power. To strengthen the royal power, we naturally need our own supporters. These aristocratic capitalists are definitely unwilling to become vassals of the royal power. They are destined to become our enemies. We can only unite the farmers of England now."

"Please give me your instructions, Father!"

Seeing that Zhu Houzhao seemed to have a solution, Zhu Zaiyun hurriedly bowed and asked.

"First, issue an edict to the Privy Council, ordering them to draft the Anti-Enclosure Law, and then urgently ask the Parliament to review, amend and pass it, and require that the Anti-Enclosure Law must be strictly enforced!"

Zhu Houzhao said.

Zhu Zaiyun couldn't help but look embarrassed when he heard what Zhu Houzhao said: "Your Majesty, you don't know, I have proposed it before, but most of the parliament rejected it, unless my edict is in line with their wishes. They even passed a bill that before I become a complete believer, the parliament's bill can be implemented without my approval!"

Zhu Zaiyun had never expected that after becoming the King of England, he would not be able to issue edicts at will.

"Ridiculous! How can this be! You should first do what I tell you to do. If the parliament doesn't listen, you should directly send out the army and dissolve the parliament!" Zhu Houzhao said very seriously.

When Zhu Zaiyuan heard Zhu Houzhao say this, he couldn't help but hurriedly said: "But father, not all the troops in England are royal troops. The royal troops are also nobles and property owners. Many of them are also supporters of the enclosure movement."

"Of course I expected this. This time I brought with me a Royal Guards unit from the British Royal Guards, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers. They have no vested interests here. They and I are your support to fight against the parliament and strengthen the royal power!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said, the countless Ming warships across the port of London looked like huge mountains to Zhu Zaiyun, which gave him great confidence. Zhu Zaiyun nodded and said, "In that case, I will do as you say!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled and nodded.

The father and son formally set the goal of liberating the peasants of England.

But the most important issue at the moment is the placement of Zhu Houzhao, his imperial guards and his entourage.

In fact, the English nobles had never thought that their king's father would come to England as a guest, so they actually didn't know how to face Zhu Houzhao.

Of course, they didn’t think that Zhu Houzhao was coming to invade them.

Zhu Houzhao naturally lived in the royal palace, and his daily expenses were temporarily borne by the royal family, even including the logistical supply of the 20,000 officers and soldiers he brought with him.

Twenty thousand officers and soldiers were also stationed directly near the palace on land belonging to the king's territory, with the royal family funded and hired craftsmen to build the barracks.

But when Zhu Houzhao moved into the Royal Palace of England, he began to dislike its crowdedness. Therefore, he began to ask his son Zhu Zaigui to build a palace for him in England. He planned to name it Buckingham Palace, and its location would be in today's Westminster area.

But his son, the King of England Zhu Zaiquan, could not help but complain: "Father, you don't know that although I am now the King of England, I cannot decide on tax collection. It must be approved by the parliament. The total annual income of the royal family is only 600,000 to 700,000 pounds. During Mary's time, we fought a war with France. Not only did we lose the port of Calais, we also lost millions of pounds in military expenses, and our income was also reduced. Now that you are here, we have to provide 20,000 imperial guards. We are really stretched. If we want to build another palace, we can only borrow money from the Central Empire."

Zhu Houzhao therefore asked Xu Wei, the chief secretary of King Zhu Zaiyun of England, in detail, and learned that in the entire Tudor dynasty at that time, the king's income mainly came from tariffs, in addition to the normal land income as a feudal lord.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao could not help but say: "In this case, the expansion of the palace will be put on hold for now. It seems that we have to find a way to increase the royal family's income."

Then, Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zaiyuan, Xu Wei, Luo Jie and others: "Has the imperial edict to draft the Anti-Enclosure Law been issued to the Privy Council?"

"Your Majesty, the Privy Council has drafted the bill and is now waiting for His Majesty the King to convene parliament," Roger replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said to Zhu Zaiqi: "When the parliament is convened, I will also attend!"

Zhu Zaiyun quickly agreed.

then.

Not long after, Zhu Zaiyun issued an edict to convene the parliament, and members of the Upper and Lower Houses attended the parliament.

It was the first time that Zhu Houzhao attended the English Parliament Hall. He felt it was quite interesting to see leaders from all walks of life in England coming in one after another.

However, for the English parliamentarians, it was obviously against the rules for the king's father from the East to attend the parliament, so a bishop named Fronny took the lead in questioning:

"This is the Parliament of England, please get out of here!"

"Yes, an emperor from the East. Although he is the king's father, he is also a foreigner and not our monarch. Get him out!"

"Get out immediately!"

Many parliamentarians followed suit and even roared. Those who could participate in parliament were basically British rulers, so they were naturally more hostile to the Ming Dynasty, which was their competitor in global trade.

Roger, the president of the Privy Council who presided over the meeting, hurriedly explained: "Please be quiet! This emperor from the Ming Dynasty has obtained the permission of our king to attend the parliament. He just wants to see how his children handle state affairs wisely and decisively!"

"Mr. Speaker, I'm sorry, our parliament has never passed such a bill. The king's relatives can appear in the parliament and observe the rules. He broke into the parliament illegally and should be expelled!"

Froni continued to roar, seemingly unwilling to give in, and continued to threaten: "If he doesn't leave, I will refuse to attend this parliament!"

Many English MPs had no choice but to accept Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth as the heir to the throne. However, because Zhu Houzhao was determined not to let Elizabeth return to England to inherit the throne, the then envoy Roger had to join other nobles in agreeing to accept Zhu Zaiyun as the King of England.

Originally, the English Parliament did not agree to Zhu Zaikun inheriting the throne because he was a non-Christian. However, because Zhu Zaikun was the most suitable person besides Elizabeth, and the Ming Dynasty threatened to launch a war and cut off trade, demanding that England let Zhu Zaikun be king, the English Parliament finally compromised.

However, the parliament also required Roger to make Zhu Zaikun a Christian as soon as possible, and even passed a provision that before Zhu Zaikun was baptized, a parliamentary bill did not need to be approved by the king, and whether Zhu Zaikun could be baptized also required the approval of the parliament.

Now that Zhu Zaikun convened parliament, these British nobles and capitalists naturally had nothing to say, after all, Zhu Zaikun was the king. However, when they saw Zhu Houzhao appear here, they naturally worried that the Ming Dynasty would interfere with their own parliament, so they reacted so violently.

Seeing that Froni was threatening him like this, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but turn cold and looked at his son Zhu Zaiyi: "Ziyi'er, why do you still keep him? He is so disrespectful to your father and emperor, and so provocative to your authority. He dares to speak nonsense in the parliament. If you don't kill him, how can you establish your authority!"

When Zhu Zaiyuan heard Zhu Houzhao say this, he nodded quickly and shouted, "Liang Menglong, shoot him immediately! Mr. Luo, tell them why I want to kill Fronyi!"

Liang Menglong was the chief of the guards following Zhu Zaikun. He was a Han Chinese from the Ming Dynasty. After receiving the order, he immediately led a team of guards towards Fronyi.

Roger also served as Chief Justice, in charge of justice and had the power to announce the execution of criminals.

Therefore, when Roger announced in English that Froni was disrespectful to the emperor and should be executed, the guards led by Liang Menglong had already raised their rifles and aimed at Froni.

At this time, Froni also saw the king's guards coming and was speechless for a moment.

(End of this chapter)

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