The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 269: Grasslands, Bishops, and Haiti
On the first day of July in the 45th year of Xianning, Zhu Jianxuan led all his entourage to the inland river wharf upstream of the waterfall and set sail on a sailboat built on the inland river.

Sail along Zhuque Lake to the northwestern tip and make a brief stop at the location of Detroit in the previous life, now the Zhuque Youwei Tuntian District.

Then we crossed the river between Zhuque Lake and Ziwei Lake (Lake Huron) and stopped briefly at Ziwei Zuowei.

Repeat the arrangements made in Longque Zuowei and Youwei in these two military farming areas.

Next, we sailed along Ziwei Lake to the northwestern corner of the lake, entered Baihu Lake (Lake Michigan) and turned south.

Finally arrived at the location of Chicago in the previous life, which is now the military farming area of ​​White Tiger Vanguard and White Tiger Right Guard.

Zhu Jianxuan sailed all the way from Laohe to the Great Lakes region, and most of the lake shores were covered with dense forests.

When the fleet arrived at the southern end of Baihu Lake, the scenery on the lakeshore finally changed drastically, turning into an endless grassland.

Officers from the White Tiger Vanguard and White Tiger Right Guard came to the dock to greet Zhu Jianxuan, and also brought two pieces of good news.

The first good news is that the canal between the Great River of North America (Mississippi River) and White Tiger Lake has been completed.

Among the tributaries of the upper reaches of the river, the Illinois River, which is closest to Baihu Lake, originally means "Man River" in the local indigenous language and is called Han River by the people of the Ming Dynasty.

The shortest distance between the uppermost tributary of the Han River and Baihu Lake is only sixteen kilometers.

It is relatively simple to dig a canal.

However, the surface of Baihu Lake is 176 meters above sea level, and the altitude of the land near the lake is 181 meters.

To build a direct canal, it is necessary to dig down to a depth of at least six meters.

The key is to keep digging until the altitude drops below 176 meters. The total length of the canal will exceed 50 kilometers.

The total project volume is tens of millions of cubic meters.

It seems a little bit difficult now.

So this first canal was a lock canal, with wooden locks controlling the entry and exit of ships and water.

At the same time, many sluices were built along the river to increase the depth of the river.

At the same time, a direct canal has been planned and will be excavated next to the existing river channel. It is expected to be completed in about five years.

The second good news is that the coal mine developed by Taipingwei on the north bank of Meihe River, east of its base, has finally started to produce.

In the future, small steamships can sail on the major rivers of North America, the American River, and the Great Lakes.

Once the iron ore near Xuanwu Lake (Lake Superior) is developed, we can choose local steelmaking.

After listening to the report, Zhu Jianxuan directly ordered to start mining iron ore as soon as possible.

As for the location of the factory, it will be placed in the future Zhongdu Taipingwei, and the iron ore will be transported to Taipingwei for smelting.

It is a reasonable choice to locate the steel industry base in the coal producing area.

But in fact, Zhu Jianxuan's decision logic is to avoid placing industrial centers in the region and prevent industrial areas from directly polluting the water of the lake.

The water in a river has been polluted. After the pollution stops, the water can be restored to its normal state through continuous flushing.

However, once the lake water is polluted, pollutants may be directly deposited at the bottom of the lake.

Before Zhu Jianxuan entered the inland for inspection, he decided to give priority to placing industrial zones in coastal areas, followed by the banks of large rivers, and finally the banks of large lakes.

However, the canal from the Great Lakes region to New York has not yet been completed, so we can only choose an industrial base inland.

Then give priority to the banks of large rivers rather than the banks of large lakes.

Taipingwei, which is close to the coal mining industry, is just right.

Zhu Jianxuan stayed with Zhu Di, the White Tiger Vanguard, for ten days, and then took a small steamboat south along the Han River.

The original vegetation on both sides of the Han River is long grass grassland.

The height of the grass is enough to hide cattle and sheep. Only when the wind blows through the grassland, the dense long grass sways and falls, and the animals in the grass can be seen.

As the saying goes, when the wind blows the grass low, you can see the cattle and sheep.

The grass withers in the fall and is then covered by heavy snow in the winter, rotting in the snow cover and snow water, turning into humus and remaining on the ground.

Next spring, the grass will grow again, and because of the humus on the ground, it will grow especially vigorously.

The temperature is higher in summer and the evaporation is greater, so swamps will not form on the ground.

The long grass prairie is the most fertile and easily developed land.

There is no need to cut down trees or slowly dig up the roots. All you need to do is plant food directly in the spring and then keep pulling out the weeds.

There is no need to apply fertilizer at all, and the crops can grow exceptionally well.

The annual precipitation here exceeds 800 mm, which is higher than that in the North China region of the Ming Dynasty. It is similar to the Huaihe River Basin, so there is no shortage of irrigation water.

The only problem was the bison on the prairie.

The extremely fertile prairie gave birth to the North American bison, which are larger than the United States and have a more aggressive temperament.

At this time, the North American bison had not yet been slaughtered, and their population was estimated to be over 65 million, several times the number of humans on the North American continent today.

Adult bison usually weigh more than 500 kilograms, and the largest can exceed 1,000 kilograms. They are social animals.

They wander aimlessly on the grassland and may break into the reclaimed area at any time to trample and destroy it.

If there are only a few people, even if they are all equipped with gunpowder weapons, they will not be able to control a large herd of bison.

Therefore, the militiamen of the two White Tiger Guards worked harder than those of the guards in the forest.

They had to maintain teams of one hundred men at all times, patrolling continuously around the frontier and driving away the herds of bison that approached the frontier.

However, bison herds also provided a rich source of meat for the frontier areas, and in the early days of frontier development, there was no need to raise livestock specifically for meat.

Zhu Jianxuan arrived at Jing'an Wei in late August. After a short stay here, he continued southward, entered Meihe in early September, and arrived at Taiping Wei.

After Zhu Jianxuan came to Taipingwei and learned about the situation here, he roughly understood why there was no big city here in his previous life.

At the confluence of the North American River and the American River is a swamp covering an area of ​​hundreds of square kilometers.

After leaving the swamp, the two sides of the Mei River are hilly.

The soil on the ground is very thin. If you dig down one or two meters, gravel will appear, and then rocks.

In areas near hills and mountains, if you plow the land a little deeper, you may be able to dig out stones several dozen centimeters underground. Such areas are not suitable for farming.

Only the riverbank areas on both sides of the Mei River have thick and fertile soil.

At the same time, more than 60 kilometers to the north of this land is the prairie, which is fertile and easy to cultivate.

More than fifty kilometers to the south is a moist forest with a soil depth of twenty meters.

The early inland pioneers of the United States were basically farmers, and European farmers did not grow rice, so they naturally looked down on this hilly land. The industrialization of the United States began on the basis of agricultural population only after agricultural development lasted for decades and accumulated enough population.

So later cities were all located in places where agriculture was originally developed, such as the humid grassland areas like Chicago and St. Louis.

But now the Ming Dynasty wants to start industrialization directly in North America, and this place happens to be very suitable for industrial development.

The soil layer is thin, with gravel and rocks underneath. This solid foundation is suitable for building large buildings without wasting fertile arable land.

This place is just the right choice for the future North American capital.

Zhu Jianxuan also plans to stay here for a while and wait for more exploration results.

(The world and North America soil thickness map, the redder the thinner, the whiter the thicker. In the middle of the Great Plains of North America, on both sides of the Mississippi River, between the large red areas on the east and west sides, there is a small connecting part that separates the white areas on the north and south sides. This is where the Taipingwei in the book is located.)——
The French revolutionary government in Paris found that simply confiscating some of the nobles' property was still not enough to solve the financial problem.

The Seven Years' War, the North American War, and continuous natural disasters have left a huge hole in France's finances, which seems to be unsolvable in a short time.

At the same time, the revolutionary government's various new policies also involved spending money like water, such as the volunteer armies in various parts of the country.

In order to make money, the new government set its sights on the church, which owned a large amount of land and wealth.

The church, a semi-independent organization, especially one nominally controlled by the Pope, was indeed a thorn in the side of the highly secular revolutionary government.

At this time, the Papal States also had a territory in France, which was also difficult for the French Revolutionary government to accept.

The National Government held several special meetings to discuss how to deal with church assets.

Of course, the vast majority of church members hope to continue to maintain the status quo, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.

If you want to make a revolution, just make a revolution, but don't interfere in the affairs of the church.

Many bishops also used revolutionary ideas to justify the confiscation of church assets, which was contrary to the idea that private property was sacred and inviolable.

Several meetings were held regarding church assets.

It was not until the Bishop of Autun, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, expressed a very different opinion at the conference.

Glerang stated righteously:

“Church property is completely different from ordinary people’s private property.

“The church’s property originally belongs to all believers. The church believers in France are all French citizens, so the church’s property should also belong to the citizens.

“Therefore, the French National Government, which is composed of French citizens and whose sovereignty lies with the people, has the right to recover and dispose of church assets.”

Talleyrand's words immediately caused an uproar.

The other bishops immediately glared at Talleyrand, and more bishops directly and loudly accused Talleyrand of talking nonsense.

The meeting descended into more heated arguments.

However, although it is very controversial, the revolutionary government has its own tendencies.

Now Talleyrand provided a suitable angle and reason, which immediately received high recognition from the revolutionary government.

So no matter how serious the arguments were at the meeting, no matter how many other bishops strongly opposed it, the parliament passed the resolution by a majority vote that church lands should be handled by the state.

As a result, Talleyrand gained great reputation and became the most famous "revolutionary bishop" standing on the side of the revolutionary government.

Talleyrand also began to perform the duties of a true "revolutionary bishop", mainly combining the logic of religious affairs with French revolutionary theory.

Assist the revolutionary government in rebuilding the Catholic Church in France and strip the Pope of his influence on the Catholic Church in France.

The Pope and many bishops were furious and hated Talleyrand to the core. The Pope directly announced that Talleyrand would be excommunicated from the church.

But this did not affect Talleyrand's work at all.

According to the Clergy Law promulgated by the French Parliament, French priests and bishops should be elected rather than appointed by the king and the pope.

The French Church finally completely broke away from the system of the Roman Church.
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After the French National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man, it passed a special resolution to grant citizenship to wealthy people of color.

Vincent Auger, a Haitian mixed-race man who was in Paris, immediately returned to Haiti with the decree.

Auger demanded that Haiti's governor and white slave owners enforce the decree.

But the governor and the white slave owners decisively rejected Auger's request.

When Auger found that his demands could not be met, he contacted local mixed-race people and free blacks and organized an army of 700 people according to the method of organizing volunteers in mainland France.

The intention was to force the colonial governors and white slave owners to surrender through armed struggle.

But he was immediately suppressed by the white slave owners' army.

Oger's army was outnumbered and was completely wiped out by the Governor's army. Oger himself was first crushed by a wheel and then his head was chopped off and displayed to the public.

Although Auger's uprising failed, it became a fuse.

The local black slaves on the seabed began to connect with each other through their internal voodoo beliefs and launched a large-scale uprising in the fall of 1791.

Thousands of slaves suddenly rioted, first killing the white people who supervised them, and then rushing into the homes of slave owners.

Dragging their former masters from their beds, raping them, dismembering them and killing them.

Cut off their heads and put them on spears as flags, free more slaves and call on them to join the uprising.

At this time in Haiti, there were approximately 40,000 white people, 28,000 mixed-race people and free blacks, and more than 450,000 black slaves.

The participation of black slaves, who made up the majority of the population, in the uprising had a completely different effect from that of Auger's uprising, and the situation quickly got out of control.

In just over a month, the number of black slaves who revolted exceeded 100,000. They frantically retaliated against their former slave owners and plundered and destroyed the plantations where they usually worked.

They soon killed thousands of white slaveholders.

The remaining white people hid in their castles and organized militias to attempt to launch a counterattack and suppression.

They achieved some results and killed tens of thousands of rebellious slaves.

But the gap in numbers between the two sides was too great.

The number of black slaves was ten times that of white people. In the era of line-shooting, when the number of soldiers was compared, the blacks would definitely win in the end.

White slave owners soon discovered this and began to seek outside help.

The French government can no longer be relied upon. The revolutionary government is shouting about freedom and human rights. It has also decided to grant citizenship to mixed-race people and free blacks.

They were even prepared to abolish slavery completely.

In the original history, after Britain and France declared war, they found the British and offered to join Britain as long as Britain could help them suppress the uprising.

In this world, they thought of Ming Dynasty and the United States.

(End of this chapter)