The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 278 What’s going on in Robespierre’s mind?

While Zhu Jianxuan was dealing with preparations for the coronation ceremony, the situation in Europe was also changing rapidly.

The revolutionary French government, through the strategy of first north and then south, successively repelled the interference of Prussia, Austria, Spain, Britain and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Even further pushing the battle line back into the enemy's territory.

The Northern Legion entered the Holy Roman Empire and occupied the small states in northern Germany.

The Southern Legion was divided into two routes, one of which crossed the Pyrenees and began to attack the Spanish mainland.

All the way under the leadership of Napoleon, they invaded the Kingdom of Sardinia from the mainland and entered the territory of Italy.

Faced with the French's fierce offensive, the Kingdom of Sardinia was the first to surrender and signed an armistice agreement with France, ending the war of intervention.

Prussia and Austria followed suit and, in order to stabilize the situation in the German states, they agreed to an armistice agreement in exchange for the French withdrawal from the Holy Roman Empire.

Then came Spain. When it discovered that France had the ability to push back across the Pyrenees and attack its homeland, it decisively admitted defeat and declared a ceasefire.

The only country left to interfere with France was Britain.

In the original history, the British always insisted on opposing France and continued to support the independence of Corsica until the establishment of the Second Anti-French Alliance.

Things have changed a bit now.

The British were losing motivation to continue fighting.

James Fox, a former British foreign secretary and radical MP, declared in Parliament:
“The Ming Dynasty’s judgment is correct. France’s combat effectiveness at this time should not be underestimated.

“The point is, if the Ming dynasty was unwilling to fight against France, why should Britain continue to fight the French people?

"The French people have the right to decide their own constitution and laws, and we should not interfere."

The Prime Minister, the Marquis of Rockingham, who had been at odds with Fox, and the Home Secretary, the Earl of Shelburne, both felt that there was some truth in what Fox said.

Lord Shelburne cried:

“How the French decide their own constitution and laws is a major issue that cannot be ignored.

“But since the Ming Dynasty, whose interests have been most damaged, is unwilling to intervene, there is even less need for us in Britain to fight alone.

"As long as France promises not to interfere in British affairs, we should be able to sign an armistice agreement with it."

As political enemies, neither side particularly supported continuing to oppose France, so the British also made peace with the French revolutionary government.

The logical condition for Britain to withdraw from the war was to give up its support for Corsica.

The French revolutionary government then immediately dispatched troops, dispatched tens of thousands of main force troops, and landed on Corsica under the leadership of Napoleon.

The local volunteer militia of Paoli was defeated, the Paoli whites were arrested, and sent to Paris for trial.

The revolutionary government reorganized the Corsican Revolutionary Committee and began a large-scale purge of Corsica's conservatives and separatists.

Revolutionary France defeated all foreign intervention forces and defeated and suppressed all local rebellions, and its self-confidence reached an unprecedented level.

The revolutionary government's governing tendencies became more radical, and more and more people began to call for the direct abolition of the king and the establishment of a completely democratic republic.

In this atmosphere, Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobin Club, once again launched a coup to seize power and took control of the French government.

Robespierre led the French Revolution to a new climax and also to a new extreme.

Robespierre formally and completely abolished the king, declared France a complete civilian republic, and officially began the trial of the King of France.

King Louis Philippe's children have defected abroad, and the king is believed to be in collusion with Prussia, Britain, and the Ming Dynasty.

Marie Antoinette, the former queen of King Louis XVI, was also believed to be in collusion with Austria and the Ming Dynasty.

After being tried by a citizens' court, both were sentenced to death for treason.

The current king and the former queen were pushed to the guillotine.

Afterwards, the Jacobite government led by Robespierre continued to eliminate and purge dissidents on a large scale.

An average of fifty people were executed on the guillotine in Paris every day, and the grand ceremony that was once rare became a daily routine.

Fifty people are not a large number compared to the French population, but these people are not just ordinary civilians.

Most of them are opinion leaders, most of them are politicians, or at least intellectuals. There are not many such people in this era.

Various well-known public figures were publicly executed at a rate of fifty per day. This was actually very horrifying.

The policies and people supported by the previously more moderate Girondists were fiercely ostracized and attacked.

Earlier, French women had begun to participate in political activities, inspired by Marquis Condorcet's pamphlet "On the Recognition of the Rights of Woman".

Based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the noble widow Olympe de Gouges replaced the words "man" and "citizen", which by default referred to men, with "woman" and "citizenes".

She wrote the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Woman Citizen", also known as the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman", and began to lead the feminist movement in France.

When the Girondists came to power, they organized a number of feminist clubs and societies.

To some extent, de Gouges, the noble widow, may be considered the earliest leader of the feminist movement in modern Europe.

However, perhaps due to their background, de Gouges and others tended to support the royal family and the nobility in addition to their political ideas about women's rights.

De Gouges even wrote to Queen Marie Antoinette, who was under house arrest, hoping that she would publicly support the women's rights movement.

They did not support the extreme democratic and liberal ideas of the Jacobins led by Robespierre.

De Gouges believed that men "once they were freed, they treated women unfairly," that is, they believed that the freedom of male civilians was detrimental to women.

This political conception was not present during the Girondist period.

But when Robespierre came to power, it became a matter of "the way to death is already there".

A group of feminist leaders, led by de Gouges, were sentenced to death by the Robespierre government for defending the monarchy and were sent to the guillotine which was still in operation.

The once bustling feminist clubs and societies were all banned and prohibited, and France returned to being a purely male republic.

In the eyes of politicians from other countries, the French are "completely crazy."

Many kings and nobles did not want the French to continue killing people, mainly to stop killing and destroying the traditional aristocratic ruling system.

But they had just fought a war with France and had just signed an armistice agreement because they could not withstand the French attack.

In the absence of new forces - such as the Ming Dynasty - joining the anti-French camp, most countries are now undecided whether to continue to actively interfere in France.

After Robespierre had purged dissidents and basically controlled the French government, he began to take major actions abroad.

The Robespierre government took the initiative to declare war on the Ming Dynasty——

Because Robespierre believed that a large number of traditional nobles and oppositionists, after fleeing France, basically gathered in the Ming City of Antwerp.

Robespierre had also confirmed through the Spaniards that the Ming Dynasty had already taken control of the French colony on the island of Haiti.

In addition, Louis XVI's two sons fled to the Ming Dynasty.

The collusion between the Ming Dynasty and Louis XVI to dump Ming Dynasty goods into France infringed the interests of French merchants and was the main culprit for the French financial crisis.

"The Ming Dynasty is the real enemy of France!"

In the past, France had fought with other European countries only because other countries took the initiative to interfere, and France had to respond passively.

Now that France has gained autonomy, it will fight the evil Ming Empire.

The revolutionary government headed by Robespierre first arranged 30,000 troops to directly break into the southern Netherlands and capture the French-speaking area in the Netherlands.

When the top leaders of other European countries received the news, they were all shocked and delighted.

"The Ming Dynasty thought it could stay out of this? Now the French have taken the initiative to attack. Let's see how the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty can respond!"

"The people of the Ming Dynasty should be getting restless now! They can't just sit there and let the French attack them at will!" The top leaders of various countries showed their willingness to watch the fun, but they also had some worries and expectations.

They were worried that the Ming army would not be able to withstand the French attack and that the Netherlands would be controlled by France, which would be detrimental to the continued import of British goods into the Low Countries.

At the same time, they also hoped that the Ming Dynasty would officially stand up and lead other European countries to suppress France and restore the traditional order in Europe.

When Zhu Jianxuan heard about the changes in the situation in France and Europe, he was filled with shock and confusion.

“What on earth is going on in this Robespierre’s head?

“The elimination of Louis Philippe, Marie Antoinette, de Gouges and others can be considered a kind of historical inertia.

"But you actually took the initiative to declare Ming? Is your purpose to occupy the lowland areas?"

Zhu Jianxuan subconsciously wanted to give an order to arrange hundreds of thousands of main troops to go to Europe to participate in the war and give the French a severe beating.

But I soon dispelled this assumption.

France is now at a time when self-confidence is overflowing and national cohesion is exploding.

Now that the Ming army is outside France, it is not difficult to defeat the French army.

Fighting outside France means simply fighting against the troops sent by France.

Compared with the French army, the Ming army had huge technical and training advantages, and had a very high winning rate on the front battlefield.

However, it would be impossible for the Ming Dynasty to occupy France and completely defeat France in a short period of time.

That means fighting against 30 million French people and at least one million citizen militiamen.

It's not that it's impossible, but the cost is simply too high.

We must do this just like the US and Soviet Union attacked Germany during World War II, taking over all the land piece by piece and defeating all the armies one by one.

Compared to attacking the French mainland, it is far better to fight the Spaniards and seize the colonies in South America.

In history, France surrendered after the Great Revolution after hundreds of thousands of young people were exhausted and the country could no longer fight.

Other European countries in that situation did not dismember the French mainland.

Because they know they can't do it.

Once a country's nationalist ideology takes shape, it will be difficult for foreign conquerors to directly conquer and rule it.

The Boxer Rebellion during the period of the Eight-Nation Alliance, although it was seen by later generations as having many problems, and although the participants of the Boxer Rebellion were seen by later generations as being very foolish and ignorant.

But that is the direct origin of modern Chinese nationalist thought.

After the great powers discovered this and found themselves facing an unknown number of Chinese civilians, they gave up the idea of ​​completely conquering and occupying China.

So after careful consideration, Zhu Jianxuan made a series of arrangements.

The last time Zhu Jianxuan went to the Netherlands, he arranged 30,000 main Ming troops to guard the Ming city of Antwerp.

With the Ming army's firepower advantage, it should not be difficult to defend Antwerp.

But it is not enough to defend the entire Netherlands.

Therefore, another 100,000 troops were dispatched to Europe, half of which could be composed of the main force of the Ming Dynasty and the other half of which were Japanese vassal soldiers.

Their mission was to drive the French army out of the Netherlands and then stay to garrison the Netherlands region.

Keep the French outside the borders of the Netherlands.

At the same time, he ordered the North American navy and army to launch an all-out attack and occupy all French islands in Central America.

As for the subsequent wars on the European continent and in France, they continued to be left alone.

If France insists on attacking the Netherlands, then use Ming Dynasty bullets to consume the French on the border.

Zhu Jianxuan doesn't think the French will continue to stick to this cliff.

After Zhu Jianxuan arranged a response plan for French affairs, he began to formally prepare for his coronation ceremony.

It was already the end of the 1793th year of Xianning, the end of in the Western calendar.

On the first day of the first lunar month of the first year of Tiangong, January 1794, 1 in the Western calendar, Zhu Jianxuan formally went to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in the southern suburbs to worship heaven and earth, and then returned to the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the imperial city to worship the ancestors of the clan.

Finally, he returned to the Forbidden City and took the throne in the Fengtian Hall, which was rebuilt according to the dimensions of the Yongle Dynasty, to accept worship from the major officials of the Ming central court and the monarchs of the vassal states.

After the ceremony was completed, he ordered Duan Yucai to read out the official edict of succession and announce his general plan for the development direction of the Ming Dynasty in the next few decades.

We will continue to fully promote industrial development and construction in the Ming Dynasty, complete the strategic railways to the North Sea and the Western Regions, and complete the large canal from the Northeast to the Central Plains.

Continue to increase workers' basic wages step by step, continue to shorten daily and monthly working hours, and extend mandatory rest time.

In the future, except for major ceremonies such as enthronement, offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors, no one will need to perform the kneeling ceremony at other times.

Finally, it was specifically announced that in the first year of Tiangong, an additional special examination and palace examination would be held, and the content of the imperial examination would be adjusted.

The imperial examination was held every three years, but when something major happened, an extra examination could be held. This extra examination was called an enke.

The normal imperial examination had just been held in the 46th year of Xianning, and now a special examination was held again because Zhu Jianxuan ascended the throne.

This is equivalent to giving those who failed the exam last year an immediate chance to try again, and it also directly eliminates competitors who were selected last year, greatly increasing the probability of passing the exam.

At the same time, it was announced that basic common sense related to industry, agriculture, commerce, and natural sciences would be added to the original examination scope.

And the quota for Jinshi in the imperial examination was directly allocated to the provinces.

This Enke and future imperial examinations will be assessed according to the following five sub-items:

Literature and Art: The Four Books and the Five Classics, poetry and songs, mainly the basic content of the traditional imperial examination, and do not test arts such as music.

Governance: includes basic administrative document processing, analysis and evaluation of major historical and contemporary events, most of which are advanced content of the traditional imperial examinations.

Natural History: Knowledge of astronomy, geography, biology, humanities, industry, agriculture and commerce, and various natural and social common sense.

Gezhi: General knowledge of natural sciences, mainly physics and chemistry.

Mathematics: Just math.

It does not test skills such as art and sports. It only tests content that can be expressed directly through words and knowledge that can be acquired through reading and studying.

Minimize the impact of family wealth on test scores as much as possible to avoid the imperial examination being monopolized by aristocratic and wealthy families.

The imperial examination provided an official, open, and nearly fair path to advancement.

Select talented and ambitious people from the local area to serve in the imperial court and absorb them into the group of vested interests of the imperial dynasty.

It can prevent them from causing trouble locally and provide the court with governance talents, allowing them to compete within existing rules and maintain the existing system.

Therefore, the imperial examination system pursues overall fairness, but not absolute objective fairness.

In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examinations were initially divided into the North and South lists, and later into three lists: North, South and Central. Historically, by the Qing Dynasty, imperial examination quotas were directly allocated to provinces.

Within the scope of a list, people are selected based on their rankings rather than their absolute performance.

Provinces with better population and economy can have more places, but even the poorest provinces must have a guaranteed number of places to ensure that every province has places selected for every exam.

The central court should have a slightly higher number of quotas than other places in exchange for the support of the intellectuals in the court.

Avoid riots among the people under the emperor's feet, or turn a blind eye to rebellion.

At the same time, the imperial examination system should also be used to release the future preferences of the court and the emperor, and to guide private scholars to focus their study and research towards industry and science.

The imperial examination can be regarded as the most important matter in the traditional Shenzhou Empire.

(End of this chapter)