The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 300 Who can defeat Napoleon?
Following Napoleon's order, Talleyrand went to Antwerp to visit Wang Tingzhen again, and they met in the back hall of the provincial government's office.

After Talleyrand bowed, he sat down and explained his purpose.

After listening to Talleyrand's words, Wang Tingzhen felt that it was indeed a good opportunity to intervene in Spanish domestic affairs and formally withdraw from the European war.

After all, what the Ming Dynasty really wanted, that is, the entire Americas, has basically been obtained, and there is no point in continuing to participate in European affairs.

But this matter involves peace talks, declaration of war and peace talks, which are not something that ministers can decide:
"I need to consult His Majesty on the matter of peace talks. Please wait here for two days."

Talleyrand was stunned when he heard this reply, and said in a rather tangled tone:

"Please forgive me, Governor. Talleyrand is a minister from a remote capital in Europe and is not very familiar with the elegant language of the Ming Dynasty.

"May I ask if the two days you mentioned just now are a figment or a reality? Are they two specific days? Will there be news the day after tomorrow at the latest?"

Talleyrand had a deeper understanding of Ming culture, but he was not very familiar with its technological development.

When we know about expressions like “three or two days”, it may really be just two days, or it may be an uncertain number of days.

But in most cases, it won’t be too long, otherwise it should be said “several days”.

Talleyrand felt that the Ming emperor was far away in Shuntian Prefecture, and it would take at least three months for his ministers stationed in Europe to travel back and forth to consult him or report issues.

In any case, it is not a problem that can be solved in a few days.

So Talleyrand suspected that Wang Tingzhen was wrong. Could he have meant two or three months?

Wang Tingzhen said rather dissatisfiedly:

"Of course I can't be sure that it will be two days. How can I guess when His Majesty will reply?"

Talleyrand suddenly became more entangled:
"Well...how long should I wait? Should I go back to Paris first?"

Wang Tingzhen said with a cold face:

"Just wait here. You don't have to go back to Paris."

After Wang Tingzhen finished speaking, he asked the servants from the governor's office to come in and take Talleyrand to the guest room.

Talleyrand didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't dare say anything more, so he stayed in the governor's office.

Wang Tingzhen personally drafted a report, and then after some consideration, he felt that matters involving secret agreements should not be reported publicly.

Before the Chongzhen period, except for parts of the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, the Ming Dynasty's court affairs were open.

Documents related to affairs are called "tiben" and "zouben", and are circulated through the Tongzhengsi without being closed.

Cabinet affairs are also discussed among cabinet ministers, who submit suggestions to the emperor for approval. Once the emperor has made a decision, the six ministries will review and approve the proposal.

By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, without the opinions of the cabinet, the emperor's direct decrees might not be implemented.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, the secret politics that appeared during the Zhengde and Jiajing periods became common, and took on special names such as "memorials" and "zhezi".

Memorials had to be sealed in a special box when presented, and only the emperor could open it and read the contents inside.

Officials who had the power to submit memorials were the emperor's eyes and ears.

There is no public process for how the emperor decides on matters reported through memorials, and how the parties involved handle them, so irrelevant people are completely unaware.

There may even be two sets of procedures, with secret reports on internal matters and public reports containing polite words.

Therefore, although not all memorials were submitted in secret during the Qing Dynasty, there were also routine government affairs that were circulated publicly, and they were also called "tiben" and "zouben".

However, the actual effectiveness of the public memorials has declined significantly.

The main reason is that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were generally lazier than those of the Qing Dynasty, and the cabinet ministers in the middle and late Ming Dynasty had much more power than the military ministers of the Qing Dynasty.

After the Chongzhen reign of this world, Chongzhen divided government affairs into two categories. Those involving intelligence were handled through secret channels, but routine government affairs were still reviewed by the cabinet first.

France wants to partner with the Ming Dynasty to support the French coup. This kind of thing is obviously secret intelligence.

So Wang Tingzhen personally went to the West Factory’s headquarters in Antwerp, explained the situation to the West Factory’s European manager, and asked the West Factory’s telegraph operator to send the news to Tunisia.

After receiving the message, the telegraph operator of the Western Factory in Tunisia sent it directly to the Ming mainland via an undersea cable using a wired telegraph.

The next day, on the afternoon of August 21, the 13th year of Tiangong, the governor of the Western Factory delivered the report to the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianxuan.

Also submitted were documents including a summary of intelligence on the battlefields in Europe and America in recent years as a reference for the emperor's decision-making.

Zhu Jianxuan first read Wang Tingzhen's report, and then continued to look through the other intelligence prepared by the Western Factory, thinking about how to decide this matter.

On the American battlefield.

The Ming Dynasty's local army, North American army, Australian army, African army, and South American army attacked from five directions and captured cities in America.

The Australian Corps marched northward along the west coast of America, successively conquering the strongholds along the coast, and occupied Lima, the capital of Peru, at the beginning of the 1804th year of Tiangong ().

The North American Corps' southward campaign progressed smoothly. The northern part of Mexico was sparsely populated, with many desert areas and almost no effective resistance.

However, this desolate land is quite vast, stretching from Juarez to Mexico City, the capital of New Spain, a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers.

Without sufficient means of transportation and mature roads, simply marching would be a chore.

However, the army that marched directly south from the Great Plains of North America did not have the mission of directly occupying the entire Mexico. They only needed to concentrate on encircling land in the north.

Although Mexico City is located on a plateau in inland Mexico, the North American continent becomes narrower as it goes south.

The straight-line distance between Mexico City and the coastline is only more than 200 kilometers, and there is a ready-made road leading to the coastal port of Veracruz.

Although the Spanish deployed troops in these places, the port of Veracruz was also guarded by a fairly strong castle.

But these things are of no significance in the face of the Ming Dynasty's new era offensive.

The Ming Navy covered the landing of the troops, occupied the port of Veracruz, controlled the surrounding land, and then followed the Spanish's own route to the area where Mexico City was located.

This is how the Americans invaded the interior of Mexico during the Mexican-American War, threatened Mexico City, and forced Mexico to sign a humiliating treaty.

The current equipment level of the Ming Dynasty is two eras ahead of the United States during the Mexican-American War, and it already has flying machines.

When the first batch of Ming troops entered the plateau, they built simple land airports at the port and inland, and used the newly commissioned transport planes to transport supplies to the inland.

When the Ming troops on the plateau had airplanes and sufficient ammunition, Mexico City's own defense facilities basically became useless.

Faced with the continued horrific bombardment, especially the continuous bombardment from the sky, New Mexico officials and Mexico City defenders lost the courage to fight.

The Ming army quickly rushed into the city, and local officials and garrisons surrendered in astonishment and panic.

Mexico City, as the center and largest city of Spain in the Americas, fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty in the spring of the twelfth year of Tiangong (1805).

Among the more important Spanish cities in the Americas, Bogotá, the capital of New Granada, was the last to surrender.

The city of Bogota is located on a mountain plain in the Andes Mountains.

Most of the important cities of the Spanish headquarters in the Americas, as well as the original Mayan and Aztec cities, were located on plateaus or in high valleys.

Because this is a tropical area, the low altitude areas are very hot, and only on the plateaus and in the mountains are there places with cool climates.

Mexico City is 2,200 meters above sea level, and Bogota is 2,600 meters above sea level.

The shortest straight-line distance between Bogota city and the coastline is about 330 kilometers, but the coastline here is surrounded by dense tropical rainforests.

Behind the rain forest is the Andes Mountains, with an altitude of 3,000 to 5,000 meters. The mountain range is divided into three branches here.

In other words, taking this route to get to Bogota requires crossing three high mountains in a row, which is simply not feasible in this era.

The Ming Dynasty's aircraft were still relatively rudimentary, and it was very dangerous to force this route, so the Ming Dynasty army could only attack along the route the Spaniards took to enter the inland.

So although the city of Bogota itself was much smaller than Mexico City, it did not surrender until the spring of the 1806th year of the Tiangong period ().

The battle itself was not suspenseful, mainly because the Ming African Corps spent a long time accumulating manpower, artillery, and aircraft. So far, the large-scale war in the Americas was basically over.

Although the Ming had not yet completely occupied all Spanish settlements, the remaining ones were not only located deep inland but also sparsely populated.

Even within Spain's own colonial system, those exploration and pioneering sites were left to fend for themselves, and there were no official Spanish armed forces in the area.

In the future, we only need to arrange more small-scale exploration and search teams to find these settlements that the Spanish have left unattended inland, and this will basically solve the issue of ownership.

At the same time, during the war, the Ming Dynasty also continued to immigrate from its homeland to the Americas, sending more than three million immigrants in three years.

Adding the three million who were in the La Plata region before the war began, there were already six million Ming immigrants in Mexico and the Americas to the south.

The number is almost twice that of local white people, and more than the total number of white people and white mixed-race people.

Now in all important settlements in South America, including Mexico, the number of Ming immigrants is at least equivalent to that of the local whites and mixed-race people.

The Ming Dynasty's occupation meant complete occupation, not simply defeating the local rulers and gaining their loyalty.

Instead, they wanted to send their own people directly over to take control of the land and wealth.

The news of the complete collapse of Spain's colonies in the New World and the loss of all important official strongholds eventually ignited the anger of the native Spanish residents.

However, in the eyes of the Ming people, completely controlling the entire New World through this battle was certainly a great event that should be celebrated.

The people of the Ming Dynasty did not have a particularly good impression of Africa. The climate in most places was too hot and more like Southeast Asia than the Ming mainland.

The great plains of North and South America, places with a climate similar to that of the Jiangnan region in the Ming Dynasty, are what the people of the Ming Dynasty were most interested in.

At the same time, the Panama Canal, which the Spanish had been working on for eight years and the Ming Dynasty had been building for another eight years, was finally officially opened in the spring of the 13th year of Tiangong.

The standards of the Panama Canal are the same as those of the Suez Canal. The average width of the channel is 200 meters and the water depth is over 16 meters, which can accommodate the largest ships currently available.

However, the length of the Suez Canal itself is more than 160 kilometers, while the length of the Panama Canal is only more than 60 kilometers.

However, the Suez Canal was completed in less than three years, while the Panama Canal took as many as sixteen years.

Even if we exclude the work of the Spanish, the construction time of the Ming Dynasty alone was eight years. Even if we exclude the time for preparation for land reclamation, the excavation work alone took five years.

Moreover, the Suez Canal was dug manually, while the Panama Canal project had already begun using construction machinery driven by internal combustion engines.

Or it is because the situation in the Panama region is much more complicated than that in Suez.

The climate in the Suez region allows work all year round, but in Panama, work is not allowed for half a year every year.

The overall altitude of the Panama region is higher than that of Suez, with most places above ten meters, and the total earthwork volume is almost twice that of Suez.

Like the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal is planned to be a double-line canal.

Therefore, after the single line was completed, the double-track project also started simultaneously.

With ready-made railways, ports, construction machinery, workers, and food ration fields, the double-track project is much more efficient.

According to Li Baozhu's estimate, it will be completed in about four years at most.

At this time, the Panama Canal zone had become a fairly mature development area, with more than three million acres of paddy fields developed.

Many reservoirs have been built on both sides of the construction site, as well as ditches for drainage and irrigation. Water can be diverted for irrigation even in the dry season, so three seasons of rice can be grown.

The local population has increased to 800,000, of which 500,000 are immigrants from the Ming Dynasty.

The rest were Spanish prisoners sent from battlefields across the Americas, including Spanish soldiers, militiamen, church personnel, immigrants who rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, and their black slaves.

Most of these captives are young and middle-aged men. They are now guarded by the militia among the Ming Dynasty immigrants and are doing odd jobs or farm work around the construction site.

It was precisely because of these young and strong prisoners that Li Baozhu felt that the double-track canal could be completed more quickly.

After the Panama Canal was officially opened, Panama's status as a transportation hub in the Americas became extremely solid and unshakable.

A large coal station, oil depot, cargo yard, large dock and shipyard will also be built here.

There will be a continuous influx of immigrants in the future.

In addition, the canal needs to be built here, and the demand for engineering construction is almost unlimited, so prisoners from surrounding areas are being sent here for use one after another.

On the European battlefield.

The main battlefield seems to be in the southern part of the Italian peninsula, the northern part of the German region, Gibraltar in Spain and other surrounding areas.

The royalist rebels in Britain, Austria, Russia, and various vassal states fought several major battles with the French and Spanish armies.

France achieved most of the victories, controlled most of Germany, and drove the Prussian royal family to East Königsberg.

It occupied most of Poland and the Habsburg-controlled Bavaria, and was advancing step by step towards Vienna.

The British fleet was blockading foreign trade between France and its vassal states, and France was also blockading trade between its vassal states and Britain on the continent.

However, the historical Battle of Trafalgar did not break out, probably because Spain lost its colonies and could no longer maintain its large fleet.

In Zhu Jianxuan's view, compared with the Napoleonic Wars in history, the current situation in Europe has finally shown a huge deviation.

What Zhu Jianxuan cared about most was Napoleon's "step-by-step" offensive method, which seemed to be a complete change compared to the Napoleon in history.

According to intelligence from the Western Factory, Napoleon liberated serfs in Germany and Poland and distributed land to them, but most importantly, he was still carrying out the imperial examination system.

Napoleon stopped being a European-style conqueror and started to imitate the separatist forces in China who aspired to rule the world.

He distributed land to his trusted subordinates to help them settle down, then recruited soldiers from the farmers who got the land, and also recruited intellectuals other than traditional aristocrats through the imperial examination.

The key point is that if he had not maintained his "nature" and had not fought large-scale battles in Europe, he might not have gone on the expedition to Moscow and might not have suffered a disastrous defeat in Russia.

And now there is news from this guy Talleyrand that Napoleon actually wants Spain to withdraw from the war and remain neutral!

Is he really going to do this? Will France not conquer Spain next?

The reckless expedition to Moscow and the conquest of Spain were two bleeding wounds that appeared after the peak of Napoleon's empire, and were also the direct causes of the collapse of his empire.

If Napoleon had avoided these two wars, who could have defeated him?
If Napoleon had really integrated the vast plains of France, Germany and Poland, he would have become the undisputed overlord of Europe.

It would be no problem to continue to devour the Habsburgs and Italy.

With the talents and abilities of Napoleon and his French generals, if he continued with his current step-by-step expansion strategy, Napoleon would really have a chance to completely unify Europe.

Russia also had no way to deal with this type of attack.

The reason why Russia was able to resist the attacks of Napoleon and French dictatorship in history was that Russia was too large and was not on the same order of magnitude as other European countries.

Napoleon and the Moustache were accustomed to the way of fighting between small European countries, and the key was to develop a way of fighting that was particularly effective against these small countries.

They are used to destroying a country in one fell swoop, and then swallowing up these small countries with no depth in one gulp.

When the target changed to Russia, they did not immediately change their combat strategy, and were unable to destroy Russia in one fell swoop, let alone swallow it up in one go.

They were either exhausted to death by Russia or starved to death.

The Russians' combat effectiveness has never been the best on the European continent, simply because they are an order of magnitude larger than other countries.

Napoleon's current way of fighting, which is to transform a place after occupying it, and then continue to expand after completely controlling it, may be truly effective when used against Russia.

If Napoleon had not been in a hurry to fight with Russia, and had first swallowed up Italy and the Habsburgs, it would not have been difficult for him to continue to seize territory from the Ottoman Empire.

Napoleon should be 37 years old this year. Historically, he lived to be 52 years old, and there is a high probability that he died of poisoning.

If he is given another ten or twenty years to develop, who knows what he can do?

The Ming Dynasty could no longer allow them to continue growing like this.

(End of this chapter)