The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 406: Merit Building and the Situation in Britain

At the same time as Zhu Jianxuan's administrative structure adjustment began, the weather gradually warmed up after the beginning of the year, and the main construction of the Merit Building entered the rush stage.

By the summer of the 26th year of summer construction, the main construction of the Merit Building was basically completed.

It was a huge Mingtang-style building, similar in shape to the Daxiang Hall (Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests) in the Temple of Heaven, but its internal structure was completely different.

The building is clearly divided into two parts.

At the bottom is a huge rectangular building, 384 meters wide from east to west, 256 meters long from north to south, and 64 meters high.

This part itself is already a very large building.

The interior space is divided into four major floors, and the exterior also forms four layers of eaves corresponding to the floors.

Some floors will be further divided into floors of about four meters for necessary facility spaces and office areas.

But most of the space is planned as ceremony halls and exhibition halls.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's instructions, various large halls can be used to hold various official activities, and may also be considered to be opened to folk craft activities in the future.

The exhibition halls are used to build functions similar to those of a national museum.

This huge square building area can actually be regarded as the real main area of ​​the building.

However, if viewed from a distance, the square building looks like a huge base, supporting a huge three-section hall.

The first floor of the Mingtang has a diameter of 128 meters and a total height of 64 meters, including two layers of eaves.

According to the arrangement made by the Ministry of Rites after consulting Zhu Jian, this floor was used to hang portraits of important meritorious officials and to display and introduce their major achievements.

These heroes include military generals, civil officials, and craftsmen, and their achievements also include military exploits, systems, and technology.

The diameter of the second floor of the Mingtang is reduced to 64 meters. The total height of this floor is also 64 meters, and it is also decorated with two layers of eaves.

This floor is dedicated to showcasing the achievements of Emperor Gong of Ming Dynasty.

The diameter and height of the third floor of the Mingtang remain the same as those of the second floor, both of which are still 64 meters.

There are also two layers of eaves on the third-floor roof, but the eaves converge in the middle here to form a tall spire.

The top of the spire is decorated with a celestial sphere, as well as antennas and lightning rods integrated into the decoration.

The Merit Building is the tallest building in the world, and the highest room on the third floor of the Mingtang can only be used to worship the four directions of heaven and earth and the emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

The square building of the Merit Building and the three-story circular hall make the total height of the entire building reach 256 meters.

If the decorations and antennas on the top are included, the total height reaches 320 meters.

Such an unprecedented giant building has only seven official floors, and the internal space is enormous.

Especially the three-story Mingtang, which is an unprecedented giant hall.

Standing inside this kind of building, the walls and roof can create a huge deterrent effect, and people can feel unprecedented shock.

An even larger square was designed around this giant building.

The square is centered on the Merit Building. It is one kilometer wide from east to west and two kilometers long from north to south, with a total area of ​​two square kilometers, or two million square meters.

That is to say, there will be a square plaza of nearly one million square meters on the north and south sides of the Merit Building.

While the main structure of the building is being completed, the decoration work inside and outside the building has already begun.

All the prepared materials were quickly sent into the building, and the exhibition objects that had been arranged in advance were also completed one after another, waiting to be sent to the decorated rooms.

The square ground around the building, the auxiliary buildings on the square, and the surrounding greenery and landscape facilities were actually completed earlier than the building itself.

However, during the main construction of the building, continuous input of materials was required, and these facilities were occasionally damaged.

After the main building was completed, the surrounding facilities began to be uniformly repaired.

A large number of workers were divided into many small teams, working simultaneously on the upper floors and on the ground of the entire construction site. They were busy until the winter came and the project was basically completed.

When the weather turned cooler, monarchs from all over the world began to come to Beijing one after another.

The monarchs who had never visited the Ming Dynasty factory before, as well as the monarchs whose last visit had been several years, were once again arranged by the Honglu Temple to visit the factory.

The last part of the tour is to see the Merit Building which is about to be completed.

When the vassal monarchs and their entourage passed through the major urban clusters of the Ming Dynasty, they found that high-rise buildings were being built everywhere.

The Ming Dynasty, which had just fought a world war and conquered the three major powers of Russia, Shun and the Ottoman Empire, did not suffer any impact on its domestic prosperity.

When they approached Shuntian City, they immediately noticed this huge new palace.

When they were led to the front of the building, they truly realized how terrifying this skyscraper was. It far surpassed all the man-made buildings in the world before.

Whether it is the newly established vassal state by Zhu Jianxuan, the old vassal state that was relocated to Africa, or the vassal state at the gate of the overseas kingdom.

Everyone had a very similar idea: the Ming Dynasty was simply too rich and powerful.

As time slowly approached winter, all the vassal monarchs who were loyal to the Ming Emperor gathered together.

In addition to these vassal monarchs, a group of special people also came. The British regent, the Prince of Wales, brought a group of British officials, along with his son-in-law and daughter's family, and also came to Shuntian Prefecture.

Britain is still nominally an independent country.

However, Princess Charlotte, the only legitimate daughter of the British Crown Prince, Prince of Wales, married Zhu Jingjian, the prince of the Ming Dynasty and King of Hanover.

This allowed Britain and the Ming Dynasty to establish a special relationship through the identities of their monarchs.

During the European wars, and the subsequent wars of unification, British politicians and businessmen were quite satisfied with the relationship.

Britain did not need to directly pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty to indirectly participate in the trade of the Ming Dynasty system.

Able to obtain Ming Dynasty’s goods and still maintain independence.

But things soon changed.

The Ming Dynasty's wars of unification against Russia, Shun, and the Ottoman Empire ended, and other European countries such as Spain and Sweden also pledged their allegiance to the Ming Dynasty.

The United Kingdom is the only nominally independent country in the world.

At the same time, under the instruction of Zhu Jianxuan, the Honglu Temple and the Ministry of Commerce and Customs began to target British merchants in various ways.

Mainly, it increased trade restrictions on British merchants.

At the beginning, if British merchants directly used the relevant place of origin in the UK in the customs declaration documents of the Ming Dynasty port, the customs would not process their entry and exit procedures and prohibited them from leaving with the goods.

The reason, of course, is that Britain is not a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and is not on the list of trading vassal states allowed by the court.

Later, it went a step further. If a merchant ship approaching the Daming port flew the British flag, and if people entering the Daming port used British identity documents, the customs would simply refuse to process their entry procedures.

They were not allowed to dock at Ming ports for supplies, and British merchants were prohibited from entering Ming territory.

The trade of British merchants was greatly restricted. They did not dare to confront the Ming Dynasty customs directly and could only return to their country to find a solution.

British businessmen cried out to their country's MPs, nobles and politicians, and British diplomats inquired about the situation from the Ming Dynasty's Honglu Temple.

The officials from the Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty replied to them in a serious tone that the imperial court's trade management over the vassal states was becoming increasingly strict, mainly because the trade share had to be evenly distributed among all the vassal states.

The transaction volume of ordinary merchants in the Ming Dynasty must be registered under the name of the corresponding vassal state, and Britain is not on this list at all.

Conflicts would arise between merchants from different vassal states over the allocation of trade quotas.

If customs officials allowed Britain to trade without restraint, it would cause dissatisfaction among merchants from other vassal states.

If British merchants still want to continue trading, they must be affiliated with a specific vassal state and use the trade quota of the corresponding vassal state.

The British thought that this was not a simple matter. Wouldn't it be enough to simply change the shipping company's registered place to Hanover and trade with the Ming Dynasty under the banner of Hanover?
But they soon discovered problems again, as the Kingdom of Hanover seemed unwilling to cooperate with them.

Hanover’s trade share is certainly not unlimited. Hanover itself has some local merchants, but more are Hanover merchants from the Ming Dynasty.

Ming Dynasty merchants registered companies in Hanover and then operated trade routes between Ming Dynasty and Germany.

The so-called trade share of vassal states only needs to be registered when entering and leaving the Ming territory. The Ming Customs and the Honglu Temple do not care where the merchants send the goods.

Officials from the Kingdom of Hanover directly stated that their shares had been used up and there was no way to distribute them to outsiders.

After this period of turmoil, the Ming Dynasty's wars against Russia, Shunde, and the Ottoman Empire came to an end, and British businessmen finally slowly discovered the problem.

The restriction on Britain's freedom of trade may indeed be caused by the Ming Dynasty's control over its vassal states, or it may be that the Ming Dynasty deliberately targeted Britain.

But whatever the real reason, it shows that Britain can no longer maintain its current status quo.

As the only independent country in the world, this pressure will only grow.

Under external pressure and driven by interests, all sectors of the British society demanded that Britain take the initiative to talk to the Ming Dynasty and find ways to bring the relationship closer.
So the British Crown Regent, the Prince of Wales, found his daughter and son-in-law and came to Shuntian Prefecture together.

King George III of England is still alive, but he is as insane as he was in history, and is now unable to exercise power.

George III's mental problems were a chronic disease that had accumulated over a long period of time and were not caused by accidental factors.

In the original history, George III was now at the end of his life and would not survive this winter and would die before the coming spring.

George III in this world became seriously ill a little later than in history, but is still dying.

The British Crown Prince, the Prince of Wales, became regent, handling matters that needed to be handled by the King on behalf of his father.

The Prince of Wales is already the de facto king, but he does not yet have the status of king.

In the original history, Charlotte, the daughter of Prince of Wales, died of dystocia, but the cause of dystocia was random.

Charlotte's life changed, especially she did not contract tuberculosis and married a prince from the Ming Dynasty.

Charlotte in this world gave birth without any problems. Now 23 years old, she and her husband gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl.

These children of Charlotte and Zhu Jingjian will be the future heirs to Britain and Hanover.

As the King of Hanover, Zhu Jingjian received the notice from the court and needed to pay homage to his father, the emperor, so he came with his father-in-law.

(End of this chapter)