"Still getting involved..." Zhu Yaofei sighed and said to himself, "Don't you know that revolution is contagious!"
After sighing, he continued reading, because now he is a spectator of history.
In his "General History of the Ming Dynasty" compiled by himself, Zhu Zhongshu used a great deal of space to describe the development of society, economy, people's livelihood, and humanistic thought in the middle and late stages of the Ming Dynasty's prosperous period from the end of the 18th century to the 1920s and 1930s.
This should be an era that Zhu Zhongshu witnessed with his own eyes... For the upper echelons of the Ming Empire, it was undoubtedly the best era. Everyone is immersed in the glory of the prosperous age and dreams of dominating the entire world!
But for the vast majority of the working people, there may be many beautiful things in the early stage of the prosperous age of common prosperity, but when this prosperous age enters the middle and late stages, what awaits them seems to be endless suffering... ..For a long time, a ticket to the New World and the Southern Continent was equivalent to hope!
The reason why the Ming Empire was able to navigate this thorny road of capitalism can be said to be indispensable to the Xia immigrant countries that existed in the New World and the Southern Continent!
Without these two good places, the working people of the Ming Empire would lose hope and wake up earlier...
When the revolution occurred in the Roman Empire, the Ming Empire in the East was at the peak of its "co-prosperity". This country has most of the world's industrial production capacity, and its products are sold all over the world. Its Royal Bank stores so much gold and silver that the credit of banknotes issued by the Royal Bank is equivalent to real gold and silver! There are so many super-rich people living in the empire. Their wealth can buy almost half of the world. Their investments are spread all over the countries of the Celestial Alliance. Through these investments, they actually control the economy of the entire Celestial Alliance.
For these people who seemed to have endless wealth and power, the revolution of the Roman Empire was undoubtedly their opportunity to take another step forward and become a leading force in the world!
However, in the big cities in the southeastern region of the Ming Dynasty, the heart of this glorious and prosperous empire, poverty is still everywhere, and the majority of working people can only rely on very meager wages to survive.
Because wages are so low, they cannot afford to buy or rent decent housing. Therefore, large slums have appeared around the industrial areas of major cities. Tens of millions of poor people live in dark slums, barely having enough food and clothing.
Of course, their food and clothing standards were still quite high in the eyes of the working people of the Qing Dynasty in another time and space... In terms of eating, they could meet the "high standard" of having three full meals and often having meat.
In terms of clothing, everyone is guaranteed to have something to change. Even if you walk around the slums, you won't see many people wearing shabby clothes with patches on them.
In addition, compulsory education has also become universal. There is no 9-year system, but 6-year primary school education is basically guaranteed.
So the children in the slums are all literate! Definitely able to understand revolutionary leaflets... According to Zhu Zhongshu's later analysis, these working people of the Ming Dynasty, who had almost nothing and little hope, but who had received 6 years of primary school education, were really a huge source of instability!
In particular, the population of the Celestial vassal states in the New World and the Southern Continent is also increasing, so survival is becoming increasingly difficult, and their ability to absorb the surplus population of the Old Continent is gradually declining.
Moreover, the local population of Ming Dynasty has been growing since the Hongxing and Zhongxing times. By the middle and late period of Xingdao, it had exceeded 400 million, reaching as many as 450 million.
Although by importing large amounts of food from overseas vassal countries, we can still ensure everyone's food and clothing. However, the supply is not abundant. Once there is any problem in the important food exporting countries such as the United States of Xinzhou, the Kingdom of Qing, the Kingdom of Siam, and the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, there may be a famine in the Ming Dynasty!
Therefore, the local social conflicts in the Ming Dynasty had become quite acute in the late years of Xingdao.
Unfortunately, from the perspective of the middle and upper classes of the Ming Dynasty, the working people had food to eat, clothes to wear, books to read, and the New World and the Southern Continent to go to...what else could they not be satisfied with? How could it be possible to make a revolution like the mob in Paris?
Therefore, the revolution in Paris did not arouse the vigilance of the upper echelons of the Ming Empire. Instead, it made them think that they had a god-given opportunity to achieve the big goal of "mixing the barbarians and Xia".
Actively intervening in European revolutions became a national policy in the middle and later stages of Xingdao.
The combination of scissor sailboats and steam engines, as well as the blood relationship between the Zhu Ming Dynasty, the Romanov Dynasty and the Mancini Dynasty, made it possible for the Ming Dynasty to intervene in the European revolution and expand the territory of the Tianmeng.
The clipper sailboat was "invented" by Zhu Cixiang in the 17th century. Over the next 100 years, the technology of clipper sailboats continued to improve. After the advent of the steam engine era, the clipper sailboat was quickly combined with the steam engine - instead of using the steam engine to push the water wheel and turning the sailboat into a steam sailboat, a small steam engine was used to pull the sail. This greatly improves the economy and maneuverability of the clipper boat!
By the end of the 18th century, there were even "super clipper ships" with a load capacity of more than 4,000 tons, dozens of sails, but only thirty or forty crew members to operate.
Using this "super clipper ship", it only takes 3 months to arrive in Europe or anywhere in the world from the mainland of Daming!
Moreover, an ambitious "Continental Railway" plan to connect Yingtianfu, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, was also proposed at the end of the 18th century!
In the view of the rulers of the Ming Empire at the end of the 18th century, long distances and rough seas could no longer stop their authority and edicts.
Even if they cannot establish a "global government", they can at least expand the Tianmeng system to the whole world.
It is natural for Ming Dynasty to become the leader of the world!
The Ming Dynasty exported its bloodline to the Mancini and Romanov dynasties, which further fueled the ambitions of the Ming rulers.
These two dynasties with huge influence on the European continent have their paternal lineage directly from the Ming Emperor!
Henry de Mancini, the founder of the Mancini dynasty, was the illegitimate son of Zhu Cihong. And Constantine I of the Romanov Dynasty was simply the direct prince of Ming Emperor Zhu Bolian... And starting from Elizabeth I, the monarchs of the Romanov Dynasty also believed that they should rule the world together with the Ming Dynasty!
Therefore, it seemed very feasible at the end of the 18th century to use the "Sky Alliance" and "Lower Body Fort" methods to rule the world.
In fact, at the end of the 18th century, except for a few "big dynasties" such as the Bourbon dynasty, the Ottoman dynasty, the Timurid dynasty, the Indian Li dynasty, the Brandenburg dynasty, and the Great Soviet Steel Dynasty in Western Rome, Other prominent dynasties in the world already have the blood of the Ming Dynasty... Among them, the Romanov dynasty, the Mancini dynasty, and the Braganza dynasty all have their paternal lines from the Ming Dynasty!
So, after Louis III's son Louis Charles and Louis III's brother, the Earl of Provence, fled to Vienna and begged for help from the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty began to interfere in European revolutions in 1794!
Of course, the purpose of the Ming Dynasty's intervention in the European revolution was not to restore the Western Roman Empire, but to expand the Celestial Alliance to Europe, thereby turning the Ming Empire into the suzerain of the world.
So while the Ming Dynasty spent real money and sent out expeditionary forces, Emperor Xingdao also paid tribute to the Romanov dynasty, the Mancini dynasty, the Bourbon dynasty (many branches of the Bourbon dynasty are still there), the Braganza dynasty Feudal dynasties such as (Brazil and Portugal), the Ottoman Dynasty, the Timurid Dynasty, and the Lee Dynasty of India have issued an "invitation to join the alliance"... The Tianmeng is now open to join, and everyone is welcome to join. This is a rare opportunity, don't miss!
