"Nice to meet you, Your Highness Victoria."
In the splendid hall of the Hofburg Grand Palace, in full view of everyone, a beautiful boy of about sixteen years old, wearing a red five-clawed dragon pattern robe and a black gauze folded scarf, was speaking in English with the Princess Regent of the United Kingdom. Princess Victoria, the Crown Prince, greeted and saluted.
Princess Victoria was born in 1819 and is only 13 years old this year. She is a pink and tender loli. She is a small girl with very delicate facial features and a bit of baby fat. She is wearing a lace palace dress. She looks like a British doll, which is quite flattering.
Victoria raised her head and looked at the young prince of the Ming Dynasty in front of her. He was not as domineering as he had imagined. He was not only gentle and courteous, like a humble gentleman, but he also looked very elegant and handsome.
Under the watchful eye of His Royal Highness King Daming Lu, Victoria also held up her skirt and curtsied to Zhu Xiyan.
"Nice to meet you, Your Highness."
Her voice is very soft, her manners are calm and elegant, and she speaks flawless Chinese.
"You speak Chinese very well." Zhu Xiyou looked at the girl in front of him, lowered his voice, and started to speak Chinese.
"I... I actually don't know how to speak." Princess Victoria seemed a little embarrassed. Although she was working hard to learn Chinese, she still had not mastered this complicated language and could only speak some simple conversations.
"Then let's continue speaking English." Zhu Xiyou laughed, "You must not have been learning Chinese for a long time, otherwise you will master this language very quickly with your intelligence."
"I'm afraid I'm not as smart as you think..." Victoria lowered her gaze in frustration, "Chinese is really difficult...it is not made up of letters, but made up of countless square characters. consist of."
"Don't be anxious, take your time, you will learn it, and I can teach you." Zhu Xiyou comforted her.
"That's great..." The girl looked at Zhu Xiyan again, "But we in Britain are at war with your Ming Dynasty. Although there is no official declaration of war, the war has been going on for a long time. ....."
"That's a matter for adults," Zhu Xiyou pondered for a moment, then spoke again, "It shouldn't have much to do with us, right? When adults fight a war, they always need to sign a peace treaty. , and ours...is the guarantee of peace, and that is our responsibility as members of the Royal Family."
"Uh...well..." After hearing Zhu Xi's words, Princess Victoria also felt that it made sense. She wanted to nod in agreement, but suddenly thought of something embarrassing.
Zhu Xiyou looked at the shy look of the girl in front of him, and just smiled and said: "Your Highness, can I ask you to dance? Although dancing with us holding hands will not bring peace to the world, at least You can add a guardrail to this war. This excuse is a bit strange, but... Your Highness, I just want to dance with you, is that okay?"
As he spoke, King Zhu Xi of Ming Dynasty placed his hand in front of Princess Victoria and formally extended an invitation to her.
Princess Victoria was a little shy, but she still raised her hand and took the hand of King Daming Lu.
The music of waltz began.
While the boys and girls were dancing, in a conference room in the Hofburg Palace, several elderly men were sitting around laughing and discussing something in a low voice.
"Oh, I have started dancing and it is developing very fast...Duke, how about letting His Royal Highness Prince Lu become the crown prince of India?"
"This is not possible. The Crown Prince of India is Her Royal Highness the Princess. She will be the future Queen of India. Her Royal Highness the Prince...otherwise, she should be the King of Australia!"
"This is not okay, Australians must get rid of British colonial rule, so the husband of the Queen of England cannot be the king."
"Prince, when you mentioned that Australians must get rid of Britain, did you ever think of asking for the opinions of Australians? Maybe they are all loyal subjects of the British King?"
"How is it possible? When you count Australians, you don't regard them as human beings, but classify them as animals. How can they become loyal subjects of the British King?"
"Prince, the Australians you mentioned turned out to be the Aboriginals!"
"They're the real Australians... aren't they?"
"No, this is unacceptable!"
Among the several old men were Zhuge Weijiu, the King of Wu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhuge Weixue, the Marquis of Wuxiang in the Ming Dynasty, Wei Yuanda, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, British Prime Minister Wellington, British Foreign Secretary Robert Peel, and British Home Secretary Melbourne. Viscount.
And what they are discussing is of course the conditions for peace.
Zhuge Weijiu proposed to make Zhu Xi the crown prince of India, which was to control the power of India. In fact, Ming Dynasty had no intention of Indian territory, but Ming Dynasty could not allow India to be integrated into a unified country by the British. India must be broken up into twenty or thirty small independent or semi-independent political entities.
While the Ming Dynasty was getting involved in India, Australia and western Oregon had to be taken over first.
The Duke of Wellington proposed that Australia should be kept on the British Empire's plate, but King Zhu Xi of Lu could be appointed as the Grand Duke of Australia - that is, the Ming Dynasty should be allowed to eat a little bit of Australia's oil and water. But sovereignty is not negotiable!
But the Ming Dynasty is unwilling to admit that the British Empire has sovereignty over Australia. According to the Ming Dynasty, Australia belongs to the native Australians, not the foreign white British!
In other words, the differences between the two sides are still quite large!
Zhuge Weixue spoke at this time: "Duke, Prince, let's not just talk about our differences, let's talk about our consensus... I think the marriage between His Royal Highness Prince Lu and Princess Victoria is the consensus between us. ?”
Duke Wellington nodded, "Of course! But... Her Royal Highness the Princess is the Crown Prince of the British Empire, but Her Royal Highness Prince Lu is not the presumptive heir to the Ming Dynasty throne. Doesn't this seem quite equitable?"
Emperor Zhu Xijin of the Ming Dynasty still has no son. However, the rule of the Ming Dynasty is the "emperor selection system". The heir to the throne must be selected from the three princes' palaces, rather than ranking based on proximity.
According to this rule, after Zhu Xiyou married Victoria, it would be impossible for him to inherit the Ming Dynasty throne, and his and Victoria's descendants would not be selected as heirs to the throne.
From this perspective, the UK is somewhat at a loss in this "super marriage".
However, Britain's losses also reflect the current battlefield situation - Ming Dynasty has a considerable advantage, and Britain is at a disadvantage.
So Duke Wellington just mentioned it to see if he could exchange this "loss" for something from Ming Dynasty? Even if I can't change it, I still have to get married.
Because the engagement between Victoria and Zhu Xiu is equivalent to setting up a guardrail for the disadvantaged British Empire - the empire does exist after all!
Otherwise, if the two sides continue to fight endlessly, they might completely destroy the British Empire, which would be a huge loss.
On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty actually wanted to protect the British Empire...Britain was the troublemaker in Europe!
Europe cannot be unified as long as Britain is here. Without the troublemaker of Great Britain, let alone Napoleon, Louis XIV might have failed in the great cause of unifying Europe. In addition to Louis XIV and Napoleon, Europe was almost unified by the Germans in another timeline! William II and Mustache both had opportunities, and they were all messed up by the British.
As an extraterritorial European superpower with deep friendships with France and the Rakshasa Kingdom, the Ming Dynasty must create a "Zhu Family Great Britain" to avoid the unification of Europe.
Because without the "Zhu Family Great Britain", Europe would not be able to form a tripartite state, but it would be easy for France and Rakshasa to confront each other!
The confrontation between the two powers is the most unstable. If you are not careful, it will become a unified force!
