The polite flattery and cheering came to an end, and Zhu Jingyuan continued to explain his formal thoughts:
“In order to show our sincerity, after the peace talks are over, our Ming Dynasty can make a formal peace commitment.
“We, the Ming Dynasty, will never—ask for and occupy an inch of land in the Western Continent—what you call the Europa Continent.
“But the countries in Europe and the West must also make a commitment to never claim or occupy any new land outside of Mozhou and Yinzhou.
"These commitments can be spelled out in the peace treaty signed after this negotiation."
Before Zhu Jingyuan finished speaking, a burst of exclamations broke out on the scene.
British Prime Minister Peter instinctively asked immediately:
"May I ask His Highness the Food King, is this a promise made by you personally, or is it a promise made by the Ming Dynasty and the royal family?"
Zhu Jingyuan answered directly:
"Our Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty court and the royal family, and myself, we jointly make a commitment, but only if the negotiations are completed and the peace treaty is signed normally."
The scene immediately erupted in enthusiastic and sincere cheers, as well as the sound of multiple camera exposures.
Although Daming "sold" teammates several times, those teammates who were sold actually had no substantive covenants.
When the Ming Dynasty had a relative advantage, it was impossible to conclude an equal alliance treaty with the barbarians. It only had the unequal relationship of tributary states.
After Zhu Cihong, the tributary states were required to become actual vassal states. There were no longer the tributary states that failed to fulfill their obligations.
Businessmen or organizations pretending to be the name of the country to defraud tribute were completely put to an end after the Ming Dynasty understood the world structure.
The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom all refused to sign the suzerainty-vassal treaty to become vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, they all "thought themselves" to be allies of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the Ming Dynasty had no "written evidence" at all.
Except for the routine sect-vassal treaties, the agreements that the Ming Dynasty actually signed were basically armistice and peace treaties.
Moreover, they are all peace agreements after achieving the ideal goal, and there is basically no need to fight the other party in the follow-up.
The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have all been completely driven out of the Great Ocean and Little Western Ocean, and there is no longer any direct conflict between the two sides.
Daming was too lazy to talk to them anymore.
Therefore, the agreements that Ming Dynasty actually signed are actually very reliable, but the things that have not been written down are meaningless.
All countries in Europe and the West understand this very well.
If Ming Dynasty really made a written guarantee and promised not to seize the land of the mainland of Thailand and Spain in the future, the heads of state and royal families of the countries in Thailand and Spain would cheer.
As for the commitment they themselves need to make, it's not a big deal.
The Daming Ocean and Xiaoxi Ocean areas were already the sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty.
The only places they can continue to develop in the future are Yinzhou and Mozhou.
The fundamental reason why Zhu Jingyuan wanted to make a promise on behalf of Ming Dynasty was to reduce Ming Dynasty's pressure on Taixi as much as possible.
The direct cause of the outbreak of the last war was the overwhelming pressure that the Ming Dynasty put on the Taixi people.
Originally it was just to capture southern Tianzhu and Egypt, but accidentally it turned into a world war.
Now we have to make the countries in Thailand and the West truly believe that the Ming Dynasty really has no interest in their homeland, so that they can really let go of fighting among themselves.
It is true that Ming Dynasty did not have much interest in the mainland of Thailand and the West.
There are no resources in mainland China that the Ming Dynasty values. The key is that there are more than 300 million Thais here.
The few Boers in Nanmo made it difficult for Ming Dynasty, and it was impossible to occupy the hometown of 300 million Thai people.
In history, the British Empire showed its fatigue during the Boer War and its hegemonic position began to weaken.
Zhu Jingyuan did not want to go to Europe to fight an expanded Boer War.
As for Zhu Jingyuan's own ideal goal, he is to drive all the Westerners back to his homeland.
Treat the Thai mainland as a reservation for the Thai people, and use economic and cultural means to contain and interfere.
By then, no matter whether they can truly integrate or not, it will be difficult to pose a real threat to the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, it can also serve as a warning and an external driving force of hostility to prevent the Ming Dynasty from completely lying down and decadent.
Since we were not planning to occupy the mainland of Thailand in the first place, this kind of commitment was a boon.
Moreover, this kind of commitment from Daming will only be formally made when the contract is formally signed, and will not be formally written into the peace treaty.
It was all empty talk until the peace treaty was signed.
But this empty talk is like a carrot, which can urge the Thais to slightly lower their negotiation goals and implement this commitment as soon as possible.
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded amidst the cheers. After the cheers subsided slightly, he continued to explain his thoughts and attitude:
“Our Ming Dynasty’s commitments are very cautious and serious, and so far we have never voluntarily breached the contract.
“We originally promised not to deploy capital ships in the Daqin Sea (Mediterranean Sea), but we have never built capital ships there.
"The most we could do was build a few armored cruisers. It wasn't until the countries in Europe and the West declared war that our Ming Dynasty gave up on our promise.
“After we formally signed the armistice agreement with Lucia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, Ming Dynasty has never unilaterally provoked a war again.
“Especially Lucia, since the three Xianbei wars more than a hundred years ago, our two sides have signed a formal peace treaty.
“After that, we never launched another attack on Lucia.
“Even if it was later discovered that Lucia could pass through the tributaries west of the Lena River and several tributaries on the Yenisey River, it would pose a certain threat to our Ming Dynasty’s border areas.
“But we never thought about occupying it.
"We maintained peace with Lucia for a hundred years, until Lucia joined the Anti-Ming Alliance and took the initiative to provoke this war.
“Our two countries have just entered a state of war again.
“Therefore, Lucia, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands must unilaterally tear up the truce and peace treaty with Ming Dynasty and take the initiative to make necessary compensation for launching war against Ming Dynasty.
“Especially Lucia!
“We guided you to change and become prosperous, so that your royal family could be passed on normally, and we changed your centuries-old tradition of palace coups.
"But you turned around and faced each other with force!
"It's hard to believe your sincerity in the truce now!"
Following Zhu Jingyuan's words, the scene quickly became quiet.
The representatives first looked at the four countries mentioned by Zhu Jingyuan, and finally they all fell on the face of Representative Lucia.
This is naming criticism...
The expression on the face of the chairman of Lucia's Council of Ministers, equivalent to the position of Prime Minister or Prime Minister, Yinvan Andreevich Wedemeyer, became very ugly.
Prince Nicholas of Lucia stood up directly and said loudly with a ferocious expression:
"Even if the last Lucian is killed, we will not be able to give up land outside of Europe!"
Zhu Jingyuan was a little surprised by Nicholas's reaction. He didn't immediately understand why the other party's reaction was so strong. He seemed to be greatly insulted.
The atmosphere at the scene suddenly dropped to freezing point, and the entire hall was quiet.
Zhu Jingyuan has already experienced it. If something happens that he cannot understand immediately, it is probably because his memory has been confused for two lifetimes.
So Zhu Jingyuan frowned and sorted out the memories of this world in this life, and slowly understood the logic in the minds of Prince Nicholas and other Taixi people.
I just said that the Ming Dynasty can guarantee not to occupy the land of the mainland of the West. The underlying meaning is that it is possible for the Ming Dynasty to occupy the land outside the West.
For other Thai and Western countries, they have no idea about this potential meaning, because their hometowns are all within the scope of Thailand and Spain.
Only Lucia and Ottoman are not pure Tes-Western countries.
Osman was not named by Zhu Jingyuan to ask for compensation, and Osman did not apologize to Daming, but it was equivalent to not receiving a guarantee.
For Lucia, Daming asked Lucia to make compensation by name, which was misleading in line with Daming's previous promise.
Lucia and other Taisi representatives subconsciously believed that Ming was demanding all non-Taisi territory from Lucia as compensation.
More importantly, the border line of the Western European continent in this era is not the one that Zhu Jingyuan was familiar with in his previous life.
Not the line of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains.
This line was the modern continental boundary that was basically determined in 1846.
Before 1846, the border between Thailand and Spain in the traditional understanding of the Thai people was the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Don River and the line to the north...
There is no very clear border north of the source of the Don River, and Moscow, the capital of Lucia, happens to be in this area.
So according to the traditional Thai-Western border, Moscow might not be a Thai-Western city at all.
It was not until the continental border was moved to the Urals in 1846 that Moscow became a serious European and Western city.
This matter in the Norwegian Realm is led by the Lucians.
Although most of the continental boundaries are on their land, it is more convenient for them to survey and analyze, and it is easier for them to find suitable natural boundaries.
But there is always a feeling of forcibly leaving Asia and joining Europe...
This may be one of the reasons why the Tessie don't regard Lucy as a kindred spirit.
Therefore, Prince Nicholas now instinctively believes that the Ming Dynasty is in all the land east of Somosco.
This request is obviously impossible to accept, even if Lucia dies.
After he figured it out, Zhu Jingyuan couldn't help but laugh out loud. He really laughed out loud:
"Haha, Prince Nicholas, don't be nervous, our Ming Dynasty's commitment to the countries in Europe and the West does not include Lucia's and Ottoman's.
"Because Lucia and Ottoman are not from Western countries, they are probably Xianbei or Mongolians, so our commitment will be discussed separately.
"I have no idea of asking for territory east of Moscow, nor do I have any idea of the Anatolian Plateau. These are all sincere..."
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and explained, and the atmosphere at the scene quickly recovered.
Especially the joke between the Xianbei and the Mongols made the Ming Dynasty and Taixi representatives all laugh in unison.
This joke is not an insult, but a way of expressing a close relationship with Ming.
Only the Lucian looked embarrassed, but the inexplicable anger just now was indeed gone.
Several Ottoman representatives were quite nervous before, but now they are a little more relaxed.
The Ming Dynasty promised not to plot against the Anatolian Plateau, which was certainly a good thing for them.
But in fact, the effect of sky-high asking prices has actually been achieved.
In the subsequent negotiation process, they will subconsciously regard this as the first round of asking price.
After the atmosphere at the scene returned to a relaxed state, Zhu Jingyuan raised his hands slightly and pressed them down, and the scene soon became completely quiet.
Zhu Jingyuan continued to explain his idea:
"China and Europe promise to each other not to plot against each other's homeland and fortress areas, which is the first pillar to ensure peace in the era.
“What I want to talk about now is the second pillar, which is to formulate universal principles for the peaceful handling of international affairs in the conference agenda.
“First of all, the basic principles. We must clarify the concepts of territory, territorial sea and airspace, and determine the concepts of inland seas, border coasts and high seas.
“The purpose of these basic principles is to clarify which lands and seas and spaces are areas through which all countries can freely pass.
“Which areas require authorization from the corresponding country to pass through innocently, and which areas can be regarded as a declaration of war if you enter them rashly.
“Then, clarify the principles of exploration, development, and occupation of terra nullius, and use this set of principles to determine land ownership rather than war.
“Finally, although I pursue peace, I also understand that war cannot be completely avoided, so we must also formulate rules related to war.
“How to declare war, how to mediate, how to sign contracts, what kind of general process should there be.
“What weapons can and cannot be used, how civilians and prisoners of war are treated in war.
“What kind of tactics are normal acts of war, and what kind of actions are crimes against humanity that violate principles.
"I hope that we can formulate all these principles and rules during this peace negotiation and jointly abide by them in the future."
Zhu Jingyuan paused at this point, and the scene was quiet for a few seconds, and then burst into even more enthusiastic cheers.
Zhu Jingyuan initially said that for the sake of peace in this era, all the representatives thought it was just a superficial courtesy.
When Zhu Jingyuan mentioned the mutual commitment to expand the scope, the representatives truly cheered and became happy.
Zhu Jingyuan talked about the principles of international affairs, and the representatives began to think seriously one after another.
Finally, when it came to the principles of war, the delegates began to be truly convinced.
If these commitments, ideas, and principles can really be realized, then the frequency of wars in the future world will definitely be reduced.
This young prince of the East truly came with a vision of peace.
The key is to pursue peace in the end, but we do not expect to completely avoid war, but hope that war can be controlled.
This is the mentality of a benevolent person who truly understands the world and returns to his original nature.
If both sides of the war can really abide by certain rules in fighting, the injuries suffered by ordinary people and soldiers in the war can also be reduced.
No matter who came up with these ideas, they are definitely worthy of admiration.
Many representatives directly and loudly pledged their willingness to jointly formulate and abide by these principles.
Work hard to pursue peace and make war controllable.
There was a lively discussion for a while, and then Lucy spontaneously became quiet again.
Because Zhu Jingyuan said before, these are the first and second pillars to ensure peace in the era.
Then there should be a third pillar.
After all, only three legs can stand.
Zhu Jingyuan was of course ready, so he spoke directly at this time:
“Finally, the third pillar of ensuring peace in our time is the organizational platform that oversees and implements the first two pillars.
“All our countries have jointly formed and joined a broad international organization to coordinate international conflicts and relations.
“Discuss and determine territorial principles, resolve colonial development disputes, and supervise the behavior of both parties in the war.
“We will also impose collective sanctions on countries that violate our principles and order them to make corrections.
“To put it bluntly, it is to allow all countries to have a place to complain, negotiate, quarrel, compromise, and exchange interests.
"We can call it the International Parliament, or the League of Nations."
Zhu Jingyuan's suggestion was of course good, just like the League of Nations' original idea was also good, and many representatives cheered again.
However, some professional diplomats and politicians have keenly discovered some problems.
Daming is definitely going to join this organization. What is Daming’s status in this organization?
Should the Ming Dynasty be the judge of the quarrel between several European and Western countries?
