Zhu Jingyuan's attitude towards Lucia and Osman is different.
Osman was able to cede territory on a large scale at the negotiation table, but it was more difficult for Lucia.
After the Ottomans cut off the south of Anatolia, they can serve as a buffer zone between the Ming Dynasty and Taishi.
As for Lucia...for such a big thing, it's not a buffer zone at all, but a threat.
More importantly, the Ottomans are not a country in the final analysis.
Lucia is fundamentally a Spanish country, at least her current self-perception is still a Spanish country.
Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan wants to split Lucia, fully understand the Xianbei region east of the Urals, and give up the knowledge of the West.
Or it could be a complete enlightenment, allowing the Lucians to give up their identity as Taishites in their self-perception.
But in fact, the latter is a trap, and Lucia is seeking death if she really does that.
Splitting the east of the Urals is the only way to survive by cutting off the tail.
For Ming Dynasty, the most affordable thing is actually this kind of tail-cutting to survive.
Anyway, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to directly establish a chief envoy for the land directly ceded by Lucia. It had to be set up as a vassal state first, but there should be no vassal king for a long time.
If Lucia takes the initiative to split up, it will be an extra vassal for the Ming Dynasty, but at the same time, it can also easily obtain more land and resources.
Although Ming mocked Ottoman and Austria as stitching monsters, Daming himself was actually a product of stitching.
It's just that Austria and the Ottomans were random monsters stitched together, while the Ming Dynasty can be regarded as a carefully crafted handicraft.
The sutures of the Ming Dynasty have a clear main body.
The number of people in the Ming Dynasty accounts for two-thirds of the total population, and the population of the local directly-administered areas accounts for one-half of the total population. After the reform, the population of the directly-administered areas will increase to two-thirds.
Most of the important manufacturer organizations and industrial production capabilities of the Ming Dynasty were concentrated in the local area. After the reform, the industrial production capacity of directly-administered areas accounted for an absolute majority.
Ming's sutures have layers and veins.
Zhili, local, internal vassal, Huangzhuang, close vassal, xun vassal, and outer vassal, from the inside to the outside, the control strength and independence of the imperial court waxed and waned, which was very clear and clear.
Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, the elegant dialect of the Ming Dynasty was commonly used, as well as the etiquette, uniforms, and official systems of the Ming Dynasty. Ming-style cultural and entertainment products were popular throughout the Ming Dynasty. No local culture could compete with this.
Today's Ming Dynasty is a cluster of civilizations with a clear center, not a country in the modern sense.
If we must compare it, it can barely be regarded as a federal empire.
In the historical Second German Empire, if Prussia could become the clear suzerain of all other states, it would be similar to the current Ming Dynasty, but the scale would be far different.
There is a subject, there are rules, and there is cultural centripetal force.
A newly added part can be integrated naturally and slowly even if the Ming court does not provide special guidance.
If the Ming court paid special attention, the pace of assimilation and integration would accelerate again.
After Lucia's Ural East was cut off and sewn to Daming's body, it was basically impossible for it to break away.
They will gradually be absorbed by the Ming Dynasty group and eventually become part of the Ming Dynasty civilization.
The Thai people have a certain understanding of this situation, but they are still relatively immodest and behave more cautiously.
But these two choices seem to have given in after all.
The atmosphere at the meeting, which was extremely depressing, recovered slightly.
After quickly clarifying the logic of the two new options, Wedemeyer, chairman of the Lucia Cabinet Ministers Committee, subconsciously wanted to bargain:
"Since Lucia has been made a vassal, or the Xianbei part of the Romanov dynasty has been split into a vassal, we should not cede any more land."
Zhu Jingyuan directly waved his hand to stop the other party:
“The cession of the Lena River Basin and the upper reaches of the Yenisei River is a prerequisite and compensation for Lucia’s initiative to tear up the peace treaty. There is no room for discussion.
“Then, split the area east of Ural and become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, or Lucia as a whole can become a tributary state of the Ming Dynasty.
“Or directly cede Central Xianbei, make Western Xianbei a demilitarized zone, and sign a twenty-year peace treaty.
"There is no room for further discussion among the three options. You can only choose which one to accept, or continue the war directly."
Prince Nicholas still had a dark face and said nothing.
Wedemeyer bowed to Zhu Jingyuan:
"Your Highness the Food King, we need time to discuss and consider."
Zhu Jingyuan waved his hand as he expected:
"Like Osman, you have one month."
Today's meeting ended just as it started.
Zhu Jingyuan sat in his seat and watched the representatives carefully leave the hall. He closed his eyes and thought for a while.
His father conveyed his grandfather's intention. If he really wanted a twenty-year truce, then he should be a little more relaxed towards Lucia.
Force Lucia to sign a twenty-year peace treaty, and then move the advance base to Khiva and Kazakhstan.
If you follow your own personal wishes, you will have to cease war for 20 years and wait until Ming Dynasty's equipment has been upgraded, and then there will be another world war.
But those twenty years of armistice must also be the time for Lucia to prepare for the war with all her strength. Lucia will mobilize all the forces she can.
In the next war, Ming Dynasty should be able to win the overall situation, but there will definitely be many variables in the details.
Taking into account the reality and the possible losses and casualties caused by war, it is obviously better to directly obtain permanent peace.
Many things can be achieved without war, or without a world war.
The two selection conditions she set out actually relieved Lucia's pressure and gave them room to breathe and rethink.
But now it's time to increase the pressure again, otherwise the other party will definitely not appoint him honestly.
Zhu Jingyuan thought about it for a while, then opened his eyes again. All the ordinary representatives at the scene had already left, so he ordered his staff:
"Send a message to the capital and the right army governor's office. In ten days, Khiva will be established as a vassal and the army will enter."
After the representatives of the Anti-Ming Alliance countries left the palace, they went directly to the place where the Lucia representatives lived to conduct internal emergency consultations again.
As soon as the door of the conference room was closed, Prince Nicholas, who was holding his breath, spoke first and loudly said to the representatives of several other countries:
"You are all traitors!"
Representatives from other countries looked embarrassed.
The British Prince of Wales came out to comfort him and said:
"Nicholas, don't be like this. In fact, our strategy has already taken effect. The last two conditions given by Ming Dynasty are already considered concessions."
Prince Nikolai’s anger is still not gone:
“But we actually made concessions and tacitly accepted the request to hand over the Lena River Basin and the upper reaches of the Yenisei River to the Ming Dynasty.
"Those two options were obviously prepared in advance and should have been ultimatums, just like the conditions given to Osman."
French Foreign Minister Talleyrand immediately said:
"What we have to consider now is how Lucia should choose, instead of dwelling on the past."
Archduke Karl of Austria laughed dryly and said:
“If we follow our past traditional understanding of Europa, it is obviously more appropriate to split only the east of the Urals.
“It is more in line with the interests of the Romanov family to establish the Xianbei Principality governed by a branch of the Romanov family and become part of the Ming Empire.
“Because then we only need to make the area east of the Ural pay taxes to the Ming Empire, while the area west of the Ural can still develop independently.
“But you have to consider that the person you want to be loyal to is the Ming Emperor, not other European monarchs.
"It is a question whether you can continue to exist independently as a branch of Ming's family after you branch off.
"It is said that as far as I know, there are too many people in Lucia, especially in the East, who are in Lucia and have Ming Dynasty in their hearts.
Archduke Karl was not good at diplomacy to begin with, so these words were more direct and rude.
The key is that the statement that one's heart is in the Ming Dynasty is a bit like exposing one's shortcomings to Lucia.
Prince Nicholas was on fire, looking at Archduke Karl of the Habsburg family, and said angrily:
“The royal family of the Ming Dynasty only married local commoners, and they did not need to marry to enhance and maintain the dignity of the royal family.
"They will never marry into other royal families, let alone seize other families' territories through marriage."
Through continuous marriages, the Habsburgs gradually became the largest royal family in Europe and the West, and were nicknamed the "lower body castle" by later generations of netizens.
He once ruled the entire Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and half of Italy, and occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for a long time.
Grand Duke Karl was not good at diplomacy to begin with. Prince Nicholas’s words made Karl a little irritated, so he snorted coldly and said:
"We in Austria don't care about your Lucia affairs. You can choose how to be Ming's dog."
Faced with this unkind humiliation, Prince Nicholas couldn't bear it anymore:
"Who wants to be Ming's dog? The one who most wants to cease the war and withdraw from the anti-Ming alliance and then form an alliance with Ming is you, Austria, right?"
Archduke Karl went straight up and subconsciously wanted to take out his weapon.
Fortunately, everyone went to the palace to negotiate in the morning and didn't bring any weapons with them, so they just spent all their money.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the court representatives on both sides immediately came out and grabbed the royal family members from both sides.
Then British Prime Minister Peter came out to maintain order:
"Both Your Highnesses, please calm down. We at Europa cannot mess up on our own. That is the result that Ming Dynasty wants."
Lucia's court representative Wedemeyer grabbed his own prince:
“There are four options before us. First, continue the war. Second, stop the war for twenty years and then continue the war.
“Third, the whole will become a special vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and fourth, Xianbei will be split into an ordinary vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.
“The only thing we can choose is the fourth one.
"And there is no need to think about opportunism at all, Ming Dynasty will definitely have detailed requirements and supervision.
"The Ming Dynasty doesn't mind continuing the war at all."
Lucia herself is obviously inclined to split up and use a branch of the Romanov family to pay tribute and reconcile with the Ming Dynasty to preserve the continuation of the Romanov dynasty.
But this is obviously not in the interest of other Thai-Spanish countries. After Lucia reconciled with Ming Dynasty, she became a hellhound on the Thai-Spanish border.
So France’s Talleyrand spoke directly:
"Have you not considered making full preparations to challenge the Ming Dynasty again in twenty years?"
Wedemeyer shook his head feebly and said:
"Impossible, we Lucia are no match for Ming Dynasty."
Talleyrand immediately asked:
"What about the whole of Europe? We have stood together today, and we must stand together in the future, otherwise we will only become Ming Dynasty's dogs!"
Everyone else was stunned when they heard this.
Talleyrand immediately expressed his thoughts:
“The so-called League of Nations organized by Ming Dynasty has no practical significance for us, it is just a platform for negotiation with Ming Dynasty.
“We want to preserve our own anti-Ming alliance and transform it into a long-standing alliance or even an actual federation.
“The native population of Ming Dynasty is only over 300 million, and our native population in Europe is also over 300 million.
“If all of us Europeans were truly united, there would be no way for Ming Dynasty to bully us so casually.
“Although our cooperation this time was not smooth, we have managed to tie with Daming.
“What if we spent twenty years really connecting each other?
“We have fully opened our borders to each other and fully connected our rail and road lines.
“Open up industry and finance to each other, eliminate import and export restrictions between each other, and allow manufacturers to operate freely throughout Europe.
“Form a military force directly under the Alliance and even the Federation to jointly defend our territory and oceans.
"If we wait twenty years to fight again, we may not be able to draw with the Ming Dynasty again, and we may not be able to win the battle.
"As long as we are truly united, Ming Dynasty can only put us on the same level as countries like Rome.
“This is a very clear and clear direction and the only direction.
"We all have the opportunity to be on an equal footing with Ming Dynasty. There is no need for anyone to beg for mercy from Ming Dynasty!"
Talleyrand's words were filled with excitement, and several representatives on the scene were also moved with excitement.
But there are also people who are thinking calmly and objectively, and there are also people who directly raise doubts.
Prussian Hardenberg asked directly:
"How should we unite specifically? Who should be the leader of our alliance, or even the emperor of the federal empire?
"What language should be used within the alliance and even the federation? We can't continue to communicate in Ming Yayan, right?
“To fully open borders and traffic and tariffs is simply not fair to our countries.
“We, Austria, Italy and Portugal are all native countries, while Britain, France, Spain and Portugal are countries with colonies.
"How can we unite among ourselves? Are you willing to take out the colonial market and share it with us?"
Talleyrand responded without hesitation:
“I have actually thought deeply about Mr. Hardenberg’s questions, otherwise I wouldn’t be talking nonsense here.
“My idea is that the leader of the Alliance and even the Emperor of the Federation could be elected like the Holy Roman Empire.
“But the Alliance and even the Federation should have greater power than the Shinra Court, and all countries should jointly transfer some of their power.
“The language uses traditional Latin, and all our countries have popularized Latin education in their own countries, so that books can be written in the same language.
"The colonies of our four countries can be arranged to be taken over by branches of their respective royal families, split into independent countries, and join our alliance."
Some representatives of the royal family and court nodded gently while others could not help but shake their heads vigorously.
Hardenberg still disapproved and said:
“The model of the Holy Roman Empire cannot produce a truly powerful empire, because such an empire has no basis for governance at all.
"According to Emperor Renwu of Ming Dynasty, he is a suture monster.
“Almost all European and Western countries have tried to learn traditional Chinese calligraphy and text education, but the results vary greatly.
“Only countries like Prussia, France, England, and Lucia, which have absolute dominant nationalities, can implement it smoothly.
"Austria and the Ottomans are not good at all. They have made greater efforts than us, but the results are worse than ours.
"Because they don't have a real core ethnic group.
“If we forcefully promote Latin throughout Europe, it will be more difficult than popularizing Ottoman Turkish in Ottoman.
“The Europa League that you put together this way also has no real core.
"At most, it's just a large Austrian or Ottoman one, or maybe even just a large Shinra one.
"They are still useless stitch monsters. They can't really concentrate their strength at all. When encountering problems, they still fight on their own.
"It is basically impossible to want the royal families of various countries to transfer their power to an uncertain target."
Talleyrand immediately continued his response:
“Of course there are difficulties, but this is the direction we should be working towards and this is the only direction we can succeed in.
"Even if we can only reach the level of Austria, we in Europa will be more powerful than we are now.
"At least I have the ability to say no to Ming Dynasty, and I have the ability to no longer be arbitrarily bullied by Ming Dynasty."
Hardenberg still shook his head in disbelief, obviously still not believing that Talleyrand's vision could be realized.
But Hardenberg himself had no good solution. Since there is no dominant nation in Europe, unification is impossible.
Even if it is unified by the force of a certain emperor, it will only be a large Austria at most. This kind of suture monster country may collapse at any time.
The discussion at the scene reached a stalemate.
