A few days after Zhu Jingyuan sent the telegram to Charles and Chu Yuqiang, before they were ready to set off, Napoleon's telegram was delivered to Zhu Jingyuan.
Zhu Jingyuan was a little surprised after seeing it, and then asked Lin Zexu and Niu Jian to be called over.
Zhu Jingyuan showed Charles's telegram and Napoleon's telegram to his two staff and asked:
"What do these two gentlemen think Ming Dynasty should choose now?
"Don't worry, think about it before talking..."
After Zhu Jingyuan asked the question, he did not rush the two staff to answer, leaving them enough time to think carefully.
A few minutes later, Niu Jian glanced at Lin Zexu. Lin Zexu smiled and nodded, so Niu Jian spoke first:
“Students believe that the most beneficial plan for Ming Dynasty is to trigger civil strife in Britain and France.
"Find a way to keep the French prince in the Ming Dynasty, and ask Napoleon to send the eldest daughter of the British prince here, while refusing to mediate.
"Help and support Napoleon from the rear so that he can continue to fight against the British and French forces.
"At the same time, it attacked Britain and France economically, bribed their domestic nobles and businessmen to create chaos.
“It would be better to cause riots in both countries and completely collapse the royal family and court.
“Instigating the internal forces of the two countries to continue fighting and destroying each other will consume the human, financial and production capabilities of both countries.
“The Ming Dynasty finally came forward and sent the eldest daughter of the French Crown Prince and the British Crown Prince back to the country to succeed to the throne and restore order in the two countries.
“But this will damage the political image of Ming Dynasty, and even damage the credibility of the royal family and His Highness...
“We deliberately left the French Crown Prince and the British Crown Prince’s eldest daughter stranded, while sitting back and watching or even promoting civil strife in the two countries.
“It’s impossible for the parties involved to completely fail to see through our purpose, and it’s impossible for the intellectuals in the other party’s country to fail to see through it.
“Doing so can significantly weaken the national power of Britain and France, but it will also lose the trust of the country’s new king and intellectuals.
“Even if the other party is unable to resist Ming in the future, it will not seriously cooperate with our actions and requirements.
"If a king with a tough character emerges and even takes it as his own duty to fight against the Ming Dynasty for a long time, then the gain outweighs the loss.
“The key is that our Ming Dynasty’s technology and weapons and equipment are undergoing rapid innovation.
“Now is not the best time to interfere in other countries’ affairs with large-scale force.
“So the students’ idea is to gain too much marginal benefit at inappropriate times.
"It is better to adopt an attitude as fair as possible and mediate this war seriously and responsibly.
"At the same time, we will use this opportunity to increase our influence among the royal families, courts and people of Britain and France."
Zhu Jingyuan nodded slightly after hearing this, but did not make a direct comment, but continued to talk to Lin Zexu.
Lin Zexu has also sorted out the language:
"The students have similar views to Brother Niu, but there are some differences in direction.
“Students believe that France is extremely weak at the moment.
“More than ten years of world war and three years of Yinzhou War have drained France of all its strength.
"France has reached a critical point of weakness that will affect the balance of the continent.
"The strength of Prussia, another land power in the western continent, has also reached a critical point.
“If civil strife breaks out in France at this time, Prussia’s only opponents on the continent will be Lucia and Austria.
“If Prussia wanted to divide Austria, Lucia could become a collaborator.
“When France is in civil strife, it is the best time for Prussia to unite with Lucia and dismember Austria.
“At that time, Prussia will be able to integrate the German regions and populations within the Austrian Empire and complete the absolute unification of Germany.
“There is even a chance to establish a unified Holy Roman Empire with the Germans as the main body and Hungary and other groups as subordinates.
“It is possible for a Holy Roman Empire that is internally unified to become a true Roman Empire.
“The number of Germans in Austria was too small to completely overpower and exploit other ethnic groups.
“But the unification of Austria and Prussia, and the Germans in the entire Greater Germany area, are enough to suppress these ethnic groups.
“This will increase the power of this German country again, thereby breaking the balance of power among the countries in the Western continent.
"If France cannot quickly regain its strength and suppress Prussia's war impulse, Prussia will expand even more.
“It may even continue to try to conquer Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands to further expand this new Roman Empire.
“So the students believe that before our Ming Dynasty has the ability to directly conquer the mainland of the European and American countries, we should not break the existing equilibrium situation in the European and American continents.
“For Britain and France, instead of destroying and rebuilding them, we should start to control them deeply now.
“We can mediate for them and even provide them with loans to help their royal families and courts survive the crisis.
"But the condition is that the financial, real estate, cultural, and educational industries are opened to us..."
After hearing this, Zhu Jingyuan nodded gently again:
“Both gentlemen have a point.
“Our original purpose was to continue to consume the national power of Britain and France through Yinzhou’s colonial war.
“Instead of brutally destroying the ruling order of the two countries.
“Now that the power of the two countries has reached its limit, this war is almost over.
“We need to be builders and maintainers of order, not destroyers.”
Zhu Jingyuan's meaning is very simple. Just like Napoleon said, the Ming royal family is also a traditional monarch.
Zhu Jingyuan and rebels like Napoleon are not the same people at all.
If the Ming Dynasty was the America of later generations, then Zhu Jingyuan would not have had much hesitation when he overthrew the British and French courts.
From the perspective of a traditional monarch, the political philosophy of the republican system is naturally destructive.
They usually regard ideas such as liberation and freedom as their core ideas and even the basis for founding a country.
Rebellion and the overthrow of the traditional monarchs of other countries were considered by them to be perfectly righteous acts.
Doing so will not affect the stability of their rule, and can even strengthen the legitimacy of their own rule.
In the eyes of traditional monarchs, supporters of the republican system are natural rebels.
The rebels were not only supporters of the republican system, but also conspirators who wanted to replace the emperor with his own.
But no matter what kind of rebel they are, once their actions are successful, countless people may imitate and follow them.
As a traditional royal family, if the Ming Dynasty clearly encouraged rebels in other countries, other countries would follow suit.
Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan cannot support the rebels, at least not publicly.
In history, when the French were making a revolution, why did the monarchs of various countries in Europe and the West come to help suppress it?
In the end, they sent the French orthodox royal family back for restoration?
I just want to tell those rebels that it is useless even if you succeed in rebelling in a country.
We will work together to hold you to death.
At the very least, the ultimate return they receive must not be proportional to the risk they bear.
As a traditional member of the royal family, Zhu Jingyuan will take similar decisions as a matter of course.
So Napoleon's disposal became a problem again.
Logically speaking, one should ignore the three members of the British royal family and simply eliminate Napoleon completely.
But while doing so would increase the deterrent effect against rebels, it would also reduce the personal safety of royal members.
If the Ming Dynasty ignored this kind of royal hostage, if someone had to rebel in the future and captured the royal family members again, they might not want to take good care of them like Napoleon, but might choose to use them as a sacrificial flag tool to burn the boat.
"We can only give Napoleon and Adams a chance..."
Zhu Jingyuan sighed softly, looked at his two staff, and asked them to record what he meant:
"Reply to Napoleon and send over three members of the British royal family and we will guarantee his and Adams' safety.
“The present land may be retained, but divided into two parts, with him and Adams as monarchs.
"The two of them can directly obtain the title of baron in Ming Dynasty, and then gradually be promoted to earl based on the taxes paid.
“If both of them accept it, we will directly arrange personnel to escort the three British royal family members to Xintianfu.
"Send a message back to Charles and ask him to inform the British. I can help them get the three royal members back.
“The conditions were those proposed by the French, leaving the land west of the Appalachian Mountains to Napoleon and Adams.
"If they can accept it, just arrange for diplomats to come directly to Xintianfu to discuss the details."
Let the royal family deal with the royal family affairs, and let Charles handle the matter of contacting the British royal family.
Charles didn't have any burden. After receiving Zhu Jingyuan's telegram, he went directly to contact the British royal family without thinking too much.
The British Prince of Wales breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the news about Charles.
Although Zhu Jingyuan, the Ming prince, is domineering, his promises are very reliable.
My daughter, brother, and sister finally have a chance to return to normal.
The damn Yinzhou War can finally be over.
The Prince of Wales immediately went to see British Prime Minister William Pitt, and made a very rare decision directly:
"According to the invitation of His Highness Prince Dashi, diplomats will be arranged immediately to negotiate.
"France suggested that the Hanover royal family can accept the conditions for Ming's support."
Peter also breathed a sigh of relief. If this kind of thing could be confirmed, he would really have less to worry about.
Pitt also bowed in a very rare way, expressing his obedience to the opinion of the Crown Prince and Regent:
"Your will!"
Pitt went to Foreign Secretary Grenville to discuss and plan the negotiations.
Representatives from Britain and France quickly made preparations.
The two sides organized a small joint fleet to escort the diplomats from both sides to follow Prince Charles to New Tianfu.
Chu Yuqiang himself traveled with Prince Charles.
The fleet met in the English Channel and then headed south along the Atlantic Ocean.
The core employees of the big food clothing companies in Britain and France also boarded the ship of the Ming Dynasty Royal Ferry Company and set off for the big food country.
They will cross the Daqin Sea and take the passage of the West Sea Canal.
