William Pitt died, the British cabinet was completely paralyzed, and British politics was in chaos.
Pitt is considered by the British to be one of the greatest prime ministers and the most well-known capable person in British politics of this era.
Apart from Peter, the remaining British politicians cannot be said to be rotten fish, and most of them are no longer on the stage.
According to normal logic, if the prime minister, the chief minister, is gone, the foreign minister of the same party will directly succeed him.
Historically, after Pitt died, his cousin Grenville, the Foreign Secretary, took over as Prime Minister and formed the so-called "meritable" cabinet, which means a cabinet composed of wise ministers and capable people in British politics.
Then this cabinet lasted for fourteen months and then collapsed...
Because the popular Grenville himself is actually a "life person."
He is only less than a year younger than his cousin Peter, but his personality and pursuits are very different. He is originally engaged in politics to make money.
Pitt died during his second term. When he was expected to be prime minister, he refused to become prime minister because he would have to give up a part-time job in the court, which would result in a loss of thousands of pounds in income every year.
It was not until others in the political arena at the time figured out a way to allow him to continue maintaining this income that Grenville officially became prime minister.
Although his cabinet quickly collapsed, he himself was very "happy."
Pitt had no children, and Grenville's wife was Pitt's sister and inherited a large amount of Pitt's property.
Grenville was no longer short of money, and lived until he was seventy-four years old after leaving his job. He died of a stroke.
Grenville is about to become prime minister after the death of his cousin and uncle, just like in history. The situation in British politics can be imagined.
…………
On the other side, Zhu Jingyuan also paid special attention to newspaper reports.
Zhu Jingyuan even saw the copy of "Prince Dashi is a Coward!" "Article.
After Zhu Jingyuan read these tabloid articles, his expression became very ugly.
The main reason is not because the article is criticizing myself, or even because the newspaper is promoting militaristic ideas.
But there is something wrong with the ideological style and direction of their propaganda, which is close to "Heaven punishing national traitors".
Those who claimed that compromise and capitulation were obstacles to Ming's unification of the world and to Ming's achievement of its unprecedented historic goals.
The court and even the people must find ways to clear them out.
It is even hinted that the emperor may have been deceived by Prince Dashi, the traitor, and the people must take action.
However, in the current Ming Dynasty, it is simply impossible for the prince to evade the emperor.
Although Zhu Jingyuan's power was huge, he was basically supported by two generations of emperors.
The reason for his support was that the emperor felt that Zhu Jingyuan could make Ming Dynasty stronger.
It's this very simple and pure logic, not some power struggle or conspiracy.
In Zhu Jingyuan's view, uncontrollable militaristic thinking is absolutely unacceptable, not to mention that it already involves advocating assassination operations.
Similar newspapers must be controlled and the authors of relevant articles must be punished.
However, the more important thing is that as Hardenberg said, the existence of this kind of tabloid shows that this kind of thinking already has the most basic basis of public opinion.
Various commentaries in newspapers cannot directly represent the direction of public opinion.
But the style of newspaper articles, combined with its sales volume, can roughly tell the proportion of the audience for this kind of thinking.
Nowadays, only third-rate tabloids write articles like this, and popular newspapers with a wide audience do not write articles like this at all.
This shows that this foundation is still not solid and not widespread.
However, this matter still requires special attention.
The tendency shown in these tabloid articles this time made Zhu Jingyuan realize the importance of ideological guidance in the era of change.
】
Simply shutting down newspapers and punishing relevant personnel cannot completely curb the spread of relevant ideas.
The ancients said: It is better to clear the road than to block it.
Human thoughts are diverse, and different political thinking styles are complex and changeable.
The current environment and status of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the current world structure and culture, it is not surprising that aggressive military ideas have developed.
It’s just that the direction and train of thought must be controlled and guided.
They cannot be allowed to flow in uncontrollable directions.
Zhu Jingyuan thought about it carefully for a long time, and finally decided to publish some newspapers and radios in the direction of "key politics" and "military affairs" from both official and private directions.
Research world events, discuss military equipment, and attract people with related hobbies to participate.
Keep abreast of the ideological trends in this circle and subtly influence the thinking direction of relevant people.
Be enthusiastic but not blind, participate in discussions without breaking the law.
The official plan is easy to implement, just let the Ministry of Rites organize manpower to create two new newspapers and radio.
Private solutions don’t seem to be very troublesome.
From the existing private tabloids of a similar style, select a few that better meet your requirements.
The official contacted them and provided support, asking them to maintain their style and direction, or make some fine-tuning and guidance.
Official support would certainly make such a newspaper stand out from its peers.
In order to maintain their status, such newspapers must maintain a tacit relationship with the government.
In essence, they are still driven by interests, which will naturally prevent them from taking extreme routes or deviating from official ideas on a large scale.
Zhu Jingyuan simply wrote a plan and sent it directly to his father, Emperor Zhu Jianyan of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Jianyan himself did not pay attention to those tabloids, so he was shocked by the situation mentioned in the report sent by Zhu Jingyuan.
As the head of the royal family, Zhu Jianyan could not tolerate the continued spread of this trend of thought.
Zhu Jianyan did not hesitate to ask people to shut down the tabloid and arrest the newspaper staff and the author of the article for censorship and education.
Then, without much hesitation, he asked the Ministry of Rites to prepare according to Zhu Jingyuan's suggestion.
Establish a newspaper with a similar direction and directly talk to existing newspapers.
When related matters began to be handled, news of the death of the British Prime Minister reached the Ming Dynasty Honglu Temple.
The Honglu Temple had known for a long time that William Pitt was seriously ill, and the lower-level departments of the Honglu Temple helped contact doctors from the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, I had known for a long time that Pete's life was probably numbered, so I didn't feel any surprise at the news of his death.
Honglu Temple presented the relevant information to the Ming Emperor and also sent a copy to Zhu Jingyuan.
Zhu Jingyuan didn't pay much attention to Pete's affairs, and felt that Pete's death was quite "sudden".
Zhu Jingyuan understood the cause and effect, and felt really emotional.
The political leader of this generation in Britain is gone.
During the peace talks, he and Niu Jian tried to flatter William Pitt.
The effect of the initial promotion was actually very good.
It's a pity that when things came to an end, George III suffered from madness and did not make a decision to remove Pitt from office.
There is no one in the bunch of rotten fish and shrimps in the British political arena who can be Pitt's opponent.
In the absence of an absolutely strong monarch's decision-making, others could not knock Peter out of his position.
However, after George III went crazy, Britain seemed to have entered a headless state, and the threat to the Ming Dynasty was also reduced.
Zhu Jingyuan also put this matter behind his mind.
Unexpectedly, a brief affair between himself and Wu Zhiyuan would indirectly send away Peter, who was already seriously ill.
The question now is, should Daming send someone to attend Peter's farewell ceremony and funeral?
According to past habits... There was no habit in the past. Whether to participate or not depends entirely on the emperor's ideas.
The Ming Dynasty and the European and Western countries are not countries of the same status, and they do not need to establish detailed rules for themselves at the diplomatic level.
This time, Zhu Jingyuan felt that he should send someone there.
Because the funeral of a politician is essentially an informal political and diplomatic event.
Now Tessie... seems to need an informal diplomatic event to discuss the current situation.
Ming Dynasty should at least send someone to listen and see what these people want to do.
The matter of exporting shipbuilding technology to European and American countries that I planned a while ago can also be discussed at the funeral.
However, due to the status of Ming Dynasty, we cannot send anyone who is too formal.
Of course, it was impossible for him to go there in person, and asking Honglu Temple Minister to make a trip was a bit too serious.
This is the death of William Pitt, not the death of George III.
Zhu Jingyuan finally decided that he could send a staff member to attend in his private capacity.
Because nominally, he and Peter had a personal friendship, and during the "praising and killing" activities during the peace talks, he publicly showed his favor for Peter.
So Zhu Jingyuan recruited Niu Jian, his earliest and most important core staff member.
When Niu Jian heard Zhu Jingyuan talk about the mission, he subconsciously asked:
"Your Highness wants students to attend Peter's funeral? Is this... going by plane?"
Zhu Jingyuan nodded directly:
"You really have to fly there. You won't be able to catch up by boat. If you force them to wait for you, everyone in Pete will be ruined.
"It's said to be a funeral, but it's actually a diplomatic event. Even if you take a plane to attend, it's already a diplomatic event."
Niu Jian confirmed Zhu Jingyuan’s thoughts:
"Students understand, then students can contact or even fly directly to representatives from Lucia, Ottoman, Prussia, Austria, Italy, France and other countries in Europe and the West, and go to London to have a meeting together, and then go to the funeral."
Zhu Jingyuan couldn't help but nod after hearing this:
“It’s a good idea, you can go ahead and start discussing the export of shipbuilding and artillery technology with them on the way.
“In addition to electroslag remelting and hydraulic tube self-tightening technology, some equipment made with original traditional technology can be sold.
“It’s best to sell finished products directly. If you need technical skills, you’ll have to pay extra.
“It is very cost-effective compared to the finished product, but not high compared to the cost of their own research and development.
“In short, we want to make the Thai people feel that the most cost-effective way is to purchase the finished products directly, the second is to introduce Ming technology, and the last is to develop the same technology themselves.
“At the same time, we must pay special attention to targeted negotiations with Thai and Spanish countries, giving priority to exporting technologies that have been developed by other Thai and Spanish countries to Thai and Spanish countries, and avoiding internal technology exchanges among them.
"This speed is not easy to judge. You should prepare carefully in the past two days and consult with the two assistant ministers of the Ordnance Department."
Niu Jian nodded repeatedly after hearing this, knowing where the focus of this question, that is, the focus of his mission, lies.
It is to find ways to maintain and enhance the dependence of European and Western countries on Daming products and technologies.
Let the external technical exchanges between Europe and the West be directed unilaterally towards the Ming Dynasty without forming local internal exchanges.
After Zhu Jingyuan gave Niu Jian an interview, he wrote a special report and explanation and sent it to Honglu Temple and his father.
Explain your intentions carefully and convince them to support this direction of operation.
Zhu Jianyan and Shen Fu were of course supportive and directly asked Honglu Temple and the Ordnance Department to fully cooperate.
Niu Jian began to exchange information with Wang Lai and Li Rui, preparing to attend Peter's funeral.
Zhu Jingyuan continued to visit Nantong's Motor Vehicle Industrial Park on Chongming Island.
This industrial park is led by Daming Airlines and can produce various civilian and military cars, trucks, engine mopeds, and various types of large, medium and small construction machinery.
Although motor vehicles and construction machinery may be inferior to aircraft in terms of technical level, their output and scale are not comparable to that of aircraft.
The purpose and scope of use are much wider than that of airplanes, and the market prospects are definitely greater.
The entry threshold for this industry is one level lower than that of the aircraft industry, and its scale and agglomeration effect are better than those of the aviation industry.
A bicycle with a small gasoline engine is the simplest moped, which was Zhu Jingyuan's motorcycle in his previous life.
Motorcycle is the foreign transliteration of engine, and its original meaning is a car equipped with an engine. This world did not appear in the Ming Dynasty.
Similar vehicles are called automatic vehicles, engine-assisted bicycles, etc. The more commonly used ones are "mopeds" and "mopeds."
It means a bicycle with an engine that provides assistance to people.
Manufacturers that originally produced bicycles could produce two-wheeled and three-wheeled mopeds by slightly modifying their production lines and purchasing small engines produced by Daming Aviation.
A large number of private related industries have gathered around Daming Aviation's own industrial park, including low-end product manufacturers and supporting product manufacturers.
At the same time, because the role played by the Aviation Industry Association was noticed by the court and the Ministry of Industry, and Zhu Jingyuan also actively promoted it, the Motor Vehicle Industry Association was also established.
The related industries of Daming Aviation, the royal consortium, and major private automobile, engine, and moped-related manufacturers were brought into the association, and a centralized patent authorization system similar to the Aviation Industry Association was established.
The products of Daming Aviation Motor Vehicle Factory are also high-end and even luxury-grade.
The most expensive car is more expensive than a small general-purpose aircraft, and the highest-end product line has even sold for 100,000 silver coins.
It is equivalent to the tens of millions of luxury cars that Zhu Jingyuan owned in his previous life.
Then there are the high-end main product lines priced from 10,000 to 60,000 silver notes, which is equivalent to luxury cars ranging from 1 million to 6 million.
The car originally designed by Zhu Jingyuan has been iterated three times in the past seven years.
And this kind of iteration is not the kind of iteration that will be released in two years by slightly changing the appearance.
Every time it is a comprehensive upgrade or even remodeling from the inside out.
The developing internal combustion engine and vehicle-related technologies are rapidly being applied to products.
Although the initial product was an eight-cylinder four-wheel drive, Zhu Jingyuan felt that the driving and riding experience was at the level of Wuling Hongguang.
The latest products now make Zhu Jingyuan feel like a luxury car worth millions in future generations.
In this world, it is so luxurious and high-end that export is prohibited.
If Zhu Jingyuan's luxury cars are sold to countries in Europe and the West, the engines will most likely be removed to make armored combat vehicles.
Not to mention the latest diesel engines, even gasoline engines are better than tank engines from various countries in Thailand and Spain.
Like the automobile industrial park, Chongming Island’s motor vehicle industrial park also does not include engine manufacturing.
Small and low-end civilian engines are produced in Suzhou, while military and high-end large engines are produced in Yingtianfu.
The production of tanks and military aircraft in the southern region is also placed on the boundaries of Suzhou and Yingtianfu.
The technology level is more high-end, but the economies of scale are not as good as cars and civil aircraft.
This was the balanced strategy of the Ming court and Zhu Jingyuan.
