The French upper class, headed by the French king and his wife and the crown prince and his wife, visited the Ming Dynasty's new fleet and held a grand banquet on the battleship.
The next morning, Shen Fu, a representative of the Ming Dynasty, and Niu Jian, Zhu Jingyuan's personal representative, accompanied the French royal family, nobles, and high-level officials of the court back to Paris.
Against the background of the lively news that the Ming Dynasty's new fleet visited the West, French Crown Prince Louis Charles was officially crowned as the new king at the Royal Palace in Paris rather than in Versailles on the outskirts.
By convention, he would be known as "Louis XVII" to the French and Spanish.
Originally, Louis XVII in history was only a king in name only for a few days with the support of his uncle.
But in the current world, he has become a true king with complete authority.
Controlling a large amount of resources and wealth, he has won the support of most of the middle class and workers.
Controlled France's main military power and suppressed most of the remaining traditional French nobility.
At the same time, there is also friendship and good cooperative relations from Daming.
Louis XVII's position and power were very secure.
After the coronation ceremony, Louis XVII returned to Le Havre again and held a grand fleet review as planned.
The French fleet was arranged at the front. Not all the ships participating in the ceremony were from the French Navy, but all the French Navy's elite ships were also displayed.
The two ships at the top are the two battleships that were commissioned just last year. They are both high-speed cutting-edge battleships completed with the technical support of Daming.
They all have a full load displacement of 40,000 tons, a maximum speed of 30 knots, and three triple-mounted 360mm naval guns.
This was followed by two high-speed battleships designed and built by the French themselves.
They all have a displacement of 38,000 tons, four twin 360mm guns, and a speed of 27 knots.
Then there is the aircraft carrier that was commissioned at the end of last year, with a full load displacement of 28,000 tons and a maximum speed of 30 knots.
The early test dreadnought battleships and the test modified aircraft carriers were not put on display.
The last part of the French reference fleet is the original traditional battleships and armored cruisers in better condition.
This part of the warships will be gradually retired as more new warships are launched, but the current scale is still quite large.
Behind the French main fleet is the reference fleet from the Ming Dynasty.
After careful consideration and discussion with Shen Fu and Niu Jian, Charles decided to invite all the battleships of the Ming fleet to participate to show their strength, but there was no need for a large number of cruisers to take up space.
The size of the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty is huge, larger than the main fleets of all countries in Europe and the West today.
After all, the naval treaties of the European and Spanish countries stipulate that the tonnage of the capital ships of the European and Spanish countries shall not exceed 320,000 tons.
At present, even Lucia and Prussia, which have relatively well-off finances, have to put all the last batch of high-speed battleships still under construction into service in order to use up the 320,000-ton target.
The pace of countries such as France and the United Kingdom, which are not in a very good financial situation, is even slower. The second batch of two Ming-standard 40,000-ton cutting-edge battleships has just started construction, and the third batch will not start construction until two or three years later.
It will take at least five years to use up the target of 320,000 tons.
If you include the aircraft carriers, the tonnage of the capital ships of the Ming Dynasty fleet has exceeded 320,000 tons, and it is 280,000 tons without the aircraft carriers.
The fleet of the Ming Dynasty has now almost become the protagonist of the ship parade, and soon became the garrison of the entire western continent.
After the ship review, the Ming Dynasty fleet stayed in France for another two days, and then began to visit various countries in Thailand and Spain.
Showing the new developments of the Ming Dynasty Navy, it is a reminder to the European and Western countries that have successively completed the construction of new warships, letting them know that no matter how hard they try in the future, they will not be able to bridge the gap with the Ming Dynasty Navy.
Journalists and politicians from various countries in Europe and America could not help but lament that Ming Dynasty was really invincible.
On the other side of the world, after Zhu Jingyuan arrived at Yingtian Mansion, he moved directly into the Spring Harmony Palace in the Forbidden City.
The biggest difference between Yingtianfu Forbidden City and Shuntianfu Forbidden City is that Chunhe Palace is still there.
Chunhe Palace was planned and constructed during the Taizu era and was specially designed for the residence of the prince and his family.
In front of Chunhe Palace is Wenhua Hall, which was originally an office space for the prince to watch the government and the regent.
However, starting from the Zhengde Dynasty, there were basically no older princes participating in politics in the Ming Dynasty.
By the time of the Jiajing Dynasty, the Wenhua Hall in the Forbidden City of Shuntian Prefecture was completely transformed into the emperor's official office.
There is no actual residence of the emperor in the Yingtian Forbidden City, and the functions of Chunhe Palace and Wenhua Palace remain nominally unchanged.
However, during the Renwu Dynasty, Emperor Shizu had been managing government in Yingtian Mansion for a long time, and he also decided not to establish a prince in the future.
So Emperor Shizu renovated Chunhe Palace, transforming the palace that originally belonged to the prince and grandson's family into a place for all young princes to live and study.
Zhu Jingyuan's direct move in now is of course completely in line with the rules after the Renwu Dynasty.
Although now only my family lives in the entire Chunhe Palace...
After resting for a day in Chunhe Palace, Zhu Jingyuan summoned the main officials of Jianghuai Province at Wenhua Palace the next day.
Zhu Jingyuan is now the chief envoy of Jianghuai Province and the legitimate administrative chief of Jianghuai Province.
After the two parties briefly greeted each other and took their seats, Zhu Jingyuan directly expressed his attitude without waiting for the officials here to ask:
“You may have heard of the policies I implemented in the northwest.
“Don’t hesitate and think about it, and don’t think about prevarication and delay.
“Implementation must begin immediately and as quickly as possible across the South.
“Including the earliest general education examination certificate system, the later ticket system and purchase restriction policy, and the latest policy of accelerating the migration and urbanization of residents in remote areas.
“If you have any difficulties, you can raise them with me as soon as possible.
“If there are no comments, then start implementing it as soon as possible.
"Mr. Lin will record it and send the request to other provinces later."
Regarding Zhu Jingyuan's attitude towards governing and the reforms and policies implemented by Zhu Jingyuan in other regions, local officials in Jianghuai Province cannot be said to have heard about it, but they can only say they have studied it thoroughly.
Officials in Jianghuai Province have a very clear understanding of the special status of their province.
Due to Zhu Jingyuan's special status and his experience in supervising reforms in the past few years, 99% of the time the target location for the last stage of local governance training is Jianghuai Province where he is located.
Therefore, officials who were relatively well-informed spent a lot of energy studying Zhu Jingyuan's policies and habits.
These officials basically believe that it is not difficult to implement all Zhu Jingyuan's previous policies in Jianghuai Province.
The reason is also very simple. Jianghuai Province is really the most core province of the Ming Dynasty, and this is Southern Zhili.
There are investments from the royal consortium and Daming Airlines Daming.
There are basically no ethnic minorities in the local area who have the status of Ming people, so the general education examination certificate will definitely be issued directly.
Land and housing-related industries are originally mainly controlled by the royal consortium.
In recent years, large-scale construction of government-owned manufacturers has also been completed.
Although the local private capital was the strongest in the Ming Dynasty, under the suppression of the royal family, the bureaucracy, government-owned manufacturers, and the royal consortium, it would definitely not be able to make any splash.
After the local officials understood Zhu Jingyuan's intentions, they began to cooperate in an interesting manner before Zhu Jingyuan's arrival, controlling the corresponding market conditions in advance according to Zhu Jingyuan's strategy.
Migration from remote areas to big cities is not a big problem either.
The southern region is generally much richer than the northwest. Each province already has money, and with the cooperation of government-owned manufacturers and the royal consortium, there should not be any big problems.
Therefore, the crackdown is not worried about Zhu Jingyuan's past policies.
They just don't know whether Zhu Jingyuan has any new plans or new experiments for the southern region.
Zhu Jingyuan produced general education examination certificates in Mozhou and Xintianfu.
In the Nanyang region, an "absolutely free" migration policy was implemented for the elderly and overseas sects.
Ticket and purchase restriction policies were introduced in the Edo area.
In the northwest, a policy of migrating from remote areas to cities was launched.
It seems that every place we go, new ideas come up for local officials to cooperate with.
So the focus of combating worries is this aspect.
These officials also had a deep understanding of Zhu Jingyuan's character. After they responded to Zhu Jingyuan's instructions honestly, someone immediately came out to ask if there were any other new requests.
Zhu Jingyuan also said very directly:
"Not yet. After all, our Jianghuai region is the true heart of Ming Dynasty and the richest place in Ming Dynasty.
“Most of the problems that exist on the border and overseas are not problems here.
“You are also the highest-level officials in our entire Ming Dynasty.
“My administrative training in the next two years may seem to be the most difficult, but in fact it may be the easiest job I have done in these years.
"However, I can't guarantee it. I first need to have a deep understanding of our local situation. If I really find that there are problems that need to be dealt with specifically, I will put extra burden on you.
"So in the next few days, you will start to implement the established policies and wait for new notifications."
Hearing Zhu Jingyuan's response, the surrounding officials were obviously relieved.
Based on their understanding of Zhu Jingyuan's past habits, since Zhu Jingyuan has made such a statement now, it is very likely that he really does not have a special plan for Jianghuai Province.
As for Zhu Jingyuan's previous policies, local officials have long been aware of them and it is not a big problem.
Zhu Jingyuan continued chatting with these officials for a while, slightly improved the relationship in a polite manner, and then let them go back to work on their own affairs.
Then Zhu Jingyuan began to think of his own.
Zhu Jingyuan has new ideas for the southern region, including Jianghuai.
But this idea cannot be expressed.
Zhu Jingyuan hoped to weaken the influence of local clan and family forces.
For ordinary people, clan and family culture are certainly not without any benefits.
It may even be that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, otherwise it would not have been able to last for thousands of years.
But for the rulers, it probably does more harm than good.
Clan power is essentially a small group, a primitive party established through blood relations.
The initial party struggle was based on regional and clan relations.
In times of social instability, such local groups can provide members with a certain level of security.
When society is stable, clan blood relations are the bond through which they establish a community of interests and help each other obtain benefits.
Of course the rulers don't like the existence of such small groups.
However, in China's traditional cultural system, destroying clan relations is politically incorrect...
Before the Renwu Dynasty, local officials usually let the clans first find ways to handle and mediate general local affairs and conflicts.
Even if there is no mediation within the clan and the dispute comes to court, officials will often try to maintain harmony within the clan.
Many times the verdict may even be contrary to the law.
Clan and gentry are actually part of the traditional Eastern local self-government system.
Even during the Renwu Dynasty, Emperor Shizu corrected this situation, but he was still very restrained.
A more grassroots management and law enforcement system has been established while judicial independence has been achieved, and judicial judges are required to strictly follow the laws and regulations, without considering factors unrelated to the case itself, and any form of lynching is strictly prohibited.
However, Emperor Shizu never said that he would reduce the influence of the clan, nor did he openly encourage ordinary people to leave the clan.
Because publicly calling for the weakening of family and clan power can be interpreted as weakening family ties?
It may even be extended to oppose "filial piety".
So it's something that can be done but not said, and it's not even possible to do it blatantly.
So what exactly should be done?
The direction is actually simple, relying on various reforms that Zhu Jingyuan has already made before.
First, the general education examination certificate that represents only an individual will gradually replace the household registration of the family unit as a universal identity document for local people, and encourage the free movement of the population.
This was followed by proactive larger-scale industrialization and urbanization.
Rural areas are places where clan power is strongest.
Even after rural land is completely annexed, farmers’ main employees are often their own clansmen.
The clan power in factories and cities would have been relatively weak.
The big cities with concentrated populations from all over the world, and the bustling, complex and rich life of modern industrial cities are all good solvents for diluting the power of clans.
At the same time, sending a large number of sparse populations from remote areas into cities in wealthy areas is also a process of diluting the original local clan system.
Then vigorously build government-owned manufacturers and royal consortia.
There are a large number of small and medium-sized towns in the Jiangnan area. There are also a large number of local manufacturers, and there are also a large number of family-owned factories and businesses.
It is very common for people from all over the world to use people from their own family and family as management and key workers.
In this kind of place, clan power is actually shifting from the countryside to the city, or directly turning the countryside into the city.
To deal with this kind of family business, Zhu Jingyuan's idea is to rely on government-owned manufacturers and royal consortiums.
If a person is not taken care of in the family, but will be oppressed by powerful families in the clan, and if he can get a better life after leaving the family community, then the clan power will definitely gradually weaken.
But similarly, if a member of a certain family obtains a higher status in a royal consortium or a government-run consortium and uses his status to draw other members of the family into a group, it will also be very troublesome.
Therefore, it is very important to refer to the specifications of the official transfer system and the avoidance of suspicion system.
Local people cannot be the management of local government-owned manufacturers, and members of the same family cannot serve in the same department.
At the same time, efforts were made to improve and control the management level of government-owned manufacturers and royal consortiums, and to compete with traditional private family businesses in various industries, forcing them to hire professional managers to join.
Finally, we need to gradually implement compulsory education, vigorously expand high-level schools, improve the cultural level of the entire society, and continue to improve and strengthen policies related to judicial independence and judicial impartiality.
The collective education of the new era and the culture of the industrial age are also important solvents that dilute the influence of traditional clan culture.
The more ordinary young people want independence and freedom, the more they will feel the restrictions from the clan.
The obviously completely correct thinking of pursuing fairness and justice is also an important basis for resisting clan restrictions.
The goals of judicial independence and impartiality will naturally prohibit clans from resolving internal conflicts on their own.
The clan elders no longer have the power to deter and deal with unrest within the clan, and the clan's influence will also weaken simultaneously.
All of these goals and plans are policies and requirements that seem completely unrelated to weakening the power of the clan. At the same time, they are also truly fair and just policies.
Of course, no one can directly oppose these natural goals and plans.
However, Zhu Jingyuan also understood that he could not truly and completely eliminate the influence of clan-related traditions among the people.
After all, it is a very important basic component of China's traditional culture.
As long as China has not encountered large-scale social unrest, nor has it encountered an absolutely strong foreign cultural impact, this traditional power will definitely continue to exist very tenaciously.
Zhu Jingyuan could only do his best to weaken the parts of the royal family that were not beneficial to the rule...
(End of chapter)
