Daming 1805

Chapter 450 Route Selection
The topic of family discussion is not fixed.

After discussing the goals of the war for a long time, Prince William finally realized that the topic went too far.

I almost forgot my mission.

So when his father was thinking in silence, William jumped directly to the topic:
"By the way, Dad, my sister and I specially came back this time because we were actually entrusted by His Royal Highness Prince Dashi.

"Come to contact Prussia and Daming to discuss a new round of cooperation."

William III was taken aback for a moment, and then heaved a sigh of relief.

It seems that hearing the question of Da Ming’s invitation to cooperate means that the subconsciously worried about the Ming war is further away:

"Is there any new cooperation plan for Daming? Was it also arranged by His Royal Highness Prince Dashi?"

Prince William nodded slightly, roughly explaining Zhu Jingyuan's thoughts.

Including the construction of transcontinental railways, free trade zones in various countries, and the idea of ​​​​the Monarch United Trading Company:
"The discussion between Daming and Lucia should have already started.

"If we want to establish a railway connection with Daming, we must pass through Lucia's territory.

"So Daming wants to talk to Lucia first.

"After they confirm their cooperation intention, His Royal Highness Prince Dashi will send us a relatively formal invitation.

"Then formal negotiations begin.

"Now we have to be mentally prepared."

When William III was speaking with his son, he quickly considered the cooperation plan in his mind.

William III's feelings are similar to those of Lucia, and the direction of cooperation seems to be very fair.

But in fact, it should be more beneficial to Ming, but Prussia is not at a disadvantage.

After all, in his lifetime, it is impossible for Prussia to become an enemy of Ming Dynasty again.

Unlike the Lucians, the Prussians have very little resistance to Ming.

The distance between the two sides is very remote, and they have never competed directly before.

In the negotiations after the end of the World War, Ming also gave Prussia quite favorable conditions.

So the Prussians have a relatively good impression of Ming.

William III quickly nodded directly:

"Then I will discuss with the ministers tomorrow what conditions we should ask for in cooperation..."

Not long after, the negotiations between Daming and Lucia achieved phased results, and the cooperation intention of the two parties was confirmed.

Then Daming Honglu Temple sent formal cooperation invitations to Prussia and France.

The Prussians were already prepared, and soon gave an official response:

"In principle, we intend to join the cooperation agreement, and we can start formal negotiations at any time."

After receiving the response, Daming Honglu Temple immediately issued a formal invitation, hoping that Prussia would arrange for representatives to go to Xianbei City for talks.

King William III of Prussia arranged for his son, Prince William, to go to Xianbei to negotiate with Hardenberg.

At about the same time, France also received an invitation from Ming.

The French court in charge of Charles agreed more readily than the Prussians, and arranged for Talleyrand to go to Xianbei City.

After the parties arrived, they first discussed issues concerning the railway line and the city's free trade zone.

These are actually relatively easy to determine.

In the early planning of the land bridge, the existing railway lines should be used as much as possible, and the cities that want to set up free trade zones can only choose next to the railway lines.

Due to the same natural environment, the direction of this railway line is also very similar to the land bridge in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

Even, Daming also chose two routes.

The northern line goes through the Principality of Xianbei in the west, and enters the north of the Ming Dynasty from the Mongolian plateau.

Of course, there is also a difference from Zhu Jingyuan's first land bridge in his previous life. From Xianbei to the east is the territory of Ming Dynasty.

Of course, it will not bypass the Mongolian Plateau to go to Vladivostok. The railway line goes directly through the Mongolian Plateau and goes south.

In Xianbei City and Tianjin Port along the way, exclusive areas were set aside to set up free trade zones.

A large part of the original railway on this road was built by the Lucians.

Before the founding of the Western Xianbei Principality, the Lucians built the Eastern Railway along the Kazakh border in order to control the land in the East.

This section of the railway was originally connected to the Lucia road network.

After the West Xianbei Principality was established and belonged to Daming, the railway line continued to operate for several years.

It is mainly to send "Minghua elements" from Lucia to the Principality of Xianbei, and to send "Great Lucia elements" from the Principality of Xianbei to the mainland of Lucia.

Of course, these are all official affairs, and private traffic has completely stopped, but the railway has not been cut off.

At the same time, the eastern end of this railway was naturally connected to the Daming road network after the founding of the Xianbei Principality.

After the Northern War, Lucia and Ming maintained a continuous peace for more than 100 years. Lucia's industrialization completely copied Daming's plan, and even adopted the same standard on the railway.

In Zhu Jingyuan's previous life, the width of train tracks in countries around the world is not exactly the same.

However, the track width used in more than half of the countries is the "four feet eight and a half inches" standard left by the British, which is 1435 mm, which is called the "standard gauge".

More than this standard is called "broad gauge", below this standard is "narrow gauge"

The "standard gauge" of this world was determined by Emperor Shizu of the Ming Dynasty. It is a width of one and a half meters directly selected according to the metric system, which is an integer of 1500 millimeters.

After the beginning of the World War, the British tried to launch an anti-Ming alliance to jointly modify the railway gauge.

In order to prevent the railway built by myself from being used by the Ming people.

However, due to the huge cost of the transformation, before preventing Daming people from using their own railways, they themselves would not be able to use them.

In addition, the war quickly entered a state of stalemate and consumption. Neither side occupied a large area of ​​the other's land. Of course, there was no chance to use the other's railways on a large scale.

So much so that even the most cutting-edge Lucians didn't have the energy to modify the railway gauge in the end.

So now the difficulty of connecting the railways of various countries is very low.

Especially the current Daming and Lucia have actually completed the road network connection through the land of the Xianbei Principality.

All that needs to be done now is to officially accept and open the road network to each other.

Another southern route goes through the Principality of Kazakhstan, passes through the Western Regions, passes through the Hexi Corridor, and reaches the Jiangnan region from the Central Plains.

Along the way, Yili, Xi'an, and Songjiang prefectures set up free trade zones.

Most of the railways on this route are the original Daming Railway.

After the Kazakh Khanate officially joined the Ming Dynasty and became a vassal state, the Ming Dynasty extended the railway built in the east of Kazakhstan to the west.

And it is connected to the western border of the Xianbei Principality's railway in the Ural region.

In this way, the two north-south lines merged into one after reaching the territory of Lucia.

Daming chose a total of five cities and set up five free trade zones, one more than the negotiating requirements.

Moreover, the railway line completely ran through the mainland of Daming, passed through the two kingdoms of Shuntian Mansion and Yingtian Mansion of Daming respectively, and extended to the two most important seaports in the north and south.

Allow Thais and Westerners to take the railway across the entire Shenou continent, and then take a boat in Songjiang or Tianjin to return to the Western mainland.

Although this actual demand may be small, it gives people plenty of room for imagination.

This is Ming's initiative to show his sincerity to other countries.

Lucia also naturally chose the western half of her original Eastern Railway, the original railway line that was originally connected to the Xianbei Principality Railway.

The railway runs through the Urals, reaches Moscow, and goes all the way to Riga on the Baltic coast.

Orenburg at the foot of the Urals, Simbirsk on the Volga, Vladimir next to Moscow, and the port of Riga on the Baltic coast were chosen.

Daming did not put the free trade zone in the capital, but in the nearby seaport city.

Lucia also did not choose the capital Moscow, but also chose a city next to Moscow and a seaport.

According to Daming's request, it is enough for Lucia to choose three cities to set up a free trade zone.

But Daming took the initiative to add one more, and the Lucians also followed suit and added one more.

But a bit of a thief chose Orenburg at the foot of the Ural Mountains.

This city has been determined to belong to the border free trade zone between Daming and Lucia.

To be true is to make up an extra trade zone for myself.

At the same time, Lucia chose Riga in the north instead of Minsk and Huasha in the south, which also pushed more land bridge railway lines into Prussia.

Because Riga is very close to Königsberg, the easternmost point of Prussian territory.

So Prussia also accepted this proposal, and the railway line connected directly from Königsberg to Lucia.

It extends southwest to Berlin and eventually to Cologne on the Rhine.

The Prussians were more honest and directly chose the three cities of Königsberg, Potsdam, and Cologne to set up free trade zones.

Potsdam is also next to Berlin, where the Potsdam Proclamation was originally issued historically.

The Prussians also stated that if the Dutch also joined the agreement, the route could be changed to Wilhelmshaven in the north, replacing Cologne in the southern inland with Wilhelmshaven, so that the route would pass through the entire Netherlands.

The French chose a more direct route, starting from the Prussian border, of course leading to the capital Paris, and then extending to the southwest of Bordeaux.

The French only chose two city free trade zones, but directly chose Paris, plus Bordeaux in the south.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's vision, the four parties of Daming, Lucia, Prussia, and France are the basis of this cooperation agreement.

Even if other countries join, they are also latecomers. After the railway line connects to the main road of the land bridge, it can be regarded as a branch line.

Therefore, when the four parties formally sign the contract, the existing planned route will still prevail, and the situation of other countries will not be considered for the time being.

At the same time, the planning of the Royal United Trading Company was quickly completed.

The Emperor of Ming Dynasty was the sponsor, with the most capital contribution and the most shares, owning 40.00% of the shares.

The monarchs of the other three countries each account for 20.00%.

After the monarchs of other countries join, the shares of the existing four-party monarchs will be reduced in the same proportion.

As long as Daming is a city, this can be regarded as a voluntary concession in the eyes of the other three countries, so the negotiation process has also been accelerated.

The four parties quickly negotiated all the details and worked out a formal cooperation agreement document.

The representatives of the four countries first signed the contract in Xianbei City, and then sent the text to the capitals of the four countries.

After the monarchs of the four countries have personally read the contents of the document and issued a signed and stamped approval document, the agreement can only come into effect.

Daming, Lucia, and Prussia have no problems, and the emperor and king made a direct decision after reading it.

There's a little problem here in France.

The documents were sent to Paris as a matter of course and presented to Prince Regent Charles.

After getting the agreement document, Charles took his special car again and went to Versailles to meet his father, the current king of France, Louis XVI.

Louis XVI has now entered de facto retirement.

Just like a retired little old man, he develops his personal hobbies without distractions.

Now I am in my own special studio, concentrating on researching a latest Ming-style password suitcase.

Seeing his son entering his studio with another document, Louis XVI immediately knew that he had to sign again.

Louis XVI immediately complained a little and said:
"Charles, when are you going to succeed?"

Louis XVI's words, if you simply read the content and let outsiders hear it, you may have various ideas.

But Louis XVI himself was completely sincere, even a little impatient.

Charles also fully understands his father's mentality, so he immediately laughed and said:

"If you really want to retire, wait until the two battleships we're building are commissioned.

"At that time, I want to hold a grand ship review ceremony."

After Louis XVI actually retired, he didn't care much about outside affairs.

Although the construction plan of the two ships and the final budget approval were also signed by Louis XVI himself.

But he didn't read the content at all when he signed it, so he didn't know what Shire was talking about.

At this time, a little confused, he said:
"Two and two, how many ships do you want to build, don't worry about building these two after they are finished."

Charles smiled helplessly and awkwardly and said:
"There are just two ships. These two ships are different from the previous ones. They are provided by Da Ming with complete technical support, and they can reach the approximate level of Da Ming's existing warships."

Louis XVI finally got a little interested, and after putting down the box in his hand, he asked:

"How long will it take for these two ships to serve?"

Charles put the documents in his hand on the table next to Louis XVI, and took out the seal and pen in the box:
"At least one year, at most two years, it won't be too long..."

Louis XVI still didn't read the content of the agreement at all, and directly picked up a pen to ask:

"Then as soon as possible, just a little bit of urging... Where do you sign?"

Charles opened the document to find the place, asked Louis XVI to sign his name, and stamped his seal himself.

Then Charles was going to chat with his father for a while, but was kicked out by Louis XVI:
"Hurry up and do your work, don't delay my research here..."

Charles had no choice but to smile, took the documents and left.

(End of this chapter)