Daming 1805

Chapter 455 Although the United Kingdom has lost...

Charlotte lived directly in Xi'an according to her own plan.

However, he did not forget his work, and sent Zhu Jingyuan's response to the Tianzhu transaction to his father, the Prince of Wales, by telegram the next day.

In addition to the conditions directly explained by Zhu Jingyuan, there is also Charlotte's own explanation attached.

The final condition is to directly cancel the remaining loan, and Daming will not pay any additional price.

Moreover, whether it is now or in the future, no matter how much of the loan is left, Daming's condition is to forgive the loan.

If the loan is repaid normally, Daming will not come up with any conditions.

At the end of the Yinzhou War, Ming provided a large loan to Britain and France respectively.

Part of the loan received by Britain was used to repay the war indemnity to Ming Dynasty, part was used to help Britain and the United States overcome the financial crisis, and part was used for the recovery and infrastructure construction of the United States.

Today, less than half of this loan has been repaid, and the remaining amount is still quite huge.

If it is directly exempted, of course it can directly reduce the financial burden on the United Kingdom.

The Prince of Wales looked very tangled,

In addition to loan forgiveness, the Prince of Wales wants a lot of money.

Just looking at what my daughter said, the attitude of the Ming people is very clear, either the British will accept this conditional deal, or the two parties will continue to wait and will not accept other conditions.

The Prince of Wales couldn't make up his mind at all, so he called in Prime Minister Grenville.

After reading the explanation, Grenville was certainly not satisfied with these conditions.

There is still a considerable distance from the psychological expectations of British bureaucrats such as Grenville.

But unlike the Prince of Wales, Grenville made a quick decision:

"Your Highness, I propose to accept Daming's conditions..."

The Prince of Wales was taken aback:
"Accept? Just accept it? That's Nan Tianzhu, can you only get these loans?"

Grenville rightly said:

"The current Nan Tian Zhu is no longer the original Nan Tian Zhu.

"That continent has been completely hollowed out by us, and now it is just a hot and humid wasteland.

"The point is, His Royal Highness Charlotte said that Da Ming will not come up with any other conditions.

"If we continue to delay, the actual rewards we can get will continue to decrease."

Grenville agreed so readily because he was ready to give up.

The relevant personnel of the bureaucracy are all ready to hand over Nan Tianzhu to Daming and keep an asset.

If it is not handed over to Daming, this asset is a non-performing asset, and the key is that it cannot be directly developed.

The Prince of Wales does not want to give up such a piece of land at such a low price:
"Your Excellency Grenville, do we have a chance to reclaim the land of South Tianzhu?
"After all, the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled have disappeared, leaving only the young and middle-aged.

"The land of Tianzhu is better than the southwest Mozhou after all.

"And now our relationship with Daming is getting closer.

"Now there should be no need to worry too much about Nan Tianzhu being surrounded by Ming.

"And Daming doesn't seem to have much interest in South Tianzhu..."

Grenville was stunned for a moment, and there was a thought in his mind to try.

But the idea was quickly extinguished.

If South Tianzhu was not handed over to Daming, but continued to be developed by Britain, then the preparations of a large number of British civil servants and nobles, including Grenville, would be in vain.

So Grenville said very decisively:
"Impossible, it is impossible for us to redevelop South Tianzhu.

"The cost of transporting people from Mozhou to South Tianzhu is too high.

"But what's more important is the relationship with Daming.

"Nan Tianzhu is a thorn between us and Daming.

"By handing over South Tianzhu to Daming, the conflict between the two sides can be truly eliminated.

"It's not that Daming doesn't care about Nan Tianzhu, it's just that he doesn't care too much. This is a typical bargaining strategy.

"If the transaction is not successful, this British colony left in the hinterland of Ming Dynasty will become the fuse of the next war.

"If we want to maintain a good relationship with Daming, we must abandon South Tianzhu.

"And the sooner the better, the longer the stalemate lasts, the less benefits Nan Tianzhu can get in exchange..."

Although the Prince of Wales was somewhat reluctant and reluctant, he finally agreed with a sigh after listening to Grenville's continuous persuasion.

The Prince of Wales then sent Charlotte a message.

Charlotte was also very surprised to receive the news. She never expected her father to agree.

Charlotte originally thought that it would continue to procrastinate like last time.

When Charlotte forwarded the news to Zhu Jingyuan, Zhu Jingyuan was also a little surprised.

Zhu Jingyuan looked at Charlotte and asked:
"Your father really agreed to it just like that? Do you want to exchange Nan Tianzhu for Daming to exempt all the conditions of the loan? Have you explained to your father what I mean?"

Charlotte explained with a bitter face:

"Of course I made it clear. I was also very surprised. I don't know why my father would directly agree..."

Zhu Jingyuan looked at the telegram in his hand, and read it back and forth twice:
"Hey, since Britain has accepted it like this, let's start preparing for the handover negotiations after that year."

Charlotte nodded a little confused:

"Um……"

The problem of Nantianzhu is the last thing in the nine years of Ankang.

The New Year of Ankang Ten Years is coming soon.

After the Chinese New Year, Ming and Britain each arranged for diplomatic personnel to go to Mumbai, Tianzhu for negotiations.

The negotiation this time is much simpler. It is said that the negotiation is actually to discuss the handover process, and it was arranged in just five days.

In mid-February of the tenth year of Ankang, several groups of army officers and soldiers of the Ming Navy arrived at the remaining major cities in South Tianzhu, and officially began to receive this land.

The official personnel stationed in the South Tianzhu area by the United Kingdom will leave South Tianzhu one after another in the following month.

The family members specially arranged by the British bureaucrats headed by Grenville stayed directly on the land and manor in South Tianzhu.

Ming people don't like the British very much, and Zhu Jingyuan has never supported the use of foreign population.

However, the transaction in South Tianzhu is a pure transaction, not a tense request like that of Dongyi Kingdom, let alone a direct occupation in a state of war.

Coupled with the impact of Charlotte's relationship, as well as more and more economic and trade exchanges, the relationship between the two parties has become closer and closer.

Now Daming has no suitable reason to directly violently expel these people who are willing to stay.

Therefore, the Ming officials who were in charge of taking over South Tianzhu, just as these British people thought, referred to the arrangement of the Eastern Yi Kingdom for the Taixi people, and gave them the citizenship of the Southern Tianzhu Kingdom.

The problem of South Tianzhu, which has been sandwiched between Ming and Britain for decades, has finally been resolved.

The British gave up this fertile land, a superior geographical location, but the colony that had become wild, and exempted all remaining Ming loans.

Of course, this deal is relatively unfavorable for the UK.

But the state of many British bureaucrats, civil servants, and nobles are all beaming...

Although the United Kingdom may indeed suffer losses at the national level, they and their families have not lost money.

After the handover of South Tianzhu was completed, the local situation after the outbreak of the plague was directly revealed to the people of Daming.

The degree of desertion of the cities in the South Tianzhu region and the degree of wildness in the interior were completely beyond the expectations of the Ming people.

Ten years ago, there were 8000 to [-] million people living in a place, but now there are basically no people.

The population outside the cities has almost completely disappeared, as if returning to an undeveloped wilderness.

Only the Indians who were forcibly driven into the wilderness for experiments before the British left were still active on the edge of the city.

These Tianzhu people all know that the people in the inland are dead, and some of them have escaped from the inland.

Now I don't want to and dare not go deep into the inland activities again.

They dare not go to the inland, and the people of Daming are even more afraid.

Aircraft can only be used to patrol the sky, look down from the sky, observe and record the situation on the ground.

The long barbed wire fence that stands on the border between North and South India has not been dismantled.

Now the relevant officials are very conservative, and still temporarily isolate the entire South Tianzhu, waiting for the final decision of the high-level.

Zhu Jingyuan soon received an explanation from Tianzhu from the imperial court.

Zhu Jingyuan was also shocked by the wilderness of the inland environment through a large number of faxes of overlooking photos of the interior of South Tianzhu:

"Is this the scene of the original city and countryside after the disappearance of humans?"

Charlotte sat beside Zhu Jingyuan, looking at the photos that Zhu Jingyuan had seen, and also felt very shocked:
"The population of these villages and small towns has left and disappeared for two or three years, and now they are completely covered by wild grass and wild trees..."

Zhu Jingyuan sighed and said:
"The Tianzhu area has sufficient rainfall and heat. Without human intervention, it should soon become a grassland or even a forest."

Charlotte asked curiously:

"Then Daming is going to start the development of the inland area of ​​South Tianzhu immediately?"

Zhu Jingyuan thought about it for a while, and put down the photo in his hand:

"I think...don't go to the inland areas for the time being.

"God knows whether the germs of the plague will remain, and whether it will be transmitted through rotting animals and human corpses.

"Let's wait at least ten years before talking about the development of the inland area.

"However, existing cities and settlements in the surrounding coastal areas can resume construction.

"After the cities have slowed down, they will slowly open up the surrounding inland wilderness with these cities as the center."

After careful consideration, Zhu Jingyuan wrote a simple report and suggestion, and sent it to his father through a dedicated telegraph line.

A few days later, Zhu Jingyuan received a letter from his father.

Zhu Jingyuan subconsciously thought that it was a question and discussion about Tianzhu affairs.

After reading it, I realized that the question was about things on the other side of the world.

In the accompanying documents, there is also a report signed by Zhu Dijin, the treasurer of Panama Huangzhuang, and Wang Jinpeng, the master engineer of the Yinzhou Canal Project.

After more than five years of construction, the Yinzhou Canal is about to be completed.

Of course, due to the huge size of the project itself, the completion process will be relatively long.

Now the scale of the project has begun to shrink, and more and more project areas are gradually entering the state of inspection and cleaning.

It is expected to be officially completed in July this year.

The current final construction standard is that the water depth is 20 meters, the width of the river bottom is 120 meters, and the width of the water surface is 300 meters.

Two-lane navigation, that is, two basically parallel canals.

If you only look at the construction of the single-track canal, it was actually completed a year ago.

In other words, this canal was opened to navigation last year, and the construction of the double-line project has continued until now.

Even so, this speed is already very terrifying.

In the original history, the French repaired it for six years and made a mess.

It took the Americans ten years to complete a narrow lock-like above-ground canal and turn the valley into a lake.

Only ships with a maximum of 33 tons and a width of no more than [-] meters can pass.

Compared with the Panama Canal in history, the Yinzhou Canal built by the Ming people is a giant.

In fact, the logic is also very simple. First of all, Zhu Jingyuan directly listed the places where the French and Americans stumbled.

Then Wang Jinpeng took Zhu Jingyuan's reminder and made very detailed and safe exploration and engineering preparations.

At this time, Daming still had the advanced concept of large-scale project management left by Emperor Shizu.

There is also the support of Zhu Dijin's unique logistics management and business plan.

In order to save money, the prisoners of war were allowed to open up wasteland and farm by themselves, and a self-sufficient construction plan was developed.

Finally, there are more than 80 prisoners of war captured in the Yinzhou War, plus about 20 Ming workers and craftsmen.

Since the entire project has been carried out, more than 2 workers have died one after another.

However, there are basically no deaths from high-intensity labor. Most of them are caused by tropical diseases, and most of them are elderly people who are already relatively weak.

In the previous life, there were only more than 4 laborers in the Panama Canal, and the number of laborers was directly different by more than 20 times.

Now Daming has more construction machinery that the French and Americans did not have in the previous life.

The combination of various factors allowed Daming to complete this super project in just over five years.

The project is about to be officially completed, and Zhu Dijin faces several important issues.

How will these workers be arranged in the future.

In the beginning, in order to stimulate the work enthusiasm of these prisoners of war laborers, Zhu Dijin applied to Zhu Jingyuan to issue Panamanian citizenship to active prisoners of war laborers.

Zhu Jingyuan accepted the suggestion and allowed Zhu Dijin to make a formal promise.

Zhu Dijin knew that Zhu Jingyuan didn't want these people to stay in Daming, so he worked very hard to control the number of identities issued.

However, Zhu Dijin, who has rich management experience, also understands that if the rewards are too small, the incentive effect will not be good.

So after five years of uninterrupted work, almost 20 identities were issued one after another.

Zhu Dijin doesn't want to break his promise, so these 20 active workers must stay.

So the question is what to do with the remaining 60-odd people.

Among the 60 people, only a small part is willing to leave Panama for Mexico in the north as promised at the beginning.

These people have basically had aristocratic status.

But the vast majority of ordinary POW laborers wanted to stay in Panama.

Because of the past five years of work, these low-level Thai and Westerners are completely familiar with Daming's management style.

Although the Ming people are indeed full of discrimination against them, the management and attitude of the Ming people are much more civilized than their own Taixi people.

After working here for five years, they did not see a few workers who were beaten to death, and the number of workers who died of exhaustion was very small.

Most of the time, you can eat enough, and it is almost absolutely safe.

The living conditions here can be regarded as good in this era.

The point is that it is much better than fighting in Nanyinzhou in the past.

So they want to stay.

Zhu Dijin himself wanted to keep them, and these people were sent by familiar workers.

A right of residence can be given to continue to open up wasteland and build factories in Panama, and to work hard and then slowly give citizenship.

But Resident Jian also knew that Zhu Jingyuan didn't like foreigners, so he had to ask for instructions.

(End of this chapter)