Daming 1805

Chapter 499 Mad King George died, Charlotte returned home to attend the funeral

Zhu Jingyuan held a meeting with the military attachés in the Hall of Martial Arts to discuss the organization of the military parade.

After the general direction was basically determined, some details in various aspects were discussed.

When the meeting was almost over, Zheng Xingyang, Zhu Jingyuan's aide, walked in quickly from the outside.

Zheng Xingyang explained the situation to the guard at the door, and then walked to Zhu Jingyuan's side together with Lin Zexu who came to inquire.

Zheng Xingyang handed a telegram to Zhu Jingyuan, and at the same time lowered his voice to report:

"Your Majesty, King George III of England has passed away."

The same content was written on the telegram in Zhu Jingyuan's hand.

The famous mad king in British history, George III died at the beginning of 1820 in the original history.

However, he lived to be 82 years old, which is considered a long life in later generations, and even a birthday star in this era.

And he reigned for a total of 60 years, second only to Victoria and Elizabeth II in the original history.

Now that the latter two queens have not yet appeared, the current George III is the longest reigning king in British history.

The level of medical treatment in this world is higher, but it can't hold back his continuous madness, which has always drained his energy.

82 years old is already an advanced age, and in the end, I lived half a year longer than in history.

When Zhu Jingyuan saw the news, his expression didn't change much, but he felt a little emotional in his heart.

The mad king George III finally died, and the old man actually lived a very uncomfortable life.

He might just drive a group of unfilial children mad.

After he went crazy, the state of the unfilial children stayed at the time when he was crazy.

Another man may be happy when he is crazy, but he must be living in pain.

Now that he has finally passed away, it can be regarded as a relief.

Zhu Jingyuan had no memory of exactly when George III died in history.

However, I still have a rough impression, knowing that he should not live too long.

Now finally there is definite news.

Charlotte's father, the current Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom, and the future George IV will also succeed to the throne.

But at this juncture, it's a little troublesome.

The king's succession in Britain is actually very similar to the emperor's succession model in Ming Dynasty.

The old emperor is dead, and the Prince of Wales will immediately succeed him.

Then prepare for the official coronation.

So George IV's coronation ceremony was very close to his enthronement ceremony.

Moreover, George III is Charlotte's grandfather. When he passed away, Charlotte had to go back to attend the funeral.

Charlotte and her children, Zhu Diyu and Zhu Yuewei had to go back with them.

I can't wait until after I ascend the throne hall to go back.

Zhu Jingyuan was not in a good mood.

Considering that what should be discussed in this meeting is basically determined, Zhu Jingyuan directly asked Niu Jian to announce the adjournment of the meeting.

Zhu Jingyuan returned directly to the harem and went to Charlotte's residence.

It's not that Zhu Jingyuan has serious business to talk about, and when he arrives at a concubine's residence, he won't let someone pass it on in advance.

I have also told them on weekdays that unless there is something ceremonial, there is no need to come to the gate of the palace to greet them.

But when Zhu Jingyuan arrived at the palace gate, the maid at the gate also had to go in and report immediately.

When Charlotte entered the door, Charlotte greeted him very warmly:
"My dear majesty, you finally think of me again...

"Let me tell you, Di Yu learned two more poems today!"

Zhu Jingyuan nodded slightly with a smile, and picked up Zhu Diyu who was following Charlotte.

At the same time, he handed the telegram he had received to Charlotte.

Charlotte didn't know what it was at first, but she opened it curiously, but was immediately stunned after taking a look:
"Grandpa he..."

Zhu Jingyuan teased his son, and said in a melancholy tone:
"The old man is already 83 years old, and it's a joyous death in our Daming..."

When Zhu Jingyuan said this, Charlotte couldn't help it, and tears flowed out:

"grandfather……"

George III's favorite son is the second son, and his favorite daughter is the youngest daughter.

Favorite granddaughter... There's no choice but Charlotte herself.

Charlotte has been especially cared for by her grandfather since she was a child, so her relationship with her grandfather is also very good.

Now that grandpa has passed away, it is natural for her to be sad.

Zhu Jingyuan handed over his son to the servant, let Charlotte hold him in his arms and comforted him for a while.

When she was crying, I slowly told her the business:

"Your grandfather's funeral, your father's coronation, you can't miss it.

"So you pack up these few days and take Di Yu and Yue Wei back to London."

Charlotte was depressed, unable to speak, and nodded silently.

Zhu Jingyuan lived in Charlotte's room that day.

The next morning, Zhu Jingyuan went to the morning court again and asked the Ministry of Rites to announce the death of the King of England.

Da Ming didn't really care much about the death of the normal Taixi king.

George III was mainly Charlotte's grandfather, so officials at the Ming court were more serious.

Zhu Jingyuan arranged for the Ministry of Rites to write a mourning article and send it over.

Prepare the congratulatory article on George IV's coronation in advance. After all, this is Charlotte's own father, so we should pay more attention to it.

At the same time, let the Ministry of Rites arrange personnel to prepare for the envoys to mourn and congratulate.

Then he ordered Niu Jian to prepare, as his personal representative, and set off with the envoys of the Ministry of Rites.

Accompany Charlotte to London.

Except for the death of the old British king and the succession of the new king, everything else is routine.

Today's morning is also coming to an end soon.

Zhu Jingyuan returned to the harem again, and took the women and children of the harem to Charlotte's residence to say goodbye to her.

It can be regarded as the last time with her.

After dinner that afternoon, Charlotte and her two children, escorted by a group of servants, rushed to the royal station in the palace area of ​​Yingtianfu New Town.

Charlotte will take a dedicated train to cross the entire Shenou continent, and after arriving in France, she will return to London by boat.

Charlotte is the de facto heir of England, and her children are the heirs of the next generation, the key being Zhu Jingyuan's children.

So it is impossible for them to take a risky plane, and it is too slow to go to the UK by boat.

Fortunately, the Shenou Land Bridge has been opened for several years now.

The special trains dedicated to the imperial family of the Ming Dynasty were also upgraded from steam locomotives to diesel locomotives.

With a large diesel engine and electric drive, the maximum speed has exceeded 120 kilometers per hour.

It is safer to keep the speed below [-] to [-] kilometers.

In this way, from the south of the Daming River to the northwestern part of France, the entire 3000-kilometer railway can be reached in six to seven days.

To be able to catch George III's send-off and funeral.

After Charlotte's royal car left the professional station.

Niu Jian and the mission headed by Minister of Rites also rushed to the royal station at the same time, and went together in the royal car.

However, instead of living with Charlotte, they added a few official carriages behind the royal carriage.

This is also a habitual arrangement.

The royal family often needs to be accompanied by courtiers when they travel, and it is really troublesome for the courtiers to take another car.

So they are arranged in different compartments of the same car.

After the train starts, the diesel engine outputs electricity, and the electric motor drives the locomotive, leading the train slowly out of the station.

While driving outwards, it continues to accelerate.

When he left the city, he had already mentioned [-] kilometers per hour.

Then keep this speed, all the way to the northwest.

Slowly leave the most prosperous southeast region of Ming Dynasty and enter the vast and flat land of the Central Plains.

After arriving inland, the scene of a built-up area connecting a built-up area gradually disappears in the small cities that are common in the southeast.

The large farm area is getting bigger and bigger, and finally slowly turned into an endless wilderness.

Charlotte spent her first night on the train.

In the morning of the next day, I arrived again in Xi'an where Charlotte followed Zhu Jingyuan.

Charlotte has lived here for two years, so she has some feelings and impressions.

However, Charlotte soon discovered that compared with five years ago, Xi'an now has undergone greater changes.

The size of the city is larger.

Five years ago, the railway should have passed by the edge of the urban area, and now there are already stretches of built-up areas outside the railway.

The population in the urban area has also increased visibly with the naked eye.

Charlotte soon realized that this change was not completely spontaneous, and Zhu Jingyuan's original policy promotion was very important.

Zhu Jingyuan built a big city inside Daming.

Concentrate populations in remote areas into cities near key rail and road lines of communication.

Reduce administrative and financial resources wasted in communicating remote areas.

Provide a higher overall level of living infrastructure and services at a lower unit cost concentrated in large cities.

Instead of building hundreds of small clinics for hundreds of villages and towns with a population of only a few hundred to a few thousand people, it is better to gather them together and build a formal large-scale government-run hospital.

The same logic applies to schools.

In this way, first of all, the management cost of the imperial court can be reduced, and the operation and construction cost of the government-run consortium can also be reduced.

Conversely, it increases administrative revenue and corporate profits.

While the population is concentrated, the local clan groups are broken, and the local evil forces in remote areas are objectively reduced.

After passing Xi'an, this tendency of population concentration becomes more obvious.

The Hexi Corridor, the Grasslands of the Western Regions, and the Principality of Kazakhstan. Where there are no cities, there are endless wilderness and grasslands. Where there are cities, construction is in full swing.

The streets are full of cars, and there are groups of mopeds, which are Zhu Jingyuan's previous motorcycles.

Of course, there are quite a few bicycles, but they are already fewer than motorcycles, and many of them are played by half-grown children.

There is also a total absence of idle homeless people in and around the city.

But there are children running around everywhere.

From three or four-year-old children who can just run, to thirteen or fourteen-year-old half-old children, they often appear in groups.

There are also half-grown children who ride bicycles together.

Obviously, there are too many children.

At this time, ordinary people basically had no concept of contraception, and the concept of prenatal and postnatal care (involution) had not yet appeared.

After adult men and women get married, they will continue to have children.

It is normal for a couple to have three or four children, and it is normal to have five or six or more children.

Now Daming's workload is still huge, unless it is a particularly wealthy family, otherwise it is impossible to hire a nannie.

So most of the children are not accompanied by adults.

It is the sensible children over seven or eight years old, playing with their three or four-year-old younger brothers and sisters.

At this time, there were no mobile phones and TVs, and there were already many children, and they all liked to get together, and there would often be a large area.

Da Ming participated in the world war more than ten years ago, and at that time, Da Ming was also pushed to the brink of collapse.

But after all, the war did not break out in the mainland, so the mainland of Ming Dynasty was not destroyed.

As soon as the war ended, as soon as the reforms promoted by Zhu Jingyuan started, the local area quickly regained its vitality.

The birth rate suppressed during the war also skyrocketed, forming a wave of births.

And this wave of births has not stopped since it started, creating a terrifying 15 million population increase in Ming Dynasty in [-] years.

Fifteen years have passed, and the oldest of these children is only thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest is of course just born.

Now the total population of Ming Dynasty is less than one billion, but there are 15 million children under the age of [-], accounting for one-third of the total population.

So now there must be children everywhere in cities all over Ming Dynasty.

The Ming court has banned the employment of child labor. Has it promoted mandatory compulsory education? The income of ordinary workers is also very good.

Even if there are many parents who are willing to let their children go to school, after all, many of them are directly released...

Zhu Diyu next to Charlotte, every time he sees children playing around outside the window, he has a yearning expression on his face.

It was obvious that she wanted to run out and play with them, and the kid loved it as much as her mother.

Charlotte looked at the busy workers and groups of children, as well as the yearning eyes of her son, and said to herself in a daze more than once:

"The people of Daming have always been so energetic, and the children of Daming have always been so carefree...

"Da Ming now has a population of nearly one billion, but it will definitely continue to grow...

"Hopefully the UK and the US will do the same..."

Charlotte continued to look at the scenery with anticipation, watching the train pass through the borders of the Principality of Kazakhstan, the Principality of Xianbei, and Lucia, and officially entered the current Europa.

The junction of Daming and Lucia is an oil field jointly developed by the two countries.

It is also a scene of enthusiasm here, and this oil field is still in the stage of ramping up production capacity.

After passing the oil field, enter the inland area of ​​Lucia, which is also a large area of ​​farmland.

After entering the city, Charlotte also saw a busy crowd.

However, the number of cars is obviously less than that in the cities of Ming Dynasty, and most people who go to work still ride bicycles.

The least is actually an engine moped, which is much less than cars and bicycles.

After traveling through several cities, Charlotte discovered a new difference.

There are no hordes of kids in and around these cities.

"You can't all go to school or... work as child labor in factories?"

Charlotte knows that currently only Ming Dynasty has explicitly banned child labor, and no other country has explicitly banned child labor.

A few years ago, it was very common in Taixi for children as young as thirteen or fourteen to enter factories.

Charlotte does not think that the Thai and Western countries will undergo subversive changes in the past few years.

This comparison and speculation made Charlotte feel a little uncomfortable.

In the city of Daming, especially looking at those children, Charlotte can feel a thriving vitality.

But in Lucia's city, Charlotte felt oppressed inexplicably.

Although child labor was used all over the world in the past...

Judy didn't have much interest in it either, and started to feel sleepy after watching it for a while.

Charlotte was going home for the funeral, so she didn't stay in Lucia, and didn't go to say hello to Lucia's royal family.

So there is no logic in it.

The train traveled all the way through Lucia, Prussia, and finally into France.

However, I did not go deep into the inland of France. After entering France, I transferred to the pier and returned to London on the cruise ship of the British royal family.

Charlotte came back to attend the funeral. In theory, there should be no celebration, so there was no welcoming ceremony.

Charlotte changed from the pier to a special car and traveled through the city to the palace.

Charlotte has the experience of Daming, Lucia, and Prussia, and after entering London, she pays attention to it.

And now in the car, looking out the window is more direct.

The streets of London are equally lively, and the key is that children running around can be seen from time to time.

But there are not as many children as there are in Daming City.

There are also boys shouting and selling newspapers on the street, and girls selling flowers with baskets on their shoulders.

Charlotte sighed in her heart, the United Kingdom is certainly not as good as Daming, but it should be better than Lucia.

(End of this chapter)