Daming 1805

Chapter 233 Want Two Ports?

The military situation on the front line is urgent, and the speed of discussion and compromise in the rear is also unprecedented.

The British and the French quickly got the conditions offered by Zhu Jingyuan.

If Ming just helps to stabilize the front line, keep the remaining land and port, and wait for the British and French allied forces to arrive for their own judgment.

Then Daming will get the land west of the connection between the southernmost point of Lake Michigan and the Port of Mobile, and the land north of the connection between the southernmost point of Michigan and the westernmost point of Lake Erie.

It is almost the four states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Mississippi in the later generations of the United States, as well as part of the western part of the two states of Kentucky and Tennessee.

At the same time, Britain surrendered the states north of Virginia, as well as the territory of West Virginia, to France.

After the three parties exchanged territories, it was equivalent to the 20 square kilometers of land that Britain and France each gave to Daming, which was about one-fifth to one-fourth of the area of ​​their respective Yinzhou colonies.

If it is necessary for Ming to be the main force to suppress the rebellion, then give Ming the entire west of the Appalachian Mountains, and Britain and France will be left with the territory of the thirteenth founding colony of the United States in history.

At the same time, the land was exchanged according to the same plan, and the north of Virginia was assigned to French Canada.

In the end, Zhu Jingyuan chose a compromise solution. For his own strategic goals, he took land from the western part of the British and French colonies.

Drive the colonists of Britain and France from west to east.

At the same time, mediate the conflict between the colonies of Britain and France to show the sincerity of Ming Dynasty.

After reading the contents of the telegram, Talleyrand handed it to the Duke of Richelieu, and said with a very complicated expression:

"Da Ming still has a sliver of conscience, supporting us to exchange territories with the British to eliminate the internal problems of British America.

"But the appetite is also great. If the west of Michigan Lake is handed over to Daming, the Gana area will not have its own iron mines.

"At the same time, north of Virginia to us, British America has basically no industrial capacity."

After reading the telegram with mixed feelings, the Duke of Richelieu said:
"Such a split is certainly not a good thing for Canada and the United States.

"But for us in France and the British on the other side, it may not be a bad thing.

"After splitting up like this, they completely lost the threat to the suzerain country."

Of course Talleyrand understood, but there was something he didn't want to say.

There is no threat to the suzerain Britain and France, and there is no threat to Ming Dynasty either.

The Duke of Richelieu continued to read the content of the telegram and read it three times. After careful consideration for a long time, he said:

"For us in France, objectively, the best choice seems to be to have Daming help us suppress the bandits with all our might.

"But we cannot choose this option, His Majesty the King, nobles and ministers will not accept it.

"So we can only choose the first option, and the British should be in the same situation."

Talleyrand nodded silently.

Richelieu was also silent for a while, and then asked unwillingly:

"Is there any room for negotiation on the specific land we want to hand over?"

Talleyrand looked at Duke Richelieu with a strange expression:
"This telegram is sent from the Great Food Kingdom, and the situation in Yinzhou cannot be delayed."

Talleyrand's meaning was obvious, the above conditions were set by Zhu Jingyuan.

And if you want to bargain with Zhu Jingyuan, you have to be ready to talk about collapse directly, and then start all over again.

In that case, the time will be counted, maybe the negotiation is over, and Yin Zhou won't have to fight anymore.

Richelieu sighed helplessly again:

"Don't talk about land, talk about population, Ming can no longer expel the population immediately, the situation in Canada collapsed, and the population driven by Ming from the north is a very important reason.

"Their arrival has directly led to the collapse of the local labor market and even more terrifying inflation. This situation must never happen again.

"No matter what Daming does to those people, they can no longer drive them away..."

Population is wealth, but sometimes it is also poison. If it is uncontrollable, it is better to have nothing.

Talleyrand hesitated to speak, and finally nodded slightly.

First of all, I went to communicate with the British, and the British also had similar ideas.

So the two parties once again jointly sent a message to Zhu Jingyuan.

Zhu Jingyuan was obviously startled when he saw the news sent by Niu Jian:

"No population? Ask us not to drive out the locals?
"What is the purpose of my eating land from the west? Isn't it just to drive people away?

"Don't let me drive people away, why should I eat land from the west?"

Zhu Jingyuan's thinking and logic of doing things are actually fighting for living space.

On a piece of land, the people of Ming Dynasty live, and this piece of land is the living space of Ming people.

If the land belongs to Daming, but the people living on it are Taixi people, isn’t that still the living space for Taixi people?
If the social and cultural development logic of this world in the future will gradually converge with that of the previous life, will this group of Xiyi become independent in the future?

Then create a white life is life movement for yourself?
In Zhu Jingyuan's view, the disappearing Westerners are good Westerners, so Zhu Jingyuan has always been used to wanting land but not people.

Then ask the two countries to ask for a piece of land as a reservation for these Thais?
Draw a square on both sides of the Ohio River between the two colonies?

Instead of asking for this, it is better to ask for an island on the coast, and learn from the operation of the British.

Zhu Jingyuan thought for a while, and ordered Niu Jian to write a telegram to reply to Britain and France:

"If Britain and France want to leave the local people to Ming Dynasty, then they have to give two additional pieces of land to accommodate these people.

"I want Long Island and the smaller islands across from New York, plus the Chesapeake Peninsula across from Norfolk.

"Because these lands were originally given to France, the British set aside a piece of land in northern Kentucky to compensate France.

"Warning them, stop haggling with me, either accept the previous condition or accept this condition.

"There is no other possibility, we should not waste time in this kind of place."

Zhu Jingyuan's original condition was simply to ask Britain and France for a large piece of inland land instinctively as a continental country similar to Lucia.

The bargaining between Britain and France reminded Zhu Jingyuan of the operation plan of the maritime countries similar to the British.

Next to the mainland, in the key areas, ask for excellent islands and peninsulas with excellent environments, as bridgeheads for controlling and interfering with the mainland countries on the opposite side.

This is actually how the British asked for the Zhoushan Islands and the Xiangjiang area.

The Chesapeake Peninsula, the Chesapeake Bay on both sides, the Delaware Bay, and New York on the opposite side of Long Island are the only places in the eastern part of Northern Yinzhou with relatively good port conditions.

Regardless of the long coastlines on the east coast and south coast of Beiyinzhou, there is an extreme lack of natural harbors here.

Only in the northeast region from New York to Maryland, on the coast at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, there are a few ports that are not bad, and the entrance of the natural waterway is barely approaching ten meters.

South of Virginia, down to Florida, and even the northern Gulf of Mexico, down to Texas, the coastal terrain of this region is alluvial plains.

The coastline of the floodplain is full of tidal flats and silt.

Just like Jiangsu is a coastal area, but there is no famous port city.

Because silt beaches are not suitable for building ports.

Most of the southeast coastline of the United States is similar to Jiangsu, but the situation is even worse.

Most of its coastline is "lagoon" coast.

The sediment washed down by the river from the land, under the action of relatively moderate tidal force, accumulates outside the coastline, forming a natural "sand dam".

The sand bar continued to grow and thicken, eventually separating the interior waters from the ocean, forming a lagoon between the land and the sea.

Lagoons are topographically classified as lakes or swamps, and are treated as land on large-scale maps.

So the coastline of the southeastern United States seems to be very smooth.

It is not as winding as the coastlines of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong.

But when I zoomed in on the satellite map, I found that the coastline was full of lagoons.

It seems that there are "small bays" with big mouths and small bellies everywhere. Some people may think that there are natural harbors everywhere.

In fact, on the contrary, the coast of the lagoon is very unsuitable for the construction of a military port.

The water in the lagoon is very shallow, two or three meters is considered good, and many places are directly swamps.

The southeast coast of the United States, just like the shallow coast in eastern Jiangsu, has another sand dam made of sand.

The water is shallow and the silt is thick, the geological base is soft and hard, and the underwater environment is complex and changeable. Building a port in such a place is a huge challenge to the construction process.

The Americans had to follow the rivers along the coast, cross sand bars and lagoons, and build ports on the mainland next to the river.

For example, Charleston, New Orleans, Houston, Savannah, and Mobile are all ports of this type.

It's not that they don't want to put the port directly on the ocean coast to facilitate the entry and exit of ships, but it is impossible to do it in the early stage of industrialization.

Moreover, the rivers here are not large clear water rivers with deep natural channels like the Yangtze River.

They are all turbid rivers like the Yellow River that wash away the soil from the plains, and the naturally formed rivers are often relatively shallow.

In the colonial era, it was okay to say that the ships were small. After the completion of industrialization, the ships became bigger and bigger, and the draft became deeper and deeper. Dredging rivers and offshore waterways became the daily tasks of American ports.

Freighters and warships of more than [-] tons, entering ports on the east coast and south coast of the United States, must strictly follow the navigation lanes marked on the chart, just like navigating in a river, and they may run aground if they accidentally deviate.

On China's side, Tianjin Port is considered a port with extremely poor natural conditions. Because the water along the Bohai Sea is relatively shallow, Tianjin has to dredge a section of waterway in the offshore to allow large ships to enter the port.

However, in most parts of the east coast and south coast of the United States, the conditions of most ports are worse than those of Tianjin.

The natural ports of the United States are all on the west coast, the San Francisco Bay and the bay where Seattle is located, surrounded by good natural ports.

Because this is at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the rock foundation is strong enough, and the sea water next to it is deep enough,
But these places do not have a large enough economic hinterland.

The best port should be backed by mountains and facing the sea. Such a natural endowment is suitable for building a port.

At the same time, there are great plains and big rivers next to it, and it has a vast economic hinterland, which can support its development into a large port.

The only disadvantage of the Songjiang Prefecture area is that there are no mountains behind it, but an alluvial plain.

It is the unparalleled golden waterway of the Yangtze River and the unparalleled superior hinterland, making it the world's largest port.

However, not far from Songjiang Mansion is the Zhoushan Islands. The Zhoushan Islands are mountainous terrain, with 30 or even [-] meters of sea water at the door. No matter how big a ship is, it can go straight to the ocean.

Guangzhou Mansion is similar to Songjiang Mansion, except that the economic hinterland of the Pearl River Basin and the waterway are not as valuable as the Yangtze River.

At the same time, there is also Xin'an County under Guangzhou Prefecture, whose jurisdiction includes the later Shenzhen and Xiangjiang areas.

Here, you can also go out to the ocean 20 meters or even three meters deep, and you can directly use the hinterland of the Pearl River Basin and inland waterways.

So on the whole, Zhoushan Islands and Xin'an County are almost the ports with the best comprehensive conditions in the world.

The hinterland of the Zhoushan Islands is wider, while Xin'an is more closely connected with the hinterland, and part of itself is located on the mainland.

When the ports of Songjiang Prefecture and Guangzhou Prefecture cannot meet the shipping needs, these two places can directly fill the vacancies.

It's just that Daming hasn't developed to the point where it urgently needs this world's top seaport.

At present, the largest ship in the world is only [-] tons, and it is still early before the popularization of [-] tons ships.

At present, the Zhoushan Islands and Xin'an County are not prosperous areas, and there are no large-scale ports specially built.

However, it does not prevent Daming from building ports from other places in advance, just like the British asked for Zhoushan and Xiangshan back then.

Ports of this level around New York and Norfolk are everywhere on the coastlines of Liaodong, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong in the mainland of Ming Dynasty, but on the southeast coastline of Beiyinzhou, these two places are the only ones.

When Ming took Long Island, he took half of New York. The Brooklyn and Queens districts of New York were all on this island.

Taking down the Chesapeake Peninsula exposed the entire Chesapeake Bay to Daming.

These two places are the core areas of the United States in history.

In the future, if the French want to go to New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and if the British want to go to Norfolk, Richmond, or the Isle of Wight, they all have to go under Daming's nose.

(End of this chapter)