Chapter 368 The Emperor attends the British Parliament
When Zhu Houzhao arrived at the Port of London, it was early summer, with a warm breeze. In addition to the smell of fish and rust, the entire port was filled with endless ships and endless comings and goings of capitalists and dockworkers.
Henry VIII's reforms gave England at this time the first signs of capitalist development. Zhu Houzhao was deeply aware of the complete shipbuilding industry and developed maritime trade.
The English citizens in the Port of London were not surprised by the appearance of the Ming Han people.
Just like the citizens of Rome when they met Xia Yan and other Han people, the citizens of England were still amazed at the wealth of the Han people.
For ordinary English citizens, they welcome the arrival of the Ming Han people, because the arrival of the Ming Han people often means the availability of high-quality and low-priced industrial products, such as cheaper textiles, food additives that can enhance freshness, and make people more delicious. Hygienic and fragrant perfume.
What's more, the current King of England is still a member of the royal family of the Ming Empire. Being able to marry into the rich and powerful Eastern Empire is undoubtedly an honor for the citizens of England.
Including some great nobles in England also thought so, otherwise they would not agree to a member of the Ming Dynasty royal family becoming the king of England.
But the local bourgeoisie in England were naturally hostile to the Ming Dynasty. After all, after the Ming Dynasty goods entered the UK, they had a great impact on the local industry and commerce in England. However, because England is far away from the Ming Dynasty and because the labor force is cheap, its local Industry and commerce were not completely bankrupt.
In any case, Zhu Houzhao's arrival is a big event for the whole of England.
King Zhu Zaixun of England, Xu Wei, King of England's Chang Shi and Shao Zhanshi of the Ming Dynasty, Roger, the Shao Zhanshi and Speaker of the Privy Council of England, and other English nobles were already standing at the port waiting for Zhu Houzhao's appearance.
Zhu Houzhao saw these people as soon as he landed at the port, but these people were wearing Hanfu and Western clothes. When they stood together, Zhu Houzhao also felt very strange.
The British King's army or the Ming Dynasty's army escorted the port. A regiment of elite Guards, about 2,000 people, was selected by Zhu Houzhao to volunteer to guard England. It was also the reason why the British King Zhu Zaixun was able to serve in England. Having the security of kingship.
"Father, why did you think of coming here suddenly? I thought I would never see you again in this life."
After the great ceremony, King Zhu Zaixun of England was a little overjoyed and asked about Zhu Houzhao.
Zhu Houzhao was supported by the King of England as he walked towards the carriage that had been prepared in front of him: "I heard that you, the king, are no different from a puppet. Naturally, my father will come to help you. Otherwise, I may not let your mother do it in the future." My mother’s family will be killed.”
King Zhu Zaixun of England couldn't help but smile when he heard what Zhu Houzhao said: "Father, you are too worried. Although the parliamentary system has repeatedly hindered the ministers, it has not yet reached the point of getting rid of the ministers. At the moment, it is just a sectarian dispute. Nothing.”
"Don't underestimate this sectarian dispute. Fighting will turn into a fight for secular power. Since you are the king of England, you must act like a king. You cannot let others steal your power."
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao got into the carriage and educated his son while looking at the streets of London.
Zhu Houzhao could see that the entire city of London was naturally not as orderly as the city of Beijing, and seemed more free and unorganized. There were wealthy aristocratic businessmen hiding in the colorful castle to peek at Zhu Houzhao's guard of honor, and there were also many poor people in ragged clothes. Hiding in the corner, he gnawed on black and hard bread.
The whole city was obviously much dirtier than the cities of the Ming Dynasty, and there were particularly many slums. Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask Zhu Zaixu: "It can be seen that among your citizens, the majority are not very wealthy."
"Father, I don't know. This is mainly due to the land enclosure movement. Many landowners drove farmers with land use rights from the countryside to the city in order to develop their breeding farms. These farmers were driven to the city and became wanderers. Han, or working for the rich in the city.”
King Zhu Zaixun of England analyzed.
Zhu Zaixun, who had been king in England for many years, naturally knew England well, otherwise he would not have discovered that his royal power was obviously constrained by parliament.
Zhu Houzhao nodded. He was also familiar with the enclosure movement in England. He knew that this was the "sheep eating people" incident that occurred in England during the primitive accumulation stage of capitalism. Specifically, it was due to the rise of the textile industry and the rise in wool prices. The bourgeoisie in England found that it was more cost-effective to give land to farmers than to use it for livestock, planting and trade, so they forcibly claimed the land used by farmers as their own, used violence to drive these farmers into the city, and then made them exploited. workers.
"As the king of England, you are the master of all English people. You should liberate them!"
Zhu Houzhao said to Zhu Zaixun.
Zhu Houzhao knew that although the "enclosure movement" was cruel and tragic to the English farmers, it was beneficial to the fate of the English country. After all, it further strengthened the power of the bourgeoisie in England, which in turn enabled it to fight against the monarchy in the later period and carry out constitutional monarchy reform. .
Zhu Houzhao had to stop this process because he didn't want England to rise again.
Zhu Zaixun was also young and impulsive. Hearing what his father said, he nodded: "My son naturally wants to liberate them, but my power is limited. If my son does not pass the parliament, the edict issued by him will not be obtained." Admit it.”
This is the biggest problem Zhu Zaixun encounters now.
Although he is the king of England, he is a descendant of the Zhu family who was educated in the Ming Dynasty. In his heart, he has the ideal of becoming a saint king of England. At the same time, as a king, he naturally wants to strengthen the royal power and expand his own interests.
Today's England is not the original historical England. It can participate in external plunder and increase the king's interests. In addition, the King of England can also use the benefits of external plunder to bribe aristocrats and capitalists to strengthen the royal power.
Therefore, Zhu Zaixun also knew that he could only win over the common people at the bottom to take away the benefits from the aristocrats and capitalists, and increase the power of benefit distribution.
It was for this reason that he said he also wanted to liberate the peasants of England.
"What are you afraid of? Behind you are your father and the entire Ming Dynasty!"
Zhu Houzhao also analyzed for him as he spoke: "The first thing we have to do now is to strengthen the royal power. To strengthen the royal power, we naturally have to have our own supporters. These aristocratic capital businessmen are definitely not willing to become vassals of the royal power. They are destined to will become our enemies, we can only unite the farmers of England now"
"Father, please show me!"
Zhu Zaixun saw that Zhu Houzhao seemed to have a solution, so he hurriedly raised his hands and asked.
“First issue an edict to the Privy Council, ordering it to prepare a draft of the Anti-Enclosure Ordinance, and then ask the Parliament to review and pass the amendments, and require that the Anti-Enclosure Ordinance must be strict!”
Zhu Houzhao said.
When Zhu Zaixun heard what Zhu Houzhao said, he couldn't help but show embarrassment: "My father didn't know something. My son had proposed it, but most of the parliament rejected it. Unless the edict of my son met their wishes, they even passed a bill. Before I completely become a believer, the bill of parliament can be implemented without passing it!”
Zhu Zaixun also did not expect that as the king of England, he could not issue edicts at will.
"Absurd! How unethical is this! You first do what I tell you. If the parliament doesn't listen, you will directly send out the army and dissolve the parliament!" Zhu Houzhao said very seriously.
When Zhu Zaixun saw what Zhu Houzhao said, he couldn't help but said hurriedly: "But my father, not all England's troops are the royal family's troops, and the royal family's troops are also nobles and property owners, and many of them are also supporters of the enclosure movement. ”
"I naturally expected this. This time I brought a whole army of the British Guards, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers. They have no interest here. They and I will fight against the Parliament and strengthen the royal power. ”
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said that the countless Ming warships lying across the Port of London were like huge mountains in Zhu Zaixun's eyes, which indeed gave him a lot of confidence for a while. Zhu Zaixun nodded: "In that case, son Please do as you please!”
Zhu Houzhao smiled and nodded.
Father and son formalized their goal of liberating England's peasants.
But the most important thing right now is the placement of Zhu Houzhao and his imperial guards and retinue.
The nobles of England never thought that their king's father would come to England as a guest, so they actually didn't know how to face Zhu Houzhao.
Of course, they don't think Zhu Houzhao is here to invade them.
Zhu Houzhao naturally stayed in the royal palace, and his daily expenses were temporarily borne by the royal family, including the logistical supply issues for the 20,000 officers and soldiers he brought.
Twenty thousand officers and soldiers were also stationed directly near the palace on land belonging to the king's territory, and the royal family paid for the craftsmen hired to build military camps.
But when Zhu Houzhao moved into the Royal Palace in England, he couldn't help but began to dislike the crowding of the Royal Palace in England. Therefore, he began to ask his son Zhu Zaixu to build him a palace in England. He planned to name it Buckingham Palace, and the location is located at today's Westminster area.
But his son King Zhu Zaixun couldn't help complaining: "My father didn't know something. Although I am now the king of England, tax collection is not something I can decide. It has to pass a parliamentary resolution. I am now The total annual income of the royal family is only six to seven million pounds. During Mary's period, she also had France not only lost the port of Calais in the first war, but also lost millions of pounds in military expenditures and lost a fortune in income. Now that you are here, you have to supply 20,000 Imperial Guards. It is really stretched. If To build another palace, we can only borrow money from the Central Empire.”
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao asked Xu Wei, the long history of the British King Zhu Zaixun, in detail, and learned that in the entire Tudor Dynasty today, in addition to his normal land income as a feudal lord, the king's income mainly consists of customs income.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but said: "In this case, the expansion of the palace will be put on hold for now. It seems that we have to find ways to increase the royal family's income."
Immediately afterwards, Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zaixun, Xu Wei, Luo Jie and others: "Has the edict to formulate the "Anti-Enclosure Law" been issued to the Privy Council?"
"Back to the Emperor, the Privy Council has drafted the bill, and now we are waiting for His Highness the King to convene a parliament," Roger replied.
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said to Zhu Zaixun: "When the parliament is convened, I will also attend!"
Zhu Zaixun quickly said yes.
then.
Not long after, Zhu Zaixun issued an edict to convene a parliament, and members of the House of Lords and House of Commons attended the meeting.
This was the first time for Zhu Houzhao to attend the Parliament Hall in England. Seeing the leaders of all walks of life in England filing in, he felt fresh.
However, for the English parliamentarians, it was obviously against the rules for the king's father from the East to attend the parliament. Therefore, a bishop named Floney took the lead in questioning:
"This is the Parliament of England, please get out of here!"
"Yes, an emperor from the east, although he is the father of the king, is also a foreigner. He is not our monarch, let him get out!"
"Get out now!"
Many congressmen echoed and even roared. Those who could participate in the parliament were basically British rulers. Naturally, they were even more hostile to the Ming Dynasty, which competed in global trade.
Roger, the Speaker of the Privy Council who presided over the meeting, hurriedly explained: "Everyone, please be quiet! This emperor from the Ming Dynasty has received permission from our king to leave the parliament. He just wants to see how his children handle national affairs wisely and decisively. ! ”
"Your Excellency, Speaker, I'm sorry, our parliament has not passed this bill. The king's family members can appear in the parliament and observe the rules. He broke into the parliament illegally and should be expelled!"
Florney continued to roar, seemingly unwilling to give in, and continued to threaten: "If he doesn't leave, I will refuse to participate in this parliament!"
Many members of Parliament in England could only accept Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth to inherit the throne. However, because Zhu Houzhao refused to let Elizabeth return to England to inherit the throne, the envoy Roger at the time could only agree with other nobles to accept Zhu Zaixun as the king of England. .
Originally, the English Parliament did not agree that Zhu Zaixun should succeed the king because Zhu Zaixun was not a believer. However, besides Elizabeth, Zhu Zaixun was the most suitable, and the Ming Dynasty threatened England with launching war and cutting off trade. Letting Zhu Zaixun serve as king made the English Parliament finally compromise.
But the parliament also asked Roger to make Zhu Zaixun a believer as soon as possible, and even passed a parliamentary bill that could not be approved by the king before Zhu Zaixun was baptized. Moreover, whether Zhu Zaixun could be baptized also required the consent of the parliament.
Now that Zhu Zaixun held a parliament, these British nobles and capitalists naturally had nothing to say. After all, Zhu Zaixun was the king. However, when they saw Zhu Houzhao appearing here, they were naturally worried that Ming Dynasty would interfere with their own parliament, so they reacted so fiercely.
Seeing Floni threatening him like this, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but turn cold and looked at his son Zhu Zaixun: "Xi'er, why are you still keeping him? He disrespects your father so much, provokes your authority so much, how dare he speak in parliament? How can you establish your authority if you don’t kill someone by speaking nonsense?”
Seeing what Zhu Houzhao said, Zhu Zaixun also nodded quickly and shouted: "Liang Menglong, shoot him immediately! Mr. Luo, tell them why I want to kill Floni!"
Liang Menglong was the captain of the bodyguard following Zhu Zaixun. He was a Han from the Ming Dynasty. After receiving the order, he immediately led a team of bodyguards towards Floni.
Roger also serves as the chief judge, in charge of justice and has the power to announce the execution of prisoners.
Therefore, when Roger announced in English that Floni had no respect for the emperor and should be executed, the guards led by Liang Menglong had already raised their rifles and pointed them at Floni.
Floni also saw the king's guards coming at this time, and was speechless for a moment.
(End of chapter)