Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The person on the other end of the phone was clearly flustered by the question. Zhu Miaoyun could feel her face burning; she didn't need a mirror to guess that her face must be flushed.

"Why are you suddenly bringing this up? I...aren't we just good friends, best buddies, and besties? Who would agree to be your Crown Prince's consort? Wouldn't you drive me crazy with three palaces, six courtyards, and seventy-two concubines?"

Li Che scratched the back of his head: "We kissed in the car back then, I thought we were already..."

“That was just… that was just friends reuniting after a long separation… like a Western cheek kiss…” Zhu Miaoyun was clearly struggling to organize her thoughts, and at the end, Li Che could hear her stomp her foot on the other end of the phone: “Anyway, you didn’t even confess! How can you let it go from that point on! No way! It doesn’t count!”

Li Che suppressed a laugh: "So, do you want me to confess now?"

"Confessing your feelings over the phone is like confessing on QQ or WeChat—absolutely unacceptable!" Zhu Miaoyun took a deep breath on the other end of the line: "Unless you say it to my face, I will not agree!"

"To be honest, I always feel a little ashamed to say those words in front of you," Li Che said softly into the microphone. "I can promise you many things, but fidelity in marriage and love is probably the only thing I can't promise you. My father and mother have both explicitly and implicitly told me that, under the current circumstances, I'm afraid I'll face more than one political marriage..."

Zhu Miaoyun remained silent for a long time on the other end of the phone. In fact, both of them had thought of this before, but neither of them had said it out loud.

In this day and age, the "one husband, one wife" rule in marriage law only applies to commoners. Nobles can marry more than one wife, not to mention princes and royalty.

In the short term, the Tang Dynasty would certainly and inevitably follow the laws left by the Ming Dynasty. Even if revisions were made in this regard later, it would probably not affect the royal family.

In fact, the Li Jin Prince's Mansion had long been mostly monogamous. After his first wife passed away, Li Zongdi did not touch a woman for more than ten years. Li Renchi and Li Renxu also only had one wife. Only the third son, Li Rensui, had two concubines in addition to his principal wife. Although the marriage law of the Ming Dynasty did not prohibit nobles from having more than one wife, it was still considered to have made some progress in some aspects, namely, there were no concubines. Once a wife was married, she was his wife.

If it weren't for this war, if Li Zongdi hadn't launched the Jingnan Campaign, and if this new dynasty hadn't been established, Li Che would probably only have had one wife. However, now that the new dynasty has just been established, political marriages are indeed useful for stabilizing the domestic and international situation.

You can't say that the kings and nobles of those European countries were all related to each other, but this world war almost drove dogs crazy, so marriage alliances were useless. That kind of thinking is too one-sided.

To some extent, it was because of intermarriages among European countries that this world war broke out in the second decade of the 10th century. If they had no connection with each other at all, this world war might have broken out 20 years earlier!

Zhu Miaoyun actually understood through Tokugawa Akiko that Li Che's father and grandfather had already prepared to use him for a series of marriage alliances in order to stabilize the internal and external situation in the shortest possible time, so that the new dynasty could absorb the political legacy left by the Ming Dynasty as completely as possible.

As for why only Li Che was targeted, and not the children of Li Renxu and Li Rensui, it was not just because Li Che was the protagonist (this sentence is crossed out). The main reason was that Li Che's second and third uncles probably went to the Women's Kingdom when they were having sex, and together they gave Li Che six younger sisters. Among them, his second uncle had two daughters, and his third uncle had four daughters.

Although my second and third uncles are both in their prime and have had six children, which proves that their fertility is not a problem and they can have more children in the future, they can't wait until 18 years have passed before they can get married, can they?

So, is it impossible to catch Li Che?

"Since you know you're in the wrong, you have to compensate me!" Zhu Miaoyun suddenly spoke after a long silence on the other end of the phone.

"What do you want to compensate me for?" Li Che was a little confused. He had thought that the girl might refuse or even leave him. Of course, he had also thought of what to say to keep her, but he did not expect the girl to ask him for compensation directly.

Could it be that they're asking for an additional bride price?

"I want to be the Empress!" Zhu Miaoyun said, enunciating each word clearly.

???

Li Che was somewhat bewildered.

What kind of requirement is this?

Even if you don't say it, I will definitely... in the future.

"What I mean is, from now on you can only have me as your queen. I will be your only queen, whether I live or I die. You can only have me as your queen." The girl's voice was somewhat willful. Only then did Li Che realize that this was actually the girl's way of "ceding territory and paying reparations" to him. The so-called "only queen" was more about the girl wanting something "unique" that belonged to her.

For a soul from another world, this kind of love is actually somewhat humble, so Zhu Miaoyun uses this method to forcibly salvage her self-esteem.

"Okay, I can swear it now..."

"I don't want you to swear! Men's words are deceitful. Who knows if you'll forget the vows you make now? The last one who swore an oath by pointing to the Luo River is now being cursed by everyone every day!" Zhu Miaoyun shook her head like a rattle drum: "I have a way to make you keep your oath! You're my pig, can't your master control you?"

Li Che felt that the conversation sounded strangely familiar. This arrogant feeling... why does it sound exactly like Teacher Da Ye from a certain old thief's novel?

However, Zhu Miaoyun's appearance does indeed match that of Teacher Da Ye from that old scoundrel's novel.

"What method do you have to cure me?"

"How did you feel when I kissed you in the car earlier?"

"I feel that was the best moment of my life."

Li Che certainly knew what to say at this moment, which was to be honest: anyone who tried to crack jokes or liven things up was an idiot.

"If you break your promise, I will become a ghost and take away this part of your memory, so you will never be able to relive the most beautiful moment of your life."

Chapter 133 Coronation (1)

The fact that the Prince of Jin's mansion was going to establish a new dynasty was no longer a secret in Yingtian Prefecture, and the public's reaction to this was quite complex.

Firstly, although Emperor Yongning's previous series of "great favors" not only ruined the country to this extent, but also caused immense suffering to the people of Tianjing during the final "Tianjing Incident," where the imperial guards belonging to the emperor and the garrison troops loyal to the Left Censor-in-Chief clashed, this last emperor of the Ming Dynasty naturally suffered a complete collapse of his reputation.

However, the people still had feelings for the Ming Dynasty, especially many elderly people who had experienced a new and glorious era for the Ming Dynasty after the Industrial Revolution began. Generally speaking, the feelings of the people were probably similar to those of the Han Dynasty at the end of the Han Dynasty when facing Emperor Ling. Even someone as capable as Cao Cao, who wanted to overthrow the Han Dynasty, would still be branded as a traitor to the Han.

However, the situation is different for the Li Jin Prince's Mansion compared to the late Han Dynasty. Whether tracing back to the earliest Li Dingguo or to the current mansion, the reputation accumulated by the ancestors and the current conduct and actions of the Li Jin Prince's Mansion are such that, apart from the most die-hard and mindless royalists, no one can find fault with it.

Li Dingguo needs no introduction. As one of the three princes who could determine status, and as a sworn brother of Emperor Longwu, Li Dingguo always stood on the side of righteousness at every stage of his life. In the first half of his life, he rose up in rebellion against the tyranny of the Ming Dynasty, and in the second half, he resisted the invasion of the Later Jin. In the hearts of the people, he was a figure who was like Guan Yu reincarnated.

If Li Zongdi, as the current Prince of Jin, were to ascend the throne after deposing the emperor, as the Sima family or even the Cao family did, then no matter how incompetent Emperor Yongning was, there would inevitably be a group of people who strongly opposed the nearly 600-year-old Ming Dynasty.

The problem is that he didn't. Emperor Yongning's death had nothing to do with him. He was even cleaning up the mess left by the provisional government. Although it cannot be ruled out that some conspiracy theories might emerge more than a hundred years later, arguing about who the biggest beneficiary was, there is no doubt that, looking at the present, Li Zongdi is the most outstanding war hero in this war.

Whether it was out of a romanticized view of heroes or out of a hope that the King of Jin could lead everyone to stabilize the situation, get out of the predicament, and achieve victory or at least end the world war in a dignified way.

So these people were caught in a dilemma: on one hand, they were cursing the previous emperor; on the other hand, they missed the Ming Dynasty; and on the other hand, they were hoping that Li Zongdi could really fix the current situation.

As for what this new dynasty is called, what it is, and how it differs from the previous Ming dynasty, most people don't really care.

The current situation is like one shoe has already dropped, but everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. In this regard, rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers in Nanjing can be considered the two most well-informed groups. These drivers are basically like the stereotypical taxi drivers in old Beijing, knowledgeable about everything from astronomy to geography, and know everything about national affairs. There is nothing they cannot comment on.

These days, the craftsmen are always exchanging ideas, and the conclusions they come to are basically the same: when they see the streets starting to be decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, when the city's appearance begins to be intensively renovated and tidied up, and when the square in front of the Forbidden City begins to be set up, then the next shoe will drop.

However, these signs never appeared. Just when some people began to doubt whether the other shoe would drop, on September 9th, which was the 9th day of the intercalary seventh month of the year of Jiwei in the lunar calendar, the almanac said that this day was auspicious for travel, bathing, and offering sacrifices.

On the morning of that day, people discovered that a group of troops under the command of Prince Jin had assembled on the main road outside the Forbidden City. These soldiers were all wearing neat, brand-new uniforms, and the officers were wearing dress uniforms. Many of them wore badges on their chests, which were the honors they had won in the previous battles.

Adding to the menacing aura on the faces of these officers and soldiers, anyone could tell that this army was truly a battle-hardened force that had honed its skills on the battlefield. However, no one knew why such a unit was gathering here at dawn. To many, this unit seemed to have arrived as quietly as when they first entered the city; no one knew when they had assembled.

The morning mist had not completely dissipated, but many media outlets that had caught wind of the situation had already arrived. Of course, for these journalists who had experienced the Yongning period, they really had no idea what was going on.

Some people speculated that a coronation ceremony was about to take place, but apart from the army in new uniforms assembled there, there was nothing else on the street—no ribbons, no colored lights, no flowers, and not even a crowd organized to "support" them.

Most of the people gathered at the scene had stopped to watch after waking up in the morning and discovered the situation. Many of them were carrying vegetables they had bought at the morning market, but none of them were holding any banners or anything they had prepared beforehand.

Immediately afterwards, the gates of the Forbidden City suddenly opened, and a mounted honor guard escorted five white horses as they trotted out of the Forbidden City. At the very front of the five white horses was Li Zongdi, dressed in a full marshal's uniform.

The flashes of cameras went off, momentarily more dazzling than the rising sun in the distance on a misty morning. Li Zongdi, holding a horse general in one hand and a military saber in the other, swept past the soldiers in formation, surrounded by his honor guard. Following behind Li Zongdi were his three sons, Li Renchi, Li Renxu, and Li Rensui, as well as his only wise grandson, Li Che.

Looking at his grandfather riding ahead, Li Che was reminded for some reason of Marshal Zhukov, who rode a white horse and inspected the Soviet army at the military parade after the victory of the Great Patriotic War.

Although they were all riding white horses, Marshal Zhukov and all the Soviet troops participating in the parade did so with a sense of "wish fulfilled." People will never forget those soldiers who turned the Third Reich's flag upside down and threw these flags, which had brought them suffering and symbolized Prussia's supreme glory, into the flames to burn. Although they had experienced unprecedented pain, at that moment they could cheer for victory to their hearts' content, just like the "Hurrah!" shouted in unison in the video recording it all.

Now, although his grandfather has also won many honors on the battlefield, he is now carrying a heavy burden, bearing the hopes of this country, which is currently mired in difficulties, to get out of the mire.

His back is now ramrod straight on horseback, and that is not only his back, but also the backbone that the entire nation needs most in this era.

Today is indeed the day my grandfather is crowned. He did not choose the traditional imperial crown worn by Chinese monarchs—although the Ministry of Rites strongly suggested that he should do so, my grandfather refused to wear that magnificent and solemn imperial robe.

Even the date originally chosen by the Ministry of Rites was changed to today by my grandfather.

(Ministry of Rites: I always feel like I'm superfluous sometimes)

What day is today?

According to the Chinese almanac, today is not an auspicious day. However, considering the location of the coronation ceremony, today is the perfect day.

The team's destination was the Martyrs' Shrine located in the suburbs.

Li Zongdi's coronation ceremony will also be held there. Today's event is not only an emperor's coronation ceremony, but also a grand funeral.

The funeral will commemorate all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country since the outbreak of this war.

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Li Che remembered reading a book when he was young, where a man named Yang Rong suddenly ran out from the crowded roadside on the way to the city for Prince Yan, Zhu Di, and stopped Zhu Di's horse, saying, "Your Highness, will you first pay homage to the imperial tombs? Or will you first ascend the throne?"

According to the procedure for an emperor's ascension to the throne, before taking the throne, the new emperor must first offer sacrifices to Heaven and his ancestors. Only in this way can his imperial position be officially registered. Zhu Di was so excited that he forgot about such an important matter.

His grandfather did not believe that his throne came from heaven—after all, he had already mingled with the Datong faction. This was also a point of contention for many former Ming officials in the court. They did not really care whether the emperor's surname was Zhu or Li, but they felt that regardless of whether it was Zhu or Li, you had to follow tradition.

The emperor has his rules, and the ministers have theirs. If everyone follows these rules, then everyone can live a stable and smooth life.

However, although this future emperor is not young, his personality is really strange. For the officials inside the pass, most of them find it hard to understand why the Prince of Jin's mansion has such a close relationship with the Datong faction. After all, no matter how you look at the Datong faction's doctrine, in the end, it is digging up the roots of the throne.

However, although the ministers had many opinions on this matter, they were all very good at keeping their opinions to themselves. How so? This was not because Li Zongdi had drawn up two lists after entering the capital; even if he hadn't drawn up the list, everyone would still have kept their opinions to themselves.

After all, compared to the emperors of the previous Ming Dynasty, who had all sorts of strange and unusual hobbies, what's wrong with the current emperor having a slight interest in the doctrine of the Great Harmony? As long as His Majesty does a good job in the future, these are just some insignificant personal hobbies of His Majesty.

As the procession moved toward the suburbs, more and more people who had just woken up noticed it. Among these people, many chose to follow the procession, mostly out of curiosity, but many others had various other motivations.

Today's coronation ceremony was conducted with the aim of simplifying the process and minimizing disruption to the public, and was therefore deliberately avoided during the morning rush hour. Even so, the crowds and vehicles following the procession formed long queues.

Because some observant people have noticed that some soldiers in these groups are not holding rifles; instead, they are holding urns covered with the national flag to their chests.

Given the direction the group was heading, many people had already guessed their destination, and some even more astute individuals had roughly figured out that today would likely be the day the other shoe dropped.

The fact that such an important day was held in such a place carries implications that are not just for intelligent people to ponder. For well-informed foreign diplomats in Nanjing, there are many more implications to be deciphered.

The United States Ambassador to China—oh, now it should be called Special Envoy, since the relationship between the United States and the Ming Dynasty had been downgraded to the level of chargé d'affaires after the declaration of war. Both sides tacitly agreed not to withdraw their diplomatic personnel, and diplomatic ties between the two countries were never interrupted even as their troops were fighting to the death on the front lines.

The original ambassador to China was given the position of special envoy to the Ming Dynasty. In the years since the outbreak of the war, he has been an official that the Federation could not replace and has had many verbal battles with the diplomats of the Ming Dynasty.

For this special envoy, a core belief he held was that what cannot be obtained on the battlefield cannot be obtained at the negotiating table. In fact, this is the negotiating logic of most Western countries; therefore, diplomacy is often closely linked to military affairs and war.

But for the United States, are such "principles" still applicable? Whether or not to continue to uphold them has become a "topic that cannot be touched."

"Are you sure that prince is on his way to their martyrs' cemetery?" The information that Envoy Sandster received from the Brazilian embassy and consulate made his mind race.

Although the United States and the Ming Dynasty were theoretically two rather secular countries, in reality, their leaders and emperors were quite "superstitious" in some respects. Just as the president of the United States had to place his hand on the Bible when he took the oath of office, the Chinese emperor always had to associate himself with the heavens, which is why there was the Temple of Heaven—originally the place where the Chinese emperor should have offered sacrifices to heaven and held his coronation ceremony.

However, the prince did not go to the Temple of Heaven.

"Could this be another emperor like Napoleon?"

Once the thought popped into his head, he couldn't stop it. After all, they were both soldiers, both had accumulated prestige and merit on the battlefield, and both had completed their coronation ceremonies in a somewhat rebellious way. The difference was that Napoleon chose to take the crown and put it on his head directly, while the man in front of him simply moved it to another place.

Is holding a coronation ceremony at a martyrs' cemetery a way of sending some kind of signal to the United States?

Chapter 134 Coronation (2)

While the coronation ceremony was being held in Yingtianfu, the newly remodeled First Battleship Squadron, Second Battleship Squadron, and the reorganized First Fast Reconnaissance Fleet were all gathered at the anchorage on Hong Kong Island.

The 12 giant ships and their accompanying auxiliary vessels occupied almost all the deep-water berths at the Hong Kong Island docks, which directly resulted in the remaining light cruisers and 10 destroyers being squeezed into the corners of the harbor like sardines in a can.

Over the past few months, Huangpu Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard have concentrated almost all of their workers to maintain and repair these warships in three shifts. While shipbuilding is a "high-tech value-added industry" representing advanced technology in this era, it is also a typical labor-intensive industry.

In another timeline, the Royal Victorian Navy's Admiral-class battlecruisers, which were essentially a World War I version of the dockyard-stall-filled ships, faced a shortage of industrial workers due to a large number of warships requiring repair and maintenance, as well as the need for overtime construction of many auxiliary ships and light vessels. This directly led to delays in the construction of the four Admiral-class battlecruisers, with only one ultimately being successfully completed.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty was exactly the opposite of that in Britain. Due to the shipping slump caused by the war and the fact that the navy had been abandoned by Emperor Yongning, many shipyards, except for the Jiangnan Shipyard which was slowly building a new generation of 420mm gun warships, were on the verge of starvation before Prince Jin entered the capital.

Therefore, when these shipyards were assigned maintenance and repair orders for the navy's various capital ships, the shipyard owners were truly "eager for help." Many workers who had been laid off due to the shipyards' decline were quickly recalled. Thanks to the workers' hard work over the past few days, the navy now has the "Ningyuan" battleship, which was severely damaged by a turret explosion and has finally been repaired, as well as four battlecruisers and all eight battleships' super-dreadnoughts, all of which have been restored to ideal combat condition.

This is indeed an industrial miracle to some extent, because it is not a new record created by concentrating manpower and resources to repair a warship in a rush. Compared with the "miracle" of the Federation repairing the USS Yorktown three days before the Battle of Midway in another world, it is slightly inferior.

After all, the USS Yorktown was only hit by a single 250kg bomb during the Battle of the Coral Sea. In fact, a considerable number of the bombs dropped by the Japanese naval air force's dive bombers had inadequate fuse settings. Compared to the USN, which at least had GP bombs, some of the IJN bombs had overly sensitive fuses, so some of them could only be classified as HE bombs.

Although the Yorktown-class carriers weren't particularly well-protected, a mere 250-kilogram bomb wouldn't have been enough to seriously damage the aircraft carrier. Repairing the carrier within three days essentially meant making the best possible repairs to the destroyed flight deck and hangar. This is in contrast to replacing main gun barrels, repairing damaged decks and secondary guns, and fixing underwater hull damage on a dozen capital ships within just a few months.

In particular, the battlecruisers, which fought the entire battle in the Java Sea, were responsible for reconnaissance in the first half and for rearguard action in the second half. As a result, these ships had the most old damage. During the year-long siege of Surabaya, they did not receive thorough maintenance and repairs. This time, they finally had enough opportunity to replace the armor of the damaged parts, re-maintain the hull underwater, and clean the barnacles from the bottom of the ships.

These battlecruisers have now been largely restored to a relatively ideal condition. Although one of the Haiqi-class battlecruisers had two boilers damaged by shrapnel from shell explosions during previous engagements, the situation is urgent. If the hull were cut open to replace the boilers, the ship would not be able to regain its combat capability in a short time. Therefore, after discussion and as much repair work as possible, the two boilers were put on hold.

Anyway, a battlecruiser has more than 20 boilers, so losing two won't have a big impact. It will only slightly reduce the maximum speed, which isn't a big problem right now. After all, the oldest battlecruisers can only run at 25 knots now. The Haiqi, which originally ran at 27 knots, is still faster than these old ships even with two fewer boilers, and it's faster than the Federation's Iron Turtle.

Now that these super-dreadnoughts have been given priority in restoring their combat capability, the remaining dreadnoughts of the Ming army have been divided into two parts: one part has already been restored to combat capability, and the other part is currently undergoing repair and maintenance on the slipway.

"Commander-in-Chief Sa is currently in Nanjing, so I will be presiding over this meeting. The content of the meeting is very simple. The first thing is that our navy will be renamed starting today. The Ming Dynasty Royal Navy will become history from today onwards, and we will become the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy from today onwards."

With a limp, Liu Duncheng was presiding over this special naval meeting in the officers' conference room of the battleship Dingyuan.

The first thing he mentioned caused many of the naval officers present to show obvious reluctance. The Ming Dynasty had truly come to an end. Although everyone present understood that the Ming Dynasty itself had serious problems, for this group of officers who had aspired to join the Ming Royal Navy since childhood and become part of this great army, their former names meant their history and past glory.

"Our news is a little faster than the public's. His Highness Prince Jin should already be holding his coronation ceremony. I think it won't be long before we hear news reports of His Highness Prince Jin's coronation as emperor on our radio stations."

There's nothing to reminisce about in the past. Whether we were the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty or the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, we fought for the same country and carried the expectations of the entire nation.

If nothing unexpected happens, by the end of this month, the number of main warships with full combat capability will be restored to about 20. Ladies and gentlemen, when the Datong faction officials under the Prince of Jin took over the shipyard, some of you here raised objections, believing that these people had never managed the shipyard before and would only create chaos.

But the fact is that we have all seen that the shipyard they took over has shown unprecedented efficiency and speed. If this were back when the Ming Dynasty was still in power, repairing and maintaining so many ships would definitely not have been completed in just a few months.

Now everyone has seen the result. The navy cannot exist without foundation. His Highness the Crown Prince once told me in a private conversation that he cares least about the attitudes of us naval personnel or whether we support the Prince of Jin's Mansion, because he said that if we still want to avenge our defeat in Java, then we have no other choice.

At this point, Liu Duncheng looked up at the attendees and said, “The logistics support system we have now is more efficient and cleaner than in the past, something we never dared to dream of before. As the old saying goes, ‘Those who understand the times are wise.’ We should be able to distinguish what is a decision that is beneficial to the country and its people.”

“Commander Liu is right.” Cheng Hengqi, who had made a name for himself in the Battle of Dongxinluo Bay, was also present at the meeting and was sitting next to Liu Duncheng, echoing his earlier remarks.

However, this year's meeting was not just about these two things; more importantly, it was about discussing and deciding what the Navy should do in the next phase.