The Rise of the European Emperor

Chapter 2143: Riot in Ocean City

For the French of this era, Marin was actually very helpless. How should I put it, the Kingdom of France in this era of Western Europe is equivalent to the old beauty of later generations. Therefore, the French are not the same as the people of other countries in Western Europe. Because they are confident.

As residents of a big country, even if they are reduced to fleeing famine and immigrating, many of the 300,000 people still put on airs and think they are noble. This gave Marin a headache. Nit was reduced to fleeing famine and came to seek refuge with us. How proud of a hammer?

The first batch of immigrants had just landed in Dayang Port, and when the local colonial officials asked these people to swear allegiance to Marin, many people actually showed resistance. The news was sent back to Aurich, which also made Marin fearful.

Moreover, Marin could not treat these French immigrants too persuasively. Because behind them stands France. Although they have left France, France can still dictate to these immigrants. There is a term for this, called "protection of aliens".

In other words, these French people have not actually let go of the airs of the residents of a big country. Moreover, France does not think that they have completely broken away from France, but that they are immigrants.

If Marin treats these French with high pressure, it is possible for France to use "protection of expatriates" as an excuse to put pressure on Marin. Before the end of the Qing Dynasty, because of the massacre and looting of Chinese merchants in Mexico, it dispatched warships to force Mexico to submit, let alone France in this era?

Therefore, Marin's immigration deal was a bit of a loss. It seemed that he couldn't treat these French immigrants as his own at once, and he had to be subtle before he could trust them.

This is different from the immigrants from the vassal states in southern Germany. Those vassal states were simply unable to test the pressure on Marin. Their immigrants, including Hungarian prisoners of war, are under the control of Marin. The same is true for the Austrian immigrants sent by His Majesty the Emperor. His Majesty the Emperor will never turn his face against Marin for a few immigrants. After all, Austria still relies on Marin in all aspects.

No way, Marin can only use the Delaware Peninsula to settle these French immigrants first. Fortunately, they are not useless, growing grapes to make wine, and logging and making wooden utensils are also very profitable.

However, Marin will definitely mix sand among them. For example, school issues...

After all, these immigrants were uneducated disaster victims. Marin set up a local school that only taught German, and they had to accept it. Unless, you don't want to go to school.

When the descendants of these immigrants grow up, accept the German-style education of Beihai State, and identify with Beihai State, this group of immigrants will truly be counted as their own.

But the most important thing right now is to prevent these immigrants from becoming self-governing. Why did many colonies of the British Empire in later generations finally break away from British control? Here we have to mention an important phenomenon—colonial self-government.

Because of the inability to govern the immigrant settlements of those colonies,

In addition, there is also a lack of sufficient management personnel in the local area. Therefore, for England's remote colonies, except for some strategically important areas that are directly subordinate, most remote areas implement the principle of immigration self-government. It is to let the immigrants elect their own members, form the assembly of the immigration point, and manage themselves.

This approach, of course, saves trouble and saves management costs. However, it gave the colonies the idea that "we can do without the suzerain". When the strength in the early stage is not enough, it will still hug the thigh of the suzerain country. But if the strength is strong enough and the suzerain country declines, these colonies that are accustomed to self-government will become independent.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for Marin to allow such a situation to happen. From the start, he had no intention of allowing the immigrants to govern themselves.

For this reason, Marin asked Albert to select 3,000 young adults from the early German immigrants and Hungarian immigrants to form a police force, stationed in the Delaware Peninsula, and manage these French immigrants.

In addition, Marin also recruited 200 Walloons who could write and count from the South Netherland region under the Habsburg family, that is, the later Belgian region, to serve as officials in the colony of the Delaware Peninsula.

The Walloons are a mixture of Germanic and Celtic, and most of them speak French. And because they were under the rule of the Habsburg family, many Walloons also learned German after going to school. Of course, there are also many who can read and write French. But what Marin needs is Walloons who can read and write German.

Therefore, it is not easy for Marin to recruit 200 Walloons who can read and write German from the Southern Netherlands under the rule of the Habsburg family, but it is not difficult.

Because they can speak French, it is not difficult for these people to communicate with the 300,000 French immigrants. And being able to read and write German makes it easy for them to integrate into the officialdom of Beihai State.

Marin asked them to obey the instructions issued by Aurich and New York unconditionally. Manage these 300,000 French immigrants in the way of the North Sea country.

In addition, Marin also hired 500 Walloon missionaries who could read and write German from the Walloon region. Their task is to open a school on the Delaware Peninsula to teach the children of French immigrants to read and write German. Moreover, in order to stimulate the teaching enthusiasm of these missionaries, Marin offered bonuses. The more French immigrant children who teach to read and write German, the bigger the bonus...

...

Marin's worries were not unreasonable. At the end of June, news came from New York—there was a riot in Ocean City, a colony on the Delaware Peninsula.

As for the reason for the riots, it was what Marin was worried about-French immigrants demanded autonomy...

There were more than 60,000 French immigrants who arrived in the first batch. At first, there was nothing wrong with the immigrants. Everyone was too busy cutting logs and building houses to pay attention to anything else.

However, when Ocean City was built, especially the town hall in Ocean City, several French immigrant leaders suddenly negotiated with the colonial authorities, demanding the establishment of a parliament and allowing the immigrants to elect their favorite members...

Merck, the manager of Ocean City, panicked, but still refused their request on the pretext that the management model of Beihai State was different. Then, the gang surrounded the town hall...

Merk was taken aback, but fortunately he had 200 well-trained musketeers and 300 sword and shield soldiers under him. Under the defense of the sword and shield soldiers, the immigrants could not rush into the town hall.

Merck, on the other hand, urgently sent pigeons and contacted Albert in New York.

Albert was also taken aback when he received the letter. However, he remembered Marin's entrustment and must not compromise on the issue of autonomy. So he immediately mobilized 500 cavalry to help Ocean City by land. Moreover, since the last time a fleet was sent to transport 1,000 infantry, all of them wore armor.

Three days later, the cavalry arrived outside Ocean City first. However, they could not enter the city and could only confront the immigrants on the pier.

The infantry sent by Albert also arrived a few days later. Seeing the turbulent crowd in the city, the infantry phalanx leader Kai Rui directly amplified his moves...

Although there is no special tear gas to disperse the crowd, Kerry's soldiers are equipped with another artifact to suppress riots - chili powder!

Chili powder is not fatal, but if you sprinkle it on your face, it will definitely be extremely uncomfortable!

Kerry asked his 300-knife shield soldiers to wear goggles and cover their faces with water-soaked face towels. Then, he raised the shield in his left hand and sprinkled chili powder in his right hand to clear the way.

And the 500 cavalrymen, seeing Kerry asking someone to sprinkle chili powder, had long been hiding away. It's not that they're afraid of paprika, it's that war horses are afraid of...

Where did the troublesome French immigrants see the power of paprika? I was directly pulled so that my nose ran and coughed continuously, so I had to disperse.

Then, Kerry's men and Merck's men joined forces, finally took control of the situation, and arrested several leaders of the trouble. Finally, a spy named Lebel surfaced...

It turned out that it was this Lebel who instigated the riots among the immigrant leaders. Le Bel was one of the French spies sent, unlike the others. Lebel has no curious eyes, and will not easily inquire about news. Because, his mission is mainly in the later stage, that is - trying to steal control of this colony.

The best way to steal control is through colonial self-government, and then break away from the control of the suzerain. Of course, this task is not a dead task, but completed as appropriate.

In other words, the French court did not expect to be able to control this colony dominated by French immigrants at all, but just embraced the idea of ​​​​"grabbing grass and beating rabbits" to see if there would be any gains.

But Lebel is different. Lebel is very concerned about this matter. Because Baron Adair promised that if he could do it, the King of France might grant him a title. At least a knight of the fief, and possibly even a baron.

So, even if the French court did not count on success, Le Bel did. But the premise of all this is that the local area must implement immigration self-government. Without immigration self-government, even French immigrants cannot make their own voices, so how can they break away from the control of the North Sea State?

Therefore, Lebel, who was well hidden in the front, took the risk to stand up in order to control the colony in the later stage, and instigated several immigrant leaders to make them make trouble and demand autonomy.

But I didn't expect that Beihai State was so firm on this issue and just refused to give it. Before, the immigrants just surrounded the Ocean City Town Hall. But after a few days, Merck was determined not to let go, and the immigrants were about to lose patience and were ready to get rough. Fortunately, Kerry's army arrived in time, otherwise, there would be a large-scale bloody conflict.

Carey's men struggled to catch Lebel. But Lebel refused to give in, and kept crying:

"I was sent by the King of France, you can't do this to me!"

Kerry had a headache, if it really happened, he really couldn't do anything to this guy. But Merck, the lord of Ocean City, rolled his eyes and asked loudly:

"You said you were sent by the King of France. Do you have a letter of commission? Do you have a letter of credence?"

Lebel was immediately dumbfounded. He was a spy with an invisible identity. Where would there be a letter of appointment and a letter of credence? So, he was speechless.

Merck actually worked under Kohler before and knew that spies didn't have these things, so he raised this question specifically.

Seeing that Lebel could not give an answer, nor could he prove his identity, Merck chopped Lebel directly and hung his head on the flagpole of the town hall. Of course, the crime was "pretending to be an envoy of the Dharma King".

Several immigrant leaders just made trouble because they did not use force. Therefore, these few people were not killed. Merck, however, sentenced them to exile on the spot. As for where to go in exile, it was naturally sent to the New York colony. It is said to be exile, but these people will definitely lose their freedom in the future...

...

When the news reached Aurich, Marin was taken aback. Therefore, he hurriedly sent an additional 2,000 regular troops to the Delaware Peninsula to guard against possible riots by French immigrants. Moreover, he also let the fleet transport a large amount of cement for the construction of the bunker. As long as the bunkers are laid out in a grid and beacon towers are added, a grid pattern is formed. Even if the French immigrants broke out in rebellion, they could deal with it calmly and suppress it as quickly as possible.

Of course, this incident was a special case and was instigated by French spies. However, Marin was still worried and decided to strengthen his defenses. In addition, this also strengthened Marin's determination to never give the colonies autonomy...

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