At the southern foot of Laoshan, it is a large campus shared by four military academies including Nanjing Jiangwu Hall, Nanjing Artillery School, Nanjing Jiangwu Middle School, and Nanjing Jiangwu Primary School. There are about 10,000 students in Jiangwu Hall, Laoshan Middle School and Jiujiang Military Academy. The student soldiers of the Bian Youth Battalion have been divided into two armies, the East and West. Under the command of the instructors from the Martial Arts Hall, they have formed two large horizontal formations.
These two large horizontal formations are multi-arms coordinated formations composed of fusiliers, cavalry, artillery and other arms. Moreover, both teams set out from the campsite early in the morning and walked for a long time in the Laoshan Mountains. After half a day, they drove into the school field in column, quickly launched and completed the formation arrangement. The whole process was completed in one go, without any sloppiness.
It is worth mentioning that the soldiers from the Eastern and Western armies participating in today's exercise are cadets from the Jiubian Youth Battalion and first- and second-grade non-commissioned officers from Laoshan Middle School and Jiangwu Hall. The officers at the battalion, company and platoon levels of the eastern and western armies are filled by third-year cadets from the Jiangwu Hall. The instructors in the martial arts hall serve as commanders at the division and regiment levels.
In Zhu Cixiang's view, these two improvised armies performed as rigorously as the Xiaoling Guards. Moreover, after several days of drills, most of the people were still full of energy and morale... It seems that the Ming Dynasty There are successors to feudalism!
Zhu Cixiang himself was riding his Arabian horse, surrounded by a group of senior generals and several Western envoys. He stood on a hill and watched the performance of the successors of Ming feudalism, showing a satisfied smile.
The English envoy Marvell and the ambassador Pitt, as well as the Prince of Condé and the French envoy Colbert all stood beside Emperor Zhu on horseback. The four of them received a notice early this morning, asking them to rush to Shannan University to wait for the Emperor tomorrow.
Prince Condai and Henry Pitt had seen too much of the military appearance of the Ming army, so naturally they would not be surprised. But it was the first time for Marvell and Colbert to see such a first-class elite soldier outside of Europe who fought on the European battlefield every day.
If you only look at the equipment and military appearance, I am afraid that even the French and Spanish armies cannot compare with them. Probably only the British New Model Army, Turkey's Ganisari Corps, and the Swedish Army can compare with them - there is also a Dutch Army. The army is not under the elite of the Ming army, but now the Dutch army has been dissolved by their parliament...
And this army, which performed impeccably during the march and formation, was only composed of students from military schools, students from aristocratic schools, and some young soldiers from the Nine Sides who were still training. They were not experienced in many battles at all. Ming Dynasty elite.
They represent the future of the Celestial Empire, not the past!
After watching the rehearsal of the feudal successor of the Celestial Empire, it’s time to discuss how to carve up Spain’s world empire.
In the official lobby of the Shannan Campus, there were the Ming Emperor, Chief Minister of the Cabinet Lu Zhenfei, Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi, Foreign Affairs Minister and Shanghai Magistrate Luo Dagong, Generalissimo's Military Advisor Wu Sanfu, Generalissimo's Naval Chief Huang Binqing, Prince Kong Dai, Kirkbell, Marvell, Peter and others have already taken their seats separately - everyone has a seat, sitting around a long conference table, there are also some general officers and record-keeping officials present, and they all have their own chairs. And the table is the scene of a quite formal diplomatic meeting.
Today's talks cannot finalize the final peace treaty, but are negotiations to prepare for Ming Dynasty's entry into the treaty - the general principles must be settled first. As for the specific content of the treaty, Zhu Cixiang will not negotiate in person, but will leave it to Wu Sanfu, Huang Binqing and Luo Dagong were in charge.
"Prince, two ambassadors, two special envoys," Zhu Cihong was the first to speak. His time was precious, so he did not say any polite words and went straight to the point. "Before our three countries can establish a military alliance, we must Find out what enemies this military alliance is targeting? Which of you will be the first to tell?"
This question sounds a bit strange. Isn’t the enemy Spain? Didn’t the Triple Alliance of Ming, Britain, and France oppose the Spanish World Empire?
But the actual situation is much more complicated, although history books say that the Treaty of Westphalia established the norms of international relations based on equality and sovereignty in Europe. But Philip IV, Louis XIV, and Cromwell have not read such history books, so they do not know what sovereign countries are... Therefore, in this war between Britain and France against Spain, the warring parties The camps are not divided based on sovereign states.
British Special Envoy Marvell first took over the question and said: "Your Majesty, let me say it first! The biggest enemy of our three countries is the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. All countries and territories loyal to the Spanish Habsburg dynasty are Our enemy!
In addition, the Royal Party of England is also our common enemy! "
The Royal Party of England was a group of English exiled nobles who supported the restoration of Charles II. They were originally protected by the French royal family, but they also received funding from Spain. So after the Anglo-Spanish War broke out, they joined the Spanish camp. At this time, the war between France and Spain had not yet ended, and they had formed an alliance with the Cromwellian regime in England, so the Royal Party of England naturally became the enemy of France. The group now retreated from France to Dunkirk, which is part of Spain - Dunkirk is part of the "Heritage of Burgundy", belonging to the Spanish Habsburg dynasty by marriage, and is still part of the Spanish Nederland. Part of the Netherlands (the Spanish Netherlands roughly included later Belgium, Luxembourg and a small part of France and Germany).
After Marvell finished speaking, the French envoy Kirk Bell glanced at Prince Condé again and said lightly: "The French Fronde rebels are also our common enemy... These traitors retreated to the Spanish Netherlands.”
"So...how is Portugal's status determined?" Grand Duke Luo, the Ming Dynasty's diplomatic envoy, asked after seeing the British and French envoys finish speaking.
This problem is more complicated!
The English and French people present frowned.
They all know that there is a traditional friendship between Ming Dynasty and Portugal, and there is also a Macau issue... and John IV of Portugal really wants to join the military alliance against Spain. Because Portugal and Spain were at war, and once John IV joined the alliance, he would be able to obtain an independent status recognized by all Europe in the peace talks that ended the war.
However, neither Britain nor France are willing to bring Portugal with them because Portugal's overseas assets are too attractive... If they do not bring Portugal with them, they can regard these overseas assets as part of the Spanish world empire when needed. !
Once the Portuguese knew that Ming Dynasty was about to join the anti-Spanish alliance, they would probably exchange Macau for Ming Dynasty's support in order to join the alliance.
Of course, it was not difficult for the Ming Empire to capture Macau, but what Zhu Cixiang definitely wanted was not a Macau destroyed by artillery fire, otherwise he would have taken action long ago...
Luo Dagong said in fluent French: "If the goal of the war is only to expand the colonies of our three countries in the New World, then we really do not need to involve Portugal, but if we want more, then the addition of Portugal as a friendly country is still It’s very necessary!”
"Foreign Minister," Marvell was not sure whether Archduke Luo was the mayor of Shanghai or the Foreign Minister, so he called him the Foreign Minister. "If we win over Portugal, then the Netherlands will likely join the Spanish side!"
Portugal had many colonies in the Indian Ocean and South America, which were coveted not only by England and France, but also by the Netherlands.
And in the Indian Ocean, the struggle between the Dutch and the Portuguese continued. In addition, there are also conflicts between the Netherlands and Britain and France.
The First Anglo-Dutch War ended not long ago. The Dutch suffered a lot in this war and were thinking about regaining their ground.
And France is coveting the Spanish Netherlands controlled by Spain... Once this territory belongs to France, the Netherlands and France will become neighbors, which is not what the Netherlands wants to see.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and said at this time: "Why don't we bring the Netherlands into the group? Since we want to carve up the Spanish world empire, are we afraid that there will be no benefits to satisfy the appetite of the Dutch?"
