"What does Jose mean?" Philip IV asked thoughtfully.
Li Yufan did not take the Indian Ocean around Africa and into the Atlantic Ocean to reach Spain, but took the Pacific Ocean via Mexico and then took the Caribbean and Atlantic routes to Spain, so he had already met Don Juan Jose in Mexico City.
"Your Majesty, the Duke of Florida believes that if the Ming Dynasty is unwilling to withdraw from the Gulf of America, then we should march there as soon as possible. Because the result of delaying it will be that the Ming Dynasty will continue to strengthen its presence in the Americas. They will definitely send the strongest troops there. Elite infantry and cavalry... By then, the situation will become extremely unfavorable."
Don Juan Jose now also had a ducal title and corresponding territory, but it was not in Europe, but on the Florida Peninsula. The Spanish discovered this island extending from the American continent into the Caribbean Sea as early as 1513, and established Fort St. Augustine as a large stronghold in a bay on the east coast of the Florida Peninsula in 1565.
However, because the Spanish territory in America was too large, their native population was too small. So until 1659, the fertile Florida peninsula was basically a virgin land to be developed.
Don Juan Jose, who arrived in America a year and a half ago, made his first stop on the American continent at Fort St. Augustine. He was attracted by the still climate there and the scenery of the nearby beaches, so he asked King Philip to have Florida.
His request was quickly approved by King Philip, and a few months ago, Don Juan Jose was named Duke of Florida.
The Duke of Florida's military capabilities would not be comparable to those of France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, and Sweden, which had many famous generals. But now that Spain's famous generals are withering, Don Juan Jose can be considered a capable player. Because he can still fight, he has been busy fighting in these years, winning and losing many battles, and his vision and methods have indeed improved. After studying the report about the destruction of Donihan that Li Yufan brought to Mexico City (there were also a small number of Spanish advisers in Donihan's army), he immediately realized that this young guard of the Ming Dynasty would become his strong enemy. Because of the long distance across the Pacific Ocean, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to have a numerical advantage in the Americas within twenty years.
Since quantity does not dominate, we can only rely on quality to win. Therefore, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty will definitely send the strongest army troops to America!
"Your Majesty, the Duke of Florida hopes that you will give the highest priority to supporting the Kingdom of New Spain in preparing for war." Li Yufan said, "He hopes that you can provide a batch of new flintlocks and wooden stock shells to the New World as soon as possible, because Ming Ming The army's expeditionary force will definitely be equipped with these two weapons.
In addition, the Duke also needed a fleet that could transport at least 5,000 troops to land in the Gulf of America. "
"Does he know where the Chinese castle is?" asked the king.
"I don't know yet." Li Yufan replied, "But the reconnaissance ship of the Kingdom of New Spain has discovered the Gulf of America. In addition, the Duke of Florida has also sent an Indian caravan to the Gulf of America. I believe that the specific location of Chinatown will be discovered soon. Then, The Duke will hire the Indian tribes on the Great Plains to march westward to fight the Ming army, and then launch a surprise attack by sea after their main force leaves Chinatown and marches eastward."
Another advantage of the Spaniards in North America was that they had established connections with many powerful Plains Indian tribes, although these connections often resulted in killing each other. However, there were many Indian tribes on the Great Plains of North America, and they had long been hostile to each other, so there was no unified leadership. There was no unity when fighting the white colonists. It often happened that some tribes and the white people joined forces to deal with other Indian tribes.
Therefore, the New Spanish authorities always had some way of driving the Indian tribes of the Great Plains.
Because these tribes in the Great Plains have been fighting and fighting for a long time, their combat effectiveness is still very strong. Even New Spain, with a population of hundreds of thousands of whites, could only maintain its colonial strongholds in New Mexico, Texas, and Florida by building forts for defense.
If Don Juan Jose could successfully drive one or two of the tribes to attack the American Gulf, the Ming Dynasty's American Mansion would probably be in a hurry for a while...
"It sounds good, let's do it!" King Philip nodded slightly, "Jose will not let me down... He is my best child, but it is a pity that he does not have the right to inherit."
When the King of Spain was lamenting that his smartest son had no right to inherit, one of his attendants knocked on the door: "Your Majesty, we have just received a report that the former Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, is dead!"
Philip heard this and made the sign of the cross on his chest, "May the Lord forgive that sinful soul!"
Then he said to Li Ngoc Fan: "Bishop, I think I will be able to send a fleet to New Spain soon!"
...
Don Juan José, the smartest son of King Philip of Spain, guessed correctly. Zhu Cixiang, who traveled to Wuhan under the banner of conquering the bandits, was preparing to send his precious young army to the other side of the ocean.
Of course not all of them were sent there, because there are several wars facing Emperor Zhu now!
The first is of course the protracted battle to besiege Dashun.
Zhu Cixiang mobilized 350,000 troops, divided into six routes from Shaanxi, Huguang, Guizhou and other directions (the route to attack Myanmar has not yet started), starting at the Badong front in Jingzhou Prefecture; the Junzhou front in Xiangyang Prefecture; and Zunyi in Xichuan Town The frontiers; the Guizhou Army's frontier areas around Chishui, Bijie, and Pu'an; the frontiers of Baoji and Yixian in Guanzhong; the frontiers of Qishan in Gongchang Prefecture, etc. built fortresses and approached step by step.
The second is the war on the northern grasslands.
After Doni's rebellion was quickly crushed, the resistance of the three Khalkha Mongolian tribes and the Horqin tribe also quickly collapsed - they had originally resisted the Ming Dynasty and the Tumote and Chahar coalition forces with the secret support of Manchuria. Now that Manchuria itself has been completely recovered by the Ming Dynasty, how can Khalkha and Horqin continue to fight?
However, the collapse of the three Khalkha tribes and the Horqin tribe does not mean that the northern grasslands will be peaceful from now on. The biggest difference between the Mongolian tribes and the Manchus is that the latter have a cohesive core! So when the power is used together, it will be completely conquered because this core is destroyed. The former is a loose alliance composed of an unknown number of large and small tribes. The collapse of the Sibu Wang Banner does not mean that all tribes surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. But it means that Tumut, Chahar and Zhungar can start competing for the inheritance of the four.
And the powerful Zhungeer tribe is in a very advantageous position in this battle for heritage!
Follow Zhungeer and you will have meat to eat!
So starting from the twelfth year of Hongxing, a westward whirlwind set off on the Mongolian grasslands. Hundreds of thousands of Mongolians successively left the grasslands where they had lived, and moved westward to the east and west sides of the Altai Mountains, joining the Zhunge Erbu.
The Mongolian population controlled by the Jungar tribe has suddenly increased from six to seven hundred thousand to around one million!
The strength of the Quasi-Ministry, of course, means war!
The question is who to fight?
The third war that troubled Emperor Zhu was the war with the Toyotomi family of Japan.
This civil war in Japan has lasted for several years, and the Tokugawa shogunate, which was supported by the Ming Dynasty, not only failed to win, but also fell into a bitter war.
Of course, Tokugawa Mitsukuni and Hoshino Masayuki, who are currently in charge of the shogunate, have too many Tokugawa Keiki and Matsudaira Yoshiyoshi in the Tokugawa era in history.
Under their leadership, the shogunate army was able to fight repeatedly in the north, and maintained the front line on the territory of Hiroshima Domain and Fukuyama Domain.
The fourth war was the war with the Pattani Sultanate... The ministers of the Pattani Sultanate originally came from Siam because Siam borrowed troops from the Ming Dynasty to attack Lanna (which was independent from Burma controlled by Dashun) The reason was that it was ceded to the Ming Dynasty along with Songkhla, Yala, Satun, Bodalen, Trang, Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Initially, Emperor Zhu did not want so much, but Zhu Cizhao went to the Golden City in person He went to persuade King Nare and asked for more land. Of course, the whole process was quite friendly and harmonious, and there was absolutely no coercion or inducement...
Now that the Ming army has stationed in Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phraya in Yala, Satun, Bodalen, Trang and other places have all expressed their surrender to the King of Rinan. Only the Pattani Sultanate is dissatisfied. This country is only a vassal of Siam, and it became basically independent after Siam was invaded by Dashun. How can it be willing to obey Zhu Cizhao now?
So the few elite young soldiers Emperor Zhu has on hand are very busy!
