France, Palace of Versailles.
A week before Christmas in 1669, Louis XIV, recognized as the most beautiful man in France, the Sun King of Europe, the despot "I am the country", was standing in front of an oil painting he hated most. I'm sulking in the front!
This oil painting is a portrait painting, depicting the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Sun King of the Eastern World, and the sole and exclusive Hongxing Emperor Zhu Cixiang.
This painting was painted by Mary Mancini a few years ago and sent to Louis all the way. Mary told him in the letter that the person in the painting was the Ming Dynasty emperor, and he was the same size as a real person... Louis felt something was wrong when he looked at it!
Why is this man so tall and with a thick beard? He looks very barbaric. He is definitely not an emperor of civilized people. I wonder if Mary will be abused? Most definitely!
King Louis was furious when he thought that the most beautiful woman in his life was given away to the barbaric monarch in the East by that treacherous minister Mazarin!
What’s even more irritating is that this king of barbarians in the East, in every aspect, surpasses him, the Sun King in the west...
The Sun King ruled a population of 20 million, which was already a huge number in the West, but the Hongxing Emperor ruled a population of 200 million!
It’s doubled ten times! How could he manage so many people?
The territory ruled by Louis XIV was already very large for Europe. But the country of Emperor Hongxing of the Ming Dynasty was simply boundless - it was boundless in the mainland, not a colony without a few people!
As for the wealth he possesses, it is even more incomparable. King Louis's treasury was always empty and could never be filled.
And this Emperor Hongxing is the richest man in the world, bar none!
Moreover, he is already so rich, and he can always come up with many ways to make money. He is simply greedy to the extreme!
The other person who made King Louis jealous was the heir of Emperor Hongxing... The Governor of New France, Lord Saint-Louson, had just sent an urgent report to King Louis. The son of Emperor Ming, King Zhu Cishao of United States, had arrived in Xinzhou. Washington, the capital of the United States.
Their sons have become kings! And he also went to North America and New France to be neighbors... Moreover, this Emperor Hongxing had another dozen, maybe twenty, sons, which was really too many.
Louis XIV turned and looked at a map of America hanging on the wall. Looking at the New France colony occupying the northern, northeastern and vast central areas of the North American continent on the map, he finally regained some confidence.
At least France still has a vast American colony...but there are a little few French colonists in such a large colony.
There are only more than 10,000 people. This number is the result of Louis XIV's efforts to promote immigration after taking office.
In the British New England and the Chinese New Zealand United States, there were hundreds of thousands of colonists settled there.
In contrast, the colony of New France was dangerously underpopulated.
If the Chinese continued to enter the New World, sooner or later they would cross the Rocky Mountains and enter the New France colony.
Will the New France colony be able to hold it by then?
But it is really difficult to increase the population of the colony!
Mainland France is fertile, and now it is ruled by the wisest Sun King in Europe. The population is not too large, and the fertile land in France can fully support them.
Therefore, France is not like the Ming Empire, which can always find a large group of paupers who cannot survive in the country and go to the New World to live life.
In addition, France under the rule of the Sun King is not like the United Kingdom across the English Channel, which has various twists and turns and various persecutions. It always makes some nobles and people unable to get along in the country, so they have to go to the New World. The British are particularly good in this regard. Talent, in history, until the glorious Victorian era, was able to cause an Irish famine that increased the population of the United States...
Finally, although the French colony on the mainland is large, it has not discovered crazy gold, at least not yet.
The Ming Dynasty was extremely lucky. Not long after taking over California, a large amount of gold was discovered!
The Sun King sighed softly.
At this moment, a servant loudly announced from outside the door: "The Minister of State for the Army and the Minister of State for the Navy have arrived!"
The Minister of State for the Navy was Colbert, Louis XIV's most trusted minister. Previously responsible for rebuilding the finances of the Kingdom of France, he is now in charge of naval and colonial affairs.
Although Prince Condé proposed to King Louis a hegemonic strategy of French army and Dutch navy, Louis XIV was obsessed with building France's own large navy.
Especially after the Battle of Malacca, when the world's major naval powers fell into a "period of confusion" (that is, they did not know what type of ship to build), Louis XIV felt that France's opportunity to develop its navy had arrived. Therefore, after the finances were a little looser, he transferred his cronies to rectify the navy, and at the same time take charge of France's large and desolate colonies.
King Louis' current Minister of State for War is Prince Condé.
The door to the king's office was then pushed open.
The two ministers came in one after another, came to Louis XIV, bowed, and kissed the back of the king's hand.
Louis XIV glanced at the two of them and noticed that Colbert was looking happy, so he asked: "Minister of the Navy, is there any good news from the colony of New France?"
"Your Majesty," Colbert replied with a smile, "the good news does not come from New France, but from our East India Company... They have reached an agreement with the Dashun Empire.
The Dashun Empire's mission has arrived at the Port of Marseille with an agreement stamped with the emperor's seal. As long as you sign the agreement, our army can march from Ceylon to Fort Windward.
The rich Coromandel Coast will soon belong to France! "
This is indeed good news!
Louis XIV turned to look at Prince Condé, "Prince, have you chosen your target? Where are you going to start?"
"The choice has been made," said the Prince of Condé, "that France will conquer the rich India from Pondicherry!"
Pondicherry is just south of Shunfeng Fort. It was once occupied by the Portuguese, and now it was taken back by the local princes of India.
In the original history, the French captured it in 1673, thus beginning the colonial history of French India.
Now with the two helpers of Holland and Dashun, the French's dream of India has started a few years ago.
"Will he interfere?" Louis XIV turned around and pointed at Zhu Cixiang's full-length portrait.
"He has already begun to interfere," said Prince Condé. "He included Aurangzeb's daughter Princess Nisha into the harem just to interfere in Indian affairs!"
"It's so shameless!" King Louis cursed - not that Zhu Cihong was shameless for interfering in India, but that it was shameless to include Princess Nisha in the harem.
"Prince," the Sun King looked at Prince Kong Dai, "Is there nothing we can do against him?"
"Of course not," Prince Kong Dai said, "We still have many ways to deal with Emperor Hongxing and his empire."
"What can we do? Tell us quickly!" the Sun King said.
"Your Majesty," Prince Kong Dai said, "we should seek a broader alliance, unite with the existing and potential enemies of the Ming Empire, and create difficulties for Emperor Hongxing in all aspects."
"Tell me, who can I win over?" Louis XIV asked.
"The first is the Kingdom of New Spain," said Prince Condé. "The expansion of the United States of New Zealand poses a great threat to the Kingdom of New Spain. The regent of New Spain, Don Juan Jose, will definitely be willing to stand with us, and in After the death of Philip IV, the population of the Kingdom of New Spain grew rapidly, and it also began to build its own navy, which already had the power to fight the United States of New Zealand again.
Secondly, the Rakshasa Kingdom, their war with the Ming Dynasty has actually been continuing. The two sides have been fighting for the grasslands of Central Asia and southern Siberia. Moreover, the Rakshasa Kingdom also united several Tianfang Sect countries in Central Asia and received support from Persia. However, the Ming Dynasty was too far away from Central Asia and Siberia to invest sufficient power. Therefore, Rakshasa and Ming were evenly matched in Central Asia and Siberia. "
