In the winter of the 25th year of Hongxing's reign in the Ming Dynasty, at the end of 1672 in the Western calendar, a full-scale war that was about to sweep the world was on the verge of breaking out.
This is a conflict between Eastern and Western civilizations, as well as a contest between East Asian and Western European races.
The national destiny of the Ming Empire, the leader of Eastern civilization and the East Asian race, which has been reviving since the end of Chongzhen, has rebounded from the lowest point and has been on an upward path for nearly thirty years.
This is not the 20th century when Western civilization and European races are at their peak, but the 17th century when the Eastern world can still keep pace with the Western world in many aspects. Even the Ming Dynasty in the last years of Chongzhen could still crush any European power in terms of fiscal revenue, national production, and population. As long as it can successfully integrate its national power, the Ming Dynasty can even be worth the entire country. Europe.
After nearly thirty years of revival and rise, the Ming Empire, which became great again and restored the majesty of the Celestial Empire, not only touched the cheese of Western civilization and European races, but also began to touch their bottom line!
In the Americas, the continuous development of the United States of New Zealand has almost pushed the Kingdom of New Spain into a corner... Although Don Juan Jose tried his best to increase the white population of the Kingdom of New Spain, the Spanish mainland After all, there are only more than 5 million people. How can they compare with the speed of immigration in China, which has a population of 200 million?
Moreover, when Zhu Hehao came to the country, he brought a large number of Fubing households with more women than boys (the men from Fubing households either died in battle or followed them to Yunnan and Burma), which greatly alleviated the shortage of Han women in the United States of New Zealand. Question... And women of childbearing age are strategic resources in the New World!
With a sufficient number of women of childbearing age, the birth rate of the United States of New Zealand has also begun to skyrocket. In a few years, the national population of the United States of New Zealand will exceed that of the Kingdom of New Spain.
So Don Juan Jose, the regent of New Spain, couldn't help but go to the battlefield again!
For him, it is better to fight late than to fight early, and to fight small is worse than big... If the fight is not continued and it is delayed for another twenty or thirty years, it will be a losing war!
The question now is when did Louis XIV decide to go to war?
Like Don Juan Jose, Tsar Alexei I of the Rakshasa Empire was also determined to go to war.
The expansion momentum of the three vassal states of the Ming Dynasty in Central Asia has also clearly exceeded the bottom line of the Rakshasa Kingdom... Even if the "Caspian Sea Trade Line" with the Kingdom of Persia is not considered, Alexei I has to guard against it. Another Golden Horde appears!
Aren’t the Jungar Kingdom and the Golden Horde both Mongols? If the Jungar Kingdom expands to a level comparable to that of the Golden Horde, won't the Rakshasa people have to suffer twice and suffer twice?
Therefore, in the past ten years, Alexei I, who had been avoiding direct war with the Ming Empire, in the winter of 1672, faced with the aggressive power of Zhungeer, Heshuote, and Dai Guo, he also decided to determined to go to war.
Of course, the Rakshasa people did not dare to provoke the behemoth of the Celestial Empire alone... So the question before Tsar Alexei I was also when will the French Sun King Louis make up his mind to go to war?
The third person who could not tolerate the Ming Dynasty was De Witte, the Grand Speaker of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
The reason that de Wit could not bear it was the emergence of the Republic of Batavia - although Zhu Cihong still fully protected the interests of the shareholders of the Dutch East India Company and made the Dutch in Batavia the consul of the republic. But in the eyes of people in the Netherlands, especially the shareholders of the East India Company, the Batavia Republic is simply a puppet of the Ming Empire... In a few years, the Dutch will completely lose the East India Company. Indian Company and all interests in the East Indies.
Moreover, after the discovery of the Southern Continent, the activities of the Ming Empire in the Indian Ocean significantly intensified!
At the same time, the friendship between the Ming Empire and the Indian Timurid Empire was also warming up - due to the development of the "Xiaoge Lao Trade", the Indian Timurid Empire's scout supply chain was firmly controlled by the Ming Empire, so Orang Zebu had to maintain friendship with Emperor Zhu. The friendship between Zhu Cihong and Aurangzeb made the Dutch feel a new threat.
Their interests in the Indian Ocean will be taken away by the Ming Empire sooner or later!
Without the huge benefits from the East Indies and the Indian Ocean, the good days of the United Provinces of the Netherlands would be over.
Therefore, Chancellor de Wit left The Hague, the capital of the Republic of the Netherlands, on Christmas Eve in 1672, and arrived at the beautiful Palace of Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, France... Without France to take the lead, Nigeria would The United Republic of Deland cannot defeat the powerful Ming Empire.
On December 23, 1672, just as Christmas was approaching, De Witte from the Netherlands, Ivan Naryshkin from the Rakshasa Kingdom, and De Velasco from the Kingdom of New Spain, They all gathered together in the Sun King's Palace of Versailles. Prepare to work hard to persuade the French Sun to lead the most powerful army in Europe onto the battlefield against the Ming Empire.
However, Louis XIV did not receive them immediately. It was not that the French king wanted to cool off the three of them, but that a more important guest secretly visited Versailles.
Because this guest arrived so suddenly and mysteriously, Louis XIV had to temporarily leave the Palace of Versailles and go to a country house belonging to the Savoy family near Saint-Germain.
There, Louis XIV met his somewhat glamorous distant niece Maria Francesca Isabel de Savoy - the former Queen of Portugal and the current Princess Regent of Portugal.
Although she does not have the title of queen now, she is actually the queen of Portugal. She suddenly ran from Lisbon to Saint-Germain in France in complete secrecy, and even asked to see Louis XIV by name. It really made King Louis a little bit fanciful. ...Is it because the Portuguese Regent Pedro, like his brother, has a physical defect? This is really troublesome!
Of course the "helpful" King Louis would not leave his beautiful niece alone, so he turned down the meeting with De Wit, Ivan Naryshkin, De Belasco and others, and only brought Several confidants, protected by a small group of cavalry, quietly arrived at the Villa Savoye in Saint-Germain.
However, contrary to King Louis' expectations, what he got at the Villa Savoye was not an affair, but a distant niece who was anxious and a little at a loss...
"Your Majesty, the king has escaped!"
In the living room of the Villa Savoye, Maria Francesca first sent herself and Louis's entourage out, and then reported a terrible news to Louis with a sad face.
"What?" Louis was shocked, "Maria Francesca, you drove away another husband?"
Maria Francesca was stunned for a moment, and then she realized that King Louis had misunderstood her words, so she quickly explained: "Your Majesty, you have misunderstood. The king I am talking about is not Pedro."
"That's..." Louis was stunned and suddenly understood, "Is it Alfonso? Wasn't he imprisoned by you in the Azores?"
"He ran away!" Maria Francesca gritted her silver teeth. "This treacherous man actually left the Azores Islands with a group of pirates who came out of nowhere!"
Louis XIV frowned after hearing this - you Maria Francesca, as the Queen of Portugal, colluded with the king's brother, saying that the king had physical problems, and used this as an excuse to incite a coup and exile the king. A deserted island overseas... now they actually say that the king is treacherous!
"Don't worry," Louis XIV took a breath and comforted his niece, "He is not worthy of being a king... He has a physical defect!"
Louis thought to himself: Physical defects do not seem to be the reason why he cannot be the king!
Maria Francesca shook her head and said: "No, that's not the case... He, he..."
"How is he?" Louis looked at his niece's expression and his heart skipped a beat.
"He has no physical problems!" Maria Francesca gritted her teeth, "Your Majesty, actually he has no problems..."
"What?" Louis XIV was surprised, "Then, aren't you and Pedro..."
"It's adultery!" Maria Francesca said, "Your Majesty, once this matter is exposed, Pedro and I will be in big trouble!"
Louis rolled his eyelids and said to himself: You two will never stop doing one thing and another... You have done adultery and a coup, why can't you do murder?
"It doesn't matter!" Louis XIV gritted his teeth, "I am the Sun King. If I say he can't do it, he can't do it, and he can't do it..."
Maria Francesca shook her head and said: "Your Majesty, the pirates who rescued Alfonso from the Azores are most likely from the east...from the Goa colony!"
