But this kind of war relies more on manpower and financial resources. After all, personal bravery has been reduced to a minimum, and even the mobility of cavalry is limited. Therefore, if European countries want to play this way, they must form larger armies. , forcing more migrant workers to serve themselves, naturally they have to exploit their own civilians more heavily.
In fact, many of the engineers in the armies of European countries who are responsible for digging trenches and building bridges are strong men who were captured by force.
Because they did not have sufficient national strength like the Ming Dynasty and could use a large amount of idle land or money to recruit a large number of young men into the army, they could only recruit them by force.
In short, European countries were forced to use their limited talents and resources to forcibly upgrade the military technology tree due to the military threat of the Ming Dynasty, instead of allowing civilian technology to keep up.
In other words, the productivity of European countries does not match the level of military equipment they currently possess.
Just like if an agricultural country that has not yet fully industrialized uses cannons and tanks, the result will naturally be the collapse of the domestic economy and the displacement of a large number of people.
The Ming army was different. Its productivity had begun to enter the petroleum age, but its military was still dominated by steam power.
In other words, Ming Dynasty's current progress in military science and technology is half a step slower than the progress in science and technology theory and application in other domestic industries.
Today, Ming's technology tree mainly focuses on communications and aerospace.
Therefore, Zhu Cizhuo mentioned at the previous military meeting that radios and flying machines have appeared in the Ming Dynasty.
The reason why the Ming Dynasty focused its technology tree on these two aspects was naturally due to the adjustments made by the court based on the actual needs of the Ming Dynasty.
The reason is that the Ming Dynasty now occupies a very vast land, the land area has exceeded that of any period in history, and it has colonies all over the world. In order to better manage these places and coordinate the resources of these places, what is most needed is not the military. The progress was not in communication, but in communication. After all, Ming Dynasty already had great advantages in military matters.
Once greater development is achieved in communications, it will naturally be more conducive for the Ming Dynasty to defend these territories after it opens them up.
Therefore, although the military equipment of European countries has developed by leaps and bounds due to the stimulation of the Ming Dynasty, and is much more advanced than Europe during this period in history, there is still some way to go before technology can transform into productive forces. Many officers and soldiers in the army are disorganized, especially the soldiers at the lowest level.
Zhu Cizhuo seized this point and asked Li Dingguo to take advantage of the fact that the European armies had just arrived near Buden and were exhausted to launch an active attack. In contrast to the past, he only waited for the enemy to attack and then used landmines and artillery. The normal state of elimination.
As a result, a large number of Ming troops took the initiative and rushed towards the European armies, catching the European armies by surprise.
The armies of the European countries did not expect that the Ming army would take the initiative to charge, instead of waiting for them to take the initiative to attack by taking advantage of their artillery and mines.
As a result, the already demoralized European army suffered a direct rout.
As soon as the Ming army broke through the first wave of European elite troops, the ordinary infantry, engineers, and artillery behind them ran away, and many even raised their hands.
Many European soldiers who have been captured several times by strong men have become old ruffian soldiers. They have already had rich battlefield exchange experience with the Ming army. They also know that the Ming army does not kill prisoners, but just makes them work. The work is not in vain. You get paid for working, and you can also apply for money to take home.
Therefore, when the Ming army rushed over, many Xiyi soldiers raised their hands and surrendered without even firing their guns, and there were even many officers.
King Karl XI was very depressed when he saw this scene: "These bastards! Why can't they fight for the country!"
William also frowned and said: "Now that the defense line has been breached, the officers and soldiers have no intention of dying, so they can only retreat, otherwise they will be defeated even more miserably! We did not expect that the Ming army would take the initiative to attack!"
"There is nothing we can do even if we think about it. They are waiting for work and want to take the initiative to attack us. Can we immediately create a stronger defense line out of thin air? Withdraw to Wendeln!"
said Carl XI.
William continued: "You are right. An army like ours does not even need to take the initiative to attack. We still have to withdraw immediately. I am very worried that the Ming army will suddenly appear behind us again!"
After hearing what William said, King Karl XI's expression became solemn: "Are you saying that the Ming Dynasty will suddenly appear in the south like last time?!"
William nodded.
King Karl XI laughed and said with some lack of confidence: "How is this possible! His Ming army didn't have wings on his body. Now that he has suddenly appeared to the north of me, is it possible that he can suddenly appear to the south of me? What about these things in front of me? What is the Ming army attacking us?"
"They don't have to transfer all the Ming troops! They suddenly stopped at Budeng and started building roads and adding military stations along the way. Is it just to facilitate the transportation of food to the north, rather than to facilitate the transportation of soldiers from the north back to the south? go?"
William asked.
After hearing what William said, King Karl XI had to think deeply. After a while, he said: "You are right! We have to prevent this matter, so we should just withdraw to Stockholm!"
“I guess I’ll have to go straight back to Berlin!”
William replied very worriedly.
"I'll let the fleet transport you back!"
Karl XI said very generously.
…
boom!
boom!
boom!
Fierce artillery fire rang out in Berlin.
Soon, the entire city of Berlin was filled with smoke that covered the sky.
The city of Berlin, which was already empty of troops, suddenly seemed to have no troops to defend.
"Siege the city!"
Liu Zhaoji therefore issued an order to attack the city at this time.
A large number of Ming troops then rushed towards the city of Berlin.
Not long after, the city of Berlin fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty amidst the excitement.
The boiling sound came from the common people of Berlin.
Because the nobles of the Electorate of Brandenburg had already ruined their domestic economy in order to expand their army and improve their equipment level, inflation in Berlin was very serious, and civilians were already starving everywhere.
And they had long heard that the places occupied by the Ming army had jobs and bread.
Naturally, the civilians in Berlin welcomed the arrival of the Ming army.
Even though they knew that the arrival of the Ming army would destroy their culture.
But compared to culture, having a full stomach is naturally more important.
"What? Berlin is broken?"
After all, Brandenburg's Elector William was a step too late. When he arrived in Copenhagen, he received news that Berlin had been destroyed.
Therefore, William could not help but curse again: "Cunning Ming army! Their commander is just like a fox!"
"Why can't we find a way to get rid of this fifth prince named Zhu Cizhuo! Ever since he defeated the three-nation coalition forces of Sweden, Poland, and the Rakshasa Kingdom in the past, he was destined to be like his father. , they are all devils from the east!"
Earl Maticek, the trusted general next to William, said something at this time.
"Then tell me, whoever can offer this person's head, I will give him a hundred thousand gold!"
William said.
…
"Berlin has been taken! Liu Zhaoji's troops have moved along the Elbe River towards Hamburg. According to the Navy's report, the Swedish fleet heading south has just arrived in Copenhagen. It is too late for them to send troops back to Hamburg."
Dong Hanchen had just handed over a telegram from Liu Zhaoji's department to Zhu Cizhuo.
Zhu Cizhuo nodded and said: "Are the naval forces blocking Copenhagen in place? We cannot allow the armies of the vassal states of the Holy Roman Empire to come back!"
"Already in place!"
After Dong Hanchen answered, he took the initiative and said: "A group of Western girls were sent from Poland. They are all very beautiful and are willing to serve in front of His Highness. I asked my subordinates to ask, are you willing?"
"Xiyi girl?"
"That's right, I say they all admire you."
After Zhu Cizhuo heard what Dong Hanchen said, he said: "Others don't know, but you should know me. I like to hunt for women, but it doesn't mean that I don't know the importance!"
Dong Hanchen also nodded and said: "Actually, that's what I mean too. It's better to be more cautious at this time. Don't be careless. But after all, it's their intention, so I ask."
"Call all the Xiyi girls who want to serve me to the camp, and then you find a way to secretly kill them all! You would rather kill them by mistake than take it lightly at this time!"
Zhu Cizhuo suddenly said very coldly.
"clear!"
…
"Since they have all gone to the Ming Army camp, why is there still no news? Could it be that he has been prepared for this step?"
Coleman from England personally came to France to inquire about the murder of Zhu Cizhuo, but he became suspicious because he found that the murder plan had not produced results for a long time.
"Maybe yes, it is indeed an extremely difficult thing to do."
said the businessman Claes, who was mainly responsible for the conspiracy.
"But we can't give up. There is always an opportunity to make the commander of the Ming army disappear."
Coleman continued.
"Since the king suddenly fell into the water, there is no place for me in Great Britain, so I have to flee to France, but this does not mean that I will no longer carry out the orders of His Majesty the King during his lifetime."
Coleman added.
After King James II of England fell into the water, the whole of England welcomed a new king.
The new king was not Monmouth who orchestrated all this.
It was William III, son-in-law of James II.
William III had long controlled the power of the Royal Guards and gained the support of many English dignitaries, so he was elected as the new king in Parliament.
Naturally, Monmouth came up empty-handed.
Xu Qianxue was also quite disappointed with this.
But Xu Qianxue was still reused by the new king and retained his position as a councilor, because after all, he was from the Ming Dynasty.
People always value everything related to the strong.
The British dignitaries are no exception.
However, William III was a man who was very willing to share power with the powerful, so he accepted the Bill of Rights in the newly convened parliament, making England a constitutional monarchy.
At this point, Parliament became the most powerful body in England, rather than the Privy Council making decisions for the king.
But the interests of the nobles in England are in conflict with the interests of Ming Dynasty in England.
Therefore, the Parliament then passed a series of bills to protect the interests of the country's nobles and began to restrict the circulation of some Ming goods in England. For example, except for the five trading cities, Ming goods were not allowed to appear in other places, and Ming merchants were not allowed to go to these places. Do not operate in these places, and domestic merchants are not allowed to sell Ming products in these places.
As a result, Frank, an English businessman and comprador of the Ming World Development Company, was arrested by English authorities for selling Ming goods in Oxford.
The English nobles didn't pay much attention to this matter. After all, they were just arresting businessmen from their own country.
However, Frank let the Ming Emperor Zhu Youxiao know about the matter through Kang Qingchun.
"Let's discuss what Yinggeli means!"
Zhu Youxiao threw Kang Qingchun's memorial in front of several ministers and said angrily.
Wen Tiren picked it up and looked at it first, but found that it was just a small matter that an English businessman was arrested by the English authorities for selling Ming products in a city without trade.
Of course, Wen Tiren also knew that although this was a trivial matter, the fact that the King of England fell into the water recently and the new king accepted the Bill of Rights naturally meant that behind this trivial matter there was something major that should not be taken lightly.
Wen Tiren passed the memorial to Lu Xiangsheng, then looked at Zhu Youxiao and said: "How can we allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the bed? Although England is not on the side of the bed, it is also the country of the earth. How can we tolerate people from other countries doing whatever they want? Something that is not good for the interests of our country, Ming Dynasty! In my opinion, this small English island country needs to be taught a lesson to prevent him from doing even more unfunny things in the future."
"That's right! We need to teach a lesson. William III is obviously not suitable to be the King of England, and England's Bill of Rights obviously needs to be changed. At least it must be changed to say that the King of England will be appointed by His Majesty the Ming Emperor."
Lu Xiangsheng said.
"It's better to destroy it directly! England is not like other countries. Even if you control their king, you can't control the entire country. What needs to be eliminated is the nobles in his country! These people are the ones that limit the power of our Ming Dynasty in England."
Zhang Tongchang followed.
"But the European continent is still using troops, and only the navy is available. In fact, not only England, but most countries in Europe have monarchs with little power, and controlling their kings has little meaning. Therefore, what the court is doing in Europe now is In the unified strategy of mobilizing serfs to eliminate all Western nobles, in my opinion, we can still only force the king and nobles of England to make concessions first, and let them know that the interests of the Ming Dynasty are what they need to consider first, and then themselves!"
Du Yinxi, who was newly added to the position of auxiliary minister, expressed his opinion at this time.
Zhang Huangyan, who was also newly added to the position of auxiliary minister, also said: "I also think that it is better to teach England a lesson now. Just send troops directly now. If England is destroyed, it will indeed affect the overall situation of the imperial court in Europe. What's more, forcing It is easy for England to compromise, and it does not require many troops. It only needs to cut off its food. The nobles in England are greedy for the benefits of textiles. Many circles of farmland are used as pastures. Most of their food depends on foreign trade, and most of the merchant ships responsible for transporting food are from the Ming Dynasty. It belongs to the Netherlands, so all it takes is an edict from your majesty, and England will be in danger of running out of food! Or at most, they can send a navy to occupy London, punish them, and promote their national prestige."
"I also think it would be better for the Navy to send out only two or three troops to intimidate England, forcing it to further open its own market, instead of trying to keep Ming's goods out of the country, but the intimidation must be substantive. Destruction can produce results. Since the Parliament of England does not pay attention to this court, it must order the navy that conquered England to burn the Palace of Westminster, which is their parliament building! In addition, it must also let it Sign another clause to further open up its domestic market! Also, its king William III must also be captured. Although their king has little influence on the entire England, capturing his king can make these English nobles Knowing that only the Ming Dynasty can decide who their king is or is not. Furthermore, Xu Qianxue, who defected to England, no longer needs to be kept. He is escorted back to Beijing and dealt with strictly. It is useless to keep him, and he still cannot control the situation in England. , It’s really useless! Just draft the decree like this!”
Zhu Youxiao was determined to make England suffer a second war involving commercial interests.
Following Zhu Youxiao's decree, while the Ming Empire continued to expand its territory in the European continent, it actually dispatched 30,000 naval troops to England, and the reason for sending the troops was for Frank Such merchants who were willing to be friends of the Ming Dynasty guaranteed the right to trade freely within the rules set by Emperor Tianqi.
…
The nobles of England are still immersed in the atmosphere of freedom after James II fell into the water.
Since James II fell into the water and William III came to the throne, they no longer had to allocate their fields to serfs, and they no longer had to actively pay taxes.
However, the factories opened by Ming Dynasty in five important cities such as London and Liverpool in England still affected their business interests in these cities.
However, they also knew that the Ming Dynasty could not be directly offended, so they could only use national ideology to encourage civilians to boycott Ming goods.
The most extreme thing is that the parliament mentioned earlier restricted Ming goods from appearing in other towns outside these five major cities.
But what the nobles in England would not have thought was that even if they used this not too drastic method to deprive Ming of his business interests in England, Ming still did not choose to tolerate it.
So when they learned that a large fleet of the Ming Dynasty Navy had once again crossed the Strait of Dover, all the British nobles showed horror.
"Why are the people of the Ming Dynasty like this! Why should he send troops to intervene in the affairs of our own British Empire?!"
Councilor Cavendish angrily asked questions in parliament.
"There is no way, we don't have a strong enough national power. Maybe James II's original behavior was right. We really need to increase the revenue of the treasury to maintain a stronger national defense force and avoid the current fate of being arbitrarily slaughtered by him."
Another councilman, John Fu, said again.
"Damn Ming Dynasty, they destroyed our free world!"
Xu Qianxue suddenly said this at this time.
The members of the House of Representatives all looked at him.
Xu Qianxue continued: "Without the Ming Dynasty, our British Empire should be the clearest era in history! There is a clear charter to limit monarchy, and civil rights are greatly protected. It is the freest country in the world, but it is a pity that , the Ming Dynasty does not want us to have freedom! Only by fighting to the death and protecting our British Empire at all costs can we protect our free world!"
"The earl is right! The Ming Dynasty is only willing to see our king like James II who is willing to be the lackey of his Ming Dynasty. As long as this king is willing to dedicate all the wealth of the British Empire to his Ming Dynasty. If they exist, they will not raise troops. The Ming Kingdom is our biggest enemy at the moment! We need to unite to fight against the Ming Kingdom!"
Monmouth also echoed.
He now had to let go of his regret for not becoming the King of England, and actively advocated for all English people to fight against the Ming invasion.
Members of the entire parliament were ignited with passion and expressed their desire to protect their country.
"In this case, I propose to make a donation. At present, the national treasury does not have much surplus due to the huge expenditure on shipbuilding and taxes have not reached before. More funds are needed to recruit landless peasants as soldiers to fight against the Ming army. invasion."
William III said at this time.
As soon as he said this, all the English nobles in the parliament fell silent and began to think about the interests and risks involved.
To say that they have no intention of saving the country is not true, but when it is their turn to save the country with their own money, they still have to weigh the pros and cons based on habit.
After thinking for a while, Cavendish stood up first. He was afraid of being accused of corruption as a financial officer, so he cried for a while and then said: "I can only afford five hundred pounds. Now for The country is willing to donate it all!”
"I have three hundred pounds in savings, and I am willing to donate it all!"
John also replied.
Xu Qianxue also stood up at this time and said: "His Majesty the King also knows that I am a newcomer to Britain, so I don't have much property. Now even if I spend everything I can, I can only donate one hundred pounds!"
"I can afford a hundred pounds, I'm so poor!"
"Who is not? The wealth of the British Empire has long been taken away by the Ming Dynasty. Whose life is easier? I can only afford one hundred pounds."
"I can only spend fifty pounds! As you all know, I originally opened a textile factory. Since the Ming Dynasty invaded our country, a large number of my textile factories in London, Liverpool and other places have closed down. Now there are no How many properties."
…
These English nobles all cried out that they were poor, perhaps because they were stingy or because they did not want to reveal their wealth in a high-profile manner, and each of them did not pledge much money.
William III almost cried because of this: "This is not enough! It's not even enough to buy a few more cannons."
William III was completely disappointed with these English nobles, and he had no choice but to say: "In that case, don't donate it, Earl Jian'an (Xu Qianxue), at your expense, go to the Duke of Monmouth to see the Ming consul and ask them How on earth can we stop the war!"
Xu Qianxue was about to respond when he suddenly heard someone running from outside the palace shouting: "Urgent report! The Ming army has broken through my naval defense line in London and is approaching the city of London!"
"So fast?!"
William III stood up in shock, and then immediately ordered: "Duke Monmouth, you and Earl Jian'an stay in London to contact the Ming army. I will ask Lieutenant General John to lead the troops to protect you, and let him and his close men The guardsmen are all under your command, and I have to visit Nottingham now!"
7017k
