Deception tactics will never go out of style in any era. It just depends on whether the other party is interested in what you say!
The secret that a certain prince told Putmans made the latter find it unbelievable.
But after thinking about it briefly, I felt that it seemed very likely to happen.
That is, the Netherlands will be completely occupied by the powerful French army in thirty years!
Although the two major camps in Europe are still in the stage of fierce fighting, it is obvious that with France personally participating in the war, the balance of power will tilt towards France and its allies.
After the successive kings of the Spanish Empire squandered the precious metals obtained from the Americas, the Armada was destroyed, and the richest possession of the Netherlands was lost.
Under the hard work of Prime Minister Richelieu, the prosperous France has replaced Spain and become the most powerful country in Europe, and not one of them!
Even the most expensive Habsburg dynasty was on the verge of bankruptcy due to years of war, and was completely unable to compare with France, which was still rising in strength.
If the anti-Habsburg side finally wins, there is no doubt that France will be the country that benefits the most, and its strength will further increase rapidly.
After weakening the Spanish Empire and the Habsburg dynasty, who was France's next target with a great victory?
Putmans had no idea and couldn't guess it, but the prince of the Ming Empire told him the answer directly.
That's the Netherlands!
My motherland has to face three to four hundred thousand or more brave and capable French troops!
And unlike the Spanish army that came from afar, the French army could walk from home to the French-Dutch border!
The most important thing is that even if this powerful and terrifying enemy walks over, it will not take three or four days!
There is no need to doubt the strength of the French army's offensive force, because the Spanish army also used more than 100,000 people to attack the Netherlands.
It's just that with France checking and balancing behind them, the Spaniards feel restrained everywhere.
But if the Netherlands is attacked by France, will Spain help the Netherlands?
Based on the historical relations between the two countries, Putmans pessimistically believes that absolutely not!
The scarier thing about the French army than the Spanish army is that not only did it start from a shorter distance and launch the attack extremely suddenly, but as the Ming prince said, the French army could adopt completely new tactics due to its own national strength.
The Spanish army was hindered by the bastions all over the Dutch mainland and struggled to move forward. They continued to increase troops from the mainland. As a result, they fought for decades, but the results were huge, but they failed to achieve their goals. In the end, they had to admit that the Netherlands had separated from the empire.
France was different. Because it adopted brand-new tactics, it was able to force the Netherlands to surrender, initiate peace, and spend huge sums of money to pay compensation.
The tactic is very simple, it is to help the Dutch "strengthen the wall and clear the country"!
The French army would not leave once they arrived, nor would they storm a fort with strong defenses and directly burn the crops before the autumn harvest.
The defenders in the bastion can hold out for one or two years, or even three or four years, but what about the people outside the bastion?
Without a harvest, you can’t survive a year!
If the entire Netherlands is treated like this by the French army, what's the use of having a bastion?
The French army waited for the Dutch defenders in the bastion to come out and engaged in a large-scale field battle with them.
Unlike the Spanish Empire, France's goal was not to occupy the Netherlands but to receive war reparations.
This means that France can destroy every inch of the Netherlands at will!
After ten years of this, the Dutch mainland outside the bastion will become an endless no man's land!
Can the Netherlands accept this outcome?
The French army could not be defeated in a field battle, and holding on would cause the country to be ravaged by the enemy. The only way out was to sue for peace.
Then the Netherlands became a permanent tax land for France!
It’s not territorial, but it’s better than being territorial, and you can still receive tax money!
What a perfect strategy~!
It’s not much, just spend 10 million silver coins every year to honor your French godfather!
Although this was a joke made up by a certain prince, Putmans was already doubtful about it.
The reason is simple. Prime Minister Richelieu has long been recognized by senior leaders of European countries as the most outstanding prime minister in French history.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of the confrontation between the two major military groups, France gained great benefits from its strong rise in Europe.
In order to further consolidate the fruits of victory, Richelieu may not mind taking action on his former allies!
France and Spain-Habsburg originally belonged to the same belief, but for the sake of profit, they were not fighting to the death.
If the attack is really close to the Netherlands, which has a much smaller population than France, maybe the French army will be dispatched by then!
The powerful fleet of the Netherlands may be extremely threatening to countries like Spain, but it is of no use at all if it wants to threaten the land-based country France.
France is completely self-sufficient in food, its arsenal can produce enough weapons, and it has sufficient financial funds to start this war machine.
All the methods used by the Netherlands to deal with the Spanish Empire were ineffective against France.
All France had to do was to send a large army and occupy the entire Netherlands, which would be enough for the Dutch high-level officials to actively seek peace.
How about it?
These five hundred thousand silver coins are well spent, right?
Putmans wanted to know how to get the Netherlands out of its predicament, especially to avoid catastrophe.
But a certain prince would not tell him the answer easily. He would not tell him until he bought another five million silver coins.
The answer is simple, move!
If Britain moved to North America, the United States would not have been born.
Spain moved into Central and North America, controlling half of North and South America, as well as all of Latin America.
Even if about half of the country may be lost in the future, with the remaining fundamentals, it will still be a first-class country three hundred years from now.
Even the weak Portugal can develop as it wants if it moves to Brazil because there are no natural enemies there.
If the Netherlands stayed on the mainland, they would not be able to defeat the rapidly rising United Kingdom in a sea battle, and they would not be able to defeat the rising France in a land battle.
The result is that it will fail to recover and eventually become a third-rate country, nothing more.
The population is small, the country is small, and there are powerful enemies on land and sea, but they don't like to hug each other.
Isn’t this just sitting around waiting to be destroyed? ? ?
The way for a small country to survive is not to be an enemy of a big country, otherwise the big country will not make it easy for you even if it cannot eat you!
However, the Netherlands fought several naval battles with Britain and one land battle with France, and then nothing was left.
All the money he earned as a coachman on the sea was thrown out by his opponents.
This is simply a European ATM!
Even so, I still feel good about myself!
Little do you know that all the money you have earned over the years has been earned by Britain and France. In the end, you will be left with nothing!
It’s not a pity for the Netherlands, it’s a pity for the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain!
I was short-sighted before, but I deserve to be reduced to it later!
The British Empire seemed not to be interested in the three prime lands of North America, South Africa, and Australia. It was obsessed with the three acres of its own land.
After the empire implemented the hollowing-out strategy, once its European rivals launched a fatal blow, this seemingly powerful empire was instantly deflated...
The opportunity before the Dutch was better than that of the British, because half of North America was now populated only by Indians, and the Spanish were not interested in the cold northern North America.
As long as the Dutch are willing to move, they will soon be able to occupy land dozens of times the size of the mainland, and with their naval superiority, they will not be threatened by their old friends in Europe for a while.
It is better for half of North America to be occupied by the Dutch than by the British. There are fewer Dutch people and the digestion time is slower. It would be much faster if it were replaced by the British.
If the Dutch navy can maintain its current advantage and try to avoid fierce battles with its British counterparts, then Britain will be two to three hundred years away from completely dominating the oceans.
Using the Netherlands to curb Britain's ambitions for external expansion seems to be a very good strategy!
On the contrary, the Dutch will destroy themselves according to their original trajectory!
You know, you can't stop people who are bent on seeking death!
Where to go depends on whether there are any foresighted and smart people among the Dutch natives.
Putmans wasn't stupid, but he had no say in the matter of moving.
People who keep their word may not be as rational about the future as Putmans.
The consultation fee of five million silver dollars from the other party is not much, and it is not a net profit. After all, you also gave away a bunch of products, right?
After Putmans got the secret, he didn't sleep well that night.
The next day my eyes looked like rabbits, but fortunately there was nothing important to do.
Accompanied by the Ministry of Etiquette personnel, the group can sightsee around the city, eat when they are tired, and come back to sleep when they feel sleepy.
Except for part of the city wall that was damaged by the war, the city did not look like it had experienced a war half a year ago.
This one mentioned by Zheng Zhilong is almost the same. No wonder Zheng Zhilong is fascinated by it every time he mentions it.
No city in Europe is as prosperous as here, or even slightly inferior.
Beyond that, what occupied Putmans' brain was how to make money and the answer to that secret.
After only staying for ten days, the group decided to set off and first use Ming merchant ships to transport the purchased goods to Tianjin.
Then transfer it to your own ship, so that you can return as soon as possible, which also means you can cash out as soon as possible.
Zheng Zhilong's trip was not in vain. It had been three months since he returned to Fujian after the New Year and arrived in Beijing again.
During this period, the factories in Beijing produced a large number of products that allowed them to make a profit, and they became the most powerful middlemen.
Zheng Zhilong can enjoy priority supply rights, which is undoubtedly the envy of other colleagues.
In order to commend Zheng Zhilong for his contribution to soliciting customers, a certain prince delivered to him twenty revolvers and fifty anti-ship missiles, and rewarded him with a hundred boxes of Shushuang and a thousand copies of the newly published "Secret History of the Borderlands"...
Zheng Zhilong can now read a book and supervise the battle. At present, the Zheng army has begun to attack the Spanish stronghold entrenched in the northern part of Dongfan Island.
The Spanish defenders inside were as stubborn as the Dutch defenders at the time. They did not intend to surrender immediately and were still looking forward to reinforcements coming to relieve the siege.
Moreover, according to locals who had previously served for the Spanish defenders and have now surrendered, Gonzalo Portiglio, the Spanish governor in the East, had less than 500 men under his command.
All these people were huddled in the city of San Salvador. Santo Domingo was demolished three years ago on the order of Philippine Governor Coquilla due to the high cost of holding it.
Five hundred defenders want to resist the siege of tens of thousands of Zheng's troops? ? ?
There is no doubt that this is a daydream, and waiting for reinforcements is also wishful thinking!
With the previous experience of besieging Relanjia Castle, Zheng Zhilong had enough patience this time.
After cutting off the defenders' contact with the outside world, they handed over the land battle to Zheng Zhi'ao and the naval battle to Zheng Zhifeng, and took Putmans northward.
After returning to Xiamen from the capital, he heard that the Spanish Red Barbarians were still resisting. Zheng Zhilong felt that the Western Red Barbarians were all virtuous and would only surrender if they could not hold on.
Then we can continue to launch a large-scale artillery bombardment, and everything hit will be filled with coconut shells!
It is exactly the same as what the Dutch tasted at the Chateau Geranje. The taste is absolutely rich and mellow...
You should not be impatient when besieging a castle like this, especially during the storm season. A storm will come within a month, and the entire army must retreat to a safe area.
This gave the defenders a few days of breathing space. When the storm passed, the large group of troops returned to their positions and continued the siege over and over again to see who could not hold on first.
During this period, Zheng Zhifeng sank one, burned one, captured two Spanish warships, and two Spanish warships took advantage of the chaos to escape.
By this time, Philippine Governor Coquilla should have known about this matter. After all, the distance between San Salvador and Manila is more than half shorter than Batavia.
Zheng Zhilong couldn't guess whether the Spanish Red Barbarians could come to the rescue like the Dutch Red Barbarians, but Zheng Zhifeng was already prepared to block the attack.
After using anti-ship missiles to block the Dutch support fleet last time, the Zheng family's army already had a certain understanding of this novel tactic, and it would not be as unfamiliar as the last time it was used again.
In the battle off the coast of San Salvador, the Zheng fleet used the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile to defeat the small Spanish fleet in a short time.
If the other side dares to send more warships to rescue the siege, they will come directly to die!
As long as it is a wooden warship, no matter how big it is, it will be hit by a "harpoon" loaded with fuel and then catch fire.
The fact that the fire is not big enough only means that there are not enough bullets, one is not enough, just two.
If hit by seven or eight missiles, no matter how huge the battleship is, it will be reduced to a burning bonfire!
After having the "whaling harpoon", Zheng Jiajun was not afraid of the opponent's big ships in naval battles.
Taking advantage of our own advantage in close combat and having the opportunity to move closer and launch anti-ship missiles, the opponent will have no way out.
Zheng Zhilong expected to resolve the battle within half a year, but if he was unlucky, it might drag on to nearly a year.
However, a certain prince did not set a time limit for Zheng Zhilong at all, as long as he could express his bad anger.
The Zheng family army was very close to their hometown, could get supplies at any time, and had enough patience to carry out a siege.
But if the Spanish defenders inside got scurvy, it would be no joke.
Hans Brooke, who had been promoted to a polished captain by a certain prince, once said that the biggest enemy of the garrison was not what could be seen from the outside, but the scurvy, malaria and other diseases inside!
There is sufficient food, no shortage of fresh water, the ammunition has not been exhausted, and the defenders are not sick, so why should they surrender?
If one of these four things goes wrong, the consequences will be extremely fatal.
If the Spaniards refused to surrender for a long time, a certain prince would use the smallpox virus!
The Spaniards used this method to bulldoze the Inca Empire. Maybe at some point, they can let them reap the consequences!
