The reason why the chiefs decided to fight to the end was very simple, that is, they saw the powerful force of the Ming Empire.
The gap in military strength between the two sides could no longer be bridged by skill in bows and horses.
Even if five million cavalry were gathered to go south, they would have no chance of winning against the Ming army, which was dominated by tanks.
The prerequisite for the chiefs to win is that they can instigate some Ming army generals in advance, otherwise there will be no chance of advancing directly.
Now the generals of the Ming army are either disciples of Emperor Haojing, students of Emperor Haojing, or descendants of the generals who originally followed Emperor Haojing.
After the world is settled, these three types of people will either continue to participate in foreign conquests, or enjoy a carefree life surrounded by people on both sides, or have retired or entered military academies to teach, or have passed away.
Almost no one who is alive takes the initiative to find discomfort. Some people have this tendency and were reminded by Emperor Haojing.
So they became more honest. As long as they didn't imitate Lan Yu and take credit and be arrogant, they would be able to succeed and retire in the era of Emperor Haojing.
No one can fail to do this, not to rebel and not to disturb Min.
If some people really find it difficult, then they have to take action as soon as possible.
Everyone is lying down, but if you stand up, the goal of the counterinsurgency army will be obvious...
The Zezhou (Jincheng) rebellion has made some people excited, and they are all looking forward to the desired situation.
As a result, after struggling for less than three months, Zezhou and the entire Shanxi were subdued.
The advantages of the previous vigorous development of sea and river transportation were reflected in the fact that the first to arrive in the rebel areas was not the garrison in Shanxi, but the garrison in Henan.
After receiving the order to counter the rebellion, Luoyang and Kaifeng mobilized merchant ships to quickly cross the river, join the garrison in Huaiqing Prefecture on the other side of the river, and directly attack Zezhou in southeastern Shanxi.
Then, the garrisons from the nearby Zhangde Prefecture, as well as Daming Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture and other places in North Zhili also took action to cooperate with the garrisons from Taiyuan Prefecture and Pingyang Prefecture in Shanxi Province going south to surround the rebels in Zezhou. .
If it were to be in a flat and open grassland area, the Ming army would definitely move faster, and it would be more conducive to the deployment and advancement of armored forces.
After learning about the counter-insurgency news in the newspapers, the chiefs had only one idea in their minds - it would be better to win!
The imperial court deployed 130,000 troops in the western part of the Northland, that is, west of the Ural Mountains, and 50,000 troops to the east.
There are 100,000 people in Central Asia, 100,000 people in the Western Regions, and only 20,000 people in the grasslands. They are all stationed in built cities.
There are 100,000 troops stationed in Southeast Asia, 50,000 in Australia, and only 450,000 combat troops in the mainland.
However, there are 500,000 reserve troops, and about 100,000 troops stationed on the railways and in the mining areas.
Once a large-scale war breaks out, Emperor Haojing can mobilize 200,000 regular troops and 500,000 reserves, for a total of 700,000 troops to go into battle.
When well-equipped, well-trained, and tactically appropriate, a force of this size is basically sufficient.
It is no exaggeration to say that these 700,000 people can defeat three to four million people on the opposite side!
How many countries in the world can deploy so many troops to fight against the Ming Empire?
The quantity is sufficient, but the quality is poor. 70% to 80% must be strong men.
Emperor Haojing is now basically satisfied with the size of the one million regular army. Not counting the navy and air force, on average it is more than a hundred people to support one soldier. The burden on the court is not large and can be completely tolerated.
If you really encounter an embarrassing situation, you can also hire Japanese soldiers to work for you. Their price-performance ratio is extremely high.
The Ming Dynasty King Division is only responsible for air control, armored assault, artillery cover, etc. It is very suitable for the Japanese infantry to go to the steel front...
Taking into account the time for the triumphant return of the Western Expedition troops, Emperor Haojing has postponed the military parade to two years later.
At the same time, Colbert and others are invited to participate. If circumstances permit, it would be best to see Louis XIV and William III come to the Eastern World for a visit.
Although some of the operational documents were not satisfactory to Emperor Hao Jing, Colbert had decided to completely copy various written documents of the Ming Empire.
For example, development plans for the Bohai Sea, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regions, import and export trade guidelines, scientific and technological innovation support and encouragement measures, etc.
When you take it back, ask your subordinates to copy the homework directly. If you still make mistakes when copying, just don’t do it!
In the past, France was all occupied by nobles, and it was very difficult for the king to manage it directly.
After acquiring the entire Spanish mainland, half of England, and the vast land in North America, Louis XIV acquired some of the fiefdoms in exchange for several times the amount of overseas land.
At present, at least in France, the difficulty of implementing orders in all aspects is much less than before.
Kolbe believed that this was a good opportunity for His Majesty the King to implement his second economic development plan.
The effect of the last time was that France suddenly became the second most powerful country in the world. Colbert felt that this time France could consolidate its second position in the world.
Is the term No. 2 in the world embarrassing?
Kolbe didn’t think so. On the contrary, it was an extremely brilliant achievement.
Even during the period of Charlemagne, France's national power was only the third in the world.
The second is in the Middle East, and the first is still in the Eastern world.
There is no doubt that the current ranking has improved one place from before.
The higher the ranking, the more difficult it is to improve. This is obvious.
The world's number one is not only France's ally, but also has a huge gap with itself.
Therefore, for France itself, the top priority is not to catch up with the number one, but to prevent itself from becoming the third!
On the way back, Kolbe decided to go to Istanbul according to his pre-arranged plan.
Compared with France's neighbor the Netherlands, Colbert believed that the Ottomans would develop faster after receiving strong support from the Ming Empire, and their own national strength was very strong, which was scary.
Although France and the Ottomans also maintained friendly relations, the distance between the two sides was very close, only half of the Mediterranean Sea separated them.
Especially after France acquired Naples and Sicily, the distance was shortened by more than half.
It was very important to ascertain the situation of potential competitors. Kolbe would not be at ease without seeing it with his own eyes.
France is second in the world and first in Europe.
The Ottomans were third in the world and first in the Middle East.
Kolbe also learned that the Ming emperor publicly declared that the Ottoman Empire’s oil reserves were the largest in the world.
There are more than 300 billion barrels of oil buried underground. This amount simply made Louis XIV lose his appetite!
If one barrel can net one silver coin, the total would be a huge 300 billion silver coins!
If you dig for a thousand years, you can get an average of 300 million silver coins every year!
It is equivalent to France’s financial income for seven or eight years!
It's not that high now, but it will be hard to estimate later.
Kolbe saw one Ottoman oil tanker after another flying the star and crescent flag. Arriving at many ports in the Ming Empire.
From Xiamen in the south to Tianjin in the north, there are no exceptions.
At first Kolbe found it a bit incredible, thinking that the Ming Empire also had its own oil fields, so there was no need to import oil from the Ottomans.
After visiting the heavy factories of the Ming Empire and adding Tourville's guess, Kolbe came to understand.
Tourville also saw aircraft test flights. This kind of fuel-powered aircraft could start and take off much faster than an airship.
What's even more frightening is that if the Ming Empire installed an engine on a tank, it would only take three to five minutes for the tank to start.
As for a tank equipped with a steam engine, it would take at least half an hour to move its clumsy body.
The most terrifying thing is to enlarge this engine and turn it into the power of an ironclad ship.
The steam ironclads equipped by the French Navy need to warm up for an hour before they can sail out of the anchorage. The new ironclads of the Ming Army can do this in half an hour.
This gap in performance is a generational difference, just like the gap between front-loading guns and breech-loading guns.
The French arsenal is also studying breech-loaded cannons, but the technology is not up to standard, resulting in a high scrap rate, making the manufacturing cost of breech-loaded cannons difficult to control, and it is impossible to equip the troops in a short time.
The rate of fire of the bronze cannons manufactured by the Ming Empire was already very fast. The maximum rate of fire could reach two rounds per minute, and the even rate of fire could reach once per minute.
The rate of fire of the breech-loading gun can basically be about three or four times per minute. This kind of projected firepower will cause a devastating blow to enemy targets, whether it is a land battle or a naval battle.
If there is no war with the Ming Empire in the short term, there is no need to worry about the research on breech-loading cannons.
The top priority is to speed up the industrialization process and avoid being left behind by the Ming Empire. At the same time, it maintains a certain distance from the Ottoman Empire, which has already started the industrialization process. It cannot be overtaken by the latter.
Kolbe has already come up with general countermeasures. On the one hand, he recommends that the king increase infrastructure construction, such as railways, ports, parks, urban residences, etc.
On the other hand, businessmen are encouraged to open various factories, create jobs, and accelerate urbanization. Especially when opening heavy factories, they must be given certain preferential treatment in terms of taxes and fees.
In terms of light industry, Kolbe was not too worried, except that tea, silk, and porcelain were relatively difficult to imitate.
Other light industrial products of the Ming Empire could be copied by French factories, but the appearance and quality were worse. Fortunately, the price was cheap, so there was no need to worry about sales.
In order to control labor costs, almost all French factory owners have successively accepted a large number of black people as workers.
The treatment is much worse than that in French factories, but fortunately it is not like that of slaves during the Roman Empire.
This situation has also led to some people criticizing France for regressing directly to the Roman Empire during the reign of Louis XIV...
Kolbe gave a perfect explanation to everyone in the newspaper.
Although many slaves were used during the Roman Empire, who dares to say that the Roman Empire was not a symbol of world civilization at that time?
Now black people in French factories are not slaves, but hired workers, with access to food and water.
Every black man was bought by the factory owner, and of course they would not be allowed to die easily.
On the contrary, as long as you work for ten years or reach a certain workload, you will be free.
In this regard, Kolbe completely copied the treatment of slave miners in the mining areas within the Ming Empire.
The name of hired worker is much nicer than that of slave miner, but it actually means the same thing.
In France, there were millions of slaves of all colors working in various jobs, including agriculture, industry, and even the service industry.
At a shoe-shining stall on the roadside, a Frenchman can buy several black people and let them do shoe-shining work.
You just have to sit and collect money. This is the simplest service industry.
More advanced waiters are required to speak French, which sets the bar very high.
Most black people who meet this standard have become their master's servants, and their treatment is better than that of many lower-class French people.
The reason why the master took a fancy to them was also very simple. Black people were not so evil-minded, and they had no one to rely on when they came to France, so they could only be loyal to themselves.
French businessmen who visited the Ming Empire also brought back the hobbies of the rich in the Ming Empire.
As a result, many merchants' servants were black, and their women were Wallachian slave girls exclusively sold from the Black Sea coast.
Wallachian women have more refined facial features, better personalities and tempers than French women, and are more submissive to men.
Since you can spend the same money and get better service, why not do it?
This also causes rich men in France to have little interest in French women...
Unless the other party is willing to marry because of family friends or interests, otherwise French women can only choose to swallow their anger.
French men are also confident about this. Even His Majesty the King’s biological mother is from Austria. Why should I marry a French woman?
Louis XIV had also previously stipulated that wives were not allowed to be beaten, otherwise after verification, they would be educated and criticized, and the news would be published in newspapers.
This was a disguised compensation for the fact that men were allowed to marry multiple wives before, because some female nobles complained to Louis XIV, and the other party not only spent their own money, but also beat and scolded them.
Well, now, with these two regulations, French men and French women can finally play their own games...
French women like to have affairs with Savoy men, using black men as servants and German men as bodyguards.
In short, as long as you have enough money in your hands, none of the men around you will use local trash!
In comparison, French men are slightly better, at least they can use French women to cook!
The dishes must also be made in the style of the Ming Empire. This is all thanks to Fang Yizhi back then!
The same meal costs the same five silver coins, but the quality of the food eaten in Paris is completely different from that in Beijing.
Anyone who has had this experience will feel that they have been deceived and that the local chef is deliberately cheating the silver coins in his pocket.
Some retired soldiers who followed Marshal Turenne and finally returned to their homeland also opened restaurants.
The things I bought were the dishes of the Ming Dynasty. Even if I only know a few dishes such as three delicacies, braised pork, ribs and beans stewed, as long as they taste good and the price is not too expensive, there will be many customers.
By 1680, Ming-style restaurants were everywhere in Paris, and Ming-style fast food stalls selling pancakes, fried dumplings, fried dough sticks and other snacks were also dotted here and there.
Thinking of this, Kolbe could only smile bitterly.
These people looked embarrassed when copying important homework.
Copying unimportant things is almost like being self-taught.
But as long as it can make France's national power stronger and stronger, everything else is a trivial matter and there is no need to worry about it.
Looking at the tens of thousands of pages of various materials packed in the cabin, Kolbe felt that the trip had been fruitful and he still had a long way to go.
