Duke Karl I of Hesse, who was a serious friend in the eyes of Crown Prince Joseph, actually did a great favor to the Holy Roman Empire in this war.
At least it dealt a heavy blow to the Tatar cavalry that invaded the land of the Hessian Principality. The combat efficiency of the Hessian army is even more impressive.
For such a principality that is almost contrary to the will of the empire, Crown Prince Joseph has not thought about destroying it and completing the annexation.
However, we must take into account the serious consequences of doing so, that is, once the opponent stubbornly resists, the yellow-skinned monkey will launch a fierce attack after hearing the news.
The empire was in danger of being attacked from both sides, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops on the southern front who were always ready to move. The enemy could move north from Hungary to besiege Vienna at any time.
Assassination, or inviting Karl I to Vienna or Munich to imprison him for a long time was a strategy that Crown Prince Joseph actually used.
However, apart from visiting the Ming Empire once every two to three years, Karl I remained reclusive for the rest of the time and did not appear in public very often.
To assassinate the Duke halfway, it would be difficult to find a chance unless the railway was blown up and then chaos was created.
However, the other party traveled by armored train, and the destination of the railway was the Netherlands, so it was not easy to kill people on the road.
If the assassin is caught by the other party and the matter is exposed, the reputation of the Habsburg family will be ruined.
The bright one doesn’t work, and the dark one doesn’t work either!
Karl I was like a toad lying on the doorstep of his house, which made Crown Prince Joseph feel disgusted and annoyed.
Karl I was also well aware that he aroused the disgust of some people, and openly declared it in the newspapers.
If he is assassinated, then the Ming Emperor Zhu Cixiang, the French Emperor Louis XIV, the Dutch Deacon William III, and the Swedish King Carl XI will work together to recognize their sons as inheriting the title and ensure that the Principality of Hesse is not annexed by other countries!
What’s even more shocking is that this was not an eye-catching lie. The Ming Empire’s consul living in the Principality of Hessen later publicly admitted that this was indeed the case.
The consuls of France, the Netherlands, and Sweden in Hesse also recognized it one after another, allowing the Principality of Hesse to receive almost the same reinsurance treatment as Venice.
In the last war, Louis XIV provided Leopold with a large amount of weapons and food. In the end, the other party became the victor without gaining anything.
Therefore, His Majesty the European Emperor was very happy to see Karl I confront Leopold and his son. Since he could not obtain the western part of Germany for the time being, it would not hurt to support the Principality of Hesse.
William III needed Charles I to provide a large number of mercenaries to maintain the security of overseas possessions in Africa and India.
Young Dutch people are very interested in engaging in overseas trade, but they are not very interested in fighting overseas.
There is no need for Hessian mercenaries on the British island. Many farmers who are short of land in the mainland are willing to move there to settle. It is not far from the mainland and is more convenient to contact.
Leopold was constrained by the fact that he had to reach out to France and the Netherlands for assistance, so he could only choose to remain silent, pretending that the other parties were willing to support Hesse and did not know about it.
There was another important matter to discuss between Louis XIV and William III, and that was the latter's intention to exchange the Dutch mainland for all French lands in Britain.
The Dutch Parliament has agreed to this proposal to completely abandon the mainland and move their hometown to the British Isles.
The Netherlands is a country that started off by relying on maritime trade, and now its economy relies heavily on this aspect.
It is obvious that the war in Europe has already started, and it is becoming more intense.
In this case, finding ways to evacuate the continent is the best option.
Although the mainland of the Netherlands is not large, it just borders northern France and has complete infrastructure.
Exchanging land with the other party would also make it easier for Louis XIV to manage half of the European continent, which would be more conducive to his eastward strategy.
William III also promised to leave important facilities such as shipyards to the other party and not to dismantle or destroy them.
The Netherlands itself is more than twice the size of French Britain, so these infrastructures are precious.
Of course, Louis XIV would not agree hastily to this offer. After discussing with Colbert and other important ministers, he made a counter-offer.
That is, the mainland Netherlands and Dutch South America, plus a thousand steam merchant ships under ten years old, can be exchanged for French Britain.
If there is a single exchange like that, France will obviously suffer a loss. Louis XIV will definitely not accept it, and it must be increased to meet psychological expectations.
Since there is no money or people involved, the land should be exchanged as fair and reasonable as possible, and then some merchant ships that are already abundant in the Netherlands can be obtained.
Previously, all French South America was packaged and given to the Ming Empire. Now we finally got an opportunity to see if we could get another piece of land back.
In the end, after many negotiations, the two sides agreed to exchange the Netherlands and Dutch South America for French Britain, plus an additional 500 thousand-ton merchant ships.
Counting from June 1, 1735, the land exchange would be completed within five years, that is, by 1740.
King Carl XI of Sweden serves as a notary. If one of the parties violates the rules and does not complete the withdrawal of the troops on the land purchased, then a one-time compensation of 100 million silver coins will be paid to the other party.
After signing the contract, both parties get something they are satisfied with.
The Netherlands no longer has to worry about the war in Europe and can concentrate on running the British Isles.
France was also able to further expand its continental territory and acquire a territory in South America.
Everyone was happy with this transaction, and all that was left was to move Min away from the land involved, which was nothing more than a hassle.
The French who had already settled on the French British Isles were of course unwilling to move to the Netherlands easily. Unable to resist, His Majesty the European Emperor provided them with ten-year tax-free relocation conditions.
You can also become a Dutch citizen by staying locally, but taxes and fees must be paid normally. In comparison, of course it is more cost-effective to move to the other party's territory.
There are some Dutch people who are reluctant to leave their homeland, but when they think about having to accept the control of the European Emperor in the future, these people's willingness to stay in their hometown collapses.
France is different from the Netherlands. Although the monarchs of both countries have a certain say, France has a model where the emperor directs the cabinet, while the Netherlands has a model where the deacons are controlled by the parliament.
In France, imperial power is supreme. This was a rule established when Richelieu was Prime Minister. It won the favor of the young Louis XIV. It was passed down through Mazarin and Colbert, and now it has become more and more solid.
The Netherlands was very different. Even if there were good reasons, William III had to explain the situation in the parliament in front of the seven provincial members, and the parliament could only authorize its implementation after voting.
In the Netherlands, if a proposal fails to pass in parliament, it can still be debated and then put on hold.
If it were France, if someone interfered with it, it might be regarded as an enemy of the emperor, especially after the clairvoyance gang committed suicide for the second time.
His Majesty the Ou Emperor believed that he had been too kind to this gang before, which led to such a big embarrassment after the Ming Emperor's visit.
The two emperors were almost killed by each other at the Palace of Versailles!
After cleaning up most of the members of the gang, Louis XIV will consider anyone who dares to show his face to confront him as a remnant of the gang!
Now Louis XIV has little patience with the gang, and is adopting a zero-tolerance strategy, arresting every one he sees.
It’s easy to explain, just go in and explain!
If you don't like Louis XIV's behavior, you can go to live in French Africa or India.
At the worst, you can change your nationality and become a foreigner in the true sense.
The land exchange between the Netherlands and France is limited to the two countries. Except for Sweden as a notary, no fourth party is involved.
The war between the Holy Roman Empire, the Ming Empire, and the Ottoman Empire would not have involved a fourth party.
However, as King Christian VI of Denmark volunteered to attack the Ming Empire and involve his country in the war, the scale of the war became larger than before.
This time the Ottoman Empire invested another 900,000 emirate servants, including 400,000 Qing troops, causing the Holy Roman Empire to face unprecedented military pressure on the southern front.
Except for the 400,000 Qing troops who went north to plunder southern Germany, the remaining 400,000 Ottoman troops were divided into two groups.
The West Route Army included an armored brigade, four mechanized brigades of the Guards, and 300,000 Han infantry and artillery. The target was Vienna, the capital of the old enemy.
The Eastern Route Army also has one armored brigade and four mechanized infantry brigades of the Guards, as well as 100,000 Rakshasa infantry and ten brigades of Balkan troops of about 50,000 people.
The Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians each had three infantry brigades, and the Albanians formed another infantry brigade.
The combat effectiveness of these ten infantry brigades is not much higher than that of the Rakshasa infantry, and they can only fight a smooth battle. Ibrahim does not expect them to fight a tough battle.
Because the goal of the Eastern Route Army is to capture Bratislava, the city defense here is far inferior to that of Vienna, and there is air force support. In addition, the city has been successfully occupied before, so the attack is relatively easy.
Despite this, 150,000 servants were killed and nearly 20,000 wounded by Bratislava's defenders.
If it weren't for the imperial guards pressing down behind them, they would have retreated southward...
Fortunately, Bratislava is very close to Vienna, and the East Route Army can receive support from the West Route Army at any time.
Ibrahim also prepared ten brigades of Balkan infantry for them in the rear. Although their combat effectiveness was still not high, they could go up to make up the numbers if they couldn't stand it.
Unlike the army of the Ming Empire, where the emperor hired Japanese troops just to save money, the Ottoman army took into account both human sea tactics and firepower advantages.
Use whatever trick works!
To put it bluntly, I just don’t know which method will work...
In the end, it took more than three months, and after hundreds of shellings and bombings, the Eastern Route Army finally captured Bratislava.
The reason is that this time the Eastern Route Army did not receive support from the Ming Empire's air force and could only rely on the indiscriminate bombing of its own air force.
This time Ibrahim was embarrassed to ask the Ming Empire Air Force to help again, because the other party also wanted to attack Denmark.
No soldiers from the allies could be seen on the broad front from western Moravia to southern Germany. All soldiers were fighting bravely.
It was not that the Ming-Japanese coalition forces failed to invade Moravia, but because Bratislava was too close to Vienna.
It was considered a big city anyway, so Emperor Haojing asked Zhang Huangyan to give this city to Ibrahim as a favor.
If the city is really captured by the coalition forces, it would be a bit greedy...
After entering Moravia, the Fifth Army that came out of the Eastern Carpathians has been advancing along the south of the Western Carpathians, that is, central and northern Moravia.
The southern part of the area is responsible for the Ottoman army. The Fifth Army's advance route is all the way west to attack Bohemia. The Fourth Army is responsible for the north of the Western Carpathians.
The Fourth Army and the Fifth Army need to capture quite a few towns, and there are not many basically abandoned targets. The other side is still trying to use these towns to stage a final resistance.
The plans and assumptions of Crown Prince Joseph were very good, but they overlooked one thing, that is, the officers and soldiers, including the original Bolivians, had developed the so-called "myophobia"!
Translated, it means being beaten by the Ming Empire!
They already know that cavalry is no match for tanks, and rifles are far inferior to cannons!
While he was still huddled behind the city wall, bombs and bullets fell from the sky!
They are not Germans and do not enjoy priority in equipment replacement and supply quotas.
With these cannons and broken guns in hand, they were unable to stop the opponent's strong attack.
It was too common for everyone to work hard all day, but not a single enemy plane was shot down, and instead thousands of our own people were killed or injured.
As long as the enemy is willing, they can level a small city to the ground in one day, and maybe leave no one alive!
In this case, the original Poli people's will to resist became lower and lower, because everyone wanted to survive.
In the last war, they lost more than a million people.
Either die directly or be captured for mining. Those who remain can escape westward to the hinterland of the Holy Roman Empire.
Not long after returning to his hometown, the second war broke out again, and the vicious yellow-skinned monkeys were involved again.
The locals who are determined and want to resist desperately have become a very small minority. The remaining people think that the other side can give them food without harming women and children.
This is everyone's minimum requirement, but the other party still doesn't agree. When we are desperate, we can only fight to the death.
The good news is that the Ming army never fights hard. As long as there are non-military methods that can defeat the enemy, they will definitely try it.
This time, every corps, every brigade, even every company, and every platoon carried a large number of reward orders written in multiple languages.
As long as the opponent's generals or officers are willing to surrender and can bring a certain number of soldiers to give up resistance, they can get a corresponding amount of silver reward.
Five silver coins for a soldier, one silver coin for a min, and half for children or the elderly.
Whoever can catch Leopold and his son can receive 40 million silver coins at a time!
Even if you only provide the body of one of them, you can pocket 20 million silver coins!
When the bounty amount was being drawn up, some military ministers even joked: If it could be increased a little more, His Majesty the European Emperor might be tempted!
Emperor Haojing believed that this was indeed the case, and if he really offered a price of 100 million silver coins.
Louis XIV would be ready to take action, and he might even have to steal half of the people and land before he would be satisfied!
You can make money and expand your territory at the same time. Where can you find this good thing?
