In fact, quite a few people in various European countries don't even know that there is such a country as the Great Chu Empire. Even if they know about the ancient Eastern country, they don't know that this ancient Eastern country has changed dynasties.
The closed nature of information in ancient times was far beyond the imagination of later generations.
Some countries that have no direct contact with the Great Chu Empire, such as the Kingdom of France, a large number of electorate states in the Holy Roman Empire, including the Grand Duchy of Austria, Prussia, etc. that are familiar to later generations, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Scotland, etc. Many European countries, even their top leaders, don't know much about the Chu Empire. At most, they have heard of the name of the Chu Empire from countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Russia that had more contact with the Chu Empire.
But as for the specific situation of the Dachu Empire, they only heard about it and didn't know it clearly.
As for the small and medium-sized nobles and even ordinary people, they are even less clear about it. Many people have never even heard of it.
In the past, the country that had a deeper understanding of the Chu Empire should belong to the Netherlands.
Because the Dutch had been in contact with the Chu Empire for the longest time, and the trade exchanges were very large, and the Dutch merchant ships frequently went to Guangzhou and other ports in the mainland of the Chu Empire for trade.
Therefore, the Dutch knew a lot about the Chu Empire through the channels of the Dutch East India Company. They had already seen the steamships of the Chu Empire just after it came out.
Well, although they still can't understand steamships...
In addition, the Russians, who have been at war with the Chu Empire for many years, also have a certain understanding of the Chu Empire, but this understanding is more limited to the army.
The contacts between the Russians and the Chu Empire were basically in Siberia. The two sides fought hard to compete for Siberia. However, in this process, all the Russians had access to was the Chu Empire's army and a small navy's river fleet.
Apart from fighting with each other, other contacts are almost zero...
It is worth mentioning that so far, the Chu Empire has not sent any diplomatic envoys to Russia, nor has it submitted any diplomatic documents to Russia, or made any diplomatic requests...
The Russians have repeatedly requested to send envoys to peace talks in an attempt to negotiate the ownership of Siberia, but the Chu Empire has never accepted the request for negotiation.
The idea of the empire's top officials is very simple. I fought well in the war, but talk about it...
Therefore, the diplomatic exchanges between the two sides are almost zero... From the perspective of the Russians, the Chu people are a group of lunatics. They fought against the good people, and they were like mad dogs chasing them all the way from the Lena River Basin to Hubei. The Bi River Basin is now heading toward the Ural Mountains.
Under such circumstances, even though the Russians have been at war with the Chu Empire for many years, the Russians actually still have very limited understanding of the Chu Empire. They only know that the army of the Chu people on the opposite side is very powerful, has many guns, and is large-scale. Use a flintlock gun.
The Russians have a better understanding of the Chu Empire's military strength, especially its army, but they don't know as much as the Dutch about other affairs of the Chu Empire.
In addition to the Dutch and Russians, several other countries that have trade relations with the Chu Empire have more or less understanding of the Chu Empire, but they still don’t know much, especially about the current Chu Empire. There are not many. For example, the Portuguese's impression of the Chu Empire basically stayed more than ten years ago.
Spain is even less. Although the Spaniards have a lot of trade with the Dachu Empire, in fact, the Spanish merchant fleet has never been to the mainland of the Dachu Empire. The trade between the two sides has always been in the Luzon Islands. in Manila.
After the Luzon Islands were sold to the Chu Empire, the place of trade between the two parties was still Manila in the Luzon Islands.
In the early days, the East India Company's merchant fleets from England, Denmark and other European countries could still go to Guangzhou, the homeland of the Chu Empire. But later, after the Chu Empire opened up Singapore and took full control of the Strait of Malacca, , in order to ensure the overall security of Nanyang, avoid pirate attacks, and prevent European colonists from running to Nanyang to continue colonization or trade with indigenous people.
Well, actually it is to monopolize the trade in the entire Nanyang region.
The Chu Empire directly blocked the Strait of Malacca, and no foreign ships were allowed to enter the South China Sea through the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca.
If you want to trade with the Chu Empire, you can only choose to do it in Malacca.
As for Singapore, this place is not a trading port, but the administrative and military center of the Chu Empire in the Nanyang region. It is not a trading port open to the outside world.
The port open to the outside world is Malacca, a traditional trading port.
As a result, except for the Dutch who entered the South China Sea directly through the Sunda Strait and the Spaniards who crossed the Pacific and entered the Luzon Islands, no ship from a third European country could enter the South China Sea.
Now the Chu Empire purchased the Luzon Islands from Spain and expelled the Dutch.
Today, there are no European merchant ships in the Nanyang region!
After more than ten years of colonial expansion, the Chu Empire finally achieved full control of the Western Pacific region and completely monopolized the foreign trade of the indigenous countries in the Southeast Asia region.
At the same time, it also means that no foreign merchant ships will be able to reach the home ports of the Dachu Empire in the future.
From now on, the Great Chu Empire's trade with foreign countries in Europe, West Asia and other countries, except for Spain, which is special and has opened a Manila port specifically for the Spanish trade fleet across the Pacific from Mexico, the trade fleets of other European countries and even West Asia and other countries can only Can travel to Malacca and the Chu Empire for trade.
Of course, it is also possible to wait for ports in India.
As a result, other countries knew even less about the Chu Empire.
However, now, as the Chu Empire's army approaches the Ural Mountains, scaring the Russians half to death, the Russians, in order to defend themselves against the Chu Empire, begin to mobilize a large number of troops from the west to move eastward to reinforce the front line of the Ural Mountains.
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As a result, their military strength on the Western Front will inevitably be reduced. After all, the total military strength of the Russians these days is estimated to be only about 100,000 people. Half of their troops were stationed on the Eastern Front at once, and the garrison strength on the Western Front was only A significant reduction was inevitable.
This also forced the Russians to adjust their foreign policy towards some countries on the Western Front to avoid the embarrassing situation of being at war on two fronts.
As a result, some countries to the west of Russia, especially the Polish-Lithuanian Federation, felt deeply.
After asking around, I found out that it was the Chu Empire from the east that had invaded the Ural Mountains.
Ask more carefully... Good guys, the Russians have already lost the huge Siberia. The fighting power of those Chu people is too strong. When they fight the Russians, their advantage seems to be even greater than that of the Mongols.
Therefore, before they had time to rejoice that the Russians were restrained by the Chu Empire with a large number of troops, they began to worry. What if the Chu Empire played the same Western Expedition as the Mongol Empire and fought all the way?
In the eyes of those Easterners, they probably can't tell who are Russians, what are Poles and Lithuanians... It will be hard for Russia when the Chu Empire comes over, but after the Russians are finished, Poland and Lithuania won't either. It will feel better.
Ever since, they themselves were extremely panicked!
Not only Poland and Lithuania, but also a bunch of countries behind, such as a group of vassal states in the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Prussia, and Prussia heard that the troops of the Chu Empire reached the Ural Mountains. When Russia was in danger... Was stunned.
The horrific scene when the Mongols came over also came to mind.
In this way, the reputation of the Chu Empire quickly spread to Eastern European countries through Russia, and then to Western European countries.
The panic in these countries makes the Dutch people unable to help but despise them!
A bunch of fools who have never seen the world are so scared just by hearing about the tens of thousands of Chu Empire's army. If I let you know that the army of Chu people has more than one million troops, hundreds of battleships, and just battleships. When there are dozens of them, and there are devil warships that can move without wind, wouldn't they scare you to the point of urination...
As a country that had been dealing with the Chu Empire for twenty years and was the only European country that could trade with Guangzhou in the following years, the Dutch were relatively familiar with the Chu Empire.
After they heard that the Chu Empire had reached the Ural Mountains, they were not panicked, but happy...
The Dutch had just suffered a defeat in the Spice Islands, and finally had to completely withdraw from the Nanyang region. In order to continue to maintain trade with the Chu Empire, their Dutch East India Company finally had to sign a contract with the Chu Empire. They signed an armistice agreement and formally ceded all their colonies in Nanyang, including Batavia, Spice Islands and other territories to the Chu Empire.
At the same time, he also compensated the Dachu Empire for a military expenditure to redeem thousands of prisoners captured by the Dachu Empire.
These thousands of Dutch prisoners were all employees and armed employees of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch East India Company still needed these people to maintain its colonial rule on the Indian peninsula.
Therefore, it is still necessary to pay money to redeem people.
After the armistice agreement was signed, the Dutch East India Company was able to resume trade with the Chu Empire. Although the profit was not as much as before, it could still continue to do business.
The Dutch still have many colonies on the Indian Peninsula, and they still control the island of Ceylon.
A few years ago, they just snatched the island of Ceylon from the Portuguese. Not only the island of Ceylon, they also snatched a large number of colonies in the Indian peninsula from the Portuguese.
Today, the Dutch have many colonies in India, and they are also the biggest competitor of the Chu Empire in the process of colonizing India.
At this time, the Portuguese had only a few scattered colonies in the Indian peninsula. The English had only just developed, and the main forces were concentrated in the Bombay area. Denmark and Sweden had even fewer colonies, with only a few scattered colonies.
The relationship between the Dutch, who had retreated to India, and the Chu Empire was still relatively complicated, involving both cooperation and competition, and could not be judged as purely hostile or friendly.
In order to prevent the Chu Empire from further expanding in India, especially in the Nanyang region, it also made many efforts to swallow up the entire India.
Now that I have discovered that the Chu Empire is advancing westward in the north, I feel that we can come up with a plan to divert trouble to the north, so that the Chu Empire can increase its investment in the northern region.
The Chu Empire invested more power in the north, so naturally it did not have enough energy to fully expand on the Indian Peninsula.
As a result, the Dutch found Russia and several vassal states of the Holy Roman Empire, including Poland and the Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Then he informed these countries of some of the information he knew...
When the Dutch envoy told them that the Chu Empire in the east had an army of more than one million, and hundreds of artillery would be used to fight a war involving tens of thousands of people. At the same time, there were hundreds of millions of people in the country. The industrial strength is extremely powerful, but at the same time, the country is also aggressive and greedy for territory like a dragon.
The people in power in these countries were all frightened!
Each of them couldn't help but think of a scene, that is, the scene when the million-strong army of the Chu Empire came to their own city!
If such a scene really happened, it would be too terrifying.
In order to avoid this situation, and to avoid a recurrence of the Mongol Western Expedition, they felt it was necessary to stop the Chu Empire before they entered Europe.
Well, that's right, let the Russians block the Chu Empire.
As a result, a group of countries that were originally very difficult to deal with and even often broke out into wars began to have frequent diplomatic exchanges and discuss how to resist the future invasion of the Chu Empire.
In order to show their sincerity, Poland and the Lithuanian Federation, as well as several major vassal states of the Holy Roman Empire, first sent a batch of weapons and ammunition to the Russians.
Their plan is simple, let the Russians be cannon fodder at the front, even if they pay some supplies for this.
It has to be said that European countries, especially the major countries in Central and Eastern Europe, panicked about the Chu Empire and reacted because of this panic, which even the Russians themselves did not expect...
The Chu Empire on the opposite side was even more unaware that a group of countries in the west began to support the Russians because they were afraid of their future invasion.
But even if they knew it, it wouldn't matter, because the Chu Empire has no plans to continue to advance westward for the time being... It's not that the enemy in the west is strong, but that the distance is too far, and our own supplies can no longer keep up.
If it continues to advance westward in the future, the Chu Empire will not care whether these countries are united together.
Because it is similar to what many Europeans imagine, Chu people really can’t tell the difference between these messy countries in Europe. In the eyes of Chu people, Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Austrians, Prussians, etc. are all Europeans. The barbarians...if they were really defeated, they would definitely sweep through them all the way.
There is no distinction between this indigenous person and that indigenous person.
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In the European region, at the end of the 24th year of Chengshun, there was a panic as the Chu Empire approached the Ural Mountains, but there was still peace within the Chu Empire.
Many citizens of the Great Chu Empire didn't even know that their army had reached the Ural Mountains... Even if they knew, they didn't care.
It was just a wild land in the northwest, and it was so far away that no matter what happened, it had little to do with them.
Nowadays, the citizens of the Great Chu Empire are not too concerned about external changes. They are more concerned about their land harvest, when their wages will increase, and whether food prices are high.
Ordinary people are always concerned about the food, clothing, housing and transportation of themselves and their families.
Therefore, while many countries in Europe were panicking, the situation in the Chu Empire was still calm. Let alone ordinary people, even the top officials of the empire did not think that there was anything big going on on the Western Front...
It's just a small increase in barbarian troops. It's not a big deal. Anyway, the empire doesn't plan to attack now. But if those barbarians are given a hundred courages, they probably won't dare to attack. Even if they attack, they won't be able to shake the Chu Empire. Absolute control of the Ob River Basin.
It really doesn't work... The worst case scenario is to temporarily withdraw from Tobo City, rely on the Ob River as a natural moat to block the barbarians first, and then organize a counterattack with manpower and material resources later.
The empire's top brass have never given any order to the frontline troops that they can only move forward and not retreat, and the frontline army's top brass would not have such an idea.
Siberia is not a place that must be defended, and there is no need to hold on to it.
Not a good deal!
On the western front, the Chu army is still very flexible. There is no place that must be defended, and there is no place that must be captured... Whatever place can be defended and captured is left to chance.
Anyway, the days are still long in the future, and the temporary gains and losses now will not affect anything. When the northwest railway of the Chu Empire is opened, there will be plenty of opportunities and time to slowly deal with these barbarians.
Generally speaking, the senior officials of the Dachu Empire don't pay much attention to the Western Front, and the military there also has some Buddhist elements...
Relatively speaking, the empire should pay more attention to some small-scale battles in the Nanyang region, especially the many medium- and small-scale battles with local indigenous people in Luzon and Banten provinces.
Although the intensity of these battles is not high, they are related to the control of the Chu Empire in the Nanyang region, so the military attaches great importance to them.
Since taking the city of Batavia, the Chu army began to advance to other parts of Java Island with the 14th Division as the main force.
At this time, there was actually a relatively large indigenous country on the island of Java, the Sultanate of Mataram. This country had fought with the Dutch many times before, but after being beaten several times by the Dutch, its upper-level rulers chose Cooperate with the Dutch and rely on the power of the Dutch to a certain extent to intimidate other interest groups in the country.
The indigenous Javanese army that helped the Dutch garrison the city of Batavia had many Madalan figures.
Due to the influence of the Dutch, the Chu Empire did not choose to establish formal diplomatic exchanges with the Madalan Sultanate, and only had a few commercial exchanges.
After capturing the city of Batavia, the Chu army inspected the captives of indigenous soldiers in the city and found that many of the indigenous soldiers were from the Sultanate of Matalan... This was not bad, so the Chu army immediately dispatched troops to attack the Sultanate of Matalan. Ready to ask for an explanation!
Well, these are actually all excuses!
The real reason is that since the Dutch have been driven out of Java Island, Java Island has naturally become the sphere of influence of the Great Chu Empire.
At this time, the Chu Empire would naturally begin to control this area instead of the Dutch.
Unlike the Dutch who only like to establish colonial strongholds in coastal ports and then engage in trade, the Dachu Empire's overseas expansion colonial policies are diverse.
In some special areas, or where it is difficult to project one's own forces and the indigenous people are relatively strong, a colonial strategy focusing on trade is often adopted, just like the Dutch and Portuguese, who control a number of ports under various names. Trade was conducted from these colonial ports.
Some areas are mainly directly annexed, the most obvious one is Siberia. This place is vast and sparsely populated, and there will be no adverse effects if it is swallowed up directly.
Secondly, there is the Annan region, which has been suffering from war for a long time and has a small population. Here, the Chu Empire also adopted a policy of direct annexation.
There are also some places where puppet state colonial rule is the mainstay, such as in Siam, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Kingdom of Aceh, and the Fusang Islands.
There are also some places that directly occupy large areas of land, which is different from ordinary annexation. Conventional annexation will also admit the local indigenous people, but this kind of occupation and annexation is different, as long as the land does not require people.
The Chu Empire did this in many colonies, such as Jiulongjiang Province in Cambodia, Bangkok Province in Siam, and Malacca Province in the Malay Peninsula.
In these places, the Chu Empire would organize large numbers of immigrants and then expel the local indigenous people.
Well, this is the same policy that is being implemented in Luzon today.
Continuous immigration and expulsion eventually turned these places into the real territories of the Chu Empire.
Not only the land belongs to the Chu Empire, but also the people.
The Dachu Empire adopted different expansion and colonization methods according to different situations. On Java Island, when the Dachu Empire decided to attack the Dutch, it had already decided how to deal with Java Island and even other islands.
On the largest and most important island of Java, a parallel approach to multiple colonization methods will be followed.
On the one hand, the western region of Java Island, that is, the areas around Banten and Batavia City, will be directly ruled. Later, a large number of immigrants will be arranged to expel the local indigenous people to the east to achieve a comprehensive, Complete occupation and control.
At the same time, it controlled several coastal ports in central and eastern Java, forcing the local indigenous people to sign various treaties, allowing them to open their markets all year round, and turning the indigenous people into puppet states for economic colonization.
This is the current strategy. As for the follow-up, the direct control area will be gradually pushed eastward until the entire Java Island is fully controlled.
Just like what is done now in Malacca area.
