Mazarin never expected that little Portugal would dare to refuse his favor!
When he heard Wilson, who had returned in embarrassment, recounting his experiences in Lisbon, he was filled with rage. In particular, Wilson exaggerated some of the situations in order to take revenge on John IV.
After getting angry, Mazarin suddenly discovered that he had nothing to do with Portugal.
Because he could not get the money from Portugal, he had no confidence to deal with the domestic rebels. Also because of the rebels, he could not send troops to attack Lisbon.
As for asking him to pay for the war himself, or to send troops to deal with Portugal, he has never thought about it.
The domestic situation was very unfavorable to Mazarin.
With no other choice, he could only use what he thought was the most advantageous move, which was to retreat in order to advance, ostensibly resigning from the position of prime minister, so that the rebels thought they had won, and thus began their internal struggle for power.
But for Portugal, this bad breath still needs to be vented.
Since France cannot send troops to conquer Portugal under the current circumstances, it is still possible to let other countries conquer Portugal.
For example, Spain!
Therefore, before Mazarin stepped down, he began to publicize that Portugal had obtained trade channels from the East and had a lot of exquisite oriental goods. Based on what the British guy Pompeo said, he exaggerated it.
………………
Felipe IV, King of the Habsburg Dynasty of Spain, known as the "King of the Earth". During his reign, the number of troops reached 300,000, and they fought abroad everywhere, but military expenditures were extremely high. In 1627, the Spanish government even declared bankruptcy again.
At the same time, Spain's overseas colonies began to face challenges from other European countries or regions. They were no longer the only one in the Americas, and the money from the colonies was dwindling.
In 1640, Felipe IV attempted to make the Catalans bear some military expenses, and coupled with French incitement, this resulted in a rebellion among the local people. In December of the same year, an independence movement broke out in Portugal, and John IV established a new dynasty: the Braganza Dynasty, ending Spain's 60-year rule.
It can be said that almost all of Europe is against the Habsburg family, and the Netherlands also declared independence.
In short, Spain's economic situation was already too poor to handle several wars at the same time. At this moment, Felipe IV took advantage of the civil strife in France and fought hard with France. He just wanted to defeat this powerful enemy and restore Spain's glory.
For Felipe IV, there is a very important point in order to achieve this, and that is to have money!
Like Mazarin, he was actually very short of money and needed money.
Under such circumstances, Felipe IV received news that Portugal was very rich.
If in the past, after Portugal became independent, Felipe IV had received a report about Portugal: "The Portuguese soldiers are weak and not alert, but their resistance spirit is very tenacious."
Therefore, Felipe IV temporarily let Portugal go and went to war with other countries.
But at this time, he became interested in Portugal again. There was no other reason. If he could gain a lot of wealth by reoccupying Portugal, he would have absolute motivation to do it.
As soon as Felipe IV learned about the situation, he really got some news. For example, Portuguese businessmen were selling exquisite products from the Far East, such as porcelain, silk and so on. And this situation is much worse than before.
Based on this situation, Felipe IV believed the rumors spread by Mazarin and decided to mobilize troops to attack Portugal.
In May of the 24th year of Chongzhen, 20,000 Spanish troops were divided into two groups and invaded Portugal, aiming directly at Lisbon.
Twenty thousand troops is really a lot. Portugal is a small country with a small territory, and it was quickly invaded by the Spanish army.
………………
Portugal has actually been anticipating Spain's attack. But I never thought that it would take so many years after independence for Spain to use troops on a large scale against Portugal. The timing of this attack was something the Portuguese did not expect.
For his part, John IV was constantly preparing for war. Although I did not expect that at this point in time, it would not be France using troops against Portugal, but Spain attacking Portugal.
After receiving the news, he responded immediately and sent out troops equipped with rifled guns and artillery. Taking advantage of the terrain, he concentrated his superior forces and ambushed the fastest Spanish attacking army.
The rifled guns first invented by the Ming Dynasty finally appeared on the battlefield in Europe.
It has to be said that although the reloading speed of rifled guns is slower. However, because it has a longer range and higher accuracy, its slow reload speed can be made up for by quantity.
In this first battle, the Spanish soldiers lined up and marched forward in unison according to the old fighting method, preparing to attack with guns. Before they reached a distance they thought was sufficient, they suffered a precise attack from the Portuguese. The casualties were definitely heavy. It was like lining up there to be shot by the Portuguese.
There are also artillery, which is another advantage of the Portuguese. However, in large-scale battles, artillery with solid bullets did not play much role. The most critical thing was the rifled flintlock gun.
In this battle, of the 10,000 Spanish soldiers, only less than 2,000 escaped, which can be described as a great defeat.
John IV even did not stop and immediately moved his army to fight another Spanish army.
Encouraged by their victory in the first battle, the Portuguese soldiers had higher morale and confidence in the second battle. He also became more familiar with the use of rifled guns, so he achieved another great victory.
Less than half a month later, Spain invaded Portugal's 20,000-strong army. In the end, only about 3,000 people fled back to Spain.
The news of the defeat spread back, shocking Felipe IV.
The battle that was originally thought to be a win-win situation turned out to be a near-annihilation of the entire army. When did Portugal become so powerful?
Roaring and furious, the Spanish who fled back reported to him that the Portuguese's weapons were much more powerful than those of Spain, and they were completely defeated.
"What? The Portuguese muskets have a much farther range than ours? And the artillery too? What's going on?" Felipe IV was really shocked and quickly asked for the specific situation.
After he understood it in detail, he suddenly had an idea in his mind. Immediately issued an order to mobilize large armies from other places and send them to the border with Portugal.
Suddenly, Spanish troops began to gather at the border, with ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand...the number of troops continuing to increase.
The attention of the entire Europe was suddenly attracted by this unexpected war.
"What, the Spanish army of 20,000 was completely annihilated by Portugal? How is this possible!"
"You're lying, right? No matter how weak Spain is, it's impossible for Portugal to win, right?"
"..."
No matter which European country, after hearing the news for the first time, they did not believe the outcome of the war.
Portugal is really too small and weak. Spain is a world power after all. Almost all European countries united to oppose it, which slowly weakened Spain.
There is a saying that a dead camel is bigger than a horse, so no matter how weak Spain is, Portugal cannot win, right?
After hearing the news confirmed, everyone was in disbelief. Both France's former Prime Minister Mazarin, who had just resigned, and Pompeo, the instigator of the whole thing, were shocked and speechless.
At this time, they realized why Portugal became tough on them. It turned out that they were confident.
People from other countries may not be aware of the sudden rise in strength of the Portuguese, but at least Lord Pompeo knows it and feels that it is definitely related to the Ming Empire in the Far East!
Because he had been staying in Lisbon before and didn't feel anything special. It wasn't until the Portuguese Far East Fleet returned that Joao IV suddenly became tough.
The eyes of the world, for Europeans, the eyes of the world, were focused on the ongoing war between Spain and Portugal.
After hearing that Spain was constantly adding troops to the border, everyone once again was not optimistic about Portugal. After all, relatively speaking, Portugal is just a small place and cannot be compared with Spain.
Looking at the current posture of Spain, it is to concentrate all its forces to attack Portugal, and at least 200,000 troops will be dispatched. As for Portugal, how many troops do it have?
There is also news that the Spanish naval fleet competing for hegemony with the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean has also been transferred back to prepare to join the army in the war against Portugal.
This means that the Spanish army, with about 200,000 soldiers, launched an all-out attack on Portugal from the land border like an overwhelming force. Then the Mediterranean fleet landed in Lisbon. Portugal would not be able to cope with Spain's all-out attack. of.
………………
On the Portuguese side, after the initial victory, it can be said that the whole country was celebrating.
However, the good times did not last long, and Spain began to increase its troops one after another. On the Portuguese side, they didn't take it seriously at first. However, as Spain's military strength increased and it even gave up fighting in other places and moved all its troops to the Portuguese border, the pressure became too great.
Even the most optimistic Portuguese people began to feel uneasy.
They never expected that Spain would give up its interests elsewhere and attack Portugal with all its strength. Is this a big deal?
The smile on Joao IV's face disappeared, replaced by heaviness. Especially when he heard that Spain had also transferred the Mediterranean fleet back and was preparing to attack Portugal by sea and land, his face became even more ugly.
Although he also scolded Felipe IV for being crazy, the scolding was of no use.
what to do?
If the Ming army is close at hand, there is no need to fear Spain. However, the Ming army was far away and could not come to rescue Portugal at all!