In mid-August, the thirty-fourth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, the envoys from various countries attending the Paris Conference finally gathered together after a long process.
Therefore, King Louis XIV of France, who called himself the Sun King, personally presided over the meeting. The venue was the Louvre Museum. The theme of the meeting was to jointly deal with the Ming Dynasty in the Far East.
However, the irony is that Ming Dynasty specialties are everywhere inside and outside the Louvre, including silk, porcelain and so on.
Representatives from various countries participating in the meeting, because they have been fooling each other in the past, will certainly not look good when they meet each other. Those who are more restrained will just look coldly on each other; those who have a bad temper will just be sarcastic.
For example, the envoys from the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania and the Swedish envoys were very difficult to deal with. One is a veteran powerhouse, and the other is a recent winner. Although they have signed a contract, it does not prevent them from disgusting the opponent here.
The meeting was noisy and a bit chaotic. When Louis XIV saw it, he couldn't help but be very angry. He really didn't give him any face!
So, he didn't care, just do whatever you want!
When the British, Dutch, and especially the Spanish envoys saw it, they immediately panicked and tried to persuade them. Finally, a meeting was held.
Louis XIV glanced at the envoys from various countries and said with a serious face: "I heard that the Chinese fleet has iron-clad smoking battleships, and sailing battleships are no match at all. This is very powerful. Do you have any method to crack it? Or do you know this kind of battleship? How was it made?"
In his opinion, what he was most concerned about was this kind of armored and smoking battleship. If we don't find a way to deal with it, France will be more dangerous, after all, the coastline is so long!
Therefore, the first thing Louis XIV asked was this.
The envoys from various countries heard this, but no one spoke. Obviously, no one can figure out what is going on with this armored and smoking battleship!
Seeing that no one spoke, the Swedish envoy suddenly stood up and said: "Since we don't know, then let's send out a fleet and fight one out of ten ships. If we catch one ship and bring it back, we will know everything!"
This statement made perfect sense, and for a while, it attracted the support of those countries that had not fought against the Ming fleet.
The British envoy was Robert. Seeing them like this, he had no choice but to stand up and say: "The closest to us is the American continent, but there were already three such iron-clad and smoking warships there in the past two years. At this time, not Do you know how many there are? And the Ming Dynasty also has a lot of sail warships, how many are suitable for us to go?"
"What are we all doing together? Isn't it just to join forces to attack the Ming Dynasty?" After hearing this, the Swedish envoy said disapprovingly, "Each family has a hundred warships, and we will fight together to America, destroy the Ming Dynasty fleet, and also Let’s take back America!”
The Spanish envoy is Don Juan José of Austria. He is the illegitimate son of King Philip IV of Spain. He has been granted military power before and has been leading troops in wars. He suppressed the Catalan rebellion and participated in the Battle of Portugal. However, No princely status was granted.
Sending him here to participate will definitely achieve the best interests for Spain no matter from which aspect. No, when he heard the Swedish envoy say that he wanted to take back the Americas, he immediately went on to say: "It's no problem to take back the Americas. The places occupied by the Portuguese before will belong to you. The places originally occupied by Spain still have to be returned to us." We are Spain!”
Upon hearing this, the Swedish envoy gave up and immediately sneered and replied: "Why do you have the nerve to go back after you've already lost it?"
Jose was furious when he heard this, but when he saw that many people were siding with the Swedish envoy, he thought for a moment and said: "The places in Portugal belong to Spain as well. Those places have been given over to you. Isn't that enough?"
Nominally, Portugal is a local rebellion of Spain, and a Portuguese colony is of course Spanish territory.
When the Swedish envoy heard this, he didn't recognize this logic, so he quarreled with Jose again.
On the other side, the Dutch envoy started a topic of his own and said: "We are not interested in the American territory, but if the iron-clad and smoking warships are captured, we in the Netherlands only need one!"
Robert was the most sensitive to this, and he immediately said unhappily: "What if only one ship is captured in the end? The first initiator of this meeting was us, the United Kingdom. No matter what, we, the United Kingdom, have The priority is to deal with the armored and smoking battleship. At most, we will allow you to visit it together after we get it to the UK!"
When the Dutch envoy heard this, of course he was not happy, so he quarreled with Robert. Envoys from other countries, those concerned about land interests, joined Spain and Sweden in the war of words; while those from countries concerned about the sea, their envoys joined France and the Netherlands in the competition for iron-clad, smoking warships.
The battle hasn't even started yet, and the quarrels over the distribution of the spoils have already begun!
When Louis XIV saw this scene, he immediately became angry and walked away again. What a bullshit meeting, let's wait until the quarrel is over!
Just like that, after arguing for three days, they finally calmed down a little. But Louis XIV learned well and knew that if he went back and pushed forward the meeting, if there was any benefit, another country would definitely quarrel. Therefore, he did not participate. No one respected him anyway, so he sent his most powerful warriors. The courtier, Turenne, Grand Condé's old enemy, represented him at the meeting.
As Louis XIV expected, this meeting was carried out in a noisy manner. After a full month, no effective agreement was finally reached. No matter whether it was the scale of troop contributions by each country or the distribution of post-war benefits, no agreement could be reached.
The Swedish envoy was the first to leave. Whoever wants to have such a boring meeting can leave. Anyway, Sweden is strong and we are afraid that he will be a loser to the Ming Dynasty!
He took the lead, and other countries also left. In the end, the first Paris Conference ended in an anticlimactic manner!
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On the Ming side, one year after Catherine requested revenge from Emperor Chongzhen, she could no longer wait. She often sent memorials to Emperor Chongzhen, asking to lead troops back to take revenge.
Regarding the situation in Europe, Emperor Chongzhen also knew the general situation of the Paris Conference because he planted a lot of Class A eavesdropping seeds, whether it was Mustafa, Lu Xiangsheng, or other vassal countries. .
For some reason, Emperor Chongzhen had an illusion about this meeting. It was like going back to later generations and seeing in the history books the scenes of European powers dividing the spoils over maps.
However, one thing that is different from this plane is that in the original history, they were on the chopping board and let the fish be slaughtered; however, in this plane, they were discussing the possibility of defeat at the feet of an Eastern dragon. The spoils of the dragon.
Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but sneer in his heart: I'm just afraid that you won't unite! To fight one country at a time, the Ming Dynasty did not have enough troops to occupy so many countries. It is better for you all to unite, concentrate all your troops, and then conquer them all in one fell swoop!
Based on this idea, Emperor Chongzhen felt it was necessary to put some pressure on European countries. Only under pressure can they truly unite and successfully convene their Paris Conference.
With this in mind, Emperor Chongzhen agreed to Catherine's request for war. However, there were conditions. She was only allowed to lead a group of fleets to the Americas, join the Ming Dynasty's American fleet and the Portuguese fleet, and destroy the Atlantic Ocean to attack European countries.
In addition, the specific command of the war, including the Portuguese fleet, was to be given to Zheng Zhilong. Whether to fight or retreat, and how to fight, all depends on Zheng Zhilong.
Of course Catherine knew that, but she certainly couldn't do it herself. It would be best to have the most famous naval commander in the Ming Dynasty to command the fleet. Therefore, without saying a word, he kowtows and gives thanks.
In this way, Catherine bid farewell to the crown prince and her son, and led more than a hundred warships, including three steam ironclad warships, to the American continent after stopping in Fuso Province. One thing she didn't know was that Emperor Chongzhen also sent a secret edict to Zheng Zhilong.
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On the European side, King Philip IV of Spain was the last person to see the failure of the Paris Conference. For this reason, he also scolded Jose, the illegitimate son.
If the Ming army really wanted to attack, they would definitely attack Spain first. He would be under too much pressure.
As a result, Philip IV began to re-initiate the conference and threatened that he would no longer want the American continent. But this time, not many countries responded.
Cromwell in the UK was also a little disappointed with the failure of the Paris Conference. After a period of consideration, he decided to send a fleet to the American continent, with a scale of about two hundred ships. He thought of going on a robbery, not only to steal money, but also to see if he could hit a lone armored and smoking warship.
As for doing so, he was not afraid of the anger of the Ming army. Anyway, we have already fought in the Persian Gulf before, once and twice. No matter what, it will always be a hostile relationship!
In Sweden, after a series of war victories against Poland and Tsarist Russia, Carl Gustaf had completely secured the throne that his cousin had ceded to him. After hearing what happened at the Paris Conference, he was ready to take action again.
Karl wants to prove that Sweden is so strong. What qualifications do you have to compete with Sweden?
It is normal to have this kind of thinking. At this time, Sweden has reached the most powerful level in history. In later generations, before Norway became independent, Sweden's territory included Norway and a large area of Poland. Tsarist Russia had even more territory. The Baltic Sea was Sweden's inland sea.
And these were all won by him, Carl Gustaf, through fighting. With regard to his great achievements, how many people in Europe in history could achieve it?
Of course he would not admit that he had achieved such an achievement by standing on the shoulders of the giant Gustavus II.
Just like that, Carl Gustaf went to war alone.
