Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 787 Monsters of Eurasia
This news has nothing to do with Daming now, but after Zhu Youjian learned about it, he became wary of it.

Portugal's special envoy Gutierrez declared that while the Portuguese army was launching a "just war" to "recover" its traditional territory, their army spied that the Ottoman Empire's army, a powerful empire to the east of Spain, was also about to move, intending to When the Spanish army was hit hard by the Ming army, they invaded the territory of Spain and expanded the territory of the empire.

Compared with the already declining Habsburg dynasty, the Ottoman Empire at this time is a ferocious monster, and it is an existence that the whole of Europe fears. Having accumulated a wealth of combat experience, the armies of various European countries are very afraid of going to war with it.

Now that the new ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet IV, is still young, his mother, Sultan Kosem, handles government affairs. This young woman is different from ordinary women, and is a heroine with a strong character. The interest in the expansion of the empire is far greater than that of ordinary men. After learning of the disastrous defeat of the Spanish elite army that has been fighting against the Ottoman army for many years, Sultan Kosem issued a call for all parties to end their internal strife and turn to Spain to seek more benefits. , which included the occupation of Spanish territory.

This is what worries the Portuguese government.

If the army of the Ottoman Empire attacks Spain westward, it will not take long for its army to advance near the eastern front of the Portuguese army. According to the extremely aggressive nature of its army, the two armies are likely to face a serious conflict. , if the two sides go to war, the Ottoman Empire will take advantage of the trend and advance to the Portuguese mainland. With the Portuguese army's not strong combat effectiveness, it is conceivable to fight against such a behemoth.

For this reason, the Portuguese government asked Ming Dynasty to increase arms sales and strive to expand the size and number of its own army in the shortest possible time to deal with the possible crisis.

The batch of firecracker ammunition purchased from Daming last time was much stronger than that used by the Portuguese army in terms of range and power. The Portuguese military responded well to this, so this time the Portuguese side increased the purchase volume and amount. .

Judging from the list provided by the Portuguese special envoy, this time Portugal purchased goods worth about 43 taels from Daming, including 19 taels of ordnance and ammunition, and 24 taels of other commodities.

With the beginning of the war between Britain and the Netherlands, the Netherlands had to reduce the amount of goods purchased from Ming Dynasty, and Portugal, which was in a safe position, took the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the Netherlands had no time to take care of others, and took the opportunity to organize a group of merchant ships to come. Daming wants to take this opportunity to seize a part of the market share of Daming products in Europe.

Of course, Zhu Youjian did not refuse these reasonable requests from the Portuguese side.Under his personal care, the two sides quickly completed negotiations and signed a series of agreements. The Portuguese special envoy only stayed in the capital for five days before returning with satisfaction. Before leaving, Gutierrez praised the high efficiency of the Ming court. Highly praised, praised that Ming's system is indeed ahead of European countries, and after returning to China, he will suggest to his own government to send personnel to come to Ming to learn the advanced points.

In the European countries that practice the parliamentary system, on such major military and political matters, there are often differences due to differences of opinion and interests. Political figures of different factions who insist on their own opinions will argue for a long time because of their different positions. This kind of decision-making mechanism is very inefficient. Compared with the simple and efficient cabinet responsibility system of Ming Dynasty, the two sides decided to judge. This made Gutierrez, who thought there would be a long waiting process, come up with such an idea.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about the Portuguese study, but he was most concerned about the news about the Ottoman Empire.

Zhu Youjian has a natural aversion to Ottoman, a corrupt country.The people living under this system often have different ways of thinking and habits from ordinary people, and are incompatible with the development trend of the civilized world. It can even be said bluntly that this system is a retrogression of human history, which is intolerable to Chinese civilization and accepted.

The repeated blows to Spain are due to some kind of revenge plot in history. Now the Spaniards who have tasted the bitter fruit should become obedient. As long as they behave well in the future, Zhu Youjian does not want to take the strategy of destroying his country practice.

Daming is a civilized country that loves peace, and war is only a helpless choice under unavoidable circumstances. If you are obedient and obedient, I promise not to beat you. This is the basic principle of foreign policy after Ming Dynasty.

Not long after the Portuguese envoy left, the howling north wind sent the Spanish government mission to the capital.

First, Manila, a century-old colony, was robbed, and then an expeditionary force was almost wiped out. Under two heavy blows in three years, the Spanish hawkish government has all gone.

The government that just took over last year is generally a relatively moderate dovish faction. Due to the unfavorable situation of internal and external difficulties, the new Spanish government decided to send a mission to visit Daming. The Spanish Expeditionary Force was released and returned home.

The covetous Ottoman army put heavy pressure on the Spanish government. Compared with the interests in the Far East, the safety of the homeland was an imminent matter.

The expeditionary force, which was defeated in Manila, had been on the front line of confrontation with the Ottoman army. It coincided with the internal strife in the Ottoman Empire, and a ceasefire agreement was hastily reached between the two countries. The Spanish government then mobilized 5000 people to form the expeditionary force. He made money from the extremely rich Daming to make up for the financial distress, but unexpectedly, he lost his wife and lost his army under the mobilization of the army.

To the anger of the Spaniards, Portugal, a small country of Quer, also took advantage of the fire and seized part of Spain's territory when the situation inside and outside Spain was eroding. Everyone hates it.

However, compared with the world feud—the Ottoman Empire, Portugal’s mange disease can only be put aside for now, and it will not become a big climate if it is tossed. When everything is stable, the Spanish soldiers will teach Portugal how to behave.

The Ottoman Empire has the power and ambition to destroy the country. The battle between the two sides lasted for many years, and there were victories and losses during the period. However, with the rapid decline of Spain's national power, the Ottoman Empire, which ended its internal strife, will focus on annexing Spain. Come.

It is precisely based on this consideration related to their own safety that the Spaniards came from afar with a white flag.

(End of this chapter)