Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1298 Promoting Peace by Fighting ([-])

The young Duke of Mallor stood atop St. George's Castle, overlooking the beautiful city.

At this moment, he was young and powerful, and he had a little sadness on his face, and he didn't know why. Could it be that the plots and betrayals in the palace every day made him feel hatred, or the long-term war with the Spaniards made him feel a little sad? Bored, or was he saddened by the news that the town of Sesimbra had just fallen?Maybe it's both.

"On December 1640, 12, 1 patriotic nobles suddenly rushed into the palace, controlled the palace guards, and executed Miguel de Vas Gonzales, the Minister of State appointed by Spain. Subsequently, the uprising nobles forced the vice king, The Duchess of Mantua, the cousin of King Philip, ordered the Spanish garrison of the Castle of São Jorge and the Tejo River Fortress to surrender without resistance, and Lisbon was liberated, and everything seemed so easy and so natural." 40-year-old Louis de ·Duke Vasconcelos y Sousa recalled the exciting past in his heart, and he often used this to constantly motivate himself, so that he had enough courage to fight against all kinds of enemies and lead the troubled Portugal The kingdom was reborn from the ashes.

Of course, the young Duke was only three years old at that time, and he was still a child. He knew all the past events from books or other people's dictation, but this did not prevent him from feeling as if he was actually there.He still remembers what happened on the day of the uprising as told to him by a court painter: "At ten o'clock in the morning, this happened. A large group of women were selling fresh fish, fruits and other things along the street. Bread was sold in the square and on both sides of the river. , The women who set up stalls are so calm and nonchalant, it seems that business is not important to them..."

The focus of court painters may be in daily life, which at least proves that the uprising was a matter of course and without much resistance. King Philip of Spain is also unpopular in Lisbon!The Portuguese nobles and people have strong national pride and desire for independence, which are the key factors for the success of the uprising.

After the success of the Lisbon uprising, the whole country immediately set off a torrent of opposition to Spanish rule, and the patriotic enthusiasm of the Portuguese people was greatly stimulated——hundreds of Portuguese students who were studying at the University of Salamanca in Spain at the time heard the news. Returning to Portugal to participate in the uprising, this is evident - this allowed them to quickly pass a resolution to raise huge military expenditures for the war (at that time, 180 million Cruzado military expenditures were collected in one go, and everyone was really generous, no Too much selfishness, just for the independence of the country), also inspired their soldiers to fight bravely, repeatedly defeated the Spanish army, and finally defended the country.

Every time Duke Maior thinks of these things, he finds it exciting. He feels that Portugal still needs this spirit, a spirit that can drive the Portuguese people forward and win.And only by advocating this spirit can the relatively weak Kingdom of Portugal survive and develop in the midst of being surrounded by powerful enemies.

It's a pity that after 20 years of peaceful and comfortable life, some nobles who were full of enthusiasm at the beginning have become philistine and selfish, businessmen who donated large sums of military expenditures to the country have become mercenary, and soldiers who have made great contributions have gradually aged. The national situation of the Kingdom of Portugal has indeed not progressed at all in the past 20 years, and may even have fallen a little bit, which made him feel very sad.

Fortunately, the Kingdom of Portugal still has many soldiers with rich military experience. With them, they can defeat the weak Spanish army and then defend their country.In fact, the Spaniards themselves are to blame for this. In order to realize the great ambitions of the Catholic king, to spread the glory of the Habsburg family, and to establish the European hegemony of the Kingdom of Spain, King Philip drove a large number of people in the ruling area to go to Be a soldier, act as cannon fodder to fight for him.

And many of these so-called cannon fodder are often not the Castilians who occupy the core of Spanish rule, but the Catalans, Aragonese, Neapolitans, Sicilians, Basques, Southerners who tend to separate. The Dutch and the Portuguese (and of course a large number of mercenaries), these people were driven by King Philip to the battlefield to fight with soldiers from various countries, and naturally accumulated extremely rich experience in military warfare.

Later, when Portugal was restored, these soldiers either ran back by themselves, or were disbanded because they were not trusted. In short, most of them returned to Portugal to fight for the newly enthroned His Majesty Joao.The combat effectiveness of these people is naturally not comparable to that of the Castilians who have always been pampered. In fact, you can refer to the example of a group of recruits from the Russian Federation after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in later generations who were violently beaten by Chechen armed forces based on veterans of the Soviet Red Army. .In this way, it is not surprising that the Spanish Army has lost consecutive battles, not to mention that the Portuguese also received some assistance from France.

Now, these armies are the pinnacles of the Kingdom of Portugal.With them, the Spaniards can deal with it, as can the East Coasters!Thinking of this, the young Duke's confidence in the army that had just been dispatched to recover Sesimbra (and was also preparing to strengthen the defense around Situbar) suddenly rose to a higher level.

However, the threat on land is not difficult to solve now, but the predicament at sea is indeed extremely troublesome!Thinking of this, Duke Mallor looked up at the merchant ships moored in the Tejo Estuary. There were only about 300 ships, most of which were fishing boats and small merchant ships of small tonnage; It looks like dozens of ships; as for professional warships, God has mercy, there are really not many, and even if there are, they dare not go to sea to fight. They are really scared by the heretics on the east coast. Eight of the ten ships were sunk, and the Royal Portuguese Navy can be removed from the list.

Let's wait until the ships ordered in the British shipyards return!

It's not that the Duke of Mallor didn't think about having peace talks with the people on the east coast - after all, the long-term war has caused great harm to the Kingdom of Portugal - in fact, he has sent people to the Communist Party of China before, requesting peace talks with the people on the east coast. The Doria family, who had a close relationship with Taiwan, came forward to mediate the war between East and Portugal.A few days ago, people from the Doria family also came to the door and said that the East Coast side is willing to negotiate with the Kingdom of Portugal to end the war. It may be relatively high, which made Duke Mallor hesitate to some extent, and even wondered if the nobles suggested that the king and the people on the east coast had some kind of conspiracy.

It’s just that no matter how conspiratorial there is, peace talks are the general trend. The king, queen, and themselves don’t have much choice. Brazil has lost a large area of ​​territory, and Mozambique and Angola have also fallen. I don’t know what happened to India and the Far East. India Probably safe, but the Far East Macau is in danger of falling, right?There is also Cape Verde, which is isolated overseas. The land is remote and the people are poor, and the anti-piracy is okay, but against the heavily armed East Coast Fleet?Duke Mallor shook his head, and he also thought that the possibility of keeping it was unlikely.

In such a situation, as long as the Kingdom of Portugal does not want to completely cut off overseas trade, it must end the war as soon as possible.Neither the duke himself nor the nobles nor the big businessmen could imagine the terrible scene of a complete severance of overseas trade. In that case, Lisbon would probably gradually fall into poverty, and the Kingdom of Portugal would gradually transform into a complete agricultural country. It is terrible to be able to export wine, fruit, wool, and salted fish to England for a living—however, even if you want to negotiate peace, His Majesty Alfonso needs face, and it is impossible to let the people on the east coast lead by the nose. They also have limits.Regarding this point, the Duke of Mallor had already explained to Alessandro and his son yesterday, and got their understanding. At present, his son Paul has gone to The Hague with a letter, intending to inquire about the situation of the East Coast diplomatic envoy Zheng Yong. idea.

However, Duke Mallor also had a premonition in his heart, that is, Paul Doria's action to go to The Hague will probably not have any results. The differences between the people on the east coast and Portugal may be quite large, which requires long-term and arduous negotiations and mutual compromises. Finally a deal was reached.However, it is enough to get people from the east coast to sit at the negotiating table, and many things can be discussed slowly.Now the East Coast Fleet is constantly bombarding the country's coastal territory, and it is nothing more than trying to increase the pressure on the Kingdom of Portugal. However, the Kingdom of Portugal has its own spirit. Her people love their motherland. They are determined and united. , even if they have to make concessions in the end, they must not be without a bottom line, not to mention that they can count on the support of the friendly English, which is also a lot of pressure on the people on the east coast.

……

Duke Mallor was actually right about one thing. The people on the east coast continued to shell the coast of Portugal to put pressure on them. In late January 1662, the continuous bombardment and landing operations in Sesimbra, Situbar and other places on the southern coast of Portugal destroyed many coastal villages and towns of the Portuguese, captured a large number of people, and severely damaged the morale of the Portuguese army and civilians. Let them be soberly aware that no matter how strong your spiritual attributes are and no matter how firm your will to resist the invaders is, under the attack of the enemy's large ships and giant guns, everything is scum. good point.

On January 1, when the attention of the Portuguese was attracted by the shelling incident near Situ Baer Bay, the formation of warships on the east coast, mainly motor sailboats, arrived at the offshore waters of Cape Carvoeiro, and then attacked the A relatively dense and prosperous fishing port and fishing village carried out large-scale shelling. The shelling lasted for a whole day and night, and finally stopped when the ammunition reserves fell below a certain base.

During this period, the people on the east bank organized a landing operation, which went smoothly at the beginning, and captured more than 300 pesos of gold and silver, a large amount of food, livestock and more than 80 Portuguese residents, but later there was a Moldavian army of [-] people The Asian prisoners of war were surrounded and annihilated by the rushing Portuguese noble army because the looting was too deep. This was the first loss of the East Coast people since the last few landing battles.

However, the loss of some prisoners of war slaves will naturally not stop the people on the east coast who have tasted the sweetness. On February 2, two ammunition supply ships came urgently from the port of Cadiz, and the replenished warships on the east coast quietly sailed near the mouth of the Mondego River. After carefully avoiding enemy forts, fortresses and other facilities, they selected Some weak fishing ports and fishing villages were shelled and raided.

In this battle, the people on the east coast captured two fishing ports, seized a large amount of flour, olive oil, wine, salted fish, cured meat and livestock, and captured more than [-] Portuguese residents, while their own losses were only a few forty or so people , Most of the dead were soldiers of the Black Banners.After the battle, a local Portuguese military nobleman sent people to negotiate with a white flag, and then redeemed all the Portuguese captives and some food at a price of more than [-] pesos.

On February 2, the East Coasters carried out a shelling and landing operation between Porto and Viana do Castelo.This time the battle was not smooth. The troops who landed were attacked by the enemy. As many as 9 prisoners of war and officers and soldiers of the Black Eight Banners were surrounded and wiped out. Even the naval officers and soldiers who landed had more than [-] casualties. But the harvest was nothing, only two Portuguese towns were razed with artillery fire.

Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiehui checked the soldiers and horses at hand (nearly half of the Black Eight Banners and Moldavian prisoners of war who could be used for landing have been lost), and at the same time looked at the large amount of spoils captured, so he decisively stopped the attempt to land. But the bombardment of the Portuguese coast continued.

In this way, the continuous shelling continued until February 2, when the fleet headed for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea trade returned.During this period, the people on the east coast bombarded no less than ten coastal villages and towns in Portugal. It is conservatively estimated that thousands of enemy casualties were caused, and the economic losses were naturally incalculable. Gunboat——The ship unfortunately ran aground while approaching and shooting at night. After dawn, the sea water receded, and the ship was even more solidly stranded.After the rescue failed, Wang Tiehammer had no choice but to order the abandonment of the ship, and set it on fire after evacuating the supplies, so as not to be captured by the Portuguese.

The continuous bombardment and landing operations have caused great damage to the Kingdom of Portugal, as well as a huge blow to the spirit of its soldiers and civilians, not to mention the unscrupulous activities of warships on the east coast in the coastal waters of Portugal, which seriously interfered with the country's foreign trade Therefore, I believe that after this attack, the attitude of the Portuguese during the negotiations in Palermo (the special envoy Zheng Yong has gone south from the United Provinces to Sicily) should be softened, and some unrealistic illusions should be thrown away. .

On February 1662, 2, after converging all the ships, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiehammer ordered the entire fleet to return.They will go south via the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, then cross the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of the northeastern corner of Brazil, and finally slowly go south along the coastline (the ocean current is too weak) to return to the mainland.

(End of this chapter)