New Shun 1730

Different postwar interests on the North American issue are just a microcosm of the differences between the Sino-French alliance.

The French have a lot to say about religious issues that the Dashun side is unlikely to understand.

The Dashun relied on smuggling, trade and other things to cause many conflicts in North America and fish in troubled waters.

In fact, France only needs to require Britain to protect the interests of Catholics in North America in the treaty at the end of the war to directly arouse the infinite resentment of North American Puritans against Britain.

Because the Puritans are very unhappy about the Anglican Church having a church and wearing robes - which paragraph in the Bible describes the missionary robes? Which paragraph writes about the church? You are using something that is not in the Bible, you are impure.

In this regard, the East and the West have basically experienced similar situations: Puritans believe that Catholicism is too secular and impure; the Wahhab school believes that the Ottomans are too secular and impure; the retro Confucian scholars and the rising textual research school also believe that Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism is impure and fake Confucianism.

It's just that because of the religious gap, Dashun can understand the retro-reflection of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but cannot understand the orthodoxy dispute between Puritans, Anglicans, and Catholics by analogy.

Simply put, the Puritans found the Anglicans, which had already carried out a series of reforms, intolerable, not pure enough, and too secular. How could they tolerate Britain's concessions to Catholicism?

Therefore, on the card of religion, the French can play some "low investment, high effect" means, which is naturally different from Dashun's strategy.

This difference cannot be bridged.

Now, the obstacle to cooperation between China and France is whether to go to the Strait to fight and land in Scotland.

Even if this difference is temporarily shelved and agrees with Dashun's strategy of abandoning the Strait to fight and adopting trade to strangle internal collapse, the difference is still huge.

Even if we don't go to the Strait to fight.

So, where should we focus our energy next?

North America?

Caribbean?

Barbados?

Or help Spain conquer Porto first?

France has a large number of troops.

But as John Mordaunt was horrified before his death, if France went to Cartagena, it would be more embarrassing than Britain.

So France, with a large total force, actually has only a few thousand troops that can participate in the cross-ocean expedition. Therefore, if Dashun's trade strangulation strategy is to be implemented, China and France must continue to cooperate.

Because France does not have many troops that can go on an expedition, but Dashun does not have many elite standing expeditionary marines that can go on a cross-ocean expedition, so the two sides can only cooperate.

War is like this. Dashun's rigorously trained and skill-specialized combat engineers are indeed strong, but they need others to cooperate.

Just like most of the battles at this time, casualties are mainly caused by artillery and cavalry. However, without infantry to resist the line, artillery and cavalry are useless.

Whether in Nanyang, India, or Gibraltar, the main attack on the fortress was indeed by the engineers of Dashun, but the previous siege, blocking, blockade, and threats still depended on the navy, the French Marines, and the French infantry originally planned to land in Scotland.

The same reason, if you want to continue to expand the results in Spain, the Caribbean, or North America, neither side can do without the other.

However, it is true that Dashun can't quite understand France's views on religious issues.

But apart from the issue of religion, considering things like material, land, population, and reputation, Dashun has no barriers with Europe.

Therefore, when Dashun wanted to send the prisoners back to Britain, Li Li and others still made a resolution to show goodwill to France.

It can be considered a show of goodwill.

It can also be considered a hint of some strategic diplomacy.

Generally speaking, the French should be able to understand Dashun's show of goodwill and hints, because it involves some politically sensitive areas in France.

Li Li suggested to de la Creu that the British prisoners escorted here would stay in Dunkirk, France after being loaded on the ship in Gibraltar.

De la Creu should immediately pass the news of the capture of Gibraltar back to Paris. Paris should also immediately select suitable diplomats to go to London with the diplomats of Dashun in Paris.

On the one hand, it is to spy on the public opinion in Britain, the attitude of Parliament, and the war potential of Britain.

On the other hand, it is also hoped that Dashun and France can continue to maintain mutual trust, and will not conduct private peace talks with Britain alone and betray each other.

This kind of thing is feared by Dashun and France.

It is believed that France was betrayed by its former "ally" in the war, such as the war in which Britain and France defeated the Netherlands together, and France was betrayed by Britain halfway through.

As for Dashun, they really couldn't trust the so-called "allies". After all, even though they were learning the so-called new learning, they had read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" since they were young. Who said that allies would not betray them?

By then, when the battle of Jinyang was halfway through, Zhang Mengtan would appear and leave behind a European version of the allusion of "lips and teeth are cold". That would be a lot of fun.

Choosing Dunkirk as a transit point for prisoners and the place where Chinese and French diplomats boarded the ship to London was also a strategic diplomatic gesture of Dashun. In the eyes of the French, it was a gesture of standing in a "sensitive area" and respecting historical traditions.

It should be said that, so far, the key battles between Dashun and France in Europe - mainly the ones that were won - were actually to help France clean up the mess after the War of the Spanish Succession.

Menorca, Gibraltar, and Dunkirk, where Dashun proposed to transfer prisoners, are all historical issues left over from the War of the Spanish Succession.

Menorca and Gibraltar are not mentioned.

And Dashun chose to let the ship that transported British prisoners of war go to Dunkirk, and hoped to meet with French diplomats there, which has political significance.

Two political significances.

First: Dashun recognized that Dunkirk was French territory.

Second: Dashun recognized, acknowledged, and even used practical actions to defend Louis XIV's commitment and positioning to Dunkirk: [Dunkirk belongs to France, and all merchants and traders from any country can unload, sell and retail goods freely, and are exempted from all employment obligations, and the merchants can freely purchase all goods]

The Dunkirk issue has always been a pain for France, and it can be regarded as a scar that French patriots have always been reluctant to touch.

Just like the Dutch miss their golden age.

The French also miss their golden age, and the end of the French golden age, as of now, this turning point is generally regarded as the "Battle of Blenheim".

The turning point of the War of the Spanish Succession is also the end of the "great expansion era of Louis XIV" in France.

And Dunkirk is an untouchable scar in France.

Because after the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain forced France to dismantle the port and defense facilities of Dunkirk, fill the port, and burn down shops.

The reason was that Dunkirk was too free, so during the war, pirates attacked British merchant ships and resupplied here, so it was not allowed to be free.

Of course, the real reason was that Dunkirk was too close to Britain, and France was worried that it would attack Britain from Dunkirk.

This incident has been regarded as a humiliation for the French since the War of the Spanish Succession.

Until many years ago, Dashun participated in the War of the Austrian Succession and instigated a coup in the Netherlands, and France was theoretically a nominal winner in the War of the Austrian Succession.

After the war, Louis XV immediately spent a lot of money to rebuild Dunkirk.

After all, it is a symbol.

Restoring the rule over Dunkirk, in symbolic terms, means "France has returned to the glory before the Battle of Blenheim, and I, Louis XV, am almost catching up with Louis XIV."

But after this round of war began, Dunkirk was immediately burned down by the British navy.

Moreover, every Frenchman can be sure of one thing: once France loses the war, Dunkirk will be destroyed again and become a French territory that France cannot govern at all and must look at Britain's face and abide by British treaties.

The symbolic significance of Dunkirk is huge.

Because of its special strategic location, it is very suitable for attacking Britain in terms of geography - if it is not very close, there will be no famous retreat - crossing the sea to attack Britain, and going north to the Catholic area of ​​the Austrian Netherlands, that is, Belgium.

Therefore, as long as France wins, or France is in a strategic offensive position, then Dunkirk will definitely be built.

On the contrary, if Britain wins, or Britain is in a strategic offensive position, then Dunkirk will definitely be demolished.

Unless Britain and France are allies, such as when they attack Spain and the Netherlands together, Dunkirk will not be so sensitive.

If you really want to say that the geographical location is dangerous, it is dangerous.

But if you want to say the real offensive pressure, or the most suitable port or naval base for launching an attack, forget it. Toulon and Brest are much more suitable than Dunkirk, with the rear area behind them and very safe.

But starting from the War of the Spanish Succession, the "Second Hundred Years' War" between the two countries of Britain, after each war, they would definitely talk about the Dunkirk issue.

The Treaty of Utrecht was a joke; the Treaty of Aachen was a joke; the Treaty of Paris in the Seven Years' War was a joke; until the Paris Peace Treaty again, the French supported the Thirteen States to do it and the British signed it in Paris, and still talked about this issue.

French Enlightenment thinkers did not mind France losing Canada in history.

However, after the Seven Years' War in history, Britain once again asked France to demolish Dunkirk, which aroused great hatred in France and was regarded as a greater humiliation than losing Canada.

Dashun chose to let British prisoners of war go to Dunkirk for transit at this juncture, which was actually a clear message to France: Dunkirk, which was demolished by the British this time, we guarantee that you will rebuild it, I said.

In other words: Dashun knows where France's core interests are, and you can rest assured that this alliance will definitely defend France's core interests. At least, this basic point will not change.