Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1261 After the voyage to the Western Ocean ([-])

There is not even a problem with language communication between the two sides. Most of the senior fleet officers in Dashun can speak some French.

The biggest difference may be that the two navies have different ideas and strategic meanings in building an army. As a result, Dashun likes to rush to attack and hit the waterline. flow.

This is determined by the geographical location and surrounding environment of the two countries, and it cannot be said that France is wrong, it can only be said that this meets the actual needs of France.

However, these are minor issues. After all, it is still Dashun's strategic thinking. It still hopes to attract as many allies as possible and fight Gibraltar first.

As long as this is settled, it will be easy to say.

Now the engineers and artillery are repairing in Maun first, and the upper echelons are still waiting for a definite news, that is, the diplomatic situation on the Spanish side.

The warships only slightly blocked Gibraltar at sea, but Gibraltar is not an island, but a peninsula and promontory. If Spain does not end, it cannot be surrounded.

Even if Spain is neutral, the Jews and Moors can still get enough supplies for the British defenders.

It is impossible for the navy to sail on land and pull the boat to the isthmus of the peninsula to catch the Jews.

Moreover, the terrain of Gibraltar is there, and it cannot be attacked at sea.The free translation of Gibraltar is a big rock on the cape. The whole big rock is stuck there, and the fort can pose a great threat to the warship.

Here, the diplomacy between Dashun and Spain is quite interesting.

There is a problem left over from history, that is, the definition of "neutrality".

That is to say, when George Anson led the fleet to replenish supplies in Lingdingyang to attack Manila, Dashun said that he wanted to be neutral, and Britain also stood up and said that this was a kind of neutrality—that is, to designate a specific port and ensure that all belligerent countries were neutral. It can be resupplied at this specific port, which is also a neutral type.

Now, the problem comes around.

Of course, Spain can also follow the example of the Dashun Lingdingyang story back then and set Algeciras, opposite Gibraltar, as neutral.

What Britain said back then—marking a specific port to ensure that all belligerent countries can supply supplies at this specific port is also a kind of neutrality—now Spain is also following the story of the year, and is neutral, of course.

Theoretically, both Chinese and British fleets can resupply at the specific neutral port of Algeciras.If Britain doesn't come, don't blame Spain for not being neutral.

After all, it was explained in the same way at the beginning: George Anson can supply supplies in Guangdong, and your Spaniards in Manila can also come to Guangzhou to supply supplies. Who do you blame if you don’t come?

However, the meaning of this kind of lip service is mainly for the pleasure of revenge.

In other words, it is a bottom-line choice for Spain not to participate in the war but to remain neutral.

In fact, Dashun wanted Spain to join the war, and Luzon was not in a hurry at all. At the beginning, it was planned to let the British occupy Luzon to grab it later. Who would have thought that Spain would win the Jenkins Ear War, and Luzon would go back, and the UK would be thieves. After Dashun went to Nanyang, he engaged in an Indian replacement plan.

Now that the deal is done, we can only take it easy, since Luzon can't fly anyway.

Therefore, it seems that the attitude of Spain is determined by the ownership of Manila, at least the negotiators of Dashun think so.

Macau was taken back by Dashun, India went to war, Nanyang was taken back long ago, Bengkulu must have fallen, and the broken fortress in East Timor can be captured with a hundred soldiers...

Now, in the Nanyang region, Dashun really overshadows the sky with one hand.

The Manila issue, like many things in Dashun's diplomacy, forced the other party to believe, or only hoped that Dashun would keep its promises.

Just like the Indian issue, it is the standard one that has to be believed.

Not rational belief.

But if you don't believe it, you can't do it. What can you do if you don't believe it?

There is also the Nanyang issue, which was the same at the beginning.

The Netherlands can only acquiesce and has to believe that Dashun will not go to Nanyang.

Otherwise, what else can we do?
Because if China itself had woken up earlier, there would have been no Westerners in places like Malacca and Malacca 300 years ago.

The appearance of Westerners in Nanyang itself is based on the fact that the giant fell asleep and will continue to sleep.

Wake up now, Nanyang's strength is really a matter of pinching.This is an era when the delivery power of all countries is seriously insufficient. In order to send thousands of people to the Mediterranean Sea in Dashun, the staff has prepared for almost 20 years.

The Spaniards sold their kidneys, and they could hold back two battleships in the direction of Manila. Apart from wishful thinking that Dashun would not be interested in Luzon, what else could they do?

Therefore, the negotiations between Dashun and Spain are actually nothing to be delayed: Young man, be sober.If I can't borrow your port, I can't fight Gibraltar.If you can't beat Gibraltar, I can only go home.Waiting for Lao Tzu to bring home the main force of the battleship fleet, with a stomach full of resentment against Spain, what do you think Lao Tzu can do in Nanyang?

Now I give you a chance, should you stand with the UK or with me?

No neutrality allowed.

Because of the terrain of Gibraltar, your neutrality means that you are standing in the UK. There must be a foothold for the offensive launch zone, right?Are we told to attack the cliff from the sea?
Standing in the UK, you are just a young bird. I may not be able to stain the Thames with blood, but when I go home to fight Luzon, I still close my eyes, right?I am so impatient that I will announce it with you. After the announcement, I will go home and beat Manila to vent my anger.

Standing on our side, we can still negotiate: look, cede Gibraltar to me so that you can take Gibraltar as a hostage and we can take Manila as a hostage. Isn't this ensuring long-term peace between China and the West?

Even if we turn our backs in the future, if you take back Gibraltar and we take back Luzon, you will not lose money.Otherwise you won't get anything, right?
You can't think that you can conquer the whole of China by sending [-] troops to land as Matteo Ricci thought, right?Do you feel realistic?
Dashun explained a truth to Spain in detail: the stronger the fortress of Gibraltar, the more valuable the naval base of Dashun, and the greater the trade volume in the Mediterranean, the safer Manila will be.

Moreover, in fact, Gibraltar is now owned by the British, and Dashun wanted to take it from the British.

So, in fact, Spain should take the initiative to lease Ceuta in Morocco to Dashun, and let Dashun take the initiative to build a base, garrison there, and stabilize trade.

This is equivalent to exchanging Ceuta for Manila, making a lot of money.

Otherwise, if there are no hostages on both sides, even if Dashun takes down Manila, what can you do?Do you think it makes sense?

If you let go of Seville and Cadiz and let Dashun invest heavily here, building shipyards, renting forts, trading posts, etc., it will actually be safer.

The more Dashun invests and the more valuable the lease, the safer Manila will be.This is tantamount to enhancing the mutual trust between the two countries, Dashun took the initiative to hand over the weakness...

This set of standard imperialist nonsense theories makes the Spaniards feel a little reasonable.

Because, Spain really has a Manila, in Nanyang.

And the whole problem is also a problem left over from history.

There is such a big monster in East Asia itself, a colony like Manila should not exist, the existence itself is a kind of accident.

Even in the original history, the level of productivity between the East and the West did not expand until 1800.

At this time, when the Ottoman Turkey itself can still beat Austrian Karaksha violently, the central government will not collapse, spend money to train the new army, drill the navy and other means of pure technological progress, which can completely destroy the original colony pattern of the times.

Now that Dashun is gone, a series of chain reactions have been triggered, which makes Spain have to think about it.

The current situation in Europe is that the two major groups are fighting, trying to resolve the conflicts between countries.

Great Britain, Prussia, Hannover, Denmark.Whether Portugal enters the war depends on whether Spain enters the war.

Sweden has more territorial claims than Pomerania, so it declares war on Prussia; there are conflicts between Sweden and Denmark, and between Russia and Denmark, that is, the conflict over the Baltic Sea trade rights under Liu Yubu, so Switzerland and Russia are against Prussia. War is also declared with Denmark; Austria declares war on Prussia because of the core interests of Silesia.

This war was originally balanced by the British navy and the tactical genius of Prussia, and no one could do anything to the other.

Now Dashun is gone, and more than 30 battleships and a bunch of cruisers were brought out at once, and the British squadron was driven away at the door of Spain.

The balance of power suddenly became unbalanced. Should Spain stand in line and pick the fruit?
After Spain joined the war in Dashun, the possibility of participating in the war has almost reached [-]%. This does not require any conspiracy or diplomacy, it is just an almost inevitable choice of interests.

Religiously, Spain is Catholic.

In the royal family, they all belong to the Bourbon family.

Territory, next to the coveted Portugal.

In terms of relationship, the old king is gone, and Carlos III, who just came to power, has personal grievances against the United Kingdom. He was slapped by the British on the issue of the Kingdom of Sicily.

In terms of contradictions, the colonial conflicts between Britain and the West, trade issues, and the tax evasion and humiliation of the South Sea Company and the smuggling issues of the Jenkins Ear War.

These things make the leaders of Spain, as long as they are not brain twitch like Peter II, they will definitely join the war.

As for Dashun's attitude towards Catholicism, that's not a problem.

Because of the anti-Roman Holy See, and Spain is also quite dissatisfied with the Jesuits, Carlos III also intends to drive the Jesuits away.

The Jesuits can be regarded as the "Ministry of Internal Affairs" of the Holy See. He participates in all the affairs of the Holy See, and takes care of all kinds of chickens, and all kinds of participation in court conspiracy are essentially the dispute between "the country" and "the world"; it is also a kind of The struggle between "regime" and "religion".

It should be said that for China, the coming of the Jesuits to China is also a very dangerous thing.Before they showed their fangs, they gained the trust of the scholar-official class.

Although some people in later generations regard them as treasures, in fact, if they really knew what the European Catholic countries were doing in the 18th century, they would definitely understand that the "Buddhist extermination" movement taking history as a mirror is currently taking place in Europe.

The new king of Spain, Carlos III, is the initiator of the "Buddhist extermination" movement in European Catholic countries.

When he was the king of Sicily, he reused the reformist minister Bernardo, and several of Bernardo's policies are still very interesting.

One: No new temples are allowed without the permission of the government.

Two: The clergy will be reduced, and the original 5% will be retained, and the rest will be returned to the vulgar.

[-]. Marriage is a civil contract. The church is forbidden to manage marriage issues, but treats marriage issues as civil issues.

Four: The supernumerary 38 large-scale temples will be banned, and the land of the temples will be owned by the government.

Five: Without the permission of the government, it is considered a crime for monks to directly appeal, sue, or petition the Holy See.

Six: The king has the right to appoint monks to preside, and it is illegal for monks to preside without a letter of appointment issued by the king.

Seven: Limit eleven taxes.

Eight: Church property land, check the acres, tax at a rate of [-]%, and hand it over to the government.

Through these reforms, in turn, we can know what the church Jesuits are.

The winners of the Seven Years' War and the later revival of religious moralism, the evaluation of him in the future is also very interesting.

The victors recognized Bernardo, Prime Minister of Sicily, Count Aranda, Prime Minister of Spain, and Choiseul, Minister of State of France, as "typical representatives of tyranny."

[Their general hostility to the Church stems from their determination to completely suppress human order and goodness.Their widespread influence was achieved by their high-handed approach to church liberty. 】

[He is a skeptic of faith and morals who are immoral because they desire the general tyranny of the state. 】

[Under this general tyranny, human morality and freedom are gone.Under their theory of tyranny, the king was supposed to be the figurehead leader, while the ministers, themselves, were the masters. 】

[The reason they expelled the Jesuits was to accuse the Jesuits of being "liberal" because the Jesuits limited their centralized tyranny. 】

[Their tyranny subtly paved the way for the collapse of the revolution. 】

It should be said that everyone here in Dashun who has read history books will feel a little bit about seeing these things—from Bernardo’s Sicilian reforms; to the series of centralization measures of Choiseul, Pombal, and Arlanda An inexplicable familiarity.

You can see the story of extermination of Buddha many years ago.

It can be seen that some people in the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty even began to miss Zhang Juzheng's mentality of centralizing power and suppressing all sentient beings.

It can be seen that the scholar-bureaucrat group claimed to be the pioneer of liberalism against the monarchy.

It can be seen that in the age of despair and darkness, some Confucianists even did not hesitate to have kings and hegemons coexist, hoping that heresy such as Wang Anshi and Guan Zhong would emerge in the chaotic era.

Etc., etc.

Dashun has actually gone through many things here.

Just like during the period of the Legal Revolution and the North American War of Independence, a revolutionary measure praised by later generations - the abolition of the primogeniture law - was not highly praised in Dashun.

Because Dashun only had this kind of inheritance law for the titles of the small circle of nobles, and the common people, including the big landlords, have long been the inheritance law that can be inherited by their heirs.

Perhaps among these evaluations, the only one that is a bit less bullshit is that "their means of centralizing power have caused problems in the stability of moralistic reform and religious indoctrination traditions, paving the way for the great collapse of the revolution."

This is indeed true. Throwing away these crap, controlling monks and temples, and suppressing religious power is indeed a wave of earth-shaking French Revolution in Europe.

The reason why the UK also evaluates this is because in essence, the Anglicanism in the UK is not Calvinist Protestantism, but more like the Three-Self Patriotic Association with British characteristics. Reformed Catholicism, where political power is higher than religious authority, is not Puritanism, which has a stronger taste of retro fundamentalism.

Britain is not anti-religious, only anti-Holy See.

On the French side, including Spain, Sicily, and Portugal, the "strong fortresses of Catholicism", those who are now in power are all Enlightenmentists, who are not only against the Holy See, but even against religion itself.

Carlos III came to Spain from Sicily to inherit the Spanish throne, and it was indeed impossible for Bernardo to follow.

But the people that Carlos III reused in Spain are probably more radical than Bernardo.

Because the person he reused was Earl Arlanda.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, I got separated from the troops and walked to Paris on foot. I was a member of the Encyclopedia School who was a member of the Enlightenment circle of Voltaire, Diderot, D’Alembert, etc. The rationality of the sect that crushes religious ignorance and supports the temple of reason to replace the church.

Historically, he even opposed the encirclement and suppression of revolutionary France and the restoration of Bourbon as the Prime Minister of Bourbon Spain.

Moreover, he has given a feasible plan that can leave some dignity and imperial heritage for Spain-the formation of the Spanish Federal Empire, the separation of the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Mexico, the Kingdom of Peru, and the Kingdom of Venezuela-the King of Spain was upgraded to Spain The emperor, the Kingdom of Mexico and other self-owned kings formed a federal empire similar to the suzerain-vassal system.

Because after he saw the North American War of Independence, he understood that the disintegration of the colonial empire was inevitable. It was better to plan early and leave some legacy for Spain, instead of getting everything gone in the end and retracting to the Iberian Peninsula. 300 Playing around in vain.

Therefore, this kind of person is more intelligent.

At this time, what Dashun hoped most was to negotiate with people with brains, not with a group of people without brains.

Because, people with brains mean that they know that Spain's participation in the war is of great benefit at this time.

Under the overall situation, I am not afraid of those with brains, but I am afraid of those without brains, and I even wish that they all have brains.

Therefore, although Spain is a Catholic country, it can be said to be one of the pillar countries of Catholicism.

However, Dashun's attitude towards Catholicism is not an obstacle to Dashun's negotiations with Spain.

On the contrary, when Dashun took back Macau, and before the Lisbon earthquake, Liu Yu slammed the Holy See in front of the envoys of various countries, and wanted to build the Eastern Church and bring it under the management of the Li government. The difficulty of negotiating.

Because, Earl Adallan was also planning to expel the Jesuits and even leave the Holy See.And what Dashun said before he took back Macau was undoubtedly a severe blow to the Holy See.

Because after the knife was inserted, Pope Benedict XIV was gone.

Then, in the Lisbon earthquake, the Jesuits attacked aggressively, saying that the Lisbon earthquake was a punishment from God, which proved the impiety of the Portuguese, which directly led to the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Portuguese Prime Minister, Count Pombal, and the reopening of the Inquisition to judge the Jesuits.

Then, because Pope Benedict XIV was firmly opposed to adapting oriental etiquette to local conditions, and Dashun publicly expressed his opposition to the Holy See, then the new Pope could only be tougher and could not compromise.

This was originally expected by Dashun. After spouting so much trash talk, if the new pope compromises, the pope may not be able to sit still. In history, Clay, who was forced to disband the Society of Jesus, Mans XIV was poisoned to death by the Jesuits. It would be strange if the military organization and the secret service of the Assassin Group were not assassinated or poisoned.

There can be secret agencies, there can be professional heretics.But this kind of spy organization cannot be allowed to do business, earn money, or even build colonies on its own.Can the pope not die if he bans such an organization?
But now, the more confrontational, the less able to compromise, and the more forced to be tough, the closer to the total collapse of the Holy See in the future.

The Holy See’s compromise is what Dashun, Pombal in Portugal, Choiseul in France, Bernardo in Sicily and Naples, and the top leaders of the Enlightenment in France don’t want to see.

Earl Arlanda himself was an Enlightenmentist who worshiped encyclopedias of reason, and his view of the conflict between Dashun and Catholicism was naturally an ally rather than an enemy.

Because Dashun expelled the Catholic Church, its attitude was so tough that it wanted to reorganize the New Oriental church area under the jurisdiction of the Li government, the Li government canonized the patriarch, and followed the story of Lu Suisu.

That's why Dashun can work closely with God's eldest daughter and God's sword.

(End of this chapter)