The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 125 European situation escalates

December 1783, the 1th year of Xianning in the Ming Dynasty, January 13, in the Western calendar.

The relevant documentation procedures for the joint military action plan of Ming Dynasty, Habsburg, France and Britain have been completed.

The Ming officials who returned to their homeland took copies of these documents and Liu Quanzhi's report and embarked on the journey back to their homeland.

Before the end of the 36th year of Xianning, most of the British North American expeditionary force were sent back to Britain.

The Ming and American troops participating in the operation continued to wait and rest for more than a month, and celebrated the New Year and Lantern Festival in Meiping Prefecture (New York).

On the 1783th day of the first lunar month in the 2th year of Xianning (February 19th, in the Western calendar), the first group of expeditionary forces officially set off for Europe.

The Ming Dynasty troops went to Europe, and their mood remained the same as when they came to work in North America.

But the European Americans traveling with us were in a very strange mood.

In the eyes of Americans, they are now going to conquer the European continent in reverse.

Or act together with the top European powers such as the Habsburgs, France and Britain.

The United States fought alongside the Ming Dynasty. Regardless of the scale of the action, the level of the action was high.

Before the Continental Army officially took action, they made up for the vacancies a little bit, and Dexter, who signed up actively, was just the right person to fill the vacancies.

Zhu Jianxuan appointed U.S. Army Commander Li Anbang as Governor-General of the European Expeditionary Force.

The 10,000-strong Ming Dynasty expeditionary force led by Li Anbang and the 20,000-strong European Continental Army arrived in Europe on March 4.

Then it split into two parts, heading to the Southern Netherlands and Hanover respectively.

The main British and Hanoverian forces were already in place in the Hanover area and were stationed in the Hanoverian border area.

The 20,000 Ming-American coalition forces led by Li Anbang, with the support of the British Hanover garrison, landed successively in the Hadron area along the coast of Hanover.

Three thousand Ming troops were left behind to take over the coastal lands exchanged between the Ming Dynasty and Hanover. Most of them went to the Hanoverian border to join the deterrent operation against the German states.

The small Habsburg garrison in the Southern Netherlands was responsible for supporting the other part of the Ming-American coalition forces landing in the Southern Netherlands.

Thirty thousand French troops have also been stationed in the eastern border area of ​​France.

The Duke of Zweibrücken, cousin and heir apparent of the Elector Palatinate, had his domain right on the French border.

France specially arranged a 3,000-man army to carry out targeted surveillance.

While the Habsburgs sent troops into Bavaria as planned, they also arranged for the main force to guard against other border states of the Holy Roman Empire.

The three European powers, the Habsburgs, France and Britain, had their every move being watched by people, so such a large-scale military operation could not be completely concealed.

The three countries also deliberately did not act covertly, but allowed the news to spread quickly, because their main purpose was deterrence.

The Habsburgs' purpose was clear, and the action against Bavaria four years ago began again.

The northern states of the Holy Rai soon fell into panic.

The most excited people were first the Duke of Zweibrücken, who was directly involved, and then the monarchs of major states such as Prussia and Saxony.

The other small states are in a state of panic, watching the wind direction, and if someone takes the lead to resist, they will follow.

However, most of them did not have enough confidence to take the lead in fighting against the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Especially now with the participation of France, Britain and Ming Dynasty.

After learning of the Ming Dynasty's territory exchange plan, King Frederick II of Prussia began to assemble his troops in advance.

Frederick had already thought of the places that the Ming Dynasty might exchange, one was the northern part of Hanover, and the other was the Habsburg's Southern Netherlands.

No matter how the exchange is carried out, it may affect the balance in the German region and cannot be tolerated or supported.

Frederick immediately sent people to contact Saxony and other states, and at the same time sent people to Russia to meet with Tsar Catherine to discuss response plans in advance.

Frederick thought at the time that when the Ming Dynasty was ready to trade with any state, he would win over other states to oppose and boycott.

What no one expected was that the Ming Dynasty actually won over Britain, France and the Habsburgs.

The key point is that the transaction procedures of all parties were handled on the North American continent, and there were no large-scale talks on the European continent.

Then all parties began to mobilize troops and take action.

The only ally Prussia could find was Russia, and Russia had formed an alliance with the Habsburgs against the Ottoman Empire.

As long as the Habsburgs do not annex Saxony and do not directly dismember Prussia, Russia will most likely not interfere directly and will at most ask the Habsburgs to exercise restraint.

At the same time, many German states had a very bad impression of Russia and did not want Russia to directly interfere in the affairs of the German region.

King Frederick, who was already 71 years old, felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.

But they could only cheer themselves up, reorganize the army and prepare for a possible war, while contacting other German states.

At the same time, envoys were arranged to go to Vienna, Paris and London.

Habsburg monarch Joseph II received the Prussian envoy very readily.

Prussian envoys protested to Joseph II, warning him that he was undermining the order of the Holy Roman Empire and Germany.

Joseph II didn't care about the Holy Roman Empire at all, and now he stated his purpose very directly.

"I am only exchanging territories with the Elector Palatinate, which is in accordance with the rules of the Holy Roman Empire.

“It was the irrelevant states, led by Prussia, that deliberately opposed and interfered with the freedom of the Habsburgs and the Palatinate, forcing them to seek help from France, Britain, and the Ming Dynasty to maintain order.

"The Habsburgs have no other goals, will not interfere in the affairs of other states, will not interfere in the affairs of Prussia, and have no intention of becoming an enemy of Prussia.

"We hope that His Majesty Frederick can remain calm and not react too strongly to things that have nothing to do with Prussia, which would affect the stability of the Holy Roman Empire." The envoys sent by Prussia to Paris and London were mainly to question and remind the monarchs of Britain and France that strengthening the Habsburgs would not do them any good.

It would also be of no benefit to them to let the Ming Dynasty interfere in European affairs.

King George III of England was quite helpless. In order to obtain the forest resources in Canada and to prevent Britain from being isolated from Europe, he had to take on this job.

The UK needs to take a breather now, ensure its own security and stability, and then consider the big issues of the European situation later.

Louis XVI felt that he had benefited from it and acquired several sugar islands in Central America.

However, neither monarch explained to the envoys why. They just said that they would seriously consider Prussia's reminder and then sent them away.

While envoys from all parties were delivering messages in Europe, the Habsburgs took over Bavaria step by step.

The local feudal lords in Bavaria were very resentful, and the widow of the former king of Bavaria was even more angry, but they could not find anyone who could directly confront the Habsburgs.

The whole of central Europe fell into an extremely tense state, and it felt that a war might break out again at any time.

In this depressing atmosphere, the first people to be unable to bear it were the Dutch.

Because the Ming Dynasty slapped the Netherlands in the face.

Last year, Liu Quanzhi visited the Netherlands and issued a very direct threat to the Dutch.

It is suggested that the Netherlands invite King Wu of the Ming Dynasty to be the King of the Netherlands.

The Dutch government and parliamentarians claimed at the time that they would visit Zhu Jianxuan and discuss future cooperation plans.

But after Liu Quanzhi left, the Dutch did not take any action.

I have entered a state of living one day at a time.

So on March 10, the 37th year of Xianning, Qin Nanxing led the Ming fleet to Europe and deliberately broke into the mouth of the Scheldt River in southern Netherlands.

The intention was to cross the estuary waters belonging to the Netherlands and sail upstream to the port of Antwerp in the southern Netherlands.

The Port of Antwerp, located deep in the Scheldt estuary between the Netherlands and Belgium, is a natural estuary port.

When the Age of Discovery arrived, Antwerp became the largest city in western Europe.

By the mid-sixteenth century, the city's population exceeded 100,000.

But it declined after the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War.

During the Eighty Years' War, tens of thousands of people fled the city and sought refuge in Amsterdam in the north.

The key point is that at the end of the Eighty Years' War, Antwerp was suppressed and occupied by Spain and was unable to become independent along with the Netherlands in the north.

The Treaty of Westphalia and the Peace of Münster signed after the war stipulated that:
Antwerp still belonged to Spain, but the land on both sides of the Scheldt estuary belonged to the Netherlands, and merchant ships were prohibited from entering the Scheldt estuary.

Antwerp, an excellent port in the lowlands, had to be abandoned because the river mouths belonged to different countries.

There are only about 50,000 people left in the city of Antwerp.

Zhu Jianxuan judged that if the Ming Dynasty continued to force the Netherlands to submit alone after the territorial exchange agreement was completed, it would further increase the tension among the surrounding European countries.

Now the attention of all countries is on more prominent places such as the Habsburgs, Bavaria and Prussia.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty pretended to be unfamiliar with the rules of local waters and broke into the area where the Netherlands restricted the navigation of ships from other countries. It had the opportunity to force the Netherlands to take the initiative to express its position now.

This may have a slightly smaller impact.

Or join the Prussian side and be beaten up along with them.

Either lift the restrictions on the Scheldt estuary and allow the Ming people to restore the port of Antwerp.

Or simply invite Zhu Jianxuan to be king.

The sudden appearance of the Ming fleet surprised the local Dutch.

The Netherlands had a garrison in Middelburg at the mouth of the Scheldt River, but the garrison did not dare to open fire directly.

They could only try to communicate with the Ming fleet, reminding them that the Dutch inland river ahead was prohibited from passage, and asking them not to continue entering.

At the same time, the news was quickly sent to The Hague.

King William V of the Netherlands knew the current situation in Europe and Germany, and almost fainted on the spot when he received the news from Middelburg.

William V thought that the Ming Dynasty and its allies were attacking the Netherlands.

In fact, this was done by the Ming Dynasty itself, and the British did not interfere in the affairs of the Netherlands at all.

France will not allow Britain to interfere on its doorstep.

The Dutch ruler hesitated for a while and then arranged for two groups of envoys to go out.

Go to the Ming army to negotiate and observe the situation along the way, and avoid direct conflict with the Ming as much as possible.

Go all the way to North America to try to negotiate with the King Wu of the Ming Dynasty.

William V had no intention of cooperating with Prussia and other German states.

When the Netherlands became independent, it actually separated from the Holy Roman Empire.

The key point is that now the monsters such as Ming Dynasty, France, Britain and Habsburg have stood together, and they are purely adding fuel to the fire for Ming Dynasty by seeking cooperation with those small German states.

If he takes the initiative to discuss the direction of cooperation with the Ming Dynasty now, perhaps he can still retain as many benefits and actual power as possible.

If we are defeated on the battlefield, we will not even be qualified to negotiate.

(End of this chapter)