Southern Ming, my destiny is too abstract

Chapter 54: 2000 Wen is greater than 3000 Lis
"You actually fought in the Thirty Years' War?"

Zhu Cixuan looked at his commander of the Shenji Camp, the Portuguese mercenary Midrigadan, in surprise.

The mercenaries of the Shenji Camp and the slaves of Tianzhu Village, after the pacification of Xiahongsha.

Most of them took the looted property and the deportation money issued by Zhu Cixuan and boarded merchant ships to the Portuguese colony of Goa, India.

Fifty years ago, Bolido occupied the Hongsha Shalian separatist regime and married the niece of the Governor of Goa. The main force under his command was the Portuguese and the mixed-race children of Portuguese and Indians.

Portugal is a small country with a small population, which is very different from maritime colonization countries such as Spain.

During its heyday, in order to maintain a long defense line, the Portuguese were encouraged to marry and have children with colonial people, thereby cultivating a mixed-race class that could serve the colonies and join the colonial army.

Most of the people in Tianzhu Village are descendants of these people, so after the envoy of the Governor of Goa arrived, they all asked to return to Goa.

But the Shenjiying was not disbanded because of this.

Mangbai exhausted the savings of the Toungoo royal family for nearly a hundred years, purchased a large number of firearms, and recruited two thousand mercenaries.

These all became Zhu Cixuan's spoils of war after the Tonggu fire.

After Midrigadan wanted to stay and continue fighting, he selected mercenary captives and some Nanyang Han people to re-form a stronger Shenjiying.

Midan replied, "Your Highness, the religious wars in Europe are not over yet, so I came to the East to seek a way out."

The Thirty Years' War was a religious war between Protestantism and Catholicism, mixed with the feud between the Habsburg family and the Holy Roman Empire.

That is why the Dutch do not dare to get involved in religious differences.

Midan glanced at Zhu Cixuan and said in awe:

"The prince had just been baptized as a Catholic in Guangdong Province, and the war in Europe had just ended."

What a coincidence!

He fought several battles with the Crown Prince of Ming and found his skills incredible and miraculous.

I have never seen a war fought like this, a siege between 10,000 and 100,000 people, and they won by coincidence.

The people of Hongsha believed that they were blessed by gods and Buddhas, while the mercenaries believed that they were chosen by God.

This is also one of the reasons why Midan and some mercenaries continue to stay after earning enough money.

Zhu Cixuan asked, "Didn't your mercenaries serve in the Thirty Years' War in Europe?"

"Why is it useless? Apart from half of the kingdom's standing army, all other countries rely on mercenaries to supplement their combat forces."

Midan explains in detail.

The total mobilization of troops across Europe during the Thirty Years' War reached one million, half of whom were from the Holy Roman Empire.

After the wars of the past decade or so, the military and population had suffered heavy losses, and mercenaries became an important supplement to the military resources of various countries.

"The war isn't over yet, so why are you in Macau?"

Midan sighed and said, "There's no money left. After more than 20 years of fighting, all countries have little money left."

"In 1640, when I was still a minor, I joined the Restoration Movement with those noble landowners to expel the Spanish Governor, the Duke of Braganza, and to make Portugal independent."

"Spain is too strong. During the battle, the nobles let us poor people rush to the front. I followed our company commander to Shinra and became a mercenary."

"Even Spain went bankrupt three times, and the Habsburgs were even more broke. They didn't pay us commissions and owed each mercenary 100 ligers. We robbed a town and then scattered to the sea to serve as guards for merchant ships."

Zhu Cixuan was a little stunned. He thought that after the military reforms in Europe, all the armies should be regular armies.

This style is no different from that of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

"When I was a child, I heard that the Chinese emperor was recruiting Westerners to train the army, so I went to Macau."

Training the army? Zhu Cixuan pondered.

It was probably because Emperor Chongzhen listened to Xu Guangqi purchasing artillery from Macau and asked some mercenaries to operate and train them.

"When I arrived, General Li was welcoming the Emperor to Zhaoqing, and I happened to catch your baptism ceremony, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Zhu Cixuan was puzzled: "My father once recruited 300 Portuguese mercenaries from Macau, and you didn't come?"

Midan said in a low voice, "The money the emperor gives is too little. Each person only gets 100 taels of silver per year."

"As long as there's a war in Europe, there are 10 leagues a day, which is about five taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty."

"And the Tatars are so powerful, it's not worth going to war for that little money."

“Only the Portuguese who have lived in Macau for a long time are willing to go because of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s submission to God.”

"There weren't many wars in Hongsavadi, and the king gave me five hundred taels every year, so I went to Ava."

What a luxury! Five hundred taels of silver is enough for the Ming Dynasty to support twenty soldiers.

It can also be said that it is great value for money.

Without the thousands of taels spent every year, without mercenaries and artillery, Bai Wenxuan would have captured the city of Ava last year.

Of course, the serfdom-based Hongsha royal family had a lot of money.

A Pegu king in Lower Hongsa once spent the same weight of gold as his queen to decorate the golden top of the pagoda.

If the Buddha statues in the temple were not difficult to move and Mangbai had not spent all his money on the war, Zhu Cixuan would have only earned 20 taels of gold after pacifying Hongsha.

As for Yongli Zhu Youlang, it was difficult for him, the emperor who had been on the run, to grit his teeth and pay 30,000 taels of silver to hire the Portuguese more than ten years ago.

Mi Dan saw that Zhu Cixuan was lost in thought and misunderstood him.

"Your Highness, although the daily wages of mercenaries in Europe are high, they are not worth much."

"Spain brings back 200,000 pounds of silver from the Americas every year. Silver is not worth as much in Europe as it is in the East."

"It also drives up prices. A Portuguese worker earning 3000 lis in the city might not have the same purchasing power as a Han Chinese worker in Macau earning 2000 wen a month."

"We have tithes and king taxes, but we might not be able to get that much."

"After the war, many mercenaries came to the East because prices were cheaper here."

Midan paused and said, "If you buy some ivory and porcelain and resell it in Europe, you can make several times the profit. Many people do this for a few years and save enough money."

"Just go back home, make some money, buy some land, and become a small landlord."

I have an inequality.

You pay taxes in Europe but not in the East, right?

Zhu Cixuan did not comment and asked:
"What do you think of the armies of the European powers, the Ming Dynasty, and even the Qing Dynasty?"

Midan spoke frankly, shaking his head and then nodding:
"When I was in eastern Guangdong, I felt that the Chinese army was similar to the Cossack pioneers of Tsarist Russia."

"But in Hongshawadi, after seeing the armies of Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan, I felt they could reach the level of the European powers."

"I expect the Tatars to be able to drive them to the Hongsha border. I think they must be the top European forces."

Midan continued, "Your Highness, there's actually no need to worry too much about borrowing troops from Europe."

"The Emperor sent Master Chen to Rome because he was desperate and had his blood cut."

"I heard that Wu Sangui in Yunnan and Yunnan has 100,000 elite troops. If we really want to fight head-on, Europe will have to deploy at least 50,000."

"Can they come? They can't. We simply don't have the logistical capacity to deliver them."

"They are now relying on mercenaries to build their armies, and they don't even have the money to pay commissions."

"Unless the Tatars really march westward, and then the Yellow Peril comes, and the European nations form a Holy Alliance."

Isn’t it said that the European armies that have undergone military reforms are very powerful?

We are short of both money and soldiers. How come it is the same as our Ming Dynasty?

Zhu Cixuan frowned: "Don't you have a spearman to form a phalanx to deal with the cavalry?"

Didn’t the previous Ming Dynasty novels defeat the Eighth Period of Manchuria by using the European phalanx and military system?

Ma Bao, who had been listening for a long time, couldn't help but say, "Your Highness, the Eight Banners have cannons and muskets."

With continuous artillery fire, any neat square formation will be broken up.

"There are also musketeers and artillery in the phalanx."

Zhu Cixuan roughly described the European phalanx tactics according to his memory.

Midan added some details on the side.

Ma Bao also frowned: "This is not much different from the chariot camp battle formation, right?"

"Your Highness, the Eastern Tartars have a lot of firearms. I heard from an old Ming border soldier that when they fight the Eastern Tartars, they always fire cannons first and then look for an opportunity to use swords."

"If we really use this tactic, we can resist the cavalry charge and kill with firearms, but the Eastern Tartars will also use firearms to counter, and then the cavalry will cut off the logistics and besiege and harass the infantry. What should we do?"

Well, since I have a system, I won’t think about these technological tactics.

If Europe was really that powerful in the 17th century, it would have forced the Qing Dynasty to pay compensation in advance.

Zhu Cixuan waved his hand and looked towards the eight cities of Madu, whose outlines could already be seen.

(End of this chapter)