open sea

Chapter 1162 Inevitable
To gather more aid, Portugal's exiled King Antonio landed in England, hoping to get help from England's new navy.

It's just that at this moment, Elizabeth, who is devastated, has no choice.

Because Earl Grey, Governor of Ireland, did not want to appear too incompetent, the English royal family did not know about the war in Ireland until this year. Sean O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who had surrendered to the English royal family in the past, changed his name to Zhu Xiaoen, and claimed to be the King of Allan, who led his powerful army to set foot on the battlefield. He flattened the north and drove the nobles who still surrendered to England to flee to Dublin.

The news of the repeated defeats on the frontline spread with the remnants of the defeated soldiers and the bandits and robbers fleeing in the forest, and the nobles from all over the place rose up.

Thanks to the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, legends about King Alan spread from south to north on the island. People said that when an army advances with the dragon flag high, they will be invincible.

In just one month, three rebellions started by the southern Celtic nobles reached the suburbs of Dublin. Compared with England's knights and elite retinues, their army was vulnerable, but the defenders were exhausted.

The situation became increasingly dire for the Chief Secretary of British Ireland.

When the parliamentary nobles in London wanted to settle accounts with merchants from Ming Dynasty, they had already disappeared without a trace with the iron ore they bought at a high price. On the contrary, several mines in Alan Guotailong started construction in full swing.

Although Ailan King Zhu Xiaoen wanted to imitate the system of the three major arms bureaus of the Ming Dynasty to form a state-owned weapons factory, but the iron mines in the Ailan Kingdom were scarce, but there were a lot of copper mines. Unable to open their own factory.

Even so, seven ironworks for smelting copper ingots were established in Donegal County, a seaport village in the west. Merchants from Muye completely occupied this seven-month round-trip route, transporting copper ingots, axes, Spearheads, a few armors, thousands of catties of gunpowder, and sometimes some food.

The large-scale shipping lucky boats have become a symbol of hope here, and each lucky boat can bring weapons to the Kingdom of Alan that can easily arm [-] to [-] farmers and herdsmen.

Compared with the actions of the Eastern Military Government on this land, which had been planned for a long time, the Kingdom of England is slow and careless. Although Drake is lobbying among the people, he is only a maritime merchant leader without a title after all. The English nobles made up their minds to fight to the death for Ireland.

It was a useless land.

When Zhu Xiaoen was fully prepared for the lion to fight the rabbit, England sent three fleets to transport more than [-] nobles and recruited civilians to reinforce Dublin three times in the six months of the tenth year of Wanli. Do anything more.

The result is naturally obvious. Half of these nobles died in six months. They died in the attack to suppress the rebellion of the native nobles in the south... They didn't die in the battle of the regular army, and they couldn't lose in the battle of the regular army.

If the Mongolian army led by Genghis Khan came from the thirteenth century with a complete system, it might be possible to defeat the army of the sixteenth century with the same number of troops by virtue of the comparative advantage of tactics such as cutting off food; The chaotic charging method is more backward than the Norman knights, and how can the southern Irish nobles who used the thirteenth-century mixed-and-match arm defeat the sixteenth-century army?

Only by attacking, attacking when the enemy is relaxed, is it possible to kill the nobles from England.

They are weaker than the English nobles, but more than the English people. Under this kind of offensive, the English nobles can only hold back in the castles around Dublin, watching the letters of help from the north fly back like snowflakes, and then they will send them to the Governor, Earl Gray, to hand over London.

At this juncture, I met Antonio, who had a glimmer of hope for Portugal's return to the country, not to mention how headaches the court had.

On the one hand, England and Portugal have an alliance treaty, and England must send troops for this; on the other hand, it wants to completely tear itself apart from Spain, and there is also assistance from the distant Ming Dynasty.

Whether to send troops or not, Elizabeth has a difficult choice.

As fraught as the newly crowned Queen of England was about Catholicism or Protestantism in a religiously divided country, now that feeling seems to be back.

John Hawkins, the naval financial support officer entrusted by the queen, tried his best to fight, but when the queen asked him whether England's new navy was ready for a big war, Hawkins could only shake his head: "We only have twelve warships over [-] tons , but if the court issues orders to merchants and nobles, I estimate that sixty armed merchant ships can be raised."

"Then why does England still participate in this war? I can send a warship and six armed merchant ships to support Antonio. Don't you think that Antonio will start this war for the restoration of the country?"

Elizabeth, who was wearing a wig, frowned, leaned back, raised her hand holding Makino Cigarettes and said, "I trust you very much, but sending troops will definitely irritate Philip of Habsburg, he is a lunatic, He's going to attack England as hard as he can if he gets the chance and we can't stop him."

"Queen, I quite agree with what you said." John Hawkins nodded in agreement, but immediately stepped forward and said, "But if we dispatch a warship and six merchant ships, won't Philip be irritated? England is rich."

"Philip owns the silver mines in the New World, as well as Daming's trade. In recent years, Daming has sold silk, porcelain, even velvet, woolen cloth, cotton cloth and linen to Spain, as well as Wanli matchlock guns from Daming. Our merchants cannot buy them from Spain. Enough wool, a large number of woolen mills closed down."

"I heard that every year, Spain gets from the Great Eastern Ocean, and Ming calls the Atlantic Ocean the Great Eastern Ocean. Spain makes a lot of profits from Mingxi trade. After annexing Portugal, the domestic shipbuilding industry prospers. Last year, Lisbon had twelve large galleons ashore. They started to build, as well as Spanish warships, those ships were originally intended to deal with Ming Dynasty, they started construction a few years ago, and last year they launched seven warships, all of which exceeded [-] tons."

"Our war with Spain has long been unavoidable, and now try to stimulate them as little as possible, just to delay the war." Hawkins said, spreading his hands: "But what situation could be a better opportunity to send troops than now What? The Portuguese army in exile, France, with Catherine's support, also intending to send troops, and the Dutch Netherlands against Spain, I think."

"The best time to delay the war is now, lobbying France and the Netherlands to send troops with all their strength, defeating the Mingxi United Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, and turning Portugal into a battlefield for multinational competition, so that we can rely on the advantages of the island and stay away from the center of the war. Send them trade in exchange for riches to strengthen your naval power."

"At the same time, if we win, the Irish problem can also be resolved, defeating the Ming army fleet, and then gaining time to wipe out the rebels to cope with the next war."

The cigarette was crushed in Elizabeth's hands. She leaned back again and took a deep breath: "War, is it inevitable?"

"Inevitable."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)