open sea

Chapter 1392 Invitation

Yermak was not the only one who was frightened by firecrackers.

Far away in the other corner of the world, the English, the suppliers of the Tsar's fine equipment, were also terrified by firecrackers.

Years ago, according to Worthingham's intelligence, England, which was at war with the Great Ming's Eastern Expeditionary Force, became even more jittery. In order to avoid further stimulating the Ming army stationed in Devonshire, the army has been gathering, but has never dared to attack.

The reason why they did not dare to attack was due to the actions of the Ming army in the English Channel. The two six-armed fleets that could compete with first-class warships frequently dispatched, but the warships that avoided them preferred to intercept merchant ships. Russia's trade route.

The lack of finances in England made them unable to open up two fronts. They could only disband part of the army and recruit pirates to protect the route and attack the Ming fleet that appeared in the strait.

But this seems to have cost the kingdom even more grievously.

In half a year, the Ming fleet followed the pirate ship twice and broke through the Dover port defenses. Although they failed to break through the port castle, they caused great damage in areas where the port defense guns could not reach.

Breaking through the port for the first time, [-] Ming troops landed, and after failing to siege the castle, collected the corpses and plundered villages and towns, farmland, monasteries, livestock, and property within a radius of twenty miles.

Those that could be taken away were taken away, and those that could not be taken away were burned or even buried in the ground. The black smoke of the fire that could be seen everywhere burned for a full twelve days. The century-old business around the port was destroyed once, and twelve armed merchant ships were boarded by pirates. .

The second time they broke through the port, the defenders and pirates had learned a lot. Relying on castles and towns, they blocked the streets, intending to avoid the advantage of the Ming army in shooting battles and engage in street fighting with them.

Unexpectedly, the Ming army used artillery to blast through the houses on both sides of the street, cleared the way with axes, and entered through the houses.

I didn't meet them from the beginning to the end.

The court didn't even want to consider the rebellion in Plymouth or even Devon, which was still far from London, and Dover was only two hundred miles away from London. With broken defenses, they could enter the city of London in three days.

But they are really at a loss. They want money but no money, no army no army, no ships if they want, even the pirate ships that can be hired are almost wiped out by the two six-armed fleets, and there is no way to deal with the endless sea attacks.

I have no choice here, so I can only provoke the idiot. The idiot in the eyes of the minister of intelligence, Walsingham, is the king of France, hey.

Generally speaking, my enemy's enemy is my friend.

France was also deeply harassed by the Ming army, the difference was that England's confidant was called Ying Ming, and France's number one enemy was called Chen Jiujing.

In the eyes of England, they are the same and should be united. The English Channel is also the Channel of Calais in France, which is more than 400 miles away from Paris.

Some time ago, Catherine wrote to Elizabeth, saying that in order to deal with the common enemy, they should form a coalition army to deal with Chen Jiujing.

It's a pity that England didn't know Ying Ming at that time, so they were not interested.

But now that they were interested, the envoys sent to Paris were turned away, and Catherine and Hun Lao San were no longer interested in the Ming army.

Worthingham's intelligence agents made many inquiries before they got a piece of news that shocked them-the French Valois royal family and Chen Jiujing were negotiating peace.

Walsingham's forehead felt hot when he read the letter, and he couldn't figure out why things would proceed according to this situation: Aren't Chen Jiujing and Hum Lao Si good brothers? Didn't they agree to fight for the Protestantism? Why did they suddenly turn around and negotiate peace with the Valois royal family?
As Worthingham's intelligence officers intercepted seven correspondences between the Pope and the King of France over half a year, everything became clear to England in the eyes of England, but the truth sent chills down their spines.

Chen Mu, a minister of the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Military Mansion, got mixed up with the Roman priest Ge Laoqi at some point, mediating with Paris Hum and Baishan City Chen Jiujing.

In his letter, Gregory VII mentioned the strategic situation between the two sides. After Chen Jiujing's Ming army captured Poitiers, it once advanced to the Loire River with great force, further threatening Nantes, a commercial city.

The French royal family asked Chen Jiujing to retreat to the south and return it to Poitier. The French King Hun Laosan considered retaining Chen Jiujing's jurisdiction over Baishan City, and granted him the French Duke of Baishan, including the southwestern part of Aquitaine, the hometown of Bordeaux, as a fiefdom.

Chen Jiujing had no objection to all of this, whether it was withdrawing troops to the south, returning Poitiers, or being canonized. His letter was sent to the French court by Roman priests. There were only two sentences on it, and a long Rope and two Spanish half taels.

Under the orders of Minister Dongyang, I negotiated with you and other good students, and asked me to withdraw the troops. The rope is one Ming li long, and two silver coins are one Ming and two heavy. '

'Give me 5000 taels of gold or 4 taels of silver, and my troops will retreat for one mile, and 2000 million taels of silver will be sent to Baishan City. I will immediately lead the troops on board and return to the Dongyang Army Mansion, and never come to France again. '

Needless to say, the English court was full of envy when they read the first few letters exchanged between the two sides, and saw the two sides asking for a lot of money to pay back the money.

If the same asking price is placed in front of the English court, they will not even pay back the price, so why pay it back? 2000 million taels of silver is the ten-year output of the Potosi silver mine. How can the English court have so much money, even a fraction is not enough.

France actually had the courage to bargain!

After discussing and discussing in several letters, the Valois royal family paid 80 taels of indemnity in silver at one time in exchange for the frontline troops of the Chen Jiujing Department retreating [-] miles from the Loire River and no longer threatening Nantes. The two sides ceased fighting and no longer attacked each other.

And in the next five years, he will pay Chen Jiujing a total of 200 million taels of silver as a ransom for Poitiers, Rochefort and other places. In the end, the two sides will use Angoulême as the boundary.

At the same time, King Hun Laosan sent envoys to Beijing to pay tribute to Beijing, and the emperor sent envoys to Baishan City to canonize and issue imperial edicts to the King of France.

In order to maintain face, the King of France also canonized Chen Jiujing as the Duke of Baishan, and his territory is the southern land of Angoulême. This territory still belongs to France in name, but the appointment of officials, tax rates, and military garrisons are all in charge of Ming Dynasty.

However, Chen Jiujing, the Duke of Baishan, still needs to pay 4000 taels of silver to the Valois royal family every year in normal times. This number will increase to 8000 taels when France encounters a war. He can also choose to send troops to perform military service to offset the tax.

The contract looks... as if the Valois royal family intends to earn the ransom money back in 700 years.

Now that all the terms have been negotiated, the two sides are still arguing about the ritual system when Chen Jiujing went to Paris to accept the canonization. The Karmapa thinks that he has already spent so much money. What happened to you, Chen Jiujing, kneeling in my court?
Chen Jiujing said that if you want me to kneel down, you can't do it, unless you give another 5 taels of gold to pad under my knees.

So this matter will not be able to successfully sign an agreement for a while, but there is a small matter that Gregory inadvertently mentioned in the letter, which even attracted England's attention more than Chen Jiujing's acceptance of the canonization.

Gregory is calling on the King of France to send envoys to Havana as a member of the Catholic world for Chen Mu to participate in the first world conference hosted by the Minister of the Ming Dynasty.

The Congress of Nations?

England did not receive an invitation!

(End of this chapter)