open sea

Chapter 1516 Shadow
No one can imagine what the Netherlands is like today, the Netherlands not under Spanish rule.

Neither can Yang Ce.

An Donghai went back to report to Little Palma that Yang Ce wanted to ask for three towns in the Netherlands as a reward for dispatching troops, and he never returned.

I think it's because Palma Jr. can't make the decision on this matter, and he can only make a decision by telling Philip who is far away in Lisbon.

The nobles and merchants of the Netherlands continued to be imprisoned, comfortably fed by the pirates for two meals a day, eagerly awaiting Yang Ce's decision.

Yang Ce is not in a hurry.

Not only was he not in a hurry, but he was also quite leisurely and elegant, letting his subordinates go out to inquire, and looked at this unique country with curious eyes.

Among the hundreds of elite Han pirates, those Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian pirates were released from The Hague by Yang Ce, without leaving them any important missions and allowing them to do anything on this land.

These people are Yang Ce's old subordinates. Relatively speaking, they are the group of Han pirates with better integrity and professional ethics. Most of them can write.

Yang Ce just asked them to visit as much as possible to see what the Netherlands is like, and to record the customs.

It's really hard to live, even if you join the army of either side to find some work, you are allowed.

Yang Ce made an agreement with them that no matter what happened, even if Yang Ce needed to leave The Hague or even the Netherlands due to military transfers, someone would be there to meet them in the first ten days of every two months.

This is an extremely risky decision, Yang Ce knows that the Netherlands today is not a normal place.

It is not easy for Yang Ce or anyone who grew up in any country in this era to understand the current political system in the Netherlands.

Maybe the Mongols understand it better. Anyway, Yang Ce understands how the Dutch regime works. The merchants in the dungeon talked for a long time but he couldn't figure it out. In the end, his Turkic pirate guards explained it to him.

"Seven big tribes who live in the city and don't graze form the Netherlands, and when they encounter problems, they hold a Kuritai meeting."

"Every big tribe has many small tribes. These small tribes listen to themselves and do whatever they want, but they are all the Netherlands."

In this way, Yang Ce imagined the map of the Netherlands in his mind as a grassland, and each Mongolian tribe as a town, which is much more understandable.

They called themselves Protestants, but in fact there were no churches in every town.

Every town that broke away from Spanish rule has at least three kinds of armed forces, the archer troops and town militia recruited and hired by various industry workshop owners named guilt, and the village peasant guards scattered in the countryside.

Catholic lands, properties were confiscated and auctioned off in almost every town, and archers and militias hunted for Spanish spies, Catholic monks and executed them.

The peasant guards destroyed the monasteries and the territories of the nobles who supported the Spanish in the outskirts and seized the land.

The decrees of different towns are different, but they all go to the same goal, and they are doing everything possible to deal with the local nobles and Catholic monks.

"The general thinks that the Netherlands will lose to Spain?"

Yang Jizhong knew that the Dutch merchants actually wanted Yang Ce to be their governor, and even driving away the Spaniards as king was not a problem, so he almost burst out laughing.

In the past in the Ming Dynasty, there was no one who would invite the king from outside even in thousands of years of books.

Yang Ce shook his head: "Spain is very difficult to win. Even if they win, Philip may not be able to live until then."

"Why is this? Since Mingxi trade, the king of Shunyi in the west is fat and rich." Yang Jizhong said, pointing back with his thumb: "Little Palma is three hundred miles away from here. Gran's legion will arrive soon, and the subordinates think they won't last long."

Yang Ce took a picture at random, and sketched it on the spot: "People from all over the Netherlands are raising troops, but they are different from each other, and the strength is uneven. What's more, the powerful troops of the Western Kingdom are good at battle. Don't care where the Netherlands hired mercenaries. , it is very difficult to defeat them in battle.”

"Their troops in each city are fighting for themselves, and the orders are not uniform. Only a [-] battalion of the Western Kingdom can defeat their laboriously assembled troops."

He was analyzing Yang Jizhong, but he was also clarifying his thoughts, saying: "But it is useless to be powerful in battle. I thought about it, as long as there is no flag of the Ming Fleet in the strait, the Francians will be the first to refuse."

Geographically, although France is unwilling to bear the consequences of directly intervening in the Netherlands, they also will not want Spain to clean up the Netherlands... Every fool knows that once the affairs of the Netherlands are over, Philip's next step will be sure. Just clean up France.

Things that make people stumble behind are indispensable.

"Without sea transportation, according to the logistics capabilities of the Spanish Legion, the troops will follow the small merchants wherever they go. Without the troops to protect these people, what will we do? There are small groups of rebels everywhere. This village is a submissive citizen today, and a large army tomorrow. If you leave, you will be a rebel."

"Philip has committed public outrage and lost the support of the people. His legion was able to conquer cities in the Netherlands one after another, but he couldn't even walk three hundred miles. There are more than 200 million people. Can he kill them all? He can't finish them."

"Several battles in half a year killed 2 people, but not many were born. The more you kill, the greater the hatred. Didn't you find that our scouts reported that the surrounding villages and towns didn't even have a Buddhist monk temple in the past two days?"

At this point, Yang Ce asserted: "If the Oriental Army and we do not intervene in this war, the Spaniards will not win within three years."

In fact, it was mainly the Eastern Military Government. As long as the Eastern Military Government wanted to influence the war, the Yilan garrison used Liujia ships to clear the way for the Spanish fleet, and even ordered Chen Jiujing, the Duke of Baishan, to directly lead the Spaniards through the strait.

No matter how unwilling the French are, they can only let the Spanish fleet pass.

They couldn't deal with either of them, let alone the two joined forces. At that time, the third brother could only pretend to be an ostrich and pray that Chen Jiujing didn't see him.

Humph, the third child can't even control the Guiss in his own country, let alone Chen Jiujing.

There is no way, France is poor, when Chen Jiujing was canonized and asked Xiao Jiu to kneel for him, Xiao Jiu was unwilling to live or die, and finally said that it was easy to kneel, and 5 taels of gold was used to pad his knees, so the third child dared not say a word.

Who knew that Chen Jiujing said later that either you kneel down for me, and the army retreated forty miles and would not ask you for money, and 5 taels of gold would be exempted.

This is not the most uncomfortable thing, what regrets the third brother the most is that he really discussed the 5 taels of gold with the courtiers.

Chen Jiujing from Daming has been the biggest psychological shadow of the third child in his life.

"If you can't win for three years, what does the general mean...to agree to the Dutch?"

Yang Ce waved his hand decisively: "Promise them what to do. I don't want the three cities in Spain. When the ship is repaired, let's go to Siwei first. There are iron, gunpowder, and boat wood. Where else is there in this world?" We can't go?"

"Let them fight here first, and see what the Eastern Army thinks."

(End of this chapter)