Thanks to the emergence of steam engines and their continuous improvement, which are becoming more and more powerful, the ironclad ships of the Ming Dynasty and the European Union are getting faster and faster. In the past, sail warships followed the ocean currents and trade winds and took several months to cross the Pacific. But now the ironclad ships of the Ming Dynasty

It only takes more than a month to cross the Pacific at cruising speed (in the 21st century, it usually only takes half a month for civilian ships to depart from Chinese ports and sail to the west of South America).

The reason why the Battle of Bogota ended in December 1642, but Sun Chuanting, Zhu Ciyi and others did not return home until April of the following year was of course because there were too many things to deal with after the war.

However, Raimondo, the defeated general, did not have to be so troublesome. On December 20, a communication ship brought back to Europe at maximum speed the bad news that Spain was about to completely lose South America and that North America was also in danger.

In the year 1642, although there was no war in Europe, the tone of war propaganda under the EU was getting higher and higher. Countless European teenagers were enrolled in reserves and underwent varying degrees of military training: to fight against the evil in the East.

The yellow race is launching the ultimate holy war.

Taking advantage of this general trend, Spain has gained deeper control over the countries in the alliance. So originally this year, Philip was very happy. However, after the news came from America...

Needless to say, the queen's heart-rending wails and the chaos in the palace. As a father, Philip was naturally extremely heartbroken after losing his eldest son. As a king, he felt more pain than his father.

The first is the loss of 150,000 troops. Although Raimondo also stated in the report that there are a large number of prisoners among these 150,000 people, and there is still the possibility of being ransomed. But in any case, the losses are almost

Castilian! This makes Philip heartbroken!

Now the population controlled by Spain through the EU has steadily exceeded 200 million after acquiring India. But how many are the core and most reliable Castilians? I am very sorry, because the base in the early years was too small. So this

Over the past thirty years, Philippe has focused Europe's nutrition efforts on caring for the Castilian people, allocating high maternity subsidies to Castilian women. Coupled with the advancement of medicine, he has also tried to reduce the number of Castilian people in the EU Army as much as possible.

The proportion of the population... and so on, by 1642, the entire Castilian ethnic group was only about 13 million. Less than 10% of the total population controlled by Spain!

Among these 13 million Castilians, although the entire group is relatively young and the proportion of elderly people is very small. However, the number of men between the ages of 18 and 30 who are suitable for military service is only about 2 million. With such a small base, in South America, all of a sudden

How can you not feel pain after losing hundreds of thousands of young men?

In addition to the massive losses in the population of the core ethnic groups, the fall of South America also caused huge losses in resources.

Peruvian silver, Colombian gold, Chilean copper mines and saltpeter, as well as the large amounts of meat and milk powder in the Pampas that are destined to be lost! There are also a large number of rubber plantations that have formed an industrial scale throughout South America!

In this era, in mainland Europe, the Ruhr has enough coal, and Sweden has a lot of iron. In the future, Romania, Libya, and West Africa will all be able to provide a considerable amount of oil. But only gold, silver, rubber, and saltpeter, Europe's output

Very little or even none at all. It must rely on supplies from South America. Therefore, the loss of South America will also greatly harm Spain in terms of resources.

Moreover, in this era, South America was more developed than North America. In other words, Spain's American colonies controlled nearly 10 million people in their heyday, but at least 6 million of them were in South America. Now South America has lost

Now, the balance, which was already at a disadvantage in terms of population, has tilted even more sharply. How can this make Philip not feel anxious?

In addition, if the news of the loss of South America spreads, Spain's prestige within the EU will also be greatly affected - the high-profile words shouted out some time ago will in turn cause greater harm to the country...

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I have secretly ordered the Intelligence Bureau to monitor all ports in the Atlantic and strictly control the sources of information."

"It's useless." He shook his head in pain, and Philip said: "My Prime Minister, as you know, the iron-hulled steamships and wooden sailboats that travel between the two sides of the Atlantic are probably no less than ten thousand in total.

There are more than 30 ports on the Atlantic coast in Europe alone. With such frequent personnel exchanges, news cannot be blocked."

"That……"

"Let it be disclosed truthfully. I will personally draft a speech later and publish it together with the news of the failure of the Battle of Bogotá."

"Your Majesty, you have worked really hard."

"If you want to wear a crown, you must first bear its weight. This is what a king must do. However, my prime minister, you will have a lot of work to do next."

"Please give me your orders, Your Majesty."

"First of all, I would like to inform you of the military arrangements. We cannot afford to lose South America and must get it back. Moreover, Raimundo in Panama also needs rescue. Therefore, I have just tasked Durunni to organize five Cass immediately.

Master Ti set off for Mexico."

"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being frank. The Chinese, who are good at demagoguery, have already mobilized all the Indians in South America. Pure military means can only achieve very limited results. Moreover, the strength of the five divisions is a bit missing.

?”

"You are right, so next I will make appropriate political concessions to the native white people, mixed-race people and even Indians in the Americas. For example, I will allow the Indians to retain part of the land they have lived on for generations. As long as they pay taxes on time,

Inviolability. Allow native-born whites and mixed-race people to hold official positions in various governorships. Even if they become governors? That's fine! Allow black slaves to regain their freedom and get a small piece of land after serving two years... I am gradually conceiving these plans.

When the time comes, please come and work with me to perfect it.”

"I deeply admire your wisdom and am very happy to serve you."

"As for the small number of troops in the five divisions you just mentioned, well, this is indeed a problem. But, my Prime Minister, I don't want us Castilians to bear too many casualties. You know, last year, we fought for

To allow more Castilian men to go home and have children with their wives, our Spanish Army was abolished. Before the Battle of Bogotá, there were a total of thirty army divisions. After losing ten in the Americas, the mainland had the most

We can only draw five more."

"But Your Majesty, what is the strength of this army?"

"It doesn't matter. I have already sent a telegram to Duke Wallenstein and asked him to form ten divisions for me in Germany."

"I have no doubt about the combat effectiveness of the Germans. In the current agricultural depression across Europe, it is not too difficult to form ten divisions there. But Your Majesty, this will introduce armed forces from outside Spain.

America."

"There is no other way. Germania is now a broken plate with too many small states. The people there don't have much of a national concept. So, relatively speaking, it is best for the Germans to go there.

of."

"Okay, but although the quality of the soldiers in the Germanic region is very high, they are not trained?"

"Yes, that's the problem. These ten divisions take three months to form and three months to train. They will not arrive in America until the second half of this year at the earliest. Before that, my instructions to Dulenni were,

Let him cooperate with Raimundo and hold Mexico first."

"That's all it can do."

"So." Philip sighed heavily: "Even if everything goes well, it will take at least a year to get South America back. In fact, I think it is possible to delay it for three to five years. Therefore,

Faced with the situation that we will not be able to get South America back in a short time, we must respond early."

"Your Majesty." Osvales took out a small book from his document bag and opened it: "Before coming to your place, I have done some work in advance. The first priority we need to solve is rubber. At present, in New

After the fall of the Viceroyalty of Granada, we only have some scattered small-scale rubber plantations on some islands in the southern Caribbean. This amount of output cannot guarantee the increasing demand for rubber across Europe and the opening of new plantations.

It’s a top priority.”

"Where are you going to plant your new plantation?"

"Judging from the territory currently directly controlled by our country, there is no suitable one. If we want to open up new plantations on a large scale, we can only do it in Africa."

"Africa, hey, okay, I agree. I authorize you to negotiate with the countries that control the African colonies along the equator through the EU."

"Yes. Your Majesty, the next issue is the sharp decrease in the sources of precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper. I suggest that we take this opportunity to fully issue banknotes in the EU-controlled areas!"

"Is it now fully issuing banknotes?"

"Your Majesty, we already have rich experience in issuing banknotes in India. In fact, we can start to fully implement banknotes in the EU-controlled areas long ago. Now, after our source of precious metals has dropped sharply, there are no new gold, silver, and copper coins put into the market. The currency

Shortage will occur very soon, which will have a huge impact on our economy. Therefore, banknotes must be issued quickly. Moreover, issuing banknotes now has an additional benefit.”

"Well, are you saying that issuing banknotes will effectively ease the flow of our precious metals to China through the Ottomans?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. The abominable Ottomans colluded with our profiteers and smuggled China's silk porcelain tea. The Royal Government and the European Union just had a two-year trade surplus and began to have a deficit again. We issued banknotes and collected gold and silver.

, let’s see how many pieces of paper the other party can accept from us.”

"This matter is too important. I have to convene the EU Council. It's a good idea to take advantage of this opportunity to deal with the rubber issue."

"That's right, Your Majesty. In the end, it's the problem of saltpeter mines. We in Europe produce saltpeter, but the quantity is very small. In the past, everyone used flintlock guns, so it didn't matter much, but after the emergence of machine guns... Now that I'm here with you

My men have done a lot of work before. They made two suggestions. First, start a saltpeter accumulation campaign across Europe. Second, negotiate with the Ottomans and let them provide us with saltpeter."

"Othman?"
Chapter completed!