The collapse of Europe's Western Front and the arrival of the Tatar troops in Paris also made the Western European lords headed by Philip II feel a huge threat and pressure.
So even at this time, the Kingdom of France was actually facing collapse. The troops directly under the royal family suffered heavy losses and almost completely lost control of the other lords of the Kingdom of France. However, other countries, especially the Kingdom of Spain, firmly supported the French royal family in holding on to Paris.
All to stop the Tatars!
This is what the Kingdom of Spain and other European countries think!
For this reason, Philip II even gave the French army free weapons and ammunition worth more than millions of Tang yuan, just to rearm the French and then resist the Tatars.
In addition, Philip II did not put all his hopes in France and the defense of Paris.
He had already begun to build Spain's own defense line after the fall of France.
Because France is too flat, and after the Western Front that they had worked so hard to break through was broken through by the Tatars, although Paris is still holding on, it has actually been completely lost in other directions. The Tatar army has marched straight in, even if Paris is still there
Hold on, but the fall of other places and even the rear has become inevitable.
Under such circumstances, Philip II naturally could not expect Paris to hold back the Tatars, nor could he expect the Tatars to stop moving south after capturing France.
For this reason, Philip II supported France to continue its resistance, but this support was only in the hope that the French Kingdom could delay the Tatars for a while.
He will take advantage of this period to build Spain's own defense line.
He followed the advice of Datang's military advisers and gave up the suggestion of establishing a new defense line in France. Instead, he chose to actively shrink and build a new defense line relying on the Pyrenees Mountains.
The difficult terrain of the Pyrenees Mountains is enough to further reduce the heavily defended area. As long as the Spaniards defend the two relatively flat areas on the eastern and western coasts with heavy troops, as well as some mountain passes, they will be able to reduce the number of Tatars.
A hundred thousand troops were turned away.
Philip II called this defense line with a total length of more than 400 kilometers the Great Wall of Spain!
In order to build the Great Wall of Spain, Philip II put a lot of thought into it. Not only did he invest a lot of money in it, but in order to speed up the construction of the defense line, he also used a large number of domestic civilians and purchased a large amount of money from merchants in the Tang Dynasty.
Building materials and supplies.
In addition, a large number of soldiers began to be recruited.
This does not include troops withdrawn from overseas.
Because of the shortage of manpower, Philip II even brought back a large amount of free labor from the American colonies, let them build defense lines, and even armed them as servants.
Later, he also found Datang for help.
But the official request for help from the Tang Dynasty was still the same old saying, saying that the Tang Dynasty never interfered in the internal affairs of the indigenous people, but they refused to provide free assistance.
People have said that if you want weapons and ammunition, you can buy them with money.
No need to talk if you don’t have money.
Loans are not impossible. As long as you can provide sufficient collateral, Datang Royal Bank or several other large banks in Datang will be happy to provide loans.
But the problem is that Spain doesn't have much collateral to offer.
Moreover, Philip II could not really follow the example of the French royal family, which was so shameless as to mortgage all the tax revenue. If the Tang Dynasty had not wanted their territory, they would have mortgaged a large area of territory.
As for those embassy areas along the coast that were sold to the Tang Dynasty, leased ports, etc., these shabby places cost more than a lot of money. Sometimes, in order to please the Tang Dynasty, in order to allow more Tang Dynasty people to come, and thus promote the development of the local economy, many leases
They provide all the ports for free...
The people of the Tang Dynasty generally would not refuse these small places and ports, but at best they existed in the name of embassy areas and leased ports, not serious overseas state capitals.
As for the large areas, sorry, the Tang Dynasty people don’t want them!
In the past few years, the Kingdom of France, in order to resist the Tatars, basically mortgaged everything that could be mortgaged, and nothing was left.
But the Kingdom of Spain does not want to be like them. It has mortgaged everything. Will Spain still be the Spain of the Spanish royal family?
Philip II was suspicious!
Therefore, although the situation was difficult, Philip II did not think of mortgaging the domestic internal tax revenue, but thought of other ways.
Fortunately, there was still a lot of money left from selling the American colonies, and there was also a lot of supplies, some of which were even on the way. With these funds and supplies, Philip II was able to arm more than 300,000 soldiers.
The heavily armed Spanish Army of Tang Dynasty garrisoned the Spanish Great Wall defense line.
But this alone is not enough!
For this reason, Philip II shamelessly contacted his daughter through Tang Dynasty diplomats!
That is, the concubine Elizabeth who entered the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty and gave birth to the nineteenth son of the Holy Emperor.
Philip II did not say that he would let his daughter Elizabeth influence the decision-making of the Tang Dynasty. He was also the ruler of a country, knew the complexity of politics, and was even more aware of the dangers of the court. His daughter Elizabeth has been in the Tang Dynasty for these years, you want to
What you said is very good, but it must be nonsense.
This can be seen from the fact that she had nothing to do after giving birth to only one son. It was not that she could not give birth, nor was it that the Holy Emperor was in poor health, but that the Holy Emperor no longer wanted her to sleep with her.
Although due to the marriage that year, the emperor's nineteenth son was also born, allowing Elizabeth to successfully obtain the title of concubine, but this was already the limit.
Under such circumstances, even if his daughter Elizabeth wanted to influence Datang's decision-making, she could not do so.
Therefore, Philip II had no such plans at all. What was his plan?
Borrow money!
Ask Elizabeth to borrow money!
Back then, he gave the entire Principality of Chile to Elizabeth as a dowry. The Principality of Chile subsequently became a semi-autonomous principality under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. Even though Elizabeth had actually found it difficult to control the Principality of Chile, the actual power was controlled by the Tang Empire.
It is under the control of the government office of the Principality of Chile that was sent there.
However, she is still the Grand Duchess of Chile. This title is recognized within the Tang Empire, so she can still benefit from the development of the Principality of Chile. The largest saltpeter mining company in the Principality of Chile: Chile Mining Company, is under her name.
of private enterprises.
Not only this mining company, but also the entire Principality of Chile is her private property. In theory, the tax revenue also belongs to her, but she only gets part of the annuity every year, and the rest is used for the public expenditure of the Principality of Chile.