According to rumors from the Dutch, British, and people from other countries who escaped, the warships of the Ming Dynasty had developed to the point where they were all made of iron armor and powered by steam, but they were not driven by paddle wheels.
When fighting at sea, there is no need to consider the wind direction at all, and the ship's speed is at least twice as fast as that of a sailing warship, even with a tailwind.
How can we fight against such a warship?
Once the Ming Dynasty digs a canal and can directly connect from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, the end of European countries will come!
In addition, news about how powerful the Ming army's muskets and artillery were also began to spread on the European continent.
Compared with the ordinary flintlock guns currently used in Europe, the Ming Dynasty's muskets and artillery have several times the effective range. There are even reports from the Ottoman Empire that some Chinese troops can crawl on the ground when using muskets.
Fires a gun, and the rate of fire is very fast.
People in European countries did not believe this rumor, thinking it was impossible. However, Abbas II, who fled to the Ottoman Empire, and Dara Shuko, the eldest prince of the former Mughal Empire, both came forward to speak out and swore to the truth.
Say, this is true!
In order to convince European countries, the Ottoman Empire even sent two of them to lobby in various European countries. Not only did they explain how powerful the country was, but they also specifically emphasized that the Ming Empire wanted to destroy all countries, and then
All the princes accumulated in their country over hundreds of years were enfeoffed abroad.
If all countries do not unite against the Ming Empire at this time, they will inevitably be wiped out by the Ming Empire one country after another in the near future.
After all, the Ottoman Empire was still at odds with Europe. It had cultural and religious conflicts. Many Europeans did not believe the rumors about the Ottoman Empire.
At this time, the Tsarist Empire also stood up, loudly proclaiming the horror of the Ming Empire, and vowed that the Ming Empire's armies traveled thousands of miles to Eastern Europe, definitely not to see the scenery, but to destroy Western countries!
For this reason, the Tsar also strongly called on all European countries to unite to fight against the Ming Empire's western invasion.
In Paris, after hearing the news, the high-spirited "Prince Regent" Condai summoned Li Zicheng and others to ask about the situation.
"These rumors must be true!" Li Zicheng heard this and opened his one eye and said, "There have been many vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty since the founding of the country. When I was still in the Ming Dynasty, I had already heard that
Here’s the news.”
After a pause, he seemed to add a little casually: "I have killed a feudal king!"
When Da Kongdai and other French people heard this, they were immediately surprised. They never expected that the Eastern man in front of them actually killed the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty?
Although this may be because there were many vassals in the Ming Dynasty, it also shows how much trouble Li Zicheng made in the Ming Dynasty!
For a moment, Da Kongdai and others were very curious and asked Li Zicheng about the specific situation.
After Li Zicheng heard this, he immediately said in a calm tone: "Actually, among the Ming army, Sun Chuanting was more capable of commanding troops and knew how to fight. As for the others, they were just my defeated generals back then.
As I heard now, those generals who led troops from the Ming Dynasty and those who came to kill them, as well as their governor Li Yan, were all my subordinates back then and betrayed me..."
Da Kongdai and others were even more shocked when they heard this, and their status in their minds regarding Li Zicheng was even higher.
Although they had recognized Li Zicheng's abilities from previous communications, they never expected that those Ming generals who had repeatedly destroyed other countries were actually Li Zicheng's subordinates!
I never expected that this one-eyed oriental man had such a glorious experience.
Based on this understanding, they listened more attentively to Li Zicheng's words.
Just listen to Li Zicheng continue to say: "Actually, even if the Ming Dynasty's official army is strong, there is no need to worry too much. Europe is hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, how many troops can they come over? Over there in the Middle East,
All in all, there are about 100,000 troops, right? Over in Eastern Europe, the average number is only 200,000. They want to defend such a large area, can they defend it?"
He was excited when he spoke. It was Tumo Xingzi who was talking eloquently and with high spirits: "Also, if all European countries unite, no matter which direction, they can gather a million-strong army? The art of war is clear, and the superior forces must be concentrated.
Against the enemy, we are fully qualified to gather millions of troops to attack a certain area of the Ming Dynasty. The disparity in numbers cannot be undone by our superiority in weapons. In addition, we can also encircle the point and bring reinforcements. We can first encircle the Ming army and not
Attack, and then ambush heavy troops at the place where the Ming reinforcements must pass and give the Ming reinforcements a heavy blow! And..."
At the end, I almost explained most of the thirty-six strategies in Sun Tzu's Art of War. When I talked about it, Kong Dai and others were stunned for a while. It turned out that there were so many tricks!
Li Zicheng's statement also made Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing and others sigh with emotion: How could the former general talk so much like he does now? This is because he is afraid that these Western barbarians don't know his abilities! Could it be that he was defeated by the Western Barbarians before?
Was it caused by Yi’s experience of being sold into serfdom?
At the end of his speech, Li Zicheng looked at Da Kong Dai and said: "Your Highness, I think the most important thing is actually one thing. We must unify the powers. And the famous European general is none other than Your Highness..."
The suggestion he gave was that if Europe wanted to form an alliance, that would be no problem, but the thirty-six princes, no, if the European countries wanted to form an alliance, they must have an alliance leader, and they must get the alliance leader.
Liu Zongmin was the first to follow Li Zicheng. When listening to Li Zicheng's advice to the great Confucius, he seemed to have seen what happened when thirty-six battalions gathered to form an alliance when northern Shaanxi was still causing trouble.
Thinking of these, Liu Zongmin couldn't help but fall into memories.
Northern Shaanxi is barren and full of loess, but he misses him very much now. Even though he is now a master with the great Confucius, and many Western Yi women have slept with him, but the people here, including
Those women were like ghosts, and they really couldn't arouse his interest.
The imperial court is so powerful now that even if the European countries unite, the most they can do is block the imperial army's western expedition.
I'm afraid I won't be able to go back in this life, right?
When the Yellow River was dug up under Li Zicheng's order with the intention of flooding Kaifeng, the emperor decreed that he and Li Zicheng must be killed!
Thinking of this, he glanced at Li Zicheng and was suddenly startled: a lot of the general's hair seemed to have turned gray.
This time flies so fast!
Suddenly, there was movement outside, but someone came to report to Da Kongdai, saying: "There are rumors from the British and the Dutch that they know the secret of the Ming Dynasty's muskets and artillery with a longer range! Now they are secretly imitating them!"
When Da Kongdai heard this, he was immediately surprised.
If the generation gap of weapons can be narrowed, the Ming army will be in trouble with the military power of Europe!
Another point is that if France does not get the secrets of these muskets and artillery, it will be very passive. France must also get this secret!
So, he immediately sent envoys to Britain, the Netherlands and other countries, trying to get the secrets of powerful muskets and artillery by any means.
After other countries heard about it, they naturally had the same idea as Kong Dai and sent envoys one after another. Otherwise, without explaining the military situation, even if the war resumed in European countries, they would be very passive.
However, both France and the Netherlands, this time, all denied it, and it was not like the original steam engine that could be bought with money.
However, how could the various European countries believe that, so they started making noises again, not handing over the secrets of powerful guns and artillery, and even forming a fart alliance!
For France, Spain, Sweden and other countries, what they care more about is European countries!
The British and Dutch were still far away from the Ming army, and they were not in a hurry.
However, someone is in a hurry!
On the Ottoman Empire side, more than half of the territory was occupied by the Ming army. Fortunately, there was a strait blocking it, but we were still afraid of when the Ming army would cross the sea to fight.
Therefore, after seeing the chaos in various European countries, the Ottoman Empire issued a statement and decided to hold an Anti-Ming Dynasty Alliance Conference. Anyone who came to the Ottoman Empire to participate in the conference and was willing to form an alliance would receive advanced muskets from the Invention Army as a gift.
The reason why I did this was that I had no choice but to disclose the secret of the powerful firearms of the Ming Dynasty. If there was no threat from the Ming Dynasty, the Ottoman Empire would actually be more willing to use such advanced guns and artillery to conquer European countries and conquer them!
Following this statement, various countries immediately became agitated and sent envoys to the Ottoman Empire.
When the Dutch saw it, they quickly sold it at a high price, but by this time no one was paying attention.
These things lasted throughout the 27th year of Chongzhen.
In other words, when the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Force was sorting out the occupied areas in the Middle East and the occupied areas in Eastern Europe, the European countries were making such a fuss. It can be predicted that it will take time for them to truly unite.
However, it will indeed take a lot of time for the Ming Expeditionary Force to stabilize the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
On the one hand, it takes a lot of time to move local people from the country.
In addition, it also takes time to carry out land reform and build infrastructure in the areas directly under the Ming Dynasty, whether it is hiring or using free captive labor.
Also, before we only occupied the coast and other important towns, there are still some small places that we have not occupied and declared sovereignty over. Although these matters are small, they still take time to resolve.
The early steps were fierce, and there were many beginnings and endings in the follow-up.
Just like that, the twenty-seventh year of Chongzhen passed.
The time came again in February of the twenty-eighth year of Chongzhen. In the first ten days of this month, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly summoned all the civil and military officials with a smile on his face.