Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1225 Start of War ([-])
Dashun really had to guard against the possible sway of France.

According to Liu Yu, this kind of adventurous aggressiveness that wants to put all one's eggs in one basket, and the idea of ​​wanting to make peace quickly after setbacks and failures are just two sides of the same thought.

One day the fanatical dick hardens at every turn, and the next day it becomes sluggish and feels that it is bound to fail. It would be better to seek respect and the mercy of the enemy if you fail early.

Therefore, the Dashun Mission still needs to assume the responsibility of "psychological counseling for the King of France and Mrs. Pompadour".

Fortunately, money is no problem.

Dashun's bill of exchange system and the court's decent reputation for the time being allowed the cargo ships of Dashun Western Trading Company, which traded in Europe, to take bills of exchange in Europe and directly leave the silver traded in Europe.

Take the money order and go back to Songsu to exchange money.

It's just that there is a fixed time for them to go back, and it also involves issues such as the requisition of merchant ships next year and the amount of trade next year.

Therefore, the best result is that the French will usher in a defeat before the end of this winter monsoon.

Or a victory.

Fortunately, the French are no longer so naive about the Hannover issue.The Duke of Cumberland, the youngest son of the King of England, was defeated before, and the Duke of Cumberland signed the "Kloster-Zeven Agreement" privately, acknowledging the disarmament of Hanover.

But when he turned around, the King of England refused to admit it, and tore up the agreement directly.

The French were slapped, and they understood that they had to defeat the British-Prussian allied forces on the western front of Prussia in a field battle and completely occupied Hanover, otherwise the battle would never end.

Then, after a long wait, Dashun's envoys finally received the news of the defeat of the French army in Minden.Although the loss is not too big, the possibility of Hannover depends on World War I, at least this year and next year will not be completed!

After hearing the news, the Dashun Mission Group reveled all night.Although the members of the royal family were leading the team, in fact, it was the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were actually in charge of the negotiations, and behind them were senior officers from the General Staff of the Privy Council.

So far, it can be determined that the obstacles to signing a treaty with France, completely transferring India's interests, and cooperating to start a war against Britain and Portugal have been completely cleared away.

The rest is how to activate the "lobbyist" ability since ancient times, let France be tied to Dashun's chariot, and use Dashun's established strategy to finish the second half of the First World War.

It is no secret that the French are going to land in Scotland.Before the Dashun envoys arrived in France, the major ports in France were frantically building transport ships.

As for why they didn't build battleships... because they couldn't afford it, and because they didn't have enough preparations in advance.High-standard wood for warships, cannons, and other things cannot be created all at once.

And there is not much money in itself, land and sea battles have to be taken into account, how can there be money to build such expensive warships-even though France has relatively the best warship design capabilities in Europe.

Those in the Dashun diplomatic mission who are responsible for the details of the negotiations behind the scenes, of course support His Majesty's strategic guidance, because this strategic plan was studied by them before Liu Yu resigned.

It is very dangerous for the French to want to do everything in one battle.

Once the French fleet begins to assemble, if Britain can seize the opportunity and go all out to defeat the French fleet, it will be very detrimental to subsequent operations.

Even if Dashun ends up in the field, that would be a big disadvantage, and it became standard to fight all the way.

The goal of Dashun itself is to lay out post-war European trade, so the problem here is this:

Now, the French may land.

Therefore, the main force of the British fleet did not dare to use it indiscriminately and had to stay at home.In case of disturbance, this side just left home, the French army went to Scotland over there, and the home was stolen, so what else to fight?
And if the French want to engage in opportunism, if they fail, the fleet will be destroyed by the British.

That works.

The main British fleet was immediately liberated.

Leave a third to look at France, and the rest can be casual.

It is even possible to preemptively rob Spain's treasure ship before Spain joins the war.

The most important thing is that once the French navy's landing operation plan fails, the British fleet can completely block the main European routes and monopolize maritime trade.

Of course, this was a situation that Dashun didn't want to see very much.

Therefore, since Dashun entered the arena, the proud French had to follow Dashun's baton.

Implementing a strategy that seems to be in line with the interests of France, but actually weakens Britain and France, and is really in line with the interests of Dashun.

The main point of this strategy is to use inaction as action, focus on anti-customer, and wait for work with ease.

That is, after Dashun's battleships meet with the French army, first the British army is monitoring the French fleet in the Mediterranean, and then the main force of the Sino-French joint fleet will meet and stay at home.

Instead, the British Navy was forced to follow Dashun's strategy.Dashun's navy stayed by the port, and the main fleet of the British navy dared not go anywhere.

Even if West Africa is on fire, North America is besieged, and the Caribbean is robbed, they dare not move.

Once Britain's trade is cut off, it will force Britain to choose a radical decisive battle mode.

And once the UK is forced to choose a decisive battle, the right to choose the battlefield is in the hands of China and France.

In this way, the Dashun Navy, which originally came from afar, became a party waiting for work, and firmly grasped the strategic initiative.

For Dashun, this is also in line with the actual situation of Dashun's naval construction.

Basically, in the waters of East Asia, the battleships of Dashun are useless, basically useless.This has nothing to do with the arrogance of the kingdom of heaven, and it really doesn't matter within the scope of "under heaven".

All the battleships were forcibly built for the decisive battle in Europe at the beginning, and everything was forcibly decided with a consciousness that transcended the courtiers.

Therefore, relatively speaking, the number of such seemingly useless battleships built by Dashun is relatively small.

And Dashun has the most cruise ships, because Dashun wants to control the trade in the Nanyang region, fight against the pirates squatting in the Sulu area and jihad towards Dashun, patrol Japan and North Korea, and investigate Smuggling, as well as launching threats and aggressions against small Southeast Asian countries from time to time, all of these require a large number of cruise ships that are fast and not bloated.

Another one is armed merchant ships of various colors, a large number of high-quality sailors, and an excess reserve of naval officers.There is really no shortage of these Dashuns.

These armed merchant ships all have long-distance sailing capabilities.

Because Dashun's company system is a monopoly and exclusive royal franchise, and even the Toyo Trading Company that goes to Japan, in the terms of the privilege, they are forced to build ocean-going ships.

Build that kind of cheap, cheap hard sailing boat that can't go far?So lower costs and higher profits?
No.

Either give up the monopoly and franchise rights, or fulfill the military obligations stipulated in the transformation rights in a down-to-earth manner.

If you don't want to do it, there are plenty of people waiting in line.

If you do it, you have to accept the additional conditions of the monopoly franchise; if you don't do it, get out.

Free trade is all about cost, and the ship whose skin is thin and stuffed is as big as a Dutch coachman's ship, but I'm sorry, the Dashun court does not allow cost competition, which is forcing the company to build ocean-going capabilities even if it goes to North Korea from Weihai large soft sailing ship.

This is the rule established by Liu Yu when he tossed about the Japanese trade.

In the past few years, the rules have been loosened. At the beginning, don't forget, there is also the military obligation to train sailors.

Because Liu Yu knows very well that free trade with Japan can be liberalized and monopoly franchise rights can be abolished.But before the European problem is resolved, once it is released, no one will build standard long-distance ships that must be produced by regular shipyards, because the cost is high and more wood is used.

These layouts started 20 years ago, and now it is time to harvest, so that Dashun has sufficient reserve tonnage, qualified sailors, and oversaturated naval officers.The strict franchise monopoly system makes all franchise companies, including the captains of shipping companies that transport rice, graduate from Jinghai Palace.

Indeed, if they had chosen to let them do it freely, these businessmen would have gained more benefits and higher profit margins.But during the war, a group of ships that can only go to Japan are counting on them to participate in this strangling battle in the Atlantic Ocean?
In addition to these hardware, there is another crucial thing.

That is the lunar distance angle method of nautical positioning, and the popular version of the nautical astronomical almanac. You can quickly check the table to judge your latitude and longitude.

These advantages make Dashun's strategy very clear.

The main force of the battleship fleet joined forces with the main force of France to hold back the main force of the British navy.And a large number of cruisers, armed merchant ships, and smuggling ships have started free mode.

Groups of three or five, or groups of four or six, intercepted, smuggled, and sold goods among the British colonies.

Isn't the British East India Company willing to sell Indian cotton cloth to West Africa?Well, thank you for opening up the cotton cloth market in West Africa and cultivating their cotton cloth consumption habits.

Aren't North American smugglers willing to buy French sugar and smuggled tea?Well, don't look around this time, kick out the middleman, and trade directly with the owner. The newly picked Wuyi tea does not have the high tariff of the London Tea Exchange.

Isn't the British silk textile industry mostly using raw silk from Turkey and Tuscany?Okay, don’t use it this time. The Mediterranean Sea is under the control of the Sino-French coalition forces. Try Rajshahi silk and Liaodong tussah silk. The quality is definitely better than that of Tuscany.

This kind of tossing about smuggling, trading, cruising, and escorting, to the end, is to compete with shipbuilding capabilities, sailor reserves, treasury revenue, and industrial and commercial production capabilities.

Dashun is not afraid. Dashun has made up for the weakest sailor reserve 20 years ago.

Dashun has the world's best teak, cypress and oak tree production areas.

Because Dashun had too few long-distance ships before, Dashun's shipyard has been expanding its production capacity over the years, and because Dashun's current shipbuilding capacity is also the number one in the world.The bigger the gap before, the faster the production capacity will expand in the past few years.However, Britain has too much stock, so its shipbuilding capacity is actually far worse than the big surplus.

As for the level of industrial and commercial production, Dashun is not Spain, and there is no need to worry about the colonial policies of Spain, which will make the colonies useless of domestic products.The steam engine or something is just a bonus.

And government finances... Britain is still carrying nearly 3 million taels of silver in national debt. If the East India Company is destroyed again, Britain will not be able to sustain it.

Even if in the end, Britain made a desperate bet and won the decisive battle of battleships, it was useless.

The financial system exploded, the smugglers became active, and the trading system was completely chaotic. Even if the main fleet won, it would not be able to fight again in a short period of time. It could only sign a contract to admit defeat, abolish the navigation regulations, accept "free" trade, and stipulate fixed tariffs.

Besides, will you win?Not many Dashun battleships were built, only compared to those cruisers and heavy merchant ships.

Moreover, is the will to unite within the UK really united?The total amount of capital is much larger than that of the East India Company, but the West Indian merchant group that does not specialize in paramilitary regime groups and appears to have little say. Produces sugar, mead, raw materials, and sells industrial products to the colonies.

Dashun firstly does not sell sugar, secondly does not sell honey wine, and thirdly does not sell raw materials, because it does not make money.

As for industrial products, whether they are produced in London or Songjiang, is there any difference for West Indian merchants who sell goods to the colonies?
(End of this chapter)