Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 360 World Situation

With the sound of firecrackers, the year is gone, and the spring breeze brings warmth into Tusu.Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old talismans.

The custom of setting off firecrackers every year and festival has existed since ancient times and continues to this day.Tusu refers to the wine made with Tusu grass or several kinds of herbs that was drunk during the Spring Festival in ancient times.According to the custom, every year on the first day of the first lunar month, the whole family drinks Tusu wine, then wraps the dregs in red cloth and hangs them on the door frame to drive away evil spirits and avoid plagues.

Gao Yushi never drank Tusu wine in his previous life, but in this life he has it every year.Of course, in the past when I was young, every New Year's Eve was just for fun, a sip, and a taste. Although I am not very old this year, my status is somewhat different, and I was allowed by Mrs. Zhang to drink a cup.

However, Gao Yushi himself has no interest in drinking. Even when he was a secretary in his previous life, he often had to help the leader hold back alcohol and practiced a good drinking capacity.

In the final analysis, he is a cautious person. Drinking, an activity that tends to get confused and cause mistakes, has never been liked by him.

To his surprise, the Gao family may have "massive" family inheritance.The members of the Gao family, from the fifth uncle, Gaocai, down to his younger brothers Gao Wuguan and Gao Wuqin, are actually pretty good at drinking—Gaocai will not refuse the toast from the younger generation, even Gao Wuguan and Gao Wuqin Gao Wuqin and the two brats, after drinking their own small cup, actually looked at Gao Yushi's wine glass helplessly, making Gao Shidu roll his eyes inwardly.

But he rolled his eyes a bit early, because his youngest brother, Gao Wujian, who is only two years old and can barely walk on the ground, also ordered a few drops of Tusu wine with chopsticks for him under the teasing of the fifth uncle Gaocai drink.After Xiao Wujian drank those few drops, he actually pestered Gao Cai to drink again, which made everyone laugh.

The fifth year of Longqing has officially arrived.

In the original history, there was only one real major event in the Ming Dynasty in the fifth year of Longqing: the official completion of the tribute of Alda.In addition, only Li Chunfang, Yin Shidan and others who became officials, Gao Gong became the chief assistant and completely controlled the cabinet can barely be compared with them.

However, as a time traveler, Gao Yushi's gaze will never be limited to a corner of Daming's world.

He knew that in the fifth year of Longqing's reign, the event that had a truly worldwide impact actually took place in the Mediterranean, and that was the Battle of Lepanto.

The Battle of Lepanto itself does not need much introduction (Wufeng Note: Mainly... Interested friends can just go to Baidu), but the impact of this battle is very far-reaching, even related to the high-practice future "Going to the Blue Ocean" plan, I really have to say.

The introduction of the Battle of Lepanto by later generations is nothing more than that the Ottoman Empire lost more than 200 warships and more than 2 naval soldiers in this battle, which caused a great loss of its sea power.It is even said that the Ottoman Empire temporarily lost its maritime supremacy, and the myth of invincibility was shattered.After the victory of the Battle of Lepanto, the combined navy headed by Spain and Venice became more active against the Ottoman Empire, and the situation in the entire Mediterranean was reversed.

But Gao Wushi knew that things were not that simple, because in fact, after only one winter, the Ottoman Empire rebuilt its maritime power, and the number of warships continued unabated.From the sultan to the people of the Ottoman Empire, they all believed that they just "lost their beards" in the Battle of Lepanto, and did not receive any fatal blows, and the foundation of the empire was not shaken at all.

In this battle, the Ottoman Empire certainly did not win, but it is indeed not a loss.

The Spanish king, Philip II, had already defaulted heavily on his debts, and his attention was being diverted west and north—the conquest of Catholic Portugal and the proposed invasion of Protestant England.His peace treaty with Turkey established a fixed frontier in the Mediterranean between Islam and Christendom.

After capturing Cyprus, the Ottoman Turks had almost complete control of the eastern Mediterranean, although Crete was still under Venetian control.However, the defeat at Malta and the disaster at Lepanto dashed the Ottomans' hopes of advancing to Rome.After Tunisia was recovered by Turkey, Spain clearly realized that North Africa had firmly become a part of the Ottoman Empire, and that Charles V's dream of conquering Constantinople was long gone.

The two naval powers representing the two major religions have reached a stalemate so far.

Ottoman just didn't win, but it's not a loss, but if the Christian world fails to win the Battle of Lepanto, it will inevitably lose the entire Mediterranean.

A year after the battle, the aged Don García de Toledo was still pale at the great stakes of the Battle of Lepanto; Don Juan had risked everything in that battle; Don García knew , the failure of the campaign would have brought disaster to the coasts of the Christian Mediterranean, and although the outcome of the campaign was brilliant, the victory was a fluke.

If the battle fails and there is no fleet to defend against, all the principal islands of the Mediterranean—Malta, Crete, the Balearic Islands, the last line of defense of Venice—will quickly fall into enemy hands; then the Turks You can use these islands as a springboard to attack the hinterland of Italy and hit Rome, which is Suleiman's ultimate goal.

If Shuruchi Muhammad succeeded in destroying the Venetian wing; if the heavily armed Calaisian warships failed to disrupt Ali Pasha's center; if Uluchi Ali was able to penetrate Doria an hour earlier The front of the battle... the entire territory of southern Europe will be very different from today.

The containment of the Ottomans at the Battle of Malta and the victory at Lepanto halted the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the heart of the Mediterranean.

The Spanish colonial empire, which no longer had hope of taking Constantinople, turned its attention to the East.

In the near future, the two pioneering colonial empires of Spain and Portugal will jointly lead a new round of expansion to the east, and this is exactly the challenge that High Pragmatism will have to face in "walking into the blue ocean" in the future.

Of course, this is only the impact of the Battle of Lepanto in the political sense. In the purely military sense, it also has an equally crucial impact: the Battle of Lepanto is the last large-scale battle of rowing warships in the history of world wars. use.

After the Battle of Lepanto, people stopped arguing about the advantages and disadvantages of sailing warships and paddle warships, and began to use sailing warships as the main force of the fleet.It was already believed that wind powered ships were more capable of combat.In addition, people were convinced of the importance of firearms in naval warfare.This enabled the European fleet to develop tactics based on artillery, which affected the development of naval warfare.

The only good news is that after all Spain won the Battle of Lepanto, they still did not pay enough attention to shipboard artillery—especially long-range heavy artillery, which largely contributed to the tragic defeat of the Armada to England.

However, this is good news for Daming. At least Gao Yushi believes that at least he will not have to face the most powerful Spain when the time comes.

Your Majesty the Virgin Queen of England, don't let me down... beat Spain and Portugal even worse!

　In fact, I really want to talk more about the world situation, so that when I write about the struggle with Spain in Nanyang, some readers will question some common sense issues... But after thinking about it, forget it, it is thankless.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)