Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 686 Postscript ([-]) Yongchang Taiping

In the 11th year of Yongchang, the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty have already sent telegrams.

The connection of telegrams not only made the provinces in the Central Plains more closely connected, but also telegraph bureaus in various places also opened some civilian telegrams.

Since trains and ships are already the daily means of transportation for people, and the road guide system has been further relaxed, the number of people who come and go for business is still relatively large.

The opening of the telegram means that the exchange of letters that used to take more than ten days now only takes one or two days.

If two people chat using a telegraph machine, it can be shortened to a few minutes.

The appearance of the telegram made many feudal clans realize that the Ming Dynasty's national fortune was still on the rise, and its control over the local area was also increasing.

In the same year, Daming continued to promote the construction of universities in local provinces.

However, this year is not all good news. For example, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, an unprecedented tsunami suddenly appeared in the Yingzhou area.

In the post-disaster telegram report, the chief envoy of Yingzhou reported that the cities along the eastern coast seemed to have fallen into a big river, and the seawater continued to pour in and recede.

This happened intermittently seven times and did not end until noon the next day.

Later, according to Zhu Yi, a professor of hydrology at Daming Yingzhou University, closed the text and said that the tsunami should have come from the depths of the Daming Sea.

In the first month of the same year, "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio" written by Pu Songling, a member of the Ministry of Rites, was released, and it became the number one seller of "popular novels" in Huangdian in just six months.

In the twelfth lunar month, when Huangdian settled the manuscript fee settlement, Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio" received a manuscript fee of more than 600 taels, which was equivalent to a year's salary for a sixth-rank official.

In March of the same year, Spain hired Xu Miao, a well-known doctor in Qi State, to diagnose the condition of King Carlos II through the introduction of the owner of the Royal Store in Madrid.

In April, when Xu Miao arrived in Madrid, Carlos II was completely disabled.

He had lost all his hair, was deaf, could barely see, had few teeth, and suffered from severe epilepsy.

His various weird behaviors were called "possession" by spies from various countries in Europe, so he got the nickname "the demon-possessed".

However, in Xu Miao's view, this is just a mental illness caused by early impotence.

Xu Miao treated Carlos II's various diseases in Madrid, making his exhausted body rejuvenate little by little.

Under Xu Miao's enlightenment, Carlos II no longer felt inferior to his illness, but the social pressure of the Spanish royal family still crushed Carlos II.

In the winter of the 12th year of Yongchang, Carlos II died of illness in Madrid at the age of 40 under the guidance of Xu Miao.

Since he had no heirs, he made a will during his lifetime to pass the throne to his sister Maria Theresa and the grandson of the French King Louis XIV of the Bourbon dynasty, that is, his grandnephew Philip, Duke of Anjou.

Philip could inherit Spain, Italy, and overseas colonies, but he also stipulated that France and Spain should never be merged into one country.

Such a will seems to be no problem, but it dissatisfied with Leopold I, who is also the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the king of Hungary.

Leopold I attempted to let his second son, Grand Duke Charles, inherit the Spanish throne. He believed that the Spanish princess Maria Theresa promised herself and her descendants to give up the Spanish throne forever when she married the French King Louis XIV.

In the twelfth lunar month of the same year, Louis XIV declared Philip the King of Spain, calling him Felipe V.

Such behavior made Edward VII, who had just succeeded to the throne across the strait, very dissatisfied. He issued a statement declaring that the Kingdom of Great Britain could not tolerate France dominating Europe, so he formed an anti-French alliance with the Netherlands.

At the same time, Edward VII and William of the Netherlands supported Archduke Charles of Austria to inherit the Spanish throne, and Portugal and Savoy in Italy joined successively.

In March of the 12th year of Yongchang, the War of Succession broke out, with the main battlefields in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.

After the outbreak of this war, the total population of the countries involved in the war was more than 60 million, and [-] troops participated in the war.

At the beginning of the war, Ouyang Gao, a bachelor of the University of Paris, was summoned by Louis XIV to the Louvre to ask him his views on the war.

Ouyang Gao answered Louis XIV's question truthfully.

He believes that France must obtain the right to inherit the throne of Spain, and it needs to severely damage the armies of the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands in this war.

If this strategic goal can be achieved, then France can take a short rest after the war, and then start the war again to completely conquer the Netherlands and cut off this evil neighbor that has always been in northern France.

As long as the Netherlands can be conquered, after several years of recuperation, with the combat effectiveness of the French army, France can gradually encroach on the German region in future wars.

At the same time, Ouyang Gao persuaded Louis XIV to borrow money from Daming Bank in time, and use the loan to draw Daming to his side.

As long as Daming can stand behind France, then France can rely on the Atlantic Ocean and obtain a steady stream of supplies from Qi on the other side of the ocean.

Each of Ouyang Gao's suggestions made Louis XIV nod his head.

In fact, he had already thought about all these foreign policies, and he asked Ouyang Gao to come here because he wanted him to be a guarantor to borrow money from Daming for France.

Ouyang Gao expressed his understanding of Louis XIV's request, and then accompanied the French Minister of Finance to the branch of the Daming Bank in Paris.

This time, in order to prevent Daming from joining the anti-French alliance, France proposed a loan amount of 1000 million taels to Daming Bank, and stated that the loan amount would be used for trade with countries in the Daming vassal system.

After this guarantee was made, Han Shao, the head of the branch, wrote a handwritten letter to the Daming Beijing head office in front of the two of them.

As the banking system founded by King Wen of Qi, the Daming banking system has restrictions on borrowing.

The head office cannot exceed 1000 million taels, the branch cannot exceed 300 million taels, and the sub-branches cannot exceed 100 million taels.

If it exceeds this amount, it needs to be reported to the Financial Supervision Bureau stationed in the head office, and the Financial Supervision Bureau will report to the cabinet and six ministries, and finally the emperor will decide.

Based on the current information transmission situation of Ming Dynasty, it will take about three months to send this letter to the West Seaport of Luchuan, and then notify Beijing in advance through the telegram from the West Seaport.

It will take six and a half months at the fastest.

In order to cope with the all-out war, Louis XIV recruited another 30 troops, and the national army reached 1, which was 75:[-] of the national population.

At the same time that France was expanding its military, Daming, who didn't know it, was coordinating the academic exchange between the Military Academy and the Qi Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The exchange began in March and is expected to end in September.

These six months of exchanges have greatly improved the natural science and technology of the two countries, and at the same time, the law of energy conservation and transformation has also been proposed by some scholars.

On June 27, after the branch manager Han Shao’s handwriting was sent to Beijing, Emperor Yongchang approved the loan from France, and he himself concentrated on participating in the exchange meeting for the exchange of scholars between the two countries.

During this exchange, Emperor Yongchang Zhu Heyin appointed Prince Zhu Yixuan as the supervisor of the country, and he himself was immersed in the exchange meeting.

He saw with his own eyes that the previous microscope was further improved by more than [-] scholars from the two countries, and witnessed the emergence of inventions such as "multiplex objective lens", "colorless lens" and "oil immersion device".

This is only one aspect that Zhu Heyin is interested in. In other places that he is not interested in, countless inventions have been produced by various academic collisions.

In terms of chemistry, atomic theory and the periodic rate of elements were proposed by scholars, and at the same time, artificially synthesized organic substances were also proposed.

When the time came to October, after the scholars of the two countries parted reluctantly, Emperor Yongchang ordered that [-] mu of mountainous land in the northern part of Beizhou County, the capital of Beizhou, be assigned to the Military Armament Institute during the post-disaster reconstruction of Yingzhou Province.

After that, he asked the Ministry of Industry to build an academic exchange hall here, so as to facilitate academic exchanges between scholars of the two countries in the future.

At the same time, France also received news of loan approval.

Louis XIV, who received a loan of 1000 million taels, was very generous. He used all the loan to purchase gunpowder, flintlock guns and artillery, as well as grain, sugar and other materials in Qi.

This approach made the anti-French allies who were still stationed in the army unbearable, so on October [-] of the same year, the Holy Roman Empire officially sent troops, and a fierce exchange of fire with France began on the border.

At the same time, Britain and the Netherlands at sea were not idle.

On October 23, the Battle of Vigo Bay broke out. The Anglo-Dutch combined fleet defeated the Franco-Spanish combined fleet in Vigo Bay, Spain. All ships in the Franco-Spanish fleet were burned or captured, and about [-] naval soldiers died.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, Peter I of Tsarist Russia, who returned from studying at the University of Paris, published "News" in St. Petersburg, which was the first officially printed newspaper in Tsarist Russia.

It reported major political events and military news at home and abroad, and also published news about domestic economic construction, such as the construction of handicraft workshops in various places, the discovery of metal deposits, and so on.

In addition to newspapers, he brought back the latest tactics and training methods in Europe.

The [-] Cossack cavalry and [-] shooting regiments in his country are undergoing training, and at the same time, the army is expanding by [-].

On the 14th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Battle of Oakstadt broke out, where [-] French troops and [-] German allied troops from the Holy Roman Empire used artillery fire to celebrate the [-]th year of Yongchang for the world.

Compared with Europe, which is a mess, the science of Daming and Qi has made great progress after the exchange meeting.

The Ming Military Academy synthesized urea in February 14 in Yongchang, breaking the boundary between organic and inorganic substances.

Qi Guo also proposed cell theory, evolution theory and genetic law in March of the same year.

According to these laws and doctrines, many scholars conducted further research under the funding of Qi State and Ming court.

Among them, the most famous is Bachelor Ye Tianshi who proposed "cytopathology". The basic principles of his theory include: "Cells come from cells; the body is the sum of cells; diseases can be explained by cytopathology, etc."

Based on the principles of these theories, Qi Guo and Daming successively established bacteriology in their medical schools in the same year.

In May, Yong Wang Zhu Cixuan died in Yongyi City Palace at the age of 80.

After the news came back to Beijing, Emperor Yongchang gave him the posthumous title of "Zhao", and his posthumous posthumous title was King Yongzhao, and Zhu Heping, the eldest son of Yongguo, came to the throne.

On the fifth day of June, King Ding Zhu Cijiong ordered his son Zhu Helei to lead an army of [-] to attack Tsarist Russia. At the same time, Hongkuoer, King of Shunning of Mongolia, stationed [-] troops in the north, involving the Swedish army near the Baltic Sea.

On the seventh day of June, Peter I, who learned of the establishment of the country and the rejuvenation of the army, decided to conscript himself.

He led the [-] shooting corps in St. Petersburg, which had been trained for half a year, to the southern city of Valdai, and at the same time boosted the morale of the whole army on the way.

On the ninth day of June, Zhu Helei led [-] troops to besiege Valdai City. At this time, there were only [-] guarding militiamen in the city, which were useless.

Zhu Helei was not in a hurry to attack the city, but waited for Peter I to lead his army to arrive.

Knowing the attitude of the army, Peter I did not underestimate the enemy because the number of troops on his side was twice that of the opponent. Instead, he rested in a village thirty miles north of Valdai.

At the same time, Peter I sent a request for help to Sweden, hoping that King Alvin would send [-] troops from the north to support him.

However, Peter I also knew very well that King Alvin of Sweden was very afraid of the Ming Dynasty after he established the country, so there was a high probability that he would not send troops.

Therefore, after a brief rest for five days, Peter I resolutely arrived at the battlefield with a [-] shooting corps.

At this time, [-] Dingjun troops were waiting for them, while Ding Shizi Zhu Helei was surprised by the new look of the Shooting Corps, and at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little vigilant.

After Peter I's military reforms, the Shooting Corps at this time has greatly surpassed the previous ones.

They hold flintlock guns, and there are about [-] artillery pieces in the army, and the formation is neat and uniform.

This kind of army is almost the same as Dingguo's army. The only thing that Dingguo's army is more advanced than them is the bayonet on the flintlock.

On the morning of June [-], the war broke out outside the city of Valdai. The fixed army, which also used flintlock guns, built a series of fortifications. These were fortification methods that Peter I had never been exposed to.

He ordered the clerk below to record these fortifications, and at the same time commanded the army to attack, trying to drive out the Ding army who came to harass their homeland.

However, the facts have proved that even though the Firing Corps has undergone military reforms to narrow the gap with Dingjun, the gap between them and Dingguo soldiers still exists.

On the battlefield, relying on rich combat experience and fortifications, the soldiers of the fixed army can fight one against two with ease.

On the first day of the battle alone, the Tsarist Russian army left more than 2000 corpses, and the corpses of Dingjun were deliberately collected by Zhu Helei.

This method prevented the Tsarist Russian army from seeing the corpse of any fixed soldier on the battlefield, so that they wondered whether their side had not even defeated a fixed soldier.

However, Peter I was not deceived. He did not hesitate to expose the behavior of the Dingjun secretly collecting corpses during the battle, and exaggerated the casualties of the Dingjun as an excuse.

Regarding the battle damage records on the first day of the "Battle of Valdai", both sides have different records.

Tsarist Russian officer Vakalov recorded in his "Eastern Expedition Diary" that the number of Tsarist Russians killed in battle was 630 and 250 and [-] in the fixed army.

Dingguo's "Western Expedition Battle Report" records that 520 seven soldiers died in the Ding army, and 460 seven soldiers died in the Tsarist Russia.

This discrepancy in records is not just the first day, but from the beginning to the end of the war, the records of the two sides are completely different.

The tug-of-war between the two sides in Valdai lasted for a month, and fewer and fewer people in the army could stand up.

Zhu Helei, the commander-in-chief of Dingguo, hoped that after all his achievements, he would completely annihilate the main force of Tsarist Russia in Valdai, and then completely destroy Tsarist Russia.

Peter I wanted to severely damage Dingguo, so that Dingguo would not dare to launch a war against Tsarist Russia after this defeat.

The stalemate between the two sides lasted until July [-]th, and the breakup also occurred on this day.

At noon, when the two armies were resting to a critical point, an army marching from the north to the south attracted the attention of both sides.

After repeated evaluations by King Alvin of Sweden, he finally decided to support Tsarist Russia, because he saw Dingguo's strategic goal of swallowing Tsarist Russia from the Battle of Valdai.

If you sit back and watch Dingguo accomplish this strategic goal, then Sweden will border Dingguo, and today's Tsarist Russia will be tomorrow's Sweden.

Therefore, King Alvin of Sweden assembled [-] troops and personally led a team to support Tsarist Russia, which is why it took him one and a half months to arrive on the battlefield.

Half an hour later, when the Swedish army arrived on the battlefield, all the more than 7 surviving soldiers of Tsarist Russia cheered.

Compared with the cheers of the Tsarist Russian army, the more than 3 soldiers on Dingjun's side looked at each other in blank dismay, a little hesitant.

But before they could think it over clearly, Zhu Helei, the son of the commander in chief, sighed, and then ordered to withdraw the troops and return to Dingguo.

Sweden joined hands with Tsarist Russia. This is an opponent that Dingguo and Mongolia cannot defeat together. Therefore, there will be no results if the fight is continued, and they can only withdraw their troops.

At this moment, Zhu Helei felt unwilling.

As an existence who had served in the Ming army for several years, he knew very well that if Daming was willing to equip the various domains with rifles, then Dingguo's family alone would be enough to swallow up the whole of Northern Europe.

However, Da Ming did not do this, and Dingguo could only retreat in despair under the eyes of the coalition forces of the Northern Alliance.

Hearing the laughter coming from behind, Zhu Helei couldn't help clenching the reins tightly.

With the back of Dingjun's retreat, the first war between Dingguo and the Northern Alliance was declared a failure.

On the second day of August, more than 4000 Dingjun soldiers, led by Commander Zhu Helei, returned to Yanmen (Tver), the border gate of Dingguo.

On the third day of the third day, Zhu Helei led more than a hundred cavalry towards Dingxiang, the capital of the country, and arrived at Dingxiang on the fifth day of the first day.

After arriving in Dingxiang, Zhu Helei told his father Zhu Cijiong about the hardships of the war and the changes in the Northern Allied Forces.

In Zhu Helei's view, the reason why the vassals were able to win many battles against foreign enemies in the past was because the armies of the vassals were well equipped with weapons.

However, after decades now, whether it is Europe, West Asia, or South Asia, the quality and weapons of the armies of various countries have been improved, and the armies of the various vassal states have no generational difference between them, so naturally the battle is difficult, and the soldiers who died in battle are only There will be more and more.

Therefore, Zhu Helei suggested that Zhu Cijiong go to Shu as Wang Shu, hoping that the emperor would approve the purchase of rifles by the feudal clans.

In this regard, Zhu Cijiong hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to send a memorial to the capital.

However, he did not send the memorial as an uncle, but as a frontier vassal and an ordinary general.

In the memorial, he described the quality and weaponry of soldiers in Ming Dynasty, feudal clans, Europe, West Asia and other regions from a military point of view. Finally, he repeatedly commented that the feudal clans could no longer suppress foreign enemies, so he hoped that the emperor would relax the rifle policy.

On the fifth day of October, this memorial was sent to the capital, and was read by Emperor Yongchang immediately.

After reading it, Emperor Yongchang invited the 84-year-old Qin Guogong Li Dingguo to make up his mind.

After reading the memorials, Li Dingguo also believed that if the foreign enemies had progressed like this, then the "rifle policy" against the feudal clans should be relaxed, and there was no need to worry about the feudal clans' rebellion. After all, the weapons that Daming now possesses are not as crude as before.

Seeing that Li Dingguo said so, Yongchang Emperor Zhu Heyin also immediately made a judgment and announced that the sale of rifles to the feudal clans was limited...

(End of this chapter)