Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1884 Variables in Northern Europe

While Wagner was still conducting a series of consultations with the East Coast government in the New World, in the port of Riga in the Old World, an East Coast official in his 30s was sorting out documents in a dark and damp office.

The original commercial station is currently uninhabitable due to renovation and decoration, so people from the east bank temporarily rented a nearby villa and used it as a temporary external window of the commercial station to handle some commercial affairs - of course secretly The intelligence-gathering task has not been left behind, but this is not enough for outsiders.

The temporary person in charge of the business station is named Zhao Gui, who was born as an immigrant from the Ming Dynasty, so he is also a strange person.This person was originally an idler in Panyu County, Guangzhou. Perhaps his ancestors were rich and had received a relatively strict education since he was a child. It's a pity that he didn't have the material for studying, and he couldn't get a good name no matter how hard he took the exam.Later, the family fell into poverty, and this person had no choice but to find a copying job to support his family. It was not difficult.

Later, warships from the east bank sailed into the mouth of the Pearl River, and successively set up strongholds in Yaniangxie Fort, Haizhu Island and other places. Gradually, the momentum rose and attracted the attention of many people, and Zhao Gui was naturally one of them.At that time, after hearing that the people from the east bank claimed to be descendants of the Miao people of the former Song Dynasty and belonged to the orthodox Chinese, Zhao Gui had a bad idea, and even ran to the door directly, claiming that he was a descendant of the royal family of the former Song Dynasty, and demanded that the people from the east bank Paying for support made people dumbfounded for a while.

Of course, it is impossible for the people on the east bank to let this fellow be so mischievous, so he was arrested directly. First, he was punished to do hard labor on Haizhu Island for three months to build a fort. Started a new life.And maybe it was because he was cleaned up by people from the east coast on Haizhu Island. After Zhao Gui arrived on the east coast, he was enlightened. He studied hard and worked hard. level, and became a serious section-level cadre.

Later, this guy followed his old superior, left the mainland, and traveled thousands of miles across the ocean to arrive at the Riga Commercial Station, where he became a commercial official. This work lasted for four years.Within four years, Zhao Gui relied on his excellent language talent and hard-working work style to advance to another level. When the main leaders of several commercial stations were either transferred or passed away due to illness, he even acted as a temporary agent. The main work of the business station is also amazing.

Today, after Zhao Gui dealt with some business matters with ease, he read some information that was just sent up by the people below.The information was related to Livonia, some came from Germany, and some was bought from Poland with a lot of money. Of course, the information from Sweden and Russia was missing.

What Zhao Gui is reading now is about Russia. The source of the news is businessmen from Poland, Sweden and Russia. The credibility is average, but it is also a proof. It can be compared with the news they have from other sources. Some reference value.

For example, the information that Zhao Gui has now is provided by a Swedish businessman who has been engaged in Russian trade all year round.He himself bought wool from the east coast from the Riga merchant station, and then sold it to remote areas of Russia on the border with Sweden.At the same time, one of his uncles is a businessman who sells high-quality iron ore from Sweden to Russia. The business scale is not small, and there are naturally many sources of news.Therefore, the businessman's intelligence is relatively reliable in general, and the standard of remuneration paid by the people on the east coast is also relatively high.

In the news, the Swedish businessman said frankly: The quantity of Swedish iron ore imported by the Russians has surged recently, and the employment price of military talents from Western countries has also increased rapidly. These signs indicate that the Russians seem to be starting a new round. I don't know what the purpose of the road to a strong army is.

After reading the businessman's self-report, Zhao Gui checked the export volume of weapons and military supplies from the east coast to the Russian Empire in the past year, and found that it had also increased by more than 20%.This is an unusual number, and it is also a dangerous number. Taken together, the Russians are probably really interested in the land on the front lines of Sweden, Germany, and Poland, and have begun a certain degree of military expansion and preparations.Although they haven't come here yet, next time the [-] army will probably come directly, so I'll ask you if you're afraid!

Of course, military expansion and preparation for war cannot be completed overnight.Just a few years after the dispute with the Turks in Ukraine, Duke Romodanovsky’s tens of thousands of elite Russian troops are still stationed in Eastern Ukraine.In this case, the Russians are not saying that they can turn by turning, and their financial resources may not be enough to support long-term operations on the two fronts.Of course, Zhao Gui also knows that it is impossible for Russia to attack Sweden or Poland from the west immediately, but some meanings behind this news are worth pondering, and of course they are also worthy of pride: last year (1682), the east coast stationed in Europe The plenipotentiary special envoy Gao Wengang ordered the use of important diplomatic resources to lobby Moscow to change its strategic focus and adjust the direction of expansion to the south to the west, that is, to abandon the enemy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and turn to attack Sweden and Poland, gaining access to the Baltic Sea. Out to the sea - of course, it will be mainly the Swedes who will face the Russian front, because Poland has only one seaport city, Danzig.

Another piece of news is still about Russia.A local Livonian businessman claimed that in the middle of last year he received a "tour group" from Austria with a scale of more than 20 people in Mitau, but it was suspected to be a diplomatic mission of the Kingdom of Austria. It can be seen that the Principality of Courland also sent people to protect them.

"Damn it! The Duchy of Courland didn't inform us of the Austrian mission in Mitau. It's damned!" Zhao Gui cursed when he saw the news, and at the same time felt that he was emotionally hurt. "Injury", Geinlijia Trading Station usually takes good care of this country, and has given them a lot of benefits within the scope of authority, but it turned out to be this reward in return, which is really unreasonable!

However, considering that in the middle of last year, the Duke of Courland's old Grand Duke Jacob passed away and the new Grand Duke Frederick succeeded to the throne, the whole country was in a mess, so it can be forgiven to a certain extent, but they must give Otherwise, they will consider adjusting the policy in the future to reduce the share of wholesale products to them. Anyway, they have not been particularly active in promoting East Coast products in the past few years, although this situation has improved to a certain extent since the second half of last year. change.

But curses are curses, the meaning of which the Austrians sent a mission to Moscow is undoubtedly very puzzling.Zhao Gui has studied in the Dayuhe cadre training school system for several years, and has also experienced many positions in his work. He still has some relevant experience, so it suddenly occurred to him that maybe the Austrians wanted to form an alliance with Moscow. A long-term strategic alliance to jointly attack the great enemy of Ottoman Turkey.

There is no doubt that this proposal of the Austrians must have a great degree of attraction to Moscow, because it is in the common interests of the two countries, but it does not conform to the interests of Ottoman and the East Bank.Zhao Gui took out this document specially, and wrote the words "Verify Now" in the upper right corner with a pen, intending to ask the business station to mobilize resources and send manpower to verify the news.At the same time, a copy of this document and Zhao Gui's handling opinions will of course be sent to Ambassador Cai at the Iron Mansion in London. His boss will determine whether to take further actions to interfere with the alliance tendencies of Austria and Russia. .

"It's a pity that our influence on these continental countries is still too weak. Fleet blocking the door is simply scratching the itch for these rough-skinned and unresponsive countries. If it is Portugal, Venice, Genoa* It is different for maritime countries that are highly dependent on foreign trade. If a fleet comes to your door, you can almost make them kneel down and kiss your boots." Zhao Gui patted the table with his right hand and said a little uncomfortable.

What he said actually hit the point, and this is what mainland countries hate.The blockade of the coastline has no effect on them, but this kind of loss is acceptable to them. Even the Kingdom of France, which has relatively developed maritime trade, if it is really ignored, the blockade will still have no effect.Although Zhao Gui had done very poorly in the Guangzhou Mansion before, to the point of pretending to be a descendant of the former Song royal family, his mind was still relatively flexible. After studying and practicing for so many years, he had made reborn progress, and he saw these problems very well. precise.

Strictly speaking, if we really want to deal with a mainland country, it has to be another mainland country.For example, the Austrians thought of using Russia to check and balance Turkey. Another example is that the French formed an alliance with the Turks to deal with the German coalition led by the Habsburg dynasty a world ago. The people on the east coast really want to keep their interests in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. , still have to make use of the intricate historical grievances and interest demands between these continental countries, otherwise there is no way to make a fuss.

Of course, as an out-and-out maritime country that focuses on overseas colonization and trade, the East Coast Republic of China is not yet able to go so far.Although some chess pieces have been laid out in advance, they are all preventive. Their first strategy is to attack those maritime countries that have a more direct impact on the interests of the east coast, such as Portugal, England, Genoa*, Venice, Spain and other countries.As for the people in mainland China playing out their brains, the situation has undergone major changes during this period, but they can only do their best, it depends on luck!

"Although our country has been operating in the Baltic Sea for many years, it is still too weak in the final analysis. The army cannot be sent here, and the warship has never been here. With such influence, it is no wonder that even the die-hard Courlandians are with the United Provinces. It’s flickering, if someone has an emergency, you can’t save him, you can only swear at people from the air, that’s useless!” After all, he was born in Ye Luzi, and although he received a lot of education the day after tomorrow, Zhao Gui spoke up. It is still not very pleasant to hear: "I hope to get a military base with the Portuguese as soon as possible. They are all willing to do so, and the mainland is still there. Tired of ink, not tired! Let alone the army (one or two) The battalion cannot change the overall situation), the strength of this navy is really going to be strengthened. The strength of the Cape Verde Squadron of the First Fleet must reach at least the size of more than [-] professional warships. Well, Cape Verde is still far away Some, a Portuguese squadron should be set up, so that the deterrence may be stronger, although it is also more vulnerable to attacks by others."

Many of the following documents are rumors, about the Livonia region, about the Kingdom of Poland, about the Kingdom of Sweden, and also about the German region. Generally speaking, it is rather nonsense, and some are even self-contradictory. contradiction.However, Zhao Gui didn’t think it was strange, no precious intelligence funds were shamefully wasted, because the information collected from businessmen was so chaotic, and those people themselves were not professional intelligence personnel, and they didn’t have to be responsible to anyone. It's just to make a fortune for the people on the east coast, and it's conceivable that the quality is uneven.

Naturally, there is no need to sort out and summarize these dubiously accurate information to Ambassador Cai in the Tie Mansion. Zhao Gui quickly approved a batch, wrote and drew a few words on each document, and provided some low-quality information several times in a row. The merchant's rank was lowered a little (meaning that the next time the informant might be paid less money), then he put down his pen and meditated quietly.

Now, the Ottoman Turkish army that was originally gathered in Hungary has probably moved out in batches, right?After all, Mustafa, the adopted son of the Coprulu family, did not have enough prestige to suppress the various generals who did not take him seriously. He was held hostage by these militants and sent troops to the hinterland of Austria when the conditions were completely immature. , See if you can get a big one.

To be honest, the most taboo thing about marching and fighting is this kind of temporary switching of combat targets and random overweighting.Before sending troops, the Ottoman Empire was originally intended to solve the problem that Hungary was increasingly falling to Austria, and the money, food, and supplies prepared were also prepared for this goal.As a result, after the gathered 20 horses defeated the sparse Austrian army and Hungarian servants, they were persuaded by the French envoy to temporarily clamor to attack the Austrian mainland, which is simply unimaginable.You must know that the 20 Ottoman troops that attacked Hungary were already in the process of successive divisions. Almost [-] troops from all over the country had already returned home after being plundered. It's only half of it. It's a bit sloppy to attack the Kingdom of Austria.

And now that the variable Russia has appeared in Northern Europe, things are even more complicated!You know, if Russia suddenly sends troops south, the impact on the Ottoman Empire will be catastrophic. The South Russian Plain may collapse at any time. It is unrealistic to have more than 15 Russian and Ukrainian coalition forces.

"It would be great if the Ottomans were accepted in Hungary!" Zhao Gui finally lamented.

The business trip ends the day after tomorrow, and I return to Shanghai, and then. . .I went to Anhui for a two-day business trip.However, the busiest period of time has passed, and the update should return to normal. . .Bar.

(End of this chapter)