Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 600 Judgment ([-])

"I think..." At this point, Lu Ming pondered for a while, and then said in a slightly positive tone: "At least so far, I still don't see any intention of the Spanish Kingdom government to seek peace."

"We can come to this conclusion simply by empathizing." Lu Ming explained for his judgment, "Let's first look at the loss of the Spanish in this ten-month-long war. What? Several towns in La Plata and the wealth accumulated in these towns for nearly a hundred years, and these are not the wealth of the Spanish king, nor are they forbidden by the great nobles. Do they need to be heartbroken? The Tyrrhenian Sea battle is What's going on? I know in my heart that the Spaniards have lost some warships, but they are far from being injured. I heard that the number of ships in their Flota fleet heading to the New World in April still reached more than 4 ships. , with an average tonnage of more than 40 tons, which proves that their strength should not be underestimated. I even doubt whether the news of the Tyrrhenian Sea battle can attract even the slightest attention of Philip IV. After all, it has nothing to do with the ongoing affairs with France. Compared with the battle for dominion, our war is really nothing."

"The fall of Santo Domingo in Spain may cause some shock to the Spaniards, but then what? They should still do what they should do, continue to deploy our offensive, continue to fight with the French Their losses are limited, the New World can still provide the king with a steady stream of war funds, the moneylender group composed of Dutch, Jews, and Genoese is still providing them with financial services, and the huge army is still fighting in many On the front line, they don't need to specifically target us, they just drag it down so simply, can we afford it?"

"We can't go on at all! Due to various factors caused by the war, it is now conservatively estimated that we will have a financial gap of more than 30 yuan per year. This gap cannot be solved by issuing money orders alone. And this is still the current situation. If the Spaniards fight us and try their best to prevent us from entering European trade, then our financial system will only take a year to completely collapse." Nie Xiaoqian, the financial committee member, also supports Lu Ming's judgment, and just listen to her continue Said: "What will we do then? Will we implement a material rationing system? Everyone will stop paying wages, only guarantee basic living supplies, and receive living supplies by ticket. But even this cannot last for too long. This is just a delay, it cannot stop The breakdown of our economic, social fabric."

"Our ships can't go to Europe, so we can entrust all commercial trade to the Dutch. Although there will be a lot of losses, and the Netherlands will sit on the ground and raise prices, it's better than sitting idle." Army Minister Liao Meng sat in the corner , while smoking, said: "The ability of the Dutch to raise supplies is beyond doubt. Even if the price is twice as expensive, it is not something we can't afford. We can export grain, steel, leather goods, textiles and other commodities to the Dutch, even if we give them What about monopoly power, as long as it can be exchanged for the materials we need to maintain the war, it is worth it. After all, the land resources seized through war are priceless and can truly be passed on to future generations."

Hearing what Minister of the Army Liao Meng said, the officials of the civil service faction suddenly felt their blood pressure rise, and the veins on their foreheads were throbbing.This kind of militarism in disregard of the actual situation of the country, and everything is resolved by simple and crude wars, in the eyes of civil officials, it is simply a joke!

Don't you know what the consequences of militarism are?It has been almost 17 years since our country rose from the cracks and struggled to survive. Is it easy for so many years?Don't the red deer in your military department have to see the country's economic collapse and social turmoil to be satisfied?Don't you know that domestic social, religious, and ethnic issues are extremely complicated nowadays, and a slight mistake on the battlefield or in the economy is likely to cause huge waves in the country.Economic deterioration, social turmoil, and rising ethnic conflicts are things that civil servants will never allow to happen!

As for the unconventional development that the military forces have been advocating, in the eyes of civilian officials, it is a dangerous move like "***". They advocate that the lives of people who travel through are limited. In this small corner of Uruguay, while struggling with the deteriorating domestic and international situation, at the same time, it has to face the European powers that have begun to turn their attention overseas after the internal integration.By that time, the external situation on the east bank would probably be even worse, and it would be even more impossible to expand its own land through war. On the contrary, it would have to face the hostile eyes of European powers—after all, the east bank was a pagan country.Therefore, now it is necessary to develop beyond the norm, use a saber to cut a road and a living space around the thorns, and fight for the land under the sun for the country and future generations.

This kind of argument is extremely popular in both the army and the navy, and there is no shortage of supporters among the people.On the east coast, the country is established by force, and the social status of soldiers is extremely high. The ideal of young people in China is to join the army besides being a scientist.Moreover, their income is absolutely high, and their thinking, clothing, and expenses are objects for ordinary people to emulate.All this irritated the civil servants, what they wanted was a gentle gentleman, not an arrogant and rude military man, and what they wanted was a prosperous economy, not a hard-pressed finance.Therefore, there is a consensus in the civilian system to end the war as soon as possible, but the question is: how to persuade the militants in the military?

"Based on the current situation, it is tantamount to wishing for a quick end to the war." Sun Liyu, another woman on the Central Executive Committee, a member of the judiciary and the head of the military court, is related to Peng Zhicheng, a veteran of the army, so she has no The question is from the standpoint of the military department: "We want a truce, but are the Spaniards willing? Have we hurt the Spaniards? I think it is far from it! The loss of La Plata is indeed a big deal for the Spaniards." Loss, but the question is is La Plata a core interest of the Spaniards? The answer is clearly no! Where is the core interest of the Spaniards in the New World located? In the silver mines of Potosí! In the silver mines of Villarrica in northern Chile Mines! Silver mines in Mexico! Sugar in Cuba! Shipbuilding in Havana! Timber in Central America! Tobacco and cotton in Florida! The places we've knocked down now, sorry, are not enough to make the Spaniards feel like they're here The enemy made concessions and asked for peace."

Although Lu Ming is a high-ranking naval officer, he has always been a moderate and has a good relationship with the civil servants.At this time, seeing that the atmosphere in the meeting room was not right, he immediately came out to smooth things over and said, "The idea of ​​ending the war is correct. The reality of the country does not allow us to procrastinate for a long time, because we don't have that much money. If nothing else, The personnel salary expenditure caused by the war is an astronomical figure. Although the money can theoretically be recovered in other ways in the hands of the soldiers, it takes a process after all. And the way we can recover the silver dollars in the hands of the soldiers is now also Not very much, because the number of goods on the market is undoubtedly decreasing every day, and it is obviously not possible to continue in this way, and the finances will eventually be unsustainable."

"But as Commissioner Sun said, ending the war is not a unilateral matter, which requires the consent of the Spaniards. But judging from the current situation, this is obviously unrealistic, because we have not put enough pressure on the Spaniards, They can hold on! They rely on the thousands of soldiers of the Lima Colonial Legion, at least so far, they have successfully confined the war to the territory of La Plata, which is beneficial to them. What we have to do now, It is to let the Spaniards understand that the battle situation is not stable, and they may have bigger and more serious failures behind. If they do not stop losses in time, the future losses may be unbearable. And to do this , I think there is only one way."

Speaking of this, Lu Ming smiled wryly, but still said sonorously and forcefully: "The method is to continue to develop the situation in depth and let the Spaniards feel the pain that goes deep into the bone marrow. Although this is very likely to arouse the anger of the Spaniards and cause them to invest in More forces are fighting with us, but we have no choice, or we will drag on like this, consuming a lot of supplies and money every day, and then wait ten or eight years to see when His Majesty Philip IV of Spain will I'm getting impatient, thank you for ending the war with us. In the end, we still underestimated the Spanish's comprehensive strength and will to fight, and overestimated ourselves. How can it be so easy to swallow elephants? But this is the end, we We can only bite the bullet and fight on, how can we sit at the negotiating table on an equal footing with the Spaniards if we don’t make a name for ourselves?”

As soon as Lu Ming finished speaking, the conference room fell into silence.In fact, none of you present here are aware of the current situation. It’s just that the war has reached this point. Faced with an increasingly embarrassing situation, everyone is a little helpless, and then some anger rises and opinions are opposed. This is also understandable.

But as Lu Ming said, the matter has reached this point, and it is really meaningless for everyone to argue and complain at this time. It is better to face the reality and think about the next countermeasures.How to better support the war with war, delay the deterioration of the East Coast economy as much as possible, and at the same time maintain domestic stability, this is what everyone should do.The civil servants should do their best to maintain the domestic situation and develop the economy, and the military officials should fight the enemy better and end the war as soon as possible. The civil and military parties should cooperate sincerely to ensure that the people on the east coast get what they want in this war. It would be nothing, and that's clearly something the East Bank can't afford.

(End of this chapter)