Chapter 872 The Troubles of Happiness "The Ottoman Navy has once again launched an attack on our Venice city-state republic......"
Before Helena finished speaking, Jeon Xu interrupted: "Ottoman Empire?
How many ships do they still have now?
”According to the battle report received by Quan Xu, no less than 2,000 warships of the Ottoman Navy had been sunk, and more than 60,000 naval soldiers had been lost.This is not a false report of war achievements, but a real record.The warships of the Ottoman Navy have basically changed, and even if the current Ottoman Empire can still scrape together hundreds of warships, the naval soldiers can't handle it, and the navy is a technical branch."
There are not more than five or six hundred battleships!"
Helena smiled bitterly".Of course, this is nothing, we have not fought with the Turks for a long time, we have long been used to it.The worst thing is that Europe betrayed us, and while we were fighting a bloody battle with the Ottomans, the navies of France, Britain, and the Netherlands suddenly launched an attack on us!
”Quan Xu was stunned, and smiled bitterly for a long time: "They can't afford to repay the loan again, so they want to use force to force you to write off the debt, right?"
”This kind of thing has happened several times, and almost every time they always get their wish, the Republic of Venice City-State, after all, is only a city-state republic, with a population of less than 300,000 people, even if all the people are soldiers, they are simply unable to compete with these behemoths.Helena gritted her teeth and said, "No, this time is different, they are not trying their best to force us to write off our debts, they are determined to destroy us!"
”The short-sightedness and greed of Western Europeans Venice had already seen the Fourth Crusade, in which these sword-wielding crusaders came together in the name of God to capture Constantinople with the Venetians, and occupied Constantinople for fifty years.When Byzantium fell, only Venice sent a navy to support, and the whole of Europe remained unmoved, allowing the Ottomans to capture Constantinople, leaving Europe without its strongest fortress.And now they actually joined forces with the Ottomans against Venice?"
They are captivated by the wealth and the territory of Venice, they have left behind the most depressing conscience and morality of Christians, they have savagely slandered us as non-Christians, and they have waged holy war against us!"
Helena said very angrily: "The most terrible thing is that Genoa, Naples, Milan, Turin and other city-states have also joined their camp openly and secretly, now we have been isolated by the whole of Europe, and now the whole of Europe is besieging Venice, our end is coming, no one wants to save us, I can only count on you!"
You......
Can you save us?
Please!
”"It's not easy to do, Europe is too far away from us......"
Quan Xu frowned and said: "You also know that our Ming Empire defeated Wolmore Empire, but did not occupy Wolmore Empire, just because the soldiers fought for too long and were too tired, they wanted to rest, and I, as the emperor of the Ming Empire, it was difficult to persuade the Government Council to send troops to fight for a Venetian city-state that was thousands of miles away." ”"I know all this, but we really have no choice, the whole of Europe is besieging us, we can't find even a single ally willing to help us, we can only ask you!"
Helena threw herself on Quan Xu's shoulder, choking with grief, her tears slipped quietly: "As long as we can win this war and let our city-state survive, we are willing to give you all the gold of the city-state as a reward!"......"
Quan Xu sighed and said: "The key is that Da Ming is not short of gold ...... now" Hearing this, Helena was a little desperate.Wolmore is simply a country of gold, Indians are born to like gold, this time the Ming Dynasty sacked the Wommore Empire, but digging three feet into the ground, even the gold on the Buddha statue in the temple was detained, and even when cleaning the battlefield, even the gold teeth on the corpse were smashed down.Hundreds of people in the Ministry of Finance are working overtime day and night, counting the benefits of this war from time to time, they have not yet counted detailed figures, it can be said that the wealth of the Wommore Empire for hundreds of years has been swept away by the Ming Empire.No matter how rich the Venetian city-state republic was, but in terms of size, they would never be able to take out so much gold from the Wolmore Empire.The value of gold has a certain limit, and there is no shortage of gold in the Ming Dynasty, which is not Quanxu's excuse, but the fact that it is bloody.Helena turned her head and looked up at Quan Xu and said, "If you are not willing to send troops, please sell us some shells, without these powerful shells, we will be completely finished!"
”Quan Xu once sold Helena a 130 mm smoothbore gun, but there was no rifling, and the range accuracy was far inferior to that of the naval guns equipped by the Ming Royal Navy.After getting the 130 mm caliber naval gun, the Venetian city-state also organized a large number of experts to imitate it, and finally came to the conclusion: "It is not difficult to build a cannon, with the resources of Venice, it is no problem to make sixty or seventy guns a year, but the difficulty is in the shells!"
”There are two kinds of shells sold by Quan Xu to Helena, one is a sulfur bomb that emits a large amount of smoke with a strong pungent smell after burning violently, and the other is a fire and thunder bomb made of mixing oil and gunpowder in proportion and drying it, the latter is particularly terrifying, those warships with a displacement of thousands of tons are basically finished after two or three rounds, and if you use water to extinguish the fire, it will only burn more fiercely.Both of these shells require a strong chemical foundation to be made, and these are not available to the Venetian city-state, and of course they cannot produce them.This time, Helena took four warships and loaded 200,000 gold coins as funds, and the archon asked her to use the funds to buy as many cannonballs as possible, and not a single gold coin.She also knew the difficulties of Daming, and when Helena passed through the Strait of Malacca with four Venetian warships, the beautiful Strait of Malacca was already full of smoke.Although it is said that even if the Wolmore Empire fights to the death, they don't know who their opponent is, but the Dutch, Portugal, and the United Kingdom know very well that the black-clad army is the Royal Navy and Royal Army of the Ming Dynasty.The Dutch East India Company, in order to retaliate against the Ming Dynasty's attacks on the Dutch strongholds in India, bewitched the indigenous population of the East Indies and launched an attack on the Ming people.The East Indies, in fact, the Indian and Malay Archipelagos in southern Asia are the "East Indies", that is, the present-day Indonesia and Malaysia, which are places with traditional anti-Chinese soil.Under the influence of the colonial government of the Dutch East India Company, a large number of indigenous people launched an attack on the Chinese and the Ming people.Unlike history, the Chinese in history were isolated and helpless, they could only rely on themselves, and they faced a flank attack from the indigenous and equipped Dutch East India Company colonial government forces dozens of times more than them, and suffered heavy casualties.In this day and age, they are not alone, because they have a strong home country to lean on.Although the powerful navy of the Ming Dynasty was scattered in the Ming mainland, South America, India, the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe, when the Dutch provoked this war, Quan Xu directly sent the General Staff to carry out a devastating blow against the East Indies and completely eradicate the power of the Europa in the East Indies.The southbound army is composed of young and strong troops of Li, Yi, Zhuang, Dong, Tu, Miao and other ethnic groups, who have been poor for thousands of years and dream of obtaining a fertile land to survive.With the support of Quan Xu, they crossed Liangshan all the way to the south, and moved to Burma, Siam, Chenla, Khmer and other regions, yes, to annihilate the enemy, and then migrate.They don't miss any opportunity to expand their territory.Don't look at the equipment of the southbound army is not good, it can be said that it is very backward, this is only relative, compared to the Dutch colonial army, their equipment is not too bad.They are a nightmare for all ethnic groups in Central and South Africa.The invincible heavy infantry regiment of the southbound legion was armed with muskets and cannons, and a large number of armed immigrants armed with knives, axes, bows and crossbows followed behind.As one of the Chenla officials put it: "These barbarians sweep our land like locusts, and few of the places they sweep, whether civilians or livestock, survive!"
”These countries also went to Beijing to cry, but it was clear that the expansion of the Baiyi Republic was allowed by the Ming Emperor, and their crying was useless.After finally cleaning up the Indochina Peninsula, they are still a little unaccustomed to such peaceful days, and often have a friendly match between the towns from time to time.Now they have a place to use again, quickly pick up the long-lost guns, carry machetes, spears, and armor, and pounce like locusts on Malacca, the Dutch stronghold in the East Indies, and Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, under the transport of the warships of the Ming Royal Navy.Obviously, the Dutch's act of death has completely angered the Ming Navy, and they want to uproot the Dutch power!
In the waters of Malacca alone, more than 2,000 warships and tens of thousands of civilian transport ships of the Ming Dynasty have been gathered......
Helena saw all this, and she was extremely bitter in her heart.I don't know how many times this kind of expansion has been played out in the history of the Venetian city-state for seven or eight hundred years, but now, these splendor are gradually disappearing like the setting sun, leaving Venice with a very dark future.Ancient Venice, the great motherland that inherited the glory of ancient Rome, can you survive this boundless night and usher in the dazzling moment of sunrise?
Da Ming's main energy was to deal with the Dutch of sea grooms, and the power of the British and Portuguese in the east was cleaned up little by little, and Helena had no hope that Da Ming would send troops directly to support, only hoping to buy more shells.Quan Xu looked at Helena's red and swollen eyes crying and felt a little distressed, and was silent for a moment: "Actually, it's not impossible to solve this problem!"
”"What's the solution?""
After all, the city-state of Venice was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and now that you are under siege, if we stand idly by, it is estimated that no country will be willing to establish diplomatic relations with us in the future."
Quan Xu said lightly: "Now I need you to explain to the representatives of the Government Council, once they agree to send troops, the crisis of the Republic of Venice will be solved!"
”Helena was slightly stunned: "I'm going to convince them?"
”"That's right!"
In fact, Quan Xu's real idea is to let Venice reform the system, change the republic system to a kingdom system, with Helena as the queen, and pass the throne to Catherine in the future, that is, Panjingrou, the Nile princess of the Ming Dynasty.There was no reason for the Ming to fight a war for the city-state republic of Venice, which was thousands of miles away, but the Ming had enough reasons to fight for the Nile princess of the Ming Dynasty.Quan Xu left from Jingshan Hot Spring Palace, and did not return directly to Beijing City from Xuanwu Gate, but entered Beijing City through Guangning Gate, since Quan Xu entered Beijing for more than four years, in this period of more than four years, Beijing City has undergone earth-shaking changes.Helena has been here several times, and each time she is amazed by the rapid development of the city.However, in the past, she entered the city as a tourist, but now she is as an envoy of Venice, and her identity is different, and her mood is naturally different.In the face of the majestic city walls and palaces, she was nervous, if it weren't for Quan Xu by her side, I am afraid it would have taken her longer to muster enough courage to enter Beijing.For more than four years, the streets of Beijing have become wider, and most of the streets have been widened into concrete roads, which are clean and beautiful.Many of the wooden buildings were demolished and turned into buildings made of reinforced concrete and red bricks, tiled on the outside, and each one was a fortress.Sewage pipes and water pipes have covered most of the neighborhoods, especially the water pipes, which are paved all the way from Miyun, which used to be a luxury for Beijingers, but now it has become a necessity for the daily life of thousands of households, and it is very convenient to drink it by turning on the faucet.However, in many conspicuous places, there are signs with red paint that reads "Save Water" to remind citizens to save.Factories have been set up in almost every neighborhood, including textiles, garments, furniture, and grain processing.The number of distilleries has surged, which also indirectly proves that the history of Beijing's food shortage has completely passed, which is beneficial in two ways, on the one hand, because the railway, from Tianjin Wei to Beijing, from Shanhaiwei to Beijing has been built, the transportation is convenient, and the transportation capacity has been greatly improved.Secondly, a large amount of phosphate fertilizer and manure has caused a surge in grain production, and the grain transported in the surrounding areas of Beijing has basically been able to meet the needs, and the remaining shortfall is preferentially purchased from Liaodong, encouraging more people to immigrate to Liaodong to open up Liaodong.At present, the price of grain is unbelievably low, and it is still falling all the way, and the supply is oversupply, and there is no way, and some officials in the DPRK and China have even begun to worry about whether such a low grain price will dampen the peasants' enthusiasm for growing grain.Happiness worries!
Helena can't realize it!