Chapter 1241: King of America

Here in Europe, it is now January 1666. The year 1665 that has just passed held epoch-making significance for many countries in this world.

For the Celestial Empire in the Divine Land of the East, its domestic rebel force, the Shun, formally became an overseas colonial empire that year, and even invaded the fabulously wealthy India from the sea. This was in fact a matter of far-reaching importance! Yet the people of that time, including the far-sighted Zhu Cilang, did not realize the enormous impact that the invasion of India and the subsequent influx of "Indian gold and silver" would bring upon the Shun, a feudal military state.

For India, which suffered the Shun invasion, 1665 was also an extremely important turning point.

First, Aurangzeb fought a defeat in Transoxiana that he could not have wished for more... He had set out for Transoxiana with 30,000 men, and when he failed, he brought back three to four hundred thousand people from Transoxiana, and even carried off more than ten thousand elite Uzbek cavalry and a famed Persian general, Khalifa. With this force from Transoxiana, Aurangzeb's position in India would become even more secure!

Second, the Shun Empire colluded with the Dutch and began treating India as their treasure ground for getting rich! This immensely profitable business had only just begun, and there would be plenty to give Aurangzeb headaches in the future!

The third event that would profoundly influence the course of Indian history was, of course, the love story of Zhu Cilang and Princess Nisha... This story only began in 1665, and many difficulties still awaited its heroine, Princess Nisha, in the days ahead!

Central Asia also underwent drastic changes in 1665!

Aurangzeb happily dragged several hundred thousand people off to India to live the good life, leaving a terrible mess behind for Anusha Khan and a portion of the Turkmen who supported him, along with his allies the Kazakhs and the Russians.

Because of Aurangzeb's flight, Sengge Khan, who had been encamped at Bukhara, did not continue toward the Khwarezm oasis, but instead turned back and occupied Samarkand as well.

At the same time, Anusha Khan plunged headlong into the Fergana Valley, and was then bottled up at the valley's exit by the forces of Anu Khatun and Hu Zhongyong.

Meanwhile, in the Khwarezm oasis, news of the deaths of Anusha Khan and Prince Alim threw everything into chaos at once, and the two sons Anusha Khan had left in the oasis immediately began a civil war!

Moreover, these two filial sons of Anusha Khan each called in outside help in order to become their father's only son! One invited the Ottoman Empire across the Caspian Sea to lend a hand, while the other went to invite Persia, the Ottoman Empire's rival, to intervene...

Still, the anti-Dzungar alliance did gain something in 1665: on the northern front, the Russians and Kazakhs made progress in the Middle Jüz. Because the main forces of the Dzungar Kingdom were concentrated on the southern front, those contending with the Russians and Kazakhs across the vast northern front were all nomadic tümens of weak fighting strength. These nomadic tümens were fine for suppressing the Kazakhs, but they were no match for the streltsy and Cossacks commanded by Marquis Golovin.

After several engagements, the leaders of the six Dzungar nomadic tümens all discovered that even though their followers possessed large numbers of matchlocks, they were still no match for the Russian army, whose training and organization were clearly far superior.

Therefore, in the autumn of 1665, the six Dzungar nomadic tümens responsible for contending with the Russian-Kazakh allied forces on the Middle Jüz front all kept shrinking eastward, and by year's end, more than half of the Middle Jüz had been seized by the Russian-Kazakh allied forces!

But the good days of the Russian-Cossack allied forces were about to come to an end. For at the end of the year, Zhu Cijiong, Prince Dai of the Great Ming, finally completed his long journey and arrived at Ili, the seat of the Beiting Grand Protectorate. And a month before his arrival at Ili, 7,500 Young Guards had already marched into the city of Chu River.

The war in Central Asia still had a long way to go!

In Europe, however, 1665 was a rare period of calm. The Second Anglo-Dutch War, which in the original course of history should have formally broken out in February of that year, did not occur, because the great naval upgrade movement among the various powers after the great Battle of Kagoshima Bay had not yet concluded, and both England and the Netherlands possessed too few of the new-style bombardment-gun ships of the line, so neither side was confident, and thus no war broke out.

Yet on September 17 of that year, a major event occurred that would trigger a series of wars and ultimately bring earth-shaking changes to the entire European situation — King Philip IV of Spain died of appendicitis on that day.

And the monarch of the storm-tossed Spanish world empire became Carlos II, a feeble-minded child of four years old!

Queen Maria Anna of Austria became regent of this world empire, which was riddled with holes yet still appeared extraordinarily vast on the map.

But everyone knew that this woman, whose intelligence was hardly better than her husband's, simply could not steer the great, battered hulk that was the Kingdom of Spain, still less withstand the ambitious Louis XIV.

Therefore, when the wheel of history rolled into January 1666, all of Europe held its breath, watching the court of France, as if waiting for the French monarch, already holding absolute power, to launch a large-scale land war in Europe!

And among all the European nations, the country most nervous about this war was, surprisingly, not Spain, which was about to be attacked, but the Dutch Republic, Spain's old enemy...

For Carlos II was, after all, the legitimate monarch of Spain. However ambitious Louis XIV might be, he would not be so reckless as to challenge the order recognized by all European monarchies at the very outset by overthrowing a legitimate monarch's rule.

Moreover, Carlos II was in poor health — perhaps he would not live many more years? Then when the time came, would not Louis XIV's move be perfectly justified?

So Louis XIV was unlikely to attack Spain proper directly for now; the wealthy Spanish Netherlands was his best target for invasion. For the Spanish Netherlands was an exclave far distant from Spain proper, and the people living on that land were far closer to France than to Spain — roughly half the population of the Spanish Netherlands spoke French! The other half spoke Dutch, while the Spanish-speaking population was almost negligible...

Once Louis XIV became master of the Spanish Netherlands, France and the Dutch Republic would become neighbors!

The Dutch, who had long since ceased to possess a decent army, were naturally filled with anxiety at such a prospect.

Wei Qingmu, the Great Ming ambassador to the Dutch Republic who had come from afar, sensed as soon as he arrived in Amsterdam that the city was steeped in fear and unease!

"Bruce, will the French really attack the Spanish Netherlands?"

In the Great Ming legation in Amsterdam, Wei Qingmu and Bruce van Diemen, representative of the Dutch East India Company, discussed the worrisome situation.

"Without a doubt!" said Bruce van Diemen. "Louis XIV now possesses 150,000 new-model troops rigorously trained by the Prince de Condé... while Spain cannot even field 100,000 combat-worthy soldiers, a considerable portion of whom are tied down by Portugal, and it must also defend its home territory and Italian possessions, so the forces it can deploy in the Spanish Netherlands are extremely limited.

In fact, the main force now defending the Spanish Netherlands is the English Royalists... but their strength is still far too weak, and they will not fight to the death against the mighty Louis XIV for Spain's sake."

"And what about you?" Wei Qingmu asked. "You won't just sit by and watch, will you?"

Bruce van Diemen sighed: "That depends on England and Sweden... But until the French have wiped out the English Royalists in the Spanish Netherlands, the younger Cromwell will not intervene. And if the younger Cromwell does not act, then Sweden will not act either."

He smiled bitterly. "The Dutch Republic, which once possessed the strongest army in the world, is no longer a land power capable of playing a decisive role on the European continent!"

Wei Qingmu frowned. "This situation won't affect the Celestial Emperor's investment in the East India Company, will it?"