Chapter 1388: The Grand Alliance of France, Russia, Mexico, and the Shun (Please Subscribe)

In the winter of the twenty-first year of the Ming's Hongxing era, just as Zhu Cilang was using the exploration and development of the southern continent as an opportunity to wage "strategic and diplomatic warfare" against the Western nations of England, Holland, and Portugal, attempting to divide the West and isolate France —

the diplomatic mission sent by France's Sun King Louis had already achieved enormous success. Not only had it concluded an alliance with the Shun Empire and obtained the right to dispatch troops from Windward Fort to seize territories along the Coromandel Coast, it had also brought back a massive Shun imperial mission for the study of Western affairs.

The Shun Emperor Li Jicheng, who had already opened his eyes to the scramble for the world, was quite determined about engaging with foreign affairs. The fact that his mission included so many venerable old gentlemen showed that he intended to change the thinking of the older generation of roving bandits.

The world is so huge — you can't just keep robbing the Ming alone forever!

Besides, the Ming has now revived, and produced a Zhu Cilang who is very hard to rob. If they kept butting heads with him, that would be courting destruction.

So under Li Jicheng's impetus, the Shun court was now busy with two great matters. First, the southward migration — moving most of the military household troops to Upper and Lower Burma Province, Arakan Province, Chittagong Province, and other places for resettlement. Only once the families were settled could they go robbing with confidence!

Second, scouting the routes and casing the targets. Four generations of banditry meant rich experience! They knew that to pull off a big job, they had to case the targets well and scout the routes thoroughly. Otherwise it was easy to botch the job!

The Shun of today was no longer the Shun that occupied the Land of Abundance in Sichuan — they could no longer afford to lose.

So the route-scouting and target-casing teams split into two groups and set off.

One group, led by Gu Junen, went to India to case targets. In name, of course, they couldn't call it casing targets — they had to call it collecting protection money! The Timurid Empire of India must produce two million shi of flour for the Shun Empire to eat, or else wait to get beaten!

The other group was the foreign-affairs study mission led by Song Xiance. They were not casing targets to grab food, but scouting a path for foreign-affairs reform. Li Jicheng was a new-era roving bandit who had opened his eyes to the scramble for the world. He knew this was the Age of Discovery, and being a sea bandit had more prospects than being a land bandit!

So he had firmly resolved to learn from the West, build a navy, and rob the world!

This foreign-affairs study mission led by Song Xiance was going to learn advanced experience and techniques from the Western robbers.

By the winter of 1669 in the Western calendar, they had followed the Frenchman Fouquet and arrived at Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire — that ancient empire of roving bandits.

On the way to Istanbul, Song Xiance had already heard from Bruce, the Dutch envoy serving as interpreter, about the glorious history of the Ottoman Empire. They were originally descendants of the Turks! They too had failed to rob the Tang in the East, so they turned west and advanced, robbing all the way to Europe, and had even robbed the Eastern Roman Empire — that ancient civilized state of European history — out of existence. Truly formidable!

And the Sultan of the Ottoman state was preparing to press on, next planning to rob Vienna, the capital of something called the Holy Roman Empire. Truly admirable spirit!

After entering Ottoman territory, Song Xiance specifically requested of the Ottoman officials who came to greet them to be allowed to pay respects at the tomb of Osman, the founding Sultan of the Ottomans, in Bursa. The moment Song Xiance saw the place, he knew it was a rare site of excellent feng shui — enough at least to guarantee the Ottoman dynasty 600 years of rule!

The Ottoman Empire was only 370 years old now, so it had at least another 230 years left! It seemed the Shun and the Ottomans would be better off as friends. That Holy Roman Empire — well, its prospects looked a bit shaky!

When Song Xiance and his party arrived in Istanbul, in the palace, accompanying Sultan Mehmed IV to receive him and Bruce was the aged Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü — the son of that Mehmed Köprülü who had only become Grand Vizier in his eighties. Under the actual administration of the two Köprülüs, the Ottoman Empire had been flourishing for the past dozen or so years, its national power thriving.

But when Grand Strategist Song read the face of Mehmed IV, with his somewhat dopey-looking rectangular face, he discovered that although the fellow was currently riding high on great fortune, that great fortune had only a few years left.

He then took another look at the Grand Vizier, who was so old he had nearly become a spirit, and knew where the problem lay. This Ottoman emperor was probably a muddle-headed ruler; the state was run entirely by this Chief Grand Secretary. As long as this old Grand Secretary was around, the Ottoman emperor could rest easy. But if he were gone — heh heh, things would likely go badly!

Mehmed Köprülü was also studying the short Chinese old man before him with curiosity. A grand mage of the Shun Empire! Who knew whether he truly knew magic or was a fraud? But even if he truly knew magic, he would not be permitted to use it within the Ottoman Empire, because the Ottoman Empire had the True God, and that was enough — no sorcery needed!

"Your Excellency the Grand Mage!" Mehmed Köprülü said in a commanding voice. "I have heard that your Shun Empire recently suffered a crushing defeat, losing to the Ming Empire. Why did this happen? Could it be that the Ming Empire's grand mage is more powerful than you?"

This question was truly rather strange!

Mehmed Köprülü's words were translated directly into Chinese by an interpreter on the scene. This was no longer the era when the Ming had just begun to step onto the world stage — the foreign ministries of Western nations now had quite a few Chinese interpreters.

And the Ottoman Empire had always maintained fairly warm relations with the Ming Empire, so an interpreter could be found right there in Istanbul.

What? Grand mage?

Song Xiance listened, somewhat baffled, thinking to himself: I'm a military strategist — how did I become a grand mage? A mage refers to a Buddhist monk. In what way do I resemble a monk? Back when I roamed the jianghu, I dressed as a Daoist priest!

But Strategist Song did not waste words explaining to the Ottoman Grand Secretary before him what a mage was. Instead he directly answered the other's question: "Grand Secretary, the reason we lost to the remnant Ming was not because of mages, but because of weapons. Over the past twenty-odd years, the remnant Ming placed great emphasis on military innovation. They not only introduced Western military science and weaponry, but also introduced Western learning, establishing as many as fifteen universities and training a cohort of scholars versed in both Eastern and Western learning, and especially skilled in the study of the natural world. Under the planning and operation of these men, the remnant Ming not only learned to manufacture Western firearms, but even surpassed their teachers, producing such formidable weapons as the spiked explosive shell and the wooden-handled grenade. At the same time, they also developed a set of methods using explosive shells, grenades, and trenches to assault cities. That is why our dynasty suffered such great losses and lost so much territory!

This is also why our emperor has sent us to study the West — our Shun must likewise learn Western military science and the methods of weapons manufacture."

"What is this spiked explosive shell?" Mehmed Köprülü was now interested. He too had heard that the Chinese explosive shells were formidable — at the great battle of the Malacca Strait, explosive shells had inflicted heavy losses on the Dutch navy.

Now it appeared that these explosive shells were also of considerable use in land warfare. The Ottoman Empire's cannons were already formidable; if they also had these spiked explosive shells, perhaps they could breach Vienna.

"A spiked explosive shell is an explosive shell with a wooden sabot added to one end and a spike added to the other. The wooden sabot allows the shell to fly more steadily and also protects the wooden-tube fuse. The spike's function is to allow the shell to embed itself in wooden planks or brick and stone walls." It was Bruce who explained to Mehmed Köprülü. "Improving an explosive shell into a spiked explosive shell is not difficult, but the effect is excellent. The armies of France, England, Sweden, Holland, Austria, Prussia, and Spain have all now adopted the spiked explosive shell."

"Austria has it too?" Mehmed Köprülü narrowed his eyes. If Austria had it, the Ottomans must have it too!

No — they must immediately introduce the spiked explosive shell, and send men directly to the Ming to buy it! The Ottoman "Grand Secretary" had already made up his mind. Not only would they buy spiked explosive shells, but ideally they would also buy a batch of the cannons that fired these shells, bring them back, and immediately copy them.

The old man thought to himself: With a sharp weapon capable of breaching Vienna's walls, the Ottoman army could give the House of Habsburg a taste of its power!