Chapter 1474: The Lord of Heaven Has a Filial Son

The timetable given by the French Minister of the Navy had been carefully calculated!

Because of Zhu Cilang's "golden finger," the expensive ship-of-the-line had become a one-use weapon that "explodes at a single hit."

After repeated study, the most outstanding shipbuilding experts of all the naval powers had discovered a disheartening fact — it was simply impossible for them to build a wooden warship that could withstand bombardment by pointed-nose explosive shells!

This meant that after a decisive fleet battle at sea, even the side that won a great victory would suffer no small losses — a warship blown full of holes by pointed-nose explosive shells was not so easy to repair!

In other words, in a real naval battle, killing a thousand of the enemy would inevitably cost you eight hundred of your own!

The navy had become a business of trading one's own capital for the enemy's.

If a country's shipbuilding and ship-repair speed was not fast enough, then even if it often won at sea, it would not be enough to hold maritime power in the long term.

For the French Navy, however, by concentrating forces in advance and then launching a surprise attack, it was possible to gain command of the eastern Pacific coast for a period of time.

After all, the main force of the Great Ming Navy could not be stationed in the United States of Xinzhou. What the French and New Spanish navies would face in the early stage of the war was only the Great Ming squadron stationed in the United States of Xinzhou.

But as soon as the Great Ming, whose shipbuilding capacity was clearly superior, reacted, the situation would reverse.

And when the limited-strength French Navy faced the great Ming fleet sailing over from East Asia, it could only avoid a decisive battle in order to preserve its strength...

Because a rash decisive battle would inevitably get it completely worn away!

If they lost the navy capable of operating in the Pacific, then France and New Spain's scheme of striking the transport between the Ming and Xinzhou through privateering and commerce-raiding would become impossible to carry out.

Therefore the French side's advantage on the west coast of the Americas could be maintained for at most twelve months.

"Twelve months... will that be enough?" asked the King of France.

The Marquis de Marignan replied: "If all goes well, we can use these crucial twelve months to seize Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Gulf of the Americas region, and in that way we can seal off the west coast of the North American continent."

"If all goes well..." Louis XIV frowned. "And what if it does not go so well? My Marquis, have you considered this question?"

"My Your Majesty," said the Marquis de Marignan, "if it does not go so well, then we must turn to the defensive... I expect that the Chinese will contend with us for the Great Plains of North America and the west coast of the Americas!

By then, we will have to meet the enemy in New France and New Spain at the same time."

"In New France..." Louis XIV paused. "New France is vast, but its population is truly too small. Can we win there?"

"My Your Majesty," the Marquis de Marignan shook his head, "the population of New France is not really too small; it is only the white population that is small. The Indians are not few... they are a force that can be used!"

"But the Indians of the Great Plains are not easy to control. We have made long-term efforts, but with very little result." The Sun King asked, "Marquis, as the new Governor-General, how do you intend to make use of these savages?"

"Your Majesty," said the Marquis de Marignan, "the reason the Great Plains Indians are difficult to control is that we and they have no common enemy! Once the United States of Xinzhou expands eastward into the Great Plains, then we and the Great Plains Indians will have a common enemy."

The eastward-moving Chinese settlers, whether herding or farming, would come into fierce conflict with the Great Plains Indians. The idea of using the fact that everyone was "yellow-skinned" to build some kind of united front to jointly deal with the whites and so on was basically wishful thinking.

Different Indian tribes would even collude with whites to attack one another — how could anyone expect them to unite with East Asian peoples? Besides, East Asian peoples and Indians were not the same race at all.

And to all savage peoples who lived by fishing, hunting, and gathering, the herdsmen's cattle and sheep were their prey, and the farmers' crops were their fruit.

Moreover, the eastward-moving farmers and herdsmen would also hunt the bison of the Great Plains. And their hunting efficiency was certainly higher than that of the savage peoples — this was snatching meat right out of the Indians' mouths! So the contradiction between them and the savage peoples was irreconcilable.

By contrast, because the white population of New France was so sparse, relations between New France and the North American Indians were comparatively harmonious.

The Marquis de Marignan continued: "With a common enemy, we can win the Great Plains Indians over to join our army, to serve the interests of the New France colony, and we can even spread Catholicism to them.

Furthermore, I believe that a holy war to defend New France can in turn spur the rapid development of the New France colony!"

"Is that so?" Louis XIV immediately grew interested. "Tell me, my Marquis, what good plan do you have?"

"Your Majesty," the Marquis de Marignan reminded the Sun King, "do not forget that New France is a land under God's blessing, while the United States of Xinzhou is a blasphemous nation!"

"Blasphemous?" Louis XIV remembered. "Ah, yes — their philosophers discovered God, rather than God enlightening them!"

The "God" Louis spoke of meant the Lord of Heaven, and also meant the Heavenly Principle. Not a white-bearded old grandfather, but an existence that controlled all things within the void, the origin of all things in the universe.

Because of Zhu Cilang's explanation of the "Heavenly Principle" and the "Lord of Heaven," relations between the Roman Curia and the Great Ming Empire had always been somewhat discordant.

On the one hand, the Curia had to acknowledge that the "Heavenly Principle" was the "Lord of Heaven," because the two were fundamentally one and the same. Moreover, the root of Christian doctrine was "monotheism," and this "one God" did not mean that there was only one "supernatural" existence in the universe, but rather that there was only one creator of the universe!

Therefore the Chinese, like the Europeans, were human beings created by God. And the "source of all things" discovered by the Chinese could only be the Lord of Heaven. What else could it be? The Dark Demon King? Catholicism was not the dualistic Manichaean religion, which held that the universe was created by two gods of light and darkness — how could it believe such a thing?

On the other hand, the theory of "discovering God" posed an enormous threat to the existence of the Curia — since the philosophers of the East could discover God, then why must Christians in the West communicate with God only through priests?

The very fact that the Chinese had "discovered God" proved that those sects which held that believers could communicate directly with God without going through a priest were correct. If Protestantism and Puritanism were correct, then on what grounds could the Curia still collect tithes? This was, damn it, about to smash the Roman Curia's diamond rice bowl!

Therefore the Roman Curia's hostility toward the Great Ming Empire simply could not be resolved — how could a grudge over a smashed rice bowl ever be resolved?

"Your Majesty," said the Marquis de Marignan, "the war to defend New France is at the same time a war to defend the Catholic faith and the tithe. If New France falls, then can the day when New Spain and New England fall be far off? The tithes the Roman Curia collects from these two countries every year are an astronomical figure. Now is the time to take out a little of it to support the holy war in New France."

"Right! The Roman Curia must pay for our war of resistance against the Chinese!" The Sun King glanced at his foreign minister, Leona. "Hugo, make a trip to Rome and discuss with the Pope how to share the military expenses and the cost of establishing a colonial city in the mouth of the Mississippi River."

"Your Majesty," Leona was taken aback, "you mean you want the Curia to share the cost of building the colonial city?"

The Sun King nodded: "Yes. I hope to build a city at the mouth of the Mississippi River capable of holding tens of thousands of people, and to develop the land near the city. This will require bringing in large numbers of immigrants and investing enormous sums in construction — perhaps several million gold louis!

Since this city is being built to defend and spread the faith of the Lord of Heaven, I hope the Roman Curia can bear part — preferably all — of the construction costs!"

(End of Chapter)