Chapter 746: Little Louis, Don't Cry

With the help of Ferdinand III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Ji Kun and Jürjü were finally able to set out on their visit to France. Li Shaoyou, however, was left behind in Vienna, serving as the Ming Empire's provisional ambassador to both the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

The reason it was provisional was that Zhu Cilang had no intention of cultivating deep ties with the Ottoman Empire or the Holy Roman Empire. He had therefore prepared no letters of credence for those two states, nor issued any imperial edict appointing so-and-so (name left blank) as special envoy ambassador plenipotentiary to the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

So Li Shaoyou could only serve as a provisional ambassador, and without the authority of an "imperial envoy."

Ji Kun, meanwhile, set out carrying the Zhu Emperor's personal letter to Louis XIV, the Ming state's letter of credence to the Kingdom of France, and the imperial edict appointing him Ming ambassador plenipotentiary to both France and the Netherlands.

In Zhu Cilang's plans, France was a state that absolutely had to be cultivated and won over!

England, on the other hand, was a state that absolutely had to be guarded against and contained!

In other words, Zhu Cilang's design for the world was "win over France, restrain England." As for the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, none of them were major players.

Portugal's glory days were already behind it; it was now in a period of contraction, and the Ming had no need to hasten its collapse. That would only cause a precipitous decline of Portuguese power in the Indian Ocean, and the Timurid Empire of Hindustan might well fill the vacuum.

The Netherlands might be riding high, but once Louis XIV gave it a thrashing, it would be badly weakened and would no longer have the strength to contest territory with the Ming in the East.

If Louis XIV in this timeline could carry out his grand plan of destroying the Netherlands, then wouldn't the Dutch holdings in the East end up bearing the surname "Ming"?

What harm was there in letting the Dutch go on building things up for now? If the Ming wrecked the East India Company over the petty tricks of a few Dutch profiteers, then wouldn't the Muslim rulers of Java and Malacca seize the chance to rise again?

If they colluded with the Timurid Empire in India, the Ming Empire would have a real headache on its hands!

As for that "lunatic Spain," it was a bit of a thorn, and it would be many years before Louis XIV gave it a thrashing — though the overall trend was still downward.

So Zhu Cilang had no intention of developing friendly relations with Spain, but neither was he willing to provoke a war with Spain on his own initiative. It was a madhouse of a country — historically it had gone bankrupt nine times fighting wars for God!

Who knew whether it might go bankrupt one more time just to fight the Ming?

In any case, there wasn't much difference between nine bankruptcies and ten; the ones who suffered were the financial markets of Spain and Italy!

This was where Spain's world empire had an advantage over the Ming: behind the Spanish stood a relatively mature financial market that could absorb fiscal crises. But once the Ming Empire fell into fiscal crisis, it could only pass the burden downward — that is, shift the crisis onto the lower strata, leaving the soldiers and officials at the bottom to bear it.

So Zhu Cilang had to work hard to build up a financial market while carefully maintaining fiscal balance. He could not rashly fight a war that would bankrupt the Ming dynasty all over again.

But the Zhu Emperor's plans could not keep pace with the changes stirred up by Ji Kun's mission!

Because Ji Kun had lost time in Siam, then traveled by way of the Ottoman Empire and even signed a "Good Friends Treaty" with the Ottomans, greatly deepening "Ming-Ottoman friendship" — and the Ottoman foreign minister Jürjü, who accompanied Ji Kun all the way to France, clearly also bore a special diplomatic mission.

A grand alliance made up of the Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of France was quietly taking shape!

At the same time, the envoys of the Great Mongol Empire (the Qing) had completed their mission to the Timurid Empire in Hindustan and were now racing toward Europe aboard Spanish sailing ships.

A grand alliance made up of the Great Mongols, the Indian Mongols, and Spain was likewise beginning to take shape!

Once two great military alliances began to form, war became unavoidable!

In the Château de Saint-Germain outside Paris, little Louis, waiting for victory or defeat, did not know that he was moving toward the center of the stage of world hegemony.

He was failing miserably at the moment — quite comparable to the Chongzhen Emperor in the early days of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen!

At home in France, the Fronde uprising had erupted because the Cardinal-Minister Mazarin wanted to levy taxes to pay for the Thirty Years' War — and it was not just hungry paupers making trouble! Large numbers of nobles were involved, and plenty of veterans just back from the Thirty Years' War were kicking up a fuss as well.

Abroad, "lunatic Spain" absolutely refused to cease hostilities and was still fighting France.

Worse still, the domestic Frondeurs had actually set aside the national interest and colluded with the Spanish to attack the king together.

With internal troubles and foreign invasions joined together, how could the French royalist party possibly hold out?

So more than two years earlier, Louis XIV had fled Paris with his mother and hidden in the Château de Saint-Germain outside the city, where every night he either had nightmares or secretly shed tears.

His nightmares were always about losing his head — either he dreamed of the ghastly sight of his neighbor Charles I being beheaded, or he dreamed that he himself had been seized by the mad Frondeurs and, in an enormous square amid the cheers of a frenzied rebel mob, his head fell to the ground.

Was this truly to be his fate?

What had he done wrong? Why did the people of Paris and those nobles in the provinces no longer love him as their king?

He seemed not to have done anything at all!

Having just finished praying to God, the King of France, waiting in his study for his tutor to come give him his lessons, suddenly heard the sound of volley fire and cannon fire. It badly frightened the little king — could it be that the Frondeurs and the Spanish army had already fought their way to the Château de Saint-Germain?

No, it couldn't be that fast. It must be that the people of Paris had risen up again!

Just as little King Louis was wondering whether he would have to move house again, from outside the door came the voice of Mazarin's right-hand man, the Deputy Superintendent of Finances Nicolas Fouquet: "Your Majesty, General Schomberg has personally escorted the Chinese mission to the Château de Saint-Germain."

So the gunfire and cannon fire had been to welcome the Chinese mission!

The Chinese mission? Little Louis remembered at once — a few days earlier Mazarin had reported the matter to the Queen Mother and himself as a good omen that France was about to emerge from its difficulties!

"Must I go welcome them in person?" the little king asked.

Nicolas Fouquet, who had already entered the room, first bowed to the little king, then said: "The Queen Mother wishes to hold a formal welcoming ceremony tomorrow morning. Many nobles and diplomats will come from Paris, and the Prince de Condé will also attend. Your Majesty will need to appear in full court dress."

Paris had been retaken in 1649 by Condé, France's young and celebrated general. But after taking Paris, the Prince de Condé believed his achievements were so great that he ought to become first minister. Yet the Cardinal-Minister Mazarin was on excellent terms with the Queen Mother Anne and had powerful backing, so he refused to yield — and even fabricated charges to have the Prince de Condé arrested.

As a result, the Prince de Condé's brother Conti and sister Anne kicked up a storm, rallying a group of nobles and veterans in revolt. They also brought in the Viscount de Turenne, then France's most famous general after Condé, as their Regional Commander, and colluded with the Spanish army to make trouble.

The Prince de Condé himself, meanwhile, was detained in Paris, under house arrest.

"What? The Prince de Condé is coming too?" the little king asked. "Are the Queen Mother and Mazarin preparing to release him?"

The imprisonment of the Prince de Condé was not only the spark that pushed the Fronde movement into its second phase; it was also a pretext for the Frondeurs' agitation. If the Prince de Condé could be released, some of the Frondeurs might come over to the king's side.

That way, little Louis's head would be safe!

Fouquet replied: "If he is willing to go to China as Your Majesty's envoy, the Queen Mother and the first minister will release him."

"He is willing to go to China?" little Louis asked again. "China is too far away."

Fouquet said with a smile: "Your Majesty, as long as you personally make the request, His Highness the Prince will have no choice but to go. Establishing special friendly relations with China is of the utmost importance to the interests of the Kingdom of France!"

(End of Chapter)