Chapter 970: The Little Filly from France (Please Subscribe)

"You are absolutely right — Cromwell went to war with Spain precisely because he wanted a hand in the New World of the Americas!" Prince de Condé, who bore the vital mission of dragging the Great Ming Empire into the water to jointly oppose Spain, said with a smile to Zhu Cilang. "The Americas are the most precious treasure of Spain's world empire, and likewise the most envied. And Philip IV's idea of monopolizing the American continent will surely bring Spain endless wars!

And every great power that wants a hand in the New World of the Americas must fight Spain for the vast and wealthy lands of the New World!"

Because Portugal's Restoration War was not yet over, Philip IV could still regard Portugal's American territories as part of Spain's world empire.

So on Spain's own maps, this 'King of the Earth' still possessed nearly the entire American continent!

Yet Spain could not digest this coveted, boundless estate — because Spain's own population was simply too small!

So the concept of holding all the Americas had now become an enormous burden for Spain's world empire. Although the Kingdom of Spain extracted vast quantities of gold and silver from the Americas, that income was still insufficient to cover the military expenses of defending the Americas.

Moreover, Spain, holding all the Americas, could find almost no truly reliable friends in the world apart from the Holy Roman Empire, likewise ruled by the House of Habsburg. Every country with a few ships capable of venturing onto the oceans was drooling over the Americas — how could Spain make friends with them?

So war between Spain and the Great Ming was unavoidable, war between Spain and England was unavoidable, war between Spain and France was unavoidable, war between Spain and the Netherlands was unavoidable. Spain had unavoidable wars to fight with nearly every maritime power!

That said, Spain in the Age of Discovery could still fight very well.

In the original history, this Anglo-Spanish War, fought between 1655 and 1660, was Spain standing alone against France and England.

Although Spain was defeated by the combined forces of England and France, England, as the main force engaging Spain at sea, also suffered extremely heavy losses in this war!

In this war, Spain's main battle fleet could not defeat the English fleet. But Spain's privateer commerce-raiding tactics were highly successful. During the six years of war, the English lost a total of 1,500–2,000 merchant ships!

So in the historical Anglo-Spanish War, England and Spain actually both suffered, while the true winner was France, which used borrowed strength to strike — this war not only helped France end the domestic turmoil of the Fronde, but also helped France extricate itself from its long war against Spain, and moreover weakened France's two important allies, England and Spain.

One could say it was this very war that laid the foundation for the glory of France in the age of Louis XIV! And the man who led France in fishing in troubled waters and reaping a full harvest in this war was none other than Prince de Condé's adversary, the Cardinal-Minister Mazarin.

Now this Cardinal-Minister certainly would not forget that on the other side of the earth there was still a Celestial Dynasty of the Great Ming likewise in a state of hostility with the Kingdom of Spain.

Through the reports submitted by Prince de Condé, Cardinal Mazarin had acquired a fairly accurate understanding of the Celestial Empire's financial and military strength.

Hence the idea of drawing the Great Ming into the alliance. Although the Celestial Empire was simply too far from the European continent to possibly send troops to fight in Europe and the Atlantic, the Celestial Empire could provide military funds for the cash-strapped French crown!

Furthermore, drawing the Celestial Empire into the alliance would be conducive to establishing Sino-French trade ties by treaty after the war — in this age there was no free trade, only gunboat trade!

France and the Great Ming were both latecomers in naval power, and therefore had no way to extract sufficient wealth from the lucrative overseas trade. Although the two countries had long entertained the idea of large-scale trade, it had never been able to get underway, and even now they could only engage in petty 'gift trade.'

And this war in which England, France, and the Ming would gang up on Spain might well produce an international trade order more favorable to both the Great Ming and France.

"In that case," Zhu Cilang turned to look at Prince de Condé, "what can We gain from a war against Spain? And what would We have to pay?"

Prince de Condé smiled: "Your Majesty, I can guarantee you nothing. What you gain depends entirely on the performance of the Great Ming navy!

Although your army is very likely the most powerful in the world, it is of no use whatsoever in this war — unless there is a sufficiently powerful navy to carry them to a sufficiently, sufficiently distant front!"

The Prince used two 'sufficientlys' to describe the distance, clearly aware that Zhu Cilang too was eyeing the New World held by Spain's world empire with predatory intent!

He paused. "As for what you must pay — I imagine you would certainly be willing, in order to defeat Spain, that villain who has seized the beautiful, rich, and boundless New World, to provide a long-term low-interest loan?"

So they want to borrow money! Zhu Cilang remained noncommittal.

The Prince continued: "Your Majesty, that is all I can say for now. As for the other terms, we must wait for this year's gift fleet to arrive.

By the way, His Majesty the King of France's letter mentions that Cardinal Mazarin has prepared for you a most wonderful gift, and one that best displays France's sincerity."

"A gift? What is it?" Zhu Cilang asked.

Prince de Condé shrugged and said: "I do not know. I do not know either, but the answer will soon be revealed, for the gift fleet should arrive in China shortly. And you need not worry about the fleet's safety, for besides the armed merchantmen sent by France, the British East India Company will provide security for this voyage!"

Prince de Condé did not know what gift Cardinal Mazarin had prepared for the Ming Emperor. Had he known, he would certainly have done everything in his power to prevent the gift from reaching Zhu Cilang's hands.

For the gift was a most delicate and beautiful 'little Italian filly' — she was Mazarin's niece, named Marie Mancini.

Cardinal Mazarin himself had no children, but he had seven stunningly beautiful nieces, and the loveliest of them all was Marie Mancini.

She was now aboard the Saint-Germain, a 600-ton armed galleon that had set out from the French port of Calais. The ship belonged to the French crown and was designated a 'gift ship' — that is, a sailing vessel used to present gifts to the Celestial Dynasty of the Great Ming, though in practice it was a trading ship.

The China–Ottoman–France 'gift trade' opened by Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou was still continuing, though the trade route no longer passed through the Mediterranean, nor used Chinese bird-ships. Instead it took the long route from China — Port of Aden — Cape of Good Hope — France.

Moreover, the 'gift ships' sent by China and France no longer 'exchanged gifts' in the Gulf of Aden, but sailed directly to each other's ports.

Of course, the scale of the gift-ship trade was still very limited. The Chinese and French merchant ships plying this route totaled only six — three each.

But this time the 'gift fleet' sailing from France was unprecedented in scale, comprising not only the six Chinese and French vessels that normally worked the 'gift route,' but also six armed merchantmen of the British East India Company and one British Royal Navy warship — a mighty fleet of thirteen warships and armed merchantmen that departed Calais and sailed for more than seven months, until on the third day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Hongxing it slowly entered the Wusong River of the new and flourishing commercial port of Shanghai.

Marie Mancini, dressed in a velvet gown, now stood on the sterncastle of the Saint-Germain, curiously surveying everything before her. And Luo Dagong, Prefect of Shanghai and concurrently Director of the Foreign Affairs Office, who had boarded at the mouth of the Wusong, was staring fixedly at this Western beauty who could be called peerless. Marie Mancini's eyebrows were long and curved, her nose high and straight, her lashes curved and upturned, her eyes large and bright, her pupils jet-black. Her lip line was soft, alluring, and sensual, the corners of her lips upturned with a trace of elusive, coquettish charm.

(End of Chapter)