Chapter 977: Who Is the Enemy? Who Is the Friend? (Seeking Subscriptions)

On the great drill ground at the southern foot of Old Mountain — shared by the four military academies of the Nanjing Military Academy, the Nanjing Artillery Academy, the Nanjing Military Middle School, and the Nanjing Military Primary School — roughly ten thousand student-soldiers from the Military Academy, Old Mountain Middle School, and the Nine Borders Youth Camp had already divided into an eastern and a western army. Under the direction of the Military Academy instructors, they had drawn up two large line formations.

Both large line formations were combined-arms formations made up of flintlock infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other arms, and both bodies of troops had set out from their campsites at first light, marched through the Old Mountain hills for the better part of the day, then entered the drill ground in column, deployed at top speed, and completed their formation drill. The whole process was carried through in one unbroken sweep, without the slightest hesitation or sloppiness.

It is worth noting that the soldiers of the eastern and western armies taking part in today's exercise were drawn from the cadets of the Nine Borders Youth Camp and the first- and second-year officer cadets of Old Mountain Middle School and the Military Academy. The battalion, company, and platoon officers of the two armies were filled by third-year officer cadets of the Military Academy. The instructors of the Military Academy served as the division- and regiment-level commanders.

And these two armies, thrown together on the spur of the moment, performed in Zhu Cilang's eyes with a discipline as exact as that of the Xiaoling Guard's Imperial Guard — and after several days of exercises, the great majority of the men were still full of spirit and high in morale. It seemed the Ming's feudalism had worthy successors indeed!

Zhu Cilang himself sat astride his Arabian horse, surrounded by a group of senior generals and several Western envoys, positioned on a small hillock, watching the performance of the Ming feudalism's heirs with a satisfied smile.

The English special envoy Marvell and Ambassador Pitt, together with the Prince de Condé and the French special envoy Colbert, all sat on horseback at Emperor Zhu's side. The four of them had received word early that morning instructing them to hasten to the great drill ground south of the mountain and await the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming.

The Prince de Condé and Henry Pitt had seen the Ming army's martial bearing many times and were naturally not surprised. But Marvell and Colbert were seeing for the first time, outside Europe, a force of such quality that even on a European battlefield where fighting went on every day it would rank as first-rate elite troops.

Judging by equipment and bearing alone, probably not even the armies of France and Spain could match them. Only England's New Model Army, the Ottoman Janissary corps, and the Swedish army could compare with them — and there had also been the Dutch army, which had once stood not below the Ming's finest, though the Dutch army had now been disbanded by their parliament.

And this army, flawless in its marching and its forming of ranks, was composed solely of students from the military academies and the noble academies, together with a portion of the Nine Borders youth soldiers still in training — not at all the battle-hardened elite of the Great Ming.

They represented the future of the Celestial Empire, not its past!

Having watched the drill of the Celestial Empire's feudal heirs, the next order of business was to discuss how to carve up Spain's world empire.

In the main hall of the official headquarters at the drill ground south of the mountain, the Ming Emperor, Chief Grand Secretary Lu Zhenfei, Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi, Director of the Diplomatic Department and concurrently Prefect of Shanghai Luo Dagong, Marshal's Office Military Advisor Wu Sanfu, Marshal's Office Director of the Naval Department Huang Binqing, the Prince de Condé, Colbert, Marvell, Pitt, and others had all taken their seats separately — everyone had a seat, arranged around a long conference table, and there were also a number of interpreters and officials responsible for keeping records present, each with their own chair and desk. It was a thoroughly formal diplomatic conference setting.

Today's talks could not settle the final treaty, but were rather the negotiations to set the tone for the Ming's entry into the alliance — first the great principles would be fixed. As for the specific contents of the treaty, Zhu Cilang would not negotiate them personally, but would entrust them to Wu Sanfu, Huang Binqing, and Luo Dagong.

"Prince, two Ambassadors, two special envoys," Zhu Cilang spoke first. His time was precious, so he dispensed with pleasantries and went straight to the point. "Before our three nations establish a military alliance, we must first make clear just which enemies this military alliance is to be directed against. Which of you will speak first?"

The question sounded a little strange. Was the enemy not Spain? Was the Ming-English-French triple alliance not directed against the Spanish world empire?

But the actual situation was far more complicated. Although the history books say that the Peace of Westphalia established in Europe the norms of international relations based on equality and sovereignty, Philip IV, Louis XIV, and Cromwell had none of them read such history books, and so knew nothing of sovereign states. Therefore, in this war of England and France jointly against Spain, the camps of the two belligerent sides were not divided according to sovereign states.

The English special envoy Marvell was the first to take up the question. He opened his mouth and said: "Your Majesty, allow me to speak first. The greatest enemy of our three nations is the Spanish House of Habsburg. All states and territories loyal to the Spanish House of Habsburg are our enemies!

Furthermore, the English Royalist party is also our common enemy!"

The English Royalist party was the exiled English aristocratic faction that supported the restoration of Charles II. They had originally enjoyed the protection of the French crown, but at the same time received funding from Spain. Thus, after the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War, they had gone over to the Spanish camp. At this time, France's war with Spain was still not over, and France had also allied itself with Cromwell's regime in England, so the English Royalists had naturally become France's enemies. This group had now withdrawn from France to Dunkirk, which belonged to Spain — Dunkirk was part of the "Burgundian inheritance," which had passed to the Spanish House of Habsburg through marriage, and was at present still part of the Spanish Netherlands (the Spanish Netherlands roughly comprised the later Belgium, Luxembourg, and small portions of France and Germany).

After Marvell finished, the French special envoy Colbert glanced at the Prince de Condé and said coolly: "The French Fronde rebels are also our common enemy. These traitors have withdrawn together with the English Royalists to the Spanish Netherlands."

"Then... how is Portugal's status to be determined?" Luo Dagong, Director of the Ming Diplomatic Department, seeing that the English and French special envoys had finished speaking, opened his mouth to ask.

This question was rather complicated!

The Englishmen and Frenchmen present all knitted their brows.

They all knew that there existed a traditional friendship between the Great Ming and Portugal, and at the same time there existed a Macao problem... And John IV of Portugal very much wished to join the military alliance against Spain. For Portugal and Spain were at war, and once John IV entered the alliance, he would be able to obtain, in the peace negotiations ending the war, an independence recognized by all Europe.

But neither England nor France was willing to bring Portugal along to play, because Portugal's overseas assets were too alluring... If Portugal was not brought along, they would be able, when the need arose, to regard those overseas assets as part of the Spanish world empire!

And once the Portuguese learned that the Great Ming was about to join the anti-Spanish alliance, they would very likely offer Macao in exchange for the Ming's support, in order to enter the alliance.

Of course, it would not be difficult for the Ming Empire to take Macao by force, but what Zhu Cilang wanted was certainly not a Macao destroyed by cannon fire — otherwise he would have struck long ago...

Luo Dagong said in fluent French: "If the objective of the war is merely to expand our three nations' colonies in the New World, then indeed we have no need to bring Portugal along. But if we want more, then the entry of this friendly nation Portugal is still very necessary!"

"Foreign Minister," Marvell, still not quite clear whether Luo Dagong was the Mayor of Shanghai or the Foreign Minister, addressed him as Foreign Minister, "if we bring Portugal along, then Holland may possibly join the Spanish side!"

Portugal possessed many colonies in the Indian Ocean and South America, which made not only England and France covetous, but Holland as well.

Moreover, in the Indian Ocean, the struggle between the Dutch and the Portuguese had been going on all along. In addition, there also existed conflicts between Holland and England and France.

The First Anglo-Dutch War had only recently ended, and the Dutch had suffered no small loss in that war. They were now brooding over how to get even.

And France was coveting the Spanish Netherlands, that territory controlled by Spain. Once it fell to France, then Holland and France would become neighbors — which was not something Holland would be glad to see.

At this point Zhu Cilang smiled and spoke: "Why don't we bring Holland into the fold as well? Since we are going to carve up the Spanish world empire, are we afraid there won't be enough interests to satisfy the Dutch appetite?"

(End of Chapter)