Chapter 978: First, an Eight-Nation Alliance! (Please Subscribe)

The decision to draw both Holland and Portugal into the anti-Spanish alliance was one Zhu Cilang made after careful deliberation.

Because he knew that to truly bury Spain's world empire, the strength of England, France, and Ming alone was still not enough — Holland had to be brought in!

The reasoning was simple: Holland would not be pleased to see Spain's world empire carved up by England, France, and Ming. So, unable to take part in the partition itself, Holland would inevitably choose to support Spain in some form. Even if Holland did not directly enter the war, merely directing its own armed merchant ships to serve as privateers for the Spanish would be enough to plunge England into difficulty.

And the Dutch East India Company could likewise plunge Ming into difficulty in the seas of East Asia.

At the same time, France's land forces were blocked by the Spanish Netherlands and could not for the moment break through into the Dutch homeland to force Holland into genuine neutrality.

So winning over Holland was the key step in shattering Spain's world empire!

And bringing Portugal into the fold was meant to cultivate a trading partner sufficiently friendly to Ming and able to stay out of the European war — considering that England, France, and Holland would still have many great brawls among themselves in the future, a neutral Portuguese maritime empire was necessary to keep trade and exchange open during periods of fierce war in Europe.

As for Ming itself fighting its way to Europe — that would be underestimating the European powers far too much, and there was no need for it either.

Zhu Cilang swept his gaze across the great hall and said, "We wish to confirm: is the goal of our three nations to bury the Spaniards' world empire?"

"Of course!" Marvell gave an affirmative reply — England's original goal, in truth, had only been to break Spain's monopoly over the Caribbean while expanding its North American colonies. It had never imagined destroying the Spanish world empire in one blow. But with France and Ming joining the alliance, and a string of early victories in the war, Cromwell had raised the goal. So destroying, or severely wounding, the Spanish world empire and then making off with a fat haul had become an option.

"France's goal, of course, is to destroy Spain's maritime hegemony!" Colbert was not telling the truth.

France's navy at present was nowhere near a match for England, Holland, or Spain. So the Cardinal in Red, Mazarin, had allied with England with the minimum goal of ending the war with Spain in victory, and the maximum goal of seizing the Spanish Netherlands.

As for Spain's overseas colonies, France had no particular demands.

Of course, now that they needed to dupe Ming, their wealthy patron, into joining, the talk had to be made grander.

"Good!" Zhu Cilang nodded. He too knew that England and France were not firmly resolved to destroy the Spanish world empire.

But he also needed the banner of the Ming-England-France alliance to bluff the Dutch. Prince Condé had already discussed with the Dutch ambassador Bruys van Diemen the matter of hiring the Dutch East India Company to join the war. The other party had been noncommittal, saying only that he would relay it to Batavia.

Clearly, Bruys van Diemen was not enthusiastic about the East India Company joining the war — it seemed the weight of Ming and France was still not enough!

After all, Ming's maritime strength was still thin. The soft-sailed galleons capable of chasing Western sailing warships on the open ocean numbered only twenty or thirty in all, and the navy's tactical level was still somewhat lacking.

And France's strength in the seas of East Asia was even thinner — just the few galleons of the "gift fleet," not worth mentioning.

Although the Ming navy's bombards (meaning large-caliber short-barreled cannon) and wooden-base explosive shells were very powerful, Spain's Eastern Invincible Armada had now withdrawn to Kagoshima Bay, openly colluding with Japan's Satsuma domain to wage a privateering commerce-raiding war.

And once Ming merchant ships came under attack from Spanish privateers, the Dutch East India Company would have the chance to seize the market. When they could clearly make money lying down, why should those Dutch profiteers go to war?

But once England and Portugal entered the game, it would be very hard for the Dutch East India Company to stay out of it!

Because England's number of ships in the East was no fewer than Holland's. Add Portugal's armed merchantmen, France's armed merchantmen, and Ming's soft-sailed warships — all told, sixty or seventy vessels, which was twice the number of Spain's Eastern Invincible Armada!

Moreover, the command level of the English navy was not below that of the Dutch navy. In the last Anglo-Dutch War, England had in fact gained the upper hand.

Add Ming's bombards, and both Kagoshima Bay of the Satsuma domain and Manila Bay of Spain might fall quickly.

At that point the Dutch East India Company's position would become awkward. It might well become the common target of exclusion by Ming, England, France, and Portugal.

"Since our goals are aligned!" Zhu Cilang paused. "Then let us work hard to bring Holland into the fold. First, in the East we can form an anti-Spanish alliance that includes the Dutch East India Company and the Portuguese Governor-General's office at Macao!

In addition, Japan's Tokugawa shogunate will also join our alliance! And Japan's Satsuma domain, as the Spaniards' running dog, will likewise be our common enemy.

So once the pact of the three nations and two parties (the two parties being the East India Company and the Portuguese Governor-General at Macao) is concluded, our first target will be Japan's Satsuma domain, which has provided shelter to the Spanish fleet!"

Shimazu Mitsuhisa of the Satsuma domain would surely weep and faint upon hearing Zhu Cilang's words. He could not even handle the Tokugawa shogunate alone, and now Ming, France, England, Holland, and Portugal had been added on top.

Right — and Ming's tributary states Annam and Joseon would most likely also send troops to join the war. Under the Treaty of Suzerainty and Tributary, they were both obligated to join the war, and both Annam and Joseon also had small navies.

This was an Eight-Nation Alliance!

"If it is only the Dutch East India Company," Marvell said, "that should be relatively easy to achieve. The problem is, Spain's interests in the East are not many. How should they be divided up?"

Zhu Cilang began to make his offer. He said, "Ming will provide military funding for the fleets of Holland and Portugal. A galleon warship will receive twenty thousand to fifty thousand taels of silver!

English and French ships coming to the East to join the war will also be paid according to this standard. In addition, all prizes and prisoners taken by the warships of England, France, Holland, and Portugal in the war against Spain and the Satsuma domain may be kept by them."

Zhu Cilang did not let anyone work for nothing. Even if allied warships came to help, he still paid them!

And the reason he was so generous was that he knew that in this era, most of the armed galleons of various nations operating in the East Asian seas and the Indian Ocean were privately owned ships "attached" to a flag.

If Zhu Cilang did not pay, they would either not come, or simply go and take Spanish letters of marque.

So he would rather spend a bit more silver and draw all these Western ships to his own side. Even if they did no work and took the money for nothing, that was still far better than letting them go to sea as Spanish privateers.

The moment they heard the rate of service pay Zhu Cilang was offering to the warships of friendly nations coming to aid the war, Marvell's and Colbert's eyes both lit up.

An important mission of their coming to the East was precisely to make the Ming Emperor pay for the war against Spain!

"Your Majesty," Colbert was the first to raise a request for sponsorship. "At present the finances of the Kingdom of France are extremely strained. I fear it will be difficult to sustain a long war aimed at burying Spain's world empire. Therefore His Majesty King Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin hope to borrow a sum of money from you."

Borrow money? Zhu Cilang thought to himself: Louis XIV wouldn't turn out to be a deadbeat, would he?

"How much do you wish to borrow?" Zhu Cilang asked.

Colbert held up five fingers. "Five million taels of silver."

What a lion's demand!

Zhu Cilang did a quick mental calculation. A French gold louis at present was about a quarter of a tael of gold. At the current gold-silver ratio of one to twelve (the gold-silver ratio, after twelve years of adjustment by the two great guilds of sea merchants and salt merchants, had now been brought basically in line with the world), that was three taels of silver. Five million taels of silver was over a million gold louis, equivalent to twenty or thirty million francs. And France's current fiscal revenue was at most fifty or sixty million francs. Though come to think of it, the present Ming Empire really was rich — its fiscal revenue was nearly ten times that of France!

(End of Chapter)