Wu Zhong, who returned to Lisbon, Portugal, met with King João IV of Portugal for the first time and had a long secret conversation with him.

On 15 June, the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese Navy again formed a combined fleet and headed for the Strait of Gibraltar in Spain.

Around the same time, France also announced that it would send troops to Spain.

Britain, which had won the Anglo-Dutch War, was not far behind, and wanted a piece of the pie, so it immediately sent the English naval fleet after hearing the news.

However, they did not gain much advantage in dealing with the Dutch Navy, and their strength was greatly damaged, so they could only send a small number of warships.

The Ming, Portuguese, British, and French allied forces invaded Spain by sea and land, and for a time Spain was in a panic, and Philip IV, the "King of the Earth" in the royal palace of Madrid, the capital of the country, fell to the ground "accidentally" with the scepter in his hand.

After several naval battles in Lisbon, the power of the Spanish Armada at sea was basically scrapped by the Ming Royal Navy, and now it is like a soft persimmon, the kind that rots if you don't pinch it!

This time, Wu Zhong arranged to attack Spain, firstly, to obtain the greatest benefits of the last great war before returning home, and secondly, to build momentum for Louis XIV to gain power.

If a king wants to take over power, he must have military power, and Louis XIV's main thing at present is to find a way to get his hands on the army.

In recent decades, Spain has been France's old enemy, and it has been fighting for many years, and in the first two years of civil strife in France, Spain took the opportunity to send troops to take advantage of a lot of advantages.

When Louis XIV stood in front of the throne of the Louvre, facing the nobles and generals of the army, and for the first time issued his own royal order to send troops to Spain, everyone was shocked.

The Queen Mother Anna and the Prime Minister Ma Zaran looked at the young Lion King in amazement, and the two glanced at each other, both of them saw the worry in each other's eyes, and the young king wanted to take power.

It stands to reason that they should oppose and curb the recovery of royal power, but it would be of great interest to France to send troops to attack them while Spain was in great interest.

Moreover, when they learned that the combined fleet of Ming and Portugal was approaching Spain, the French nobles and generals basically felt that this was a golden opportunity and agreed to send troops to extract the maximum benefit from it.

In this way, if Anna and Mazaran want to oppose it, it will inevitably offend the anger of the public and shake their dominance.

The embarrassed dog man and woman finally made a decision and pinched their noses to agree to Louis XIV's king's order.

Louis XIV was overjoyed, and trusted the new "godfather" Wu Zhong even more, and everything was as he expected.

Of course, Gonggong Wu didn't help him in vain, and France had to pay a lot of money to the Ming Dynasty.

For example, Louis XIV allowed Ming merchants to invest in factories and trade activities in France.

Cultural exchanges between the two countries allow Chinese to carry out cultural work in France and open schools to teach Chinese.

On the diplomatic front, the two countries set up embassies for each other, and after Louis XIV took power, he needed to put pressure on behalf of France like the Netherlands to force the Netherlands to end its war with Portugal in Central and South America and recognize Brazil as a Portuguese colony.

Louis XIV was originally a mercantilist, and he raised his hands in favor of the Franco-French trade.

And he was also an extremely art-loving king, and he had no problem with cultural exchanges.

The final diplomatic matter was not very difficult for Louis XIV, after the Anglo-Dutch war, the strength of the Netherlands was greatly damaged, and the strength of the French army was even stronger than them, so it would be good to send troops to deter a little.

Louis XIV also had a small abacus, at present, France basically has no colonies overseas, if he is pro-government, he will definitely lead France to a strong road of overseas colonization in the future!

Now he has helped Portugal and suppressed the Netherlands, and it has also paved the way for the colonization of France!

In any case, Louis XIV felt that he and France were making money in a political deal with the Ming Dynasty!

On 20 June, the French army deployed troops in northern Spain, and the Ming, Portuguese, and British navies occupied the Strait of Gibraltar through two small naval battles.

On the 23rd, when the battered Invincible Armada saw the dragon flag on the Ming Royal Navy, it ran away on the spot and shrank into the river.

The navies of the three countries followed the estuary of the Guadalquivir River, penetrated 200 miles into the heart of Spain, and occupied Seville, an important Spanish city.

Seville is a city that thrives on and inspires by water, and is the former capital of Spain.

In 1492, after Columbus discovered the American continent, he set up the "Indies (i.e., Americas) Trading House" here, monopolizing Spain's overseas trade.

In 1561, Philip II moved the royal palace to Madrid, although the official announcement of the move to the capital, but in fact Madrid was already the capital of Spain, Seville continued to control Spanish India, Seville became the trading hub and treasury of the Spanish crown.

The Triple Alliance plundered Seville for two whole days, carried out inhumane cruelty to the springs, robbed more than a dozen tons of gold and more than 20 silver ships from the Americas, and caused huge losses to the Spanish royal family.

In the end, Philip IV, the "King of the Earth", admitted that Spain had lost this time, and signed the Treaty of Seville with Ming, Portugal, and England, and signed the Treaty of Pyrenees with France alone.

The Treaty of Seville stipulated that Spain would relinquish control of the Strait of Gibraltar and that the navies of the three countries, namely the Ming and Portuguese navies, would withdraw from the Spanish mainland.

Because the Ming ocean-going fleet was about to return and was unable to control the Strait of Gibraltar, Wu Zhong gave up control and asked the British to buy it from the Ming Dynasty.

Britain was also very happy, and in order to monopolize the Strait of Gibraltar, it directly gave all the gold and silver that the navy had stolen from Spain to the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that the Ming had withdrawn, Portugal knew that it was no match for Britain, and chose to relinquish control of the Strait of Gibraltar, asked for some gold as compensation, and signed a treaty with Britain that required the British navy not to invade Portuguese waters for ten years.

With the supervision and protection of the Ming Dynasty, the British did not embarrass Portugal and signed happily.

Because they don't take Portugal seriously at all, and now they have the fat of Spain, and they really can't be interested in biting the stones in the thatched pit of Portugal.

On July 8, the tenth year of Tianwu, the Daming ocean-going fleet loaded with gold and silver set sail in Lisbon, Portugal, and embarked on a voyage home with the Portuguese princess Catherine.

On the same day, the port of Lisbon was crowded with people and spontaneously came to see each other, and King João IV of Portugal, together with the royal children and nobles, personally stood at the port and waved goodbye.

The atmosphere in the port was both eager and sad, and many young Portuguese women stood in the crowd and wept silently as they touched their slightly bulging bellies.

Finally, at the last moment of the boat, several courageous women chose to board the ship.

Driven by this atmosphere, another group of young and ignorant girls also followed the ship under impulse, and King João IV was stunned.

On the flagship of the Chongzhen, Shi Lang patted Xu Bohan on the shoulder and said, "Uncle Guo, your propaganda is okay!" These Western girls are all coming for the wealth of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Xu Dakun stroked the beard that had just grown, showed a profiteer-like smile, and said secretly in his heart: "Now there is a lively situation on the banks of the Qinhuai River!" ”

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