The great beneficiaries of the invasion of Spain by the Ming, Portuguese, British, and French armies were undoubtedly France and Louis XIV.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees between Spain and France stipulated that Spain ceded Artois and Roussillon to France, and promised to marry the royal princess to Louis XIV the following year, but the princess would not inherit the Spanish throne.

Louis XIV also made a request that puzzled the Spaniards: France pardoned the leader of the Slingers, Prince Condé, and allowed him to return to the country. (The one who failed to seize power with Prime Minister Mazaran and was exiled to Spain)

Louis XIV's maneuver not only allowed France to win two important regions almost bloodlessly, but also begged for a wife for free.

For a time, Louis XIV's prestige in the country soared, and nobles and armies continued to express their allegiance to him.

Moreover, the return of Prince Condé made Prime Minister Ma Zaran deeply frightened, and His Majesty's intention was obvious, he wanted to use Prince Condé to balance the Prime Minister's party!

Moreover, the marriage between the French Bourbon royal family and the Spanish Habsburg royal family allowed the young king to gain the support of some Spanish nobles.

After a period of struggle and repeated trade-offs between royal power and relative power, the courageless Mazaran decided to retire in order to keep the family's wealth.

Mazarin's wealth was 50 million livre, equivalent to more than half a year's tax figure in France at that time (the total tax amount of the vassal state at that time was 81 million livre, but the royal family received 31 million livre).

In addition to the inestimable works of art that Mazaran usually collected, according to the slightly exaggerated estimation of the later writer Voltaire, Mazarin's actual family property reached a total of 200 million livres, which can be called China's Heshen!

Despite all this wealth, Mazaran was a complete miser, and he kept his family members clothed and fed, especially his nieces, who wore gold and silver.

However, he was very stingy with officials and subordinates, and was described by his subordinates as "easy to forgive the mistakes of the enemy, but also easy to forget to benefit his own people", which directly led to the rapid collapse of the prime minister's party in the struggle against the royal power.

Before his retirement, Mazarin deliberately staged a bitter scene, crying and telling Louis XIV: "Your Majesty, great king, you must take power yourself, and you can no longer appoint a prime minister!" ”

Louis XIV understood and smiled and said, "My beloved godfather, if you continue to rule, I don't know what to do with you!" ”

Eventually, Mazaran returned to his hometown in terror and became ill ever since.

On June 7, 1654 (the 11th year of Tianwu), on the day when the Ming Ocean Fleet returned to the Ming Dynasty, Louis XIV was crowned in Reims, known as the "City of Kings".

Notre-Dame de Reims has long been regarded by Europeans as the "Cathedral for the Coronation of the Kings of France", and many people say: "If you don't have a coronation here, you can't be considered a real King of France!" ”

The coronation ceremony was presided over by the important Bishop of Soissons of the Archdiocese of Reims, and the ambassador of the Ming Dynasty to France was also invited to attend the coronation ceremony.

After his coronation, Louis XIV became even more high-spirited, and his first order after taking office was to no longer appoint prime ministers, and to dismiss Nicolas Fouquet, who he considered to be the heir of Mazarin, on the grounds of bribery.

After becoming pro-government, Louis XIV learned from the Tianwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and did everything himself, working more than eight hours a day, governing the country with great enthusiasm and spirit.

In order to learn from Emperor Tenmu's absolute monarchy, centralize power, and turn France into an autocratic nation-state, Louis XIV ordered the royal palace to be moved out of Paris, located in the suburb of Versailles, and expanded.

In order to do this, Louis XIV took the first step to summon the French nobles to the palace to serve the royal family, removing the nobles from their power as magistrates, thereby weakening the power of the nobility.

In this way, in order to favor the king's nobles, they have to stay in the palace from morning to night, and they have to adapt to the rules of the court, and they can't go out to be demons at all.

This practice is a bit similar to the practice of free-range Baylor, the prince of the Eight Banners, after the Tatar Qing entered the customs......

Moreover, Louis XIV had an amazing memory, he could be called the strongest brain, and every time he entered the hall, he could tell at a glance who was present and who was absent, just like the head teacher called him.

It is entirely conceivable how well-behaved the French nobility under his rule were.

For the provincial nobles who dared to disobey their royal orders, Louis XIV inherited Zhu Cihong's iron-blooded methods, and ruthlessly suppressed them, cutting down to the edge of the sword.

In order to control the localities, he also sent judicial, police and financial inspectors to the provinces.

During the first few days of talking with Wu Zhong, Louis XIV also learned about the new policy of Tianwu, and also carried out a series of drastic innovations while strengthening the rule of the king.

Economically, he straightened out his finances, practiced mercantilism, and actively expanded his overseas colonies.

Militarily, it reorganized armaments, expanded troop resources, strengthened coastal defenses, actively carried out military exchanges with the Ming Dynasty, introduced new weapons and advanced technology, and controlled the dispatch of the armed forces in various provinces in the hands of the central authorities.

Ideologically, Louis XIV demanded that all French subjects be Catholic and that they should practice cultural autocracy.

Hearing that the Ming Dynasty had a department for cultural supervision and management, Louis XIV also copied this set and established a national cultural institution, allowing the state to exercise control over society and bring cultural and artistic activities and talents in the social field into the state system.

Don't have any money for this? Inexistent!

The former prime minister, Mazarin, was frightened into a break within two years, and Louis XIV unceremoniously collected all his 200 million fortunes into his small treasury for the construction and rule of France.

After Louis XIV came to power, a series of measures concentrated the power development of the originally loose king to the peak, and he even shouted the slogan "I am the country", which was later called the French version of "Tianwu the Great".

A few years later, Louis XIV made France the most powerful country in Western Europe at the time.

Because Emperor Tianwu Zhu Cihong was ten years older than him, and the two lived in the same era, the people of the time called them "the two emperors of the east and the west", the emperor of Tianwu was the emperor of the East, and the sun king was the emperor of the west.

The sons of the two emperors also fought to the death, the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty and the crown prince of France, these two pairs of father and son, have been tossing in the collision of the eastern and western hemispheres for decades.

However, due to the development of technology and navigation technology, the two emperors of the East and West finally fought a battle in the Atlantic Ocean after a few decades!

......

In March of the eleventh year of Tianwu, after more than eight months of sailing, the Daming voyage fleet finally returned to Daming after a two-year absence.

On the Yangtze River that day, gongs and drums were beaten, filled with a festive atmosphere.

Zhu Cihong personally came to Yifengmen to greet the officers and men of the ocean-going fleet with a triumphant salute.

Looking at the energetic Emperor Tianwu, who was nearly thirty years old, Wu Zhong's eyes moistened all of a sudden, and he slid all the way to Zhu Cihong's side.

Zhu Cihong helped him up, comforted and praised Wu Zhong's loyalty and bravery, and praised the Ming Dynasty overseas!

The two chatted for a while, and Wu Zhong remembered that the handwritten letter of Louis XIV, King of France, was taken and handed to Zhu Cihong.

Hearing that it was the letter of the "Sun King" in history, Zhu Cihong was a little interested, he opened it slowly, and the content was as follows:

"Sovereign, great Emperor, dearest friend, may God make you more honorable with good results!"

"Knowing that there are many learned men around your Majesty and in the kingdom devoted themselves to European science, we have decided to send to your Majesty the latest scientific and astronomical observations from our famous Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, as a sign of my reverence and friendship!"

"For this, may God make you more honorable with good results!"

Written at the Palace of Versailles on July 18, 1653

Your dearest friend

Louis

Zhu Cihong smiled slightly, did not speak, and handed the letter that had come across the ocean to the eunuch beside him for safekeeping.

"After going to sea for nearly two years, Wu Daban has lost weight!"

As he spoke, Zhu Cihong took Wu Zhong's hand again and rode back to the palace together.