At the southern foot of Laoshan Mountain, about 10,000 students and soldiers from the Jiangwu Hall, Laoshan Middle School, and the Jiubian Youth Battalion have been divided into two armies, the eastern and western armies, and under the command of the instructors of the Jiangwutang, two large horizontal formations have been set up.

These two large horizontal formations are composed of flintlock pipers, cavalry, artillery and other arms of the multi-arms coordinated formation, and both teams of men and horses set off from the camp early in the morning, walked in the Laoshan mountain area for most of the day, and then drove into the school field in columns, and most quickly unfolded and completed the formation arrangement. The whole process was done in one go, without any mud and water.

It is worth mentioning that the soldiers of the eastern and western armies participating in today's drill were respectively recruited by cadets from the Jiubian Youth Battalion and first- and second-year noncommissioned officers from Laoshan Middle School and Jiangwutang. The officers of the battalion, company, and platoon of the eastern and western armies are filled by non-commissioned officers and students in the third grade of the Jiangwutang. The instructors of the lecture hall served as commanders at the division and regimental levels.

And these two improvised patchwork troops, in Zhu Cihong's view, behaved as strictly as the Xiaoling Guard Forbidden Army, and after a few days of drills, most of them were still full of spirit and high morale...... It seems that there are successors to Ming feudalism!

Zhu Cihong himself rode his Arab horse, surrounded by a group of high-ranking generals and several Western envoys, stood on a small hill, watching the performance of the successors of Ming feudalism, and showed a satisfied smile.

The English envoy Marville and the ambassador Pitt, the Prince of Condé and the French envoy Colbert all rode horses and stood beside Emperor Zhu. The four of them received a notice early this morning and asked them to rush to the campus of Shannan University to wait for the eldest son.

Prince Condé and Henry. Pete was naturally not surprised to see more of the Ming army's military appearance. However, it was the first time outside Europe that Marville and Kirbel had seen such a first-class elite soldier on a European battlefield where they were fighting every day.

If you only look at the equipment and military appearance, I am afraid that even the French and Spanish armies are not comparable to them, and probably only the new model army of the United Kingdom, the Turkish army of Ganishari, and the Swedish army can compare with them - there was originally a Dutch army that was not under the elite of the Ming army, but now the Dutch army was dissolved by their parliament......

And this army, which behaved impeccably in the process of marching and arraying, was only composed of students from military academies and aristocratic schools, as well as some of the nine-sided young soldiers who were still training, and it was not at all the elite of the Ming Dynasty who had experienced a hundred battles.

They represent the future of the Celestial Empire, not the past!

After watching the drill of the successor of feudalism in the Celestial Empire, it is time to discuss how to divide the world empire of Spain.

In the lobby of the official office in the Shannan campus, the Ming Emperor, Lu Zhenfei, the first assistant of the cabinet, Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Luo Dagong, the diplomatic envoy and prefect of Shanghai, Wu Sanfu, the military division of the Generalissimo's Office, Huang Binqing, the naval envoy of the Generalissimo's Office, Prince Kongdai, Kirkbel, Marville, Pete and others, have already sat down separately - everyone has a seat, sitting around a long conference table, and there are also some generals and officials in charge of records, and they also have their own chairs and tables, which is a rather formal scene of diplomatic talks.

Today's talks do not finalize the final peace treaty, but negotiate for the Ming Dynasty to enter the agreement - first set the general principles, as for the specific content of the treaty, Zhu Cihong will not personally negotiate, but will hand over to Wu Sanfu, Huang Binqing, and Luo Dagong to be responsible.

"Prince, two ambassadors, two envoys," the first to speak was Zhu Cihong, his time was precious, so he didn't say any polite words, and went straight to the point, "Before our three countries establish a military alliance, we must find out what enemies this military alliance is going to target?" Which of you will speak first? ”

This question sounds a little strange, isn't the enemy Spain? Wasn't the Triple Alliance of Ming, Britain, and France opposed the Spanish world empire?

In practice, however, the situation is much more complicated, although the history books say that the Peace of Westphalia established the norms of international relations in Europe based on equality and sovereignty. But Philip IV, Louis XIV, and Cromwell had not read such history books, so they did not know what sovereign states were...... Therefore, in this Anglo-French war against Spain, the camps of the two belligerents were not divided according to the criterion of sovereign states.

The British envoy Marville took the question first and said, "Your Majesty, let me talk about it first!" The greatest enemy of our three kingdoms is the Spanish Habsburgs, and all the countries and territories that are loyal to the Spanish Habsburgs are our enemies!

In addition, the royal party of England is also our common enemy! ”

The Crown of England was the group of English exiled nobles who supported the restoration of Charles II, who were originally protected by the French crown but also received financial support from Spain. So after the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War, they joined the Spanish camp. At this time, the war between France and Spain was not over, and it was allied with the Cromwell regime in England, so the royal party of England naturally became the enemy of France. The group had now been evacuated from France to Dunkirk, which belonged to Spain, which was part of the "Burgundian heritage" because the marriage was part of the Spanish Habsburgs, and is still part of the Spanish Netherlands (which roughly included Belgium, Luxembourg, and a small part of France and Germany).

After Marville finished speaking, the French envoy Kirkbell glanced at Prince Condé again and said lightly: "The French Fronde rebels are also our common enemy...... These traitors retreated with the Crown of England to the Spanish Netherlands. ”

"So...... How is Portugal's status determined? Luo Dagong, the envoy of the Ming Foreign Affairs Department, saw that the British and French envoys had finished speaking, so he opened his mouth to ask.

It's a complicated question!

Both the English and the French present frowned.

They all know that there is a traditional friendship between the Ming Dynasty and Portugal, but there is also a Macau issue...... John IV of Portugal, on the other hand, was keen to join a military alliance against Spain. Because Portugal and Spain were at war, and John IV, once in the alliance, would have gained an all-European recognition of independence in peace talks that ended the war.

However, Britain and France are reluctant to bring Portugal with them because Portugal's overseas assets are too attractive...... If they didn't bring Portugal, they would be able to see these overseas assets as part of the Spanish world empire when they needed to!

And once the Portuguese knew that the Ming was about to join the anti-Spanish alliance, they were likely to offer Macau in exchange for the support of the Ming in order to join the alliance.

Of course, it is not difficult for the Ming Empire to capture Macao, but what Zhu Cihong wants is definitely not a Macao destroyed by artillery fire, otherwise he would have done it a long time ago......

"If the goal of the war is only to expand the colonies of our three countries in the New World, then we really don't need to pull Portugal, but if we want more, then Portugal's friendly country is still necessary!" ”

"Foreign Secretary," Marville couldn't figure out for a moment whether Grand Duke Luo was the mayor of Shanghai or the foreign minister, so he addressed him as the foreign secretary, "if we pull Portugal, then the Netherlands will probably join the Spanish side!" ”

Portugal had many colonies in the Indian Ocean and South America, which were coveted not only by England and France, but also by the Netherlands.

And in the Indian Ocean, the struggle between the Dutch and the Portuguese was going on all the time. In addition, there were contradictions between the Netherlands and Britain and France.

The First Anglo-Dutch War had only recently ended, and the Dutch had suffered a lot in this war, and they were trying to find a place to go.

France, in turn, coveted the Spanish-controlled Spanish Netherlands...... Once this territory belongs to France, then the Netherlands and France will become neighbors, which is not something that the Netherlands is happy to see.

Zhu Cihong smiled at this time and said: "Why don't we bring the Netherlands into the gang?" Since you want to carve up the Spanish world empire, you are afraid that there will be no interests to satisfy the appetite of the Dutch? ”