Weddell was only a naval captain, and his words and deeds could not reach the heavens and influence the British national policy.

The Thirty Years' War in Europe, which began with the Habsburgs, had entered its fourth and final phase, when Europe was in a period of chaos.

Through this war, France established the position of the first army in Europe, and the Spanish army of water and land suffered defeats in a period of accelerated decline, among which Sweden performed brilliantly in this war, so Sweden was also a European power at this time, and the Dutch navy was still the strongest navy.

The Thirty Years' War had basically no effect on Britain, and it was completely a matter of sitting on the sidelines and watching the fight, and Britain's attitude was to support France, which was at this time just in time for the British bourgeois revolution, so it did not get involved in the dispute.

It is a miracle that the chaotic Europe was able to abandon its previous suspicions and come together because of the carrot of the South Seas thrown by the Dutch, and in the final analysis, it is driven by interests.

Since the beginning of the Age of Discovery, Europeans have gradually come to know the world, and many Europeans believe that most of the world is a wild place except for Europe. Otherwise, the Spaniards would not have been so arrogant that they would have prepared to organize a fleet to conquer China.

Britain's national power was on the rise, at this time it was a second-rate power in Europe, and its navy was already among the first-class, although the number of warships could not be compared with the Netherlands, but the quality of warships should not be underestimated.

The British Navy warships are divided into six classes, of which the largest tonnage is called battleships, this class of warships usually serve as the flagship of the fleet, a total of three layers of gun decks, between one hundred and six guns and one hundred and twenty-two, a capacity of more than 875 people, a displacement of about 3,000 tons, each cost as much as 100,000 pounds, the British Navy has a total of twelve such battleships in active service, which can also be seen that the British Navy is strong at this time.

The period required from the formation of the European multinational combined fleet to reach the South Seas may be calculated in years, and the route from Europe to the South Seas will bypass the whole of Africa, a total of 10,000 kilometers.

Returning to the Ming Dynasty, the time entered the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, 1641 AD.

Zhang Xianzhong was still rushing left and right in Sichuan, and Yang Sichang led the army to pursue and was exhausted.

On the twentieth day of the first month, the army broke through the thousand-year-old capital of Luoyang, the court was shaken, and Chongzhen was shocked. Zhu Changxun, the blessed king in Luoyang City, was ordered by Li Zicheng to make a "Fulu banquet" to reward the three armies, and took Luoyang.

On 3 February, Li Zicheng led more than 300,000 people, claiming to be 700,000, to attack Kaifeng in the east, and the city of Kaifeng was as thick as five zhang. The rebels used the cave car to cover the nurses and soldiers digging holes, and the governor Gao Mingheng Infant City defended it.

Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou in Kaifeng City, was much stronger than King Fu, and he took out a million taels of treasury gold, recruited strong men to kill the enemy, and made rice to reward the three armies. Kaifeng deputy general Chen Yongfu fought against the city, killing nearly 10,000 troops, and Li Xianfeng supervised the guerrilla Gao Qian starry night to rescue, and killed 7,000 troops. Li Zicheng's army then retreated to Mi County and Kaifeng lifted the siege.

On 5 February, Zhang Xianzhong conquered Xiangyang City in Hubei. At that time, Yang Sichang took Xiangyang as the military government, and hundreds of thousands of salaries and armor were gathered in the city.

After Zhang Xianzhong left Sichuan, he galloped 300 miles in one day and night, killed Yang Sichang's envoy on the road, took his military talisman, and entered Xiangyang City with 28 horses. In the middle of the night, the residents saw the fire, thinking that the city was full of thieves, and they took the door out of the city, the city collapsed, Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, and Zhu Changfa, the king of Guiyang, were killed, and a large number of ordnance and salary returned to the army.

On February 20, Zhang Xianzhong broke through Xiangyang and went east into Henan, and then fell into Guangzhou. In March, attacking Suizhou, Hubei, Xu Shichun gathered the soldiers and people to defend to the death, and the reinforcements did not arrive. After defending the city for more than a month, the city was broken, and Xu Shichun died in a street battle.

On April 20, Chongzhen was worried about the loss of Kaifeng and urgently ordered the surrounding areas to rescue Kaifeng next year. Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, brought Zuo Liangyu, Hu Dawei, Yang Dezheng, Fang Anguo, Jiang Mingwu and other soldiers with a total of 180,000 troops, known as 400,000 troops. rushed to Kaifeng, but Li Zicheng took the lead and blocked Zhuxian Town, forty miles to the south.

As soon as the two armies made a little contact, Zuo Liangyu, who had the most troops, took the lead in escaping without informing the other Ming troops, but was ambushed by the army halfway, the left army trampled on each other, panicked, the army took advantage of the victory to cover up the killing, tens of thousands of people in the left army simply surrendered, Zuo Liangyu fled to Wuchang with the defeated army in a hurry, and the Ming army collapsed.

Li Zicheng took advantage of the victory to pursue and swept more than ten cities such as Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Chenliu, Tongxu, Weishi, Weichuan, Yanling, Linying, Changge, Xinzheng, and Bishui, which belonged to Kaifeng.

Kaifeng is surrounded by county-level small cities, the city wall is low, in disrepair, coupled with the instability of the people, the inside and outside should be combined, it can be said that it is broken at once. However, the people's livelihood in Henan is withering, where is there so much food for the homeless to rob, but the food is not much, but the homeless people are more coerced.

After successive victories over the official army, Li Zicheng's army rapidly swelled to 500,000 people, which was the result of streamlining and streamlining and eliminating the old and weak. In order to solve the problem of feeding hundreds of thousands of people, the army surrounded Kaifeng again.

"When you arrive in Guide, you will have food!" This sentence, which circulated among the homeless, also attracted the attention of the intruding army.

Xuzhou (now Xuchang), one of the five capitals of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms, the city wall has been razed, but inside and outside the city, it is full of soldiers who come and go, along the four suburbs of the city, all kinds of shacks and tents, it seems to spread to the edge of the sky, the word "Chuang" is a big banner, and the forest is dense.

In front of the original Xuzhou Yamen, a large flag several feet high stands in front of the door, the flag is snow-white, but it is made of horsehair. The spear was silver, but it was made of silver. The flag rolled and tumbled in the wind, showing a big "Chuang" word, but it was embroidered with black satin.

The spacious lobby was already full of people at this time. The first middle-aged man was dressed in a blue arrow suit, a white felt hat with red tassels, a red cloak, and a sword hanging from his waist. The middle-aged man is quite shabby in both his arrow coat and cloak, and the red tassels on his felt hat are also quite scattered, he sits on the main seat, does not move for a long time, his burly figure is straight, and his eyes flash from time to time.

This middle-aged man is more than Chinese New Year's Eve, with high cheekbones, a high nose and deep eyes, yellow pupils, and a dense beard, and his appearance seems to be a little different from that of a Han person. Yes, this person is Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, after Li Zicheng founded the country and became the emperor in history, he took Li Jiqian, a native of Western Xia, as Taizu, maybe Li Zicheng does not think that he is a Han person, this Li Jiqian is a party person, but the Taizu of Western Xia.

Under Li Zicheng, sitting on the big and small generals in the army, there are Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang, Tian Jianxiu, He Jin, Li Guo, Li Shuangxi, Gao Yigong, Yuan Zongdi, Zhang Nai, Hao Shaoqi and other people, all of whom are giant bandits in the rogue and thorns in the eyes of the government.

。 The fastest website for mobile version update: m.