Perhaps because there was a "Battle of Madrid" in history, Xiao Xuan did not despise it very lightly in the final general attack, but effectively used the captured car shields and artillery to carry out continuous fierce artillery bombardment in the concentrated fortified area, and ordered all the reconnaissance hot air balloons to rise into the air, carefully observe the movements in the city, and guide the team to carry out an effective attack.

Unlike many cities in Asia, even Madrid, which is a little more centralized, does not seem to have a city with completed walls in the Eastern sense. Cities seem to be more of a free city revolving around a handful of castles than a colony converted from clusters. There weren't many tall and majestic buildings like those in Central Asia or Eastern Europe, so the team never encountered strong resistance in the ensuing attack.

Although the Spanish army that retreated to Madrid at this time still had tens of thousands of troops, because many of them abandoned their armor and even baggage in the battles outside the city, and there were many artillery pieces, they gradually became weaker after completely losing their superiority in equipment.

In the end, after more than a day and a night of cautious attack, without consuming too much gunpowder or even paying too much price, the remnants of the army retreating into the city of Madrid were finally resolved.

Most of the Spanish elite, including Philip IV, were captured in this battle, and only a few generals chose to die in battle. What made Xiao Xuan even more unexpected was that in the subsequent "torture", although the two sides still faced some language barriers, the process went very smoothly.

In the East, this phenomenon may often exist due to the lack of effective family organization, and even the head of the family often does not know where all the wealth of the whole family is buried, and there are always many small coffers of the lower people, and these land treasures of the lower people often account for a considerable proportion. In Europe or outside of China, as long as a small number of upper strata can be captured, they will often know where the wealth is buried in one fell swoop. And a lot of wealth is not stored in the form of land wealth. Perhaps for those who are in a position to use force to protect their wealth, they do not disdain the method of burying their wealth.

In the conquest along the way, especially in the last battle, the surplus carriages captured by the entire team amounted to more than 3,200, but the surplus of more than 3,200 carriages was to a large extent unable to fully carry the wealth cleared from the city of Madrid.

And according to what we know, this is the result of a lot of wealth flowing to Milan, the German states, and even France for agricultural and arms purchases. The wealth of the Spaniards at their peak is probably not at all greater than that of the capital in the East at the same time, when Li Zicheng was tortured in 1644.

Of course, this is not the most important thing, what makes Xiao Xuan pay more attention is some news about the cavalry team that is going down the river.

In Madrid, in addition to the huge wealth, the army also captured a lot of gunpowder, ammunition and other arms, and even more valuable military craftsmen. For the East at this time, the craftsmen who could effectively build ships may be even more valuable.

There is no doubt that at this time, the huge maritime power of the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom still existed in the Western Ocean, and it seemed that it was not possible for their own side to confront them in a short period of time. However, at this time, Xiao Xuan still had a glimmer of hope that he could gather a force that was enough to cross the English Channel to attack in a short period of time.

Although Hitler's Sea Lion operation was unsuccessful in history, the campaign to liberate Hainan was successful despite the lack of sea and air power. There is no doubt that the main force of the expeditionary force at this time was more like the Chinese army in 1950 than the German army in 1940 in its dependence on logistics and equipment. Even if the Western Navy still has an extremely strong force at sea, if it can obtain a short-term speed advantage through some methods and carry out effective night crossings, then a landing operation attack may not be impossible. If the maritime forces of this era intend to carry out interception missions at night, it is undoubtedly much more difficult than in the era when Leng Da was just beginning to appear.

Therefore, in the subsequent operation, when the main force of the expedition had just swept the whole of Spain, under Xiao Xuan's order, tens of thousands of shipyard workers and even tens of thousands of craftsmen in military factories in other fields captured from Spain, France, the Netherlands and other places began to gather in the area of Paris to start a new round of war preparations. The tens of thousands of craftsmen in the team who came with the army also began to devote themselves to serious trial production and a new round of military industrial organization.

The focus of combat readiness and preparation was undoubtedly the effective steel armor, the various gunpowder and its blasting devices, and, most obviously, the paddle steamers. The manpower propeller was not successful because of the rotation problem and the difficulty of processing, so the main temporary shipbuilding was placed on the manufacture of paddle wheel boats.

In the beginning, there were some captured artisans who were passive and confrontational out of simple religious consciousness, but the purge of strict rewards and punishments did not last long. In the final analysis, in this era when nationalism has not yet become widespread, although there are xenophobic ideologies, they still do not stand up to the interests of the middle and lower classes.

With the help of a sufficient number of craftsmen of a certain level, the shipbuilding progress went smoothly. Especially when the final needs of the expedition required a ship to be needed for a long time ago were designed and planned.

In Europe in this era, sea ships began to grow earlier and bigger. Compared with those seagoing ships with complex keels, the full weight and maximum load are not more than 10,000 pounds, and the boats that can only accommodate about 50 people for short-term coastal or cross-sea voyages are much easier in terms of man-hours. This has improved the progress of shipbuilding, the related ship protection and reinforcement, and the progress of shipborne firearms.

Ships with a load of more than 10,000 catties are also the standards that were finalized through a series of practices before the expedition. If it is smaller, there will be many problems with seaworthiness even in the near sea, and it will be difficult to install some artillery or blasting devices that can really pose a threat to the enemy's large ships; If it is larger, then the efficiency of the human-powered paddle steamer will be greatly affected.

Another more important reason is that even in Western Europe, where there are many plains and few rugged areas, the weight of about 10,000 catties is a limit that can be effectively carried out on land. In order to effectively overcome the opponent's superiority in sea power, it is necessary to carry out effective landing operations at unexpected locations.

(End of chapter)