Condense history, and some classic pictures will be talked about by historians to say something that ordinary people like to see.

In 1415, the Bohemian reformer Hus, who was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake by the Council of Constance, launched a fierce protest against the Roman Catholic Church by the nobles and populace who supported Hus.

A few years later, the Holy Roman Emperor lifted the ban, but the predominantly Hussite Prague Council was dissolved, arrested, and replaced by a new predominantly Catholic city council.

Angry Hussites took to the streets again to protest, but this also sparked discontent among the anti-Hussites, and then stones were thrown at Hussites from the windows of the town hall.

This immediately detonated a violent conflict, and the Hussite believers threw the mayor and city councillors from the windows of the city hall alive, leading the Holy Roman Empire to send troops to suppress it, and the Hussite believers also rebelled in a full-scale rebellion, triggering the Hussite religious wars that lasted for more than ten years.

In 1618, still in Bohemia, Archduke Ferdinand, King of Bohemia, was subjected to persecution of Protestants in order to "reclaim" Catholic rule. The Protestants declared an uprising and besieged the officials of the Holy Roman Empire in Prague, the capital of Bohemia.

After a period of angry protests, the enthusiastic Protestants broke through the guards and broke into the hotel, throwing several Imperial officials "again" through the windows. Thankfully, there was a large pile of dead grass and cow dung under the window, and the Imperial officials were able to escape, and soon after, Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate, was excited to convert to Protestantism and was proclaimed King of Bohemia, thus opening the curtain on the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

History goes on, and in 1773, in Boston, a New England colony in North America, a group of citizens besieged the merchant ships of England. In protest against England's policy of economic control and exploitation of the North American colonies, agitated Boston citizens dressed as Indians rushed onto a merchant ship and threw all the tea leaves worth £15,000 into the water, thus becoming the fuse of the American Revolutionary War.

In this way, we have found a pattern, if a group of people wants to make a big deal and make a war happen, they have to "throw" something. Whether it's a person or an object, once it's thrown out. I can't stop.

……

……

On the whole, even though there are irreconcilable strategic contradictions between China and France on the territorial issue of North America, for the sake of Europe's balanced strategy, the trade relations between China and France have been good in the past two decades, and there has even been an extremely close honeymoon period, and arms exports to France have long accounted for half of the total arms exports to Europe.

It should be said that as a traditional European agricultural and handicraft country, France and Huamei are actually more complementary in trade than many European countries. But for a long time. The erosion of Chinese goods on the traditional European commodity market has been increasing, especially as more and more Chinese American merchants bypassed European middlemen and directly entered Western Europe, more varieties and cheaper Chinese goods have brought an impact on the traditional European agricultural countries such as Spain and France, and caused strong hostility from some French artisanal owners.

For Spain, which had already had to give up a lot of commercial monopoly interests to gain the support of the United States. With the help of a number of trade agreements and diplomatic treaties, there were many softer ways for Spain and China to ease their trade conflicts. But for France, whose diplomatic relations with the United States have been cooling year by year, the conflicts of interest that have accumulated over the years have deteriorated as rapidly as a wound that continues to inflame.

The political dispute over the ownership of the Florida Peninsula finally spread to the Atlantic trade sphere. And the seemingly most inconspicuous conflict occurred in the Sino-American dye trade with France, which was represented by Indian indigo.

In the midst of green nature. There is no shortage of red and yellow dyes, but there is no green dye, while blue dye can be used to synthesize green dyes, and even it is the main source of black and purple dye recipes. Before Indian indigo entered the eyes of Europeans, Europe still cultivated woad to obtain indigo dye, but the yield of indigo was very low, and the price of indigo, a natural blue dye unique to nature, was extremely expensive.

No matter how advanced the awareness of scientific development is, the shortage of high-level talents makes Huamei have the inherent shortcomings of "only knowing it but not knowing why" in many fields, and modern industrial production is simply unable to achieve the state of covering all fields. In terms of the application of dye synthesis, due to the shortcomings of the petrochemical industry, a considerable part of Huamei's dye industry is still at the level of natural dyes, and the amount of various dyes imported from Europe every year is also considerable.

The overseas states of the Caribbean, represented by Martinique, are undoubtedly one of the few perfect places on earth to grow Indian indigo. In 1640, Indian indigo in the Caribbean was successfully cultivated and processed on a large scale, and since then, Huamei has moved away from importing high-priced European indigo and has become an exporter of indigo in one fell swoop.

Although the cultivation and processing of Indian indigo is a low-tech labor-intensive industry, Huamei can gain a great advantage in quantity and price of Indian indigo by using almost cost-free "prisoner of war labor".

Historically, however, European woad planters have hated the higher and cheaper yield of exotic Indian indigo. In England, for example, Indian indigo has long been stigmatized as poisonous; In Germany, dyeers had to swear never to use this "devil's dye". For a long time, European merchants engaged in ocean-going trade had to frequently falsify the origin of their indigo goods.

Last year alone, more than 50,000 kilograms of natural indigo arrived in Europe by Chinese merchant ships, of which at least two-thirds were exported to France, a major country in fabric dyeing and printing.

Huamei's indigo, which has a lower unit cost, suddenly entered the French dye market, making the Caribbean indigo planting company under the Huamei Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Animal Husbandry Group profitable.

Although it did not destabilize the entire French dye industry, the price of indigo in Europe fell year by year, and some French dye merchants had to abandon their own indigo products, and some woad plantations and indigo processing workshops in western France went bankrupt.

Against this backdrop, the first direct vicious trade conflict between China and the United States and other countries occurred on a day in late October 1645.

On the evening of the incident, a group of masked citizens of Nantes suddenly rushed to the port and surrounded a Chinese merchant ship that was unloading cargo at the docks. Their slogan was loud, which was to stop the Chinese merchant ships from importing indigo into the port of Nantes. The crew who stopped was beaten, and even the hired Portuguese captain was thrown into the Loire.

The lavish goods piled up on the docks or in the cabins were either set on fire by masked mobs or simply smashed and looted. About 200 crates of Gorgeous Indigo Dye ended up the worst, and almost all of them were dumped into the Loire by the mob.

When the Huamei merchant ship was enveloped in flames, the mob seemed to find it too much, and shouted at each other to rush to the Huamei United Merchant House in the city, driving more unknown ruffians or beggars along the way.

The surging crowd not only smashed and robbed a large amount of property from the Huamei United Merchant House, but also indiscriminately threw some of the French servants in the merchant hall from the top floor of the merchant hall into the dung heap.

In this violent smashing of Chinese goods, three Chinese American crew members were killed in the fire. The hired Portuguese captain also drowned.

Although the Nantes City Hall in France sent troops to protect the Chinese merchants who survived the accident, both the Chinese merchant ship in the port and the Huamei United Commercial Hall in the city were wiped out in the fire.

……

Saturday, November 4, 1645.

The tragic incident in the port of Nantes in France was published several times in succession, and although it had been several days since the incident was revealed, and there was no more new content in the newspapers, the atmosphere in the entire capital had changed.

The tragedy at the port of Nantes has finally transformed the lingering anxiety caused by the continuous contraction of Sino-American trade with Europe for several years into a feeling of panic and anger.

The capital city of Mangwe. In restaurants and taverns, citizens are discussing France on the other side of the Atlantic. Although the new generation of citizens have received basic education in world geography, a considerable number of young people have a majority of their understanding of Europe as a whole, and their understanding of Europe as a whole is mostly at the level of "order contracts" and "statements", and little else is known.

Binzhou Yacheng City. Most of the Chinese citizens who have no direct impression of France can only experience the abomination and barbarism of that country in the newspapers for many years, and all kinds of unbounded rumors circulate at the dinner table.

Haizhou Qingcheng City, Port Trading Zone. European merchants also passed all kinds of false messages to each other, and some of the American merchants who had been engaged in French trade for a long time secretly congratulated themselves on their luck.

Inside the Manchester City Stock Exchange. The sell-off in the shares of several small and medium-sized companies, whose main trading operations are linked to France, is a sign that the already declining performance of these companies will be even more dismal in the next year or two.

War is coming? The impact of the war in Europe on Atlantic trade was becoming more and more severe, and after 1642 the trade between China and the United States began to decline year by year, and if the country had a full-scale conflict with France, the economic damage would probably have been greater than the war with England ten years earlier.

After arguing with France for so many years, after all, it is still a gentleman who does not move his mouth, but now he has caused a death, which is different in nature. This willingness to retaliate against France has been pointed out from time to time in the demonizing propaganda against France that has lasted for many years, and has long been planted in the subconscious of the Chinese and American people.

However, unlike all kinds of nonsense among the Chinese people, apart from a few high-profile statements, the Congress and the cabinet did not show too much enthusiasm or hurried response, which made people feel that the mentality of those in power was more calm.

In the central conference hall of the Cabinet Building, there is no usually noisy Council of Ministers, nor is there an emergency meeting of the National Security Council that must be gathered after such an event.

In the conference hall of the university, there were only four people present: Premier Guan Ruzhong, Minister of National Defense Zheng Quan, Foreign Minister Shi Wenbo, and Major General Li Mingjie, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense.

"Overall, Major Grover's 'Operation Vulcan' was largely successful. His status as the president of the United Merchant House in Nantes has maximized the effect this time. Li Mingjie put a copy of the latest article in his hand on the table, his face was not shocked, "The agents responsible for inciting the riot have been successfully evacuated, as for the three crew members on the 'Red Pine' were burned to death, I can only say that it was an accident, we cannot guarantee that every detail of the operation is perfect." ”

"Then whether it is the government or the military, don't leave any archival records, even if this kind of thing is declassified after 200 years, it will offend people." So, it's as if it never happened. Major Grover couldn't be more reliable. I can't keep doing it all the time, so I'd better transfer back to my country. ”

Facing Li Mingjie, who is less than 50 years old, Zheng Quan, who is in his 60s, naturally thinks more. Although the Military Intelligence Agency is administratively subordinate to the Department of Defense, this intelligence department, which can be compared to the Department of Homeland Security, has accumulated a lot of shady things over the years.

"Hey, I'll try to do as little as possible in the future. There was a dead captain on the Portuguese side, and Swenbo wasted more snacks, and it was best to pull them to shout together. With regard to the families of the deceased crew members and the United Caribbean Shipping Company, we need to do a good job of reassuring them and making it clear that we will seek justice for them...... That's from today. The 'Three Kings Project' has officially entered the countdown? ”

Wiping the butts of certain people is already one of the things Guan Ruzhong has done the most over the years. It can be said that Guan Ruzhong did not know the final truth of the Nantes tragedy until today.

"Well, sort of. Dai Botong will be fully responsible for the diplomatic work with France, and Lao Zheng has also prepared a plan there, and will try his best to control the time schedule and confrontation scale. ”

Probably Shi Wenbo already knew the inside story, and at this time, he smiled and pushed it in front of Guan Ruzhong without even looking at it, as if what happened next had nothing to do with him.

"Hehe, it seems that I am going to congratulate your daughter in advance on becoming the Queen of England. Your grandson will be the king of England from now on! Maybe the historian can get a title of nobility. Guan Ruzhong said half-jokingly.

"Haha, where, no matter how hard and tired you are, it's all for our country!"

A kind of excitement and nervousness that came from the depths of the bone marrow appeared on Swenbo's face. His expression at this time was probably something that everyone here had not seen in many years.

……

……

Although the Diet and the Cabinet had already set a timetable for the English and French settlements to be launched by the end of 1645, it was the Foreign Office and the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of Defense that were responsible for finding the right entry point.

It should be said. Since ten years ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of Defense have colluded together to come up with an unprecedented chain layout. and took three code names: "Three Kings Plan", "Wine Banquet Plan", and "Vulcan Plan".

Charles I's trial and execution by the English Parliament, which was controlled by Cromwell's military dictatorship, is basically a sure thing at the moment, so all three plans are essentially based on the "Three Kings Plan", which operates around the three kings of England, Ireland and Scotland.

The "Three Kings Plan" was further subdivided into three steps, which eventually separated England, Ireland and Scotland and ceased to be co-hosts.

First, taking advantage of the death of Charles I, the defeat of both the English parliamentary party and the royalists, and the unprecedented military and political vacuum in England, Prince Rupert, the son of Frederick V, led an army into England and succeeded to the throne of England as the grandson of the previous king of England, James I.

In the process, both Huamei and Frederick V had to try to win over the Royalists of England and the Parliamentarian Party who opposed Cromwell's military dictatorship. The exclusion of the children of Charles I, who had been exiled in France, led to the complete withdrawal of the Stuart dynasty from England, and the branch of the Wertsbach family from Germany entered England, replicating an English Glorious Revolution in advance.

Second, in Ireland, which was free from the military rule of England, the Irish County Home Council of Cork, as well as the Catholic Union of Ireland and the Council of Nobles, were used to amend the Law of the Irish Throne to allow Elizabeth, the daughter of Charles I, Dai Botong and Dai Qingqing's prospective daughter-in-law, to ascend to the Irish throne.

In the end, he reached a settlement with the survivors of the Stuart family and the royalists left by Charles I, continued to recognize the legal inheritance of the Stuart royal family to the Scottish throne, and let Charles I's son return to Scotland to inherit the throne, so as to realize the strategy of permanent separation and independence of the three kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland.

But whether the Three Kings plan can succeed, in addition to the death of Charles I, the key point is how to let the English radicals represented by Cromwell get out of the scene.

Without Huamei's personal involvement or excessive involvement, he took advantage of the violent turmoil in the hearts of the people set off by the death of Charles I, and discredited the radical group of the English Parliamentary Party led by Cromwell, thus completing the political reshuffle in England.

At the heart of the "Banquet Project" was to make Ireland the grave of Cromwell and England's new Model Army.

Huamei will use a series of overt or covert diplomatic or military actions to attract the attention of England, so that Cromwell, who has basically won the victory in England, will transfer the main force of the new model army to Ireland, and then concentrate on destroying Cromwell's model army in Ireland, capturing or killing Cromwell and his allies alive, creating a military and political gap in England.

However, in view of the irresistible naval power of the Chinese and US navies in the Irish War ten years ago, neither the English parliamentary party, which is now occupied by Cromwell's dove, nor Cromwell himself, dare not invest their maximum capital in Ireland. After all, in the history of dealing with disputes over the interests of the British Isles, England has always ranked Scotland ahead of Ireland.

After years of contact, Cromwell, who is not afraid of heaven and earth, only maintains the most sober understanding of Huamei, and has long been aware of Huamei's ambitions for the British Isles, and is also very afraid of Huamei's troubles. The best way to seduce Cromwell is to create a kind of glamorous and unskilled situation, so that Cromwell can seize the "good time" and enter Ireland with confidence and boldness.

With such a calculation, the "Vulcan Plan" was also introduced, and it became the premise of whether the "Wine Banquet Plan" could be carried out smoothly.

The Nantes tragedy, which was artificially designed behind the scenes, on the one hand, created a pretext for a large-scale military conflict between Huamei and France, and on the other hand, it clearly sent a signal to Cromwell: Huamei is now going to fight with France, and it can't control the mess in England and Ireland.

Once Cromwell executed Charles I, Huamei and France went to war in North America and the Atlantic, showing a difficult state of being caught in war, and lured Cromwell to attack Ireland.

How much time it will take to get Cromwell completely hooked, and the gorgeous-stirrers who are responsible for the full plan are not to be judged, but for Cromwell, who knows a little bit about the rich, it is definitely a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the victory to complete the unification of England, Scotland and Ireland.

As for France, in the eyes of Huamei, it is just a "backdoor listing" sparring role.

No matter how large the overseas colonial territory is in later generations, France is still a typical European continentalist country in its bones, and it will not affect the strategy of Huamei in this era when butterflies are flying.

The war between China and the United States against France must be a fancy scene of thunder and rain, and driving the French power away from North America is the ultimate goal that the Chinese and American authorities want to achieve.

As long as the goal is achieved, France and Huamei will still be "good friends", one of the European markets that Huamei relies on the most, and even a new cultivation object of Huamei in the next half century.

China and the United States need a big country like France to be the public enemy of the European continent, and it needs France to be able to balance Sweden and the Netherlands in the next half century, because it is not enough to have a Spain that is in decline and strong in the outside world. (To be continued......)