In the struggle of the people of any country or region, it is not difficult to find a number of geographical markers that symbolize the spirit of struggle. For various reasons, they have not only become a shelter for the fighting group, but also carry the perseverance of the fighting group. No matter how human civilization develops, how religion evolves, and the fetishistic beliefs inherited from ancient cultural genes still make these geographical names a kind of sustenance.

In France, where Catholicism is the state religion, the vast majority of Protestant inhabitants are concentrated in the south and southwest of France, numbering more than a million people. Their core group consisted of craftsmen, small merchants, or low-class aristocrats, who were more active and open-minded, and were a major force in France's active overseas trade since the 16th century.

In 1568, La Rochelle, a coastal city in southwestern France, became the core stronghold of the French Protestant Huguenots, one of the centers of the Reformation in France since the 16th century, and the main port for the Huguenots to receive external support from Protestant countries such as England and the Netherlands.

During the decades-long Huguenot Wars, the Huguenots of La Rochelle were the most determined and militant in their struggle. In 1572 and 1627, the French Catholic army that suppressed the Protestant movement besieged La Rochelle and fought a fierce offensive and defensive battle.

The second French Protestant revolt in La Rochelle was suppressed by the old fox Risse more than a dozen years ago, and more than 100,000 French Protestants were exiled or forced to leave France.

The Third La Rochelle Protestant Revolt broke out in the early spring of 1644, the largest Protestant armed uprising ever seen in history, and the greatest crisis facing France's new Prime Minister Mazarin, since he came to power. For France, the war in Europe, which had a promising future, was suddenly disrupted by such a hornet's nest from within.

Not only was the area around La Rochelle once again under the control of the revolting Protestants, but even the nearby port town of Bordeaux in the southwest was occupied by the Protestants. The French royal army, which was transferred to suppress the uprising, was surprised to find that the Huguenots, who were once so rough that they could only fight with sticks and dung forks, had a large number of American-style flintlock muskets, and even cannons appeared in the siege of Bordeaux!

Due to the controversy over the right to control land in North America. Diplomatic relations between China and France are getting worse every year. Huamei Atlantic Bank cut off a loan to the French royal family, arms sales to France were basically cut off, and bilateral trade declined year after year. All of this added up to the fact that the French economy, which was mired in the quagmire of war, was even worse, and the strategic advantage that the French army had in the early stage of the war was left with little left.

……

The town of New Rochelle, a few dozen kilometers northeast of the Chinese capital of Manchester, initially housed a group of Huguenot Protestant refugees from France. In the first few years, these French immigrants, who had fought against the Catholic elite in France for half a century, still had an unusual impulse and competitiveness, which led to many extreme violent incidents in the town of Nova Rochelle, and also dragged many old nationals into the water, and also gave birth to the famous "overseas exile town" - Green Island Town in the South Atlantic.

It was not until 1637 that the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Immigration gradually adjusted and diluted the resettlement of Protestant refugees from southwestern France. The town of New Rochelle is gradually moving towards a stable development path. The town of New Rochelle was officially reorganized on New Year's Day 1645 and has a registered population of about 14,000 people. Today, there are about 15,000 people of French descent and their descendants in the country, of which about one-fifth live in the city of New Rochelle, which is still the most French town.

With the large investment of Yang Wenwen Living Art Group and Carnation Group, New Rochelle City has become a well-known garment manufacturing town in Songzhou and even in the country, especially the female employment rate is the highest in the country, whether it is the descendants of European refugees or the ingenious Oriental female workers, they all show their strengths here. In the 40s of the 17th century, the town of New Rochelle developed into one of the manufacturing centers of luxury ready-to-wear, knitwear and fine fur processing. The working population accounts for 50% of the city's workforce.

In the past two years, due to the soaring demand for domestic maternal and child textile products, more than a dozen garment enterprises large and small in New Rochelle City have ushered in great development opportunities, and labor protection clothing, baby diapers, bed sheets and quilt covers, and cotton and wool knitwear account for almost one-third of the local market. In particular, it has completely arranged the school uniforms of Huamei primary and secondary school students, and has become a well-known urban industrial brand.

The sea breeze is blowing, and more than a dozen inland or offshore merchant ships are docked in the port of New Rochelle, and boxes of textile supplies that have just been shipped from the garment factory are stacked into containers and hoisted onto merchant ships. It will then be sent to all parts of the country shortly after.

An ocean-going merchant ship flying both the flag of the United States of America and the flag of the Irish Killarney Rose Chamber of Commerce also docked at the dock to unload its cargo. High-quality wool yarn and linen yarn from Ireland and high-quality wool from Iceland are being disembarked, and a large shipment of sumptuous blankets, woolen wool, fur goods, knitwear and cereals will soon be returned to the Azores.

The side of the busy Minato area. A small area was temporarily quarantined and emptied, and several staff members of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Christian Association were quietly watching the horizon outside the harbor, as if waiting for someone.

At this moment, in the corner of an inconspicuous corner of Manchester City's just-published Manchester City Weekly Newspaper, a short piece of news is being published: "Representatives of cities in the southwest of France are about to visit the city of Nuevo Rochelle in the state of Song, and will seek the help of the city council of Nuevo Rochelle on the humanitarian crisis in the southwest of France." Prior to this, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs had repeatedly reiterated its position of neutrality and hoped that the parties to the conflict in the south-west of France would resolve their dispute by peaceful means......"

……

Two days later, a copy of the document and a letter compiled by the Ministry of National Defense's Military Intelligence Agency were placed on the desk of Prime Minister Guan Ruzhong's office.

The letter, signed "La Rochelle Civic Committee", came from the Protestant-controlled port of La Rochelle in southwestern France, and the messenger is now residing in the town hall of Nuevo Rochelle under the arrangement of the Military Intelligence Agency.

"Major Grover has done a great job, and it looks like our 'Rooster' plan is going well!" Guan Ruzhong looked at the text of the Military Intelligence Bureau, and nodded again and again to Major General Li Mingjie, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, who met alone in the office.

"The number of French Protestants gathered around La Rochelle and Bordeaux now exceeds 700,000, or about half of the total number of French Protestants, including 30,000 armed men. Two months earlier, the MIA had provided them with an additional 3,000 tons of corn, four 12-pounder guns and 2,000 second-hand 21B flintlock pistols from the Netherlands or Spain. Li Mingjie bowed slightly, but his eyes flashed with pride, "French Prime Minister Mazarin probably didn't expect that the intensity of this Protestant uprising would be greater than any previous one, and the army in southwest France could no longer pose a big threat to La Rochelle." ”

"The Dumont delegates have decided that only we can bring them the ultimate way out, and they are careless in their ambitions......" Guan Ruzhong read the translated French letter. Smiled and nodded on the table, "Their backstage boss wants our continued support for the realization of local autonomy for the Huguenot Protestants in La Rochelle and Bordeaux." Originally, we just planned to use their hands to disrupt France's strategic rhythm, but we didn't expect such a result to come out, and it was unexpected. ”

"The French army now adopted siege tactics and a three-light policy in the theater of operations, cutting off the Huguenots' Protestants from food and military supplies by land. Theoretically, if we cut off our material support for them, they could hold out for a year at most. After all, the local people's livelihood economy has tended to collapse, and no matter how fanatical they are, they still have to eat enough to continue fighting with the French royal family. ”

"But from the year before to the present. The Military Intelligence Agency (MIA) has been cautious in maneuvering the channels for material imports. Without domestic permission, I was unable to organize more supplies to be provided to Dumont. If the Cabinet formally endorses their demands, it would be a low-cost solution to bring down France. Anyway, we are about to do something to France, just taking advantage of its illness to kill it, and make enough of this butterfly wing. ”

Li Mingjie touched his chin and said his opinion.

"Well, Banco Nacional had already sent an official letter to the French side at the beginning of the year to call for the repayment of maturing treasury loans. Although they have not replied, I believe that French Prime Minister Mazarin is now in a state of exhaustion, even without our debt collection. Guan Ruzhong took out a book of intelligence materials. Turning to the page in France with a smile, he pointed to a large line of jù, "We deduce that the loans owed to us add up to more than $8 million." They also owed more than $5 million in debts due to Dutch bankers in the first half of this year. ”

"Although Spain is a Catholic country, I believe that the Spaniards would prefer France to live rather than die at this time. Speaking of which, because the intensity of the war far exceeded that of the same period in history, the war potential of all the participating countries was almost exhausted. That is, the Thirty Years' War in Europe will not drag on for us longer than 1648. ”

After reading the page in France, Guan Ruzhong took the opportunity to turn the page in Spain. After a cursory glance, the Spanish royal family has more gorgeous debts than France, reaching $10 million, just because the interest is preferential and it is a long-term repayment agreement, so the pressure is slightly less than in France.

"What does Brother Guan mean?" Li Mingjie probably heard some off-string sounds, and quickly lowered his voice.

"Spain has been convincing us to fight together against France, but the time will have to wait for us to intervene openly, and only when the excuses are sufficient can we really get started. Until then, your Department of Defense's Military Intelligence Agency continues to be in covert contact with La Rochelle, and I will refer their issues to the National Security Council for discussion. ”

……

A few days later, the representatives of the French La Rochelle Huguenot, who had settled in the town hall of Neu-Rochelle, finally received a reply from the Chinese side.

The official identity of the reply letter remains that of the Municipality of Rosé Rochelle, and in accordance with the commitment, the Rosé side will donate or provide a batch of humanitarian supplies such as food, clothing, and medicine to La Rochelle in the name of the Catholic Christian Association and the Municipality of Nova Rochelle, through the European Chamber of Commerce.

The official letter was followed by another list of secret support supplies from the U.S. Department of Defense's Military Intelligence Agency. Ramon and the others all laughed when they saw it, because the letter promised to provide La Rochelle's Protestant militia with a batch of the most advanced Type 34A flintlock pistols and a small number of new cannons in the European war, so as to strengthen the confidence of the Protestant militia to continue the struggle.

So far, at least, Huamei has not directly offered any conditions for return. The only requirement is that the weapons must be supervised by Chinese and American intelligence officers, and La Rochelle's Protestant militia cannot use them without the permission of the Chinese side.

In order to repay this large amount of material aid, which was difficult to obtain with money in Europe, Ramon and others carried out several boxes that came with the ship and opened them in front of the Chinese and American intelligence officers. More than 100 kilograms of gold and silver ornaments, jewels and coins are roughly worth about $100,000 if the fineness of the gold and silver is guaranteed.

As for the French diplomats who stayed at the diplomatic consulate in the south of Manchester City, they have been quiet for the past few months. Not only is the public media in China and the United States increasingly criticizing France, but more importantly, the number of visits by the Bank of the Atlantic is also becoming more frequent. (To be continued......)

PS: The first bullet of the zài sense of brushing