"Clean up the battlefield!"

"Yes!"

At the end of February, when Richelieu's letter arrived in front of Gustav II, Gustav II was outside Jankov Castle north of the Danube.

Here they just got a win.

Gustav II commanded 20,000 Swedes and 80 artillery pieces against an almost evenly matched Catholic coalition of 30,000.

Gustav II continued to use his line tactics and relied on the Nordic cavalry to defeat the 30,000 allied forces of the Catholic League.

The Catholic coalition suffered more than 16,000 casualties, 6,000 captured, and all the baggage and artillery were captured by the Swedes, while the Swedes suffered only 3,000 casualties.

After this war, the Holy Roman Empire could no longer draw a formed army of 10,000 people north of the Danube.

Therefore, at this moment, Gustav II was happily turning over and dismounting and entering the muddy camp.

He entered his tent and saw the messenger of Richelieu here as well.

After a brief understanding of the situation, Gustav II took a sip of water, then sat down on a wooden chair and said:

"We don't have many soldiers and civilians in the New World, and if Richelieu can allow the Ming to establish a "King's Shop" in Sweden and establish trade with Sweden, then we can withdraw from the New World. ”

Sweden did not have a good place to put down in North America, and was targeted by Britain and the Netherlands, and Gustav II had long intended to withdraw.

What he wants is the goods of the Ming Dynasty, and the King's Store is the Emperor's Store of the Ming Dynasty.

"I guess that shouldn't be a problem." Having received an answer from Gustav II, the messenger nodded, and then returned to Paris with a letter from Gustav II.

As a result, all three countries in the Protestant Union were settled, leaving only the Netherlands, which wanted independence.

However, the good news reached Paris ten days later.

Although Frederick Hendrik, Prince of Orange, the ruler of the Netherlands, was not willing to withdraw from the American continent, as Richelieu said, the fragile economic environment of the Netherlands could no longer afford to offend the Ming Dynasty.

As long as the war is not over and the Netherlands does not gain independence, then the Ming only needs to interrupt trade, which is enough for the Netherlands to drink a pot.

Thus, the Prince of Orange eventually agreed to withdraw from the American continent, but he did not simply withdraw, but trafficked.

Since the Netherlands was originally one of the trading partners of the Ming Dynasty, it was different from Britain, France and Sweden eager to trade.

The problem now is that the Netherlands is burdened with too much public debt, and the continuation of the war will only make the Netherlands more and more public debt.

The Prince of Orange wanted the Ming to buy Dutch land in the New World for "three hundred guilders per hectare of arable land."

The Dutch cultivated land in the New World has nearly 2,000 hectares of arable land, that is, the Ming Dynasty needs to pay 600,000 guilders to buy all the land.

In addition, the mines and houses were valued at 3 million guilders.

Not only that, but the Ming had to interrupt the saltpeter trade with Spain.

Of course, the Netherlands would not let Daming lose money, and he proposed that Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden divide the three million catties of saltpeter equally, so that Daming would not suffer a loss of interests.

The Prince of Orange's personal was sent to Paris and handed over to Richelieu.

He was not surprised by the Dutch demand, which had a very large public debt.

The land plus the mine houses totaled 3.6 million guilders.

This money will allow the Netherlands to recover quickly, at least for a few more years.

Thinking of this, Richelieu, who was sitting in the administrative hall, also looked up and asked the last of the four messengers in front of him:

"What's going on over there in Daming?"

"They said they would send diplomats on March 10." The messenger spoke truthfully, and Richelieu inquired:

"Is the army of the Great Ming Kingdom the same as the information we have?"

"No, they are stronger than in intelligence, and if they attack us, the walls of Marseille will not be able to withstand it for more than three days."

The evaluation given by the messenger made the other three messengers gasp, knowing that Marseille was the largest port city of the Bourbon Empire, and if Marseille could not resist it for three days, the Bourbon Empire would probably lose all its coastline.

"Ready, ready!" Richelieu seemed to have been prepared for the answer, and when he got the answer, he turned around and handed a list to the chancellor of the exchequer next to him.

"This is the total cost of the palace banquet to welcome the diplomats of the Ming Dynasty, don't exceed."

"Also, mobilize everyone in Paris to clean up the streets."

"During the period when Ming diplomats lived, they could not dump garbage on the streets."

Richelieu attached great importance to this diplomatic activity, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer understood the importance of the matter.

He glanced at the cost of the banquet, thirty-six thousand livres (six thousand taels of silver), which was a lot of money.

After confirming that the expenditure would support a clean Paris, the Chancellor of the Exchequer walked out of the Executive Chamber, and the whole of Paris was busy in the days that followed.

Fruit peels and rotten vegetables and other garbage are picked up by special people, and once someone defecates on the street, they will be immediately arrested by the guards patrolling the city.

Sixty thousand beggars inside Paris were violently expelled, and in less than ten days, the whole of Paris was transformed into a new one.

This kind of Paris made many Bourbon nobles praise Richelieu, but only Richelieu knew that the problem of Paris was the construction of the city.

If this problem is not solved, no matter how clean it is, Paris will always become a mess.

Just want to rebuild the sewerage system and sewerage system, unless the war is over, and it costs hundreds of thousands of livre.

It's just that in Richelieu's opinion, it may be difficult for him to see that day, because his body no longer allows him to continue to work like this, which is why he is eager to get the support of the Ming Dynasty......

"Bang bang bang-"

Ten days passed in a flash, and when the French army followed the Ming army's salute and fired a salute on the Sene River outside Paris, a ship carrying Ming diplomats also sailed into the city.

On the deck of the boat, Xu Xiake came in person as a representative, and he was surrounded by several cronies who followed Huang Fei.

In addition to them, there were also many Ming soldiers on the small boats carrying Ming goods in the rear.

In order to show respect for the Ming Dynasty, Louis XIII specially approved Xu Xiake to lead 300 escorts into Paris.

These three hundred guards brought along with the Ming merchandise of twenty-seven small boats.

Xu Xiake had to use Richelieu and Louis XIII to sell the goods, although he did not yet know why Louis XIII and Richelieu invited him.

"Here ......

In the Louvre, in front of the banquet table that had already been prepared when he heard the salute, Louis XIII picked up his wine glass and took a sip of wine with a heavy heart.

At the same time, Xu Xiake's boat also docked, and he met Richelieu at the place where he was supposed to disembark.

Richelieu is not much older than Xu Xiake, but compared to Xu Xiake's healthy body, white hair and beard, and radiant face, Richelieu's situation is a little worse.

Years of hard work had left him with eye ailments and headaches, which often plagued him as he grew older.

In the long run, he naturally became emaciated, and his hair and beard turned white.

Of course, this is just him, in fact, when the three hundred Ming troops disembarked, many people couldn't help but clench the weapons in their hands.

At present, most of the Ming army were born between the 40th and 48th years of Wanli, and their ages ranged from 16 to 28.

Early-born males may still be able to survive because of the accumulation of disadvantages in the Ming Dynasty and soaring prices, but many soldiers born in the Apocalypse are very lucky.

Zhu You's policies such as the army's tuning of fields, the stabilization of grain prices, and the immigration of real borders have all been caught up by them, so they are a generation that can eat well and even eat well.

No matter which dynasty it is, as long as it is peaceful and prosperous, the height of the commoners will increase, and the Ming Dynasty is no exception.

Men born in the Apocalypse period are generally more than an inch taller than those in the Wanli period.

After the disarmament of the Ming army, the criteria for selecting soldiers became more stringent, and men must reach more than five feet three inches (about 170 cm) before they can join the army.

Therefore, the height of the Ming army under the Western Fleet was basically between five feet three inches and five feet five inches, and such a height added a lot of pressure to the French army of the Bourbon dynasty in France.

For the French army, whose average height was only five feet and one inch, standing in front of the Ming army, whose average height was five feet three to five feet five inches, they were simply thirteen or fourteen-year-old children.

"Honorable Prime Minister, this ship is a welcome gift I brought to the king for the Ming Emperor, and the other twenty-seven ships are the goods we brought."

"If you don't mind, can you recommend some businessmen for my people?"

Xu Xiake used not very proficient French to communicate with Richelieu, and when he saw that Xu Xiake could speak French, Richelieu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and felt that the probability of success was greater, and at the same time nodded:

"You can rest assured that I will arrange for honest and trustworthy merchants to trade, and I will not let you and your people be deceived."

"But before we do, maybe we need to get into the palace and get down to business."

Richelieu made a gesture of please, motioning for Xu Xiake to get into the carriage.

Seeing this, Xu Xiake took Huang Fei's two cronies and Risse to stay in the carriage.

In the car, Richelieu was very enthusiastic to introduce Xu Xiake to the "bustling" Paris.

It's just that in the face of the "dirty" Paris, Xu Xiake only has disgust in his heart.

Perhaps in the eyes of Richelieu and many Europeans, Paris is arguably the cleanest city in Europe.

But for Xu Xiake, after getting used to the Ming life of having sanitation workers sweeping the streets every day and the whole city being in order, all the towns he saw when he went to sea were extremely dirty.

Paris is just not so dirty in comparison, if compared with the Ming Dynasty, put the Paris administrator in Beijing, then he is estimated to have been assigned by Zhu Youzhen to be the mayor of the town.

"Why don't you fix the sewers? I've looked up the ancient books of Europe, and you should know about it, because it can reduce a lot of the troubles of life. ”

Xu Xiake asked Richelieu, but Richelieu could only respond with a wry smile:

"It's not that we don't want to, but now that Europa is at war, we want to build sewers, which is a bit whimsical for us at this stage."

Richelieu said, smiling at Xu Xiake pointedly: "I hope that after today, the war in Europa will end soon." ”

"Well......" Xu Xiake is no longer the ignorant person who just entered the career and was despised by Persia, he understands very well that Richelieu is trying to win the support of the Ming Dynasty.

Before coming, Xu Xiake had already learned about the land and sea conditions in Europe through the hundreds of households in Europe through Jinyiwei.

The war at sea can be said to be one-sided, the Spanish navy was suppressed by the navies of England, France, and the Netherlands, and on land it was slightly better.

Spain was also able to bring saltpeter back home along the coastline and gunpowder to the front.

With an average abundance of gunpowder and firepower, Spain could still suppress France and the Netherlands, but the Holy Roman Empire could not suppress Sweden.

If Gustav II could continue to expand his gains, then they would win the religious wars.

Of course, if the Ming Dynasty cut off all trade with Spain now, the Western Front battlefield would also be lost very quickly.

Not only that, if the Ming Dynasty cut off trade and gave trade to Britain, France, and Sweden, it is very likely that the four countries will end the first all-European war that affected almost all of Europe within five years.

In other words, the support of Daming is more important than anything else at the moment.

After Xu Xiake knew how heavy the choice was in his hands, he didn't panic at all.

He has Zhu Youzhen's handwriting in his hand, how to act, what to do, he knows all these in his heart.

So, in Richelieu's talk, they arrived at the door of the Louvre.

Nothing happened, they got out of the carriage and entered the Louvre safely.

I have to say that Xu Xiake has come this way, although he sneers at the living environment in Europe, he still admires the technology of Europeans in "playing with stones".

When he saw the Louvre, it was the luxurious Chinese palace he was used to, and he couldn't help but take a few more looks.

"Please ...... inside"

Xu Xiake's reaction was seen by Richelieu, and he smiled and motioned for Xu Xiake to go in with him.

After a while, they arrived at the hall where the state banquet was held, but there were not many people here.

There was no one else here except Louis XIII.

The reason for this arrangement is naturally because of today's events.

Louis XIII's wife was the daughter of Felipe III of Spain and the sister of what is now Felipe IV.

The two got married for political reasons, but after giving birth to a child, they entered a state of separation, so it was naturally impossible to invite her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Envoy."

Louis XIII did not put on a king's stand, but greeted Xu Xiake in an approachable manner, which made Xu Xiake inevitably have a good impression of him.

Compared to Louis XIII, Felipe IV of Spain was nothing short of a megalomaniac.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness the King." Xu Xiake used the Ming courtesy as a courtesy, which made Louis XIII feel very novel.

Once the three were seated, the food on the table did not arouse the interest of the three of them.

Louis XIII and Richelieu didn't have the heart to eat, and Xu Xiake had no appetite because of the appearance of the dishes.

The three of them sat together and chatted for a while about the customs of Daming and Europe, and then talked about Xu Xiake's wandering adventures along the way.

In short, all the topics are about getting closer to each other.

After talking about these topics more or less the same, Richelieu brought out an agreement that he had written and which the four countries had jointly recognized.

"Mr. Special Envoy, this is the sincerity and a deal that our four countries have expressed to Da Ming, I think you will like it very much."

Richelieu knew that it was useless to hide with people like Xu Xiake, so he chose to "attack" directly.

The four-nation agreement was pushed in front of Xu Xiake, and he also picked up this agreement to observe when he saw this.

He was not surprised by the withdrawal of Britain, France and Sweden from the New World, and only smiled when he saw that the Netherlands was willing to withdraw from the New World.

In this agreement, what Daming had to do was to open an imperial shop on the land of the four countries, pay taxes to the four countries, and then interrupt the saltpeter trade with Spain and trade saltpeter with the four countries instead.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty wanted to sell enough arms to equip 20,000 men to the four countries, so as to help the four countries defeat the Catholic League.

In the end, Da Ming only needed to take out 3.6 million guilders to obtain the Dutch fields and castles in the New World.

Three million six hundred thousand guilders, the price of which is less than one million and thirty thousand taels.

Although Xu Xiake can't take it out at the moment, the Netherlands did not ask for immediate settlement.

For Da Ming, one hundred and thirty thousand taels is not a small number.

However, if this matter was done for King Qi, then all the officials would not dare to raise objections.

Although in Xu Xiake's opinion, it is very likely that this silver will be paid by His Royal Highness King Qi himself in the end, but in any case, as long as the agreement is signed, Xu Xiake will complete the task given to him by Zhu Youzhen.

It's just that the content of this treaty makes Xu Xiake undecided.

The sale of enough arms to equip 20,000 people is, to put it bluntly, a flintlock pistol that the four countries covet the Ming Dynasty.

Although they also mastered flintlock technology, Shikoku's production capacity brought tears to the eye.

If you want to complete all the outfits, it will take at least a few decades.

In a tense situation of war, it is more straightforward to buy directly than to build.

Xu Xiake knew what they thought, but he also knew that such a huge amount of arms was not something he could decide, and the same was true of the one million and thirty thousand taels of silver.

"Too much money and ammunition......"

Xu Xiake did not refuse the agreement, much to the relief of Louis XIII and Richelieu.

People who have reached their status, as long as they do not object, are in agreement, and it is impossible to say a word for no reason.

It's as if Xu Xiake's words have actually revealed the information that Da Ming is willing to support the four countries.

"It can be reduced to 18,000 people's equipment, 3.5 million guilders."

Richelieu showed sincerity, he was so urgent because of his body.

"I need to think about it, as for the matter of the imperial store, there should not be much problem, and I can make the decision to set it up in the year after tomorrow."

Xu Xiake said unhurriedly, obviously knowing that he was now sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai.

"If that's the case, that's great." Louis XIII smiled and spoke, but Richelieu suddenly said:

"According to our intelligence, João in Portugal is preparing to revolt, but the fact that they are armed with flintlock pistols has been known to the Spanish."

"I believe that it will not be long before Felipe will send someone to question the envoy."

Richelieu's words made Louis XIII's smile stiffen, and he did not understand why Richelieu would say such a disappointing thing in such a situation and atmosphere.

However, he came back to his senses a little and figured out that Richelieu was not reminding or threatening Xu Xiake, he was testing Xu Xiake.

Everyone knows that Xu Xiake's first battle in Europe was Libens, and during that time, Joao happened to live in Ribens.

He wants to deceive Xu Xiake to see if it is Joao supported by Xu Xiake.

If so, it means that they are indeed aiming for the Americas, and their move is a good move.

"Flintlock pistols? Isn't this stuff all over the continent? Xu Xiake smiled and spoke, not being deceived by Richelieu at all.

"Joao did approach me, though, and asked if I could provide him with saltpeter, because he wanted to be in the saltpeter business."

"Now that I think about it, he shouldn't have asked for saltpeter for business, but for rebellion."

"I'll have to write to King Felipe and explain it to me." Xu Xiake pretended to be at a loss, which made Louis XIII a little stunned.

But the old god Richelieu is there, and he doesn't believe that Daming and Joao have nothing to do with each other.

"The agreement is on hold for the time being, and I need to return to the sea and ask the emperor with a carrier pigeon."

Xu Xiake also knew that it was pointless to say too much, so he chose to leave Paris.

"Then I'll ......," Louis XIII wanted to say that he had sent someone to send Xu Xiake and his party back, but Richelieu got up and said:

"Mr. Special Envoy still has goods that have not been processed, I can accompany him to deal with the goods first."

Richelieu had already achieved his goal, and no matter what Xu Xiake reacted to, he could subconsciously feel that it was a disguise.

However, after realizing that he was disguised, Richelieu was not worried.

The Ming Dynasty used this hand to deal with Spain, mainly for the American colonies, but as long as France signed an agreement, it would become a European country, and the affairs of the Americas needed to be faced by Spain.

Things are still going according to his plan, as long as the European countries withdraw from the Americas, then with Felipe's character, he will have to break with the Ming sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Richelieu felt that his body was much lighter, and he seemed to have seen the dawn of victory in the war.

He, who escorted Xu Xiake out of the palace, sent Xu Xiake to the river at dusk, and the goods had been bought by the merchants he arranged.

Xu Xiake boarded the ship before dark and left Paris with a shipload of supplies, gold and silver that he had bought.

It's just that after he got away from Paris, he immediately frowned and said, "Fran has rubbed out a great guy." ”

"What?" The people next to him were a little puzzled, but Xu Xiake shook his head at them, as if he didn't intend to explain.

"This Richelieu is a smart man, but it's a pity that he is too old and sick, so he can't be used by my Ming Dynasty......"

Thinking of Richelieu's gaze that seemed to be able to see through himself, Xu Xiake took a deep breath.

"It's just a pity, with his appearance, I'm afraid he won't live for a few years......"

Xu Xiake breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and at the same time couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

Although he felt that Richelieu was a nuisance, if there were a few smart people like him in Europe at the moment, the matter of the Ming Dynasty's recovery of the New World would not be so complicated.

Especially the proud and arrogant Felipe IV......

Thinking of Felipe IV's arrogant appearance, Xu Xiake couldn't help laughing:

"I don't know if you can still maintain that self-confidence now......"

Afternoon update around half-past four

(End of chapter)