"Bell...... Clang...... Bell ......"

On the ninth day of the second month of the twenty-third year of the Apocalypse, when the Ming Dynasty was still immersed in the turmoil of the imminent inauguration of the King of Qi, an alliance to resist the Ming Dynasty came into being.

Amid the melodious sound of the bells, three envoys dressed in national costumes but full of thoughts entered a stone house in the port of Hormuz.

They were full of concern, but they were cautious, not only did they not bring guards, but they also dressed very low-key.

In some ways, they were more like merchants on three merchant ships.

The reason why they are so vigilant and low-key is to avoid the mysterious organization that the Ming Dynasty has arranged in their countries...... Jin Yiwei.

However, when the three of them walked into the stone house one after another, they each took off their robes and sat down in the form of a triangular round table.

"Time is pressing, we must achieve results in the fastest time, otherwise we may attract the attention of the Ming people."

When the Ottoman foreign representative, Alaha, spoke, the Persian foreign representative in control of Hormuz, Abbasi, also nodded.

They still need such a fear on their own territory, which shows that they are very afraid of Jinyiwei's intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities.

"The power of the Ming Dynasty is too huge, and now it is meddling in our national affairs from Eastern Europe to Hezhong and then to South Asia, if we are not united, it is very likely to be broken one by one and easily replaced."

Huvina, the Mughal foreign representative, tried his best to exaggerate the extent to which the Ming interfered in the state affairs of various countries, while Arahat and Abbasi couldn't help but nod their heads despite knowing that things were exaggerated.

Such a strange scene is enough to make some politicians who know these three countries jaw-dropping.

Ottoman Empire, Safavid Persian Empire, Mughal Empire......

The relationship between the three states was like that of a tripartite, and although there was no conflict between the Mughals and the Ottomans, the Safavid Persians often made overtures to the Mughals in order not to expose the country to the enemy.

The Mughals were well aware of this, and therefore often accepted such overtures, but at the same time did not accept the Safavid Persians' request for an alliance.

The reason is simple, although the Mughals accepted the Persian overtures, the two countries still have irreconcilable contradictions.

Kandahar, the region that has been taken by the Ming Dynasty, is a contradiction that is difficult for the two countries to reconcile.

Speaking of Kandahar, we have to start with the friendship between the two countries.

The interaction between the Safavid and Mughal dynasties can be traced back to the founding monarchs of the two countries.

As early as December 1510, when Ismaili I defeated the Khiva Khanate, among the prisoners of war rescued by the Safavid army was the sister of the Kabul ruler Babur, who would later be the founding emperor of the Mughal Empire in India.

Ismaili I warmly received the princess and sent her back to Babur, which was the beginning of friendly relations between the Safavid court and the Mughals.

The following year, Babur sent envoys to the Safavid Persian court to express his gratitude and send a request for Persia to send troops to attack Samarkand, the capital of the Timurid Empire, and regain his territory.

Later, Babur also captured Samarkand with the help of Persian reinforcements, and prayed in the name of the Safavid Emperor in the city.

Later, Babur sent troops from Kabul to attack India, occupied northern India, founded the Mughal Empire, and later died, and his successor, Humayun, was also a supporter of Safavid Persia.

Such a relationship allowed Humayun to escape to the Persian court for refuge in the future when he encountered a rebellion launched by the Afghan Suhr.

Not only that, but the king of Safavid Persia promised to provide soldiers to help Humayun regain the throne.

In exchange, however, Persia demanded that Humayun accept the following three conditions:

First, to convert to Shia.

Second, give away diamonds.

Third, the cession of Kandahar, which was now controlled by Humayun's brother Kamlan.

Faced with these three conditions, Humayun agreed without thinking, and with the help of this army, he successfully defeated the Afghan Suhr, regained his lost throne, and restored Mughal rule in India.

However, Humayun never responded positively to the promise to cede Kandahar, much to the anger of Persia.

Later, the Persians sent an army to Kandahar and conquered the province that had been under Indian administration since 1527.

This made the Mughal Empire so angry that it simply cut off contact with the Persian court.

However, if this is the case, it will not be enough to turn the two countries around.

What really turned the two countries around was when Persia was invaded by the Ottomans and at the same time civil unrest broke out, and they had no choice but to pray to the Mughals, but the Mughal ministers strongly refused.

At the same time that the relationship between the two sides has dropped to the freezing point, Kandahar has also become the fuse for the two countries to fight each other as the relationship between the two countries continues to decline.

Because Kandahar was located between the Mughal Empire in India and Kabul and the Safavid Empire in Central Asia, Kabul and Kandahar were the two gates of India for the Mughals.

These two gates, one to the Turkic lands and the other to Persia, were extremely important to the Mughals.

At the same time, for the Safavipos, Kandahar was not only the gateway to Kabul from the southwest, but also controlled an important route to India through the Bolun Pass.

It was because of Kandahar's commercial and military importance that from the 16th century onwards it was the object of contention between the Safavid Empire of Persia and the Mughal Empire of India.

Beginning in the 16th century, Kandahar changed hands several times between the Safavid Empire of Persia and the Mughal Empire of India, until the Ming army sent troops to occupy Kandahar, and the rivalry between the two countries ended with the Ming army taking advantage of the fisherman.

When Kandahar was occupied by the Ming Dynasty, the contradictions between the two countries did not exist, and this was one of the reasons for the peace talks between the two countries.

"We can bear the most direct pressure from the Ming Dynasty, but the only people your country needs to guard against are the Tatars, the servants of the Ming Dynasty."

"Therefore, your country must withdraw its troops from the Persian frontier to ensure that Persia can resist the invasion of the Ming Dynasty together with us."

The Mughal representative, Mavina, told the Ottoman Arahat about the plight of the Mughals and Persia, and also explained why the Ottomans wanted to join the alliance.

When Lin Dan Khan changed his banner and became the Ming Mongols, the pressure on the Ottomans changed from the Mongols to the Mongols and the Ming people.

The Ottomans had a particularly long coastline, and the Caucasus had to be deployed to support them in the north, so it was more likely for the Ottoman to join the war if he had to help his client states of Crimea and the Mongols.

On top of that, Sultan Murad IV, who was close to the Ming dynasty in his country, had died, and the sultan who took his place was called "Ibrahim I".

Ibrahim I was not as close to the Ming as Murad IV, but was full of dissatisfaction with the Ming because of his seizure of the small Western trade route.

This original resentment, coupled with the Mongols' influence on the Ottoman slave trade, naturally escalated into hostility.

It can be said that the relationship between the three kingdoms is full of complexities, but because of the Ming Dynasty's approach of attacking from all sides, it contributed to the beginning of the Triple Alliance.

"We can withdraw most of the troops on the border, provided that you also withdraw your own troops, and if the Ming are directly involved in the Tatar war against us, you must find a way to deal with it."

Ottoman spoke on behalf of Alah about his needs, and the content seemed normal and total.

The alliance established by the three countries was originally an offensive and defensive alliance, and what needed to be guaranteed was that the three countries would no longer fight among themselves.

The withdrawal of troops was the first step of the three countries on the border between the two sides, and only when this step was completed, and the Ming Dynasty continued to put pressure on the West, could the second and third steps be carried out.

"Tuk Tuk ......"

There was a knock on the door, and the three people in the house all knew that it was someone from outside, which meant that there were Ming people nearby.

Whether it is a merchant or a brocade guard, in short, once the face of the Ming Dynasty appears, they must leave.

"We will be the first to withdraw our troops, and I hope your country will do the same."

Allah got up and put on the merchant's robe again, and Mavina and Abbasi also got up, and the three of them left the stone house a moment later.

Their initial contacts were relatively successful, and now as long as the three countries withdraw their troops from the border one after another, they will be able to enter a deeper second step of cooperation.

Since this meeting was more like a simple meeting, the confidentiality of the information was very good.

It wasn't until the time entered March, when countries began to transfer their armies one after another, arranged their armies on the border with the Ming Dynasty, and began to follow the Ming army to build defense lines, that the Ming Jinyi guards in various countries probably knew about the possible alliance of the three countries.

Jinyi guards from all over the country released carrier pigeons, and the news was transmitted back to Daming in mid-March and successfully delivered to Zhu Youzhen's hands......

"Woo-"

At sea, when the whistle sounded, a wooden 3,000-ton steam cargo ship, escorted by two armed steam cargo ships, was on its way from Fuzhou, Fujian Province to Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

The sea breeze blew the hem of Zhu Youzhen's clothes, and he held the information on the changes in West Asia compiled by the Beizhen Fusi in his hand, and the expression on his face seemed to tell that he was deep in thought.

Lu Wenzhao stood aside and said with some concern: "If the three countries are really united, it will soon become a country with a population of 80 million and a population of 60 million. ”

"The most important thing is that Lu Miguo (Ottoman) has direct contact with Europe, and it is suspected that he has obtained the technology of the rifle."

"If they were armed with rifles and shared this technology with the Persians and Mughals, the dynasty might have suffered a lot of casualties in the siege of the Three Kingdoms in the future."

What Lu Wenzhao said has some truth, but for Zhu Youzhen, the spread of the Bu Gong technology does not mean anything, Zhu Youzhen is more concerned about the volume of the Three Kingdoms, and whether the Three Kingdoms will pull more countries into this alliance to fight against the Ming Dynasty.

"At least fifteen years, there will be no head-on conflict between the dynasty and the three kingdoms, so don't worry about that."

Zhu Youzhen frowned and said, and at the same time commented on the Triple Alliance:

"The relationship between the three kingdoms is complicated, and if only the Ottomans are caught in a war with the tigers, then in the long run, they will inevitably feel uncomfortable with the Persians and the southern captives who are "living in peace" with us. ”

"As long as there is a contradiction within it, we can dismantle it and finally divide it and eat it."

Zhu Youzhen made his own inferences and foreign policy.

Due to the current supply pressure of the Ming army in Central Asia, there is no way to further recover the ability of Persia and India in a short period of time.

Even if attacked from the sea, the terrain of Persia was enough to cause problems for the Ming army's supply lines.

Unless the Ming army can send 100,000 people to attack Persia in one go, it will be difficult to destroy it in one fell swoop.

Moreover, even if the country is destroyed, the local situation is very easy to produce guerrillas, and in the long run, the Ming Dynasty will fall into a long public security defensive war.

Now the Ming Dynasty basically relies on the inland supply of the three provinces of Hezhong, Lingbei and Taixi, and in order to maintain local rule, it can only use hundreds of thousands of people to pull horses and build a long supply line in Anxi and Beiting.

Although Luchuan in the south is self-sufficient, there are more than 4 million local people in Demasa, Xiling and Bengal provinces in the northwest of Luchuan.

These natives often rioted, so they threatened the supply lines of the Ming Dynasty at all times.

If you want to assimilate them, it will take more than ten years.

Therefore, in the next ten years, or even twenty years, the main theme of the Ming Dynasty will be peace and proxy war.

Lin Dan Khan's "Ming Mongols" were the Ming Dynasty's agents against the West, and the war would also be waged by them.

However, in addition to Lin Dan Khan, Zhu Youzhen also needs to support a few agents in Western Europe to stabilize the situation in Europe.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen looked at Lu Wenzhao:

"How is the civil war in Dark Elia (England) going? What about the rest of Europe? ”

"Don't be optimistic......," Lu Wenzhao replied with a worried face:

"The people of Hellia generally distrusted their king, and except for some of the powerful people in the country who were willing to support him, the other farmers and minor nobles were in opposition to him."

"In addition, in the Battle of the Edgey Hills last year, 3,000 soldiers armed with rifles changed their banners, causing the Royalist army to be defeated due to unstable formation."

"In this battle, the royalist army suffered a lot of losses, and many uprisings broke out in the rear because of the defeat in the war."

"The Parliamentarians won the following battles at Grantham, Gainesboro, and Winsby, and Charles, the king of Dark Elia, offered us additional loans to buy firearms."

"As for other European countries, the war is still ongoing, and the big Francois (Spain) has basically stabilized the front line after receiving treaty trade support from Qi countries."

"With the sail battleships purchased from the dynasty, the Grand Franc was able to secure the trade lines at sea."

"But judging by the fact that they are still using outdated maritime tactics, this trade route will not last long."

Lu Wenzhao's words made Zhu Youzhen frown, he didn't expect that Charles I of England would be defeated by the parliamentary army when he had an army of 20,000 flintlock muskets.

At this time, if Da Ming does not continue to support Charles I, then the time when he is sent to the guillotine is really in the countdown.

As for the situation on the Spanish side, it was still expected by Zhu Youzhen, as long as Spain did not have economic problems, the Thirty Years' War could still continue.

The war must end with the victory of the Catholic League, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would not be able to facilitate the Second War of Religion.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen ordered Lu Wenzhao: "Let the bank lend another one million taels to Charles I, and at the same time let the arsenal produce 100,000 rifles and 3,000 Yanshan five-jin cannons and 2 million catties of gunpowder." ”

"These rifles, artillery, and gunpowder are all supported by trade to the Great Furlong, Dark Eliah, and Tiger Rabbit."

Zhu Youzhen is supporting the Three Kingdoms, because he needs the Three Kingdoms to win three wars respectively.

The destruction of Crimea by Lin Dan Khan could directly threaten Poland and at the same time increase pressure on the Ottoman Empire.

Charles I of England won the Civil War, which allowed the constitutional monarchy to come later and interrupted the course of English history.

Felipe IV of Spain won the Wars of Religion so that the Second War of Religion could be triggered.

After these three battles are fought, the world pattern will remain unchanged for at least 50 years.

In fifty years, under the existing education system, the scientific and technological level of the Ming Sect system will progress rapidly.

At that time, even if Europe wakes up, I am afraid that it will already have a difference of two to three generations of weapons with the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, fifty years later, the population of the Ming Dynasty is enough to double on the original basis.

Coupled with the construction of trains, the Ming army could continue to move the population to assimilate the local area while marching westward.

The wave of explosive growth of the world's population was after 1720, because the Xiaoice period ended, and the grain yield was no longer reduced because of the lower temperature.

Until then, countries had to maintain their original populations, and even their populations declined for a time.

As the first countries to enter the industrial revolution, the Ming and Qi countries may be the only two countries that can grow their populations explosively ahead of schedule.

Therefore, by the time of the eighteenth century, the Han Chinese population was likely to rise from one-quarter of the world's population to three-fifths of the world's population.

Population produces volume, and it is easy to recover all of Asia, even Europe.

Therefore, this 50-year opportunity must be created by Zhu Youzhen.

When Zhu Youzhen thought so, footsteps came from behind him.

He and Lu Wenzhao looked sideways, and it turned out that Zhu Youxiao, who had finished his lunch break, got up.

"How long do you have to get to Ningbo?"

Zhu Youxiao was a little seasick, and his tone was sick.

Lu Wenzhao, who heard the words, replied: "Long live, there are still about four hours, and now we have reached the sea area of Wenzhou Mansion." ”

"Four hours...... All right. Zhu Youxiao said listlessly, Zhu Youzhen looked at him like that, and also took out information to distract him:

"If my brother is bored, you can take a look at this information."

Saying that, Zhu Youzhen also explained his idea of wanting to win fifty years of stable time for Daming.

In this regard, if it were in the past, Zhu Youxiao estimated that it would be a sentence "My brother can do it, I can do it".

But now, as the time for Zhu Youzhen to take office is getting closer and closer, Zhu Youxiao should also take on some of the burden.

He hastily read the information, and after reading it, he followed Zhu Youzhen's thoughts and said:

"What does my brother mean is that Daming needs to recuperate and recuperate for fifty years?"

Zhu Youxiao frowned a little at this, after all, fifty years is too long, and no one can guarantee what will happen to the Ming Dynasty.

If Zhu Youxiao can wait for 20 or 30 years, after all, Wang Kentang has diagnosed his pulse, and also said that as long as he doesn't take pills and is diligent in exercising, he can probably live to about seventy.

Therefore, he can still wait for twenty or thirty years, and he is sure that he can control the court.

Fifty years...... That's not something he should worry about, but Zhu Ciran.

Even to say too much, even Zhu Ciran may not be able to wait for these things, but can only wait for Zhu Heyin to handle them.

"Fifty years is too long...... Zhu Youxiao said his thoughts, and Zhu Youzhen also smiled when he heard this:

"If my brother wants to advance, then I have to look at the scientific and technological progress of the Armaments Institute and the medical and demographic progress of the Ming Dynasty."

"You ......" Zhu Youxiao couldn't cry or laugh, and his younger brother was waiting for him here.

He couldn't help but laugh and cry, but he couldn't help but make a promise:

"Brother, rest assured, I will pay attention to the research of the Armaments Institute in the future, and at the same time pay attention to the Huimin Pharmacy and the Department of Officials."

"Then it can be shortened." Zhu Youxiao nodded with a smile after listening, which made Zhu Youxiao feel helpless in his heart, thinking that he had been calculated by his younger brother into a promise again.

However, even if he didn't care about the affairs of these three yamen, his own prince would care.

His younger brother's calculations are just to take a heavy insurance, which is nothing, but makes Zhu Youxiao constantly realize the importance of science and technology.

"Along the way, I can understand the importance of science and technology that my brother said."

Zhu Youxiao looked into the distance against the discomfort of seasickness, and said with a little emotion:

"There is a greater difference between the people having machines and not having them than there is a difference between having animal power and not having animal power."

"If the tractor can be popularized, it will not only allow a family to easily cultivate 300 acres of land, but also allow fishermen to harvest more fish and increase more taxes for the imperial court."

"Although I can't imagine what my brother once said that one person can cultivate thousands of acres of arable land, it makes sense when I think about it."

"Therefore, my brother can rest assured that the investment in the armament institute will not decrease, but will increase after the disaster."

"Besides......" Zhu Youxiao took a deep breath, turned to look at Zhu Youzhen, and said with some hesitation:

"What my brother said before is very reasonable, I shouldn't always think about controlling the people, and I shouldn't think that the people will be in chaos when they are idle."

"The people of the Ming Dynasty are too hard, as long as the court is a little more lenient, they can live very comfortably."

"It was not the Ming Dynasty that fed the people, but the people who fed the Ming Dynasty."

"Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize a boat...... I listened to my brother's words. ”

Zhu Youxiao said this word to Zhu Youzhen seriously, and Zhu Youzhen can make Zhu Youxiao, who grew up in the feudal era, feel the difficulty of the people, which is more fulfilling than his conquest of a country.

A strong country does not necessarily mean that the people are rich, since the Qin Dynasty, the stable situation of all dynasties is not less than a thousand years, but the people can eat enough for a few hundred years.

Zhu Youxiao can understand the suffering of the people, so Zhu Youzhen doesn't say that he can let the people of Daming enjoy a hundred years of prosperity, but there is no problem with thirty years of prosperity.

"I'm relieved that my brother can think like this......"

With a bit of sigh, Zhu Youzhen said this sentence and turned his head to look at the sparkling waves on the sea.

Zhu Youxiao followed his gaze, in addition to the sparkling waves, there were also fishing boats fishing at sea.

(End of chapter)