1679, September.

Spain, Mediterranean coast, military port of Cartagena.

This important military port of the Spanish Navy is heavily guarded today, and everywhere it is full of soldiers carrying the latest flintlock pistols, all of them with their chests and bellies, and they have opened the cordon. It is said to be Prime Minister Juan. José accompanied the Dutch consul on his visit. William of Orange was now a friend of Spain, and his safety must be ensured, but Louis XIV must not be allowed to send an assassin to assassinate him.

In the military port, the sail warships are neatly arranged. Including one battleship of the first rank, two battleships of the second rank, three battleships of the third rank, eleven cruisers of the fourth rank and more than twenty old Spanish galleons, as well as some gunboats with a displacement of less than 300 tons.

After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Dons, the best of the Spanish Navy's forty years of rebuilding is here. Due to the declining empire, the reconstruction of the Spanish navy can be said to be full of bitterness and suffering. Now the only first-class ship in the Kingdom of Spain, and also the flagship of the newly formed Invincible Armada, the Virgin Concepción, launched in 1662, is only 1,515 tons of light displacement, can only install 90 cannons, and its construction time has reached an astonishing 15 years!

This is a record-breaking time to build a ship. The Royal Sun, the treasure of the French Sun King, was more than a third larger than the ship, with more than 100 guns, and was built in just 12 months.

At the same time, the Netherlands and England took about the same time to build such a first-class battleship, which was similar to that of the French man-made Royal Sun. In the past 15 years, a first-class ship has been built, which can only be described as the first generation of Spain, the empire on which the sun never sets.

But now, the officers and men of the navy of the empire, which was about to die, went to cheer up again, hung out the flag of the "Invincible Armada", and stood on the deck, waiting for Juan. Review by Prime Minister José and the Consul of the Netherlands.

All the officers and men of the Spanish Navy firmly believed at this moment that the Spanish Armada would be invincible again!

This is not unreasonable self-confidence, but self-confidence is extremely justified, because this time the Armada has allies such as the Dutch Navy and the English Navy - the previous several Armadas that have ended badly have been beaten by the Dutch Navy and the English Navy.

If the Dutch Navy had been an ally of the Spanish Navy during the Battle of Downs, the Spanish Armada would never have been wiped out - the enemy of the Spanish Armada was the Dutch Navy!

If the enemy is gone, then the Spanish fleet is not invincible?

On board the Santa Maria de Concepción, the Prime Minister of Spain and the Dutch consul were gathered in the stern of the ship, surrounded by a group of accompanying officials. The military band played melodious military music with a whimper, and a Burgundian 10 flag, symbolizing the Spanish royal family, was slowly raised.

Subsequently, another flag of the commander of the Spanish Armada was also raised to the sound of military music. The new Spanish Armada has been officially established!

The new commander of the Armada, who once resisted ten times as many Spaniards as 4,000 Spaniards in the Battle of Cambrai, and also had siege wizards like the Marquis de Vauban Pedro . Morality. Admiral Sabala (who held for a month, then surrendered to the French, breaking a leg) stood in the middle of the queue with a solemn expression that was not at all as optimistic as the others. Until the Dutch ruling Prince William of Orange and Spanish Prime Minister Juan. José walked up to him together before he smiled and saluted the two respectfully.

Juan. José smiled and said to him: "Admiral, everything in the Pacific has been entrusted to you, and the most powerful warships of Spain have been handed over to you, along with a full 10,000 army forces, and you can also recruit 30,000 mercenaries in Japan!" If Philip II had sent such a huge expeditionary force back then, he would definitely have conquered the Ming Dynasty! ”

Admiral Sabala didn't pick up his stubble, but just looked at the sail warships floating around, and said softly: "It's a pity that it's not 1588."

"No faith?" When the Dutch consul on the side asked, there was still a smile on the corner of his mouth, "This time it is not the Spanish Navy that is fighting alone, the Navy of the Dutch East India Company will also be at your disposal!" I've already sent two 3rd class sail battleships and ten 4th class cruisers to Batavia. In addition, the East India Company had more than 100 ships of various types. Our strength at sea far exceeds that of the Chinese! ”

When it comes to naval strength, Spain and the Netherlands are enough to overwhelm the Ming Dynasty, and there is also England watching from the side! Even the Netherlands only used the strength of a little thumb.

Admiral Sabala also smiled: "At sea, of course we can defeat the Ming Navy. But it's not 1588 anymore, and the Ming has the world's largest army! This is not an opponent that 40,000 Spanish-Japanese troops can defeat! Your Excellency, I think you should know that the Ming is not a maritime nation, and we cannot force her into submission through a naval battle. ”

The Dutch ruler laughed: "What we are about to form is an eleven-nation anti-Ming alliance. In this great alliance, there are also the two land powers, the Qing Dynasty and the Great Zhou, both of whom are enemies of the Ming Dynasty. The envoys we sent are now on their way to Central Asia, and they will definitely meet with Kangxi and General Wu. I don't think these two will give up this opportunity to turn the tables! ”

In the spring of the nineteenth year of Kangxi, Central Asia.

With the sound of horses' hooves trampling across the stream, the Turkmen horse, which had been riding extremely skillfully in the first place, had already set foot on the north bank. Dozens of knights in yellow coats followed him across the river. The man on horseback, wearing a warm hat of the Qing Dynasty, dressed in a suit, and his pockmarked face was so dazzling that he was Wu Xuanye, the first pockmarked man in the Qing Dynasty.

On both sides of this creek is one of the few rich and barren lands in the whole of Central Asia. It is rich because of the fertile land, abundant water and large areas of flat and open land, which are ideal for farming. And barren. It is because of this water and soil that a large area of waste is now abandoned there, no one cultivates it, and the grass grows more than half a person high. In the distance, there was a charred and blackened ruin of a severed arm, as if to indicate that the area had just suffered a shocking catastrophe.

A procession was sparsely marching on a tattered road on the south bank of the creek. This was not a simple army of officers and soldiers, but a contingent of many women and children, and cartloads of all kinds of luggage. The team did not know how far it had gone, all the men were covered in gray and dust, and the mules and horses pulling the cart were also a little thin and long, and it seemed that they had suffered a lot along the way. But everyone in the team, at this time, had a happy smile on their faces, pointing at the lush green around them, pointing and talking to each other.

"It's such a peaceful place!"

"No wonder it's called here. What a Taiping Valley! Sure enough, it's a place of peace and happiness! ”

"That's right, I really didn't expect that there would be such a good place like heaven in this Mughal place in the Western Regions!"

"This soil and water are too fertile, right? The grass grows so well, if all the wheat is planted, it will definitely feed millions of people! ”

"What's more beautiful is that this is still a big valley, the top of the valley mouth is one or twenty miles, plus the relatively low mountains near the valley mouth, the passage that can enter and exit is at most forty or fifty miles, if you can build a Great Wall to block it, then we will be in the Qing Dynasty in the future. You can also enjoy peace in this valley, which is also a fairy-like day! ”

It turned out that Kangxi and this team of Tuntian soldiers from the Central Plains were located in the Ferghana Basin, which can be called the heavenly kingdom of the Mughal region.

Before the Mongols ravaged the Mongols, the land in the river of the Mughal region is said to have a well-developed irrigation system, which may not be as good as the Central Plains, but it must also have fertile fields. But when Kangxi and Wu Shicong led the expeditionary forces of the two countries to fight thousands of miles into the river, they found that this was not the case at all. The whole river, except for a few oases, is desolate everywhere.

Most of the oases are also half-dead, the old irrigation system has long been dilapidated, and no one has made extensive repairs, only minor repairs that barely survive.

Since agriculture in the arid regions of Central Asia is originally sustained by water brought by snowmelt from the high mountains, if we want to maintain agricultural production and maintain or even expand the scale of the oases, we must rely on large-scale construction of water conservancy facilities. It would be better to play a game of chess in Central Asia and carry out scientific and unified management of the limited but very stable water resources in the territory.

Historically, the Persian Empire relied on the construction and control of water conservancy facilities to develop the central Asian river region, and achieved relatively effective rule.

But when the destruction level was full, the Mongols, who had almost zero construction level, ruled the river. The originally rich land became barren and barren, and the Mongol Dynasty, which had been replaced like a marquee, probably could not do anything else except for constant destruction.

In the original history, it was necessary to wait for the arrival of the Red Empire to re-energize Central Asia.

And this time, most of the oases in the river, including Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khorezm, were given to Wu Shicong. Kangxi, on the other hand, acquired the only Ferghana Basin around Tashkent and in Central Asia that could maintain high agricultural output without relying on artificial irrigation systems.

Of course, Wu Shicong left the best Ferghana Basin in Central Asia to Kangxi not because of a discovery of conscience. It is because Wu Shicong has taken a fancy to Persia, which produces Persian horses, Persian cats and Persian beauties, and is ready to use Bukhara as a base to launch a conquest against the Safavid Dynasty of Persia. Even if it cannot be annexed, the Safavid dynasty must be brought to its knees.

In addition, the proximity of Wu Shicong, who controlled Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khorezm, to India would also be conducive to future incursions into India or to collect protection money from the Timurid Empire in India now.

And Kangxi did not compete with Wu Shicong for the passage into Persia and India, but gladly accepted the Ferghana Basin, and in the following year or so, he led the army to take root in the densely populated Ferghana Basin, and then cleaned up city by city. It was only not so long ago that he had uprooted Andijan, the last stronghold of resistance in the Ferghana Basin.

While attacking the Tianfang Sect cities in the Ferghana Basin, Kangxi also sent an edict to Beijing, ordering the remaining Empress Yang, Prince Gong and the Eight Ministers to send another group of Tuntian bannermen to Ferghana to take root.

In order to attract more people to Ferghana, Kangxi also changed the name of the Ferghana Basin, called "Taiping Valley". Moreover, in the will written to Empress Yang, Prince Gong and the Eight Ministers and others, he praised the water and land shape of the Taiping Valley for a while, saying that it is surrounded by mountains, rich water and soil, fertile fields for thousands of miles, the Valley of Taiping, and the land of abundance!

In short, it is a heaven on earth that can be kept behind closed doors! It's not too much to call it the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

At this moment, across a stream, hearing the laughter of the tuntian households who were brought to settle in the rich land near the Tianshan Mountains in the northeast of Andijan, Kangxi also showed a rare smile of relief, and turned back to the guards beside him, Nalan Xingde, and Gao Shiqi, a bachelor of Hanlin, and said: "If I can live here with the queen and grow old together, it will also be a beautiful thing!" ”

Gao Shiqi and Nalan Xingde glanced at each other, and the two seemed to hear something, but they didn't understand anything.

Nalan Xingde asked: "Your Majesty, it's better to be happy here"

Kangxi shook his head: "The ancestral foundation, you can't be defeated in my hands, no matter what, you have to fight again!" Now that Da Ming has provoked a large number of Western powers, he may be attacked on his back, this is my last chance! How did I become that I am a generation of heroes, no, I am a holy lord! ”

Kangxi didn't blow it this time, if he could fight this time, he would indeed be worthy of the Holy Lord - this is almost to the Caspian Sea, and it will be "holy" if you look at the map! And the current Qing Dynasty is no longer the original Eight Banners overwhelming Qing Dynasty, but a United States! The conflict between the Manchus and the Han was greatly eased as the full content of the bannermen decreased.

In addition, the current Qing Dynasty has completely opened the country, and the princes of the Qing Dynasty have slept with Princess Rakshasa! As for the Tongwen Pavilion or something, it has already been there, and even began to prepare for the Jingshi University Hall.

Gao Shiqi said: "Your Majesty, the envoys of the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and England have been waiting in Tianjing City for a month, do you hurry up to see them?" ”

Nalan Xingde also reminded: "Your Majesty, now is a rare opportunity Nan Huairen and Xu Risheng said in the letter that this time the Westerners have already provoked the Ming Dynasty, and they will be serious, not only will they send 30,000 expeditionary troops, but they will also merce 100,000 soldiers from Japan. An army of 130,000 landed in the southeast of Daming! ”

Kangxi nodded: "Okay, go back to Tianjing!" ”

The so-called "Tianjing", of course, was also raised by Kangxi to fool the Chinese into emigrating - Taiping Valley is the country of abundance, that is, the kingdom of heaven, the capital of the kingdom of heaven, what is not Tianjing?

This Tianjing City, located near the mouth of the valley in the west of Taiping Valley, is a new city that is still under construction. According to Kangxi's thoughts, in case there is no blockade in the future, he will take Queen Yang to hide in Taiping Valley to live a small life, and then come to the Son of Heaven to guard the mouth of the valley, and block the entrance of Taiping Valley solidly, at least two or three hundred years of foundation.

By the time Kangxi returned to his Tianjing City, two huge construction sites had already appeared near the entrance to the Ferghana Basin, on both sides of the Syr Darya River.

Two castles standing between the river are already under construction. The captives captured during the pacification of the basin were being carried by the vicious "New Mongol Expeditionary Army" to dig trenches in the wilderness one by one, and the excavated earth was piled up on the side to tamp the rammed earth layer of the city wall. Next to the construction site is still a brick-burning stove, the flames are endless, one furnace after another, bricks are soon built layer by layer on the outside of the adobe, and the two castles are in the process of taking shape little by little.

These two castles are also quite interesting, and they are connected with the long walls and moats built by Kangxi at the mouth of the valley to form a complete defense system. In addition, facing the valley mouth to the west, there are two sides facing south and north, both of which are bastion designs, and only the east and Syr Darya side are ordinary city walls.

Seeing these two castles under construction, several ambassadors from the joint missions of the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Portugal who came from afar couldn't help but be a little worried.

Is this Kangxi Emperor not going back to the East? In the future, he will be in this Taiping Valley retreat to keep the peace?

In this way, Da Ming will be difficult to deal with!

However, the two Jesuit missionaries who accompanied them who were reused by Kangxi were quite confident, and they both patted their chests and assured the envoys of the four Western missions that as long as the conditions given by the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Portugal were good enough, the Great Khan would definitely turn around and crusade eastward, and then give the general surnamed Li to the Ming Dynasty!

Is this want to benefit?

But what kind of benefits did this Qing emperor and Mongol Great Khan want?

(End of chapter)