The number of Ming colonial troops participating in the looting of Turkish territory reached 400,000. The vast majority of these people had lost their land within the Ming territory. After being given a small amount of resettlement money by Ming merchants, they were sent overseas by ship to ensure the survival of their families. This began as a hunting operation in the colonial campaign. The earliest of these people participated in the Indian colonization operation, which already numbered hundreds of thousands. After these years, the number has become even larger than one could imagine.
The Ming Dynasty has never lacked people, which is also the basis for Tang Tong to grow rapidly. The Ming Dynasty merchants also rely on this numerical advantage to occupy an advantageous position in front of the Western powers. If all the Ming Dynasty's overseas colonial merchants gather together, the number of people should be around 10 million. Among them, Zheng Zhilong's power is as high as more than 100,000. Since he once again tasted the sweetness on Turkish soil, the enthusiasm and strength he showed made those Westerners feel afraid.
These Westerners could not tell whether Tang Tong's men were in the same group as the Ming Dynasty merchant colonial army. Seeing more and more Ming Dynasty troops on Turkish soil and Tang Tong adding another 100,000 troops on the Suez Canal, the Westerners finally began to worry. After some calculations, the French withdrew from the Western coalition first.
The French had also begun to rise on the European continent at this time. Although the French navy was nothing special, it was a powerful country in terms of its army. When the German Confederation and Russia had not yet risen, and when the Spanish began to weaken, the contradictions between France and Britain became increasingly acute. It was the military thinking of the island nation of Britain to prevent the emergence of a hegemon on the European continent. This military thinking began in the early 17th century and continued until Britain joined other countries to defeat Napoleon. The conflict of interests between Britain and France was always prominent.
The French saw how powerful the Tang Tong or Ming people were. When France was carrying out colonization activities in the Dai Viet Dynasty, it knew a little about the situation in the Ming Dynasty. The biggest impression on the French was that the people of the Ming Empire were too many. The population of such a country was almost the total population of the entire Europe. When such a country had weapons more advanced than those of the Westerners, the French understood that such an existence was not something they could provoke. Especially in this Turkish War, the French witnessed the terrifying population of the Ming Empire. Such large-scale colonization activities, in the eyes of the French, simply did not dare to think about it. They originally wanted to take advantage of the alliance of Western countries to reap some benefits, but then they learned that the number of the other side was increasing.
With such a terrifying military force, coupled with the fact that the Ming Dynasty's productivity accounted for more than 40% of the world's total, not to mention the French, other Western countries were equally afraid. The French and those Western countries did not know this percentage ratio. They only knew that the Ming Empire was the richest country in the world, and they could not figure out the relationship between them and the Ming Empire. On the one hand, these Western countries wanted to strike against such a powerful opponent as Tang Tong or the Ming Empire, but on the other hand, they were afraid of Tang Tong's retaliation and tried to preserve their own strength as much as possible.
After the French extorted a sum of money for reinforcements from the Turks, they felt that there was no need to continue wasting time in this place, which would not benefit their country at any time. In addition, in order to deal with the Ming colonial forces that were wreaking havoc in Turkey, the Turks had to transfer most of their troops. In this case, the Westerners had no cannon fodder in front of them, so the French decided to withdraw their troops as soon as possible. Moreover, the French understood that the last person to withdraw would inevitably suffer the heaviest blow from the Ming people. The French were unwilling to be this scapegoat, and the British were also unwilling to be this scapegoat. None of these Western countries would be willing to be this scapegoat.
After the French and British withdrew, Tang Tong launched a counterattack. The Spanish and Dutch reacted a little slowly and became scapegoats. The two countries left more than 30,000 corpses here. However, Tang Tong did not fight anymore. Such a long military confrontation was very exhausting for Tang Tong, and Tang Tong also needed to recuperate. So, Tang Tong began negotiations with the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire recognized that the land occupied by Tang Tong belonged to Tang Tong, and compensated Tang Tong for the loss of 100,000 taels of silver. This amount was nothing for the Ottoman Empire.
In the 11th century, when the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, European countries obtained a large amount of silver from their colonization activities in the Americas, and this silver was used as a means of trade.
In the end, a large amount of money was injected into two countries, one was the Ming Empire and the other was the Ottoman Empire. As for silver, the Ottoman Empire could easily come up with even tens of millions of taels, let alone tens of millions. After all, at this time, the Ottoman Empire had just begun to decline from prosperity in history, and the country was still very wealthy. Unlike the Ming Dynasty, the treasury was emptied by various disasters, resulting in the strange situation of the people being rich but the country being poor.
When Tang Tong returned to Daming City in Nanyang, Princess Changyi and her entourage had already returned to Daming. By this time, the situation within Daming had changed. First, the forces of Li Yan and Hong Niangzi officially joined Tang Tong's forces and simultaneously declared war on Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. This sudden development not only bewildered Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, but also bewildered Emperor Chongzhen, who could not understand why such a change had occurred between the rebels, who had previously lived in peace. However, for the emperor, this was somewhat a good thing. In Chongzhen's view, these people's war was a good thing for his Ming Empire, at least giving the Ming court a little more breathing room.
At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen understood that the fact that Li Yan and Hong Niangzi's forces had joined Tang Tong indicated that Tang Tong's power had grown even stronger, posing a greater threat to the Ming Dynasty. However, Emperor Chongzhen was powerless to do anything about it. He had long known in his heart that the Tang Prince in Southeast Asia would eventually replace the Ming Dynasty.
When the Princess returned, they presented her with many gifts. Chen Yuxian, on behalf of Tang Tong, also sent a number of gifts to the delegation to take back to the Emperor. Although no agreement was reached, Tang Tong had already expressed his goodwill to Emperor Chongzhen and his men. When the Princess returned to the capital, Emperor Chongzhen inquired in detail about her experiences in Southeast Asia. Hearing his daughter's tale, tinged with envy, he sighed deeply. He now understood the importance of a navy, and even more so, the importance of muskets and artillery. However, he no longer had the funds to build warships or muskets. Even if he had the money, he understood it would ultimately fall into the hands of corrupt officials, and he, Chongzhen, would still be unable to build ships or artillery.
The Chongzhen Emperor was well aware of the rampant corruption within the Ming Empire. He had fought for years against the intellectual cliques formed by these corrupt officials. Though exhausting his energy, it had no effect. Instead, the corrupt officials grew even more corrupt, reaching a point of unbridled ruthlessness. Even if the Chongzhen Emperor had wanted to kill them at all costs, the combined power of these corrupt officials would have rendered him powerless. Instead, he ultimately became a bad emperor, influenced by the propaganda of these intellectual cliques. Fortunately, the empire's decline was due to the Chongzhen Emperor's killing of these corrupt officials.
These landlord class intellectuals. When Emperor Chongzhen thought of his daughter uttering this term, a wry smile of resignation filled his heart. He knew the term was coined by Prince Tang. Although it was strange, he had to admit that Prince Tang saw things more clearly than he did.
Chen Yuxian presented Emperor Chongzhen with some food, clothing, and daily necessities on behalf of Tang Tong. Normally, an emperor wouldn't have paid much attention to these items, but now, Emperor Chongzhen didn't underestimate them. His daughter, Princess Changyi, relayed Tang Tong's message to Emperor Chongzhen. From these words, Emperor Chongzhen understood. Regardless of the final outcome, at least at this moment, Prince Tang had expressed his goodwill and respect for the emperor.
This kind of respect is different from the respect a minister shows to the emperor. This kind of respect is the respect expressed by two people of equal status. This also made Emperor Chongzhen feel that if there is anyone in the world who is his confidant, then, no, this Prince Tang is the person who knows him best in the world. Whenever this happened, Emperor Chongzhen would have a very strange feeling in his heart, as if this Prince Tang was both his enemy and his friend.
Li Yan and his men had a very smooth attack on Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Over the years, among Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates, there were many undercover agents sent by Tang Tong. Although these undercover agents did not grasp the high-level power of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates, there were many people at the lower levels. When Li Yan and Chen Zilong led the army to attack, these undercover agents led the forces under their command to carry out internal and external subversion, causing the army of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong to collapse quickly.
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