Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 217 Preparations for War with France (Part 2)
Brussels, June 21, 1613. Headquarters of the Spanish army in the Netherlands.
"Your Highness, this is the Marca report from ten days ago. The communication ship just delivered it this morning."
"Hmm? The King's Cup in China has ended now, right? Who will win this year, Real Madrid or Barcelona?"
"Well, Marca said that Real Madrid won the final on penalties."
"Hahaha, Coutinho, my dear adjutant, it seems you are a Barcelona fan."
"Haha, Your Highness, you must be a fan of Real Madrid?"
"No, no, no, I'm not a fan of any team. As our Majesty said when he funded the creation of this cup many years ago, football is used to allow the various ethnic groups in Spain to compete and communicate and ease conflicts. As the prince of the country, I do not take a position on any team."
"Oh, Your Highness, speaking of His Majesty, ten days ago, the three major newspapers in the country published an interview with His Majesty."
"Hmm? Let me see?"
Philip's interviews in China were actually preparations for public opinion. In the interviews, he elaborated in detail on the hundreds of years of grievances between France, a despicable country, and Spain, and the fact that France, for its own selfish interests, disregarded the great cause of Catholicism, and successively united with Protestants and the Ottoman Empire to oppose Spain many times.
At the end of the interview, Philip said: "All citizens should know that the Netherlands has always been our country's inherent territory, but now the rebels in the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands have been resisting for many years. Our brave and invincible warriors have suppressed the rebels in the Netherlands many times. But it won't be long before these rebels grow like weeds. They waved a large amount of gold coins funded by France, recruited Germans, Scots and English, and formed rebels again and again. Countless brave warriors of my Spain fell on the battlefield. Not only that, the rebels in the Netherlands also attacked and looted us all over the world, in our colonies and important commercial routes. The reason why they can be so arrogant is that they are supported by the French behind the scenes!
Therefore, most of Spain's suffering comes from France. This country, which originally had a great culture and history, abandoned its glorious traditions due to the rule of the shameless, dark, evil and perverted Bourbon family. It has become the root cause of unrest in Europe!
I, Philip IV, am the Son of God, born under the protection of Archangel Michael. On the day of my accession to the throne, I was blessed and recognized by the Lord. It is my unshirkable mission and responsibility to destroy the Bourbon family and save the once great France!
I have sent my most loyal brother and bodyguard, Prince of Basque, who was born as the Archangel Michael, to lead a large army to station in the southern Netherlands. He can launch a fatal attack on France at any time. But I am the servant of the Lord after all, and I cannot bear to see the Lord's believers killing each other. Therefore, I sincerely hope that the great French people will have the courage to overthrow the rule of the evil Bourbon family, so that the great France can escape the devil's temptation and return to the embrace of the Lord! By then, the two great countries of Spain and France will be truly united and become the masters of the whole of Europe and even the world! "
After reading this interview, Rudolf twitched his lips slightly: "It seems that our Majesty is not ready to launch the war yet. Well, we are not fully prepared. Coutinho, how much penicillin is left in the military medical department now?"
"I went to Major General Castro's office yesterday to take inventory, and there are still seventy sets."
"Tsk!" Rudolf smacked his lips helplessly and said, "The military medical department is not stealing again, right?"
"In the six months since we arrived in the Netherlands, you have hanged three military doctors and have been constantly regulating the use and registration of penicillin, so the use of penicillin has been basically normal in recent times."
"That's good, that's good, otherwise we would be bankrupt before the war even starts."
The American continent was isolated from the inhabitants of the Eastern Hemisphere for thousands of years because of the protection of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. When Europeans came to the American continent with common diseases in the Eastern Hemisphere, such as smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, cholera, and plague, the Indians, who had never been exposed to these diseases and had no resistance at all, suffered a devastating disaster...
However, the Indians also passed on a disease unique to the Americas to the Spanish, who then spread it back to Europe - syphilis.
Syphilis, in simple terms, is a disease in which the skin rots in the first stage, the muscles rot in the second stage, and the nerves rot in the third stage. Before the advent of penicillin, this thing was a terminal illness. But after the advent of penicillin, penicillin has a very good effect as long as it does not develop to the third stage.
During this period, syphilis was extremely widespread among the European aristocracy due to their promiscuous sexual relations.
Therefore, Zhu Youdong dared to sell penicillin at fifty taels of silver per box, and Spain still dared to buy it in large quantities in units of "ten thousand" - the resale would result in huge profits.
However, when the troops gathered together, especially the officers, His Royal Highness Prince Rudolf was depressed to find that the large number of cold symptoms he had originally planned after the troops gathered were indeed true, and a large amount of sulfa drugs originally prepared were indeed consumed - this was not cheap, but at least it was one silver coin per piece, and Spain could still afford it.
But he really didn't expect that there were actually two or three hundred syphilis patients in the army! This made his original stock of 2,000 penicillins empty by a sudden leap - syphilis generally requires continuous injection of long-acting penicillin for two weeks, and the penicillin currently in Daming is ordinary penicillin, and the dosage can only be larger!
What should we do? We can't just stand by and watch them die, right? How can we maintain morale? Will the Basque prince still have the reputation of loving his soldiers like his own sons?
Therefore, His Royal Highness the Prince had no choice but to grit his teeth and let the military doctor treat them.
However, the corrupt Spanish bureaucracy caused him trouble again: some military doctors used pure water for injection to "treat" sick soldiers, and then sold the medicine on the black market. As a result, many soldiers delayed treatment and entered the third stage of syphilis...
His Royal Highness was furious when he discovered the truth and he strictly rectified the Military Medical Department, but in any case, there was not much stock of the expensive drug penicillin left.
"Hey, write to the country and ask them to allocate another batch of penicillin. The war is about to start, and we can't do without it."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Also, inform the entire army of the content of His Majesty's exclusive interview in Marca. Let the Portuguese, Catalans, Valencians and Moors in our army put their worries aside!"
"As you command, my Lord."
