Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 534 Philip's Diary
July 26, 1625, Rome, sunny.
It has been almost five months since I arrived in Rome in March last year. Ah, Rome, the king of cities. For any historian, Rome always has a special meaning and feeling.
Unfortunately, Rome in this era is in a very bad state compared to Madrid, which I have carefully governed for more than ten years. The developed sewers built by the ancient Romans are either blocked or used as residences for beggars and refugees. So many public baths are also abandoned. The whole city stinks. In the summer, mosquitoes and flies are rampant everywhere, making it impossible to work in peace. The rats here are even more arrogant, daring to run through the city on the streets during the day...
Of course , my body is not afraid of mosquito bites, but others should be careful. So, although I wanted to keep my son Luis with me to teach him by example and to deepen his friendship with 17-year-old Raimondo, 14-year-old Turenne (Vicomte de Turenne) and 4-year-old Louis (Grand Condé), I still let him go back to Madrid for safety reasons.
This morning, Raimondo brought me a report from the southern front headquarters. As expected, the Chinese joined the war and fought very well. Hum, aren't they just mortars and light machine guns? Rudolf had already guided the scientists in the Asturias laboratory to produce these products before his death, but I suppressed their mass production.
Not only that, Rudolf also drew up a rough draft of a submachine gun after hearing the report of the defeat in Manila. I think that with the hard work of outstanding scientists led by Galileo, the submachine gun was only produced in the last one or two years. So, I really didn't worry too much about trench warfare.
Speaking of Rudolf, I really miss him. With him around, my work will be easier. The most important thing is that I won't have to worry too much about military affairs. But I still don't regret getting rid of him too early. Keeping him, except that I always feel that there is a sword behind me, which makes people very uneasy. With Rudolf's impatient temper, if he commanded the 500,000 coalition forces to attack the Ottoman Empire, maybe he could take Constantinople in one or two years?
But is it really a good idea to defeat the Ottoman Empire too quickly? I personally still think that it is better to drag out this war a little longer.
From the experience of historical development, in a region like Europe where alphabetic writing is used and there are many ethnic groups, ethnic integration is a very difficult thing. If there were no high pressure of war, ethnic integration in peacetime would probably take hundreds or even thousands of years.
But with war, things are different. Although the Thirty Years' War in the historical plane caused great damage to Germany, it also allowed the Germanic people on this land to truly begin to integrate, thus laying the foundation for the formation of the future German Empire.
The same is true of Europe today. Perhaps in the eyes of the time traveler in China, I was very stupid: the European Union had just been established, various affairs had not been sorted out, Rudolf died suddenly, and the military had not yet selected an outstanding commander. I launched a full-scale war against the Ottoman Empire. If I was not careful, the European Union would collapse.
However, how could the Chinese time traveler, who was born in a naturally centralized system, understand my difficulties? Without the high pressure of war, how could I further reduce the power of the nobles in the country and further bind the countries together in the European Union?
Now, the war has begun, and the army and the civilians who accompany them need a lot of clothes. So the British began to eat people desperately. Most of the British farmers who were driven off the land came to the factories in Madrid, and some went to Africa to open up colonies. As long as such a war lasts for more than five years, it will be impossible for Britain to return to the past.
The war is going on. Under the banner of the holy war, the kings and grand dukes of various countries dare not say they will not participate. And if they participate, their armies will have to use the same weapons as our Spanish army. They have accepted our Spanish weapons and their armies have received training from our Spanish officers. After five or six years, they still want to relax?
The war is going on, and all tariffs in the EU are in name only because of the transportation of wartime supplies. The abolition of tariffs has promoted the development of commerce. And the only country that can provide the most goods is Spain. Five or six years later, when the war is over, it will not be so easy for EU countries to restore tariffs or even set up checkpoints in their respective borders. At that time, the entire European merchant class will be devoted to me, and the increasingly poor royal families of various countries will have to rely more and more on me...
The war is going on, and people all over Europe are now paying attention to the same thing every day. Although there are still many illiterate people in Europe, the sales of newspapers such as Marca are continuing to soar. Haha, they listen to the introduction of the war situation, but they are influenced by me. In the long run, it is possible to form common values.
As the war continues, the exchange of materials becomes wider and wider. Merchants and ordinary people will quickly clear out the privately minted currencies of local lords for the convenience and fairness of transactions with Spanish silver coins. The currency will truly be unified. Spain controls Europe economically and is the real master of the European Union.
As the war continued, at least in the army, officers at all levels changed their past passive acceptance of orders and became more and more proactive in writing and communicating in Latin... In the long run, Europe will become more and more culturally unified...
Therefore, it is not time for mortars, light machine guns and even submachine guns to appear. This war needs to continue for a longer time. Only in this way can Europe have time to better integrate effectively. Only when the economy is deeply bound, the politics is basically unified, and the military is completely consistent, will we have a chance to deal with China's challenges in the future!
Oh, I really envy that Chinese. Since ancient times, it has been a centralized country, which makes it so easy to control.
Speaking of which, during this war, I have another task that needs to be accelerated. Since Macau was occupied by the Chinese, it has become increasingly difficult for us in Spain to obtain intelligence on the Chinese. We have no idea what the Chinese time traveler is doing now.
However, except for the Indians and Eskimos, almost all other yellow race settlements were controlled by the Chinese time traveler. Compared with the real Chinese, the Indians and Eskimos are still very different. Not to mention a country like China, which has many dialects - my God, so many dialects are still one nation. I have to say that their first emperor was really great.
In short, in my opinion, our European culture is not as advantageous as Chinese culture in a game where only one of the seven can survive. Therefore, it is necessary to prolong the war appropriately. It helps me to make up for my biggest shortcoming in civilization.
Of course, apart from the fact that the political system is indeed inferior, I am still very confident in other aspects. At least the European people in the 17th century were much more diligent than the lazy people in Europe in the 21st century. And the advantage of us Europeans in IQ has always been more obvious in this era.
According to the report that Prime Minister Osvalles gave me before he went to the Balkans, in the last fiscal year, the steel production in Europe has reached 1.25 million tons, and the coal production has exceeded 15 million tons. I don't know how much coal and iron production China has, but according to the report submitted by the officers on the southern front, the enemy's infantrymen don't wear steel helmets - they can be stationed from such a long distance, so they must be elite. The elite corps does not have steel helmets, which fully shows that their steel production is not too much.
As for the Ottoman Empire? Humph, the heavy industry base in Transcaucasus could only produce 100,000 tons of steel a year at best.
Therefore, in my opinion, even if we do not invest in new weapons, we will sooner or later achieve our goal by following the approach that the commanders on both the northern and southern fronts are now adopting, which is to slowly plow the land with cannons.
Well, have you achieved your goal? Haha, taking Constantinople and destroying the Ottoman traverser is just a small goal. Of course, I have a smaller goal to achieve now: the Republic of Venice. Prime Minister Osvalles has found out that the merchants in Venice embezzled at least 30% of the supplies when they bought them for the soldiers on the southern front. Well, very good. I will wait until the war on the southern front is intense and even has heavy casualties. When the soldiers are dissatisfied, I will push the Venetians out to take the blame.
Ah, this method seems to be often used by a king named Cao Cao in ancient China? I have to say, this is a really good method. While beheading the grain escort officer and calming the soldiers, you can also take over the Republic of Venice. Although Europe has not lacked food in recent years because of Rudolf's talent, this country has dominated the Mediterranean for hundreds of years. If this country is really destroyed, in addition to killing the chicken to scare the monkeys of the participating countries, its hundreds of years of accumulation can also be a beneficial supplement to the huge military expenditure.
Oh, looking back, I actually wrote so much? Unfortunately, in order to keep it confidential, I had to burn it immediately. Speaking of which, I really miss Rudolph. He is gone, and I feel much more lonely.
But, I still say that I don't regret killing him at all.
