Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 552: The EU Needs a Truce
The so-called economic base determines the superstructure. When the Ming Dynasty's technology made rapid progress and productivity increased greatly due to the time travelers, its economic model also began to change dramatically.
In the past, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was mainly agricultural tax, accounting for 80% or more. Now, it has fallen below 30%. The emergence of the steam engine, in just seven or eight years, has fostered a new industrial and commercial class - the textbooks of later generations say that the core of the first industrial revolution was the steam engine, which is true.
Great changes in the economy will naturally lead to political changes. From top to bottom, it is called reform. From bottom to top, it is called revolution. As the current emperor, Zhu Youdong certainly hopes that this change is reform rather than revolution.
Therefore, political reform in the Ming Dynasty was necessary. Before that, field research was also necessary: without investigation, there is no right to speak.
In this regard, Philip has an advantage over Zhu Youdong. Centralization is indeed good for time travelers to achieve dictatorship, but it also makes reform difficult. The loose confederation system in Spain makes it much more difficult for Philip to gather the power of the whole Europe to do things. But when it comes to reform, Philip is much easier than Zhu Youdong: Zhu Youdong wants to make changes to existing things, while Philip is adding new things where there are none.
This is probably because different cultures lead to different political systems.
However, when Zhu Youdong had already begun to think about making major changes to the political system, Philip had no time to think about these things because the war between the European Union and the Ottoman Empire was in a stalemate.
After the failure of the Battle of Jerusalem, the EU, which suffered heavy losses in manpower, had no choice but to change its strategy: from a full-scale offensive to a focused offensive. The focus of its attack was Alexandria. Its purpose was to use the granary in the lower reaches of the Nile River to replenish the EU's food supply after taking it. The Little Ice Age climate was fair and had a greater impact on Europe at high latitudes.
Although Philip had the talent of 'Tianxuan' to fight against natural disasters, the food production in Europe at this time was just enough to eat. And like Ming Dynasty, as more and more factories were built in Europe, it became more and more obvious that farmers entered the factories, resulting in a decrease in agricultural labor. Therefore, in order to maintain such a large-scale army and the civilians who served these armies, the European Union also needed a stable and high-quality food production area to supplement.
However, even the focused attack was still not going smoothly.
In December 1625, after eight months of fighting, the European Union finally destroyed the three lines of defense on the west side of Alexandria and bombarded the walls of Alexandria with heavy artillery, successfully defeating it.
However, just when the southern commander Frederick breathed a sigh of relief and felt that he could give an explanation to Philip, the EU soldiers who entered the city were ruthlessly shot in various streets and alleys!
The tenacious Ottoman Russian commander Boris was determined to die here, so he chose to continue street fighting after the city was captured!
The brutal street fighting lasted for three full months. The entire city of Alexandria was reduced to ruins. The EU coalition forces had controlled more than two-thirds of the city, but the remaining Ottoman soldiers fought to the death and refused to surrender.
"Your Majesty, during the Crusades many years ago, many inhumane massacres were carried out against the pagans in the conquered areas. Such massacres were so tragic that hundreds of years later, they are still deeply imprinted in the minds of the people here. Therefore, no matter how we persuade them to surrender or how we guarantee them, as long as the commander of the other side still wants to resist, he only needs to mobilize his soldiers a little bit to continue fighting.
I feel powerless in this situation. In the past three months, we have killed about 7,000 enemy soldiers in street fighting, but our losses have reached tens of thousands. In my opinion, if we want to use purely military means to eliminate the remaining enemies, it will probably take another three months and cost tens of thousands of lives.
For this reason, I beg you to communicate with the Ottomans at the alliance level and negotiate to resolve the problem here. After all, the alliance still has more than 30,000 prisoners in the hands of the Ottomans, and I personally do not want to wipe out the enemy here. That would cost us more lives and our prisoners would lose hope of survival..."
"Hey, my Prime Minister, Mr. Chief of Staff, what do you think of Frederick's letter?"
On April 5, 1626, Philip, who had moved his headquarters to Crete, felt that the matter was of great importance after reading the handwritten letter from Frederick, the commander of the southern front. He immediately convened a strategic meeting with civil and military officials headed by Osvalles and Tilly.
"Your Majesty." Chief of the General Staff Tilly stood up and said, "Before I talk about this, I think it is necessary to report to you the situation on the northern front."
"The Northern Front? What happened to the Northern Front? Didn't I tell them to hold on to Zagreb?"
After the Battle of Jerusalem, except for the Ming Sixth Division that moved to the Mesopotamian Basin and prepared to board a ship in the Persian Gulf to return home, Richelieu led the Ottoman and Persian coalition forces northward. After crossing the Anatolian Peninsula, with the help of the Ottoman Navy, they crossed the Black Sea and landed at the port of Constanta on the east side of the Balkan Peninsula in early February 1626, heading straight to the rear of the European Union army, Bucharest.
Fortunately, Tilly had foreseen this possibility and ordered the Allied forces on the northern front to retreat in advance, so they were not cut off by the enemy. However, the Allied forces retreated, and the four elite Ottoman divisions that were originally pinned in Istanbul were also liberated. They and the Richelieu Detachment attacked from the north and south, and launched a pursuit and siege on the retreating European Allied forces.
In the past two months, under the pursuit of the enemy's superior forces, the European coalition forces were defeated: Sofia, Skopje, Bucharest, Belgrade... These famous Balkan cities fell into the hands of the Ottomans again shortly after their "liberation".
What's worse is that since the EU coalition forces on the northern front came from multiple countries and their troops were mainly former mercenaries, the military discipline was always very poor. During their occupation of most of the Balkans, although Gustav and Wallenstein tried their best to suppress them, and Osvalles also briefly carried out rectification. However, the relationship between the military and the people was really very unharmonious. Therefore, when they retreated, the residents of the Balkan Peninsula, not to mention the Crescent Moon Christians, even the Christians, would actively guide the Ottoman army. Some of them even organized guerrillas to attack the EU coalition's transport troops everywhere...
By now, the EU coalition forces have retreated to Zagreb: this is the junction of the Balkan Mountains and the Central European Plains. If they retreat further, the European coalition forces will have no place to defend. Not only will they have to vomit out all the food they have taken in before, but if things go wrong, they will lose even more.
Therefore, Philip issued a strict order that the coalition forces on the northern front could not retreat any further!
"Your Majesty, Gustav and Wallenstein strictly followed your orders and held on to Zagreb. But on the one hand, we retreated too quickly some time ago, and there is no complete defense line around the city of Zagreb. If we really fight, we will have a hard time. On the other hand, the enemy has separated a force and is heading towards Budapest."
"What?!"
With a loud noise, Philip stood up in an instant: "How many troops does the other side have? How can they divide their forces?"
"Your Majesty, according to our analysis, the Ottomans have deployed nine divisions this time. Although these nine divisions have suffered certain losses, after being supplemented by the Ottomans' old-style troops, there are still no less than 100,000 people.
And our coalition forces on the northern front, after withdrawing five divisions to the south and deducting the casualties, only have more than 83,000 people. Although the difference in numbers is not big, but..."
"But what, Your Excellency Chief of Staff?"
"Your Majesty, since our navy failed to enter the Black Sea and did not completely seize control of the Aegean Sea, our troops on the northern front basically relied on their feet to transport logistical supplies during the retreat. The enemy's army, on the other hand, received strong support from the navy. Therefore, although our soldiers are not much different in number, in terms of equipment..."
"Your Majesty." Count Barudis stood up with a red face. "The Aegean Sea has many islands, dense shoals, and complex hydrology. Although our navy has a huge advantage in equipment, it is indeed impossible to gain complete control of the sea in the face of the Ottoman navy that roams around like a rat. Now, the voyage of the large fleet is relatively safe. Once we are alone, especially at night, our ships will most likely be attacked. Therefore, the navy can only deliver supplies and equipment to the army during the day. But even so, in some narrow waters, our fleet will be attacked by the opponent's suicide ships during the day. Once attacked, the losses will be very heavy."
These words made everyone in the meeting look solemn, and the entire venue fell into a depressing silence.
"Your Majesty." After a long time, Osvalles stood up with difficulty: "I propose to negotiate with the Ottomans and cease fire!"
"Cease-fire? No! How can we cease-fire after suffering such heavy casualties?"
"Your Majesty, our northern line is now in danger. It's fine if we can't hold Zagreb, but if we lose Budapest, Vienna will be in danger! If we lose Vienna, the entire alliance will be in danger. After all, the recovery of the Holy City can make people all over Europe excited. But the loss of Vienna will make the nobles in the alliance doubt the necessity of the alliance's existence!"
"No!" Philip covered his head in pain: "My Prime Minister, please let me calm down. I need to think about it carefully."
However, this calmness was completely over by noon on the third day, because the Marquis Spinola, the governor of the Spanish American colonies, sent him an urgent letter: the American Indians and the Spanish-Indian mixed-race people had launched a large-scale rebellion, and the Spanish American colonies in South America were in great crisis! Among the rebels ' weapons, there were a large number of firearms with Chinese characters engraved on them!
