Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 741 The Pain of Losing South America
Thanks to the emergence of steam engines and their continuous improvement, the speed of ironclad ships of the Ming Dynasty and the European Union has become faster and faster. In the past, it took several months for a sailing warship to cross the Pacific Ocean following the ocean currents and trade winds. Now, it only takes more than a month for an ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty to cross the Pacific Ocean at cruising speed (in the 21st century, it usually takes only half a month for a civilian ship to sail from a Chinese port to the west of South America).
The reason why the Battle of Bogota ended in December 1642, but Sun Chuanting, Zhu Ciyi and others did not return to China until April of the following year, was of course because there were too many things to deal with after the war.
However, the defeated general Raimondo did not have to worry so much. On December 20, a communication ship brought back to Europe at full speed the bad news that Spain was about to completely lose South America and North America was also in danger.
In 1642, although there was no war in Europe, the tone of war propaganda under the rule of the European Union became increasingly louder. Countless European teenagers were drafted into the reserve forces and received military training of varying degrees: to launch the ultimate holy war against the evil yellow people in the East.
With this trend, Spain has a deeper control over the countries in the alliance. So Philip was very happy this year. However, after hearing the news from America...
Needless to say, the queen's heart-wrenching wails and the mess in the palace were all gone. As a father, Philip was naturally heartbroken after losing his eldest son. As a king, he felt even more pain than his father.
First of all, the loss of 150,000 land forces. Although Raimondo also stated in the report that there were a large number of captives among the 150,000 people, there was still a possibility of redemption. But in any case, the losses were almost all Castilians! This made Philip heartbroken!
Now the population controlled by Spain through the European Union has steadily exceeded 200 million after taking India. But how many core and reliable Castilians are there? Sorry, because the base number was too small in the early years. So in the past 30 years, Philip has focused all the nutrients in Europe on taking care of the Castilians, and allocated high fertility subsidies to Castilian women. Coupled with the progress of medicine and the reduction of the proportion of Castilians in the European Army as much as possible... As a result, by 1642, the entire Castilian population was only about 13 million. Less than 10% of the total population controlled by Spain!
Among the 13 million Castilians, although the entire ethnic group is relatively young and the proportion of elderly people is very small, there are only about 2 million men aged 18 to 30 who are suitable for military service. With such a small base, how can it not hurt to lose more than 100,000 young and strong people in South America at once?
In addition to the massive loss of the core ethnic population, the fall of South America also resulted in a huge loss of resources.
The silver of Peru, the gold of Colombia, the copper and saltpeter of Chile, and the large amount of meat and milk powder on the Pampas that were destined to be thrown away! And the large number of rubber plantations that have already formed an industrial scale throughout South America!
In this era, in Europe, the Ruhr has enough coal, and Sweden has a lot of iron. In the future, Romania, Libya, and West Africa will be able to provide a lot of oil. However, Europe has very little or no gold, silver, rubber, and saltpeter. It must rely on South America for supply. Therefore, the loss of South America has also caused great damage to Spain in terms of resources.
Moreover, in this era, South America is more developed than North America. In other words, Spain's American colonies controlled nearly 10 million people in their heyday, but at least 6 million of them were in South America. Now that South America has been lost, the scale, which was already at a disadvantage in terms of population, has tilted even more. How could Philip not feel anxious?
In addition, if the news of the loss of South America spreads, Spain's prestige within the EU will also be greatly hit - the high-profile shouting some time ago will in turn cause greater harm to the country...
"Your Majesty, please accept my condolences. I have secretly ordered the Intelligence Bureau to monitor all ports in the Atlantic Ocean and strictly control the source of the information."
"It's useless." Shaking his head painfully, Philip said, "My Prime Minister, you know that there are no less than 10,000 iron-hulled steamships and wooden sailing ships traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe alone, there are more than 30 ports along the Atlantic coast. With such frequent personnel exchanges, the news cannot be blocked."
"That……"
"Please disclose the truth. I will draft a speech myself later. It will be published together with the news of the failure of the Battle of Bogota."
"Your Majesty, you have worked so hard."
"If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight first. This is what a king must do. However, my Prime Minister, you will have a lot of work to do next."
"Please give your orders, Your Majesty."
"First, let me inform you of the military arrangements. We cannot afford to lose South America. We must take it back. Raimondo in Panama also needs rescue. Therefore, I have just instructed Durreny to immediately organize five Casti divisions to set off for Mexico."
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being frank. The Chinese, who are good at demagoguery, have already mobilized all the Indians in South America. Military means alone can only achieve limited results. Besides, aren't five divisions a little insufficient?"
"You are right, so I will make appropriate concessions to the native whites, mixed-race people and even Indians in politics. For example, I will allow Indians to keep some of the land they have lived on for generations, and as long as they pay taxes on time, they will not be violated. I will allow native whites and mixed-race people to serve as officials in various governorates, even governors? All right! I will allow black slaves to regain their freedom and get a small piece of land after serving for two years... I am gradually conceiving these plans, and I hope you will come and perfect them with me when the time comes."
"I have great respect for your wisdom and am very happy to serve you."
"As for the five divisions you mentioned just now, well, this is indeed a problem. But, my Prime Minister, I don't want us Castilians to bear too many casualties. You know, last year, in order to allow more Castilian men to go home and have children with their wives, we disbanded our Spanish army. Before the Battle of Bogota, there were a total of thirty army divisions. After losing ten in America, we can only withdraw five more from the mainland at most."
"But your majesty, what about the military strength?"
"It doesn't matter. I have already sent a telegram to Duke Wallenstein, asking him to form an army of ten divisions for me in Germany."
"I have no doubt about the fighting power of the Germans. With the current agricultural decline in Europe, it is not too difficult to form a 10-division army there. But, Your Majesty, this will introduce armed forces outside of Spain into America."
"This is the only solution. Germania is now a broken plate with too many small states. The people there don't have much of a sense of nation. So, relatively speaking, it's best to let the Germans go there."
"Okay, but although the quality of the soldiers in the Germanic region is very high, they are not trained?"
"Yes, that's the problem. These ten divisions will take three months to form and three months to train. They will not arrive in America until the second half of this year at the earliest. Before that, I instructed Durrenyi to cooperate with Raimondo to defend Mexico first."
"That's all we can do."
"So." Philip sighed heavily: "Even if everything goes well, it will take at least a year for South America to be taken back. In fact, I think it is possible to delay it for three to five years. Therefore, facing the situation that South America cannot be taken back in a short time, we must respond early."
"Your Majesty." Osvalles took out a small book from his briefcase and opened it. "Before coming to you, I have done some work in advance. The first priority we need to solve is rubber. Currently, after the fall of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, we only have some scattered small-scale rubber plantations on some islands in the southern Caribbean. This amount of production cannot guarantee the growing demand for rubber in Europe. Opening up new plantations is a top priority."
"Where are you going to start a new plantation?"
"As far as the territory that our country currently directly controls is concerned, there is no suitable one. If we want to open up new plantations on a large scale, we can only do so in Africa."
"Africa, ok, I agree. I authorize you to negotiate with the countries that control the African colonies along the equator through the European Union."
"Yes. Your Majesty, the next issue is the sharp decline in the sources of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. I suggest that we take this opportunity to issue paper money throughout the EU-controlled area!"
“Is paper money now being issued across the board?”
"Your Majesty, we have a lot of experience in issuing banknotes in India. In fact, we could have started to fully implement banknotes in the EU-controlled area a long time ago. Now that our source of precious metals has been drastically reduced, there will be no new gold, silver or copper coins put into the market. Deflation will soon occur, which will deal a huge blow to our economy. Therefore, we must issue banknotes quickly. Moreover, there is an additional benefit to issuing banknotes now."
"Well, are you saying that issuing paper money can effectively alleviate the continued flow of our precious metals to China through the Ottoman Empire?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. The damned Ottomans colluded with our profiteers to smuggle Chinese silk, porcelain and tea. The Royal Government and the European Union, which had just had a trade surplus for two years, are now in deficit again. We issue paper money and collect gold and silver to see how much paper they can take from us."
"This matter is too serious. I must convene a meeting of the European Council. Well, I can take this opportunity to deal with the rubber issue."
"That's right, Your Majesty. Finally, there is the issue of saltpeter. We produce saltpeter in Europe, but the quantity is very small. In the past, everyone used flintlock rifles, which was not a big deal, but after the emergence of machine guns... Before coming to you, my men did a lot of work. They made two suggestions. First, launch a saltpeter pile campaign across Europe. Second, negotiate with the Ottomans and let them provide us with saltpeter."
"Osman?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, our spies sent us a report a long time ago. It said that there are also natural saltpeter mines of a certain scale in the arid desert area of Pakistan currently controlled by the Ottoman Empire!"
