Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 756 An Unprecedented Battle
June 5, 1645, Rome. A 15-story columnar building made of reinforced concrete stands out in the city of Rome, where the average floor height is only two or three stories. This is the newly completed new headquarters of the European Union. This year's EU summit is being held here.
It was nine o'clock in the morning. From Philip down, the heads of more than one hundred European kingdoms, duchies, principalities and other political entities all held their breath, their eyes all focused on the machine in front of a young man with a nervous face and beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Fernando, don't be nervous. Wasn't yesterday very successful?"
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister." The young man took a breath and whispered, "Yesterday was a trial launch, and there weren't so many Your Majesties, Your Highnesses, and Your Excellencies watching. Now there are so many people..."
"It doesn't matter. People get stage fright, but science doesn't."
As soon as Osvalles finished speaking, the machine in front of the young man began to make a buzzing sound. The paper tube that had been installed in the machine began to roll...
"Your Majesty Philip, a wireless message has been sent from Milan. The message reads: Long live the Alliance! Long live Your Majesty Philip!"
As soon as the operator finished speaking, the phone in the hall rang. The waiter who was already on standby picked up the receiver and put it on a loudspeaker.
A young and high-spirited voice rang out throughout the hall: "Hello, hello, is this the Roman Alliance headquarters?"
"This is the Roman Alliance headquarters. May I ask who you are?"
"I am Descartes, a member of the Academy of Sciences of Asturias. Did you receive the wireless message we just sent from Milan?"
"Just received it."
"Very good. To verify the accuracy and reliability of the telegram, would you please read the contents of the telegram aloud with me?"
"It's a pleasure, Professor."
"Well, are you ready? One, two, three, long live the alliance, long live His Majesty Philip!"
After the attendant and Descartes said these two sentences in unison on both ends of the phone, the entire hall, led by Philip, and a group of dignitaries applauded excitedly.
"Ladies and gentlemen." After greeting Descartes and hanging up the phone in Milan, Philip stood up, lowered his hands slightly, and after restoring order in the venue, he said loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, twenty-five years ago, our European scientists proposed the theory of electromagnetic induction. Seventeen years ago, stable and safe batteries appeared and were quickly used in various electrical experiments. Thirteen years ago, a series of electrical-related hardware such as generators, transformers, and power grid transmission were developed, and we in Europe officially entered the electric age. After that, wired telegraphs, telephones, electric lights, electric fans...all kinds of new products that use electricity as energy began to enter our lives and work widely. And when electricity replaced some steam engines and became the power of some emerging factories, its production efficiency and precision were also greatly improved...While we enjoy the convenience that electricity brings to our lives, there is always a group of outstanding scientists who are constantly thinking about how to better serve mankind with electricity.
Today, the invention and practical application of radio technology is a great achievement. I don't need to describe it in too many words. The most far-sighted people in Europe sitting here today will naturally see what kind of changes the emergence of radio will bring to us.
Ladies and Gentlemen, although in recent years our technology has been at the forefront of the world, our alliance has become increasingly solid, and the Lord's cause has been steadily advancing with our joint efforts. However, we must see that our cause still faces huge challenges. Constantinople is still in the hands of pagans, not to mention that the Ottomans still refuse to accept the light of the Lord, but at least they have effectively protected the believers in their country who insist on believing in God over the years.
However, just when our brothers living in Ottoman territory were finally treated better because of our efforts, in the far east, that evil empire has repeatedly provoked us...
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the information that our intelligence personnel desperately sent from the East. Now we can be sure that their arrogant and conceited emperor has already set a national policy at home last year to fight with our European Union in India. This year, a general mobilization has begun. This emperor is extremely militaristic, completely ignoring his hungry people, and is determined to equip more than two million troops to compete with us for India, and threatens to attack our Africa and our European mainland. Ladies and gentlemen, can you tolerate such behavior?"
"no way!"
"We are believers of the Lord. We are destined to rule the world and spread the glory of the Lord to the whole world, saving those souls who do not have the correct faith. So, let us take action, expand the army, prepare for war, and fight against those fools without faith in the East!"
"God bless the Union!"
"The Alliance will win!"
…
"Your Majesty, your speech is as wonderful as ever."
"My Prime Minister, if I could win by speaking alone, I would be willing to speak until I was hoarse every day. But we all know that this is impossible."
Although due to racial reasons, Spanish intelligence personnel were basically unable to make any progress in East Asia and Southeast Asia, which were the yellow race's base, it involved the full mobilization of the entire society, so although it was a little late, Europe still got the intelligence that the Ming Dynasty would launch a large-scale attack on India in the second half of 1647.
Zhu Youdong thought very clearly about this issue: he never thought of hiding it - it was impossible to hide it. This is an open conspiracy!
I want to attack India, which you currently occupy. Such fertile land, with a population of over 100 million, will you defend it? If you want to defend it, then first send one million soldiers from your European mainland to serve as the starting point.
"Your Majesty, according to statistics from the Cabinet's Tax Department, of the 530 million in revenue of the Royal Government last year, 460 million came from industrial and commercial taxes. And a considerable portion of these industrial and commercial taxes are related to the Suez Canal. In other words, a large number of factories in Spain purchase raw materials in India, then produce them locally, and finally sell them to India to make a profit. If we lose India, the Royal Government's revenue will be reduced by at least 200 million!"
"More than 200 million, my Prime Minister. You have to see that without India, the merchant ships of other European countries would not have to go through Suez. As a result, the alliance would inevitably collapse quickly..."
"So we must deploy heavy troops in India!"
"Yes, we must deploy heavy troops in India. But..." He inserted his ten fingers into his hair irritably, and scratched his scalp for a while before saying, "How is the development of rubber plantations in Africa going now?"
"Several large rubber plantations covering a total area of 3 million hectares have been developed in the Congo Basin. Officials there report that the survival rate of the rubber seedlings sent from the Caribbean is very high. However, it will take at least three years before the rubber can be tapped in large quantities. At present, I have ordered strict control of all rubber stocks, strengthened the approval procedures for use, and no longer put it on the market for free trading by the private sector."
"This is really not good news... Where's the saltpeter?"
"The Ottomans regularly provide us with 500 tons of raw saltpeter every month, which is really not cheap. The saltpeter pile work in Europe is still going on, and every piece of feces and every drop of urine is fully utilized, but only 120 tons of pure saltpeter can be provided every month."
"This amount of production... Alas, the loss of South America has had a huge impact on us."
"Yes, Your Majesty. In the old days of gunpowder, each country could provide the saltpeter needed for a battle with its own toilets. But now? Once the machine guns and cannons sound, the saltpeter workers' hard work for a day is all gone. As for the nobles who are shouting that the price of coffee has increased five or six times, and chocolate has increased seven or eight times, these are not necessities of life, and I don't bother to pay attention to them."
"Prime Minister, I just made a rough estimate. According to the calculation that one bullet requires 7.5 grams of saltpeter, one billion bullets means 7,500 tons of saltpeter. This is just bullets. If we count various artillery shells, grenades, and even the navy's cannons, the consumption will be even more incredible. Therefore, the current saltpeter production is absolutely not enough. Therefore, although the Ottomans sell saltpeter at a very high price, we still have to continue to increase the import volume. In addition, send exploration teams to various parts of North Africa. Recently, when I was sorting out what I learned in my mind, it suddenly occurred to me that saltpeter is a product of protein decay, and large-scale mineralization will only be preserved in dry Gobi Deserts. The Sahara Desert is so large, we should be able to get some results."
"I understand. I will arrange for a reliable exploration team to set off later."
"Thank you for your hard work. Speaking of North Africa, how is the oil exploration in Libya going?"
"We have found several large oil fields and have started producing oil. We have begun to build mining, smelting and transportation facilities in accordance with your instructions."
"Very good, my Prime Minister. I have to tell you in secret that Descartes and Pascal's internal combustion engine research team has already made some progress. In the future, oil will be used in a wide range of applications. Moreover, even if the internal combustion engine cannot be produced for a while, the Asturias laboratory has begun to design a new boiler that uses oil as fuel according to my request, so that it can be installed on new warships. Therefore, oil must mass-produced as soon as possible."
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. We will definitely be able to put Libya's oil fields into practical use within two years."
"Since the Prime Minister has said so, there must be no problem. Well, let's stop here for the military resources. Next, let's talk about the army."
"As for the military, with the establishment of the household registration system, the Alliance has made an accurate statistics of all European men. Currently, the European population controlled by the Alliance is 133 million. There are 16.5 million men aged 18 to 30. Now, our Alliance's regular army, plus the five Casti divisions and ten German divisions in America, has a total of 40 divisions and 600,000 people. Three of the divisions are now deployed in India."
"Too few, expand the army."
"Your Majesty, it is appropriate to expand the army, but by how much?"
"Expand by fifty divisions first. Note that the Castilians will have at most ten of them. Also, make sure that at least 20% of the fifty divisions are black people from Africa. We still have too few men in Europe."
"In this case, even if the expansion is completed, with the five divisions in America, there will only be twenty Casti divisions. Is this the ratio?"
"It's not low. We have 13 million talents in Castile, which is only 10% of the current population of the European Union. Even so, we still occupy 20 out of 90 divisions. This proportion is already very high."
"I understand. Then, I will have the Military Service Bureau start the conscription plan this afternoon. We will strive to start training within three months and form an army after fifteen months."
"Okay, Prime Minister, please tell the Military Service Bureau that this is only the first batch. Ask them to prepare for the second batch."
"Your Majesty? Can't 700,000 or 800,000 troops solve this war?"
"This is not a war that can be solved by 700,000 or 800,000 people. It is God's mercy that it can be solved within 7 or 8 million people." After muttering this in a bleak tone, Philip patted Osvalles, who had been with him for nearly 40 years and was already in his 60s, and said: "My Prime Minister, this will be an unprecedented war. Compared with it, the so-called grand battles in the past are just children's play."
