My life skills in Daming Liver

Nanjing, in the Governor's Mansion.

Su Ze did not care about the war in Xuzhou. The war situation in Henan had been stabilized. Xuzhou's city defense was strong. If it could not stop the Shandong Ming Army's attack, then Xuzhou's railway construction would be in vain.

Chen Yiqin surrendered in Henan, and various takeover tasks went smoothly. Chen Yiqin's attitude was very respectful, and even his son Chen Yubi was sent to Nanjing.

There was nothing noteworthy about the southwest bandit suppression war. Although there were many rebellions throughout Yunnan and Guizhou, they were not large-scale and could not be connected at all. Among them, the largest Yang Lie Rebellion, even the prefecture city was not captured and was destroyed by Xiong. Kuang led his troops to quickly pacify the situation.

This time the rebellion in the southwest was like a wildfire that failed to catch fire and was stamped out as soon as it ignited a spark.

In the historical timeline of the previous life, the same was true in the early days of the Bozhou Rebellion. The reason why such a huge rebellion was caused was because the Ming court responded too slowly and failed to deal with it well, which allowed these rebellions to merge into one, and finally caused a systemic collapse.

Today's situation is completely different. The army in the southeast is one of the most capable armies in the world today. The equipment of Yang Lie, the chieftain of the southwest, is an entire era behind.

The southeastern officials responded quickly, and the newly appointed officials were alleviating local conflicts. If ordinary people could survive, who would be willing to follow a careerist like Yang Lie to rebel.

The rebellion in the southwest was quickly put down. The tribes who participated in the rebellion were forced to return to their hometowns, and the older ones were separated and relocated. On the contrary, the local officials who dealt with ethnic issues in the southeast complained why there were not more rebellious chieftains. .

The letter Su Ze read was sent back from Europe by Da Guan, but judging from the date of writing, it was already four months ago.

Daguan introduced what he encountered after going to Europe, as well as the process of interacting with the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, and then talked about the war between the Netherlands and Spain.

Naturally, Spain could not lose the important money bag of the Netherlands, and the Spanish king immediately began a bloody suppression.

Daguan wrote in the letter:

"The ports of the Netherlands were burned, the merchant ships were surrounded by the Spanish fleet, and Spanish mercenaries entered the territory of the Netherlands. Except for the Prince of Orange, the rest of the nobles and merchants wanted to submit to the King of Spain."

As expected, this is the weakness of the feudal aristocracy.

The feudal system in Europe is very stubborn. Su Ze wrote in his reply to Daguan:

"This is the weakness of the feudal landed aristocracy. The basis of their privileges is land. Once someone is able to take away their land, they will quickly surrender without any hesitation."

"But these kings did not realize that the landed aristocracy was an extension of their rule. When the dominance of these feudal aristocrats was crumbling, the king's authority was also declining."

“Europe has not established a hierarchical bureaucracy system like the East, so the king’s power still needs to be demonstrated by the nobles.

Royal power and religious power, nobility and royal power, the three parties have been competing with each other for thousands of years, but none of the three parties realized that a new force was emerging. "

"However, this kind of power has already appeared among the nobility of the Netherlands. Nobles who do not rely on the traditional land system and rely on urban workshops to obtain wealth. They are more concerned about the world than the feudal landed aristocrats. They need more than just land. There are also smooth markets and supporting economic policies, these are the internal reasons for the Netherlands' resistance to the Spanish war."

Su Ze continued to read Daguan's letter, and he continued to say in the letter:

"My subordinates jumped out of the religious perspective and observed the situation in Europe from a geopolitical perspective. Sure enough, they saw many things clearly. For example, why France supports Protestantism. It was quite active in the anti-Catholic movement in the Netherlands and took in many people. The pagan nobles of the Netherlands, as you can predict, France is breaking away from the shackles of religion and conducting their foreign policy more from the standpoint of a nation-state."

"My subordinates told the Prince of Orange your views. The Prince of Orange marveled at your ability to understand the situation in Europe thousands of miles away. You are really a great statesman like Augustus!"

"The Prince of Orange has asked me to express my respect for you in a letter. He has already contacted the French court and received partial support from the French royal family."

"Your judgment of the situation on the European continent is absolutely correct. The rising England also has fierce conflicts with Spain. I heard that they have launched trade competition in the area called the New World. In order to compete with the Spanish who have taken the lead, the young man The Queen of England even issued privateering licenses to pirates, allowing them to rob other countries' ships and attack ports built by the Spanish in the New World."

"I also suggested to the Prince of Orange that I get in touch with the Queen of England and get some verbal support."

"My subordinates are still not so optimistic. The Netherlands is just a small country in Europe. Spain is the top power in Europe. It has a strong army, a huge fleet, vast land and overseas colonies. Although it lags behind us in the Central Plains in terms of firearms, But it is also leading in Europe.”,

"Even if you have the support of England and France, how can you confront Spain when both countries have made it clear that they will not directly intervene in the war?"

"If such a rebellion were placed in the East, it would be put down in less than a year."

Su Ze picked up his pen and wrote back to Daguan:

"When you look at Western kingdoms from an Eastern perspective, you will naturally have such doubts. Western kings did not have a local civil service system. The Spanish king's rule in the Netherlands also needed to rely on local nobles."

"Although the Netherlands is the territory of the King of Spain, all the King of Spain can do is send tax collectors and inquisitions to the Netherlands, but cannot directly appoint local officials in the Netherlands."

"Some of the huge empires on the European continent also acquired territory through a series of marriages and inheritances, and what maintained this empire was only the legal principle of inheritance in the king."

"Philip II was the king of Spain first, and the ruler of the Netherlands second. What was more important to him was the interests of Spain."

“Once the expenditure to suppress the Netherlands exceeds the income from ruling the Netherlands, the war will slow down, and when the losses are far greater than the income, there will be protests within Spain, and the Spanish will not be willing to support the king in ruling the Netherlands. Bankruptcy due to ambition."

"The King of Spain is also unwilling to let the Spanish army, which was built with a lot of money, fall into the resistance war composed of ordinary people in the Netherlands. Such losses are also unbearable for the King of Spain."

"However, the above is just my rational judgment on the situation in Europe. The characteristic of the monarchy is that the monarch does not necessarily think about issues from the rational perspective of the kingdom. This is one of the reasons why the monarchy will be buried by the times."