New Shun 1730

John Mordaunt conceived the end of the siege of Gibraltar and put it into words, giving it to his adjutant, asking him to pass it on to Horace Walpole, the best writer in their circle. The youngest son of the former prime minister, the founder of the Gothic novel, and one of the sharp penmen of the anti-patriot party after the Whig Party split.

The British Gothic romanticists like strange things: ghosts and ghosts, withered castles, the last sad descendants of the once great families, and see turbulent rapids, terrible cliffs, roadless forests, thunderstorms, sea storms and generally useless, destructive, violent and violent things...

This kind of final sadness and violent romance will polish the essence of the siege of Gibraltar - the end of European expansion and colonization, the fierce and violent invasion from distant mobilization, and the sadness and fatalism of decline.

But John Mordaunt did not wait for the real ending in reality. He pulled out his pistol, put it in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and ended his life.

Because he knew that reality and imagination are always different.

If you look at the ending of reality, you will see chaos, cowardice, kneeling, surrender, etc., which are far from the romantic imagination.

His life was frozen in the moment when he imagined that the Dashun army launched artillery fire on the besieged British army and the British army would rather die than surrender.

But in fact, not long after his life ended, the besieged British army surrendered.

He did not spit at the Dashun army and cursed them with British country swear words, "Eat shit, pagans."

He did not stick to his formation in the Dashun bombardment, holding hands and singing "Rule! Britannia" until his body was shattered by the shells.

On the contrary, after Dashun pushed the heavy artillery used for siege to 200 steps away from the British phalanx and the engineers quickly deployed the artillery positions, the British army was completely out of the control of the officers and surrendered in droves after only one round of artillery fire.

The first round of artillery fire from Dashun directly collapsed the British phalanx.

From the 6-jin regimental artillery to the 24-jin heavy artillery, the solid bullets can go from penetrating three people to smashing through the phalanx, stringing out the most terrifying bright red candied haws.

From the shrapnel shells of the lightweight magic modified tiger squat cannon to the burning grenades mixed with oil and rubber thrown into the crowd, the dense formation became a live target for testing.

After the first round of artillery fire, only 1,500 of the 1,980 soldiers who could still form a phalanx were left. And those who died or were seriously injured looked horrible.

The collapse of the phalanx was instantaneous. Even though the officers were still shouting for the glory of Britain, the soldiers looked at their comrades covered in flames and their partners who were completely smashed by heavy artillery. They jumped out of the phalanx in fear and threw down their rifles. Like the Spanish soldiers in the Battle of Rocroi many years ago, they knelt on the ground and crawled at the feet of the Dashun officers, asking for their protection and not letting them be executed by the Dashun soldiers who were red-eyed with killing.

After the collapse of the phalanx, the British troops in the fortress behind the isthmus also raised the white flag and chose to surrender.

The officers guarded John Mordaunt's body. The only condition for surrender was that they hoped that Dashun could provide a huge wine barrel and about 200 kilograms of strong liquor to soak John Mordaunt's body, ensure that it could be transported back to London without rotting, and guarantee the personal property of officers above the rank of captain.

Dashun readily agreed to the British army's request. After all, this is Gibraltar, not India, and the Privy Council did not issue an order to select and execute here.

After clearing the battlefield, Li Li led a group of officers and climbed the not-so-high Rock of Gibraltar with the acting commander of the French Toulon Fleet, De La Creu.

On the rocky mountain, blowing the cool breeze of the Mediterranean in November and looking at the autumn scenery in the distance, Li Li recited two lines of nostalgic poems with a bit of ill intention.

Wang Jun's ship went down to Yizhou, and the royal aura of Jinling was sadly withdrawn.

The iron chains sank to the bottom of the river, and a piece of flag came out of the stone.

How many times have people been sad about the past, and the mountain shape still rests on the cold current.

Today is the day when the world is my home, and the old fortress is covered with reeds and rushes in autumn.

When Liu Yuxi wrote this poem, it was probably the time when the White-robed Arabs landed here, conquered Andalusia and named this place "Gibraltar".

Poetry, if translated literally, never sounds good.

The translator translated this nostalgic poem very directly, and De La Creu didn't understand it at all.

After reading the poem, Chen Qinghai said: "This place is the throat of the Mediterranean, a truly strategic and dangerous place. With such a terrain, the Spaniards were taken away by others for decades, which shows that the Mediterranean is in decline, and it is not worth such a big fight..."

"Xingguo Gong told me that a long time ago, the trade in the Mediterranean was prosperous, until the passage to the rich East no longer needed the Silk Road, and this place gradually declined."

"When I climbed this place, I thought of Yumen and Loulan. Or Hepu, Quanzhou, Yangzhou... all have this in mind."

These words also attracted the feelings of the officers on the Dashun side.

Living in this era, they truly felt the drastic changes of the times, not just the weapons and equipment they came into contact with.

But it was the decline of Guangzhou, the rise of Songsu, and the decline of Yangzhou brought about by the change of trade routes. These all happened within 20 to 30 years and accompanied their growth.

When they arrived in Europe, they saw the same thing everywhere.

The once glorious cities began to decline, and the remote places rose rapidly because of the trade routes; the throats of the past were now like chicken ribs, tasteless to eat and a pity to abandon.

Under this feeling, there would always be an inexplicable feeling of nostalgia.

De La Crew could not understand the emotions of the Dashun officers at this time. After all, there was still a long way to go before the great era of change in France where "churches were painted into temples of reason and the streets were trampled with the bones of nobles."

And scenes like Rochefort, which gradually lost its commercial value due to the failure of the Seven Years' War and turned from the most important port into a small town of more than 10,000 people, did not appear at this time.

He could not understand what these Dashun officers who witnessed the prosperity of Yangzhou turn into a scene of withered grass and ruins were lamenting.

Perhaps, in fact, these Dashun officers did not know what they were lamenting about. Perhaps seeing the world changing, they would always have some sighs.

De La Crew did not feel nostalgic, so he first congratulated the officers of Dashun for conquering Gibraltar, and then talked about some differences between China and France.

Just like this time, the alliance between Sweden, Russia, Austria, and France, each with its own thoughts and purposes.

"Your Highness, your country has conquered Gibraltar, and the entire Mediterranean is completely under the control of the two countries. I wonder if Your Highness should go to Paris? My master will prepare a grand welcome ceremony for Your Highness, and at the same time discuss further cooperation between the two countries with the Duke of Choiseul."

Li Li smiled and patiently explained some of the rules of Dashun to De La Crew.

He was the leader of the army, and he also had the awkward identity of "Catholic" given by his mother when he was a child, and he also held the main force of the fleet of Dashun in his hands.

So, he would never go to Paris.

Who knows if someone will talk nonsense at the banquet, some cultural barriers between the two countries, and then make some shitty things, which will be troublesome when he returns.

This is a very legitimate reason.

But in fact, the root cause is that Li Xi does not want to talk nonsense and cannot make it clear.

The Stuart family knows Dashun. Liu Yu once "sent" a ship to this reactionary family.

But the little usurper of the throne raised by France does not have a good relationship with France.

The mess here, such as intervening in European coups and restorations, could be done when Liu Yu visited abroad, but it is best not to get involved now that he is in control of the army.

Another thing is that Dashun does not care about the restoration of Catholicism and the landing in Scotland. It does not care and has no interest at all.

In fact, when the French Mauritius fleet requested to anchor in Ceylon for supplies and repair ships in Temasek, Dashun actually expressed its attitude.

We each take what we need.

Gibraltar can be fought, the Caribbean can help you fight, and North America can help you fight. Landing in Scotland? Then forget it.

France's finances are almost unsustainable.

But Dashun can hold on, and has no interest in ending the war quickly.

The current situation is not a small good thing for Dashun, but a great good thing.

Even the ships engaged in the slave triangle trade in West Africa have to pay protection fees to Dashun. If Europe does not fight, how can such a good thing happen?

The Mediterranean trade and Caribbean trade, which Dashun could not intervene in at all, are booming.

Of course, this cannot be said too bluntly. Dashun knows that France is anxious because its finances can no longer hold on, and the initiative is in Dashun's hands.

No money? If you don't have money, you can borrow it, just use something as collateral.

Don't want to borrow money, but you must end the war quickly? Then it's up to you, put the fleets of Toulon and Brest together, and land in Scotland yourself. Dashun's navy will not participate, anyway, you can't beat them.

The Dashun court may not pay for the loan here, but Dashun's commercial capital is still willing to pay the money, as long as France provides suitable collateral.

After rejecting his proposal to go to Paris, Li Li reiterated the strategic attitude of Dashun.

"I am just a general leading troops. The premise for a general to obey the orders of the emperor is the change of the battlefield situation. But in terms of strategy, as a general, I am not a member of the Privy Council, and I have no right to decide the strategy."

"The emperor ordered that after taking Gibraltar, we should counterattack in the Caribbean and North America, or help Spain capture Porto and destroy the trading post of British merchants in Iberia."

"The Privy Council also does not think that it is the right choice to risk crossing the channel and landing in Scotland."

Li Li pointed to the British prisoners at the foot of the mountain and said, "Now the war in Gibraltar has just ended, our engineers need to rest and wait until next year's reinforcement."

"And these British We also need to send the captives back to Britain. "

"Fear needs to be told by those who have experienced it to spread. I need to let Britain know what kind of enemies they are fighting. Do you think that I bombarded their phalanxes with heavy artillery and incendiary grenades just to defeat them?"

"You should know that the Celestial Empire does not have any crown or claim in Europe, and it also prohibits sectarian disputes such as Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Calvinism equally."

"You should learn to form alliances and cooperate, just like you organized the Sacrilegious Alliance, to find common interests between the two countries, instead of treating us as mercenaries... Besides, you don't pay. "