The Rise of the European Emperor

But in fact, the Ming Dynasty was already in the mainland, and there was no need to use the ports on Taiwan Island at all. This principle is actually aimed at Portugal.

However, this principle of "wartime neutrality" sounds so reasonable, so you can't find any flaws, it's really shameless...

Of course, Marin cannot be blamed for doing so. Because, nominally, Dongfan Island is now the territory of Daming. If it is really necessary to dock Portuguese warships for repairs or replenish supplies, for Daming, this is no different from "collaborating with the enemy". Therefore, Marin is not afraid of Portugal's accusations.

Besides, Marin and the Portuguese were at odds with each other, and everyone knew it well. However, on the surface, everyone still obeys the rules.

If enough sailors can be recruited from England and enough warships can be built by North American shipyards, Marin wants to compete with the Portuguese at sea.

However, Marin will certainly not take the lead in finding fault. Because, now there is still France watching covetously, and Marin doesn't want to be distracted from Portugal yet. It would be good to wait until the threat from France is resolved, and then go to fight with Portugal, and then seize a South African gold producing area...

At this time, France, which was feared by Marin, was also making an earth-shattering event-360,000 disaster victims surrounded the city of Paris...

Under the instigation of the spies of the North Sea State, more than 300,000 victims of last year's disasters in the northeast and eastern border areas of the Kingdom of France, who had not yet paid usury, lost their livelihood after losing their land.

Among them, many farmers chose to compromise and agreed to become serfs again for the French nobles who lent usury. But there are also many French farmers who have passed the test and lived freely, and they are unwilling to be serfs to the nobles who lend money.

Of course, it's not just because these peasants like freedom, but because they have seen through the face of the usury nobles who designed to frame them. How can people who have already suffered a loss trust those unscrupulous nobles who gave them "revolving interest" usury loans and repaid them with steamed seeds?

In other words, these French peasants who refused to be serfs did not refuse to be serfs at all, but did not dare to serve as serfs to those unscrupulous aristocrats. Who knows what other methods those unscrupulous nobles will use to torture them in the future? If you have already suffered a loss once, you should try your best to avoid being fooled again. Only some cowardly and timid peasants chose to be serfs for those deceitful nobles.

The remaining 360,000 peasants who were cheated quietly left their hometowns in batches under the instigation of Beihai spies under the pretext of "going to other places to seek a living" to avoid being intercepted by those unscrupulous nobles.

Then, these people "divided into pieces" and gradually gathered outside Paris...

King Francois I of France and his ministers were taken aback.

I thought that these peasants were going to rebel, and they were all ready to mobilize troops to suppress them.

But what they didn't expect was that these disaster victims gathered outside Paris did not behave in any way. Even, none of these disaster victims entered the city of Paris, but they camped and lived outside the city of Paris like the army. Then, a group of leaders were selected, and under the name of "petition", they entered the city to ask His Majesty the King for relief...

...

Hearing that these disaster victims did not come to rebel, but stayed outside the city in a very orderly manner, the young Francois I was very happy at first, thinking that under his rule, the quality of the French people had become very high. For this reason, he was secretly happy.

But when Earl Duert, the "veteran", told him his worries, François I's expression finally changed...

360,000 disaster victims! Even if each disaster victim only consumes 0.1 pound of grain per day, it would consume 36,000 pounds of grain per day. And now it happens to be the end of the year, and it will take at least 10 months for the autumn harvest in October of the following year. Even if only 36,000 pounds of grain are consumed per day (actually more than that), 10.8 million pounds of grain will be needed for 10 months and 300 days. According to the food price of a pound of rye in France worth 1.2 pfennigs, it takes 10.8 million pounds of grain, worth 216,000 gold coins...

If it is a normal year, although this cost is quite a lot, it will not make the mighty French Kingdom feel strenuous.

The problem is that France has just had a big fight in the Kingdom of Naples in Italy and Spain, spending a lot of money and food. Then, because of the outbreak of smallpox in the south, the economic collapse of the prosperous southern coast caused the Paris court to pay a lot of money for the prevention and isolation of smallpox patients in the south...

After all, the expenses of the Kingdom of France have been seriously overrun this year. How can there be money and food to support these victims?

If it is an old king who has been in power for many years, such as Louis XII, he is probably going to drive away these victims, or even massacre a group of them.

But the problem is that François I only ascended the throne at the beginning of the year, and his prestige is seriously insufficient. Moreover, he has never been a prince, and his foundation in the court is extremely weak. His wife, Queen Claude, doesn't have much prestige and ability, so she can't help him in this matter.

Of course, if the 360,000 disaster victims had chosen to rebel from the beginning, François I would have been able to mobilize soldiers from all over the country to suppress and massacre these disaster victims even if their prestige was insufficient. After all, he is on the side of reason and is not afraid of being accused.

But what made François I want to vomit blood was that these victims were extremely well-behaved, they just gathered outside Paris, neither rebelling against nor disturbing the people, they just sent representatives into the city to ask Francois I to release food for relief ...

...

Facing such honest and well-behaved disaster victims, Francois I was really helpless. The other party's request was very reasonable, and there was no trace of a problem. Moreover, when people described the crimes of the black-hearted nobles in the northeast and eastern disaster areas, they used their words very carefully. They did not use inappropriate words that were hostile to the entire noble class, but only meant that "certain lawless nobles" cheated the people.

"How about, Your Majesty, let's send someone to instigate those disaster victims to start a rebellion? As long as they start a rebellion, we can deal with them. At worst, we can drive them away..." Earl Duert suggested.

Francois I, who had no master, naturally adopted it, and then sent many professional spies to sneak into the refugee camps outside Paris, instigating those victims to start a rebellion...

But what the professional secret agents of the imperial court did not expect was that the refugee camp outside the city was too orderly. Under the management of the North Sea State spies, these refugee camps are like military camps, well-distributed, and each camp has a prestigious manager to avoid chaos in the refugee camps. Moreover, the disaster victims also lived in clusters according to their places of origin, and did not live in disorder. Therefore, most of the refugees in the camp knew each other. Strangers mixed in, naturally eye-catching...

Then, not long after these secret agents of the imperial court mixed in, they were screened out by the conscientious camp managers with the help of the victims, and mobilized the victims to drive them out.

Now Francois I and his trusted ministers were dumbfounded—Nima, is this still a disaster victim? It is actually more difficult to infiltrate than the enemy's army?