The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 681 The Great Changes in Europe
Early April in Beijing is a warm and comfortable time of year.

By this time, most of the soldiers in the Beijing garrison had already been relocated.

The Summer Palace can now begin its expansion.

This time, the Summer Palace will be expanded to more than twice its original size. After the expansion, the Summer Palace will be basically finalized, and the production of muskets, cannons, and even steam engines in Beizhili will also be largely fixed and will not change much in the future.

Emperor Wanli naturally wanted to personally plan such an important matter.

On the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, around 7 a.m., he led Qin Yiming, Song Yingxing, and tens of thousands of Imperial Guards on horseback out of Desheng Gate and arrived at the bridge over the Wenyu River leading to the Summer Palace.

At this time, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei and Bi Maokang and others were already waiting for each other on the bridge.

They remained on horseback and did not dismount.

Because they were there to determine the scope of the expansion of the Summer Palace, and that scope was enormous; it would take a whole day to see it all on foot, so they had to ride horses to see it.

Emperor Wanli raised his binoculars and carefully scanned both banks of the Wenyu River, when he suddenly realized something.

He thought for a moment, then asked, "Father-in-law, if we include both banks of the Wenyu River and the Chaobai River within the scope of the Summer Palace, how many walls would we need to build?"

This is rather terrifying.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei estimated: "The Wenyu River is about a hundred miles long. If walls were built on both banks, it would take about two hundred miles to build a wall."

The Chaobai River stretches approximately two hundred li from the Summer Palace to the North Canal. If walls were built along both banks, it would require constructing over four hundred li of walls.

Sure enough, the wall that needed to be built was frighteningly long.

Moreover, there was a major problem with building workshops along both banks of the river: it was inconvenient to transfer goods between the two sides, so bridges or docks had to be built for transport by boat.

Doing this seems like asking for trouble.

His initial idea was rather hasty; he simply thought that waterwheels could be built on both banks of the Wenyu River and the Chaobai River, without giving much thought to anything else.

Actually, they no longer rely on waterwheels at this point, and waterwheels are no longer the most important factor. They also have to consider other factors, such as transporting supplies, the speed of expansion, security, and confidentiality.

Wanli thought about it carefully again, and then asked, "Father-in-law, if we only include the area north of the Wenyu River and west of the Chaobai River within the scope of the Summer Palace, would that be enough to build new workshops?"

That should be enough.

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, in that case, the area is actually much larger than the area along the Chaobai River and the Wenyu River, and more workshops can be built."

Yes, that's a huge area, while the banks of the Chaobai River and Wenyu River are just two separate lines.

Wanli nodded slowly, then solemnly said, "Then let's change the plan and no longer build the new workshops on the banks of the Chaobai River and the Wenyu River."

We built our workshop directly in the area north of the Wenyu River and west of the Chaobai River. The Dongsha River, a tributary of the Wenyu River, flows out from the Yanshan Mountains, separating Changping Prefecture.

In this way, we won't need to build a wall; we can simply send some soldiers from the Beijing garrison to guard the bridges and wharves on the Wenyu River and the Chaobai River.

Great.

If the original plan had been followed, a wall stretching for six or seven hundred miles would have been built; just thinking about it is terrifying.

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. This way, we can directly build the workshop, saving us a lot of time."

Wanli nodded slightly, then instructed, "Yiming, order the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp in this area to move out and relocate to the south bank of the Wenyu River and the east bank of the Chaobai River. Complete the relocation within three days. Is there any problem?"

There weren't many Shen Shu Camp soldiers left in this area to begin with.

Upon hearing this, Qin Yiming nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem."

Does this mean the new workshop will be built in three days?

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, what kind of workshop do you think we should build first?"

Of course, it depends on what we urgently need.

After careful consideration, Wanli decisively said, "You should first build workshops to manufacture bullets and shells."

If the European colonial powers were to wage war against us, the consumption of bullets and shells would certainly be terrifying.

Moreover, the journey to the Eastern Capital in North America is long and arduous; even if we transported it there by flying dragon ship, it would take a month or two.

Therefore, we'd better increase the production of bullets and shells first; otherwise, we'll be in trouble if we can't keep up with the supply.

Would European colonial powers really dare to go to war with the Ming Dynasty? It's not a question of whether they dared or not.

They have the temperament of bandits; they'll fight anyone for their own gain, even if they can't beat them!
In fact, they had already started fighting.

However, they were not fighting the Ming Dynasty, but the long-established maritime superpower, Spain.

The war between Spain, the old maritime hegemon, and the Netherlands, the new maritime hegemon, had already begun in the second year of the Longqing reign of the Ming Dynasty.

However, at the beginning, the Netherlands was just a loose alliance and had a small number of ships, so Spain was able to keep the Netherlands in check.

The turning point in this war between the old and new maritime superpowers was Britain's entry into the fray.

For various reasons, a conflict broke out between England and Spain. England then made it clear that it supported the Netherlands, while Spain decided to send its invincible Armada to invade England.

In the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 27th and 29th years of the Wanli reign, Spain successively organized five invincible fleets to launch expeditions against England.

The smallest of the Invincible Fleets had over a hundred warships, while the largest Invincible Fleet had over 1,300 ships.

Originally, Britain's strength was simply insufficient to withstand the Spanish Armada.

To everyone's surprise, the weather turned against them, and four of Spain's five invincible armadas were destroyed by a sea storm!
Another force was nearly wiped out due to constant harassment from Dutch and British/French ships.

Spain suffered heavy losses as a result, and their maritime dominance was gradually replaced by the Netherlands.

In other words, Spain actually began its decline as early as the 29th year of the Wanli Emperor's reign.

As long-established maritime superpowers, they were naturally unwilling to be replaced by their former vassal state, the Netherlands. Unable to defeat them at sea, they began to attack from land.

Thus, in the 30th year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, a major battle broke out between the Spanish and Anglo-Dutch allied forces at Ostend.

Ostend doesn't seem to be very famous in later generations, but Dunkirk, about a hundred miles to its west, is quite famous.

Actually, Ostend is quite famous now, especially in recent years.

In recent years, the Spanish and Anglo-Dutch forces fought a bloody siege of Ostend, a battle rarely seen in world history, with casualties on both sides exceeding 100,000!
Such a large-scale battle was very rare in Europe at this time, especially since it was a siege battle fought over a single city fortress. This scale was unprecedented in Europe.

Spain seized such a large colony as Luzon with only a thousand men, and the remaining thousand men were obtained through the request of the governor of the region. One can imagine what the hundreds of thousands of casualties meant for Spain.

It was precisely at the start of this protracted siege that Wanli suddenly launched an attack, sending his army to conquer Spanish colonies in Luzon and the Americas.

Spain, the long-established maritime superpower, was caught off guard. They simply couldn't muster enough troops to reinforce them, and the small number of troops in their colonies were no match for the overwhelming attacks from the Ming Dynasty. Luzon and the American colonies were thus easily taken over by the Ming Dynasty!

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty was incredibly lucky, while the long-established maritime superpower Spain was extremely unlucky, and they even declined prematurely because of it.

History was thus changed.

Despite suffering heavy casualties, Spain ultimately defeated Ostend in this major battle.

However, because Wanli Emperor led his army to attack Spain's Luzon and American colonies, Spain not only could not seize money and resources to support the war, but also had to send troops to support the Americas.

This changed the final outcome of the great battle.

Spain lost!
This time they were utterly defeated.

Without the money and resources plundered from Luzon and the American colonies, Spain simply could not continue.

This bloody siege also resulted in the near annihilation of their elite army.

In other words, whether at sea or on land, they have declined to the point of no return.

Ultimately, they had to sign armistice agreements with the Netherlands, Britain, France, Denmark, and other countries, thus withdrawing from the struggle for maritime and land supremacy.

The situation in Europe has thus undergone a dramatic change.

The Dutch and Anglo-French forces were already invincible in Europe, and their sights were now set on the former Spanish colonies in the Americas, both at sea and on land.

This is also why Deng Zilong kept submitting memorials.

The Dutch and Anglo-French allied forces did indeed intend to seize the colonies in the Americas.

They constantly sent ships to scout the waters east of the Americas, in preparation for their invasion of the Americas.

Emperor Wanli was absolutely right; the war for control of the Americas was about to begin!

(End of this chapter)