Mexico City, Grand Palace.

It was originally the royal palace of the Aztecs, but was later occupied by the Spanish, who razed it to the ground and built the Governor's Palace of New Spain on its foundation. Later, the Governor's Palace of New Spain was converted into the royal palace of the Kingdom of New Spain.

Although it is a royal palace expanded on the basis of a colonial governor's palace, the Grand Palace of Mexico City far exceeds the Royal Palace of Madrid in terms of area and architectural luxury.

The current royal palace of the Kingdom of New Spain and Mexico City, where the royal palace is located, have the atmosphere of a big country. Madrid, the capital of the mother country of Spain, and the royal palace of Madrid cannot compare with it - the wealth that New Spain already possesses is already huge.

Much more than in mainland Spain!

In the era of Philip IV, because the king had insufficient intelligence and his "hands" were not that long, New Spain was in a state of "semi-out of control" for a long time. A large amount of wealth was illegally squandered by the local nobles and senior clergy sent by the Holy See.

possess.

According to Don Juan Jose's later investigation, New Spain lost about 90% of its revenue from tariffs alone... Nine of the ten merchant ships bound for New Spain turned out to be smuggling ships.

As for how much gold and silver the officials who managed the gold and silver mines across New Spain put in their pockets? And how much taxes those extremely wealthy estates evaded, really only God can figure it out!

However, since Don Juan Jose became the regent of the Kingdom of New Spain, the situation has gradually improved, and the financial revenue of the Kingdom of New Spain has been getting higher and higher. After 1670, compared with before Don Juan Jose took office,

It increased by five to six times. Moreover, the Catholic population of the Kingdom of New Spain also increased significantly.

If we look solely at population, tax revenue, number of troops, and actual territory controlled, the current Kingdom of New Spain is definitely the most powerful country in the Americas, and its strength is even greater than that of Spain itself.

But the United States of New America, established by Chinese immigrants in the north of New Spain and occupying most of the coastline on the west coast of North America, has always been a worry for Don Emperor Jose.

There are too many Chinese...they are constantly coming across the Pacific, making the population of the United States of New Zealand more and more every year, and the increase is alarming.

According to data released by the United States Government of New Zealand itself, the country’s “national” population has almost exceeded 1 million!

Moreover, due to the continuous increase in the number of Han (East Asian) women, the birth rate in the United States of New Zealand is also rising.

If New Spain allows this situation to develop, in a few decades at most, the United States of New Zealand will be able to rely on its "womb" and immigrants to win without a fight.

It is precisely for this reason that Don Juan Jose regarded the United States of New World as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh. For so many years, he never gave up the idea of ​​​​completely annihilating the United States of New World, or at least defeating it.

New Spain became increasingly powerful under his governance, giving him the confidence to fight again. The intervention of French King Louis XIV gave Don Juan Jose hope of victory...

.

But after all, his hope was too good and too difficult to realize.

In the conference room of the Grand Palace in Mexico City, the seats were filled with high-ranking officials from the Kingdom of New Spain and senior generals sent by France and the Netherlands. They all sat in awe, and everyone stared at a briefing on the conference table in a daze.

Don Juan Jose, on the other hand, turned his back to them, looking at the huge map hanging, motionless.

Outside the window, there was the Palace Square, the sun was shining brightly, and there were no clouds in the sky. The sun shone into the conference room, but in this low-level atmosphere, it became gloomy.

That briefing was an emergency notification sent by the landing fleet of the New Spanish Navy, which had fled back to the port of Acapulco, to the Prince Regent in Mexico City. The notification reported that the combined fleets of France, the Netherlands, and Spain had suffered an unexpected encounter during the assault on the Golden Gate Bay.

In the ambush of the New (United States) Combined Fleet, except for a small number of mortar ships that escaped because they did not enter the port, the rest of the ships never returned.

Excluding the arson ships, the Three Kingdoms Combined Fleet lost at least 67 warships of various types in the battle... The number of officers and soldiers lost exceeded 8,000!

This is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that the scale of the Ming-Xin combined fleet in Kinmen Bay is unimaginable, probably reaching 150 warships of various types!

This is really terrible, and it also means that France, the Netherlands and Portugal's strategy of luring enemies in the Indian Ocean is completely bankrupt... The Ming Empire's development focus has always been the Americas! To be more precise, the Kingdom of New Spain -

—You don’t need that many battleships to attack New France!

The Chinese must want to go all the way south along the western coast of America, all the way to South America...

Now the combined fleet of the three countries has been destroyed. On the Pacific coast, there is only one battleship left belonging to France, the Netherlands, and Spain (New Spain) (that one was repaired in the port of Acapulco due to an accident.

battleships), after losing control of the sea, what could New Spain do to defend such a long coastline?

Don Juan José remained silent with his hands behind his back, and the air pressure in the conference room was getting lower and lower. Francois II de Créquy, who was born in the famous French Créqué family and was named Marquis of Marina, was sitting there.

There, I felt an atmosphere of impending disaster and doomsday.

His Excellency the Marquis, who is less than 50 years old and at the peak of his military career, does not think that the situation is so serious.

In his opinion, the naval defeat did not completely reverse the balance of strength and weakness on the battlefield in the New World...The advantage still belonged to France and its allies.

What France and its allies have lost now is just the opportunity to eliminate the United States of New World - there is no doubt that this country will exist on the west coast of the New World in North America for a long time!

But under the current circumstances, the living space that the United States of New Zealand can effectively utilize is the west coast area.

Going south or east is not an easy task.

If they wanted to go south, they would have to attack fortresses one after another that the Kingdom of New Spain had painstakingly built, and they would also have to endure losses caused by various tropical diseases.

If they move eastward, the Great Suzu Alliance in the Pacific will definitely be on the side of France - this should be the greatest success the French Kingdom has achieved in North America.

With the support of this group of North American natives, France and New Spain could attack the United States of New America in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

This is actually a huge and very critical advantage. With the support of the Soviet Union, the Franco-Spanish coalition forces that penetrate deep into the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains don't have to worry about food shortages as long as their numbers are not too outrageous.

"Your Highness the Regent," Marquis Marina finally couldn't help but speak, "Failure at sea does not mean the loss of all initiative... On land, mainly in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, we still have advantages.

!

Because the Great Soviet Union is still on our side! With their support, we can launch attacks in the Great Plains and the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains. The enemy can only be helpless and passively beaten!"

Of course, what Marquis Marina said made sense, but Don Juan Jose still couldn't feel reassured.

"But Marquis," he asked, "can you tell me why the Ming Dynasty and the United States of New Zealand sent their troops to the Great Plains to be beaten? Now that they have the advantage at sea, why do they want to risk marching eastward on the mainland?

?”

"Because of gold!," Marquis Marina said with a smile: "Your Highness, Prince Regent, what do you think of the reason why we discovered a large gold mine at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains?"

Don Juan Jose nodded, "That's a reason... is there really a gold mine there?"
Chapter completed!