Chapter 272 Crusade against the enemies of civilization

Chapter 272 Crusade against the enemies of civilization

Forget about armed missionary work, after all, Chenla is too far away from the Austrian Empire.

Furthermore, due to the important geographical location of Siam, many great powers have their own interests here. If Austria wants to blatantly monopolize this place, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction in some countries.

Not to mention that the Yuan army, the Ming army, and later the US military all fell into Vietnam, another cemetery of Asian powers, so Franz did not want to follow in their footsteps.

But forcing the other party to cede territory and pay compensation and engage in dumping trade is a good idea. Because even if the Austrians don't take action, the French will end up personally.

Rather than letting the latter take advantage, it's better to just take it yourself. Of course, Vietnam is not very difficult to fight as long as it is not planned to be occupied for a long time.

The Vietnam Corridor is long and narrow, with terrain high in the west and low in the east. Three-quarters of the territory is occupied by mountains. Among them, mountains and plateaus are distributed in the north and northwest, and the Changshan Mountains in the middle run from north to south.

The plain areas are mainly concentrated on the eastern coast. The terrain here is low and flat and the river network is dense, which is very suitable for the development of agriculture.

This is also an important reason why neither the powerful Ming Dynasty nor the descendants of the arrogant Genghis Khan were able to conquer Vietnam. Its long and narrow land, complex terrain, harsh climate and other unfavorable factors gave the conquerors a headache. In the end, the army's supplies were unsustainable and they had to return without success.

But there are exceptions. For example, the French discovered a trick. Since attacking from land is full of risks, then choose to attack Vietnam from the sea. In this way, you can hit its weak abdominal area and change from passive to active.

Vietnam has two most economically developed and densely populated regions, one is the Red River Delta plain in the north, and the other is the Mekong River plain in the south. The Jiulong River is connected to the Mekong River in Chenla. This created good conditions for the Austrian invasion.

The enemy's navy was overwhelmed and completely unable to control the sea. Therefore, it is crucial to use the absolute advantage of its own maritime power to continuously harass its waters and carry out port raids to win Vietnam.

Then, when his army was exhausted, he sent a large army down the Mekong River to the Jiulong River Plain, forcing the other party to surrender and cede territory to pay compensation.

It may be that the universe and the earth work together in time, or it may be that if a person is unlucky enough to drink cold water, his teeth will become clogged.

At this time, the ignorant Vietnamese captured and executed a group of French missionaries, and their monarch, Emperor Minh Ming, unabashedly revealed his dislike of Catholicism, so this gave Austria an almost perfect start to the war. Excuse.

However, Vietnam's eternal emperor was already terminally ill and was succeeded by his son Nguyen Phuc Cuy, who was renamed "Shao Zhi". This Emperor Shao Zhi did not have the grand plans of his father, but his ambition was as high as the sky.

He even looked down upon his father's actions in his later years, thinking that it was because Ruan Fucheng became deaf and dim in his later years that he was defeated by the high barbarian natives of Zhenla.

As for begging for peace with the "red-haired" people, there is absolutely no need. As long as you work hard on your own, all red-haired and yellow-haired people will tremble under the iron hoof of Dai Viet.

(Hong Mao is the Vietnamese name for the British and French. Huang Mao refers to the Austrians.)

Although Emperor Ming Ming had maintained a tributary relationship with the Qing Dynasty before, and still called himself "Vietnam" in his interactions with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he had always regarded himself as the leader of the "Great South" in private.

His biggest dream in life was to conquer the Central Plains. To this end, he stationed 150,000 troops in northern Vietnam and built countless weapons and armors. He also summoned civilians from various places to repair roads.

After seeing the combat effectiveness of Huang Mao and Red Mao, Ruan Phuc Huan lost his dream, and instead worried that foreign powers would use their maritime advantages to invade his land.

Worthy of being a wise king of Vietnam, after discovering this possibility, Nguyen Phuc Huan tried his best to nip this risk in the bud.

On the one hand, Nguyen Phuc Huan sent a mission composed of officials to visit France, preparing to join forces with them to fight against the British. He even made concessions on missionary matters, which he had always been sensitive to.

On the other hand, he issued an edict to build hidden piles at the mouths of rivers in the country to reduce the risk of maritime invasion.

At the same time, relevant officials were ordered to build forts at strategic locations and be responsible for training the navy. They even planned to evacuate residents from coastal areas to implement a sea ban.

Unfortunately, because the Western world had a very bad impression of Emperor Minh Minh and the Vietnamese, the mission was not personally received by Louis Philippe after arriving in Paris.

A simple summary is that Vietnam once received help from the French during difficult times, but instead of repaying the favor, it imposed heavy taxes on businessmen, expelled ambassadors, and hunted and killed missionaries.

Notable people from all walks of life in Paris appealed to Louis Philippe not to receive these barbarians. In fact, Guizot hoped that France could establish a colony in Vietnam, but he could not go against "public opinion".

The king himself was not too concerned about matters in Southeast Asia, so the mission sent by Emperor Mingming could only return without success.

Emperor Minh Minh's coastal defense measures not only caused widespread complaints among the people, but also affected the interests of aristocratic officials. Coupled with the new defeat at Chenla, civil unrest broke out in Vietnam for a while, which harmed the leader of the Nguyen Dynasty's revival. Can't afford to be sick.

Only then did Emperor Shao Zhi massacre French missionaries.

Having said that, these French people are really unlucky. They were originally hired by Paris to collect local intelligence. Because the Vietnamese had a low profile before, they were not aware of the potential dangers of this work.

But what they didn't expect was that they were caught together as soon as they landed and were eventually executed together. Emperor Shao Zhi also didn't expect that this was clearly an act to show off his martial virtues, but it would become an excuse for Austria to go to war with it.

Franz also made special preparations for this war.

The news of the murder of the French missionary had already caused an uproar in the French church, but at this time Franz added to the fire.

An article titled "Top Ten Hates" quickly dominated the front pages of major European media. The author was the queen of a small country in Southeast Asia (Queen Chenla Anmei).

A great hatred, invade our land and kill our people.

The two greatest hatreds are destroying my temples and killing my monks. (The translation is, burn down the church and massacre the priests.)

The three great hatreds are to seize my family and country and to kill my father. (The former King Anzan died in a Vietnamese palace.)

The four great hatreds imprisoned my sisters and abandoned their bodies in the river. (In order to weaken Chenla's resistance, Vietnam once imprisoned and tortured Queen Anmei's sisters to death, and then cut their bodies into pieces and threw them into the river.)

The five great hatreds are fostering traitorous parties and disrupting our government. (Establishing a puppet regime)

The six major hatreds are robbery and plunder, which destroys our market. (hinders free trade)

The seven great hatreds are to capture people as slaves and to force good girls into prostitution. (Slavery, slave trade)

There is nothing left to write.

The whole of Europe was surprised that there was such a barbaric and arrogant country in the world. No one had any doubts about the justice of this war.

When the Austrian Empire announced that it would help Chenla conquer Vietnam, the enemy of civilization, there was only a sound of praise.

Protecting Christians, liberating slaves, free trade, spreading civilization... any one of them can be the reason for this war, and it is a good reason.