At this time, Naples said that the war had begun, but the situation was extremely strange. Neither side took the initiative to contact, but did their own things. After controlling Mount Vesuvius, the Spanish army began to dig trenches and build fortifications, as if they were the attacked side.
On the French side, the French army always liked to use plate-armored knights to launch cluster charges. However, the troops guarding the city of Naples are mainly infantry and have not strong field combat capabilities. Therefore, the commander Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, was not confident of taking the initiative. However, Earl Charles used a similar smuggling method to hire fishing boats from the Pope to help transport grain at night, and transported a lot of military rations to the city of Naples. Among them, many of the military rations were purchased from the Pope at high prices.
As Count Charles thought, there were indeed many French bishops in the Holy See, and many pro-French bishops. Under the French financial offensive, these bishops opened a convenient door for the French army.
As for Pope Julius II, although he knew the situation, he chose to pretend not to know. The reason for this is not that Julius II was afraid of France, but that Julius II was unwilling to see the French army easily defeated.
Marin had long written to him to discuss the situation in Naples. With Gonzalo's return, it was difficult for the French to get cheaper from the Spanish. For the Pope, France and Spain were not good things, and Julius II hoped that both countries would be defeated. Therefore, in the current situation of the French army, Julius II simply pretended to be unaware of the situation and allowed his bishops to collude with the French. Of course, selling grain can be done, but the price must be increased. Taking advantage of this opportunity to extort more from the French, it would be good.
But no matter what, the Spanish are now prevailing. Because Gonzalo's army occupied Mount Vesuvius, which is very important to the French. In this way, the source of volcanic ash in France was cut off...
Louis XII was very anxious and frowned recently when he and Queen Anne were making villains. Due to natural disasters and the fact that most of the food in the Principality of Milan was robbed, the Kingdom of France had lost its ability to launch an attack this year. There were even many gaps in the food for disaster relief in China.
After following the advice of Count Charles, he spent a lot of money to bribe the Cardinal of Rome and spent a lot of money to purchase food from the Pope at high prices, the money in the treasury of the Kingdom of France was spent like flowing water, and it was not enough.
In desperation, Louis XII had no choice but to send an envoy to Venice and request a loan again.
However, how could the Venetian merchants be together? Although they hoped to see the Spaniards in trouble, they would not miss any opportunity to make money.
Therefore, while asking for higher borrowing interest, the Venetians also asked the French to provide Venetian merchants with silk from Lyon, wine from Burgundy and wood for shipbuilding at a lower supply price.
In the absence of authentic Ming Dynasty silk, local silk produced in Lyon is a very popular product and is also the first choice for many European aristocrats to make clothes. This thing is not short of market, only short of stock.
Before, the French took advantage of the fact that they sold them to the public at a high price. Whoever gave the more money would sell them to whom. But now, the Venetians took advantage of the difficulties of the French and proposed to pack the silk produced in Lyons at a lower purchase price. Although Louis XII was dissatisfied, for the sake of national security, they still tolerated the Venetian conditions.
As for Burgundy wine, it needs to be said that before the rise of brands such as Bordeaux, Lafite Winery, it was synonymous with the top wines in Europe. This thing has no worries about sales. As long as there are still nobles in Europe who pursue a luxurious life, this thing will not be worried about not being able to sell it.
As for the wood, it is mainly the tall old oak trees in the mountains and forests in southern central France. These are the best shipbuilding materials and are also needed by Venice, a major navigator.
Venice has a small territory and scarce resources. The wood they need for is basically imported. At present, about a few thousand merchant ships in Venice sail in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, even as far as the Black Sea. Most of the wood needed for these ships is imported. In addition to the high development of the plains and fewer trees, France is still rich in tree resources in the plateaus and hilly areas in the central and southern regions.
Although France has a large population at present, the 15 million people of nearly 500,000 square kilometers of land (not including Alsace and Lorraine, Franche Conte, as well as part of the Kingdom of Nice, Savoy and Navarra), 15 million people are not a big one. You should know that in Marin's previous life, a Shanghai market with only more than 6,000 square kilometers had more than 20 million people. In later generations, England, which had only 130,000 square kilometers had more than 55 million people.
But in later generations, France, with a population of 550,000 square kilometers, has much better geographical conditions than England, and its agriculture is more developed, but its population is only more than 66 million. In other words, in more than 500 years, France's population has increased from 15 million to more than 66 million, which is only four times that of 500 years ago. England has increased from less than 3 million to more than 55 million, more than 18 times that of 500 years ago... And the French's mortal enemy, Germany, also grew from tens of millions (the 12 million population of the German region during this period included Austria and Bohemia. If not, the population of the later generations of Little Germany in the Little Germany was less than 10 million) to more than 82 million, more than 8 times that of 500 years ago...
How to say, over the past few hundred years, France's population growth rate was about the lowest point in Europe. During the war in 1800, France had a population of 29 million. At that time, Germany had a population of 18 million, about 10 million less than France. But two hundred years later, Germany's population increased to more than 82 million, and France had only more than doubled, more than 66 million, which was 22 million less than Germany...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! In the past life, someone proposed an interesting statement that the population growth of the French has slowed down since they began to be romantic in the 19th century. Everyone is busy looking for love, and no one is willing to have children...
The same is true for later generations. After modern people began to become addicted to love, the fertility rate also dropped sharply. On the contrary, there was no love, and the African Lao Hei who only knew to think with his lower body began to soar. For example, Arabs who didn't care about love also soared.
Similarly, in ancient China, where there was no love at all, the population increased rapidly because of the pursuit of the traditional culture of "a house full of children and grandchildren".
After giving up traditional culture and starting to pursue love, the population growth rate in modern China plummeted. This is not the most terrifying thing. If same-sex marriage is passed, negative population growth can be predicted...
For example, the Netherlands, which was the first to pass same-sex marriage, had a very low fertility rate. After all, homosexuals cannot have children. The growth of the population in the Netherlands in later generations completely relies on immigration. If there is no immigration, the population decline can be fully seen.
But immigration has many problems, such as Germany, which is about to become German. France is the same, and it has also brought about many terrorist attacks...
For Marin, who is eager to grow in the population, any factor that blocks population growth is unforgivable. Therefore, Marin intends to strictly prohibit the promotion of love in the North Sea, and even prohibit homosexuals who cannot be created by man. Only in this way can we ensure that the population growth of the North Sea will be sufficient to meet the huge population needs to develop the Americas...
...
After finally borrowing money from the Venetians, Louis XII naturally planned to buy grain to provide disaster relief. However, looking at the whole of Europe, Louis XII was surprised to find that it seemed that he could only buy grain from the North Sea Kingdom. Because, in this era, only the North Sea Kingdom had so much surplus food. In other countries, the grain could barely meet domestic needs and there was no surplus food at all.
Louis XII had no choice but to send an envoy to Beihai Kingdom with a lot of money to buy grain. But after seeing the envoy, Marin almost got angry. Many of the coins brought by this guy were fake French silver coins made by Marin using nickel and white. Wouldn't he be stupid if he wanted to collect this money?
But just refuses directly and stubbornly, and then slapped Louis XII in the face. Marinth thought about it over and over again, and finally thought of an excuse - because he did not trust the quality of French silver coins, the North Sea Kingdom only accepted high-quality gold coins generally accepted in Europe, such as Ducate gold coins, Florin gold coins and Goulden gold coins...
After receiving Marin's reply, Louis XII was very angry. However, he had nothing to say. Because the French were indeed very unconventional in minting silver coins. Fortunately, many of the Venetian loans were Ducate gold coins minted by Venice. So Louis XII had no choice but to take out a batch of Ducate gold coins to buy food from Marin.
Chapter completed!