After just after the Thirty Years' War, France began civil strife again. For the royal family, military expenditure was a big problem.

Portugal provides a large number of oriental specialties, which allows French Prime Minister Cardinal Mazaran to see business opportunities.

So, of course, he showed favor with Portugal and expressed his support for Portugal's independence.

If Spain dares to attack Portugal, France will definitely send troops to support it. After all, if Spain dares to participate in the internal affairs of France, then if you can do the first day of the lunar calendar, don’t blame France for being the fifteenth.

In addition, he acquired a large number of Oriental specialties from Portugal, then sold them to domestic nobles, and even sold them to other countries, which was equivalent to becoming a second-hand dealer and a Portuguese offline.

Oriental specialties have always been a hot item in Europe. Whether it is silk or porcelain, they are deeply loved by European aristocrats. If a certain aristocrat does not have any specialties from the East in his family, it will not be able to entertain guests at all.

In this way, the French royal family became rich and fought even more easily during the civil war.

On Spain, I didn't expect that the joint efforts with Prince Conde would not defeat France. This made Spain's King Philip IV very angry.

Originally, Philip IV's attention was all on France and he had not had time to take care of Portugal. But now he saw Portugal collusion with France and greatly subsidizing the finances of the French royal family, which made him angry and jealous.

Spain has always been a strong country in Europe. Even if it has begun to decline by this time, it is still from a strong country. If Portugal wants independence, it is already a slap in the face. Now it is still with France, how can we bear it?

In addition, Spain also fought for thirty years of war, and the financial situation was tight. The huge profits of oriental specialties made Philip IV even more moved. These reasons combined made Philip IV want to start a war against Portugal.

However, his current focus is of course that he does not want to give up halfway and does not interfere in the internal affairs of the country. No matter what, he wants to first help Prince Conde to the French position of power, and then turn back to deal with Portugal to avoid fighting on both sides.

On this day, Philip IV was worried about having no money again. Before that, Spain had actually gone bankrupt once. If there was no money again, the war with France would not be able to continue.

So Philip IV urged his subordinates to ask: "When will the treasure ship of America come back? This year has been so long, why haven't it come back yet?"

The reason why Spain is a European power is closely related to its huge overseas colonies and continuous transmission of wealth and resources back to Spain. It is also because of this that Spain's arrogance has made European countries dissatisfied, and almost all countries are in conflict with Spain and even went to war.

Becoming a public enemy in Europe is also an important reason for Spain's final decline!

"Return to your Majesty, I heard that Britain sent many pirates to America. Could it be their reason? Therefore, the treasure ship was late?" His Chancellor of the Exchequer replied with a guess.

Hearing this, Philip IV hated the British again. He cursed loudly, "That damn Cromwell, do you really think he is invincible and dare to challenge my bottom line?"

Britain was also in civil strife, but it was considered a successful rebellion. Now it is Cromwell, the kind who is invincible. He just defeated the entire Scotland and killed the royalists to flee everywhere, among which one fled in Portugal.

Spain actually couldn't control this situation and had no ability to deal with it. But now, Cromwell began to blatantly invade Spain's overseas colonies, which made Philip IV very angry.

But it was just anger after all. For a long time, pirates from European countries have targeted robbing Spain's treasure ships. I don't know how many times have happened. Spain can do anything, and even has to admit the independence of the Netherlands, which does this kind of thing.

Now that Spain is short of money, it is very likely that it was done by British pirates. Philip IV should be angry, but he must be angry.

After venting, he was helpless and could only say: "You can discuss it and see if you can send warships to America to increase the strength of the escort fleet and strive to transport back the property as soon as possible!"

Knowing that the current situation of the kingdom was indeed in urgent need of money, the Minister of Finance agreed and wanted to discuss with the Navy.

However, as soon as he left the palace, he suddenly ran into the palace as if he was chased by a tiger, with a very ugly face.

"What is this for? What kind of morality is the imperial minister of finance?" Philip IV was in a bad mood. Seeing him like this, he immediately shouted unhappily.

"Your Majesty, something is wrong!" The Chancellor of the Finance Department ignored his scolding at all and said to him in panic: "The Americas are lost, they are gone..."

"What? This is impossible!" Philip IV was shocked when he heard this, but refused to admit it directly, "How could the country bumpkin Cromwell have been able to get America? How many pirates have he sent? Even if they all went there, they may not be able to get the entire American continent..."

Before the Chancellor of the Finance Minister finished listening, he had to interrupt him loudly and said, "Your Majesty, no, not the British, the Ming Empire in the East sent troops and joined forces with the Portuguese to swallow the entire America. Our Spanish fleet in America is almost gone."

"What?" Philip IV was stunned when he heard this.

He never expected that this would be the case.

Before, he knew that the rise of the Ming Empire in the Far East destroyed the Spanish in Luzon. However, Luzon was too far away and was fighting the Thirty Years' War. He was powerless and had to forget it first.

Later, he also heard that the Ming people seemed to be still fighting with the Mughal Empire, Tsarist Russia and other countries. However, it was too far from Spain, and he had a lot of things himself and didn't worry about it.

But unexpectedly, Mingguo, which seemed so far away from him, suddenly gave him a heavy punch, slamming him hard on the root of his life, cutting off the source of money he had high hopes for. To be honest, it would be strange if he was not confused!

After a while, he came to his senses and suddenly became furious and shouted loudly: "What's going on? What's going on? Doesn't it mean that there are not many fleets of countries going to America, can they deal with it?"

The Ming army had reported on the American continent, and the Governor of America had reported it before. But at that time, it was only mentioned, not particularly important. The situation in Spain was not good, so I thought that since the American side said that there was not much big thing, Philip IV ignored it.

But suddenly, when he needed American money the most, he told him that America was lost. In this case, Philip IV really couldn't accept it!

The Chancellor himself was also difficult to accept, but he had just bumped into a messenger outside and knew the details, so he quickly reported the details to Philip IV.

Philip IV said nothing and silently listened to the loss of the entire American continent, feeling a little sad.

The Ming Kingdom in the Far East was still too powerful. Not only did it extend its tentacles to the South China Sea, but it even sent a large number of troops to capture the American continent. Today, it is basically impossible for Spain to retake the American continent from the Ming Kingdom.

Thinking that from then on, Spain would cut off another very important source of money, this really made Philip IV unacceptable.

After a while of silence, he suddenly burst out. He jumped three feet high and roared with anger: "I am not well-off, it is a blessing to not go to settle the score with him. He even swallowed the entire America with outsiders. It is unbearable. I swear that I must destroy you!"

Needless to say, he was referring to Portugal. This was simply a new hatred and old hatred, which was too exciting for Philip IV.

After hearing this, the Finance Minister beside him said worriedly: "Your Majesty, you must not go to war on two fronts now."

Just dealing with France has made Spain unable to do anything and is frowning for military expenditure. If we fight with Portugal again, it will definitely drag down Spain.

When Philip IV heard the words of the Minister of Finance, he understood the key. However, it was one thing to understand, but it was another thing to be angry with Portugal. If this anger was not released, it would be a waste of the king of Spain!

Philip IV had a few brain teasers, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he immediately said to the Minister of Finance: "I must destroy this Portugal. Not to mention how the little military power of Portugal can withstand the iron fist of our Spanish, it is just that it has so many oriental specialties, it is a huge wealth!"

When he heard this, the Chancellor of the Finance Minister's eyes lit up. Yes, Portugal now sells specialties from the Far East, and I don't know how much money it has made. If he could conquer Portugal, he would not only gain countless wealth, but also rob those specialties from the Far East, and Spain would be able to make a fortune.

A very certain thing is that fighting Portugal is definitely a lot of benefits than competing with France. The Minister of Finance had this idea in his mind, but when he recalled his current situation, he asked a little discouragedly: "Your Majesty, what should France do?"

France was indeed a big question, which made Philip IV unable to answer for the moment, so he walked quickly in the hall, thinking about this matter.

I don't know how long it took, but suddenly, Philip IV stood up and said in a firm tone: "End the war with France immediately, and at any cost, then mobilize troops to attack Portugal!"

Then, under his will, Spain originally signed the Pyrenees peace treaty with France in 1659, in advance. The content of this contract was too disgraceful for the Spanish. The cedes of Roussillon, Fova, Artouva and most of the Lorraine were cedeed to France.

But what is different from history is that France promised to do whatever Spain fought for Portugal.

In this way, Portugal, a weak country, once again became a victim of transactions between strong countries.
Chapter completed!