Chapter 272: Fighting the Enemies of Civilization

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

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

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

But it is still a good idea to force the other party to cede land and pay compensation and engage in dumping trade. Because even if the Austrians do not take action, the French will personally take action.

Rather than letting the latter take advantage, it is better to take it directly. Of course, as long as Vietnam is not intended to be occupied for a long time, it is not very difficult to fight.

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

The plains are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, where the terrain is low 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 Genghis Khan could conquer Vietnam in history. Its narrow and long territory, complex terrain, harsh climate and other unfavorable factors have given the conquerors a headache. In the end, the army's supplies were unsustainable and could only return empty-handed.

However, there are exceptions. For example, the French found a trick. Since the attack from land is full of risks, choose to attack Vietnam from the sea. In this way, you can hit its weak abdomen and turn passive into active.

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

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

Then, while their army was exhausted, they sent a large army down the Mekong River to the Jiulong River Plain, forcing the other side to surrender and cede land and pay compensation.

It may be that the heaven and earth are on the same side, or that people are unlucky and even drinking cold water will make their teeth ache.

It happened that the ignorant Vietnamese captured and executed a group of French missionaries at this time, and their monarch Minh Mang did not hide his disgust for Catholicism, so this gave Austria a nearly perfect excuse to start a war.

And this emperor of Vietnam was already terminally ill, and his son Nguyen Phuc Dong succeeded him and changed the reign to "Thio Tri". This Emperor Thio Tri did not have his father's grand vision, but his heart was higher than the sky.

He even looked down on his father's actions in his later years, thinking that it was because Nguyen Phuc Kho became deaf and confused in his later years that he was defeated by the tall and barbaric natives of Zhenla.

As for begging for peace from the "red-haired" people, it is completely unnecessary. As long as he works hard, all the red-haired and yellow-haired people will tremble under the iron hoof of Dai Viet.

(Red-haired is the name Vietnamese call the British and French. Yellow-haired refers to the Austrians.)

Although Emperor Minh Mang had always maintained a tributary relationship with the Qing Dynasty and still called himself "Vietnam" in his dealings with the Qing Dynasty, he always regarded himself as the ruler of "Da Nan" in private.

His biggest dream in his life was to conquer the Central Plains. For this reason, he stationed 150,000 troops in northern Vietnam and built countless weapons and armors, and also recruited civilians from all over the country to repair roads.

After seeing the fighting power of the yellow-haired and red-haired people, Nguyen Phuc Khoa lost his dream and was worried that the great powers would use their maritime advantages to invade his territory.

As a wise ruler of Vietnam, after discovering this possibility, Nguyen Phuc Khoa tried his best to eliminate this risk in the bud.

On the one hand, Nguyen Phuc Khao sent a delegation of officials to visit France, preparing to join forces with it to fight against Britain. He even made concessions on missionary issues, which he had always been sensitive about.

On the other hand, he issued an imperial decree to lay hidden stakes at the mouths of rivers in the country to reduce the risk of maritime invasion.

At the same time, he also ordered relevant officials to build artillery forts in dangerous places, and was responsible for training the navy, and even planned to evacuate residents from coastal areas to implement a maritime ban.

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

In short, Vietnam had received help from the French during difficult times, but not only did it not repay the favor, it also imposed heavy taxes on merchants, and made bad moves such as expelling ambassadors and killing missionaries.

Celebrities from all walks of life in Paris called on Louis Philippe not to meet these barbarians. In fact, Guizot hoped that France could establish a colony in Vietnam, but he didn't have to go against "public opinion".

The king himself was not very concerned about Southeast Asian affairs, so the mission sent by Emperor Minh Mang could only return empty-handed.

Emperor Minh Mang's coastal defense measures caused complaints from the people and also affected the interests of the noble officials. In addition, after the recent defeat in Zhenla, Vietnam was in chaos, causing the leader of the Nguyen Dynasty to fall ill.

This led to Emperor Thieu Tri's massacre of French missionaries.

In other words, these French people were really unlucky. They were originally hired by Paris to collect local intelligence. Because the Vietnamese had been very low-key before, they did not realize 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. Emperor Shaozhi didn't expect that this was clearly a move to show his martial virtue and establish his authority, but it became an excuse for Austria to go to war with him.

Franz made special preparations for this war.

The news of the murder of French missionaries was already a hot topic in the French church, and Franz added fuel to the fire at this time.

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

The first hate was to invade my land and kill my people.

The second hate was to destroy my temples and kill my monks. (Translated into, burning churches and slaughtering priests.)

The third hate was to seize my country and kill my father. (The former king An Chan died in the Vietnamese palace.)

The fourth hate was to imprison my sisters and abandon their bodies in the river. (In order to weaken Zhenla's resistance, Vietnam once imprisoned and tortured Queen An Mei's sisters to death, and then dismembered and threw their bodies into the river.)

The fifth major hatred is to support the traitors and disrupt our government. (Establish a puppet regime)

The sixth major hatred is to rob and plunder and destroy our market. (Hinder free trade)

The seventh major hatred is to kidnap people into slavery and force good women into prostitution. (Slavery and slave trade)

I won't write the rest.

The whole of Europe was surprised that there was such a barbaric and arrogant country in the world. No one would doubt the justice of this war.

When the Austrian Empire announced that it would help Zhenla to fight Vietnam, the enemy of civilization, there were only voices 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.