Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 831

831. Chicken Ribs (5)

Hyang’s intervention and the resulting butterfly effect had significant impacts, both large and small, on Europe and Asia.

One of these was the increased familiarity of Asian countries with gunpowder weapons.

* * *

In the history before Hyang’s intervention, most Asian countries, excluding Ming and Joseon—specifically, those east of India—were not familiar with gunpowder weapons.

Aside from Ming and Joseon, only Dai Viet, Siam, and Japan were somewhat knowledgeable, and the gunpowder weapons they knew were mostly cannons used in siege warfare.

The concept of personal firearms was almost entirely limited to gun barrels similar to Europe’s hand cannons.

Given that even countries relatively familiar with gunpowder were in this situation, the situation of the minor sultanates in Southeast Asia was even more dire.

They were still accustomed to crude iron swords they made themselves or Ming-dynasty swords brought in by Chinese merchants.

In this context, they were forced to kneel before Europeans armed with muskets, arquebuses, and cannons.

Meanwhile, Japan, which quickly adopted European firearms, plunged the three Northeast Asian countries into war in the 16th century.

India and Central Asia developed their own guns and cannons based on those that came in through the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Europe. However, they were more than a generation behind Europe and became prey for Britain and Russia.

However, Hyang’s intervention changed everything.

Around the time Europe was just evolving from hand cannons to arquebuses, Joseon’s musket infantry, armed with percussion cap rifles—the ultimate form of muzzle-loading rifles—was born.

Moreover, the Biyeokjincheonle [a powerful, possibly fictional, Joseon weapon of mass destruction] also appeared.

Confident in its military power, Joseon then actively engaged in foreign trade, and Southeast Asia, as well as the Bengal Sultanate of India, came into contact with Joseon’s gunpowder weapons.

And the subsequent developments were as described earlier.

* * *

Therefore, European countries advancing into Southeast Asia could not act as they had in Africa.

Southeast Asian sultanates were already armed with Imperial, Ming, or even Japanese guns and cannons.

Moreover, they were not only armed but also skilled in tactics that could properly utilize guns and cannons, and they had become proficient in tactical operations tailored to their country’s natural environment.

In addition, the Empire’s peculiar ‘love for cannons’ had spread, leading them to manufacture and arm themselves with both imported and domestically produced cannons, and they had even built sturdy fortresses similar to those of the Empire and Ming.

Thanks to this, Europeans who stopped at ports of call starting with Malacca could only swallow hard as they saw the solid fortresses and cannon emplacements in the walls, and Southeast Asian soldiers armed with long rifles.

-This place is different from Africa!

European monarchs and capitalists, after confirming the information brought by captains and sailors, had to lick their lips [a gesture of frustrated desire].

“Tch! We shouldn’t take the region east of India lightly. But….”

However, no monarchs would give up on ‘mercantilism’ and ‘strengthening the nation’ which had started in the Empire and had become a global trend.

The capitalists who wanted more profit were the same.

They needed colonies, and even more colonies.

In the end, they turned their eyes to India, which was still in turmoil, and the unknown continent rumored to be to the south [Australia].

And the countries most enthusiastic about this competition were England and Spain.

England became desperate to get ahead in this competition because of France.

* * *

France, a member of the Suez Alliance, was having a good time through Suez.

France was spending a considerable amount of military expenses to protect Suez. However, the profit dividends were much higher than that. Based on these dividends, Charles VII and his successor, Louis XI, were strengthening their power and making France strong again.

In particular, Louis XI was successfully strengthening his power based on these profit dividends.

Especially after annexing the Duchy of Burgundy some time ago, there was almost nothing to stop him.

* * *

Since the time of Charles VII, the feudal nobles of France had been an obstacle to strengthening royal power.

And the Duchy of Burgundy was behind this.

While French King Charles VII and Burgundy Duke Philip III were alive, their relationship was ‘relatively’ good.

However, problems arose when ‘Charles the Bold’ Charles I succeeded Philip III as Duke of Burgundy, and Louis XI succeeded Charles VII as King of France.

Charles I longed to reunite the Duchy of Burgundy, which was cut in half from north to south, and then completely secede from France.

To achieve the unification and independence of the duchy, he needed to annex the Lorraine region and become a king, not just a duke.

To make this happen, Charles I secretly supported French nobles who were rebellious against Louis XI and sent envoys to the Holy Roman Emperor to request that he recognize him as the King of Burgundy.

However, the request sent to the Holy Roman Emperor was thwarted by Louis XI’s sabotage.

“I can’t take it anymore!”

Louis XI, seeing Charles I’s movements, moved his troops and invaded the Duchy of Burgundy.

The Burgundian War, which lasted for three years from 1474 in the history before Hyang’s intervention, broke out almost 10 years earlier.

* * *

Louis XI decided to start the war because he had a chance of winning.

First of all, the war in Suez was almost in its final stages.

Minor skirmishes were still taking place, but the real battle was taking place at the negotiating table.

Next were the soldiers who had returned from the Suez War.

Armed with Imperial weapons and rich in combat experience, those soldiers were not private soldiers of the nobles but a standing army that moved only on his orders.

As soon as the returning soldiers recovered their strength, Louis XI moved quickly.

First, he opened the Estates-General [a representative assembly of the three estates of French society] and summoned nobles, church officials, and city representatives.

When the summoned targets gathered, Louis XI mobilized the standing army and imprisoned all the nobles.

He imprisoned all the nobles, regardless of whether they had joined hands with Charles I or not.

“I’ve taken care of the noisy obstacles!”

Louis XI, with a satisfied smile, immediately led the standing army and invaded the Duchy of Burgundy.

* * *

Unlike the history before Hyang’s intervention, where this war lasted nearly three years, this invasion was able to end in just one year.

It was such a blitzkrieg that even Louis XI, who decided on the invasion, could not believe it.

The biggest reason for this was Imperial weapons.

The standing army, armed with Imperial weapons with overwhelming killing power and destructive power, quickly overwhelmed the Duchy’s army, which still had outdated cold weapons and early muskets.

In the end, Charles I, the Bold, who commanded the Duchy’s army in the final battle, was killed, and the Duchy of Burgundy became French territory.

* * *

Through this battle, Louis XI gained a lot.

First of all, he gained the Low Countries—now parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, northern France, and western Germany.

In the history before Hyang’s intervention, Charles I’s daughter, Duchess Mary of Burgundy, inherited it and became the territory of the Habsburg family.

Later, the southern region became the Spanish Netherlands and the Austrian Netherlands, and the northern region had a history of being divided into the Dutch Republic.

However, as this war ended quickly, the inheritance was not properly carried out, and the Duchy of Burgundy remained French territory.

This was a major event that shook Europe.

By annexing the Duchy of Burgundy, France gained the territorial base to overwhelm the Holy Roman Empire.

In addition, Louis XI was able to secure the political support of city representatives representing commoners by using this territory and the profits from the Suez Canal as bait.

By securing the political support of city representatives, Louis XI brought down the nobles.

-They conspired to rebel by joining hands with Charles I!

Louis XI executed nobles who were rebellious against him under the above pretext. Some were actually executed for joining hands with Charles I, but many were executed for resisting Louis XI by advocating for the traditional feudal system.

In the end, the surviving nobles had no choice but to swear allegiance to Louis XI.

As the nobility collapsed, the church, the remaining axis of the Estates-General, had no choice but to shut its mouth.

Looking at it this way, Louis XI seemed to have lost nothing, but he also lost something.

It was a huge amount of war expenses.

“Imperial weapons are powerful, but they cost too much money….”

Louis XI frowned and signed every time he received reports—receipts—related to the war expenses incurred.

Imperial weapons had a high consumption rate as much as their overwhelming performance.

The Imperial weapons possessed by the standing army were second-hand goods that the Imperial Army had used and handed over.

In addition, they were weapons that had been overworked in the Suez War.

Fortunately, the weapons were properly made for use by the Imperial Army, so the failure rate was not seriously high.

However, France had no choice but to reach out to its allies because it had to quickly replenish the broken weapons and the consumed ammunition and shells.

It was impossible to receive them from the Empire again in terms of time.

The allies who received France’s request supplied weapons and consumables at cost.

The Ottoman Empire, Spain, and Florence received the cost, but the war expenses consumed were enormous.

Both the Eul-sik long rifle [a type of Joseon rifle] and the Eul-sik Hwacha [a type of Joseon multiple rocket launcher] boasted tremendous ammunition consumption, and the same was true for cannons.

In addition, by reaching out to its allies, it had to bear a political burden.

Louis XI and France lost a lot, but they gained more.

And based on what they gained, France began to emerge as the ruler of Europe.

England, terrified by France’s growth, desperately began to acquire colonies.

And Spain was in the same situation as England.

* * *

Spain was also alarmed by the growth of its allies.

In particular, the rapid growth of Portugal, the main axis of the alliance, forced the monarchs of Spain to make a decision.

“This won’t do!”

Accordingly, Isabella I of the Kingdom of Castile and Ferdinand II of the Kingdom of Aragon married and merged into one kingdom.

It was the emergence of a true Kingdom of Spain.

Spain, united into one, was a considerable size. It occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula and had a large population.

The problem was that Portugal, like a thorn in the side, was constantly holding Spain back.

Portugal was also ahead in the competition for African colonies, and Mediterranean trade was also lagging behind Portugal.

But the biggest problem was Suez.

As the alliance to which Portugal belonged occupied Suez and gained huge profits, Portugal was growing rapidly.

Portugal, armed with weapons introduced from the Empire, was not an easy opponent even though it was small.

In addition, Portugal and its allies had formed a solid military alliance by signing a mutual defense treaty.

“To join hands with infidels! Apostates!”

They cursed like that, but Spain was also in alliance with the Mamluks. Although the Mamluks were now on the verge of collapse.

——-

Hello?

This is Gukbbong, the author of ‘Black Company Joseon.’

I am sorry that the updates have been delayed yesterday and today.

In addition to the problem of poor condition due to sudden changes in the weather, there are too many things to review due to long-term serialization.

Settings, characters, event timing, etc….

I write them down separately and keep scrolling through them,

It is taking up more and more time.

I am sorry for the delay in the update.

I will do my best not to be late in the future.

Please continue to love ‘Black Company Joseon.’

I will try.

Gukbbong Dream.