On November 5, 1702, light rain was raining in the port of Palermo, Sicily.

This is the case in winter in southern Europe. The Mediterranean does not hesitate to give sufficient water vapor to the earth, bringing a lot of rain and snow. But in the sunny summer, it is stingy to give alms to plants that need rain, and the whole land is dry. Therefore, living and working in southern Europe is the first priority to develop qualified farmland water conservancy facilities to irrigate water-deficient crops in the dry summer.

If this cannot be done, such as Spain, the grain output of the entire country will be affected. People will starve and have to sell their precious resources abroad in exchange for the grain that depends for survival. To put it bluntly, Spain's current agriculture is not as good as during the Moors' rule. At least they built an amazing reservoir. If you do well, such as Italy, not only can the grain output be guaranteed, but you can even use the relatively warm climate and sufficient Yangon to produce high-quality fruits, oil crops, grass, etc. to make the people richer. In short, it depends on your people's efforts and whether the government is effective.

Are Italians lazy? To be honest, later generations are a little lazy, or the entire Southern Europe is lazy and the pace of life is slow. But are they born like this? In fact, they are not. Before the country joined the euro zone and the economy collapsed, they were still relatively hardworking and working hard. But when the entire country's economy declined, the ports were largely acquired by Nordics and left them to be destroyed, a large number of merchant ships went to Rotterdam, Hamburg and other places to unload goods, and domestic enterprises went bankrupt one after another, and the people had no jobs, the unemployment rate remained high, and the government had to borrow money to pay benefits to support them, this person could not be lazy.

In the 18th century, people were even less qualified to be as lazy as later generations. Haven’t you seen the scene of Southern Europeans who immigrated to South America at that time lacking cattle, horses and other livestock, and even directly pulling plows and plowing land by manpower? Italians are a model of hard work in the Mediterranean. People produce a large number of fruits, cheese, bacon, olives, wine and other commodities, and exporting them to Nordic Europe for profit. Italian merchants are like hardworking little bees, doing business everywhere, and they can be seen in large quantities in Europe and even North Africa. At one time, one-third of the people in Amsterdam have foreign ancestry, and the "foreign" among them refers to Italy most of the time.

Sicily is actually a typical Italian countryside. The two cities of Palermo and Messina are one east and one west, like the two portals of Sicily. In the middle of the portal are large areas of wheat fields, citrus orchards, olive forests and even sugarcane fields, which are decorated with farms, forming a leisurely pastoral scenery.

But although the rural scenery is good, you may not be willing to live there. Because agriculture without industrial protection and feeding back is destined to be at the bottom of the value chain. Coupled with the backwardness of production relations and the exploitation of distribution mechanisms, the lives of farmers in Sicily are actually just like that. They are rich in resources and cannot starve to death, but they are seriously scarce about living supplies, and various modern services (such as medical care, cleaning water, education, etc.) are extremely short of them. Otherwise, the wealthy farm owners would not choose to live in villas in towns.

In fact, this is good. The rich are concentrated in the city, and it is easier to raise military expenses when the Northern Italian army came. Although some people fled to the surrounding countryside, most people still chose to stay. The infiltration of Sicily by the Asians for hundreds of years was not in vain. In fact, their foundation here is very good. Many nobles have friendship with them so that they will not regard them, such as foreign invaders, as demons.

The "Po River Division" of the Northern Italian coalition took only six hours to attack the city of Palermo. The only resistance in the city was that the Spanish governor lined up with hundreds of soldiers to fire guns, but under the bombardment of more than 20 artillery pieces of the "Po River Division", they quickly collapsed and surrendered. The entire battle process was a joke.

The "Pohe Division" is a post-organized division with a large number of new recruits, with limited combat capabilities. However, the excellent equipment and the organization of up to 7,500 people are still invincible in Palermo and its surrounding areas. They left an infantry regiment here to garrison, and the other two infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment and the division's direct troops were taken out to sweep. They had to let the residents of various towns and villages know that Sicily has changed its masters, the Spanish era has passed, and the era of the Northern Italian Federation has arrived. Of course, the most important thing is to collect some supplies in the countryside and let the brothers make some money. When they come out to fight, isn't it just for this? The salary of those liras is useless and not enough to be casual in the tavern in the city.

"Captain Bai, the 'Pohe Division' you commanded has created a big scene." On the Pier of Port Palermo, Sheng Dehong, who had just gotten off the ship, looked at the smoke pillars rising from the sky in the distance, and said unhappily: "All of them are Italians. As for this? Is the army you helped to train is this military discipline?"

"Envoy Sheng, this is the Italian army, not our East Coast King's Division. They are at this level and their salary is low. If the soldiers don't make some extra money, it is probably not easy to maintain morale." Bai Chuanping laughed and said, "Besides, what about the Italians? The Austrian army is all Germans, but they burned, killed, looted in Bavaria, and how could they have been weak? The moral level of Europeans is like this, not much better than the barbarians. The army of Northern Italy is already restrained. If the water is clear, there will be no fish. Just do this and we will slowly rectify it in the future."

Sheng Dehong glared at the unruly military head and jumped away from the topic: "You have received the information that the British and Dutch navy defeated the French fleet in Biscay Bay, right?"

"I received it. The French are really useless. So many large warships can't beat the British and Dutch people. It's really trash. The Spanish are the same. The super warships transferred from Cuba are useless and they are beaten up with scars. They have to go back to their hometowns. Within a year and a half, they are afraid they can't get back to their sea control power." Bai Chuanping said indifferently.

"The British and Dutch are so fierce, I don't know if our navy can stand it. This ship is a dead thing after all, and talent is the decisive factor. What's the use of spending so much money to build a ship? It's better to cultivate the navy's courage and dedication. This is the fundamental thing. Young masters and soldiers will never do it." In the end, Bai Chuanping's words were already a bit sour. The navy took away the military expenditure every year, which is the eternal pain in the army's heart and the root of the conflict between the two sides. Think about it, the navy drinks high-quality red wine, the most expensive food, and the military pay is generally 20% or 30% higher than the army. In addition, the country invests huge amounts of money to build ships every year, so the army is considered to be tough in its psychological quality.

Sheng Dehong couldn't say anything about the conflicts between the sea and the land. It was all caused by money and honor, and he didn't intend to intervene in mediation. However, he did not allow the Navy and the Army to have a great influence on the strategic policy because of the signs of separation. This is the bottom line.

Therefore, after thinking about it, he said: "The Kingdom of Spain has officially declared war on the Northern Italian Federation. I just received an inquiry letter from Madrid, asking if we are on the side of the Northern Italian Federation. What do you think about this?"

It was the first time Bai Chuanping heard this news, and he browed and said, "What? Spain still wants to declare war on us?"

"My government and the Northern Italy Federation have a series of security cooperation treaties. Spain asked, but it was just to clarify our position. I guess that if we invoke a treaty and declare that we should protect the Northern Italy from being attacked by the enemy, they may not have the courage to declare war on us. But this matter is too big. Although the local government has given me a certain authorization, I still can't make up my mind, so I want to ask for your opinions." Sheng Dehong said patiently.

"I said, a while ago, the Italians told me in panic that some Spanish troops crossed the Pyrenees and entered France, but they did not go north and seemed to have the intention to advance east. I didn't agree at the time. Now I think that Philip V may not be able to swallow this breath and want to directly attack the northern Italian mainland." Lieutenant Colonel Bai Chuanping frowned and thought: "They are currently stationed in southern France, with unknown numbers. Maybe they are waiting for supplies, or maybe they are hesitant and have not made up their final decision."

"I think so too." Sheng Dehong nodded and said, "The Spaniards wanted to save face, but were afraid of taking us into the war and causing him to suffer a catastrophe, so they were hesitant. Their domestic opinions, based on the information I received, were not very unified. Especially the important officials of the noble regent before Philip V ascended the throne, did not support land invasion of the northern Italian federal lands."

"They may do something to test our bottom line," Bai Chuanping said.

"I won't give them this opportunity." Sheng Dehong said firmly: "The Navy's 'Bianliang' iron-clad warship is about to calculate. I have decided to let small fleets mainly use this warship to visit Sicily, Naples (currently in the war), Sardinia, Corsica and Nazia put some pressure on the Spaniards. But I will not make it clear whether to support the Northern Italian Federation and let the Spaniards be suspicious, so that they can leave us diplomatic operation space in the future."

"When it comes to Yin people, you are still good at white shirts." When Bai Chuanping heard that the navy's new warship was coming to the Mediterranean to show off his power, he was as disgusting as if he had eaten a toad.

"Hmph, are you unhappy? I haven't settled the accounts with you last time." After all, I was from a powerful department. The style of speaking and doing things is different from that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sheng Dehong said: "I don't want to see you make any small moves, and then let me wipe my butt after creating a fait accompli. Whether it's your army or the navy, it's not OK! I understand your desire to fight, but it depends on whether the timing is right! In short, all actions are obedient and you must not do it yourself. I don't want to pursue the past destruction, but from now on, I'm going to be honest with me. I don't want to come passively to cure us every time."

Bai Chuanping glanced at the angry Sheng Dehong, and said nothing, and left with a saber. Behind him were a group of young staff members, one by one, like the proud and aggressive rooster. He said nothing, and followed the commander without saying anything.
Chapter completed!