In September of the 12th year of Chongzheng, the second batch of fifty super battleships sold by the Ming Empire to the Kingdom of Spain finally arrived at the Port of Valencia. At this time, warships of all sizes continued to gather on the sea outside the port, and even the Spanish King Philip IV rushed from Madrid to Valencia.

After several days of assembly, more than a thousand warships of all sizes outside the Port of Valencia have been built. The Spanish Invincible Fleet has finally returned to its glory. It is time to launch a full-scale counterattack!

Philip IV directly appointed Admiral Antonio de Okundo as the commander-in-chief, and ordered him to lead the invincible fleet and escort 20,000 troops to the Western Netherlands. Using the port of Dunkirk as a base, he launched an attack on the Netherlands from sea and land, eliminated the rebels there, and re-incorporated the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands into Spain's territory!

His idea is very good. Among the great powers of the anti-Habsburg Alliance, the strongest naval power is the Netherlands. As long as he defeats the Netherlands and takes back all the land in the Netherlands, Spain will reign over the sea. By then, as long as the English Channel is blocked, the Habsburg Alliance will become a mess. The final winner of this war will be the Habsburg Dynasty!

Will the Anti-Habsburg Alliance be easily defeated like this? Of course it is impossible. The huge invincible fleet was discovered by the Dutch and British sentry ships as soon as it entered the English Channel. Britain, the Netherlands, even France, Sweden and Denmark all responded one after another. Countless warships and armies began to assemble to the Netherlands. A war was inevitable. As for who would win the final victory, it is unknown.

At this time, a piece of news began to spread secretly throughout Portugal, that is, the Duke of Braganza was a descendant of Joao, and he was the legal heir to the Portuguese throne. He would lead everyone to drive away the Spaniards and restore the country and independence!

This is not a false news. The first Duke of Braganza, Alfonso, was really the son of Joao I, but he was an illegitimate son. Many of the Portuguese nobles knew about this.

In fact, the Portuguese had long been like breaking away from the rule of Spain. Whether this news really doesn't seem to matter. As long as someone comes out and leads them to drive away the Spaniards, the news spread, and nobles from all over the country began to secretly form troops and swear allegiance to the Duke of Braganza. An independence movement is quietly brewing, and Portugal's restoration has entered the countdown.

When Zhu Cijiu received the news, it was already in the middle of the 100s. Spain finally took action and Portugal finally became independent. So is he really going to go to Europe to be a peacemaker?

You must go there. The continental powers were the main opponents of the Ming Dynasty for maritime hegemony, while Spain and Portugal were one of the few European countries that could not unite with the great powers to deal with the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that they were destined to be enemies of the continental powers.

Why do you say so? It is mainly because Spain and Portugal have too many colonies around the world. You should know that they were the pioneers of the Age of Discovery. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries can be said to be the centuries of Spain and Portugal. At that time, almost all the colonies in the world were from Spain and Portugal.

In 1493, Pope Alexander VI even divided the Pope meridian for them, all lands west of the line were divided into Spain, and all lands east of the line were Portugal, as if these two countries were dividing the entire world equally!

Of course, in fact, there were still many countries in the world that were not colonized by Spain and Portugal at that time. However, the geographical location was relatively good, the resources were relatively abundant, and the colonization was easier to occupy and were almost divided up by the two countries. In other words, they had almost occupied all the good places, and the European powers later took almost no advantage!

This kind of thing is naturally untolerated by the European powers, so the Thirty Years of War broke out in the continental powers in order to defeat Spain and re-dividate the colonies. Therefore, Spain and Portugal were destined to be enemies of the European powers.

The enemy is friends, so Spain and Portugal are natural allies of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Cijiu naturally cannot allow Spain to be easily defeated by the great powers, and at the same time, it cannot allow Spain to return to its dominance, because there are too many colonies in Spain. If he is allowed to become the overlord of the sea again, the Ming Dynasty will have to be his younger brother.

What should I do if I can't let him lose or return to the overlord? Of course, I'm preparing a competitor for him to restrain him, and Portugal is the first choice. As long as the Ming Dynasty built Portugal up, even if Spain defeated the Anti-Habsburg Alliance in the future, it wouldn't be the dominant player in the continent, and it would be even more impossible to become a maritime overlord again.

Portugal is still very fragile at this time. Without foreign aid help, they would definitely not be able to fight Spain. In history, Portugal looked for Britain, but the result was that Britain became the overlord of the sea. Zhu Cijiu certainly could not let this history repeat itself, so he decided to set off immediately and go to the continent to act as the foreign aid.

Due to the haste, he did not assemble too many people, but only brought the Beiyang Navy, the Beihai Fleet and the First Corps of the Imperial Guards. However, he brought a lot of people from royal industries such as the Royal Rixing Bank of the Ming Dynasty, the Royal Xinglong Business Company of the Ming Dynasty, because Portugal would rent a port for the Ming Dynasty, so he naturally had to bring more people to build it well.

The itinerary along the way is also very simple, just replenish the supply at Xingchenggang base and Goa, and then head straight to the continent.

At this time, the troops recruited by the nobles from all over Portugal had secretly gathered to Lisbon. The number was not large, less than 30,000, but it was enough, because almost all Spanish troops were transferred to the Western Front, and the remaining less than 2,000 troops in Lisbon were left.

With the assistance of Schvira, Duke Bragansa equipped more than 20,000 people with weapons secretly sent by the Ming Dynasty, and then began the restoration operation.

This action is actually very simple, because there were too few Spanish troops in Lisbon, which posed no threat to them at all. He just asked Schvira to bring 20,000 troops to surround the Spanish troops' camp, forcing the Spanish troops to surrender, and then rushed directly into the Lisbon Palace with the remaining thousands of people, arresting the Spanish Minister of State, and then, there was nothing, and the restoration operation was successful!

The next day, Portugal announced the deposed King Philip IV of Spain and made the Duke of Braganza the new king, calling Joao IV. Soon, Portugal and all overseas territories announced their allegiance to the new King Joao IV, and Portugal restored its country!

This action to restore the country seems a bit too simple, but it was successful so easily, which was a bit dramatic. However, in history, Portugal's action to restore the country was so simple, but the subsequent struggle with Spain was relatively complicated.

Of course Spain would not let go and admit that Portugal is independent. However, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire has come to mediate, so will they still fight?
Chapter completed!