Xinshun 1730

Chapter 598 Strange Times

1741, April 8.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Thousands of Amsterdammers took to the streets to discuss a shocking news.

There's been a lot of news this year, and a lot about the Netherlands.

In fact, just ten days ago, in remote India, a naval battle broke out in Kraschel Harbor between the fleet of the Dutch East India Company and the Indian state of Travancore.

The Indian state of Travancore, with the help of the British shit stick, completely defeated the navy of the Dutch East India Company.

This is like a signal, declaring that the rule of the Netherlands in Asia has been crumbling.Even Indian states can defeat VOC.

After Japan was defeated by Dashun, the trade between Japan and the Netherlands ended, and the Netherlands' attempt to open up the Indian market failed.

Although this battle did not completely turn the Netherlands against the United Kingdom, and still maintains a quasi-ally relationship in Europe, the competition in Asia has completely heated up.

VOC is very clear, how could Travancore win this naval battle without Britain behind it?

On almost the same day, the East India Company also suffered a defeat in the Bandung area.The Batavia garrison, which had finally pieced together its strength to encircle and suppress, was encircled and wiped out by the Chinese rebels in the Bandung Mountains, and threatened Cirebon, forcing Batavia to retreat.

British muskets, British artillery, and even British cavalry knives, all combined with the Battle of Krascher in the west, made the Netherlands more convinced of the threat of the British.

Of course, it will take at least a year for these news to reach Amsterdam.The Dutch at this time did not know the news. In fact, even a year later they might not know that the East India Company would block the news.

It’s only August, but for the citizens of Amsterdam, even if you don’t count the events that happened in faraway India and Java, they have already experienced too many big news.

In October last year, King Charles VI of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor died without a male heir.

In December, King Frederick II of Prussia declared war on Austria and claimed Silesia.

In June, France, Prussia, Bavaria, and Spain signed an anti-Austrian alliance.

On August 8th, Sweden, which received diplomatic help from Dashun and verbal support from France, declared war on Russia, intending to regain lost territory and razed St. Petersburg.

These things are closely related to the Netherlands.

Because the Netherlands signed the "Decree on the Basic Law of the Succession of the Austrian Throne" that year, recognizing the changes in the inheritance law and recognizing that Princess Teresa can inherit Austria in accordance with the Basic Law.Emperor Shinra cannot be a woman, but Austria's inheritance must be inherited in its entirety.

After all, in order to get the Netherlands to sign, Olidi disbanded the Ostend company, which was considered a huge concession.

However, the Netherlands has declined, and Britain is separated by the sea, but France and Prussia can reach the Netherlands without swimming across the sea.

Is it to fulfill the sacred duty, keep the promise of a big country, and formally declare war on France and the general public?

Or should we put our interests first, break our promises, be resolutely neutral, and take advantage of the opportunity of melee to obtain the greatest benefits?

If the country is a whole, it's just a multiple-choice question that needs to be weighed.

The Netherlands is not a whole, so this is not a multiple-choice question, but has evolved into a big discussion involving seven provinces.

The Prince of Orange has good relations with the British royal family, but the provinces do not want a centralized government overhead.

Since William III, the ruler of the Netherlands and King of England, fell to his death in an accident 40 years ago, the republic has not had a consul until now.

The Great Speaker and the Regency faction, of course, hope that the Netherlands will be neutral, and they don't want to fulfill their original promise: when Princess Teresa's succession is threatened, they will send troops to help Austria.

However, William Frisso of the Prince of Orange family was very excited after hearing the war.

He was the heir of the prestigious Orange family in the Netherlands, and he was the only person who could be accepted by the Dutch people as the ruling dictator for life.

But he has another identity, the son-in-law of King George II of the United Kingdom and the consort of the eldest princess.

After hearing the news of the war, William was ecstatic, and immediately sent a letter to his father-in-law, hoping to give him a position in the army and lead the British army to fight against Prussia and France, so that he could come as a hero. To the Netherlands, with a very high prestige, become the lifelong ruler of the Netherlands, defeating the oligarchic republicans.

This is almost a standard routine for a military aristocrat to defeat an oligarch republic: fight, make meritorious service, prestige, and return home.

It has been like this since Roman times.

However, William Frisso had a pathetic body.

Chicken breasts, congenital asthma, and the weak character of having no father since childhood so that the mother spoiled education, and the common aristocratic disease of European nobles.

Therefore, he cannot be Caesar.

It is even less capable of leading the declining Netherlands to defeat the rising Prussia and powerful France.

Although the plan was aborted, those in William's group supported Britain.How can the son-in-law not support the old man?Besides, they are all nobles. If William wants to become the ruler of the Netherlands in the future, he will need the help of the British.

However, the regent line opposed supporting Austria and only hoped to be as neutral as possible.

Going to war is not good for the big businessmen and oligarchs in the Netherlands.

So what about the common people and ordinary citizens in the Netherlands?

Of course it's not good either.

The Netherlands is blocked by the British "Navigation Regulations" and cannot sell goods; the British declared that the fishing grounds belong to the British, and they caught Dutch fishing boats when they saw Dutch fishing boats, which made the fishing industry that started in the Netherlands come to an end; the textile industry was competed by the British I'm still half breathed...

Next to it is France, which almost drained the blood of the Netherlands last time, and forced the Netherlands to burst its embankment last time.

For ordinary people and citizens, of course, it is the right choice to be as neutral as possible, or even to unite France and oppose Britain.

However, a strange ethos has emerged in the Netherlands.

Oligarchs and big businessmen are indeed not good birds.

They embezzle, corrupt, oppress the people, refuse to pay taxes, subsidize taxes, and lend... This makes Dutch citizens and people feel irrationally unhappy—we oppose whatever big businessmen, oligarchs, and regents support.

Now that it has declined like this, it is better to invite the ruling back, maybe the "king" can suppress these hateful capitalists.

With this kind of general mentality before the crown was broken and no one dared to pick it up, and with this limitation before the European Spring of 1848, these people who have experienced the "Republic" generally look forward to the monarchy and centralization.

Perhaps, the king is not good.But the king may be able to suppress these cannibalistic businessmen.

This kind of weird mentality and this kind of completely irrational opposition made a national policy discussion where a little bit of rationality and a little bit of normal mind knew which side to stand on became a big debate for the whole people to vent.

Today, several large ships berthed in Amsterdam have brought new hotspots to this national debate.

According to legend, the Chinese imperial envoy, who was described by Voltaire as "the most perfect system for mankind", came to the Netherlands.

The Dutch would like to know, in Dashun, how did the system, or the emperor, suppress those disgusting, selfish, shameless big businessmen?How did Dashun resist this suffocating business oligarch?And how to maintain an empire that is dozens of times larger than the Netherlands, unlike the Netherlands, where the seven provinces have been arguing for 38 years over tax payment.

The Dutch are stronger than ever.

But how did it get mixed up like this?

They wonder, doubt, and ponder, but they don't know that the root cause is that commercial capital is subordinate to industrial capital, and they screwed up.

Can't see through the essence, so they sum up experience from the appearance.

In the Guadeloupe Alliance War 20 years ago, the Netherlands, as the victor, did not send anyone to attend the subsequent spoils meeting.

This is a symbolic event, although the golden age of the Netherlands has long since come to an end, it was not until this incident that those who were still immersed in fantasy had to accept this sad reality-the Netherlands is no longer a big country.

So people think, what factors lead to it?Does the Netherlands need a consul with unlimited power, an Augustus, to return to the top?Back to the golden age?Can the seven kingdoms become one?

This is a wonderful era.

It's so weird that after the king was hanged, he found that the one who came to power was more cannibal than the king, so that people actually missed the era of the king very much.

Therefore, in Voltaire's works, Dashun, which has "the most perfect system of mankind" and is an imperial system, seems to have become a beacon in the hearts of the Dutch people.

The "light" in the eyes of the Dutch, after the port, did something very close to the people, but very low-profile and too market-like.

A pile of dazzling porcelain is placed on the square near the port.

The Chinese on board are taking apart the wooden box, digging out the soil inside, and carefully taking out the porcelain inside.

This way of transporting porcelain is very Chinese: put the porcelain in a box, fill it with soil, sprinkle wheat seeds in the soil, and pour water on it.Waiting for the wheat to germinate, the roots stretch out, and the roots fix the soil together, perfectly protecting the fragile porcelain inside.

And the porcelain in front of me is better, more beautiful, and more advanced than the ones brought back by the East India Company.

Because this is from official kilns, and some of them are even supplied to the court, which is completely different from those exported goods.

A Chinese who spoke good Dutch stood on a high place and said that these porcelains would be given to the citizens of Amsterdam as gifts.

Of course, everything depends on luck. Citizens are invited to line up and play a game of "touching the ball". If you find the ball with a different color, you will get an expensive, brand-new, high-grade porcelain of the same style as the Dashun Palace. .

The winning rate is [-]/[-], [-] pieces of porcelain, each person is limited to one draw, while stocks last!

In the future, citizens are invited to pay attention to official news at any time, and there will be similar lucky draws from time to time.

The Dashun soldiers who disembarked performed their task of maintaining order as a matter of course.

Bayonets, muskets, and soldiers who are not in Dutch uniforms and looks, just as a matter of course in the port of Amsterdam, they put on an appearance of maintaining order.

On the boat, Liu Yu, who was watching all this, smiled and said to Kang who was next to him: "Brother Zhongxian, I want to say something in the future, and there will definitely be many Dutch people listening."

(End of this chapter)