Xinshun 1730

Chapter 662

The actions of the Dutchman seemed to be following a predetermined script.

Soon, those who went to ask the consuls of the seven provinces to send people to the Celestial Dynasty to "please seal" with great fanfare were blasted out with great fanfare.

But after the bombardment was over, the consul sent someone to talk privately with Liu Yu, and would send high-ranking officials to Dashun to continue discussing the matter.

It's not that the Dutch are obedient, but that the Dutch have no choice.

The expulsion of the "Dashun Diplomatic Corps" with great fanfare is for the middle and lower class people to see; the private contact and sending people to the capital of Dashun is for the upper-level shareholders and big businessmen to see.

When there are conflicts between the interests of the upper class and the middle and lower classes, some people have to be deceived.

Big businessmen don't want a consul to come to power, and they will destroy the trade profits of the East India Company.

To stabilize the stock market, Count Bentinck appeared again and made another speech.It is nothing more than that he supports trade and the efforts of the East India Company over the years, and he does not want to cut off trade with China.However, it is an insult for China to ask them to pay tribute, so this is a refusal for honor; at the same time, the consul will also send people to Dashun to try to negotiate a suitable, equal, and reciprocal condition with Dashun.

In order to divert people's attention, after the stock price stabilized slightly, the Orange family issued a series of announcements one after another.

Including Britain and Russia reached an alliance against Prussia; Prussia accepted the British mediation and withdrew from the war; Britain provided Austria with 180 million taels of silver assistance; the French Prague Army has fallen into siege...

These pieces of news, which the upper echelons had known for a long time but the middle and lower echelons were still in the dark, immediately boosted the morale of the Netherlands.

Because of the untimely repayment of the national debt before, it was once again sold at a relatively low interest rate of 9%, relying on the patriotic enthusiasm of the people, and sold many of them.Some patriotic businessmen also subscribed for a batch of treasury bonds, because they felt that this one was safe.

Just one day before the Dutch side allowed the Dashun envoy, which "had insulted the dignity of the United Provinces", to leave within a deadline, the United Provinces officially offered support to Austria and promised to implement it as soon as possible.It was announced that a field force of 2 people would be formed, and the national debt just raised would be used to provide Austria with support of 50 gold florins.

For a time, the whole of Holland was plunged into an orange, frenzied sea.Many artisans, farmers, Protestants, and Huguenots who fled from France joined the army one after another.

It was the last gleam of patriotic fervor in the Netherlands, the last gleam of the Dutch Golden Age.

In this fiery national mood, the Dashun Mission, which had been staying in Amsterdam intermittently for almost a year, left the Netherlands disheartened under the ridicule of Dutch sailors and people.

When they set sail, even some Dutch ships fired blank cannons at Dashun's fleet in a demonstration.

Liu Yu on the ship didn't care, and strictly ordered the sailors to be honest and not to care about the provocations of the Dutch.

"Let them shake for a few days, but the grasshoppers after autumn will not be able to jump for a few days; the loaches in the urine pit will not be able to make a big wave."

A few common sayings, the sailors don't know what's going on, they just think it's Liu Yu talking.

Those who know the inside story don't need the explanation of these common sayings, thinking that the Dutch are still the same, and their attitude towards China is no different from when they occupied Taiwan and robbed Zhoushan back then.After all, if they had to fight a battle, they would understand how to deal with it.

If Dashun really won't hurt the Netherlands, Europe still has an ally.Just as Liu Yu supported a battleship of the descendants of the Stuart dynasty, it was enough to hold back the Dutch navy, because the Netherlands had to fulfill the Anglo-Dutch mutual defense treaty, especially in the context of the Netherlands having declared war on France.

If you really want to hurt the Netherlands, giving the French a sum of money is better than Dashun building his own ship.

The confidantes around Liu Yu all followed Liu Yu's ideas, and felt that Dashun had a threshold for shipbuilding.As long as it can control Southeast Asia and threaten India, it is enough.

Beyond this threshold, the benefits are very low.For European affairs, it is much cheaper to invest and send money in the early stage than Dashun to fight by itself.

Of course the French will not resent Liu Yu, because the French understand that all this stems from the betrayal of Prussia.Even if the parliamentary faction continues to be in power, it will not fail to take the opportunity to start a war against France at this time.

On the contrary, the current situation is already very ugly. In order to win over Dashun as an ally, France's hospitality this time can be described as extremely high, and it really treats it with the attitude of entertaining imperial envoys.

When they landed, the people who came to greet them were all old acquaintances of Liu Yu.

There is the first French plenipotentiary ambassador to Dashun, the current French Minister of the Navy, and the Earl of Morpas, who inherited his father's career and became a cabinet member at the age of 17.

There was the Marquis de la Schettadi who returned from Petersburg to the Palace of Versailles to discuss how to stabilize the Russian-French alliance.

There is also Duplex, who was recalled from India and has now taken over as the governor of India, who was the first to contact Liu Yu, and who went to Guangdong in history to preside over the trade with China.

At this time, Duplex was recalled from India. One of the reasons was that Duplex was too aggressive.The Palace of Versailles believes that it is not suitable to fight a war between India and Britain at this time.

On the contrary, because of the American ginseng and mink trade, France felt that even if it wanted to fight for colonies, it should focus on North America and the Caribbean.A single Haiti was once worth more than the whole of North America.Now there is more American ginseng and mink fur trade, which doubles the value of North America and the Caribbean.

Britain is now busy fighting the Jenkins Ear War with Spain, and France is busy fighting in Europe and does not want to take the opportunity to start a war with Britain.So recall the too aggressive duplex and try to keep the peace in India and England.

Those who came to greet us were all old acquaintances, and they were no strangers to each other.There are not only the friendship of a co-coup, but also the interests of large trade orders between the two sides, and the alliance between China and France does not have any conflict of interest for the time being.

Of course, the most important thing is the trade of American ginseng and mink fur. Liu Yu’s plan to sell ice cubes in Guangdong to sell ice cubes, American ginseng and mink fur as goods in the warehouse has made France spend a lot of money in recent years. .

How could anyone get silver in China in the past?Including the Netherlands, which has spices, it is necessary to carry a boat of silver in order to trade.Now France can actually have a surplus of a small million taels every year, which is simply earth-shattering news in Europe.

There are both interests and possible common enemies. This relationship is naturally close.

After seeing the ceremony and chatting for a while, Earl Morpa asked about the "technical exchange of rifled guns, wooden butt fuzes and battleships" between Dashun and France to ask Liu Yu what he said at the beginning about " Will France do the army, Dashun the navy, everything will blow up the Netherlands" secret agreement, will it still work?

Speaking of this, I have to talk about the current French policy.

"Bishop Fleury is seriously ill. His Majesty the King does not think that he will need any prime minister in the future. He hopes to abolish the prime minister and only keep the cabinet. Because it seems that no one in the court has such prestige as the prime minister. His Majesty the King hopes to be able to truly govern himself."

This is actually a reminder to Liu Yu that the king of France will have the final say in the future.Bishop Fleury, who can influence the king and constrain the king, is ill, and it is estimated that he will not survive this year.

The king had always wanted to fight, Fleury had always wanted to maintain peace, to plug the hole left by the time of Louis XIV, and to recuperate.

Now that the prime minister is going to die and the king is going to be in charge, the future direction of France's diplomacy will largely depend on the will of the king.

Liu Yu heard the words, and thought, this is the essence of centralization?But the question is whether everyone is a strongman like Zhu Hongwu, abolishing the prime minister and building a cabinet, what can be done at the level of Louis XV?
Firstly, Fleury was really ill, and secondly, Prussia suddenly turned against the water, which caused the French Prague Army to fall into a siege. Fleury could only carry the cauldron.

When Vienna was empty, the Bavarian and French legions could take advantage of the empty Vienna to capture Vienna.But Fleury opposed the dismemberment of Austria and let Bavaria march to Prague. He also tried to end the war with a peace treaty and maintain the basic integrity of Austria. He just asked Emperor Shenluo to change his person to maintain the balance of the European continent as much as possible and prevent the rise of Prussia. , creating many contradictions within Shinra.

However, in the end, Prussia broke the alliance and made peace. This "wonderful chess" move became a "stinky chess".The French Legion is trapped in Prague, and now it is surrounded by enemies, and it is a question of whether it can escape.

Once anxious and angry, the age is really old, and the body collapses all at once.Louis XV always thought that he was very good, and felt that if he didn't have the constraints of the prime minister, wouldn't he be better than the sun king Louis XIV?
This time, the prime minister got sick, and he couldn't see it, so he was really happy.If the secret treaty between China and France can take effect, and the Netherlands is abolished in one wave, and it is done under the conditions of his own imperial government after the death of the prime minister, then of course it is the best evidence: his own imperial government is indeed strong.

Count Morpas was also very happy that Louis XV wanted to be in charge and abolish the prime minister.If the prime minister is still retained, his current prestige will definitely not be able to become a prime minister; but if the prime minister is abolished and the cabinet is changed, his position can still have a lot of say, and his power will increase a lot.

"Master Marquis, His Majesty the King hopes that I will contact you first, and His Majesty will personally meet with you after arriving at the Palace of Versailles. But before the meeting, Your Majesty still hopes to obtain some definite news as the basis for the negotiations between the two parties."

"The shameless betrayal of the Prussians has hardened the attitude of the Netherlands. Of course the Dutch army is not worth mentioning, but their gold and silver are enough to allow our enemies to re-arm an army."

"Our Netherlands Legion is going to break the siege of Prague. Once the Prague Legion is rescued, it will retaliate against the Netherlands."

"Of course the British will send troops. Bishop Fleury has been trying to reconcile with the UK and try not to break out a large-scale conflict with the UK. But the bishop is seriously ill. His Majesty the King and we both support war against the UK. Of course, the previous ones will also be ruled out." hinder the landing of those who support the Stuart dynasty in Scotland."

"If your country really intends to attack Southeast Asia, strategically, our country will make corresponding adjustments to cooperate."

(End of this chapter)