Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 829 Approaching Dublin, only 30 nautical miles away

"The joint military exercises organized by the Netherlands were actually held around the British Isles?"

In response to this, the British Prime Minister's Office on No. 10 Downing Street responded to the Dutch maritime coalition surrounding the British Isles: "We will not provoke disputes but will stick to the defense line."

However, the reaction of the Prime Minister's Office made the British very dissatisfied, which in turn pushed the pressure on the Whig government.

Because the United Kingdom and the Netherlands began to sever diplomatic relations as early as 1878, and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom did not have embassies or diplomatic envoys in the other country, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs Granville could only summon the diplomatic envoys of various countries in London, hold a collective meeting, and solemnly warn:

"The UK will not accept threats from other countries and remain silent, just like what we are doing with France in the English Channel now. The UK will not turn a blind eye to threats from other countries to British territory."

In short, the subtext of this British diplomatic leader is that if the UK faces the naval exercises around the British Isles reported by the outside world in the Netherlands, then the UK will take counterattacks.

Just three days after the British Foreign Secretary made the harsh words, the spokesman for the Dutch Military District in Europe, Donald Trump, announced that starting from November 1880, 11, the European Fleet of the Dutch Navy would carry out a series of joint operations around the British Isles. Military action;

In the south, at the entrance to the St. George's Strait in the Celtic Sea in the southern part of the British Isles and the Irish island, Dutch and Spanish warships formed a joint fleet to conduct joint maritime exercises, and Spain will also dispatch the world's leading range technology sold by the Netherlands to Spain. Second-generation submarines participated in the exercise;
In the north, on the Franconian Islands, which the Netherlands purchased from Denmark in 1864, the Dutch Navy will conduct a face-off underwater force exercise with Swedish Navy warships to threaten Scotland.

In the east, the Dutch and Danish navies will be 200 nautical miles east of England and Scotland in the North Sea, which is west of the center of the North Sea.

The two countries will organize fire tests.

Donnatt, spokesman for the Netherlands and the European Theater, said that this action was a visual deterrent in response to the recent major escalation of negative actions on the Malacca Strait and Southeast Asia issues. It was a serious warning against Britain's provocation of Dutch interests and seeking to suppress the Netherlands.

Regarding the public statement of the spokesperson of the Dutch European Theater Command, at the regular diplomatic press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Melbourne, the capital of the Australian mainland of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on November 11, when a flood of reporters asked, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands also said that Authorized national media and various countries to issue announcements stating that the Dutch Navy’s European Fleet will connect with the Spanish Navy, Danish Navy, Swedish Navy and other Nordic Alliance allies from 5:1880 a.m. on November 11, 7 to November 12, 11, European time. At that time, important military exercises were carried out in the low-end sea areas in the east, south and north of the British Isles, and warships and submarines conducted force shooting exercises on the surface and underwater at the same time.

As this blockbuster news was finally finalized, the world suddenly fell into silence.

At this time, even Prime Minister Bismarck of the German Empire was frightened by such a large-scale initiative by the Netherlands.

You must know that even in the 1810s, when Napoleon I had a falling out with Britain, he did not dare to directly photograph warships surrounding Britain. He did not even dare to make such an idea public, just for fear of crazy British revenge.

What Napoleon I did not dare to do, William IV now directly did it.Bismarck, the iron-blooded prime minister, could not help but feel surprised in his heart.

"It seems that William IV is giving the Netherlands an opportunity to confirm its status as a global military power. Then Britain is determined to be the stepping stone or whetstone for the Netherlands."

Bismarck secretly said distressedly: "With what the Netherlands is doing now, the chance of success is still very high. In Europe, Spain, Sweden and Denmark are firmly on the side of the Netherlands. These three countries are definitely not the top power in Europe separately, but jointly Together, and the Dutch European power is top-notch, even the maritime power is not weaker than that of the United Kingdom.

I guess the UK will not confront it directly. At most, it will be a small retaliation with big thunder and small raindrops.

However, whether the Netherlands takes the lead, the German Empire can follow the promotion route of the Netherlands and seek ways to improve its global status in the future." Bismarck's idea was actually not the idea of ​​other countries across the Atlantic, including the United States.

Historically, when all middle powers were promoted to great power status, they were suppressed by the established powers around them and were afraid of sharing power.

Japan in the Far East took the initiative to attack Korea. In fact, it was provoking the Qing Dynasty in order to ascend. After breaking away from the status of a vassal state, it became a peasant and sang songs in an attempt to establish an equal status with the Qing Dynasty. , even surpassing the status of the first brother in the upper Qing Dynasty.

The German Empire had too many powerful rivals around Europe, and there was no place overseas that it could squander as a place to settle down like the Dutch Far East.Therefore, until such a place is captured, the German Empire is still unable to insult British dignity as freely as the Netherlands.

"Look again, if the plan remains unchanged, after the Anglo-Dutch war, the German Empire will undergo earth-shaking changes, and opportunities will come."

There are many people who think like Bismarck.

As the Netherlands announced the exercise landmarks, the British side noticed that the coordinates of these three target sea areas are at the southern entrance of the St. George's Strait, the Faroe Islands north of the Shetland Islands, and 200 nautical miles east of the junction of England and Scotland. The navigation routes of important ports in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales are surrounded, which is like a "quasi-blockade" of the waters surrounding the British Isles.

That's okay. It is said that Buckingham Palace was very angry about this, and Queen Victoria successively ordered the British Whig government to respond to safeguard British security and sovereignty.

How dare the Creston government say no.

Not only Buckingham Palace, but also large-scale demonstrations have taken place all over the UK. They are going to the British government's Ministry of Defense to show off to the Dutch and counter the Dutch provocation.

On November 1880, 11, the Dutch and Spanish exercises began on time in the southern part of St. George's Channel in the northern Celtic Sea.

The Netherlands + Sweden in the Faroe Islands in the north are also launched. In the west of the North Sea in the east of England, the Dutch European battleship Amsterdam also leads the Danish fleet in the same exercise.

They even took old-fashioned photos of Amsterdam and shared them with major European newspapers. The next day on the 8th, they became front-page photos in newspapers across Europe.

On the morning of August 11,
10 Downing Street.

"Prime Minister, the Dutch Rotterdam and the Spanish Galicia battleships formed a small fleet and sailed north to the northern end of the St. George's Strait, and now appear only 30 nautical miles east of Dublin, Ireland."

When Creston was suffering from a headache due to the domestic test pressure in facing the Netherlands, he had just finished a cup of tea to calm down. He had just taken a nap and was suddenly woken up again.

However, as the news that woke him came, he lost all sleep. He said cruelly: "Summon the cabinet staff to No. 10 Downing Street for a meeting immediately. The sooner the better."

(End of this chapter)