I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 312: Declaring war on Prussia...no, declaring war on the Dutch rebels
France must be extremely cautious about participating in such a major event as the war between Prussia and Austria.

Therefore, after Queen Mary received affirmative answers from several ministers, she immediately convened an "enlarged meeting" of the cabinet to discuss sending troops to Silesia.

In addition to the Secretary of Commerce who is still negotiating a trade agreement in Munich, all cabinet ministers and military leaders, as well as royal families such as the Count of Provence and the Count of Artois, were all present.

The seemingly serious and grand meeting actually did not have much suspense. Under the leadership of Brian, the cabinet ministers unanimously agreed to join the war.

In particular, the Minister of War, the Duke of Broglie, claimed that this was a "historic opportunity" for France to expand its influence on the European continent. Of course, he was able to work so hard because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince promised him benefits that he could not refuse.

He then asked Berthier to conduct a military analysis to prove that the chances of supporting Austria were very high. At the same time, even if Prussia won, the losses suffered by France would be minimal.

The Earl of Provence, who was Louis XVI's younger brother, who didn't know much about the situation, looked at the impassioned speech of the Minister of War, frowned and asked the most critical question:
"Duke Broy, how many troops are we prepared to send? Will there be any financial problems?"

After all, France still carries a deficit of several billion livres.

This was also the issue that Queen Mary was most concerned about, and she immediately looked at Duke Broy.

Before the Minister of War could say anything, Talleyrand stood up and bowed slightly to the Count of Provence:
"My Lord Earl, it is very cost-effective for our country to participate in this war financially.

Seeing the surprised looks from Queen Mary and others, Joseph explained:
"The current situation of the war is still unclear, and we should be cautious about declaring war."

Duke Broy immediately answered:
"And we will strictly control the scale of the war. We will not send more than 5 troops in the early stage, and the cost will not be too high."

Queen Mary turned to the Chancellor again.

He hurriedly coughed and stood up, bowing to Queen Mary:
"Your Majesty, I think it is not necessary to declare war on Prussia for the time being."

In fact, if Joseph had not spent a large amount of money on tax reform, the 50 to 60 million livres that had been "confiscated" by the Duke of Orleans would have been enough to support the French army.

"In other words, our products can be sold in large quantities to the South German market in the future, and the expenses incurred in this war can be earned from here in the future."

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, she looked at Brian and solemnly ordered:

Joseph, who had been sitting in the corner silently, almost choked on his spit when he heard the words. He said to himself that Mom was really sincere. She was taking advantage of the troubled waters of the war between Prussia and Austria. Why was she forming an alliance and declaring war at the same time? ?
With this operation, wouldn't it mean that Austria's matter has become France's matter, and it will be impossible to get rid of it in the future?

"Then, please draft a document. France will formally ally with Austria and declare war on Prussia."

"Your Majesty, the current financial situation is relatively stable. We only need to issue some public bonds, which is enough to support the military expenditure of 5 troops for one or two years."

Brian had already made preparations and immediately said:

"Because His Majesty Joseph II has promised that in return for participating in the war, he will do his best to promote the signing of a trade agreement between France, Austria and the South German countries. You may have heard the news, which is the Seine-Rhine Trade Agreement.

The biggest stone in Queen Mary's heart finally fell to the ground, and she discussed the many pros and cons of participating in the war with the ministers. Seeing that everyone's opinions were surprisingly unanimous, she no longer hesitated.

“In fact, by the time I left Munich, the negotiations were almost complete.

"But our army is about to go to Silesia to fight the Prussians. This is a de facto declaration of war."

"No, no, we were just invited by Austria to go there to maintain local order."

"But..." "We will send the troops as needed, and we can fight the war as we want, but there is no need to declare war. Prussia will probably not take the initiative to declare war on us."

If the Prussians were not stupid, they would definitely pretend not to see the French troops participating in the war. Declaring war would be tantamount to tying France to Austria.

Duke Broy frowned and said:

"Your Highness, I'm afraid Austria will strongly demand that we declare war on Prussia."

A sly smile flashed in Joseph's eyes:

"If we must declare war, then we will declare war on the Southern Netherlands rebels.

"Last month they brazenly robbed our country's caravan. This was a blatant provocation and we must not tolerate it!"

"Huh? The Southern Netherlands robbed the French caravan?" A lot of question marks suddenly appeared in the conference hall.

Berthier was the first to react:
"Your Highness, are you talking about the time when the Dutch rebels attacked the logistics supplies we prepared for Austria?"

"What are the supplies for Austria?" Joseph deliberately darkened his face, "That's grain and iron products purchased by Luxembourg. It's a normal business transaction!"

"Yes, Your Highness. I remembered wrongly. It was indeed the goods ordered by Luxembourg."

Brian, the Duke of Broglie and other ministers immediately agreed with the Crown Prince's opinion. In the end, Queen Mary had no choice but to follow the advice and decided to declare war on the Southern Netherlands rebels first. If Austria gains the initiative on the battlefield in the future, it will formally declare an alliance between France and Austria and declare war on Prussia.

However, little did she know that Joseph had already made plans and would never let either Prussia or Austria have a clear advantage.

As long as Prussia and Austria are in conflict, even if the war is not so fierce, they will not be able to join forces to carve up Poland, and they will even show goodwill to Poland in order to win Poland's military support.

Even if Russia wants to attack Poland in the future, Poland can avoid being attacked from both sides and concentrate on dealing with the Russian army. Even if they still lose in the end, they can at least resist for a few more years than in history.

While the rest of Europe was at war, France was focusing on development while quietly giving the warring countries an opportunity to sell supplies.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the cabinet meeting ended, and France took a key step in uniting Austria to join the Prussian-Austrian War.

Of course, such a big thing as being involved in the Prussian-Austrian War cannot be discussed in one day. Today only set the tone. The specific details of participating in the war will require a long discussion at the cabinet meeting later.

However, the actual plan to participate in the war was formulated in the Crown Prince's study, and was later brought to the cabinet meeting to "rectify" it.

Emang pushed open the study door and stood aside with his head bowed.

Joseph stepped into the room, turned around and asked Talleyrand beside him:

"Is the Southern Netherlands ready?"

The latter nodded immediately and lowered his voice:
"Yes, Your Highness. When the time comes, Ferdinand will receive the news immediately."

The Ferdinand he was talking about was the Duke of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief of the Prussian army.

(End of this chapter)