I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 396 Southern Netherlands Initiative
Austria.

Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna.

Joseph II tried hard to raise his withered right hand, and only an unclear sound came out of his throat: "Tali..."

Leopold II, who was standing by, guessed: "Your Majesty, are you talking about Talleyrand?"

Seeing the Emperor nod, he continued, "Do you care about what he said about the British intending to export the revolution?"

Talleyrand had just concluded his visit to Austria, where he had stayed for three days and denounced the British conspiracy to overthrow monarchs of various countries in Vienna.

"It's worth... being vigilant." Joseph II said this, paused for ten seconds, and then continued with difficulty, "First, use..."

Leopold II followed up with his words and added: "You mean we can use this to weaken the British influence on the situation in the Southern Netherlands."

The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire nodded weakly: "Cooperate, France."

France and Austria were in agreement on the need to expel the British from Germany.

"Yes, your majesty, I understand. I will see to it."

……

Western side of the Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Almeria.

In the conference room of the British Royal Navy's third-class battleship Colossus, Lord Talmos, the British envoy to the Maghreb countries, was reporting to the Foreign Secretary: "The Moroccan Sultan has agreed to launch an attack on Bizerte as long as we make concessions on grain import tariffs and use Morocco as a transit point for textile trade in North Africa.

"There are currently 1 Moroccan guards on standby in Annaba. These people are basically equipped with Brown Bess flintlock rifles and equipped with 4 cannons."

The Marquis of Wellesley nodded without giving it much thought and said, "Tell the Moroccans that the Parliament will consider their request."

Compared with the situation in India, the Empire could give up some of its interests in North Africa. Moreover, using Morocco as a trade transit point would not have any impact on British profits.

"I will go to Morocco as soon as possible, Your Excellency." Lord Talmos continued, "Algiers has also prepared an army of 1 people, but as you know, their combat effectiveness is not worth expecting."

The Algiers Guards had been badly wounded by Joseph before, and even after more than half a year, they still hadn't recovered.

"They can have their navy increase its harassment of French merchant ships."

Lord Wellesley gave an order and then asked, "What about Tripoli?"

"Benjiul currently has 1 Ottoman guardsmen under his command," said Tarmos. "However... he has made secret contact with him as per your instructions, and he is only willing to send no more than 2 troops to carry out looting. After all, Constantinople has never wanted to offend France."

The Marquis of Wellesley waved his hand nonchalantly: "It doesn't matter, I came here to solve this matter." He had already obtained a grant of 35 pounds from the British Parliament, which was nearly 900 million livres. Of this money, 10 pounds was used to bribe Benjiul.

He would then go to Constantinople and offer a certain degree of diplomatic support and trade concessions to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for Selim III turning a blind eye to the unauthorized actions of the Tripoli garrison.

Wellesley had absolute confidence that Benjiul, the Ottoman warlord, driven by huge profits, would have enough courage to provoke the French army in Tunisia as long as the Ottoman Sultan did not hold him accountable.

In addition, Tripoli had a fleet of nearly 300 ships. Although most of them were small boats and were no match for the French navy, they still had the ability to seriously disrupt France's trade in the Mediterranean if they could get support from Britain in terms of intelligence, artillery, and port supplies.

Wellesley knew that the trouble the East India Company encountered in Mysore was very difficult, and this time Britain would definitely have to give up some interests to France in order to resolve the issue.

So he must try his best to create bargaining chips for himself so that he can minimize his losses during negotiations.

He even planned to let the pirates in Algiers and Tripoli harass the coastal cities in southeastern France to increase pressure on France after the French army in Tunisia was put on the defensive - being attacked from both sides by nearly 4 troops, the French army with only more than 2 troops would inevitably be overwhelmed -.

Combined with his own layout in the Southern Netherlands, if he was lucky, he might be able to exchange it for France to stop interfering in the situation in Mysore without paying anything.

However, when the Colossus arrived at the port of Mitiga for a simple replenishment and was about to weigh anchor, a Royal Navy fast galley, the Breath, rushed in pursuit from Gibraltar.

The Marquis of Wellesley was discussing with Talmos in the cabin how to use Britain's naval advantage to attack French trade in the Caribbean - although Britain and France had a series of treaty restrictions, there must be a way to bypass the treaty to deal with the French. The sugar exports from Saint-Domingue contributed more than 4000 million livres of fiscal revenue to the French government each year!
Just when the two had just made some progress in their conversation, an officer from the "Wheezy" knocked on the door and handed Wellesley the latest European intelligence.

The Foreign Minister pulled a few pages of documents out of the mailbox, waved them at Talmos, and said with a smile: "I guess there is good news from Van der Nott."

He unfolded the paper and read only a few lines before his smile froze on his face.

"My Lord Marquis, what is the situation in the Southern Netherlands?" asked Talmos rather tactlessly.

"Damn the French!"

Wellesley put away the documents with a gloomy face, hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth and shouted outside the cabin: "Tommy, help me call Captain Taylor."

He looked at Tarmos again: "I leave the affairs of Tripoli and the Ottoman Empire to you. I must return to Europe first."

The intelligence mentioned that Austria, Spain, Bavaria, Mainz and other countries had submitted notes to Britain, asking it to clarify Britain's attitude towards the rebellion in the Southern Netherlands and the connection between the previous liberal riots in France and Britain.

In particular, the notes from Austria and Spain were very harsh in their wording, and every word criticized Britain's behavior of exporting revolution to the European continent.

Wellesley turned his back and looked out the porthole in annoyance. He was still careless. He did not expect that the shameless French would actually link inciting riots with "exporting revolution"!
He knew very well that if this matter was not handled properly, it would likely lead to a diplomatic disaster...

More than ten days later, just as Wellesley was leaving Cologne for Prussia - yes, even William II had questioned Britain - he suddenly received news that Ludwig IX, the head of Hesse-Darmstadt, had put forward a "Southern Netherlands Initiative".

(End of this chapter)