Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1717 Belonging of Cape Town ([-])

To be honest, Hieronymus van Beverninghe is in a good mood recently. There is no other reason. The French army that invaded the United Provinces has basically retreated into the Southern Netherlands and parts of Germany.Although the enclave of Maastricht is still in the hands of the French, most of the nine provincial administrative units in the seven provinces, one common land, and one region have been recovered, and the reputation of Prince William III of Orange is now in full swing. .

The French made one last attempt to attack Amsterdam before withdrawing.They let the soldiers nail small iron hooks on the thick soles, and then attacked Leiden and The Hague from the ice, aiming directly at Amsterdam, but finally gave up because the weather was not cold enough, the ice and snow thawed, and the ground was muddy.

Of course, even in the cold winter, the French offensive will probably not be successful, because William's army is not as pitiful as it was at the beginning. He has now mobilized more than 8 Dutch troops. There are 5000 people in the army, and he can still use more than [-] to fight against the French on the front line, and there are many mercenaries with strong combat capabilities.

In addition, the French were attacked everywhere, the Roussillon area on the southern border was attacked by the Spanish army, the eastern border had to fight the Germans, and the north had to face the Dutch army and a large number of mercenaries from various countries.In addition, some important cities along the coast of the mainland also had to divide their troops to defend. Although the French Army has always been proud and looked down on the combat effectiveness of the Dutch, it must not be unprepared for the opponent's possible landing operations. Divided troops are necessary.

With such a miscellaneous distribution, the French can directly use the troops to fight the Dutch. There are not many troops, probably only 4.5 people led by Prince Condé, and at most 3 people led by the Duke of Luxembourg. The partial division, but he must be stationed in Germany to guard against the attack of the Holy Roman Empire army.There is no way, the Dutch have a lot of money, and they have attracted too many German princes. Even the original allies of the French, Münster and Cologne, have shrunk and signed a peace agreement with the Dutch. The pressure on the French army is currently high.

Therefore, after repeated discussions with his courtiers, King Louis XIV of France finally had to order to let the main force of the army give up. The United Provinces, which greatly restrained the strength of the French—and did not have much benefit to speak of, instead focused on the unlucky Spaniards. For example, Louis XIV led the army to conquer Franche-Comté, Lorraine In other places, Viscount Turenne fought in Alsace, Buttville fought with the Shinra coalition forces in Germany, etc.

The Spaniards who got involved in the war rashly became the saddest one again, so the pressure on the Dutch is greatly reduced now. They only need to face the 5 horses of Prince Condé alone, as well as the Austrian Marshal, The assistance of nearly 4 troops brought by Montecuccoli, who was born in Italy.This adds up to nearly [-] troops, and maybe they will lose to the [-] people of Grand Condé in a field battle, but if they rely on the terrain and fortresses to concentrate on defense, the problem should not be big.After all, the Dutch army, which has undergone strict reorganization, is no longer as vulnerable as it was two or three years ago, not to mention that there are many mercenaries with rich war experience assisting in combat.

Of course, the French army is not good at it. When they evacuated the southern provinces of the United Provinces, they also carried out a very vicious raid on the local area.Almost all cities were forced to hand over a staggering amount of redemption fees. In the province of Utrecht alone, the total amount of donations from all towns exceeded 166 dong, which is astonishing.

In addition, each captured Union Province soldier was priced by the French at a silver crown, which was also a staggering sum.All in all, the French took advantage of the panic of the Dutch residents in the southern provinces to blackmail a total of about 800 million guilders in cash, equivalent to more than 250 million silver dollars on the east coast, which is also very powerful.

Now that the French army has withdrawn from Utrecht, Gelderland, Limburg-Brabant and other places one after another, the Dutch army under the command of Prince William of Orange will naturally go south and east, and take these territories one by one. It was recovered, which not only brought William the highest honor, but also shocked the morale of the Dutch army and civilians-although we didn't beat the French, we exhausted them. This is also a victory, isn't it? ?

In this way, since the middle of last year, the Dutch army, with a number of more than 6.5, has confronted the French army along the Meuse River.At the same time, the French army led by Prince Condé, with a number of about 4.5 people, suppressed the resistance of the residents of the Southern Netherlands and the attacks of the remaining Spanish troops while confronting the army of Orange. The pressure on the [-] Austrian soldiers of Montecuccoli, who were advancing from the flanks, was still not small.

Therefore, the somewhat inflated Prince of Orange even had the idea of ​​counterattacking France, and began to frequently order the front-line generals to mobilize troops, stockpile food and grass, and actively contact Montecuccoli, so that he could lead his troops to approach quickly. , Marching together to France.

No matter who the Prince of Condé was, he soon found out the intentions of the Dutch, so he planned to preemptively attack the Dutch and Austrian troops to dispel their idea of ​​counterattacking the French mainland.Therefore, he launched the Battle of Senafo near Mons, actively attacking the Dutch and Austrian coalition forces with a total of 4.5 people with 9 people.

In this battle, both sides showed great courage.In the absence of artillery support and equipment at a disadvantage, Prince Condé took the lead and led the French army to charge. For this reason, he changed his horse three times.The Prince of Orange and Montecuccoli also persevered to the end, withstood the ferocious offensive of the French at the cost of 3 casualties, and successfully caused the casualties of nearly [-] French officers and soldiers. In the end, both sides were unable to continue fighting. recede.

After this battle, the two sides fought several small-scale battles one after another, but unfortunately there were no major gains, and the battle line stabilized.The Dutch regained the dilapidated and messy land, but their attempt to counterattack into France was shattered, and the attempt to help their allies recover the Southern Netherlands was also blocked by the Prince of Condé. Basically, they are now in a stalemate.

And this state is a bit bad for the Spaniards, but it is not unacceptable for the Dutch, because to be honest, they have successfully escaped from the center of this war storm.Hieronymus van Beveninghe, who has been very concerned about the war situation in the old continent on the east coast, was also very happy after learning about this situation through diplomatic letters.Although he is a republican, everything the Prince of Orange has done so far is for the benefit of the United Provinces. Van Beverninghe is also patriotic, and he also admires William III in this matter. Therefore, when he issued a document asking him to negotiate with the people on the east coast to negotiate the status of the Cape Town colony, he was also very concerned.

The Prince of Orange’s instruction to Van Beverninghe was: try to keep the Cape Town colony as much as possible, even if the people on the east coast ask for a huge ransom, this is the priority; and if the people on the east coast insist on not agreeing to return it, Then the next best thing is to ask the people on the east coast to hand over the city of Cape Town Port to the Dutch as a supply and maintenance base for East India Company ships.In addition, those weapons, military supplies and even some daily necessities that were detained by the people on the east bank for no reason during the war should be urged to deliver as soon as possible, because the above Dutch people have already paid part of the deposit, and the people on the east coast have to Talking about business reputation—Of course, at this time, Prince Orange may have selectively forgotten. When he decided to tear up the woolen trade with the people on the east coast, he didn't seem to have much scruples about the business reputation of the United Provinces.

The above terms are basically the negotiating bottom line sent by Amsterdam to Van Beveninghe.Van Beverninghe has lived on the east coast for many years, and he knows that it is not easy to achieve this goal, because he has really studied the national policy of the East Coast Republic of China. For them to control South Africa and dominate the two oceans (guiding the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean) The goal is very clear.At the beginning, they tried every means to drive away the British and French, and now they have occupied the Dutch South Africa. No matter how stupid people are, they can see why they are constantly tossing about in South Africa!

Under such circumstances, Amsterdam also issued an article asking Van Beveninghe to talk about Cape Town as much as possible. To be honest, he is not sure of this, and he feels that the possibility is unlikely in his heart.Well, he actually has only one direction to work hard now, and that is to have a good talk with the people on the east coast to see if Cape Town can be redeemed, so that the United Provinces can also have a foothold in South Africa. It is very important to the Dutch East India Company, which is becoming more and more amazing and more and more important to the United Provinces. It is estimated that they will not refuse any amount of money.

"In the final analysis, our influence is too weak, and the geographical location of the people on the east coast is too good." Sitting in the conference room where the Spanish ambassador Baron Sebastian once sat, Van Beveninghe couldn't help sighing softly He took a deep breath: "Actually, it's not that the people on the east coast are caught by us. At the very least, the powerful and invincible navy of the United Provinces is also very advantageous in the Mediterranean. If the people on the east coast want to do business safely in the local area, they cannot be ignored. Ours. Especially now that the British have withdrawn from the war, the sea power that restrains us has been greatly reduced, and we can free up more ships to invest in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea. No matter who the people on the east coast go to do business with, they can be Our warships were intercepted. Of course, these are just the worst-case scenarios, and we should not have reached this point, otherwise everyone's losses will be extremely tragic."

In Van Beveninghe's understanding, once the trade of the people on the east bank is cut off by the Dutch navy, there will be big problems in the country immediately, which will lead them to take extremely drastic measures to safeguard their own interests, such as war—more To be precise, it is naval warfare.

And once a naval war breaks out between the two countries, the prestigious Dutch navy will naturally have an overwhelming advantage.But at the same time, they are also extremely troubled by the east coast navy equipped with a steam power system. Once these people on the east coast do not engage in a large-scale decisive battle with them-just like the previous Anglo-Dutch wars, tens of thousands of sailors and hundreds of warships on both sides It's the same as Hong - but to send an elite fleet to attack the merchant ships and small fleets of the United Provinces, then the trouble will be big. It is conservatively estimated that more than [-] merchant ships and fishing boats may be lost, which is almost close to the first British and Dutch The loss of the war is unacceptable to them.

Thinking of this episode, Van Beverninghe sighed even more. The Englishman has made a huge breakthrough in the production and application of steam engines, but the United Provinces can still only build the earliest heavy and bloated steam engines in Britain, and only It is suitable for swamp drainage, but its stability is not good, and it breaks down from time to time, which is a headache.It can be said that if it weren't for the example of the British, the Dutch really didn't plan to develop such a "thankless" machine as the steam engine. Wouldn't it be good to use the traditional industrial windmill?

Of course, the above is pure complaints.Whether it is a person like Van Beverninghe who has witnessed the power of the steam engine on the east coast, or a person of insight in the Netherlands, they all understand the extreme importance of the steam engine.Apart from other things, the Dutch captains supported by private sea coachmen are very greedy for the propeller propellers of the people on the east coast. Well, it was really nerve-wracking to find out that I couldn't copy at all.

Van Beverninghe even felt that, when the relationship between England and the United Provinces is greatly eased, it is better to spend money to import technology from the UK.At least, the steam engine made by the British is much better than the stuff made by the Dutch in terms of cost, size and reliability under the same utility conditions!

The steam engine produced by the British can be used stably in farmland, shipyard, coal mine, wharf and iron ore (used to push the sledgehammer to crush ore). advanced.Although they are currently unable to make the steam engine the same size and weight as the people on the east coast so that they can be loaded on ships, and they don't know anything about the design and sealing of the propeller propulsion system, but compared with the United Provinces, France, Portugal, Sweden, and Germany For countries and regions that have introduced steam engine technology, it is really too strong, and it is worth learning from the Dutch.

"The steam engine is the most powerful weapon that people on the east coast rely on for prosperity. It seems that I will write a letter to the three-level parliament in a while to complain about it. Importing steam engine technology from England and digesting and improving it is a top priority." Hieronymus · Van Beveninghe thought silently in his heart: "Of course, the most important thing right now is to negotiate with the people on the east coast as soon as possible about the ownership of the Cape Town colony. Although it is not optimistic, we must work hard."

(End of this chapter)