I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 764: Franz II’s “Study” (final request for monthly votes in 24 years)

The voting results came out in just over ten minutes - 80 votes in favor, 2 abstentions, and no votes against.

From this moment on, the Walloon region of the Southern Netherlands officially became three provinces of France.

When Chevennement read out the results, the hall suddenly burst into cheers.

I don’t know who took the lead in shouting:

"Long live His Majesty the King!"

People immediately started chanting:

"Long live His Majesty the King!"

"Long live France!"

"Long live His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Ah ha, we are all French!"

After everyone gradually calmed down, General Gayar waved his arms again and said loudly:

"Well, now we must use all our energy to ensure one thing, and that is for France to win this war."

The members of the Chamber of Commerce all nodded.

Gayard continued: "I suggest that we immediately start recruiting soldiers on a large scale to go to the front line of Brussels to reinforce the French army... Oh, no, it is to reinforce our army!"

…

Vienna.

Schönbrunn Palace.

The British Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville and the Marquess of Wellesley bowed and saluted Francis II together, then signaled to the Prussian Foreign Secretary next to them, and then both exited the Grand Gallery Hall.

Wellesley listened to the faint curses coming from behind him, turned his head and said to Grenville: "Why did you deliberately reject the Emperor of Shinra?

"There is no need to expect the combat effectiveness of the Dutch Army. After the defeat of the Prince of Coburg, there was no army strong enough to resist the French on the Western Front.

"Based on the situation on the battlefield, the Duke of York should be asked to send troops to reinforce the Southern Netherlands as soon as possible, otherwise the situation there will soon become uncontrollable."

Just two days ago, news of the Austrian army's defeat in the Southern Netherlands reached Vienna, and a full week had passed since the Battle of Wavre.

Britain, Austria and other countries did not know that Joseph had surrounded Brussels at this time, and 30,000 troops were constantly launching fierce attacks on the city.

Just now, Grenville refused the Duke of York's request to reinforce the Prince of Coburg on the grounds that "Vienna insisted on going its own way and launched an attack on the Walloon District in advance without authorization, which led to the current bad situation."

According to the strategic plan previously formulated by the coalition forces, the Prince of Coburg should launch an attack at the same time as the coalition forces on the Rhine front, causing the French army to lose sight of one thing and lose sight of the other under tremendous pressure, causing flaws.

But in order to gain more say in the battle on the front line of the Rhine, Franz II - a large number of German states are located on both sides of the Rhine. Showing Austria's strong military strength here will help unify these small states in the future - -So, it was decided to resolve the war in South Germany as soon as possible, and then transfer the Prince of Coburg's army back to the Rhine area.

However, the Austrian army on the Western Front became the fastest defeated, so that Franz had to shamelessly ask the British army for help...

Lord Grenville smiled slightly:

"The Austrians must learn a lesson.

"In addition, only by making His Majesty the Emperor anxious will he be willing to devote all his strength to the war."

Wellesley frowned: "But the situation on the Western Front cannot be delayed any longer..."

Grenville nodded: "You are right, but if I guess correctly, His Royal Highness the Duke of York should already be on his way to the Southern Netherlands."

Wellesley sighed: "Originally, this army was supposed to attack Luxembourg, but because of the Austrians' short-sighted and underestimating actions, it had to be dragged in the Southern Netherlands."

Grenville smiled: "Speaking of which, aren't our gentlemen short-sighted and underestimating the enemy? If you were asked to command the army, you would definitely not be still lingering in Utrecht until now."

Wellesley is the current British Minister of War and has been leading the reform of the British army. However, he is too young and lacks qualifications, so the important task of commander-in-chief of the British army this time fell to the British prince, the Duke of York. on the shoulders.

To be fair, the Duke of York's military capabilities are definitely among the first in the UK, but in Grenville's eyes, his old friend Wellesley is the best person to command the British army.

Wellesley shook his head: "This is not entirely your fault. The quality of the soldiers in his hands is very poor, and it will be the same no matter who they replace."

Grenville looked at him and said, "By the way, when will your new army be able to enter the battlefield?"

"The war broke out too early. They didn't have all the weapons." Wellesley said, frowning, "It's all because of that damn gaslighting scam that bankrupted a lot of factories in London. This led to the shortage of new guns. Production became very sluggish."

"How much longer will it take?"

"Now we can produce 1,300 flash cap guns every month, and we need about 5,000 more."

Yes, an extremely important item among Wellesley's military reforms was the imitation of French percussion guns.

When he saw this weapon for the first time, he immediately realized that the future battlefield would be dominated by it.

Check out the correct version one by one!

Therefore, after he became Minister of War, he immediately summoned ordnance factories to imitate.

Thanks to Britain's developed processing industry and a large number of skilled craftsmen, after spending one year and four months and investing nearly 100,000 pounds, the flash cap gun was finally successfully copied.

Although it is slightly worse than the August 1788 in terms of accuracy, at least it has bridged the generation gap.

However, then the London Gas Street Light Incident occurred - a large number of downstream factories went bankrupt, which seriously affected the manufacturing progress of the ordnance factory.

With Wellesley's unremitting funding support, the arsenal built its own entire industrial chain, which increased its production capacity.

However, until this time, Wellesley's 30,000 new troops had not been fully equipped with percussion cap guns.

The next day at noon.

Lord Grenville came to the Great Gallery again.

Franz II winked at Baron Thugut with a stern face. The latter took a deep breath helplessly and said to the British: "Your Majesty has decided to accept your suggestion yesterday.

"Our country will begin a general mobilization and increase 50,000 to 70,000 troops to the Rhine line within half a year."

When he said this, it meant that Austria's national strength would be squeezed out to fight.

At the same time, it also meant that the emperor would cede interests to aristocratic groups such as Hungary and Bohemia in order to win more support from them.

"You made the most correct decision." Grenville saluted Franz II, "Then our country will also increase the loan amount to help you maintain the army's operations. "

Thugut continued: "Your Majesty will then summon the Holy Roman Empire states and ask them to send more troops."

Before, Francis II had declared war on France in the name of the Holy Roman Empire. In theory, all the Holy Roman Empire states had joined the war.

But most of the German states that had already been independent in fact were unwilling to get involved in this mess, so only a few actually sent troops.

This time, Grenville asked the Holy Roman Emperor to force the states to send troops, otherwise they would face joint punishment from Austria and Prussia.