New Shun 1730

Chapter 824 The Hague Massacre (I)

The biggest impact of Dashun's "coincidental" move to Southeast Asia was, of course, the Republic of the Netherlands.

The year 45, which was described as the second disaster year, was about to pass.

But the disaster was not over yet.

In the early summer of 46, the whole Netherlands was buried in a shadow of panic, discord and anxiety.

At the beginning of 46, the word that the Dutch people heard the most was "ism".

However, it was neither "constitutionalism" nor "three powers"ism, nor "popular sovereignty"ism, or "mercantilism" or something like that.

It was a word that had appeared since the Roman era.

[Vandalism]

What is [Vandalism]?

In 455 AD, the Vandals broke through the city of Rome and let their soldiers burn and loot for half a month. Burning, looting, completely uncontrolled violence and destruction, this is called Vandalism.

And now, this word is closely linked to the French.

Rumors of the French "Vandalism" are everywhere in the middle and upper classes of the Netherlands.

In the Austrian Netherlands, they burned, killed, looted, raped women, and robbed food.

This is not a rumor made by the Dutch, but the military discipline of that era was just like that. Even in later generations, the Huang Wei Corps, which was beautified in the movie to be able to walk out a stunning march, reported to the Ministry of National Defense that wherever they went, "... all the 14-year-old girls near Shuangdui Ji were raped, and the number of suicides was unknown." This was on their own territory 200 years later, against their own people. What about France in the Austrian Netherlands 200 years ago?

Of course, this is a term used by the middle class and above in the Netherlands. In addition to the atrocities of the army, they used a metaphor of "comparing themselves to the civilization of Rome, while the French are as barbaric as the Vandals."

The lower-class people, who were regarded by them as "mobs, fools, and ignorant people", could not use this special term.

But not knowing this term does not mean that they do not understand what it means to be like a comb through the army.

The French victory in the Austrian Netherlands plunged the Netherlands, which had not suffered real war since 1672, into a desperate panic.

This desperate panic was slightly relieved with the news of the Anglo-Dutch Subsidy Treaty negotiations.

But then, the French marshal broke through two fortresses in Belgium and reached the Dutch border.

At this time, the Dutch people thought of a serious problem.

The infantry in Petersburg, the Cossacks on the Don River, and the Torghut Mongolian horse archers on the Volga River, how far are they from Amsterdam?

Panic is a hotbed for the spread of rumors.

Despair is a catalyst for the growth of dissatisfaction.

And the Chinese who catalyze these dissatisfaction and rumors behind the scenes are like yeast when brewing wine, and hops when brewing beer.

No one has ever thought that beer is brewed by yeast and beer is brewed by hops. But if these two things are missing, it is just a pile of food, not beer and beer.

Kang Budai, who stayed in Amsterdam, clearly implemented Liu Yu's guiding ideology: destroy the last bit of patriotic enthusiasm of the Dutch, destroy the last bit of great power sentiment of the Dutch people in the golden age, and destroy the last bit of reputation accumulated by the Orange family after two hundred years.

It is very simple to do.

Kang Budai found that the people are tolerant and not unreasonable. This is the same for both the Netherlands and Dashun.

Or as in the story, the emperor said "Let the people suffer first", if it is really a matter of suffering first, then it will be sweeter, in fact, the people can bear it.

However, what have the Dutch people experienced in the past few years?

Since that year, the Chinese marquis came here to "show off his power", promote his free trade theory, and let the Netherlands treat the Eastern Celestial Empire as a tributary country...

Then, the arrogant and arrogant Chinese marquis was driven away, and the people pushed William of the Orange family, who they placed all their hopes on, to the position of lifelong consul of seven provinces.

Then what?

It's not that the people can't wait, and they never asked the Orange family to be like the sun in the sky, which can drive away darkness and coldness as long as it comes out, and the effect will be immediate.

The people gave time, opportunities, and waiting.

But what is the result?

After several years, has anything changed?

Before he came to power, the French were surrounded by the coalition forces of various countries in Prague, tens of thousands of people were surrounded, the commander fled lightly, and a large number of generals were captured and taken to London. The Austrians were in the direction of Italy, and the French had to defend.

After he came to power, the French advanced triumphantly and broke through the fortresses of the Austrian Netherlands all the way. Now the lead bullets of French soldiers may fly into the Netherlands without paying attention.

The last field force of the Netherlands was defeated in the Battle of Fontenoy, and the entire Republic of the Seven Provinces did not even have the last field army.

The biggest reason why people support the Orange family is war.

The Orange family, orange, is the totem of the Dutch god of war.

People believe that a dragon gives birth to a dragon, a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix, and a mouse's son can dig holes.

But the reality is...

A dragon gives birth to a bunch of extremely ugly bats, and the wind gives birth to a nest of ugly moles. The mouse's son not only can't dig holes, but can't even breathe with his lungs.

Napoleon said in later generations that he was a usurper, so he needed to win continuously to consolidate his legitimacy. The Bourbon family is a natural king. They do nothing, and there are always people who regard them as orthodox.

The situation in the Netherlands is somewhat similar.

In the eyes of the Dutch, the regents and parliamentarians were once a group of usurpers.

Unless they can solve all the problems in the Netherlands and consolidate their legitimacy with continuous victories, they will eventually be traitors.

However, that was in the past.

Because now, the Orange family has worn out its own legitimacy.

At the beginning, the people of the Netherlands were very rational. They knew that the war was imminent and that change would not happen overnight. They had to give the Orange family enough time to suffer, but at least there was hope.

As long as there was hope, how could they not endure temporary suffering?

However, one month, two months, three months, half a year, one year, and even three to five years...

The most basic things have not changed.

At the beginning, people thought that since the war was going on, internal changes could wait until the war was over.

However, not long after taking office, Prussia withdrew from the war, the French army was trapped in Prague, and the Austrian Netherlands army went to rescue and then returned to France. There was no imminent threat of war on the Dutch side.

But what did William IV do?

William IV treated the "iron masters" who were in charge of the city with courtesy.

He denounced the middle-level militia organizations that demanded the restoration of the guild system as mobs.

He was vague about the petitions of the people who wanted the state to control grain prices.

The tax farming system that the people were most concerned about was not changed at all, but a few people from his family were replaced as tax farmers.

However, what the people wanted was not to change the tax farmers, but to abolish the tax farming system.

The people were tolerant.

The people knew that a lifelong consul needed to be familiar with the affairs of the country one by one before trying to make changes.

The people gave him enough time, not weeks or months, but years.

However, in the Hague court, the new consul advisory group was selected from the original "regent" masters; although people hated these regents, they also hated those extremely conservative nobles, but the court was filled with the most conservative Frisian nobles in the entire Netherlands.

What finally made the Dutch people completely despair was a dinner incident.

At the end of 43, the people of Zeeland Province collectively accused the regents of their cities, listed the various crimes and cruel exploitation of the regents, and hoped that the orange sun of the Netherlands could deal with these city regents.

Under strong pressure from the people, William IV dismissed the regents of several cities in Zeeland Province.

However, the second week after the revocation, William IV personally hosted a dinner and entertained the former city regents who were dismissed by him using the privilege of "lifelong consul", and expressed his difficulties at the dinner: I am not a heartless person, I am really under pressure, I hope you can understand.

The people, who were already quite disappointed, were completely angered by this exposed dinner.

This is similar to the Dashun people filing a complaint to the emperor, listing the various crimes of local officials. After the emperor dismissed those local officials, he hosted a banquet for these officials and said during the dinner: It was not my intention, but the mob forced me.

Or, suppose the slave soldiers revolted at the end of the previous dynasty, thinking that the upheaval in the north was a good opportunity for them to rebel. They burned the land deeds and debts, but when the long-awaited rebels arrived, they not only refused to recognize them, but also ordered that if they did not return the land and re-draft the debts within ten days, they would be skinned alive...

Of these two analogies, the former is absolutely impossible. No matter how incompetent the emperor of the Celestial Empire was, it was impossible for him to invite officials to dinner to show that he was forced to do so after being reported and dismissed.

The reason why the latter is assumed to use the Dashun rebels as an analogy is that the Qing Dynasty really did this in history, and the people did not feel too desperate, because this is normal. Of course, the superiors are on the side of the masters. What's wrong with bad people doing bad things? But if the Dashun, who shouted the slogan of equal distribution of land and exemption of grain, did this, it would be abnormal. Good people who still had a glimmer of hope actually did this, which would be the anger of hopelessness.

Without hope, where would the despair come from?

Politicians should never give people hope and then make them despair. That will make people a hundred times more angry than letting them have no hope.

Because people assume that it is normal for bad people to do bad things, and they are more tolerant of bad people.

But the situation in the Netherlands is a little different from the Dashun analogy.

That is, William IV never shouted any slogans or made any promises.

All expectations are the "self-touching" and "wishful thinking" of the people.

However, this is different from the simple relationship between people.

Self-touching and wishful thinking, if it is a simple relationship between people:

It's like Man A wishfully thought that Girl B liked him. Then Girl B went to the hotel with someone else, and Man A was very angry, disappointed, angry, and angry. But the question is, what does it have to do with you?

But the political issues within the country, the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, are not simple relationships between people.

William IV couldn't ask the people with confidence: Have I promised you anything? I treated them to a meal, what’s it got to do with you?

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