New Shun 1730

"What happened in The Hague? What was the reason?"

Anthony, who could no longer bear it, no longer wanted to say any diplomatic words, and questioned in a very straightforward tone. After all, he had been the Grand Speaker, and he still had to consider the Netherlands. If the Netherlands was really dismembered into four provinces of the Orange faction and three provinces of the Parliament faction, or even a civil war between the Parliament faction and the Regent faction broke out at this juncture, the Netherlands would be completely finished.

Now this kind of trend has emerged. It was originally a united province. If they couldn't live together, then they would leave.

Facing Anthony's questioning, Kang Budai showed good upbringing and asked in surprise: "Why? Of course it's for livelihood. Britain blocked the fishing route of those fishermen and expelled Dutch fishing boats. They make a living by fishing. Isn't it right to ask their governor to find a diplomatic solution from Britain?"

Even if this happened, many people would know that it must be this group of Chinese who instigated it behind the scenes. But this kind of thing cannot be admitted.

What he said is quite reasonable. Indeed, it's for livelihood.

But this answer is not what Anthony wants to know.

"Sir, you Chinese have already got everything you want and everything you can get. Trade with Japan, spices in Southeast Asia, cinnamon in Ceylon, passages to India... everything is taken."

"The Netherlands cannot be in chaos now!"

Kang Budai responded sharply.

"The Netherlands is in chaos now!"

"At this time of national crisis, someone should stand up to save the Netherlands. William of Orange has proved that he is incapable of saving the Netherlands. At this time, people with responsibility, foresight and strength need to stand up. Just like when William of Orange expelled us and declared war on France."

"As the former Grand Speaker, you should stand up at this time! Just like those heroes in our history, when the country is in danger, they take the initiative to stand up and take the world as their responsibility!"

Anthony, who was already angry, heard this and sat down on the chair. He seemed to have drained all his strength and said helplessly: "The Dutch can't save the Netherlands. The only ones who can save the Netherlands are the Russian Empress and the Bank of England."

The deep sense of powerlessness made him very sober. Whether the French can withdraw their troops depends only on whether the Bank of England and British financiers continue to support the war and when Russian mercenaries can reach the Rhine.

It is wrong to say that the Netherlands is powerless to save itself.

It should be said that the ruling class of the Netherlands is powerless to save the Netherlands.

The Netherlands still has guild militia organizations, but if you want them to bleed, you must agree to their conditions: the leaders of the guild militias in each city can only be elected by the citizens themselves and refuse to obey the arrangements of the city regent and the provincial council.

The Dutch people still have some patriotic enthusiasm, but if you want them to bleed, you must agree to their conditions: abolish the tax farming system, reform the tax system, suppress the power of urban oligarchs, expand public spending, and increase inheritance and asset taxes.

So the Netherlands does not lack organized armed forces or patriotic enthusiasm, at least it has not completely dissipated for the time being.

However, organizing people to fight requires money.

The demands they put forward will inevitably be opposed by the rich, which is digging their roots.

And if this is really the case, what will happen?

When the emotions of the lower classes are aroused, they often hang the masters above their heads first. Amsterdam is the first city in Europe to set up a large number of street lights.

Once the guild militia leaders are directly elected, in line with the demands of the people and the anger of the lower classes, what will happen, the ruling class of the Netherlands knows very well.

Facing Anthony's dejection, Kang Budai smiled and said, "I know what you are afraid of. Just like William of Orange, he never took the initiative to seek the position of consul because he was afraid of commitment. So only after the news of the Prussians' withdrawal from the war came, he dared to seize the throne of consul."

"What you regents are worried about is nothing more than the mess in the Netherlands now, which you can't clean up. Whoever becomes the speaker will end his political future. Are you really worried about the fate of the Netherlands? At this time, European countries still pay attention to 'not destroying the country, not ending the sacrifice'."

"Obviously, you are only worried about the future of your own faction, but you say that it is useless for anyone to stand up at this time. I think you have been deceiving yourself for too long."

Full of irony, but did not make Anthony angry.

Instead, he keenly sensed something from what Kang Budai said, "William of Orange knew that the Prussians withdrew from the war before he dared to be the consul."

He remained calm and did not pretend to be angry, but thought quickly in his brain, why did Dashun do this?

However, he could not understand this reason.

The relationship between the Orange family and Britain made Liu Yu have to let the Netherlands push the Orange faction before the War of the Austrian Succession.

As long as the Orange faction was still there, it would be impossible for the Netherlands to be armed neutral and abandon the Anglo-Dutch Alliance Treaty.

William of Orange would not live long. This was not because Liu Yu discriminated against the disabled, but the medical level of this era destined a person with a congenital spinal disease and a bunch of recessive genetics from aristocratic intermarriage to live too long.

If he died, his wife was the eldest princess of Britain, and he was a hereditary ruler, so the regent consul must be his wife.

Would the eldest princess of Britain fight with her own father and abolish the Anglo-Dutch Alliance Treaty? Moreover, this eldest princess was famous for discriminating against the Dutch culture.

She just wanted to be a queen, but she couldn't find anyone suitable in a bunch of Protestant countries at the time, and she couldn't find anyone in a Catholic country, so she married William IV, who she called "baboon-like". In order to grab the claim to the British throne for her descendants, she ran to Britain when she was pregnant. The child must be born in Britain to have the right to inherit.

Because the British throne has a basic law.

Article 2 of the Basic Law clearly stipulates that those who marry Roman Catholics should lose the qualification to inherit according to the circumstances stipulated and confirmed by the previous decree.

And Article 3 clearly stipulates that anyone born outside England, Scotland or Ireland is not eligible to inherit.

It is unimaginable to expect such a woman who is obsessed with the nobles' claim to be able to do a great feat like the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.

A woman whose mind is obviously stuck in the Middle Ages is not suitable for doing big things in the turbulent times in Europe.

Moreover, the base of the Orange family is the "reactionary" faction in the Netherlands. Guilds, small farmers, and nobles, they envisioned the Netherlands to restore the anti-times thinking of the Three Dynasties, which was a return to the late Middle Ages.

Dashun wanted to cooperate with the Dutch big bourgeoisie, big financiers, and big businessmen, who wanted to destroy all the remnants of the Middle Ages.

Compared with those "reactionaries", they were not the opposite progressives, but conservatives - this kind of force was considered progressive in Dashun; in the current Netherlands, it was conservative; in the Netherlands 100 years later, 48 years later, it was reactionary.

Different social foundations, different identities.

Now there are only these two forces in the Netherlands that can come to the fore, and the progressives positioned in this sense have no influence at all.

The basic base of the Orange family destined Dashun to choose a regent faction whose basic base is financiers and big businessmen.

Moreover, looking at the whole of Europe, the Netherlands is the only country where handicrafts died, which is the basis for being a comprador - either the domestic industry was strangled by the commercial and financial industry, or the domestic industry was not born at all.

In this case, there is no choice but to pit the Netherlands to death.

Anthony could not understand the logic of industrial capital and commercial capital in thinking about problems by Liu Yu and his group, nor did he have the correct three views to recognize the truth of the world. Naturally, he could not think of what purpose the Dashun side had in mind, repeatedly doing things in the Netherlands that seemed to be idle and pushed up and pulled down.

But now, he roughly heard Kang Budai's hint.

The current situation is very similar to the situation when the Orange Party came to power: the faction leaders did not want to take responsibility, but the external environment made them profitable.

The one who pushed the Orange Party to power was Frederick the Great of Prussia to withdraw from the war.

The only one who could push the Regent Party to power was France to give up its occupation of the Netherlands.

As for the death of more than a dozen people in The Hague, that was a small matter.

The people on the Dashun side can only ride on the waves of the times, but they cannot have the power to create the tide.

Did the people on the Dashun side get some inside information from France? France knew that the Russian army was about to join the war, so it wanted to withdraw its troops?

Anthony thought for a moment and asked cautiously: "Even if someone stood up at this time, took responsibility and fulfilled their patriotic obligations. However, it can only save the dying state, and many problems are still unresolved."

"What about the future? Where is the future of the Netherlands?"

"It could still survive, but the East India Company was bankrupted by your country. Do you know? The East India Company has more than 20,000 employees, more than 10,000 hired soldiers, sailors, and warehouse employees. And the spices, flowers, trade, ports, banks, entrepots, private ships, transportation and other industries closely related to it, adding up to nearly 200,000 People directly or indirectly depend on the East India Company for their livelihood. Women don't work. If they are also human beings, at least 500,000 Dutch people will be affected by the bankruptcy of the East India Company. "

"The Netherlands is a small country. The 500,000 people in the Netherlands are equivalent to 10 million or even 20 million people in your country. Can you imagine the impact of a major disaster that cannot be recovered in two provinces of your country, such as the land completely turning into a desert instead of being able to continue planting next year, on your country?"

"Kang Budai thought that you were talking too seriously. These 500,000 people are at most 30,000 or 50,000, which are really seriously affected. The rest are just affected and their income is reduced.

Anthony said again: "Even if the temporary crisis is resolved, the impact of a series of subsequent events will still be a crisis for the rulers. I don't think anyone in the Netherlands can solve these problems."

"You may be right. All factions don't want to stand up at this time, worrying about their political future. Including William of the Orange family who is now sitting on the throne, he must be like an ant on a pot."

"Perhaps, China's ancient wisdom can point out a bright future for the Netherlands? Sir, do you have any opinions or ideas?"