I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 286 Braban Uprising

When Campellon heard the word "Brabant", he sat up straight and winked at the Dutch diplomat on the side.

The latter immediately signaled all the servants to leave and closed the door tightly.

Only then did Campelon cautiously say: "Your Majesty the Marquis, in fact, the riots in Brabant have nothing to do with the Netherlands."

The British Foreign Secretary nodded: "Yes, it doesn't matter. Van der Noort does not have the support of the Dutch Parliament."

The Van der Nott he was talking about was the leader of the Brabant uprising.

Brabant was a core region of the Southern Netherlands, which would later become Belgium, and a huge riot was taking place at this time.

At this time, the Southern Netherlands was still an Austrian territory, but it had previously implemented a relatively independent political model, with the Southern Netherlands Parliament managing daily affairs here.

The Austrian Emperor Joseph II began to implement a series of reforms a few years ago, including strengthening centralization and weakening the privileges of the nobility.

This offended almost all the forces in the Southern Netherlands - the liberals opposed centralization and demanded the continued maintenance of parliamentary rights. The conservative nobles were extremely dissatisfied with the weakening of privileges.

So the two sides joined forces and began to organize the forces of the Southern Netherlands, preparing to drive the Austrian forces out of here and establish a country of their own.

Historically, this event was known as the Brabant Rebellion.

Another name for the Netherlands is "Northern Netherlands". As a country with the same origin as the Southern Netherlands, the Netherlands naturally hoped that the brothers could get rid of Austrian rule, so they secretly provided a lot of support to the rebels.

Marquis Wellesley glanced at the expression of the Dutch Speaker and continued: "Don't be nervous, I am here to inform you of the attitude of the British Parliament.

"We believe that Southern Netherlands has every right to choose where it belongs.

"But you also know that Van der Noort alone is unable to deal with the powerful Austria."

Campbell stared at the British man: "Please go on."

"They need the backing of their compatriots." The Marquis of Wellesley clasped his hands together, "to defend against the Austrians as the 'Republic of the Netherlands.'"

Cambellon's breathing quickened: "You mean, the UK supports the unification of the Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands?"

Marquis Wellesley nodded: "We have always been the most loyal ally of the Netherlands. Naturally, we hope that the Netherlands will become stronger, so the unification of the lowlands is the first step."

He completely failed to mention that the Anglo-Dutch War had just occurred a few years ago, and the British navy almost destroyed the Dutch fleet.

In fact, Britain has always regarded the Netherlands and Belgium as a springboard for the European continent to attack Britain, so it pursues a policy of firmly controlling them.

Previously, the French supported the Dutch Patriot Party to oust William V from power, and then the Netherlands became pro-French, which made the British feel anxious.

Now that there was the Brabant Uprising, Britain immediately used this as a starting point to win over the Netherlands.

"Unification?" Campelon seemed a little hesitant, "Will the people of the Southern Netherlands agree?"

The Marquis of Wellesley laughed: “If they want to get rid of Austria, they can only choose to merge with the Netherlands.

"Vandernott has been seeking help from Prussia - to be precise, without the Prussian army entering the Southern Netherlands, Austria could easily suppress the rebellion. And I have already talked about this with His Majesty Wilhelm II, and he Very supportive of the reunification of the Netherlands.”

Campelon immediately stood up and said excitedly, "Thank you and His Majesty William II. The people of the Netherlands will remember the strong friendship between our three countries!"

The Marquis of Wellesley suddenly changed the topic: "I heard that the Dutch East India Company is preparing to cooperate with the French to form a United East India Company?"

Campellon immediately shook his head: "This is just wishful thinking of the French, and we never agreed."

"Alliance?" Campelon was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, "Yes, the Three Kingdoms Alliance! This is exactly what the Netherlands has been looking forward to!"

A meaningful smile flashed across Marquis Wellesley's lips. He knew that his strategy would be successful.

Unifying the Northern and Southern Netherlands has been the dream of all Dutch people for hundreds of years. For this, they are willing to give up everything!

For Prussia, they will do anything that can weaken Austria without hesitation. As long as the Southern Netherlands did not belong to Austria, they did not care whether it was independent or unified with the Netherlands.

The Southern Netherlands controls the mouth of the Rhine River, and most of Austria's land is inland. If you want to conduct overseas trade, you can first go south to the Mediterranean, and secondly, ship through the Rhine River and go west to the Atlantic Ocean.

Now Britain controls the Strait of Gibraltar, the gateway to and from the Mediterranean. If it controls the mouth of the Rhine through the Netherlands, it will completely block Austria's maritime trade channels.

When the time comes, there will be no need to worry about Austria not bowing to Britain.

…

At the same time, in the Schönbrunn Palace in Austria, Joseph II listened to the report of Minister of State Kaunitz, took a deep breath, and said in a hoarse voice: "The reform must not stop.

"Paris has carried out more radical reforms than us and there have been no problems. I am confident...

"As for Brabant, they only have a few thousand poorly trained militiamen. Just let General Wilmser quell the rebellion as soon as possible."

Kaunitz frowned and said: "Your Majesty, the Prussians will definitely not miss this opportunity to attack us, so what we have to face is more than just a few thousand militiamen."

Joseph II leaned against the back of his chair. His poor health made it difficult for him to concentrate and think.

After a moment, he finally said: "Give General Wilmser 30,000 troops. If the Prussians dare to interfere, attack them."

Kaunitz was silent for a few seconds, then tentatively said: "Your Majesty, maybe we can ask your sister for help."

The sister of Joseph II is Marie Antoinette, the current Queen of France.

The corner of Joseph II's mouth curled up, as if he was smiling: "My dear brother-in-law has always been thinking about Wallonia, but you actually let the French army set foot in the Southern Netherlands?

"This matter must be resolved by ourselves. If Austria can't even deal with a Brabant riot, then why talk about unifying Germany?"

The Walloon region he was talking about is a large region in the southern part of the Southern Netherlands, accounting for nearly half of the area of ​​the Southern Netherlands. The residents basically speak French and are generally very pro-French.

Kaunitz sighed helplessly and thought to himself: If His Majesty had not pushed for radical reforms, the rebellion in the Southern Netherlands would not have been provoked. Nowadays, the nobles are causing public dissatisfaction everywhere because of the reform. Austria is at its weakest. I hope it can get through the difficulties smoothly this time.

He bowed to Joseph II: "Yes, Your Majesty, I will go and discuss with General Wilmser about sending troops."

…

Palace of Versailles.

The final of the Star of France officially began, and the entire Palace of Versailles Square was packed with tens of thousands of people.

People kept shouting the names of the players they supported, and the shouts of vendors made the whole square very lively.

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