New Shun 1730

The Dutch acted as if they were following an established script.

Soon, those who went to ask the consuls of the seven provinces to send people to the Celestial Empire to "ask for a seal" with great fanfare were kicked out with great fanfare.

However, after the bombardment, the consul sent people to talk privately with Liu Yu, and sent high-level officials to Dashun to continue negotiating the matter.

This is not because the Dutch are obedient, but because the Dutch have no choice.

The high-profile expulsion of the "Dashun Diplomatic Mission" was for the eyes of the middle and lower classes; the private contacts and sending people to the Dashun capital were for the eyes of upper-class shareholders and big businessmen.

When there is a conflict between the interests of the upper class and the middle and lower class, some people will always be deceived.

Big businessmen did not want a consul to come to power who would destroy the East India Company's trade profits.

In order to stabilize the stock market, Count Bentinck appeared again and gave a speech. It's just that he supports trade and the East India Company's efforts over the years, and he doesn't want to cut off trade with China. However, because it was an insult for China to ask them to pay tribute, it was refused for the sake of honor; at the same time, the consul would also send people to Dashun to try to negotiate a suitable, equal, and reciprocal condition with Dashun.

In order to divert people's attention, after the stock price stabilized slightly, the Orange family issued a series of announcements one after another.

Including Britain and Russia forming an alliance against Prussia; Prussia accepted British mediation and withdrew from the war; Britain provided 1.8 million taels of silver aid to Austria; the French Army of Prague has fallen into siege...

These pieces of news, which the upper levels had known for a long time but the middle and lower levels were still kept in the dark, immediately boosted the morale of the Netherlands.

The national debt that had not been repaid in time was once again sold at a relatively low interest rate of 9%, relying on the people's patriotic enthusiasm. Some patriotic businessmen also subscribed for a batch of national bonds because they felt that this was a stable deal.

Just one day before the Dutch asked the Dashun mission, which had "insulted the dignity of the United Provinces", to leave within a time limit, the United Provinces formally offered support to Austria and promised to implement it as soon as possible. It was announced that a field force of 20,000 people would be formed, and the newly raised national debt would be used to provide Austria with 500,000 gold florins to support it.

For a time, the entire Netherlands was plunged into a sea of ​​orange and fanaticism. Many craftsmen, farmers, Protestants, and Huguenots who fled from France joined the army.

This was the last trace of patriotic fervor in the Netherlands and the last glimmer of the Dutch Golden Age.

In this fiery national mood, the Dashun envoy, who had stayed in Amsterdam on and off for almost a year, left the Netherlands in disgrace amid the ridicule of Dutch sailors and people.

When setting sail, some Dutch ships even fired cannons at Dashun's fleet as a demonstration.

Liu Yu on the ship didn't care, and strictly ordered the sailors to be honest and not pay attention to the provocation of the Dutch.

"Let them shake for a few days. They are just grasshoppers after autumn and cannot jump for a few days; loaches in the urine pit cannot make much waves."

A few common sayings, the sailors didn't know the inside story, they just thought it was Liu Yu's mouth.

Those who know the inside story do not need the explanation of these common sayings. They think that the Dutch are still the same as before, and their attitude towards the Chinese Empire is no different from when they occupied Taiwan and plundered Zhoushan. After all, a war is needed to make them understand how to deal with each other.

If it is true that Dashun won't hurt the Netherlands, there will still be an ally in Europe. Just as Liu Yu supported the descendants of the Stuart dynasty, a battleship was enough to hold back the Dutch navy, because the Netherlands had to fulfill the Anglo-Dutch mutual defense treaty, especially in the context that the Netherlands had declared war on France.

If you really want to hurt the Netherlands, it would be better to give the French a sum of money than Dashun to build his own ships.

The confidants around Liu Yu all followed Liu Yu's ideas and felt that there was a threshold for Dashun to build a ship. As long as it can control Southeast Asia and threaten India, that is enough.

Beyond this threshold, the benefits will be very low. In Europe, it is much cheaper to invest money and send money up front than to do it yourself.

Of course the French will not resent Liu Yu, because the French understand that all this stems from Prussia's betrayal. Even if the parliamentary faction continues to be in power, they will not take the opportunity to start a war with France at this time.

On the contrary, the situation is now ugly. In order to win over Dashun as an ally, France's hospitality this time is of extremely high standard. It really treats it with the attitude of entertaining imperial envoys.

When he landed, the people who came to greet him were all Liu Yu's old acquaintances.

There is France's first official plenipotentiary ambassador to Dashun, France's current navy minister, and Count Morpa, who inherited his father's legacy and became a member of the cabinet at the age of 17.

The Marquis de Lachetadie returned to Versailles from Petersburg to discuss how to consolidate the Russo-French alliance.

There is also Dupleix, who was recalled from India and has now succeeded as the Governor-General of India. He had the earliest contact with Liu Yu and historically went to Guangdong to preside over trade with China.

One of the main reasons why Dupleix was recalled from India at this time was that Dupleix was too aggressive. Versailles did not feel that this was the right time to fight a war in India with Britain.

On the contrary, because of the American ginseng and mink trade, France felt that even if it wanted to compete for colonies, it should focus on North America and the Caribbean. A Haiti was once worth more than all of North America. Nowadays, the trade of American ginseng and mink fur has increased, which has doubled the value of North America and the Caribbean.

Britain is now busy fighting the Jenkins Ear War with Spain, and France is busy with the European war and does not want to take the opportunity to go to war with Britain. So Dupleix, who was too aggressive, was recalled to try to maintain peace in India and Britain.

Those who came to greet were all old acquaintances, and they were not unfamiliar with each other. There was not only the friendship of coup d'état, but also the interests of large trade orders between the two sides, and there was no conflict of interest between the alliance between China and France for the time being.

Of course, the most critical thing is the trade of American ginseng and mink fur. Liu Yu's trade plan of using ice cubes to store ice cubes and American ginseng and mink fur as warehouse goods in Guangdong has made France a lot of money in recent years.

In the past, how could anyone get silver in China? Including the Netherlands, which had spices, they had to bring a shipload of silver to trade. Now France can actually have a surplus of a small million taels every year, which is simply earth-shaking news in Europe.

There are both interests and the possibility of common enemies, so the relationship is naturally close.

After the greetings and a few words, Count Maurepa took advantage of the issue of "technical exchange of rifles, wooden stock grenades and battleships" between Dashun and France to ask Liu Yu whether the secret agreement about "France doing the army, Dashun doing the navy, and everything to blow up the Netherlands" was still effective.

Speaking of this, we have to talk about France's current policy.

"Bishop Fleury is seriously ill. His Majesty the King does not think that any prime minister will be needed in the future. He hopes to abolish the prime minister and only retain the cabinet. Because it seems that no one in the court has such prestige to serve as prime minister, His Majesty the King hopes to be able to truly rule the country."

This is actually reminding Liu Yu that the king will have the final say in France in the future. Bishop Fleury, who can influence the king and restrain the king, is ill and is unlikely to survive this year.

The king has always wanted to fight, while Fleury has always insisted on maintaining peace, plugging the holes left by the Louis XIV era, and recuperating.

Now the prime minister is going to die, and the king is going to rule the country himself. The future direction of France's diplomacy will largely depend on the king's will.

Liu Yu heard this and thought to himself, has this been learned the essence of centralization? But the question is, is everyone as strong as Zhu Hongwu? Abolishing the prime minister and setting up a cabinet, what can Louis XV do?

First, Fleury was really sick, and second, Prussia suddenly turned against him, causing the French Prague Corps to be surrounded. Fleury had to take the blame for this.

Vienna was empty at the beginning, and the Bavarian and French corps could have taken advantage of the opportunity of Vienna's emptiness to capture Vienna. But Fleury opposed the dismemberment of Austria and let Bavaria march to Prague. He also tried to end the war with a peace treaty to maintain the basic integrity of Austria, just to change the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, to maintain the balance of the European continent as much as possible, to prevent Prussia from rising, and to create many contradictions within the Holy Roman Empire.

However, in the end, Prussia broke the alliance and made peace, and this "brilliant chess move" became a "bad chess move". The French army was trapped in Prague, and now there were enemies on all sides. It was a question whether they could escape.

Once he got anxious and angry, and he was really old, his body collapsed all of a sudden. Louis XV always thought that he was awesome, and thought that if he didn't have the constraints of the prime minister, he would do better than the Sun King Louis XIV.

This time the prime minister was ill and it was obvious that he couldn't do it, so he was really happy. If the secret agreement between China and France could take effect, and the Netherlands was destroyed in one go, and it was done after the prime minister died and under the condition of his own rule, then of course it would be the best evidence: his own rule was indeed strong.

Count Maurepas was also very happy about Louis XV's personal rule and the abolition of the prime minister. If he still kept the prime minister, he would definitely not be able to be the prime minister with his current prestige; but if he abolished the prime minister and changed the cabinet, he would still have a lot of say in his position, and his power would increase a lot.

"My Lord, the King wants me to contact you first, and then he will meet you in person after arriving at the Palace of Versailles. But before the meeting, His Majesty still hopes to get some confirmed news as the basis for the negotiations between the two sides."

"The shameless betrayal of the Prussians has made the Dutch attitude tougher. The Dutch army is certainly not worth mentioning, but their gold and silver are enough for our enemies to arm a legion again."

"Our Dutch Legion is going to relieve the siege of Prague. Once the Prague Legion is brought out, it will retaliate against the Netherlands."

"Of course, the British will also send troops. Bishop Fleury has been trying to reconcile with Britain and try not to have a large-scale conflict with Britain. But the bishop is already seriously ill. His Majesty and we all support going to war with Britain, and of course we will remove the previous obstacles and support the Stuarts to land in Scotland."

"If your country really intends to attack Southeast Asia, our country will make corresponding adjustments in strategy to cooperate."