Let us turn our attention again to the United Provinces.

On the night of December 20, 1688, William III arrived in London to meet and talk with his father-in-law, James II. In The Hague, the political center of the United Provinces, the results of the vote of the Estates-General have been announced, and the deputies from the seven provinces of the Netherlands, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, and Groningen have unanimously agreed that William III, Prince of Orange, has been removed from his office because he has left the United Provinces for London, and all the powers of the country have been transferred to the Estates-General, with the Speaker Konrad van Boiningen as the head of state.

As soon as the results of the vote came out, the Estates-General immediately commissioned a number of printing houses to print a joint statement of the Estates-General, announcing this important resolution to the entire Union of Seven Provinces. The statement first briefly reviewed the true meaning of the alliance of provinces that rebelled against the rule of the Spaniards, and once again emphasized the spirit of the republic, pointing out that the union province is a united province of the people of all seven provinces, not a country with one surname, and that the union of seven provinces should no longer establish such a kingly position as a consul henceforth, lest careerists control the state for a long time and undermine the true meaning of freedom and republicanism.

The statement also stressed that they were fed up with endless concessions to Great Britain, fed up with high tariffs on France, fed up with the damage to the reputation of the Netherlands by the Orlanche family, and that everything would henceforth be in the interests of the United Provinces, with the Republic of the Netherlands giving priority to the United Provinces and making the United Provinces glorious and great again!

There is no doubt that such a statement will surely cause great repercussions within the territory of the seven-province alliance. Especially in the provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Oberæssel, where the aristocracy and traditional clergy had a great influence, the population must have been in an uproar and strongly questioned whether the declaration of the Estates-General was shaking the political traditions of the United Provinces and triggering a looming crisis of civil war.

There was no shortage of perceptive scholars, aristocrats, or merchants in the country who now supported the Prince of Orange, not because they were in favor of his policies, not because William III had a charismatic personality. In the final analysis, it stemmed from their fear of Catholic France, that is, the fear that Louis XIV would annex the entire Low Countries, impose heavy taxes on the United Departments, and then enforce Catholicism - this is not unfounded, in fact, during the last Franco-Dutch War, King Louis XIV had already done so in the southern occupation areas of Utrecht and Gelderland, and it was normal for people to worry.

Many people believe that the Orange family, as a military aristocracy that began to resist Spanish rule, should be the number one person in resisting the threat of French invasion, and that there is no second figure in the entire Seven Provinces Alliance who can unite the hearts of the people and the military, and at the same time use the connections of various intricate aristocratic circles to integrate external forces against France. Therefore, they are basically artificial, and once the United Province is without the Prince of Orange, I am afraid that it will be weak in the face of French invasion.

Of course, there are also those who talk about the two Anglo-Dutch wars when the republicans were in power, pointing out that the republican government dominated by DeWitt did a great job of confronting the British challengers, defeating the British navy and retaining the maritime supremacy of the United Provinces. At the same time, they also actively contacted external forces and united many allies, especially persuading France to put out the idea of taking advantage of the fire, and finally isolated Britain diplomatically, which shows that the republican government is also very effective in resisting foreign aggression.

Opponents, however, argue that this only proves that the republican government has a game of supremacy at sea, but is helpless in the face of land invasions, as evidenced by the humiliating defeat in the early stages of the last Franco-Dutch war. Land warfare still has to rely on the traditional aristocracy led by the Orange family, who are more professional and reliable in this regard.

This philosophy in the Netherlands can be said to be permeable throughout, and no one can convince anyone. Everyone quarreled back and forth, and in the end, they only quarreled all over the place, which made the whole country politically separated, and ultimately harmed the national interests.

In any case, the republicans, who had barely risen to prominence, with the help of the East Coasters, had no intention of succumbing to William III's boots. They voted in Parliament and then issued a joint statement announcing to the entire Union of Seven Provinces that the political situation had changed. And here we have to mention a small episode, on the day of the vote, Van Boiningen was a little anxious because the number of people was not enough for a while. Later, they discovered that there were dozens of provincial delegates who had not gone to parliament in two large hotels in The Hague, so the soldiers from the east coast rushed to "capture" these people in the hotels and sent them to the parliament in horse-drawn carriages. The deputies protested for a while, but it is interesting that the Cossacks who had come to arrest them did not understand Dutch and French, and refused to accommodate them at all, so they dragged them into the carriage.

Well, let's get back to the point. After the joint statement of the Estates-General's Assemblies was issued, it took only ten days for the Republicans to post it on the billboards of all the towns of the United Provinces of a slightly larger size. In addition, they have also publicized it through newspapers and pamphlets to inform all citizens of the United Provinces about what has happened in recent days.

Undoubtedly, all these measures are also a kind of public opinion warfare and psychological warfare, which were accomplished under the guidance of several advisers of the National Intelligence Directorate on the East Coast. Don't underestimate this kind of psychological warfare, in fact, in today's chaotic situation, it can play a considerable role, will make more people psychologically accept the fact that William III has "abandoned" the United Province and patted his ass to become king in London, which has a negative impact on William III's prestige cannot be underestimated.

In fact, after the joint statement was issued and widely disseminated, the Dutch province finally took the lead in supporting the resolution of the Estates-General, after some wavering. In particular, in addition to the Jewish bankers who were good at speculating on the stock market, who were also important supporters of William III's trip to England, more than seventy percent of the other big wholesalers agreed with the decision of the Estates-General. Of course, this is due to the republicans' efforts to win over the lobby, as well as to the East Coasters. But don't forget, they also have a large army in the open sea! Not to mention, there have been unsubstantiated rumors circulating in Amsterdam lately, and the soldiers in the city were also very dissatisfied with the reduction of military salaries (William III invested them in the navy to win the hearts of the military and support his landing in England), and wanted to "revolt" and ask the rich for their salaries, which directly broke the last psychological defense line of the big merchants of Amsterdam, prompting them to compromise directly with The Hague and put the most important city of the United Provinces, the financial center of Central and Western Europe, into the hands of the republicans.

And if Amsterdam and the entire Dutch province have been dealt with, then the situation in the United Provinces can be said to be more than half settled. After all, the Dutch province is responsible for two-thirds of the government and military expenditures, and its position is extremely important. Without the province of Holland, Wilhelm III's money bag was deflated. Even if he is now the king of England, there is a parliament that is holding him back, and it is impossible to give generously to the situation in the Netherlands, which cannot be beaten by eight poles, and let him use the people of England to go to the Netherlands to turn the tables.

Therefore, after learning that the Dutch province had abandoned William III and officially surrendered to Parliament, Van Boiningen of The Hague opened a bottle of red wine in front of the East Coast liaison officials and celebrated with a crown. In fact, before the launch, he did not expect that things would go so smoothly, and many of his previous worries were dissipated under the general situation, which not only proved the correctness of the people on the east coast, but also strengthened his determination to continue to calm the situation by strong means.

There are some things that I think are difficult before I do them, but when I really get to that job, I don't think it's so scary!

Now that the province of Holland has fallen, there is no reason for the other provinces to hold on! On 22 December, the major towns of Zeeland announced that they would accept the leadership of the three-tier council; On 24 December, the province of Utrecht announced its acceptance of the joint declaration of the Estates-General, including the Limburg-Brabant region under its control; On 25 December, Christmas Day, the provinces of Gelderland and Oberijsselssel announced their recognition of the fact that Van Boiningen, President of the Estates-General, was the supreme head of the Union of Seven Provinces.

As a result, only two of the seven provinces, Friesland and Groningen, are still hesitant. While the provincial councils of the two provinces are still bickering behind closed doors, some municipal councils have taken the lead and ordered their members to clamo in the provincial councils for leadership from the third council. In particular, in some towns near the sea, they scolded Wilhelm III for embezzling the funds for building their dikes and sea locks (which were also jointly borne by the Dutch and Zeeland provinces) to recruit the poor and miserable in Germany as cannon fodder, harming the interests of the entire people, and demanded that the provincial council make a decision as soon as possible, otherwise the funds to maintain the operation of the government would be lost.

Republicans, of course, will not miss such an opportunity. They sent capable emissaries to the main towns of the two provinces, and at the same time talked to the officers of the local garrison, and told them to give up their resistance and accept the leadership of the three-member council. The envoys even directly promised that the allowances, bonuses, etc., which were withheld by William III, would be paid in full by the Estates-General. And not only that, once they "show considerable sincerity", then they will also receive a more generous bonus, which directly prompts many armies to defect, reduces the risk of military action, and the effect is extremely huge.

On 27 December, the Estates-General issued an ultimatum to the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, demanding that they take a decision within three days. At the same time, more than 10,000 Dutch troops, who had completed their initial reorganization, also began to set out from the vicinity of Amsterdam and march to the two provinces to make a posture of military coercion. In addition, in the south of Breda, a large number of mercenaries from Switzerland and other places also arrived, and together with the people from the east coast, they were commanded by the Dutch veteran Victor van Marlberg, and marched northward, aiming at the 20,000 German mercenaries in Nijmegen.