Chapter 512: The Erosive Situation in the Netherlands (Page 1/1)

His Majesty the King looked thoughtful, sighed, and then pretended to be helpless.

As soon as these words came out, especially when he heard that His Majesty the King had decisively agreed to the dissolution of the alliance between the two countries, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary quickly showed a look of surprise and a fear in their eyes that could not be concealed.

"Your Majesty, with the current situation, the United Kingdom is still unable to withstand the Spanish navy!" Prime Minister William hurriedly bent down and persuaded.

"Maintaining the alliance treaty is good for the kingdom!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The Foreign Secretary also hurriedly spoke up, and said almost in a crying tone:

"Spain's navy, which has been established for more than a hundred years, is the most powerful navy in the world, and our English navy has not been Spain's opponent at all since its establishment in the past few decades, please consider carefully!"

Edward looked at the two ministers and felt that if he agreed to dissolve the Covenant, it would cause the United Kingdom to be destroyed.

Helpless, he could only explain with a smile:

"Your Excellency, my minister, the dissolution of the Covenant does not mean an immediate war with Spain, and the kingdom is very safe at the moment!"

"Then, even if the Spaniards come, the kingdom's navy will not be able to attack, but it will be more than capable of protecting itself. Coupled with the alliance with Portugal, the winner is still in two words! ”

Listening to His Majesty's explanation, the Prime Minister and the 9 Foreign Secretary could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

They were really afraid of the young and vigorous King and go to war directly with Spain, which would be no less than a disaster for the newly formed United Kingdom.

"Besides, it is a good thing that the covenant has been severed at this time!" His Majesty smiled in his heart and thought.

After pacifying the two important ministers, His Majesty summoned the Minister of the Navy, asked the Navy to speed up the pace of expansion, and actively invited Spanish and Portuguese and Dutch sailors to join the Navy to expand its strength as much as possible.

After that, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was also interviewed, and the allocation for the Navy was also increased.

Later, through the Royal Affairs Administration, a new message was issued: pirates with privateer permits were allowed to raid Spaniards.

As soon as this statement came out, the entire pirate community immediately reveled, and more and more pirates applied for privateer licenses.

Within a few months, the royal family's finances increased dramatically because of the pirates.

However, the dissolution of the Covenant still had an impact on England, with tariffs on goods going to Spain increasing and market share declining.

Moreover, taking advantage of this opportunity, French merchants began to enter Spain, injecting a little blood into the messy French commerce.

His Majesty did not care about this, the Portuguese market was more than enough to compensate for its losses, and the conduct of trade in the East would give the United Kingdom a new engine.

The English were struggling to expand their navy, while the Spaniards were attacking the Netherlands, encircling and suppressing the increasingly active guerrillas.

Due to the rebellion in the coastal provinces of the Netherlands, the Spaniards did not transport them by sea, but instead had the expeditionary force assembled in Milan and then crossed the Alps across the European continent to the Netherlands.

Spanish scouts, geographers, transport specialists, and diplomats were able to select, survey, plot, and coordinate the march routes with astonishing efficiency and professionalism.

It is a military and commercial route established entirely in a foreign country, covering more than 3,000 kilometers through mountains, rivers and forests, known as the "Spanish Way".

As the commander of the expeditionary force, the Duke of Avar had three tasks.

First, to punish the opposition and rebels who have committed heresy and great disrespect;

Second, to force the lowland provinces and cities to submit to the central government.

Third, to ensure that the Government and the military have a permanent and stable financial base.

"If you look closely at what you are going to do, you will see that it is tantamount to creating a new world." That's how the Duke of Avar felt.

The Duke easily achieved his first goal, and on the fifth day he set up a secret court called the Inquiry Council to arrest and interrogate suspects accused of heresy and rebellion, and privileged members of the Golden Fleece Knights and high-ranking nobles such as Egmont and Holren were not spared, and for a time the whole Netherlands was in turmoil.

As usually happens under high pressure, whistleblowers flood in, and trust and security are undermined.

The second and third points are difficult to accomplish no matter what.

And, with the brutality of the methods, business in the Netherlands began to stagnate, many rural villages were burned, a large number of small handicraft workshops began to go bankrupt, banks continued to fail, and the once rich Netherlands suddenly became a blank slate.

At this time, the Dutch did not give in, they did not choose to attack the big cities occupied by the Spaniards, but hid in the rural areas, like poisonous snakes, waiting for an opportunity.

The Netherlands is a lowland country, with a large number of rivers running through the lowlands, and the Dutch people carry muskets and rows small boats through the rivers, coming and going without a trace.

This made the Duke of Brussels Avar very nerve-wracking, and he pulled a lot of hair for it.

What made the Duke of Avar even more irritating was that the Dutch rebels had recently become more and more active, looting rations, sneaking up on lone Spanish soldiers, and attacking from time to time, causing the Spanish army to shrink into large cities and not dare to go to rural areas.

A village in the Netherlands, in the province of Holland.

Outside the village, a group of more than 500 Dutch militiamen, escorting truckloads of grain, looked elated.

"Thanks to the muskets of the English, otherwise we would really not be able to defeat this Spanish company of more than 100 people, today is a lucky day!"

A militiaman touched the arquebus in his hand, cherished it, looked at the grain and grass around him, and sighed.

"Yes! I heard that the king of England was very tolerant, opposed Catholicism, and abolished a large number of miscellaneous taxes, and I heard the coach say that the population of London has reached 200,000 now! Another militiaman next to him said with envy on his face.

"How come we don't have such a king!" The two of them had dark eyes and sighed in unison.

With the seizure into the village, the village with more and more population became more lively.

The militiamen and villagers, happy with the victory and capture in front of them, sang and danced around the bonfire.

The leading nobles shrank in the room and talked about it.

"Did you hear that? England has broken the alliance with the Spaniards! A young nobleman explained to others with a happy face.

"Of course I know that in this way, the support for us will grow, and we will have more time to drive out the Spanish in the Netherlands!"

The nobleman next to him also looked happy, as if he had married a wife.

The other nobles also began to talk, their faces unsurprisingly full of excitement.

Their feelings are understandable, and this is the equivalent of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was so excited that he couldn't sleep when he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

China's leaders were equally happy and cheerful.

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