The Hague, 30 October 1687.

Lin Dingzhi, the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to Paris, arrived in The Hague, the capital of the United Provinces, after the situation had stabilized, and arrived here to meet Konrad van Boiningen, an old friend of the East Coasters, a member of the Dutch provincial council, a member of the Third Legislature, and one of the leaders of the republican faction.

Before that, he made a special detour to Bruges, where he attended a listing ceremony for East Coast merchandise. The merchant was in charge of business in the South Netherlands, and of course espionage seemed to be a more important job than business, especially as the ambitions of the Kingdom of France became increasingly undisguised.

Lin Dingzhi stayed here for about two days, and listened to the reports of the staff of the trading station (which was later entrusted to him), mainly about the trade in the ten provinces of the South Netherlands. After all, money is needed for all kinds of activities such as diplomacy and intelligence, and a large part of the source of money is supplemented by local trade, in addition to state grants. Although the ten provinces of the Southern Netherlands are not as rich as the seven northern provinces, they are also known as wealthy, and they are the wealth of the Kingdom of Spain, so there is still a lot to be done in trade.

Previously, the people of the east coast of this market had relied on agents to sell goods, making a profit of close to 200,000 pesos a year. But after years of cooperation, they found that these agents were a little less enterprising, and for many years they were slow to develop the market, and they were obsessed with the profits they already had, so in the case of ineffective persuasion, the East Coasters finally decided to go to Bruges, a city that was once the economic center of Europe in the 16th century, to open a trading station and start doing business in a grand manner.

Lin Dingzhi and the staff of the trading station carefully determined the commercial measures to be implemented in the next stage, and then chatted with a few commercial representatives who were ostensibly sent by some large state-owned factories in China, and secretly were indeed agents of the State Intelligence Administration, and finally crossed the Scheldt River and arrived in The Hague under the protection of dozens of mercenary cavalry.

The Hague, as the political capital of the United Provinces, has been a great place of right and wrong for many years. Parliamentarians and chief deputies elected from the provinces are gathered here, each with his own opinions, all wanting to impose his views on the other, and countless debates are held in public, and one councillor after another has either become famous here and become the object of co-optation by various forces, or his reputation has been discredited, and his political life has been confined to the end.

The republicans still have a certain degree of upper hand in the three levels of parliament in The Hague, and it can even be said that they have the upper hand in the parliaments of most cities in the country, even in provinces such as Friesland and Groningen, which have traditionally supported the Orange family, many commercially developed towns also support them, and the supporters of the Orange faction are mostly concentrated in the rural areas, because only there are a sufficient number of landed nobles.

However, the biggest flaw of the republicans is the lack of guns. The current army of the United Provinces was created by William III, Prince of Orange, during the last Franco-Dutch War, and is in fact loyal to him as a whole - even if some less loyal ones have been cut off over the years - and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is even his private army, unless the Prince of Orange does something clearly contrary to the interests of the country, it is difficult for others to shake the loyalty of the army to him.

Therefore, in such a situation, the ruling position of William III can be said to be relatively stable. Even if the Republican legislators caused him considerable trouble in the Legislature, he often denied it, and even simply threatened it with force. For example, the year before last, Van Boiningen gathered a group of parliamentarians and influenced many people in the provincial councils of the Netherlands and Zeeland to encourage them to cut military spending (in fact, it was a disguised weakening of Wilhelm III's influence), and as a result, an Amsterdam parliamentarian was shot dead by unknown persons in his apartment, and this massive operation suddenly died down.

Many times, Lin Dingzhi actually admires the courage of Van Boiningen, a person who inherited the political legacy of the DeWitt brothers, pulling a group of parliamentary colleagues who are obviously not successful enough to fail, and constantly giving the Orange family eye medicine, but it is a miracle that he can live to this day.

Of course, it is understandable to some extent. It has been some years since the nightmarish French invasion of the United Provinces, the people are always good at forgetting, and the heroes are always betrayed, so now the general environment of the United Provinces is slowly turning towards the republicans. Even if the army remained loyal to the Prince of Orange and guaranteed that he would be in power in the United Provinces, no one would dare to covet it, but to be honest, it was annoying to watch Parliament always go against him, and it would take political prestige and influence to occasionally "deal with" a few of the most cheerful MPs, which would naturally require a lot of political prestige and influence.

Therefore, it is now the overall environment that is defending Van Boiningen. In particular, after he had personally negotiated with the French two years earlier to reduce the tariffs to the level of 1664, the merchants of the United Provinces were jubilant, and the republicans gained so much popularity on that occasion that anyone who wanted to carry out a political assassination of Van Boiningen hesitated for fear of causing a complete tear in the whole society. After all, it was no longer the Franco-Dutch War against the DeWitt brothers, and the Oranges couldn't always do whatever they wanted.

In fact, the French also prefer republicans. This political faction, which represented more of the big merchant class, pursued commercial interests, advocated rapprochement with France, and was wary of the British, almost perfectly fitting into French foreign policy. But the Orange faction is different! This political faction, which was in fact the private power of the House of Orange, had traditionally regarded France as a mortal enemy and was determined to weaken France's power and influence, because by origin they were all landed aristocrats, and naturally had a greater dislike for the French, who were interested in encroaching on land, than the English, who were interested in mercantile interests.

In 1683-1684, the relationship between many cities and the Orange family was at a freezing point because of the severe consequences of political assassinations. At this time, the French, with their keen sense of smell, also struck out, printing and distributing many Dutch-language pamphlets, smuggling them into the United Provinces for distribution. In this pamphlet, the French recount the misdeeds of the Orange family over the past hundred years, and criticize them for trampling on the traditional power and prestige of the city without scruples, and for being an outright tyrant.

It can be said that this propaganda of the French still played a certain role and influenced the choice of many cities. In August 1684, despite the strong opposition of the Prince of Orange, the final vote of the Estates-General voted four in favor and three against to conclude a treaty of friendship and commerce with the Kingdom of France. This undoubtedly shocked the Prince of Orange, and he almost resorted to the next three indiscriminate means, until the French sent him a great gift: the persecution of the Protestants intensified, and many people fled to the Netherlands, so the news was deeply fermented in the Netherlands and aroused the resentment of many people, and the Prince of Orange seized the opportunity to re-work among the provinces, and finally re-voted by the end of the year to revoke the agreement with the French.

It can be said that the Prince of Orange was almost completely defeated in this confrontation, and it was the madness of the French that gave him the assist, allowing him to rally more centrist factions around him from a religious point of view, and finally repelled the republican offensive and won the victory.

Lin Dingzhi has lived in Paris for many years, and he has a very clear understanding of the various situations in France, and he has also spent a lot of money on the United Provinces to buy intelligence all year round, so he still has a relatively accurate grasp of the current situation. He knew very well that the Republicans and the Orange faction were the two major powers in the United Provinces, and almost neither could completely defeat the other. In peacetime, the Republicans undoubtedly prevailed, but when tensions were high, the country was invaded by enemies or religious beliefs were threatened, the influence of the Orange faction quickly gained the upper hand, and the large number of political centrists in the United Province would fall to the Prince of Orange, causing its power and prestige to skyrocket overnight.

When he first set off from Paris, through the relationship of friends, Lin Dingzhi already knew that France would issue a decree in the near future, that is, to raise the import tariff rate of Dutch goods to a higher level than in 1667, in order to curb the trend of Dutch goods frantically pouring into the French market in recent years, and also to sanction the Dutch for helping a large number of Huguenots flee in France.

Lin believes that when the news finally reaches The Hague and Amsterdam, it will definitely bring the relationship between the two countries to a higher level. Raising tariffs would be intolerable even to the Dutch merchant class, let alone those who had long been disgruntled. Under these circumstances, the hearts of some of the republicans who had gathered a little bit were afraid that they would disperse a lot, and the business and religious circles were now so tired of the French that no one would have any goodwill towards France at this time, so the Prince of Orange, who had been known for his tough anti-French appearance for many years, was naturally the best object of allegiance for everyone, because he was the only one who could say no to France and guarantee that the United Provinces would not be invaded by this evil neighbor.

Lin Dingzhi is now even more sympathetic to Van Boiningen, who has been struggling for so long, and it seems that he is about to improve, but the French gave this oolong assist, which directly detonated the anger of the Dutch, so they don't dare to say anything publicly now, they can only criticize what the French have done with the crowd, and then watch sourly as William III, Prince of Orange, arrogantly collects people's hearts, adjusts foreign policy, and tightens the net against the French step by step.

Lin Dingzhi finally had dinner with several republican stalwarts on the evening of the 30th, including Van Boiningen. During the banquet, he vaguely revealed a little news about France's new tariffs to everyone present, which unsurprisingly aroused the shock and anger of Van Boiningen and others, and some even feared that war was about to break out!

Van Boiningen couldn't help but ask Lin Dingzhi if war broke out between France and the United Provinces in the next year or two, which side would the East Coast Republic of China stand on? After a little hesitation, Lin Dingzhi confessed to them that once a war broke out between the United Provinces and France, there was no doubt that the East Coast would be morally on the side of the Dutch, and would sell them all kinds of goods at preferential prices, and even undertake the more dangerous transportation work in the war zone (i.e., delivery to the Dutch mainland port). However, he also admitted to Van Boiningen that if the war expanded and French troops appeared in Italy or the Iberian Peninsula, the East Coast Republic of China would intervene decisively in the war, even if it was reluctant, and use its navy to attack the French coastal trade, force them to stop, and ensure that Spain and Italy were at peace.

Van Boiningen was also a little surprised. Because the French Navy has been developing quite well in the last two decades. In terms of the number and tonnage of warships, it is actually no worse than that of the Netherlands and England, and the number of its professional warships is even close to that of the Netherlands and England combined, which is shocking. In the event of a naval battle between the two sides, no one dares to guarantee who will win and who will lose, although traditionally everyone would think that the Netherlands and England would win, but who can say for sure that there is such a thing as a war? The size of the French fleet is really there! Therefore, he really admired the East Coast Navy for daring to wade into this pool of troubled waters, how much interest did this East Coast people have in Spain and Italy, and they wanted to protect it so much? Even if the Italian bankers had just banded together to lend five million dollars in cash to the East Coasters, would it not be like this? Come to think of it, Van Boiningen can only envy the good fortune of the Italians and Spaniards, with such a strong ally on his side, it should be able to effectively deter the actions of the French, right?

Of course, from the point of view of his own interests, Van Boiningen even secretly hoped that the French would go their own way, send troops over the Pyrenees or simply occupy Gena*, and drag the people on the east coast into the quagmire of war, so that everyone's pressure would be shared. However, the East Coasters lacked the ability to intervene in continental Europe, and it was heard that they were still at odds with the Russians in the Black Sea, so the so-called "intervention in the war" was probably just a naval attack on the French coastal trading ports and secure interests in the western Mediterranean. This level of involvement, even if there is a loss, is limited and controllable, and is not enough to drag a country into an outright war. Recognizing this, Van Boiningen regretted that it was a pity not to be able to draw the East Bank into the war!

However, one thing is more gratifying is that the people on the east coast seem to be very uninterested in France, and the intention of targeting and containing them is very obvious, probably they don't want to see the French annex northern Italy or even Spain, creating a composite power of sea power and land power, right? The emergence of such a freak state (such as the French occupation of Spain) will inevitably cause panic among everyone, and even the east coast, which is thousands of miles away, should be very uneasy, so it is understandable that it should be contained in advance!

"Okay, let's talk about that stuff aside, let's talk about something else. I've heard that there has been a lot of excitement in the English Parliament lately, Conrad, as a veteran politician, do you think this will affect the United Provinces and repeat the political crisis of 1672? After wiping his mouth with a towel, Lin Dingzhi's words changed sharply and asked suddenly.