Port of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The bugles were loud, the drums were rumbling, and the weather was gloomy. Amid the rhythmic drumming, neat German mercenaries are silently embarking on the ship with brand-new flintlock pistols and packed luggage. The citizens of Amsterdam watched from afar as the army boarded the ship, all of them panicked, and some were talking loudly.

"Oh my God, how did the Prince of Orange's army get on board? Where are they going? ”

"Where else can I go? To the UK, of course! ”

"What? Going to the UK? Is this to abscond with money? ”

"No, it's not absconding, it's clearly running openly, not only running away, but also going to fight for the British throne. With our money! ”

"Our money. Oh my God, I've bought quite a few war bonds! Can I get my money back? ”

"Don't be stupid, sir, your 'money' is on board for England to be carried by those flintlock Germans!"

"Oh my God! How could the Prince of Orange do that? He used the German soldiers hired by us to fight the British. Louis XIV is going to call again, what should we do? ”

"Liar, he's a liar! Morality. Mr. Witte was right, the people of the Orange family were not to be trusted at all"

"Liar William, pay back! Liar William, pay back! ”

The Dutch on the docks in the port of Amsterdam finally realized that they had been deceived by William III, and they lent 200 million guilders to William III, hoping that he would use the money to hire an army, build warships, and then use them to defeat France and the Ming Dynasty in order to maintain Dutch maritime supremacy and trade monopoly. As a result, this Wilhelm III took Dutch money to do his own business, and took the hired German mercenaries to grab the British throne!

This is not a roll money absconding, what is it?

"Nope! This is not absconding with the money, I repeat, I did not run away! ”

On board the Orange, a newly commissioned Dutch Navy 3rd class battleship, William III, consul of the United Republic of the Netherlands, confronts a group of Amsterdam-based business oligarchs, eloquently defending his actions.

"But. . . You're boarding a ship and getting ready to head to the UK, and everyone sees it! ”

An Amsterdam banker who bought millions of guilders in public bonds out of patriotism and interest blamed William.

"But I have not resigned as Consul of the Republic of the United Province of the Netherlands!" William III said, "I will never resign, I went to England only to bind this maritime power, second only to the Netherlands, to the United Republic of the Netherlands by means of a republican alliance!" ”

This is so shameful!

The Amsterdam profiteers present were speechless. They are profiteers who have met the "traitorous king", no, he is not a king now! What is the Coalition of Co-Monarchs? Even if he becomes the king of England, he can't be the king of the Netherlands.

Another Amsterdam patriotic businessman and member of the Dutch provincial parliament, who also had a belly full of public debt, gritted his back teeth and said: "Archon, are you not afraid that the Great Council will remove you? ”

"I'm not worried," said William III, shrugging, "because the Great Council wouldn't do such a stupid thing. Unless the members of the Great Council think they don't need my 60,000 German mercenaries, and they naively think that I will return the military money that has been withdrawn but not yet spent! ”

Yes!

So shameless?

The profiteer councillors of Amsterdam suddenly found that they had nothing to do with this despicable military oligarch, because the army of the United Republic of the Netherlands had been fighting foreign countries against the Oranges, a military oligarchy hired from Germany. Without the mercenaries hired and trained by the Orange family, the French could have stormed Amsterdam without much trouble relying only on the city militia!

Moreover, after the ruling government of Wilhelm III received 200 million guilders, it began to act quickly, building warships, hiring German soldiers, purchasing horses and guns, and by the beginning of 1682, the German mercenaries under the command of Wilhelm III had reached 60,000. These 60,000 German mercenaries eat "Austrian" bread, wear "Austrian" clothes, and take "Austrian" money, and they are all German fellow of the Orange family!

So these 60,000 German mercenaries only listened to Wilhelm III, and the Great Council of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands could not command them at all!

If William III wanted to, he could even use this army to get himself a Dutch crown!

"But. . . Now the people have lost their trust in you, and they don't want to lend you any more money! "A member of the Dutch parliament is ready to threaten William III with a debt problem.

"Lend it to me?" William III laughed, "My Senator, I don't owe anyone any money. The debt of 200 million guilders is the national debt of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. It is the debt of all the citizens of the Republic of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, not of me alone, nor of the Orange family. Let me stress again that we are not France as a country! I am the consul of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, not the king of the Netherlands! The Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands does not belong to me, and I am not a republic!

So the 200 million guilders and the interest on them are all citizens of the United Republic of the Netherlands! ”

Finished!

A group of Dutch profiteers are cold-hearted, they are also well-informed profiteers, they have seen a lot of absconding with money and not paying their debts, but they have never seen a debt directly transferred to the creditor.

This is equivalent to the inexplicable debt of the debtor, they have to pay off the debt they put out, and the person who spends the money does not have to bear any responsibility, and what is worse is that the consul of the United Republic of the Netherlands, who is responsible for spending the money, has no intention of choosing between the United Kingdom and the United Republic of the Netherlands, he wants both!

"Then, how are we going to defend ourselves in the event that the army of Yi XIV arrives during your attack on the British?" Finally, a Dutch profiteer has a little bit of a sense of reality.

"Probably not," laughed William III, "according to reliable sources, Louis XIV had already made a choice between the Republic of the Netherlands and Italy. Just three days ago, he had personally led an army of 60,000 troops to march to Rome under the pretext of defending the Pope and the Holy See! It seems that the War of the Papal Succession has begun, and regardless of whose property Italy ends up becoming, the United Republic of the Netherlands is safe for the time being. ”

Louis XIV, after much deliberation, chose Rome anyway.

After all, Britain is a country where Protestants are overwhelmingly dominant, and if France rashly lands in Britain, it is very likely to arouse the anger of British Protestants, and then it will not be possible to do it with an army of tens of thousands of people.

In addition, the combined maritime power of Britain and the Netherlands is still far stronger than that of France!

Italy, by contrast, was much friendlier to France. The Duchy of Savoy was already a vassal of France, and the nobility and people of the Papal States would certainly be honored with the Duchy of Savoy. José was outraged by the deposition of the Pope and approached France. It is also possible that the Republic of Venice will side with France in exchange for France intervening in the conflict between Venice and Turkey.

The Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Kingdom of Sicily were quite good trophies - the monarchs of all three Italian states were concurrently held by the King of Spain.

If Louis XIV could quickly defeat the Spanish army in Italy, and with a great contribution to the Catholic Church, he could have Milan, Naples, and Sicily under his command!

Relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire were currently very tense, and it should have been difficult for the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire to intervene in the Italian war, as long as Louis XIV could guarantee that the interests of the Holy Roman Empire in Italy would not be violated.

Moreover, since the war between the Ottoman Empire and the HRE was about to break out, it was entirely possible that Louis's Italian strategy would eat a large piece of fat, such as taking the Duchy of Milan and supporting the orthodoxy of the Church, and then respond to the call of the Pope and the HRE Emperor to accept it when it is good.

At that time, Milan was Louis's, the Papal State was under Louis's protection, Savoy and Venice were Louis's younger brothers, and Louis was basically the master of Italy!

"But once Louis takes control of Italy or northern Italy, his next target may be the Republic of the Netherlands!"

"That's right, Louis won't allow England and the Netherlands to form a strong republican alliance!"

"Archon, think of a way!"

William III was still confident, and said with a smile: "You don't have to worry. We can dig the seawalls, turn the best parts of the republic into islands, and use the sea to keep them safe. As for the rest of the country, either it will become Zeguo, or the brave militia will fight to the last man with the support of German mercenaries, relying on the fortress! ”

Fight to the last man, that's quite an inspiring word!

Seeing that a group of Dutch profiteers were all faceless, William III finally stated his ultimate purpose: "Don't worry. The Netherlands that needs to fight to the last man won't necessarily include you! Because you can be British! Compared to the islands of Amsterdam and The Hague, which are very close to the European continent by digging dikes, the British Isles are a really good place to sit back and relax.

You are not worried about the fierce religious conflict in England, and as long as I become the king of England, the Protestants in England will be able to completely suppress the Catholics! At that point, the UK will remain stable for a long time and will gradually develop a relaxed business environment, making it an ideal business haven. If you follow me, you will surely continue to make a fortune on the land of England! ”

William III turned out to be quite interesting! He abandoned only the ordinary people of the United Republic of the Netherlands. The big capitalists of the Dutch province were not only not abandoned, but also had the opportunity to get a better platform than the original.

After all, with the size of the Dutch terrain, it was only a matter of time before it was breached by the French. Unless the Netherlands can crush France before it grows stronger!

But this is clearly impossible!

Because France has a population of more than 20 million, the Netherlands and Britain only have 10 million people, plus Spain itself is less than 17 million, and the Holy Roman Empire has a population of 16 million to 17 million, but the HRE has to face another Ottoman-Turkish Empire with a population of more than 20 million, and it is impossible to go all out to oppose France.

So what the future of the Netherlands will be, and if the Netherlands is not good, the UK will definitely be good!

After all, European capital always needs a safe haven, and in the early years, this safe haven was in Italy, Venice and Genoa, the two "sea countries". Later, seeing that they were weakened, the capital was gradually transferred to the Netherlands, at first Brussels and Amsterdam were two cities side by side, but later the Spanish mercenaries were robbed in Brussels because of their military salaries (robbed by the British pirate queen), causing Brussels to weaken, and Amsterdam was dominant.

But now the Netherlands can't see it, and it seems that the next line is only the United Kingdom.

Seeing that the faces of the people below looked good, William III went on to draw cakes for everyone: "Gentlemen, after Louis XIV got 200 million livres for nothing, no one can defeat France on the European continent. It will not be possible until these 200 million are spent. With this money, Louis could organize 300,000 or even 400,000 French troops, and it was a well-paid and well-armed French army! But at sea, the advantage is still on the side of Britain and the Netherlands! Our two countries have more than 250 warships of the fourth rank and above, and if you include Spain, this number is more than 300. And Louis only had a maximum of 100 such ships, and our advantage was very obvious.

So the way to defeat Louis was to resist the sacrifice of the Netherlands on the mainland to consume the power of France. At sea, the Anglo-Dutch navies were used to fight a strangulation war against the sea forces of France and the Ming Dynasty! As long as the naval battle can be won, then sooner or later France will exhaust their limited financial resources, and when Louis has no money, we will win! Louis is defeated, and how can the Ming Dynasty, which is in the east of Asia, fight against the whole world? ”

The method proposed by William III is the best and probably the only way for the sea power empire to defeat the land power - a naval blockade plus attrition on land!

Because the sea power states control the sea, they can continuously plunder or buy resources and products from overseas, and they have a strong ability to sustain wars. Although the land power is strong, once it is blockaded by the sea power, its economy will be slowly stifled, and gradually it will not be able to maintain a strong army, and it is a matter of time before it collapses or is defeated.

So this advantage, still in the Netherlands, no, on the side of the British!

When Louis XIV marched into Rome, William III marched into London, Foquansky left the town of Kharkiv, and Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire prepared to attack Vienna, on the other side of the world, the calendar of the new Ming Dynasty had turned to the spring of March in the ninth year of the Republic.

It has been more than a year since the "Spice Islands Robbery", and for more than a year, the eastern seas have been relatively calm, and the Dutch East India Company, which has suffered a big loss, has not immediately chosen revenge - they have more important things to do than to seek revenge from the Ming Dynasty, such as regaining control of the Spice Islands in chaos, suppressing another uprising on Java Island caused by the time of the Spice Islands, and trying every means to make money to make up for the company's huge financial deficit. In this case, the East India Company not only had no way to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, but also could not even interrupt the trade blockade of the Ming Dynasty.

Without the Spice Island, trade with China and Japan became the most important source of income for the East India Company! If all this is gone, then the salaries of the more than 10,000 employees of the East India Company will not be paid, so what will they fight?

However, the Dutch did not slow down their preparations for war, because they had clearly felt the threat of the Ming to their rule in the South Sea Islands, and they also knew from the European side that the Ming-French alliance was planning to open the "Ming-Pacific-North American-Atlantic-French trade route", once this trade route was opened, the good days of the Dutch East India Company would come to an end.

So the Dutch East India Company could only bite the bullet and prepare for war!

The Dutch's way of preparing for war was to prop up the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan and make it an agent of the Netherlands in East Asia!

This was done by helping the Tokugawa shogunate train new troops and export to them the technology of shipbuilding and flintlock musket.

The Kingdom of Spain, another "great power" that has been strongly involved in East Asian affairs, is much more radical than the Dutch, from the end of 1681, the Spanish Armada began to carry out "deterrent voyages" on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time the Spaniards also announced that they would block the Pacific route, and all ships that crossed the Pacific Ocean without permission would be sunk immediately once discovered!

At the same time, on the other side of the Pacific, the Viceroyalty of New Spain is preparing for a real war against the "Republic of Acre"!

(End of chapter)