Chapter 735 Threat
Lord Grenville once again delivered a speech for the ship review on behalf of the British King.
Then, the sailors of the "Victory" skillfully raised the main sail, and the battleship slowly sailed out of the harbor.
A gun salute suddenly roared on the port, and then, melodious trumpets sounded simultaneously from dozens of warships in the military port.
Lord Grenville bowed slightly to the diplomats from various countries sitting on the front deck and smiled:
"The ship review has officially begun. I wish everyone a pleasant afternoon."
Five huge first- and second-class battleships took the lead in passing in front of everyone.
Behind are two rows of slightly smaller third-level main battleships, with as many as 16 ships.
The next ones are the fourth-level battleships with less than 60 guns, and there are as many as 21.
On the "Victory", except for the Dutch Foreign Minister who still had some naval background at home, the diplomats from several other countries were so shocked that their eyes widened.
In fact, even the Dutch Navy, which is the fourth largest in Europe, only has a few fourth-class ships as its main force.
As for a naval dwarf like Prussia, they don’t even have a few cruisers.
When all the large, dark warships passed by the "Victory", Admiral Jervis said from the side:
"Now please watch the actual battle demonstration of the formation."< br>
A string of semaphores was immediately sent out on the "Victory", and the British fleet that received the order outside the port immediately divided into two teams. Each circled in the distance, formed two battle lines, and filled the sails. Rush towards the opponent head-on at high speed.
Fifteen minutes later, the two battle lines began to intersect.
The gun ports on the sides of the two foremost second-level ships were fully opened, and more than 40 cannons on one side roared like thunder at the same time.
On the "Victory" only half a mile away, diplomats from all over the world covered their ears in unison, staring wide-eyed at the large black smoke in front of them like dark clouds falling to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, more warships began to meet. The two battle lines were parallel to each other, and the cannons on each ship spared no effort to fire at the opposite side. A large number of tongues of fire intertwined together, and it was like a raging flame on the sea.
For a time, even though the diplomats from various countries knew that those cannons fired blank ammunition, they were still overwhelmed by the terrifying power.
At this moment, they all firmly believed that anything that appeared on the sea would be easily crushed by this invincible fleet.
After an unknown period of time, the sound of cannons on the sea gradually stopped, but the hearts of the people on the "Victory" were still beating wildly.
Lord Grenville stood up first, looked at everyone's expressions with satisfaction, and smiled in the direction of the cabin:
"A sumptuous dinner has been prepared in the officers' conference room, please enjoy it."
In the cabin, the band has changed to a soothing and brisk tune. Under the flickering candlelight, plates of delicious food were placed on the table.
Before the banquet started, Grenville came to the left side of the Austrian Foreign Minister Count Rheinfels, sat down, and said in German:
"Volatel, my old friend, it's a pleasure to meet you. to you.”
“Very It's an honor to receive your invitation, my friend."
Grenville skipped the greetings and said seriously:
"Obviously, this is a very good opportunity for us. .”
"You mean?"
"An opportunity to solve the troubles facing our respective countries." The British said, "Let me put it bluntly, your country's financial situation is not optimistic, the serf reform is interrupted, and at the same time , Nobles from all over the country also criticized His Majesty the Emperor. "Rheinfelsbo. Jue was noncommittal:
"I want to hear what you said about 'opportunity'."
"Yes, opportunity." Grenville nodded, "I think, It should be clear to you where the root of Austria’s current problems lies.”
"..."
Grenville looked through the porthole towards the other side of the sea: "France. Austria's fiscal revenue continues to shrink. The core reason is that the vast South German market has been occupied by the French, and even your domestic The market is also flooded with a large number of French goods.
“If I remember correctly, your trade revenue dropped by 17% compared with the previous year, which caused a large number of factories to reduce production or even close down. ”
Count Rheinfels’s expression was not very good, but he did not answer the call. In fact, Austria’s trade volume dropped by a huge 27% compared to the previous year!
His Majesty the Emperor for the sake of the empire In order to save his face, he ordered the 17% figure to be announced to the public
Grenville continued: "And the Southern Netherlands, which is Austria's traditional financial source, is now providing tax revenue for the French.
"Oh, I went there to see the iron smelting plants, almost It works day and night to put coal transported from major coal mines into the blast furnace, and the output of iron ingots is twice as high as the output of the rest of Austria combined!
"I remember that the French said that they shared the interests there with you. But look, what did Austria get from there? Negligible taxes."
He is I'm changing my concept.
The original agreement between France and Austria was to jointly own the market in Wallonia, and everyone could invest there.
After that, Austria was either busy fighting wars or busy with the coronation of the new emperor, and did not invest a single penny there.
The French government has invested tens of millions of francs in the Southern Netherlands alone, and private investment will only be even greater. Only then did they buy all the large coal mines in Wallonia, build a large number of iron smelting plants, and build wooden tracks to transport products to the South German countries for sale, forming a virtuous cycle.
Of course, this was also because Joseph knew the coal reserves and development value of the Wallonia region based on the information of later generations, so he dared to invest heavily.
If the same information is told to the Austrians, even if they don't invest so much, they will definitely not do nothing.
But the reality is that Austria has never paid attention to Wallonia before.
When they saw that the French had made money and wanted to invest, they found that all valuable industries had already been invested by the French.
In fact, the tax revenue in Wallonia still belongs to Austria. After all, it is still nominally Austrian territory.
Therefore, the taxes they receive have increased significantly with the development of Wallonia. However, compared with the high profits of coal and iron companies, Austria looks down upon this tax.
Earl of Rheinfels nodded subconsciously:
"That's true. But we have an agreement with France..."
The British Foreign Secretary immediately said:
“Unreasonable agreements should be abolished! This also includes the Treaty of the Rhine-Seine, which allows France to invade the South German market without fear.
"Without this damn treaty, those markets would be yours. Any financial problems will be solved easily. "
Earl of Rheinfels sighed:
"You are right, we have also tried to modify this treaty, but..."
"It's just that the French are threatening you with force... Oh, I mean threatening those southern German states."
Grenville's tone was full of confusion:
"And now, we must unite Get up and make the French unable to intimidate Threatening any country!”
(Because some paragraphs in this chapter were slightly modified, the comments from book friends were swallowed by the system. The author apologizes to everyone! Please forgive me.)
( End of chapter)