Chapter 365 From Austria to Russia (Large Chapter)

Chapter 365 From Austria to Russia (Large Chapter)

Of course Joseph would not tell Emperor Shinra that among the enemy troops in Brussels, more than 18,000 people were from the South Netherlands Army with little combat effectiveness, including the remnants of Witt's troops who had been previously beaten by the Guards Corps and had their morale collapsed. , as well as temporarily recruited farmers and vendors.

Even the Dutch army was recruited during last year's uprising, and its combat effectiveness is basically unsatisfactory.

The only ones who can really fight are Hanover's 13,000 men, and there are no cavalry and artillery.

However, the total figure of 35,000 is all in the name of Karl II, which is enough to scare people.

Joseph's pen is still moving on the letter paper:

"In order to prevent the Southern Netherlands from falling into the hands of the rebels again, you need to send at least 20,000 soldiers here. And Prussia and Hanover may also send additional troops here, so you'd better mobilize more troops to be safe.

Oh, there is one more important thing, dear uncle. Due to the threat from the Prussian army in the direction of Liege, our army's logistics supplies encountered great trouble. You know, vehicles traveling from Luxembourg to Brussels have to pass near Liege. This makes our military's logistics very vulnerable to attack. So I hope to collect military supplies locally in the Southern Netherlands, which can also save you some expenses. "

A large part of the French army's current military expenditure in the Southern Netherlands is paid by Austria.

And if the French army can "collect supplies locally", it will be equivalent to taking over the taxation of the Southern Netherlands. At the same time, it is necessary to set up some management positions to facilitate communication with the public and transportation of materials.

As for some "inadequate" Austrian officials, it became natural for them to temporarily hand over their powers during the war.

At the end of the letter, Joseph stated righteously and solemnly: France will definitely give its closest relatives Austria as much support as possible, including the preparation of adding more troops to the front line in Brussels. Please rest assured, His Majesty the Emperor.

He knew very well that Austria and Prussia were currently fighting in full swing in Silesia, and anyone who dared to take a step back would have devastating consequences. Therefore, Joseph II was eager to transfer the Austrian troops in the Southern Netherlands back, and it was absolutely impossible to do so again. Send 20,000 additional soldiers here.

Then Austria has only two choices left - 1. Lose the Southern Netherlands. 2. Export benefits to France and let the French army help stabilize the situation in the Southern Netherlands.

In fact, it is equivalent to having no choice. If the Southern Netherlands became independent, not only would the empire lose face and suffer a heavy blow to morale, but the National Guard of the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch army would probably go to Silesia to reinforce the Prussians.

With one thing going the other way, there is no need to fight the Austrian war.

Joseph handed the letter to the messenger, and summoned a staff officer, asking him to go to Luxembourg and deliver a message to the Austrian commander Leo.

As soon as he finished his work, Emman led the messenger from Paris into the tent.

The latter bowed respectfully to Joseph, then took out two letters from his close-fitting suitcase and handed them to Emman who was standing aside.

Joseph took the letter from the attendant and read it carefully. One letter was sent by Archbishop Briand. It was supposed to seek His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's opinion on important events that had recently occurred in France. It was actually a report.

The other letter was written by Queen Mary, and was followed by a "Plan for Promoting Russian-French Trade" submitted by the Russian Ambassador.

He opened his mother's letter first in confusion.

For the most part, she said as always that she missed her son and couldn't sleep every day, and then she was concerned about whether her son was eating well in Luxembourg, whether he was sick, whether he was tired, and scolded him for forgetting to bring a cook...

Joseph felt the deep love in the letter and felt warm in his heart. It seems that when my mother wrote the letter, she was still in Luxembourg. It's just that when fighting on the front line, bringing a few royal chefs is nothing. They usually bring several carts of kitchen utensils and ingredients...

Joseph suddenly thought that he could have the royal chef cook nutritious meals for the wounded in the rear. Firstly, it can make the soldiers feel the care and attention of the royal family, and secondly, my mother does not have to talk about herself every time because of this matter.

He continued to look down.

Queen Mary warned her son in the letter not to get too close to the front line, and to leave the fighting to the generals. France has so many generals.

Joseph couldn't help feeling a little emotional. In the eyes of his mother, anyone will always be just a fragile child.

"Well, in that case, just give me the rank of general."

He curled his lips and turned to the second page of the letter.

After Queen Mary finished talking about her household affairs, she brought up an interesting thing she had encountered not long ago - Count Stroganov, the Russian ambassador to France, was obviously drunk and said that their emperor admired France's "Swedish Plan" ”, but also to support our claims to the Low Countries. In the end, Stroganov actually said that as long as the Russian army can cross Poland and support us on the east side of Austria to seize the Rhine... Look what he is saying. But he is an excellent diplomat after all. Even after drinking so much, he can still speak clearly...

Joseph couldn't help but narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw this. He personally proposed the "Swedish Plan" and asked Talleyrand to use it to deceive the Russians.

This was obviously Catherine II's response to France, and it was definitely not the Russian ambassador who drank too much.

What he didn't expect was that Yeka's appetite was so huge. Not only did he want Sweden and Poland, he even wanted to carve up Germany with France!

She really deserves to be the most courageous woman at the end of the 18th century.

To be honest, Joseph was even moved by Yeka's proposal for a few seconds.

If France acquires all the rich lands in Western Europe west of the Rhine, including the Netherlands and Belgium, it will definitely also acquire Italy - if Austria has no time to take care of itself, weak Italy will be a piece of meat for France - then France will definitely Will soar into the sky and become the true overlord of Europe!
However, he quickly calmed down and shook his head away from these unrealistic thoughts.

Yeka obviously wanted France to attract firepower to facilitate Russia's expansion.

Look at the places Russia wants - Sweden, Poland, and even the northeastern Balkans. These are places far away from the core of Europe. Even if it takes it, Britain, Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and other European countries Even if major countries are unhappy, they may not choose to intervene due to cost factors.

As for the benefits "allocated" to France by Yeka, whether in the Low Countries or along the Rhine River, these are the lungs of the European powers. They will definitely use all their national strength to fight against France!
Joseph grabbed the messenger and asked in a deep voice: "How did Her Majesty the Queen reply to the Russian Ambassador?"

The latter only said that Count Bobulinski and Grand Duchess Alexandra were also present that day. As for what they said, he did not know at all.

It’s no wonder that in order to keep it secret, Stroganov carefully avoided all formal occasions, even balls. He specifically chose to have a close discussion with Queen Mary at the art exhibition, just to avoid being overheard.

Joseph shook his head and sighed. Catherine II sent her illegitimate son and granddaughter, which showed that she really wanted to facilitate this matter. Although judging from the tone of my mother's letter, she was just talking nonsense as the Russian ambassador, and she probably didn't agree, but I was afraid that she would suddenly become hot-headed.

Joseph hurriedly wrote a reply to Queen Mary, mainly asking her not to reply to the Russians. Then he gave it to the messenger and ordered him to send it back to Versailles as quickly as possible.

Looking at the back of the messenger, Joseph couldn't help but fall into deep thought. It seemed that in the future, regarding national strategic matters, he had to communicate with his mother in advance, otherwise it would be troublesome to clean up if there was a big mess.

He immediately thought that although Yeka's suggestion could not be agreed, she could use her ambition to seek strategic interests for France.

It’s just that you have to think carefully about how to operate it.

Joseph picked up the "Plan for Promoting Russian-French Trade" on the table. The main content was that Yeka hoped to further increase Russian-French trade to reduce dependence on British trade. Obviously the rising trade volume of Twin Trading Company recently aroused her interest.

Joseph couldn't help but shook his head slightly when he saw the unoriginal clauses on the document.

France's current demand for raw materials is only that large, and the Russian market cannot be completely open to France, so the current transaction volume between the two parties has basically reached saturation.

Russia does have a lot of coal and iron resources, but it is too far from France and the transportation cost is very high. Otherwise, it can be purchased in large quantities.

He was about to throw the document aside, but suddenly thought of something, and couldn't help but whisper to himself: "No, the transportation cost is high, then localization operations can be carried out..."

He immediately recalled the British business case in Russia in the 19th century.

At that time, Russia failed in the Crimean War, and the Tsar realized the importance of the steel industry and the urgency of developing the areas adjacent to Crimea.

At this time, there was a British entrepreneur named John Hughes. Because it was too hard to work in the UK, he wanted to try his luck in Russia. As a result, he noticed that the Donbas region north of Crimea is extremely rich in coal and iron resources, but it has not been effectively exploited at all.

So he signed a contract with the tsarist government, invested a sum of money in Donbas, and personally brought more than a hundred British workers here to open mines and build factories.

At a time when Russia was vigorously building its Baltic fleet, Hughes's ironworks continuously sold steel to Russian shipyards and made a lot of money. And eventually expanded his ironworks into a sizable city.

It wasn't until nearly a century later, when the October fortune-telling broke out, that Hughes' investment myth finally came to an end.

And the current coal and iron resources have not even been explored in the Donbas region. If you invest at this time, the cost will definitely be lower than that of Hughes. It is estimated that for the price of buying wasteland, you can buy high-quality coal and iron ore.

Then a factory was built locally to mine, and the refined crude ingots were transported back to France for refining.

Unused coal can be burned into coke and shipped back to France, or even sold locally to make money.

The factory employed Russians, and no matter how poor the wages were, there was no need to worry about them causing trouble - the Tsar was never lenient to those who made trouble in his own country.

Of course, iron smelting plants in Russia can only use older technologies to prevent the rapid improvement of Russia's industrial level.

Simply a huge profit!
Moreover, if the mining and factory are completed together, it can also increase Russia's tax revenue and help build the rear of Crimea. Crimea is Russia's most important port, allowing Russia to have a maritime trade channel with the European continent. Successive tsars attached great importance to this place. However, it was not until Catherine II defeated Osman that she completely controlled the outlet of the Black Sea.

If France can help Russia stabilize its rule over Crimea - building surrounding cities and attracting more people to settle is the best way to rule - then Yeka will definitely be grateful to France.

Historically, the Tsar has always had a protective attitude towards Hughes' investment, which is enough to illustrate the problem.

A smile flashed at the corner of Joseph's mouth. In this case, he had to ask Catherine II what she wanted, otherwise she might feel guilty.

So he picked up a pen and wrote at the back of the "Trade Plan" document: France expresses its appreciation and support for the provisions of the above plan...

At the same time, in order to promote the traditional friendship between Russia and France, France has decided to encourage its investors and factory owners to go to Crimea for construction... It will only invest, not involve any political or military content, and comply with Russian tax and trade laws...

I hope that His Majesty the Tsar can provide appropriate assistance to France on matters involving North Africa...

After dealing with the Russian affairs, Joseph opened Brian's letter and read it carefully.

The chief minister first reported on the recent general situation in France item by item in the letter, and asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to make a decision on matters that he was undecided about.

Then, he talked about the huge expenses of recent foreign military operations. Due to various unforeseen circumstances, the overall expenditure was 12% higher than expected, but it is still within the tolerance of the fiscal system. But if we continue to use troops abroad like this, it is expected that there will be financial problems by the end of the year at best.

This was not unexpected by Joseph, but he did not plan to engage in foreign war for a long time. At least in North Africa, things should turn around soon. The increase in local tax revenue in the Southern Netherlands can alleviate a large amount of financial pressure.

Overall, they are all within control.

He continued to look down.

In the last part of the letter, Brian reported the latest plan for farmers to redeem their land discussed at the cabinet meeting.

Joseph frowned subconsciously. This redemption plan had been revised three times, but none of them was satisfactory.

Yes, although he has previously promoted the abolition of the feudal privileges of the French nobility, his policy on how farmers can redeem their land has not yet been announced.

Therefore, for farmers, they are only exempted from paying some small taxes such as mill tax, oven tax, and hunting tax. The core land issue has not been truly implemented. This is also the core of their previous lack of enthusiasm for the abolition of feudal privileges. reason.

However, how to redeem the land is an extremely difficult matter, and it will definitely affect the whole country.

(End of chapter)