Xinshun 1730

Chapter 658 Glorious Restoration

When the seven-provincial republic held a one-year meeting in order to centralize power a little bit and nothing came out, William did nothing and did not act; At the time of the lunar frame, William still did nothing and did not act; when the last field standing army of the Republic of the Seven Provinces was abolished, leaving only the fortress garrison in the southern Netherlands region, William still did nothing, let alone act .

Now, he yelled out bold words to march to Amsterdam.

Because he took the initiative to do things and had to make promises.

But now, he didn't make any promises. He was invited by the Dutch people, not after he promised policies and reforms, he went by himself.

No initiative, no rejection, no responsibility.

He has no ambitions.

His wife's ambition is to be pro-British and anti-French.

The only ambitious Earl of Bentinck in the Orange faction imagined imitating the Ming Dynasty's cabinet system and imagining the future, only thinking that today is a perfect start.

As long as they can defeat France in such an advantageous diplomatic situation, and even make France pay compensation and humiliate France, the Orange family will once again have unlimited prestige in the army.

Only with prestige and guns can we reform, centralize power, reform taxes, and gradually evolve into the cabinet secretary system of the Ming Dynasty.

The first step into Amsterdam is very simple.

From Friesland to Amsterdam, it is very close, even closer than from Tianjin Wei to the capital Jiumen.

William IV has long been the richest man in the Netherlands by relying on the inheritance of his offspring and inheriting the estates and manors of his distant relatives by Shinra.In the Netherlands, money is easy to do.

Friesland itself is the stronghold of the Orange faction. He is a lifelong provincial governor in three provinces. He has money and soldiers in his hands. He has a force of about 2000 people.

There are no troops in Amsterdam, nor is there a field regiment in the hands of the Inter-Provincial Parliament. The few troops are all squatting on the southern border to guard the fort.

It was not so much a march on Amsterdam as an armed march on Amsterdam.

The people are supportive, but the slogans they shout and the grievances they vent are a little scary.

Worried about the amazement of the most powerful people in the Netherlands, Earl Bentinck suggested: "Before marching, we should quickly go to Amsterdam and other places for activities."

"Tell those big businessmen that we will continue the past policy. We will neither increase inheritance tax nor increase progressive tax. The military expenditure can be solved by loans, and the national debt can be purchased by the enthusiasm of the people. Please rest assured, the people are crying Those, the ones we desire, we will never obey those troublemakers."

"We must make it clear that what we should announce most is to declare war on France, not internal reforms. Even if we want to reform, we must have the support of the army and sufficient prestige after victory."

"As for the trade with Dashun, this is just an introduction. We can handle it in a low-key manner and continue the signed treaty. Anyway, Liu Yu is going to the Palace of Versailles, and he will return to China soon. We can tell the public that we will send People go to China to talk to them, but in reality ... just pretend to let the people know that we are fighting."

These few words can be described as a strategic plan, pointing directly to the essence.

Whoever dares to attack the merchant class in the Netherlands will not be a consul.Just like whoever dares to take action against the landlords of the Celestial Dynasty will not be able to be the emperor.

William III, William II, these people who have fought all their lives, exploded in prestige, and even served as the king of England, don't they also feel unstable when they are ready to centralize power?William IV's current conditions are far worse than those of the previous generations of the family. He knows that if he wants to centralize power, he will eventually have to fight against businessmen and oligarchs, but at least now is not the time.

William agreed with Bentinck's idea very much. In fact, he actually knew his two brushes, and also knew Earl Bentinck's loyalty to the Orange family.It wasn't until after his death that his English wife finally forced Count Bentinck to say goodbye to politics, and he lived in seclusion from then on, watching the Netherlands being eaten up by the regent female consul's natal England.

But at this time, William was not dead yet, so he had a lot of advice, and quickly sent people to inform some important people in various cities that some basic policies would not be changed.

Here we must quietly promise to the big businessmen, and here we must rely on the anger of the Dutch people.

Earl Bentinck's meaning is very clear: for people, not for things.

The general direction of the policy is correct.

Wrong, it is the Great Speaker, those Regency factions.

Reform is impossible now, but the anger of the people must be vented on the Great Speaker who is now in power.

Outside the manor, more and more people were holding high the Orange flag.

William and others walked out of the manor. Facing the turbulent public opinion, Earl Bentinck thanked the people for their support "with enthusiasm", and pushed his attitude of "to people, not to things" to the extreme.

"Citizens of the Netherlands! 70 years ago, a similar story unfolded, and the French were about to break into Amsterdam."

"At this critical moment, the heroic people of the Netherlands stormed into the Inter-Provincial Parliament and killed the Grand Speaker John de Witt."

"People in Amsterdam hated him, cut off his body piece by piece with a knife, and sold it to the citizens of Amsterdam at the price of ten coppers a piece. The citizens ate his meat one after another to vent their hatred in their hearts."

The story of eating meat to vent anger happened in the Netherlands 70 years ago, and it happened in Daming more than 30 years earlier.It's almost the same script, before the enemy army attacked the capital, they would eat meat alive.

The Dutch chose to dig the embankment and elected William III, which finally blocked the British and French allied forces, and even made William III the king of England in the end. Britain tried to challenge the hegemony of France for the first time.

The scene today is not the same as it was then, but there are many similarities.

What Earl Bentinck wants to evoke is the people's illusory memory of the past.

"Seventy years ago, the people of the Netherlands chose the Orange family and saved the Republic from the brink of destruction."

"60 years ago, the Orange family landed in England, and the Kamikaze sheltered and saved the British Protestants. It was called 'Protestant Kamikaze'."

"Now, 60 years have passed. Once again, the old France has occupied the Austrian Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam..."

Catholicism always likes to talk about the divine right of kings, but Protestantism is similar, and will fabricate some magical myths.

Perhaps the word "Kamikaze" will appear in any island country close to the mainland.

The "Kamikaze" in Protestant countries refers to two times in particular. What is amazing is that these two kamikazes happen to be separated by a hundred years.

In 1588, the Spanish fleet attacked England, encountered kamikaze, and finally failed.

A hundred years later, in 1688, the British invited the Netherlands to enter the customs and go to England to become king in order to protect the interests of Protestantism.

It was also a kamikaze, and the British fleet could not touch it at all. William III crossed the strongest wall in Europe-the British Navy without loss.

There are no gods in the world, but coincidences and superstitions make them gods.

Just like if the fate of the Han Dynasty is endless, and the prime minister succeeds in the Northern Expedition and returns to the old capital, and rejuvenates the Han Dynasty, I am afraid that there will be no one in the world who is not surnamed Liu who dares to covet the high position.

So did the Orange family.

During the 80 Years War, Prince Maurice of the Orange family successfully reformed the military, making the Netherlands a European military power in one fell swoop.

More than a hundred years ago, the Dutch drove away the Orange family, but they were attacked by the anti-Dutch alliance of Sweden, Britain, and France.

At the critical moment, William III of the Orange family stepped forward again, and the angry people killed the Great Speaker alive.

When people began to miss the Orange family, miraculous scenes appeared one after another.

The Great Fire of London; the British Plague; an unexpected high tide; the Dutch fleet broke into London and successfully raided the naval port; the Tessel Sea Battle 75 Dutch battleships defeated the Anglo-French combined fleet of 130 battleships and 92 battleships with fewer victories; half a month after the naval battle ended, Spain, The Holy Roman Empire, joined the Netherlands, and organized an anti-French alliance.

Then there was the Glorious Revolution in England, when the kamikaze blew, William III crossed the Great Wall of England without any hindrance, and the Netherlands lost a major enemy since then.

The Orange family is a "miracle of God", "Protestant god wind", "Protestant savior", and even the father of Frederick the Great, who is eight feet away, is still thinking about giving himself an Orange blood, and wants to snatch it. The title of Protestant savior.

On the one hand, it is like a miracle.

On the one hand, the Orange family was driven away for the first time, and the country was almost destroyed by the British and French coalition forces; the Orange family was driven away for the second time, and it has lasted for 40 years. The Netherlands has continued to decline. It can be seen with the naked eye that there has been no war in Amsterdam for 40 years and the population has not increased. anti-decrease.

The core reason is what the instructor said "commercial capital is subordinate to industrial capital".

But these days, no Dutchman can understand this truth. Their perceptual and ignorant perception is that the Orange family is the savior of the Netherlands.As long as the Orangemen are in power, everything will be fine.

Earl Bentinck's speech also captured this point.

"For people, not for things".

Then it is to be air-to-air, to add some sanctity to some bloodlines.People are not equal, so it makes sense to be holy, so as long as you change to someone with holy blood, everything will be fine.

If it's true, then it's troublesome.

Political commitments, you have to talk about something realistic.How to change the tax system?How to centralize power?Who will pay for the military expenses?Tax rate unchanged?How to control industrial and commercial capital?

If these things were to be promised to the people, the Orange family would not be able to secure the seat of consul.

In the end, Earl Bentinck began to beat the blood of this kind of empty speech that was "not right to people" and said all meaningless nonsense.

"The Orange family has never sought the throne of consul."

"But when the motherland is threatened, when our Protestant faith is confronted with a Catholic counterattack, when the dignity of the motherland is trampled, when the people of the motherland are threatened, the Orange family will always stand up."

"If only sitting in the seat of consul can better seek the interests of the motherland and better serve the people of the motherland, the Orange family will not be timid and hypocritical."

"For 200 years, every time the Interprovincial Republic was in danger, people always pushed the Orange family up; every time the danger was lifted, the Orange family was let go."

"But the Orange family has never had the slightest complaint and respects the people's choice!"

"In the words of His Royal Highness William III of Orange, the savior of Protestantism and our hero to protect the country:"

【My country is very dangerous, but I will not stand by and watch him fail, because I will die in the last trench of the United Provinces】

"Today, the Orange family will stand up again, the same sentence! The Orange family will not watch their motherland fail, because the members of the Orange family will die in the last trench of the United Provinces." !"

"Let us march to Amsterdam; let us save our country together; let us defend our Protestant faith together; let us return to the golden age of the Federal Republic!"

The speeches are all nonsense. They neither mention how to reform, nor where the military expenditure will come from, let alone political reform and how to centralize power. They are all air-to-air nonsense.

But these air-to-air nonsense are exactly what the small producers, guild masters, wealthy farmers, and petty bourgeois citizens around the manor like to hear the most.

"Hoera!"

"Heil Oranje!"

The moved citizens burst into tears, shouted the greetings from the ancient Roman era, and cheered Long Live the Orange Family.

Two thousand soldiers began to assemble, and more citizens followed on both sides of the team, marching along the main road towards Amsterdam.

Along the way, there was no resistance, as long as they were close to the town, the flag of the Orange family would be hung on the bell tower of the church.

Without bloodshed, the consul throne, vacant for 40 years, finally ushered in its owner.

The Netherlands finally chose the color that the Netherlands should have - orange, Oranje, and may always miss orange as its national color.It was the color of the Dutch Golden Age, and it was the afterglow of a Dutch sunset.

(End of this chapter)