I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1015 Fulcrum
Half a month later, Muhammad Ali's "gang" had crossed the Stara Mountains in southern Serbia and appeared in the city of Cravajo in southwestern Wallachia.

There were less than 500 defenders in the city and they were unable to stop him.

After entering the city, Muhammad Ali immediately ordered a looting, but only allowed Romanians, especially Catholics, to be robbed, and it was strictly forbidden to harass the "Phanar" nobles.

The political structure of Wallachia was as follows: the Phanar nobles were of Greek descent and were sent by the Ottoman Sultan to govern Wallachia 70 or 80 years ago. They spoke Greek, believed in the Orthodox Church, and monopolized the bureaucracy of Wallachia.

The Romanians, who were numerous, had always been dissatisfied with Fanar. The nobles among them were called "boyars".

After Austria took control of Wallachia, some boyars converted to Catholicism and became Austrian agents.

At present, Fanar is barely holding on due to political inertia, while the Catholic Romanians are constantly eroding their power.

The Orthodox Romanians were exploited by both sides, and they would revolt for no reason, and then they were suppressed by both sides.

Two days later, Muhammad Ali continued to head north with countless gold, silver and treasures, and left 20% of the loot to the Fanar nobles, the "servants of the Sultan."

When the news spread, the Fanar nobles in the towns along the way opened their city walls to welcome the Agha's army. Thousands of people even brought their own weapons to join Muhammad Ali's team, trying to get some benefits.

When the "plundering army" arrived at Vâlcea, an important town in central and western Wallachia, Austrian officials in Bucharest finally responded by sending 3 soldiers to the west to intercept this group of "Albanian bandits."

There were only 4 defenders in Bucharest, and it was impossible to send more. However, in the minds of the Austrians, 3 people were enough to deal with 2 Albanian tribal soldiers - Archduke Karl had just defeated the 11 Ottoman army, and now was the time when they were full of confidence.

Muhammad Ali, on his part, did not engage the Austrian army head-on. Instead, he divided his men into three groups - at this time, his force was close to 3 - and sent them to various parts of Wallachia with only one mission, which was to plunder the Romanians crazily.

With the huge profits from the looting, the enthusiasm of both the Albanians and the "Fanar" in the three "legions" was extremely high. They could advance more than 20 kilometers a day, and soon seven or eight towns fell.

Moreover, their military strength was increasing. Not only the "Phanars", but even the Romanians who could speak Greek joined in and robbed people from other towns. During the reign of Phanar, Greek was the official language and many Romanians learned it.

At this time, Muhammad Ali had actually lost command of these troops, but he didn't care at all. He took more than 1 of the strongest soldiers and the 3 cannons and quietly retreated to Cravayo.

The Austrian army sent by Bucharest was soon divided into two teams, rushing to Lokerique and Severin respectively to quell the rebellion.

After receiving the news, Muhammad Ali immediately bypassed the Danube River in the south and launched an attack on Bucharest, which had no defense.

In this way, he relied on just 20,000 Albanian tribal soldiers to change the situation in the entire Wallachia.

……

London.

Number 10 Downing Street.

Young Pitt was discussing with Lord Grenville the problems they might encounter in their speech to Parliament when they saw Foreign Secretary Fox knocking on the door.

Fox glanced at little Pitt, bowed to Grenville and said, "I hope I am not disturbing you, Prime Minister."

"Oh, never mind, we're almost done. What do you want?" "One good news and one bad news, which one do you want to hear first?"

"Bad news," Grenville said. "This will give me more time to think about how to deal with it."

"The French refuse to sign the armistice agreement." The Foreign Minister spread his hands. "Now, we have to think about what reasons to use to lift the naval blockade."

According to their previous plan, Britain and France would conduct armistice negotiations in a decent manner. Britain would put forward some insignificant conditions, such as France would crack down on smuggling ships in the port of Ostend, and then Britain would withdraw the fleet that blockaded the French coast.

But the French negotiators rejected it without hesitation, demanding that Britain immediately and unconditionally lift the blockade, and France would not agree to any request.

Yes, Joseph was not in a hurry to make a ceasefire with Britain.

In a state of war, it was indeed difficult for French merchant ships to leave the Atlantic, but Britain could not even think about doing trade in Italy. Even British cargo ships passing through the Rhine would be stopped and inspected by the garrison of the Cologne Fortress from time to time, and the final decision on whether to let them go would depend on the face of the buyer.

Grenville sighed and said, "Let's say that at the request of a large number of countries that conduct maritime trade with France, our country has decided to end the blockade."

"Yes, Your Excellency, Prime Minister."

"So, what's the good news?"

Fox placed a document in front of him: "Prince Heinrich wants us to provide £70 in aid to deal with the Austrian army in Silesia."

Grenville frowned: "You call this good news?"

"It means that Prussia's dependence on us has deepened." Fuchs muttered, "I don't like to say 'Oh, there are two bad news.'"

Grenville shook his head. "We have many reform measures to implement now, which will require a lot of money. I think we should tighten our finances at this time and not intervene in the situation in Silesia."

Little Pitt said cautiously: "Prussia without Silesia will not be able to serve as our fulcrum on the European continent.

Grenville: "Seven hundred thousand pounds? God..."

Little Peter thought for a moment and said, "As far as I know, the Prussians are planning to expand the beet planting area by 3 to 5 times next year, and this money can be used to order sugarcane from them.

“Besides, they are in urgent need of military funds, so we can take the opportunity to lower the price.

"Once we get this batch of low-priced sugar, we will have the ability to stir the sugar price on the Paris Futures Exchange. We only need to lower the sugar price by 30%, no, even 20%, to significantly reduce the financial pressure."

Yes, if there is a large amount of spot sugar on hand, the British government can use white gloves to continuously sell low-priced contracts on the Paris Futures Exchange, thereby pushing the market price down.

At present, the British government needs to spend more than 260 million pounds in sugar subsidies every year to stabilize domestic sugar prices.

Grenville's frown finally relaxed a little:
"Then this money should be deducted from next year's sugar subsidy."

(End of this chapter)