I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1033 The United States is ready to take action

Lavalette was still a little uncomfortable with the prince's wild imagination. He was stunned for a moment and said in embarrassment, "Your Highness, but now all British investment funds have been approved. The next one will have to wait until half a year later."

"Isn't there still a parliamentary review?" Joseph said, "Let the parliamentarians veto a few and leave 80 in funds."

"This... But their parliamentary review is just a formality. Once the management committee approves it, the parliament will most likely sign it."

"With a little money, they'll find a way."

Lavalette was even more embarrassed: "Your Highness, this matter involves more than a dozen people, and they are all officials, so even if they are given money, they probably won't dare to accept it."

With such a large amount of money involved and too many people involved, it would be easy for the bribe to leak out, unless you could establish connections with all of these people at the same time, which was obviously impossible.

Joseph smiled. Although the bureaucrats of this era were greedy and ruthless, they were not as good as their counterparts in later generations in terms of "skills".

He immediately gave Lavalette some instructions, and the latter was already wide-eyed with shock, with only one thought in his mind - How could he actually do this? !
Joseph glanced at him and said half-jokingly, "Don't try this method yourself. I told Mr. Mara about this a few years ago."

Lavalette was startled and stood up straight, saying, "I will always be honest and loyal to Your Highness!"

Joseph smiled and patted him: “Relax, why are you so humorless?”

As he was speaking, he saw Berthier and Talleyrand walking quickly towards him.

The two men came closer and bowed one after another, and then Talleyrand said first: "Your Highness, Madrid has encountered some troubles."

The Chief of the General Staff immediately replied: "Count Aranda requested that the plan to increase troops be postponed for at least three months."

Joseph frowned immediately: "What happened?"

According to the Franco-Spanish coalition's combat plan, troops will be gradually increased after the spring sowing this year until the Coimbra front reaches a size of 7 Spanish troops and 5 French troops.

This was a countermeasure as additional British expeditionary forces continued to arrive in Portugal.

Currently, the Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces in Coimbra have reached 4 people, and will eventually exceed 5.

Once Wellesley had built a group of bastions around Coimbra - just as he had done at Porto - he could launch raids everywhere.

Therefore, before that, the Franco-Spanish coalition must maintain sufficient military advantage, otherwise, with the Spanish combat effectiveness, it would be easy to suffer a local collapse.

Talleyrand said hurriedly: "Your Highness, about 2000 American militiamen are gathering in the lower Mississippi River and threatening to attack New Orleans.

"The Count of Aranda wants to transfer the troops originally sent to Coimbra to North America."

Joseph's eyes gradually turned cold, but the American was still as unwilling to be lonely as ever. And the timing was so accurate that no one would believe that it was not intentional.

But this was already 1795, and it was indeed the time when the United States began to accelerate its westward expansion plan.

Talleyrand then introduced the recent situation in North America. Joseph then learned that just three months ago, 2000 U.S. troops under the command of Anthony Wayne annihilated the Indian Confederacy led by Little Turtle at the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio [Note 1].

The U.S. government then pursued the fleeing Indian tribes along the Mississippi River all the way to the Spanish stronghold downstream.

The Spanish took in the Indians according to the secret agreement with them. The Indian Alliance of Little Turtle was also established with the help of Spain. After the United States failed to ask Spain to hand over the Indians, it decided to directly solve the problem of the navigation rights of the Mississippi.

The Mississippi River is a large river running from north to south, and its estuary is the Port of New Orleans on the westernmost side of Florida.

Since the infrastructure of the United States is very poor, this river is the lifeline of foreign trade for the entire western provinces of the United States. It is also a roadblock on the road to the west.

The U.S. government had begun to encroach on Indian tribes along the Mississippi River several years ago, and was also planning to occupy Louisiana on the west bank of the river.

It is currently a Spanish colony.

However, the Spanish empire was already on its last legs at this time, and there were less than 1 people in the entire Louisiana - not the army, but all the colonists, including men, women, young and old.

In addition, there were 2 black slaves and three to four thousand mixed-race people.

The Spanish garrison in Louisiana had less than 1 soldiers all year round, and faced with the aggressive Americans, they could only retreat into their strongholds to defend themselves.

In order to prevent the United States from getting involved in Louisiana, the Spanish tightly controlled the navigation rights of the Mississippi River and restricted American merchant ships from going out to sea through the Port of New Orleans.

This slowed down the growth of American towns along the Mississippi coast, but it made Americans very unhappy.

So the Americans took advantage of the war between the Indians and the United States to attack New Orleans.

Joseph vaguely remembered that historically it seemed that at the end of this year, Spain surrendered to the United States and signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, ceding the colony north of Florida to the United States and promising the United States the right of free navigation on the Mississippi River and the right to warehouse in the port of New Orleans.

From then on, the United States developed faster and faster along the Mississippi coast. A few years later, neither Spain nor Napoleon could stop the United States from occupying Louisiana.

"The expansion of the United States in Mississippi must be stopped." Joseph said in a deep voice.

He knew very well what kind of monster the United States would grow into in the future if it was not kept firmly in its cradle.

Moreover, the Americans often secretly flirted with the British to support the British strategy in Europe. For example, this time, they successfully contained the deployment of the Franco-Spanish coalition forces in Coimbra.

Children in North America are almost forgetting who their real founding father is. It’s time to remind them again.

Talleyrand seemed very excited when he heard this: "Your Highness, do you mean that we want to intervene in North America?

"This is really a great opportunity to take back Louisiana."

Yes, Louisiana was originally a French colony, given to them by France in an effort to win over Spain during the Seven Years War.

"Not taking it back," Joseph corrected, "but waiting for Madrid to ask them to hand it over to us."

He turned to Berthier and said, "Please tell Count Aranda to send the troops to Coimbra as scheduled. I will help him deal with the North American affairs."

[Note 1] Little Turtle was the leader of the Shawnee Indians. He was a skilled warrior and had defeated the American army led by Wayne at St. Clair in 1791.

(End of this chapter)