I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1442 Winter in Switzerland

half a month later.

The warm breeze of early winter from the Eastern Mediterranean swept in through the window. Talleyrand's assistant, Delatte, brushed his wind-blown hair aside and couldn't help but think of the 3 franc draft in his pocket.

That was the "special Egyptian allowance" that the Foreign Minister gave him yesterday.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally picked up the draft of the "Cairo Investment and Technology Agreement" from the table, turned around and went to Talleyrand, who was sipping tea, and said seriously, "Sir, I still feel that these terms seem... not appropriate enough. Are you really sure this is His Highness the Crown Prince's intention?"

It wasn't that he was paranoid; the terms of the agreement were truly astonishing. For example, the clause that "ensures Egypt to build an ordnance factory within one year with the capacity to produce 15 cannons weighing more than 8 pounds per month, and to have the ability to independently cast 18-pound cannons."

He now strongly suspects that Talleyrand was bribed by the Egyptians and thus made promises to them without their consent.

Talleyrand glanced at him and chuckled, “That’s of course His Highness’s decision. What are you worried about?”

Delat gritted his teeth and said, "If this agreement is implemented, a powerful nation will soon emerge on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean."

"That Muhammad de Furtdal clearly has enormous ambitions, and if he expands westward, it will bring great trouble to our country."

Talleyrand nodded. Indeed, if Egypt possessed advanced industrial technology, France would have to pay a very high price to control its expansionist ambitions.

However, he calmly sipped his tea: "To be honest, I don't understand the Crown Prince's intentions either. But in my experience, it won't be long before we realize that Your Highness is the right one."

If Joseph had overheard their conversation, he would have praised Delat's sense of responsibility and told him that there was no need to worry about Egypt's industrialization.

Because Egypt simply does not possess the conditions to become an independent industrialized nation.

Firstly, Egypt has almost no coal or iron ore deposits, and it also lacks them within its reach on land.

Therefore, Egypt's industrial development must rely on external supplies of coal and iron. Currently, the Mediterranean coast is under French control.

In other words, if Mohammed Ali really dares to turn against them, all the factories in Egypt will have to shut down the next day.

In fact, after France took control of the Ruhr region, which is the coal mines surrounding Westphalia, it began to have a surplus of coal and iron resources.

At this point, they either had to sell the coal and iron to the German states or endure the ever-decreasing profits in the mining areas.

Exporting coal and iron to Egypt was the third option, and the most advantageous for France—Mohammed Ali, eager to develop his industry, was certainly willing to offer very good prices for French coal and iron.

Secondly, if Egypt wants to excavate the Suez Canal in the future, it will need to have a certain level of industrial capacity.

At the very least, we can't let things be like they were in the past, where even a single screw had to be shipped from France to Egypt.

Now, with the aid of Egypt in building arsenals and ironworks, tools such as shovels, picks, and wheelbarrows can be mass-produced, and even steam engines can be repaired.

At the same time, the large number of Egyptian workers who have worked in factories will be far more organized, trained, and skilled than farmers. They will be the main force in the canal construction.

With these industrial bases in place, the cost of digging a canal will be significantly reduced.

Finally, Joseph was not at all worried that Egypt would covet the neighboring French provinces of Tripoli.

Not to mention that Egypt still relies on France to ensure the operation of its industry, if Mohammed Ali wanted to expand, he would definitely choose the rich Ottoman Empire to the east.

A westward advance towards Tripoli would first require traversing the long and desolate Cyrenaica region, followed by encountering the powerful French army. Even without deploying elite French troops, the Tunisian garrison alone could easily subdue the Egyptian army. Historically, after gaining sufficient power, Mohammed Ali also chose to immediately invade and occupy the Ottoman province of Syria, leading to two separate "Turkish-Egyptian Wars."

This is the war Joseph needs.

No one can guarantee that Egypt won't break the agreement to lend Suez to France—even if it won't now, it might not do so in a few decades or a century.

Therefore, the best-case scenario is that Egypt and the Ottoman Empire are on the verge of war on both sides of Suez. In this situation, the weaker party will inevitably invite France to act as a mediator.

France will use various means to ensure that the border between the two countries lies on both sides of Suez.

If this situation persists for too long, both countries might even beg France to station troops along the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea in order to avoid repeated outbreaks of war.

As for whether Egypt and the Ottoman Empire will coexist peacefully?
This is absolutely impossible.

As an Albanian outsider, Muhammad Ali ruled Egypt through violence, so he had to constantly seek more benefits to feed his arrogant and unruly soldiers, otherwise he would soon face a backlash.

The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, would never accept Egypt's independence. Even if Muhammad Ali didn't take action, Constantine's forces, once accumulated, would eventually come to reclaim Egypt.

Seeing that the Foreign Minister spoke with such certainty, Derat did not dare to question him further, but he still secretly decided to write a separate report to His Highness the Crown Prince explaining the situation in Egypt.

……

1800 10 Month 10 Day.

Aarau, Switzerland.

This place is located at the northernmost end of the Jura Mountains. Continuing east across the Reuss River will take you to Zurich.

Under the cold sunlight, an Austrian army in gray uniforms was moving listlessly northwest around the foot of the mountain.

In the middle of the column, a captain with sunken eyes and wrinkles on the sides of his nose lit his pipe and turned to ask the lieutenant next to him, "Gold, any news about pay?"

The latter shook his head dejectedly: "Not yet, Company Commander. But this morning the regimental staff sent someone to inform us that the daily wine ration will be reduced by a quarter from now on."

His uncle was the legion's logistics officer's attendant and had access to the latest news.

The captain frowned, turned to look at the soldiers around him, and muttered under his breath, "Hopefully we'll run into those damned rebels soon... If this keeps up, who knows how much longer we can hold out."

His soldiers hadn't received their pay for three months, and morale was at rock bottom. The lieutenant reported desertions to him almost every day.

Gold pulled the captain away from the other soldiers before lowering his voice and saying, "I heard that after the tax reform, tax collectors are collecting less than half the amount of taxes they used to."

"Not to mention us, even officials in Vienna only receive two-thirds of their salary."

The captain took a deep drag on his cigarette: "How come those guys aren't even as good as those damned tax farmers?"

"They are far worse than the tax farmers. It is said that those merchants dare to gang up on tax officials. In some remote areas, tax officials have even been killed by the roadside."

(End of this chapter)