I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 694 Dividends and Cutlery

As the British Army continued to lose troops due to disease, the black governments of Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles began to send troops to reinforce Saint Domingo.

They are all members of the "Caribbean Military Committee", and even if the strongest black regime in Saint-Domingue falls, other governments will only have the fate of being eliminated one by one by the British.

In addition, these islands had received assistance from Saint Domingo before, so they would naturally spare no effort to return the aid at this moment.

As a result, every day black volunteers from various islands boarded American merchant ships and gathered in Saint-Domingo in a steady stream.

American merchant ships also brought large amounts of food, clothing, medicine, and even military horses to support tens of thousands of black soldiers in Mount Duarte, who launched continuous harassment of the British army.

……

London.

Number 10 Downing Street.

"The situation seems quite serious." Lord Grenville placed Lord Cunningham's report on the table and looked at Little Pitt.

There is a sense of despair in this report.

Of the 7 soldiers in the expeditionary force, only more than 5 are currently able to maintain combat capability, while the others are suffering from various diseases.

In the past few months, only about 300 British soldiers have died in battle, while 530 have died of illness.

These numbers were from two months ago, and there are only more soldiers suffering from the disease now.

At the same time, although Marquis Cunningham occupied important towns on the island such as Port-au-Prince, Marion, and Magua, he was still unable to find the main force of the rebels.

He tried to go into the mountains to look for those black men, but was troubled by the damp and muddy environment and withdrew on his own initiative after half a month.

At the end of the report, Marquis Cunningham stated that unless London could send another 4 expeditionary forces to the Caribbean, he would be unable to defend Port-au-Prince in half a year at most.

"It's worse than the worst I could have imagined." Little Pete sighed. "By the way, you should have heard that Spain is also ready to recognize the government of the blacks. That means three major powers will recognize the independence of Saint Domingo."

Yes, after the Dutch, the Americans, driven by huge sugar profits, recognized the Republic of Saint-Domingue.

"Four," Grenville corrected. "France will soon do the same."

Petit nodded. "Yes. Frankly speaking, the French did play a better game this time."

After such a long period of game playing, if the British still cannot see that France is manipulating the situation in the Caribbean, then they really have no reason to sit on the throne of world hegemony.

"General Jervis and Lord Windham both advocate further reinforcements." He glanced at the Foreign Minister. "What do you think?"

Jervis was the Secretary of State for Naval War, and Wyndham was the former Secretary of State for War.

"If you want to grab everything, you will end up with nothing," Grenville said. "Saint Domingo is obviously a bottomless pit. We have already thrown in nearly 50 pounds, and have gained nothing except the casualties of soldiers. It's time to give up there."

Little Pete pressed the armrest of the chair hard, took a deep breath, and said, "But we need sugar."

"The solution is France," Grenville said without hesitation, "as long as France can be brought to its knees, we can ask them to sell beet sugar at a subsidized price.

"Even if black people in the Caribbean lose support, we can find a way to regain control there."

Little Pete smiled and said, "There is someone who has exactly the same opinion as you. Do you know who he is?"

"you?"

"No, the Marquis of Wellesley."

Grenville nodded: "I heard that his military reforms are going well."

“It would be much more productive if we didn’t have those old-timers holding us back.”

"So, we must speed up the process of launching the war?" "The problem now is that our allies haven't eaten their 'snacks' yet."

What Pitt the Younger was referring to was, of course, the partition of Poland by Prussia and Austria.

Grenville immediately said, "Then help them buy a new set of tableware. You know, this is a necessary expense."

Little Peter smiled and said, "I will have someone propose a budget of 50 pounds for tableware in Parliament the day after tomorrow. Please support it."

"This is a matter of duty."

Afterwards, the two men further elaborated on the terms of aiding Prussia and Austria, and then Grenville prepared to leave.

He had just taken a few steps when he suddenly remembered something and turned back to say, "By the way, Mr. Pitt, maybe we can get some 'dividends' back from the Caribbean."

"what do you mean?"

"Leave the Caribbean to the Americans," Grenville said. "We can't let the French control it."

Little Pete nodded thoughtfully: "It seems that you should go to Philadelphia."

"my pleasure."

……

Western Poland.

Poznan Province.

General Horn looked back at the fortress behind him and did not feel much sense of accomplishment.

The Poles were almost defenseless, with less than 600 soldiers stationed in the most important fortress in western Poland.

Just one day after Potsdam declared war on Poland, he led his army to easily capture it.

His Majesty the King must be regretting now that he should not have waited until now to take action.

Horne glanced westward. "Thank you, His Majesty King George III."

He really did speak from the heart.

This time, if the British had not demanded that William II send troops immediately in exchange for a low-interest loan of 25 pounds, the latter would have planned to wait until Russia destroyed the main Polish forces before declaring war.

The loan was said to be disbursed on a monthly basis and would be suspended if Prussia failed to achieve the military objectives agreed upon by both parties.

Horn looked towards the north again and said to himself, "At this rate, it shouldn't take two months. Maybe just one month."

The order given to him by William II was to occupy the entire Greater Poland region and the most important port of Gdansk within two months.

In the next three days, Horn led his 3 troops through Gniezno as if on a tour, and declared the occupation of the city without any fighting.

The Poles always naively trusted the Treaty of Popul and Prussia. Even though they removed Prussian officers from the military command system at the repeated request of the French Crown Prince, they did not believe that Prussia would launch an attack on them.

So much so that just ten days ago, Polish Foreign Minister Count Potocki went to Potsdam to meet with William II and asked the latter to send troops from East Prussia to help Poland resist Russian invasion.

William II flatly rejected him on the grounds that the "Polish Constitution" was passed without Prussia's permission.

Then, Horn's army stabbed Poland in the back.

At the combat meeting that night, Horn looked at the map of Poland in front of him and said to one of his generals, "General Hoepner, you lead the Stendal Corps, the Berlin Corps, and the 7th Royal Artillery Battalion to continue the attack in the direction of Kalisz."

He looked around at the other officers and said, "Everyone else, follow me north immediately and capture Gdansk as quickly as possible."

(End of this chapter)