Chapter 364 From Austria to Russia (Long Chapter)

Chapter 365 From Austria to Russia (Long Chapter)

Joseph would certainly not tell the Holy Roman Emperor that among the enemy troops in Brussels, there were more than 18,000 Southern Netherlands troops with little combat effectiveness, including the remnants of Witte whose morale had collapsed after being beaten by the Guards Corps, as well as farmers and vendors who were temporarily recruited.

Even the Dutch army was recruited during the uprising last year, and their combat effectiveness was basically not good.

The only ones who could really fight were the 13,000 people in Hanover, and there were no cavalry or artillery.

But the total number of 35,000 was all under the name of Charles II, which was enough to scare people.

Joseph's pen was still moving on the letter paper:

"In order to prevent the Southern Netherlands from falling into the hands of the rebels again, you need to send at least 20,000 soldiers here. And Prussia and Hanover may also send reinforcements here, so you'd better mobilize more troops to be safe.

Oh, there is another very important thing, dear uncle. Due to the threat of the Prussian army in the direction of Liege, our army's logistics supply has encountered great trouble. You know, vehicles transported from Luxembourg to Brussels must pass near Liege. This makes our army's logistics very vulnerable to attack. So I hope to collect military supplies locally in the Southern Netherlands, which can also save you some expenses."

A large part of the French army's current military expenditure in the Southern Netherlands is paid by Austria.

And if the French army can "collect supplies locally", it is equivalent to taking over the taxation of the Southern Netherlands. At the same time, some management positions must be set up to facilitate communication with the people and the transportation of supplies.

As for some "incompetent" Austrian officials, it becomes natural to let them temporarily hand over their powers during the war.

At the end of the letter, Joseph said righteously that France would give as much support as possible to Austria, including the preparation of sending more troops to the Brussels front, so please rest assured, His Majesty.

He knew very well that Austria and Prussia were fighting fiercely in Silesia at the moment, and anyone who dared to take a step back would have devastating consequences, so Joseph II wanted to transfer the Austrian army in the Southern Netherlands back, and it was absolutely impossible to send another 20,000 soldiers here.

Then Austria had only two choices left - 1. Lose the Southern Netherlands. 2. Export benefits to France and let the French army help stabilize the situation in the Southern Netherlands.

In fact, it was equivalent to having no choice. If the Southern Netherlands became independent, not only would the empire lose face and morale suffer a heavy blow, but the Southern Netherlands National Guard and the Dutch army would probably go to Silesia to reinforce the Prussians.

With this, Austria would not have to fight this war.

Joseph handed the letter to the messenger, and summoned a staff officer to go to Luxembourg to pass a message to the Austrian commander Leo.

As soon as he finished his work, Emman entered the tent with the messenger from Paris.

The latter saluted Joseph respectfully, and then took out two letters from his suitcase and handed them to Emman beside him.

Joseph took the letter from the attendant and read it carefully. One was sent by Archbishop Brian, and it should be to seek the opinion of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince on important matters that have happened in France recently, which is actually a work report.

The other one was written by Queen Marie, and it was also attached with a "Plan to Promote Russian-French Trade" submitted by the Russian ambassador.

He opened his mother's letter first, confused.

The first paragraph was as usual, saying that she missed her son so much that she had a headache, and then she was concerned about whether her son had eaten well in Luxembourg, whether he was sick, whether he was tired, and scolded him for forgetting to bring a cook...

Joseph felt the deep love in the letter, and his heart was warm. It seems that when my mother wrote the letter, I was still in Luxembourg. But it's just that it's no big deal to bring a few royal chefs to fight on the front line. They usually bring a few carts of kitchen utensils and ingredients...

Joseph suddenly thought that he could let the royal chefs cook nutritious meals for the wounded in the rear. On the one hand, the soldiers can feel the care and attention of the royal family, and on the other hand, my mother doesn't have to nag me about this every time.

He continued to look down.

Queen Marie told her son not to get too close to the front line in the letter, and let the generals take care of the war. There are so many generals in France.

Joseph couldn't help but sigh. In his mother's eyes, anyone is always just a fragile child.

"Well, in this case, just give me the rank of general."

He curled his lips and turned to the second page of the letter.

After Queen Marie finished her chatter, she mentioned an interesting thing she had encountered not long ago - Count Stroganov, the Russian ambassador to France, was obviously drunk and said that their emperor admired France's "Swedish Plan" and supported our claim to the Low Countries. In the end, Stroganov even said that as long as the Russian army could cross Poland and support us to seize the Rhine River on the east side of Austria... Look at what he said. But he is an excellent diplomat after all. Even after drinking so much, he can still speak clearly...

Joseph couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly when he saw this. The "Swedish Plan" was proposed by him personally and let Talleyrand use it to fool the Russians.

This was obviously Catherine II's response to France, and it was definitely not because the Russian ambassador was drunk.

What he didn't expect was that Yeka's appetite was so big that he not only wanted Sweden and Poland, but also wanted to divide Germany with France!

She really deserved to be the most courageous woman in the late 18th century.

To be honest, Joseph was even moved by Yeka's proposal for a few seconds.

If France gets all the rich lands in Western Europe west of the Rhine, including the Netherlands and Belgium, it will definitely get Italy as well - if Austria has no time to take care of itself, weak Italy will be a piece of meat for France - then France It will surely soar into the sky and become the true overlord of the European continent!

However, he quickly calmed down and shook his head away from these unrealistic thoughts.

Yeka obviously wanted France to attract firepower to facilitate Russia's expansion.

Look at the places Russia wants - Sweden, Poland, and even the northeastern Balkans. These are places far away from the core area of ​​Europe. Even if it takes it, Britain, Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and other European countries Even if major countries are unhappy, they may not choose to intervene due to cost factors.

As for the benefits "allocated" to France by Yeka, whether in the Low Countries or along the Rhine River, these are the lungs of the European powers. They will definitely use all their national strength to fight against France!

Joseph grabbed the messenger and asked in a deep voice: "How did Her Majesty the Queen reply to the Russian Ambassador?"

The latter only said that Count Bobulinski and Grand Duchess Alexandra were also present that day. As for what they said, he did not know at all.

It’s no wonder that in order to keep it secret, Stroganov carefully avoided all formal occasions, even balls, and chose to have a close discussion with Queen Mary at the art exhibition, just to avoid being overheard.

Joseph shook his head and sighed. Catherine II sent her illegitimate son and granddaughter, which showed that she really wanted to facilitate this matter.

Although judging from the tone of my mother's letter, she was just talking nonsense as the Russian ambassador, and she probably didn't agree, but I was afraid that she would suddenly become hot-headed.

Joseph hurriedly wrote a reply to Queen Mary, mainly asking her not to reply to the Russians. Then he gave it to the messenger and ordered him to send it back to Versailles as quickly as possible.

Looking at the back of the messenger, Joseph couldn't help but fall into deep thought. It seemed that he had to communicate with his mother in advance about national strategic matters in the future, otherwise it would be troublesome to clean up if there was a big mess.

He immediately thought that although Yeka's suggestion could not be agreed, she could use her ambition to seek strategic interests for France.

It's just that you have to think carefully about how to operate it.

Joseph picked up the "Plan for Promoting Russian-French Trade" on the table. The main content was that Yeka hoped to further increase Russian-French trade to reduce dependence on British trade. Apparently the rising trade volume of Twin Trading Company recently aroused her interest.

Joseph couldn't help but shook his head slightly when he saw the unoriginal clauses on the document.

France's current demand for raw materials is only that large, and the Russian market cannot be completely open to France, so the current transaction volume between the two parties has basically reached saturation.

Russia does have a lot of coal and iron resources, but it is too far from France and the transportation cost is very high. Otherwise, it can be purchased in large quantities.

He was about to throw the document aside, but suddenly thought of something, and couldn't help but whisper to himself: "No, the transportation cost is high, then localization can be carried out..."

He immediately recalled the British business case in Russia in the 19th century.

At that time, Russia failed in the Crimean War, and the Tsar realized the importance of the steel industry and the urgency of developing the areas adjacent to Crimea.

At this time, there was a British entrepreneur named John Hughes. Because it was too hard to work in the UK, he wanted to try his luck in Russia. As a result, he noticed that the Donbas region north of Crimea is extremely rich in coal and iron resources, but it has not been effectively exploited at all.

So he signed a contract with the tsarist government, invested a sum of money in Donbas, and personally brought more than a hundred British workers here to open mines and build factories.

At a time when Russia was vigorously building its Baltic fleet, Hughes's ironworks continuously sold steel to Russian shipyards and made a lot of money. And eventually expanded his ironworks into a sizable city.

It wasn't until nearly a century later, when the October fortune-telling broke out, that Hughes' investment myth finally came to an end.

And the current coal and iron resources have not even been explored in the Donbas region. If you invest at this time, the cost will definitely be lower than that of Hughes. It is estimated that for the price of buying wasteland, you can buy high-quality coal and iron ore.

Then a factory was built locally to mine, and the refined crude ingots were transported back to France for refining.

Unused coal can be burned into coke and shipped back to France, or even sold locally to make money.

The factory employed Russians, and no matter how poor the wages were, there was no need to worry about them causing trouble - the Tsar was never merciful to those who made trouble in his own country.

Of course, iron smelting plants in Russia can only use older technologies to prevent the rapid improvement of Russia's industrial level.

Simply a huge profit!

Moreover, the completion of mining and factories can also increase Russia's tax revenue and help build the rear of Crimea. Crimea is Russia's most important port, allowing Russia to have a maritime trade channel with the European continent. Successive tsars have attached great importance to it. However, it was not until Catherine II defeated Osman that she completely controlled the outlet of the Black Sea.

If France can help Russia stabilize its rule over Crimea - building surrounding cities and attracting more people to settle is the best way to rule - then Yeka will definitely be grateful to France.

Historically, the Tsar has always maintained a protective attitude towards Hughes' investment, which is enough to explain the problem.

Joseph's mouth flashed a smile. In this case, he had to ask Catherine II for something, otherwise she might feel guilty.

So he picked up a pen and wrote at the back of the "Trade Plan" document: France appreciates and supports the terms of the above plan...

At the same time, in order to promote the traditional friendship between Russia and France, France decided to propose that its investors and factory owners go to the Crimea area for construction... Only investment, no political or military content, and comply with Russian tax and trade laws...

I hope His Majesty the Tsar can provide appropriate assistance to France on matters related to North Africa...

After dealing with the Russian affairs, Joseph opened Brian's letter and read it carefully.

The Chief Minister first reported the recent general situation in France in the letter, and asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to make a decision on matters that he could not make up his mind.

Then he talked about the huge expenses of recent foreign military operations. Due to various unforeseen circumstances, the overall expenditure was 12% higher than expected, but it was still within the financial system's tolerance range for the time being. However, if the war continues, it is expected that the finances will have problems by the end of the year at most.

This was not beyond Joseph's expectations, but he did not plan to wage foreign wars for a long time. At least in North Africa, there should be a turnaround soon. And the local tax revenue in the Southern Netherlands will relieve a large part of the financial pressure.

Overall, it is within controllable range.

He continued to look down.

In the last part of the letter, Brian reported the latest plan for farmers to redeem land discussed at the cabinet meeting.

Joseph frowned subconsciously. This redemption plan has been revised three times, but none of them are satisfactory.

Yes, although he had promoted the abolition of the feudal privileges of the French nobility before, the policy on how farmers can redeem land has not yet been announced.

So for the farmers, they were only exempted from some small taxes such as mill taxes, oven taxes, and hunting taxes. The core land issue has not yet been truly implemented, which is also the core reason why they were not very enthusiastic about the abolition of feudal privileges before.

However, how to redeem the land is an extremely tricky matter, and it will definitely affect the entire country.