Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2069 Chaos in Europe

The sky is blue and the beach is beautiful.

In the ship repair yard in the port of Vlissingen, hundreds of Dutch workers are busy.They drilled at the bottom of the boat and used various tools to clean up the plankton that affected the speed of the ship. After cleaning up a piece, they used baskets to transport these things away.

It has to be said that this is a huge project.The fleet of the East Coasters stationed in Europe is huge, and they have been out to sea for a long time to perform missions. The number of plankton attached to the bottom of the ship is very large, and it is time to clean it carefully, otherwise the speed of the ship will not be guaranteed.After all, limited by financial factors, not every ship's bottom is covered with thin copper plates like the "Executive Committee" class.

Fortunately, Vlissingen is an important commercial port in Zeeland Province. There are several professional shipyards with strong repair and maintenance capabilities.Therefore, after the Admiralty in Amsterdam and Delft jointly paid for the repairs, the captain of Vlissingen vacated part of the dry dock so that the warships on the east coast could come in for repairs.

During maintenance, the East Coast Navy will of course send people to supervise to ensure that the Netherlands will not cause any damage to the hull or simply steal any technology.But really, it's not really necessary.The United Provinces are currently an ally of the East Coast Republic, and Zeeland Province, which has a strong commercial atmosphere, has always been the stronghold of the Republicans. The owners and workers of the shipyard have neither the motive nor the need to destroy the warships of the East Coast People.

As for stealing technology, it's actually not that easy.Europeans actually already know the principle of the propeller propulsion system in general, because it is not difficult, and they can understand the general idea just by looking at the appearance.But at present, they are stumped by the details, one is the problem of underwater sealing, and the other is the problem of machining accuracy of mechanical parts.

Among them, the former is easier to solve, because you only need to get the actual propellers manufactured on the east coast to study it roughly, and Europeans have had many large and small east-made propellers on hand for decades, compare them carefully, and imitate them Sixty to seventy percent is not a problem, the big deal is that the reliability and service life are almost nothing.It is the latter that is really difficult to solve, because this design has reached the level of basic industries, and the domestic metal smelting, processing and other industries need to reach an appropriate level as a whole, which is difficult for Europeans to achieve in the short term.

So, there's really nothing to be especially prepared for.Otherwise, don't you repair and maintain ships in Europe, and do everything by yourself?This is obviously unrealistic.

"The Dutch workers are quite quick," said Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, who had just come out of the dock.

"It's okay, after all, it is a veteran naval power, and its shipbuilding background is second to none in Europe. We have done repairs and maintenance at the famous Saldan shipyard in Amsterdam. The quality is really good and the speed is also very fast, but the price is a bit high. , Of course, we don’t need to worry about this.” Said Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen.

"Can all the work be completed before the end of August?" The two walked along the stone road in front of the shipyard, and gradually came to the beach. Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun lit a cigarette, looked at the puffins flying on the sea, and asked .

He actually meant something by asking this question.Because the United Provinces were recently involved in an armed conflict, the people on the east coast realized the seriousness of the matter, so they began to vigorously renovate the ship in order to maintain a good ship condition in the next six months to a year.At the same time, the Portuguese garrison, whose main force has already arrived in the United Provinces, also needs to be mobilized to deal with emergencies at any time, which undoubtedly requires the assistance of the navy.

The conflict that the Dutch were involved in was actually very simple. It was triggered by the war of aggression against the German region launched by King Louis XIV of France.A few months ago, because of the action against Cardinal Furstenberg in the Cologne area, the French ignored international morality and directly sent a regiment of infantry into Cologne, killing many innocent citizens, and thoroughly planned the situation.

Speaking of this Furstenberg, one cannot fail to mention the Cologne electorate dispute after the death of Cardinal Ferdinand a few years ago.At that time, Louis XIV pushed Furstenberg, who had been imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold, and did not hesitate to spend a lot of money in Cologne to create public opinion, and Furstenberg also secretly made a wish, and finally Elected with a high vote at the Regional Clergy Conference.

However, enough votes were not enough for Furstenberg to ascend to the throne of Elector of Cologne.Because according to the procedure, the pope needs to affix the "fisherman" seal on the document conferred by the bishop's jurisdiction-the pope's ring, which is also the seal, named after St. Peter's fishing picture engraved on it-the emperor of the empire signs it again, Sternberg's election is legitimate.

Of course the Pope will not stamp it!Because of Louis XIV's arrogance, the Holy See had been seriously insulted, and the feud between the two parties was very deep. Therefore, the Pope refused to recognize Furstenberg's election and refused to issue documents granting dioceses.As for the imperial emperor Leopold, it is even more impossible for him to sign and confirm it. Knowing that Furstenberg belongs to Louis XIV, he still gave him the throne of the Elector of Cologne. Isn’t this brain damage?

As a result, Furstenberg's situation is very embarrassing.The elector he got by bribery has been unable to get the double confirmation of the Holy See and the Empire. Those who opposed him secretly cheered and began to contact Rome and Vienna, trying to get Furstenberg away.The pope and the emperor also communicated secretly, and finally decided to send the brother of the late former elector Ferdinand to take office, but this was rejected by Furstenberg and Louis XIV.

At the beginning of this year, when Ferdinand's brother entered the Cologne parish, he was attacked by unidentified armed men and died. This suddenly ignited the anger of the officers and citizens who opposed Furstenberg in the city. They started a tandem and planned to use force to drive him out of power. Anyway, he didn't have legal procedures, and the name of the elector was not justified.

But Furstenberg is not a good stubble.Under the instigation of Louis XIV, he directly led the French army into the city, and then hunted down those who opposed him. He killed a lot of people and caused an uproar in public opinion, which caused a very bad influence among the Protestant German princes.At this time, people were linked to the persecution of the Huguenots by Louis XIV in recent years. The Protestants suddenly felt in danger and felt the threat of their lives.

Of course, because of Louis XIV's stupidity and cruelty, not only the Protestant areas are afraid of him, but even many Catholic areas are very afraid of Louis XIV because of the real threat.Although it is inconvenient for them (such as the Italians) to stand up against him directly, it is also reasonable for them to stumbling and sabotaging him secretly.At this point, Louis XIV finally offended everyone he could offend. Catholics and Protestants opposed him. The monarchs of various countries also realized the possibility of war, and began to expand their armies and prepare for war in preparation for the French invasion.

In March, the Austrian envoy came to The Hague to confirm the validity of the 1687 alliance agreement to the Speaker of the three-level council of the United Provinces, Van Boyningen.This agreement was signed when the Prince of Orange was in power. Because of the change of the Dutch government, the countries of the alliance urgently needed to find out the attitude of the Van Beuningen government, so Austria finally sent people to The Hague to confirm.

The new Dutch government still has brains.Although the republicans traditionally hated Britain and were close to France, Louis XIV's retrogression in recent years has aroused the resentment of many European countries, and the republican government is also very worried about this.What's more, the French just invaded the United Provinces ten years ago, and the Dutch repelled the enemy only by digging embankments to release water.Therefore, after the arrival of the Austrian envoys, the Van Beuningen government immediately confirmed the validity of the alliance treaty, saying that once the war broke out, they would join the battle without hesitation and fight the French to the death.

The Dutch also reported the news to the people on the east coast.After receiving the news, Gao Wengang, the special envoy stationed in Cadiz, went to The Hague to meet with Van Beuningen and discussed the matter together.Gawain just suggested to the Dutch that if the French did not choose to attack the Southern Netherland, but ran for the Rhine, then the Dutch had better not send the army to join the battle, but only send the navy to attack the French fleet.

His suggestion is also based on facts.Because of the departure of the Prince of Orange and the reorganization of the army by the new Dutch government, the Dutch army does not actually have a strong combat capability and its morale is not high.Therefore, reluctantly sending troops to fight under such circumstances may not gain victory, but shame.Not to mention that the army has 5 or 10 people in battle, and the battle is likely to last for a long time, which will cost far more than fighting at sea, and the financial pressure will be greater.

Therefore, Gao Wengang suggested that the Netherlands should take advantage of its advantages, use its powerful navy to suppress the French, attack their foreign trade, and weaken its national power.In addition, if you are still not at ease, then you can financially assist Austria, Prussia, Sweden and other army powers, and let them fight the French face to face. This effect is much better than the Dutch themselves.

Van Beuningen agreed with Gao Wengang's suggestion.However, he also asked the people on the east coast to send more instructors to the Netherlands to help them train the army.They don’t send the army abroad, which doesn’t mean they don’t want the army. The Dutch, who have learned the lessons of the last Franco-Dutch war, understand that a well-trained army is still necessary. Otherwise, like the Dutch army at the beginning of the last war, they would run away without firing a single shot. The same scene will reappear. Will we dig dikes to release water again this time?

And just when Gawain was discussing secretly with the Dutch in The Hague, the direction of the French attack finally came to light: the Rhine!In most people's expectations. At the beginning of April, Louis XIV dispatched 4 troops across the Rhine under the pretext that his wife and sister, the Duchess of Orleans, demanded the succession of the Palatine Elector, and launched a military attack on the German region.

The attack of the French army was overwhelming.Important towns such as Philipsburg, Mannheim, and Trier surrendered one by one after symbolic resistance.And this is actually good. Cities like Mainz and Heidelberg even opened the city gates in panic when the French army was just approaching the city, and let the French army enter the city.

It was already July, and the latest news came that more than a dozen cities including Bonn had fallen, and the Golden Lily flag was raised over every occupied German city.The arrogant French army extorted excessively in the occupied area, burned, killed and looted, but no one dared to resist.The Germans knew from the painful experience in the previous wars that once they failed to meet the requirements of the French occupying forces and rose up to resist, what awaited them would be the fate of slaughtering the city.

The Van Beuningen government in the Netherlands has now received a request from its allies to immediately send troops into the Southern Netherlands to attack northeastern France.In addition, their navy must also be dispatched to strangle the French from the sea to weaken their war potential.

After a heated debate, the three-level parliament finally rejected the proposal to send troops to attack the French mainland by land (they were afraid of angering Louis XIV and attracting firepower to themselves...), and instead appointed two admirals, They commanded a fleet respectively, and at the same time attacked French merchant ships or warships in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, so as to take advantage of the Dutch.

That's not to mention, maybe seeing the fleet of the East Coast people close at hand, Van Boyningen even asked the East Coast Navy to join their ranks and attack the French, but this was rejected by the East Coast people.But the refusal is refusal, and the preparations should be made. At present, the East Coast Navy has entered several ports including Vlissingen and Rotterdam, except for the ships that continue to patrol near the Strait of Dover. Refurbished for any emergencies.

(End of this chapter)