New Shun 1730

When the Seven Provinces Republic held a year-long meeting to centralize power but did not produce any results, William did nothing and did not take action; when the Seven Provinces Republic quarreled in the Federal Parliament for three months in order not to reduce progressive taxes and inheritance taxes, William still did nothing and did not take action; when the last field standing army of the Seven Provinces Republic was disbanded, leaving only the fortress garrison in the southern Netherlands, William still did nothing and did not take action.

Now, he has shouted a bold statement to march to Amsterdam.

Because he takes the initiative to do things and makes promises.

But now, he has not made any promises. He was invited by the people of the Netherlands, not by himself after he promised policies and reforms.

Not proactive, not refusing, not responsible.

He has no ambition.

His wife's ambition is to be pro-British and anti-French.

The only ambitious Earl of Bentinck of the Orange Faction envisioned imitating the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty and imagining the future. He only thought that today was a perfect start.

As long as they can defeat France in such an advantageous diplomatic situation, or even make France pay compensation and humiliate France, then the Orange family will once again have unlimited prestige in the army.

With prestige and guns, they can reform, centralize power, change taxes, and gradually evolve into the cabinet secretary system of the Ming Dynasty.

The first step of marching into Amsterdam is very simple.

From Friesland to Amsterdam, it is very close, closer than from Tianjin Wei to the Nine Gates of the Capital.

William IV has long been the richest man in the Netherlands by inheriting the estates and manors of distant relatives in the Holy Roman Empire. In the Netherlands, it is easy to get things done if you have money.

Friesland itself is the base camp of the Orange faction. He is a lifelong provincial governor in three provinces. He has money and soldiers, and a force of about 2,000 people.

Amsterdam has no troops, and the Federal Parliament has no field corps. The few troops are all squatting on the southern border to guard the fortress.

Rather than marching to Amsterdam, it is better to say that it is an armed march to Amsterdam.

The public is supportive, but the slogans they shout and the grievances they vent are somewhat frightening.

Worried about the fact that the most powerful people in the Netherlands were surprised, Earl Bentinck suggested: "Before marching, we should quickly go to Amsterdam and other places."

"Tell those big businessmen that we will continue the past policies, and will neither increase inheritance tax nor progressive tax. Military expenses can be solved by loans, and the enthusiasm of the people can be used to buy national debt. Please rest assured that we will never obey those unruly people for what the people are shouting and longing for."

"We must make it clear that what we should declare most loudly is to declare war on France, not internal reforms. Even if we want to reform, we must have the support of the army and sufficient prestige after winning."

"As for the trade with Dashun, it is just an introduction. We can handle it in a low-key manner and continue the treaty that has been signed. Anyway, Liu Yu is going to the Palace of Versailles and he will return to China soon. We can tell the people that we will send people to China to talk to them, but in fact... just pretend to let the people know that we are fighting for it."

These few words can be said to be high-level and get to the essence.

Whoever dares to take action against the Dutch merchant class will not be able to be a consul. Just like whoever dares to take action against the Lord of the Celestial Empire cannot be the emperor.

William III and William II, who have fought all their lives, have exploded in prestige, and even served as the King of England, are not they unstable once they are ready to centralize power? William IV's current conditions are far worse than those of the previous generations of the family. He knows that if he wants to centralize power, he will eventually have to fight against merchants and oligarchs, but at least now is not the time.

William agreed with Bentinck's idea. In fact, he actually knew his own abilities and knew that Earl Bentinck was loyal to the Orange family. It was not until after his death that his British wife finally forced Earl Bentinck to bid farewell to politics and live in seclusion, watching the Netherlands being eaten up bit by bit by the British, the mother's home of the Regent.

But William was not dead at this time, so he was willing to accept the advice and quickly sent people to inform some important figures in various cities that some basic policies would not change.

Here, we have to quietly make promises to the big businessmen, and here we have to take advantage of the anger of the Dutch people.

Earl Bentinck's meaning is very clear: against people, not against things.

The general direction of the policy is correct.

What is wrong is the speaker and the regents.

Reform is impossible now, but the people's anger should be vented on the speaker who is in power now.

Outside the manor, more and more people are holding the banner of the Orange Party.

William and others walked out of the manor. Facing the surging public opinion, Earl Bentinck was "enthusiastically" grateful for the support of the people and pushed the attitude of "against people, not things" to the extreme.

"Citizens of the Netherlands! Seventy years ago, a similar story took place, and the French were about to capture Amsterdam."

"At this critical moment, the brave people of the Netherlands rushed into the Federal Parliament and killed the Grand Speaker John de Witt."

"The people of Amsterdam hated him, cut off pieces of his flesh with a knife, and sold them to the citizens of Amsterdam at the price of ten copper coins a piece. The citizens ate his meat to vent their hatred."

Seventy years ago, the story of eating meat to vent anger in the Netherlands was also played out in the Ming Dynasty more than thirty years earlier. It was almost the same script, and the enemy army skinned alive and ate meat before attacking the capital.

The Dutch chose to dig the river bank and elected William III, finally blocking the Anglo-French coalition forces, and even counterattacked and made William III the King of England. This was the first time that Britain tried to challenge the hegemony of France.

Today's scene is different from that year, but there are many similarities.

What Earl Bentinck wants to evoke is the people's illusory memory of the past.

"Seventy years ago, the people of the Netherlands chose the Orange family and saved the Republic from the brink of destruction."

"Sixty years ago, the Orange family landed in Britain, and the divine wind sheltered and saved the Protestants in Britain, which was called the 'Protestant divine wind'."

"Now, sixty years have passed. Once again, the old French occupied the Austrian Netherlands, close to Amsterdam..."

Catholicism always likes to say that the king's power is granted by God, and Protestantism is similar, and will make up some magical myths.

Perhaps the word "divine wind" will appear in any island country close to the mainland.

The "divine wind" of Protestant countries specifically refers to two times. The magical thing is that these two divine winds happened to be a hundred years apart.

In 1588, the Spanish fleet attacked Britain, encountered a divine wind, and ultimately failed.

A hundred years later, in 1688, the British invited the Netherlands to enter the country and go to Britain to be king to protect the interests of Protestantism.

It was also a divine wind that the British fleet could not touch at all. William III crossed the strongest wall in Europe - the British Navy without any loss.

There is no god in the world, but coincidence plus superstition, it becomes a god.

Just like if the destiny does not end the Yanhan, the prime minister successfully returns to the old capital after the northern expedition and revives the Han Dynasty, I am afraid that there will be no one in the world who dares to covet the throne without the surname Liu.

The same is true for the Orange family.

During the Eighty Years' War, Prince Maurice of the Orange family successfully reformed the military, making the Netherlands a European military power in one fell swoop.

More than a hundred years ago, the Dutch drove away the Orange family, but were attacked by the anti-Dutch alliance of Sweden, Britain and France.

At the critical moment, William III of the House of Orange stood up again, and the angry people skinned the Speaker alive.

When people began to miss the House of Orange, magical scenes appeared one after another.

The Great Fire of London; the plague in Britain; the unexpected high tide caused the Dutch fleet to break into London and successfully raid the naval port; the Battle of Texel, the Dutch 75 battleships defeated the British and French combined fleets of 130 warships and 92 battleships with fewer ships; half a month after the end of the naval battle, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire joined the Netherlands to organize an anti-French alliance.

Then came the Glorious Revolution in Britain, the divine wind blew, and William III was like a god, crossing the British Great Wall without any obstacles. The British and Dutch co-rulers, the Netherlands has since lost a great enemy.

The House of Orange is "God's miracle", "Protestant divine wind", "Protestant savior", so much so that Frederick the Great's father, who was eight feet away, was still thinking about brushing himself with Orange blood to grab the title of Protestant savior.

On one side, it is like a miracle.

On the one hand, the first time the Orange family was driven out, the country was almost destroyed by the British and French coalition forces; the second time the Orange family was driven out, it has lasted for 40 years, and the Netherlands has continued to decline. It can be seen with the naked eye that the population of Amsterdam has not increased but decreased in the 40 years without war.

The core reason is what the mentor said, "commercial capital is subordinate to industrial capital."

But these days, no Dutch can understand this truth. In their emotional and ignorant cognition, the Orange family is the savior of the Netherlands. As long as the Orange faction comes to power, everything will be fine.

The speech of Earl Bentinck also grasped this point.

"Be right about people, not about things."

Then it is to be empty-to-empty, give some bloodline, and add some sacredness. There is inequality between people, so sacredness makes sense, so as long as you change someone with sacred bloodline, everything will be fine.

If it is about things, it will be troublesome.

Political commitments must talk about some realistic things. How to change the tax system? How to centralize power? Who will pay for the military expenses? Will the tax rate change? How to control industrial and commercial capital?

If these things are promised to the people, the Orange family will not be able to sit firmly on the position of consul.

At the end of this empty speech of "not targeting people but things", Earl Bentinck began to pump up his blood, saying all meaningless nonsense.

"The Orange family never seeks the throne of consul."

"But when the motherland is threatened, when our Protestant faith faces the counterattack of Catholicism, when the dignity of the motherland is trampled on, and when the people of the motherland are threatened, the Orange family will always stand up."

"If only by sitting on the seat of consul can we better seek benefits for the motherland and better serve the people of the motherland, the Orange family will not cowardly and hypocritically refuse."

"For two hundred years, every time the United Provinces Republic was in danger, people always pushed the Orange family up; every time the danger was lifted, After that, they will let the Orange family leave. "

"But the Orange family has never had any complaints and respects the people's choice!"

"As the Protestant savior, our patriotic hero, His Royal Highness William III of the Orange family said:"

"My motherland is in danger, but I will not watch it fail, because I will die in the last trench of the United Provinces"

"Today, the Orange family will stand up again, and it's still the same sentence! The Orange family will not watch the motherland fail, because the people of the Orange family will die in the last trench of the United Provinces!"

"Let us march to Amsterdam; let us save our motherland together; let us defend our Protestant faith together; let us return to the golden age of the United Provinces!"

It was all nonsense, not mentioning how to reform, where the military funds came from, and not mentioning political reform and how to centralize power. It was all empty nonsense.

But these empty nonsense were exactly what the small producers, guild masters, wealthy farmers, and petty bourgeois citizens around the manor liked to hear the most.

"hoera!"

"Heil Oranje!"

The moved citizens burst into tears, shouting the greetings of the ancient Roman era, cheering for the Orange family.

Two thousand soldiers began to gather, and more citizens followed on both sides of the team, marching along the road towards Amsterdam.

Along the way, there was no resistance. As long as they approached the town, the flag of the Orange family would be hung on the bell tower of the church.

Without bloodshed, the archon's throne, which had been vacant for forty years, finally welcomed its owner.

The Netherlands finally chose the color that the Netherlands should have - orange, Oranje, and may always miss orange as the national color. It was the color of the Dutch Golden Age and the afterglow of the Dutch sunset.