Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Austria.

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Joseph II struggled to lift his withered right hand, his throat only producing a vague murmur, "Tal, Talle..."

By his side, Leopold II hurriedly guessed, "Your Majesty, are you speaking of Talleyrand?"

Seeing the emperor nod, he continued, "Are you very concerned about what he said regarding the British intent to export revolution?"

Talleyrand had just concluded a visit to Austria, staying for a full three days, during which he criticized the British for conspiring to overthrow the monarchies of various nations everywhere in Vienna.

"Worthy... of vigilance," Joseph II managed to say after a pause of some ten seconds before laboriously continuing, "Firstly, to make use of..."

Leopold II followed his train of thought, adding, "You mean, we can use this to weaken the British influence on the situation in the Southern Netherlands."

The Emperor of Sanctum weakly nodded, "Coordinate with, France."

In terms of excluding the British from the German region, France and Austria shared a very similar stance.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I understand. I will take care of it."

...

Western Mediterranean, Bay of Almeria.

In the meeting room of the Royal Navy of England’s third-rate ship of the line, Colossal, Lord Talmothes, the envoy to the Maghreb countries, was reporting to the Foreign Minister:

"The Sultan of Morocco has already agreed that as long as we make concessions on the import duties of grain and allow Morocco to serve as a textile trade hub in North Africa, he will consent to launch an attack on Bizerte. Currently, there are 14,000 members of the Moroccan Imperial Guard on standby in Annaba, and most of them are equipped with brown Bess flintlock guns and 20 cannons."

The Marquess of Wellesley agreed almost without a second thought:

"Tell the Moroccans that Congress will consider their demands."

Compared to the situation in India, the Empire’s interests in North Africa could definitely afford to make some concessions. Moreover, turning Morocco into a trade hub wouldn’t really affect British profits.

"I will head to Morocco as soon as possible, Marquess," Lord Talmothes continued, "In Algiers, they have also prepared an army of 12,000 men, but as you know, their combat effectiveness is not something to count on."

The Algiers Guard had previously been severely beaten by Joseph, and over the course of the past half year, they still hadn’t recovered their former strength.

"Hmm, we can have their navy increase the harassment of French merchant ships," the Marquess of Wellesley instructed before asking, "What about Tripoli?"

"Ben Guerir currently has 12,000 members of the Ottoman Imperial Guard," replied Talmothes, "However... as per your orders, he has secretly made contact with them, willing to dispatch no more than 800 men for raiding. After all, Constantinople has always been reluctant to offend France."

The Marquess of Wellesley waved his hand unconcernedly, "No matter, I am here to resolve this issue."

He had already secured a budget of 350,000 British pounds from the British Parliament, which is nearly 9 million livres. Within this sum, 100,000 pounds were earmarked for bribing Ben Guerir. ꞦâꞐŏβʧ

Afterwards, Wellington planned to visit Constantinople and offer a certain degree of diplomatic support and trade privileges to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for Salem III turning a blind eye to the unilateral actions of the Tripoli garrison.

Wellington had absolute confidence that under the drive of huge benefits, the Ottoman warlord from Ben Guerir would be bold enough to provoke the French Army of Tunis, as long as the Ottoman Sultan did not hold him accountable.

Moreover, Tripoli possessed a fleet of nearly 300 ships, most of which were small and no match for the French Navy, but with intelligence, artillery, and harbor supply support from England, they still had the capability to severely disrupt French trade in the Mediterranean.

Wellington knew that the troubles the East India Company faced in Mysore were very thorny—England would definitely have to concede some benefits to France to resolve the issue.

Therefore, he had to create bargaining chips for himself as much as possible so that during negotiations he could minimize losses.

He was even prepared, after the French Army of Tunis was forced into a passive state—faced with a pincer attack from nearly 40,000 troops, leaving the French Force of over 20,000 in disarray—to let the Pirates from Algiers and Tripoli raid the southeastern coastal cities of France to increase domestic pressure there.

With his own arrangements in the Southern Netherlands, if luck was on his side, he might not have to give up anything in exchange for France’s non-intervention in the Mysore situation.

However, just as the Colossus was anchored at Mitidja port for a brief resupply and preparing to set sail, a fast-sailing ship of the Royal Navy, the "Panting," rushed in from Gibraltar.

The Marquess of Wellesley was discussing with Lord Talmothes in the cabin how to use the naval superiority of England to strike French trade in the Caribbean Sea—although there were a series of treaties restricting action against France, there were definitely ways to work around the treaties to deal with the French. The sugar exports from Santo Domingo contributed more than 40 million livres annually to French Government revenue!

Just when the two had begun to concoct a plan, an officer from the "Panting" knocked and entered, handing over the latest intelligence from the European Continent to Wellesley.

The Foreign Minister unfolded the pages from the envelope, waved them at Talmothes with a smile, and said,

"I guess there’s good news from Vandernoot."

He unfolded the paper and after reading just a few lines, his smile froze on his face.

"My Lord Marquess, what’s the situation in the Southern Netherlands?" Lord Talmothes asked somewhat inappropriately.

"Damn the French people!"

Wellington put away the documents with a grim face, hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and shouted out of the cabin,

"Tommy, fetch Captain Taylor for me."

He then turned back to Talmothes:

"I’ll leave the matters of Tripoli and the Ottoman to you. I must return to Europe at once."

The intelligence report mentioned that Austria, Spain, Bavaria, Mainz, and several other countries had submitted a démarche to England, requesting clarity on England’s stance toward the rebellion in the Southern Netherlands and the connection of the former Liberals’ uprising in France to England.

The démarches from Austria and Spain, in particular, were very stern, criticizing England’s behavior of exporting revolution to the European Continent throughout the document.

Wellington turned his back irritably and looked out the window, realizing he had been careless, not expecting the shameless French to fabricate a connection between inciting the uprising and "exporting revolution"!

He was well aware that if this issue was mishandled, it could potentially lead to a diplomatic disaster…

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More than ten days later, as Wellington was leaving Cologne for Prussia—yes, even William II had expressed doubts about England—he suddenly received news that Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt had proposed something called the "Southern Netherlands Initiative."

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