Chapter 735 Anti-French Alliance
Chapter 736 Anti-French Alliance
Although Earl Rheinfels had already guessed, but now he received confirmation from the British, his heartbeat still accelerated a bit.
He tried in a low voice:
"You are saying that your country wants to ask France..."
Lord Grenville nodded.
"How sure are you of winning?"
"There's no chance of losing."
…
Vienna.
Schönbrunn Palace.
Francis II held his cane tightly, looked at the Foreign Minister, and asked:
"How sure are you of winning?"
Count Rheinfels said very calmly: "Your Majesty, Britain and their allies will all participate in the war."
Britain's allies included Prussia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Hanover, which was itself united with Britain. Together, these countries were definitely an extremely powerful force.
"The British fleet will block all French ports as soon as possible. France's navy is only half the size of Britain, which means that France will immediately lose all maritime trade."
Count Rheinfels described the British strategy: "With France's current debt situation, if there is no income from maritime trade, even if there is no war, France will collapse in 10 months at most.
"At the same time, Britain and its allies will mobilize more than 200,000 troops to launch a fierce attack on France.
“The huge military expenditure will further accelerate France’s financial collapse.
"So, regardless of the course of the war, France will surrender within 10 months."
"Very good!" Francis II could not hide the joy on his face, "At that time, the French will no longer be able to stop us from withdrawing from the Treaty of the Rhine-Seine and taking back the governance of the entire Southern Netherlands.
"The British were really helpful. Now we just have to wait for the war to end and all the problems will be solved."
Earl Rheinfels and Baron Turgut and others looked at each other for a moment, then coughed lightly and said: "Your Majesty, actually participating in the war is the best choice for our country."
"Join the war? Why?"
This time it was Baron Turgut who was the first to say: "Your Majesty, if our country chooses to sit on the sidelines and Prussia participates in the war to defeat France, then our country's appeal in the German region will be difficult to match that of Prussia."
Franz II was suddenly startled - unifying Germany was Austria's highest strategy, and the German states must not be allowed to fall to Prussia.
"That's right," Count Rheinfels added, "if our country joins the war, it will further accelerate the defeat of France and at the same time obtain a large amount of war dividends."
Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor was hesitating, Interior Minister Kobucil stepped forward and said in an passionate tone:
"Your Majesty, if our army has the opportunity to control part of French territory, it will completely change the balance of power on the European continent."
Franz II instantly felt blood rushing to his head.
Yes, the Habsburgs were one of the two heroes competing with France for European hegemony. However, after the Austrian Succession War, the country's national strength was greatly damaged, and it no longer had the power to challenge France, and instead began to compete with Prussia for German hegemony.
If they can really defeat France and defeat Paris, then Habsburg will become the overlord of Europe again!
What German region?
The Habsburg family will only have the entire continent in their eyes!
He stood up immediately, but suddenly thought of a question, and said hesitantly:
"However, given the empire's financial situation, it may be difficult to support a large-scale dispatch of troops."
Earl Rheinfels immediately said: "Your Majesty, the British have promised that if our country joins the war against France, they will provide our country with a low-interest loan of 400,000 pounds."
Franz II immediately felt determined, looked around at the ministers in front of him, waved his cane and said:
"Then, let us welcome the opportunity for the empire to regain its glory!"
…
The day after Austria responded to Britain's declaration of joining the war, the British minister in France formally sent a note to France, requiring France to liberalize its sugar supply, significantly lower sugar prices, and at the same time give up its "trade plunder" of the South German market. If France rejects the above conditions, it will suffer catastrophic consequences.
Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries subsequently expressed support for the British position.
Paris.
Palace of Versailles.
At the cabinet meeting, all ministers looked solemn.
Although everyone had long been mentally prepared for war with Britain, they did not expect that it would come so quickly and that the other side would be able to win so many allies.
After reading the British request, Talleyrand looked at the Crown Prince and said thoughtfully: "Your Highness, I think we should negotiate with Austria immediately.
"If we make concessions on trade terms and provide some benefits, it is possible for them to change their hostile attitude towards our country."
Queen Mary immediately nodded slightly - her betrayal of her natal family was the most difficult to accept.
Joseph was noncommittal, motioned Talleyrand to sit down, and turned to the Minister of War, the Duke of Broglie:
"If a war breaks out, how many enemy attacks will we face? At the same time, how many troops can we mobilize to fight back?"
In fact, he had already made repeated plans with the General Staff for the upcoming war, but at this time he still needed to give ministers a comprehensive understanding of the war situation.
Duke Broy hurriedly said: "Yes, Your Highness. In the worst case scenario, if Britain, Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Han will send troops at the same time, then our country will face more than 300,000 enemy troops, or even 40 Ten thousand."
He was not exaggerating. Prussia and Austria alone could mobilize at least 250,000 troops. Hanover and the Netherlands could mobilize 300,000 troops. Britain and Portugal might not mobilize the army if the war went well, but if they went all out, they could send another 50,000 to 80,000 soldiers.
This has not yet reached the maximum mobilization capacity of each country.
The Minister of War continued: "And our army currently has a total of 160,000 soldiers. Among them, there are 75,000 corps directly under the General Staff, and the rest are traditional corps, as well as a small number of Tunisian corps."
The "corps directly under the General Staff" he mentioned refers to the new-style army trained by Joseph, which is no longer simply called the "Guards Corps", but has been reorganized.
At present, there are 4 Royal Infantry Divisions, 7 Royal Skirmishers, 2 Royal Grenadiers, 2 Royal Chasseur Battalions, 11 Royal Cavalry Regiments, 6 Royal Dragoon Regiments, 3 Engineer Regiments, as well as 2 Cavalry Battalions and 2 Infantry Artillery Battalions.
At the same time, the old-style army still has nearly 90,000 people.
However, the French military nobles were not fools. Seeing that the new army of the crown prince was so powerful, they followed suit.
Although they only learned a little bit, they had made great progress in training and combat thinking.
Some of the more outstanding legions were even able to catch up with the new army in terms of combat effectiveness.
If these old armies were placed in other countries, they would undoubtedly be elite troops.