v3 Chapter 611： Queen's helplessness

On October 12, 1869, King William IV of the Netherlands and his eldest son Prince Albert, together with William III of the Kingdom of Greece and Queen Sophie of Greece, held their own royal dinner at the Old Royal Palace of Greece.

With Prince Frederick, the Nassau-Orange royals were there, with the exception of King Alexandra and Princess Anna, who were pregnant as far away as Amsterdam.

Prince Albert, as the third generation of Nassau Orange, was naturally loved by William III and Queen Sophie.

After the dinner, William III, as Frederick had guessed, took William IV for a closed-door meeting.

Crown Prince Frederick looked at it and felt uncomfortable for a while.

Looking at Queen Sophie, the mother of Prince Albert, who was teasing him, he seemed a little disappointed.

"Mother, I'm going to prepare for the wedding in the next two days."

Sophie Palace kindly squeezed the tender face of her grandson, Prince Albert, and smiled at Prince Frederick: "Go ahead. Princess Louise is coming tomorrow, you can prepare, don't go out. wrong"

Hearing this, Prince Frederick nodded with a smile, but after turning around, the smile on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a deep one.

Hendrick, Hendrick, no matter how I go there, you are there. Now, even your son is making up for your previous shortcomings and robbing my mother of love for me. I really don't care. willingly.

Thinking of this, he left quickly.

But what he didn't know was that at the moment when he turned around and his face changed, Prince Albert happened to see him. Since then, he has never had a good impression of this uncle.

However, the place where the two fathers and sons arranged for the meeting by William III was unusually quiet.

"Father's complexion has improved a lot recently. It seems that people are in good spirits when they have a happy event."

William IV joked.

William III gave him a roll of eyes and said solemnly: "You are good. If you run to the Mediterranean alone, you are not afraid that Napoleon III will deal a fatal blow to the Netherlands with the risk of being invaded by Prussia."

William IV shook his head: "If he is not in his position, he will not pursue his own affairs. My father has not been on the throne of the Netherlands for a long time. Naturally, I don't know the situation the Netherlands is facing now."

William III: "I know that the Netherlands is facing a crisis now, but I haven't seen the opportunity yet, but it is an indisputable fact that the French army of 30,000 is intimidating the Dutch-French border"

"There are currently 15 regular troops in the Netherlands," William IV said.

Seeing William IV coaxing cattle, William III sneered: "But in addition to dealing with the possible revenge of France in the south, this 150,000 army also needs to face the fakes from Prussia in the east. Let me tell you, Bismarck has this People are not good people, be careful if they are swallowed and help them count the money.”

William IV leaned back in anticipation, as if looking for a more comfortable position, and said confidently: "Since I did this, I am naturally fully prepared."

"Complete preparation" William III sneered: "What a complete preparation, I would like to hear, what kind of complete preparation can make you so confident"

William IV was unmoved, "Doesn't my father think that now France is just acting as a demonstration in the face of Luxembourg's loan to Prussia and then annexing the Dutch-French border?"

Seeing William III's eyes narrowing slightly, he knew what he had realized. William IV said sternly: "Because I have prepared several plans before lending it to Prussia."

He said enthusiastically to William III: "Father, my relationship with Sweden and Denmark over the years has finally come to fruition. This joint naval exercise between the three countries is an alchemy stone."

William III asked: "What do you mean by saying that the fact that France does not have a real resistance against the Netherlands now is because of the threat from your three countries"

William IV: "Yes and no"

"What do you mean?" William III asked angrily.

William IV said solemnly: "France's population is as high as more than 30 million, and now the Netherlands is less than 3 million. The gap is nearly ten times, so that the two countries are not on the same level, so if France really wants to take the Netherlands, Then it's not that difficult."

William III: "It's good to know, but I'm very curious about your next explanation."

William IV followed up: "But Napoleon III did not dare to do anything casually, because the Netherlands has a powerful navy, which is at least 40% higher than that of the French mainland navy. The French mainland has a lot of resources and has three local squadrons, which are closely related to the French mainland. Compared with the Netherlands, Su Ruian has a high chance of winning, but the loss is not small, the Mediterranean faces Italy and Spain in the east, the Atlantic and even the English Channel, but also depends on the British.”

William IV looked at William III proudly, and said, "I bet right, the United Kingdom continues to marry Nassau Orange, and Napoleon III's current throwing of rats has made him even more suspicious."

William III hated that iron cannot become steel: "I have always reminded you, don't rely on the mercy of other countries, but on the United Kingdom. When your great-grandfather was a Belgian, it was split off because it was too dependent on the Tsarist Empire, and in the end it was powerless. Going back to heaven. If you make a big country scruples just because of a marriage, then this can only prove that your governance for the past ten years is still too tender. Remember, my life is under my protection. This sentence is because The main reason why I gave way to you in December 1861, at the beginning, this sentence was the answer you gave me, do you still need to tell it back to you now?”

A burst of warmth hit William IV's heart, and his father, William III's serious face, was actually worried about his situation, which moved him involuntarily.

So, William IV explained: "Of course I have second-hand preparations"

William III's face eased, and he looked at William IV with a sigh of relief.

William IV then detailed his plans.

William III: "The maritime exercise actually requires countries such as Britain and France to observe closely?"

William IV: "Yes, in this way, we can let them feel the strong navy of the Netherlands, and let them throw the mouse away"

William III: "What do you mean by underwater submarines is the underwater submersibles mentioned in early Europe??"

William IV: "Yes or no, our submarines are the only fully-fledged submarines in the world at present, and they also have weapons that can attack surface ships as mentioned earlier. Moreover, currently only referring to the mainland of Europe and the Netherlands, we have More than 20 ships without rain and sailing no less than 500 nautical miles."

William III couldn't help but ask: "It is said that many European countries such as Britain and France have only developed less than 50 nautical miles before, but you have more than 500 nautical miles?"

William IV: "Yes, in the Far East, more than 100 submarines of this type are currently built"

"100 ships" William III was obviously frightened by this data. "This data should be enough to influence Britain, intimidate France, and suppress Prussia?"

"Naturally" William IV said: ""

William III looked at William IV in astonishment, and asked again in disbelief: "Is the submarine really that powerful? Can you use the torpedoes you developed to attack warships on the water from underwater?"

William IV replied again: "Of course"

At this moment, he finally understood where William IV's confidence came from. With such a powerful submarine, the surface hegemonic navy of the British Empire seems to be no longer so tyrannical.

It is no wonder that his son William IV moved almost all of his Dutch possessions to the Far East, which faces the sea on all sides. With the navy ranking third in the world and submarines that dominate the world with underwater secrets, the Netherlands is about to become the next British Empire. maybe.

Even the UK might be able to catch up and not lose.

......

At 10 am on October 13, 1869, William III and Crown Prince Frederick welcomed Queen Victoria in Athens. Karl XV, Christian IX and others arrived in Athens in the afternoon.

The royal family members of other countries are at least at the level of the crown prince. For example, the United States has also sent senior officials such as the secretary of state to participate in the wedding.

There is no way, who is the daughter of Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria, the sea hegemon who is married this time, although the strength of Greece is not strong in Europe, but you must know that King William III of Greece is the father of William IV of the Kingdom of the Netherlands~www.novelhall .com~ and the married man, Prince Frederick, is the younger brother of William IV.

This relationship alone is enough for all countries to give enough face to the Greek wedding.

Even in Prussia, although William I, Bismarck and others did not come, they also sent the Crown Princess and others to participate. You must know that Crown Princess Victoria is the eldest sister of Princess Louise this time. This is a family card played by Prussia.

This made France more suspicious after knowing it.

After all, it seems that during the Franco-Prussian War, the United Kingdom did not delay marrying the Queen’s daughter to the royal family of Nassau during the Franco-Prussian War. Under the circumstance that the Netherlands used the Principality of Luxembourg to support Prussia, the British royal family continued to marry the daughter, and the United Kingdom was standing on the side of Prussia in disguise.

Therefore, it can be said that the regent Queen Eugenie, after obtaining the consent of Napoleon III, sent only the French ambassador to Greece to participate in the war, which can be said to be extremely surprising.

But this made Queen Victoria a little helpless.

Because originally, she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to meet William IV in Greece to ask why the Netherlands let Prussia pass through the Principality of Luxembourg.

If France can let Queen Eugenie or Napoleon III come in person, they can let them take advantage of their home court and take the opportunity to suppress the Netherlands and Prussia.

It's better now, I'm just worrying about it.

But this is because she does not know the content of the conversation between William IV and his son. If she did, she would not think so. Because William IV actually counted their British Empire, not to mention, William IV actually has some things he didn't tell his father, William III of the Kingdom of Greece.

In fact, he is also calculating the Bismarck of Prussia. It's just that he was afraid to speak out and frightened William III.