Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

"The Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden actually chose to conduct maritime exercises next to the English Channel at this time?"

Queen Victoria was puzzled.

She has been a little uncomfortable recently because her fourth daughter, Princess Louise, will marry Crown Prince Frederik, the prince of King William III of Greece, in Athens on October 10, 1869.

Since three months ago, the British nobles and many conservative forces have criticized this.

The reason is that Princess Louise married outside the British Empire. If she was familiar with too many current British policies, it would be a crisis for the United Kingdom.

They had some concerns in the first two months, but at the end of last month, they sent a joint letter directly to her at Buckingham Palace.

So starting from this month, she does not have a life secretary by her side.

She is currently considering letting her third daughter, Princess Alice, who is married to John Campbell, the 9th Duke of Argyll, eat twice-cooked pork and become her personal secretary again.

But it was still in operation, and she felt a headache when she thought about those people in the parliament.

Queen Victoria's heart became cold when she thought of Napoleon III's embarrassing appearance on the front line with his power being checked after Queen Eugenie took over the Paris government as regent.

“Could what is happening in France happen one day in the UK?”

Queen Victoria began to think in her heart, "Perhaps, there should be more checks and balances between the Tories and the Whigs. But before that, the provocations of several Dutch countries against France must be understood first."

After that, the Queen issued an order, and nearly half of the British First Fleet on the mainland was dispatched to Dover in the southeast, watching with vigilance the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Netherlands, who were also conducting exercises off the coast of West Flanders in the east of the Pas de Calais. Combined Fleet.

However, both parties seemed unwilling to cause misunderstanding, and did not get too close.

On September 26, 1869, north of the English Channel in northern France, the former Belgium and now the Dutch port of Ostend in West Flanders officially launched its offensive, but the French troops were on guard at the Port of Boulogne, a French territory in the southern part of the Nordic Alliance United Navy. .

In the small Pas de Calais, there are actually three ports with more than 130,000 tons of warships stationed there. You must know that this tonnage is the previous tonnage of Portugal. This is enough to put it into the top seven in the world naval rankings, and it also has the most advanced steam battleship in the world.

It can be said that this fleet alone is enough to defeat the Portuguese fleet and the following eight or ninety-three countries. You must know that these three countries are Italy, Prussia, and the United States.

It’s scary to think about it.

Many people in London raised eyebrows, and even conservatives tried their best to encourage more people to support the British government in sending more warships to threaten the Nordic Alliance Combined Fleet.

However, it was stopped in the end because Queen Victoria did not want to be thought to have intervened in the Franco-Prussian War. If that happened, her eldest daughter, Crown Princess Victoria, who was married to Berlin, Prussia, would be very sad in the future.

While Britain has always wanted to suppress France's maritime power, the combined fleet approach of the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden gave the Queen another idea.

Therefore, Britain chose to stand still.

This was a bitter experience for Napoleon III in Paris.

On September 28, 1869, General Bazin, who had just taken over the position of Marshal of France from Napoleon III, was uneasy when faced with the fierce attack of Prussia. The news that several Dutch countries were passing through the northern coast made him even more anxious.

As a result, he went to hospital in a hurry. Without a good command and strategic plan, and under the pressure of Paris, he became even more hesitant. Sometimes he was determined to push the Chalon Army to join McMahon, and sometimes he was determined to fight in Los Angeles. The last defensive fortress in the forest area, Metz, was defended.

When he decided to retreat to the Chalon Army area on October 1, 1869, he had lost the opportunity, because Prussia gave him and everyone an absolutely unexpected blow.

It turns out that in the Battle of Maslatour on September 23 and the Battle of Gravelotte-Saint Priva on September 25, the coalition forces showed incredible bravery. The French army's artillery fire was very fierce. Canrobert and Geben fought against each other. Although the French army successfully repelled the Prussian army's attack and caused heavy losses to the Prussian Army's First Army and the Guards, they were unable to open the road to Verdun. Marshal Bazin's The Rhine Army once again retreated to the Metz Fortress. It was surrounded by 7 corps of the Prussian Army's First Army, Second Army and three cavalry divisions, totaling 160,000 people.

Marshal MacMahon led 120,000 men, 393 artillery pieces, and 76 Mitraoz machine guns to retreat to Chalon. He originally planned to lure the enemy deep into the city and fight the Prussian army in a decisive battle under the walls of Paris. The Regent Queen Eugenie and the French Empire The new prime minister, Charles Couzin-Montoux, Count of Baliqiao, was worried that continuing to retreat would cause turmoil and revolution in France. Finally, Eugenie was persuaded and even said to Napoleon III: "Only the emperor's enemies will agree with Macron. Mahon returns to Bahrain.”

So on October 3, a delegation led by French Speaker Lao Goose came to Napoleon III's base camp halfway back. Emperor Napoleon III ordered McMahon to march towards Metz instead of returning to Paris.

Before Napoleon III could respond, Empress Eugenie, the regent of Paris, and the cabinet government held a meeting and sent a telegram to Emperor Napoleon III, saying: "If Marshal Bazin in the Metz Fortress is not supported, what will happen to Paris will happen. Faced with this situation, under everyone's assessment, most people do not think that the capital Paris can defend against the Prussian attack, so there are doubts."

Napoleon III was convinced of Empress Eugene's telegram that she agreed with this view, so Napoleon III agreed with this view and agreed with this directive.

In this way, the Châlons Army turned back and began to march from Reims in the east of Paris to Sedan. Napoleon III and MacMahon wanted to attack Prussia from Sedan and finally take advantage of the Prussian army in Namur Province, and then go south. Verdun went southeast to help Marshal Bazin in Metz.

But what they didn't know was that the Charon Army was on the road to being annihilated in Sedan. What they didn't know even more was that east of Sedan, Bazin's Rhine Army had been targeted, and the Prussian army It was precisely to use the Rhine Army as bait to pull the Chalon Army into the hook. Originally, Napoleon III and McMahon had jumped out of the distance of the fishing rod, but Paris's instructions made them return again by mistake. The point of no return, I have to say, time is also destiny.

McMahon led his army from Reims to Sedan on October 4, 1869. At the same time, a piece of false information came from Berlin and reached the hands of Napoleon III, Queen Eugenie of Paris and the French government, saying that in addition to Prince Carl Friedrich's Second Army troops that were besieging Metz, Prussia had the remaining two major forces. The Prussian army was determined to advance towards Paris, which shocked the entire French leadership. They hurriedly gathered the troops from the front lines around France and deployed them in Paris.

This left a large area of ​​territory between the front line and Paris unguarded, which also paved the way for the Prussian front line to defeat the French army.