William IV: "I am not afraid of leaking secrets. In fact, we are also building, and we have already built two ships."

James: "Oh my God, is this true? Does your Majesty know the consequences of these words?"

William IV: "Of course, but the Netherlands has become one of the naval countries with the most advanced technology in the world. As you just mentioned, the Netherlands has become a country with steam battleship technology and the ability to manufacture it alongside the United Kingdom and France.

s country"

William IV: "Britain is faced with the problem of diplomatic choices internationally. The Mediterranean will not change many countries' vigilance towards Britain just because of one or two foreign visits by the Prime Minister.

Although the British Royal Navy is the best in the world, it does not have enough and safe non-supply ports, which will become a shortcoming for the United Kingdom.

The international situation has been changing rapidly in the past few years, and everyone including the Kingdom of the Netherlands has felt that the world situation is very different from what it was five years ago. Therefore, the era when Britain relied on its navy to sail to other countries' coastlines and make other countries bow their heads seems to be very disgusting to all countries.

"

James: "In your Majesty's opinion, does this mean that the British navy is not enough to maintain Britain's previous status? Well, that is what your Majesty said, there is a huge difference between 5 years ago and 5 years later."

William IV: "Naturally different, this is not just the Netherlands"

James: "Does this mean that Britain is in decline?"

William IV: "It happens all over the world. However, we cannot say that Britain is in decline. We can only say that other countries are progressing too fast..."

James: "What is the current attitude of the Netherlands towards the implementation of British foreign policy? Your Majesty, can you say this?"

William IV: "This is a difficult topic. Seriously speaking, the Netherlands has a love-hate relationship with the United Kingdom. Everyone knows that the United Kingdom has had the closest integration under the rule of the United Kingdom under one king. The Netherlands therefore

The advantage over Britain was lost, including capital and naval advantages.

It is precisely because of such a profound history that the Netherlands has been vigilant enough to guard against the United Kingdom when facing it. At the same time, because of the same national conditions, the Netherlands has a foreign policy that focuses on contact with the United Kingdom. Therefore, in the past

For several years, the relationship between the Netherlands and Britain has been in this contradictory state."

James: "His Majesty just talked about the unexpected fact that the Netherlands already has two steam battleships. To be honest, I feel like my heart is still beating fast. I believe that after this news comes out, the world will cause a sensation. You know

Britain and France currently have only three and four battleships of this type respectively.

Among the four French ships, one is a sailing semi-steam product, and French battleships are generally smaller in tonnage. If the tonnage of the Dutch steam battleships is large enough, then "

William IV: "I know what you want to say, but the tonnage of the Netherlands' new warships is no less than that of the British."

James: "I'm curious, have these two steam battleships in the Netherlands been named?"

William IV: "Naturally, the first ship was named Nassau and the second ship was named after our royal family of Nassau and Orange in the Netherlands."

James: "I have to say, this is a good name. Again, Your Majesty, can you tell me where the Nassau and Orange are deployed? It shouldn't be Amsterdam anymore, right?"

William IV: "Yes, the Orange is currently at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on the Alaska Peninsula and Surabaya Port in the East Indies."

James: "The Netherlands' main ace army is actually deployed in the Far East Pacific?"

William IV: "Actually, the Dutch military in Europe is not weak either."

James: "However, placing the most advanced military power in the Pacific Ocean shows that the Netherlands attaches great importance to that area. Does the Netherlands really value the Far East that much?"

William IV: "We are also very helpless. The Netherlands is surrounded by big countries. This is a very dangerous thing for the Netherlands. The strategic depth of the Netherlands is too narrow. This environment makes it very difficult for the Netherlands to develop. This is all

There is no need to hide things that everyone knows.

The Far East is precisely the key for the Netherlands to solve this problem. We do not deny that the Netherlands wants to use this to make the Netherlands a great power. With hundreds of years of continuous southward and eastward expansion, the Tsarist Empire occupied the entire northern half of the Eurasian continent.

In part, it shocked the East and the West.

With the world's most powerful navy, Britain conquered cities and islands in the world's waters and became a maritime hegemon.

The Netherlands does not have such capital. Therefore, the Netherlands can only stay away from the inner circle of European countries competing for hegemony and go to the Far East to open up wasteland. Yes, it is to open up wasteland. We are prepared to use a construction attitude to build a new powerful country, the Netherlands."

James: "It seems that everything is going according to the plan of His Majesty and the Dutch government, so I congratulate you on the prosperity of the Netherlands under your Majesty's leadership..."

The sales of "Echo" around the world spread the relevant statements of William IV around the world, and the attitudes of various countries responded in different ways.

But William used this newspaper to announce that the Netherlands had secretly become the third country to own the world's most advanced steam battleships. The world was shocked for a while.

If Britain and France could possess it before, other countries in the world could not think of it, then the possession of the Netherlands has put great pressure on some of the world's big countries, such as Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and even Italy.

The deliberately promoted pride in the country has pushed up the expectations of the people, so that suddenly steam battleships appeared in the Netherlands, and they also asked their respective governments to let their countries join this ranks as soon as possible.

Naturally, they don't know how many accessories and matching technologies are needed to build such a steam battleship, but this is the counter-effect that managers receive under the obscurantist policy.

The people pay so much tax money every year. They don't want to see a weak government because it means they can't afford the hard-earned tax money. What they want is the glory of not being able to lag behind other countries. Yes, it's that simple.

As a result, Prussia, the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, etc. were all implicated because of William IV's interview, and they couldn't help complaining about the evil he had done.

Even in North America, both the North and the South were confused by the news that the Netherlands suddenly had steam battleships.

The Lincoln administration announced that it would approach the Kingdom of the Netherlands and ask the Netherlands to help the Millennium Confederation build their fleet of steam battleships.

To this end, the Lincoln administration announced that it would set up a special fund of more than US$10 million (£2 million) to purchase and introduce this technology from the Netherlands.

10 million U.S. dollars, equivalent to 0.55% of their GDP of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars

This investment is not small.

For this reason, the world fell silent.

But the opponents of the Lincoln administration dared not remain silent.

The Davis government in the south stated that it did not want the Netherlands to grant this technology to the Lincoln government in the north, because this would undermine the position that the Dutch government has always declared, which is to maintain world peace, and the Netherlands should not do this.

However, even they themselves do not believe that the Netherlands will realize such a slogan.
Chapter completed!