July of the thirty years of the empire, the English Channel.

A fleet of six Eagle-class armored cruisers, six Iron-Block frigates and four supply ships sailed into the strait in a mighty way. It was when the tide of the English Channel was falling, and the sea water rolled towards the Atlantic Ocean with an unstoppable trend. All local warships and merchant ships either stopped anchoring or drifted south. Only this fleet could line up into the North Sea area with the sea breeze and tide.

Li Junwei stood on the seaship bridge of the flagship Falcon and looked into the distance with a telescope. The attendant brought a large binocular and said, "Your Highness, please use this."

"Okay, put the bracket on it." Li Junwei responded casually.

But a young man carried the telescope, stood in front of Li Junwei, and said, "Your Highness, you can use my shoulders as a bracket first."

This young man looked heroic and should be only about thirty years old. He had blonde hair and a little thin figure, but no one dared to underestimate him, because this was Eugen, the newly promoted Field Marshal of the Habsburg Dynasty. He was also a general who defeated the French army on the battlefield in Northern Italy and the famous Prince Eugen in later generations.

A week ago, the young marshal represented Habsburg and signed a peace treaty with France, allowing the Habsburg dynasty to end the two-faced enemy states and could concentrate on dealing with the challenges from Ottoman Turkey. He now appeared on the imperial warships as the emperor's envoy and accompanied Li Junwei to the Netherlands.

"Master Eugen, this is not good." Li Junwei patted his shoulder lightly.

Eugen smiled: "About ten years ago, in the forest next to Vienna, I provided service to you like this. Eugen was still Eugen of that time, and would not change because of becoming a marshal."

"The Marshal is the Marshal. You are no longer Lieutenant Eugen from that time." Li Junwei joked.

Eugen's emergence was not only the Habsburg emperor's keen eye, but also the assistance of Li Junwei. In the Battle of Vienna, Li Junwei handed over the mercenaries around him to Eugen, allowing the cavalry lieutenant to make his mark on the battlefield. In his future military career, Eugen was often taken care of by King Yu. His cavalry troops could often get a full set of imperial cavalry equipment, and this friendship was also the lubricant for diplomatic and military cooperation between the Habsburg dynasty and the empire.

Both of them took great care of the past glorious years, stood on the bridge of the nautical ship, enjoyed the summer sea breeze, drank rum mixed with juice and honey, and chatted happily. Eugen said with emotion: "Your Highness, I have worked hard for ten years and finally gained the status of face-to-face conversation with you. Although I have experienced a lot of hardships, today I am still an unforgettable pleasure to be with you."

Many people thought about this. There were many envoys from countries sitting on the Falcon. They mainly rely on the status of the state, the monarch, or the personal friendship with King Yu. Only Eugen, in addition to both these, also had a great reputation that others did not possess, and he was proud of it.

Li Junwei admires Eugen very much. He is really a talented general.

It was at this time that a small boat approached with the British flag. Zhao Longcheng, as the commander of the fleet, immediately went to communicate.

"Your Highness, it is the British notification ship. They protested that we violated the laws of war you signed with them back then." After contacting Zhao Longcheng walked up the navigation bridge to report.

Li Junwei looked back and found a young officer wearing glasses after a group of messengers and said, "Major, go and explain to the British. If possible, go to London."

The major was already chosen by Li Junwei, so he set off immediately.

On behalf of the empire, Li Junwei declared war on Britain. In the declaration of war, he determined the laws of war, demarcated the war zone, and determined the latitude and longitude with the Cape Verde Islands as the center, and did not use soldiers to the north and east. In fact, it was to separate the seas around Europe. This would not change the balance between the two sides of the war in the Grand Alliance War, nor would it affect the imperial merchants being attacked by the British navy because of the war with Britain. Both sides were beneficial, so Britain quickly agreed and then devoted himself to launching pirate attacks on the Caribbean to fund the rebels on the North American continent, but did not really engage in war in non-war zones.

However, when the war zone was demarcated, Li Junwei had already prepared for the current situation. The treaty only stipulated that the navies of the two countries were not allowed to conduct military operations in non-war zones, and did not say that the navy could not enter non-war zones. If that were the case, how could the British navy fight against France? After all, there were non-war zones around Britain.

Before this operation, the Imperial Navy only entered and exited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean, not entered the area north of Gibraltar, let alone the important places like the English Channel. In addition to these facts, Zhao Longcheng had previously reached some verbal agreements with the British Navy under the instruction of Li Junwei in private to determine that the two sides would not have a fierce conflict and increase the intensity of the war too high, after all, that was not in the interests of both countries.

The empire wanted to seize the American colonies and Britain had to deal with France's hegemony. The strategic direction was completely different. As long as it did not involve too much interests, no one wanted to break out in a full-scale war.

London.

In William III's study, there were a group of people, including his confidants from the Netherlands, as well as the middle and senior members of the House, the immortal seven members, and the commanders of the Navy and the Army. It can be said that almost all the real power figures in Britain are here, but today's imperial meeting was extremely depressing.

After this year, Britain was the first to receive invitations from France to peace talks, but the request for the restoration of James II could not be obtained by everyone. Among the more than a dozen people attending the meeting today, none of them survived after the restoration of James II. At that time, James II's brother, Charles II, restored, only killed a few members of the Round Skull Party who killed their father. Even if James II was so kind, everyone here could not escape.

Britain did not agree to peace talks with France, but the Grand Alliance collapsed immediately. Every country that participated in the war was fed up with the war, each country was on the verge of financial collapse, and each country wanted to withdraw from the war. After the empire came forward to suppress Louis XIV's ambitions, all participating countries actively negotiated peace talks with France in Lisbon. After the election of Brandenburg and the prime minister of the Grand Duke of Prussia took the lead in reaching an agreement with France, the Grand Alliance instantly avalanches, and other princes of the Holy Roman Empire followed suit, and even forgot the basic etiquette of Austria.

But this is not important, because the Habsburg Emperor also sent Eugen to Lisbon, but the negotiations were stalemate for a while because of the cede part of the territory.

"Prussia was the first, followed by the Duke of Lorraine and Saxony, and the first kingdom to withdraw from the war was Spain, after that was Sweden, and Austria now also withdrew. Our allies were the Netherlands..." William III said as plainly as possible.

Admiral Russell said, "His Majesty, things are worse than what you see. Recently, I have received a lot of news that the Dutch warships stationed in Britain, except for those repaired in the docks, most of the other Dutch warships stationed in the docks, left without even reporting to me. Now there are only three Dutch ships left in the fleet.

And this is enough to prove that the other news I have received is that the Dutch Republic may launch a coup. As far as I know, Heinsius has been contacting members of the third-level parliament. The Netherlands wants to withdraw from the war, not because they have not reached an agreement or are loyal to His Majesty. Instead, the Netherlands wants better conditions for a truce. As long as the conditions are favorable enough, the Netherlands will withdraw soon, even if His Majesty refuses."

"Admiral, are you talking to Your Majesty?" said a confidant of William III.

Admiral Russell just shrugged, then bowed casually, expressing his apology. William III did not choose to pursue the matter. He knew that the British here were already disunited from him.

A month ago, William III received a news from his French friend that someone from the Immortal Seven secretly met with the French king's envoy and asked about the possibility that he would depose him, the king, and let his wife Mary become the king of England in exchange for withdrawing from the war and reaching peace with France.

This condition was quickly rejected by Louis XIV, and the representative proposed another condition, which was to still be king, but it was confirmed in the form of law that the children of Mary and William III did not have the right to inherit the king, and regarded James II's five-year-old son as the first heir, of course, the premise was that the child would change from a Catholic to a Protestant.

This condition was still rejected, but the immortal Seven compromised again and was willing to accept James II as king, but asked him to respect and re-educate as the Anglican Church of England, practice religious tolerance, and not to liquidate the previous events. This time, he was still rejected by Louis XIV. Louis XIV asked the King of England to be James II and give James II all the power that the king deserved.

If it weren't for Louis XIV's determination, perhaps William III would have been killed long ago.

Perhaps because he had enough of the noise at the scene, the Duke of Devon coughed lightly, calming everyone down and said, "Your Majesty, we all hope that you can answer a question head-on, that is, whether you are confident enough to control the Netherlands and continue the war with France."

"Is it meaningful to talk about this now? What if the war continues? As our allies withdraw, with the army of our two countries, they will certainly not be the enemy of the French army. Continuing the war can only be in vain, and only more losses will be obtained, right?

Moreover, France will soon obtain the ironclad ship. By then, if the war is defeated on the ocean and loses the sea power, it will become the Netherlands to deal with France alone. What is the point?” William III did not have the meaning of a positive answer. In fact, the Netherlands is not without the history of dealing with France alone. William III himself personally led the Netherlands to fight against the two major powers of France and Britain. However, that time, the Netherlands dug up the embankment, flooding the land, and in exchange for France's retreat.

"We hope Your Majesty will answer this question positively," Russell echoed.

William III narrowed his eyes and asked, "The answer is only yes and no, is there any difference?"

"If the Netherlands is out of control, we must withdraw the 80,000 troops from the front line back to the mainland before the situation worsens."

“What if the answer is certain?”

"We still have to withdraw some of the troops and organize militias as soon as possible to prepare for the landing war between France and even China." Russell replied without any sluggishness, while the rest were still quiet. Obviously, the British had already discussed it before attending the meeting.

William III understood that whether it was or not, the Netherlands would become victims, just to delay time and cause losses to France as much as possible.

Although William III did not want to see this situation, he did not dare to say no, or even show any anger. This is the British, and France cannot accept the British king except James II. However, these people in front of him can. If their performance is not satisfactory, they will change the king to Mary without hesitation, or even change it, because Mary was the king, and the couple jointly governed the country.

While hesitating, an officer came in from outside and said a few words to William III's ear. William III actually showed a relief expression. He stood up and said, "I have received news that the Chinese armored fleet entered the English Channel in the name of visiting Amsterdam."

In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire hall exploded, and a rage of anger that was about to overturn the roof spurted out. Almost everyone was condemning and verbing. The reason for such a loss of composure was that everyone knew that the purpose of this fleet was to prevent the British army from withdrawing on the frontline battlefield and participate in the war to defend the local area.

William III remained calm, but his face was also ugly, because he knew that the arrival of this fleet was targeting not only England, but also him. Not only could he not be able to maintain the British throne, but the ruling status of the Netherlands might not be able to be saved.

"There is a need for a national mobilization, and I believe the French will land soon."

"Perhaps there is a glimmer of life. Count Churchill is very wise, and maybe he still has the ability to withdraw his army from the Netherlands. The Chinese certainly dare not attack our ships. This is a non-war zone they demarcated. Orientals are very concerned about their face and will not sacrifice the dignity of an empire for this."

"You are such a fool. They can't do it. Can't the French do it? Although the French Navy did not obtain ironclad ships, the Dutch ships have retreated now, and the Navy is no longer a rival to the French Navy."

"No one can save Britain, we can only fight to the death."
Chapter completed!