French aid

Leopold II, still furious, declared, "Austria should also state its position on this!"

Joseph II wearily waved his hand to interrupt him, "General Würmser has just suffered a defeat at Rochefort. Now the German States are watching our reaction, and we must give the Prussia a strong response."

Leopold II immediately lowered his gaze.

He was well aware that the Austria Noble Class was extremely dissatisfied with his brother's reforms and were unwilling to contribute to the country. Bohemia, Croatia, Hungary, and other countries were also resisting the Royal House because the reforms affected their interests [Note 1].

Under such circumstances, Austria simply lacked the strength to wage a decisive battle against Prussia. However, if the Southern Netherlands were allowed to become independent, the Germany states would inevitably perceive Austria as weak and would turn to Prussia for support.

This is an unacceptable situation!

Joseph II paused for a few seconds before continuing, "Now, our only chance of defeating Prussia is to persuade France to provide support. Clementine is not engaged to the Crown Prince of France either, so let's leave that matter behind."

Leopold II, aware of the implications, nodded somewhat reluctantly. Then, remembering something else, he looked at his brother and said, "Your Majesty, although we have a marriage alliance with France, according to the supplementary clauses signed between Gravier and our country, France does not assume any military obligations towards us."

The Gravier he mentioned was Count of Vergennes, Louis XV's Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was also the one who arranged for Queen Mary of Austria to marry Louis XVI. However, Count of Vergennes, a very shrewd politician, took advantage of Austria's need for France at the time to completely shirk France's obligation to the marriage.

In reality, after France and Austria, these century-old rivals, formed an alliance for short-term interests, they hardly ever supported each other.

"I know," Joseph II nodded, "So we must do everything we can to persuade Antoinette, after all, she is our sister."

"Furthermore, France seems to value its trade agreements with the South German States, and we can offer them some assistance in this regard in exchange for their military aid."

Austria's original plan was to prevent France from easily "entering" the South Germany market. They would add numerous restrictions to trade agreements between France and Germany and build high Tariff for countries like Bavaria and Württemberg to ensure that they would dominate the market.

However, circumstances dictate that Austria has no choice but to offer its own interests in exchange for France military support.

Fortunately, the France were very tolerant of the high Tariff imposed by the German States, only requesting Tariff reductions on a few categories of goods such as iron products and machinery, which was acceptable to Austria.

At the same time, Austria can also use this trade agreement to gain access to the France market.

Moreover, regardless of how the trade agreement is signed, as long as the France send troops, at least the reforms in Austria can be guaranteed to continue.

This is what Joseph II values most!

His reforms must not be interrupted, otherwise, given Austria's current situation, it will lose its status as a first-class Europe power sooner or later.

In the spacious corridors of the Schönbrunn Palace, Talleyrand followed Court Official briskly toward Leopold II's Reception Room.

He had just returned from the negotiations in Munich at the latter's request.

Talleyrand recalled Leopold II's letter and couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion. When he left Strasbourg last month, His Crown Prince had told him that Austria was very likely to be defeated in the Southern Netherlands. As it turned out, Würmser was indeed defeated by the Duke of Brunswick.

As instructed by His Crown Prince, Austria high-ranking officials—possibly the Emperor or State Minister —would later consult with him about having France send troops to assist Austria.

Then came the audience with Leopold II, who was equivalent to the Crown Prince of Austria.

Talleyrand immediately straightened his back; it was now up to him to carry out the arrangements made by His Crown Prince.

In the Reception Room, after a brief exchange of pleasantries, Leopold II steered the conversation toward the war in the Southern Netherlands: "As I just mentioned, General Würmser has withdrawn his main force into the vicinity of the dense forests of Luxembourg, thus preserving the vast majority of his troops."

"In other words, we are still maintaining enormous military pressure on the rebels."

Talleyrand knew that the Austrian Army's casualties were not too heavy, but the so-called "maintaining pressure" was just diplomatic rhetoric— Blücher's 20,000 troops and tens of thousands of Netherlands Rebels were blocking Luxembourg's west side, and if it weren't for the fear of an ambush in the Black Forest, they would have driven the Austrian Army into Bavaria long ago.

Of course, the logistical support from France was also a crucial guarantee that allowed Würmser to continue holding out; otherwise, the Austrian Army would have had to compete with Luxembourg farmers for Potato to stave off hunger.

He simply smiled at Leopold II, but did not respond.

The latter could only continue somewhat awkwardly, "His Majesty the Emperor has decided to mobilize 80,000 troops to Luxembourg, to make William II understand how foolish it was to interfere in the affairs of the Southern Netherlands."

"Of course, the Prussia would likely also send reinforcements. At the same time, the Dutch people also provided a lot of aid to the rebels."

"His Majesty the Emperor's army is confident of defeating any enemy, but the war is likely to drag on for a long time. As you know, this is very uneconomical Finance."

He glanced at Talleyrand: "And if Austria's close France allies could provide some military support at this time, it would greatly accelerate the Prussia defeat."

After saying this, he looked at the France Minister of Foreign Affairs and said, "His Majesty the Emperor also instructed that Austria would give due consideration to France's opinions in the negotiations of the Seine-Rhine River Trade Agreement."

The Seine-Rhine River Trade Agreement is a new name that was agreed upon by negotiators from various countries a few days ago. The Seine River represents France, while the Rhine River flows through the South German States. At the same time, the name reflects France's idea of using inland waterways for trade.

Leopold II replied, "I hope you can convey His Majesty the Emperor's opinion to His Majesty the King of France as soon as possible. I look forward to further close cooperation between our two countries."

Talleyrand nodded, recalling the Crown Prince's instructions, and smiled, "Your Majesty, in fact, after learning of the situation in Southern Netherlands, King Majesty authorized me to sign an agreement with you on military assistance at any time."

Leopold II was overjoyed upon hearing this, thinking to himself that his sister still cared about her family after all; before he had even spoken, she had already made preparations to send reinforcements to Austria.