Chapter 2245 Fiery frenzy (5)

  In Brussels, Belgium, there is a bronze statue of a peeing boy, his name is Yu Lian. There are many legends about Lian, the most famous of which is that when the enemy was attacking Brussels, the local people resisted. When the enemy retreated, he lit the gunpowder fuse in an attempt to reduce the entire city to ashes. A little boy saw, Out of urgency, he urinated on the fuse, and the safety of the entire city and its people was guaranteed.

   Since then, Yulian has become a little hero in Brussels and later a hero in the whole of Belgium. This bronze statue is also a fountain. It usually sprays water. On certain festivals, it sprays beer or red wine. People are still rushing to drink it...

It is better to rely on yourself than others. Since no one can invest in dredging the canal, only the local residents of Ostend and Bruges will raise their own funds. Every glass of beer is equivalent to donating half a penny to dredging the canal. Of course, you can also Choose not to drink. However, as can be seen from the local paintings, many painters will go to the pub to find inspiration, and the pub is also an important local social place.

  The British also want to get involved in the Belgian beer business, but the big brewers in London are more willing to sell beer directly to Belgium, rather than shipping the materials for brewing beer to Belgium like France.

There is an alliance of 11 brewers in London. They almost monopolize the beer market in the whole of London and several major cities. There are also some private beer workshops in the countryside, but most of them are only for local people to drink, and they are completely unable to compete with these 11 brewers. .

  Financing, expanding production, mechanization, high efficiency, and maximizing profits. However, Belgians treat beer just like chocolate. There is a special profession called chocolate artist. This is no longer an industry, but an art. Not only the taste, but also the packaging and molds are pleasing to the eye.

  If you buy British beer, then of course the coins are earned by the British, and the French deduct a little customs duty, but what do the Belgians get out of it?

   If you buy your own beer, you can use the tax to dredge canals and build roads. The price may be more expensive than British beer, and customers can choose by themselves.

Shipping can benefit from it, French farmers have a market for their grain, and they can expand production. The sweets produced after planting sugar beets in Belgium can be shipped to France, and the residue left after sugar beets can be used as animal feed, thus forming a two-way cycle .

The Treaty of Methuen seems to have benefited Portugal, but in fact, in this trade, the Portuguese provided liquidity, that is, the silver they received from South America, and the start of the project required infrastructure, whether it was building factories or roads. The French have the final say, and they will probably let those wealthy people who are exchanged from the Austrians buy some by specifying the way to buy national debt. This system is probably like this. Napoleon's newly built fortress is both a place for troops and a customs. People will not build a "tax palace" with tax money like Dublin, and the protests caused by the construction of the fort may be less.

The Anglo-Irish Union Act is a monster hovering over Dublin, and if implemented successfully, Dublin will be torn to shreds and become a decayed, poor, broken provincial capital, even if Beesford builds a new customs house , and it is just a ruined ruin.

Those who can become members of the Irish Parliament are basically rich people. They go to London to be a member of parliament and they will move the rich people away. They will give up their existing properties, which will cause house prices and land prices to fall, and then live around their consumption. The people, the carriage builders, the furniture makers, the grocers would all lose their jobs, Dublin would be a desert, and the sugar merchants, dyers, and metalsmiths who remained in Ireland would be left behind only by the rise in import taxes after the war in the 1790s. protection, and gained a slight advantage in the Irish market in competition with British goods.

   But the people who opposed the union were a rabble from the very beginning. The lawyers who first initiated the prosecuting union initiative came from at least half of the anti-union handbooks. There were others who were involved in the suppression of the rebellion, and there were patriotic Whigs, and there were cries all over the Parliament during the first weeks of the Union Act.

  Catholic priests did a lot of pacification work, and Governor Cornwallis also firmly believed in the neutral role of Catholicism in the middle, but the opposition party in the city hall was very firm. However, their protests were different from the protests in 1792, when Protestants held the majority of seats and raised their arms. The 1793 Emancipation Act allowed the city hall and unions to accept Catholics. They also adopted a moderate attitude because of the relationship between the archbishops. The final coalition bill was in 1801. Effective January 1st. And Catholics' hopes of full liberation after union were shattered in a matter of weeks when George III clearly opposed it, and Pitt resigned under pressure, followed by Cornwallis and the First Minister. But the Archbishop of Troy was not attacked because of the end of the matter, and continued to stay in Dublin to preside over affairs.

   From the 1770s onwards, Dublin was building churches, and affluent Catholic professionals proliferated. Urban and Rural Irish Association volunteers have accumulated a strong military force, and a considerable number of them have participated in the American war. They have traveled to the United States to "protect" the local Irish, and they believe in the American way. Anyway, Ireland is a place without cavalry escorts, and you can't feel safe anyway, and the town of Edgeworth with cavalry escorts has not been peaceful. Instead, Richard Edgeworth was married after his wedding. Ritual received a fatal warning on his way home.

This is also related to his support for the Anglo-Irish alliance. He voted in favor. Dublin's maritime defense is very weak. In 1791, it was rumored that the French would invade Ireland. Although it was finally confirmed to be a rumor, he felt that even if the British Royal Navy did not protect it after the merger, It can at least thwart the French invasion.

However, after the merger, the British governor's practice was to build twenty-six small forts, known as "round stone towers", each of which could hold two cannons, most of which were distributed on the headland on the border of Balbriggan and Wicklow, while The navy will only show up during resupply.

  The practical value of this project is very small, and there are many landing points throughout Greater Dublin, so it is suspected of abusing resources. However, this is the first measure of the city's defense after the union, at least it is located in Ireland's natural gateway to all parts of the country, and it is the place where the military, human and material resources are most concentrated.

The British re-named the horse-drawn, tracked road, believing it to be a "mine road", when the real railway was drawn by steam engines, with large sleepers and rails, from Mechelen to Brussels The road can only be regarded as a mining road. In the Middle Ages, Ghent was a big city no less than Paris, and it was also the prosperous period of Bruges. A canal was dug on both sides to connect, and Ghent was a place where many canals and natural rivers meet, occupying the city. Almost the entire Belgian water transportation system has been paralyzed. If you add the "mine road" from Mechelen to Brussels, even Brussels will face a crisis.

   Napoleon was an expert at fortifications, but did he know how to build fortifications?

   This is not something a woman can manage. Now she is making clothes for Xiaolian.

During the Louis XV period, the French occupied Belgium. In order to please the king, the defenders took down the sculpture of Yulian and sent it to Paris. As a result, Louis XV returned it the same way, reprimanded the general, and made a set of exquisite clothes. Dress him to express apology, and since then countries around the world have followed suit by sending clothes to Yu Lian to express friendship.

   But it was not Louis XV who first made clothes for him, but the Governor of Holland.

   She didn't want the original "Girl with a Pearl Earring", the Dutch should hate her.

   As for what style of clothes to make for the little boy, it was really a headache. After returning from the beach, she discussed with Bertin for an afternoon, and finally settled on a hunting suit for him. In fact, the business of Birmingham boot buckles was affected by the French. The French Revolution had an impact on the whole of Europe, even if their troops did not set foot on British and Irish soil. The army walks on two legs, boots wear out quickly, and replacing buckles with shoelaces saves costs, which has changed the style of menswear to some extent.

The    bronze statue is not a live boy, his legs are welded on the base, and he needs to find another way to make his shoes, but the clothes are easy to solve.

   They thought of several methods and it seemed that none of them worked. Just when she was about to give up and change to another style of clothes, she suddenly found a person standing at the door, it was Bonaparte with a smile on her face.

   He has been watching her silently, she doesn't know when he came, Bertin put down the little clothes he made, and left the suite with the seamstresses silently.

   They saluted the king as they passed Bonaparte, and then closed the door.

   She thought he might have misunderstood something, but she really didn't know what to say at this time.

   He came over silently, took the finished little clothes in his hand, and rubbed his fingers gently.

   "For Delmid?" he said in a particularly gentle voice.

   Can she say no at this time?

   "Yes," she said in a trembling voice.

   He turned to look at her.

   "Doing needlework under an oil lamp will damage your eyes, so let's do it again during the day tomorrow."

   She nodded softly, and then he took her by the hand and left the living room.

   (end of this chapter)