On September 15, 1701, the Louvre.

Louis XIV finally left the lovely girls and returned from Versailles. To be honest, at his age, such things were better to be more restrained. What's more, when is this now? King Carlos II of Spain passed away, the throne of Madrid was lingering, and almost all European envoys and spies gathered there, and Louis XIV should make a decision early.

"Now is a stormy era. Our country's history is moving forward thousands of miles a day, and the current year sometimes exceeds the previous ten years. When people summarize our era in the future, they will inevitably make extremely high evaluations for some reform policies laid out at this time. We need peace now and time. The trauma caused by the last war is far from healed and government debts have not yet been digested. If valuable funds are drawn to fight at this time, it will inevitably bring great negative effects on the development of our country's industrial and commercial industries."

The person who spoke was Baptiste, who could hear it. Since Corbel's death, Baptiste has entered politics and has worked in the judicial, military and logistics department and trade department. To be honest, Louis XIV is very dissatisfied with his work, especially when he was the head of the finance and trade department, he could not raise enough money, grain and materials to support his ambitions of conquest, which made him very hope. Therefore, Baptiste was scolded by him several times, transferred and even demoted, but now France's lack of talents is precisely because of the lack of talents. In fact, there are many talented people among the civilians, but they cannot get into the position. Louis XIV always felt that he was surrounded by idiots, so he transferred Baptiste back from other provinces. At least he was a little stupid, right?

To be fair, Baptiste's talent is definitely not as good as his father, Colbert, but perhaps he was influenced by family education, so he attached great importance to industry and commerce. After returning from another province, referring to the experience of East Coast running enterprises, he carried out drastic reforms on a large number of official or joint textile factories, military factories, leather factories, and paper mills in Paris and nearby towns. The main purpose is to reduce costs and improve efficiency. To this end, he also sold equity in many factories, that is, privatization, and the funds exchanged were contributed to the finance department to repay the principal and interest of various debts that were about to expire.

Louis XIV did not comment on Baptiste's reform measures. On the one hand, the factories were spending a lot, and some were not very profitable. On the other hand, the large amount of funds exchanged did make the French finance, which was overwhelmed by debt, relaxed a little. However, Louis XIV had ordered the cessation of selling factories. The reason was very simple. He was no longer prepared to repay the huge debts owed during the last war, and he also needed these factories to serve his ambitions, so everything was naturally restored to its original state.

Baptiste was worried about this and believed that France should not be involved in the war now. The industry and agriculture, which had just improved, urgently needed a breather and needed funds to inject. He hoped that there would be a peace period of more than ten years, but Louis XIV obviously could not meet his request. So he was very angry and complained, which made Louis XIV frown when he heard this.

"It would be too stupid for you to think this way." François, the fourth generation Prince of Conte, said: "Now is a good opportunity. Carlos II has no heirs, and we have the law to obtain the throne of Spain. Once successful, our power can extend to the Iberian Peninsula. By then, Catalonia will be incorporated into France and Spain annexed Portugal. Our territory will not only expand greatly, but also obtain huge resources for overseas colonies created by the Iberians. This will be of great benefit to future development. Europe will have no opponents, and everyone will crawl in front of His Holiness to beg for forgiveness."

Speaking of which, Prince Conte François's position in the French court was quite embarrassing. When he was young, this man participated in the anti-Ottoman Turkey war with his brother. Later, he served in the French Army. It is impossible to say that he has made many military achievements, but his performance is not bad, and he has completed his mission well.

A few years ago, not knowing what happened, King Louis XIV of France became suspicious of him, so he transferred him out of the army and conducted a secret investigation on him. But Louis XIV also knew that it was a bit too much to treat a royal noble like this. In order to block the mouths of the crowd, he gave Prince Conte a sum of money and a boat, and asked him to take his followers to run for the King of Poland. It is worth mentioning that the invitation sent by the Poles to Prince Conte was also suspicious. Many people speculated that it was actually the result of Louis XIV's efforts to instruct his diplomats to send Prince Conte away and leave France.

Prince Conte naturally did not want to leave Paris. He knew what the Polish king was, it was just a fire pit, and it was not comfortable at all. It would be fine if August of Saxony coveted it, after all, what they wanted was the title of king, and they also had the basic base of Saxony, so they were not worried at all. But Prince Conte had nothing, and he would not fart even when he went to Warsaw. What was the point of being a king? Unfortunately, Louis XIV's attitude was very firm. Conte had to go, and he had to leave if he didn't leave! In no way, he delayed for several months, and saw that he could not drag it down, so he took a boat to leave Le Havre and headed to Poland.

As a result, I don’t know if he was lucky or bad. When the ship he was on arrived at the Free City of Gdansk, news came from Warsaw that August, the Duke of Saxony, had successfully run for election and was crowned the king of Poland. In disappointment, Prince Conte did not say much and returned to France directly.

After returning to Paris, Prince Conte was always obedient and actively integrated into French political life. At the same time, he continued to cater to Louis XIV on various occasions to reduce his suspicion. For example, he knew Louis XIV's ideas and ambitions and his conquest. Therefore, during the court discussion, he was always a firm war pro-war faction, advocating that France would send troops as soon as possible and occupy all Spanish territories, including the Southern Netherlands and Italy. Not everyone agreed with Prince Conte's opinion, and even the fifth generation of Prince Conte did not agree. But Prince Conte insisted that the purpose was to express his loyalty to Louis XIV, which was also a good intention.

"When a person is extremely weak, he cannot seize any opportunity." Baptiste was not afraid of Prince Conte, so he said confidently: "War requires a lot of money, and it also requires careful study of the situation to prevent the intervention of foreign interference forces. Have you really seriously considered this?"

"The Austrians are not worth worrying. Turkey's Afendi Davizi is a militant. He has been seeking to recover the lost land in Hungary and other places. As long as we contact them well and provide some financial and material assistance, I believe he will make the right choice. As for the English and the Dutch, they are old opponents. We are all familiar with their methods. I think I will teach them a good lesson on the battlefield."

"They are not so easily defeated. The British navy is very strong, the Dutch navy is also very strong, and they have sufficient funds to purchase military supplies and recruit mercenaries from all over the world. Once the war is long-term, the balance of victory will slowly fall to them, which has been proven before." Baptist responded without hesitation: "And you forgot a country that is much more terrifying than the British and Dutch people, that is the East Coast Republic of China. Their naval fleet strength cannot be underestimated, their economic strength is even more powerful, and they also have garrisons in Italy and Portugal. If they join the war and stand on our opposite side, how to deal with this? As far as I know, the East Coast people are extremely coveted by Western America and try every means to seize those lands and connect with their existing lands. The possibility of their participation in the war is not low, my Prince."

"I have read some Italian newspapers recently, of course a month ago." The fifth generation Prince Condé, who had been sitting silently, spoke, and only heard him say: "All newspapers have been publishing fierce articles for several weeks, announcing that the East Coast people were on their side and supported them to launch wars in the south. The East Coast people also worked very hard, and he kept saying some very inflammatory words, which made people in Nazia, Venice, Florence, Milan and other places excited. According to the intelligence, the parliament of the Northern Italian Federation summoned the generals who commanded the divisions to Venice for a meeting, and even those stationed in Corsica went to the island of Corsica.

. Parliament held meetings again and again, people were clamoring and excited, as if the war was about to break out soon. Gentlemen, I think this is an important signal that the East Coast people will take action on the Apennines. Now, what we need to know is whether the East Coast government intends to intervene directly and to what extent will it intervene. If they are deeply involved in Italy, I think it will be difficult to take energy to deal with other directions in a short time, which is an opportunity for the Kingdom of France. Gentlemen, we should start from this direction."

It is obvious that Prince Conde was also a pro-war faction. He directly refuted Baptist's words and pointed out that France could start a war when the East Coast people had no time to take care of themselves. As long as they were moving fast enough, they seemed to have time to invade Madrid before the East Coast people expressed their opinions. Don't doubt the fact that the vast majority of the nobles in the Spanish Kingdom currently support the French Kingdom. Once they marched, the resistance was minimal, and there might even be a large number of leading parties.
Chapter completed!