Welcome to 19th-century Europe, where strength reigns supreme

With the convening of the Belgian cabinet meeting and the publicity of various media, the whole of Belgium soon knew the news that they would merge with the Netherlands. Some people may have a feeling of surviving the disaster, but more people are Sad and helpless.

Many parliamentarians also backed down. After all, this matter is of great importance. No matter whether it is the Belgian Parliament or the cabinet, no one wants to take on this responsibility. If it is not done well, it will not be as simple as being scolded. Yes.

King Leopold I was very disdainful of these weak ministers. These people would only talk about it during peacetime. When the war really came, everyone would be scared to death, and he himself was already old, and his My son is very talented and has made great achievements in many places, but the problem is that he is too young and cannot handle such a big crisis.

Only he had the ability to call on the Belgian people to fight the French. He dragged his exhausted body onto the streets of Brussels and watched the country he created, now about to perish in his own hands.

The life of Leopold I is very legendary. Although it is a bit nonsense, he became a colonel when he was five years old, and became a general of the Russian Empire when he was just [-] years old in the army. Many people shouted He was twelve years old. Later, he participated in the Battle of Kulm in the Napoleonic Wars and won a small victory, which made him a marshal at the age of twenty-five.

After he ascended the throne and became the King of Belgium in 1831, he has been building his own country, and relying on his family's connections in Europe, Belgium has been able to mediate in the game of great powers until today.

He is 74 years old this year and is already a twilight old man. The generals of his generation are either dead or retired. There are only about [-] army troops in Belgium, and the population of the entire country is only about [-] to [-] million. Next door France has a population of more than [-] million, and it crushes Belgium both militarily and economically.

He stood on a high place and looked down at Brussels. When he first took over, the country had just become independent from the Netherlands. He was about to pass away. He did not expect that the country would return to the Netherlands. It was like a circle. He treated his son Said, "When a person gets old, he will occasionally recall what happened in the past. The people of Belgium created everything, and now I want to hand the entire country back to the people of Belgium."

Leopold I was followed by many people, mostly young Belgians who were born in a country called Belgium that did not exist just a few years before they were born.

King Leopold I walked into the crowd, holding a cane in one hand and holding his son's arm in the other. He said, "If there is a way to avoid encountering war, maybe we can try to talk to His Highness William III... ..or seek the advice of Napoleon III..."

"King! We want to fight!"

"Fight them in Belgium!"

"They can't get into Brussels alive!"

"Send our children to the Netherlands! We will fight the French until the end!"

King Leopold I nodded to his people, "Yes, yes gentlemen, Belgium cannot surrender here, even if we lose territory, even if we lose our lives, we have to fight! We are not cowards, but Not to the point of kneeling down and asking for peace.”

The next day, Dutch Prime Minister Tolbeck walked into the parliament hall with the merger document. Almost all members of the royal family were present, and there was another document in their hands. King Leopold I first signed the merger. Document, Belgium officially merged with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Then a document was handed over to Tolbeck, which was an independent document. The Belgian provinces of Hainaut, Namur, Luxembourg, and West Flanders would become independent and form the Kingdom of Belgium. The resolution shocked Tolbeck.

Tolbeck asked, "Are you sure you want to do this? You still chose to fight France, so why did you sign this treaty?"

Leopold I said, "Because we want our children to live, the union with the Netherlands is for survival, the war with France is to defend the honor of Belgium, maybe you think this kind of thing is stupid, but I couldn't go against the Belgians' decision."

When Tolbeck came out of the Belgian parliament, he told his entourage, "The Belgians are stronger than any country imagined. They are like lions determined to fight to the end and are not willing to live in an ignoble way. Although at first glance It seems that it was an impulsive move driven by nationalism, but we are not qualified to judge whether this thing is correct. Just like Napoleon's Guardsmen were willing to die for him in the end, it was obviously okay. Survive, but still choose to fight until the last moment for the faith in your heart."

Napoleon III, who was high up in the Palace of Versailles, had also received the news long ago. He heard that the Belgians were retreating on a large scale, and their children and women had fled to the provinces behind. Napoleon III felt that something was wrong. He also heard that Belgium planned to enter into an alliance with the Netherlands. Merger, and Prussia has decided to integrate the Netherlands into the EU, which does not violate the agreement made at the beginning. They only guaranteed the independence of the Netherlands and did not guarantee the independence of Belgium.

This made Napoleon III feel as if he had been tricked. He immediately ordered a declaration of war on Belgium and asked the army to cross the border to end the war before the treaty was signed. Napoleon III hastily gathered [-] troops, and the Belgian king quickly Leopold I had his son Leopold Louis-Philippe Marie-Victor crowned King of Belgium in Brussels as Leopold II.

He watched with his own eyes as his son took over his throne and became the king of Belgium, and he will immediately go to the city of Namur. He wants to live and die with his kingdom.

"Even if you go, what's the use?" Many people used these words to try to stop the old king. The old king was in poor health and fell ill again. What can he do now that he returns to Belgium?

The old king was very determined, "If I, as a king's monarch, escape, then what shame do I have to ask others to fight? The captain lives and dies with his battleship!"

As early as the day before, more than a dozen Belgian generals summoned [-] standing troops. There were probably [-] to [-] people willing to stay and fight with France. They pieced together and finally made up more than [-] people. Troops, they carry old-fashioned weapons. Some of them have machetes if they don’t have guns. If they don’t have machetes, they have farm tools for farming.

They also purchased some weapons from the Netherlands and Prussia. Auguste proposed to Belgium that they could purchase the weapons directly with cash. Leopold II immediately began to raise money. They also received help from many Dutch people and finally scraped together the money. Although they were still not fully equipped with [-] rifles, there was nothing they could do. Each person had less than ten rounds of bullets, and the country could only manage [-] artillery pieces, with an average of just over ten for each division. With a three-hundred-kilometer-long front, they could only abandon the plains as much as possible and fight the French army in cities or forests. They had no retreat from the beginning.