Chapter 477 The British Plan

South Africa's war is raging, and the London government is worried. At one time, it was thought that Austria and the French had reached a secret deal to attack the German Federal Empire.

Fortunately, the worst did not happen, and Austria did not act, otherwise they would have added a new threat.

Austria, nestled in the Mediterranean, is terrifying, but it is no threat to Britain. Once the German region was unified and entered the Atlantic, the situation changed, and the distance between the two sides was narrowed.

Of course, this threat is relative. Franz also worried about the threat of the British, after all, the Royal Navy is the strongest in the modern era.

It didn't happen, but it made Prime Minister Benjamin even more puzzled. He couldn't see what the Austrians wanted to do.

Don't care about the French threat? This is impossible! The Habsburg dynasty and the French have been entangled in the European continent for hundreds of years, how can it be possible that they are not aware of the terror of their opponents?

France's annexation of Italy was not only to expand its territory, but also established France's hegemony in the Mediterranean and European hegemony.

No Austria on this issue? The reason will be compromised. Even if it is worried that it will be profited by the direct confrontation with France, after the London government agrees to the alliance, the Vienna government should also take action.

Prime Minister Benjamin asked with concern: "Have you figured out the inside story of the Fao transaction?"

The more you don't understand it, the more you think there is a problem. In order to find out the insider trading between France and Austria, the London government made every effort to activate the highest-level secrets.

For this reason, many spies lurking in France and Austria have been exposed, and the situation returned is still only broken, and it needs to be analyzed and deduced.

Foreign Secretary Maclean thought for a moment and said: "We have insufficient intelligence and can only make preliminary judgments.

Roughly: Austria acquiesced to France annexing the Italian region in exchange for the French admitting their unification of the German region.

There may be other exchange of interests, such as: the two countries jointly carve up the Mediterranean Sea and squeeze us out; and the secret division of the African continent, and so on.

In recent years, the relationship between France and Austria has been very close. It seems that the two countries have agreed on overseas colonial expansion.

The sudden action of the French caught the Vienna government by surprise. Austria did not have time to prepare at all. They wanted to unify the German region and could not avoid the Kingdom of Prussia.

The Vienna government should have been preparing to use the Prussian-Russian war to weaken Prussia. They did not expect that the Russians were so unsatisfactory and lost the war.

If it weren't for this accident, the nationalists would have forced the defeated Kingdom of Prussia to join the HRE Empire, and now it is time for Austria to unify the German region.

An accident made the plan of the Vienna government fail completely. Now they may still be debating whether to unify the German region by force. "

Brain supplements are often the most terrifying, a mess of true and false information, and successfully misdirected the British. Maclean chose the most logical inference.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and seemed to accept this statement. The most terrifying thing is always the unknown. Once you figure out the ins and outs of things, there is a solution.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Motoli analyzed: "In recent years, the Vienna government has invested a lot of fiscal revenue in economic development, without military preparations.

The Kingdom of Prussia is not weak. With the lessons of the Russians, it is impossible for the Vienna government to rashly attack them when they are not well-prepared.

However, we still need to prepare for the worst. Austria's advantage over Prussia is too great. Once the Vienna government makes up its mind, the preparation time will not be too long. "

War is no child's play, especially modern wars are very dependent on logistics. When two countries go to war, a series of material preparations are bound to be carried out. This requires a lot of financial and human resources, and it is impossible to maintain confidentiality.

It is quite reliable to judge whether a country is preparing for war from the flow of materials.

"It is really necessary to be vigilant, one Grand France is enough, and there can never be a unified Shinra Empire again.

After so many years of development, the strength gap between Prussia and Austria has not narrowed, but has widened further.

Although the Prussians won the Prussian-Russian War, these spoils still need time to be digested, and they cannot all be converted into strength in the short term.

Austria's standing army is now as high as 580,000. If a war breaks out, they can mobilize another two or three million troops in the shortest time.

As early as more than ten years ago, Austria set a record of mobilizing more than 1.8 million troops in one month. In terms of mobilization mechanism, the Austrians have come to the forefront of the world.

Perhaps Austrian Africa can mobilize a million troops. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of these troops is not weak, and now a group of aristocratic private armies can compete with us in South Africa.

Although Prussia's standing army has 360,000 people, it is limited by financial and human resources, as well as the influence of the Prussian-Russian War. It is initially estimated that their current limit mobilization is about 700,000.

The Berlin government is now increasing reserve training. According to the plan of the Prussian staff, 1 million reserve troops will be trained within ten years, and their mobilization capacity is expected to exceed 1.5 million in the future.

Beginning with the War in the Near East, the pattern of warfare on the European continent has changed. The future wars must be battles with large corps, and the size of our army can no longer keep up with the times. "

It was the Minister of War, Brandt, who was watching the great development of the European armies, while the lobster soldiers were standing still. He saw it in his eyes and worried in his heart.

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The era of large corps operations has come, and many people have anticipated this issue. The Russian-Prussian War that just ended, the Russian Empire singled out the heroes, and the total military strength once exceeded 2 million.

This number was something they never dared to imagine before. If it weren't for the limitation of traffic and the corruption of the tsarist government, the Russians had won the war by virtue of their numerical superiority.

After experiencing it once, everyone has to admit that the forces that can be used in modern warfare are far more than ever. When the quality advantage is not obvious, the crowd tactics are the simplest and most effective tactics.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rubbed his forehead and said: "The issue of the Army will be discussed later, and now we will discuss how to meet this challenge first."

The army wants to expand the army, how can this be done? The landlord's family has no surplus food, and in order to maintain the Royal Navy, the financial resources of the London government are almost exhausted, and no one can stand another gold swallowing beast.

The daily military expenditures of France and Austria are no less than theirs, and in some years they are even higher than them. The Royal Navy can still guarantee an absolute advantage, naturally taking the bulk of military spending.

Under normal circumstances, the Royal Navy takes 70% to 80% of the military budget, which is a normal operation, and occasionally taking 90% of the budget is not unheard of.

If it reaches France and Austria, the navy can get half of the military budget, which is considered to be taken care of. Most of the time, the army takes the lead.

Taking Austria as an example, in the annual military budget, the army usually takes 55% to 60%, and the rest is the military expenditure of the navy.

France is no different. Unless it is a naval arms race, it is very difficult for the French and Austrian navies to surpass the army.

In this context, the Royal Navy's maritime supremacy was consolidated. If the army wants to expand its army, it will either increase its military expenditure or squeeze the share of the navy.

Both of these points are impossible to achieve. A substantial increase in military expenditure will not be able to bear the financial burden of the London government. To reduce the military expenditure of the navy would be a slow suicide.

Once the advantage of the Royal Navy was gone, Britain's good days were over. Whenever there is a hint of decadence, European countries will swarm and carve up their colonial empires.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli knew that the Army's problems could not be solved, so he covered it up without waiting for Brandt to go on.

Knowing the seriousness of the matter, Foreign Minister Maclean took the opportunity to take up the topic: "Austria is already very strong, and they must not be allowed to unify the German region.

The military pressure of the Kingdom of Prussia is too great, and it needs to face the military pressure from Russia and Austria. I suggest continuing to strengthen the Kingdom of Prussia and, if necessary, allow them to annex the Kingdom of Poland.

However, this time should not be too early. The Russian Empire has not recovered. If they are allowed to annex Poland in advance, maybe they will join forces with Austria and kill the Russian Empire first.

We need a balanced European continent. It is not a good phenomenon that such big powers appear frequently. If this state is not changed, the European continent will be unified again sooner or later.

Therefore, Grand France must also be broken up. Otherwise, when it becomes a habit for a strong country to annex a weak country, it will be a big trouble. "

The result of "unification of the European continent" is too terrifying. A unified European continent would really kill Britain.

John Bull's sense of crisis has always been very serious. Once a country in the European continent has a tendency to unify the continent, they will immediately be suppressed by them.

In the later stage, it has developed to the point where whoever is stronger will be suppressed. More than ten years ago, the Russian Empire coaxed and coerced the European continent, and then John Bull worked hard to suppress the Russians.

Now that the Russians have gone down, the French and Austrian countries have risen again. One enemy two is not their style. After initial attempts, they decisively chose the strategy of fighting whoever emerges first.

Originally, the target chosen by the London government was Austria, and plans were being drawn up to be implemented, and the French came forward.

Not only did they emerge, but after annexing the Italian region, they also pushed their power out of the Mediterranean.

This was intolerable, and the London government had to change its goals. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and Austria did not cooperate. John Bull, who had no thugs, looked at the French who could not start.

Prime Minister Benjamin said solemnly: "The Italian revolutionary leaders Garibaldi and Mazzini have arrived in London, hoping to get our support to restore the country.

They had already met Vittorio Emanuele II, the former royal family of Sardinia, and they had reached an agreement to unite against French rule.

In addition, some nobles in the Italian region contacted us, hoping that we could hold an international conference to stop the French aggression.

It's just that these forces are too scattered, and even with our support, it will be difficult to shake the French domination in Italy in the short term. We need more allied support. "

After speaking, he turned his attention to Foreign Minister Maclean, expecting him to give a satisfactory answer.

It did not disappoint, Foreign Minister Maclean gave the answer: "This time all European countries are on the opposite side of the French, but they are shocked by the strength of the French, and no one wants to offend the French too much.

Even the Austrians don't want to see the French eat Italy so smoothly, and they may not interfere on the surface, but secretly the Vienna government definitely doesn't mind causing trouble for them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been in contact with various countries, and everyone is willing to support the Italians' independence movement and break the French's ambition to dominate the European continent.

Austria is an exception, they are

Heart of the Italian Independence Games spread to Lombardy and Venice, refused to support the Italian Revolutionary Party.

Felix, the old fox, suggested that we contact the French Revolutionary Party and agitate the French people to rise up against colonial invasion.

By the way, he also proposed to support an anti-French king of Spain to cause trouble for the French.

In theory, these are all feasible, the only problem is to grasp this degree, otherwise the French will fall, and Austria will dominate. "

Everyone's playing is a conspiracy, and together they cause chaos for the French. It's just that Austria refused to come forward this time, and pushed everything to the British.

Knowing is knowing, things are still to be done. If Austria is a potential threat, the Grand French Empire is a real threat.

Without action soon, there is no place for the British in the Mediterranean. In the future, the overseas trade of Britain to the Indian Ocean will also be subject to the French.

Prime Minister Benjamin said with a sneer: "Let the Austrians be proud for a few days, and then there will be a time for them to cry. Don't care what they have, just follow the original plan and suppress the French first.

After splitting up Grand France, we are slowly settling accounts with them. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs used the anti-French cover as a cover and secret contacts with various countries to prepare for the establishment of an anti-Austrian alliance. "

The anti-Russian alliance, the anti-French alliance, and the anti-Austria alliance were carefully prepared by the British for the three competitors of Russia, France and Austria.

At present, the anti-Russian alliance has been successful, and in the recent war, the anti-Russian alliance defeated the Russians in one fell swoop, ruining the European hegemony of the Russian Empire.

It is not the first time that the anti-French alliance has been established, but Napoleon III changed the foreign policy of the Napoleon era and chose to reconcile with European countries, which led to the delay in the establishment of the anti-French alliance.

Now the situation has changed, the establishment of the Great French Empire, laid the foundation for the establishment of the anti-French alliance again.

If it weren't for the lack of the crucial part of Austria, it is estimated that the anti-French alliance would have raised its flag publicly at this time. Faced with this alliance, it was difficult for Napoleon III not to compromise.

The anti-Austrian alliance, which has been diving, was actually prepared by the British early on. Open the map and you will find that Poland, Prussia, and Switzerland around Austria have anti-Austrian tendencies.

If the situation changes, it is not impossible for the Russian Empire to stand on the opposite side of Austria; if Italy succeeds in independence, this new country will naturally be a member of the anti-Austria camp.

It can be said that as long as the Vienna government is not careful, it will step into the trap set up by the British and fall into a state of isolation and helplessness.