Chapter 553 Throne

Napoleon III died in Versailles on April 21, 1874. This news quickly seized the heat of the Near East War, and everyone's eyes were focused on Paris.

Vienna Palace, Franz sighed deeply. One competitor just went away.

After adjusting his emotions, Franz quickly recovered.

"Napoleon III has gone, and the handover of power in France will inevitably be a turmoil. We don't need to worry about the threat from the west in a short period of time, and the next step must be planned.

All of us in Berlin and London can get started. The changes in the European situation this time are related to the international pattern in the next few decades, and the situation must not be allowed to get out of control. "

It has to be said that the strategic layout is trouble. Mistakes in any one place may trigger a chain reaction.

Including the death of Napoleon III is within the calculation range. If he persists for a few more years, Franz's European strategy will have to be completely overturned and restarted.

Foreign Minister Weisenberg: "Your Majesty, the situation in France is more chaotic than we expected. Napoleon III has just died, and the French government is also caught in a power struggle.

Napoleon IV, who is about to ascend the throne, has insufficient prestige and cannot hold back the elders in the government. At present, several major factions are fighting fiercely.

If the internal struggle does not end, I am afraid that the French will not have the energy to intervene in international affairs in the short term, and our plan to lure the enemy will not work. "

The infighting in the French government was deliberately created by Napoleon III. Only when his ministers fought, could the emperor's rights be guaranteed.

Napoleon III died too early, and the time to pave the way for Crown Prince Eugene was too short to establish his prestige and convince everyone.

In this case, let the ministers below fight each other, and the little emperor appears as an arbiter. After a few years, the emperor's position has stabilized, and it is enough to replace the lower ministers.

This is a very clever trick to achieve the smooth transition of imperial power. It's just that the sequelae are also very big. An internal government will waste a lot of energy and affect the development of the country.

The French family has a great business, and it is not a problem to develop a little slower. There is almost no external threat, and no country would be tempted to invade France.

France, who is constantly fighting infighting, will obviously not jump out and do things. Even if the resources of Belgium and the Rhineland region are coveted again, and there are many teammates who are holding back, it is difficult to become a reality.

As long as the main force of the French army does not come out, Austria can't help the French. According to the plan, it was to tempt France to send troops to the Rhineland region, and Austria pulled together European countries to form an anti-French alliance.

Don't look at the strength of the French soldiers, but now they really can't fight in the Napoleonic era, and if there is another war against France, they can't hold it at all.

Franz nodded: "It doesn't matter, the possibility of this plan is very low, it becomes the best naturally, and it doesn't matter if it fails.

France is not our real enemy, the European countries are not our real enemy, our real enemy will always be ourselves. "

Franz couldn't help but get excited when he said the last sentence. After so many years of development, Austria has finally developed to the point of ignoring external threats.

The situation on the European continent has been scrambled beyond recognition. In the situation of Prussia and Russia, there is only one France left, which can no longer threaten the security of Austria.

From the very beginning, the Vienna government had two plans: to balance Prussian power, or to overthrow France.

Either way, Austria will emerge from the crisis of multi-front warfare. It is not easy to defeat France, so continue to implement the Prussian-Russian balance strategy.

This is to learn from the British. While implementing the European-Continental Balance Policy, John Bull also maximized his interests, and Franz naturally wanted to follow suit.

...

In Berlin, after receiving the news of Napoleon III's death, William I almost went crazy with joy.

Russia and Austria are beating the Ottoman Empire, and the French are dying of the emperor. It can be said that the biggest stumbling block for William I to the Polish throne does not exist.

Foreign Secretary Jeffrey Friedman reminded: "Your Majesty, things are not so optimistic. Napoleon III's death only means that the probability of French intervention is reduced, it does not mean that there will be no intervention at all.

Although the Near Eastern War has restrained part of Austria's energy, they still have the strength to intervene. We also have to consider the reaction of the British, the London government does not want to see us really rise.

To annex Poland, we had better have the support of two of the three countries, Britain, France, and Austria, or at least their acquiescence. "

The excited William I woke up instantly, and it was too early to be happy. Before the three major powers were settled, the annexation of Poland would be a blur.

"It's really a question, if we do a deal with France and Austria, how much will it cost?"

Interest is always the best outbreak to solve the problem. If it can't be solved, it must be that the interest is not big enough. Don't look at European countries' opposition to Prussia's annexation of Poland. As long as the interests are in place, opposition can also become support.

It is also a realistic need to choose to buy France and Austria. The Russian Empire is a mortal enemy, and the Berlin government cannot buy it; the strength of the British is at sea, and the possibility of sending troops to intervene is very small.

Jeffrey Friedman thought for a while and said: "In the current situation, we can promise France and Austria to: support Austria's annexation of the Ottoman Empire and the German Confederation, and support France's annexation of Belgium as a transaction.

When necessary, the French can also be promised the sale of the Rhineland, the Austrian

Promises to sell part of the southern part of the Kingdom of Poland. "

A promise is a promise, and whether it can be fulfilled depends on the actual situation. Just like when the Ottoman Empire was divided up, Franz also promised most of the Balkans to the Russians, but in the end most of the area fell into the hands of Austria.

The Vienna government also did not violate the agreement. The extra territory was bought by Austria from the French, not from the Ottoman Empire.

However, when it was Prussia's turn, the situation changed. France and Austria were a little too strong, and the possibility of changes was less. The present promise is likely to become a reality in the future.

The room fell into silence, and everyone was weighing the pros and cons. From this point of view, they were daring to Bismarck, and they directly wrote a bad check to Napoleon III, and turned their heads and turned their faces away.

After hesitating for a while, Prime Minister Mao Qi broke the silence: "You can try to fight for it. As long as Poland can be annexed, the strength gap between us and France and Austria will be greatly reduced, and the situation will be different then.

In the future, we can also lead the eyes of the French to the Low Countries and Austria to the Ottoman Empire.

Don't forget the reaction of the rest of Europe, and perhaps the promises now do not need to be fully fulfilled. "

This is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened on the European continent. If other European countries interfere, causing the transaction to fail smoothly, there is no way for France and Austria to accuse Prussia of breaching the contract.

This is similar to William I's plan. He has long been prepared to let the British finally come out to make trouble and prevent France and Austria from expanding to Central Europe.

After a pause, William I made a decision: "Then let's act, first create the established facts, and then negotiate later, the result will be more beneficial to us."

If possible, Wilhelm I preferred to annex the German Federal Empire. It's a pity that the difficulty is too great, and it is impossible for the British, French, and Austrian countries to agree.

Austria's German unification strategy is well known, even if it is for political propaganda, the Vienna government will fully intervene.

The French also wanted to annex territories west of the Rhine, with the German Confederation in the middle, and the Commonwealth of Rhineland as an enclave. If Prussia annexed the German Confederation, and the territory became one, it would be difficult to pay attention.

Different from the original time and space, in order to prevent Austria from annexing the German Confederation, John Bull invested a lot of resources in the German Confederation, and he was treated as a son.

The relationship between the two sides is closer than that of Belgium and the Netherlands. The German Confederation is also playing a balance, the navy is all British equipment, and the army is basically arcane equipment.

Relying on good diplomatic relations, the Vienna government could not use force against the German Confederation. If you want to unify the German region, the negotiation is done. As long as Austria can settle the European countries, they have no objection.

The seemingly cooperative move is actually a very clever political means, and all the responsibility for destroying the unity of the German region is placed on the international forces.

Regardless of the final result, the interests of the ruling class will not be damaged. You don't even have to worry about national defense and security. If you encounter trouble, you can just ask Austria for help.

The Vienna government abandoned the national policy of the German unification plan, which also had this factor.

The seemingly coordinated reunification actually hides a lot of mysteries. To achieve peaceful reunification through negotiation, the government can only obtain a nominal reunification, and it will also lay a hidden danger for the division of the empire.

Franz is not a person who seeks fame and fame. Just a nominal right to rule is not worth the Austrian gamble with the entire empire.

Then everyone acted together. The more the German Confederation cooperated, the more European countries worried that after Austria unified the German region, the integration strength would skyrocket in a short period of time, and everyone tried desperately to prevent Austria from annexing the German Confederation.

...

In Warsaw, it seems that overnight everyone is paying attention to the succession of the Polish throne. Experts and scholars have commented in the newspapers, and all the problems encountered in Poland have been attributed to the lack of a king.

This is not nonsense, they still have evidence. All powerful countries in Europe have monarchs, either kings or emperors.

The republic cannot even elect a representative, and the division of the American Civil War has been advertised as a negative textbook in Europe. "Emperor takes turns" is seen as one of the main causes of the American Civil War.

True or false who knows? In any case, monarchical countries are propaganda like this, and everyone will believe it if they say a lot.

The more radical newspapers have begun to publicly accuse the government of deliberately preventing the emergence of the king for the sake of their power.

This statement cannot be wrong. The Polish government really does not want the king to appear and affect the power in their hands.

But if the cover is lifted, it must not be admitted. Now is the era of monarchy, and the constitutional monarchy was established when Poland gained independence.

It is clearly written in the constitution that the Polish interim government cannot afford this crime. Looking at the crowd of demonstrators outside, Prime Minister Dombrovsky knew that he could not hold on.