Chapter 562
The sudden Russian-Polish conflict shattered all the plans of Prime Minister Dombrovsky. If one is not handled properly, an all-out war will break out between Russia and Poland.
In this context, without the support of the Kingdom of Prussia, Poland would not even have the strength to fight. It can be said that the tsarist government helped the Prussians a lot, forcing the Polish government to make a compromise.
Is it that simple? The tsars are not stupid. If they don't have enough benefits, why should they help their enemies?
The Polish government is still in a state of confusion, and Franz, who is far away in Vienna, has figured out the ins and outs of the matter. It is nothing more than that Prussia and Russia secretly reached a deal to jointly carve up the Kingdom of Poland.
There is no enemy in front of the interests, the tsarist government wants to regain lost ground, the Prussians want to strengthen their strength, and both sides are eyeing the Poles.
A few years ago, the two sides fought to the death and the wounds of the war have not disappeared, and the two sides have united again.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this may be very unbelievable, but the reality is such nonsense.
For the Kingdom of Prussia, it is tempting to swallow Poland alone, but the size of the Kingdom of Poland is too large, with 70% to 80% of the Kingdom of Prussia.
In this context, choosing to share with others to reduce the difficulty of operation and share international pressure is the best choice.
The Berlin government was also forced to cooperate with the Russians. The three countries bordering Poland are Prussia and Austria. Austria is too powerful, and the Prussians dare not do anything with tigers, and would rather choose to cooperate with the enemy.
Even Franz can boldly speculate that the Prussians are ready to sell two. Maybe at this time, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already been sent to contact. Promise the territory that the Russians fancy to Austria, and take the opportunity to provoke the contradiction between Russia and Austria.
Putting down the information in his hand, Franz ignored it. No desire for no reason, no interest in Poland, Franz naturally did not care about the conspiracy between Prussia and Russia.
No matter how they calculated, as long as Austria remained motionless, all intrigues and intrigues would pale in the face of absolute strength.
The more prepared Prussia and Russia are, the worse the next war will be. If the governments of both countries are smart people, the best thing to do at this time is to pull people into the water.
Otherwise, neither Prussia nor Russia will be victors in the next war. The three countries of England, France, and Austria, who are watching the excitement, can make their efforts in vain as long as they intervene in the middle.
It is a pity that everyone is not a fool. The fact that Britain, France and Austria can form an alliance shows a lot of problems. Both Prussia and Russia are not masters of diplomacy. It is too difficult to dismantle the three-nation alliance and bring people to their side.
Austria does not want to expand on the European continent, the French have no time to fight, and the British shit sticks have always liked to stab in the back. If you want them to play in person, forget it!
The three countries are not so easy to pull, and the end fee alone cannot be afforded by Prussia and Russia.
In theory, there should be many conflicts between the three major powers in the battle for world hegemony between Britain, France and Austria, but unfortunately these conflicts have not yet erupted.
For example, France and Austria are very interested in the British maritime hegemony, but unfortunately they are constrained by their strength, and neither country has the strength to challenge the British maritime hegemony.
Another example: the battle for European hegemony between France and Austria, on the bright side, should be a life-and-death struggle. In reality, Austria lacks interest in hegemony on the European continent, and is basically too lazy to fight for it; the French are busy dealing with internal issues and temporarily ignore European hegemony.
In the overseas colonial movement, the three countries are all vested interests. If they stab each other, the cost of maintaining the colonies of each country will increase by a lot. If the three countries compromise, everyone can save a lot of expenses.
As long as Britain, France and Austria do not stab each other, other countries must consider whether they can bear the consequences of exposure even if they want to fish in troubled waters.
Needless to say, the colonial conflicts between Britain, France and Austria are still happening from time to time, which is much more restrained than before the alliance of the three countries. At least there have been no more colonial exploration teams of hundreds of people, and the entire army was wiped out in a daze.
Now Britain, France and Austria have started negotiations on the division of colonial powers. According to the current progress, there will be a result in about a year or two. By then, the conflicts in the overseas colonial activities of the three countries will be further reduced.
It's not Franz or Napoleon III that drives this, it's John Bull who is a shit stick.
Everyone established colonies to make money, not to make money at a loss. The British had the most colonies and had the most conflicts overseas with other countries.
Into the late 19th century, the maintenance costs of the major colonial empires rose sharply. If you continue to fight like this, everyone will not have to make money.
For his own benefit, John Bull also has to establish a set of rules to restrict the colonial activities of various countries overseas, so as to prevent everyone from stabbing each other every day and making money happily.
Of course, this is limited to the land that is recognized by everyone. In the battle for the unowned colony, no matter how ruthless it is, no one will show mercy.
This international pattern is completely different from the original time and space. Now the main international contradiction in Europe is the contradiction between Prussia and Russia.
In contrast, the British-Austrian conflict, the British-French conflict, and the French-Austrian conflict have all become secondary conflicts. The fact that Britain, France and Austria can form an alliance proves that the common interests of the three countries outweigh the contradictions.
What John Bull wanted was a continental balance, not a continental blackout all day long.
War means uncertainty, instigating war without certainty, who
There is no guarantee of the final situation.
What if the situation gets out of control and a Big Mac is hit by name? Napoleon's lesson was not far away, and he almost succeeded.
Now France and Austria are holding each other in check, Prussia and Russia are hostile to each other, and the European continent is in a delicate balance.
No matter which country changes, it may trigger a chain reaction. In the last war in the Near East, the British used facts to tell the British that it would take a price to easily intervene in the European war.
From the British point of view, it is best to keep the situation on the European continent so balanced. When conflicts arise between countries, they should be the arbiters.
...
On May 18, 1874, the Tsarist government issued a diplomatic note to the Kingdom of Poland, ordering the Polish government to hand over the "murderer in the border conflict" within 24 hours and cede the Kyiv region to the Russian Empire as compensation.
Such conditions are obviously not acceptable to the Polish government. Prime Minister Dombrovsky was furious, but could not do anything about it.
The standing army of the Russian Empire is as high as 876,000, and the Kingdom of Poland has done its best to make the standing army only 136,000. There is absolutely no way to make up the difference in strength between the two sides.
Warsaw, an office with only two desks, four chairs and a filing cabinet, is the office of Prime Minister Dombrovsky.
The Polish government is poor, and as the head of the government, Prime Minister Dombrowski leads by example and compresses office expenses as much as possible.
In this respect, Prime Minister Dombrovsky has done an impeccable job. It is a pity that a country cannot be governed well without being thrifty.
Prime Minister Dombrovsky: "What do the powers say, will they interfere in the actions of the Russians?"
The Polish government could not accept the Russians' conditions, the war had entered the countdown, and Prime Minister Dombrowski had to pin his hopes on international intervention.
Foreign Minister Vlublevsky: "The British Minister promised to mediate the conflict, but the French Minister did not give a clear answer and may be waiting for a decision from the Paris government.
The Prussians promised to support us, and they promised to send troops to support us as soon as a war broke out.
Austria did not make a statement, but because of the Russian-Austrian alliance, they are at best neutral and cannot stand on our side.
The rest of the European countries are watching the situation, and what choices they will make will only be determined after the situation becomes clear. "
After hearing this result, Prime Minister Dombrovsky did not feel the slightest relief.
The reaction of the European countries made him very cold. As the gatekeeper to guard the Russian Empire for the European countries, the Kingdom of Poland is also doing his best, but none of the three major powers, Britain, France, and Austria, have clearly expressed their support for them.
It seems that the support of the Kingdom of Prussia is obtained, but in fact this support comes at a price.
Prime Minister Dombrowski was certain that if William I could not be King of Poland concurrently, the Prussians would have to paddle in this war.
Now that the tsarist government is not ready for war, it is no problem to beat the kingdom of Poland. If you want to destroy the kingdom of Poland, the tsarist government must first consider whether the money in its pocket is enough.
The Kingdom of Prussia has a paddling motive, a half-dead kingdom of Poland, just in time for their annexation, to minimize backlash.
Dombrovsky made a decisive decision: "Immediately carry out nationwide mobilization, and we must prepare for a showdown with the Russians."
The foreign powers can’t count on them for a while, the French don’t have time to pay attention to them, and Austria is an ally of the Russian Empire, and the British know it’s unreliable when they think about it.
Mediation is easy to say, but in fact it all depends on whether the Russians are willing to buy it. More than half of the 24-hour ultimatum from the tsarist government has passed. It is estimated that the Russian army had already killed the British before the diplomatic note reached the tsarist government.
The only hope of the Kingdom of Poland is the Kingdom of Prussia, and Prime Minister Dombrowski is ready for a temporary compromise. In the face of life and death, many things can be compromised.
In any case, the size of the Kingdom of Poland is still so large, even if the Prussians have a good appetite, they will not be able to swallow them for a while.
Until then, they had to block the first wave of the Russians. It would be miserable if the Kingdom of Poland was defeated without Prussian reinforcements.
Can't count on Prussia to help recover lost ground and drive the Russians back home?
Don't look at the last war they won, Prussia still can't catch up with the Russians in terms of national strength. Prussia would not be an opponent of the Russian Empire at all if it had not been funded by its patrons.
The Tsarist government had no money, and the Berlin government was actually not much better. Don't be surprised if one day you hear that the Berlin government has gone bankrupt, they've been on the brink of bankruptcy.
It is not so much that the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Russians, it is better to say that the gold masters behind them killed the tsarist government with their money.
European countries have contributed money together, and Britain and France have generously provided loans. Such good things cannot happen every day. The borrowed money also has to be repaid. For so many years, the two countries have been working hard to repay the debt.
After losing weight, the Russian Empire can no longer frighten Europe, and everyone's support will naturally be gone.
In this context, Prime Minister Dombrovsky does not think that Prussia has the strength to hang up the Russians. If it had this strength, the Berlin government would have annexed Poland long ago, and there is no need to wait until now.
The Polish government has never neglected "war preparations", but according to prior estimates, this war will be more than ten years later, so the Polish government is not fully prepared
.
The Russian-Polish conflict came too suddenly, the Polish government just got the news, the ultimatum from the tsarist government came, and there was no time for them to prepare at all.
To complete the combat readiness within 24 hours is simply a fantasy. Unless it is a small country like Monaco at the level of a village chief, the national mobilization can be completed in a few hours.
Poland began to mobilize, and the Russians were not idle. The tsarist government, which has been prepared for a long time, has concentrated 20 infantry divisions and 5 cavalry divisions on the Russian-Polish border, and 20 infantry divisions on the Russian-Prussian border.
Apparently, the tsarist government did not trust the Prussians, so they stationed heavy troops on the border.
Today is different from the past, the tsarist government has hoarded a batch of food in advance, and the problem of feeding the Russian soldiers has been solved. The logistical pressure on the Russians has been greatly reduced.
20 infantry divisions may not be able to help the Kingdom of Prussia, but the defense of the border is more than enough. Even if the Berlin government wants to play tricks, it must first consider its own strength.
No way, the more soldiers can be willful. Casually, the tsarist government mobilized more than half a million troops, which has exceeded the sum of the standing armies of the two countries.
The tragedy is that the Polish government didn't notice it in advance, and even now Prime Minister Dombrovskiy doesn't know how many enemies he has to face.
In this respect, the Polish government is really unqualified. He showed the most incisive and incisive performance, and paid no attention to intelligence work at all.