Chapter 570

The British are in action, and other countries are not idle, especially in the four countries of Prussia, Russia, Poland, and Ottoman, which are at the center of the whirlpool, and they are working hard on public relations.

In order to obtain the diplomatic support of Russia from European countries, the diplomats of the four countries are like diligent little bees, constantly shuttling in the embassies of various countries.

The three kingdoms of France, Austria, and Germany, which are also in the center of the vortex, seem to be in sleep, and there is no movement at all.

Hummel knows that things are not as simple as they seem. It's not that they don't want to move, but they can't. It's Austria's best choice to be constant and adapt to changes.

He also understood that the French did not move. Thanks to Napoleon's illustrious reputation, to this day, European countries have not relaxed their vigilance against France.

Under such circumstances, no matter what the Paris government's diplomacy does, European countries will not give up their fear of them.

If you want to annex the Rhineland, any country on the European continent will stand against them, except for Monaco, which is controlled by the French themselves.

Small countries can also coerce and lure them to keep them neutral. What about a few big countries? Even if they wanted to exchange benefits, France could not afford this price. Since it is destined to be useless, why waste energy?

The German Federal Empire has no action, which makes Hummel puzzled. If you want to grab food and gain the Rhineland region, you cannot do it without the support of European countries.

Leave everything to the British and they'll just sit back and enjoy? When John Bull was charitable, how could it be possible for them to do nothing without enough profit?

It is impossible for the German Federal Empire to have no interest in the Rhineland region. Taking the Rhineland region will greatly promote their domestic heavy industry.

There is no action at all, so he is so confident and bold to let the British deal with it, is he not afraid of being sold by John Bull.

You know, there are many countries interested in the Rhineland region. Besides the French, Belgium is also a competitor.

Under normal circumstances, Belgium's strength is too weak, and at most it is secretly thought. But once there is the support of foreign powers, it is not necessarily.

The German Federal Empire can pay enough to buy the Rhineland, and Belgium can also pay for it.

For the Kingdom of Prussia, rather than letting the Rhineland fall into the hands of the German Federal Empire, it is more in its own interest to hand it over to Belgium.

Belgium is also the younger brother of the British. It is not the best choice to hand over the Rhineland to Belgium, but as long as it does not fall into the hands of the French, the London government can also accept it.

Knowing that there are competitors, the German Federal Empire still believes in the British so much. There must be some unknown secrets.

Hummel ordered: "Hors, immediately send a telegram to Vienna, and let their intelligence organization find out the insider trading between Britain and Germany as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Excellency Minister!" Secretary Halls replied

...

The London Conference was officially held on July 20, 1874. At the conference, Polish Foreign Minister Vlublewski justly accused the Russians of invading Poland and made three recommendations to the International Conference:

1. To condemn and sanction the crimes of Russia's aggression against Poland;

2. Immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Poland;

3. The tsarist government compensates the Polish kingdom for war losses.

There is no doubt that the Poles' proposal received diplomatic support from European countries, who condemned the atrocities of the Russians.

Perhaps to block the Russians, or to have other calculations, British Foreign Secretary Maclean, who presided over the meeting, proposed a vote.

The result was naturally one-sided. Thirteen of the sixteen representatives from Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Poland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Morocco, Black, Northern Europe and Ottoman who participated in the meeting supported Poland. people.

Austria and Montenegro chose to abstain, and the only dissenting vote was the Russians themselves. Quite a veto means, because the Russians objected so the resolution was annulled.

Hummel was puzzled. He had no idea what medicine was sold in the British gourd. This international conference is not binding, and countries have not signed relevant treaties.

It does nothing but make the Russian representative look ugly. There is no problem for everyone to support Poland verbally. If you want countries to send troops to intervene in the Russian-Polish war, you should wash and sleep!

Hummel does not doubt the ability of the British to fool them. If the London government is willing to spend a lot of money to convince the Kingdom of Prussia that there is no problem, other countries should not think about it.

Obviously, the British have no intention of supporting the Prussians to fight a war, and this input is not proportional to the output.

If it really beats the Russians, the Berlin government should default and all the British investment will be lost.

It's not that the Berlin government wants to default, but at that point, they really haven't paid.

War is a beast of gold. The Berlin government repaid less than one-third of the debt owed in the last Russian-Prussian war. What will they pay again?

Even if you win the war and get rich spoils, these spoils cannot be cash, most of them are real estate and land, and they cannot be converted into wealth in a short period of time.

Even because of the war, more money needs to be invested in the development of newly occupied areas. For a long time, the financial contribution of these new territories was negative.

Unless the British continued to increase their loans and let the Berlin government borrow new debts to pay off old debts, the Prussian Kingdom, which had no money, was doomed to default.

...

The Vienna Palace, after receiving what happened at the London meeting, Franz's face changed greatly. The seemingly bland vote is actually a hidden murder.

Russian feeling

If they can't stand it, that's because they are isolated themselves. Even if they fight against European countries, the situation will not be worse.

If you change to another country, it will be different, ignoring the attitudes of European countries, it also needs capital that can ignore European countries.

There are only two countries on the European continent that are not afraid of hostility. One is the Russian Empire. They have too much debt and have a geographical advantage. The vast territory + cold winter makes the Russian Empire invincible.

Other than that, Britain was left alone overseas. Even if everyone is unhappy with them, there is a strait barrier, and the Royal Navy is powerful, they can't help them at all.

Other European countries are different. If you want to mix on the mainland, you can't make yourself enemies all over the world. Every time we stand on the opposite side of European countries, it means that the crisis is approaching.

Napoleon's lesson from the past has already told everyone: without a superior strategic position, without the strength to single out the European continent, it is best not to wave well.

Franz can be sure that the British are not targeting the Russians this time, and the declining Russian Empire is no longer worth their thought.

It is worth the effort of the British to calculate, except for France and Austria, there is no third party to be found. Now that the Paris government is still fighting infighting, it is unlikely that things will happen in the short term, and most of them are aimed at Austria.

"The British have already made a move, how do you think we can handle it?"

Prime Minister Felix: "Your Majesty, it depends on what the British want to do. There are not many places we can be targeted at the moment, and even fewer places worth calculating.

The British made small moves at this time, either to disrupt our German unification strategy or to sabotage our eastward expansion plan.

If it is the former, most of them will start with the German Federal Empire. Nominally our German unification strategy is the last link left.

However, the internal division of the German Federal Empire is serious, and it seems that the strength is not small, but the power that can be exerted is very limited.

Even if they can integrate the German Federal Empire, there is no way to win the hearts of the people in the short term. It is not something that can be accomplished overnight to learn how to get rid of the influence of German nationalism in the Kingdom of Prussia.

If it is for the latter, then the British are going to keep the Ottoman Empire. This does not contradict our strategic goals. Anyway, the plan has been completed, and the war in the Near East just needs an excuse to stop.

Now the main goal of the British is to prevent the French from gaining access to the Rhineland, which should be incidental to us. The British, French and Austrian Tri-Nation Alliance is still there, so the British should not do too much. "

Is it that simple? Franz is very skeptical. He doesn't think that the British have so much foreshadowing in the early stage, and the final appetite is so small.

Foreign Minister Wesenberg: "I remember that two days ago, our embassy in London sent a telegram explaining that the German Federal Empire was behaving abnormally, and that intelligence agencies should investigate insider trading in Germany and England.

Combined with the current situation, it can be inferred that there may be unfavorable transactions between Britain and Germany. In order to avoid being found abnormal by us, the German Federal Empire chose to stop by statically.

Of course, there is also a very small possibility that it was a smoke bomb released by the British, and the German federal government just acted with them to confuse us.

It's very easy to break the game, the German Federal Empire thinks that annexing the Rhineland is a sure win, then we mix the water.

Didn't the Belgians show their intention to buy the Rhineland before? Then we will let them move, buy one more competitor, presumably the Prussians should be very happy. "

I don't know what the British plan is, it doesn't matter, it's right to disrupt their deployment first and mix the water.

At this time, let Belgium jump out, and the London government will have to make a choice. Only one of the two younger brothers can support, then the relationship between the British and the abandoned one will inevitably be affected.

After a little thought, Franz made a decision: "Then encourage Belgium to play, but this pressure is not enough.

At this stage, secrecy is meaningless. Presumably, Prussia and France have probably guessed the British plan.

So just make it clear and let them know that we and the British have joined forces to support the German Confederation in gaining the Rhineland.

Let Prussia and France also jump out and directly overturn the table. "