Chapter 1068: Intrusion

London, England.

Prince Albert was surprised and embarrassed by the news of the French surrender.

There is no doubt that Prince Albert's wait-and-see strategy failed again. The Hungarians were useless and the Ottomans did not move.

However, the most fatal thing was the surrender of the French. Now unless Britain did its best, the painless action would not only fail to achieve the goal, but also reduce its prestige.

Although both Austria and Britain stopped further actions after the initial negotiations, it was still a loss in Prince Albert's view, so he wanted to wait until the situation was more favorable to Britain before negotiating.

In addition, the information provided by the Austrians also frightened Prince Albert, because Austria's strength far exceeded the estimation of the British intelligence department, and the two failures in the war against Austria also confirmed this.

Fortunately, the Austrian navy did not continue to besiege Gibraltar, nor did it rush out of the Mediterranean to further endanger British interests.

Some small-scale conflicts between the two sides overseas were selectively ignored by Prince Albert, because even overseas at this time Britain had more defeats than victories.

The most important point is that the victory of overseas colonies cannot have a decisive impact on Austria as a country.

In addition, the great powers around Austria's colonies seem to have good relations with Austria, which is completely opposite to the situation faced by Britain.

Therefore, the British army often has to deal with local regional hegemons while facing Austria, a great power. As the war progressed, signs of instability appeared both inside and outside Britain.

At this time, the City of London was wailing, and the banking and insurance industries were on the verge of collapse.

The railway tycoons and stock gods a year ago either had no desire to live or had chosen high-altitude free fall or other ways of relief.

Most of these people's bodies will appear in the Thames, but few people will choose to jump into the river directly to solve the problem because it is too smelly.

In history, the British Parliament passed the Public Health Act in 1848, and the British Central Health Service was established in the same year.

From then on, the British would drastically transform the city and establish a preliminary public health system, with London being the top priority.

However, due to the emergence of Franz, Britain's economic and political crisis was much more serious than in history. In addition, the continuous wars and fragmented ethnic relations made Britain's social crisis more serious at this time.

At this time, no one was willing to spend money on public health, let alone the management of the Thames.

At this time, the Thames also had a title - the sobering river. At night, drunkards would sober up immediately as long as they approached the Thames, because they would be vomited by the smell of the river water, and most people would become sober after vomiting.

The high temperature, humidity, and ubiquitous dirt in summer made London a hotbed of cholera again.

Edward Smith-Stanley's face was very gloomy. He was extremely dissatisfied with Prince Albert's actions and believed that the royal family's procrastination missed the best time to negotiate with Austria.

George Hamilton Gordon also opposed the war. He was not optimistic about the economic situation in Britain. The damage caused by the war would only further aggravate social unrest and in turn drag down the British economy.

In fact, George Hamilton Gordon's views were different from the mainstream. At that time, many economists believed that war could promote economic development.

Their reason is that war can stimulate consumption, increase employment, and even promote technological progress and process innovation.

(I won't list specific examples one by one.)

Prince Albert was also very depressed. He never expected that his actions would put the British royal family on the cusp of the storm again.

However, there is still a way to deal with Prince Albert in Parliament. Just repeat the Austrian Empire threat theory.

It's just that after France surrendered, all this seemed to have become meaningless, and boosting the British economy was the right way to go compared to hegemony.

Thinking of this, Prince Albert's heart was full of pride, but a piece of news was like a bolt from the blue that broke all his plans.

Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on the grounds of helping its allies fight against foreign enemies.

The cause was that a patrol of the Austrian Empire in Albania was attacked, and Tsar Nicholas I insisted that it was the Ottoman Empire that did it.

In fact, after more than half a year of preparation, Russia was finally ready for battle.

Seeing the Austrian Empire, as an ally, killing people everywhere, Nicholas I was so hungry that he chopped the Ottoman Empire with his sword.

300,000 Russian troops were divided into two groups, attacking Tulcea and Erzurum respectively.

The Ottoman army suffered heavy losses in a hurry, and what was more terrible was that due to the instigation of the British, the main forces of the Ottoman Empire were concentrated in the Balkans near the Austrian Empire.

(Tulcha is the gateway to the Balkans, and Erzurum is the eastern gateway to the Ottoman Empire. In the previous document, Kasir has become Russian territory.)

Sultan Majid wanted to cut Viscount Stratford into pieces, but he could only patiently ask Britain for help.

Because at this time, only the British could deal with the Russians. Although the Austrians were still fighting a civil war, they were allies of the Russians.

The most important thing was that in the eyes of the Ottomans, the Austrians were the same as the Russians, and they were coveting their land.

It was obviously not in line with the British strategy to allow the Russians to continue to invade the Ottoman Empire, but if they continued to send troops to the Ottoman Empire, the British economy might not be able to bear it.

Just when Prince Albert was in a dilemma, the two conservative leaders thought he was too indecisive.

If Prince Albert had signed a peace agreement with Austria at the time, there would be no situation of being caught between the left and right.

Now even if Britain wants to send troops to the Ottoman Empire, it must first pass the Austrians, because the Austrians cannot watch the British fleet swaggering through the Mediterranean.

According to the British tradition, they will definitely provoke the relationship between Russia and Austria first to reduce resistance, and even pull one to fight the other.

However, the war between Britain and Austria has not ended yet. If Britain wants to send troops to the Ottoman Empire, it can only be forced to face the attack of two powers at the same time.

Coupled with the friction with Prussia on the Schleswig issue, Britain must face the entire Holy Alliance at this time.

This is simply the most failed in the history of British diplomacy.

However, compared with Prince Albert and Sultan Mejid, Mr. Kossuth is the most desperate person.

The surrender of France meant that the Austrians had no more worries, and Hungary was definitely their next target.

However, to make matters worse, the Russians attacked the Ottoman Empire under the banner of aiding Austria, but no one could guarantee that Nicholas I would not help his son-in-law to deal with Hungary while dealing with the Ottomans.

For a time, the flu attacked the entire Hungarian Parliament, and more than half of the members of Parliament claimed to be sick and did not attend. Kossuth, who came to the Parliament with a serious illness, gritted his teeth and made up his mind.