Chapter 433 A Gunshot

September 2, 1843.

Paris, France.

Under the autumn wind, the golden light spread all over the city. The busy civilians, the lazy nobles, and the greasy rich businessmen formed an exquisite and vulgar oil painting.

When the Queen of England came to the city, King Louis Philippe received her with the highest etiquette.

The soldiers on both sides of the road were solemn and dignified, which was no less than when they welcomed Napoleon's coffin.

Because almost every Frenchman did not want to lose face in front of the British, the Gallic rooster at this time held his chest and raised his head as it did in the past.

The reputation of the British Empire could not deter the French. On the contrary, they were watching the huge team slowly driving on the street like watching the rare animals in the zoo.

However, in view of the recent security situation in France and Paris, Louis Philippe still ordered people to send three times more troops to protect Victoria's safety.

The grand welcome ceremony invited celebrities from all walks of life in France, including painters, scholars, politicians, and businessmen. Everyone was dressed in red and decorated with ribbons and medals.

In order to win people's hearts, the July Monarchy once sold medals and titles in bulk everywhere, so this kind of thing was particularly worthless in France at that time.

However, this did not affect those people's desire to show off, at least they felt very handsome.

Victoria was five feet two inches tall (about a little over 1.57 meters) and was a little petite. At the same time, she was well maintained and stood with Louis Philippe. From a distance, she looked like a little girl saluting her elders.

This undoubtedly gave the French a good impression and made them less disgusted with the identity of the Queen of England.

In fact, Victoria was really a junior of Louis Philippe. Victoria was the niece of Louis of Orleans, the Queen of Belgium, and at the same time, the Queen of Belgium was the eldest daughter of Louis Philippe.

Yes, Louis Philippe is Victoria's uncle!

So I won't introduce him too much here. I should have introduced him when introducing King Leopold I of Belgium.

The fact that the King of France personally came to greet the Queen of England was enough to show how much he valued this visit. Both sides knew that this was a visit entirely out of political considerations.

But the surface work was still done very well. The British and French journalists and royal writers had been waiting for a long time.

These literati naturally knew what to do, that is, to turn this meeting into a grand event that can be remembered by history.

The Queen of England and the King of France called each other family members. Louis Philippe even claimed that Victoria was like his daughter. The latter also expressed his gratitude and even presented a white dove symbolizing peace to France on behalf of the British government.

The most direct result of this meeting was that the two sides would end the confrontation in the Viceroyalty of La Plata. In fact, both sides had wanted to stop this meaningless war.

But unfortunately, the British and French high-level officials were set up by their own people, and Franz deliberately manipulated public opinion, which almost caused a real war between the two sides.

But many times, many things may not develop as Franz expected, even if enough work has been done, it still cannot be achieved.

In the Viceroyalty of La Plata, the generals of both Britain and France showed great restraint. Even if Franz created some troubles and Rosas created tension from time to time, they did not cause the two sides to go to war.

But even if the war did not happen, the cost of maintaining the expeditionary force was a considerable expense.

In fact, it was not entirely Franz's incompetence that failed to cause the war between Britain and France. The main reason was that the distance was too far. Even if he wanted to micro-manage, he did not have the conditions. It would take several weeks for a letter to be sent from Austria to La Plata, and no one knew how many things could happen in a few weeks.

In addition, there were some special people who attended the ceremony. They were neither British nor French, but Poles.

They were the famous Polish Restoration Army. Due to the large-scale fight with another group of Polish Restoration forces before, coupled with the joint encirclement and suppression by Russia and Prussia, and Franz's high-intensity poaching.

There were big problems with the original organizational structure and it had to be reorganized. At this time, the top brass of the Polish Restoration Army finally replaced a group of capable fresh blood, led by a young man named Landre Promi.

It was he who took the initiative to find the French and the British to seek cooperation. At this time, Landre Promi's appearance at the welcoming ceremony proved that he had convinced at least one of them.

In fact, it was not surprising for Franz that Britain and France would accept the Polish Restoration Army. After all, they had a common enemy, the Holy Alliance.

The Holy Alliance and the Vienna system were obstacles to Britain and France's dominance of the world. The Holy Alliance made it difficult for Britain to truly defeat its old rival Russia.

Even at this time, Russia was considered to be behind the times, a sad and ridiculous agricultural country, and called it a barbaric and backward nation.

But Britain never let go of its vigilance against this European gendarme. Although Austria was recovering rapidly and even caused a lot of trouble for Britain, in the eyes of the Anglo-Saxons, even the entire German Confederation was not qualified to challenge it.

Russia, Prussia and Austria divided Poland. There is no doubt that the two sides were enemies to the death, and the enemy of the enemy was a friend.

Britain and France followed this logic and decided to help them. In fact, both sides had experience in this regard, such as the workers' movement that was raging in Britain and France at this time.

In fact, there were also workers' movements in Germany, but most of them were not serious or had been resolved except for the Silesia region of Prussia.

Britain and France also hoped that the Poles could stir up a wave within the Holy Alliance like the workers' movement at this time, and it would be best if they could restore their country, so that they could better control this powerful opponent.

In fact, even if Britain and France joined forces, it would be impossible to launch an attack on the Holy Alliance immediately, but some methods could be used to weaken the power of the alliance until it collapsed internally.

In fact, Franz thought about the same thing. He didn't want to really fight a war. If possible, Britain and France would never join forces. It would be best to go to opposition or war.

Such a world is the most beneficial to Austria. Of course, Franz is not the only one who doesn't want Britain and France to join forces.

Louis Philippe is preparing to invite Queen Victoria to stay in his castle outside Paris.

"Your Majesty Victoria, my little manor is very suitable for picnics and hunting. Believe me, you and dear Albert will love it there."

Louis Philippe said this sincerely, because picnics and hunting were his few hobbies. After all, he always wanted to maintain a simple and frugal image, and generally speaking, the entertainment activities of the nobility were very expensive. For the sake of his own personality, Louis Philippe was also fighting hard.

At this time, a gunshot was heard in the distance.