Chapter 512: Making a Fortune by Stealing Sound

The French have not made any moves yet, but the British are getting restless. That's right, even before the French authorities have made any statement, England has started to jump up and down.

The British media and their politicians clearly oppose the undisguised exacerbation of conflicts and provocation of war by the United States across the ocean, especially the latter's blockade of the coastline and detention of foreign ships, which is a serious challenge to the free trade order and the right of passage.

Ironically, British merchants with flexible moral bottom lines sold boxes of arms to the west coast of the United States as usual, and the number even increased.

It is true that Robert Peel hopes that Austria and France can join the war. British diplomats spared no effort to promote the threat of the United States, and even said that if Austria is willing to send troops, they can even provide fleet escort.

Of course, whether it can arrive safely is another matter. After all, Britain has no reason to go to war with the United States at this time, right?

The French are indifferent and they are not interested in the British proposal. After all, the attitude of the top leaders is there, who wants to meddle in other people's business?

But the more France has this attitude, the more the top leaders of other powers dare not underestimate it, including Franz.

After all, the size is there, plus the important geographical location, as long as it sends troops, it can reverse the situation at any time.

Before the situation is clear (France's statement), Austria is simply impossible to make any big moves. No matter how important the colonies are, they are not as safe as the homeland, not to mention that Franz does not want to take risks.

It was Prince Metternich who was tempted by the British proposal again. This was mainly because Count Latour, a landlubber, clamored all day long that he could easily defeat the US military. After all, the Austrian Army today is much stronger than in history.

Adequate military expenditures have given military personnel plenty of time for high-quality training, while accelerating the replacement of weapons and making armaments more sufficient.

The most obvious example is that at this time in history, Austrian soldiers only had five opportunities to shoot live ammunition each year, and the rest of the training relied on "mind shooting".

This method is naturally impossible to train elite soldiers, but due to the development of technology and the problem of overcapacity, the annual live-fire shooting volume of Austrian soldiers has reached 70 rounds, which is 14 times the historical level in the same period.

In fact, in terms of the production speed of bullets alone, the sum of the three arsenals that the Tsar was obsessed with could not reach the production of one arsenal of their thriving Western ally in one month.

Because at this time, the three major arsenals in Russia were still three relatively large "handicraft workshops". Although the scale was not small, the technology had not been significantly improved, and the old model of the Napoleonic Wars was still adopted.

In addition, some corrupt officials were unwilling to pay high prices to hire skilled workers, resulting in the production of bullets of uneven quality and frighteningly low production. Ten rounds a day was considered good.

In fact, skilled workers in Prussia can make a bullet in five to ten minutes and produce hundreds of bullets a day.

And Austrian female workers can finish a day's work of skilled workers in half a day with the help of machines, and even faster if necessary.

Other types of combat weapons also greatly strengthened the confidence of Latour, the Minister of War. However, war is sometimes not about who can fight better, but about who consumes more energy.

And it is too early for this country to go on a transoceanic expedition.

Of course, Franz would not really choose to sit back and wait for death. As early as the beginning of the war, he had sent people to the United States to find "allies".

After all, war is not just about who can fight better. At the same time, what happened in the Near East also caught Franz off guard. He never expected that the Tsar's ambition would expand so quickly.

Although Russia only asked for a "small piece" of land this time, the reality is that if they gain a foothold south of the Caucasus, no one can stop this behemoth from expanding in West Asia.

Although the Ottoman Empire and Persia are also hegemonic in their respective regions, they are still too weak compared to the Russian Empire, not to mention that the two countries do not deal with each other.

The Ottomans' attitude was obviously not firm enough, and the British did not show strong willingness at this time. It was undoubtedly a very uncomfortable thing to rack their brains to guess the other side's next strategy.

Of course, this is not without basis for judgment. At least from the perspective of national interests, the British would not allow the expansion of their opponent, the Russians.

However, the difficulties faced by Robert Peel at this time involved a lot of energy of the prime minister. Moreover, he hoped that the reckless behavior of the bear would make Austria and Russia go to the opposite side. After all, in theory, Russia and Austria are competitors in the Near East.

However, there is a small problem with this logic, that is, Russia is asking for land near the Caucasus at this time, while the goal of Austria's traditional strategy is to seize the Balkans. The two goals are far apart, and this move may not necessarily affect the latter's strategic interests.

But in fact, although the Kars Province is thousands of miles away from Austria, Russia's unrestrained expansion will affect the judgment of the Ottomans, thereby destroying Franz's layout.

"Collapse" is inevitable, it all depends on how much benefit each of the great powers can get, or whether external interference will turn the Ottoman legacy into a pile of "rebuttal".

But the time of this is very important. For Austria, it will not be able to eat it too early, and it will be indigestion if it eats it too late. At this time, Russia's actions are undoubtedly accelerating this process, which is not what Franz wants to see.

However, from another perspective, Austria is an ally of Russia, and Nicholas I is not a fool. St. Petersburg will definitely ask Vienna for its opinion before taking action.

This problem is thrown to Austria again. Supporting Russia will offend Britain and the Ottoman Empire, and it is not in line with the country's interests in the Balkans.

If you choose not to support it, then all the efforts made by Franz before will be in vain. Tsarist Russia will become the biggest threat to the East, and it will be isolated again in diplomacy. In the future, actions in the open sea and on the European continent must be cautious, otherwise they may be targeted by the great powers at any time.

At the same time, Germany and Italy will no longer be the back garden of the empire. The great powers will support their own agents in them to weaken Austria's power and prevent it from expanding its territory.

Sardinia and Prussia will receive strong support, and even the great powers will directly help them when they fight with Austria.

Then the Vienna court will have to make peace with Hungary and local power groups in order to consolidate its rule. The country will further regress and finally become the so-called "doll empire".

Franz would naturally not tolerate such an unfavorable situation to happen again, and of course he would not allow the bear to continue to expand.

Robert Peel was also troubled by the sheep eating dirt incident in the Near East. He really couldn't understand why the Russians did this.

Stratford Canning informed London of Russia's actions as soon as possible, so the British Prime Minister received intelligence about the Near East earlier than Franz.

First of all, it is impossible for the United Kingdom to sit idly by and watch the unbridled expansion of the Russian Empire. However, at this time, not only is it in trouble both internally and externally, but the whole world is also in trouble. Even the world's number one power lacks the motivation to get involved in a new dispute.

So Robert Peel thought of a way, that's right! Kick the ball to the Austrians. After all, he knew very well that there could only be one hegemon in Eastern Europe, and it would be good news for Britain no matter which country was defeated.

Compared with the Mexican-American War and the Second Near East Crisis, the future famine on the island of Ireland and the civil war that could break out at any time in Switzerland seemed less important.

Ireland, South

In a small town near Queen Village, a crowd gathered in the center of the square, with flags and slogans everywhere, trumpets and drums, and a noisy scene.

"It's so lively! Should we go and see it!"

As a country girl, Scathach Jennings rarely has the opportunity to come to the town to play. It was the first time for her to see so many people, so she turned to ask her eldest brother Patrit.

"No!" Patrit said firmly, and shook off his sister's hand.

"If you don't want to go, then don't go! Why are you so fierce!?" Scathach Jennings has also reached the age of rebellion, especially because her brother didn't succeed in the previous thing, but she succeeded, so she began to have a little temper.

Patric knocked his sister's head, and the latter could only look at the former with grievance in pain.

"Wait, I'll go back and tell Dad."

"Listen, Scathach, my sister. Do you know what day it is today?" Patrit said patiently.

"How should I know? My memory is not outstanding." Scathach Jennings rubbed her forehead that was hit red with grievance.

"Today is July 12, the so-called Glorious 12th of the British. They defeated us in the Battle of the Boyne River and brutally massacred those warriors who refused to surrender." Patrit looked at Scathach and said.

"But those people celebrating are obviously Irish!?" Scathach asked with doubts.

"Yes, those people are Protestants, most of them are running dogs of the English masters. Naturally, they have to celebrate the victory of their masters, even if it is exchanged for the blood of their compatriots.

Did you see the red cloaks on those people? They were all dyed red with the blood of us Irish people."

Patrit became more and more indignant as he spoke. After all, this kind of education was often carried out in the restoration organization he participated in, and even his eyes were sparkling.

But his sister showed a look of contempt, after all, she received "Austrian-style" education in the church every day.

The "Austrian" education of this period advocated science and rationality. Who did this? The answer is Joseph II. This is one of the few new policy measures that have been preserved.

Although rationality and science are both positive words in modern times, under the wrong people and wrong interpretations, there will always be some strange results.

Yes, one of them is contempt for human nature.

"Brother, you are lying!"

"??? What do you mean?" This nonsense sentence made Patrit dizzy.

"Father Hans said that blood will scab and darken when it dries, mainly brown-red and black." Scathach Jennings retorted confidently.

Patrit was silent for a while, then grabbed his sister's two pigtails and output crazily.

"You've read so much that you've become stupid! I'm just being sentimental! Do you understand?! You're also Irish and a Catholic. If you'd been in the Boyne River at that time, they would have hanged you too!"

After a while, the brother and sister left the town. Scathach fixed her messed up hair and held a bag of salt in her arms. She held it to her chest as if she had a baby in her arms. This was all the salt her family had for this season.

Patrice carried three shovels. The brand new shovels seemed a bit extravagant for ordinary farmers, but they were actually bought for the priests in the church.

These new priests always liked to dig endlessly under the church. I don’t know what they were looking for, or whether they wanted to dig a tunnel directly underground.

Later, when the villagers heard that Austria was on the other side of the earth, they were relieved and thought that these priests might be homesick.

Since the priests would put the old tools on the open space outside the church, it was inevitable that they would be lost.

Some families who lacked farm tools would take them home secretly at night, and the church would not track down the whereabouts of these tools. Of course, occasionally someone would return them, and the priest would not make it public.

However, people’s lives have not been easy recently, and too many tools in the church have been lost, so they had to entrust the Jennings brothers and sisters who were going to the town to buy salt to buy a few shovels.

Although these priests were also "foreigners", Patrice did not have a bad impression of them, so he took on this task.

On the way back, the two were worried that someone would steal the shovels. Fortunately, the "thief" who wanted to rob the shovels did not appear.

Instead, when the two passed by a small river, they found a school of salmon. The brother and sister poked the river with shovels and caught several salmon.

"Only five salmon? What should we do? There are not enough to share?" Patrit said embarrassedly.

"Yes, yes. Dad, Mom, Tommy, Mickey, Irene, Nina, you and me, what should we do?" Scathach also began to be embarrassed. After all, it is difficult to solve this problem of dividing fish with her math level.

"I have a suggestion!" Her brother said with a smirk.

"What suggestion? Eight people, five fish, the fish head, fish body, and fish tail are different, even if we catch three more fish, the size will be different." Scathach is struggling to use the knowledge she has learned to try to solve the problem at hand.

"We can grill one each and eat it, and then take the remaining three fish back to make fish soup for everyone, right?"

"Good idea!"

Scathach thought her elder brother was a genius, but she also felt something was wrong. But she was happy to have grilled fish anyway, and she happened to have salt on her.

At this time, Scathach remembered that she still had salt on her. When she encountered the salmon school, she rushed faster than anyone else with a shovel.

Scathach hurriedly took out the package to check it. You know, this is the salt for her family for four months. If it dissolved in the river, her parents would probably beat her ass. Fortunately, that didn't happen. The attentive clerk wrapped it in a layer of oil paper.

The brother and sister lit a fire by the river, and soon the two grilled fish gave off a "sizzling" aroma. They returned home after feasting.

When the younger brother and sister saw the salmon, they shouted excitedly, because the Irish rarely eat meat on weekdays, let alone high-end goods like salmon.

The mother of the two was startled when she turned around, not because of the salmon, but because of the faces of the two people.

"What's the matter with this salmon?"

"We caught it in the river! We can make fish soup! The whole family can drink it!" Seeing the proud mother of the two people shaking her head helplessly, she still asked symbolically.

"You didn't eat it secretly?"

"Of course not!"

"Absolutely not!"

At this time, the four children gathered around, sniffing the aroma of grilled fish everywhere.

"It smells so good! It's grilled fish!" Mickey, who was missing his upper front teeth, and Tommy, who was missing his lower front teeth, said in unison.