Chapter 812 The British Trick

Paris, France.

Baron Pasquier conveyed Metternich's words to Louis Philippe, which relieved the latter's staff.

After all, it is more credible when Austria, the enemy, speaks out. France and Austria only carry out limited expansion and eliminate the pro-British forces in Switzerland at the same time, so that everyone can save face.

As for Henry V (referring to the Count of Chambord) who only has one castle, let him go to hell. He can only blame him for not having a single soldier. It is simply a pipe dream to want to claim the throne.

"The British? Can they drive warships into the mountains? Limited expansion? I think they want to pretend to appease us and then take Switzerland alone! The top leaders of the Orthodox Alliance are puppets of the Austrians!

And Archduke Karl is in Switzerland, maybe they have already started!"

The veins on Louis Philippe's head bulged, and his face was distorted. He didn't want to lose the opportunity to expand, let alone the throne of France. He wished he could throw the Count of Chambord to death on the ground that year.

"The British will not take Swiss territory, let alone fight in Switzerland, but they can take the opportunity to expand their overseas interests and weaken the strength of France and Austria.

Besides, being directly adjacent to Austria will not only cause border friction, but we will also have to pay high border defense costs.

Swiss land and population cannot bring us much benefit, and we may need their assistance."

Baron Pasquier argued, because Louis Philippe seemed to think that all this was a lie, and even he was deceiving him.

However, the former did not know what the latter wanted at all. The latter only wanted victory, and used victory to dilute all doubts about him and all threats to his throne.

In fact, Louis Philippe's sudden extreme behavior had a lot to do with the assassination of his spy. The spy was an opponent on the surface, but privately he was a close friend of Louis Philippe. He helped Louis Philippe collect a lot of important intelligence.

But recently the body of the spy was found and pieced together from several directions in Paris. Louis Philippe felt angry and terrified at the same time.

Intelligence gathered by spies showed that opponents always liked to criticize Louis Philippe's incompetence.

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. Louis Philippe thought that perhaps it was because he had too few achievements that those people opposed him. On the other hand, would people support him as long as he expanded his territory?

These days, Louis Philippe couldn't sleep at night. He repeated his imaginary theory over and over again, which led to his current paranoia.

"Are you afraid of the Austrians, or did you accept Metternich's benefits in Vienna? The two most shameless diplomats in European history are the crippled Talleyrand, who was a slave to three surnames, and this capricious old fox."

Everyone understood when they heard this. His Majesty the King had made up his mind, and any further objections would be used as a knife.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'm not afraid of the Austrians, nor have I received any benefits from them. I just hope that you can rule forever."

Baron Pasquier wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He didn't expect Louis Philippe to have such a big reaction. It seems that the Vienna Conference is a failure. It will probably become a laughing stock like the British London Conference. At the same time, the relationship between France and Austria is also over.

In fact, in addition to the death of the close friend, the media in Paris also contributed. French newspapers developed very early, so they are very powerful in social public opinion.

Since the outbreak of the Swiss Civil War, the French people and the media have not shown much interest in their neighbors living in the ravine next door, and they didn't even make the first edition.

And from one day, the wind of public opinion suddenly turned, and major French newspapers began to report on it frantically.

These arguments are also consistent, that is, to promote the threat of the Austrians and the conspiracy theory that Austria is ready to swallow Switzerland alone.

Generally speaking, the supreme ruler of a country will laugh off the things in the newspaper, and it is almost impossible to govern the country according to it.

However, Louis Philippe was not an ordinary ruler. He actually took the things in the newspaper seriously.

In fact, this was Palmerston's conspiracy, one of the tricks used by the Anglo-Saxons - public opinion.

Of course, the Napoleon faction also contributed to this. If a soldier wants to improve his status, he must make himself useful.

And nothing needs protection more than a country threatened by a powerful and evil neighbor, so the existence of Austria as an enemy is necessary.

Franz's intelligence personnel in Paris also tried to fight back, but failed under the attack of two powerful enemies, and did not save the decline in public opinion.

Then the news received by Austria was that France refused to participate in the Vienna Conference.

When this news came out, the happiest people were the British. John Russell said to the cabinet members.

"I didn't expect that we didn't have to wait until the Swiss Civil War ended. This war has not been over yet, and another war is about to begin."

But what he didn't know was that another invisible war had already begun. Palmerston didn't like John Russell. The former thought the latter lacked talent.

The latter also didn't like the former because the latter thought the former was too arrogant. So when Palmerston explained the reason to the cabinet members, he was ridiculed by John Russell.

To put it simply, it is impossible for a head of state to act according to the logic of the newspaper.

After the news reached Vienna, the leaders of the German states were a little confused, and it seemed that the banquet had to end early.

Prussia regarded it as a huge diplomatic victory. If Austria was defeated, its influence would be weakened no matter what the final result was.

Despite the ebb and flow, Prussia still retained the fire to unify Germany.

Hanover and Bavaria had similar reactions. They both felt that the Vienna Conference had become a joke.

However, the Austrian Imperial Government announced as quickly as possible that the Congress of Vienna would be held in advance.

Franz and Metternich knew very well that this was the best way at this time. Even if it was a one-man show, they had to sing well. After all, there were so many audiences in the audience.

In fact, Franz and Metternich both had Plan B, but it was much more radical than Plan A.

In Switzerland, Dufour's siege strategy was too resource intensive, and the guerrillas put a lot of pressure on the Free State's logistics.

Joseph Loy couldn't stand it anymore and he had to replace Dufour, but he wouldn't use a warlord like Fray Holoser.

So Joseph Loy found Aoife Lanno, a former general of the Kingdom of Sardinia who was recuperating in Switzerland. This old man claimed that he had fought with Napoleon and Archbishop Charles.

When the latter heard that the Free State's military strength was three times that of the Orthodox Alliance, he immediately chose to join the Free Alliance and said that he could capture the entire territory of Switzerland within three months.