War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Chapter 814: Seizing Territory

The Kingdom of Sardinia also announced that it would send troops to Switzerland, but Carlo Alberto had a problem. He could only go through Valais and Ticino to enter Switzerland.

However, the roads in Valais were too rugged and difficult to pass, and Ticino was occupied by French generals.

At this time, Charles Duchat had already raised the French flag in Ticino. He naturally would not agree to the request of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but instead ordered the border to be blocked.

So Carlo Alberto fell into a very embarrassing situation, with no way to go and no city to occupy.

The speed of the French sending troops was frightening, but there were not many routes for France to attack Switzerland, either through Lake Geneva or Neuchâtel.

There were not many ships on the former lake, and the French had never thought of building warships in the inner lake. But this does not mean that the Swiss did not have it.

Vaud attaches great importance to the development of water power. There are more than 20 warships of various sizes. Although they are all pocket warships of less than 100 tons, their total tonnage is not as heavy as the flagship of the French Grand Orient Fleet.

But that is not something that civilian fishing boats can deal with. In short, the French are not as strong as the Swiss in terms of water power on Lake Geneva.

The latter is also very troublesome. Neuchâtel is actually the royal territory of Prussia, and William I, who is in charge of garrisoning here at this time, is determined not to let the French army enter.

Although he only brought 500 people, William I was a member of the Prussian royal family after all, and he still had some appeal. He quickly raised a militia of 8,000 people.

Even 18,000 people are not enough in front of the French army, but fighting in the mountains is not necessarily a quick victory with a large number of people, and William I's identity is too sensitive, and a big incident will happen if he is not careful.

So the French army fell into a very embarrassing situation for a while, while on the other hand, the armies of the German Confederation countries began to rush forward like chicken blood.

When a pigeon letter was handed to Prince William I, he immediately became manic and announced that the road to France would be blown up, and then the whole army rushed to Jura.

Note: Jura is also translated as Jura, which is located in the north of Neuchâtel.

The three southern German countries of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria sent troops to cross Lake Constance overnight, and even the Grand Duke of Liechtenstein led 300 soldiers from the country to attack Graubünden overnight.

The states in the northern German region also contributed money and manpower, and soldiers and supplies rushed to the Swiss war zone frantically.

At this time, the Austrian army seemed very calm, and only sent a 20,000-man force led by Archduke Franz to Switzerland.

At this time, the Swiss had long wanted to stop fighting, whether it was the high-level warlords or the people at the bottom. So most of the German Confederation troops who saw the chicken blood chose to surrender.

Because everyone spoke the same language and looked similar, there was no sense of disobedience in accepting it, and there were not many bloody incidents.

The few who resisted were attacked from both inside and outside, and no matter how strong the fortress was, no matter how dangerous the terrain was, they could not protect them.

Soon, almost all of the Swiss Free States fell, and the French were still stuck on the shores of Lake Geneva.

It was not until then that Louis Philippe realized that he had made a mistake. Baron Pasquier was sent to Vienna again in the hope of negotiating with the Austrian Empire.

At this time, Joseph Roy, the representative of the Free State, once again proposed to use negotiations to resolve Switzerland's internal problems.

The State Representative of the Orthodox League, Constantine Sigwart, and Field Marshal Ulrich Salis felt that the other party was already at the end of their strength, and they could take the opportunity to get back their previous positions.

Result

Joseph Roy looked a little tired. He lit a cigar and coughed up blood as soon as he put it in his mouth.

"Gentlemen, you have time for a cigarette, of course you can choose not to sign it."

As a result, the third humiliating document appeared in the headquarters of the Orthodox League. This time, the representatives of the states resolutely refused to recognize the legitimacy of this document, but it was legal.

So everyone came up with a good idea, disbanding the Legitimacy League, wouldn't that be good?

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Joseph Loy decided to sell Vaud and Geneva to Louis Philippe, and the price agreed upon by both parties was 20 million francs and a ticket to the New World (the United States).

Louis Philippe, who was desperate and overwhelmed, naturally had to agree to the deal. Joseph Loy felt a little happy when he signed the territorial transfer agreement, after all, the heavy burden was finally lifted.

However, after the French army landed in Geneva, the first thing they did was to capture Joseph Loy and send him to Archduke Karl, who was stationed in Bern, with the purpose of showing goodwill.

With the occupation of Geneva and Vaud by the French, the Swiss Civil War also came to an end.

Only Geneva, Vaud and Ticino, which originally belonged to the Swiss Confederation, were in the hands of the French, and the remaining states were either in the hands of the Legitimacy League or under the occupation of the German Confederation.

Louis Philippe had suffered two losses at the hands of the German Confederation, and he did not want to repeat the same mistake. However, he could not understand why the loose German Confederation chose to stand on the side of Austria.

If some countries close to Austria did this, it would not be surprising, but the three southern German countries had always been wavering, and Prussia was Austria's opponent, so it was too abnormal for them to do this.

It was actually very simple, because at the temporary meeting held in Vienna, Franz announced that Austria would only take back the Aargau canton where the Eagle Castle was located, and Switzerland would join the German Confederation.

However, these two points were not the most important. The most important point was the last one, that is, in order to prevent the outbreak of war again, all free states must choose a German monarch.

You must know that it was already the 19th century, and there were not many opportunities for small countries to expand their territory. Moreover, the Swiss region was dominated by Germans, so it was not difficult to rule.

So the entire German Confederation went crazy, and even Prussia went crazy, because they were close to the water and got the moon first, and the Hohenzollern family's territory in Neuchâtel was the best springboard.

That's why William I was desperate. After all, except for a few powerful countries on the European continent, it was too difficult to expand territory.

Moreover, the Austrian Empire had already made it clear that it would only find back the ancestral land and would not occupy too much territory. Such generosity would not make these German princes shout Franz's "heroic name".

In fact, the resources in the Swiss region are not valuable to Austria, so historically Austria and France used it as a buffer zone, but taking back the ancestral land will indeed increase Austria's influence.

As for population, Franz can attract people from northern Germany and also from Switzerland.

The biggest advantage of doing this is to use the German Confederation as a barrier, and those states have to seek Austria's support for stability.

Simply put, it is killing two birds with one stone, gaining reputation and avoiding real trouble.

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