Chapter 830 The Wind Rises

Paris, France.

A farmer from Pomerania frowned, he felt that he could not understand the world more and more.

On one side was Archduke Karl who had made brilliant achievements, and on the other side was Austria who was unwilling to send troops. All this was extremely unreasonable.

You know, even a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. The Habsburg family should have had some ulterior motives by placing such an important figure as Archduke Karl in Switzerland.

But the reality is that Austria did not take a lot of things, only the so-called ancestral land of Aargau and an Eagle Castle that had become a ruin.

Aargau is not small in Switzerland, but it can only be regarded as a piece of candy for the giant beast of the Austrian Empire.

Is it necessary to take such a big risk for a small piece of candy? Obviously not!

As for the rumors that people are speculating that there is a lot of gold buried underground in Eagle Castle, it is even more nonsense. After all, if there were so many years, it would have been dug up by the Swiss long ago, so how could it be left.

Moreover, before the Habsburg family became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, it was just an unknown small family. Coupled with the high gold price in the past, it would be good to have a few hundred gold coins.

But Bismarck is Bismarck after all. Since he can't seek the root from the interests, he starts from the victims.

He soon discovered a problem, that is, the Prussians have already pressed against the French throat or the asshole, but the latter is not very civilized, so let's use the throat as a comparison.

Neuchâtel was nothing in the Swiss Confederation before, but now the Swiss Confederation is gone, replaced by the German Confederation.

The threats of the two are naturally incomparable. At this time, Prussia is like an arrow of the German Confederation, pressing against the narrow throat of the French.

What's more terrible is that the two Swiss states occupied by the French are near Neuchâtel. Once the two sides go to war, Prussia will be involved in the war as a pawn.

Coupled with the Rhine region in the north, the French have almost no reason not to take action against Prussia first. This is really a bad move, but the master lies in being able to revive a dead chess piece.

Bismarck was just such a person. He quickly found the flaw, that is, Prussia could use these two Prussian royal territories to win the support of France, which might be effective in fighting against Austria.

Only by using this method can we get rid of the fate of becoming an outpost of the German Confederation, but we don’t know whether there will be such a king with such courage.

Bismarck couldn’t help but sigh, "It’s good to have a fool emperor who doesn’t care about things."

At this time, the waiter in the restaurant came over and said politely.

"A total of one franc and five sous."

Bismarck took out one franc and six sous and handed it to the waiter.

"The rest is a tip for you, no need to change, thank you."

Note: one franc = twenty sous = one hundred centimes

"Thank you, sir, you are such a good man!"

The waiter took the tip and left happily, but Bismarck felt a subtle change, because Parisians are very proud, even if they are waiters, coolies will look down on foreigners.

But it was unusual that the waiter at this high-end restaurant would actually thank him for the tip. In addition, robberies and thefts often occurred near the hotel where he lived. It seemed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to make money from the French.

Bismarck picked up his hat and put it on his head, ready to leave. At this time, he saw two bearded men, one tall and one short, one blond and one dark brown, walking in. Both sides could tell at a glance that the other was German.

After a brief moment of surprise, Bismarck broke the silence first and took off his hat to greet them.

"Hello, compatriots. But whether you are here to see the world or to try your luck, I hope you will leave here as soon as possible."

"Why?"

The tall blond handsome guy asked in confusion.

"It's going to rain."

"We are here to wait for the rainbow after the rain!"

"Based on my years of experience, there may not be a rainbow after the rain, but there may be a plague."

The blond handsome guy scratched his head. This has been the case in Prussia in recent years. When it rains, the city is full of filth.

Then there was a large-scale flu and plague, which caused the workers in his factory to work hard for a year and finally give all their lives to the doctor. Some people even lost their lives to save money. He couldn't understand all this until he met his lifelong friend.

"How do you know if you don't see it?"

The relatively short black-haired man on the side said, of course, short is only relative to the two tall people next to him. In this era when the average height is less than 1.7 meters, 1.8 meters is still very tall, but the two people next to him are 1.9 meters tall, and they are all military.

"Then I can only wish you good luck. But if you want to see bigger storms, I suggest you go to Vienna."

"Paris is the center of Europe!"

"It is now, but it will not be soon. And the wind force in the center of the storm is often not the strongest, but the side is."

"What do you mean?"

"Humanism originated in Italy, and Joseph II was the most radical person of that era, but the real storm destroyed France. Now the times have changed."

The two sides passed by each other, Bismarck returned to Prussia, and the two bearded men were ready to accept the most advanced ideas in Paris and witness the beginning of the storm together.

Spain.

The civil war was in full swing, and neither side showed any intention of backing down. The civil war, which could not be stopped even by typhoons, heavy rains, mountain torrents, and volcanic eruptions, suddenly came to an abrupt end.

The British economy collapsed, and the cause was actually the spoils brought back by Palmerston from the negotiations. Palmerston was not a mediocre person. He visited the German Confederation twice and got information that the intelligence department could not find out for several years.

The grain price in the German Confederation was much lower than that in the UK, and through the special relationship with the British royal family, he could open up smuggling channels.

So Palmerston decided to exchange all the expected notes in his hands for grain, first transported to Hanover, then transported from Hanover back to the UK, and then sold them after arriving in the UK. This not only made a perfect delivery, but also earned the difference.

This batch of grain was sold at a low price in the London market, and as a result, the grain merchants in London finally couldn't stand it.

Because the grain merchants relied on borrowing money to maintain high grain prices, and the grain from Austria and Ireland came regularly.

So they could deal with it in advance, and the spoils that Palmerston brought back from the German Confederation were obviously not in their plan.

But in order to sell the stolen goods as quickly as possible, Palmerston pushed the price of grain very low, which forced the grain traders to eat the grain immediately, resulting in a broken capital chain.

At the same time, the financiers who saw the bad situation withdrew their capital and asked the grain traders to pay off their debts, so the latter had no choice but to sell the grain.

The result was a sharp drop in grain prices, more grain traders went bankrupt, and then the scale became larger and larger. Finally, many grain traders were insolvent, causing the financiers to fail to recover their costs and go bankrupt one after another.

Then the bigger banks and bigger financiers asked the bankrupts to repay their debts, so the bankrupts began to sell bonds