Chapter 893 Franz's Conditions

The tough stance of the Omani Empire was unexpected by the British, because in their impression, the Austrians seemed to have been at odds with the Arabs for hundreds of years.

And according to Indian intelligence, Austria and the Omani Empire had fierce conflicts in the Zanzibar region.

The most important thing is that from the British perspective, it was Austria that took away Bagamoyo and occupied a large area of ​​Omani territory in East Africa, so the two sides should be at odds with each other.

But Sayyid's harsh reply made the British begin to doubt the Indian intelligence work. After all, the Indians were not very reliable in their stereotypes.

However, the attitude of the Omani Empire did disrupt the British deployment. It was not difficult for the British to deal with Oman and Austria alone, but it was difficult to deal with the two together.

At least the British could not just call a nearby squadron to ensure victory, but once they transferred troops from other regions, a vacuum zone would be formed, which would greatly affect Britain's global dominance.

In fact, since when, Britain's diplomacy has been in a passive position, and it seems that all countries are targeting Britain.

The era when one could stir up the storm with just one mouth seems to have passed. The cost of diplomatic actions is getting higher and higher. The great powers, and even those unknown small countries, have begun to doubt the "good intentions" of the British Empire.

The puppet lickers who were willing to be puppets are gone, replaced by a group of hunters who are either hostile or very vigilant.

The British themselves have also realized this and have tried to reverse this unfavorable situation, but somehow it seems that there is always an invisible hand that pushes them back to the starting point.

And as time goes by, this situation continues to deteriorate.

In the past, the British government only needed to raise the volume a little bit, and the French Guizot government would agree to all conditions, even if it was to make the French tear their hearts out.

In the past, no matter how Britain disciplined Austria to weaken its influence, Metternich would stand firmly on the side of Britain as the most loyal ally.

In the past, no matter what nonsense the British government said, Nesherlov was willing to fully believe and do his best to lobby the Tsarist government for Britain.

The Netherlands and Portugal had to give up their overseas interests to be qualified to lick the British toes, while Prussia did not even have the qualifications to be a licking dog.

What are Brazil and the Viceroyalty of La Plata? Indians dare to rebel? Shouldn't Southeast Asia be the food basket of Britain?

But everything has changed at this time. Even though France is in deep internal crisis, it dares to strike hard at Britain.

The Austrians chose to fight Britain in the double-team of Italians, Hungarians, Bohemians (Czechs, the concept of Czech nation was not widely accepted at that time) and German nationalists.

The battle with the Austrian Navy was completely beyond the British expectations. In fact, no one in the British high-level thought that the Austrian Navy would rush out of the Adriatic Sea.

Not to mention that Britain had set up checkpoints in Albania a long time ago, from a strategic point of view alone, the Austrian Navy should also support the Venetian battlefield or directly attack the Papal States to copy the Italians' retreat.

As for the Russians, they had completely ignored the previous bad signals. In other words, Britain had lost its influence on Russia at this time.

Britain's influence on other small countries was also declining, and at this time Prussia intended to get involved in Schleswig, and their king even announced that Prussia would be incorporated into Germany.

Although the Germans felt very strange when listening to William IV's words, the British had their own understanding, and their understanding made them feel that this matter was very serious.

John Russell even felt a little bit paranoid, and he thought this might also be a trap. The other party's goal was the British North Sea Fleet, but who was planning it, Denmark? Sweden? Russia? Or all of them?

A nervous and uneasy mood spread among the British high-level officials. At this time, the news of the destruction of the Mediterranean Fleet was still a gossip that was regarded as an April Fool's joke.

If this news was made public, then the cabinet would definitely resign collectively at this time.

Because there has been no precedent for the annihilation of a main fleet in Britain for a hundred years, this shameful record is enough to nail them to the pillar of shame.

Previously, in the Turkish-Egyptian War and the South China Sea, they had created the history of the annihilation of the squadron and the mixed fleet.

Now the entire Mediterranean Fleet is missing. Because there is no news of the Mediterranean Fleet's silence, the British official tentatively determined that it was lost in the war.

Palmerston was also very depressed, because he had tried and tested this trick of driving the tiger to eat the wolf, and when did the Arabs keep their word?

Just as the British high-level officials were puzzled, the intelligence department found a message sent a few years ago. Intelligence showed that a grand duke of the Habsburg royal family married a princess of the Oman Empire.

"Evil lower body castle!"

This was the unified idea in the minds of the British high-level officials at this time, but the fierce reaction of the Oman Empire seemed to make sense.

In fact, when Said saw the letter asking him to attack the Austrian colony, he was terrified. Said the Great even thought it was a British conspiracy.

Not only Said, everyone in the entire Omani court felt that the British were either crazy or planning to push them into the fire pit.

Others may not know, but the Oman Empire and the Austrian East African colony are only separated by a sea.

The Omanis felt that no one in the world knew Austria better than they did. They had personally experienced the strength of the Austrian navy and army.

In the eyes of the Omanis, the Austrian army was invincible, and there was almost no enemy in front of them.

Whether it was the powerful Kingdom of Wegin, the indigenous kingdoms, or the East Bantu, they were almost destroyed as soon as they appeared.

And the navy that the Oman Empire was once proud of, at the cost of the annihilation of the entire army, could not exchange for the sinking of an Austrian warship.

In addition, Austria's attitude towards the enemy also frightened them. The Austrians rarely took prisoners, and most of the time they dealt with them by burying or burning them on the spot.

In fact, most of the time, the Austrian vassal army was responsible for the battle, and those Dalits from India were much more brutal than their masters.

That kind of cruelty seemed to come entirely from the malice between the two species. For a relatively primitive dynasty like the Oman Empire, they could not understand the meaning of doing so at all.

Although the British Empire was known as the most powerful country in the world at that time, in the eyes of the Omanis, it was an "honest man" who paid the lease regularly.

The Austrian Empire was a powerful and brutal conqueror, and they naturally would not choose to be enemies with such a terrible opponent.

——

In fact, according to the intelligence sent back by Princess Sineka and those merchants who went to Austria for business, Austria's strength was completely beyond their imagination.

The steel behemoth wandered in the port, and the soldiers were as numerous as ants. The food and steel at the dock could be piled into hills, and countless workers could not move them all day and night.

In particular, the amount of steel shocked the Omanis, because there were not many iron mines in the entire Oman Empire, and the method of producing steel was very primitive.

In the Oman Empire, ironware itself was considered a luxury, so they were particularly shocked when they saw the Austrian ironclad ships and those reinforced concrete structures.

Princess Sineka even used her special status to visit several Austrian steel mills. She concluded at the time that the steel production of the entire Oman Empire was not as good as that of a steel mill in Austria.

Such a huge steel mill is not even on the list in the Austrian Empire. Friedrich even said that Franz has two special steel mills, and the output of these two steel mills can equal the total output of other steel in the Austrian Empire.

In addition, Princess Sineka also sent back some statistical reports on the industrial data of the Austrian Empire, and the figures on them were beyond Sayid's dreams.

However, these so-called confidential information were deliberately leaked to Princess Sineka by Franz. In fact, this woman is also very smart. She found some clues after several successes, but she did not say it clearly.

It was just that she mentioned at the banquet that the Oman Empire would be Austria's eternal friend, at least she was trying to do so.

Archduke Friedrich was confused by Princess Sineka's strange words, but Franz knew the meaning of these words very well.

After all, this kind of intelligence work is very dangerous and very easy to arouse suspicion. Even if she pretends to be stupid and pretends not to know, once she is discovered one day, she may be eliminated by Franz as a dangerous factor.

Princess Sineka is very clear about Franz's power, and her husband Friedrich is just a fool who likes military affairs.

If Franz wanted to take action, there would be too many opportunities and reasons. Friedrich could not protect her at all, and he didn't even know what happened.

And if things were made clear one day, Franz might not have to take action at all, and Friedrich would tear her to pieces.

For long-term considerations, Princess Sineka decided to show her cards. She didn't mind being a double agent, and as an Arab woman, she was actually a member of the Habsburg family or Friedrich's personal property after marrying into Austria.

So she didn't feel guilty at all for betraying her motherland and her original family. On the contrary, she was under great pressure to reveal Austria's intelligence to the Oman Empire, and even felt a little uneasy in her conscience.

The attitude of the Oman Empire declared that the British plan in the Western Indian Ocean had completely failed, and returned to the European issue at this time.

The Austrian side had already proposed peace talks, and the attitude of the French Provisional Government was more ambiguous. In fact, the latter had no backbone at all, and there were many factions and a mixed bag of people.

But Palmerston's previous plan to support a pro-British government also failed. On the one hand, it was the disastrous defeat of the British Mediterranean Fleet, and on the other hand, the rise of French nationalism at this time did not allow any soil for pro-British forces.

Both France and Austria should accept the British peace agreement, which gave the British room to operate, and they could pull one against the other.

Now the question has shifted to whether to cease fire with France and continue to deal with Austria, or to cease fire with Austria and continue to deal with France.

Both France and Austria have a large number of colonies overseas, and they are relatively rich. Both the French Texas colony and the Austrian California colony are areas with great potential.

Of course, it would be better to take them all, but not now. All this is due to the destruction of the Mediterranean Fleet.

The French Navy is the main force in the battle with the British Navy, so it must have suffered heavy losses. Although the Austrian side does not seem to have participated in large-scale battles, the Austrian Navy is not worth mentioning.

However, the Austrians occupied the island of Crete and had a geographical advantage. If the Austrians turned the naval battle into a land battle, then the British would suffer great losses.

The Minister of the Navy was the first to oppose the landing operation, because first of all, the Mediterranean was the territory of the Austrians. If the Austrians did not fight a naval battle and only attacked the troop transport ships, the British Navy's escort fleet would have no way to deal with it.

It was impossible for all the marines to sit on the battleships, after all, these warships did not have so much space to transport soldiers.

Secondly, Crete was too big. It would take at least a month to send troops from the British mainland to Crete in the Mediterranean. (Not only the sailing time, but also the time for assembly and preparation)

In this month, the Austrians could at least transport tens of thousands of troops to the island and enough supplies to supply it for several months or even years.

It was not realistic for the navy to siege and force it to surrender, and how many troops would be needed for the landing operation? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Or fifty thousand, one hundred thousand?

As for attacking Venice? A quarter of the artillery of the entire Austrian Empire is there, and it is easy to enter a narrow area like the Adriatic Sea, but it is difficult to get out again.

After all, no one can guarantee that the French will not stab in the back.

In addition, the German Confederation attacked Schleswig at this time. Would this be another conspiracy of the Austrian Empire?

Now no one in the entire British government dares to gamble, because the cost is too high and no one can afford it.

But the French are also very difficult to deal with, because it is not clear how the French won and how much they lost.

The most important thing is that no one knows whether the French will create miracles again, and going to war with France also requires vigilance against Austrian sneak attacks again.

Of course, there is also a most reliable way, which is to stop the loss in time and stop the war with the two countries at the same time, so that Britain can continue to maintain its position as the world's strongest navy.

The loss of the Mediterranean Fleet is indeed a big blow to Britain, but it is still within an acceptable range, and Britain has the ability to rebuild a Mediterranean Fleet in one to two years.

John Russell looked at the other members of his cabinet, and everyone looked at each other. After all, no one wanted to be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.

Palmerston suggested.

"Perhaps we can listen to the Austrians' conditions first."

John Russell thought it made sense. After all, you should compare prices from three different places. Moreover, the conditions offered by the Austrians to Britain in the Metternich era were always very generous. Maybe we can get something from them to save face.

"Well, this is a good idea."

John Russell affirmed Palmerston's idea.

But soon the conditions of the Austrian side surprised the British.

Franz's conditions were:

First, Austria would release all British prisoners of war, but in exchange, all British ships, buildings and materials on Crete would be used as war reparations.

Second, Britain must return Crete to the Kingdom of Greece.