Holy Roman Empire

"Mr. Aristotle Rhodes, now the most important thing is to conquer Constantinople. After completing this goal, I can cease war with Britain and France.

If the war continues, maybe in the later period our military expenditure will be even more than it is now. ’ said Foreign Secretary Karl Wossel

They are all in the same boat, and if the boat capsizes, it will be bad luck for everyone.

Now the river has started to rise, and the big waves may overturn the boat at any time. The only way is to go to the port as soon as possible to avoid the wind and waves.

If you want to dock, you must conquer Constantinople.Taking Constantinople can appease the hearts of the people internally and have the capital to bargain with the enemy externally.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Aristotle Rhodes, said dissatisfiedly: "Marquis Karl, am I the kind of person who doesn't care about the overall situation?

The problem now is that the Ministry of Finance simply does not have so much money and cannot afford to pay for the war.

According to General Menshikov's plan, it is impossible to complete without two or three billion rubles. This is still based on the fact that everything goes well.

On the actual battlefield, there will definitely be changes, and maybe it will continue to increase by then.

The Caucasus battlefield and the Crimean Peninsula battlefield are also fighting, and the commanders on the front line are all asking for a change of equipment. This is also an urgent matter, and money is still required.

The annual financial revenue of the Russian Empire is so much. Because of the war, our tax revenue will continue to decline this year. Where can I get so much money? "

No money is a big trouble. Peaceful times are fine, but once war breaks out, the weakness of feudal rule of the tsarist government will be exposed, and it is far from being able to compare with capitalist countries in terms of raising funds.

To put it bluntly, countries such as Britain, France and Austria can still print money if they have no money. The big deal is inflation, which can still be used to solve urgent needs.

Could the Russian Empire do this?The rubles they use have always been real gold and silver, and paper money issued by other European countries is fine, and the international capital market issued by the tsarist government does not recognize it.

Even in China, few like paper rubles.The main reason is that there are too many criminal records, and the Russians are also skeptical about the credibility of the tsarist government.

"How big is the funding gap?" Nicholas I asked with concern

The lack of money is expected, the key is how much is missing, if the amount is not large, they still have a way to solve it.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Aristotle Rhodes analyzed: "Your Majesty, if General Menshikov's plan is implemented, it is initially estimated that our military expenditure in 1854 may exceed 4 million rubles, exceeding the sum of the previous year and a half.

By issuing bonds, we raised 6500 million rubles of funds, 8000 million rubles could be provided by government tax revenue, and 5800 million rubles were raised from domestic banks.

Now that Constantinople is close at hand, we can still collect a war tax at this time, which is estimated to be 1.2 million rubles.

The final funding gap is 7700 million rubles. This is only ideal. If the situation changes, this number may continue to increase. "

Nicholas I was silent, the gap figure was too big, and the domestic tax revenue could no longer continue to increase, and if it was added, something big would happen.

"Is it possible to get a loan from abroad, say from the Austrians?" asked War Minister Ivanovic.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Aristan Lee Lord shook his head and said: "It's impossible, we've run out of ways to raise money overseas.

If the Austrians hadn't launched a unification war last year, perhaps they would have been able to give us this loan, which is not possible now.

Don't look at them swallowing Bavaria almost without bloodshed, but in order to deter Britain and France, they mobilized nearly 180 million troops in one go, which still consumed a lot of government financial resources. "

There is no way, Austria's financial situation is slightly better than Russia's.However, the Vienna government is accelerating the process of industrialization, and a lot of financial resources have been invested in domestic construction.

In addition to last year's war expenses, from a professional point of view, Aristan Lee Rhodes judged that the Vienna government could not afford the money.

After hesitating for a while, Nicholas I asked slowly, "How much military expenditure can be saved by suspending the war in the Caucasus first?"

Now fighting on three fronts, for the tsarist government, the most important thing is to win Constantinople, followed by the Crimea Peninsula, both of which cannot be given up.

As for the Russian army occupying an absolute advantage in the Caucasus battlefield, the initiative of the war has always been in their hands.If they stopped attacking, the hemiplegic Ottoman Empire would only be thankful, and active provocation was impossible.

After thinking about it, the Minister of Finance Aristan Lerod replied: "About 5000 to 1000 million rubles can be saved. If we first cease the war with the Ottoman Empire and withdraw most of the troops to the Crimea battlefield, then we can save more. Ten million rubles."

This is equivalent to reducing the number of troops. Now that the troops in the Caucasus region have been withdrawn, there will be no gap in their strength, and there will be no need for so many troops mobilized domestically.

As soon as the cannon rang, the gold was ten thousand taels.

This is not an exaggeration at all, and it is even said to be much smaller.In this period of war, ten thousand taels of gold is really not enough, at least a million taels of gold started.

Nicholas I said without hesitation: "Okay, let's do this. Let the Ottomans go first. In the Caucasus, we will switch from offense to defense. We will deploy troops to reinforce the other two battlefields, and we will talk about it after we capture Constantinople!"

For the remaining funding gap, the Ministry of Finance has to think about a solution. In short, now is a critical moment, and we cannot lose the war because of lack of money. "

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Aristotle Rhodes replied helplessly

This is a difficult problem. Regardless of the fact that most of the funding gap seems to have been resolved, the remaining gap is still an astronomical figure.

Especially when the various channels for raising funds have been exhausted, it is definitely not that simple to solve this problem.

But sitting in this position, Aristotle Rhodes can only bite the bullet and must find a way to solve this problem.

The funding problem was barely resolved. Under the unanimous decision of everyone, the Constantinople demolition team headed by General Menshikov was formally established. The slogan of everyone was to razed Constantinople to the ground.

The tsarist government still doesn’t think much about the protection of ancient buildings. First conquer Constantinople and rebuild it after the war.

You can also put the blame on the French. As long as the Holy Land is recovered, no one will care about such a small flaw.It can be said that in order to conquer Constantinople, the Russians have been desperate.

Chapter 121 International Politics and Diplomacy

At the critical moment, the bureaucrats of the tsarist government were rarely efficient.

Everyone is smart and knows the seriousness of the consequences. If they didn't have this kind of vision, they would have been eliminated in the internal struggle of the bureaucracy.

With such a large demand for weapons and ammunition, it is obviously not something that can be taken out at once, and an order must be placed for production.Even if Franz is prepared, it is impossible to hoard hundreds of cannons and tens of thousands of tons of shells and store them there.

If the Russians don't buy it, who can he sell these arms to?

The Austrian army can't use these big guys who are inconvenient to move. The navy is poor and has no money to purchase so many artillery, and coastal defense doesn't need so many artillery.

After the decision was made, the Tsarist government immediately sent someone to place an order with Austria. Unfortunately, the production capacity of the cannon was not enough.

Since the Austrian Army usually purchases 6-pound and 12-pound artillery at most, these are the most commonly used active equipment, and 24-pound field artillery is rarely equipped.In this era, most naval cruisers are equipped with 24-pound guns, and capital ships are also equipped with 48-pound guns.

Now they are also attacking the fortifications of Constantinople. The power of these artillery is obviously not enough.The Russians need heavy guns above 68 pounds. Obviously, most of these guns are used as shore guns, and the actual demand is very small.

(Remarks: The caliber error of artillery in this era is relatively large. It is common for artillery of the same model and batch to have an error of a few millimeters; the same artillery produced by different arsenals may have a caliber error of up to ten millimeters. Use the caliber to measure the size of the artillery Out of date.)

These heavy artillery are not only siege weapons, but also enough to pose a fatal threat to British and French warships. Obviously, the Russians want to change the current embarrassing situation of being passively beaten.

The market demand is small, and the production lines opened by military enterprises are naturally less. Many arsenals only have the ability to produce large-scale artillery, and they will not open production lines until they receive orders, which will take time.

Not enough capacity?It doesn't matter, aren't Russia and Austria allies?Franz is an enthusiastic person, and active equipment can also be sold, as long as the Austrian army has it, he can pick it at will.

The era of breech-loading guns is coming soon, and these guns will be eliminated soon, and now they should be replaced in advance.

Used goods?You don't have to buy it, there will be new ones in a few months.

Obviously the tsarist government couldn't afford to wait, and the Russian army on the front line couldn't wait even more.Don't care what old goods are or not, as long as they can be used normally, the big deal is to let the Austrians provide after-sales maintenance services.

Even the artillery ordered by the Austrian Navy was cut off by the Russians. Anyway, the Navy has not fought in a short period of time. For the sake of Russian-Austrian friendship, please give priority to satisfying allies!

It turns out that any plan is ideal.It took more than two months for Austria to make up more than 150 cannons, and the rest can only be made up with 24-pounder and 48-pounder guns.

The artillery is in hand, which means that the attack can be done immediately.It is easy to transport from Austria to Bulgaria via the Danube River, but it is very troublesome to transport it to the front line later.

It is quite troublesome to transport a big guy with tens of tons or hundreds of tons.Originally, these artillery pieces were used as coastal cannons, as long as they were powerful enough, it didn't matter if they were heavier or bigger, but now they are naturally troublesome to transport.

The artillery was not in place, and Menshikov slowed down the offensive on the front line. He didn't want the Russian army to die in vain. The gray animals were worthless, but if many died, it would be distressing!

……

Athens

The Minister of War said in panic: "Your Majesty, the British crossed the border and entered our borders on the pretext of chasing the enemy. This is a document from the front line. Please ask for instructions on what to do."

Otto I smashed the documents, what should we do?Do you still need to ask such a simple question?Of course nothing will be done.

Block the British, they don't have that strength.It is even more impossible to help the British chase down the rout. No matter what the Greek government is, it is impossible to be so shameless.

"Let the local governments find a way to hide all the soldiers who have fled back. If not, send them to the rear. You must be careful not to let the British catch the handle." Otto I ordered

At this point, it is impossible not to pay the price.Politically speaking, the British approach actually gave him a chance to escape.

The British Empire is the overlord of the sea and the top powers. Losing to them is more acceptable to the people than losing to the Ottomans.

This is not because the government is not working hard, it is because the enemy is too strong.

If Otto I was shameless, he could still brag about how powerful they were against the Ottoman Empire. They didn't expect to be attacked by the British despicably, so they lost. This is completely a non-war crime.

As for whether it will cause a wave of anti-British among the people, I don't care so much now.Since the last Anglo-Greek conflict, the relationship between the two countries has not been easy, and it must be no harm to add another one.

The Foreign Secretary reminded: "Your Majesty, judging from the current situation, the outcome of this Near East War has nothing to do with us.

The British army has entered the Greek peninsula. Now that we have lost the right to choose, we must consider the aftermath. "

Although they have confidence in the Russians, the British have already arrived. If they don't think about it, they will become a government-in-exile before the Russians win.

Thinking of this, Otto I had a headache. The family had just been expelled from the Kingdom of Bavaria. If Austria hadn't paid attention to food and exchanged the throne of the Lombard king, it would be a government-in-exile now.

Now the family's resources are all invested in the Lombardy Kingdom, but they don't have the energy to support him.After so many years of pure investment, there is no return in sight, and many people in the family are dissatisfied.

Historically, after Otto I abdicated, the Bavarian royal family sent someone to take over the throne. As a result, his brothers and nephews were unwilling to take over the mess, and it was George I's turn.

Without external support, the problems he faces are more troublesome than in history. If he does not do well, he will be ousted by the British.

After wandering for a few steps, Otto I said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sends people to negotiate with the British in secret, the current situation can only stop losses.

At the same time, send people to contact the Russians, French, and Austrians. Presumably they are also unwilling to see the British family dominate. Now we need their diplomatic support. "

"Yes, Your Majesty!" replied the Foreign Secretary

Now is the era of great powers, without the support of great powers, it will be as difficult for them to get rid of this crisis this time.

……

Facts have proved that Otto I's judgment is accurate.Although the Kingdom of Greece is weak, economically underdeveloped, not rich in resources, and does not have much interest in itself, they have a good geographical location.

The Russians could not tolerate the British dominating here and blocking their way into the Mediterranean; the French did not want to see the British expanding their power in the Near East and affecting their interests.

Not to mention Austria, Greece is beyond the Adriatic Sea, making the British bigger here, which also threatens Austria's maritime security.

……

Vienna

After receiving the Greek government's request for help, Franz decided to intervene in the actions of the British in Greece, and how to intervene became a problem.

Intervention by force is impossible, unless he sends the Austrian army there, the navy is fine, the Austrian navy is not qualified.

Metternich suggested: "Your Majesty, we can join hands with the French this time, and Napoleon III will not be willing to watch the British seize power and their interests.

In the Mediterranean region, as long as our two countries reach an agreement, the British cannot and cannot ignore it. "

That's right, it is impossible for the French and Austrian navy to be an opponent of the British when they are tied together, but the British have many colonies, and naturally there are many areas where the navy is stationed.

In contrast, the Austrian Navy is all nestled in the Mediterranean Sea, and it is the second largest naval force in the Mediterranean Sea after Britain and France.The combined naval power of France and Austria in the Mediterranean surpassed that of the British.

Strength is the right to speak. Even if the British are the overlord of the sea, they cannot ignore the common will of Austria and France.

In history, the existence of the Kingdom of Greece was to take advantage of the contradictions among countries, and now Otto I made the same choice.

It can be said that in international politics, everyone is an ally on this issue in the morning, and everyone becomes an enemy on another issue at home in the afternoon.

Allies with no conflict of interest at all hardly exist in this day and age.The core factor that determines the relationship between allies is mainly to see whether there are great interests or conflicts between each other.

Franz thought for a while and said: "Let's talk to France first and see what they want. Greece's domestic interests are not worth mentioning. We don't need to ask for anything, as long as the British do not completely control Greece."

This is Franz's attitude towards Greece.The reason is very simple. Regardless of the strategic factors, all the countries that have invested in Greece have lost money in history.

If there is no accident, the Kingdom of Greece will soon be unable to pay the loans of various countries due to financial difficulties, and then their finances will be entrusted by the countries for a period of time.

This is not once or twice. Whoever accepts this little brother will provide them with a loan to keep them going.

In countries like Britain and France where finance dominates, they can still do this kind of business. Capitalists can use various means to raise funds and seek benefits from it. In the end, even if the loans and bonds are not paid, it is just ordinary people who are unlucky. They get it in advance. enough interest.

Austria can't play like this. There is not enough idle funds in the country to participate in this kind of speculation.If the financial group dared to play like this, the Vienna government was the first to refuse.

It is more cost-effective to use these funds to develop the country than to buy the Greeks.Under the concept of self-development, Austrian financial capital appears to be very low-key in the international capital market.

It doesn't work if you don't keep a low profile. Compared with the Anglo-French consortium, the financial resources of Austria's domestic financial groups are still too weak.If you are too active, you may fall into a trap and be swallowed by others.

Since the end of the westward strategy, the Vienna government has been easing relations with European countries.

When there is no conflict of interest, our diplomatic relations will naturally recover quickly.Especially for small countries, as long as the Vienna government throws an olive branch, the relationship between them will immediately ease.

If you hold grudges in international diplomacy, then congratulations, the whole world will be your enemy in the near future.

Including the issue of the dominance of the German Federal Empire, it is actually the result of a compromise between Britain and Austria. If the two countries are at odds, it is impossible to elect an emperor so quickly.

Now repairing the relationship between France and Austria has become the focus of the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is estimated that the Paris government will make a similar decision.Without him, interest!

Don't think that Britain and France are allies because Napoleon III has always implemented a pro-British policy. In fact, they are allies only when dealing with the Russians.

Most of the time, Britain and France are on opposite sides.The British are the number one naval power in the world, and the French are the second largest naval power in the world, and the strength gap between the two sides is not as big as that of later generations. The French navy has six or seven layers of strength in the Royal Navy.

This number is enough for the boss to suppress the second child. In addition to the conflicts in the overseas colonies of the two sides, the conflict between Britain and France is not even the slightest bit.It's just that Mao Xiong's ability to pull hatred is too strong, directly covering up the conflicts between Britain and France.