Holy Roman Empire

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The Minister of Police replied hastily

Fortunately, the Russians won the Near East War, and Nicholas I liberated a group of serfs by taking advantage of the victory of the war to reward heroes.

These people are now the main force of the Tsar's army. Although most of them are at the bottom of the army, as long as these people are loyal to the Tsar, the Russian Empire is still the Tsar's Russia.

Otherwise, the aristocrats, who had been frightened by the grass, would not have compromised with the tsar so easily. The conservative forces in Russia have always been the strongest in Europe.

This is not the same as the abolition of serfdom in Austria in the widespread rebellion.At that time, the Austrian aristocrats were frightened by the revolution. Watching the aristocrats being wiped out, they were afraid that it would be their turn at some point and had to agree to the abolition of serfdom.

In the face of survival, everyone's expectations are naturally lowered.If the land price is cut down by a knife, it will be cut. In order to save the property and life, everyone has to choose to compromise.

Now the tsarist nobles do not feel the pressure of survival.Although there were serf riots in Russia, these were not on a scale.Without pressure, everyone naturally wants to make up for losses, and even prepares to take the opportunity to make another fortune.

Finance Minister Kuldasiabi said anxiously: "Your Majesty, because of the reform, it is expected that our tax revenue will drop by another five percentage points this year, while fiscal expenditure will increase by 15.00%.

If this continues, I am afraid that before the domestic reform is completed, our finances will go bankrupt first.The Ministry of Finance suggested delaying the abolition of the tax package system in some remote areas to reduce fiscal expenditure. "

The tax package system was also a problem faced by the tsarist government.The Russian Empire was too large. Before that, because of communication and transportation, the Tsarist government had no way to manage this huge empire and had to implement a tax package system.

Now because of the telegraph, the problem of communication can be solved.The tsarist government was preparing to abolish the tax system to clear the way for capitalist economic development.

But in this way, the administrative expenses will be greatly increased.The taxes received by many remote areas are not necessarily enough for administrative expenses.

Alexander II asked rhetorically: "Just delaying the abolition of the tax subsidy system may not solve the problem, right? Our funding gap cannot be solved by a few million rubles every year."

Finance Minister Kuldasiabi replied: "Yes, Your Majesty. This year's fiscal deficit should exceed 4000 million rubles, and delaying the abolition of the tax package system can save 800 million rubles."

Alexander II thought for a while and said, "Even if the abolition of the tax package system is postponed, what about the remaining funding gap?"

The Russian Empire mainly implements the tax package system in Siberia, the Far East, and Central Asia. Because of the traffic, the economies of these areas are not very good, and the delay in reform has little effect.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kuldasiabi proposed: "Your Majesty, I personally propose to sell Alaska to save administrative expenses, and at the same time exchange for a sum of money to make up for the financial shortfall."

Alexander II shook his head and said: "There is no problem in selling Alaska, that piece of land can't actually bring us any benefits except for its large size.

Because of our relationship with the British, once there is a conflict in the future, we simply cannot hold on.

But the problem is that we can't find a buyer at all. The only Americans who can buy this land are now deeply mired in civil war. "

This is true. Before the discovery of gold mines, Alaska was a barren land. There were less than 100 Russians on a land of more than [-] million square kilometers.

Even though the Central Basin has a piece of land that can be cultivated, the land is worthless in this era, especially the land that has not been developed.

The Minister of Finance Kurdashiabi proposed: "Your Majesty, we are looking for buyers all over the world. If we can't find a buyer, we can use it as the loan interest for next year to Austria!"

Alexander II shook his head: "No, if you do this, it will affect the relationship between the two countries. Now Austria is not only our ally, but also our largest trading partner."

This has nothing to do with integrity, it is entirely determined by interests.The existence of the Russia-Austria alliance has allowed the Russian Empire to maintain its European hegemony. Even if it is busy with internal reforms, no one will shake their position.

But once this alliance is disbanded, the situation will be different. Not only the French will challenge their supremacy, but even Austria will also become a challenger to the supremacy.

Turning potential enemies into allies was the greatest diplomatic achievement of the tsarist government in recent decades.

When Austria was deeply involved in the revolution, Nicholas I did not fall into trouble, so the Russian Empire won the Near East War with the support of Austria and captured Constantinople.

Before his death, Nicholas I repeatedly warned him about the importance of the Russia-Austria alliance. Alexander II was not stupid. He knew that this was an alliance that benefited both sides. It would be bad if it affected the relationship between the two countries for some benefit.

The Minister of Finance Culdacia explained: "Your Majesty, there is no need to affect the relationship between the two countries. You just need to write a crying letter to His Majesty Franz, explaining our difficulties and asking him to help.

Back then, when the Austrians suppressed the Hungarian rebellion, Nicholas the Great also prepared to send troops to help, but just after arriving at the border, the Austrians took care of it themselves.

In any case, the Habsburg family took this favor.Consequently, the Vienna government was on our side throughout the subsequent Near Eastern wars. "

Kurdasiabi is vaguely reminding Alexander II to attach importance to the relationship between the royal families of the two countries, and not to ignore national interests because of his personal stance of being pro-Prussian.

Alexander II nodded. He was personally pro-Peter and pro-Peter, not Peter III, the idiot who disregarded the interests of the country.

Didn't you see that the relationship between Prussia and Russia is still not improving?

After the death of Bismarck in the Kingdom of Prussia, William I, who was deeply humiliated, never bowed his head to Russia.Alexander II also did not show kindness to Prussia.

This is determined by the national interest.On the one hand, as the hegemon of Europe, the Russian Empire cannot take the initiative to bow its head; on the other hand, the emotions of Denmark, the younger brother, must also be taken care of. Just because the Kingdom of Denmark has successively provided 2000 million rubles in loans to the Tsarist government over the years, it is clear at a glance whether it is close or distant.

Alexander II replied calmly: "No problem, I will write this letter as soon as possible."

Seeing that Alexander II accepted this suggestion, the Minister of Finance Kurdashiabi breathed a sigh of relief, and lamented that the money was really hard to earn.

He encouraged Alexander II so hard not just to deepen the relationship between Russia and Austria, and of course this factor is not ruled out.

More because of the [-] Aegis public relations fee received from the Austrian ambassador to Russia.Kuerda Xibi is a smart person who knows what money can be collected and what money can't be collected, and he has to do things after receiving the money.

The Austrians want to further deepen the relationship between the two countries, and Kurdashiabi will naturally not refuse, which is also in the interests of Russia.

As for the issue of Alaska, he was decisively ignored.This is just an excuse to continue to deepen the relationship between the two countries, a wild land.

Chapter 30 jumping into the pit

On April 1863, 4, the Kingdom of Sardinia passed a referendum and elected Napoleon III as king, which opened the prelude to the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia by France.

There is no doubt that this referendum cannot be participated by the whole people. Those who are eligible to vote are celebrities who support France.

More than 600 representatives of the Kingdom of Sardinia unanimously elected Napoleon III as king.Amplify the number of votes by ten thousand times, and after rounding up, all the people of Sardinia elect Napoleon III as king.

Prior to this, all the people involved in the regicide case had already completed their trials, and those who died were killed, those who were imprisoned, and those who ran away were wanted.

In short, regicides must go to hell, which is the common will of all monarchies.

As for the truth of the matter, it is no longer important. The French have dealt with all the clues, and it is impossible to reverse the case.

Those who can escape from prison are all smart people, and they cooperated with the French immediately.

To put it bluntly, everyone knows that the so-called suspect is a fallacy.Those who really joined in either ran away or were executed.

Now that the French want to annex the Kingdom of Sardinia, they must eliminate dissidents, but there must be a reason for this, can't they just kill people casually?It is a good way to take the opportunity to fabricate wrong and false injustice cases.

Now that the delegations of all countries have left the Kingdom of Sardinia, in the situation where the French are dominant, of course they have the final say on everything.

After the results of the referendum came out, the international community was naturally in an uproar.All countries acquiesce in France's annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but it does not mean that everyone will support them in annexing the Kingdom of Sardinia.

In public opinion, the French were still scolded bloody.There are also many international people who are appealing: Be vigilant against the expansion of the French and avoid the Second European War.

The Italians, as victims, even organized a petition group to seek help from European countries, hoping to use international pressure to force the French to abandon the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

As one of the major European countries, the government of Vienna also received the petition.After reading the petition submitted by the Italians, Franz had to admit that it was very touching, but unfortunately it was useless.

Franz sneered: "Tell them we regret this incident, but it is indeed the fault of the Sardinian government itself.

Everyone should be responsible for their own actions. When the Sardinian government supports extremist organizations, it should consider the possible backlash.

After the incident, the people of Sardinia also stood by the extremist organization and covered the escape of the murderer. Now is the time for the people of Sardinia to pay for it. "

To some extent, France's annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia is also a good thing.

From now on, the biggest enemy of Italian nationalists is not Austria, but ambitious France.

The annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia is just the beginning. Once Pandora's box is opened, it can never be taken back.

Stimulated by the successful annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the French radicals will definitely rise in arrogance, which is no longer something that Napoleon III can hold back.

The proud French have always had a dream of world hegemony.

It would have been fine if there hadn’t been this stimulus, Napoleon III still managed to live in the town, and now just wait to be pushed onto the chariot by the nationalists!

Prime Minister Felix suggested: "Your Majesty, should we support the Italians and let them cause trouble for the French, so as not to let the French get carried away."

Obviously, after annexing the Kingdom of Sardinia, the French have drifted away and become a little carried away, as if they are the world's overlord.

When Prime Minister Felix saw this kind of thing, he was naturally very angry and wanted to teach them a lesson.

Franz smiled slightly and said: "There is no need, the Italian nationalists are also our enemies, let the French deal with them now.

Since the French are floating, let them float for a while longer.Now the Russians are the overlords on the European continent, and the British are the overlords of the oceans. Both Britain and Russia are not prominent, so what are we going to join in the fun? "

Now Britain and Russia have jointly divided up the world hegemony, and France and Austria are the second-level challengers. Because everyone's strength is too close, France and Austria will naturally not be willing to be subordinated to others.

Franz is not ready to challenge, because the odds of winning are too low, and the benefits are not rich enough.

The sea has the most oil and water, but unfortunately Austria cannot compete with the British and can only wait for the opportunity.The income on land is not high, and there are too many countries on the European continent, and it will affect the whole body, so it is easy to be buried with the Russians.

The same situation happened to the French, and it was even more troublesome.It's not easy to be the second child in the world, especially the army and navy are the second child, which inherently attracts the hatred value of the boss.

Add the word "Napoleon", and no one dares to ignore it.Napoleon III inherited Napoleon's legacy, and naturally also inherited the hatred he left behind.

It's okay to act low-key, and being so arrogant now can easily cause reactions from various countries, especially the older generation who have experienced the anti-French war and have not died.

Prime Minister Felix objected: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this will not work. Even if Austria wants to hide now, it may not be able to hide.

The tentacles of the French have penetrated deep into the south-central region of Italy. If we don't interfere, who knows what the overconfident French will do? "

To put it simply, the interests of France and Austria in southern Italy have already contradicted, and it is only a matter of time before the conflict occurs.

Franz said calmly: "It doesn't matter, this is a matter of the future. The Kingdom of Sardinia is not so easy to integrate, and the French should be very peaceful in the European continent within three to five years.

Three to five years later, the reform of the tsarist government was initially completed.The three-nation European system is still balanced, and we can move forward with the next step. "

It's not that Franz is arrogant, that's the reality.Are Italian regions so easy to annex?Austria has promoted national integration for so many years, and the slowest progress is the Austrian Italian region.

This is a cultural issue. Don't look at Italy as a mess, it seems like a weak chicken, but their cultural inheritance is very complete, not weaker than French culture.

Now in Lombardy and Venetia, the locals have learned German and write in German every day, but the Italian cultural tradition has not disappeared.

After more than ten years of hard work, it can only be said that the Italianized Germanic nation has been brought back, and the goal of integrating Italians is still just a goal.

In contrast, Austria's national integration work in Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Balkans went much more smoothly.

Many small ethnic groups without cultural heritage have now been completely Germanized.Of course, the long-term operation of the Habsburg family also has something to do with it. At the beginning, these people recognized this brand.

What is the nature of national integration?

The answer is: agree!

As long as this is done, the following problems will be easy to handle.

If you observe carefully, you will find that many ethnic minorities in Austria are very similar to Germans in terms of living habits.

Some nationalities are even called: "Slavic-speaking Germanic people".That is to say, apart from the language barrier, living habits and folk customs have been Germanized.

The main reason for this situation is that the aristocratic lords came from the German region, and the people unconsciously followed suit, or in the era of serfdom, the aristocratic lords ordered them to change their living habits.

These special national conditions are the reasons for the smooth integration of nationalities.Even though the native language still exists, it has become a dialect.

Most of this generation can still speak dialects, and the next generation may barely understand it. If they live in the city, the inheritance will almost be cut off.

Even after two or three generations in rural areas, the inheritance of these languages ​​will still be broken, because it is useless to learn them.People are inert. Why learn a language that is not used after being born in society?

In this era, the average life expectancy is short, and the time of marriage and childbirth is relatively early. Many people have children at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and they will have grandchildren before the age of 40, which is very beneficial to ethnic integration.

As of now, German has become popular.The generation who received compulsory education from an early age has already identified with German culture.

Every town in the empire communicates and writes in German, with the exception of Italy, where [-] to [-] percent of Italians still communicate in Italian in their lives outside of work.

Of course, due to the influx of other nationalities, this part of the people who insist on using Italian has dropped to the sixth floor in the total local population.

There is no way, the Italian cultural inheritance is not backward, coupled with the frequent business and trade exchanges with the central Italian states, this is the reason for this situation.

Not to mention the rural areas, many people have learned German, but Italian is still used in daily life.

If the serfs hadn't been liberated at the beginning, and the farmers had been bought with land to cultivate their sense of identity with Austria, the Austrian Italy region would not be so stable now.

The French have no way to do the same thing, because the Kingdom of Sardinia has already done the emancipation of the serfs.

In addition to wooing local powerful factions, the French government has no way to buy off the large number of people at the bottom, which leaves room for nationalists to operate.

Throughout history, the main force of every revolution is the people at the bottom. When did you see the capitalists rush to the front?

Under normal circumstances, as long as the people at the bottom live well and have a high degree of identification with the government, there will be no large-scale rebellion.

However, recognition is Napoleon III's biggest shortcoming. The main reason why the French people recognize him is because he has a great uncle, not how much he is loved by others.

The Italians are different. They are very happy to see the Napoleon family become the French royal family.But to make them loyal to the Napoleon family, that would not work.

Originally, everyone didn't agree with it in terms of blood, let alone being annexed by France?If they harm their interests again, they will raise a rebellion.

Promote national integration?Sorry, there is no compulsory education in France. How could it be possible to provide compulsory education to the Kingdom of Sardinia first?

It involves their own interests, and the French people are very sensitive in this regard.Even if the Paris government wants to promote the integration of language and writing, it must be done in conjunction with domestic compulsory education.

This involves a series of problems. In short, the Paris government cannot do it in a short time.

During the period of military control, the Kingdom of Sardinia will definitely be very law-abiding. Once normal order is restored, it is uncertain what will happen.

Chapter 31 The Emperor of Mexico

Schönbrunn Palace