Holy Roman Empire

In the Palace of Vienna, Franz was carefully reading the British diplomatic note. Generally speaking, the London government was very angry at protesting that Austria's actions in the Middle East harmed Britain's interests.

After a while, Franz put down the document and asked with a smile on his face, "The British have come to protest, what do you think?"

The British protested, which in Franz's view was a good thing.The fact that the Royal Navy was not sent to block the door is enough to prove that the London government does not attach much importance to the Persian Gulf.

The official diplomatic note looks very serious, and in many cases it is just that, it is nothing more than a question of exchange of interests.Under normal circumstances, as long as the core interests of countries are not involved, everything can be discussed.

Foreign Secretary Weisenberg: "Your Majesty, judging from the current situation, the British want us to stop.

In Palestine, the Ottoman Empire has gathered heavy troops, and the war has just begun.The Kuwait area is just a small place in the countryside, and there are not many interests at all.

The so-called loss of interests of the British may not necessarily be [-] pounds. Such a small amount of interest is not worth the British Foreign Office's mobilization.

If you really want it, you can pay them at worst.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has communicated with the British, and it is certain that they did not come for such a trivial matter. "

Kuwait is just an ordinary small county in the Ottoman Empire, with a population of only tens of thousands, and the distribution area is still very scattered.Restricted by natural conditions, what a poor word.

The British colonial company once established a stronghold here, preparing to open up a colony, but later withdrew due to the imbalance of income and expenditure.

In the original time and space, after the end of World War I, oil was discovered in Persia, Iraq and other regions, and the British colonized Kuwait.

Now Austria occupies the Kuwait area, mainly for the port.The Yemen region is affected by the monsoon, and many ports can only be used for a few months, so they are not suitable as naval bases.

Of course, this is what Austria said to the outside world, and it is also the greatest value of Kuwait now.Believe it or not, that was not Franz's concern.

Prime Minister Felix: "If this is the case, we can have a good talk with the British. As long as the interests are right, we can stop the war at any time. Anyway, we are not prepared to destroy the Ottoman Empire now.

However, I think the possibility is unlikely. It is true that the British want to keep the Ottoman Empire, but the current situation in Europe is changing. The London government has not taken action for a long time. There may be conspiracy behind this. "

It has become the habit of the Vienna government to speculate on the British with the utmost malice.This is not because everyone has too many ideas, but the experience accumulated from dealing with the British for a long time.

If you don't have a few more thoughts, you may be tricked by the British at any time, especially when you are an ally.

For example: the Kingdom of Sardinia, in order to hug the thighs of the British, even the last Near East War had nothing to do with them. In order to please the British, the Kingdom of Sardinia sent troops to the war.

I thought that everything would be fine if I hugged the thighs of the British, and then unified the Italian region with the support of the British, but it turned out to be sold by the London government.

If you carefully analyze the reasons, you will find that the poor performance of the Sardinian army on the Balkan battlefield stimulated the ambition of the French to a certain extent.

Before the Ossa War, the Kingdom of Sardinia still had a certain military strength, as evidenced by its ability to mobilize 10,000+ troops.Even after losing the war, European countries generally gave the Sardinian army a good evaluation.

The last Near East War was different. The Sardinian soldiers didn't want to fight at all, and then they just paddled all the way.

When the French saw it, it turned out that the neighbor next door was so weak, it was hard not to be ambitious!Needless to say, the patriotic youth provided an excuse for the French to die.

As an ally, the British, after a symbolic effort, negotiated a deal with the French behind their backs and sold the Kingdom of Sardinia.

There are many such cases, just open the history books and look for them.With so many lessons learned, it is natural for seasoned politicians to be wary of the British.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Carle: "Could it be that the British want to make a deal with us? There are many places where our two countries overlap. Although major conflicts rarely happen, small conflicts happen every now and then.

In order to deal with these issues, the foreign ministries of both countries are very busy, and many issues are still pending.It is also in the interests of the British to take the opportunity to make a deal with us at this time. "

When you open the world map, you will know that with the continuous expansion of the major colonial empires, the intersecting spheres of influence have increased, and the conflicts between the great powers have increased significantly in recent years.

The alliance between Britain, France and Austria actually meant to divide the sphere of influence of the colonies.After all, Fushuo's area is almost divided up, and the leftovers are not worth fighting for.

Colonization needs to consider the cost. Everyone opens up colonies to plunder wealth. Blindly robbing and looting, the cost alone can drag down any empire.

The "British Boer War" in South Africa is an obvious example.Austria, which won the war, can slowly recover the cost; the British who provoked the war lost all their money.

The London government is still suffering. In order to reduce political influence, it can only choose to deal with it as coldly as possible, and the previous government fell because of this.

After learning the lesson, all countries are very restrained in the colonial struggle. Not every place has a large amount of gold buried underground. If they win the war, they will not be able to recover the cost in the end.

Staring at the map on the wall, Franz pondered for a while, and finally set his sights on Ethiopia and Sudan.

The Suez Canal is very important, but France and Austria will not let the British intervene at all.It's fine if you can't get the Suez Canal, but you still need to maintain influence on the canal.

In this context, John Bull can only pay attention to the Mandeb Strait.The Yemen area was occupied by Austria, leaving them with Africa.

Unfortunately, the African continent has become a hunting ground for France and Austria. At this time, the British have to pay for the negligence in the early stage.

In order to make up for their mistakes, the British launched the Ethiopian War and the Anglo-Boer War successively. The latter had failed, and the former was only half successful.

The British did defeat Ethiopia, but unfortunately it took them a few years, Ethiopia is still in a state of chaos, and anti-British forces are still growing.

There is no doubt that Fao's two teammates will hold them back behind this.If there was no support, the natives of Ethiopia would have succumbed to their bayonets.

Franz drew a circle on the map with his hand, which happened to be the entire Arabian Peninsula: "The Foreign Ministry and the British talked slowly, no matter what their purpose is, as long as they want to achieve it, it will be exposed sooner or later.

They are not in a hurry, and we don't have to be in a hurry. It is also a good choice to keep procrastinating, preferably until the end of the Near East War.

If the British want to exchange benefits, let them give up the entire Arabian Peninsula. It is just one Kuwait, and there is no need to continue the negotiation. "

After a pause, Franz drew another circle on the African continent, including most of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia.

"These areas are all prices we can pay. If the British want to talk, just grind with them slowly, and don't rush to reach an agreement."

Colonial Secretary Stephen hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, we will lose a lot in such a transaction. The value of the Arabian Peninsula is limited, and the economy of the island is still in the primitive era.

With nomadic tribes as the main body, there is not a single decent city.The benefits of colonizing the local area may not even be enough to rule the local area. "

Did you lose money?In this day and age, that seems to be the case.If it wasn't worthless, it wouldn't be Austria's turn to start.

Franz didn't explain, talking about oil in this era is a fantasy.The internal combustion engine is still in the laboratory stage, and it is far away from being put on the market.

The biggest function of petroleum is to use it for daily lighting after processing.Unfortunately, Austria is vigorously developing the power industry, and daily lighting is also a sunset industry.

After contemplating for a moment, Franz drew a line: "Build a railway from Jerusalem to the Gulf of Aden, and then along the Arabian Peninsula all the way to Kuwait. What do you think?"

There is no doubt that Franz is "not talking about the economy, but about the strategy." The construction of the Ring Railway along the Arabian Peninsula will prevent the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf from being free from the influence of Austria in the future.

If the Ottoman Empire collapses, it can also take the opportunity to expand its power to the Euphrates River Basin, and Austria's hegemony in the Middle East will be determined.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Carr: "Your Majesty, we must consider the cost. The economy in the Middle East is not strong. These investments may not be able to recover the cost in 30 years."

30 years is a very optimistic estimate. If the underground resources are not considered, Franz believes that the cost will not be recovered in 100 years.

After hesitating for a moment, Franz foolishly said: "This is just a plan, whether it can be implemented is a matter of the future, let the British believe it is true now.

Think about it, once the Ottoman Empire collapses, we will carve up the Ottoman Empire with the Russians, and extend the railway from Asia Minor Peninsula to the Arabian Sea. Doesn’t it look very tempting? "

If it is not a strategy maker, Franz would not be able to understand the strategy he created, which is true and which is false.

Chapter 1 Thirty Introduction

Between countries, "there are only eternal interests, and there are no eternal enemies." This directly expresses the essence of international diplomacy. Not only did Britain and Austria, which were still fighting over the Near East War just now, start to hook up again in a blink of an eye.

This is not too much, Britain and Austria are still allies, even if there are frequent quarrels, it does not affect everyone's happy play together.

If someone knew that Prussia and Russia had secretly contacted each other, it would definitely cause an uproar.Now the Russians are gearing up and preparing to seek revenge from the Kingdom of Prussia; and the Kingdom of Prussia is similar, and has been preparing for war.

However, there is nothing impossible in the face of interests. Even during the Prussian-Russian War, the private connection between the two countries has not been broken.

After unsuccessfully trying to persuade the Vienna government to intervene in the election of the Polish throne, the tsarist government knew that things were in trouble.

Alexander II was not a simple person either. He decisively chose to temporarily abandon hatred and use this incident to seek the greatest benefit for the Russian Empire.

An old man in luxurious clothes said coldly: "What is your consideration? As long as your country agrees to the previous conditions, we will acquiesce in your annexation of Poland."

The middle-aged man sitting opposite shook his head unmoved: "This is not for us to annex Poland, but for the two countries to carve up Poland. Your country's appetite is too great, and half of Poland is directly taken away.

How do we promise this?If it gets out, the Polish people won't be uproarious.Moreover, we are not planning to annex Poland, this election is just to respect the will of the Polish people. "

If there are acquaintances, you will find that the two negotiators are the former Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire, Mikhail, and the former Minister of the Army and Navy of the Kingdom of Prussia, Ron.

The two enemies actually sat together and peacefully discussed the division of Poland. If it was said, no one would believe it.

Mikhail rolled his eyes in disdain. Prussia has no ambition to annex Poland. It is enough to use this to fool ordinary people in the outside world, but is it possible to hide the truth from the enemies who know each other the most?

A large group of people in Poland supported William I as king, and the big reason was that they were forced out by the Russians.

In the last war, the Kingdom of Poland was the main battlefield, and it was directly reduced to ruins. The economic loss was ignored, and the key point was that the young and strong lost more than 80.

This directly led to the weakness of the Kingdom of Poland after the war.Now the Ukrainians in the country actually account for nearly one-third. The Poles, who are the main ethnic group, have suffered heavy losses due to the war, and the population of the main ethnic group has also experienced negative growth.

Of course, this is also related to the poor economy in Poland.Especially after the agricultural crisis broke out, Poland's population outflow was serious.In order to survive, many people went to Prussia and Austria to make a living.

Most of them were women, either voluntarily or deceived. During this period, Poland's underground population trade was very prosperous.A large number of young women were transported overseas by unscrupulous capitalists to engage in flesh and blood business.

In this case, the Polish government has repeatedly cracked down, but still has little effect.Where there is a demand, there is a market. In the face of survival, dignity is not worth mentioning.

It just so happened that the tsarist government had completed initial social reforms. Seeing that the enemy next door had recovered its strength, the vested interests in Poland were in a hurry.

Once the Russians fought back, they lost everything.Barefoot became shoes, and political positions were inevitably affected.

The Prussians proposed that the two countries should form the strongest alliance, and many people were tempted. They subconsciously ignored the fact that Prussia wanted to annex Poland.

This is determined by interests. Even if the Kingdom of Prussia annexes Poland, the Berlin government will still pay a price to win them over, which is much better than the Tsarist government who wants to chop off their heads.

The choice of interest groups directly affected the entire Polish society. Everyone never mentioned the fact that Prussia wanted to annex Poland and Russia, and limited their propaganda to the alliance of common monarchs.

The common monarchy system is very familiar to the Poles. Our ancestors have played it before, and the people's acceptance is still very high.

Now there are media campaigns, claiming that the Kingdom of Prussia is also part of Poland.The old story that the Kingdom of Prussia once surrendered to Poland has been revealed, which greatly satisfied the vanity of the people.

It won't be obvious in the short term, maybe after a long time, the Poles will regard the Kingdom of Prussia as their own, and then the obstacles to the merger of the two countries will no longer exist.

William I dared to attack Poland, and it was not just ambition. A large part of the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia was the old land of Poland, but the people above were Germanized.

More importantly, now that the German region has been targeted by Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia has no chance of winning. The best option is to annex the Kingdom of Poland and put another vest on the market.

In recent years, the Kingdom of Prussia no longer regards itself as a German state, which is a change in national policy.

This road was not chosen by William I, it was the Junker nobles who made this decision.Who wants to be a younger brother who can be the master of the house?

The Shenluo Empire is good, but it is not their turn to be in power. Austria is too big. Even if the Kingdom of Prussia joins in, its shares will be diluted quickly and slowly swallowed up.

In this case, it is better to change another option and start a new world. Poland just appeared in this situation.

After looking in the history books, they quickly found the connection between Prussia and Poland, and the legal rationale for the unification of the Kingdom of Poland by the Kingdom of Prussia also came out.

Of course, this relationship has gone a long way.The so-called legal rationality is that they think it is legal, and the outside world will definitely not recognize it.

This led to the battle for the Polish throne. According to the plan of the Prussians, the two countries should first promote the common monarchy, then form a federal empire, and then annex and integrate.

The plan was very clear. William I was just a trader introduced by the Junker nobles. He seemed to have a high position and authority, but he could not violate the interests of the class.

Mikhail: "Your Excellency, the joke is not funny. If you don't want to annex Poland, then we don't need to talk about it.

Perhaps it would be a good choice for the three to carve up Poland again.I'm curious about what your thoughts will be when Austria joins in. "

Ron's face changed drastically, and he invited Austria to join forces to carve up the Kingdom of Poland. Even if Prussia could annex Poland, it would be a shrunken version, and it was unknown whether it could even get the maximum benefit.

This is a world that speaks with fists. If the Russians really conspire with Austria, no one can stop them now.

As if aware of Mikhail's insincere words, Ron quickly realized that the Russians would not easily invite Austria in.

You must know that the territory of the Kingdom of Poland was previously the territory of the Russian Empire. If it fell into the hands of the Kingdom of Poland or the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russians still have a chance to take it back.

If it falls into the hands of Austria, judging from the current situation, it will be permanently lost.This is determined by the strength of both parties, and cannot be changed by individual will.

"Your Excellency Mikhail, if your country is really willing to invite Austria to carve up the Kingdom of Poland, you will not lose the last war.

Are you sure that St. Petersburg can agree to the price that you were unwilling to pay at the beginning?

Moreover, the Austria of today is not the Austria of the past.Believe it or not, if the Austrians get involved, the Vienna government will eat up more than half of the Polish kingdom in one bite.

At that point, we don't have to worry about war between the two countries in the future. Let's all tremble under the shadow of the Austrians!

Don't forget that the Kingdom of Prussia was once one of the states of the Holy Roman Empire. If we are willing to go back, the Vienna government will definitely welcome it.

It will be miserable for your country. Regardless of the fact that Russia and Austria are allies now, once the German region is unified, Austria will be the new European overlord. As the former overlord, your country is destined to be suppressed. "

This is an overt conspiracy. How could the Russians have no idea about the rise of Austria?If the Russia-Austria relationship is really that strong, after the collapse of its hegemony, the tsarist government will directly push Austria to power.

Obviously this is impossible. The Russians don't want to see Austria grow stronger. Even if they fall into a weak state, they intentionally or unintentionally pull Austria's hind legs.

It is impossible to hide this kind of small action from the Vienna government, but Franz is not very interested in European hegemony, so it becomes shared by all countries. .

Just thinking about the dirty things between Russia and Austria in these years, Mikhail wants to cry but has no tears.If history could repeat itself, he would definitely stop the tsarist government's small moves at the beginning.

Apart from worsening the relationship between the two countries, it has no substantive effect, but they just did it.You are in the first year of junior high school, and I am in the fifteenth year of junior high school. Once the valve for cheating teammates is opened, it will be out of control.

In this context, once Austria grows bigger, it is almost inevitable to suppress the Russian Empire in the future.From the perspective of the tsarist government, it is better for the French to become the hegemon of Europe than for Austria to become the hegemon of the continent.

The tsarist government was holding back and it was too late to suppress the development of Austria. How could it be possible for Austria to continue to grow?

Even Ron's threat to join Shinra, Mikhail dared not ignore.This is certainly not going to happen now, and certainly not in the future.

If the Kingdom of Prussia is defeated in the next war, in order to preserve its own interests, it is very likely to join Austria.

Ron probably didn't expect that the simple sowing of dissension actually made Mikhail think so much.

Joining Shinra is not as simple as it is, unless it is the end of the mountain, otherwise this kind of thing is simply impossible.