Holy Roman Empire

What we have to do now is to cheer up the Russians, tell the tsarist government that this arms race will last for several years, and let them feel confident and bold to confront the British.

When necessary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can also directly help the Afghan government strengthen its confidence, for example: sponsoring some guns and ammunition.

The two great powers standing behind them should be able to bluff people.If it really doesn't work, simply send someone to kill the British envoys to intensify the conflict between the two sides. "

Bottom line, integrity and so on can be discarded at critical moments.In order to create contradictions, Franz even came up with an assassination method.

Of course, the assassination belongs to the assassination, and this pot is still thrown away.Either let the Afghans do it themselves, or let the Russians do it, anyway, it has nothing to do with Austria.

Foreign Secretary Weissenberg: "Your Majesty, Afghanistan is essentially surrounded by the British on all sides. Once war breaks out, neither we nor the Russians can reach it.

Without our support, Afghanistan may not last long with its own strength.

If the British occupied Afghanistan and the Russians went south and then wanted to go south, it would not be as simple as it is now. "

I have to admit that the international situation facing Afghanistan is really bad.

The south directly borders the British; the Central Asian Khanate in the north is the younger brother of the British; the Persian Empire in the west is also pro-British, or forced to be pro-British; the east is still safe for the time being, but this line is not easy to go.

Once the war breaks out, Afghanistan will immediately fall into a situation of isolation and helplessness. Even if there is international aid, it will be difficult to transport it in.

As an agricultural country, without international aid, the chances of winning against the British are really slim.

But the strategic location of Afghanistan is very important. Once the British occupy it and start operating it, it will be difficult for Russia to go south with its easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack terrain.

Even the British could go the other way and take care of a few younger brothers in Central Asia to cause trouble for the Tsarist government.

Franz shook his head: "As long as we want to provide support to them, we will definitely be able to send them in.

The big deal is to send an airship to drop supplies to them. If the voyage is not enough, just land in Persia when returning.

Even if the Persian government is more inclined to the British, they can only pretend that they have not seen anything on this issue.

Don't underestimate Afghanistan, as long as they have enough weapons, they can make the British suffer, and it will definitely not be over in the short term.

Even if the situation is really out of control and the British really occupy Afghanistan, we can support Russia to fight all the way along Central Asia.

As long as the British are not given time to run the place, I believe the Russians are still capable of defeating the British. "

This is the truth, Franz really has confidence in Afghanistan, and the imperial cemetery is not in vain.

Even if they can't win, the Afghan people can still win.If the city is lost, there will still be towns, and if the towns will be lost, there will still be mountains and forests.

Anyway, if people are still alive, they will continue to fight.

In the original time and space, several great empires collapsed in Afghanistan one after another, all of which were dragged down by heavy military expenditures.

Unless the British go on a killing spree and carry out genocide as soon as they come up, it will be difficult to win.

In contrast, Franz had little confidence in the Russians.The main reason is that the three wars in recent decades have hurt the vitality of the Russian Empire.

Among other things, the population of the Russian Empire is more than 3000 million less than that of the same period in history, and the proportion of young and middle-aged population is at least [-] percentage points lower than that of the same period in history.

The seemingly powerful Russian Empire is actually in its weakest state. It is okay to be reckless in a short period of time, but it really cannot withstand a protracted war.

If the British really didn't care about the cost and used Asan to fight the gray cattle against the Russians, the tsarist government might not be able to stand it.

Franz's lack of confidence in the Russians does not mean that others have no confidence in the Russians either, and the cabinet was convinced.

Chapter 99 French version of the large rollover scene

St. Petersburg received an affirmative answer from the Vienna government, but Alexander III was not happy.

"Frantz always doesn't see the rabbit and doesn't scatter the eagle. This time he agreed so readily without mentioning any conditions. Do you think there is some conspiracy in it?"

It’s no wonder that Alexander III was suspicious. In fact, in recent decades, the Russian Empire has suffered a lot from being dumb, which has already caused him a psychological shadow.

Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez replied: "Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. It seems that the Austrian government is helping us, but in fact they are helping themselves.

The British want an arms race, which is aimed at France and Austria.Now the three countries of Britain, France and Austria are already riding a tiger, and they can't stop until the winner is determined.

Regardless of whether there is an Afghan issue or not, the Austrian government will passively join this arms race.

Supporting us now not only creates trouble for our competitors, but also sells us a favor. "

There is nothing wrong with it. The Vienna government promised to help contain the British. In fact, they don't need to do anything other than shouting orally.

The arms race itself is going on, and many warships have already started construction, so we can't stop work and put it on hold, right?

Even if the British dispersed their forces because of the Central Asian issue and wanted to suspend the game, it is impossible for France and Austria, which have already participated, to agree.

Britain, France and Austria have competed for decades, and no one thinks they are inferior to others. If you say stop, stop it. Where does this make everyone lose face?

The enemy of the enemy is a friend. Although this sentence is not completely applicable, there is no obstacle to the joint efforts of Russia and Austria in combating the British.

After hearing this reasonable explanation, Alexander III's uneasiness eased a little, and then he had a headache again.

"Alas! Even with the support of the Austrian government, we are at a disadvantage in competition with the British in Central Asia.

Afghanistan is separated by the Khanates of Central Asia. Because of the European war, we have reduced our attention to Afghanistan in recent years.

Afghanistan did not fall to the British because of the hatred left over from the last Anglo-Afghan war.

If the British take soft measures, the Afghan government may not necessarily resist hard, after all, we can give them too little support. "

After hearing the czar's complaints, Oscar Jimenez secretly breathed a sigh of relief.It's good that the Tsar can be rational. If he doesn't care about it and does it hard, it will be a big trouble.

Now the Russian Empire really does not have the ability to fight the British in Afghanistan. Seeking Austrian support, it still wants to solve the problem through negotiations.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making diplomatic efforts. If we can gain the support of the French again, maintaining stability in Central Asia will not be a big problem.

What we need now is time, as long as it drags on for a few more years, the situation will be completely different. "

It has been a few years since the end of the Russo-Prussian War, and the Russian Empire has recovered somewhat, and the most critical moment has passed.

The problem now is not wanting to fight, not "can't fight".

Perhaps it is not the British's opponent in Afghanistan, but it is still capable of solving the few younger brothers supported by the United Kingdom.

No military action was taken, the most important thing is that there is not enough money in the pocket.Alexander III was a rationalist, so naturally he would not blindly confront the British before he was ready.

……

Accompanied by the whistling of the machinery, dust was blown up, and a group of idle laborers began another day's work under the whip of the whip.

Suddenly, a large group of guards appeared, and after a brief exchange with the managers, they mercifully ordered the workers to rest temporarily.

The guards dutifully inspected the construction site, confiscated the "weapons" including the shovel, and drove the workers to an open field.

There is no doubt that there are important figures coming, and any hidden dangers must be checked out.

Including flying dust is also one of the hidden dangers, which may stain the clothes of the big shots, so they must be let down first.

Time flies by, and it is noon in a flash. The sound of galloping horses comes to mind. From a distance, you can vaguely see the flying dust caused by the galloping cavalry in the distance.

As it got closer, Allingren, who was in charge of the scene, became excited.Pointing forward with his finger, he whispered to the captain of the guard, "Your Majesty, are you here in person?"

There were only three indifferent words in response to him: "I don't know!"

This is really unknown, the specific time of the emperor's trip is not something they should know.

Especially for this kind of inspection, many places are temporarily confirmed and notified, and it is still unknown whether they will go in the end.

Seeing the large troops getting closer, Allingren breathed a sigh of relief. Even if it wasn't the emperor himself, he was a big man accompanying him.

……

A blond old man in his fifties pointed to the construction site and said, "Your Majesty, this is the Sharif River Dam under construction.

Once the project is completed, more than 15 hectares of land in the downstream can be effectively irrigated, freeing them from the embarrassment of relying on the sky for food.

At the same time, it can also protect downstream towns and farmland from the threat of flooding, which is one of the key projects in the agricultural plan. "

Napoleon IV nodded slightly, looked at the great river that ran to the sea and never returned, and looked at a team in ragged clothes that was barely neat in the distance.

He frowned and asked, "What's going on? Why did you stop working suddenly? Could it be that a strike broke out here?"

Seeing the emperor's ugly face, the old man in charge of the introduction hurriedly explained: "No, how could there be a strike here, they should be having an intermission.

Your Majesty, you see that the soil is newly dug, and they were still working just now, why don't you call the person in charge of the project over..."

Napoleon IV waved his hand and interrupted: "I said before, don't engage in these messy formalisms.

The farm plan is related to the future of France, and it would not be beautiful if it was delayed because I came to inspect it.

The site is here, and the progress can be seen at a glance. I don't know much about the project, so I won't make trouble for them.

Let them resume construction immediately, and we will move on to the next one. "

After finishing speaking, Napoleon IV turned around and got on his horse to leave, making Allingren, who had been waiting so hard, secretly saddened.

The opportunity to get in touch with the emperor at close range just flew away.

After the guards withdrew, Allingren immediately waved his whip, walked up to the workers, and snapped, "You bastards, get up and work immediately."

As if to vent his dissatisfaction, Allingren also used a whip to severely entertain a few laborers who were slow to react.

Seeing the boss start to move, the surrounding supervisors also joined in one after another, and the construction site resumed its hustle and bustle for a while.

The visit to Algeria was entirely a whim of Napoleon IV.

The main reason is that the bureaucrats under the opponent are not at ease, fearing that someone will embezzle the public funds of the project, which will lead to the failure of the large farm plan.

Facts have proved that his judgment is correct.The progress of the big farm plan is far below the data reported by officials.

For example, the Sharif River Dam is obviously just under construction, and the information reported is that the project is nearing completion.

There are many similar cases. In theory, in 1887, state-owned farms were able to send 120 million tons of wheat and 58 tons of corn to the mainland...

After the delivery of these agricultural products, the food gap in France will be reduced by one-third, which will greatly reduce the country's foreign exchange expenditure.

The reality is that the grain in the state-owned farms is in place, or even exceeded. It is said that this year's grain harvest is bumper.However, the country's foreign exchange expenditure did not decrease much, but increased slightly.

Where the problem is, needless to say, we all know.Grain was smuggled from the world back to the country, and entered the grain market under the banner of self-produced state-owned farms.

Because of the tariff barriers, just like this, the officials who dealt with it made a lot of money, which was far more profitable than operating a farm honestly.

Under the trend of interest, similar things are still increasing.Almost all projects linked to farms have shown amazing speed.

The most amazing thing is a farm named Tales. From the establishment of the project to the harvest of grain, it opened up [-] hectares of land in less than half a year, and achieved a bumper harvest of [-] jin per mu that year.

Greed is the devil. In order to obtain greater benefits, the bureaucrats who deal with it are not even professional in data falsification.

Probably they think that as long as the money is in place, the people above will play dumb with them.

Needless to say, this kind of project report, which is full of loopholes and regards the top government officials as fools, was naturally caught out by the French government.

Napoleon IV always hated this kind of digging the foundation of the country.

The state-owned farms built with huge sums of money are mainly aimed at achieving food self-sufficiency and reducing foreign exchange outflows to balance the trade deficit.

Now it has become a machine for bureaucrats to make money. Napoleon IV committed suicide in Algeria in a rage.

No matter how much you cheat, you can't change so many projects overnight.

Then, one project after another, such as the Sharif River Dam, which falsely reported the progress, overturned in front of Napoleon IV's eyes.

As one lie after another was exposed, Napoleon IV's mentality was about to collapse.

Being able to hold back, not taking down these bureaucrats on the spot, even if you have self-restraint, don't even think about having a good face.

……

Chapter 100 Crazy...

As a series of problems came to light, colonial bureaucrats also panicked.Although the emperor didn't get angry on the spot, everyone is good at observing words and emotions, and we can tell from the facial expressions that Napoleon IV is angry.

Inside the Governor's Palace in Algiers, a group of colonial bureaucrats are having daily meetings.It can be seen from the expressions of everyone that this meeting is not so ordinary.

A fat middle-aged man said anxiously: "Your Excellency, the emperor has refused us to accompany us, what should we do now?

You know, whether it is the current large farm plan or the previous African development plan, we have left too many hidden dangers.

These problems are now exposed to the emperor.If we want to be held accountable, none of us sitting here can escape. "

Governor Ablimiti did not answer immediately, but picked up a cup of smoked coffee, took a sip and said slowly: "Why panic, the sky hasn't fallen yet!

Since His Majesty the Emperor did not deal with us on the spot, it means that there is still room for maneuver.

By the way, Maimai Timing, what did you just say?So many years have passed since the African development plan, haven't you done a good job in dealing with the aftermath? "

The law does not blame the public, which is determined by the special national conditions of France and has been passed down for many years.

If things were done in accordance with the law, seven out of ten people in Paris would have gone in. After all, there were too many people participating in the parade, and it was inevitable to do some outrageous things.