Chapter 51: Which is important, political or military?

  Chapter 51: Which is important, politics or military?

“Why don’t we also convene a federal parliament for the German region and invite all governments to attend to discuss the integration of the German region.

I believe that a government level meeting will create an influence that is definitely not comparable to a bunch of capitalists!” Archduke Louis proposed

“But such a conference won’t be able to take out results, the interests of each country are different, it’s almost impossible to reach an agreement!” Prime Minister Felix frowned and said

There was another way, which everyone very tacitly didn’t mention, which was to apply diplomatic pressure and forcibly dissolve the capitalists’ assembly.

The likelihood of success is too low, now that many states in the German region are in revolution, the Frankfurt region is practically under the control of the capitalists, unless the army is sent there.

This was clearly impossible, and if he had the energy to do so, Franz might as well have suppressed the revolts at home and restored the country’s strength earlier.

“We could contact the various states in the German region and simply declare the Frankfurt Conference illegal, refusing to recognize any agreements they reached!” Metternich said thoughtfully

Historically, Austria did the same thing, but that was when the Frankfurt Conference of 1849 created a constitution out of it, causing the various monarchies to shun it, and in the end, Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, and others came together to deny their legitimacy.

However, there are still 29 German states, forced by domestic public opinion, accepted this constitution, which is also later Prussia was able to unify the legal basis of Germany.

This is not a contradiction in terms. Although the Prussians were behind this conference, it did not represent the position of the Crown. Prussia was not a monolithic state and was crisscrossed with various internal forces.

“How about this, send a bunch of capitalists in to cause trouble, bring up a bunch of complicated issues, and stall for as long as possible to prevent them from reaching an agreement. When we’ve resolved the internal conflicts, then we’ll go after their bad luck!”

Franz finally came up with a damaging idea, originally this Frankfurt conference was full of internal contradictions, bickering every day.

If the Austrian delegates went over and deliberately delayed, it would be even more difficult to reach an agreement, and it was only in March 1849 that the draft constitution was brought out in history.

If the Austrian representatives had delayed a little longer, it would have been enough to deal with the internal conflicts. The Austrian government now has much more power in its hands than it did at the same time in history.

“Your Highness, in fact, we can still fight the war of public opinion with them, the ones who organized this conference are bourgeoisie, they don’t represent the German public.

Right now it’s just them using the resources in their hands to create momentum, even the so-called delegates are mostly not personally elected by the people.

We can expose the atrocities of the capitalists and announce to the people that this is a conspiracy of the capitalists to try to turn everyone into slave workers.” Metternich added

Franz smiled slightly and thought to himself, “Worthy of being a strong man who has dominated the situation in Europe for more than thirty years, making Metternich the foreign minister was indeed a right choice!”

What kind of goods are capitalists, do I need to say? Don’t have too much black history, you can collect a whole bunch of them casually.

The black information of the delegates attending the conference will be exposed, and their reputation will be stigmatized.

When the time comes, the decisions made by the Frankfurt Conference will be brought out to expose the evil intentions of the capitalists, and then everything will be different.

Whoever dares to propose the exclusion of Austria from Germany will be guilty of attempting to divide Germany. Regardless of what others think, those who advocate a Greater Germany will certainly think so.

When the two ideas of Greater and Lesser Germany collide, there will be infighting within the capitalists. Even if they don’t want to fight, Austria’s representatives can still stir up trouble, right?

Even if there are no scandals, they can create scandals, such as proposing the passage of bills that favor the capitalists, without fear that the Congress will not pass, and turn the Frankfurt Conference into a joke.

In itself, this conference was held in the context of the times, is the inability of some state governments to suppress the domestic revolutionary movement, only to let the convening of the General Assembly, the main purpose is still to divert attention.

In the revolution as hot as tea time, a large group of capitalists do not do things in the country, run to Frankfurt to convene a meeting, which had to let people have associations.

Don’t look at the appearance that their representatives are all democratically elected, but in fact all of them are bullshit.

Holding a popular election in this year is not that simple. The governments of all countries, as long as they are not fools, will prevent it, and the vast majority of election campaigns will not be able to be carried out smoothly.

Therefore, from the very beginning, this conference has nothing to do with the general public, they only represent the interests of the capitalists.

……

Just as the crowd was discussing how to stir up the Frankfurt meeting, a middle-aged officer hurriedly arrived and exclaimed outside:

“Your Highness, urgent military situation!”

Franz frowned and said, “Bring in the war report!”

Cabinet meetings are not to be intruded upon, exceptions can be made in the case of an urgent military situation, but it still requires Franz’s consent.

Receiving the war report, Franz carefully read it, Milan has been lost, the Lombardy region has almost completely fallen, and now the war has burned to the Venice region.

After reading the war report, Franz directly to the prime minister, let the cabinet members to circulate.

The content of this report is very vague, many things are not explained clearly.

In addition to stating that under the Italian internal and external attack, the Austrian army lost cities and territories, heavy losses, even the specific losses, the reasons for the failure are not clearly explained.

Franz clear this is not the style of Field Marshal Radetzky, even if the front line loss, he is not even a war report are not written clearly.

Under normal circumstances, there is always a request for help when a battle is lost, right? Marshal Radkis battle report above also asked for help, but did not ask to immediately send reinforcements, that means let the domestic look at it!

There is only one explanation for this, he is planning something. For the sake of secrecy, many key places have been hidden.

“Your Highness, this battle was lost at a bad time!” Foreign Minister Metternich frowned and said

Indeed it’s not the right time, they were just about to stir up the Frankfurt Conference? A defeat had brought down Austria’s reputation by a few more points.

Even in the next diplomatic negotiations with various countries, Austria would be at a disadvantage.

Looking at the map and combining it with what happened in history, Franz seemed to understand Marshal Radetzky’s plan.

All European politicians knew that the current situation at home and abroad would not allow Austria to fail on the Italian battlefield.

In this situation, Marshal Radetzky’s counter-attack to lure the enemy in was militarily very feasible.

NOTE: Some have mentioned the Italian Red Shirts, an alternative to the Italian army that first appeared in South America, in the war between Argentina and Uruguay.

When an uprising broke out in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1860, Garibaldi raised an army of volunteers from South America to fight in the war; these volunteers wore red shirts with green trim and white bands, and became known as the Red Shirts.

The main war effort was to contribute to the unification of Italy, and after being integrated into the regular Italian army, their combat effectiveness declined drastically, and they were indistinguishable from the regular Italian army.

(End of chapter)