Chapter 212: Just Waiting to Jump into the Pit

  Chapter 208: Just Waiting to Jump in the Pit

Vienna

Affected by the failure of the Battle of Sofia, the Austrian government’s negotiations with the Ottomans have reached a milestone, with only a few details left to be negotiated.

Franz does not care much about the outcome of the negotiations, even if the two countries signed an agreement, the possibility of the future can be honored is less than one-third.

Even if an agreement was signed between the two countries, it was less than one-third likely to be realized in the future. The international situation was ever-changing, and the outcome of the war in the Near East would have a direct impact on Austria’s profitability.

It will allow them to rush ahead to pull hatred and share the pressure of Austria; but will not allow the Russians to really fly off the handle and lose their limits.

The Minister of War, Prince Wendy Schlegelz, said with an odd look, “Your Majesty, the Serbian front sent a battle report that a group of British soldiers mistakenly entered and were disarmed by us.”

Franz asked suspiciously, “The war in the Near East can’t spread that far, can it, and isn’t the Kosovo region still in between?”

This mistaken entry deviation is too big, even if the battle of Sofia is lost, the Kosovo region is still under the control of the Ottomans, they can ask the local government to send a guide.

Prince Wendischgraetz handed over the battle report, Franz scanned it, finally understood why his look would be so strange.

Franz thought for a moment and said, “This is also a good thing, we have another small bargaining chip in our hands, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the British, so that they can send someone to negotiate to lure these people back to the country.”

There was no doubt that these men would certainly be detained until after the war, and informing the British now would be nothing more than telling them that Austria had a group of British officers and soldiers in her hands.

Now these people are useless, when the war in the Near East escalates, and the news of heavy casualties among the British troops on the front line is sent back to the country, after causing a stir, the government in London will have to pay attention to these soldiers.

For the person who came up with this solution, Franz are admired.

This is a genius ah, are as a deserter, others fortunate to run and hide, after the war there is the fear of being liquidated can not return home.

They also become a deserter, in Austria, good food and drink to stay until the end of the war, salary, welfare London government a big son can not be less of them, but also after the war to take them back.

Fortunately, this kind of talent is not much, or tens of thousands of British soldiers ran to Austria to eat and drink, the London government is going to spit blood.

As for the Sardinian army followed over to mix, Franz directly ignored, this is a normal operation, did not have a brain to run over, indicating that now they are still the Kingdom of Sardinia is not Italy.

……

Metternich said with a full smile, “Your Majesty, Prime Minister Felix’s trip to Berlin failed, and the Kingdom of Prussia rejected the proposal to re-establish the Holy Roman League.

In order to avoid public opinion condemnation, that guy Frederick William IV very cunningly chose to stall for time and again declared in a high profile that he respected the choice of the German people.

Chancellor Felix proposed a referendum, which was again rejected out of hand, so it looks like the Prussians are up to something.”

It is not afraid that the Prussians are going to mess things up, but the biggest fear is that the Prussians are not going to mess things up. If the Holy Roman Empire is really re-established in the name of a referendum, the one who should cry is Franz.

Popularly elected emperor looks good, in fact, in the nature of the nature has dropped a few grades, not in the supreme, since it can be elected naturally also can be abolished, than when the emperor election waiting system is even worse.

To the country is good or bad regardless, for the royal family is absolutely disastrous, unless there is really no way out, otherwise no emperor is willing to accept this kind of popularly elected throne.

At least Franz will not accept, the German region qualified to elect the emperor’s family can be quite a lot, even if you win once, the next time the same can change hands, then the emperor and life-long president is only a nominal gap.

Not only Franz could not accept it, the Austrian government could not accept it either. If Austria could not control the Holy Roman Empire, what was the use of rebuilding it?

The Prussians were worried that Austria was restricting them with this empire, not realizing that Austria was equally worried about not being able to control it.

Out of interest, once the empire was united, Prussia’s awkward situation in the German region would immediately change, and the smaller states would support them against Austria.

Of course this kind of support can only be in the dark, explicitly everyone is not likely to stand up against the central government, these states will most likely play the balance of politics, namely: so that Austria as the core of the central government and the Kingdom of Prussia as the representative of the local power, to maintain a delicate balance.

Finance Minister Karl said uncertainly, “It’s a bit surprising that the Prussians haven’t come forward to carry the banner of opposition, could it be that they expect the smaller states to come forward and openly oppose us?”

Under the influence of nationalists, unification is now accepted by many, and to oppose national unification would undoubtedly be to pull in hate values.

Of course right now the nationalist groups were not strong enough to influence the government’s stance, but could not sway the government’s decisions.

If we wait for 20 or 30 years, then Austria will put up the banner of “rebuilding Shenla – peaceful unification”, I think it is really possible to succeed.

“This is not clear, anyway, someone has to be the leader, otherwise this plan will be successful, and then the Prussian government again want to oppose the price to pay.

Now it depends on which unlucky person is fooled by them, and whoever comes forward to oppose it anyway is going to be hostile to the nationalists in the future.” Metternich analyzed

Franz thought for a moment and said, “Preferably it could be Bavaria, we need the Bavarian government to stand up against it, it’s the right choice for us.”

Metternich analyzed, “Your Majesty, for Bavaria to be hit, we would have to push it ourselves as well, and I guess the Prussians would want to push the Kingdom of Bavaria to be the outlier.

As the third largest country in the Federation, only they have enough influence to get everyone to respond collectively.

If the Bavarian government wants to gain the support of the smaller states, then this is an opportunity, and if they succeed, they become the leader of the smaller German states.”

……

The Austrian government was discussing what methods to use to lure the Kingdom of Bavaria into the pit, and thousands of miles away in St. Petersburg, the Tsarist government was discussing the strategy behind it.

The Battle of Sofia was over, the Second Bulgarian Campaign had entered a new phase, and at this point they had two more options:

Either to concentrate their forces towards the Sliven region, or to first occupy Kosovo, the Macedonian region and the Montenegrin and Greek national divisions.

The Minister of Finance, Aristotle Rhodes, proposed, “Your Majesty, capture the Sliven region first, clear the obstacles to the Constantinople region, and capture Constantinople in one fell swoop, and then Britain and France will be forced to retreat.”

This was the quick-fire method of fighting, and financially it was the least expensive way to win the war.

The prerequisite is to be able to win the war, if you lose, naturally everything is off the table, and high returns come with high risks.

Foreign Minister Carl Worcel objected: “No, now the battle of Sofia has just ended, the front line troops are in urgent need of recuperation, at this time to fight another Armageddon, the pressure on the front line is too great.

It would be better to take the enemy’s weak places first, and occupy the area of Kosovo, Macedonia, and Thrace first, and unite the two countries of Montenegro and Greece to attack from the enemy’s flanks in a roundabout way.

The speed of all this is a little slower, but it’s a windy battle, and it’s just the right time to train up the new recruits and get the troops back to fighting strength as soon as possible.”

Watching the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs finish their words, the Minister of War was embarrassed to realize that he actually had nothing to say.

Support who? This is not a good question, before it is implemented, who knows which strategy is more reliable, Ivanovic from a professional point of view to judge theoretically all feasible.

In reality, the circuitous encirclement of the war looks wonderful, the logistics is estimated to be able to drag people to death, we can not expect Montenegro and Greece to provide logistics, right?

Otherwise, in the occupation of these places at the same time, the Russian army must also be divided into garrisons, to ensure that the logistical lines of transportation open.

Immediately send troops to Armageddon, Ivanovich is also clear that it is too strong. The troops on the front line are already tired, and if they don’t recuperate, they won’t be able to guarantee their combat effectiveness.

After hesitating for a while, Minister of War Ivanovich analyzed from a professional point of view: “Your Majesty, the Ministry of War proposes to mobilize new troops, replace some of the troops that have suffered heavy casualties, and retreat them to the Danube River Valley to recuperate, as a reserve for the whole army.

Immediately after the change of defense, we will engage the enemy in a decisive battle, now the British Expeditionary Force is equally wounded, we only need two main divisions to finish them off.

Now we have to fight the enemy for time, whoever can reinforce the front line faster will be able to win this meeting.”

There was no doubt that he was supporting no one. Ivanovic was very unhappy with the two amateurs acting as professionals, but he just couldn’t afford to mess with the two bigwigs.

Nicholas I is a soldier, military literacy how to put aside, basic common sense he is still clear, naturally understand that Ivanovich’s advice is much more reliable than the previous two.

“Drop up the five divisions in the Lvov area to replace the units that took part in the Battle of Sofia, and mobilize the eight divisions in the Moscow area to replace the units that suffered heavy losses on the Sliven front.

Order the troops in the Ukrainian region to guard against enemy landings, especially on the Crimean Peninsula, and not to let the enemy exploit them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Ivanovich replied.

The advantage of having many troops was manifested at this time, the Russians could mobilize reinforcements in the shortest possible time.

This benefit, unfortunately, paled a bit when it came to the battlefield. Poor transportation constrained the speed of Russian troop mobilization.

The Battle of Sofia had been over for most of a month, and it was only at this time that the tsarist government made a resolution that a great deal of time had been wasted, and by the time these armies arrived at the front, it was already more than a month later.

In any case, the Russians performed passably well in this Battle of Sofia. The Ottoman rule in the Balkans became shaky, and by this time the Sultan’s government no longer had the strength to reinforce the front.

This meant that the good days of the French were over, the Ottoman Empire had lost more than 300,000 men in half a year, and now the Sultanate was in such a hurry to deal with the Greeks who had killed their way into Thrace that it did not even have the strength to replenish its forces.

For the first time, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier realized that the Ottoman Empire was still so important. With insufficient numbers of cannon fodder, the French expeditionary force would have to top itself.

A war of attrition is no fun, and the loss of a regiment crippled almost every day is not so easy to bear. In the front are Ottoman cannon fodder top, they do not feel anything, now they know the power.

Maeshkov is a completely desperate style of fighting, every three days and five days to launch a big attack, a battle down both sides are wailing.

One hundred and seventy thousand French expeditionary force, now there is still fighting strength is only less than 100,000 left. The rest are not all dead, nor are they all wounded, but because of the troops were disabled formations, had to be withdrawn to recuperate.

In fact the French losses were about the same as the British, both paying more than 40,000 casualties, but they had more soldiers to withstand losses of this intensity.

France had already given them two replacements at home, totaling up to 48,000 men, and the total number of French troops was now not falling. Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier was still experienced enough to know to rotate his troops through the battlefield and not use a unit to death.

Even so, battalion and company-sized units at the grassroots level were often beaten out of formation. There was no way around it; a single round of enemy attacks often resulted in the reimbursement of several companies at the front.

In this respect, the British are far worse. Of course, this is the difference between a land power, and a sea power. Even Napoleon III, in removing dissenters, had not engaged in petty maneuvering on these issues.

So the battle went on until now, and the French still had strength left, and if they could be repaired for a month or two, so that they could rebuild their lost formations, they could be restored to their peak again.

Time was a hard sell, and the Russians were clearly not going to give them that chance, even though the Russian casualties were not insignificant, but gray animals are good to fool.

In the face of the bright future promised by Mareshkov, the Russian soldiers summoned up the courage to take to the battlefield again, something that the British and French armies could not match in any way.

The serf soldiers of the Mao Bear, simple-minded and basically illiterate, only need to give them the promise of freedom, land, these people can give up their lives in the battlefield to sell their lives.

If they were British or French soldiers, they wouldn’t even care about them. We have all learned, this little trick can not tempt them, the most critical thing is that we all know that there is no native land can be sent.

Take the colonial land to fool people, not afraid of being shot? Those ghost places, a pound can buy a farm of land, also want everyone to sell their lives?

Not good to fool also must find a way to fool, Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier decisively sacrificed the Russian-French feud, to encourage everyone’s morale. At first it worked, now the effect is no longer obvious.

If anyone had been paying attention, they would have noticed that the French army was falling back and seemed to be getting ready to run.

Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier was bitter in his heart, this battle was a big deal, the prestige of his boss, Napoleon III, was at stake, so he absolutely could not afford to lose.

That is even if it is a heavy price to pay to fight a nominal victory can be. Since he can not afford to lose he naturally have to consider the back way, in case it is really undesirable must also be dumped ah!

Of course, winning the war is better, losing more or less still has some impact. At this time Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier has regretted, if he had known that the British so waste, he began to reckless up and the Russians to fight.

A disastrous victory for both sides is still a victory.

Moreover, the boss had wanted to remove dissidents and eliminate the forces loyal to the Orleans dynasty in the army, even if it was a disastrous victory, it would still be a great achievement.

Only Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier’s conscience is not dead, not willing to let so many French boys to accompany the funeral, so he chose the safest way to fight, the result turned into a war of attrition.

On the contrary, the Russians’ resilience on the battlefield, again, was above that of the Allied forces, and then the French suffered.

Missed the decisive moment, now even if you want to reckless wave, with the state of the French army is more than likely not able to dry the hairy bear. Emabule Jean-Jacques Pelissier didn’t want to be a stepping stone for the Russians to make their reputation as the world’s number one army power a little louder.

(End of chapter)