Chapter 230: Neither of them is an oil-saving lamp.
Chapter 225 – Neither of them is an oil-saving lamp
Sending Thomas away, Napoleon III first convened a meeting of the think tank, no it should be a meeting of the ministers.
Anyway, it’s pretty much the same, nepotism is Napoleon III’s consistent style of employment, think tanks also part-time ministers, no cabinet.
Minister of Finance: Count Monier (speculative gold master), Minister of War Arnaud (junior hitman and part-time schemer), Minister of Police Moppa (schemer), Minister of the Interior Pessini (schemer), Minister of the Navy Dikko (supporter of the big shipowners), Colonial Secretary is his nephew ……
Don’t look at this bunch as being all connected, but they actually did a pretty good business, at least much better than the July dynasty, and a good deal better than the later Third Republic.
Aside from the failure of the Franco-Prussian War, during the reign of Napoleon III, France’s economy grew rapidly, the standard of living of its people improved significantly, and most of the world’s second colonial empire was fought during this period.
Minister of War Arnaud said warily, “Your Majesty, the British are using us as a gun, once their plan succeeds, Russia and Austria are both our enemies, and in the future our options in international politics will be very limited.
Besides, interfering with Austria is not that simple, and the multinational alliance is actually just good in name.
The countries are spread out in the south and north of the country, and it is simply impossible to keep such a big movement secret when it comes to coordinating relations and organizing a coalition army.
The Austrians are not stupid, once they received the news, they only need to do one thing on the line, before the formation of the coalition army is completed, caught the Prussians hard to beat.
Without the Prussians as cannon fodder, this intervention war, unless we put out all our strength, or on the coalition army that bunch of rabble, sooner or later will be broken by each one.”
Arnaud this is the voice of experience, the Balkan Peninsula battlefield only four allied forces, the chain of command is chaotic, and now a nine-country allied forces, who can bring so many differently minded teammates ah?
Pit teammates they are also experienced, nine countries allied army together, not only to defend the enemy, but also to defend their own eight allies, that is simply killing.
“Caught the Prussians punching?”
“Arnaud, do you think the Austrians will catch the Prussians in the first place and beat them up?” Napoleon III asked with interest
Arnaud replied, “Yes, sire. If the nine-nation allied army is formed and completed, then even if Austria is able to defeat the allied army, they will try to avoid going to war with the allied army in order not to be isolated.
But the Austrian government can’t just concede defeat either, otherwise how can they explain to the people?
Franz Josef I is young and vigorous age, certainly can not stand this aggravation, can not find the British trouble, then catch the Prussian bullying out of anger can not be?
In order to avoid responsibility for the failure of this operation, the government of Vienna should support this operation, just to transfer the anger of the people to the Prussians. By the time we’ve organized the allied forces, the Kingdom of Prussia will be almost finished.
If the Russians also take advantage of the fire, then it’s possible that Russia and Austria will finish dividing up Prussia before the allied forces arrive.”
As a former junior and part-time fighter, Arnaud usually did things with more love – recklessness, and now analyzing problems, he often brought this kind of thinking with him.
For Arnaud’s analysis, Napoleon III’s eyes lit up. In order to consolidate the throne, he could even start a war with Russia, the gang of the Vienna government in order to avoid responsibility, caught Prussia to beat up is also very normal.
Traitors are always more detestable than the enemy. If the Prussians were crippled or killed, the people’s grievances would be aired, and the government would not only be able to get through the crisis smoothly, but also be able to reap some benefits along the way.
As for the intervening coalition forces, Austria has no way to stop the countries from sending troops, but is there no way to delay the time of sending troops?
By the time the coalition army was formed, the Prussian government would have been successfully dismissed. Avenging Prussia’s death is a non-starter. Who would do it if there were no benefits?
Napoleon III, at least, didn’t think anyone had that kind of international spirit. The most important thing was that the Austrians had worked for nothing and withdrew from the newly occupied territories.
Pessini added: “Your Majesty, in addition to attacking the Kingdom of Prussia, Austria may also choose to strike first, sneak attack Paris!
Our main forces are not in the country, the Austrian army has already reached the Bavarian border, and can enter our country by crossing Baden, and with the superiority in strength and a surprise attack, there is a good chance of success.”
A sneak attack on Paris, a high investment, high gain plan, once successful France would be thrown into disarray and would not be able to cause trouble for Austria for at least three to five years.
The Russians can also take advantage of the opportunity to seize Constantinople, the British and French allied forces on the Crimean Peninsula to close the door, the British can only hunker down in the British Isles, at most, the Navy came out to hang around a little bit, the entire European continent is at the mercy of the Russian-Austrian alliance to roam.
Napoleon III sneered, “That is to say, from beginning to end, the British are a bad idea?”
Pesini analyzed, “Your Majesty, this is the plan that best serves the interests of the British, the success rate of the Austrians sneaking into Paris is too low, even if Marshal Radetzky himself is in command, the chances of this would not be more than four tiers.
This is still in the case that we are unprepared, as long as we are prepared and the troops on the front line strengthen their alert, the Austrians will only be able to come all the way here by force.
The contradiction between us and Austria has not yet reached the point of death, and the Vienna government should not risk a deadly confrontation with us.
As long as we can not capture Paris within a month, our frontline troops withdrew back, then it will be their turn to be unlucky.
Essentially, the most important part of the British plan is intimidation, if they can use the momentum of the Nine Allied Forces to scare the Austrians, their goal will be successful.
If they can tear down the Russian-Austrian alliance, it is even more profitable. Even if they couldn’t do some of that, they were still prepared to leave the Kingdom of Bavaria to Austria, and actually didn’t want to drive Austria to the wall.”
After a few moments of hesitation, Napoleon III made a decision.
“Since the British have set the stage, how can we not cooperate? If necessary, we can give the Austrians a little hint and encourage them to fight Prussia.
We can completely take what we want in this matter, and the division of Prussia among France, Austria and Russia is acceptable to us.”
Of course it’s acceptable, the core area of the Kingdom of Prussia, right in the Rhineland region, are under the noses of the French, Austria crippled Prussia, they just happen to be the fisherman, to get the biggest benefit.
Allies? When did France and Prussia become allies, as long as the interests are appropriate, even allies can be sold.
……
Leaving the Palace of Versailles, Thomas went back to visit the Prussian representative, Rotluff.
In addition to the French, the Kingdom of Prussia is also a key part, without the participation of the battle-hardened Prussians, this intervention in the coalition is a joke.
In fact, Thomas was also beating the drum inside, what happened in Bavaria was too terrible. In case the Prussian army was also influenced by nationalistic ideas, and came to the battlefield with a clinical turn, or neutrality, then the allied army would only cry.
Fortunately, this time the plan is not prepared to really start the fight, but also to leave room for Austria, the possibility of fighting is not great.
The two did not have any friendship, directly into the main topic, changed a set of rhetoric to explain the intention, Rotluff fell into a deep thought.
The use of countries to interfere in the opportunity to take the opportunity to kick Austria out of the German region, is the state policy of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Rottluff said with dissatisfaction, “Mr. Thomas, why not let Austria spit out the Kingdom of Bavaria? Indulging them in this destabilizing behavior in Europe will sooner or later bring disaster to this world.”
The British proposal was just what he wanted, the only beauty of it was letting Austria take away the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Who else but the Prussian kingdoms could lead Germany without the burden of Austria? This was digging into their flesh, and naturally Rotloff had to oppose it.
Thomas snubbed, “Mr. Rotluff, it’s not that we want to condone Austria’s illegal behavior, but the Russian-Austrian alliance must be considered, and your country doesn’t want Russia and Austria to continue to hold on to each other!”
The Russian-Austrian alliance, the most pressure should be the Kingdom of Prussia, it may be that the Prussian government’s responsiveness in this regard is relatively slow, or it may be that the Nordic three court alliance has been long enough for them to ignore this threat.
In short, to the Prussian government as if nothing had happened, Thomas was admired, if they were replaced, they would have been unable to sleep, the Prussian government actually did not engage in any big action.
It is not that there is no action, originally they are ready to repair the diplomatic relations with Russia and Austria, but unfortunately Austria suddenly launched a unification war, which destroyed the Prussian government’s plan.
Rotluff on the surface there is no change, but the heart is drumming, he always felt that the British did not have a good heart, and did not find anything wrong, so chose to drag the word decision.
“Mr. Thomas, this matter is too involved, I must first report to the country and wait for the decision of the Berlin government.”
Although Rotluff was an amateur diplomacy player, but military origin, he always believed that the sky will not fall pie, only by force to take the most reliable.
He was not sure himself, so it was better to throw the problem to the Berlin government, although Frederick William IV was also an amateur level diplomatic player, but he was a king, wasn’t he?
There was no way to obtain a positive answer, Thomas could only leave, not thinking that the Prussian royal government would find out about their plans, and the French would be unlikely to leak information to the Prussians.
This is the inherent impression that the Kingdom of Prussia has long left on the outside world, it can be said that before Bismarck, the Kingdom of Prussia’s diplomacy is very juvenile, this is the inevitable hard injury of the military state.
There was no further delay, Thomas still had a lot of things to do, there were so many countries waiting for him to convince, this diplomatic war was destined to be a bad one.
……
The activities of the British are destined to be impossible to keep secret, not all countries will keep secrets for them, Thomas frequently contacted the representatives of various countries, Metternich can not be idle ah!
And the British offensive is not the same, Metternich’s approach is much simpler, is – smashing money, can not buy the foreign ministers of various countries, can not buy their side of the maidservant entourage?
Thomas saw what people, said what words, most of the content has been passed to Metternich’s ears. Only diplomacy, the transmission of false information, the release of smoke bombs is normal, Metternich does not dare to judge the true or false.
Thomas is also a veteran in the diplomatic field, Metternich gathered from different channels to the hand of the information is not the same, which means: Thomas to the representatives of various countries said different content, some are still self-contradictory, but also to increase the difficulty of his judgment.
Looking at the information just transmitted from the Swiss delegation, Metternich coldly smiled, encouraging Switzerland to intervene in the Austrian annexation of South Germany, this is not a joke?
As Austria’s good neighbor, the Swiss and the Habsburg dynasty for hundreds of years, it is not easy to get a few decades of peace, and now take the initiative to provoke Austria?
Anyway, Metternich is not going to believe, even if the British promised more, they do not have the ability to block Austria to settle scores, at least for Switzerland Austria has this strength.
Unable to judge the true purpose of the British, then we can only continue to collect intelligence. Anyway, some people stare at the domestic reaction of the countries, if they agree to send troops to intervene, the army mobilization, strategic supplies delivery, is always inevitable.
Which country joined the intervention army, not to see their representatives sitting in the seat of the interventionist country, but to see their domestic actual action.
Metternich was not in a hurry, with his knowledge of the British, if if they did not make things happen, that would be a problem.
Now that Thomas had acted, he was rather more relieved. An open conspiracy was always easier to deal with than a secret one.
(End of chapter)