Chapter 710: Ba Snake
Chapter 694 – Ba Snake
The British’s astounding conception directly shook the Berlin government.
The annexation of the German Confederation is something they dreamed of, only the reality does not allow it, in order to avoid being mixed with more than one fight, the Berlin government is very from the heart to suppress the year.
I did not expect that the British actually proposed, but this time it is not the annexation of the German Federal Reich by the PBU, but the annexation of the PBU by the German Federation.
The order was dropped a bit, and the nature was different. The Russo-Prussian War was still going on, and the Berlin government had no bargaining power and had to give up its dominance.
Wilhelm I had a headache. Compromise was not as easy as it sounded, and Europe was a place of jurisprudence.
The German Federal Empire, although the public jokingly called “comedy empire”, that is also a recognized empire, the Prussian Federation now joined in just an ordinary state.
Moreover, in this context, who knows whether the other side will take advantage of the fire, for example: to demand the split of the Prussian-Polish Confederation, to join in the name of Prussia and Poland two states.
Or perhaps go even further and separate the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein to weaken the Kingdom of Prussia.
……
Foreign Minister Jeffrey Friedman advised, “Your Majesty, from the current situation on the battlefield, we are at an extreme disadvantage.
The Belarusian region has been lost, the Lithuanian region has fallen for the most part, the Volyn region captured earlier no longer exists, and the enemy is less than 150 kilometers from Warsaw.
Our soldiers are brave, our officers are excellent, but these are not enough to compensate for the gap in strength.
The difference in strength between Prussia and Russia was so great that it was difficult to win the war with our forces alone.
The experience of the last Russo-Prussian War has taught us that to deal with the Russian Empire we must have enough allies to attack from different fronts, to disperse their forces and make their logistical supplies more difficult.
Unfavorable performance on the battlefield has deterred our former allies. It is now necessary to pull in a strong ally to increase everyone’s confidence, and the German Federal Empire is undoubtedly the best choice.”
Minister of War Philippodo questioned, “Geoffrey, are you trying to sell your country?”
“Join the German Federal Empire, do you know what that means?”
With an additional boss on his head, naturally his days couldn’t be so free. Don’t look at the fact that many states within the German Confederation didn’t buy the central government’s account, in reality, the central government still had a lot of power.
For example: issuing currency.
Even a loosely organized country cannot allow multiple currencies. The central government uses the banner of “for the sake of economic development”, and it is difficult for the states below to refuse.
Of course, there is no way out. As long as you learn from those small states, and simply use international currencies such as the Shendun and the British pound, the central government can’t do anything about them.
It doesn’t matter if these small countries learn from them, they themselves have limited market capacity, and they don’t have the ability to print their own money, so the loss caused by using foreign currencies is also limited.
Out of the convenience of trade, the use of international currencies, engaged in overseas trade, directly used for settlement, but also save a conversion fee.
In the Pupo Federation, it’s a different story, no matter what currency you use, you have to pay a large amount of mint tax to other people, and the government’s financial revenue is greatly affected.
The economic loss is the second, but politically also be dictated to. The central government does not interfere in the internal affairs of the state, this statement was first put forward by Franz, but also effective in the first few years, the later is still not interfered with.
It was only that the Vienna government did a very stealthy job and put its hand in by enacting laws and promoting the independence of the judiciary.
Nominally the central government had no right to interfere in the functioning of the state government, except that the judiciary had the right to arrest corrupt officials within the state.
If this influence is not great enough, then what about the taxes paid by the states and the finances allocated by the central government, does this count?
The hole was dug in advance, and no one knew beforehand that there would be a surplus of funds from customs duties, mint taxes, colonial revenues, taxes on tobacco and alcohol alone, while maintaining the expenses of the central government.
It was a foregone conclusion that the central government would not have to bear the administrative expenses of local governments, would not have to invest in infrastructure for the states, and would have to support the emperor and the thousands of bureaucrats in the center, in addition to the large amount of revenue from military expenses.
The balance of funds, in addition to part of the investment in scientific research, the rest of the allocation of funds, is the opportunity to intervene in the internal affairs of the state.
With money in your pocket, you talk tough. At first these revenues were limited, not enough for the central government to cover expenses, and needed to be shared among the states to cover expenses, so naturally they didn’t dare to offend the lords below.
Now that the central government’s pockets are bulging, if a state wants to apply for central financial allocations, it has to consider the central government’s opinion.
A similar thing could happen in the German Federal Reich.
Though they only got the mint tax, they also had less expenses. Because in the beginning, the central government’s power was restricted, the army was raised by the states themselves, and they only had to support a bunch of civil servants and the emperor.
Geoffrey replied unhurriedly, ”Of course I know what this means, but do we have a choice?
What’s wrong with taking a loss?
As long as we win this war, with our strength, it’s hard to believe that Hanover will still be able to do anything to us.
Don’t forget that the system of the German Federal Empire is modeled after the Holy Roman Empire, which implemented the imperial candidate system. If we gather enough allies, we can also change the central government.
No matter how many restrictions they set now, we can find a way around them in the future. Treaties can be torn up, laws can be changed.
When the time comes, it’s all an internal affair of the empire, and even the British can’t say anything as long as there’s a justifiable reason!
As long as they still want us to hold France and Austria in check, the London government won’t do anything to us! The priority now is still to think about how we can pull the German Confederation over first.”
Theoretically, usurping the central government position in Hanover would not be a problem as long as the Pupo Confederation joined the German Federal Empire.
If the Berlin government could think of it, Hannover could naturally think of it as well.
The snake swallowed the elephant, that is the legendary “snake”, not all snakes have such a good appetite.
Hanover can’t even handle a group of small states within the German Confederation, so it’s not an ambitious master by any stretch of the imagination. Even if the Pope’s Federation sends it to the door, it is estimated that they will not dare to accept it.
Philippodo is very hurt, he is against it mainly because of the dominance issue, however, the reality is very cruel, it is not a matter of whether the Pupo Federation is willing or not, but whether people are willing to accept them or not.
This is not the first time to worry about this problem, as early as many years ago there are politicians proposed “the merger of Austria and Prussia to jointly dominate the concept of Central Europe”, but unfortunately Austria is not willing to share the fruit with them.
Unfortunately, Austria was not willing to share the fruits of the merger with them. There was no way that Franz could agree to this, as the payoff was not equal to the reward.
Even if the Berlin government had lowered the conditions, the result would have been the same. The Dual Reich was no fun, and Franz was not willing to challenge the copy of hell.
This time, joining the German Federal Empire, the Berlin government’s bottom line is undoubtedly even lower, as long as they win the war, the big deal is to renege in the future, anyway, Hanover does not have the strength to force them to fulfill the contract.
After a moment’s effort of silence, William I slowly said: ”This time it was the British who pulled the strings, I think the London government has a way to make Hanover compromise.
The foreign ministry first and the British contact, as long as you can pull the German federal empire down, what conditions can be promised first, to cash in and so on to win this war before saying.”
No problem, winning the war would qualify the Berlin government to consider these issues; if it lost the war, the P&P Federation was doomed.
Even if Britain, France and Austria step in and the Kingdom of Prussia can be saved, it will be a scaled down version and will have nothing to do with them.
……
As the Berlin government fretted, so did the British. Sir Edward, who led this plan in particular, had just begun to implement it when he regretted it.
Things are not as simple as they seem. Her Majesty the Queen has agreed to do the work of the royal family of the “Comedy Empire”, but the government in London must ensure that the royal family’s position is not shaken.
It’s just a matter of making a promise, Sir Edward says.
After this war, the Pope Federation will definitely need to recuperate, and the Berlin government will not dare to play any tricks in a short period of time, and as for the future, that is a matter for the later government to worry about.
The trouble is the special system of the Comedy Empire, just to convince the emperor is useless, they also have the Imperial Council constraints.
“Convince these small states”, the idea is very good, but the practice is not desirable, told them is not the same as told Austria?
What kind of infiltration the “Comedy Empire” has become, even Franz doesn’t know. In any case, the guilder was the common currency of the country, circulating more than the central government issued Rhenish guilders.
Not that the central government didn’t want to ban it, but it was a legal tender approved by the Reichstag, and there was nothing the Emperor could do about it.
Of course, the Vienna government also paid a price, throwing in the towel to open up the colonial market to these small states that voted in favor of the ban, and also providing economic assistance from time to time.
Politically, although separated from each other, but economically, has long been integrated into one.
Against this backdrop, Edward really found it hard to believe in the ability of these small states to keep secrets. As long as the news leaks out, the “plan” will only be a plan, after all, it is much easier to do bad things than good things.
Without the support of the small states, bypassing the Imperial Council is not impossible, but the war behind, do not want everyone to contribute.
“Comedy Empire” army belongs to the state government, the emperor can only command the troops of Hanover, barely put together a hundred and twenty thousand troops, is already the limit.
If the Reichstag does not give face to the central government, and then vetoed the resolution to allow the Pupo Federation to join the empire, then not even material assistance.
At most, the Emperor would run off to war with the Russians alone with his direct Hanoverian army, and would have nothing to do with the German Federal Empire at all.
That little bit of power would have added a few casualties to the Russians, not enough to change the outcome of the war.
Well, Edward admitted that he was overthinking it. As of now, only the Berlin government had responded to his plan, and the German Federal Reich hadn’t responded at all.
The payoff was visible to the naked eye, but the reward was nebulous. The legitimacy of the central government of the Comedy Empire had always been questioned by the public, and usually had to be careful not to let the Reichstag catch them in the act.
Without enough benefits, wanting people to risk participating in the grueling Russo-Prussian War, even the British boss can not.
It’s not like there’s no other choice now, people can jump ship anytime they’re pushed. Now there are many buyers, another can also be sold at a good price.
(End of chapter)