Chapter 997: Treating the Headache, Treating the Foot
Chapter 977: Healing the Headache, Treating the Foot in a Patchy Way
Knowing the times is one of the major reasons why Japan was able to succeed.
From the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government has been trying to embrace the British thighs, although John Bull did not really look out on them and did not accept them as the little brother who came to the door.
But decades of hard work, impression points are always there. But in the international competition, just based on the impression score is still not enough, more importantly, we also need to look at the opportunity.
For the Japanese, right now is undoubtedly the best opportunity. The international situation was in a state of flux, and the British, isolated by the European community, were now in desperate need of allies.
The hegemony has its own hegemony temperament, Britain needs allies, not pets, it is impossible to accept any cat or dog.
The original space and time Japan is in the Sino-Japanese War to prove their strength, only to be the British fancy, became the Far East anti-Russian vanguard.
Now is no exception, in the battle for the Philippine Islands, Japan showed the strength of the British high regard, before the opportunity for further contact.
……
Downing Street, since the continental war was divided, Prime Minister Gladstone has not had a good night’s sleep, the whole person is like ten years old.
Just closed the Vienna Peace Conference, but also gave Britain a fatal blow. The bullish French empire, now has been chopped off the hands and feet, a short period of time can not be counted on.
Without any accident, Britain’s most feared German-Austrian merger still happened, the revival of the Holy Roman Empire became the new European hegemony.
And this hegemon was not like the watered-down hegemons of the past, the strength was just too strong to make the challenges shy away.
As it turned out, there was no worst only worse. As a supporter of France, Britain stood against the anti-French alliance early on.
Even with the last-minute counter-attack, that didn’t mean it was over. With the Channel protectors, the Antifa alliance was naturally incapable of liquidating them.
The absence of direct liquidation did not mean that retaliation was abandoned. At the last moment of the Vienna Peace Conference, the Antifa alliance made a desperate attempt, and the “European Union” with Austria at its core appeared.
As the name suggests, the “Continental League” was naturally an alliance of the countries of the European continent. Although Britain also belonged to Europe, they were a maritime country, so the Continental Union had nothing to do with them.
Simply from the literal meaning of the word, Gladstone also know Austria pulling countries to form a “continental alliance” in order to seize the right to speak.
Whether willing to accept or not, excluded Britain, have lost the right to speak in the European continent.
This is not the worst thing, the worse thing is that no one stipulates that the “Continental Union” can only manage continental affairs. The Vienna Government could have used the Union to interfere in international affairs if it had wanted to.
The strength of the Continental Union far exceeds that of the remaining countries combined, and in this era where the bigger fist is the truth, the voice it has is naturally unparalleled.
In other words, Britain’s supremacy has been shaken, although they still have the world’s first Royal Navy, but in the face of the “European Union” this monster, but still do not have any bottom.
Originally, I thought it was just a battle between Britain and Austria, but the director made a mistake with the script, and the plot turned into a battle between Britain and the “Continental Union”. Luckily, the movie is not yet finished, or else Britain would be finished.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Russia, West, the Nordic countries such as contact, the overall is not optimistic, everyone’s confidence in the Holy Roman Empire is much higher than we expected.
Now we can only wait for the enemy to make a mistake, and then look for an opportunity to divide the European Union. If this alliance is not disbanded, we will always be in a passive position, and we can’t do anything about the Holy Roman Empire that is hiding behind us.”
It was obvious that George was in a very bad mood. As Britain’s foreign minister, the international situation has developed to this point, won the title of “Britain’s worst foreign minister”, is already a nail in the coffin.
Political opponents did not take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, not because of understanding, not to mention the integrity, but no one is willing to take over this mess. When the dust settles, it’s time for him to go.
In contrast, others in the cabinet are in a much better situation. No matter how bad the international situation was, Britain was still reaping the benefits of the Continental War.
Most of the wealth accumulated by the French flowed into Britain through trade, and now the British Isles were at their most prosperous period.
Although in the long run, the poor decisions of the London government had put Britain in an awkward position; but in the short run, all classes in the country had profited, and the public felt pretty good about the government.
In fact, George was overthinking it. The title “Worst Foreign Secretary in History” would only be given to him by future generations, and for the moment the British public did not realize what had been lost.
Since diplomacy was used to get the French warships and consolidate the Royal Navy’s dominance, public opinion has been critical.
Since the French warships were diplomatically acquired and the dominance of the Royal Navy consolidated, there has been much less public criticism of the Foreign Office.
Gladstone waved his hand: ”Take your time, we are in no hurry. The Holy Roman Empire has just been re-established, there are still a lot of internal problems, in the next long period of time, the government of Vienna will be busy combing the internal affairs, and will not be able to care about us at all.
The anti-French alliance is not ironclad either, and is now only united for a short time because of the French. France was weakened so badly at the Vienna Peace Conference that the threat to the nations has been greatly reduced. When everyone doesn’t feel threatened by the French, this alliance will be at the end of its life.
Don’t look at the Holy Roman Empire now, the more they toss and turn, the more likely to trigger the scruples of the countries, France is a lesson from the past.
Fear is afraid that they do not toss. If the Vienna government keeps maintaining this current international image and doesn’t make things happen on the European continent, it will be really troublesome.”
The defeat of France also hit Britain very hard, and both the civil and governmental sectors were analyzing the causes. The conclusions they finally came to took themselves by surprise.
There was no way that the reason for the defeat of France could be applied to Britain in the same way – “too many people were offended”.
The French offended many people, and Britain offended many people. Luckily, the Channel was there to protect it, or it would have been an open question whether Britain still existed or not.
Reflection is reflection, for a while the London government did not have the ability to reverse this situation. With the establishment of the European Union, there is no longer any continental country that will ally with them.
Including the recently defeated France would be no exception. Many French people now believed that their own defeat was a result of betrayal by the British, and that the revolutionary government in Paris was a puppet supported by the British.
In a sense, this was not an injustice. The first stop of the French revolutionaries in exile was London, and if not for the shelter of the British government, these guys would have been clicked off by the Bonaparte dynasty.
On the face of it, if the British government had not stabbed the knife at the last minute, but had given its full support, the French might not have been unable to end the war in a decent way.
After the defeat, many arrogant Frenchmen were still unwilling to admit that the defeat was due to their own weakness, and they desperately needed an excuse that they could accept.
Conspiracy theories began to flourish, guided by those who wished to do so. Britain met all the conditions and was thrust into the limelight.
Of course, this was all a minor issue. Defeated France was no longer able to get into the British government’s good graces, and was unable to do anything but yell a few things.
Foreign Secretary George: “There is another problem, the Japanese want to buy warships from us to fight the Spanish expeditionary fleet.
The Foreign Office recommends that they be granted. With the end of the Continental War, the victorious Spaniards have become restless. Voices even appeared in the Madrid newspapers to reclaim the Strait of Gibraltar.
Although it’s not a climate yet, we still have to be vigilant. If Vienna provoked the Spaniards behind the scenes, they might do something stupid if their self-confidence was so high.
In order to avoid the worst case scenario, we’d better find a chance to make the Spaniards sober up.
Anyway, with the French Navy up in smoke, the pressure on the Royal Navy has been drastically reduced. Soon we’ll be receiving a large number of warships from the French Navy again, and for a long time to come, the Royal Navy will be faced with a surplus of warships.
Taking the opportunity to dispose of a batch of surplus warships to the Japanese will not only allow us to use them to deplete Spain’s strength, but also save a great deal of money.”
The trouble of having too many warships is currently enjoyed only by the British alone. Originally, the Royal Navy had a large pile of warships, and now that it had received most of the French’s warships, the next problem the Royal Navy would face was having warships with no one to fly them.
Because just ended a warships auction, the international arms market happens to be in a saturated state, in addition to Japan, simply can not find a second buyer.
Minister of the Navy Astley cursed: “do not give me mention the French warships, damn Austrians do throw us a bunch of rags, of which there are nearly one-tenth of the warships will soon be decommissioned.
And their promise of engineers, shipbuilding technology, all are bullshit. The so-called engineers are just a bunch of hard laborers.
The transfer of shipbuilding technology information was mixed up, most of which were for sail battleships, and even if there was French core technology, we wouldn’t be able to find it for a while.”
As the world’s second largest naval power, the French navy’s home base is likewise very strong, although overall not as strong as Britain, but in some areas is the world’s first.
No one would let a competitor get bigger, and Austria was no exception. It was natural to do everything to combat a competitor.
From the beginning of the Royal Navy did not expect to be able to obtain the core technology of the French, even if the Austrians dare to give, they do not dare to use directly.
Only to be put on the spot, Astley’s mood is still not good. Especially after learning that they were the only ones enjoying special treatment, Astley’s mood was even worse.
“There’s no problem with the main ships, so don’t mention the slight flaws. No matter what, these warships have also consolidated the Royal Navy’s supremacy.
In the long run, Austria will be our biggest enemy in the future; but in the short run, the biggest threat to us is still the Russians.
The Tsarist government has already announced the creation of the Central Asian Railroad. Having determined that the European continent cannot be breached, the Russians have shifted their strategy to India.
It’s definitely not enough to react passively, we must find a way to take the initiative. Everyone knows well how complex the geography of Afghanistan is. To combat the Russians, it’s best to open a new front.
The options left to us are running out. The Nordic Confederation can’t be counted on. In addition to continuing to support the Persians, we have to find an enemy for the Russians in the Far East to wear out the Tsarist government.
And, of course, the South Seas region cannot be abandoned. With the formation of the Continental Union, our competition in the South Seas region has fallen to the wayside. If we let the Spaniards take back the Philippine Islands, the situation will be even more unfavorable for us.
The Ministry of Navy send someone to assess the strength of the Japanese Navy, and if possible, let them become a nail we insert into the Southern Ocean region.”
Making such a decision, Gladstone was also very helpless. Knowing full well that this was treating the symptoms rather than the root cause, but there was no way out, right now Britannia could only choose to treat the symptoms first.
(End of chapter)