Chapter 222: Kicking the ball around
Chapter 217 – Kicking the ball
The negotiations were still in a stalemate, and the gates of Munich were already open. At this time, it was no longer up to Maximilian II to make the call.
From the moment the negotiations started, everyone knew that the place was going to change owners. Jonas was not obliged to help them keep it a secret, and now the whole city knew that Maximilian II was ready to exchange lands with Austria.
Since this was the case, there was no pressure for everyone to defect to the new master. Exchanging lands happened from time to time in the history of Europe, it was nothing new.
Only this time, after all, the situation is special, the Bavarian royal family is a bit down and out, threw away all the chips in their hands, the only thing they can rely on is the French reason.
Originally, most of the Bavarian people still have a little obstacle in their hearts, after all, Maximilian II did not do anything outrageous, so it seems a little unreasonable to abandon him.
However, as soon as the news of the replacement of the country came out, the obstacles in everyone’s heart were gone. It was not they who wanted to betray the king, but the king himself who wanted to leave, and it was none of their business.
Everyone’s heart was at peace, as long as Austria did not treat the royal family badly, they thought they could afford Maximilian II.
……
Baden.
Being a good ally of Bavaria, was the first to know what was going on in the neighboring country. The government of Baden was confused, not to be played with, in a war with others, the local government declared “neutrality”, followed by the army in the country.
Prince Friedrich, the regent, asked: “What should we do now? The Bavarians did not resist at all, and the Austrians reached Munich with an armed march.
According to the current situation, the Bavarians have already abandoned the government, and Munich can’t hold out for long, the Bavarian Kingdom can’t hold out until reinforcements arrive.”
Not to mention the arrival of reinforcements, the shadow of reinforcements was nowhere to be seen. Prussia is gathering the German states to organize a coalition army, and Britain and France are calling for troops to intervene in this war.
But this all need time ah, German area so many small states, again how fast, also need a month or two to be able to organize the coalition army, right?
Who knows that the Bavarian Kingdom is so cowardly, at least it is also the third largest state in the German region, even if you can’t win the Austrians, you have to hold on for a while, even if it’s to hold on to the guerrilla warfare can also be.
At this time, Prince Friedrich still does not know that both sides have compromised, Maximilian II is talking to the Austrians.
Foreign Minister Nikolaus analyzed, “Your Highness, Bavaria is the hearts and minds of the people, even if the government tries hard, it’s useless.
It seems that we still underestimated the status of unity in the minds of the people, and the Bavarians are treating this war as a battle for national unity.
Instead of the Austrian army fighting its way to Munich, it was invited to Munich by the Bavarians.
Now we are in big trouble, and if the population at home is like the Bavarians, the risk of interfering in this war is too great.”
Nikolaus was intimidated, and not only by him, but by many others. In case the population within Baden had the same attitude, and they forced their troops to intervene in this war, would the population revolt?
Even if they didn’t rebel, they would still be scholars of the Bavarians’ “neutrality” in the war, and the Baden government would be doomed.
Prime Minister Waltz added: “Your Highness, this is very likely to happen, the public opinion in the country is mostly against sending troops, and everyone is reluctant to send troops to rescue Bavaria.”
Prince Friedrich was silent, he understood the reasoning of the cold lips, but the risk of sending troops to intervene now was too great, and he might get himself involved.
After a moment’s pause, he slowly said, “That’s it, let’s stay neutral in this war!”
……
The one who made this choice was obviously not only the Grand Duchy of Baden, many small German states that were intimidated chose neutrality.
It seemed that at this moment, everyone became a champion of public opinion, and Austria’s political offense began to gain momentum.
With one small state declaring neutrality after another, the not-yet-born coalition of German states was prematurely stillborn in the womb.
Berlin.
As more and more states declared neutrality, the pressure on the Prussian government increased. At least half a million Austrian troops had already converged on the Austro-Prussian border area, and the number was still growing.
The number of Austrian troops on the Austrian-Prussian border is still growing. Whether these troops have any combat power is still unknown, but the Prussian government does not dare to move ah, the number is there, who dares to take it lightly ah?
What if they send troops to rescue Bavaria, and then these troops enter their territory? Even if these troops are watered down, they can still kill Prussia with their numbers.
The Kingdom of Prussia’s strength is limited, learning the Austrian government to mobilize millions of troops is impossible.
Even if they explode their liver, at most they will only be able to deal with one way of the Austrian army, the other way will not be able to do anything.
Whether they send troops from the mainland or fight through the Kingdom of Bavaria, it’s not a problem for Austria.
Entering the era of hot weapons, they can’t even take risks even if they want to, as long as the logistic supply is cut off, the strongest army is just a limp noodle.
In addition to the military threat, more troublesome is the political problem. The performance of the Bavarian people also frightened the Prussian government.
Even if Frederick William IV had confidence in the domestic army and did not think they would learn from the Bavarian army to neutralize without firing a shot, he had no confidence in the population.
The army’s confidence came from the fact that Prussia was the “army-owning state”, a privilege that no other country could offer.
The same cannot be said for the population, as the Kingdom of Prussia, despite being touted as such in later times, was in fact militaristic.
The economy of the Kingdom of Prussia was in a bad shape, and in order to keep up with the huge military expenditures, the government had to increase the burden on the population.
Coupled with the exploitation of the Junker aristocracy, this era was not a good time for the common people of Prussia. Historically this hard time lasted until after the Franco-Prussian War, when they got out of their predicament by relying on the war reparations from the French.
Frederick William IV suppressed his anger and said: “What to do now, those free cities have long declared their neutrality, now Baden is neutral, Hanover is neutral, Württemberg is also neutral, Felix is about to visit Saxony, and if there is no accident Saxony will soon be neutral as well.
The remaining small states are not worth mentioning in terms of strength, so I’m afraid we’ll have to take it on ourselves if we continue to organize an intervention army.”
There are quite a number of states in the German region, but there are very few states with strength, and apart from these few that have a little bit of strength, the rest of the small states combined can’t come up with an army of 50,000 troops.
Without these state armies as cannon fodder, Prussia can not dare and Austria to die, in case of death on a hundred thousand or eighty thousand, they have to be hurt.
The reason why Prussia maintained a large active force was to ensure the quality of the soldiers, because they could not afford the quantity.
Prime Minister Joseph von Radowitz persuaded, “Your Majesty, the situation is uncertain now, we can’t take any chances. Although Austria has decayed, their military strength has not declined.
From the intelligence we have gathered, Austria has mobilized a million reserve troops within the country, and together with their half a million active troops, the number of troops has now jumped to the first place in Europe.
With our strength, we no longer have the ability to intervene in this war, so why don’t we wait and see what happens and wait for the reaction of the European countries!”
Plans don’t change as fast as they should, if Austria didn’t carry out a national mobilization, then the Kingdom of Prussia plus the German states organized a coalition army and still had the strength to intervene in this war.
Now the situation is obvious, the small states either forced by public opinion, or deterred by the strength of Austria, they retreated.
Joseph von Radowitz could not afford to organize a coalition army to go up and fight Austria alone with the 200,000-strong army of the Kingdom of Prussia, and he did not expect anything at all.
Even if there was a national mobilization, the Kingdom of Prussia could not afford to be exhausted and would be finished if it lost once. Perhaps Austria did not have the strength to annex Prussia, but the dismemberment of Prussia was quite possible.
After all, the Kingdom of Prussia is not invulnerable, just three times in the division of Poland in the action has gained 141,100 square kilometers, occupying 47% of the territory of Prussia.
This meant that there was still a large number of Poles within Prussia, and although these were pretty much assimilated and would be digested in no time, that was based on the absence of external forces.
Once the Kingdom of Prussia was defeated and Austria forcibly split Prussia, then it would be difficult to merge again. The odds were too low the risks were too great, and Chancellor Joseph von Radowitz did not want to take that chance.
Foreign Minister Andrea proposed, “Your Majesty, Metternich will be visiting Berlin in a few days, let’s listen to what Austria has to say before we make a decision, and if the conditions are right, joining forces with them is not a bad idea.”
Prussia’s opposition to Austria’s annexation of Bavaria was also due to its interests, and if the interests were right, then selling Bavaria would be a good idea.
Andrea was a supporter of the idea of partitioning North and South Germany, and he didn’t mind exchanging interests with Austria. Of course, this is not to say that he did not want Prussia to unify Germany.
The main reason was that the Kingdom of Prussia was limited in strength, and people had ambitions to unify Germany but didn’t think they could realize them.
Before Bismarck came to power, the whole Prussian government was not mentally prepared to unify Germany.
Even after the victory in the three dynastic wars, everyone was skeptical about unifying Germany.
If Bismarck had not insisted strongly and his political tactics were powerful enough to lull the many states together and realize the nominal unification, the bullish German Second Empire of later times would not have been born.
After some hesitation, Frederick William IV said sorry to the Bavarian Kingdom, not that he refused to help, but his strength did not allow him to do so.
“In that case, we keep silent for now, the domestic army mobilization can not be stopped, but also to prevent the Austrians to launch a sneak attack on us.
After Metternich arrives and finds out the Austrian’s conditions, we will make a decision.
Until then, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should try to stabilize the small states; without them, we will be politically very passive.”
Betting on the fortunes of a nation, that has to be a case-by-case basis… you have to be at least thirty or forty percent sure before you can place a bet, right? Frederick William IV is not a gambler, much less a red-eye gambler, will not blindly play pokies.
After the end of the high-level meeting, Frederick William IV immediately summoned the ministers of Britain, France, Russia and the West, to the four major European powers informed the situation, asked the four countries to intervene.
Undoubtedly, the Kingdom of Spain was already an empty shelf at this period, and was able to retain its position as a power by the residual power of its ancestors, and was now busy with internal strife, and was not keen on interfering in the affairs of the German region.
The real say is Britain, France and Russia, or more accurately, France and Russia. Although the influence of the British was great, their land forces were limited and they did not have the strength to send troops to intervene in the German region.
However, Britain, France and Russia are having a super friendly match at this time, and they can’t stop for a while. Both sides have invested so much, whoever concedes, who will be in bad luck.
The Russians could not put down Constantinople, this was the will of the entire Russian population, and it was impossible for the Tsarist government to back down at the last minute.
Britain and France can not back down, the British made concessions, the loss of interest is heavy aside, Downing Street is about to change.
The French, not to mention, Napoleon III, if he dares to concede, his throne will be unstable, or his throne has not been very stable, the war was launched in order to divert internal conflicts.
Except for the Spanish minister who clearly refused to send troops, all three ministers did not give an answer and had to wait for a domestic decision.
London.
George’s cabinet met again for the German region.
Thomas, the foreign minister, said, “Gentlemen, there is a change in the situation in Germany. The Kingdom of Bavaria has fallen without any resistance, and the Bavarian people and army have chosen to stand by and watch the war.
The one fighting Austria this time is presumably that idiot Maximilian II, and his stupid cabinet.
As a result of this, most of the states in the German region chose neutrality, as public opinion was in favor of German unification, and the governments of these states did not dare to take any chances.
Last night, I received word from the minister in Berlin that the Prussian government has also backed down.
We were going to utilize the power of the states in the German region to hold the Austrians in check, but now it is no longer possible to continue.
If we do not take strong measures, the unification of the German region will be inevitable. The Austrians are on a political offensive, and it is expected that most of the German states will be forced by public opinion to join the Austrian Lord to the Shinra Empire.”
Thomas despised Maximilian II’s behavior, and everyone agreed. It did take strength for a king to get to this point.
If the Bavarian Kingdom gave a little bit of strength, then even if it only resisted the Austrian army for ten days and half a month, or even defeated the war all the way, everyone could accept it.
It was a difference in strength, and no one would have slammed them for being incompetent. It can be said that as long as they resisted, the allied forces of the German Confederates were able to organize themselves.
Now everyone backed down, not only because of the deterrence of Austria’s military strength, but also because of what the Bavarian public did, so that everyone had no confidence in their hearts and did not dare to go against public opinion.
George Hamilton Gordon thought for a moment and said, “It looks like we’ll have to join forces with the Russians, and we can no longer get Austria to let go with just us and the French.
The unified German Empire is too powerful, and I’m sure the Russians don’t want to see this monster appear, and the Foreign Ministry is in communication with the Russians. As a sign of good faith, we can suspend our offensive in the Crimean Peninsula.”
“Prime Minister, by suspending the attack at this time, the advantage we have arrived at will be given up for nothing. As long as the Russians refuse to give up Constantinople, this war cannot end.
Unless we want to fight a defense of India against the Russians in the Indus Valley, we can’t afford to back down either.” War Secretary Stanley reminded
Retreat is impossible, and whoever dares to give in on this issue is waiting to be nailed to the pillar of a traitor and reviled by the public for the rest of their lives!
George Hamilton Gordon sneered, “This little loss is still within our reach. Even if we can’t compromise with the Russians on the Near East, we are still on the same page when it comes to stopping German unification.
As long as our three countries remain united, the Austrians will be forced to give in. Once the Russians put pressure on Austria, will their alliance continue?
Once Russia and Austria break up, the war will be easier to fight. For now, let’s first lull the Russians into interrupting the path of German unification.”
When it came to diplomacy, John Bull was no wimp. Even if they were to join forces with the Russians to intervene in the war of German unification, they didn’t forget to dig a big hole for the Russians first.
(End of chapter)