Chapter 311: Turmoil
Chapter 301: A Storm
According to the usual practice of the European continent, the next step was again the negotiation session. Especially since the Vienna system was re-established again, the French had to abide by this rule as well.
Since the French diplomatic note was conveyed, Cavour hurried to Paris, sending gifts around for public relations.
Still no use, the French bureaucrats are not stupid, know what money can be received, what money can not be received. Involved in the assassination of the emperor, or less involved in the good.
Foreign Minister Clio said with a sad face: “Prime Minister, the gifts are returned, these people even do not allow us to enter the door.”
This is still more subtle, and even more people put away the candy coating and return the shells.
In other words, they took the gifts, stuffed something into the gift boxes, and then threw them out with great fanfare.
Don’t expect them to do anything. At most, these things will make them feel less angry, and they will have less ammunition to stuff in their clamor for war.
There was no way around it, in order to show the emperor that everyone was loyal, slogans had to be shouted. Even the anti-war faction is now clamoring to show the Sardinian Kingdom some color.
The results of the investigation showed that someone had helped the assassin and leaked the emperor’s whereabouts, and that person hadn’t been caught yet.
In order to avoid suspicion, no one dared to make this political mistake.
Cavour said helplessly: ”There are no results on my side either, Napoleon III is not seeing his guests under the pretext of recuperating from his wounds, this matter is afraid to be difficult.
However, we have no choice. Since the French don’t dare to accept it, give gifts to the representatives of various countries, and don’t save money at this time.
Feed them, and even if it’s just to say a word for us at the conference, it’s worth it.”
This was the most trashy tactic and the most effective. Right now, the Sardinian Kingdom was incapable of exchanging interests with various countries, and it was even more impossible to influence their diplomacy.
In this context, the only thing left was to buy the representatives of various countries. Now the European governments are very angry about this assassination, and at the same time, they don’t want to see France continue to expand.
Including Cavour himself is very angry about the assassination, for this group of so-called patriots he is not good at all.
If possible, he didn’t mind just getting those guys killed and getting it over with. As for the French demand to punish the murderers, Cavour was not prepared to argue at all, as long as it was not expanded.
The only thing he couldn’t stand was the French government’s request to cede land. Originally, the unification of the Italian region was far away, and now if the land is ceded again, then there is really no hope.
Clio whispered, ”Prime Minister, the French are also conducting public relations, I’m afraid it’s hard for us to compete with them.
Austria’s representative this time, Maltich, is a Lombard, and he is the representative of the anti-Saracenic faction in the Vienna government. I’m afraid that the Vienna government sending him as a representative has something to do with the Franco-Austrian secret pact.
I am afraid that the Austrians cannot be counted on in this negotiation. Even we have to worry that France and Austria reach an agreement to divide us.”
Lombardy is in the Italian region, but Lombards are not the same as Italians. Rather it is an independent people, considered one of the Germanic peoples, originating in southern Sweden.
It was during the independence movement of 1848 that the Lombards became divided, with some supporting the Vienna government and some siding with the revolutionaries.
There is no doubt that Maltich was able to hold a high position and must have supported the Habsburgs. As a member of the vested interests, he was naturally against the unification of the Italian regions.
In the last Austro-Saxon War, the invasion of the Sardinian army made his hometown suffer, and after the pain of the invasion, the hatred of the Sardinian kingdom became inevitable.
In the face of such a rival, Cavour also headache. Want to fool, do not know where to start.
Talking about the unity of the Italian region? People simply do not consider themselves a member of the Italian nation, even if the cultural traditions of the Lombards have been influenced by Italian culture.
It doesn’t help that the entire Kingdom of Lombardy is now de-Italianizing and returning to the German cultural family.
After pondering for a while, Cavour said cautiously, “This information is very important, we must inform the British immediately. Tonight, I will personally go to the British Embassy to discuss countermeasures.”
One Frenchman was killing him, another Austrian, then there was really nothing that could be done. There was nothing Cavour could do right now except for looking for the British boss.
It’s not that he’s personally incapable, it’s really that the enemy is too strong and the Kingdom of Sardinia is too weak to even qualify for an equal dialog.
Now the British are going to die to protect the Sardinian Kingdom, it is no longer just a strategic need, but more still kidnapped by the debt.
After the Austro-Sardinian War, the economy of Sardinia collapsed and relied on British capital to survive. The Sardinian government naturally borrowed and borrowed, and now the Kingdom of Sardinia can almost be said to be a British semi-colony.
Customs duties, salt duties, tobacco and alcohol taxes, railroads and ports are all mortgaged to the British, once the Kingdom of Sardinia is finished, the tens of millions of pounds lent by the British will all go down the drain.
Unless the London government was confident that it could make France and Austria pay back the money, the British Consortium would not tolerate the end of the Sardinian Kingdom.
There is no doubt that neither Napoleon III, nor Franz, could be the wrongdoer.
This was an invasion, not an inheritance. It is never the heir who inherits a debt, no one has ever heard of an aggressor taking on a debt.
When tens of millions of pounds are involved, the face of the British is not good enough. Exactly, as long as there are interests involved, the British face is not good enough.
……
On the other side Maltich and the French Foreign Minister Auvergne were talking to each other. Under the premise that the Vienna government supports the French government’s annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, it would be difficult for the two men not to come to an agreement.
In return, the French government promised to open a number of overseas colonial ports to supply the Austrian navy.
Previously, the Vienna government had already reached an agreement with the West, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and with this agreement with the French, the Austrian navy had the ability to enter any of the world’s oceans.
Strategically, this meant that the Austrian Navy’s strategy of globalization, took another step forward.
Of course, the French would gain even more. Now as long as Napoleon III could hold off the pressure from the European countries, he could eat the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Then it was a matter of slowly suppressing the rebellion. Anyway, the French had a lot of experience in revolts, so if they exchanged ideas with the Italians, they might be able to spark something new again.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t resist the pressure, at least the path of the Anglo-French alliance is broken. The arrogant French couldn’t stay as a little brother to the British.
Especially after the damage to their core interests, even if Napoleon III no matter how pro-British, the two countries in politics and diplomacy will still be antagonistic.
In the British Embassy in France, the atmosphere is now very strange.
In order to stand up for the Sardinian Kingdom, the British Foreign Secretary Thomas personally came to participate in this Paris conference, and also came in advance.
Thomas seriously asked, “Prime Minister Cavour, are you sure what you just said is true?”
No wonder he was not cautious, if France and Austria reached an agreement to divide the Kingdom of Sardinia, they would be passive. There was nothing the London government could do except roar a few times.
The only way was to take action in advance and sabotage this Franco-Austrian alliance, or to unite the European countries together to apply pressure and force the two countries to make concessions.
Either outcome was not what the London government wished to see. As for the Kingdom of Sardinia, their end is very obvious, it is only a question of how much to compensate.
When diplomacy fails, they lose their entire family fortune; when diplomacy succeeds, they end up hemorrhaging money. It was impossible to assassinate the Emperor without paying a price, and the face of the French still had to be given.
Cavour cried out, “Mr. Thomas, how can I possibly joke on top of this kind of thing?”
This was the worst case scenario, and he didn’t want to see it, so how could he make it up out of thin air? The news that Vienna had captured the assassins of the Charcoal Burners was still unknown to either of them, or the two men would not have been puzzled by the Vienna government’s approach.
Without that excuse, Franz could not have done it so smoothly, even if he had wanted to countenance the French.
The voices in the Vienna government against condoning France could not be small, that even Franz could not ignore everyone’s cries.
After the arrest of the assassin, the situation was different. For the sake of political correctness, everyone stood against the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Thomas wandered for a few steps, then said, “There must have been a change in the Austrian government, not long ago our ambassador in Vienna sent word that the voices in the Austrian government in favor of restricting the expansion of France were still dominant.
With that old fox Metternich around, there’s no way he doesn’t realize the threat of letting France expand.
In the last Austro-Saxon War, Austria had the opportunity to annex the Kingdom of Sardinia, and they all gave up. Enough to prove that the Austrian government has no ambition for you.
Now that the Austrian government hasn’t changed at all, and none of the cabinet members have changed, it’s impossible for the political stance to shift so quickly.”
Thomas analyzed very thoroughly that political stances could not be changed at will, and this was accompanied by a philosophy of governance. With such a stable structural system of the Austrian government, it was even more unlikely that a change in policy would occur.
(End of chapter)