Chapter 366: Forcing the Palace
Chapter 356: Forced Palace
In the Berlin Royal Palace, the Junker nobles showed their cards to the government. They still have brains, know that before attacking Denmark to notify the government to cooperate, did not play the first fight.
Frank Prime Minister angry face green, he is also Junker nobility origin, the sword to the strings have to send before notifying him, this is clearly does not treat him as one of their own people.
This is very serious, this period of time Prussian kingdom power has fallen into the hands of the Junker aristocracy, the bourgeoisie control of political parties, parliament, have been reduced to a supporting role.
If the shareholding system is used to divide, the Junker aristocracy has already held 65% of the shares of the Prussian company, belonging to the absolute majority shareholder.
The fact that this happened meant that Frank’s position within the Junker nobility had been shaken. This was a political signal that the Junker nobility’s support for him had decreased.
Wilhelm I’s face was also very ugly, and he, the king, was also kept in the dark. Killingly looking at the military representative, if he didn’t give a reasonable explanation he was going to be impolite.
Taking the Junker nobility as a class is no solution, it doesn’t mean that he can’t move a few military executives. Moreover, the current Junker nobility or iron plate?
The birth of the marine faction and the continental faction, which also has William I’s credit. As a monarch, no one likes his men to be a monolith, and dividing them is just an instinct.
Being stared numb, Ron, who is also the Minister of Army and Navy, hurriedly explained: “Your Majesty, look at this map of Europe, here is the location of our Kingdom of Prussia.
Our homeland is split in two by the German Federal Empire, the Rhineland region in the west is under the military threat of the French, the Prussian Poland in the east is under the military threat of the Russians, and the Silesia region in the south is under the military threat of Austria.
There is no other country in the world that is strategically as bad as we are, threatened by all three powers at the same time.
In this situation, we are running out of options to break the situation. Trying to annex the German Federal Reich will inevitably be opposed by all European countries.
The French covet the Rhineland and don’t want us to be connected in our homeland; the Austrians want to unify the German region and are unlikely to let us reach out to the German Confederation; and the British don’t want to give up this nail in the coffin on the European continent, and likewise won’t support us in annexing the German Confederation.
Not to mention the Russians, whose ambitions for the Prussian-Polish region are well known, and who will pounce as soon as we show a crack.
If we want to strengthen ourselves, our only option now is to recover the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein from the Danes, and if we are lucky we can take a bite out of the Danes.
The recovery of the two duchies is of great significance to the German nation. Austria will not stand against us, and will even support us diplomatically.
The Kingdom of Denmark is politically pro-Russian, so Britain and France will not mind if we fight against the Russians, and they will even give us a push to stand against the Russians.
Now is the time when the Russians are at their weakest, Alexander II’s reforms are not yet over, and with the Polish uprising, the conservatives are bound to rebound.
The Russian Empire, which is suffering internally and externally, even if they wanted to intervene in this war, with the financial situation of the Tsarist government, they are very limited in the power they can muster.
Once the Russians go to war, we are not alone, Britain and France will surely support us, and even Austria would like to see the Russians fail.
The chances of us making a move now are very high, we only need a month to occupy the Kingdom of Denmark, catch the Russians off guard, and then resolve the later issues through negotiations.”
It was a gamble on whether the Russians would send troops to intervene in this war. Winning the gamble would naturally mean taking back the two duchies and biting off a piece of meat from the Kingdom of Denmark in the process.
If the gamble was lost, they would defect to Britain and France, act as their agents, and do battle with the Russians with the support of the two countries.
Undoubtedly, and the Russians comprehensive PK Prussian military also has no bottom, but the country and the Russians to fight a local war is different.
The Russian Empire was powerful, but unfortunately the Tsarist government was poor. The reforming Tsarist government was a little poorer than it had ever been.
The Prussian government was broke, but Britain and France were rich. Since they were acting as thugs, naturally the bosses paid for them.
This explanation only slightly reduced William I’s anger, wanting him to uncover this matter, obviously not enough.
William I sneered and said, “Really, my Minister of War, my Minister of Navy, my Chief of General Staff. Since when have you been in charge of all the internal and external affairs of the Kingdom of Prussia?”
The Minister of Army and Navy, Ron, and the Chief of General Staff, Mauch, both put their heads down and pretended to be humpbacks.
It wasn’t that they wanted to be first in line, the problem was that after reporting in advance, this plan wouldn’t pass at all.
On the face of it, the risks of this gamble were manageable. The most serious consequence would be a localized war with the Russians, and with British and French support Prussia’s chances of winning were not low.
In reality, this was only theoretical. In case of a problem in one of the links, the Kingdom of Prussia could immediately face extinction.
For example: the Tsarist government was so enraged that it would fight them to the death at all costs. Not to mention the support of Britain and France, even if Britain and France themselves were to come to the rescue, they would be equally doomed.
In case the Russians and Austria reached a compromise to divide Prussia, Prussia’s enemies would immediately become two.
Don’t think that this possibility doesn’t exist, the total area of the Kingdom of Prussia in this era is more than 300,000 square kilometers, and Prussian Poland accounts for a small half.
Austria does not dare to give up the territory of Prussian German region, but Prussian Poland is not among them, the Vienna government throws out is no pressure at all.
Under normal circumstances, the Tsarist government would not have done so. That’s because Austria annexed these territories will quickly grow bigger, without the Prussian Kingdom checks and balances, the German Federal Empire simply can not support for long.
Another example: the British and French bureaucracies were a step slow to react, and by the time aid came, Prussia might have been half dead.
Or: the attack on Denmark went awry, and the war wasn’t won in the first place. As a result the Russians hit the door again and were forced to fight on two fronts.
……
Any one of these many unforeseen factors would have been enough to doom the Kingdom of Prussia. When Prussia was finished, the aristocrats and capitalists at home did not necessarily follow, only William I was doomed.
As a competent king, why take risks? Wouldn’t it have been better to go on with the current situation as it was?
To put it bluntly, it was the Junker nobles who dragged the Kingdom of Prussia to the betting table for their own interests, and did so under insufficient preparation.
Prime Minister Frank persuaded: “Your Majesty, the matter has come to this point, the matter of responsibility should be put off later! The most important thing now is to immediately communicate with all countries and seek diplomatic support.
The recovery of the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein is an important matter for the entire German nation, and we can’t let the pressure be borne by our family.”
Like it or not, this ass has to be wiped by the Prussian government. If the military is left to fold, who knows what it will end up doing?
Prime Minister Frank didn’t dare take the risk, the Kingdom of Prussia couldn’t afford the consequences of failure. If at the beginning of his operation, not to take care of the three countries of Britain, France and Austria before, absolutely will not take this risk.
William I sighed and said, ”I don’t care what methods you use, immediately order the troops to stop all operations.
We need a reasonable excuse, maintaining German sovereignty has already been used once.
The German region was split right in the middle of the Paris Peace Conference, the Kingdom of Prussia is no longer qualified to represent all the states in the German region, this reason cannot be our excuse for war.”
Morale-boosting-wise, the defense of German sovereignty was most likely to inspire patriotic fervor in the soldiers, but politically this was the undoing.
In the First Prussian-Danish War, the Kingdom of Prussia was pressured by the Russians to give up the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein again, and became infamous in the German region.
Using this argument again, neither Austria, nor the German Confederation, would buy them.
Because of the international resolution of the Paris Conference to split the German region, using this reason as a pretext for war, Britain and France would not recognize it.
Ron replied with some hesitation, ”Your Majesty, time is running out.
Although the plan was to launch the attack on the morning of October 27th, the units have now cut off telegraphic contact. With such a short period of time, we can’t inform the troops at all.
Look, why don’t we just find a random excuse to make do, such as: saving our fellow Germans who are being oppressed by the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Obviously, the military was prepared for this. Whether the Berlin government cooperated or not, the attack would still be launched on time. The time left for the government was the time used to give the order of battle.
A reprieve, don’t dream of it. We’ve all been working so hard for so long, how can we say we won’t fight?
The Chief of the General Staff, Mao Qi, who was on the sidelines, wanted to say something, but did not express his opinion until the beginning.
This plan is the earliest from the general staff, supporting the battle plan or he himself personally presided over the development of this article alone he did not dare to venture to open his mouth, lest he anger the king.
William I glared at Ron, sneered and said: “Are you ready, then why tell me? If you guys are so capable, do it yourselves!”
After saying that, he went out the door without looking back. The king gambled and left, things still had to go on. At least the letter of war must be given, undeclared war things Prussia can not do.
Prime Minister Frank said with a face full of anger, “Since your military has decided, then you can send any person to hand the war letter to the Danes!
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has their hands full, and there’s the aftermath for you, so don’t bother them.”
If it had been normal times, the Foreign Secretary would have exploded at anyone who dared to take the Foreign Office’s job. Now, naturally, it was an exception; the Prime Minister was going to throw all the blame on the military, and naturally he wouldn’t object.
If he won the war, everything would be fine, but if there was an accident and he lost the war, the military would have to bear all the blame.
Mou Qi and Ron looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Obviously this time the practice of the evil king and the government, in the future they do not want to have a good life.
But where this war did not obtain the benefits to everyone’s satisfaction, the two of them will definitely have to get out of the way, or perhaps even go to the court martial.
Mobilizing the army without the king’s approval was already a taboo. Now that the government has stuffed another charge over, the military is running to deliver the war.
Winning that would be the government’s decision, losing the war, it is estimated that by then this letter of war will also become a military forgery.
The debt is not too much, anyway, win the war all the problems are canceled, lose the war one more charge and one less charge is no different.
In short, all of this is the military first broke the rules, naturally have to bear the corresponding responsibility.
Mao Qi replied: “No problem. But other aspects of the government must do a good job of cooperating, if the war is lost because of the passivity of certain departments, then we’ll all go to hell together!”
This was Prussia, a world where the army owned the country. As the Chief of General Staff Mauch just needed to be responsible to the King, he didn’t dare to act out in front of Wilhelm I. It didn’t matter to the government officials.
Relations were already frosty anyway, and it was more efficient to use direct threats than kind words.
Prime Minister Frank sneered back, “It is better to do your own work, do not make a bunch of chaos again at the time, we do not have the time to give you a good aftermath every day.
Now we are going to hold a government meeting, you are not on the side to participate, two please!”
Negative slacking didn’t exist, once the war was lost, none of the top government officials would escape. Even if they didn’t have any responsibility, they would be implicated and step down.
(End of chapter)