Chapter 390: Influence

  Chapter 380 Influence

Without any exceptions, the representatives of the four British, French, Austrian and Western countries appeared at the negotiation table. Not being able to get what they wanted in the secret negotiations, the southern government did not hesitate to invite the powers to intervene.

Balance the strength of the north and south, this is the common will of the four countries, the northern government’s comprehensive national strength to be stronger than the south, naturally everyone is the object of suppression.

Even the Indian representative appeared on the negotiation table, do not talk about what racial conflicts, white supremacy, in front of the interests of these are to be backward.

Of course, the weakest Indians were only present to listen and wait for the results, they still had no say at the negotiating table.

As a tribal alliance, the Indians are too weak, just the equivalent of a Confederate state, completely incapable of comparing with the North and South.

From the beginning of the conference, the North and South argued over legal issues. Private, secret contacts were hidden from both sides.

Without parliamentary approval, private contact with the enemy, these things are not allowed to see the light, once exposed is a political crisis.

Being opened at the same time, the Russian-American joint fleet in the United States Channel Islands to eliminate the results of the war of the pirates have also been rumored. How many pirates were taken out is not known for the moment, anyway, the Russian-American combined fleet was almost completely wiped out.

“Navy can not win the pirates” is not news, occasionally single time, the Navy can not do pirates is also understandable. In the age of sail warships pirates and naval strength gap, is not insurmountable.

But this time a Russian fleet and the U.S. West Coast fleet together with the size of the warships are twenty-three, ran to round up the pirates finally ran out of two small boats, can be said to be a total loss, this is a big news.

If it is the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, the Kingdom of Hawaii, such a small country Navy was destroyed by pirates, we can understand.

Even if it is the U.S. West Coast Fleet was pressed by the pirates, everyone can accept it. After all, they are the outbreak, the naval strength is not a normal situation.

On the contrary, the protagonist is the Russian Navy, and coincidentally rushed at the moment of the Russo-Prussian War, the problem is magnified.

When something like this happened, of course the federal government couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

In any case, the Russians were also helping them to fight the pirates on the way to the end, President Lincoln first ordered a fleet from the East Coast to the Channel Islands to fight the pirates.

Anyway, now are to the negotiating table, the powers have intervened, who want to continue to wage war, is the enemy of Britain, France and Austria West. Since the war could not be fought, splitting up the west coast would not be a big problem.

At the same time as the military deployment, the federal government also notified the czarist government by telegram at the first opportunity. Of course, the European countries were also notified incidentally. The telegraph lines had to be relayed from the European countries, and the news was naturally leaked.

At present, there is only one telegraph line between Europe and the United States, there is no direct telegraph line from the United States to Russia, it must be relayed in the European countries, want to avoid it is impossible.

In the period of the outbreak of the American Civil War, the federal government blocked the news, the countries can only rely on the ship for transmission.

The news of the loss of the naval battle, the Americans, even if they wanted to keep it secret, could not hide it for a few days.

Besides, the situation was different now, the importance of the Russians to the federal government had declined, and President Lincoln naturally did not care about the trouble that the leakage of news would bring to the Russians.

Turning the other cheek is the usual technique of American politicians. If you want to gain the friendship of the Americans, just talk in terms of benefits, everything else is bullshit.

Historically, the czarist government supported the federal government to complete the unification of the country, and when the Americans slowed down from the civil war, they immediately turned into anti-Russian vanguards.

The backers behind the Russo-Japanese War were not just the British, but the Americans also contributed.

There is no way, the term of office of the President of the United States is only 4 years, and can not be re-elected for more than 2 terms. If you make the relationship better, the next government will come to power and all the investment will be wasted.

Almost all republics do very poorly in terms of policy continuity. A lot of the time it’s negativity for the sake of negativity.

It is politically correct as an opposition to fuck over a political opponent in an election and have to overturn the policies of the previous one.

Then, even if you know that your predecessor was right, you have to do it, otherwise how can you explain to the voters? Or to the supporters behind the scenes.

……

Vienna Palace, after receiving the news that the Russian Navy was almost completely destroyed, Franz just laughed it off.

Knowing that the relationship with the British is so bad, but also to run to the Americas to give people trouble, this is not their own death?

“Pirates” ambush?

Who doesn’t know that the ancestors of the British Navy were pirates? Only they are legal pirates. Don’t look at the last decade, the British Navy washed ashore, but occasionally a guest of the old profession is still inevitable.

Until the early 20th century, there were rumors that the British Navy was a pirate, although the British did not admit it.

After a second of silence for the Russians, Franz began to gloat.

He had heard a lot of jokes about the Russian Navy, but experiencing it firsthand was different.

It was all a minor issue; the Tsarist government had never relied on the army anyway, when had the navy ever been strong?

The Russian Navy was not small, with a total tonnage just behind the British, French, Austro-Spanish and dual American. It started in the 17th century and has been around for two hundred years.

However, this does not mean that the Russian Navy is strong. On the contrary, the Russian Navy is now far behind the European countries.

All the major naval powers were building ironclads, and only the Russian Navy was holding on to its sail battleships. There was no other reason, simply because there was no money.

First the Near Eastern War, then the reforms of Alexander II, and now the Russo-Prussian War, where did the Tsarist government have the financial resources to develop a navy?

In this respect, Nicholas I was prescient when he appointed Mareshkov to head the navy.

The ability to fight at sea was not practiced, but the ability to fight on land was improved, right? At last, there is a skill, did not let the military expenditure in vain.

Franz are considering whether to give Alexander II attention, sent the navy to steal the Prussian coast.

If you can’t take the battle in a naval battle, you can make it up in a land battle. Elite Russian Navy, beat the Prussian Kingdom of temporary recruitment of civilian soldiers, completely without any pressure.

After a moment’s hesitation, Franz decisively abandoned this tantalizing idea. This was not the time to bring it up, and it would be very hard on Alexander II’s face to do so at this time.

It’s not like there’s any hurry, a little later is fine. Don’t look at the Tsarist Navy’s combat power is not good, but there is no pressure to bully the Prussian Navy in a naval battle.

Even if the Kingdom of Prussia built ironclad ships, but their technical ability is limited, built a pseudo ironclad, do not have to worry about the gun power is not enough to sink.

Not necessarily in a land battle, they are both the pinnacle of naval land combat capability in this era. Until they fought, no one knew who was superior between the two of them.

In St. Petersburg, Alexander II blew a gasket when he received the near total destruction of the main Far Eastern Fleet during their visit to the United States.

Disgraced to the Americas, although he suspected that there is a British hand behind this, but there is no evidence ah?

In this regard, the British Navy is a professional, out of uniform, the warship modified is a pirate. Even the Americans, as the local snake, did not find any problems.

It is now the era of ironclad ships, and the elimination of sail battleships is inevitable. The pirate ships that now robbed the Russian Navy are still entrenched in the U.S. Channel Islands.

The people are gone the ships are still there.

Obviously, the British sold these soon-to-be-obsolete warships to pirates and made a clean break with this sneak attack on the Russian fleet.

“My Minister of the Navy, can you tell me what’s going on here? When did the Russian Empire’s navy even fail to defeat the pirates?”

Laurence Lovsky, the current Minister of the Navy, replied apprehensively, “Your Majesty, these pirates have quite a few warships in their hands and cannot be treated as ordinary pirates.

Based on the information provided by the Americans, we can initially judge that this is a British job, and the artillery on board are all British-made. It is even possible that the British navy ambushed us by posing as pirates.

But don’t worry, the Admiralty is already prepared to send a fleet to the Pacific Ocean to touch these pirates off and wash away the shame on us.”

Alexander II angrily cursed, “Idiot, knowing that it was the British who did this, you still want to send warships there, are you tired of not having enough losses!”

Revenge, of course Alexander II wanted it, but strength did not allow it. If the enemy was the British, no matter how many warships they sent, it would be one result.

He did not dare to overestimate the British knuckleheads, the Royal Navy posing as pirates, there are not many countries to pocket.

Foreign Minister Clarence proposed: “The majesty of the empire can not be desecrated, these pirates must be eliminated.

But from the mainland to send fleet even if, now the Russo-Prussian war is important. The elimination of pirates can be resolved by diplomatic means.

Whether it is to let the Americans send troops to exterminate, or turn to the Austrians can be. The British, for the sake of their own reputation, will not stand up for these pirates.”

This was inevitable, John Bull, even if he was shameless, would not collude with the pirates in the open. From the beginning, these pirates were outcasts.

The British just want to fight the Russians, not really have to turn the tables with the Russians, now the Russian Empire is not to be messed with, forced to fight a war in defense of India again.

Now left a bunch of pirates, is to give the Russians out of anger. Lest the tsarist government did not step down, run to find their trouble.

Czarist government has no money? That’s true, but it doesn’t mean that the Russian nobles don’t have money too. Forced Alexander II to take India as a promise, to domestic aristocrats to raise money, to get together the funds for a war or not a big problem.

Now the Russians were so proud that they thought they were the best army in the world that they could push their way across the border without any problem.

Or from overseas to raise money, as long as the interest to give enough, there is no fear of not borrowing money.

The Austrian financial sector does not dare to lend money to the tsarist government, mainly because of the fear of their ability to repay. If Alexander II is willing to come up with collateral that moves Franz, these problems do not exist.

The Russian Empire, with its large family, had plenty of capital in its hands. As long as Alexander II was willing to sell his country, it would not be difficult to obtain a loan from the French, not to mention Austria.

What would not have happened under normal circumstances was not necessarily the case in the Russian Empire.

Peter III’s divine operation that year is still clearly recorded in the history books, who can guarantee that Alexander II would not dare to take a gamble?

Just as when Nicholas I general, betting on winning is the greatest tsar of Russia, betting on losing the big deal early to see God.

After hesitating for a while, Alexander II made a decision: “or let the Americans to do it, this time the thing is originally because of them, the aftermath of the work naturally want them to do.”

This is the wisest choice, the strategic value of the Russian-American relationship is not high, there is no need to invest too much capital.

Using this incident as an excuse to bring the relationship to a close would be good for everyone.

The federal government is not yet the American imperial federation of later times, and there is no way to give them help on the European issue, not even a loan aid.

Likewise, they could not give the Americans the help they wanted. This naval misery was the British warning them to stay out of American affairs.

Alexander II, who had been ready to fight for a seat in the North-South negotiations, was completely woken up.

The Russian Empire was indeed powerful, and that was only on land. In Europe, Central Asia, and the Far East they had a great deal of say, while in the ocean-blocked Americas, no one bought their argument.

Which of the four countries participating in this mediation, Britain, France, Austria and Spain, is not a naval power? Which in the Americas, do not have a fleet? Can not mobilize tens of thousands of troops?

Strength is the right to speak, do not see and their friendship with the federal government, now did not invite them to participate?

(End of chapter)