Chapter 409: The Great Conspiracy

  Chapter 399 The Great Conspiracy

No one cared about the internal strife in the Kingdom of Prussia, most of the countries in Europe were celebrating the news, and the poor popularity of the hairy bear was evident.

Austria is no exception, if not for the consideration of the impact, Franz is ready to organize a banquet to celebrate this great victory.

The Prussian-Russian War has been carried out to the present time, the total number of troops lost by the Tsarist government has exceeded half a million, the exact number of people killed in battle, captured, or discharged due to injuries, it is not clear.

These questions, the tsarist government has not been clarified, Franz naturally will not be bored to help the Russians to count.

As the victor of the Prussian-Polish allied forces are also not good, the Kingdom of Prussia is just, although they have suffered heavy losses, but still the strength is still there, there is a winter buffer, the next year should be replenished back.

Of course, this replenishment is only talking about military strength, the war potential is still inevitably declined, even if the two duchies obtained manpower supplementation is the same.

The Poles are different, even with the support of the European countries, still can not change the nature of the rabble.

In order to bring in more people, the Provisional Government declared that serfdom would be abolished and land would be given out to the people free of charge.

However, it was one thing to say and another to do. The Provisional Government was disorganized, and the revolutionaries had no experience in governing, so their actions were often farcical.

First, they forced the nobles into confrontation, and then the internal struggles triggered the discontent of the middle class.

Without seeing the actual benefits, the slogans were shouted and wore out over time. With the passage of time, it made the common people gradually lose their enthusiasm for revolution.

Had it not been for the victory in the Battle of East Prussia, it was questionable whether the Polish Provisional Government could have survived the winter.

The goodness of a policy lies not in the policy itself, but in its concrete implementation. Obviously, the Polish Provisional Government did not know this and took it for granted that if the government issued a decree, it would be implemented.

As a result, the distribution of free land was correct, but how it was done was left to the bureaucrats. Not bureaucrats, but speculators would be a better description.

The Provisional Government, filled with idealism, blindly introduced a series of self-proclaimed good policies without regard to reality, and the end, naturally, is self-evident, the country was in a mess.

This was a good thing for Austria; a chaotic Poland would have discouraged Poles at home and been more conducive to advancing national integration.

Strategically, Austria succeeded in using the Prussian-Polish alliance to weaken the Russians, and did not allow Prussia and Poland to take advantage of the opportunity to rise, realizing the first step of the strategic plan.

Whether or not to continue to weaken the Russian Empire became Franz’s immediate headache.

On the one hand, he wanted to weaken this potential rival, but on the other hand, he wanted the Russians to save some strength, so that they could hold the British in Central Asia.

While the Russo-Prussian War was going on, the Tsarist government did not forget to take action against the three Central Asian khanates. The Russians’ military campaign in Central Asia was a snail’s tail because of their financial inability to support a two-front war.

There were also internal disputes within the Vienna government. It was not that the Russian Empire did not have strength, but their biggest problem was that they could not bring their own strength into play.

Theoretically, the Tsarist government could easily take care of the Kingdom of Prussia as long as it could realize half of its war potential.

Austria’s support for them in the Russo-Prussian War was far from comparable to the Near East War, which was one of the factors that prevented the Russians from utilizing their strength.

It was dictated by interests, Austria had tons of interests to take in the Near East War, even if the money lent out might not be recovered, it made up for the loss in other ways.

Not so with the Russo-Prussian War, where Austria hardly gained substantial benefits. Carving up the Kingdom of Prussia could only be talked about, and if it was done it would be more than worth it.

Franz wants to get the population resources of North Germany, which must be the local people to return to the heart, really and the Russians to partition the Kingdom of Prussia, never want to get the local people’s approval.

Nationalism is a double-edged sword, Franz used nationalism to establish the New Holy Roman Empire, and gained the rich human resources of the German region, naturally, also have to bear the trouble brought.

Finance Minister Karl proposed, “Your Majesty, the Prussian-Russian War has been fought to this point, our goal has been achieved, we can consider mediating this war.

The Tsarist government’s finances have collapsed, and with the war going on so far, they owe us a total of 30 million shillings for goods, as well as up to 65 million shillings in loans, and 18 million shillings in civil bonds.

If the war continues, I don’t think the Russians will be able to repay. Together with the previous debts, perhaps someday the Russians may not even be able to pay back the interest.

Even if the Russians win the war and we all divide the Kingdom of Prussia together, the gains for us will be very limited.”

This was true, the total debt Russia owed to Austria was currently already as high as 237 million guilders, and the monthly principal and interest payments to be made totaled 2,154,000 guilders.

It may not seem much, and it is perfectly affordable with the revenues of the Tsarist government. But the Russians don’t only have these debts, they don’t owe a lot of money to other countries in Europe.

At present, the Russian debt repayment expenditure, has accounted for one-third of the financial income, the Russo-Prussian War continued, the tsarist government financial bankruptcy is the inevitable result.

The Ministry of Finance had already prepared for the idea that the Russians would renege on their debts, and Franz was equally prepared for it.

Although the money is also Austria’s war wealth, but since into their own pockets, can not be taken to the water, always have to spend valuable.

Undoubtedly, this value will never be divided Prussia, can only make up from other aspects.

In Franz’s opinion it had paid for itself so far. At the same time weakened Prussia and Russia, so that they made a blood feud, Austria’s defense in Eastern and Central Europe pressure is greatly reduced.

But in the spirit of maximizing profits, surely we must find a way to gain more. How to do this will test Wifranz’s diplomacy.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg objected: “It is too early for a truce, and besides, both sides may not accept our goodwill.

With the financial support of Britain and France, the Kingdom of Prussia still has the power to fight, and the Junker aristocrat-dominated Berlin government will definitely not stop the war, they still want to tear a piece of meat from the Russians to lay the foundation of their great nation.

The Russians were even more powerful, and the Tsarist government would not admit defeat so easily. They had built up their European hegemony from the war against France with great difficulty, and no one would be willing to throw it away just like that.

Both sides have the foundation to fight on, and our mediation now is a double whammy.

With a winter’s time buffer, I’m sure the Tsarist government will find a way to raise enough money.

If they can’t raise enough money, then it’s up to the Czarist government to give what terms they want, and we can absolutely wait and sell.

The biggest benefit that the victory of the Battle of East Prussia brought to the Prussians was still political, which made it possible to draw Sweden into the war.

The Russian-Swedish feud had a long history, and they had fought eight major wars in the past three hundred years, until the decline of Sweden in recent decades, when it stopped.

On top of that, the Ottoman Empire could potentially send troops to reclaim the Caucasus. They had just completed a social reform, which was not complete, but nevertheless restored some of their power.

The three Central Asian khanates, which had just been bullied by the Russians, as well as Persia, which had not long turned its back on the Russians, and the Qing Empire in the Far East, all of these had the potential to become enemies of the Russians.

According to the information we have, the British diplomats have been very active lately, and the initial judgment is that they are conspiring.

It is conceivable that the coming year will not be easy for the Czar’s government; if it wins the Russo-Prussian War it will be just as well, and these countries will subside; if it continues to be a failure, then they will be in danger.”

Looking at the map of Eurasia, Franz had to admit that the Russians were really good at pulling hate. If John Bull’s plan was allowed to succeed, then the Russian Empire, which was surrounded by enemies on all sides, would not really be able to hold out.

The “Russo-Austrian alliance” was based on the two countries’ comparable strengths, and if the Russian Empire were to fall, Austria would probably be the first to fall on its sword.

Franz asked with concern: “the British plan, the tsarist government has not realized?”

Inwardly, he had taken Russia as a negative example as a textbook, reminding himself again and again that he could not make waves, could not make waves.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied, “It is uncertain; the Russians have taken no action, and we cannot tell whether they have gained insight into the British plot.”

The Austrian Foreign Ministry was able to discover the British plan for no other reason than that they regarded the British as their greatest adversary.

Since they were rivals surely they had to pay attention to the British’s every move, and then the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s agencies all over the world were tacitly keeping an eye on the British.

Prime Minister Felix suggested, “If the British have such a big plan, it would be necessary for us to alert the Russians.

The Russian Empire cannot fall, and if it does, then they must be dismembered. At the moment dismembering the Russian Empire is something we can’t do, so it’s better not to let them fall.”

Dismembering the Russian Empire was no problem, the key was that there was no way to fragment them. Simply tearing off a few pieces of meat from the edges was no longer what Austria was after.

Especially at this critical moment in the African strategy, now that the Russian Empire is in trouble, Austria will be stuck in this quagmire and won’t be able to get out of it anytime soon.

Franz thought about it and said, “Then find an opportunity to inform the Russians. But not now, wait until the British plans are pretty much underway.

With so many countries involved, wanting them to turn on the Russians at the same time is definitely not a simple matter, and the British are afraid that it is wishful thinking.”

Hatred is shared by all, and so are claims of interest. These factors constitute the prerequisites for countries to take revenge on Russia, unfortunately the governments are not so giving.

Due to the inconvenience of communication, so many countries could not communicate sufficiently, everyone was spread out in the south and north of the world, the so-called joint action was just wishful thinking, and it was easy to be broken by the Russians one by one.

What’s more, the governments of many of these countries were rotten and simply did not have the courage to recover their lost territories, and to make them make up their minds, unless the British took the fight personally.

As it was, Franz was naturally in no hurry. Waiting until the British were almost ready before informing the Russians would also make the game a little more difficult for Alexander II.

Wouldn’t it make the British lose face if they let the Tsarist government solve the problem by diplomatic means?

(End of chapter)