Chapter 435: Blessings and Woe

  Chapter 425: Fortunes and Woes

You pit me, I pit you, struggle is the theme of the era of the Great Powers.

People in the world can not help it. International politics only interests, the interests of the same is a friend, the interests of the conflict is the enemy, role change is the basic operation.

In this regard, the British do the best, just or allies, a moment of effort can become an enemy, and then after a while can become friends again.

To a certain extent, the diplomacy of all European countries in this era is to learn from the British. The bottom line and modesty of everyone dropped again and again, and the relationship of close cooperation and alliance only existed before the Middle Ages.

In this context, the relationship between the European countries was a mess that could not be narrowly distinguished by enemies and friends.

In order to gain more support in the negotiations Prussia and Russia are on a diplomatic offensive, the slow to respond to the Ottoman Empire likewise launched diplomatic activities, leaving several Central Asian khanates and the Eastern Empire is still in a salty state.

Salty fish is tragic, in the European rule system of international support is still very useful, even if it is a small country’s diplomatic support, the same also exists in value.

The little brother has no diplomatic ability, it can only John Bull himself on. Perhaps this is what the London government would like to see the most, it can increase their influence in these countries and gain greater benefits.

Franz would have liked to be the one to eat it all, but the trees are still, and because of the Russian-Austrian alliance, Austria is involved.

“The Russians want to return to their pre-war state and to gain our support?”

No wonder Franz was not surprised, it was a pipe dream. Whether one admits it or not the Russians were the losers this time, and how is it possible that the losers don’t want to pay the price?

Not to cut an inch of land, not to pay a ruble.

It would be strange if such armistice conditions could be agreed upon by everyone. Unless they can convince all the European countries to endorse it, paying the price is inevitable.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. That’s what the Russian minister said, they are not willing to take responsibility for this war.”

There was no doubt that this involved a political game within the Tsarist government. No one in the higher echelons of the government wanted to take responsibility, so they played the fool.

Franz was so exasperated that he didn’t give a damn about the Russians’ mess and said on the spot, “Reply to the tsarist government that if they think they are capable of convincing all parties to agree, we have no problem with that.

If they can’t, don’t do such whimsical things, lest they end up as an international laughing stock.”

“International laughing stock” is a hard sell for the Russians, whose diplomatic jokes are almost unbroken. It comes every three or five years, as if they can’t grow without making jokes.

Naturally Franz did not want to get high with the Tsarist government, treating everyone else like a fool, only to realize in the end that the fool was himself.

Diplomacy is built on strength, and the Russian Empire in its heyday had that in spades. If the armistice a year ago, they all still have the strength not to cede land and compensation.

Unfortunately, the shooting in Moscow put an end to all this, and the internal threat was the primary problem of the Tsarist government, while the external enemy was only a secondary contradiction.

Not even the most radical Polish nationalist would have dared to think of swallowing the Russian Empire in one go. Strength-wise, not to mention the fact that, with the exception of the Kingdom of Prussia, which could fight after all, several others were fighting downwind.

The main forces of the Tsar’s army were all held back by the Prussians, and the enemies that everyone faced were second-rate Russian units, with fighting strengths that were not at all on the same level.

The tragedy now is that the Tsarist government’s main forces are depleted, and the recruits are second-rate at best, as evidenced by the fact that all the major fronts are at a disadvantage.

Prime Minister Felix analyzed, “Your Majesty, the Russians I think this is the Russians testing our position.

With the war going on now, there’s no way the Tsarist government doesn’t realize they can’t fight anymore.

The Russian Empire’s economy is on the verge of collapsing, and social conflicts have long since reached a critical point. If we don’t end the war, the Tsarist government will be finished.”

“The economy is collapsing and there are internal and external problems”, Franz made a transposition, what would he do if he was in Alexander II’s position?

Soon Franz came to the conclusion – stabilize first and then change. Never mind that, first keep the power, and then use external pressure to push for social reform.

Nicholas I won the Near East War, not only was the social crisis covered up, but also made the reform more difficult, the ruling group did not feel the pressure of life and death.

Now that the situation has deteriorated, is it not an opportunity?

After this defeat, the strength of the reformers was bound to skyrocket after the war. Alexander II could also pursue the responsibility for the failure of the war and take the opportunity to clean up some of the worms.

If he was ruthless enough, he could also use the opportunity of suppressing the rebellion to hit the domestic conservatives hard.

This is a ready-made example of the social reforms that were accomplished in Austria more than a decade ago because of the reshuffling of the cards by the Revolution.

Franz did not doubt the ability of Alexander II, the original time this person completed a social reform. Naturally, there was no shortage of bloodshed and violence during this period, otherwise he would not have been assassinated by the revolutionaries.

As an emperor Franz knows very well how difficult it is to assassinate an emperor, without the cooperation of internal traitors, the revolutionaries could not get close at all.

And how to throw a bomb? Especially after one bomb was thrown, when Alexander II checked the injuries of the coachman, a second bomb was thrown to kill him.

Were the guards wooden? How could they be given a second chance when someone attacked them at close range?

There is a time interval in between, the artificial bomb means that the distance between the two sides is only a few dozen meters, under normal circumstances, the assassin will either be beaten into a sieve or captured alive, there is no opportunity for a second strike.

The surrounding crowd would have been cleared and controlled immediately. The assassination was clearly a cover-up of something that made no sense when analyzed purely on the surface.

Franz, with reference to his own security capabilities, could conclude that there was no mole, and that the assassin would not have been able to get anywhere near him with guns or bombs.

Perimeter security, would have prohibited strangers from approaching. Even if it was a political show, the people who were able to come into contact with the Emperor had investigated their ancestors for generations to make sure there would be no problems before they could get close.

In a hierarchical country like Russia, it was difficult for a commoner to get close to a great nobleman, let alone get close to the emperor.

Not to mention a few assassins, even if a regiment of assassins came, they would not necessarily be able to rush a few dozen meters in front of them.

These issues Franz lazy to continue to dwell on, anyway, he can be careful himself. Even if he was active in Vienna, it was still a few hundred guards accompanying him, and a four-figure police periphery.

The safety coefficient was absolutely the highest, even if there were assassins who could only obediently retreat after seeing this lineup.

A private visit in a micro-suit, that doesn’t exist. Monarchs who traveled in a carriage with a few guards only existed in small countries. They couldn’t afford to put on a show and could only make do with what they had.

Franz said smilingly, ”It seems that Alexander II will soon make a big move, and now he’s afraid that he’s deliberately indulging the bureaucratic group to paralyze these people.

The great purge of the Tsarist government is coming, I guess Alexander II will stage a coup to clean out the assholes in the government, and then throw the blame for the failure of the war on them.

It’s a multi-purpose move that not only cleans out the government, but also takes the opportunity to suppress the conservatives, and in the process, give the people a chance to answer for their failures.

With the dirty ministers cleaned up, the rebels will have no excuse to rebel. It won’t be long before the rebels are caught up in internal strife, and if the revolutionaries don’t run faster, they might even be taken down and invited to take credit.”

The roots of the revolutionaries are too shallow, don’t look at the noise they make, in fact any revolutionaries in Russia in this era only have a hundred or eighty people.

In order to seize power, they temporarily united, if not too weak, they would not have accepted the banner of “clear the side of the king, kill the defiled ministers”.

This banner certainly united many people, but it also brought a problem. As the army grew, the revolutionaries lost control of the army.

The “dirty ministers” were all killed, and the people had achieved their goal of revolt, so many of them had to quit. To put it bluntly, many people joined the revolt because the taxes were too heavy.

Alexander II could have solved the problem with a few edicts, put the blame on the bureaucracy, and the people’s grievances would have been settled, and the Tsar would have been a good Tsar.

The hearts of the people were now with the Tsar, and the army was with the Tsar. The aristocracy, whether reformist or conservative, had no intention of overthrowing the tsar.

Including the newly risen capitalists, these people also thought that keeping the Tsar was better than having no Tsar at all. They supported the revolution only to seize power, not that they really wanted a social revolution.

In a country where more than ninety-nine percent of the people embraced the tsar, trying to overthrow the tsarist government, wasn’t that bullshit?

In that respect, Alexander II was born in a good time + a good place. The Russian revolutionary mentor had not yet been born, the proletarian revolutionary party had not yet seen the light of day, and the current bourgeois revolutionary groups were not anti-imperialist.

If time had been pushed back fifty years, or if the setting had been changed to France, it would have been a republic by now.

Prime Minister Felix was unimpressed: “Reform is not that easy, the Russian Empire has a very strong conservative force, Nicholas I did not even accomplish social reform, Alexander II I’m afraid it’s even more difficult to do.

I’m afraid that all he can do now is to carry out limited reforms to transform the feudal system of the Russian Empire and increase his power in the short term.”

He was vocal, the Austrian reforms came at a time when the Hungarian aristocracy was completely disempowered, the conservatives in Vienna were swept into the trash heap by the rebels, and the conservatives in Bohemia were pounded into submission by the rebels.

By the time the Vienna government announced its reforms, the conservatives were ten to one and most had lost their roots.

Even so, the struggle between the two sides has been no less intense over the past decade or so.

Now the tsarist government could not rely on the rebels to clean up the conservatives, and needed the tsar himself, and this wave of hatred alone was enough to give Alexander II a headache.

This doomed the future of the reformers and conservatives will also be in the power of hatred for a long time against each other. Even with the Tsar’s support, it would be difficult for the Reformists to surpass the Conservatives in a short period of time.

There was no way, according to the European tradition, even if it was to clean up the nobility, Alexander II could not kill them all.

The charge of embezzlement and bribery is too light, and can only be considered a minor loss to the nobility. Involved in military supplies, but also at most can only kill a few people in charge.

Most people would just be driven back home or exiled to Siberia. These people lost their rights life is still a hidden danger.

And the rebels in Moscow were very ineffective and didn’t make big news. No big nobles or capitalists went down at all, and couldn’t even be implicated if they wanted to.

“Cleansing the side of the king and executing the tainted ministers” is naturally a step below rebellion, that even for the sake of making a show to prove the emperor’s benevolence, Alexander II had to issue a decree of enlistment.

The ones who topped the pot were all revolutionaries, and the rest of them, as long as they were a little bit smarter, waited for Alexander II to issue pardons, and decisively chose to fall back, and after the war, they were marginalized at most, and liquidation was nonexistent.

This means that the conservatives only lost the political battle and did not lose much of their own strength.

After all, like Austria, the Russian Imperial Army was dominated by the nobility, and the Tsar was unlikely to go against the rules of the game.

Franz nodded and said, “For the Russian Empire, limited social reforms were also enough to create a world power.

They are vast, resourceful and populous, and as long as they complete industrialization, they are a major European power.

If they really carry out thorough social reforms, it will not be a good thing for us. You should know that the only one on the European continent whose development potential is above ours is the Russian Empire.”

……

(End of chapter)