Chapter 441: Teaching Children
Chapter 431: Teaching Children
With the fall of the London Peace Conference, the European continent finally welcomed a short period of peace. Without experiencing war, one would never know the horror of war.
As the victor of this war, William I did not show much joy. In terms of territory, the Kingdom of Prussia was now comparable to the German II Empire of the original time and space, and its total population had also surpassed the 20 million mark.
All these gains could not hide the fact that the military was getting bigger, and without Bismarck, the government could not suppress the military at all now.
The balance of power was upset, which was not good for the Emperor. Wilhelm I was still politically astute, and did not play the trick of “the bird is dead, the rabbit is dead, the dog is cooked”.
In the Berlin palace, Wilhelm I announced the appointment of a new person: “Prime Minister Frank is not feeling well and has resigned from the post of Prime Minister, which will now be taken over by Field Marshal Mauch.”
If you can’t suppress it, it’s better to divide and conquer. Mauch is very good at fighting with soldiers, but his political skills are far worse, and he is a total stick in the prime minister’s position.
No matter how high the prestige is now, as long as mistakes are made later, it will still be pulled down, and then the prestige gained in the war will be gone.
In an ordinary country, it is impossible for a military marshal to become prime minister. The line between civil and military was enough to block this, however this was the Kingdom of Prussia, and it was completely normal operation for a military general to serve as prime minister.
Wilhelm I was using a phallic approach, and a shift in status shifted position. Unless Mauch was willing to be a rubber stamp, sooner or later he would have stepped in to suppress the military.
The power struggle is brutal, and many times it is out of control. As the military big brother when they can be at ease to override the government; turned into the head of government, the situation is different.
……
Compared to the harmony of the power struggle in the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire next door was very different. After the treaty had been signed, the army in the hands of the Tsar began to go around arresting people.
The autumn settling of scores is still coming, these days Alexander II is not for nothing, can find out basically found out. The front endured not attack, is waiting for this time now together to settle the score.
For a time, St. Petersburg’s prisons were overcrowded. A large number of assholes fell into the net, making the bureaucrats fearful.
If strictly in accordance with the inventory, the tsarist government bureaucrats have a count, can be arrested.
Even those who hadn’t committed a crime were on their way to doing so. The word unjust is redundant; the bureaucracy of the Tsarist government is rotten to the core.
Alexander II wasn’t a middle-aged teenager, so naturally he wouldn’t want to get rid of all the bureaucrats, it was very unrealistic.
Now arrested are the culprits who led to the defeat of the war, losing a war is someone who needs to be responsible, Alexander II is not prepared to find a scapegoat, it is their turn to carry their own.
Winter Palace, looking at the constant fall of criminals, Alexander II headache. Most of these people are nobles, according to the custom is not allowed to kill.
Many times when problems arose, it wasn’t all the fault of the chief officials. If they took one point from it, those below them would have to take three, and the layers of deductions went on leading to this great defeat.
Certain humble employees of the government have embezzled more than the principal officials. And the more corrupt they are at the grassroots level, the more they have to think about the consequences at the top.
It’s not realistic to kill them all. These small fish are not ordinary people, at least the middle class, and killing them all would bring too bad a social impact.
Moreover, killing these people is also not very useful, the Russian Empire’s collapsed rule of government still can not be changed.
Minister of Finance Kristanvar proposed: “Your Majesty, let’s exile them! We still have to use political means to dismantle the rebels, now is not the time to go on a killing spree.”
This was the Tsarist government’s most helpless solution to deal with the situation, and it was also the most effective solution to deal with the situation. Only later, because of inadequate supervision, it allowed these exiled guys to run back and overthrow the Tsarist government.
The presence of the rebels saved the scum, and in order for the rebels to surrender with confidence and boldness, Alexander II had to pretend to be merciful.
Rebellion is not like corruption, it’s death to the nobility. No matter how high the status, participation in the rebellion could be clicked off.
After hesitating for a while, Alexander II made a decision, “First let all the stolen money be recovered, and then exile these bastards to the harshest environment in Siberia.”
Exile is also skillful, most of Siberia is a harsh climate of ice and snow, but it does not mean that there are no good places.
For example: the city of Novosibirsk had relatively good conditions, but of course it wasn’t developed yet, it was just a small town.
Another example: Oymyakon, which is another extreme, where the lowest winter temperatures can usually reach -71 degrees, and there have even been good days when it was -96.2 degrees, and the custodian turned into a popsicle.
Apparently, Alexander II had a deep hatred for these people and was ready to freeze them to death.
……
In Alexander II to clean up the moths, the Polish throne dispute also intensified, spread to the entire continent of Europe, and even affected the court of Vienna.
Poland was a big country with a bullish ancestry. There were quite a few people interested in the crown, including a number of people within the Habsburg family who expressed interest, including Franz’s two younger brothers.
This bad interest was quickly suppressed by Franz. The reason he gave was very simple – do you want to be a dead king?
Instantly the crowd reacted and snapped back to the terrible situation of the Kingdom of Poland. In the last century there were there were three divisions of Poland, is it hard to do it again now?
The Polish-Polish alliance is a joke, and once the Russian Empire recovers, there will be a war between the two sides.
There are still not many people who are optimistic that the Prussian-Polish alliance can win, not every war can find so many allies.
This time the Great War in Eastern Europe, if there is no British behind the maneuvering, not only Poland can not be independent, even the Kingdom of Prussia will become history.
Will they be so lucky in the next war? If they lose the war, Poland is naturally doomed.
Everyone’s enthusiasm was doused straight away. Massimiliano, the antagonist, was still there. He did not listen to advice and ran away to serve as the Emperor of Mexico, and now what kind of life he is living, everyone knows very well.
If one day Massimiliano was suddenly ousted from the stage, everyone will not be surprised at all, since it is the antagonist naturally will not have any good results.
Pacified internally, Franz did not pay attention to the strife outside. No matter who became the king of Poland, he was taking over a mess, and there was no way to lead Poland to rise.
Just take a look at the map, to the east is the Russian Empire, to the southwest is Austria, and to the north is the Kingdom of Prussia, the three countries just about surrounded them.
Merging with the Kingdom of Prussia to form the Federal Empire was actually their best option. However, Big Bobo couldn’t accept it in his heart, and besides, it wasn’t a good path to take.
The next best thing would be to fight the Russian Empire to the death, penetrate all the way through the Ukrainian region, occupy this black land, and gain a strong foundation.
This was a dream, and Franz didn’t think the Poles could do it anyway. It would require not only military victories, but also superior political and diplomatic maneuvers.
The lowest course of action was to embrace the enemy, and the Russian Empire was destined to be the enemy, there was nothing more to be said about it. If Poland wanted to defend itself, it had to maintain good relations with the European countries.
The two neighbors of Prussia and Austria are even more critical, and only if they handle the relationship with the two countries well will they have a chance of survival.
Based on the principle that political education should start from childhood, the Polish issue became a real-life example of how Franz taught his children. The main thing was to teach the eldest son Frederick, the other three little ones were too young.
The youngest, George, was born only in 1865 and was now no more than 2 years old, and politics was still too far away from him.
In fact, Frederick was not too big either, he was now 11 years old and would have been a schoolboy if he had come from an ordinary family.
Franz had no idea whether he would be able to accept learning politics at such an early age.
But do not teach and can not, in case they are led to bias, just like the second brother Massimiliano became an idealist, that would be the end of the world.
“Frederick, now let me test you, if you were the King of Poland, what would you do now?”
Faced with this tricky question, Frederick gave an answer that Franz would not have expected.
“Not do it, okay?”
Seeing Franz’s lack of response, Frederick added, “I mean abdicate!”
Franz did not object, nor did he agree, and pressed, “And the reason?”
Frederick shook his little head and said, “I don’t know what the King of Poland is supposed to do and what he is capable of doing! In that case, it would be better to let it go.”
That was an answer of sorts, at least it preserved itself. Franz smiled slightly and said nothing.
To do things before preserving oneself, this was the concept that Franz had instilled in them from a young age. How useful Franz is not clear, now can resist temptation, that is not touching the right.
Many people know that they can not do it, this idealism is worth singing. But appeared in the royal family, that is a disaster.
Franz continued to ask: “So what about switching to the King of Prussia, you will not continue to let go, right?”
The Kingdom of Prussia was in a much better position than Poland, having defeated the Russians William I was as good as new and had a popularity index of at least 90+ (100 total counted).
Frederick thought for a moment and said, “Cultivate and develop the domestic economy. Prussia got too many benefits in this war and needs to digest them.
It also has to be quick, grabbing the Russian Empire before it slows down and completing internal integration to win the second Prussian-Russian war.”
Franz smiled and said, “Not bad, finally, you know how to struggle, and didn’t retreat when things got tough.
But that’s not enough, developing yourself is important. Fighting the enemy is equally important, you can keep an eye on William I’s moves, he will never watch the Russians recover.
Maybe, you’ll still have a chance to see the merger of Prussia and Poland. Of course, that will depend on whether William I is politically savvy enough.”
Frederick shook his little head a little, his heart full of doubt. The merger of Prussia and Poland, what kind of operation is this?
Isn’t everyone against the merger of Prussia and Poland? What will the Kingdom of Prussia do to merge Poland? Not only the European countries are against, even the Poles are against, this kind of merger is useful?
Franz did not continue to explain, his own personal observation is far more useful than others to tell directly.
Using the international situation as a teaching material and the monarchs as cases is Franz’s way of teaching his children.
Whether it is a positive example or a negative example, it is what one has personally experienced that makes the deepest impression.
Learn from their strengths, summarize the weaknesses in them, and learn the lessons. This is both teaching his son and Franz’s self-learning.
(End of chapter)