Chapter 513: Aftermath Preparations

  Chapter 502: Aftermath Preparation

With the blazing sun in the sky, a luxurious train sped past. On both sides of the road, ripe grains seemed to be in shock, bending their backs, heads lowered, and from time to time still trembling.

Inside the luxurious carriage on the special train, a young man in gorgeous clothes was intently looking at the newspaper, and frowning from time to time.

The young man is the Alexandrovich (Alexander III) who went abroad to visit the country, this trip to Paris he has high hopes, and on the way also did not forget to collect information.

The information provided by the Czarist government, he had been too lazy to read. In Alexandrovich’s opinion, those materials have a clear tendency, or to be politically correct.

In his opinion, to get a preliminary understanding of France, it was enough to read the economic and political newspapers of the French. Aleksandrovich was not an expert scholar, and that basic information was enough.

The more he learned, the more Alexandrovich’s feelings grew. Through the newspaper, he knew that there was a huge gap between France and Russia.

This gap is “qualitative”, not the St. Petersburg bureaucrats say, three or five years can catch up with the past.

The problem was that the French people did not have a favorable impression of Russia, as the newspapers had described it.

“barbarian,” “liar,” “scoundrel,” “rotten”… …

These adjectives pierced Alexandrovich’s heart. His dissatisfaction had no effect. The French newspapers would not be controlled by him, and would write as they should.

Though most of it was exaggerated, it wasn’t entirely made up, and Russia did have a lot of black history.

Usually, people don’t rehash these old scores. It’s not like Alexandrovich is coming on a trip, and the dabbling newspapers are active.

There is no such thing as “Franco-Russian friendship”, at least these newspapers don’t think there is a traditional friendship between the two countries, there is a lot of hatred.

What’s even more annoying is that they are the losers, and everyone remembers that it was the Russians who buried the First French Empire.

Near East War was not able to revenge, the French are very dissatisfied, the recent Russo-Prussian War in the French people to Prussia’s donation is the most, but also more than the German Federation + Austria combined.

What there was to be proud of in that, Alexandrovich was not sure. Anyway, he understood that there were a lot of French people who did not welcome his visit.

While at home, Alexandrovich didn’t realize that Russia was actually so unpopular in Europe.

Originally he was still haunted by the failure of the Russo-Prussian War, but now he understood how it could not be a failure, when at the same time the whole of Europe was at war.

Each on the newspaper, Alexandrovich fell into a deep thought. There was a voice in his heart telling him that something had to be done to change the perception of the Russian Empire by the European countries.

Isolation meant danger, now the Russian Empire had many enemies and only one ally, and even now the last ally was moving away from them.

If this doesn’t change, the next time a major war breaks out, it will still be difficult for the Russian Empire to win.

Even though the war hasn’t broken out yet, Alexandrovich already knows that there will be at least Poland+Prussia+Ottoman in the next war, and several Central Asian khanates are likely to show up as well, and even the Far East isn’t necessarily stable.

Modern warfare is all about logistics, and the Russian Empire lost the last war on transportation. Despite accusations at home that the ally Austria was paddling, Alexandrovich knew very well that the cause of the Russian defeat was still within itself.

Buying supplies from Austria and not being able to transport them to the front in time led to a lack of troops on the front, which allowed the Prussians to take advantage of the situation.

If there is no logistical constraints, and at the same time put a million Russian troops into the front line, even if there is the whole of Europe to provide Prussia with logistics, they can not stop.

There is no fairness in war, there are armies that don’t have to play with less to win more, they are all fools, and usually such fools die a horrible death.

In the history of war, it is almost always the strongest that wins the war, and the reason why the weak win the strong is revered is because it happens less.

The Russian Empire was indeed at the bottom of the list of European powers when it came to the combat effectiveness of armies of equal strength.

The reason for this is clear to Alexandrovich, is nothing more than the gap in weaponry and training, which boils down to a lack of money.

Most of the Tsar’s soldiers were conscripts, and these troops did not need to be paid, but were given a token amount of money.

Cheapness became the hallmark of the Tsar’s army, and the increase in numbers brought about a greater increase in combat power economically than the increase in training and the replacement of state-of-the-art weapons and equipment.

The cost of one French soldier was enough for the Tsar’s government to recruit two of these cheap soldiers and still have some left over. On the battlefield, one French soldier could never beat two Russian soldiers.

This is how the gray animals came to be, because of the economic cheapness, so the Russians fell in love with the tactics of the sea of men.

The train slowed down slowly and Alexandrovich knew it was Paris arriving. Looking at the buildings on both sides of the road, Alexandrovich showed a hint of fascination.

The 19th century the world’s most desirable cities in the absolute Paris, of course, Alexandrovich has an interest in Paris, absolutely not because it is the holy land of the revolution.

As a Crown Prince, especially the Crown Prince of the Tsarist government, he was born to be one of the reactionaries, and it was impossible to play with the revolutionaries.

Alexandrovich was interested simply because Paris was the capital of France and had the most developed industry in France.

As the three most recognizable cities in Europe in this era, Paris was known as a revolutionary mecca, but it was not bad at all in other ways.

After Napoleon III’s remodeling, now Paris has gotten rid of the dirty hat, the city environment than the stink of London to be not too much better.

……

Alexandrovich’s trip to Europe, Franz did not have any interest, even if this in the latter days of great fame, but also can not move him.

History is the easiest to deceive people, and exaggeration has always been the favorite of the literati. For example, the three Italian masters, who were highly regarded by later generations, became unproductive because of changes in the international situation.

Franz admitted that they were really capable, unfortunately they had bad luck this time. Just a little change made their lives change.

Garibaldi and Mazzini failed to lead the revolution and were forced into exile. The famous Prime Minister Cavour was even worse, and the art of co-optation was just beginning to flop.

Austria’s position was not the same as in history, letting France expand in the Italian region. Napoleon III felt that annexing the Italian region would be a greater gain than cooperating with the Kingdom of Sardinia.

A single decision from the throne made all his efforts useless. There was no way around it, success in the original time was built on luck, and now it was just short of that.

Countless real-life cases had told Franz that failures were not necessarily less capable, and that they were often just a sliver of luck away from success.

Just this tiny sliver of difference, the final result is often the difference between heaven and hell.

Napoleon III is also an example, the original time and space this has been flopped. As a result, because of Franz’s butterfly effect, Napoleon III is now called “Napoleon the Great” by the French.

Looking at the information in his hand, Franz frowned tightly, if there is no accident, his unlucky brother will soon be unlucky.

Unable to find a buyer in the international arena, the Paris government still decided to withdraw its troops from Mexico. Without the backing of the French GIs, Franz doesn’t think Massimiliano will be able to stabilize the situation.

Without any hesitation, a secret order flew from the Palais de Vienne to the Austrian Central American colonies. In any case, this was a nominal brother, and it was impossible to really sit back and do nothing.

Even the question of resettlement was considered by Franz. Throw the countryside in the castle, anyway, Habsburg is not much else, is a lot of castles.

Idealists like Massimiliano will not have the courage to come back to see people after a defeat, so it is just right to live in the countryside.

In the original space and time, Massimiliano refused to run away, Franz suspected that he was afraid of losing face, afraid of being ridiculed, do not dare to return to the European continent.

This kind of heart is not strange, just as working did not earn money, year-round embarrassed home for the New Year people.

Massimiliano heart problems, Franz is not a heart doctor. Knowing it, how to treat it is beyond his ability.

Perhaps this problem can be thrown to the Empress Dowager Sophie, just to give her something to do, to share the nagging in Franz’s ears.

Mexico City is not far away, as long as the preparations in advance, an armed intervention is not too difficult, anyway, in the end can let the new government of Mexico to pay.

Unlike the French, the Austrian colonial empire in Central America is right next door to Mexico. The ranchers there have long wanted to annex the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s just that Franz was too embarrassed to make a move against Mexico for fear of losing face.

When Massimiliano I pounced, this obstacle does not exist. The grass to beat the rabbit, bite off as much meat as possible.

The power of the Austrian colonies in Central America was probably equivalent to one or two large states for the Americans, and even if the Germans could fight a little, it would be equivalent to the power of two or three large states, and would be totally unworthy of mention.

But for the Mexican Empire to begin with, that little bit of power was enough to wake them up a bit. Of course, this is based on the fact that the Mexican insurgents were looking for a fight themselves.

If they are smart enough to send Massimiliano I directly out of the country by courtesy, there is no excuse for war, and Franz, who pays attention to what he eats, will not make a move against them.

To be clear, the Americas were not the focus of Austrian expansion. The Vienna government had limited energy and couldn’t possibly juggle that many places at once.

Even the strategic Panama region, Franz can ninja not do anything, let alone Mexico?

Now Franz was already thinking about which of his sons would go to the Central American region as king.

This kind of colony 10,000 miles away, with the rise of nationalism, the central government wants to directly control or too difficult, not as much as the establishment of a state is more simple.

This is also in line with the tradition of the Habsburg dynasty, when the old ancestors can be separated Spain and Austria, now Franz naturally can be separated out a colony.

Not only the Central American colonies, the South Seas region is also possible to establish a state in the future. Anyway, meat rotting in the pot is better than throwing it out.

By attaching these states to the name of the Shinra Empire, everyone is not considered a failure when they play in an economic circle.

(End of chapter)