Chapter 548: A Great Game of Chess
Chapter 536: A Great Game of Chess
Franz shook his head, “The immediate interests are not important, now we need a new strategy, a great strategy that will convince the European countries.
The original strategy of German unification doesn’t fool anyone anymore. As the Kingdom of Prussia grows and develops, we are no longer capable of swallowing them, and the European nations will not believe it even if the slogans are shouted loudly now.
With the inability to unify the German region, we will surely have a new strategic plan. Put another smoke bomb out to attract the attention of the countries, lest they discover our true purpose.”
True or false, false or true, the Vienna government had already created many strategies over the years, but the only one that could convince everyone was the “Strategy for the Unification of Germany”.
These strategies were all true, and fully in line with Austria’s interests. It is only for various practical reasons, as well as the problem of too small a success rate, the Vienna government has not invested many resources.
For example, the plan for continental hegemony, which the Viennese government had formulated in order to seize European hegemony, was short-lived and lay in the archives because of its low success rate.
Another example: the naval hegemony strategy, which was a product of the Anglo-French-Austrian arms race period, according to the plan Austria will build one hundred ironclads within ten years, to seize the British maritime supremacy.
The plan was a good one; when it came time to implement it, it ran into difficulties. Apart from a burst of bragging in the newspapers, which provided the Royal Navy with an excuse to expand, the actual time of action changed.
Ironclads are also divided into three, six, nine classes, the smallest is only a few hundred tons, the largest is more than 10,000 tons, different grades of battleships, the power in the naval battle is not the same.
In addition to brushing a wave of existence, the British soon realized that they had been fooled. If you simply count the number, not yet to ten years, the Austrian Navy built more than a hundred warships.
Only they were all small ships, most of them were some offshore patrol boats. The main fleet had increased by just so many three or five ships, and even though the ten-year period had not yet expired, no one thought that the government in Vienna would continue to explode warships in the latter part of the year.
It was all on the surface, and the plan would have worn out right at the beginning if the British hadn’t deliberately tried to fall for it. It wasn’t easy for the Royal Navy to expand, and how could it do so without an excuse if it had to convince Parliament to appropriate funds?
In this regard, France and Austria are still allies of the Royal Navy. As soon as the French and Austrians said they wanted to build ships, the British would immediately follow.
With the Royal Navy taking the initiative to cooperate, it is not difficult to fool the parliamentary group of amateurs. As long as the appropriation is agreed upon, the money has been turned into warships at a later stage, even if it is worn out.
In the original space and time, Britain and Germany arms race, some people have criticized the two navies are collusion with each other, join hands to cheat military expenditure.
The word “collusion” is used too much, but the joint cheating of military expenditure, there is really a suspicion in this regard.
Now is no exception, every naval expansion of Britain, France and Austria have taken each other as a raft, as long as the reason is sufficient, you can let the government to pay.
In the three countries before the alliance, even if someone sees the problem, we can still only follow up with a hard head, who do not dare to risk stopping the construction of the navy.
International politics was very complicated, and it was very difficult to figure out what the rivals were up to. But it didn’t matter, never mind what the competitors’ purpose was, as long as they were made to do what they wanted to do, they would be right.
Since the banner of the German unification strategy, all European countries were working to prevent Austria from unifying the German region. Britain and France had the German Confederation in their sights, fearing that Austria would suddenly make a move against them.
The rise of the Kingdom of Prussia, in addition to Britain and France wanting to lend them a hand against the Russians; at the same time, by arming Prussia, they also blocked Austria from unifying the German region.
Everyone was besieging Austria on the European continent, Franz naturally did not look for excitement. By drawing the attention of Britain and France to Europe, Austria’s expansion in Africa was able to proceed smoothly.
Now Austrian Africa has grown and developed, but the roots are not solid. Once the European countries discovered the purpose of the Vienna government, who could guarantee that John Bull would not agitate for the independence of Austrian Africa?
By then the French out of ideas, the British responsible for fooling, and then smash a huge sum of money into, who knows how much chaos will be caused.
On the bright side, Franz has been releasing that Austria’s strategic center of gravity is to unify the German region. This argument, everyone is believed, the Austrians themselves believed.
No one except the top echelons of the government knew that the actions on the European continent were all a front. Even if Britain and France knew there was a problem, they had to safeguard Europe first, or else the idiom of “making a falsehood into a reality” would have appeared.
Prime Minister Felix: “Your Majesty, no one will believe us if we say we have ambitions for Poland.
If we were to divide Poland, we would probably be done with a wave of operations, and we would not be able to attract the attention of all countries.
Or we can use the recovery of the Holy Land as a front, and if Britain and France do not believe it, then let them think that we want to annex the Asia Minor Peninsula, an Ottoman Empire is always enough weight.”
Reality is so comedic that the reason for not doing anything about Poland is not because Poland is too strong, but rather because Poland is too weak, so weak that it will fall at the push of a button.
Poland fell, and the end result was nothing more than being carved up. The strategic goal is accomplished straight away and the strategy is naturally over.
Unless a deadly fight with Prussia and Russia ensues, this is the end, with almost zero gain other than being able to get one more piece of territory.
Not to mention, the headache of an increased Polish population. This kind of increased imperial instability is something the Viennese government hasn’t done for many years.
Not so with the Ottoman Empire, which was big enough in its own right not to be swallowed by Austria in one bite, and had few competitors.
The Russian Empire, which was badly wounded, was in no position to compete with Austria for the Ottoman Empire, and at most would follow and get a piece of the pie.
Only grasp the rhythm, do not kill the Ottoman Empire at once, it is best to win or lose, slightly superior, European countries are still happy to see Austria and the Ottoman Empire dead.
If Britain and France want to pull back, most likely they will support the Ottoman Empire. In this regard, Franz is not the slightest bit worried, the rotten wall is not a joke.
The Chosen One has not yet been born, and the Ottoman Empire is so internally conflicted that it is almost impossible to revitalize it.
This consumption is good for everyone, Austria can hide the sky, Britain and France achieved the purpose of containing Austria, the Ottoman Empire can also cheat the aid, Prussia and Russia can also rest assured that PK.
In the process of confrontation and consumption, but also can not move to eat up the Middle East, not only the future of a century of energy do not have to worry, even half of the world’s hegemony have got their hands on.
Three years a small fight, ten years a big fight, this drama can play a long time. The Habsburg dynasty and the Ottoman Empire is a feud, to attack them do not even need to worry about the excuse, revenge is the best excuse.
After looking at the map, Franz pointed to Poland: “This is not enough, in order to make this drama more realistic, there is a need to add a few supporting roles.
The Kingdom of Prussia is not obsessed with Poland, so let’s fulfill them and find a chance to sell them for a good price.
If the Prussians are able to defeat the Russian Empire, then this place will be ours, give them a bit of a boost and strengthen the fighting spirit of the Junker nobles.”
Franz drew a circle on the map, and a large part of the Russians’ land was circled, and the Black Sea was directly turned into the Austrian Inland Sea. All of the Russians’ two hundred years of effort was lost in one fell swoop.
After this wave, it would be really very difficult for the shrunken version of Russia to rise up. Even if they were strong again, they would have to face the Kingdom of Prussia first.
As for Austria, how could Franz roughly annex the Russian territories? Wouldn’t the Tsarist government, which was losing the war, need someone to pull it together?
This kind of high-handed maneuver would surely require a payoff. When the time came, the Vienna government would just shell out a fortune and buy the territories.
This aspect of the Americans did a good job, the French were forced to buy and sell, the bright side or no words, people are legal means to buy.
Looking at the circle drawn by Franz, the people looked at each other as if they did not see anything. So counting allies, are fast catching up with John Bull.
But by then, the Russian-Austrian alliance should have expired. Both sides would no longer be allies, and it would seem logical to do so again.
As wonderful as the pie was painted, people still didn’t think much of Prussia. Defeating the Russians might have a chance, crippling them would be hard to do.
It would not be easy to realize this third strategy without beating the Tsarist government to death, and I am afraid that they would not be able to accept Austrian blackmail.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: ”Your Majesty, the Kingdom of Prussia is too spread out and has to face too much pressure for defense, if they are not able to concentrate their power, I am afraid it will be difficult to even defeat the Russians.
After the annexation of Poland, Prussia is already very powerful, we can’t continue to let them grow bigger.
I suggest that we let the Prussians give up the Rhineland, the Berlin government is poor now, but the German Federal Empire is rich, so we might as well let them fund the purchase of the Rhineland.”
This proposal was very constructive, the Rhineland region was rich in coal and iron resources, and the local industry was doing very well. Cutting down this enclave, the heavy industry of the Kingdom of Prussia is directly cut off, which will greatly weaken their development potential.
As long as the operation is done properly, Franz is not worried that the Berlin government will refuse. Potential that is only potential, through the immediate crisis, there will be a future.
Solving the financial crisis and concentrating all the military forces were essential for them to win the next war.
Although the Rhineland region was good, the next door neighbor was the French, and all of a sudden it became bad. If a war did break out, this enclave would not be able to hold on to it at all.
Britain and France were very wary of Austrian expansion on the European continent, but would never worry about the German Confederation expanding. Even with the addition of the Rhineland region, the German Federal Empire is only a medium-sized country, and the low threshold of the Great Powers cannot even touch it.
With Austria’s influence in the German Confederation, it wouldn’t be hard to push through this deal. Even if the Reichstag can’t get through, maneuvering one of the states to buy it would be the same. In the German Federation, Austria is still not short of little brothers.
After clearing his thoughts in the shortest possible time, Franz nodded: “This plan is very good, without the Rhineland region, the Prussian Kingdom’s strategy will be completely shifted to the east.
The specific program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to improve a little, we are not convenient to personally intervene, it is best to borrow the hands of the British to implement.
In order to split the German region, the British are very hard. As long as they believe that strengthening the German Confederation will make it more difficult for us to unify the German region, I believe that the government in London will do everything for us.
The French should be relatively peaceful for the time being, but we can’t let our guard down, so we can’t let them take advantage of the situation, and then we’ll be doing someone else’s work for them.”
Back then, through the hands of the British, from two parts of Germany to three parts of Germany, to curb the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia, now Franz naturally do not mind to do it again.
(End of chapter)