Chapter 580: War Correspondent

  Chapter 567: War Correspondent

To partition Poland, it was not just enough for Prussia and Russia to reach an agreement, it was also necessary to obtain the approval of the European countries, especially to obtain the understanding of France and Austria.

Vienna Palace

Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, we have reached an agreement with Prussia and Russia. They openly support our unification of the German region in exchange for our neutrality on Poland.”

It’s not a blank check, but it’s less than a blank check. If Austria really united the German region, the ones who would react the most violently would be Prussia and Russia.

In the face of interests, such verbal promises are not binding, and whether they can be honored or not all depends on everyone’s modesty.

Franz does not think that the two countries will honor their promises, do not look at them to fight to the death, really if Austria moves to unify the German region, the two countries will soon ease the contradiction.

Prussia and Russia’s hatred is even deeper, can be compared to Britain and France? After the rise of the German Empire in the original time and space, Britain and France can give up their hatred, and now Prussia and Russia can do the same.

In the final analysis, or interests, Austria’s unification of the German region has threatened their security, especially for the Kingdom of Prussia, the political can be called a fatal blow.

These years the Berlin government intentionally downplayed the great German unification and advocated the idea of Greater Prussia, that is, the Junker nobles were afraid of being Austria from the inside to break down the fortress.

Austria’s annexation of the German Federal Empire would inevitably stimulate German nationalism within Prussia, which the Berlin government could never accept.

Britain, France and Russia were similar, neither wanted to see Austria continue to grow stronger. With the unification of the German region, Austria was essentially the hegemon of the European continent, and had already seriously threatened their strategic security.

This step out, Franz even if the diplomacy play the ultimate, but also can not avoid the fate of the group beating.

One on one, Austria does not goat; to one against two, to think twice before acting; to one against three, almost no chance of winning; to one against four, simply surrender, looking for death are not to wait for this.

Prussia and Russia obviously do not have good intentions, rather than supporting Austria to unify the German region, it is more like inducing Austria to jump out to share the international pressure and divide the Anglo-French-Austrian triumvirate.

Franz nodded: “What is expected, the two countries of Prussia and Russia are secretly trading, is not to beware of us intervening, first let them happy for a while. When are the British going to do it?”

The one who counts people is always counting. Great power diplomacy is supposed to be today you count me, tomorrow I count you, we all rely on our own means. There are only interests between countries, there is no good or evil right or wrong.

Weissenberg replied: “The exact time is not yet certain, the British are not assured of us, and have kept it a secret from us until now.

The approximate time is before the accession of Wilhelm I. If you want to force the Kingdom of Prussia to give in, you have to do it before the Berlin government’s plan is completed.”

When it comes to deals and compromises, Austria plays at the top of its game. The current political landscape on the European continent is all the result of deals and compromises between the government in Vienna and various countries.

Otherwise, the Russians would not have been able to take Constantinople, the French would not have been able to annex Italy, and even the Prussian-Russian War would most likely not have broken out, and the Kingdom of Poland would not have had the opportunity to become independent.

It is normal for the British to worry, who can not be moved in front of the interests, who can not guarantee that the government of Vienna will not take this opportunity to make a deal with the French.

To some extent, the British and Austrian diplomatic philosophy is the closest, both are centered on national interests. When encountering problems, the first thing to think about is not to solve the problem, but want to maximize national interests.

After a few moments of contemplation, Franz made a decision: ”In that case, let’s strengthen the Russian Empire a little bit, lest Prussia get bigger and cause trouble for us.

The Czarist government wants to train its troops, so let them have their way. Agree to the Russians’ plan to increase their troops, and we will provide the strategic supplies.”

International politics involved the whole body, also played a balancing strategy, Franz realized that the British were not easy.

Maintaining the Prussian-Russian balance alone was difficult enough, while the British were playing a continental balance. It required more countries to be involved, more things to be taken into account, and the difficulty of operation was self-evident.

No wonder a world war broke out in the original time and space. Dancing on eggs every day, there is always a time for mistakes. It is estimated that the London government in the original time and space was also very confused, the French actually tossed themselves into ruin.

……

In the Middle East, Lt. Gen. Fislav held binoculars and quietly watched the crowd converge toward the north of Jerusalem.

The Austrian army, besieging the city, was oblivious to this, as if the north side had been forgotten.

A strapping young officer reported, “General, patrolling sentries have found marks of passing camel caravans to the north, and it is suspected that supplies were delivered to Jerusalem last night.”

Since the patrols were to be deliberately let loose, there was naturally no need to send out patrols at night. This created an opportunity for the enemy to take advantage of the opportunity to seize supplies and transport them into the city.

Lieutenant General Fislav said as if nothing had happened, “Don’t alarm them yet, send people to keep a covert eye on them, and dig out the Ottoman Empire’s darkies before they are eliminated in one fell swoop.”

After a pause, Fislav shook his head again, “Forget it, don’t investigate. Post a notice, from now on: anyone who gives any help to the Ottoman Empire will be dealt with as a crime of collaborating with the enemy.

There’s no need to specify the specifics, we’ll slowly settle the score with them after the reporters have left.”

The young officer was about to say something, but in the end, he didn’t say anything. The Ottoman Empire had operated here for hundreds of years, its rule had long been entrenched, and even if the rule was destroyed by the Austrian army, it would not be possible to remove the influence in a short period of time.

There are people who have hearts for the Sultan’s government, and it is normal for them to transport supplies for the defenders. But how much can be delivered every day by this kind of sneaky transportation?

For the more than 100,000 people inside the city, these things were a complete drop in the bucket. Besides, there were still zealous congregations outside the city that had come from all directions to defend the Holy Land, and these people also needed to eat.

Fislav probably understood the meaning of the Vienna government, and there was no hurry at all from above to recover Jerusalem. The General Staff had also ordered that no lone army should go deeper until Jerusalem had been recovered, almost as if it had explicitly told him to stall and fight slowly.

Under these circumstances, it is good to be a salted fish. War serves politics, and since there is a political need for delay, then let the war continue.

Otherwise, by now he would have ordered his troops to cross over to Jerusalem and march towards the Jordan region. Now most of the Ottoman troops in the Middle East were concentrated in Jerusalem, and could not hold back the Austrian army.

Because of the reporters, even the local forces of the Ottoman Empire, Lieutenant General Fislav did not make a move to clean up.

Knowing that there were people collaborating with the enemy, Fislav didn’t even bother to send people to investigate. It wasn’t that he was passive, but there was no point in wasting energy.

In order to prevent the desertification of the Holy Land, the Vienna government had already sent geological and hydrological experts to assess the soil, water, and natural environment of the Middle East, and there were journalists following the whole process to record it.

The information gathered so far is very unpromising, the Middle East is over-cultivated, soil erosion is serious, desertification is serious, and there is a need for the local land to be fully fallowed.

According to the experts, the Middle East needs at least 20 years of fallow before the local ecology can be restored.

This issue has already made a lot of noise on the European continent, and everyone has condemned the Ottomans for their greed and recklessness in claiming nature.

If nothing else, the Austrian Middle East will implement a twenty-year-long land fallow program after the war. No farming or livestock development would be allowed for twenty years, and the locals would surely have to leave.

Following the previous practice, these people must have been repatriated back to the Ottomans. It sounds like a good idea, all can go back home safely, in reality it is not that simple, does the Sudanese government have the ability to resettle so many people?

Especially for the local vested interests, land, property, all is zero, need to start from scratch.

This is almost impossible. The Ottoman class has long been solidified, the desire to share the cake is growing while the cake is shrinking, the future of the Sudanese government must be hilarious.

Now able to come up with money and food to support the garrison of Jerusalem, do not want to think that it is also the local magnates and aristocrats, repatriated after the war are reduced to bankrupt ragtag families.

This heart gap, I’m afraid than to kill them. Even if the heart is strong, accept the reality, these guys that is also the Sudanese government’s trouble. In that case, why should Fislav get his hands dirty?

……

Inside the reporter’s exclusive camp, war correspondent Brad grumbled, “This damn damn weather, it’s just going to be hot. If I had known this, I wouldn’t have come over.”

Brad was an experienced war correspondent, almost wherever there was a war, there was his figure. This time, he had come over because he had received a commission from the London Daily News.

Of course, wanting to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem was also a factor. However, the plan did not change, all the way through the Austrian army stopped outside the city of Jerusalem.

The reason for stopping is: the battlefield guns have no eyes, worrying about giving damage to the holy places.

This explanation is maddening, but politically correct. Jerusalem’s unique religious status, devout believers naturally can not let go here to start fighting.

The temperatures in the Middle East are that high that ordinary people can’t stand it. In recent times, the non-combat attrition of the Austrian army, are over double digits.

Soldiers can not hold out, accompanying the army of journalists is not good either. The Austrian army does not have a big man, naturally, it is impossible to specialize in making ice to cool them down.

Henry, his partner in the same tent, joked: “It’s not too late to leave, Austria has a weekly supply shipment, they won’t mind taking you with them.”

Brad’s face changed dramatically, the war report halfway is very embarrassing, it is related to his professional integrity.

“Scram! I’m not one to back out of a battle, you don’t want to have the honor of covering this war all to yourself. This is the recapture of the Holy Land, this is a one time opportunity, if I miss it I will regret it for the rest of my life.”

War correspondents also look at resumes, the more major wars they’ve been involved in covering, the more valuable the news they report, and the higher their status in the industry. A special war like the recapture of Jerusalem is naturally doubly valued.

Of course, if it wasn’t the recapture of the Holy Land, there wouldn’t have been hundreds of war correspondents gathered in a cloud, and they wouldn’t have needed two people crammed into a tent.

For example: when the Austrian army attacked Kuwait, none of the major European newspapers bothered to send a reporter, except for those at home.

This kind of unimportant news, take the Austrian official announcement of the news, or Austrian newspaper published news, copy a copy to modify a change of perspective, in the newspaper international section casually mentioned on the line.

Only the battle of Jerusalem, which is the concern of all the people, is worth sending people over to collect first-hand information, and then make a big book after artistic processing.

The treatment of a large number of people and a small number of people is very different, if there are only one or two war correspondents, I guess the army will still be warmly received. If there were only one or two war correspondents, the army would have received them warmly. But if there were hundreds of war correspondents at once, anyone would have disliked them.

Now the Austrian army’s every move, are these reporters staring at the dead. If it wasn’t for their influence, Fislav would have kicked them out.

Therefore, the expenses of this group of journalists are paid by the newspaper behind them, the Austrian army only provides a safe camp, and the most basic life security, simply put, and soldiers a standard.

Want better living conditions, figure it out yourself. Unfortunately, this is the Middle East, because of the war all industries are dying and disorder. Not only is it impossible to spend money, even traveling must be careful not to be able to stay away from the barracks.

There are a few bold colleagues, ran out to interview the local people, were sent to see God, of course, may also be to see ****.

Except for one lucky one who was saved by a passing Austrian patrol, the rest were turned into corpses, and one of the unlucky ones was sent to the barbecue grill by the refugees.

After this lesson, everyone’s didn’t dare to run around. Now that the Austrian army was besieging the city, there was not even any news, and everyone could only stay in the camp to kill time.

Henry laughed, “Just kidding, liven up the atmosphere, don’t be so angry Brad. Life is already very hard, if we don’t have an optimistic heart, how are we going to get through the days?”

Brad nodded, “Okay, even if you’re right. The days are indeed very boring now, may God bless us to recover the Holy Land soon.”

Henry didn’t hesitate to crack down, “I don’t think God’s blessing is very reliable, otherwise Jerusalem wouldn’t have fallen into the hands of the Ottomans.

You should go and talk to the Austrians and ask them to launch an attack quickly and recover Jerusalem early, so we can also go home quickly.

According to the current situation, I guess we will have to spend Christmas here this year. Not just this year, but maybe next year’s Christmas will be spent here.”

It is also very normal for war correspondents to spend Christmas on the battlefield, and no one can guarantee that the war will end before Christmas.

It’s just that this time the situation is special, and it’s even if the climate is bad. Everyone was out in the field, and it didn’t matter if they suffered this much.

The trouble is that the Austrian army siege but not attack, open the history book this kind of siege three or five years of cases have, with the special status of Jerusalem, we believe that the Ottomans will certainly be prepared in advance.

Brad’s good mood instantly lost, rolled his eyes: “Nonsense, the Austrians surrounded but not attacked on the pretext that they are worried about hitting the holy places, what makes me let them launch an attack?

It’s not like you haven’t seen the cities along the way, if the Austrian army really fires on all cylinders, even if Jerusalem is recovered, it will still be in ruins. Who can bear this responsibility?”

Career Exam, more than seventeen hundred people applied for the admission of four, the opening ratio is more than four hundred to one. The world went crazy, and the poor author gentleman managed to fall into cannon fodder.

The examination was lost, the mind was stormed, sad, helpless, seeking comfort! The ticket to bring it!

(End of chapter)