Chapter 673: The French Trouble
Chapter 658 – The Frenchman’s Trouble
One by one, the fallen leaves scattered on the ground, paving a golden “golden road”.
Step on it from time to time issued a “crunch” sound, let a person feel so comfortable, as if stepping on a cotton blanket, there is no extra piece of leaves, each piece is a golden leaf, evocative.
The joy of the harvest filled Vienna, and the Franz family, who were trekking in the countryside, could not stop themselves from enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Franz, who is in a poetic mood, is now writing, ready to leave a beautiful chapter for future generations. However, he is really not talented, and what he writes always fails to satisfy him.
Craftsmanship is too heavy, as if creating for the sake of creation, without the spirit of “poetry and literature are made in heaven”.
In this regard, Franz still has integrity, did not find a gunman, naturally, no outstanding works.
Casually destroyed the evidence of creative failure, Franz is ready to start all over again, the maid hurriedly came over.
“Your Majesty, news has just come in that the Czar’s government submitted a letter of war from the Pupo Confederation yesterday at noon.”
Hearing the news, Franz put down his pen and commanded, “Pass the order down, immediately pack your luggage and prepare to return to the palace.”
The outbreak of the Prussian-Russian war, not only the situation in Europe has changed, even the world situation will follow. Despite being prepared, Franz also had to go back to preside over the situation.
……
Since it is an outing, naturally it is impossible to go far. In the evening, the carriage re-entered the palace. Too late to rest, Franz called a cabinet meeting.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “This morning, the Berlin government also presented the Russians with a letter of war, and the Second Russo-Prussian War has broken out in full force.
This afternoon, Wilhelm I issued a Letter to the Nation, calling on the people to fight the Russians to the death.
At the same time, the mechanism for mobilizing the entire population has been activated. From now on, all men in the Pupo Commonwealth between the ages of 15 and 60 have been included in reserve training.”
“Between the ages of 15 and 60”, without a doubt this was the biggest mobilization in Europe, and indeed in the world.
The last one to go this crazy was the Duchy of Montenegro, which mobilized the entire male population of the country in the First Near Eastern War.
Franz did not accuse the Berlin government of insanity; in the face of life and death, whatever decision was made was understandable.
“What was the reaction of the civil society of the Pupo Federation, did the people support what the Berlin government did?”
The most crucial thing about extreme mobilization was that it required the full cooperation of the populace. In World War II, Bulgaria, with a population of just over four million, mobilized 1.26 million troops, relying on the full support of the population.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “The time was too short for us to be able to investigate in depth. But from previous information, the population should have supported the war.
Especially the Polish population, which is very hostile to the Russians. If this war goes well, the Polish-Polish Commonwealth will literally become one nation after the war.”
The sense of national independence in the Great Popo could be said to be the strongest in the world. The most crucial thing that William I was able to bring the Prussian-Polish countries together was the common enemy – the Russian Empire.
Under the suppression of external forces, Prussia and Poland reluctantly leaned together, but remained essentially two nations. Poland still retained an independent government, just with an additional central government over its head.
The political structure of the Prussian-Polish Commonwealth was now somewhat similar to that of Austria before 1848. Poland was like Hungary, which wanted to be independent, but was afraid to do so because of the threat of the Russians.
Now the opportunity came, once the war broke out, the Polish government did not have the courage to refuse the central government to meddle in internal affairs. It is easy to hand over power, but harder to get it back.
Don’t think, Franz knew what the Berlin government would do next. Take the opportunity of the joint war to get the command of the Polish army; take the opportunity of the coordination of logistics to get the transportation and the command over the local government.
If the tactics were clever enough, they could also use the opportunity to weaken Poland. As long as a large number of men and women were killed or injured, Poland would be powerless to stop the momentum of the merger of the two countries after the war.
Prime Minister Felix: “It is not only the Poles who want war, the Prussian region’s voice is in the hands of the Junker nobility, and their desire to fight is very strong.
The victory in the last war has made many of them become oblivious. If this war is another easy victory for them, it is expected that some will want to challenge us.”
To a Greater Germanist, the Pupo Federation was a tumor. The stronger the Pupo Confederation became, the less chance Austria had of unifying the German region.
There was no way around it, a Prussian kingdom alone could still make them join the Shinra Empire, if they added another Poland, it would be too much to bear.
No matter what kind of change in Austria’s state policy, Felix’s belief in unifying the German region never changed.
Even in his seventies, Felix still insisted on visiting all the states in Germany once a year to preach the idea of “Greater Germany”.
This was obviously not what the governments of these states wanted to see. If Austria hadn’t been so dominant that the vested interests needed a way out, Félix would have been rejected.
Franz smiled slightly, “Don’t worry, my Prime Minister. The Russians are no soft touch, and this war is not going to end anytime soon.
Britain and France support the Commonwealth of Pupo, we support the Russian Empire, both sides want money and supplies, and in the end the fight is about people.
The PBF officers have better command ability, and the infrastructure in the country is more complete; the Russians have a large land area and a large population. Both sides have their own advantages, there is something to fight for in this war.”
A war of equal strength is often also the most brutal. For the sake of everyone’s common interests, Britain, France and Austria would not let them end the war easily.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, before the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, the Berlin government not only sold off the only piece of colony it had, but also sold off all of its colonial strongholds overseas one after another.
The buyers were all French, even if higher prices had been offered. All indications are that there is an unknown deal between Prussia and France.
During William I’s visit to Paris, the Austrian threat theory was also raised. The Foreign Office believes that the secret pact between Prussia and France should be directed against us.”
This secret pact stuff is the biggest headache of all. It was always Franz who played with secret pacts to fool people, and it didn’t occur to him that the wind and water had turned, and now it was his turn to worry about it.
After contemplating for a moment, Franz waved his hand, “Forget about the Franco-Prussian secret treaty, before the end of the Russo-Prussian war, even if they want to target us, they don’t have the strength to do so.
The French economy is already in trouble, and if their African development program fails, the Paris government’s good days will be over.”
Ever since Napoleon III annexed the Italian regions, Franz had taken the French threat down two notches. The Italian regions appeared to be a fat piece of meat, but in reality they were just a shiny exterior.
In the industrial age, resources are indispensable for development. The Italian region happens to be the most resource-poor region in Europe, and the French want to digest the place and solve the resource problem first.
Unfortunately, the French resources are not rich, their own development are not enough. Not enough to use that can only be imported, now the “Great France” every year to import a large number of industrial raw materials.
Since 1870, France has been in a trade deficit. If the franc can become a world currency, a little deficit can be easily made up.
Unfortunately, under the pressure of the pound and the guilder, the survival of the franc has been very small, more and more countries are not willing to reserve francs.
Against this background, the outflow of gold and silver was naturally unstoppable. Fortunately, in this era, there are many countries that directly use gold and silver as currency, with a thick family, the Paris government by selling silver to erase the deficit.
This situation is obviously unsustainable, in front of the French government only two ways, either increase exports, or reduce imports.
Increase exports do not have to think about, because the relationship between the cost of industrial production, the French industrial and commercial products in the international market has been uncompetitive.
If exports cannot be increased, imports can only be reduced. Development of the African continent, is in this context became the national policy of the Paris government.
Of course, this development and the development of Austria is not the same, the French just want to establish a raw material production area, but not ready to localization.
……
At Versailles, the news of the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War reached Napoleon IV, who immediately decided to celebrate the good news with a banquet.
It had been longed for, but it had finally arrived. In recent years, the French economy had hit a bottleneck and had been in a slump for several years.
Minister of Economy Elsa: “Your Majesty, the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for domestic industry and commerce, and it is equally accompanied by a crisis.
The profit that can be gained from investing in the North African colonies is too little compared to the gains brought by the war. If we can’t solve this problem, I’m afraid that our plan to develop the African continent will be aborted once again.”
Development is inseparable from capital, and without sufficient capital investment, the African continent development program naturally cannot proceed.
Originally, the French capitalists were not interested in developing the colonies, only because of the surplus of capital in the country, there were not enough investment projects. It was only with the government’s continuous efforts that some of them were barely persuaded to invest in the colonies.
Now it was different, the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, a new opportunity to get rich appeared again.
Anyone with a bit of political savvy knew that this war was not going to end anytime soon. Anyone who invested in war-related fields would be able to make a handsome return.
Instead of investing in colonies with no return in sight, it was better to stay and make a fortune from the war. In the face of profit, everyone knew what to choose.
Napoleon IV’s good mood was instantly gone. The African strategy was of great importance to the French economy, and the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War meant that all the efforts they had made in the early stages were all for naught.
……
(End of chapter)