Chapter 733: The Vienna Peace Conference and the Sinkhole

  Chapter 716 The Vienna Peace Conference and the Sinkhole

In a sense, the refugee crisis also pushed the course of the Russo-Prussian War. After replenishing his establishment, Mauch hastily launched a counterattack.

There was no way, if they didn’t fight now, they would be even less able to fight later. Originally counting on the refugees to slow down the Russians, it did not occur to them that this trouble followed them all the way back.

The Russians didn’t launch an immediate attack, and in addition to resting their troops, they were more constrained by logistics. Ivanov was a prudent commander, and was determined not to advance the battle until the logistics were in place.

No matter how much the Berlin government mobilized, the population had already determined the upper limit. After losing most of its territory, Prussia was left with a population of more than 10 million, and all those who could carry a gun went to war.

The longer the war dragged on, the better it was for the Russians.

Of course, this was only military. Economically the Tsar’s government could not hold out much longer, and if Ivanov had not insisted, the Russians would have attacked.

These insider information, naturally, is not something that Mauch can know. Even if they knew, it was practically useless, they still had to fight.

Just because the government doesn’t have any money doesn’t mean that it really can’t get any money. At the time of crisis, tearing down the east wall to mend the west wall can also be an emergency.

The Russian Empire’s bottom is thick, as long as they are willing to pay the price, a few months of war funding can still be put together.

Mauch’s efforts were not in vain, and the Prussian army successively defeated the Russian Tenth Army, which threatened Berlin, the Russian Third Army and Sixth Army, which drove the refugees, and severely wounded the Russian Eighth Army and Ninth Army, which were stationed in the Poznan area.

Without looking at the overall battlefield, no one could believe that the Prussian Army, with such a formidable record, was actually dying.

In just two months’ time, Mauch had inflicted over half a million casualties on the Russians. As the price of victory, the Prussian army also paid nearly three hundred thousand casualties.

With a limited difference in the fighting strength of the soldiers, as the attacking side, it was tactically impeccable to be able to strike a 3:5 exchange ratio.

However, the tactical victory still could not make up for the strategic loss.

The Russians were not passive, and Ivanov placed the battlefield in East Prussia, where Russian superiority was even more pronounced. As for the Russians who fought Mauch, their only task was to slow down the main Prussian army.

On March 18, 1880, after nearly 300,000 casualties, the Battle of East Prussia ended in a Russian victory.

This was only the beginning; after losing the hard-earned East Prussia, West Prussia could not hold back the Russians, and the battle continued to burn in the heart of the Kingdom of Prussia.

……

In the Vienna Palace, putting down the war report in his hand and looking at the map of the Kingdom of Prussia, Franz knew that it was time for the Russo-Prussian War to end.

The Kingdom of Prussia has been weakened almost, the Rhineland was sold to the German Confederation, the Silesia region was sold to Austria, and the Prussian Saxony region was also sold.

Now the Poznan region fell into the hands of the Russians, the region of East Prussia was lost, most of West Prussia was lost, Pomerania was reduced to a battlefield, and the roots of the Junker nobility were hit hard.

The continuation of this war no longer made sense for Austria. If we don’t stop the war, the Russians will drink from the Oder River, which is not what Franz wants to see.

“What is the internal situation of Prussia and Russia?”

Wanting to intervene, it was natural to first figure out the respective situation of Prussia and Russia. Franz had an intelligence organization that had gotten the information early on, only that it was unseen.

Intelligence organizations that frequently appeared in people’s sight, then it was not an intelligence organization, it was more appropriate to become a government department.

Franz has always downplayed the existence of the intelligence organization, except for a few top government officials and big nobles, others simply do not know that there is a secret intelligence organization in the hands of the emperor.

Even if they knew, not many people took it seriously, after all, this organization was too low-key, so low-key that it was able to make people forget.

For so many years, in addition to collecting intelligence, Franz almost never use this secret organization, the mission is also already exposed, and hung under the government’s intelligence organization is responsible for.

Like the Brocade Guards, no matter how important it was or how much it contributed to the country, as long as it threatened its own interests, if it couldn’t be kept in its own hands, the bureaucrats would find a way to bring it down.

Deliberately making things difficult and messing up is nothing, the trouble is planting evidence plus smearing, and then finally pressurizing public opinion to force the emperor to give up.

History tells Franz, in this issue of compromise on the emperor’s fate are not very good, whether Zhu Yunwen, or Zhu Yuchan, are ready-made examples of the opposite.

Public opinion kidnapping, moral attack, right? Well, I’ll just hide the intelligence organization. In normal times, we don’t even venture out, we just collect the black information of domestic bureaucrats and interest groups.

This black information is the ammunition, when the need arises, it can be thrown out to kill a large number of people.

In contrast, the overseas intelligence business could only be considered a side business, collecting some basic information was no problem, the real responsibility was the explicit intelligence organization, which was accountable to both the Emperor and the government.

Both for the sake of checks and balances, the same is also a practical need. Agents are also a high-risk industry, especially in overseas espionage activities, often need the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to come out to fish for people, less to deal with.

In addition, when conducting international diplomacy, intelligence is also needed to support. In order to cooperate with each other, overseas intelligence organizations are subordinate to the embassy.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied, “The situation in the Kingdom of Prussia is very bad, even after the expulsion of the refugees, the lives of the general public have been affected, and many people have to rely on wild carrots to feed themselves.

The news from the embassy is that this month alone the Berlin government has suppressed eight strikes and three revolutions, and the Kingdom of Prussia is now like a powder keg.

The Russian Empire is in slightly better shape, with victories on the battlefield masking the crisis to some extent, though labor conflicts at home are very serious.

In the past year, more than a hundred strikes have broken out one after another, and are literally on the verge of catching up with the French.

The winter just ended with more than fifty cities, including St. Petersburg, experiencing shortages of supplies of varying degrees.

In order to save coal, the inhabitants of St. Petersburg had to cook in several families, and in many districts there was a large family huddled together in one room to keep each other warm.”

The strikes in Russia had not attracted Franz’s attention, mainly because the presence of that French freak had refreshed his perceptions.

As it turned out, the French populace’s love of strikes had a historical legacy. Even now, when it was still the nineteenth century, the French populace loved the meaningful activity.

Unlike the latter days when there were many challengers, France was now perennially at the top of the world’s strike world with a high triple-digit number of strikes per year, and for the time being, there was no existence that could compete with them.

In all the years Franz has been on the throne, the sum total of strikes that have broken out in Austria may not even be able to match the number of strikes the French have in a year.

Of course, this is only a count of the number of strikes on a large scale, there must be more than a thousand people to participate in order to be counted, small-scale who do not know how many times a day will happen.

Thinking about it, France is now a combination of France and Italy, both have a lot of experience in strikes, it is normal to have more strikes.

The winter was over, the demand for supplies was declining, and the Tsarist government had passed its most dangerous moment.

The same could not be said of the government in Berlin, where the frequent revolts of the revolutionaries were a sign of the extreme weakness of Prussia at home.

War was not a problem, the Prussian people did not fear war under the system of “****ism”, provided that they were fed first.

Starvation that is never allowed, in front of their common enemy expulsion of refugees, it is not surprising, they are not enough to eat who would like a group of more to steal food?

Franz asked suspiciously: “Prussia has the Oder and Elbe rivers connected to us, the domestic railroad network is relatively complete, land and water can be, there should be no shortage of food right.

Holes, how much grain has the Berlin government purchased from us in recent months?”

After the sea route was cut off, the border with the Kingdom of Prussia was left with Austria, Denmark, and the German Confederation to trade with.

Undoubtedly, the Berlin government would definitely have to look for Austria if they wanted to import grain, and the other two would not have so much grain to sell to them.

Minister of Agriculture Hols: “After Christmas, we have exported 768,000 tons of agricultural products to the Kingdom of Prussia one after another, including 200,000 tons of flour, 300,000 tons of potatoes, 120,000 tons of corn, 20,000 tons of soybeans, and 30,000 tons of meat products ……”

Potato exports outnumbered flour, which Franz knew was a precursor to the collapse of the Prussian economy. Only if it really couldn’t hold out would there be mass purchases of cheaper potatoes.

Franz sighed, “There are still people hoarding at this time, William I’s control over the country is really not good, they didn’t lose this time.

Let’s have the Foreign Ministry intervene to mediate, the Kingdom of Prussia is about to hold out, and the Russians have eaten about as much as they can, I believe they will not refuse our mediation this time.

Seek to place this international conference in Vienna, we need to be seen now for our efforts to preserve the territorial integrity of the German region.”

The results and all that didn’t matter, it was enough to show everyone the efforts made by the government in Vienna.

War was a high-risk activity, and as the losing side, the Berlin government was sure to pay a terrible price this time.

This was something Franz was happy to see. Without a sense of crisis, how could the many states in the German region realize the importance of Austria?

The bullish Kingdom of Prussia, just to act as a negative example, to awaken the German people’s sense of crisis, so that the idea of great unity in the hearts of the people.

This is destined to the Vienna government will not be on behalf of the Prussian Kingdom of the aftermath of the debt owed to themselves to pay, a harsh armistice treaty is indispensable.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg asked uncertainly, “Your Majesty, it’s not good to throw out the British so early, is it?”

The government in London has been crying out for mediation, tossing it back and forth for months without a result.

It would be very much a slap in the face if, at this time, the Vienna government stepped in and achieved its goal.

This is not only a matter of face, but also involves international influence. It is conceivable that after the Vienna Peace Conference, the prestige of the British in Europe would hit rock bottom.

Franz shook his head: ”Sooner or later it will come to this. The opportunity that was sent to us, if we don’t take advantage of it to weaken the British, we don’t know when we will have to wait for the next time.

Don’t you think it’s a lot of fun to make the countries of Europe think that Britain is falling?

It’s time for that Napoleon IV, who has been holding back for so many years, to shine in his own light, and at this rate he’s probably going to suffocate himself.

You know, the London government is ready to merge Prussia and Germany to create a North Germany to fight against us. They have dared to go this far, it’s not too much to ask for a small counterattack from us!”

It’s not that Franz underestimated Napoleon IV, it’s mainly because the internal situation of France is really bad, and compared to Napoleon III, his control over the country is much weaker.

The last few years France fell off the map, not only because of the objective lack of resources, and the government’s economic policy changes are also directly related.

Sometimes the more you do, the more wrong you are. Is it good to develop North Africa? Adding a source of resources and a market for goods is of course great, the problem is that it has to be developed.

The government’s policies all look good, and many of them are based on the Austrian success story, but the key is that the situation is different.

First of all, the Paris government’s executive power is not enough, Napoleon IV does not have the prestige of a single word, and the French cabinet is even less efficient and synergistic.

This is the pit left by Napoleon III, although for Napoleon IV to take power to clear the obstacles, but the price to pay is the internal political struggle has escalated.

Napoleon IV’s lack of prestige, in order to grasp the power of the government, can only play a balancing act in the government, infighting has held back a large part of the French government’s energy.

Secondly, the problem of cultural tradition, both the French, or the Italians, by the influence of maritime civilization, are keen on business, no love for farming.

Even if you get people to the colony, they have to stay in the city, and too few people are willing to put down roots to open up the land for farming.

Capitalists are obviously not interested in remote colonies, even if they invest in colonies, they prefer mining, which is a profitable business.

Occasionally, there are a few that operate plantations, which are national treasures, and the number is too small.

People are impatient, everyone likes to chase overnight wealth, do not want to struggle little by little, hard work to get rich in France has no market.

The social environment is not one’s own strength can be reversed, can not change society, can only change themselves.

Napoleon IV, if the bumbling is okay, with the strong capital of France, to keep the current status of the big country no problem.

If you have ambition, it will be a tragedy. Ambition exceeds strength, will inevitably be beaten by society.

Looking at Franz’s expression, Weissenberg wanted to say something. He was tempted to say: the British plans are all out of Austrian indulgence.

To establish North Germany, not only Hanover and Prussia are enough, but also other German states must be brought together.

With the number of people involved, secrecy was naturally a joke.

Perhaps the British had not yet perceived the problem; after all, the government in London had done it really carefully this time. The targets were all states that were distant from Austria.

The plan has been carried out until now, all the people who know about it together are not necessarily more than thirty people, all of them are the absolute top of each country, there is no possibility of betrayal.

Theoretically as the master of the country, it is impossible to betray oneself. However, there are exceptions to everything, some people found that the North German market is not good, and want to leave themselves a way out then there is no way out.

If it had been the Prussian-German merger at its peak, Franz would have had to find a way to block it. However, the development has come to this point now, whether or not Prussia and Germany merge is no longer important.

The damage to the Kingdom of Prussia from this war was simply too great, losing a large amount of territory, population, and carrying a huge amount of debt, a complete mess.

If North Germany was formed, the central government wouldn’t have the energy to do anything else, they had to find a way to keep the Kingdom of Prussia alive first.

This is no joke, after the war the Kingdom of Prussia had a ton of orphans and widows, the economy was in shambles, and without an infusion of money they would have collapsed on their own.

You can’t count on the British at this point, they’re not in the business of charity. Really think they mean well by pounding North Germany, don’t even think about it.

In addition to the need to check Austria, I’m afraid that more is still in order to allow the Kingdom of Prussia’s debts to be properly honored, the former is just a slogan, the latter is what domestic interest groups need.

Just think of the huge debt carried by the Berlin government, Franz flinched, this time is really can not afford.

The debts of the British + the debts of other countries + the domestic debts + the pensions for soldiers’ casualties + the costs of reconstruction after the war, and perhaps even a Russian war reparation.

What a nice name for the North German Empire. Help the Berlin government pay off its debts first, or else what right did the Kingdom of Prussia have to come in and be a little brother?

One billion guilders, doesn’t seem to be enough to pay the debts of the British family; 2 billion guilders, still doesn’t seem to fill the hole; 3 billion guilders, probably enough, but who knows until the dust settles?

Three billion guilders, what is this concept?

The central government of the New Holy Roman Empire has a revenue of less than 200 million guilders, and fifteen years of revenue will not be enough to fill this huge hole.

Of course, this 3 billion guilders does not need to be paid at once, and it is the funds that need to be paid at the end after calculating the interest of the funds.

If it is the principal, not to mention the North Germany that has not yet been born, even the government of Vienna does not have the ability to take over.

Even if it could be amortized, the Berlin government would not be able to pay such a huge debt, which would require micromanagement.

What the Berlin government will do next, Franz’s almost clear. First of all the face is not to be, open full printing money, the use of inflation to wipe out the domestic debt.

International loans should also slowly grind down, and strive to make the debtor to forgive part of the interest, the best is only to repay the principal. The bonds issued are all deferred, when the money when to pay back.

Estimated to be able to cut half of the appearance of the Berlin government still can not afford to pay back, then only to let the central government share part of it.

The question was, would the other states be willing to pay for Prussia? When it comes to self-interest, what is the North German Empire?

(End of chapter)