The cooperation between France and Austria has taken many countries by surprise. From a general point of view, the country on the European continent that posed the greatest threat to French hegemony was Austria. According to this view, France should make every effort to exploit the natural weakness of Austria as a multi-ethnic state, to support the civil strife in Austria, preferably by dissolving Austria, so that France's superiority in Europe would be unshakable.

However, the French chose to support the Austrian government in this incident, and seemed to have given up the opportunity to dismember Austria, which made many politicians on paper very disappointed, and some British newspapers even said with joy and disdain that Napoleon Bonaparte was attracted by the small interests in front of him and let go of the golden opportunity, which shows that although he is indeed worthy of the reputation of "Anglobelar" on the battlefield, he is too naïve politically.

Of course, the French press would never attack their leaders in this way, but their rebuttal can only be made from the point of view of virtue. French newspapers have said that this proves that France is a great peace-loving country and a pillar force for maintaining world peace, and it is not an aggressive bad thing like Britain.

When it comes to this issue, in general, it is Science and Pravda that is at the highest level. Science and Pravda does not deny that the French government should work hard to safeguard French interests. But it points out that France's interests lie not only in these visible things. For France, something invisible, intangible, is more precious. That is the spirit of the French Republic.

"What is the spirit of France? It is an insistence on the spirit of 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'fraternity'. It was in this spirit that the French people united and established the great French Republic. This spirit is the foundation of the French nation, the banner and the bond that unites the French people. There is no greater good for France than to preserve this spirit. Of course, this kind of truth cannot be understood by some people who are full of just vulgar interests.

It is true that Austria was not a progressive country that met this criterion, and was much more reactionary than the Republic of Northern Italy and the Rhine Union. From our point of view, it still retains too many feudal and backward things. But what is it that stands on the opposite side of Austria in this case?

We must not think that if we want to oppose a reactionary and backward thing, it must be an advanced and progressive force. Very often, it is entirely possible that it is a more reactionary, more backward force. What are the demands of the Hungarian nobles who rebelled? It's not about democracy, it's about freedom, it's about 'preserving traditions'! To put it more clearly, it is to maintain their privilege as nobles to ride on the heads of the people and to be powerful; It is to maintain the privilege of being able to do whatever you want in your own territory, and even bathe yourself with the blood of a virgin! (This is an allusion to the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, the predecessor of the Bathory family.) It is said that in order to maintain her beauty, she killed hundreds of virgins and bathed them in their blood. The mini-boss in the game Diablo 2, the countess in the Tower of Oblivion is based on her)

Therefore, the actions of the Hungarian aristocracy were outright rebellions, and it was a threat not only to the interests of the Hungarian people at large, but also to the interests of the people of Austria, but also to the interests of all the freedom-loving peoples of the world, and to the creed on which France was founded. Therefore, our support for the Austrian Emperor to quell this rebellion was ultimately and primarily for the preservation of our faith, which is France's most cherished treasure. ”

The article in Science and Pravda is not entirely high-profile, because "democracy, freedom, fraternity" is indeed one of France's most cherished treasures. Joseph, in a conversation with his two younger brothers, divided the power of the country into two parts. Part of it is the hard power of the country, including economic capacity, industrial level, and the strength of the army. The other is what he calls soft power, that is, the influence of French culture, art and even ideology on other countries.

"Mr. Mencius has said: 'If all the aspirants of politics in the world wish to be officials in your country, and those who farm wish to farm in your country, and the merchants who trade in your country wish to do business in your market, and those who travel wish to walk in the way of your country, and the people who have been maimed by the king of their country wish to come to you and complain to their king: who else can stand against you if you think so?'

When we fought the Austrians in Italy, the Italian people were on our side and helped us in every way, which was an important reason why we were able to win like a storm. And in Belgium, the Belgian people originally welcomed us with bread and beer, and if it weren't for the nonsense of those fools, we would have defeated them in '93. Why are we so welcomed by these foreigners? This is the role of our slogan, our flag, our soft power. We should cherish our soft power and not destroy it because of a small profit, so that we can continue to cultivate more and more people in other countries who are willing to lead our armies in the event of war. Well, Lucien, that's the core task of your job. ”

Therefore, France's actions are indeed in line with the character of "progress". A country can also be set up, and a successful set can bring a lot of invisible and long-term benefits. Of course, the character is also very fragile, even if it is the country's personality, if you are not careful, there is a person who understands the king, plus a staff member who loves to say nonsense such as "We lie, we cheat, we steal, this is the glory of our continuous progress", the country's personality will also collapse. The result is often picking up sesame seeds, shaking watermelons, so that opponents are eager to give them a one-ton medal.

However, maintaining the character design was not the whole reason why the French sided with the Austrians this time. There are more realistic and darker reasons for the French to do so this time.

In the first place, according to the research of the three brothers, they believed that on the European continent, in the long run, it was only the Germans who could pose a threat to the position of France. In general, the German nation has a large population and a good level of education, and if they are not divided, if they really integrate into one country and let a Germany appear in the world, then Germany will definitely become a challenger to the position of France.

Germany is now divided into three parts, the Rhine Union, Prussia and Austria. Both the Rhine Union and Prussia were Protestant, while Austria was Catholic. Therefore, although the Rhine League is now an ally of France, whether they will come together with Prussia in the future, or even make a Germany, is a question that France needs to worry about, of course, in the current situation, France can rely on its own hard power to prevent all this. But in doing so, it will collapse the character of France. So, in order to maintain the division of Germany, France did not want to weaken Austria too much.

In addition, Austria was riddled with internal contradictions, and in order to maintain the empire and compete with North Germany, the Habsburgs had to become more and more dependent on France, and then they would become the spokesmen of French interests, or, more specifically, "compradors".

Taken together, these are the reasons why France has taken such actions, and as for the tricks of the Austrian national debt, it is basically nothing more than a rabbit in the grass.