Chancellor Bismarck has been troubled in recent days.

On the one hand, because of his eldest son Herbert, the relationship problem that made him sad, the old prime minister really couldn't figure out what was wrong with his son's head, and at the beginning of the year, he suddenly became madly infatuated with a woman ten years older than him, and Countess Elisabeth Boyten, who was also a married woman.

Frankly speaking, although the Countess of Boyten is forty years old, she is indeed a beautiful woman with a lot of charm, and she is a recognized beauty in Berlin's social circles, and she has always been gentle and lovely, and is loved by many people.

It's one thing to fall in love with Countess Boyten, it's another thing to pursue Countess Boyten, Herbert you can love Countess, but you can't say you want to marry her, right?!

And if it weren't for the vacancy in the position of director of the Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this time, there would be fierce competition among several powerful people, especially the Philipp Chu Oylenburg Hertfeld from Prokolwitz, East Prussia, who was also Herbert's most important competitor, and said it in public at a recent party, and this terrible love story probably could not reach the ears of the old prime minister.

"I leaked my mouth in public, and apologized to me in public for this, this Philip Chu Oylenburg Hertfeld is really a scheming guy, for fear that Herbert's scandal will not spread big enough." Prime Minister Bismarck sneered.

"Philipp Oylenburg has always kept a low profile in the Foreign Office, so why did he compete with Holpot for the position of chief of staff this time?" Bismarck struck a match and was about to smoke a cigarette, and through the gray smoke rising from the match, the old chancellor seemed to see a man's face, "Hehe, Mr. Coyote, you are the mastermind behind this matter of Philipp Oylenburg..... Owl, is it really a good match for you, the coyote? ”

The flame of the match quickly touched Bismarck's fingers, and in a moment of pain, the Prime Minister threw away the match, and a wave of anger rose out of thin air, and he cursed angrily, "If it weren't for the fact that you bastard left so many flaws in his political enemies, they would have found you!" I want to marry the Countess of Boyten, but there is no door! Annoyed with me, I will now go into the palace to see His Majesty the Emperor and ask to deprive you of the right of primogeniture!" I see that your brother William is much more mature than you in this regard! If this continues, I'll let William inherit my title!" ”

The Prime Minister didn't care, because the eldest son, who had quarreled with him for a few days and hadn't come home, could hear his angry scolding, and just wanted to vent the anger in his heart!

The Prime Minister, who had struck a match and lit a cigarette again, casually picked up the military briefings of the four eastern provinces bordering Russia from Prussia from the General Staff.

As the cover with the words "Top Secret Emergency" was opened, the Prime Minister's face turned cold.

"The General Staff conveyed to the Prime Minister that the Russian army had suddenly increased its garrison on the Russian side of the border with Germany for unknown motives. After a detailed investigation across the border, most of the Russian troops increased this time are the elite of the Russian army that participated in the Russian-Turkish war the year before last. At present, the motive of the Russian army is unknown, and it has not yet entered a state of combat readiness. The General Staff will report on further countermeasures after the war games. ”

"The Russians are going to war against Germany? Could it be that Emperor Alexander was going to challenge both Britain and Germany at the same time? Wait, could it be that the Russians, knowing that the German-Austrian pact was still stuck in His Majesty the Emperor, did not sign it, and wanted to carry out a military adventure against Germany in advance? ”

"Only a few people know that the emperor did not sign the agreement, is there anyone else who is providing information to the Russians, and the Orthodox prince has been expelled from the court?" The old prime minister was a little suspicious.

"The French are increasing their troops, the Russians are also increasing their troops, and France and Russia have really reached a secret agreement against Germany so quickly?" Chancellor Bismarck was a little nervous when he thought of this.

The core of the diplomacy of the continental alliance system pursued by Prime Minister Bismarck all his life was to isolate and oppose France, and now the French and suddenly the Russians have joined forces to play a joint military increase on the German border, which makes the Prime Minister unable to sit still.

Originally, every week the old prime minister would send back information about the tree stumps placed in Moscow, but since the beginning of March, when the Narodnik carried out an unsuccessful bomb attack on Alexander II in St. Petersburg, the Third Police Department in Moscow began to frantically arrest all kinds of dissidents, and piggyback on several tree stumps of the old prime minister in Moscow, so now the information from Moscow back to Berlin is intermittent.

But fortunately, the old chancellor's biggest stump in the Moscow court is still there, and Master Bismarck is not worried about not receiving information, it is only a matter of time or time.

The most important thing about some information is timeliness, and after a certain point in time, the value of intelligence is lost.

For example, this time the Russians increased their troops, the old prime minister needs to know whether Moscow's purpose is war or intimidation, if the Russians and France declare war on Germany, Moscow's intelligence will come again, even if this information comes from the highest level, after the time of the war, this information is of no value at all.

In order to protect this most important stump, Bismarck's initial decision was to contact him in a single line, and he could only contact the other party, not himself. As soon as he thought of this, the old prime minister was troubled again.

"Or, according to the crown prince's idea, try to reduce the grain tariffs of the Russians?" In the bottom of Prime Minister Bismarck's heart, an idea suddenly popped up.

At the Crown Ball, at the Crown Ball, Crown Prince Frederick floated the idea of reducing tariffs on Russian grain, reducing them to 75 years ago. But this idea was immediately rejected by Prime Minister Bismarck, who was counting on high tariffs as a means of pressuring the Russians into the Triple Alliance.

Of course, as a result of mutual exchange and compromise among politicians, Bismarck immediately agreed to reduce the price of grain in several countries, except Russia, to the level of tariffs before 75 years.

The cooperation between the old prime minister and Frederick in the past few weeks, although there were differences, was generally pleasant. One of the most important reasons is the crown prince's respect for the power of the old prime minister, the crown prince has never used his status to report directly to his father across the old prime minister, and all official affairs are reported to the old prime minister one by one in accordance with the regulations of the bureaucracy.

The old prime minister also respected the scope of the crown prince's work and did not criticize the work of the Ministry of Economy.

Because of mutual respect, even if the political views are different, the work cooperation between the two is smooth, and the old prime minister will first seek the opinion of the crown prince when he encounters trouble.

Now I can't figure out what Alexander II's army build-up is thinking, and there is no reliable source of information, as a mature and sophisticated diplomat, he always has to find a way to test the reaction of the other side. At least throw a bait to make the opponent hesitate, as long as the opponent hesitates, Prime Minister Bismarck will naturally have the space and time to flicker and maneuver, and make precise diplomatic responses and adjustments.

The method proposed by the crown prince before now seems to be a good bait.

After all, as a five-ball acrobatic master, no matter how difficult and thrilling the scene is, Bismarck will not let the five balls in his hand fall to the ground.

At Easter, Prime Minister Bismarck was troubled, while French President Grevy was happy.

Ever since Grevy received a message from Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov that the Russians had already assembled 40 divisions and about 400,000 troops on the eastern border of Germany, Russia had fulfilled ahead of schedule the promise made to the French after the Berlin Conference last year.

"Now the French have to fulfill their promise to Russia, and the low-interest loan of 2 billion francs to Russia must be completed by June of this year, otherwise..." Looking at the straightforward words of Gorchakov without any diplomatic tactful words in the diplomatic cable, Grevi understood that if he could not get together the low-interest loan requested by the Russians by June, the opportunity he had always dreamed of breaking Bismarck's policy of continental alliance would slip away.

Two billion francs is not a small amount, it is equivalent to half of France's GDP in 1879. It's money that Grever wants to pay for, but it's not easy to pay.

(According to the French, during the 30 years from 1887 to 1917, Russia had an outstanding loan of about 30 billion US dollars to France, which was about 150 billion francs according to the gold content of the gold standard at that time, which means that the French gave Russia an annual reparation of 5 billion francs for the Franco-Prussian War during these 30 years...) Taking into account the actual economic strength of the French and their bragging nature, I feel that it is appropriate to reduce the amount of loans to Russia. In addition, in 1880 France's GDP was about 820 million US dollars, about 4.1 billion francs)

The French Finance Minister Leon Sey, who was sitting opposite the president, also had a sad face, the Russians were so desperate to eat France alive that the Russians were trying to eat France alive, and his own president was hinting at himself in and out of his words that he must find a way to meet all the demands of the Russians.

"Your Excellency, you mean to satisfy the Russians at all costs, don't you?" The Lyon-Serbs finance minister cautiously probed.

"Yes, Leon." Grevy decided not to go around in circles with his finance minister anymore.

The Minister of Finance of Lyon-Ser is a veteran of the French Third Republic, starting with the first president, Louis-Adolfo Thiers, as the Minister of Finance of the Cabinet, and by the time Grevy became president, he was already in and out of the French Ministry of Finance, and had the most say in the current state of the French economy.

"Leon, I can make my attitude clear, must, must, must take advantage of this opportunity for the Russians to ask us for money, and seize them!" Grevy changed his attitude of cherishing words like gold, and used three adjectives in succession to emphasize again and again.

With the president's clear attitude, the Minister of Finance of Lyon-Serbia thought for a moment and said directly, "Your Excellency, if you want to scrape together this money, there is no way. On the one hand, it is necessary to ask the domestic borrowing bank capitalists to solve part of it, and on the other hand, you need to reduce the government's expenditure. For example...."

"Leon, please speak up."

"Your Excellency, you need to suspend the military operation against Annan, as well as the military operation of the Republic against Tunisia, and the construction of exploration colonies in Africa, which need to be suspended." The Minister of Finance of Lyon-Ser said bluntly.

"Cancel? Can it be kept? Lyon, you need to know that these actions are essential for the Republic. Vice Admiral Reggieberry, Minister of the Navy and Colonies, asked anxiously.

"If these are retained, then the size of the army on the Franco-German front will have to be controlled, or even reduced." The Minister of Finance of Lyon-Serbia offered another approach.

Vice Admiral Reggie Berry bowed his head after glancing at President Grevy.

"Dear general, if the Russians had not carried out a surprise attack, but could have advanced by a fiscal year, I could have met the Russians' demands with an appropriate budget plan, but so suddenly, the government's emergency fund budget to be honest simply does not have so much, and there is." The Minister of Finance of Lyon-Serbia tried to calm the mood, then turned his head to President Grevy.

"Actually, the borrowing capitalists in Paris and Lyon can afford to borrow money, but they won't come up with it without the endorsement of the government, that is, without the government coming forward to take on a certain amount of money. So ......"

"So, the government has to pay for it." Grevi said in a deep voice.

The Minister of Finance of Leon-Cypriot nodded silently.

"But Your Excellency the President, Annan, Tunisia, and Africa are important links in the colonization plan of the Republic, and if the funds are taken away, then the goals set for this year will not be carried out at all." Vice Admiral Reggie Berry raised his head, still fighting tirelessly.

"Leon, if the Russians always have similar demands every year, how long will it take for you to balance the budget and support General Reggieberry's plan?" Grevi asked with some difficulty.

The Minister of Finance of Lyon-Cypriot held his head and thought carefully for a long time, and said slowly, "Your Excellency, it will take 3-4 years to balance the budget. ”

"2 years, Lyon, in two years the budget must be balanced." Grevi said unquestioningly.