As President Louis-Bonaparte and his entourage left Fort Sirte, the rain that had been brewing for a long time finally fell. Heavy dark clouds had covered the whole sky, and the earth had become gloomy, and although it was only about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it seemed like evening.

The dripping raindrops dripping from the sky to the ground, and the sound of rain all around, Charles held an umbrella and followed the future emperor step by step in as much as possible.

Because the leader has not spoken, the entourage has also been silent, and the group of people walking in the rain is both silent and a little indescribably depressed.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Louis Bonaparte finally spoke.

"Charles, I'll leave for Paris tomorrow, and you'll be left alone to handle the rest of the inspection." He looked at the field in front of him and said in an unquestioning tone.

“…… Absolutely, if you wish. Charles replied quickly, and then he stole a glance at the other, "But what happened to make it worth changing your schedule like this?" ”

"I have just received news that the Prussian minister wants to make an urgent appointment with me." Louis Bonaparte replied indifferently, "in order to find out the attitude of our country." ”

"What's wrong?" Charles didn't figure out the situation for a moment.

"How can they not be in a hurry?" Louis Bonaparte asked rhetorically, "The situation in Hesse is now on the verge of breaking out, and if one is not careful, there may be a fight between Prussia and Austria next year." In this case, of course, they want to know what France thinks. ”

Then. An almost imperceptible smile appeared on his face, "Charles, now that someone in all of Europe is finally willing to listen to us......"

Prussia and Austria were about to fight because of Hesse.

Charles immediately understood what was going on - the Hesse-Kassel crisis in Germany in 1849.

This has a long history.

The county of Hesse was an important vassal domain in Germany. After the death of Philip I in 1567, the counties of Hesse were divided according to the ancient rules of inheritance distribution, resulting in four distinct noble domains: Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels. Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels, who had no descendants until 1604, were left with only two tribes, Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel, who fought against each other for a long time in ancient times, and fought each other on different sides during the Thirty Years' War.

However, this crisis has nothing to do with the ancient clan hatred, which is a problem of the new era, a problem of the modern era, not the feudal era.

To put it simply. Even the successive rulers of the Hesse-Kassel county had a very bad relationship with their people, so the Hessian people accumulated great resentment over the centuries - more notably, during the American Revolution. Ludwig II, Count of Hesse-Kassel at the time, accepted the money from the British, sent nearly 30,000 people to the British to suppress the mob, and finally nearly 8,000 died in a foreign land, and then he himself withheld the lion's share of the £500,000 gratuity.

This hatred mentality. After the French Revolution, it was more and more ignited. Napoleon elevated Hesse-Kassel from a county to an elector in 1803 (and another county of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a duchy by Napoleon in 1806), and sent the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Napoleonic Code, much to the headache of the German lords.

Although Napoleon soon died out, the ignited sense of civil rights was eventually retained. In 1831, encouraged by the news of the overthrow of the Bourbons in France in 1830, the Hessians also took action, eventually forcing the then Elector of Hesse, Wilhelm II, into exile (regent of his son Friedrich Wilhelm I) and promulgating a new constitution. greatly limited the ruling power of the electors.

In 1848, inspired again by the February Revolution in France. The Hessians made another fuss, and only then did Friedrich Wilhelm I be forced to promise to promulgate a more liberal constitution again, which calmed the commotion a little. However, having bought time, the Elector appealed directly to the Austrian Empire, asking for their help in subduing the mob and cancelling the previous 1831 constitution.

At this time, Austria had recovered from the paralysis of the Revolution of 1848 with the help of Russian bayonets, and the new monarch Franz Joseph was quite ambitious to re-establish the Austrian Empire in Germany, so he agreed to the request of the Elector of Hesse and prepared to send troops to help suppress the mob.

Because the old German Federal Parliament was swept away by the revolutionary wave, the general centre of the whole German Confederation ceased to exist. Under these circumstances, the Austrian emperor wanted to restore the old parliament in Frankfurt, where its influence had always been overwhelming, and the Elector of Hesse agreed to Austria's request in exchange for Austrian support.

At the same time, Prussia, another powerful state of Germany, was also on the verge of a rivalry with Austria, and they sought to establish a Northern Alliance in Erfurt, using it to serve their own interests and bring it under their direct control. In order to resist Austrian influence, the Hessian parliament decided to join this new imperial assembly in order to defend the constitution.

In this way, Austria supported the Elector of Hesse, Prussia supported the Hessian Parliament, and the two giants of Germany began to collide head-on.

Of course, Prussia did not support the Hessian parliament in order to defend the liberal constitution of Hesse, in fact they hated so-called liberalism more than anyone else. The reason for this was only to weaken Austrian influence in Germany. Thus, the Hessian constitution became the slogan of the struggle between Austria and Prussia.

"Now the situation is getting more and more critical." Looking at the mist in the distance, Louis Bonaparte said flatly. "According to the information just received, the Austrian army and the Prussian army have been assembled separately on the Hessian border. Faced with such a grim situation, they began to have to think about the worst-case scenario. It is not surprising, then, that the major European powers were consulted about their attitudes. ”

Despite the tense situation, Charles could see that Louis Bonaparte was happy now - what could be happier than the bad luck of his neighbors?

Of course, he was even happier that after decades of obscurity, he finally ...... Finally he got to the point where his personal opinion could affect the situation in Europe as a whole, although this was only the beginning.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Charles asked in a low voice.

"I will encourage Prussia and support them to continue to fight Austria." Louis Bonaparte replied without thinking. "It would be better if we could fight, if they lose both, it will be much easier for us to act in the future."

"You want to support Prussia?" Charles's hand trembled slightly. Fortunately, I didn't let the raindrops hit each other.

"Yes, we need to weaken Austria, and if Prussia can help, then it doesn't hurt to support it. But ......" The future emperor shook his head. It seems to be very regrettable. "We can't afford to bet much in Europe right now, and we still have a lot of things to do at home. So I can only verbally encourage them, and I really hope that my words will give them confidence! ”

But they didn't fight.

Despite the instigation of Louis Bonaparte, the Prussians did not dare to risk a showdown for the time being, because Austria still seemed to be strong, because Russia would show its support for Austria later.

Historically, Prussians would eventually retreat and give in to pressure, and Prussian Chancellor von Mantoifer met with Austrian Chancellor, Duke Schwarzenburg, in Olimütz on 29 November 1850. Bending to him on his knees and suing for peace, he completely abandoned the demand for Prussia's policy of independence and self-determination on all matters concerning the Parliament, Hesse-Gassell, and Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia abandoned its own plans to form a confederation. Rejoined the Imperial Diet in Frankfurt. The Hessian crisis was resolved by the way Prussia betrayed its own supporters.

It wasn't until 1866 that Prussia, already full-fledged, finally had a showdown with Austria over German dominance, and then they crushed the Austrian Empire in seven weeks, getting what they wanted. Then the entire territory of the Elector of Hesse was annexed. At that time, the Hessians no longer had to worry about a constitutional crisis, because they did not have a Hessian constitution at all.

"As you say, we need the Germans to fight each other, but I personally feel that the Prussians will not act because of your encouragement, and Austria will hold a grudge against you, which is nothing for our diplomacy" Charles said cautiously, abandoning his recollection of history for a moment, "so I don't think we need to be too hostile to the Austrians......"

"Oh, I'll pay attention to the scale, so I don't get too nervous about the adults in Vienna." Louis Bonaparte waved his hand nonchalantly, "However, we should also stimulate them and let them know that the Bonapartes are not easy to mess with." I don't like the haughty appearance of those old and dilapidated aristocrats! ”

"If we get too excited, we may lose hope of friendship with Austria......" reassured, Charles repeatedly.

"So what? Who is afraid of them? Louis Bonaparte interrupted Charles directly, "My uncle was always beaten by the Austrians, and he was lucky at that time, and when he married an Austrian woman, he was doomed!" What's the point of making friends with the Austrians? The Habsburgs only deserved to be beaten a few times with our horsewhips, and only then did we have friendship! ”

Mr. President's rare harsh words made Charles not know how to answer for a while, so he had to choose silence. It seems that it was indeed difficult to persuade him to keep his calm sanity on the Austrian question.

Because of his early experiences in Italy, Louis Bonaparte hated the Austrians so much that his brother even died because of the Austrians; Later, he became emperor of France, but the Habsburg royal family still looked down on him and refused to give him enough respect, so this hatred was doubled.

Driven by this hatred, he had always had a bad relationship with Austria. Eventually, in 1859 he went to war with the Austrian Empire, allied himself with the Kingdom of Sardinia and sent troops to Italy to attack the Austrians, but at the cost of 60,000 casualties, he did little good, allowing the Kingdom of Sardinia to gain all of Northern Italy except Venice, while weakening the Austrians and heading for the catastrophe of 1866.

Eventually, it also led France to the catastrophe of 1870.

It may sound implausible that politicians make bad decisions because of their personal feelings, but it has happened many times throughout history, even if it is as shrewd as Louis Bonaparte, it is difficult to avoid vulgarity - people are really complicated. Charles sighed softly inwardly.

Judging by Louis Bonaparte's expression, Charles knew that he had made up his mind, and there was no point in continuing, so he could only keep silent.

"Okay, we don't need to talk about this now, I know you like to pay attention to these foreign affairs, but you are now the state secretary of the Ministry of Railways, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I think you should do your job better than foreign affairs, and other people will take care of foreign affairs, believe them."

Perhaps discovering that the conversation with his cronies had fallen into an unpleasant atmosphere, Louis Bonaparte softened his tone and smiled again, "But I really didn't see it, you who were aggressive about reforming the old European system a while ago have become so cautious today, and you are telling me to be cautious, haha, Charles, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't believe that you said it." Don't worry, I won't overstimulate them, and now that the country has not been sorted out, how can I have the time to pay attention to Europe? ”

"I'm just worrying too much." Charles took the ladder handed by Louis Bonaparte, "I beg your pardon. ”

Talented people generally believe in their talents, especially after they have reached the top step by step.

Well, while the Hessian crisis will be resolved peacefully, what about the future? Will he agree with my diplomatic philosophy? Can I really change the preconceptions that have long been ingrained in the hearts of such a person?

If not, then what?

The rain became heavier and heavier, and the rain lingered along the umbrella, forming a curtain of water, and despite wearing a rather thick double-breasted coat, Charles still felt a trace of cold air drilling straight into his body, and for a while he secretly shivered. (To be continued......)