The British fleet was ready, and after so much humiliation and defeat, London finally made a move that the whole world was watching! Attacking the shores of France, they were to use this declaration of war to preserve the last dignity of Great Britain. Knowing that the Germans might join the war, and waiting for themselves.

Some have likened Britain's declaration of war to a heroic tragedy. Before France formed an alliance with Germany, the British were a well-deserved super-empire, and no one dared to quarrel with him. However, since France and Germany secretly concluded an alliance behind their backs, everything has changed. The sudden handshake of centuries-old feud caught Prime Minister Gladstone off guard, and she originally thought that the mainland policy would continue for hundreds of years, but she did not expect to suddenly go bankrupt in her own hands.

It doesn't matter if they go bankrupt, they still have a strong army to rely on.

At this time, Great Britain was still a powerful maritime empire, destroyers, ironclads, battleships. The strength of thousands of large and medium-sized warships makes any country in the world feel afraid, but the rising stars are constantly catching up with the sunset, although so far, the combined fleet of France and Germany has not been able to organize the momentum of a war with Britain, but they know that if the two countries are brought to the side at this time, they will surpass and replace London's naval position.

Prime Minister Gladstone did not want to see that happen, let alone let the century-old glory of Great Britain be buried in his own hands.

The fleet prepared to cross the channel and head for the French coastline at the other end. There, they will encounter the most powerful Rhine legions, and a fierce battle will be fought in a decisive manner.

The usually noisy Congress was surprisingly unanimous at this time, they believed that the mighty British army would defeat France like crushing an ant, and those unfounded ideas did not need to be considered at all, and the Tuileries Palace could not defeat Britain if it was arrogant, not even the Bourbons, and they could not do it.

Only a part of the sober people realized that this war would bring great disaster to Britain, not to mention the question of winning or losing, how to fight against Germany's million-dollar army alone was enough of a headache.

More consideration is that this one may be the turning point for Britain to turn from prosperity to decline, losing the war is small, and losing a large number of colonies is the defeat that they really can't accept!

After all, the war of 1870 shocked the whole of Europe, and an endless stream of Krupp steel cannons flooded every inch of France's territory! And to deal a fatal blow to their army, when the whole world thought that the French would win, Bismarck taught them a lesson, and deprived France of the advantage it had maintained for centuries.

And the shock brought by this absolute crushing strength has continued to this day, and they all think that Germany at this time is invincible, if Germany plus France? That's enough to push the whole of Europe.

Britain is now challenging the European order.

Going all out against the French is abusive, but with the addition of a German, it becomes a hellish challenge.

The battleship gradually sailed out of the harbor, and finally slowly disappeared into the blue of the sea and sky. Prime Minister Gladstone stood on the pier, looking worriedly at the sea level.

"The future of Great Britain is on the stake of this battle. This invasion war was only a temptation, and if the war was unfavorable, it would immediately retreat, and anyway, on the sea, the British fleet had no opponent. ”

This is the safest and most compromise plan given by the War Department, if you win the war, you will fight, if you don't win, you will flee, you must preserve your strength, and you must avoid a tug-of-war, otherwise it is very likely that Germany will cut off the retreat from behind, and then it will be very embarrassing.

In the end, Galanz also agreed to this battle plan with compromises and concessions to the prime minister, they were supposed to be the most powerful empire, but after revealing the powerful coat, there was a thin torso inside.

"Napoleon, Napoleon, this time, I hope Lady Luck won't be on your side again."

In the Tuileries Palace, Napoleon was looking at another plan. It's about how to draw Alexander III into the fray. Although Tsarist Russia at this time was still burdened with billions of francs in foreign debt, it would still be difficult to pull the Russians into the game if they relied on this tightly.

Time was running out for Napoleon, and he had to think of a plan as soon as possible. Let the Russians get in.

By this time, Pan-Slavism had begun to emerge in the Balkans, and in 1878 Serbia gained full independence with the assistance of Russia, and in 1882 it became a kingdom. In 1878, according to the Treaty of Berlin, the city was given to Austria-Hungary. The Serbs believed that Austria-Hungary was not qualified to rule the Slavs, and that the Slavs should have Slavic autonomy. So they felt very disgusted and disgusted with Vienna, and coupled with the policy of national favoritism, the Serbs were oppressed by the Hungarians, and they began to look for a way out.

For example, independence from Vienna rule.

If you want to cause a conflict, you must start from this point and plan a remake of the Sarajevo incident to detonate the conflict between the Slavs and the Germanic peoples, as for the truth? When war broke out, the first sacrifice was the truth.

At this time, there was nothing to do with Archduke Ferdinand, because Franz's son, Crown Prince Rudolph, still existed. He did not have a chance to ascend the throne until 1889, when the crown prince committed suicide, and he was highly regarded by Joseph because he advocated the expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from a dual empire consisting of Austria and Hungary to a triple empire of Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia through the annexation of the Kingdom of Serbia.

It was not for nothing that the Serbs hated Archduke Ferdinand.

The big question at the moment is how to provoke a conflict through this level of contradictions, and King Joseph visited Serbia on a whim? This kind of thing is almost impossible! The French side should find a way to create an opportunity.

An unsettling opportunity for Vienna.

Looking at the dense red dots outlined on the map, Napoleon found the most crucial point from all the chaos and complexity.

And the only thing he can do.

"Perhaps we should reaffirm our friendly relations with Russia. I just don't know if Alexander III will be fooled in the face of the interests of annexing the Balkans? ”

"I hope that our British friends will drag on this war a little longer, at least to the level of the First World War. If it is defeated or encircled in a few months, it will be very interesting. ”