The first update

Since the establishment of the Second German Reich, Bismarck has always conceived the idea of an anti-French alliance, knowing that he cannot achieve a landslide victory over France on his own, and must go to an alliance with other European powers. Austria belonged to the German nation and was also his loyal ally, and above all there was a constant conflict of interests between Austria and France. As for Russia, Bismarck always held an attitude of distrust, and he believed that Russia should remain neutral on the French question, if not opposed, but the movement between Gochakov and Napoleon in Russia could not but cause Bismarck to worry.

As for Britain, successive prime ministers have flattered the policy of balancing the mainland, and although they did not hold out much hope, Bismarck tried to win the British to his side. Even so, he gave King William a reminder.

"When the Slavic and Germanic peoples are engaged in the final struggle over the Balkan question in the future, the Anglo-Saxons will side with the Slavs and the Gauls."

It is expected that the Second Empire has been in a state of prosperity since its establishment, and it is more conspicuous than the low-key Paris. At this time, after British Prime Minister Gladstone completed the civilian reform, and the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War had spread to Britain, with Gladstone's support, the Secretary of War Cardwell was carrying out a series of reforms to the army, abolishing the official sales system, abolishing the general service regulations, establishing regimental units according to regions, localizing the army, and stationing each unit in the home area.

After being liberated from the busy problems of British domestic affairs, Gladstone finally turned his attention to Bismarck, and at this time he happened to hear from Foreign Secretary Russell about Bismarck's targeting by the Catholic Center Party at the Imperial Conference, and he could not help but show a curious expression.

"Now is Bismarck's most glorious moment, and King Wilhelm has given full authority to the other side in all matters of diplomacy. Now the clerical activists in Germany are so eager to jump out, I am afraid that they are being instigated behind their backs, right? Three months after the opening of the Reichstag, the centrist MPs asked the government to support Pope Pius IX in the Vatican, and two months earlier, on Bismarck's 56th birthday, he had addressed the Reichstag. He said that a political party can only put the interests of the state and the nation in the first place, and cannot act as a voice worm for any external forces. ”

He remembered the photograph sent from the British ambassador to Germany of the leader of the Centre Party as Ludwig. Windhorst. Wenderhorn was short and skinny, but had a large head. Behind a pair of glasses with a high degree of myopia, a pair of unpleasant gray eyes flashed. He was also a law student at the University of Göttingen, and as a fellow brother, he was three years older than Bismarck. A faithful servant of the Kingdom of Hanover.

Russell stood in front of Prime Minister Leston and asked humbly, "Then Your Excellency, how should we deal with the cultural struggle within France?" ”

Gladstone put the telegram aside, turned to look at Russell, squinted his eyes and thought about it, and said, "No matter." We don't care about the internal affairs of Germany, and even I can see who is behind these guys who are behind the banner of 'Pope Infallibility'. Bismarck saw the same thing, and saw if the old fox would make things bigger. ”

Regarding the Prime Minister's calm attitude and unexpected answer, the Foreign Secretary was puzzled and could only ask the other side, "How has the matter expanded?" ”

Gladstone nodded nondeniably and said, "France wants to use this cultural struggle to exclude Bismarck, who is a supporter of Protestantism and has a repressive attitude towards Catholicism. As a Catholic state, the Tuileries must have wanted to use the powerful Central Party to kill people with a knife and push Bismarck from the position of prime minister. ”

In this way, the behavior of those international clericals can be justified. They did not have a deep hatred with Bismarck, not to the point of death like this.

Russell asked, "Can it be successful?" ”

"It's hard, and it's more of a French move. Try to eliminate the biggest political enemy that threatens France. But if Bismarck seized on this incident to escalate the matter to a crisis in France that intended to use religious struggle to overthrow the German regime, do you think he had no reason to send troops to France? Bismarck could not forget Alsace until now, and wanted to turn the free trade zone into German territory. ”

Russell suddenly realized that he originally thought that this cultural struggle incident would bring a lot of trouble to Bismarck, but he did not expect that he was ready to use this cultural struggle to take over the opportunity to suppress Paris.

"But Britain has to make its position clear, and it's best for both countries to maintain the status quo as it stands. Another German invasion of France, or France's revenge on Germany, is not a situation we want to see. Our foreign policy follows a balanced situation on the European continent, and there is no overwhelming European hegemon. Therefore, once the crisis breaks out, Britain must stand firmly on the side of France. ”

Gladstone scratched his head, expressing his displeasure at Paris' fanning of the flames. He felt that the French were purely intent on provoking another war.

"I really suspect that this incident is a deliberate attempt by the French president to force Britain to take sides."

"Deliberately? Impossible, right? ”

Russell expressed his puzzlement, "Could it be that the French president had long expected that Bismarck would take the opportunity to make trouble?" Can you still expect that we, the British, will definitely be on the side of France? How can he still calculate this far? ”

Gladstone sighed and said, "I hope I'm thinking too much, and France shouldn't have expected this step." Perhaps they simply wanted to take advantage of the infighting in Germany to force Bismarck out of power. In any case, it doesn't matter to Britain who wins or loses, anyway, it is Germany and France who are playing this time. ”

While Britain was watching from the sidelines, the leader of the Centre Party, Windshorn, was still writing a secret letter to Paris.

In 1849 he was a member of the Hannover Parliament and later Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1866 he saw his master, the King of the Wilf family, deposed and his property confiscated. He thought this was legally unjustifiable, and henceforth hated the Prussian Chancellor Bismarck. He was later elected to the North German Parliament, the Reichstag and the Prussian Parliament. He remained loyal to the deposed former king of Hanover and the royal family.

There was a small Roman Catholic political wing in the Assemblies of the Associated States of Prussia, but it did not play much of a role. But after the Roman Church put forward the "papal infallacy theory" in the mid-60s, this small group began to play the role of opposition.

It wasn't until the beginning of the year that a Frenchman suddenly came to the door and secretly revealed that he was a patron of Catholicism in Germany and that he was willing to provide financial support to the anti-Bismarck Center Party. The two of them rarely have face-to-face contact, and most of the time they only get in touch through communication.

Windhorst, of course, knew what the true identity of this Frenchman was. Spies in Paris? French government intelligence officers? None of this mattered anymore, and if he wanted to fight Bismarck to the end, he would have to unite the entire Reichstag and impeach him from power.

The Centre Party was ready to organize an even more vigorous demonstration, and Bismarck was left defenseless.

As soon as the letter was written, Wenderhorse stuffed it into an envelope and sealed it with fire paint. He feared Bismarck's pervasive surveillance, and despite the use of code words in the letters that only the two sides could understand, the cunning Bismarck was still able to guess his relationship with Paris through him.

I am afraid that I will be trumpeted by my political enemies as a traitor to the Prussians, and I will become a pawn against France.

He opened the curtains and got dressed. Windhorst carefully put the letter in the safest pocket and double-checked before opening the door to the street.

A nervous Wenderhoth walked down the street, and he even felt that everyone who looked at him looked like a German secret police.

After turning the corner alley, he breathed a sigh of relief and threw the letter into the mailbox.

It's just that Winderhorst didn't know that Bismarck had already sent people to monitor his every move, and even the slightest movement of the envelope dropped into the mailbox did not escape their eyes.

After the other party left, Bismarck's men took out the letter, and an hour later he lay it flat on Bismarck's desk.

At this time, the excitement of the iron-blooded prime minister was indescribable.

Bismarck promulgated a draft law more than four months earlier than in previous history, and the state would supervise all schools, especially the inspectors, who would keep an eye on religious subjects in Catholic schools: he claimed that "the infallibility of the pope" would not be tolerated.

Now he is heinrich Heinrich, the Prussian Minister of Religious Affairs and Education. Feng. Miller was so dissatisfied that he resigned because he did not approve of Bismarck's hard-line policies toward the Church.

Bismarck tried to force him to resign, so that Adalbert could be appointed immediately. As Minister of Education, Falke sees the appointment as a way to strengthen his relationship with the National Liberal Party.

Bismarck once declared in public that "the Center Party and its followers are a force aimed at opposing Prussia and dividing the Empire, and as Minister in charge of religious affairs and education, he must organize forces to defeat heresy, long live Germany." ”

Now, this group of heretics is wagging their tails at Napoleon, the protector of Catholicism, trying to gain momentum through the support of France, and bring to power the centrist party, which represents the interests of the Catholics, and then remove themselves, who represent the interests of the German people.

Although it was an encrypted telegram, Bismarck had time to play slowly with them.

"Paris is really not simple, it has lost like that, and there is still a heart for revenge. Then I will plan and lead you behind the scenes. ”

"Since the Catholics are unwilling to stop inciting separatism, then don't blame me for burning the heretics of Catholicism."