When the British began their activities, Austria-Hungary also received delegations from Russia.

The signing of a non-aggression pact is a major event, much more serious than a statement of support that is neither trivial nor serious.

Once signed, it will determine the direction of diplomacy for years to come.

For Austria-Hungary, it was almost a surrender of the Balkans.

In fact, Franz did not want to abandon the Balkans, but the domestic situation prevented him from expanding.

Within the Austro-Hungarian political framework, Hungary had a veto, which meant that they received 50% of their political rights with 30% of their financial obligations.

In this case, almost all the expansion of the territory that might dilute the power of Hungary was opposed by them.

Allowing Austria to annex half of Italy was already the biggest concession they could make.

That was the end of the Hungarian loyalty, and Austria would not even think of expanding its territory even if it conquered the whole of Europe.

In response, Franz tried to de-escalate the situation at home while turning his attention beyond the Balkans.

At present, there are only two things he can think of, one is to return to Germany, and the other is to colonize overseas.

The former is the creation of alliances, the latter is the expansion of colonies without political power.

Although Hungary is 100% still opposed, it will not react as violently as it does to expand its territory, and it is possible that a solution will be found in the future.

His invitation to Spain to build a market was an attempt, and if he wanted to snatch food from the colonial powers such as Britain and France, uniting friendly countries was the first step, and there was no more suitable object in the whole of Europe than Spain.

It was not that Austria-Hungary did not want to colonize, but before it only had access to the Adriatic Sea, and even access to the Mediterranean Sea had to be allowed by Italy, so it was impossible to talk about a colonial strategy.

Now that the shackles have been lifted, with the strength of Austria-Hungary, it is reasonable to ask for a territory under the sun.

After receiving the Russian delegation, Franz talked with the cabinet members for a long time, but could not agree on an agreement.

This is the first time that the concept of mutual non-aggression has been proposed, and in the past, it was a direct alliance, a defensive alliance, a military alliance, and so on.

Although the effect of non-aggression is not as great as that of an alliance, after all, it is a formal diplomatic treaty, and it is still necessary to notify Hungary, and if the other side does not agree, the central government will not be able to act privately.

Vienna and Budapest, of course, were connected by telegram, and in less than half a day they received a reply from Andráhi, the content of which was simple: "Hungary is against it. ”

……

"That would be a rejection of Russia." Boist sighed, and in all fairness he was a little tempted to agree.

"Well" Franz nodded: "But it's not all bad, we don't sign a non-aggression agreement, maybe the situation in the Balkans will be saved, at least the Russians won't be so easy." ”

Neither of them was surprised, because Andráhi was a well-known opponent of Russia, or rather, Hungary as a whole.

As a country, China basically has only three things left for Hungary: economic development, opposition to Austrian expansion, and opposition to Russian expansion.

Hungary, in order to protect its homeland and at the same time suppress Balkan nationalists in its territory, opposes any action that could destabilize the situation in the Balkans, and Russia is their number one object of beware.

What German strategy of the Habsburgs, what colonial strategy, they do not care about, and they will not make concessions to Russia for this.

Boist thought for a while and proposed: "Since you want to refuse, refuse to the end, don't even give them support, it's best for Russia to back down, if we don't back down, our attitude can also make Britain muster up courage, and it will be convenient for us to play when the time comes." ”

Franz agrees.

Three days later, the tsar received an Austro-Hungarian opinion.

Obviously, Vienna's willingness to acquiesce adds potential risks to Russia's actions.

Maybe the other party is trying to induce Britain and Russia to open the film, and then backstab them again.

"Is Ukraine mobilized?" Alexander groaned.

"The first phase of mobilization has been completed, and the total number of troops that can be put into the Western theater is now 770,000." Gorchakov reported.

Russia has been slow to mobilize its troops, and it took more than half a month for this mobilization to complete its recruitment plan in Ukraine.

In 1871 Russia had a standing army of 680,000 throughout the country, of which 140,000 were in Asia and the rest were in Europe.

There was already so much standing army, and with just a little effort, more than 200,000 troops were mobilized.

With an army of nearly a million, Prussia is still a little short of this number.

The reason why they are so able to fight the army is mainly because the Russian peasants are living very miserably, and they can't fill their stomachs at all during the serf period, although they basically have no salary to become a soldier, they can eat enough, so everyone is willing to be a soldier.

Now, 10 years after the emancipation of the serfs, the peasants' lives have not changed much because they have to pay a ransom to the landlords to buy land whose actual value is much lower than the ransom price.

Until the ransom was paid, they were still required to serve the landlords.

This backward economic system brought an unimaginable supply of troops to the Russians, and the number of deaths was never in the Tsar's consideration.

"If the Crimean War were to be repeated, would it be possible to defeat Austria-Hungary, the Ottomans and Britain at the same time?" Alexander asked with a little hope when he heard that the mobilization was complete.

"Uh......" Gorchakov held back for a long time before he said: "I'm not very good at military affairs, maybe Marshal Milyutin can answer your question." ”

Alexander was not stupid, and as soon as he heard this, he knew that there was little hope, but he still called his Minister of War with luck.

Mi Liujing is not so forward-looking, if he accepts it now, he will not be able to take the blame if he loses the battle.

Immediately said directly:

"If we can't win, we can't get sea supremacy in the hands of Britain and the Ottomans, and we can't keep up with the supply of war in the south.

Neither in the Caucasus nor in the Balkans, our army could not be deployed.

If we can't take advantage of our human superiority, we will definitely lose. ”

Even to dispel the Tsar's terrible thoughts, he added: "Even if the Ottomans are neutral, we will not win, unless the Ottomans can join our side wholeheartedly without civil strife." ”

Alexander was very depressed when he heard this, but Milyutin was also an old qualification, having been the Minister of War for ten years, and it was impossible for him to punish the other party for telling the truth.

"The announcement that Britain will hold military exercises in the near future must be aimed at us." Alexander closed his eyes and thought about it for a long time, but he still decided to make a wave and eat the meat in his hand first.

At this stage, the bourgeois reform in Russia has not yet been completed, and it is not a good time to start a war.

"Occupy Romania first, and don't move the Caucasian army." Alexander said to Milyutin.

"What about Sultan Aziz?" Gorchakov reminded: "It is not easy to find an Ottoman sultan who has good intentions towards us. ”

"Send an elite escort team, and then let the other party prepare their own boats, they can be saved, but they can't be saved."