The news of the Danish crown's announcement of its surrender to Prussia soon spread throughout the continent of Tessie.

It is not an exaggeration to describe the reaction of all walks of life in Tessie.

And in this uproar, the most nervous and excited people are probably the Austrian royal family and the ministers of the imperial court.

Emperor Franz of Austria and Prime Minister Metternich telegraphed their homeland on their way back to their homeland.

Let the officials of the imperial court invite the right people to Vienna and prepare in advance for the congress of the Austrian Empire.

After the two returned to their homeland, they held a meeting with representatives from all over Austria without stopping.

Under Metternich's instigation, Austria passed the resolution establishing the Kingdom of Hungary as quickly as possible.

Emperor Franz of Austria concurrently served as King of Hungary and established the Hungarian Parliament, which consisted mainly of Hungarians.

The Austrian Empire was renamed the "United Austrian-Hungarian Empire", or Austria-Hungary for short.

Franz established a Hungarian court and conferred a large number of important positions on the local Hungarian nobility.

and granted a high degree of autonomy to the Hungarian local government.

At the same time, outside of Hungary and Austria, several local nobles were canonized to local official positions.

The same large-scale decentralization gave these nobles great autonomy.

When Prussia was fighting Denmark, Austria was turning back history on a large scale.

At present, the mainstream idea of the central court of various countries is centralization.

Weaken local autonomy, especially the power of the original local feudal aristocracy.

A modern country that integrates small feudal territories handed down from the Middle Ages into one.

This is the right way forward, but it is certainly difficult to achieve.

It is highly dependent on the force directly controlled by the central court.

Prussia was a country that did better, destroying the most powerful local powers through real wars, and relying on strength to force the weaker ones to obey.

In the end, it can be regarded as a relatively complete annexation of local forces within the territory.

Austria is doing poorly.

There is not much use of force, relying on various political means to limit local power slowly and gradually.

Generations of Austrian monarchs and ministers worked hard for decades or hundreds of years to reluctantly turn Austria into a barely decent modern state.

Now Franz threw away the results of those efforts almost overnight.

To a certain extent, after this reform, Austria, which was already cracked, was once again completely shattered.

But it does add a lot of trouble to the intruder.

If Prussia were facing a unified state, the local armies would all be in the same system and would be in contact with each other.

Then Prussia crushed the defenders of a place, and the collapse of these defenders was likely to have a collateral effect.

It is likely that the defenders in the vicinity will be similarly quickly routed.

At the same time, Prussia could also judge the combat effectiveness of the entire official Austrian army by the defenders of one place.

Once Prussia had defeated the regular main force of the Austrian court head-on, there was a chance to spread the rest of the places that had not yet been captured and attacked.

Now Austria is shattered.

When Prussia defeats the defenders of one province, the defenders of the next province are greatly less likely to collapse.

Because they are not a system between them in the first place.

The point is that even if the Austrian emperor is captured, it will be difficult to get the lords of all the territories to surrender directly.

After defeating the defenders of one place, it is difficult to judge the level of the defenders of other territories.

The most important thing is that the local generals and defenders will most likely have a much higher will to fight than the defenders from all over the country to defend the local land and cities.

This gives the opportunity for the invaders to remain trapped in the swamp of intermittent local wars.

This was the intention of the Austrian Emperor Franz and Prime Minister Metternich.

A large part of the nobility and opinion leaders of the Hungarians and other ethnic groups were more than happy to see such a decision of the Austrian court.

Because Austria is not a whole in the first place, and there is no absolute main nation, the natural centripetal force is very low.

So this matter went relatively smoothly.

But this kind of thing is an absolute big deal, and even if Franz and Metternich want to speed things up, there are many processes that can't be cut.

There are a lot of rules and protocols that have to be clarified.

It takes a long time to simply prepare the various documents.

Just as the meeting here was barely over and preparations for the various canonization ceremonies began, the news of Denmark's surrender came.

This directly shattered the last glimmer of hope of the Austrian Emperor Franz.

Franz originally thought that since Prussia had made a move against Denmark first, the previous verbal cannon with Austria might really be just a verbal cannon.

At least in the short term, it will only be a mouthful of artillery.

Prussia should not have been at war on both the north and the south at the same time.

As a result, Denmark held out for two days.

"Just—two days!"

Franz sat at his desk and looked at the report from Metternich with a look of astonishment:

"This can't be true, can it? Why is this happening?

"How can a Prussian, even if they drive from the border line to the interior of Denmark, need to run for two days?

"Could it be that the Danes did not resist at all? Or did Prussia use all the Airborne Forces? ”

Metternich also shook his head with palpitations, and then subconsciously looked at the Austrian Military Council's chairman, Archduke Karl.

Archduke Karl was the younger brother of Franz, but had renounced the Austrian throne and was now Austria's most famous general.

Karl Dagong introduced to his imperial brother and colleagues with a very serious expression:

"According to the information we have so far, the Danes really did not resist much, it should be said that they did not have time to resist.

"The Prussian offensive was so fast that before the Danes could react, their base was already surrounded.

"The Prussians did use a large number of air and airborne forces, and of course equally large armored mobile units.

"As we saw at the military parade in the Ming Dynasty, there were basically no infantry on foot, and there were not even bicycle soldiers anymore.

"Everyone is moving in cars, armored vehicles, planes, so the speed of the attack in general is like driving.

"A large number of aircraft bombing, as well as a large number of armored combat vehicles and mobile artillery, did not give the Danes the opportunity to form defensive positions at all.

"This is actually a way of warfare that we have also prepared and trained, and the Prussians have realized it on the battlefield in advance.

"Now it seems that this method of warfare is indeed very effective.

"Especially when there is not much difference in the strength of the two sides, and when the size of the territory of the war target is not huge and relatively flat.

"It is very likely that a massive cluster charge after accumulating power can destroy a country.

"Of course, this kind of war only destroys the official army of this country.

"In order to effectively and directly rule the local land and people, it is also necessary to make the local ordinary people give up resistance and obey.

"His Excellency Metternich's request for the Imperial Brother to relinquish power over all parts of Austria should serve to counteract and delay this offensive momentum......

"But that's just delaying and resisting.

"In fact, there is another direction to what we can do now, and that is to take the initiative to attack!"

Franz was taken aback by his brother:

"How can we take the initiative to attack in our current state......

At this time, Metternich immediately interjected:

"The offensive does not have to be purely military, the offensive at the diplomatic and political economic levels is equally important.

"Of course, it is better to forge a military alliance through diplomatic and political means.

"Our original plan was to begin organizing an alliance against Prussia at the same time as the rapid internal reforms were completed.

"Now that the main things have been decided, Prussia has shown itself to be more aggressive.

So he thought that he could now contact the Italians, the Ottomans, the French, and the British, and establish an alliance against Prussia.

"If Prussia wants to be a tyrannical Qin, then our best way to deal with it is to contact the Tessie countries to join forces.

"I hope to be able to leave as soon as possible and leave for Italy tomorrow......"

Franz breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, this is indeed the arrangement that Metternich had already mentioned before:

"Your Excellency has worked hard...... But do you really want to go to the Italians first? They are likely to take the Prussian side, right? ”

Metternich immediately said:

"The Italians should be found first, and the Italians are in fact potential allies of Prussia, who can join forces with Prussia to attack Austria.

"We have to try to win over the Italians who don't actually help each other.

"This ...... Certainly not something that can be done right away, and the Italians are used to watching the wind and steering.

"It is indeed probable that Prussia will contact the Italians at the same time, forming a similar alliance with Prussia and Lucia.

"So I went to Italy this time to show my attitude and give a reminder.

"And to increase as much as possible the likelihood that the Italians will hesitate.

"We don't need the Italians to make a decision right away, as long as we can get Italy not to join the Prussian coalition right away, it can be considered a success.

"I won't stay in Italy for too long, I'll go to France and Ottomans next.

"The most important thing is actually the attitude of the French."

Franz nodded lightly after listening:

"I see, I wish you a safe journey."

Metternich bowed in response, and then said to Franz and Archduke Karl:

"His Excellency's suggestion to take the initiative to attack is not necessarily impossible.

"When Prussia attacks us, we can attack from other angles and directions.

"We now have local authority, and the Prussian offensive will actually be fended off mainly by the local defenders.

"The main corps of the Austro-Hungarian court could carry out offensive missions.

"However, I am not good at military affairs, whether there is a feasible plan and how to implement it still needs to be carefully considered by His Excellency the Grand Duke."

Archduke Karl nodded slightly, indicating that he knew:

"That's what I think."

Franz's mood was complicated and apprehensive, and he did not think that there was any point in attacking in the current situation.

But Franz also believed in his brother's military talent.

He deserves a place in the entire history of the Habsburgs.

Whether he can fight or not, and how he should fight, his judgment should be more accurate than his own.

So in the end, Franz could only suppress his apprehension and approve and accept this suggestion.

At the same time, he directly delegated authority, authorizing and ordering Archduke Karl to take full charge of Austrian military affairs.

Archduke Karl, regardless of his identity or ability, originally had such qualifications, and now he also bowed very solemnly to receive the order.

Over the next few days, the various canonization and authorization ceremonies in Austria were all carried out as quickly as possible.

The Austrian Emperor Franz personally presided over the ceremony, and Prime Minister Metternich did not attend the ceremony directly, and flew directly to Italy the next day.

The current situation on the continent of Tessy was tense, and Prussia's record of annexing Denmark in two days had begun to spread wildly.

There was already a need for the exchange of information and attitudes and opinions.

Metternich's status was sufficient, and when he arrived in Italy, he was received at the highest level.

The King of the Kingdom of Sardinia personally received him, and the main nobles and ministers also came to meet him.

And at the banquet of the meeting, Metternich went straight to his work.

A lot of great things were told to the royal family and ministers of Sardinia.

On the one hand, it is the truth that Prussia is the tyrant on the continent of Europa, and the purpose is to annex all the countries of Europa.

So there was no point in the Sardinian Italian Prussian alliance.

Eventually, they will definitely be abandoned and betrayed.

Even, if Austria had surrendered outright, Italy might have been the next target for the Prussians.

France was too powerful, and the Ottomans were the target of the Lucians.

Northern Italy happened to have belonged to the HRE system and could be considered part of the German world.

Another aspect is the existence of the Ming Dynasty, which will not allow the true unification of the Europa continent.

The wars of Prussia and Lucia were ultimately and inevitably lost.

Italy, if it wanted not to be liquidated in the end, should have taken a stand against Prussia from the very beginning.

So Austria proposed to start forming a phalanx alliance of Prussia and Lucia now.

At the very least, Austria, Italy, the Ottomans, France, and Great Britain should be included in this alliance.

If you can, you should bring in the rest of Spain, Portugal and other countries.

The King and Prime Minister of Italy agreed with Metternich's view.

However, there was no positive response to Metternich's suggestion of an alliance.

It was only stated that analysis and discussion were needed, and it was suggested that close contact should be maintained and that the situation evolve.

Metternich knew that there could be no immediate results.

Because the Italians must have been in contact with the Prussians.

The Italians must have dreamed of carving up Austria with Prussia.

Coming over yourself is just a reminder to them.

So Metternich stayed in Italy for two days and went straight to France.

In fact, Metternich was right, Italy did have contact with Prussia, and the two countries were natural potential allies in geopolitical relations.

Even, as soon as Metternich walked on the front foot, the Prussian diplomats arrived on the back foot.

The Prussians hoped to form a "Roman Union" alliance with Italy, Prussia, and Lucia.

Three countries with Roman heritage to reconquer the entire European continent.

Lucia's domination of Eastern Europe, known as Eastern Rome, and the conquest of Western and Central Europe by Prussia, known as Western Rome, or Central Rome.

Italy could conquer southern Europe and the Mediterranean, known as Middle Rome or Southern Rome.

The Ming Dynasty will not allow the real unification of the Europa Continent, but it should still be within the tolerance of the Ming Dynasty to reduce a few countries on the Europa Continent.

This flatbread is still very well drawn.

The most thoughtful Italians are really a little tempted.