News of Tsar Nicholas I's visit to England soon spread throughout Europe and, not surprisingly, caused an uproar.

Especially for France, a country that is ready to put Austria on the siege network, after all, Britain and Russia join forces not only to Europe, but to carve up the world.

Louis Philippe couldn't bear it, but he turned his head to find that France seemed to be left with a half-dead ally like Spain.

Fortunately, the German Confederation reacted quickly and regardless of previous suspicions, the two sides quickly began negotiations and reached a consensus on a number of issues.

The petty princes of the German Confederation were afraid of France, but they were even more afraid of Russia, because they knew that Louis Philippe only wanted to destroy their country, and that the Tsar would do it more thoroughly.

Russia's westward expansion of Prussia bore the brunt, while Austria had its own considerations, after all, it was not easy to accept being stabbed in the back as a Russian ally.

The Tsar's actions were a blatant regard for Austria as a spare tire, and words such as "Britain and Russia will join forces and there will be no hindrance in the world" are completely like licking a dog confessing to the goddess.

As for why these details were leaked, this is naturally the handiwork of the British, and the political skill and diplomatic tsar are not worthy of being an apprentice.

Austria is not weak in diplomacy, after all, Prime Minister Metternich is a seasoned diplomat, and he is not as emotional as the people, on the contrary, he is very calm and feels normal, let alone hurt any feelings.

But he knew that something had to be done to fight back against Russia's betrayal, and to prepare for the worst-case scenario (Anglo-Russian alliance).

France is a good ally, because the prestige of the Napoleonic era has not yet dissipated, and no country in Europe dares to underestimate France, not even Austria, which has defeated it twice.

Franz was accustomed to Russia's startled diplomacy, but he was not at all worried about the possible alliance between Britain and Russia.

After all, Franz knew very well that "one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers", and that it was impossible for two countries to compete for world hegemony to achieve real peace, and the Crimean War was the protagonist of their respective camps.

As for the alliance with France, Franz did not take it very seriously, after all, there was a lot of friction between France and Austria at this time, especially in Italy, Germany, West Africa, and North America, which were almost irreconcilable.

However, this did not prevent the two countries from joining forces to protect themselves, but 1848 was approaching, and the Orleans dynasty was afraid of an instant annihilation.

After all, France has no less internal contradictions than Austria, the financiers have almost hollowed out the country, and the royal family is like a parasite sucking the last marrow of the country.

The peasants were poor and miserable, the workers saw no light of day, the military had a very low social status (referring to soldiers and non-commissioned officers), the colonies were similarly full of contradictions, and the seemingly mighty giants were tensed and would be completely knocked down at the slightest collapse.

Of course, Prince Metternich's actions are beyond reproach, but his actions may have slightly hurt the pride of the traditional monarch of Nicholas I.

Although the monarch of the Austrian Empire was Ferdinand I, it was the Regency Assembly that made the decision, so the tsar should not be jealous of the Habsburgs, but of the "thieves" he called it.

In fact, after the Tsar's operation, there was still good news for Austria, that is, it made the Ottomans even more helpless.

McJid Sultan, who was once the "civilized man" of the East in the mouth of the Western media, has long been bent over by domestic and foreign things, and his body has been hollowed out by wine.

In order to continue to satisfy his desires, he had to start smoking opium to increase his "vitality", and also in order to continue the Ottoman Empire, he chose to throw an olive branch to Austria, his old enemy.

On the one hand, Austria has maintained a strong influence and a relatively strong posture in previous crises, which has impressed Megid.

On the other hand, the Ottomans really didn't have any friends at this time, Persia was too weak, and the Omani Empire was far from quenching its thirst.

Historically, the Omani Empire was considered to be a very powerful existence before the collapse of the Sayyid dynasty, and even Britain and France did not dare to humiliate it.

In the book, the story of the Omani Navy's disastrous defeat at the hands of the Austrian Navy did not spread too widely, but it was Said's large-scale purchase of warships from Europe that made it to the hot search list at that time.

Of course, this heat was bought by Said himself, in order to deter those who might underestimate the Omani Empire, after all, the shock of the war with the Austrian Navy was too great.

Said had long believed that no country could defeat his navy except Britain and the Ottomans.

The war with the Austrian Empire, a country he had never heard of, left him with too many memories.

The once invincible Omani Navy took the lead in launching a surprise attack with several times the superiority of its forces, only to be hoisted and beaten by someone, which is really terrifying.

However, at that time, Said's heart had not yet collapsed, and it was not until Friedrich's second visit to Zanzibar that he gave his most precious daughter as a gift.

At this time, Said scoffed at McGid's proposal to join forces, he did not want to bury his country, and the fear of the European powers was already deep in his bones.

After excluding the two options of Persia and Oman, he was left with only three options: Egypt, France, and Austria.

Egypt has been completely crushed by the last Near East crisis, and France is considered by McGid to be a less reliable ally.

In the end, all that was left was Austria, which had fought the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years, and the latter had good credibility and strength, and most importantly, did not want to get involved in the Ottoman core.

The bottom line for Mejid was Istanbul and the Anatolian plateau, and he didn't care about the other pagan territories, and for now Austria did not seem to be in conflict with the core interests of the Ottomans.

And those pagan territories could be used as bargaining chips to win over Austria, and in fact Mejid would have liked to give Austria the two Danube principalities, and then watch it fight to the death with Russia.

It's just that such an obvious discord plan is difficult to succeed, but fortunately, he is not short of chips.

In 1840-1845, there were dozens of uprisings in the Eastern part of the Ottoman Empire, numbering more than 1,000 people, which greatly drained McJid's energy and treasury resources, and forced him to rely more on the army.

For McJid personally, those were not Ottoman territories, but tumors were the bane, and without those Eastern European territories, the Russians might not have fought their own ideas again.

In fact, this was not just McJid's idea, a group of high-ranking Ottoman people thought this way, and even formed a faction, and this idea also deeply influenced the later father of the Turkish nation, General Kemal.

(End of chapter)