"Your Excellency, Prime Minister! The French are an insult to Prussia, and this time it's time to let the French know the results of all these years of reform of the Prussian army. Moltke looked at Bismarck solemnly, and said slowly but sonorously.

His sharp eyes revealed a strong desire to win, Moltke knew the development of the Prussian army best in these years, and there was an impulse to grow up and create a career.

"General Moltke, don't be in a hurry now, war will come sooner or later, this is also the attitude of me and Your Majesty, but the victory of the war is never just a matter on the battlefield, now we are indeed developing rapidly, but we must also recognize the reality, France is a top power, its strength should not be underestimated, I also want the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do more work, and strive to make all countries not to intervene in this war, to create conditions for our victory on the battlefield." Bismarck said unhurriedly.

Earlier, under Bismarck's operation, an offensive and defensive alliance treaty had been secretly signed with the South German states, so this time it seemed that the Franco-Prussian War was actually a Franco-German war, and Germany had already appeared, and now only France needs to send the certificate over, and the so-called offensive and defensive alliance can become a real Germany. It can be seen that France is capable and can be called the father of the three countries of the United States, Italy and Germany, and all three countries are later powers.

"Now there are only three countries, which are the uncertain factors in our war with France, and you must know that if we can't convince them, it is likely that in the end we will be busy in vain."

On the last occasion, Prussia had diplomatically isolated the Austrian Empire, promising France part of the Rhineland region (where the famous Ruhr industrial region was located) and acquiescing to France's annexation of part of Belgium and Luxembourg between Franco-Prussia. borrowed large sums of money from Britain, with very high interest rates, allowing British capital to take advantage of the rapid development of the Prussian economy and make money lying down; preferential trade agreements with Tsarist Russia, as well as secret alliances; Finally, it took advantage of the territorial dispute between Italy and Austria to unite Italy to attack Austria from the north and south. After some operation, Bismarck's diplomatic ability can be seen.

"Britain and Tsarist Russia are okay to say, the most important thing now is the attitude of Austria-Hungary, but the possibility of Austria-Hungary sending troops is very small, but in the end it depends on the personal thoughts of Emperor Franz......"

In order to break the restrictions imposed on Russia by the Treaty of Paris in 1856, Russia chose to maintain "neutral neutrality in good faith" in the Franco-Prussian War, and deployed 100,000 troops on the Russian-Austrian border, while promising Prussia that it would also send troops to help Prussia if Austria entered the Franco-Prussian War.

The development was also as Russia had hoped, and the Prussian army won a complete victory in the Franco-Prussian War, which eventually united Germany and established the German Empire. In return for Russia's neutrality, at the London Conference in March 1871, Bismarck helped Russia break free from the shackles of the Black Sea neutrality clause stipulated in the Treaty of Paris, and reaffirmed the principle of closing the straits and prohibiting the passage of foreign warships, thus guaranteeing Russia's interests.

As for Britain, there is a saying that those who owe money are uncles, and Prussia borrowed a lot of money from Britain in the previous wars, if Prussia loses......

Of course, the main thing is that France is too strong, France under Napoleon III can be said to be the strongest in the history of France, the national strength is infinitely close to Britain, and at the same time it is the second largest colonial empire in the world, and the army and navy are unprecedentedly strong, threatening the hegemony of Britain.

So both Tsarist Russia and Britain supported Prussia, and the only ally France could win was Austria-Hungary.

However, Napoleon III's foreign policy has always been stupid, otherwise he would not have allowed the unification of Italy, and the unification of Italy would have been forgotten, and France would have sent troops to protect the Papal States at the last step of the imminent unification of Italy, which led to the rupture of Franco-Italian relations.

At this time, Napoleon III still did not realize the seriousness of the problem, and if he could win over Austria-Hungary, the success or failure was still unknown.

"Knock Knock Knock ......"

Just as Bismarck was about to say something, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Although I was very upset that someone interrupted my speech, it must be a very important thing to know that the Prime Minister of the Empire and the Chief of the General Staff of the Empire were talking at this time.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, General Moltke! This is important information sent by the intelligence services. ”

Bismarck took the document and looked at it.

Moment.

"Yes, yes! You also look at this information. Bismarck handed the document to Moltke.

The text of the document: "On July 1, there was a change in the Austro-Hungarian army, the elite troops in the Slovak region were transferred, their whereabouts are not known for the time being, and the new troops can be determined to be from southern Austria for the time being. - Slovak Intelligence Service"

"What does Franz think again?" Moltke said puzzled.

You must know that Russia has just deployed 100,000 troops in the border area, and at this time Austria has secretly transferred its elite troops from the Slovak region, which is a military stronghold not far from Prussia and Tsarist Russia, and can cope with the possible attacks of Prussia and Russia at the same time, supporting the Czech Republic to the west and Galicia to the east.

"The only areas that can be valued and benefited by Austria are the Balkans and Italy, but this is obviously not the time for Austria-Hungary to start a war, Franz's decision is really unpredictable, do you think it is possible that this is really just an ordinary change of defense for Austria-Hungary!" Bismarck said to Moltke.

"Even if you change the defense, you won't secretly transfer the elite from the Slovak region during this time period! I don't believe Franz would bet that we and Tsarist Russia would not do anything to Austria-Hungary. ”

"Could it be that Hungary is making trouble again! But I haven't heard of any recent moves in Hungary. Bismarck said strangely.

"Hungary is indeed a destabilizing factor within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it is not necessary to deal with Hungary with any elite troops."

"What was Franz's true intention?" Both of them pondered.

First of all, Italy is excluded, Italy has Prussia as an ally, not to mention, if Austria-Hungary dares to do something against Italy, the French will not agree.

The second is the Balkans, which is possible, but the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans is already in a death throes, and if Austria-Hungary wants to make a move against the Ottoman Empire, the general army can solve it.

Moreover, Tsarist Russia will not allow Austria-Hungary to expand in the Balkans, so if Austria-Hungary really wants to do something against the Balkans, it should deploy more troops on the Austro-Russian border to deal with the pressure of Tsarist Russia. So what exactly does Franz want to do? Is it really an ordinary change of guard?

"Forget it, in short, it can be determined that Austria-Hungary has no intention of intervening in Prussia recently, anyway, there are many mistakes in decision-making, maybe Franz was fooled by some 'idiot' around him."

Saying this, Bismarck still went through the recent events of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in his mind, and nothing major happened.

When the Kingdom of East Africa was established a few days ago, the first voice of the Austro-Hungarian Empire should be regarded as a relatively big move, but the Kingdom of East Africa has nothing to pay attention to.

Good Prussia prince doesn't do it, go to that cursed continent in Africa, what's the picture? Now the whole of Germany knows that the Heshingen royal family is very rich, but Africa, some parts of South America, is a paradise for explorers, and it is not interesting to go there to open up a colony and claim hegemony, at most to be an African chieftain, Europe is the center of the world. Prince Konstantin's status is not low, and everyone sells him face.

"Well, at least this move shows that Austria-Hungary is not interested in Germany, and I think our military side can also focus more on the French side." Moltke said.

Although, Austria-Hungary does not intend to be in Germany, it is completely flat, because of the attention of Germany, Hungary will definitely oppose it, and there will be small moves behind it, but if you fight a rookie like Italy, Austria can solve it by itself, and Hungary will rush to join in, after all, the benefits cannot be swallowed by the Austrians alone.

(End of chapter)