Chapter 232

As for the possibility of Prussia unifying Germany, the other countries did not think that it would develop like this, because it would not have been possible for Prussia to unite Germany before the collapse of a powerful Austrian Empire.

And when Prussia was stronger than Austria, the European powers would spontaneously attack Prussia, and even turn to support Austria to suppress Prussia.

It is the consensus of all European countries that China and Europe should maintain a balance, and Germany should continue to be divided.

Under the pressure of the European powers, the Austrian Empire had always restrained its ambitions, and never made any move to unify Germany, because it knew that the consequences of such action would be that the Austrian Empire would be besieged by the nations unless it grew in strength enough to rival the European powers.

Prussia, the other German confederation power, on the contrary, has been trying to unify Germany, but because it is not strong enough to unify Germany, its ambitions have always been in the acquiescence of all countries, and it has the intention of letting it counterbalance Austria.

And now, because Prussia led the German Customs Union, its influence in the German states became more and more far-reaching, and it seemed that it had the strength to counter the Austrian Empire, all countries clearly perceived that Prussia was about to act, and the critical moment of German unification was coming.

Berlin in the Royal Palace of Prussia.

King Wilhelm I of Prussia, Prime Minister Bismarck and Chief of Staff Moltke were talking.

"News came from the Russian side that Alexander II intended to march on Constantinople to avenge his father. Bismarck Dow.

It seems that the influence of His Majesty in the Far East has already spread here. William I frowned.

"Shall we attack Austria in advance? But our army is not yet ready. Moltke said.

Bismarck said: "If we do not attack Aureli now, when the Russian army moves south, Austria may stand with Britain and Turkey, and we will lose the opportunity to deal with Austria in a short time, and we cannot predict the situation after the war." ”

"Are we really going to expel Austria from Germany?" said Wilhelm I.

Both Bismarck and Moltke were somewhat gloomy, and the expulsion of Austria from Germany meant a unified line of small Germany, a policy that matched Prussia's national strength and avoided being besieged by various countries as much as possible.

If the Great Germany was to be established, including the Austrian Empire, it would not only be extremely difficult, and it would be difficult to accomplish it with the power of Prussia, but it would also be criticized by other countries.

"If we want to unify Greater Germany, I'm afraid even the Russians won't agree. Bismarck Dow.

Now Russia, the most hated is Austria that betrayed it in the Crimean War, and wants Austria to die, but even the Russians do not want Prussia to destroy Austria, a huge empire appears in Central Europe, threatening the security of the whole of Europe, let alone other countries?

Wilhelm I could only restrain his ambitions a little, looked at March and said: "If we have not completed our preparations, Austria will be even more impossible, and you are confident enough to win?"

"It will surely make the Austrians realize how good we are in Prussia!" Moltke said.

Wilhelm I turned to Bismarck and said: "Is it possible for other countries to interfere?"

"That straw bag Bonaparte has full confidence in Austria, and France will never interfere with us. The Russians are eager for us to defeat Austria at once, and they will not send troops, and as for the British, in the Far East, have they not been taught enough?" Bismarck said.

"Didn't the Italians decide to go with us?" Moltke said.

Bismarck said disdainfully: "The weak Italy can be ignored, and he will not have much impact on the situation of the war." ”

"Let's start the war now. William I said.

"Obey Your Majesty's Divine Command!" Bismarck and Moltke said in unison.

......

At the end of 1865, the Austro-Prussian War broke out, and the eyes of all Europe were focused here.

And Liu Changyou's ministry has also entered Xinjiang all the way from the northeast, and the local armed forces in Outer Mongolia and Xinjiang are not at all the opponents of Liu Changyou's department, which has received Hong Tian's strong support, and they will be easily crushed.

When the war in the north basically subsided, Hong Tian finally completed the unification of China, although this was expected, but Hong Tian was still very surprised.

The New Treaty with Russia and Britain had already been signed, and Hong Tian recognized the territory seized by Russia in the Manchu Qing in exchange for the withdrawal of Russian troops in Northeast China, Mongolia and Xinjiang, otherwise Hong Tian would not have been able to complete the unification so easily, and even whether he could recover Xinjiang was unknown.

After the peace with Russia was reached, the new treaty with the British was finally negotiated, and the British wanted the Russians to unite with them, so there was still a fluke mentality, but at this time they had to face the reality.

The Taiping army withdrew from India except Bengal and won the final victory in the war against the British.

However, both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the British knew that this was just an armistice, and that another war would soon break out between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the British.

Because India was so tempting, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had already entered Bengal and controlled the three small South Asian states of Gurkha, Tsemengxiong and Bhutan in the north of India.

In the next war, Britain will face an even more severe situation, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has unified the whole of China, and the Xinjiang region has also been included in the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Taiping army can attack Kashmir from the southern Xinjiang region, so as to invade India.

On land, the British army would be in an even greater crisis, but Britain would have to compromise in order to keep India for the time being.

There is a reason why the British are reluctant to continue the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, even though they know that the situation will deteriorate further in the future.

The war had already been lost by the British, and the disastrous defeat of the British Concession in Shanghai and the naval fleet was the beginning, and the subsequent destruction of the British Expeditionary Force had caused an even greater crisis, and if the British Navy had been better at the Battle of Malacca, perhaps the war would have been better for the British.

But even then, Britain has always been the loser.

Because on land, the British could not compete with the Taiping army at all, which the British did not expect when they started the war, and they thought that they could easily defeat the Chinese army like the two opium wars, and the result can be imagined, in Lower Burma and India, they suffered extremely heavy defeats.

If the war continues, they will still have nothing to gain, not even India.

If India was lost, the British could not imagine the consequences, and they might have to withdraw from the whole of Asia, because after the loss of India, the Taiping army would be able to directly threaten Persia and the Middle East, and British influence in these places would fade.

What is even more serious is that Britain's loss of India will have a great impact on its economy, and its international prestige will also be greatly reduced, and all countries may covet Britain's vast colonies.

A temporary truce with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ended the war with dignity, and after quelling uprisings in various parts of India, a powerful army was trained to wash away India's humiliation.

This was a calculation of the British, but after the news of the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian war broke, the British vaguely realized that this did not seem to be an easy task.

The battle for the unification of Germany began!

Unlike the straw bag Bonaparte, the British did not think that Austria would have an advantage, and that a backward and decaying power would not necessarily win against a new power, and the victory might even be that of the emerging power.

However, the British did not encourage the French to intervene, because that would further strengthen the influence of the French in Germany, and the British did not want France to gain hegemony on the European continent, especially if Britain was weakened.

As for the war between Prussia and Austria, the British did not really want to see it, but since it broke out, they were powerless to stop it, and could only hope that the war would not be won or lost.

Britain's ideal for the war was to maintain the current situation without distinguishing between victory and defeat, with Emperor Wilhelm I leading Prussia, the second largest country in the German Confederation, and Emperor Joseph I of Austria leading Austria, the first power of the German Confederation, so that the balance of power in the German Confederation could be maintained and Germany could continue to be divided.

Even if such an ideal could not be realized, Prussia's victory was acceptable, Prussia did not have the strength to destroy Austria, and such a move could not be recognized by France and Russia, so after Prussia won the victory, it could only achieve the unification of Little Germany, and this could only be done with the consent of France, because many South German states were dependent on France.

The worst possible outcome was Austria's victory.

Austria defeated Prussia, completely gained the leadership of Germany, unified Germany along the Greater German line, and established a huge German empire to rule Central Europe, which is an extremely bad thing to think about.

While France and Russia were likely to stop it, the British still did not want the slightest possibility of such an eventuality.

In the eyes of the European countries, the war between Prussia and Austria was going on.

Of course, Italy, which had always liked to play the role of soy sauce in the European war, entered the war, joined forces with the powerful Prussia to launch an attack on Austria in the south, but it was defeated again and again, and the former Romans did not know where to lose their majesty.

At the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War, the Russian army had already begun to assemble and rush to the borders of Russia and Turkey in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and a Russo-Turkish war seemed imminent.

The whole of Europe was in horror, and the Russian army was in the middle of the war between Prussia, Austria and Italy, which was clearly premeditated.

In fact, it was true, that Russia was pressing on Turkey while Britain was weakened and had to intensify preparations for India in order to cope with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's reattack on India in the near future.

Prior to this, he had already hinted at Prussia, indirectly forcing Prussia to start a war with Austria in advance.

Britain and France were quite nervous, the Austro-Prussian war was no longer their primary concern, and the upcoming war between Russia and Turkey was what they had to care about.

The Russians intended revenge, and in the Crimean War, it was Turkey, England, France, and the Kingdom of Sardinia that were at war with Russia.

The Kingdom of Sardinia has now become the Kingdom of Italy, but this country was made of soy sauce back then, and it does not border Russia, so naturally it will not be remembered by Russia.

Turkey, which has always been the direction of Russia's attack, has once again become the target of Russia's attack at this time.

Britain and France, behind Turkey, saw that Turkey was about to be bullied again, so it was naturally impossible to turn a blind eye, and Britain and France began to meet to prepare for a war between Russia and Turkey.

Britain had been weakened in the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and had to be prepared for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to attack India at any time, so it was very limited to support Turkey, so it hoped that France would send a large number of troops to support Turkey.

Although Austria did not send troops to Russia at the time of the Crimean War, it also set up troops on the Austro-Russian border, threatening Russia to force Russia to withdraw from the Balkans.

However, the United Kingdom objected to this.

Because Austria was at war with Prussia, if Austria won the war, would Greater Germany be established? The French straw bag Bonaparte said that he would do everything in his power to stop it, but could he really stop it when the strength of the countries was damaged after the war? The British could not trust this straw bag Bonaparte.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Italy, which had evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia, an ally of its former allies, was now uniting with Prussia to wage war against Austria! Wasn't that just offending a country? Although Italy's strength was not favored, it was obviously not a clever move.

However, the British did not influence the French at all, especially the straw bag Bonaparte, who had the same surname as Napoleon, but the difference in ability was too far away, and worse still, the Corsican temper was inherited.

Straw bale Bonaparte, Napoleon III acted, he threatened Prussia and Italy, asking them to stop the attack on Austria.

Don't think it's a joke, although many people are laughing, but the French emperor Napoleon III was serious,

Napoleon III is the emperor of France, although he is also Napoleon, but naturally he is not the Napoleon the Great in history, but the nephew of Napoleon the Great, and he came to power not because of his outstanding ability, but because of the prestige of his uncle.

Napoleon III dared to ask Prussia and Italy to withdraw their troops, naturally it is not unreasonable, France has always been a first-class power in Europe, although after the abdication of Napoleon the Great, it has lost the hegemony of the European continent, but it still has a great deterrent effect on European countries.

Among them, France had a deep influence on the southern German region and the northern Italian region, and Germany had to get his tacit approval if it wanted to reunify, and the reason why Italy was able to unify was also the result of his connivance and assistance.

France is still very strong now, but his emperor Napoleon III is a real straw bag, and a strong France is completely in his hands.

Historically, France was defeated by Prussia at his hands, allowing William I of Prussia to ascend the throne as Emperor of the German Empire at Versailles, which became a stepping stone for Germany.

Since then, the French have been living in the shadow of the Germans, and Italy, a country in the southeast of France, which used to be just a historical term, has lived under the control of the French and Austrians in history, and has never been unified, but under a series of tricks by Napoleon III, a unified Italian kingdom was miraculously born, and since then it has become a major threat to the flank of France.

It can be said that since Napoleon III in history, France has changed from an advantage to a disadvantage over Germany, and then was tragically ravaged by Germany in World War I and World War II.

However, don't look at him as a straw bag, but his ambition is not small, in his eyes France is an extremely powerful country, not afraid of any empire, can run amok on the European continent.

Britain is lonely overseas, and France is not on the same road as a great power, Napoleon III is afraid of it and does not care, although the Russians are strong and brave, but they were beaten during the Crimean War, the Austrian Empire is extremely decrepit, since it was repeatedly hit by his uncle, it has been slumped, in the recent Franco-Italian-Austrian war, he had personally conquered Italy, so that Austria suffered.

As for the emerging Prussia and Italy, he looked down on them even more, as if France had already possessed the hegemony of Europe on the road.

Arrogant!

Yes, the current Napoleon III is arrogant, although he lost the invasion of Mexico not long ago, and is still stuck in the quagmire of Mexico, but he still has confidence in the strength of France.

Originally, he didn't care too much about Prussia's declaration of war on Austria, because he felt that Prussia was dying, although Austria had been defeated by him a few years ago, but it was not something that a cat or a dog could bully, Prussia, a second-rate kingdom, dared to call out to the Austrian Empire, what is this not death? So Napoleon III planned to see Prussia's jokes from the beginning, of course, he also had ambitions, in the battle between the two great powers of the German Confederation, when the two sides weakened, maybe it was an opportunity for him to show his strength.

Napoleon III had strong ambitions for the southern German states close to France, hoping to obtain France's ideal natural territory, and even beyond, to recreate the glory of his admired uncle's rule.

Therefore, he had been in a wait-and-see mode, but now because the Russians were ready to intervene, and in order to show the majesty of France, he naturally exerted his might on the weak Prussia and Italy.

As soon as the news of Napoleon III's threat of an armistice between Prussia and Italy broke, the whole world was shocked!

The Kingdom of Italy was the first to be frightened, and the government immediately announced its withdrawal from the war, but although the government compromised, the war continued.

Because the Kingdom of Italy at this time, like any other period in history, was pitifully weak, and in the beginning of the war, the Italian army was defeated by the Austrians and retreated.

In desperation, the Kingdom of Italy can only appoint the Italian folk general Garibaldi, the reason why Garibaldi is called a famous folk general, naturally because Garibaldi came to the people, not a general trained by Italy, when Garibaldi was dominant, the Kingdom of Italy had not yet been born!

Compared with the orthodox generals of Italy, Garibaldi's excellent outrageous military talent is simply a miracle, and it can even be said that from the founding of Italy to later generations, the only famous general who can get his hands on it is him, and his rise from the people is the fulfillment of the old saying that the master comes from the people.

When the Italian army was defeated, the government used Garibaldi in the hope that the folk hero could turn the tide.

Garibaldi, a folk hero, is naturally duty-bound, in fact, he has been prepared for a long time, and he has long been in contact with all parties, and with his reputation as an Italian military god, he easily gathered nearly 40,000 volunteers.

That's right!

Commander Garibaldi has always been a volunteer army, and the Kingdom of Italy has always been reluctant to hand over the government army to Garibaldi's command, but in fact, this is exactly what Garibaldi wants, and he doesn't know the virtue of the government army.

With the Volunteer Army, Garibaldi opened as before, and went to Austria to kill, Garibaldi's military god reappeared a miracle, and Italy, which was originally retreating, turned defeat into victory, and the Volunteer Army won a series of victories, pushing the battlefield into Austria.

Although the Italian government compromised, Garibaldi was a folk hero, and the government was the onion! When I was rampant in Italy, you were still kneeling and licking France!

The Italian army retreated, Garibaldi's volunteers were still advancing, and the Austrians were losing and retreating, using their shame to achieve the honor of the Italian god of war.

The Prussian government on the other side is another dynamic, for the French, Prussia is also a little jealous, the shadow of the famous tree, although Napoleon III is recognized as a straw bale, but the French army still has a certain strength, but Prussia has launched a war of unification, and a series of victories make them feel that the victory is in hand, how can they retreat because of a word from the French?

Wilhelm I, Bismarck, and Moltke were all unwilling to give up their low-hanging fruit.

Fearing French intervention, Prussia intensified its attack on the Austrians, hoping to defeat the Austrians quickly, force Austria to admit defeat, end the war, and expel Austria from Germany.

At that time, even if the French do not come to find trouble, they will take the initiative to come over, who will let the hateful French be an obstacle to German reunification!