Chapter 233

Prussia under the pressure of the French, as if beaten chicken blood, the history of the Austro-Prussian war was only seven weeks old, the Prussian army defeated the Austrian army, the achievement of the Prussian army's prestige, this era is even better, it only took five weeks, so that the Austrian army suffered a crushing defeat.

However, the outcome was beyond the expectations of Wilhelm I and others, although the Austrian army was defeated, but the Austrian mediocre monarch Franz Joseph I did not surrender as in history.

Although the Italian volunteers in the south were still fighting, the Italian government had already compromised under French pressure, believing that Garibaldi was reluctant and eventually had to retreat.

Austria thought that although it could not defeat the Prussian army alone, once France officially intervened, the Prussian army would definitely not be able to eat and walk around, and he only needed to hold out until that time.

Austria's reluctance to accept defeat was a pain for Prussia, which thought it would be a fait accompli that would lead to victory, but it was slow to achieve its wishes.

Napoleon III was furious!

Although Garibaldi is still fighting the Austrian army, Garibaldi is a volunteer army after all, and he is not bound by the Italian government, and the Italian government has compromised, which can be seen as his words are fully respected, and a word scares a kingdom, what a might!

However, Prussia took his words as wind on deaf ears, and instead intensified its offensive against Austria, which made Napoleon III angry!

Naturally, Prussia did not ignore the words of Napoleon III, otherwise the attack would not have been so crazy, but in the eyes of Napoleon III, this was a naked slap in the face.

It's so faceless!

Napoleon III felt disgraced, and the French army was immediately mobilized and marched into the South German states that had joined Austria to fight against the invading Prussian army.

The Austro-Prussian War was mainly a confrontation between Prussia and Austria, but it was a war to unify Germany, and other states were also implicated, and most of the states were on the side of Austria, because they did not want Germany to be united, because then they would lose their independent status, and they were willing to give up their independent status for the cause of German unification, and Prussia was only a few North German states that joined forces.

However, the Prussian army does not value other states, and even the Austrian army is despised by them, and the strength of these third-rate states is naturally even less valued by them.

Therefore, while their main force attacked Austria, they only sent a partial division to attack the southern German states, which were murderous everywhere before the arrival of the French army, but after the arrival of the French army, they could not bear it, and gradually retreated.

The situation became extremely critical, Prussia finally became ruthless after a forced landing in Austria to no avail, and Wilhelm I and Moltke originally had the intention of marching into Vienna, but they were stopped by Bismarck, because this would make European countries think that Prussia was going to implement the line of Greater German unification, and it might be attacked by European countries.

But the current situation did not allow Prussia to hesitate, and the only way to make Austria admit defeat was to attack Vienna.

Although Franz Joseph I was unwilling to admit defeat, the Austrians were indeed defeated and were unable to resist the Prussian attack, and the Prussian army approached Vienna.

At the time of the French army's victory in South Germany, two shocking news were received, one of which was that the Prussian army had captured Vienna and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I was forced to flee south!

Of course, the more shocking news than this is that the Russian army has finally launched an attack on Turkey, the Russian-Turkish war has resumed, and the whole of Europe has been plunged into smoke.

The Russians had been preparing for war for a long time, but they had been holding back until then, because the Russians were waiting for news from the East.

Alexander II had already ordered the ambassador to China, Uliang Ga, to persuade His Majesty from the East to join the Russian front.

After some bargaining, Hong Tian easily agreed, and Russia provided some financial and technical support to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sided with Russia when there was a conflict between Russia and Britain, which meant that if Britain intervened in the Russo-Turkish war, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would re-attack India.

After Alexander II received the promise of Hongtian, he immediately began a reactionary war without hesitation, and the army marched into Turkey to attack the Turkish army.

Russia was economically backward among the European powers, and although Alexander II ascended the throne and its national strength rebounded, it was still a backward agricultural country, and the proportion of gross industrial production to GDP was very low.

However, Russia's huge territory and population have always been a great advantage, and Turkey is more backward than Russia, in modern times Turkey has always been the target of Russia's strategy, the object of bullying, if it were not for other European countries have been obstructing, Turkey would have been destroyed by Russia long ago.

This time, the Russians invaded Turkey again, and the situation in Europe changed dramatically.

The war for the unification of Germany worried the countries of Europe, fearing that Germany would be unified as a result, not to mention the Greater German line, but the Little German line alone was strongly unsettling.

But compared to Russia's reign in Constantinople, its entry into the Mediterranean, and even its control of Jerusalem, that pales in comparison.

Since Peter the Great, Russia has risen to become the leading power in Europe, and since then it has been out of control, aggressive in northern Europe, Eastern Europe, and southeastern Europe, and at the same time expanding into the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Far East, and even North America.

Now the Russian Empire is a huge empire that stretches from Prussia in the east, Turkey and Persia in the south, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and Canada in the east!

If it were to destroy Turkey and gain access to the Mediterranean, and even the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, then not to mention Europe, even the whole world would tremble under its might.

Its actions must be stopped!

As in the past, European countries have such thoughts, but Russia is a first-class power, and it is not something that ordinary countries can stop at all, and Turkey, which has been reduced to a second-rate country, is not capable of resisting the Russian army, even if it fights on its own, it still does not have an advantage, and defeat is only a matter of time.

The British were quite enthusiastic, and reacted immediately, strongly condemning the atrocities of the Russians, waging an unjust war, and threatening Russia, asking the Russians not to go too far, otherwise the British army would intervene, and even the British fleet had already sailed to Constantinople, and the military threat was very strong.

However, Britain did not dare to provoke a war easily, and its crushing defeat in Asia had left its power in a period of weakening, and it would not recover yet!

Moreover, Britain has been carefully managing India recently, which is relatively relaxed for Europe, and most of the troops are drawn to India to suppress the uprising, and it is not easy to transfer back at this time.

Moreover, the British have always been behind the scenes, and the Crimean War was forced to enter the war, so naturally they will not go into battle shirtless right away.

Turkey was too weak, and the Russians were too strong, and Britain thought that it would not be able to save the situation even if it joined on its own, so Britain further urged the French.

Napoleon III was so angry that he almost had a crooked nose!

Prussia didn't stop, even the Russians began to suffer, and less than ten years after the end of the Crimean War, did the Russians forget the pain?

Napoleon III was saying to the British: As long as you Britain enter the war, I, France, will definitely attack Russia!

After Russia's successive victories and slaughter on Constantinople, the British finally could not resist declaring war on Russia, as they were determined to win the former capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The French then also declared war on Russia, and a four-nation war broke out between Britain, France, Russia, and Turkey!

The Russo-Turkish War and the Austro-Prussian War were fought at the same time, and the two were interrelated, but they were not unified.

Napoleon III of France, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and Tsar Alexander II hoped to unite the two wars, but others were vehemently opposed.

The British did not want to introduce the Austro-Prussian war into the Russo-Turkish war, because Austria had already suffered a crushing defeat, and if they promised to merge the two wars, the Prussian army that was fighting with the French would be on the opposite side of the British, which was definitely not a good thing, so the British urged the French to end the Austro-Prussian war.

With the end of the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia was victorious, allowing it to unify the North German states, while the South German states were temporarily controlled by the French.

If, after the end of the war, Austria was still willing to join the Russo-Turkish war and fight on the side of the British, then the British would naturally be very welcome.

Prussia was also opposed to joining the Russo-Turkish war, because then it would have to start a war with Britain and Turkey, Turkey is not to mention the five scum of the war, and it can be ignored directly, but the British are different, the British Empire is the first power in the world today, and it can be described as a well-deserved giant, except for the Far Eastern power and the Russian Empire, which has always been brave, even the French have to let it be divided into three points.

The same is true of Prussia, which is only a second-rate country, and although its combat power has reached the first-class level, there is still a big gap between it and Britain.

Britain and Prussia tried their best to prevent the two wars from being able to merge for the time being.

Napoleon III was quite angry, he was fighting with the Prussian army in South Germany on the one hand, and on the other hand, he had to prepare for the Russo-Turkish war, and the war in Mexico had not yet subsided, and he was fighting on three fronts, even if France was strong, it was impossible to withstand such a toss.

Austria was even more angry, Vienna had been breached, they were on the verge of extinction, and the British wanted to cut them off?

The two sides began to play, and Prussia first signaled to the British, hoping that Britain would triumph from it, make Austria surrender, let it complete the unification of Little Germany, and even they could take a step back and only unify North Germany.

Britain quickly negotiated with France, but it soon failed, because Napoleon III, the straw bag, would never accept such a "humiliating" result, because the Prussian division at war with France was retreating, and he felt that the Prussian army was nothing more than that, and the French army was victorious.

As long as the Prussian army is defeated, and the Austrian army has been crippled by the Prussian army, the power of the entire Germany will be seriously weakened, and the future of Germany will be under the control of France.

The glory of France is here!

Napoleon III's eyes were red, he felt that he was going to dominate Europe, how could he care about the triumph of the British.

With the support of France, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I was of course unwilling to admit defeat and easily ceded the leadership of Germany to Prussia.

So the war between Austria and Prussia continued, and he also offered Britain that he would join the Anglo-French-Turkish side as long as the Prussian army withdrew from Austria and the pre-war situation was restored.

The British were in trouble, Napoleon III was not willing to accept their mediation at all, and the British, seeing the meaning of France, immediately expressed their powerlessness to Prussia and demanded that they withdraw their troops and restore the pre-war situation.

Apparently the British, having learned of the determination of France, knew that they had to choose between France and Austria and Prussia.

Don't look at Napoleon III is not very good, but France has a deep heritage, and its military power is still favored, although Prussia performed extremely well in the Austro-Prussian War, but compared with the French Empire and the Austrian Empire, the weight is still a little insufficient.

Without much thought, the British made the choice and abandoned Prussia in favor of France and Austria.

The choice of the British naturally seemed normal, but it was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Prussia, which forced them to assess the situation and think about what to do.

......

Vienna, the capital of Austria.

At the pre-war headquarters of the Prussian army, Wilhelm I, Bismarck and Moltke reunited.

The faces of the three of them were very gloomy, the news was becoming more and more unfavorable, the good diplomatic environment before the war was gone, Austria, which had thought it could be easily defeated, was defeated as it wished, but Austria refused to admit defeat, and Joseph I had fled to the Hungarian region.

In addition, France, which was not expected to intervene, intervened, and had already sent troops to South Germany, making the Prussian army appear to be overwhelmed on the western front.

What disturbed them the most was the British, the explosion of energy of the world's largest power, which Prussia could not withstand at all, and they would rather face Austria and France alone than deal with the British alone.

"Are we going to back down?!" roared William I.

Unwilling!

His words were full of unwillingness, the Prussian army achieved a great victory, although in South Germany encountered an unexpected French army, suffered some setbacks, but this is mainly a strategic requirement, Wilhelm I made the Prussian army in South Germany strategy contraction, really to start a big war with the French army, victory may not be French.

Now that he is in Vienna, the core area of the German Confederation, the two major capitals of the German Confederation, Berlin and Vienna, are already under his control, not to mention the unification of small Germany, even the unification of Greater Germany may not be impossible to achieve.

And just when he was ambitious, he was asked to retreat, which made the hero William I acceptable!

"The British have issued an ultimatum for an answer within twenty-four hours. Bismarck said helplessly, how willing he was, how much he had paid for the unification of Germany, and now success was in sight, but he was hit by such a blow, which undoubtedly shattered his ideals.

"The British? They have suffered a crushing defeat in the Far East, do they still want to run amok in Europe? The Chinese can defeat them on land, and so can we, Prussia!" Moltke hissed.

He is like a wounded lion, struggling hard, he is the chief of staff of the Prussian army, is the actual commander of the Prussian army, he and the Prussian army soldiers share weal and woe, as close as brothers, the Prussian army is bleeding, fighting bloodily for the reunification of Germany, I don't know how many people have been sacrificed, and as a result, the British have to retreat in a word, what is the reason?

Will the dead Prussian soldiers agree? Will the living Prussian soldiers agree? No!

Absolutely not!

"But this is Europe!" Bismarck said.

Perhaps the British Army, which is full of mercenaries in Asia, is vulnerable, but the British army in Europe is all British, unlike the British Army in India, except for a small number of British descendants, most of the others are Indians.

The British Army in Europe is very powerful, and the most terrifying thing is the British production capacity and the outrageously large financial resources.

With the support of the British, it was almost impossible for Prussia to defeat France and Austria, unless the Prussian army was all heavenly soldiers and could defy the sky.

Bismarck's words made Wilhelm I and Moltke dismayed, they did not know the crisis facing Prussia, unless they joined the Russian front and participated in the Russo-Turkish war, so that they could rely on the Russians to win, but this was not a good idea.

Russia was defeated in the Crimean War, and Austria had not yet officially entered the war!

Although Russia implemented serfdom reforms at the hands of Alexander II, and its strength increased, it was impossible to deal with Britain, France, Austria, and Turkey.

Even if he joined the Russian front, the probability of defeat was much higher than that of victory.

In fact, Alexander II had already sent people to persuade them to join the Russian side to fight, and expressed his full support for Prussia to complete the unification of the Little German line, and even get part of the territory of Austria, such as the Czech Republic and other places, as long as Germany did not carry out the unification of Greater Germany.

But Prussia simply ignored the Russians, which clearly led Prussia into the fire pit!

Just then, an urgent telegram arrived in front of the three of them.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom announced that it would join the Russian side and declare war on Britain, France, and Turkey!

The Chinese have entered the war!

Wilhelm I, Bismarck and Moltke were shocked, and they could not imagine that the Russians still had this hand, and even the Chinese were co-opted.

The three of them glanced at each other and said, "Let's fight!"

Prussia declared war on Britain, France, and Turkey.

At this point, the First World War, which swept most of the world, officially broke out!

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom entered the war, which directly turned the war between Britain, France, Turkey, and Russia into a world war, which changed history dramatically.

It directly changed the trend of Prussia and involved the Austro-Prussian War, and the melee between Britain, France, Turkey, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and China began.

The reason why Prussia changed their minds because of the entry of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into the war was naturally because they saw the hope of victory.

In the previous war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the British, the Taiping Army showed great strength, especially on land, which made the whole world feel a sense of horror, and the exclamation of the awakening of lions in Europe and the United States.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's entry into the war will open up the Asian theater, and the Taiping army's sweep of India is almost predictable, because the power of Britain and its allies in Asia is very weak, and it is impossible for the Taiping army to be the opponent of the Taiping army, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has many vassal states, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the first to look forward.

The four small countries of Gurkha, Je Mengxiong, Bhutan, Burma, Siam, Annam, Korea, the Ryukyus, and the Nanzhang region, although these countries were weak, were enough to deal a fatal blow to the disadvantaged Britain.

India will fall into the hands of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then the Taiping army will be able to attack Turkey through Persia (Iran), and this route is chosen because of the situation that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is blockaded by the British at sea, and as for whether Persia will agree, this is not in the Prussians' consideration at all, because if you do not agree, it will take some time to destroy it.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacked from the east, and Russia attacked from the north, and Persia, a small and decaying state, could easily be destroyed.

At that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would conquer Turkey in the west, attack the valley of the two rivers, and the peninsula of Asia Minor, and then attack Constantinople from the east.

Decaying Turkey could not be an opponent of a mighty Russia and an awakened lion of the East, and the armies of Austria and France could not be an opponent of the Russian, Prussian and Taiping armies after the loss of Turkey, even if the British joined.

Wilhelm I, Bismarck, and Moltke all felt a stirring in their hearts, and this was a great opportunity, and it would be a lifelong regret for them to miss it.

For if they had compromised and withdrawn from Austria, Austria would have joined the war between Britain, France, and Turkey, and the Russians would have no way to stand alone in Europe, and even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had an advantage in Asia, Russia might have surrendered before it attacked Turkey westward.

In that way, Austria would continue to maintain its position as the first state of the German Confederation by this victory, and even further consolidate its position, while South Germany would probably be further infiltrated by France, and Prussia's many years of operation would be burned to the ground, and God would know whether it would be possible to unify Germany.

Wilhelm I, Bismarck, and Moltke were all extraordinary men, and they immediately chose to continue the war, joining the side of Russia and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

As long as they completely defeated Austria, confronted France, and supported until Russia defeated Turkey and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured India, the war would basically be considered a victory.

It was in this way that Prussia joined the Russian side, with the main Prussian army starting from Vienna and marching east to Hungary to completely defeat the Austrians, and the other west to South Germany for a decisive battle with the French.