War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

The French had not yet made any move, but the British could not sit still. That's right, France, the authority, didn't even take a stand, and England started jumping up and down.

The British media and their politicians clearly oppose the unabashed behavior of the United States on the other side of the ocean that intensifies conflicts and provokes wars, especially the latter's actions of blocking the coastline and detaining other countries' ships. This is simply a serious violation of the free trade order and right of passage. challenge.

Ironically, British businessmen with flexible moral bottom lines sold boxes of arms to the West Coast of the United States as usual, and the quantity even increased.

It was also true that Robert Peel hoped that Austria and France would join the war, and British diplomats spared no effort to promote the American threat, even suggesting that they could even provide fleet escort if Austria was willing to send troops.

Of course, whether it can arrive safely is another matter. After all, Britain has no reason to go to war with the United States at this time, right?

The French were indifferent and showed no interest in the British proposals. After all, the attitude of the top management is there, who wants to meddle in other people's business?

But the more France adopts this attitude, the less senior leaders of other powers dare to despise it, which naturally includes Franz.

After all, the size is there, coupled with the important geographical location, it can turn the battle situation around at any time as long as it sends troops.

Before the situation is clear (France declares its position), it is impossible for Austria to make any big moves. No matter how important the colony was, it was not as important as the security of the homeland, not to mention that Franz didn't want to take risks.

However, Prince Metternich was once again tempted by the British proposal. This was mainly because Count Latour, a landlubber, clamored all day long to easily defeat the American army. After all, the Austrian Army today is much stronger than it was in history.

Sufficient military spending allows military personnel to have ample time for high-quality training, and at the same time accelerates the upgrading of weapons, making weapons more abundant.

The most obvious example is that at this time in history, Austrian soldiers only had five opportunities to fire live ammunition every year, and the rest of their training relied on "thought shooting."

Naturally, it is impossible to train any elite soldiers with this method. However, due to the development of technology and the problem of overcapacity, the number of live ammunition fired by Austrian soldiers has reached 70 rounds per year, which is 14 times that of the same period in history.

In fact, in terms of the production speed of bullets alone, the sum of the three arsenals that the Czar was obsessed with could not reach the output of one arsenal of theirs, a prosperous Western ally, that could operate at full capacity for a month.

Because at this time, the three major arsenals in Russia were still characterized as three relatively large "handmade workshops". Although the scale was not small, the technology had not made significant progress, and they still used the old model from the Napoleonic War.

Coupled with the fact that some corrupt officials are unwilling to pay high prices to hire skilled workers, the quality of the bullets produced is not only uneven, but the output is also frighteningly low. Ten rounds a day is not bad.

In fact, skilled workers who have achieved popularization can make a bullet in five to ten minutes, and hundreds of bullets can be produced in a day.

With the help of machinery, female workers in Austria can do what a skilled worker does in a day in half a day, and even faster if necessary.

Various other combat weapons also greatly strengthened the confidence of Latour, the Minister of War. However, sometimes wars are not about who can fight better, but who consumes more energy.

And the transoceanic expedition was still too early for this country.

Of course, Franz would not really choose to sit back and die. As early as the early days of the war, he had already sent people to the United States to find "allies."

After all, war is not just about who can fight better. At the same time, what happened in the Near East also caught Franz off guard. He never expected that the Tsar's ambition would expand so quickly.

Although Russia is only asking for a "small piece" of land this time, the reality is that if they gain a foothold south of the Caucasus, no one will be able to stop this behemoth from expanding in West Asia.

Although the Ottomans and Persia are also hegemons in their respective regions, they are still too weak compared to the Russian Empire, not to mention that these two countries have not dealt with each other.

The Ottomans' attitude was obviously not firm enough, and the British did not show a strong will at this time. There is no doubt that it is very uncomfortable to use their brains to guess the other side's next strategy.

Of course, this is not without basis for judgment. At least from the perspective of national interests, it is impossible for the British to allow the expansion of their opponent, the Russians.

However, the problems faced by Robert Peel at this time involved a lot of the prime minister's energy, not to mention that in his heart he hoped that Mao Xiong's reckless behavior would make Austria and Russia go against each other. After all, in theory, Russia and Austria are in the Near East. competitors.

However, there is a small problem with this logic, that is, Russia is asking for land near the Caucasus at this time, while Austria's traditional strategic goal is to seize the Balkans. The two goals are far apart. This move does not necessarily affect the latter's strategic interests. .

But in fact, although Kars Province is thousands of miles away from Austria, Russia's uncontrolled expansion will affect the judgment of the Ottomans and thus undermine Franz's layout.

"Collapse" is inevitable, it depends on how much benefit each of the great powers can share, or external interference turns the Ottoman legacy into a pile of "reply".

But the morning and evening of this time are very important. For Austria, if you eat too early, you won’t be able to eat. If you don’t eat well late, you will suffer from indigestion. At this time, Russia's actions are undoubtedly accelerating the process, which is not what Franz wants to see.

But from another perspective, Austria is an ally of Russia, and Nicholas I is not a fool. St. Petersburg will definitely ask Vienna for its opinion before taking action.

This issue was once again thrown to Austria. Supporting Russia would offend Britain and the Ottomans, and it was also not in line with the country's interests in the Balkans.

If you choose not to support it, then all the previous efforts made by Franz will be in vain. Tsarist Russia will become his biggest threat in the East, and he will be isolated diplomatically again. In the future, actions in overseas and European continents must be cautious, otherwise It is possible that they will be targeted by the great powers at any time.

At the same time, Germany and Italy will no longer be the back gardens of the empire, where the great powers will cultivate their own agents to weaken Austria's power and prevent it from expanding its territory.

Sardinia and Prussia will receive strong support, and even the great powers will directly step in to help them when they fight with Austria.

Then the Vienna court had to make peace with Hungary and local powerful factions in order to stabilize its rule. The country would further regress and eventually become the so-called "Doll Empire."

Franz naturally would not tolerate this unfavorable situation to happen again, and of course he would not allow the furry bear to continue to expand.

Robert Peel was also troubled by the incident of sheep eating dirt in the Near East and couldn't sleep. He really couldn't understand why the Russians did this.

Stratford Canning informed London of Russia's actions as soon as possible, so the British Prime Minister received intelligence about the Near East earlier than Franz.

First of all, it is impossible for the United Kingdom to sit idly by and ignore the unbridled expansion of the Russian Empire. However, not to mention its internal and external difficulties at this time, and the entire world is experiencing frequent problems, even the world's most powerful country lacks the motivation to get involved in a new dispute.

So Robert Peel thought of a way, yes! Kick the ball to the Austrians. After all, he knows very well that there can only be one overlord in Eastern Europe, and no matter which country loses, it is good news for Britain.

Compared with the Mexican-American War and the Second Near East Crisis, future famine on the island of Ireland and the civil war that may break out at any time in Switzerland are less important.

ireland, south

In a small town near Queen Village, crowds gathered in the center of the square. Flags and slogans were everywhere, trumpets and drums were heard, and it was a noisy scene.

"It's so lively! Should we go and see it?"

As a country girl, Scathach Jennings had a rare opportunity to come to the town to play. It was the first time she saw so many people present, so she turned to ask her eldest brother Patrit.

"No!" Patrit said decisively, and shook off his sister's hand.

"If you don't go, you won't go! What's wrong!?" Scathach Jennings has also reached the age of rebelliousness, especially since her brother failed to do the thing before, but she succeeded, so she began to have a little temper. .

Patrit hit his sister on the head, and the latter could only look at the former in pain.

"Just wait, I'll go back and tell dad."

"Listen, Scathach, my sister. Do you know what day it is?" Patrit said patiently.

"How do I know? My memory is not extraordinary." Scathach Jennings rubbed his red forehead aggrievedly.

"Today is July 12th, the so-called Glorious Twelfth Day by the British. They defeated us at the Battle of the Boyne River and brutally massacred those warriors who refused to surrender," Patrit said, looking at Scathach.

"But those people celebrating are obviously Irish!?" Scathach asked with confusion.

"Yes, those people are Protestants, and most of them are the lackeys of the English masters. Naturally, they have to celebrate their master's victory, even if it is paid for with the blood of their own compatriots.

See the red cloaks on those people? It's all dyed red with the blood of us Irish."

The more Patrit spoke, the more indignant he became. After all, this kind of education was often given in the restoration organization he joined, and his eyes even started to sparkle.

But his sister showed a look of disdain. After all, she received the "Austrian" education in the church every day.

The "Austrian" education of this period advocated science and rationality. Who did this? The answer is Joseph II, one of the few New Deal measures to survive.

Although rationality and science are both praiseworthy words in modern times, under the wrong people and wrong interpretation, some strange results will always occur.

Yes, one of them is contempt for humanity.

"Brother, you lie!"

"What do you mean?" This meaningless sentence made Patritt faint.

"Father Hans said that when blood dries, it will scab and become darker, mainly brownish-red and black." Scathach Jennings retorted confidently.

Patrit was silent for a while, and then grabbed his sister's two pigtails and started firing wildly.

"You are so stupid from reading! I am sensationalizing! Do you understand?! You are also Irish and Catholic. If you had appeared on the Boyne River at that time, they would have hanged you too!"

After a while, the brother and sister left the town. Scathach was arranging her messed up hair and holding a bag of salt in her arms. She was holding her chest as if there was a baby in her arms. This was her home. Take this season with a pinch of salt.

Patrit was carrying three shovels. Brand-new shovels seemed a bit luxurious for ordinary farmers, but in fact they were bought for the priests in the church.

These new priests always like to dig endlessly under the church. They don't know what they are looking for, or they want to dig a tunnel straight into the ground.

Later, when the villagers heard that Austria was on the other side of the world, they were relieved and thought that these priests might be homesick.

Since the priests would put the used tools in the open space outside the church, it was inevitable that they would be lost.

Some families who lack farm tools will take them home secretly at night. The church will not trace the whereabouts of these tools. Of course, occasionally someone will return them, and the priest will not make any announcement either.

However, people's lives have not been easy recently, and too many tools from the church were lost, so they had to entrust the Jennings brothers, who were going to the town to buy salt, to buy some shovels.

Although these priests were also "gringos," Patrit didn't have a bad impression of them, so he accepted the task.

The two of them were on tenterhooks all the way back, fearing that someone would try to steal the shovels. Fortunately, the "big robber" who robbed the shovels did not appear.

On the contrary, when the two of them were passing by a small river, they discovered a school of salmon. The brother and sister took a shovel and poked in the river and caught several salmon.

"There are only five salmon? What should I do? Isn't that enough?" Patrit said in embarrassment.

"Yes, yes. What should dad, mom, Tommy, Mickey, Erin, Nina, you and me do?" Scathach also began to feel embarrassed. After all, it was difficult to solve this problem with her math level. The problem of dividing fish by species.

"I have a proposal!" her brother said with a wicked smile.

"What proposal? Eight people, five fish, the heads, bodies, and tails of the fish are all different. Even if we catch three more fish, the sizes will be different." Scathach was struggling to use the knowledge she had learned to try to solve the problem in front of her. question.

"How about we each grill one and eat it, and then take the remaining three fish back and make them into fish soup for everyone to drink?"

"good idea!"

Scathach felt that her eldest brother was really a genius, but she always felt that there was something weird about it, but anyway, she was very happy to eat grilled fish, and she happened to still have salt on her body.

Only then did Scathach remember that she was still carrying salt. When she encountered a school of salmon, she rushed faster than anyone else with a shovel.

Scathach hurriedly took out the package and checked it. You must know that this is the salt of their family for four months. If it melted in the river, her parents would probably open her buttocks. Fortunately, that did not happen. , the attentive clerk wrapped a layer of oil paper inside.

The brother and sister lit a fire by the river, and soon the two grilled fishes smelled "sizzling". They returned home after feasting.

When the younger brothers and sisters saw the salmon, they all shouted excitedly, because Irish people rarely eat meat on weekdays, let alone high-end products like salmon.

The two mothers were shocked when they turned around, not because of the salmon, but because of their faces.

“What’s going on with the salmon?”

"We caught it in the river! You can make fish soup! The whole family can drink it!" Looking at the two proud mothers, they shook their heads helplessly and asked symbolically.

"You didn't eat it secretly, did you?"

"of course not!"

"Absolutely not!"

At this time, four children gathered around, smelling the aroma of grilled fish.

"It smells so good! It's grilled fish!" Mickey, who was missing his upper front teeth, and Tommy, who was missing his lower front teeth, said in unison.