A staff member of the Austrian Embassy, who was about thirty years old, reported: "Your Excellency, this is the information we have recently gathered.

It is worth noting that at the same time as the visit of the Marquess of Maclean, the Permanent Secretary of the British Foreign Office, Crow, also entered the French embassy at the same time.

The two met in a secret room, the exact contents of which no one knows. Preliminary judgment of the content of their conversation should be related to the war in the Near East, and half of it may have involved the issue of German reunification. ”

It is the foreign policy of the British to win over Austria to balance France, and to pull France to balance Austria, and to use the British, French, and Austrian Triple Alliance to maintain stability on the European continent and consolidate their world hegemony.

The British and the French came into contact, and Hummel was not the least surprised. The British wanted to keep the nail of the Ottoman Empire, and the Vienna government was also prepared to leave the decaying empire to shear the sheep slowly.

If the Ottomans were to be killed all at once, Austria would not be able to swallow this piece of meat. When the time came, the European countries were divided together, which not only undermined the fraudulent strategy implemented by the Vienna government, but also put Britain and France in their own backyards.

It is enough to shout the slogan "Unified German Regions", and if it is taken seriously, it will be lost. As a senior member of the government, Hummel knew very well that the Vienna government was not ready to unify the German regions.

Hummel nodded: "Put the documents here, I'll take the time to read them." Now that I continue to stare at the British, I always feel that things are not so simple. ”

Things went so smoothly that Hummel didn't have to do anything to get the results he wanted.

If it's something else, you can celebrate it in advance. However, in international diplomacy, the more times like these, the more necessary it is to be more vigilant.

No one can guarantee whether this will be a smoke bomb released by a competitor. Britain and Austria have only reached a verbal agreement, which is not binding at all, and it is too easy to go back.

……

In the Downing Street Prime Minister's residence, the top British cabinet gathered.

Prime Minister Gelston: "How's the plan going, have France and Austria taken the bait?" ”

Foreign Secretary Maclean: "It's going very well, France and Austria are very wary of each other. As long as we control the time, follow the plan step by step, and don't leave them time for private transactions, the big picture is settled.

I am more worried about the Federal Reich of Germany than about France and Austria. There are too many states in the German region, Austria has too much influence in the German region, and local nationalism has awakened.

I'm worried that even with our backing, they won't necessarily go as we planned. In case they don't hold on, our investment will be wasted.

You know, until now, Hanover has not really mastered the country. Their Imperial Parliament still follows the traditional model, one vote per state, which is very troublesome. ”

"One state, one vote", this is a prerequisite for the establishment of the Federal German Empire, otherwise why would many German states follow Hanover?

Behind the voting rights, there is also the handiwork of Austria. This model of political structure was created from the outset to prevent the integration of the German Confederation.

Now the effect is very good, after so many years, the Federal Reich of Germany is still the "empire of comedy", and when it encounters things, it is noisy.

It stands to reason that such a political structure will affect the development of the country, but in fact, on the contrary, the local economy is developing very well.

These states have a high degree of autonomy and flexibility in formulating economic policies, without the intervention of the Hanoverian-dominated central government.

The economic base determines the political structure, and under the influence of geographical, cultural, political and diplomatic factors, many states of the German Confederation inevitably tie their economies to Austria.

Not every small state has ambitions, and for many small countries, it is enough to develop a good economy. Anyway, no matter who is the boss, it will not be their turn to be the boss, as long as it is their own people, they can accept it.

Many states at the village and town level have simply abolished their armies. For them, it's the same whether they raise an army or not.

Duels are no longer popular these days, and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of troops, all of which exceed their total population, and they can't win in the face of foreign invasion, so it's better to hug their thighs to ensure their own safety.

According to the plan of the British, the Federal Empire of Germany would cut off Austria and completely get rid of Austrian influence and become a truly independent country.

The supreme authority of the Federal German Empire was the Reichstag, and under the basic system of one state, one vote, these small and obtrusive states, if united, could veto any decision of the central government.

MacLean's fears were justified, and if the Reichstag of the German Federation came out and spoke out against it, it would be a joke.

Chancellor Gelston frowned: "This is indeed a problem, but it can be handled by the German federal government itself."

If these states could not be convinced, it would be a big deal for the emperor to order the closure of the imperial parliament. It may cause a little mess, but I'm sure they can overcome it.

After the annexation of the Rhineland by the Federal Empire of Germany, their strength will have a qualitative breakthrough, and the total economic volume and industrial volume can rank among the top five in Europe.

If Austria had annexed the German Confederation, the European continent would have really become a monopoly, which the rest of Europe did not want to see.

Now it is the general trend to further separate the German Confederation from Austria and completely cut off the possibility of German reunification. The Vienna government, even if it was reborn, could not resist the common will of the European countries. ”

The Federal Empire of Germany was already the most economically prosperous region in Germany, and with the Rhineland, it was even more powerful.

Open the map, you can see that the essence of the second German empire in the original time and space is here, and simply looking at industry and economy, it is equivalent to the strength of half of the second German empire in the same period of the original time and space.

This volume is no longer small, the total economic volume exceeds that of Spain, and the per capita income exceeds that of France and Austria.

The only shortcoming is that there are many internal states, which disperses the country's strength, especially the military strength. Otherwise, the German Confederation would have joined the Club of the Great Powers.

If we simply calculate the total domestic economy, France and Austria now surpass Britain, and Austria is already the largest economy in the world.

The economic structure determines the superstructure, and the volume is large to a certain extent, and it is not impossible to develop sea power and land power at the same time.

Once Austria annexed the Federal Empire of Germany, it had the strength to develop both land and sea power, which seriously threatened Britain's hegemony.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Laruk Lloyd: "We seem to be overlooking something, just changing the name of the country may not get the job done.

Don't forget that the Federal Empire of Germany has long been an independent country, and it has nothing to do with the HRE Empire made up by the Austrians, but the Vienna government still holds the banner of the unification of the German region, and the people of the German region buy it too.

The nationalism developed by the French is now flourishing in Germany, and is not at all limited by the rules of the game.

If the people are not allowed to cut it, changing the name of the country will actually have a very limited effect, and may even further stimulate nationalism. ”

Legally, Austria has nothing to do with the German Confederation. It stands to reason that the people of the Federal Reich of Germany would not buy Austria's account.

It's a pity that nationalism was encountered, and the situation changed. The nationalists insisted that the German region was one, and they recognized the new HRE Empire as the successor to the extinct HRE Empire, but did not recognize the current German Federal Empire.

This complicates matters: yes, the Federal Reich of Germany became independent, but Austria still had a popular base for a unified German region.

The British wanted the Federal Reich of Germany to change its name, but in fact they were making further political cuts and laying the foundation for diluting the theory of German unification.

Foreign Secretary Maclean's head shook his head: "Germany and Austria share the same cultural traditions, and it is very difficult to separate the people.

Even the independent state that broke away from the HRE Empire earlier actually did a better job in the Netherlands, basically completing de-Germanization.

Belgium and Switzerland were heavily influenced by German culture, but they were cut off from Austria, and neither was part of the Vienna government's strategy for German reunification.

The Kingdom of Prussia also did well, and in a few years it would be able to get rid of the influence of the idea of the Great Unification of Germany.

The Federal Reich of Germany was slow to act because of internal problems and the lack of a strong government.

Now we have to push it up, or maybe one day we will take a nap and the German regions will be reunified. ”

……