You pit me, I pit you, struggle is the theme of the era of great powers.

People can't help themselves in the rivers and lakes. In international politics, there are only interests, and if interests are aligned, they are friends, and when interests conflict, they are enemies, and role change is the basic operation.

The British did the best in this regard, just now they were allies, and in a moment they could become enemies, and after a while they could become friends again.

To a certain extent, the diplomacy of European countries in this era was to learn from the British. Everyone's bottom line, discipline and discipline have fallen again and again, and the alliance of close cooperation only existed before the Middle Ages.

Against this backdrop, the relations between European countries are a mess that cannot be narrowly distinguished between enemies and friends.

In order to gain more support in the negotiations, both Prussia and Russia were engaged in diplomatic offensives, and the unresponsive Ottoman Empire also launched diplomatic activities, leaving several khanates in Central Asia and the Eastern Empire still in a state of salted fish.

Salted fish is tragic, and international support is still very useful under the European system of rules, even if the diplomatic support of small countries is also valuable.

The younger brother has no diplomatic ability, so he can only go to John Bull himself. Perhaps this is what the London government wants to see the most, so that they can increase their influence in these countries and obtain greater benefits.

Franz originally wanted to become a melon-eating crowd, but the tree wanted to be quiet and the wind did not stop, because of the Russian-Austrian alliance, Austria was involved.

"The Russians want to return to the pre-war state, to get our support?"

Franz was not surprised, this was a fantasy. Whether or not they admit that the Russians are the losers this time, how can it be that the losers don't want to pay the price?

Not an inch of land, not worthy of a ruble.

It is no wonder that such an armistice condition can be agreed to by everyone. Unless they can convince all European countries to endorse it, the price is inevitable.

Foreign Secretary Wesenberg replied: "Yes, Your Majesty. That's what the Russian minister said, and they were not willing to take responsibility for this war. ”

There is no doubt that this involved the political game within the tsarist government. No one at the top of the government wants to be held accountable, so they play scoundrels.

Franz was so amused that he didn't bother to care about the bad things of the Russians, and immediately said: "Reply to the tsarist government, if they think they are capable of persuading the parties to agree, we have no opinion."

If you can't do it, don't do these whimsical things, lest you end up becoming an international laughing stock. ”

The "international laughing stock" is a hard wound of the Russians, whose diplomatic jokes are hardly broken. They will come every three or five years, as if they can't grow without making jokes.

Franz naturally didn't want to accompany the tsarist government to get high, and treat everyone else as a fool, only to find out that the fool was himself.

Diplomacy was built on strength, but the Russian Empire in its heyday had this confidence. If the war had cedered a year ago, they would still have the strength to not cede land and not pay reparations.

It is a pity that the gunfire in Moscow put an end to all this, the internal threat was the primary problem of the tsarist government, and the external enemy was only a secondary contradiction.

Even the most radical Polish nationalists did not dare to think of swallowing the Russian Empire in one gulp. Not to mention in terms of strength, except for the Kingdom of Prussia, which can fight after all, the other few are fighting a good war.

The main forces of the tsarist army were all held back by the Prussians, and the enemy everyone faced was a second-rate army of the Russians, and their combat effectiveness was not at all on the same level.

Now the tragedy is that the main forces of the tsarist government are depleted, and the combat effectiveness of the new recruits is at best second-rate, as evidenced by the fact that all major fronts are at a disadvantage.

Prime Minister Felix analyzed: "Your Majesty, the Russians think that this is the Russians testing our position.

Now that the war has been going on, it is impossible for the tsarist government not to know that they can no longer fight.

The economy of the Russian Empire was already on the verge of collapse, and social contradictions had long reached a critical point. If the war is not ended, the tsarist government will be finished. ”

"Economic collapse, internal and external troubles", Franz put himself in the shoes of what he would do if he was in the position of Alexander II?

It didn't take long for Franz to come to the conclusion - first stabilize and then change. Whatever it takes, first hold on to power, and then use external pressure to push for social reforms.

Nicholas I won the war in the Near East, which not only covered up the social crisis, but also made it more difficult to reform, and the ruling circles did not feel the pressure of life and death.

Isn't it an opportunity for the situation to deteriorate now?

After this defeat, the strength of the reformers after the war must have skyrocketed. Alexander II could also hold accountable for the defeat of the war and take the opportunity to clean up some of the moths.

If ruthless enough, it can also use the opportunity to suppress the rebellion and wreak havoc on the conservatives in the country.

This is a ready-made example, and it was only because of the reshuffling of the cards in Austria more than ten years ago that the social reform was completed.

Franz had no doubts about Alexander II's abilities, and he completed a social reform. Naturally, bloody violence was indispensable during this period, otherwise he would not have been assassinated by the revolutionary party.

As emperor, Franz knew very well how difficult it was to assassinate an emperor, and without the cooperation of internal traitors, the revolutionary party would not be able to get close at all.

And how to drop bombs? Especially after throwing a bomb, when Alexander II checked the coachman's injuries, he threw a second bomb to kill him.

Are the guards all wooden? Someone attacks at close range, and can they still be given a second chance?

There was a time gap between this, and the artificial dropping of bombs meant that the distance between the two sides was only a few tens of meters, and under normal circumstances, the Assassins would either be beaten into a sieve or captured alive, and there would be no second chance to strike.

Including the surrounding crowd, it will also be controlled by the immediate clearance. What the assassination clearly covered up is not justified on the face of it.

Franz could conclude that without a ghost, the Assassin would not have been able to approach him with guns or bombs.

Surrounding security personnel will prohibit strangers from approaching. Even if it is a political show, the people who can get in touch with the emperor have investigated their ancestors for several generations and made sure that there will be no problems before they can get closer.

In a hierarchical country like Russia, it is difficult for commoners to get close to the great nobles, let alone get close to the emperor?

Not to mention an assassin, even if it is an assassin from a regiment, he may not be able to rush to the front of a few tens of meters.

Franz didn't bother to continue dwelling on these questions, anyway, he could be careful himself. Even in Vienna, it was accompanied by hundreds of guardsmen and a four-figure police perimeter.

The safety factor is definitely the highest, and even if an assassin sees this lineup, he can only retreat obediently.

Microservice private interview, that does not exist. The monarch who travels in a carriage with a few guards only exists in small countries. They can't afford to put on a show, so they can only make do with it.

Franz smiled and said: "It seems that Alexander II is about to make a big move, and now he is afraid that he is deliberately indulging the bureaucracy and paralyzing these people."

The Great Purge of the Tsarist government is coming, and I guess Alexander II will launch a coup d'état to clean up the moths in the government and then leave the blame for the defeat of the war on them.

This is a multi-pronged victory, not only to clean up the moth in the government, but also to take the opportunity to suppress conservatives, and by the way, to give an explanation to the people.

The filthy retainers were cleared, and the rebels had no excuse for rebellion. Soon, the rebels will be embroiled in internal strife, and if the revolutionary party does not run faster, it may be won and rewarded for its merits. ”

The foundation of the revolutionary party is too shallow, and we should not look at the fact that they are making a lot of noise, in fact there are only one hundred and eighty members of any revolutionary party in Russia in this era.

Those who temporarily united in order to seize power, if it were not too weak, they would not have accepted the banner of "Qing Jun's side, punish the ministers".

Although this banner unites many people, it also brings a problem. As the ranks of the rebels grew, the revolutionaries lost control of the army.

The "filthy ministers" have all been executed, the people's goal of rebellion has been achieved, and many people are about to quit. To put it bluntly, many people participated in the uprising because the taxes were too heavy.

Alexander II was able to solve the problem with a few edicts, and the blame was shifted to the bureaucracy, and the resentment of the people came out, and the tsar was still a good tsar.

The people's hearts are still in favor of the Tsar, and the army also supports the Tsar. The aristocracy, whether reformists or conservatives, had no intention of overthrowing the Tsar.

Including the newly rising capitalists, these people also thought that it was better to keep the tsar than not to have one. They supported the revolution only to seize power, not to really carry out a social revolution.

Isn't it nonsense that in a country where more than 99 percent of the people support the tsar, they want to overthrow the tsarist government?

In this respect, Alexander II was born in a good time + a good place. The Russian revolutionary teacher had not yet been born, the proletarian revolutionary party had not yet seen a shadow, and the present bourgeois revolutionary groups were not anti-imperialist.

If the time had been pushed back fifty years, or the setting had been changed to France, it would have been a republic long ago.

Prime Minister Felix disagreed: "The reforms are not so easy, the conservative forces of the Russian Empire are very strong, Nicholas I did not complete the social reforms, and Alexander II is afraid that it will be even more difficult to do."

Now he may only be able to carry out limited reforms, transform the feudal system of the Russian Empire, and increase his strength in the short term. ”

He had a say, and at the time of the Austrian reforms, the Hungarian aristocracy had completely lost their voice, the conservatives in Vienna were swept into the garbage heap by the rebels, and the conservatives in Bohemia were scattered by the rebels.

By the time the Vienna government announced the reforms, the conservative wing was gone, and most of them had lost their roots.

Even so, the struggle between the two sides has not been less than that for more than a decade.

Now the tsarist government has no way to rely on the rebels to clean up the conservatives, and the tsar needs to go into battle himself, and this wave of hatred alone is enough to give Alexander II a headache.

This is doomed, and in the future, reformers and conservatives will also continue to oppose each other under the force of hatred. Even with the support of the Tsar, it will be difficult for the reformers to outnumber the conservatives in a short period of time.

There is no way, according to European tradition, even if it is to clean up the nobility, Alexander II cannot kill them all.

The charge of embezzlement and bribery is too light, and it can only be regarded as a small loss for the nobles. When it comes to military supplies, you can only kill a few responsible persons at most.

Most of them were simply driven home or exiled to Siberia. These people have lost their rights and lives are still a hidden danger.

And the rebels in Moscow were very ineffective and did not make big news. There are no big aristocrats and big capitalists at all, and they can't be implicated if they want to.

"Qing Jun's side, punish the ministers", is naturally a level lower than the rebellion, even if it is to prove the emperor's benevolence, Alexander II also issued a decree to recruit peace.

The people who put the blame on it are all revolutionaries, and the rest of the people just need to be smarter, and after Alexander II issues a pardon, they will decisively choose to defect, and after the war they will be marginalized at most, and there will be no reckoning.

This means that the conservatives only lost the political battle, and the loss of their own strength was not large.

After all, like Austria, the Russian Imperial Army was dominated by the aristocracy, and the Tsar could not have violated the rules of the game.

Franz nodded and said, "For the Russian Empire, a limited amount of social reform is enough to create a world power."

With their vast territory, abundant resources, and large population, they will be a large European power as long as they have completed industrialization.

If they do carry out radical social reforms, it will not be a good thing for us. You know, the only thing that has the potential to develop on the European continent is above us, the Russian Empire. ”

……