War serves politics, and propaganda is indispensable. After the agreement between the Vienna government and the Russians, the newspapers in Austria began to read more about the black history of the Ottoman Empire.

There is no need to fake this time, the crimes committed during the Ottoman Empire's bullish period are too numerous to mention, and casual flipping is black material.

The call for revenge was growing louder and louder, and the Vienna government received a room full of petitions.

The power of hatred was somewhat beyond Franz's imagination, and if it weren't for the police in Vienna, the Ottoman embassy would have been gone.

Now the Vienna police have to send people to guard the perimeter 24 hours a day, and the materials inside the embassy need to be specially transported, and the staff of the Ottoman embassy do not dare to go out at all.

If it weren't for the Russians, Franz would have given the order to declare war.

This is destined to be a local war, which does not require full mobilization at all and has little impact on the domestic economy. The government departments are still doing what they should do, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is busy.

The moral high ground, if you don't occupy the enemy, you will occupy it, and diplomacy is indispensable. Fortunately, the enemy this time was the Ottoman Empire, and most of the European people were more inclined to Austria, and there was not much pressure on public opinion.

At the Vienna Palace, Foreign Minister Wesenberg dragged his tired body and reported back to Franz: "Your Majesty, this is a telegram from the Holy See.

The Holy See wants us to be able to wage jihad against the Ottoman Empire in the name of God, and Pope Pius IX is already ready to issue a call to Christendom to organize another crusade. ”

In the words of later generations, this is rubbing the heat. In recent years, the Holy See has declined so much that even the Papal States have been stripped by the French, and now the Holy See can only retreat to the Vatican headquarters.

If it weren't for the help of Catholics from all over the world, it is estimated that the Holy See might still be hungry. Napoleon III was not polite to them, and the wealth accumulated by the Holy See was largely confiscated.

The phoenix that landed is not as good as a chicken, and now the prestige of the Holy See has plummeted. With the exception of the only remaining headquarters, many of the dioceses outside ignored the Pope's orders.

In this context, if we don't find a way to rebuild our prestige, it is estimated that it will not be long before the local dioceses can find an excuse to cut off even symbolic alms.

It's not so easy to live a good life and then go back to live a hard life. At this time, when he heard that Austria was going to make a move against the Ottoman Empire, the Holy See naturally sent it to the door.

If it had been a hundred or two hundred years ago, and the Holy See had cooperated in this way, Franz would have been happy to accept it. The Ottoman Empire has not yet fallen and is the public enemy of Europe, so naturally there is no reason for Austria to contribute.

Now the situation is completely different, the Ottoman Empire has declined, Austria does not need so many helpers at all, if there are more people participating, how will the final spoils be divided?

Franz has long been eyeing the fat of the Ottoman Empire, and he took it out and divided it with the Russians, that is, the Russian Empire has declined, and it is okay to take advantage of it, and they have not yet been able to digest the annexation of the Ottoman Empire.

Even Austria was unable to digest the Ottoman Empire, and Franz was ready to move the entire local population.

Under the pretext of "environmental protection", in order to protect the local vegetation and avoid desertification, all the indigenous people were relocated.

Some of them will be sent to Africa for construction, and the rest will be resettled on an island in the South Seas, or sent to the Americas for resettlement.

Franz shook his head: "Tell them that this is only a secular war, and there is no need to rise to the level of religion." We should be tolerant of infidels. ”

"Jihad" is very cruel, and religious wars have always been life-and-death, leaving no room for anything. It was not easy to knock down the influence of the Holy See, how can it be possible to bring them back to the altar again?

……

The smell of gunpowder permeated the Near East, and the Sudanese government, aware of the threat, was not idle. In order to win this war, the Sudanese government is also trying to engage in diplomatic PR.

Unable to say St. Petersburg and Vienna, the Sudanese government had no choice but to settle for London, Paris, and Berlin.

The enemy of an enemy is a friend, and there is nothing wrong with this saying here. Britain, France and Prussia did not want the Ottoman Empire to end, and although the Ottomans were a little weaker, their very existence held Austria and Russia at bay.

However, the plan did not change quickly, and in Berlin the Ottoman delegation hit a nail, and Wilhelm I did not meet with them at all.

You must know that in the last Prussian-Prussian war, the two countries were allies who fought side by side, but I didn't expect to part ways so soon.

The Sudanese government also hoped that Prussia and Poland would send troops to contain the Russians and share some of their pressure.

Unfortunately, the Prussians' appetite was even greater than they could have imagined, and they wanted to use the war to annex Poland. No, it should not be considered an embezzlement, to be exact, it is to put Wilhelm I on the throne of Poland.

The annexation of Poland could not be accomplished overnight, and even if the European countries did not oppose it, the Polish people would not agree to it.

It's not the same when two countries share a monarch, and there is a precedent for this kind of thing. It turned out to be the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and now it can also become the Polish-Prussian Commonwealth, which is much easier for the people to accept.

The European countries may oppose the two countries, but they will definitely not be as fierce as Prussia's annexation of Poland, so as not to organize an intervention coalition to stir up the situation. It is very likely that the goal will be achieved by exchanging benefits in private.

The goal was not achieved in Berlin, and Warsaw did not have to go at all. Without Prussia as the main force, the Poles simply did not have the strength to contain the Russians.

In Paris, not only the representatives of the Ottoman Empire were active, but the Austrian minister in Paris was not idle, and both sides were engaged in public relations.

Militarily speaking, the French were indispensable to rescue the Ottoman Empire. If the Paris government looks on the sidelines, the Sultan will have little effect even if he convinces the rest of the country to intervene.

Napoleon III again threw the question to his son: "Eugène, what do you think we should choose?" ”

Crown Prince Eugène replied with a tense face: "This choice is very difficult, and strategically speaking, the existence of the Ottoman Empire is our natural ally.

History has proven that the existence of the Ottoman Empire was able to contain a large part of the Habsburgs' energy and prevent them from striving for European domination.

It's just that this time Russia and Austria have joined forces, and if we want to intervene, the price we need to pay is too great, and if we don't do it, there is a possibility of war.

As things stand, it is not our right to go to war with Austria, and we must avoid war with the great powers as much as possible for at least five years.

Whether or not to save the Ottoman Empire depends mainly on the strength of the Ottoman Empire. If they are really useless, then it is useless to save them.

If they resist the first wave of the offensive, then we will bring the European countries together to mediate, and it will not cost much, and the Vienna government will stop. ”

Napoleon III patted his son on the shoulder and nodded with satisfaction: "Yes, Eugène." Your progress is very fast, and it seems that it won't be long before you can take charge on your own. ”

After taking a few steps forward, he added: "Now is indeed not the time to intervene, and if Austria wants to dominate the continent, it must first pull out the nail in its back."

Both the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire were obstacles to them, and Franz chose to ally with Russia, which was equivalent to one less enemy behind his back.

Their only major problem was the Ottoman Empire, and by pulling out the nail, the Eastern Mediterranean was completely in the hands of the Austrians, and their influence extended all the way to the Indian Ocean.

However, there is no need to worry too much, the existence of the Ottoman Empire was the basis for the last alliance between Austria and the Russians. Without the Ottoman Empire as a common enemy, the St. Petersburg-Vienna alliance would not exist.

Perhaps, in the near future, the Russians and Austria will regard each other as mortal enemies and fight for European hegemony.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the tsarist government would be able to win the Second Prussian War. Franz's layout ability was very powerful, and the Kingdom of Prussia, which had blocked them in the German Confederation, had now become the best thug to contain the Russians.

If one day the Russian Empire is really going to fall, remember to pull them along. With this nail, neither Prussia nor Austria dared to fully participate in the struggle for hegemony on the European continent.

This time, let's give the British a headache! Inform the London government that we are in line with them on this issue, and that if they want to intervene with troops, we will contribute as much as they want. ”

People are dying, and they see the problem more thoroughly. Now Napoleon III realized that the most suitable ally for France was the Russian Empire, but unfortunately the time came too late.

In the time of Nicholas I, the Russian Empire was in full swing, and the entire European continent trembled under this behemoth.

In order to revive France and shake off the shackles on his body, Napoleon III and European governments made a similar decision - to suppress the Russian Empire.

Thanks to everyone's joint efforts, the decaying Russian Empire was still overwhelmed and slowly fell. Alexander II's reforms restored some of the strength of the Russian Empire, but it was definitely not as strong as it was at its peak.

By this time it was too late to unite the Russian Empire. For no reason, Napoleon III could not have taken money to fill the bottomless pit of the tsarist government, and even if he was willing personally, the French people would not have agreed.

"The enemy is in Paris" is not a joke, the combat effectiveness of the people of Paris is the best in the world. Once they find out that the government has betrayed the country, a revolution should not be too easy.

Now they haven't played their full strength, and when they played their full strength in the original time and space, changing governments was more diligent than changing clothes.

The average person doesn't necessarily change three outfits in a week, but the French can change three governments in a week, including weekend off.

In order to strengthen the Ottoman Empire's wit, Napoleon III nevertheless gave support to the Sultan government, and in addition to material assistance in the form of weapons and ammunition, he also wrote a big blank check.

That means you have to hold on, and when we're ready, we're going to send troops. Now it's just to confuse the enemy and catch them off guard.

……

London, Prime Minister Gelston's attitude towards the two countries was very unhappy, not only became a turtle with a shrunken head, but also threw away the right to decide, isn't this roasting the British Empire on the fire?

Nominally, they are the first to follow, but in reality who listens to them? Napoleon III said it nicely, Britain sent as many troops as France could.

Just think about it, how unreliable this is. This war was mainly fought on land, and even if it was a landing operation, it could be carried out through the Black Sea.

There's no way the Royal Navy can go to the Black Sea to help the Ottoman Empire, right? If they dare to go in, they don't want to come out.

The Black Sea strait is so narrow that it is not difficult to block the gates. Once it's blocked, it's not far from being wiped out.

It is impossible to blockade the sea, and to fight on land, with the small strength of the British Army, it is estimated that it will not be enough to send it even the first wave.

Of course, they can also threaten Austria and Russia with a blockade of overseas trade. If that happens, the French will clap their hands and act as a melon-eating crowd to watch the excitement.

Don't look at the Austrian navy with only half of theirs, it seems that the Royal Navy can easily be crushed, in fact war is not a numbers game.

If a fight really broke out, the Austrian navy would still be able to rely on the scattered colonies to fight a broken war.

The material blockade, and the fact that they are not the public enemies of Europe, how can you guarantee that the European countries will not do business with Austria? If nothing else, at least the French will not give up the opportunity to make war profits.

Theoretically, these problems could be solved by uprooting Austria's scattered colonial strongholds abroad. The problem was that these colonies were not easy to fight, and there were heavy troops everywhere except for Alaska and Austrian South America, which were weak.

With the size of the British Army, even sending them all out would not help. For the sake of the Ottoman Empire, Britain can't do all its national strength and expand its army at all costs and fight Austria, right?

Prime Minister Gelston said he was not interested in this kind of self-benefiting thing.

……