There is no way, the strategic position of the Egyptian region is too important. As long as France wants to win the war, it must prevent the emergence of a giant across Asia, Africa and Europe.

After pondering for a while, Napoleon IV sighed and said, "The War Department has come up with a plan to send troops to reinforce the Egyptian theater of operations as soon as possible." Don't try to defeat the enemy, just hold the front. ”

Reinforcing Egypt is easy to say, but not so simple to do. Not only must troops be squeezed out, but more importantly, the scale of the Egyptian battlefield will expand, and the strategic materials that need to be consumed will also increase.

There is no doubt that French Egypt alone could not afford such a great effort.

Originally, the government of Paris had planned to share part of the Algerian colonial government, but now it is no longer possible.

The seizure of reinforcements was accompanied by an increase in the demand for strategic goods in the Algerian region. Mo said that he would support the Egyptian region, and it is estimated that they themselves will have to reach out to the country.

Today, unlike in the past, the war has progressed so far that France is no longer so wealthy. The sudden consumption of a large amount of material is also a test for the French government.

After a little deliberation, Prime Minister Terrence Bulkin's forehead began to sweat.

"Your Majesty, it's easy to send reinforcements. The newly mobilized troops in the country are about to complete their initial training, and there is no big problem in withdrawing out the 20 or 30 divisions, and the trouble is logistics and supply.

Up to now, we have not only borne the logistics of nearly five million troops in Europe, but also supported large sums of supplies on the battlefields of the colonies, and domestic industrial production has long been unable to keep up.

Now to reinforce the Egyptian battlefield, a large amount of strategic materials will be consumed. It's hard to raise so many supplies in a short period of time.

Unless we have the full support of the British, we will not be able to complete the support of the Egyptian battlefield within half a year. ”

War is about the speed of soldiers, and if you wait for half a year, you won't be able to catch up with the corpses in the past. However, the problem is that hundreds of thousands of troops are working on an expedition, and the logistical materials involved are as high as tens of thousands of tons, and they cannot be prepared in a day or two.

Don't look at the mountains of strategic materials in Lancei, but they are all out there. Both the Central and Southern European battlefields are very important, and there is no possibility of appropriation.

Of course, you can buy it if you don't have enough production yourself, but it also takes time to buy strategic materials.

It's just a matter of production time, France has already placed a bunch of orders, and most of the enterprises in Europe are French arsenals.

The real trouble still stems from politics, and countries are making money while not forgetting to hold them back.

The vast majority of the time, the import of strategic goods by France is delayed. Endless checkpoints and chaotic procedures are all means of restricting France.

In order to break these restrictions, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made no less effort. It's just that no matter how hard the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tries, it can't keep up with the speed of France's hatred.

"It's not hard to convince the British to support it, and no one wants to see a giant across Asia, Africa and Europe emerge. If Austria were to unite its homeland with Africa, the blow to Britain would have been equally fatal.

It's just that if we ask the British for help at this time, they will definitely open their mouths, and we will inevitably pay a heavy price. ”

Foreign Minister Karel Kadlec said in embarrassment.

As a century-old enemy, the style of the British is naturally clear to the French. This kind of opportunity to be delivered to the door, if you don't take advantage of the fire to rob, it will not be John Bull.

France launched this European war, in essence, for profit, if the British stopped and robbed a wave, it is unknown how much the final gain will be.

If you open the history books, you will know how many teammates have been cheated for cooperating with the British, including France.

Now ask the British for help, and the operation is good; If the operation is wrong, France will have to work for nothing again in this European war.

At the critical moment, the young Napoleon IV still showed the decisiveness of a monarch: "Talk to the British at once, no matter what the cost, we must win this war." ”

I have to admit that Napoleon IV was very sane at this time. Interests are based on winning this war, and if you lose the war, then there is nothing.

The essence of international politics lies in strength, as long as France is strong enough to promise benefits now, they can not count everything, anyway, they have not broken the contract.

……

At a time when Britain and France were in full swing in negotiations, the Far East was not calm either. Seeing that the four major European powers were all caught in the flames of war, the Japanese government, which had just completed the Meiji Restoration, gradually lost its patience with its ambitions.

After more than 20 years of reform and development, Japan has become a regional power in the Far East and the second largest in East Asia in terms of comprehensive national strength.

Of course, this ranking doesn't make any sense. Asia is almost divided, and there are only a few independent countries in East Asia.

The olive branch handed out by the French still affected the new country, and whether to go south to seize the South Seas or go north to conquer Korea became a hot topic in Japan.

As the leader of this military~~ist country, Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito has had a hard time lately. The clamor of the people for war is getting louder and louder, and the situation is about to get out of control.

At this time, the opinions of the top level of the Japanese government also diverged. Some people advocate going north to seize Korea, while others advocate taking the opportunity to go south to attack the South Seas.

Those who even advocated the attack on the South Seas put forward three plans, and the combat objectives were: the French Indochina Peninsula, the Spanish Philippines, and the Austrian South Seas and the German Malay Peninsula.

There is nothing surprising that although it was only the French who invited Japan to attack the Austrian South Seas, there was also a large wave of Austrian blows in the Japanese government, and they were not optimistic that France would win the war.

No matter how high the militant sentiment of the people is, the Japanese top brass has not yet floated, and they know very well that their own little money can only take advantage of the situation, and they have no ability to change the outcome of the European war.

At times like these, the team is crucial. If you stand with the loser, then there is nothing to say, you will definitely be liquidated after the war, and the vast sea will not be able to stop the advance of the great powers.

Specifically, we can refer to the naval strength of countries in the Asian region. The British Far East Fleet was naturally the boss, and the fleets deployed by France and Austria in Asia were of equal strength, plus several ships of the German Confederation, the anti-French alliance still had a slight advantage.

After the three great powers, there were the Far Eastern Empire and Japan, then Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal at the bottom.

A detachment of the fleet exceeds the entire base of the Japanese Navy, and when calculating the overall strength of the Navy, the difference between them is even more than ten times.

This is determined by comprehensive national strength, and it is not something that Japan will be able to catch up with in a short period of time. With only the few ironclad ships they bought, they could only give away heads in front of the former dreadnoughts.

Against this background, it is normal for politicians who want to speculate to have differences of opinion. Even Ito himself wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, but in the end, reason prevailed.

On the surface, at this time, whether the Japanese government is tilting toward the French or the anti-French alliance, it can determine the balance of power between the two sides in Asia, and France and Austria should compete to win over Japan first.

Theoretically, as long as the Japanese government gets the balance right, it can take advantage of both sides of France and Austria, and then bet on the winner at the last minute.

It is a pity that the French extended an olive branch, but Austria turned a blind eye to them, and even some Japanese officials took the initiative to pick out the problem, but did not receive the desired answer.

This ignorance, while making the Japanese government unsightly, also made them aware of Austria's strength.

Human psychology is complex, and sometimes the more you ignore it, the easier it is to make people think more.

In the eyes of many, the French offered attractive terms, but France was alone in Europe, and Austria had a group of allies in Europe.

Ants bite elephants to death, Napoleon did not complete the great cause of sweeping across the continent, can the current French Empire complete it? Everyone's hearts are bottomless.

Unable to determine who would be the ultimate winner, the southbound faction threw out a strategic plan to seize the Philippines.

If you look at the map of Asia, you can see that if Japan wants to go south, it cannot spare the Philippines, otherwise it may be cut off at any time. It can be said that as long as the southward strategy is launched, there will be a war between Japan and the West.

The most important thing is that compared with the two giants of France and Austria, the declining Spain is undoubtedly a soft persimmon.

Of course, this soft persimmon is still too powerful for the current Japanese Empire. To take the Philippines from the Spaniards would also require a great deal of risk.

However, compared to the risk of participating in the Franco-Austrian war, the safety factor of bullying the Spaniards is still much higher, and even if the plan fails, Spain does not liquidate their strength.

Before the outbreak of the European War, the contradictions between the great powers had not intensified, and the Japanese Government would never dare to think of such an idea.

After all, "whitephobia" is prevalent in these years, and everyone has no confidence when facing European countries, and seeing that ministers from various countries often act together on the surface, many people even think that European countries are in a group.

In the palace, Emperor Meiji asked a little tiredly, "Ito-kun, these are all strategic plans reported below, what do you think?" ”

It can be seen that Emperor Meiji was also influenced by the outside world and fell into confusion in strategic choices. This step is the difference between heaven and hell, and Emperor Meiji must not be careless.

Emperor Meiji relied on the military to support the throne, and the influence of the military in the Meiji government was very large, in order to limit the strength of the military, after taking power, the Meiji Emperor instinctively chose to rely on Ito Hirobumi as the head of the Bunshi faction.

Especially when it comes to national fortunes, Emperor Meiji is even more afraid to let the military with a tendon in his head decide.