On April 21, 1874, Napoleon III died of illness at the Palace of Versailles. The news quickly preempted the heat of the war in the Near East, and all eyes were on Paris.

At the Vienna Palace, Franz sighed deeply. A competitor just left.

After adjusting his emotions, Franz quickly recovered.

"Napoleon III is gone, the transfer of power in France is inevitably a turmoil, we don't have to worry about the threat from the west in a short time, the next plan must be hurried.

All of us in Berlin and London can get moving. This change in the situation in Europe has a bearing on the international situation in the coming decades, and it is absolutely impossible to let the situation get out of control. ”

I have to say that the strategic layout is the trouble. Mistakes in any one place can trigger a chain reaction.

Including the death of Napoleon III, if he had held out for a few more years, Franz's European strategy would have to be reversed.

Foreign Secretary Wesenberg: "Your Majesty, the situation in France is even more chaotic than we had anticipated. Fresh after the death of Napoleon III, the French government was embroiled in a power struggle.

Napoleon IV, who was about to ascend the throne, lacked prestige and could not suppress the elders in the government, and several major factions were currently fighting very fiercely.

If the internal struggle does not end, I am afraid that the French will not have the energy to intervene in international affairs in the short term, and our plan to lure the enemy will not work. ”

The infighting in the French government was deliberately created by Napoleon III, and the emperor's rights could only be guaranteed if his ministers fought each other.

Napoleon III died too early, paved the way for Crown Prince Eugène too little, and did not have time to establish his prestige and subdue the crowd.

In this case, let the ministers below fight each other, and the little emperor appears as an arbiter. After a few years, the emperor's position is stable, and then the ministers below can be replaced.

This is a very clever trick to achieve a smooth transition of imperial power. It's just that the sequelae are also very large, and a constant internal government will waste a lot of energy and affect the development of the country.

The French family has a big business, and it is not a big problem to develop slowly. There was almost no external threat, and no country would not think of it and run to invade France.

France, which is constantly infighting, obviously will not jump out to make things. Even if you covet the resources of Belgium and the Rhineland, with so many teammates who are pulling your legs, it will be difficult to turn it into a reality.

As long as the main force of the French army does not come out, Austria will not be able to help the French. According to the plan, it was to tempt France to send troops to the Rhineland, and Austria pulled European countries together to form an anti-French alliance.

Don't think that Lancy is strong, but now they really don't have the Napoleonic era to fight, and if there is another war against France, they will not be able to hold it at all.

Franz nodded: "It doesn't matter, the probability of this plan is very low, it becomes the best of nature, and it doesn't matter if it fails."

France is not our real enemy, the countries of Europe are not our real enemies, our real enemy will always be ourselves. ”

When the last sentence was spoken, Franz couldn't help but get excited. After so many years of development, Austria has finally developed to the point of ignoring external threats.

The situation on the European continent has been stirred up beyond recognition. In the situation of confrontation between Prussia and Prussia, there was only one France left, and it could no longer threaten the security of Austria.

From the very beginning, the Vienna government had two plans: to balance the power of Prussia or to bring down France.

Whichever one is realized, Austria will get out of the crisis of multi-front operations. It is not easy to defeat France, so continue to implement the strategy of balancing Prussia.

This was learned from the British, and John Bull maximized his interests while implementing the policy of balancing the continent, and Franz naturally followed suit.

……

Berlin, after receiving the news of the death of Napoleon III, Wilhelm I almost went crazy with joy, it was simply "to meet the pillow when you want to doze off".

Russia and Austria were beating the Ottoman Empire, the French had died again, and arguably the biggest stumbling block to Wilhelm I's ascension to the Polish throne was gone.

Foreign Secretary Jeffrey Friedman reminded: "Your Majesty, things are not so rosy, and the death of Napoleon III only means that the chances of French intervention are reduced, but it does not mean that there will be no intervention at all."

Although the war in the Near East held back some of Austria's energy, they still had the strength to intervene. We also have to consider the reaction of the British, and the London government does not want to see us really rise.

If we want to annex Poland, we would do well to have the support of two of the three countries, Britain, France, and Austria, or at least their acquiescence. ”

William I, who was excited, came to his senses in an instant, and now it was too early to rejoice. Before the three major powers were settled, the annexation of Poland was a flash in the pan.

"It's really a question, how much does it cost if we make a deal with France and Austria?"

Interests are always the best outbreak to solve problems, if they can't be solved, it must be that the interests are not big enough. Don't look at the opposition of European countries to Prussia's annexation of Poland, as long as the interests are in place, opposition can also turn into support.

Choosing to buy France and Austria is also a practical need. The Russian Empire was a mortal enemy, and it was impossible for the Berlin government to buy it; The strength of the British is at sea, and the possibility of military intervention is very small.

Jeffrey Friedman thought for a moment and said, "In the current situation, we can promise France and Austria the right way to support Austria's annexation of the Ottoman Empire and the German Confederation, and France's annexation of Belgium in exchange."

If necessary, the Rhineland could also be promised to the French, and part of the southern part of the Kingdom of Poland to Austria. ”

Promises are promises, and whether they can be fulfilled depends on the actual situation. Just as in the partition of the Ottoman Empire, Franz also promised most of the Balkan Peninsula to the Russians, and in the end most of the area fell into Austrian hands.

The Viennese government also did not violate the agreement, and the extra territory was bought by Austria from the French, not from the Ottoman Empire.

But when it was Prussia's turn, the situation changed, France and Austria were a little too strong, and the chances of a change were less likely, and the promises made now were likely to come true in the future.

There was silence inside, and everyone was weighing the pros and cons. In this respect, they were so bold that Bismarck wrote blank checks directly to Napoleon III, and then turned their faces and denied anyone.

After hesitating for a while, Prime Minister Moltke broke the silence: "You can try to fight for it, as long as we can annex Poland, the gap between our strength and that of France and Austria will be greatly narrowed, and then the situation will be different."

In the future, we can also turn the French to the Low Countries and Austria to the Ottoman Empire.

Let's not forget the reaction of the rest of Europe, and perhaps the promises made now do not need to be fulfilled in full. ”

This is not the first time this has happened on the European continent, and if other European countries intervene and the deal does not go smoothly, France and Austria have no way to blame Prussia for default.

This was similar to what William I had planned, and he had long been prepared to let the British come out and make trouble at the end to prevent the expansion of France and Austria into Central Europe.

After a pause, Wilhelm I decided: "Then let's act, first create the established facts, and then negotiate, the result will be more favorable to us." ”

Wilhelm I, if possible, preferred to annex the German Federal Empire. It's a pity that the difficulty is too great, and it is impossible for Britain, France and Austria to agree.

Austria's strategy of German reunification was well known, and even for the sake of propaganda, the Vienna government would intervene with all its might.

The French also wanted to annex the territory west of the Rhine, which was separated by the German Confederation and an enclave of the Rhineland. If Prussia annexed the German Confederation and the territory was connected, it would not be easy to pay attention to it.

Unlike the original plane, in order to prevent Austria from annexing the German Confederation, John Bull invested a lot of resources in the German Confederation, and it was completely a son treatment.

The relationship between the two sides is still closer than that of Belgium and the Netherlands. The German Confederation is also playing balance, with the navy all British equipment and the army basically Austrian equipment.

Relying on good diplomatic relations, the Vienna government could not use force against the German Confederation. If you want to unify the German regions, you have negotiated. As long as Austria could settle the countries of Europe, they would not object.

What seems to be a coordinated move is in fact a very clever political maneuver, which shifts all the responsibility for undermining the unity of the German region to the international powers.

Whatever the final outcome, the interests of the ruling class will not be compromised. You don't even have to worry about national defense and security, and if you are in trouble, you can justifiably ask Austria for help.

There was also a factor in the abandonment of the national policy of the Vienna government on the plan for the reunification of Germany.

The seemingly coordinated reunification actually hides many mysteries, and through the negotiation of peaceful reunification, the government can only get a nominal reunification, and it will also lay hidden dangers for the division of the empire.

Franz was not a man of fame, and a mere nominal right to rule was not worth the gamble that Austria would take on the entire empire.

The more the German Confederation cooperated, the more European countries were worried that after Austria unified the German region, it would complete the integration in a short period of time and its strength would skyrocket, and everyone would desperately prevent Austria from annexing the German Confederation.

……

In Warsaw, as if overnight, everyone was concerned about the Polish succession, and experts and scholars commented in the newspapers, attributing all the problems encountered in Poland to the absence of a king.

This is not nonsense, they still have evidence. All the great powers of Europe have monarchs, either kings or emperors.

The republican states could not even elect a representative, and the division of the American Civil War in Europe had been propagated as a negative teaching material. "The emperors took turns" was seen as one of the main causes of the American Civil War.

True or false, who knows? Anyway, monarchies are so promoted, and if they talk too much, everyone will believe it.

The more radical newspapers have begun to openly accuse the government of deliberately preventing the election of a king for the sake of power in their hands.

This statement cannot be miscalculated. The Polish government really did not want the king to appear and affect the power in their hands.

But if the lid is lifted, it will never be admitted. This is the age of the monarchy, and when Poland gained independence, a constitutional monarchy was established.

It was clearly written in the constitution that the Polish Provisional Government could not afford to be guilty of such a crime. Looking at the crowd of demonstrators outside, Prime Minister Dombrovsky knew that it could not be dragged on.