Out of the palace, Prime Minister Terrence Bulkin's back was soaked, and he knew that he had been.

Coincidental?

There is no coincidence in politics, even if it is really a coincidence, it must be believed by the emperor.

There is no problem in lobbying the emperor to go to war, this is also the prime minister's job, and it is not overstepping.

But just in time for the soldiers to be attacked, and the emperor mistook it for forcing the palace, then it was a big problem.

After a little thought, Terence Bulkin zeroed in on the undersecretary of agriculture, Rafael, but he really didn't understand why his cronies were cheating him.

You must know that Rafael was able to win the fat difference in managing the farm, or he pushed it up single-handedly, how to say it, it is also a grace of knowledge.

The bureaucracy is also about interpersonal relationships, and traitors will be despised wherever they go, and even if they change jobs, it will only be after Prime Minister Terrance Bulkin's general trend is gone.

At this time, the stabbing back is completely looking for death, and with the power of Prime Minister Terence Bulkin, he is fully capable of knocking Rafael into the dust before he falls.

It's already happened, and now there's no need to dwell on it.

Perhaps Rafael's idiot was also taken advantage of, at least Prime Minister Terence Bulgin did not think that Rafael had the audacity to plan this incident.

It seems that the wind and waves are calm, and the Belgians are on the back, but it does not mean that the matter is over.

It was the French government and the emperor who were cheated this time, so obviously provoking the relationship between the monarch and the minister, how could it be possible not to deal with it?

Prime Minister Terence Bulkin has decided to find out, and whoever did it must be prepared for revenge from France's most powerful people, if it can be found.

After calming down, Prime Minister Terrance Bulkin quickly put aside these distractions, there were still a lot of things to deal with when the war was about to break out, and he didn't have the time to think about so much.

……

On 24 September 1890, the French government sent a circular to Billy ordering the Belgian government to hand over the kidnapped soldiers and the perpetrators of the attack on the French soldiers within 4 hours, and to pay compensation of one billion francs.

Leopold II, who received this bad news and was still celebrating the remarkable results of the joint blockade, was directly dumbfounded.

Don't wait for this kind of fun. According to the usual practice, after the French encountered a blockade, they should first fight with the anti-French alliance and then negotiate, and the war should only be carried out after negotiations.

As soon as the French came up, they created a pretext for war, issued a war overall, and did not play their cards according to the routine at all.

It's just that the French made excuses to provoke a war, but the problem was that Germany and Austria didn't fight, but they chose Belgium to be the rafters, and Leopold II was really bitter in his heart.

You know, in order to avoid this war, the Belgian government has made a lot of efforts, including active diplomatic mediation.

originally pinned their hopes on British and Austrian mediation, but the British boss was unreliable and sold them; Austria saw that it was not a big deal to see the excitement, and after intervening in mediation, not only did it not find a way to alleviate the contradictions, but further forced the French into a corner.

Even when he was forced to join the anti-French alliance, Leopold II began to try to reduce his presence, and all the limelight was pushed to Germany and Austria.

It's a pity that they still have to come, and the geographical location of Belgium determines the characteristics of their beating, and they can't hide from it at all.

After relieving himself, Leopold II asked, "What did the German and Austrian ministers say?" ”

It is impossible to make concessions, and the Belgian government cannot hand over the murderers and missing soldiers, not to mention the huge amount of compensation.

Foreign Minister Jull replied bitterly: "The German minister has not given a clear answer, and he has to wait for a decision at home."

The Austrian minister said that he would support whatever decision we made, including a war with France. ”

It is easier said than done, but if it does, Belgium will be the biggest victim.

Anyone with a little military common sense knows that unless the anti-French alliance takes the initiative, Belgium will be the main battlefield of the alliance and the French army.

It was impossible to take the initiative, and the anti-French coalition, including Belgium, was not ready for war.

The Austrian army is still at home, and even if it comes as quickly as possible, it will be half a month later.

In fact, the Austrian army was able to go into battle within a month, even if it was in full force.

It may take two days for ordinary people to arrive in Brussels by train from Vienna, but the army does not act the same.

It takes time for troops to assemble, time for mobilization, and time for the transportation of equipment and logistical materials.

The capacity of the railway is not unlimited, ordinary trains can transport at most one battalion of troops at a time, and after adding weapons and equipment, logistics and materials, many times a company of troops cannot be transported.

Belgium did not have the ability to solve the logistical problems of reinforcements on their own, and the Austrian army had to carry them on their own.

Because the track standards are different, there are many transfers along the way. Every time you make a transfer, you need to move and unload materials, and a lot of time is wasted along the way.

The most optimistic estimates are that it will take four or five days to travel from Austria to Belgium.

Combined with the preparation time in the early stage and the rest time after arrival, it will take ten days at the earliest before you can enter the battle.

It doesn't seem like much time, but the problem is that the reinforcements are not one company or two companies, but thousands, or even tens of thousands.

A train wagon transports a company, and the train departs once every half an hour, and the railway transports a maximum of 48 times a day, which is equivalent to transporting 48 companies, which is almost the strength of two regiments.

It can't be fast, in these years, it is not easy for cross-border transportation and railway tossing to reach half an hour a train.

There were only a few railways from Austria to Belgium, and all of them were counted, and two divisions could be transported in one day.

In fact, it is a miracle to be able to guarantee the delivery of one division per day.

Railway transportation can not be carried out according to the limit, half an hour to send a train, with this year's technology, coordination, scheduling is too difficult, in case of an accident in the middle, it will be bumped into.

There is no guarantee that all bureaucrats will be 100% committed; There is no guarantee that all trains will move at a uniform speed.

The interval between the two trains is too short, and in case of emergency, it is too late to hit the brakes.

Moreover, even if a train stops, there is no guarantee that the train behind it will not catch up.

This is still infantry, if it is to transport artillery and armored troops, whether the carriage can fit the big guys is a question mark.

In a sense, the anti-French alliance was at a disadvantage when it came to rail transport.

Fortunately, Germany and Austria are not completely consistent, even if the tracks are not completely consistent, the stations are still connected, and the distance of manual transportation is not far.

Most of the railways in Belgium and Germany go their separate ways, and there may be more than ten miles of transit between stations, which wastes a lot of time.

Until Austrian reinforcements arrived, Belgium could only fight alongside the German Confederation, and the anti-French alliance was at an absolute disadvantage in the short term.

After a little thought, Leopold II said solemnly: "The French are prepared, war is inevitable, and from now on we must be ready for war."

Send a telegram to the Viennese government, telling the Austrians that we are not ready to budge, urging them to send troops as soon as possible.

The Foreign Ministry tried to negotiate with the French as much as possible, we need time ......"