The sudden Russian-Polish conflict shattered all the plans of Prime Minister Dombrovsky. If one is not handled well, a full-scale war will break out between Russia and Poland.

Against this background, without the support of the Kingdom of Prussia, Poland would not have even been able to fight a war. It can be said that the tsarist government did the Prussians a great favor and forced the Polish government to make compromises.

Is it that simple? The tsar is not stupid, if there are not enough benefits, why should they help their enemies?

The Polish government was still in a state of confusion, and Franz, who was far away in Vienna, had already figured out what was going on. It was nothing more than a secret deal between Prussia and Russia to jointly divide the Kingdom of Poland.

There were no enemies in front of interests, the tsarist government wanted to regain lost territory, the Prussians wanted to increase their strength, and both sides had their eyes on the Poles.

A few years ago, the two sides fought to the death, and the scars of the war have not yet faded, and the two sides have united again.

In the eyes of ordinary people, this may be very incredible, but the reality is so nonsense.

For the Kingdom of Prussia, it is tempting to swallow Poland alone, but the size of the Kingdom of Poland is too large, and there are seventy or eighty percent of the Kingdom of Prussia, and if you swallow it in one gulp, you will be choked to death.

In this context, it is the best choice to choose to carve up with people to reduce the difficulty of operation and share international pressure.

The Berlin government was also forced to cooperate with the Russians. There are three countries bordering Poland, including Prussia and Austria, and Austria is too strong, and the Prussians dare not do anything to seek the skin of the tiger, preferring to choose to cooperate with the enemy.

Even Franz could venture to speculate that the Prussians were ready to sell two of them. Perhaps at this time, someone had already been sent to contact the Austrian Foreign Ministry. By promising Austria the territory favored by the Russians, he took the opportunity to provoke contradictions between Russia and Austria.

Putting down the information in his hand, Franz ignored it. There is no desire for nothing, and he is not interested in the Polish region, and Franz naturally does not care about the conspiracy between Prussia and Russia.

No matter how they calculated, as long as Austria remained immobile, all intrigues and tricks would pale in the face of absolute strength.

The more prepared the Prussians are, the worse the next war will be. If the governments of both countries are smart people, the most important thing to do at this time is to pull people into the water, and it is better to pull the countries that are watching the excitement in Europe into the water together.

Otherwise, neither Prussia nor Russia will be victors in the next war. Watching the lively Britain, France and Austria, as long as they intervene halfway, they can make their efforts in vain.

It's a pity that everyone is not stupid, and the fact that Britain, France and Austria can form an alliance speaks a lot. Neither Prussia nor Russia are masters of playing diplomacy, and it is too difficult to break up the Triple Alliance and pull people to their side.

Austria doesn't want to expand on the European continent, the French don't have the time to fight, and the British-stirring stick has always liked to stab them in the back, so let's forget it!

The three countries are not so easy to pull, and this end fee alone is not something that the two countries can afford, and the empty gloves white wolf, Britain, France, and Austria are all smoother than them.

Theoretically, the struggle for world hegemony between Britain, France, and Austria should be full of contradictions between the three major powers, but unfortunately these contradictions have not yet reached the time to erupt.

For example, France and Austria are very interested in the maritime supremacy of the British, but unfortunately they are constrained by strength, and neither country has the strength to challenge the British maritime supremacy.

Another example: the struggle for hegemony in Europe between France and Austria should be life-and-death on the surface. In reality, Austria has little interest in continental hegemony and is basically too lazy to fight; The French were too busy dealing with internal problems to take care of continental hegemony for the time being.

In overseas colonization movements, the three countries had vested interests. If they stab each other, the cost of maintaining their colonies will increase a lot, and if the three countries compromise, everyone can save a lot of money.

As long as Britain, France and Austria do not stab each other, even if other countries want to fish in troubled waters, they must consider whether they can bear the consequences of exposure.

There is no need to look at the fact that colonial conflicts between Britain, France and Austria still occur from time to time, and they are much more restrained than before the alliance between the three countries. At least there were no more colonies with hundreds of people, and they were all wiped out in a daze.

Now that Britain, France, and Austria have begun negotiations on the division of colonial powers, at the current pace, there will probably be a result in a year or two, when the conflicts in the overseas colonial activities of the three countries will be further reduced.

It was not Franz who pushed all this, nor Napoleon III, but John Bull as a-stirring stick.

Everyone opened up colonies to make money, not to lose money and make money. The British had the most colonies and the most conflicts with other countries overseas.

In the late 19th century, the maintenance costs of the major colonial empires rose dramatically. If you continue to fight like this, everyone will not have to make money.

For the sake of his own interests, John Bull also has to establish a system of rules to restrain countries from colonizing overseas, so that everyone will not stab each other every day and not make money happily.

Of course, this is limited to the land that everyone recognizes as having a homeland. When the unowned colony is fighting, no one will show mercy no matter how ruthless it is.

This kind of international pattern is completely different from the original time and space. At present, the main international contradiction in Europe is the contradiction between Prussia and Russia.

In contrast, the Anglo-Austrian contradictions, the Anglo-French contradictions, and the Franco-Austrian contradictions have all become secondary contradictions. The fact that Britain, France and Austria were able to form an alliance proved that the common interests of the three countries outweighed the contradictions.

John Bull wants continental balance, not continental fighting.

War means uncertainty, and if a war is provoked without certainty, no one can guarantee the final direction of the situation.

What if the situation gets out of control and a Big Mac is played in a fight? Napoleon's example was not far off, and he almost succeeded.

Now France and Austria are holding each other down, Prussia and Russia are hostile to each other, and the European continent happens to be in a delicate equilibrium.

Anything that happens in any country has the potential to trigger a ripple effect. In the last war in the Near East, the British were told with facts that there was a price to be paid for easily intervening in the European War.

From the point of view of the British, it would be better if the situation on the European continent was balanced in this way. When there is a conflict between countries, they just act as arbiters.

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On May 18, 1874, the Tsarist Government sent a diplomatic note to the Kingdom of Poland, ordering the Polish Government to surrender within 24 hours the "murderers of the border conflict" and to cede the Kiev region to the Russian Empire as compensation.

Such conditions were obviously not acceptable to the Polish government. Prime Minister Dombrowski was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

The standing army of the Russian Empire was as high as 876,000, while the Kingdom of Poland tried its best, and the standing army was only 136,000, and there was no way to make up for the difference in strength between the two sides.

Warsaw, an office with only two desks, four chairs, and a filing cabinet, is the office of Prime Minister Dombrovsky.

The Polish government is poor, and Prime Minister Dombrowski, as the head of the government, leads by example and reduces office expenses as much as possible.

In this respect, Prime Minister Dombrovsky has done an impeccable job. It's a pity that a country can't be governed well by frugality.

Prime Minister Dombrovsky: "What do the Great Powers say, will they interfere in the actions of the Russians?" ”

The Polish government could not accept the Russians' terms, the countdown to the war had begun, and Prime Minister Dombrovsky had to pin his hopes on international intervention.

Foreign Secretary V. Vloueblevsky: "The British minister promised to mediate the conflict, but the French minister did not give a clear answer, probably waiting for the decision of the Paris government."

The Prussians promised to support us, and they promised to send troops to our aid as soon as war broke out.

Austria did not express its position, but because of the Russian-Austrian alliance, they are at best neutral and cannot be on our side.

The rest of Europe is waiting to see what choice they will make, and it will be clear that we will be able to determine what the situation will do. ”

After hearing this result, Prime Minister Dombrovsky did not feel half relieved.

The reaction of the European countries made him very chilled, as the gatekeeper of the Russian Empire for the European countries, the Kingdom of Poland also did its best, and none of the three major powers of Britain, France and Austria clearly expressed their support for them.

It seems to have the support of the Kingdom of Prussia, but in fact it comes at a cost.

Prime Minister Dombrowski was sure that if Wilhelm I could not be concurrently king of Poland, the Prussians would inevitably paddle in this war.

Now the tsarist government is not ready for war, there is no problem in beating the Kingdom of Poland, and if it wants to destroy the Kingdom of Poland, the tsarist government must first carefully consider whether it has enough money in its pocket.

The Kingdom of Prussia had the motive to paddle, and a half-dead Kingdom of Poland, just convenient for their annexation, could minimize the backlash.

Prime Minister Dombrovsky made a decisive decision: "Immediately carry out a national mobilization, and we must be ready for a decisive battle with the Russians." ”

The Great Powers could not count on them for a while, the French did not have time to pay attention to them, Austria was an ally of the Russian Empire, and the British knew that it was unreliable when they thought about it.

Mediation is easy to say, but in reality it all depends on whether the Russians are willing to buy it. Most of the tsarist government's 24-hour ultimatum has passed, and it is estimated that the British diplomatic note has not yet reached the tsarist government, and the Russian army has already killed it.

The only hope for the Kingdom of Poland was the Kingdom of Prussia, and Prime Minister Dombrowski was ready for a temporary compromise. In the face of life and death, many things can be compromised.

In any case, the Kingdom of Poland is still so large that the Prussians, no matter how good their appetite is, will not be able to swallow it for a while.

Before that, they had to hold off the first wave of the Russians. It would have been miserable if the Kingdom of Poland had already been defeated without waiting for Prussian reinforcements.

You can't count on Prussia to help regain lost territory and drive the Russians back home, right?

Don't look at the last war they won, Prussia still can't catch up with the Russians in terms of national strength. Without the financial backing, Prussia would not have been a match for the Russian Empire.

The tsarist government had no money, and the Berlin government was actually not much better. Don't be surprised if one day you hear that the Berlin government is bankrupt, they have been on the verge of bankruptcy.

It was not so much that the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Russians, but that the financiers behind it smashed the tsarist government with money.

European countries contributed money together, and Britain and France lent generously, so good things cannot happen every day. The borrowed money also has to be repaid, and for so many years both countries have been working hard to repay their debts.

The slimmed down Russian Empire can no longer frighten Europe, and everyone's funding will naturally be gone.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Dombrovsky did not believe that Prussia had the strength to beat the Russians. If it had this strength, the Berlin government would have annexed Poland a long time ago, and it would not have had to wait until now.

The Polish government has never neglected to "prepare for war", but according to advance estimates, this war will be more than ten years later, so the Polish government is not fully prepared.

The Russian-Polish conflict came so suddenly, the Polish government had just received the news, and the ultimatum of the tsarist government had come, leaving them no time to prepare at all.

To complete the combat readiness within 24 hours is simply a fantasy. Unless it is a small country at the level of a village chief like Monaco, a national mobilization can be completed in a few hours.

Poland began to mobilize, and the Russians were not idle. The tsarist government, which had long been prepared, had already concentrated 20 infantry divisions and 5 cavalry divisions on the Russian-Polish border, as well as 20 infantry divisions on the Prussian-Russian border.

Obviously, the tsarist government did not trust the Prussians, so it stationed heavy troops on the border.

Today, unlike in the past, the tsarist government had stockpiled a batch of grain in advance, and the problem of feeding the Russian soldiers had been solved. The logistical pressure on the Russians has been greatly reduced.

20 infantry divisions may not be enough to defend the Kingdom of Prussia, but they are more than enough to defend the borders. Even if the Berlin government wants to play tricks, it must first consider its own strength.

There is no way, you can be capricious if you have more soldiers. Casually, the tsarist government mobilized more than half a million troops, which was already more than the standing armies of the two countries combined.

The tragedy is that the Polish government did not realize it in advance, and even now Prime Minister Dombrovski does not know how many enemies he has to face.

In this respect, the Polish government is really not qualified. He vividly and vividly showed his eyes and hands, and did not pay attention to intelligence work at all.