Negotiations are still deadlocked, and the gates of Munich have been opened. At this time, it was no longer up to Maximilian II to decide.

From the beginning of the negotiations, everyone knew that there was going to be a change of owner here. Jonas was not obliged to help them keep it a secret, and now the whole city knew that Maximilian II was ready to exchange lands with Austria.

In this case, there is no pressure for everyone to take refuge in the new master. Changing places in European history has happened from time to time, and it is not a new thing.

It's just that this time the situation is special after all, the Bavarian royal family is a little down, and all the chips in their hands have been lost, and the only thing that can be relied on is legal reason.

Originally, there was still a little obstacle in the hearts of most Bavarian people, after all, Maximilian II did not do anything angry and resentful, so it seems unreasonable to abandon him like this.

However, as soon as the news of the exchange of land came out, everyone's mental obstacles were gone, not that they were going to betray the king, but that the king himself was leaving, and it was none of their business.

Everyone was at ease, and as long as Austria did not treat the royal family badly, they considered themselves worthy of Maximilian II.

……

Baden

As a good ally of Bavaria, he was the first to know what was happening in his neighboring country. The Baden government was confused, and in the war with others, the local government declared "neutrality", and then the domestic army followed suit.

Prince Friedrich, the regent, asked: "What now, the Bavarians did not resist at all, Austria just made an armed march and got to the city of Munich."

Judging by the current situation, the Bavarians have abandoned the government, Munich will not be able to hold for long, and the Kingdom of Bavaria will not be able to hold on to the arrival of reinforcements. ”

Don't say that the reinforcements have arrived, the shadow of the reinforcements cannot be seen anywhere. Prussia was rallying the German Confederation to organize a coalition of forces, and Britain and France were calling for troops to intervene in the war.

But it will take time, there are so many small states in the German region, no matter how fast it is, it will take a month or two to organize the coalition forces, right?

Who knew that the Kingdom of Bavaria was so cowardly, and it was also the third largest state in the German region, even if you couldn't win against the Austrians, you would have to hold on for a little longer, even if you insisted on guerrilla warfare.

At this time, Prince Friedrich did not know that the two sides had compromised, and Maximilian II was negotiating terms with the Austrians.

Foreign Secretary Nikolaus analyzed: "Your Highness, Bavaria is a popular back, no matter how hard the government tries, it is useless.

It seems that we still underestimated the place of reunification in the minds of the people, and the Bavarians saw this war as a battle for the unification of the country.

It was not so much that the Austrian army fought to Munich as it was to be invited to Munich by the Bavarians.

Now we are in big trouble, and if the population at home is the same as the Bavarians, then the risk of intervening in this war is too great. ”

Nicolaus was intimidated, not just him, but many others. If the people of Baden had the same attitude, and they had forcibly intervened in the war, would the people have rebelled?

Even if they did not rebel, they also learned that the Bavarians remained "neutral" in the war, and the Baden government would be finished.

Prime Minister Waltz added: "Your Highness, this is very likely to happen, and most of the public opinion in the country is against sending troops, and everyone is reluctant to send troops to rescue Bavaria. ”

Prince Friedrich was silent, he understood the truth of his cold lips and teeth, but now the risk of sending troops to intervene was too great, and he could not take himself in.

After a pause, he said slowly, "That's it, let's stay neutral in this war!" ”

……

Obviously, it was not only the Grand Duchy of Baden that made this choice, but many of the smaller German states that were intimidated chose neutrality.

It seems that at this moment, everyone has become a supporter of public opinion, and the political offensive in Austria has begun to exert force.

As the small states declared their neutrality, the allied forces of the German Confederation, which had not yet been born, died in the womb in advance.

Berlin

As more and more states declared their neutrality, the pressure on the Prussian government increased, and at least half a million Austrian troops had been gathered in the Austro-Prussian border area, and this number was still increasing.

Whether these troops have combat effectiveness or not is still unknown, but the Prussian government does not dare to move, the number is there, who dares to take it lightly?

What if they send troops to the rescue of Bavaria on the front foot, and the army on the back foot enters their homeland? Even if these troops were parallel goods, they could kill Prussia by numbers.

The Kingdom of Prussia was limited in strength, and it was impossible to learn from the Austrian government's mobilization of millions of troops.

Even if they burst their livers, they would only be able to deal with one Austrian army at most, and there would be no way to deal with the other way.

Neither from the home side nor from the Kingdom of Bavaria was a problem for Austria.

In the era of thermal weapons, they can't take risks even if they want to, as long as the logistics supply is cut off, no matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the army is, it is just a soft-footed shrimp.

In addition to the military threat, there are also political problems. The behavior of the Bavarian populace also frightened the Prussian government.

Even if Frederick Wilhelm IV had confidence in the army at home, and did not think that they would learn from the Bavarian army to neutralize without firing a shot, he had no confidence in the people.

The confidence of the army comes from the fact that Prussia is a "country with an army", and this kind of treatment cannot be given by other countries.

The people are different, don't look at how the Kingdom of Prussia was touted by later generations, in fact they were using military force.

Now the economic situation of the Kingdom of Prussia is not good, and in order to maintain the huge military expenditure, the government has to increase the burden on the people.

Coupled with the exploitation of the Junker aristocracy, the life of ordinary Prussians in this era was not very easy. Historically, this hardship lasted until after the Franco-Prussian War, when they were able to get out of their predicament thanks to the war reparations paid by the French.

Frederick Wilhelm IV suppressed his anger and said: "What to do now, those free cities have long declared neutrality, now Baden is neutral, Hanover is neutral, Württemberg is also neutral, Felix is about to visit Saxony, if nothing else, Saxony will soon be neutral."

The strength of the remaining small states is not worth mentioning, and if we continue to organize and interfere with the army, I am afraid we will have to do it ourselves. ”

There are a lot of states in Germany, but there are very few powerful states, except for these few with a little strength, the remaining small states combined, can not get together 50,000 troops.

Without these state armies as cannon fodder, Prussia would not dare to fight Austria to the death, and if 180,000 people died, they would be broken to the bones.

The reason why the Kingdom of Prussia had to maintain a large active force was to ensure the quality of its soldiers, because they could not afford to fight for numbers.

Prime Minister Joseph von Ladowitz advised: "Your Majesty, the current situation is uncertain, and we cannot take the liberty of it. Although Austria was decaying, their military power did not decline.

From the information we have gathered, Austria has mobilized a million reservists, and with their 500,000 active troops, the number of troops has now jumped to the top in Europe.

With our strength, we no longer have the ability to intervene in this war, so it is better to wait and see the situation and wait for the reaction of the European countries! ”

The plan did not change quickly, and if Austria had not carried out a national mobilization, then the Kingdom of Prussia plus the German Confederation would have the strength to intervene in this war.

It was now clear that the small states had either retreated because of public opinion or by the strength of Austria.

The coalition could not be organized, and if it wanted to go up and fight Austria alone, with the 200,000 troops of the Kingdom of Prussia, Josef von Ladowitz had no expectations at all.

Even if the whole country is mobilized, it is the same, the Kingdom of Prussia cannot afford to fight for consumption, and if it loses once, it will be over. Perhaps Austria did not have the strength to annex Prussia, but the dismemberment of the Kingdom of Prussia was quite possible.

After all, the Kingdom of Prussia was not invulnerable, having gained 141,100 square kilometers in just three partitions of Poland, occupying 47% of Prussia's territory.

This means that there were still a large number of Poles in Prussia, although these people were almost assimilated and would not be digested in a long time, but that was done without external forces.

Once the Kingdom of Prussia was defeated and Austria forcibly split Prussia, it would be difficult to merge again. The odds are too low and the risk is too great, and Prime Minister Josef von Ladowitz doesn't want to take that risk.

Foreign Minister Andrea proposed: "Your Majesty, Metternich will soon visit Berlin, and we will listen to what Austria has to say before making a decision, and if the conditions are right, it is not impossible to join forces with them." ”

To put it bluntly, it is also interests, and Prussia's opposition to Austria's annexation of Bavaria is also due to interests, and if the interests are suitable, then it is not impossible to sell Bavaria.

Andrea was a supporter of the idea of partition between North and South Germany, and he did not mind an exchange of interests with Austria. Of course, this is not to say that he did not want Prussia to unite Germany.

The main thing is that the power of the Kingdom of Prussia is limited, and everyone has ambitions for the unification of Germany, but they do not think that it can be realized.

Before Bismarck came to power, the Prussian government was not ideologically prepared for the unification of Germany.

Even after the victory in the three dynastic wars, everyone was skeptical about the unification of Germany.

If it weren't for Bismarck's strong insistence and powerful political means, which fooled many states together and achieved nominal unification, the second German empire would not have been born in later generations.

After hesitating, Frederick Wilhelm IV still said sorry to the Kingdom of Bavaria, it was not that he refused to help, but his strength did not allow it.

"In that case, let's keep silent for the first time, the mobilization of the army in the country must not stop, and we must strictly prevent the Austrians from launching a sneak attack on us.

After Metternich has arrived, and has figured out the conditions of the Austrians, we will make a decision.

Until then, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should try its best to stabilize the small states, without which they will wave their flags and shout, and be very passive to us politically. ”

To bet on the fortune of the country, it also depends on the situation, and you must be at least thirty or forty percent sure before you can bet? Frederick William IV was not a gambler, and he did not gamble red-eyed, and he would not blindly play stud.

Immediately after the high-level meeting, Frederick William IV summoned the ministers of Britain, France, Russia, and Spain, informed the four European powers of the situation, and asked them to intervene with troops.

There is no doubt that the Kingdom of Spain was already an empty shelf at this time, and it was only by virtue of the legacy of its ancestors that it was able to maintain its position as a great power, and now it was busy with infighting and was not keen on interfering in the affairs of the German region.

It is Britain, France and Russia that really have the right to speak, or it is more accurate to say that France and Russia are more accurate. Although the influence of the British was great, the strength of the army was limited, and they did not have the strength to intervene in the German region.

However, Britain, France and Russia were in a super friendly match at this time, and they couldn't stop for a while. Both sides have invested so much, whoever admits to it will be unlucky.

The Russians could not lay down Constantinople, this was the will of the entire Russian population, and the tsarist government could not retreat at the last moment.

Britain and France could not back down either, the British made concessions, and the losses were heavy, and Downing Street was about to be replaced.

Not to mention the French, if Napoleon III dared to admit it, his throne would be unstable, or his throne would have been unstable, and this war was launched to divert internal contradictions.

Except for the Spanish minister's explicit refusal to send troops, none of the three ministers gave an answer and had to wait for domestic decisions.

London

George's cabinet once again convened a cabinet meeting on the question of the German region.

Foreign Minister Thomas spoke: "Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in Germany has changed. The Kingdom of Bavaria fell without any resistance, and both the Bavarian population and the army chose to sit on the sidelines in this war.

The man who fought Austria this time was probably Maximilian II's fool and his foolish cabinet.

As a result, most of the states in the German region chose to be neutral, because the public opinion supported German unity, and the governments of these states did not dare to take risks.

Yesterday evening I received news from the Minister in Berlin that the Prussian government had flinched.

We had intended to use the power of the German states to contain the Austrians, but now we could no longer continue.

If we do not take strong measures, the reunification of the German regions will be inevitable. The Austrians were on a political offensive, and it was estimated that most of the German states would be forced to join the HRE Empire, to which Austria was hosted. ”

Thomas despised the actions of Maximilian II, and everyone agreed. A king does need strength to do this.

If the Kingdom of Bavaria is a little stronger, even if it only resists the Austrian army for ten days and half a month, or even loses the battle all the way, everyone can accept it.

This is a gap in strength, and no one will slam them for incompetence. It can be said that as long as they resisted, the allied forces of the German Confederation were able to organize.

Now everyone is retreating, not only because of Austria's military strength, but also because of the Bavarian people's approach, so that everyone has no bottom in their hearts and does not dare to go against the will of the people.

George Hamilton Gordon thought for a moment and said, "It seems that we are going to join forces with the Russians, and we and the French alone will no longer be able to let Austria go."

The united German Empire was too strong, presumably the Russians did not want to see this monster appear, and the Foreign Ministry communicated with the Russians. As a sign of sincerity, we can suspend the offensive on the Crimean peninsula. ”

"Prime Minister, suspend the offensive at this time, and the advantage we have in hand is tantamount to being given up in vain. As long as the Russians refused to give up Constantinople, the war could not end.

Unless we want to fight a battle with the Russians in the Indus Valley to defend India, we cannot back down. War Secretary Stanley reminded

It is impossible to retreat, and whoever dares to make concessions on this issue will wait to be nailed to the pillar of traitors and spurned by the people for the rest of his life!

George Hamilton Gordon sneered and said, "This little loss is still within our reach. Even if we could not compromise with the Russians on the Near East, we were united on the question of preventing German reunification.

As long as our three countries remained aligned, the Austrians had to budge. Once the Russians put pressure on Austria, will their alliance be able to continue?

Once there is a break between Russia and Austria, the war will be easy to fight in the future. Now fool the Russians and let them interrupt the road to German unification. ”

When it comes to diplomacy, John Bull is not intimidating. Even if they wanted to join forces with the Russians to intervene in the war of German unification, they did not forget to dig a big hole for the Russians first.