Flowers, Swords and France

When President Louis Bonaparte and his party left Fort Soult, the rain that had been brewing for a long time finally fell. Thick dark clouds have covered the entire sky, making the earth become gloomy. Although it is only around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it seems to be evening.

The patter of raindrops kept dripping from the sky to the ground, and there was a patter of rain all around. Ciel held an umbrella and followed the future emperor step by step at the same pace as possible.

Because the leader remained silent, the followers were also speechless. The group walking in the rain felt both silent and somewhat indescribably depressed.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Louis Bonaparte finally spoke.

"Charle, I will leave for Paris tomorrow. You should handle the rest of the inspection by yourself." He looked at the wilderness in front of him and said in an unquestionable tone.

"...Of course, if that's what you want." Charles replied quickly, and then he glanced at the other party, "But what happened, worthy of you changing your schedule like this?"

"I just received news that the Prussian minister wants to make an urgent appointment with me." Louis Bonaparte replied calmly, "in order to find out our country's attitude." "How can they not be anxious?" Louis Bonaparte asked, " The situation in Hesse is on the verge of breaking out. If we are not careful, Prussia and Austria may start fighting next year. In this case, they certainly want to know France’s opinion.”

Then, an almost imperceptible smile appeared on his face, "Char. Now there is finally someone in Europe who is willing to listen to us..."

Prussia and Austria are about to fight over Hesse.

Charles immediately understood what it was—the Hesse-Kassel crisis in Germany in 1849.

This matter has a long history.

The Earldom of Hesse is an important vassal territory in Germany. After the death of Philip I in 1567, the Earldom of Hesse was divided according to ancient inheritance distribution rules, thus forming four different noble territories: Hesse-Darmstadt Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels. Among them, Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels all had no descendants by 1604. Only two branches, Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel, were left. In ancient times, they A severe and long-term confrontation broke out between them, and they fought on different sides during the Thirty Years' War. To put it simply, the previous rulers of the Count of Hesse-Kassel had a very bad relationship with their own people. Therefore, the people of Hesse have accumulated great resentment for hundreds of years - more representatively, during the American Revolutionary War, the then Count Ludwig II of Hesse-Kassel accepted the British After paying the money, nearly 30,000 people were sent to the British to suppress the mob. In the end, nearly 8,000 people died in a foreign land, and he also withheld most of the 500,000 pounds remuneration.

This kind of hatred was even more ignited after the French Revolution. In 1803, Napoleon promoted Hesse-Kassel from a count to an electorate, and also handed over the Declaration of Human Rights and the Napoleonic Code. It passed, causing headaches to the German lords.

Although Napoleon died soon, the ignited civil rights consciousness remained. In 1831, encouraged by the news that France had overthrown the Bourbons in 1830, the Hessians also took action. Eventually, Wilhelm II, the then Elector of Hesse, was forced to go into exile, and a new constitution was promulgated, which greatly limited the Elector's ruling power.

By 1848. Once again inspired by the February Revolution in France, the Hessians made another fuss. As a result, Frederick William I was forced to agree to promulgate a more liberal constitution, which calmed the turmoil somewhat. However, having bought time, the Elector appealed directly to the Austrian Empire for help. Ask for their help in subduing the mob. Cancel the previous 1831 Constitution.

At this time, Austria, with the help of Russian bayonets, had slightly recovered from the paralysis caused by the revolution of 1848. The new monarch, Franz Joseph, was quite ambitious and wanted to reestablish the superior status of the Austrian Empire in Germany. So he agreed to the request of the Elector of Hesse and prepared to send troops to help suppress the mob.

Because the old German Federal Parliament was swept away by the revolutionary wave, the general center of the entire German Federation no longer existed. Under this circumstance, the Austrian emperor wanted to restore the old parliament in Frankfurt, where its influence had always been absolutely dominant. In exchange for Austria's support, the Elector of Hesse agreed to Austria's request.

At this time, another powerful German state, Prussia, was also ready to make a move. It wanted to compete with Austria. They were trying to establish the Northern Alliance in Erfurt, and wanted to use this alliance to serve their own interests and take advantage of it. It is placed under its own direct control. In order to resist Austrian influence, the Hessian Parliament decided to join this new imperial conference in order to defend the constitution.

In this way, Austria supported the Elector of Hesse, and Prussia supported the Hessian Parliament. The two giants of Germany began to collide head-on. Not only were the two countries frequent diplomatic wars of words, but even the army had begun preliminary mobilization, and there was a lot of conflict. On the verge of breaking out.

Of course, Prussia's support for the Hessian Parliament was not to protect Hesse's liberal constitution. In fact, they hated so-called liberalism more than anyone else. The reason for doing this is just to weaken Austria's influence in Germany. The Hessian Constitution thus became the slogan of the struggle between Austria and Prussia.

"The situation is becoming increasingly critical now." Looking at the mist in the distance. Louis Bonaparte said flatly, "According to the news just received, the Austrian army and the Prussian army have assembled separately on the Hessian border. Faced with such a severe situation, they began to have to think about the worst case scenario, so they asked It’s not surprising that major European powers are questioning their attitude.”

Although he claimed that the situation was tense, Charles could see that Louis Bonaparte was very happy now - is there anything more joyful than a neighbor's misfortune?

Of course, he is even more happy that after decades of obscurity, finally... finally he has reached a point where his personal opinions can affect the situation in Europe, although it is only the beginning now.

"Then what are you going to do?" Charles asked in a low voice.

"I will encourage Prussia. I will support them in continuing to compete with Austria." Louis Bonaparte replied without thinking, "It would be better if they can fight. If they fight, both sides will lose, and it will be much easier for us in the future. ”

"Do you want to support Prussia?" Charles's hand trembled slightly, but luckily the raindrops didn't hit him.

"Yes, we need to weaken Austria. If Prussia can play a role, then it doesn't hurt to support it. But..." The future emperor shook his head, as if he was very regretful, "We can't make much bets in Europe now. , there are still a lot of problems waiting for us to solve in China. So I can only encourage them verbally. I really hope my words can give them confidence! "

But they didn't fight.

Despite the instigation of Louis Bonaparte, the Prussians dare not risk a showdown now because Austria still seems to be very strong, and because Russia will express its support for Austria later.

According to history. The Prussians would eventually choose to retreat and surrender in the face of pressure. Prussian Prime Minister von Manteuffel met with Austrian Prime Minister Duke Schwarzenberg in Olimütz on November 29, 1850, and knelt down to him for peace. Complete renunciation of all demands for an independent Prussian policy on all matters concerning the Parliament, Hesse-Gasser and Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia gave up its plan to organize the Northern Confederation and rejoined the Reichstag in Frankfurt. The Hessian crisis was resolved by Prussia betraying its own supporters.

It was not until 1866 that Prussia, already fully fledged, finally had a showdown with Austria over Germany's dominance. Then they defeated the Austrian Empire in seven weeks and got everything they wanted. Then the entire territory of the Elector of Hesse was annexed. At that time, the Hessians no longer had to worry about any constitutional crisis. Because they no longer have a Hessian constitution.

"As you said, we need the Germans to fight each other. But I personally feel that the Prussians will not take action because of your encouragement, but Austria will be resentful of your attitude. This is not a big deal for our country's diplomacy." Charles temporarily gave up his memory of history and said cautiously, "Therefore, I think there is no need for us to be too hostile to the Austrians..."

"Oh, I will pay attention to the scale and not make the adults in Vienna too nervous." Louis Bonaparte waved his hand nonchalantly, "However, we should also stimulate them and let them know that the Bonaparte family will eventually It’s not something to be trifled with. I don’t like the arrogance of those shabby old nobles!”

"If the stimulation is too much, we may lose the hope of forming friendship with Austria..." After hardening his heart, Charles said again.

"So what? Who is afraid of them?" Louis Bonaparte interrupted Charles directly. "My uncle always beat the Austrians. At that time, he was very lucky. When he married After marrying an Austrian woman, he had bad luck! What's the point of being friendly with the Austrians? The Habsburgs only deserve a few hard whippings with our riding whips, and until then we have no friendship at all! "

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Mr. President's rare stern words made Charles not know how to answer for a while, so he had no choice but to remain silent. It seems that it is indeed difficult to persuade him to maintain a peaceful mind on the Austrian issue.

Because of his early experience in Italy, Louis Bonaparte hated the Austrians very much, and his brother even died because of the Austrians to some extent; later he became rich and became the Emperor of France, but the Habsburg royal family still He looked down upon him very much and refused to give him enough respect, so his hatred was doubled.

Driven by this hatred, his relationship with Austria has always been bad. In the end, it went to war with the Austrian Empire in 1859. He formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Sardinia and sent troops to Italy to attack the Austrians. After paying the price of 60,000 casualties of soldiers, he received almost no benefits. In vain, the Kingdom of Sardinia gained the victory over the Austrians. All of northern Italy outside Venice, while leaving the Austrians weakened and heading towards the catastrophe of 1866.

In the end, it also led France to the catastrophe of 1870.

Although it sounds unbelievable, it has happened many times in history that politicians make wrong decisions because of their personal feelings. Even astute people like Louis Bonaparte are not immune to this - people are really complicated. Ciel sighed softly in his heart.

Judging from Louis Bonaparte's expression, Charles knew that his mind had been made up and there was no point in continuing, so he could only remain silent.

"Okay, we don't need to talk about this issue now. I know you like to pay attention to these foreign affairs, but you are now the State Secretary of the Ministry of Railways, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I think you should do a better job in foreign affairs than in foreign affairs. Others will take care of their own jobs, so trust them.”

Perhaps he realized that the conversation with his cronies had fallen into an unpleasant atmosphere. Louis Bonaparte softened his tone and smiled again on his face, "But I really didn't notice it. A while ago You who are so aggressive in talking about how you want to reform the old European system actually You have become so cautious today, and you keep telling me to be cautious. Haha, Charles, if I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed you were saying this. Don’t worry, I won’t over-stimulate. They haven’t sorted it out in China yet, so how can I have time to pay attention to Europe?”

"I'm just overly worried." Charles took the ladder handed over by Louis Bonaparte. "I beg your pardon."

Talented people generally believe in their own talents, especially after they reach the top step by step.

Well, although the Hessian crisis will be resolved peacefully, what about the future? Will he agree with my diplomatic philosophy? Can I really change such a person's deep-rooted prejudices?

If not, what should we do?

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the rainwater splashed down along the umbrella, forming curtains of water. Even though he was wearing a fairly thick double-breasted coat, Charles still felt a bit of cold air going straight to his body. Time actually shuddered secretly.