Flowers, Swords and France

"Great! Soult would never have thought that he would end up like this, right? Hahahahahahahahahaha, a betrayer can only end up being abandoned by everyone."

The resignation of the Prime Minister not only made the Foreign Minister who succeeded him and other ministers who defected to the Foreign Minister cheer, but also made the various traitors who were still hiding celebrate, such as... the Marquis of Treville.

Seeing the news published in the newspaper as a headline "The Prime Minister resigned, and the Foreign Minister was authorized by His Majesty the King to form a cabinet", the old Marquis was surprised and laughed at the table, completely forgetting the demeanor and calmness that he always emphasized on weekdays, and even forgetting that his grandson and granddaughter were right next to him.

"Grandpa, the bread is almost crushed by you!" Fran shouted like a spoiled child, reminding her grandfather of his gaffe.

"Aha, I made my little beauty angry..." The old man smiled apologetically, then threw away the bread he had crushed, "Sorry, your grandfather is just too happy."

"I really don't understand why you are so keen on this kind of thing..." Fran shook her head gently.

"Men, real men, are this kind of creatures. When they think of politics and war, they can't help but get excited." The Marquis still looked at his granddaughter lovingly, "You may find it boring, but this is their aphrodisiac and the meaning of their lives."

"You...how can you say such things to your granddaughter!" Fran's face suddenly turned red. A fifteen-year-old girl obviously understood this word. She complained loudly about her grandfather, then buried her head and continued to eat breakfast.

This shows how good the Marquis' mood is. He rarely made such a cavalry-style joke with his granddaughter!

This also shows how much shadow the Duke of Dalmatia brought to their enemies.

Seeing his sister's shy look, Charles felt secretly happy in his heart and couldn't help but laugh. But he soon straightened his expression again.

But unfortunately, his sister still saw it.

"I'm done!" Fran covered her face and trotted away.

"However, although Surt has left, we can only be happy for a while..." After Fran left, Charles changed the subject, "After all, it's just one person who left..."

He was implicitly reminding his grandfather not to be too happy, and the future was still a long way to go, but because Fran was present, he couldn't say it too directly, so he could only hint like this - obviously such a hint was enough for the other party to understand.

Yes, after all, it was just one person, and the goal of the two grandparents was to drive away a large number of people.

Sure enough, after listening to Charles' words, the Marquis slowly put away his smile and returned to his original demeanor. "You're right, Charles. Now it's just one person who left..."

He slowly picked up the newspaper again and continued reading.

After reading for a while, he spoke again, as if to Charles.

"The situation in all European countries is not good now. The whole continent is restless, not just France."

"Yes, it's quite bad." Charles replied, "Now the continent is on the crater of a volcano, waiting tremblingly for the eruption that is bound to come."

At this moment in 1847, due to the bankruptcy of railway speculation, a new round of economic crisis in Britain began. Many lines were suspended and the progress of trunk railway construction was greatly slowed down. Just when the railway crisis broke out, there was a serious harvest failure in Britain, Central Europe and Southern Europe. The price of grain doubled compared with 1845, further shrinking the market for industrial products. Pig iron production decreased by one third in one to one and a half months. The other pillar of industry, the textile industry, was already in decline. With the collapse of railway speculation and the soaring food prices, it fell further into the trough.

Following the footsteps of Britain, the European continent soon fell into the abyss of economic crisis.

After Britain abolished the Corn Law in 1846, which imposed high tariffs on foreign grain imports, Germany quickly became the main region for Britain to import agricultural products. With the downturn in the British economy, agricultural product exports declined rapidly, and German industrialists also faced the cruel competition of British industrial dumping, which was miserable.

Although French industrialists were protected by high tariffs, they were also hit hard, and a large number of workers were unemployed. That was why all parts of France were restless and the rule of the July Monarchy was so shaky.

The seeds of the great revolution that would sweep across Europe in the future had been sown at this moment, waiting for the moment of total outbreak.

However, Charles did not have to worry about this now, but could use this situation to make a profit.

"The King of Prussia convened a national congress to consult and discuss state affairs..." The Marquis read the next piece of news, and then couldn't help laughing. "Look, Charles, look, now even the King of Prussia is thinking about holding a three-level meeting!"

[In 1847, under political and financial pressure, King Frederick William IV of Prussia convened a parliament to discuss state affairs, and all the district councils of Prussia sent representatives. However, the king refused to give the parliament any constitutional power, and the liberals in the parliament disbanded themselves in disappointment. ]

"This is the general trend."

"But it's ridiculous." The Marquis said sarcastically, "The Prussians...what do they know?" He curled his lips in disdain.

Rarely, Charles intended to refute his grandfather's words.

"I...I don't think the Prussians are ridiculous, but I think they are a bit scary. They are opponents that must be guarded against. If you are not careful, sooner or later they will steal the crown from France..."

Since crossing over, Charles has been watching the growing power of Prussia and the budding process of German unification with worried eyes. In the past twenty years, these sprouts have grown stronger and stronger, even making people secretly afraid.

Prussia was growing stronger, and everyone could see it. Driven by the emerging bourgeoisie, the Prussian government first implemented reforms in 1818, abolishing checkpoints within the territory, canceling the collection of consumption taxes and domestic tariffs, and declaring free circulation of goods.

This kind of effort is not limited to Prussia. In order to develop economic interests, Prussia has been seeking to form a customs union with other German states to expand its economic area. In 1833, the German Customs Union led by Prussia was formed, and the participating states entered into an eight-year tariff agreement, which came into effect on January 1, 1834. It will be extended every time the agreement expires in the future. At the beginning, this alliance united 18 states in North Germany. In 1835, states such as the Principality of Baden, the Principality of Nassau and Frankfurt-on-Main joined, forming a trend of economic cooperation and unification.

If Germany was economically unified, it would be difficult—perhaps almost impossible—to interrupt their political unity.

After hearing these words, the old Marquis burst out laughing.

"Charles, the Germans are not terrible. I have seen them in Jena and I have seen them in Berlin." The old Marquis smiled and spread his hands, "They are simply devastating, without any effort at all, we used The marching speed defeated Prussia. I don’t think we need to worry too much about this..."

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

Ciel sighed secretly in his heart.

This is the limitation of the times. Even the Marquis de Treville, a scheming and determined leader, would never have imagined that Prussia and Germany unified by Prussia would be such a terrible disaster for France. They simply could not Imagine this.

Ever since the Germans suffered a great decline in national strength due to constant fratricide and military disasters during the Thirty Years' War, the French have established an indescribable sense of psychological superiority towards the Germans, both at the upper and lower levels. During the Great Revolution, the powerful French army repeatedly defeated Germany's two sisters - Austria and Prussia - to pieces, which solidified this image in people's minds.

Moreover, in people's minds, the old power Austria is obviously much stronger than Prussia. Prussia is just a small power with some strength and size. It has a certain presence in people's minds and may be able to cause a little trouble - but that's it.

This is not ridiculous. Apart from time-travelers, how many people can have enough vision to predict the national destiny and future of a country? This is an era when the whole of Europe despises the Germans!

Even in the 1960s (only a few years before Prussia unified Germany), the great Tolstoy, in his magnificent masterpiece "War and Peace", said through the mouth of the old Duke Bolkonsky, "Since there was God Since then, everyone has been fighting the Germans."

Therefore, if Charles vigorously promotes the German (Prussian) threat theory at this time, he will only get people's incomprehensible looks and bursts of ridicule, and there will be no other results - in a sense, it will be like the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War. Has any Chinese predicted before that Japan will use its saber to bleed half of China in the near future?

Therefore, Ciel had long given up on such useless efforts, and instead planned to use hard work to solve the disaster that had not yet happened. No matter what you say, no one will believe it anyway, so it’s better to say less and do more.

"But we can't leave them alone." He finally said, "Otherwise, those weak countries will eventually be attracted to the big countries due to economic interests, and finally merge into one... just like iron filings Like being attracted by a magnet..."

"We will break them into pieces then!" The old Marquis waved his hands nonchalantly, showing the demeanor of the cavalry officer on horseback. "Just like Richelieu and Fleury!"

[Richelieu refers to Cardinal Richelieu, the French prime minister in the era of Louis XIII. During the Thirty Years' War, he led the Catholic Bourbon France to help the German Protestant group attack the Catholic group in order to weaken the Habsburgs. Castle Dynasty.

Fleury refers to Bishop Fleury, the French Prime Minister during the Louis XV era. During the War of Austrian Succession that broke out in 1740, he secretly supported King Frederick II of Prussia to attack and weaken Austria.

It can be said that Prussia was able to take advantage of the chaos to establish a country and develop after it was established, because France secretly supported the consideration of attacking the Habsburgs - of course, in the end it got away...]

"Isn't it too late to consider it then? We should let those small states be attracted by the magnet of France, and at the worst, we should connect them together so that neither Austria nor Prussia can covet and annex them." Charles Continuing to explain his thoughts, "The Emperor's founding of the Rhine League gave us an excellent idea and demonstration..."

The old Marquis waved his hand casually, showing that he was not interested in this topic.

"That's a good idea, Charles. But now our priority is to win the regime. How to operate and run this regime is something that needs to be seriously considered later. We need to be responsible for the present first..."

Charles nodded. "Yes, we need to be responsible for the present first."

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