Welcome to 19th-century Europe, where strength reigns supreme

Many defeated troops in France began to flee north to Belgium. The Belgians hated the French. They came over and beat them up for no reason before, but now they are doing well if they don't follow suit and beat up the drowned dogs.

Auguste negotiated with King Leopold II of Belgium. There was a high probability that some of the French army would flee to Belgium, so Auguste asked Belgium to disarm the fleeing French army and hand it over to Prussia.

Leopold II agreed, but he couldn't refuse anyway. He didn't agree that the king of the Netherlands would agree for him. The Dutch would never allow the two major powers, Prussia and France, to cause trouble on their land.

Some Belgians still demanded severe punishment of France. August responded that Prussia would stand with Belgium and resolutely oppose the aggression of French imperialists.

It probably means that Brother Pu will help you get your territory back, so you can just calm down and stop talking nonsense. As for your territorial needs, how about you fight France yourself? If you win, it will be yours. .

Regarding the issue of the Franco-Prussian War, the British Parliament also had some objections. The nobles in the House of Lords, including Prince Albert, believed that Prussia had not weakened France enough. France was too stubborn and even dared to fight Belgium! Too arrogant.

Most of the House of Lords supported continuing to weaken France. After all, although France was driven away by Prussia and retreated from Alsace-Lorraine to Sedan, this was not enough. Prussia did not eliminate France's effective forces on a large scale. Most of France The soldiers were all taken as prisoners of war.

After the war is over, they will be returned to France. Based on France's recovery ability, Britain predicts that France will return to the powerful France in about five years.

But the British made a mistake. The object of their judgment was the former France. If the Republicans came to power, France would immediately fall into partisan struggles and political violence, and it would not recover for a long time. Moreover, the British did not discover that France The population has not grown much in recent years.

It has something to do with the Napoleonic Code promulgated by Napoleon. The inheritance law of the Napoleonic Code abolished the French eldest son inheritance law. Napoleon did not like the original inheritance law because he himself was not the eldest son.

This thing is a bit like a push order, and the operation is similar.

Capitalism in France emerged relatively early, and many factories have been built. Moreover, because of the eldest son inheritance system, other children except the eldest son will go to the city to make a living and work in factories to work for the capitalists.

Although it is a sweatshop, from an objective point of view, the influx of a large number of rural people into the city has indeed increased the urban population. Farmers can also afford the food needs of the city without reducing their land. Therefore, the French population has grown during this period. Very quickly.

However, after the promulgation of the Napoleonic Code, farmers who had raised many children had to distribute the land equally to all the children, which resulted in too much land for the monks. Originally, the eldest son could eat enough if he owned the land alone, but if it was divided among the second and third sons, If there are too many mouths to eat, the original land will not be enough.

The farmers have to give them land, otherwise the filial sons in their families will have to take it to court, so they have to give it to them. This makes the farmers unwilling to have more children, so the population will naturally not increase.

At this time, France's urban population still did not exceed its urban population. According to data in otl, it would not be until 1931 that France's urban population could overtake its rural population.

France's urban population now only accounts for 29% of the total, but under Auguste's operation, Prussia's urban population accounts for 40% of the country's population. In a few years, the urban population will soon exceed the rural population.

After Prussia annexed the surrounding areas, its native population reached [-] million. France was actually only a few million more than Prussia. From the perspective of war potential, Prussia was already on par with France.

Of course, it certainly doesn't make sense to put all the blame on Napoleon. He only magnified the problem. France's slow population growth has a lot to do with medical and environmental sanitation, the treatment of workers, and the lives of the people at the bottom.

In fact, most European countries have suffered from the small losses of their own country. Their ancestors were not very generous, and they do not understand how to manage a huge empire. The British Empire, the Spanish Empire, and the French Empire are all similar. They all feel that the territory is too big to manage. , then simply ignore it and do whatever you want, which is a big problem.

It is difficult for most countries in Europe to have that kind of long-term strategic vision. Almost all European monarchs have made similar mistakes, and Napoleon III is also a typical case.

In the cabinet meeting in the House of Commons, the Social Democrats also discussed whether to intervene in the Franco-Prussian War. Chamberlain believed that Prussia's complete defeat of France would be beneficial to Britain, so that a European Union with Britain and Prussia as the core could be built and France would also be included. Including it will completely cut off France's ambitions on the European continent.

But there is a problem, which is August's thoughts. To be honest, Lillian is not sure. If August wants Alsace Lorraine, sooner or later France and Germany will have to fight again.

If Alsace-Lorraine is not taken, then maybe the contradiction can still be reconciled. After all, if you insist on it, the French will interfere with other people's unification first. If they are angry, they can only refute you. When you are upset, you are ready to beat him. You thought he was a little kid. Chapo, in the end you still can't beat them.

The French people will only feel embarrassed and blame the current government. Will you take revenge later by saying that because we did not fight Germany in the Franco-Prussian War, we will fight again now? It doesn't make sense.

Moreover, most of the British people still remember the things that the French cheated on them. Everyone does not like France. Lilian has another idea, which is to let the French Communist Party come to power, trigger a civil war in France, and let the democratic government fight the Comey government. .

And Britain and Prussia will help one side win the civil war. By then, France, which is severely weakened, will definitely try to join the EU and obtain assistance from other European countries. By then, France will lose its hegemony over Europe, and the hegemony of the European continent will fall by the wayside. into the hands of Germany.

Lilian felt that her plan was very good. After all, the Democratic Society was also a society, and it must help the French Communist Party, which was also a leftist party. However, Auguste might not necessarily support the French Communist Party.

Bittenfeldt easily conquered Reims using the human sea tactic, and then began to shrink the front line, approaching Sedan step by step.

Moltke and Tina calculated it together and concluded that it would not be feasible for us to surround them like this. This would not reflect the power of Prussia. It must completely defeat France and build up the self-confidence and pride of Germany.

But it is also necessary to reduce casualties, and an attack is definitely needed. Prussia brought out more than [-] [-]mm heavy guns from the rear, and more than a thousand [-]mm guns.

Prepare to use the tactics of Mr. Pétain, where artillery conquers positions and soldiers occupy positions that have been conquered by artillery.