Holy Roman Empire

Whether it is a capitalist or an aristocrat, they will not do things like a car with the arms of a mantis. Attaching to the strong is their way of survival.

These people also need face. "Neutrality" happens to be a fig leaf, and public opinion is the best weapon to cover up their anti-essential nature.

The Austrian government also needs their help to create an atmosphere that everyone expects, so as to win the hearts of the people of the Kingdom of Bavaria and endorse this war.

The current results are very good. Everyone tacitly guided the public opinion, and used the unification of Germany as an excuse to position the war initiated by Austria.

They also put on the hat of a patriot on the grounds that "they cannot betray the loyal monarch and cannot destroy the national unity", and then gloriously declared their neutrality.

They have told too many lies, and they themselves have to believe it, because now Austria is really what everyone expects.

The people at the bottom didn't think so much. After bragging a few times, they believed that the unification war launched by Austria was just.Anyone who considers himself patriotic must not hinder national reunification at this time.

It can be said that Franz fabricated the biggest routine in history, and all the parties were involved in it, and they still can't get out.

People around you talk about "German unity", and you can't help but say it in order to get along with the group, but you don't know that the people around you, like you, don't agree with this concept as much as you say.

It is the nationalists who really support the unification of Germany, and these talents are the real supporters.Ordinary people are only affected by the general environment, and are led to a preconceived rhythm. They subconsciously think that they are also supporters of German reunification.

Now the brainwashing work is going very smoothly, at least one million Bavarian people have been tricked into it, and it is precisely the local celebrities in Bavaria who have completed this plan.

They themselves are also in the trap, and once they get stuck, they can't get out.It can be said that this war made the concept of German unification deeply rooted in the hearts of the Bavarian Kingdom.

As long as Franz knew about this kind of thing, he would not say anything about it.Everyone outside just saw that the Bavarian people supported Austria to overthrow the Bavarian government in order to support German unification.

Maximilian II, including in Munich, believed that he was abandoned by the people, otherwise it would be impossible to explain that the Austrian army appeared outside the city without encountering any obstacles.

Vienna

Prime Minister Felix said optimistically: "Your Majesty, the first step strategy is stable. Under the banner of German unification, the Bavarian people have no intention of resisting at all. It seems that our plan is still too conservative.

The public base in the German region is much better than we expected, maybe we can expand our pace a bit, simply..."

Franz shook his head. The people in Bavaria have been operating for many years in Austria. With the combined effect of the right time, place and people, there is no way to compare it with other parts of Germany.

If you continue to play, you will be ruined.Now it is better to accept it as soon as it is good, so that everyone thinks that the people in the German region support reunification and induce them to make wrong judgments.

"Prime Minister, greed is the original sin of this world. The more critical the situation is, the more we must control our desires. What Austria needs is stability, not risk!"

Prime Minister Felix, who was awakened, broke out in a cold sweat. Sure enough, success can easily make people lost and become arrogant.

Foreign Minister Metternich said: "That's right, no matter how good the public base in Germany is, we still don't have the ability to unify Germany.

Austria cannot stand on the opposite side of all powerful countries. What needs to be done now is to settle down and digest these spoils of war and transform them into national strength. "

Franz nodded, and then ordered: "Mr. Metternich, you will go to Berlin yourself. The Prussian government should be scared, and now they need to be stabilized.

Prime Minister, you have worked hard and visited the German states again, starting from Saxony this time, trying to persuade them with political means. "

Does the Unification War have to be fought?Franz said that history can be used as a reference. The Prussians can use political means to recover these states, and Austria can do the same.

When it comes to domestic affairs, it is better to use military means as long as they can.If you killed someone and shed blood like a river, you would have been happy at the time, and you should be ready to cry when you govern the country in the future!

These small state governments can continue to exist, and naturally they have their own way of survival.Why did the Second German Empire keep these states in history, not for the sake of stability.

Historically, the central government of the Second German Empire relied on gentle means to erode the rights of the governments of various states bit by bit.

It is easier for Austria to do this now. After all, the largest state in South Germany, the Kingdom of Bavaria, has been destroyed, and the remaining small states are not worth mentioning.

As long as the titles of monarchs and ministers are settled, the following things will be easy to handle.The central government has both strength and justice in its hands, so it is too easy to suppress local governments.

It really doesn't work, isn't there still a saying of transferring seals in history?

In a hurry, Franz can still be shameless, as long as he grasps the handle, he will change the sites of these so-called kings and grand dukes.

There is no way to deal with them in their lair that has been in business for decades, or even hundreds of years. If they change to a place they are not familiar with, are they afraid that they will be dishonest?

Even Franz could be more shameless and give false titles, such as taking the title of King of Jerusalem and exchanging the throne with some unlucky guy.

The status of this sacred throne is extraordinary, but unfortunately the territory is within the sphere of influence of the Ottomans, and it is not known when the country will be restored.

……

In the Munich palace, Maximilian II had to accept the cruelest reality, maybe he couldn't even run away.

The Munich City Defense Army actually declared neutrality. Apart from the palace guards, the only ones loyal to the king now were a new infantry division that had just been mobilized to defend Munich.

But is this team reliable?The answer is no, and public opinion cannot be violated. Now that the Bavarian people have made a choice, they will inevitably be affected.

The reason why the neutrality has not been declared now is entirely because the upper-level officers are still loyal to the king, unlike the city defense army that has been infiltrated by nobles and capitalists.

On June 6th, which was the second day of the siege of Austria, representatives of Austria's persuasion to capitulate had already entered the Munich palace.

Negotiating conditions after a defeat is a common occurrence in continental Europe.This is not the first time in the history of the Kingdom of Bavaria.

It's just that it's different from the past, this time the status of the Bavarian royal family is in jeopardy, and Maximilian II himself doesn't have much confidence in being able to keep the throne.

But Prime Minister August assured him that the Austrians would not abolish his throne for only one reason-eating appearance.

There are so many states in the German region, and everyone is still watching. The Vienna government cannot do too much.

……

Foreign Minister Backhouse said angrily: "Mr. Jonas, the conditions of your country are too extreme. We have all agreed to join the Holy Roman Empire. You have made so many excessive demands. This is clearly to annex Bavaria! "

Austrian Minister to Bavaria Jonas shook his head and said: "There is always a price to pay for doing wrong things, and the current Bavarian government does not have the capital to negotiate terms.

Mr. Backhaus, believe it or not, even if Austria immediately withdraws its troops, the Bavarian government will be finished, and the people outside can't wait to send you to the gallows.

The current situation in the Kingdom of Bavaria is no longer suitable for the royal family to continue to rule. It is the best choice to replace the country with Austria.

At that time, the respected King Maximilian II can serve as the king of Serbia, and you can also serve as ministers of the Kingdom of Serbia.

This is already the limit of what Austria can do. You have lost the foundation of your rule. If you continue to rule the Kingdom of Bavaria, revolutions are destined to continue in the future.

The unified German central government is not a tool for your real revolution. Mr. Backhaus hopes you can understand this. "

Flickering again and again, has the Bavarian government really lost the hearts of the people?Franz didn't know it yet, so he could tell by the local government's choice of neutrality instead of defection.

But they didn't know it themselves. The thick stack of declarations of neutrality made it seem like the Bavarian people were all supporters of Austria.

In their view, this kind of neutrality is betrayal, and it is unnecessary to turn against them directly. Austria does not need them to take action, and if it can save its own face, no one will make a fool of itself, right?

Foreign Secretary Backhouse continued to fight: "No, the Balkan Peninsula is too remote, Serbia is a wild land, this is clearly exile!

Since the throne is to be replaced, an equivalent replacement must be made.Austria must come up with a rich area to be considered fair. "

It wasn't that his bottom line was low, but a wrong perception, which made Maximilian II lower his expectations, and Buckhouse, who was in charge of the negotiation, naturally lost his confidence.

In their view, the Bavarian royal family has lost the hearts of the people. No matter who supports him, he cannot continue to sit firmly on the Bavarian throne. He was planning to abdicate to take responsibility.

It is a pity that Austria did not agree and threatened them. Once the royal family did not cooperate, they would encourage the Bavarian people to launch a revolution and send them to the guillotine.

Maximilian II was not afraid of this kind of threat. As long as Austria was still an imperial country, it would be impossible for him, the king, to be guillotined. Others were different.

The Austrians will not be afraid to kill ministers, isn't killing the country's thieves the best excuse?For their own lives, the top leaders of the Bavarian government had to do the ideological work of Maximilian II.

Even the current negotiations are for Maximilian II.It was because he was afraid that he would suddenly lose his mind. If he hanged himself all of a sudden, Franz would cry.

That means that Austria is busy in vain this time. A king died and dared to annex the Kingdom of Bavaria. It is estimated that there will be no peace in the future.

If he wants to win the hearts of the people, he must cooperate with Maximilian II. Only when he agrees to give up the throne can Franz legally obtain the right to rule the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Maximilian II had to survive, at least until Austria annexed Bavaria, he had to survive.

It is also necessary to live well, and not let the Bavarian people see him down and feel sympathetic.Only then did the land exchange happen, and the Austrian representative proposed to exchange Serbia for Bavaria.

Negotiations stalled when the proposal emerged.Backhouse wants to fight for the interests of the king he is loyal to, but Jonas is unwilling to make concessions.

……

Chapter 1 and One

Negotiations are still at a stalemate, 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 new owner here.Jonas is not obliged to help them keep the secrets. Now everyone in the city knows that Maximilian II is going to exchange land with Austria.

That being the case, there will be no pressure for everyone to take refuge in the new master.It is nothing new to change countries in European history.

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

Originally, most Bavarian people still had some small obstacles in their hearts. After all, Maximilian II did not do anything that angered people, so it seemed unreasonable to abandon him like this.

However, as soon as the news of the replacement of the country came out, everyone's psychological barriers disappeared. It was not that they wanted to betray the king, but that the king wanted to leave. This was none of their business.

Everyone can feel at ease, as long as Austria does not treat the royal family badly, they think they are worthy of Maximilian II.

……

Baden

As a good ally of Bavaria, he was the first to know what happened in the neighboring country.The Baden government was in a daze, and didn't wait for such a joke. In the war with others, the local government declared "neutrality", and the domestic army followed suit.

The regent Prince Friedrich asked: "What should we do now? The Bavarians did not resist at all. Austria just carried out an armed parade and arrived at the city of Munich.

Judging from the current situation, the Bavarians have given up the government, and Munich will not be able to defend for long, and the Kingdom of Bavaria will not be able to support the arrival of reinforcements. "

Don't say that the reinforcements have arrived, the shadows of the reinforcements are nowhere to be seen.Prussia is convening the coalition forces of the German States, and Britain and France are also calling on everyone to send troops to intervene in this war.

But it will take time. There are so many small states in Germany, no matter how fast it takes, 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 the third largest state in the German region anyway. Even if you can't beat the Austrians, you have to persist for a while, even if you insist on guerrilla warfare.

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

Foreign Minister Nikolaus analyzed: "Your Highness, Bavaria has people's support, no matter how hard the government works, it will be useless.

It seems that we still underestimated the status of unity in the hearts of the people. The Bavarians regarded this war as a battle for national unity.

Rather than saying that the Austrian army hit Munich, it is better to say that it was invited to Munich by the Bavarians.

Now we are in big trouble. If the people in the country are like the Bavarians, the risk of interfering in this war is too great. "

Nikolaus was intimidated, not only him, many people were intimidated.If the people in Baden have the same attitude and forcefully send troops to intervene in this war, will the people rebel?

Even if they don't rebel, they will learn from the Bavarians to maintain "neutrality" in the war, and the Baden government will be finished.

Prime Minister Wolz added: "Your Highness, this situation is very likely to happen. Most of the domestic public opinion is against sending troops, and no one is willing to send troops to rescue Bavaria."

Prince Friedrich was silent, he understood the reason why his lips were cold and his teeth were cold, but the risk of sending troops to intervene is too great now, and he might involve himself in it.

After pausing for a moment, he said slowly: "Forget it, let's remain neutral in this war!"

……

Obviously, it wasn't just the Grand Duchy of Baden who made this choice. Many small German states that were intimidated chose neutrality.

It seems that at this moment, everyone has become a supporter of public opinion, and Austria's political offensive has begun to exert its strength.

As each of the small states declared neutrality, the German Allied Forces, which had not yet been born, died prematurely.

Berlin

Seeing more and more states declare their neutrality, the pressure from the Prussian government is also increasing. At least 50 Austrian troops have gathered in the Prussian border area, and this number is still increasing.

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

What if they send troops to rescue Bavaria on the front foot, and the army on the back foot enters their homeland?Even if these troops are all parallel imports, Prussia can be killed by numbers.

The strength of the Kingdom of Prussia is limited, and it is impossible to learn from the Austrian government to mobilize millions of troops.

Even if they exploded their livers, they could only deal with the Austrian army one way at most, and there was nothing they could do about the other way.

Whether it is sending troops from the mainland or fighting from the Kingdom of Bavaria, it is not a problem for Austria.

Entering the era of hot weapons, they can't take risks even if they want to. As long as the logistics supplies are cut off, no matter how powerful the army is, it will be soft-legged shrimp.

In addition to military threats, more troublesome or political issues.The performance of the Bavarian people also frightened the Prussian government.

Even if Frederick William IV had confidence in the domestic army, he didn't think they would learn from the Bavarian army and become neutral without firing a single shot, but he had no confidence in the people.

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

The people are different. Don't look at how the later generations touted the Kingdom of Prussia. In fact, they are resorting to war.

The current economic situation in the Kingdom of Prussia is not good. In order to maintain huge military expenditures, the government has to increase the burden on the people.

Coupled with the exploitation of the Junker nobles, the lives of ordinary people in Prussia were not very easy in this era.This kind of hard life in history lasted until after the Franco-Prussian War, and they got out of the predicament only by relying on the French war reparations.

Frederick William IV suppressed his anger and said: "What should we do now? Those free cities have declared their neutrality long ago. Now Baden is neutral, Hanover is neutral, and 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. If we continue to organize an intervention army, I am afraid we will have to go up on our own. "

There are a lot of states in the German region, but there are very few powerful states. Except for these few with a little strength, the remaining small states can't add up to [-] troops.

Without the armies of these states as cannon fodder, Prussia would not dare to fight Austria. If one hundred and eighty thousand people die, they will be hurt.