Chapter 1409: Tangled 1
Chapter 1409 Tangled 1
"Actually, the situation would have been better if His Majesty the Kaiser had not asked me to seek Prince Ruprecht's opinion." After the meeting, Little Moltke thought to himself. What is the current situation? The Kaiser already has an idea, but because of the allies involved and because of the Kaiser's own indecisiveness. Therefore, there was no formal contact with the Austro-Hungarian Empire based on this. The Kaiser was the type who wanted to facilitate this, but also wanted others to take the blame... Then the blame falls naturally on Prince Ruprecht, who is the son-in-law of the Austrian Emperor. After all, they are a family...
In fact, as the heir of Bavaria, the prince is not yet the king. It is barely reasonable for the Kaiser not to consult the prince for this kind of matter. After all, this is more about diplomacy and politics. Although the prince has a military position in the German Empire, he has no diplomatic or government positions. Of course, there will definitely be dissatisfaction and resistance from the latter, but they will never let things reach this level.
The Kaiser asked the prince for his opinion. If the prince said he was opposed to it on the first day, and then soon after, the Kaiser expressed his willingness to accept Italy's opinion and hold formal negotiations with Austria-Hungary, this would undoubtedly be a slap in the face, and the prince should think that, Now that you have made your decision and you know that this matter embarrasses Bavaria, why are you still asking me in a pretentious manner? Just for me to take the blame? Why? ! What can be expected is that if this thing really happens, there may be problems with the equipment that was originally planned to be transferred from the eastern front to the western front. As for the reason? The Bavarian staff will compile 100 for you in minutes! The reason is the least valuable!
Therefore, the current situation has become that the Kaiser must temporarily suspend this plan to ease relations with Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and at the same time to give the prince face. As for how long it will be suspended, that's not certain... The Kaiser may not agree with most of what the prince said, but one thing is right, that is, as long as Italy remains neutral, it will be fine for the current situation.
In fact, it is not just the Kaiser who is currently worried about this matter. Austria-Hungary, as a potential bleeding party, has also been depressed by this matter recently. The German Ambassador in Vienna had raised this matter with the Austrian Emperor more than once. But Fritz never gave a positive reply and hinted that he was very dissatisfied with this transaction! Because Germany made its allies pay unnecessary costs for its own interests! However, neither party is ready to talk about this matter now, so it is put on hold for now.
However, shelving does not mean that the problem has been solved. Therefore, so far, Emperor Fritz must also consider his attitude when the German government officially proposes to itself that it will exchange Austria-Hungary's territory for Italy to join the Allies. , to be honest, Fritz is really unwilling to lose his land to the feuding Italians...
His family knows his own affairs, and now Fritz finally understands what Prince Ruprecht said to him at the beginning - we must know how to start a war, but also how to end a war! At that time, I was very dissatisfied with the son-in-law's speech.
The implicit meaning of this statement is that Austria-Hungary only knows how to provoke wars and then profit, but does not know how to win and end wars. To put it clearly, I don’t know that soldiers are in danger and war is dangerous! I am very ambitious, but my teeth are not good...
Now, although the war has only lasted for a year, the front-line troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have almost changed... The consumption and losses of the world war indeed far exceeded Fritz's expectations. After a quick victory could not be achieved, Austria-Hungary actually fell into the quagmire of war. For Britain, France and Germany, which had deep internal strength and strong family resources, the first year After the war, everyone ended their warm-up and officially started fighting. However, for Austria-Hungary, the current situation is already a bit bad. As a country larger than Germany, its population is only 40 million. Moreover, it is still a relatively undeveloped industrial country, with millions of troops fighting on the front line. Not to mention the losses, the ammunition, food, and various equipment needed alone are enough to make the Austro-Hungarian Empire vomit blood. If it were not for the support of Bavaria, Fritz I really don’t know how I can persevere!
And if the people in the country are under increasing pressure to survive and the battlefield is being consumed hugely, and if the citizens know that the empire will give some territory to its former enemies as a price, then Fritz will really be scolded to death by the whole country. Once he is used by someone with ulterior motives, I am afraid that Fritz will face a political situation even worse than his defeat to Prussia! However, the fear and dependence on German power prevented Fritz from saying no easily. In this regard, Fritz was not even as tough as Ruprecht...
"The biggest failure in my life is that I always politicize all issues. I have always believed that a king should be a qualified politician who can use his outstanding skills to balance the forces at home and abroad in order to achieve Maximizing interests, but I was wrong. As an emperor, the power you can control is the most critical. When Austria was sent to Germany, it was because of lack of power. Now, it is also because of lack of power. We also have to face the situation from Persecution from the allies and blackmail from the Italians.”
"So, Princess Marie, the future Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, you must remember this lesson. Ruprecht is reliable and the last hope of the empire. I hope that after this war is over, after you are crowned When the emperor is the emperor, the empire will not act based on anyone else's face!" Fritz said to his daughter when they were alone.
Objectively speaking, because of this incident, Fritz finally determined to pass the throne to Princess Mary. Subjectively speaking, any king wants his kingdom to be strong. This is also the most important criterion when choosing an heir. It can be expected that if the heir is not Princess Mary, then most of the cooperation projects between Bavaria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire will probably be cancelled. At least Ruprecht would never side with Karl on the issue of the remuneration required by Italy. Because this does not bring any benefit to Bavaria, but offends the Kaiser for no reason! To put it bluntly, if Karl had been in power, Ruprecht might have hoped for chaos within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then he would have naturally brought Bohemia, Moravia and even more places under his control. Among! You know, even according to the Kaiser's statement, the national power of Bavaria, which gained additional territory after the war, will be raised to a higher level!
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