In Paris, the French were holding a funeral for Napoleon Iii. The dense crowd outside was enough to prove the popularity of Napoleon Iii.
On this day, the French workers collectively had a holiday. The capitalists had to take a holiday even if they didn't want to. Napoleon Iii's title of "Socialist Emperor" was not a joke. His influence among the workers exceeded that of anyone.
The people spontaneously organized mourning activities. Compared with the desolation of the original space and time, it had to be said that this was an irony.
Although there were many people attending the funeral, there were very few guests of importance. The sequelae of the Bonaparte family's poor popularity were vividly reflected here.
The European royal families seemed to be very busy. Except for those who depended on the French for a living, the other great aristocrats only sent representatives to attend, and some didn't even bother to send representatives.
Take the House of Habsburg as an example. Franz sent a collateral count to deal with the matter. Even if the two countries were allies, it still couldn't change the fact that the two royal families didn't like each other.
The grievances here were a mess that couldn't be sorted out in a short time. Not only the House of Habsburg, but most of the European aristocrats were not friendly to the Bonaparte family.
The aristocrats were also vengeful. When Napoleon swept the European continent, it was unknown how many people's rice bowls were destroyed. How could they let this account go?
If the Bonaparte family had also declined, it was estimated that everyone would feel better. But now, the result was the opposite. The Bonaparte family was still glorious. Seeing this nouveau riche, everyone was jealous. How could they support them?
The accidental death of Napoleon Iv in the original space and time in South Africa caused a stir. Many people speculated that the British royal family planned the murder.
The reason was that when Napoleon Iv encountered the Zulu warriors, Second Lieutenant Carey and his men were only 50 yards away from Eugène, but they retreated to the camp without firing a shot.
There must be something behind this obviously abnormal behavior, but it was hard to say who planned it.
The Bonaparte family had too many enemies. The number of people who had the ability to plan such a low-level accident was at least in the triple digits.
There was no other way. With the death of the last direct heir, the Bonaparte family not only lost the hope of restoration, but also lost the ability to track down the real murderer.
The atmosphere at the funeral was a bit strange. If anyone was paying attention, they would notice that many people were gloating. If it wasn't for the fact that the occasion wasn't appropriate, they would have laughed out loud.
That's right, some people came just to watch a joke. Napoleon Iii had just left, and Eugène, who was about to succeed the throne, was too young. The Government of France was bound to have a fierce struggle.
For example, the former King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, came to watch the show. He hated Napoleon Iii to the bone for driving him off the stage, and now he was here to cause trouble.
He didn't bother to hide the smile on his face, completely ignoring Eugène's murderous gaze. Europe did not have the habit of regicide. Even if he was a former king, he was still a king.
As a member of a vested interest group, no matter how angry Eugène was, he could not commit regicide. They were still at the scene of a funeral, so it was even more impossible to make a move.
Perhaps in the eyes of many, this was a very unwise move. Even if he couldn't do it on the surface, couldn't he take revenge in the dark?
Victor Emmanuel II, however, had his reasons for doing so. Now that the Sardinian Restoration Organization led by him had joined forces with the Italian Revolutionary Party.
Now that the Italian independence movement was at a low ebb, as the elected leader, Victor Emmanuel II had to do something to inspire people.
He used the funeral of Napoleon Iii. Those who could sneak in naturally had someone to cooperate with. There were many people who wanted to see the Bonaparte family make a fool of themselves.
Anyway, after the funeral, he would leave with the guests. If the French wanted to intercept him, it would be even better. He could also hype up public opinion. The countries who wanted to see the French make a fool of themselves would not give up this opportunity.
…
Franz didn't care about the farce at Napoleon Iii's funeral. This was a small problem. It was just that he was young and couldn't stand the provocation. If it was a wily old fox, he would never care.
He had destroyed his country and taken away his throne. Couldn't he let him have a little temper?
He just laughed on the side. He didn't run out to make trouble and disrupt the order of the funeral. He would just treat these guys as air.
There would be a long time to settle the score. There was no need to rush. As the French Emperor, wasn't it too easy to deal with a few clowns?
As long as they were cut off from their source of income, these guys would soon cry. If they couldn't do the regicide, then they would have to worry about daily necessities for the rest of their lives.
The life of an exiled monarch wasn't easy. There was a large group of people who had to eat with them. It was impossible to live without money.
Franz had seen this before. Massimiliano was such a failure, and there were hundreds of people who came to seek refuge.
If it weren't for Franz's brother, who often took out money to help and Empress Dowager Sophie secretly subsidized, it wouldn't be easy to let so many people eat, let alone keep the Emperor's ostentatious appearance.
These people were talking about counterattacking Mexico, but it was useless if they really wanted to implement it. But there was no other way. They had to be supported.
Don't look at these people's lack of ability. It was completely different with these people and without them. Without these people to help wave the flag and clear the name, what would happen to the reputation?
Franz was willing to pay for a group of idealistic people to promote Massimiliano's reform measures everywhere. Whether it was practical or not, at least it looked good on the surface.
The people who didn't know the truth couldn't think of the deep problems and were easily led astray.
Of course, these people's activities in Austria were also restricted. They couldn't go anywhere, and the articles they wrote were selectively published.
A large number of them were sent to France by Franz to further their studies, in the name of learning the restoration of the Bonaparte dynasty.
So far, it seemed that the effect was good. Massimiliano's Mexican Restoration Organization had been established and attracted many Mexican students to participate.
It was an era of competition. Looking at the domestic warlords fighting, these people finally realized that the Emperor was better.
Influenced by public opinion, many people thought carefully and realized that Maximilian I Of Castile actually didn't do anything bad.
Just as the newspapers said, the Mexican local warlords were too powerful, and the Emperor's orders couldn't be carried out.
Because of opposition to the Emperor's reform, the conservatives and the warlords rebelled together. The revolutionaries were all fools who were fooled.
Behind the scenes, Franz sponsored Massimiliano 200,000 DL every year. It could be said that public opinion was pulled back by money.
Victor Emmanuel II was under much more pressure. One was all talk and no action, while the other was taking real action to restore the country. They weren't on the same level in terms of expenses.
Although there were many sponsors in secret, the amount wasn't large. Victor Emmanuel II, who had a large group of subordinates, was short of money. Without money, they had to create a topic to arouse people's patriotism, or use the Great Deception Technique to trick the sponsors into increasing their investment.
As long as the source of funding was cut off, the momentum of the Restoration Organization would immediately drop. After all, people had to eat too.
…
Intelligence chief Teren: "Your Majesty, the people of Prussia are on the move. In the past few days, the Polish newspapers have been scolding the government, attributing the chaos in Poland to the lack of a king and the struggle for power among the senior government officials.
The foundation of Dombrowski's government isn't stable, and they barely won the election by relying on the support of the public. The people of Prussia have taken advantage of the public opinion, and they are now hoping for international intervention.
However, Napoleon Iii has just died, and everyone is focused on the future political direction of France, so they can't care about Poland for now.
If there are no accidents, the Polish parliament will re-elect the king in a month at most. This time, there will be fewer competitors, and the election of William the First is almost certain. "
The decrease in competitors wasn't caused by the people of Prussia. It was completely because many people were scared by the chaos in Poland and didn't want to get involved in it.
Don't look down on the fact that it hadn't been long since the country became independent, but it had really caused a lot of trouble. They regarded themselves as a big country internationally, as if they were already a member of the big powers.
They claimed to be the sixth most powerful country in Europe, second only to the UK, Fao, Prussia, and Russia. They didn't consider the feelings of Spain, the German Confederation, and the Nordic Federation at all. In terms of overall national strength, these three countries weren't worse than Poland.
Even the two inconspicuous small countries, the Netherlands and Portugal, might not be inferior to Poland in terms of overall national strength. Don't look down on their small territory, they had colonies, and their economic strength surpassed Poland's.
This was fine. It was acceptable to exaggerate their own strength appropriately as propaganda. The diplomatic blunder not long ago, when Austria almost used force against Poland, made many people understand.
The Kingdom of Poland looked good. It was also a medium-sized country on the European continent. In theory, as long as it developed well, it was possible to join the club of the big powers.
However, the geographical location was too bad, sandwiched between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. The sudden conflict between Austria and Poland reminded many people of the old days when the three countries divided up Poland.
The geographical location was bad, and they loved to court death. It was clearly a huge pit. No one wanted to be the king of a subjugated country. After weighing the pros and cons, many people chose to give up.
Franz picked up his teacup and took a small sip. "Continue to watch, don't act rashly. The spies on the British side can be activated. When William I is elected as the King of Poland, they will be activated immediately.
Be careful to hide and don't expose us. It's best to let the German Federal Empire take the initiative. They jump out and compete with the French for the Rhineland.
We and the British received news that the French wanted to buy the Rhineland. In order to prevent the French from continuing to expand, it would be more reasonable to support the German Confederation in obtaining the Rhineland. "
Austria had a lot of influence in the German Confederation. Many big nobles and senior government officials had secretly contacted the Government of Vienna. It wasn't difficult to push them to jump out, but the problem was to keep it a secret.
No one could guarantee that these people wouldn't leak the secret. Placing bets separately had always been the way for these people to survive. While maintaining contact with Austria, they also had dealings with other forces.
The moment they promised to keep it a secret, they sold the secret. This kind of thing happened too many times on the European continent.
In particular, this kind of thing that affected the country's decision-making couldn't be done by one or two people. There were too many people that needed to be mobilized. If someone leaked the secret, it would be difficult to even find out who the traitor was.
The intelligence chief, Teren, replied thoughtfully, "Yes, Your Majesty. We will first expose the secret deal between Prussia and France, and then let the British push the German Confederation to come out and compete. "
It didn't matter if the Government of Berlin gave an empty promise, as long as everyone thought it was true.
In the face of international pressure, if the people of Prussia dared to resist, Franz dared to unite the European countries to send troops to intervene. From the beginning, he was ready to force the Government of Berlin to give up the Rhineland.
In the 19th century, if a country wanted to be strong, it first had to have enough coal and iron. Without these things, heavy industry couldn't develop.
In the original time and space, Germany was able to develop mainly because they had the coal and iron resources of the Rhineland. Only then did they have the glory of the Ruhr industrial area.
In a short period of time, this part of the loss of resources might not be obvious, but with the further development of industrial technology, the sequelae would erupt.
Even if they annexed the Polish Kingdom, it still couldn't make up for the loss of this part of the resources. Europe's coal resources were mainly distributed in England, the Rhineland region of Central Europe, Ukraine, Silesia, and The Balkans.
Unfortunately, the Donbass coal field in Ukraine was still far away, and the Kingdom of Prussia couldn't reach it. Silesia fell into the hands of Austria. After losing the Rhineland, the Kingdom of Prussia would sooner or later delay industrial development because of the coal problem.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
