Chapter 335

Money is hard to get, and a middleman is hard to find. If you want this middleman, you must first have three basic elements: first, have a good relationship with the Russians; second, have a certain amount of financial resources; and third, not be influenced by Russia or Austria.

Without a good relationship, the work of deception is not easy to carry out. Only when the relationship is good enough can the story continue to be made up.

There is no love or hate for no reason in this world. Even if there is a pie in the sky, before eating it, you must first verify whether it is poisonous.

This requires a good story, a story that makes the Tsarist government think that the middleman is helping to build the Siberian Railway for their own interests.

Having a story alone is definitely not enough, you must also have a certain amount of capital. This capital does not need to be too much, as long as part of the cost of the Siberian Railway is advanced.

Or follow the example of the Government of Vienna in building the Central Asian Railway, find a railway company to build the Siberian Railway, and allow the Russians to default on the exploration, design, management, and mechanical equipment rental fees.

There is no shortage of artificial Hairy Bear, and most of the raw materials can be solved. Except for the steel rails that may need to be imported, the rest can be provided by the Russians themselves.

In fact, the most expensive part of railway construction is labor and raw materials. After solving these two big problems, the cost is reduced by 70% to 80%.

There are no taxes, no fees, this strategic level of railway, if someone builds it, the Tsarist government will definitely give the green light all the way, and even the bureaucrats do not dare to touch it.

To be honest, the bureaucrats in charge of railway construction are definitely working hard to build the main line of the Siberian Railway at a cost of less than 2 billion rubles.

Corruption may still exist, but they are relatively clean. If the Russian bureaucrats were to perform at the normal level, it would be impossible to complete the project without increasing the number by three to five times.

There is no other way, the conditions in Siberia are too bad, and the construction is really difficult. In the case of limited technical conditions, the construction cost can't be low at all.

Therefore, financial resources are also essential. The so-called "not much" is only for the local tycoons like the United Kingdom.

In fact, there are not many countries in the world that can raise tens of millions of pounds, even if it is in installments.

Although Britain was the one who provided the money behind the scenes, having the financial resources was also an essential condition.

If a poor country suddenly comes up with such a huge sum of money, it will definitely arouse the suspicion of the Russians.

If the Tsarist government knew that the funds came from the Government of London, it is estimated that the plan will be ruined before it starts.

In addition to the first two, the most important thing is to be bold. In this year, a country that dares to participate in disputes between Shinra and Britannia is absolutely daring.

The European continent was out of the question. The only country that had a good relationship with the Tsarist government was Denmark. The problem is that the Nordic Federation is Sweden, and the Sweden and the Sweden is Sweden with Russia.

In addition, the Russia and to to, the most. to Britannia Russia is. Russia to be to Sweden is.

The risk factors, and the countries. and to be, they to, and to be. is..

The extremely high risk determined that the countries participating in this plan must have a certain degree of self-protection ability. Even if his plan were to be exposed, it wouldn't bring disaster to him.

If they can't guarantee their own safety, no matter how much benefits Britannia promises, they will not participate.

Opening the map, there are only two countries that are not in the Russian and Austrian sphere of influence, but also have a certain amount of financial and military strength. They are not afraid of retaliation afterwards.

Considering the good diplomatic relations with Russia, only the United States of America meets the conditions.

As for the other candidate, because Tsar supported the north during the Civil War, the relationship between the independent United States and Russia is naturally not good.

The United States meets all the innate conditions, but the acquired conditions are still lacking. The biggest problem is: they are not bold enough.

The Americans in the original time and space are very timid these days. They are obviously thinking about Cuba, but they are intimidated by the strength of Spain and don't dare to act rashly.

They are only secretly playing small tricks to test the Spanish's reaction. Of course, the Spanish government also lived up to expectations and exposed their weakness.

In the end, the US government hesitated until 1898 before "taking the risk" to plan the Spanish-American War. It was after the defeat of Spain that the United States gradually lost its fear of the European powers.

Now, needless to say, the Americans, who had been beaten up by society, could only be more cowardly!

They don't even dare to move against the declining Spain. It is too difficult to ask them to plot against the Russo-Austrian Alliance.

…

While the British are still worried about how to persuade the United States, the Sino-Japanese War also came to an end. The Government of Japan, which is in the spotlight, never dreamed that they are about to be betrayed.

Of course, they are not betrayed. They are originally chess pieces. Before they jump out of the chessboard, they are naturally under the control of the chess player.

It is not easy to take advantage of the Great Powers. Britannia has invested so much on the Japanese, it will always need to return the favor.

Lost in the joy of victory, unable to extricate themselves, the Government of Japan naturally does not think so much.

It will not take that long, soon the Government of Japan will not be able to laugh anymore. The intervention of the international community has already begun, and they want to eat … (imagination)

Before the first wave subsides, another wave rises.

Cuba is still fighting, the Philippines is still digging into the ravines, the war in the Far East is not over, and Europe is in chaos again.

The economic revitalization strategy of the European continent has been taken care of, but France has been left out.

Although Spain recruited a group of French mercenaries, to a certain extent, to alleviate the crisis in France, this is still a drop in the bucket for a country.

Theory is always theory, and reality is cruel. Franz's expectation of "a mercenary to support a family" now seems more like a beautiful fairy tale.

Not everyone has a strong sense of responsibility. Other than the initial settlement allowance, which was left behind, most of the mercenaries did not immediately send money home after their salaries were paid.

It has to be admitted that their adaptability is strong, and they quickly adapted to the life of mercenaries. After receiving their salaries, each and every one of them lived a life of "drinking and getting drunk today".

Less than half of the people are willing to send money home, and most of the people who are willing to send money only send a small part of their income. Those who can make up one-third of their income can be called "family men."

In this context, the mercenary to earn money to support a family, which Franz placed high hopes on, naturally ended in bankruptcy.

People always have to eat. France's economy has already collapsed during the war. Europe's economic crisis has come to an end, but France's economic crisis is still far away.

The trauma caused by the war was too great, and the refugees expelled by various countries made the country even more miserable.

Although the Government of France has worked hard to resettle the refugees, develop the economy as much as possible, and create jobs, there is a huge burden of war reparations on their shoulders, and the resources they can use are really limited.

The Government of Vienna did not urge for reparations, but it does not mean that other countries did not send people to urge for reparations. At least, the Russian Army stationed outside Paris completed the task of collecting reparations immediately.

That's right, the Government of Paris can't afford to pay reparations, so the Russians have to do it themselves. The Russian Army has been mobilized, and the collection of war reparations must go smoothly!

There is no standard at all, and it is purely based on personal preferences, so it is necessary to collect three to five more coins. The Russian Army officers and soldiers who participated in the collection activities all made a lot of money.

However, after being tossed around by them, the people of France suffered. King Carlos, who couldn't stand the humiliation, directly led the government to go on strike to protest.

The angry French people have taken up arms to fight against the atrocities of the Russian Army, including some government troops who participated in the attack on the Russian Army.

Just when Franz took a nap, France was once again in flames of war. Looking at the mess in front of him, Franz suddenly regretted leaving the Russian Army stationed in Paris.

That's right, the Russian Army is indeed good at suppressing the revolution. The problem is that their ability to cause trouble is even better.

It is not a problem to get war reparations from France, but they have to at least leave France with one last breath!

Sending troops out to collect taxes, Franz very doubted what kind of commander would give such a stupid order.

Anyone with a little self-awareness would know what kind of people the Russian Army is. Usually, they are stationed in the barracks, and it makes the place miserable.

Rather than saying that they are sent out to collect taxes, it is better to say that they are sent out to rob. It is fine to do this during the war, but now that the war is over, if they are still doing this, it would be strange if the French don't explode.

Tossing around is tossing around, but as long as they cause trouble, they can clean up the mess, so Franz has no opinion.

Obviously, since the matter has been brought to the emperor, the allied forces stationed in France must not be able to handle it.

Otherwise, who would have nothing better to do than to find trouble for their leader? One must know that this kind of immature behavior will greatly affect their "career".

It has always been easy to create problems, but it is difficult to solve them. As the leader of the allied forces, it is self-evident which side to stand on.

Years of being an emperor taught Franz that when faced with a problem, he can't just look at the surface, he must look deeper and analyze it.

On the surface, the trouble is caused by the Russians, so it is naturally the responsibility of the Russian Army stationed in Paris. However, does the French not have any responsibility?

Now that they know to complain, what were they doing before?

If the Carlos government had protested to the allied headquarters as soon as the problem occurred, someone would have probably interfered with the Russian Army's actions.

Even if they did not think of it at the time, when the problem occurred, they could have immediately reported the situation to the allied headquarters, right?

There were so many opportunities to stop the Russian Army from collecting taxes, but the Government of France perfectly missed all of them. When the matter was blown up, only then did the government go on strike to protest.

Such an obvious action, it was obvious that he was deliberately indulging himself. They are waiting for the matter to blow up, so that they can use the sympathy of the compassionate people within the alliance to reap benefits.

Franz admitted that the French plan succeeded. After causing such a big mess, the allied forces do need to give the French an explanation.

However, they weren't sure if this explanation was what they wanted. After understanding the French's goal, Franz's fear of the Carlos government increased by another level.

In this context, to deal with the current mess in France, it is necessary to carefully consider.

…