Chapter 371

The next day, Franz received mixed news. Prime Minister Felix woke up last night, but the cause of his coma had not yet been found.

There was no other way, the medical level of the 19th century was only so high. In the absence of equipment, doctors could only make judgments based on past experience.

If it was an ordinary person, there would only be one doctor to receive them. Naturally, there would not be so many troubles, and they could just rely on God's blessing.

If they guessed correctly, they would prescribe the right medicine; if they guessed wrongly, they would pray for more luck.

Prime Minister Felix was different. After the old man fell ill, all the top doctors in Austria came to treat him.

Then, they came to a different conclusion. The professionals could not reach a consensus, and the others were even more confused.

In this situation, Franz could not do anything. As a medical novice, he could only choose to wait.

Without waiting for Prime Minister Felix's illness to be diagnosed, another international incident occurred.

Affected by the fall of the Osman Empire, the Government of the United Kingdom began to speed up the pace of invasion of Persia.

On February 16, 1885, under the threat of force from the British, they obtained the telegraph rights from British India via Kerman and Tehran to Bushehr.

The forced laying of telegraph lines in Persia was one thing, but the key was that the Persian government had to pay for the erection costs.

The Persian Empire, which was reduced to a semi-colony, was naturally poor. In order to pay for the expensive telegraph construction costs, they could only borrow money from the British.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Weissenberg, handed a document to Franz and said, "Your Majesty, the table manners of the English are too ugly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just received news that three days ago, the British secretly signed a loan offset lease agreement with the Persian government.

This agreement can be described as all-encompassing, involving tariffs, mines, railways, factories, water conservancy projects, and many other fields.

Once the contents become a reality, Persia will become the British's private land, and we will basically lose the commercial market in the Persian area. "

After taking the document, Franz directly flipped through it, and the more he read, the more he frowned.

The butterfly effect still could not change the history of Persia becoming a British colony.

The agreement on minerals, resources, factories, and so on did not have much impact on Austria, so let's not talk about it for now. According to the treaty, the British only used 20,000 pounds to get the tariff rights of Persia for 25 years.

No wonder Wesenberg said that the British were too much. This was not just too much, they clearly wanted to eat it alone.

In the last Anglo-Persian war, because of the intervention of Russia, the British could not achieve strategic expectations.

Persia also had a more relaxed international environment compared to the same period in history. After the war, the forces of Britain, Russia, and Austria all penetrated deep into the Persian region, forming a new balance.

The government of Vienna did not intend to expand into the Persian region, so they did not invest much in the local area. They only invested a part of their commercial interests. Most of the conflicts were between Britain and Russia.

Because of the Prussian War, the Russians were busy licking their wounds and reducing the resources they invested in the Persian region. The British took advantage of the situation and increased their forces.

The appearance of this all-encompassing lease agreement was the result of the balance being broken.

After reading it, Franz took a deep breath and said, "The British want to build the railway to the Caspian Sea. Surely the Russians won't stand by and watch?"

The British gained control of the Persian railway, which extended to the Caspian Sea. This also meant that the British power had penetrated deep into the Caspian Sea, which seriously affected the interests of the Russians.

Wesenberg replied, "Of course! But the Tsarist government should not be angry about the railway.

Russia controlled nearly 30% of Persia's tobacco trade. The British also bought the tobacco monopoly of Persia for 15,000 pounds, which will directly reduce the revenue of the Tsarist government.

In addition, there are tariffs. Persia is also one of the few countries that import Russia's industrial and commercial products. The British got the tariff rights and can basically announce that Russia's industrial and commercial products will withdraw from the Persian market. "

Without mentioning tobacco, Franz almost forgot. The exorbitant profits of the tobacco industry had already been revealed.

Persia was rich in tobacco. Before oil was discovered, tobacco had always been the largest export.

During the reforms of Alexander II Of Russia, he followed the example of Austria and implemented a monopoly of tobacco and alcohol. The Tsarist government imported a large amount of tobacco from Persia every year.

After processing, part of it was sold at home, and the rest was sold back to the Persian Empire.

The Tsarist government could get a lot of revenue from it every year, accounting for 1 to 2% of the government's revenue.

In contrast, the export of industrial and commercial products was nothing. After all, Russia's industrial and commercial products were just like that. Other than the products being more solid, there was nothing good about them.

Even if such products could be sold, the sales volume would not be high. But it was better than nothing. No matter how few exports there were, it was still an export. It had a different meaning for the Russians.

As the saying goes, "Cutting off one's source of wealth is like killing one's parents." Franz could already imagine how the Tsarist government would react when they found out about the British's monopolization.

After thinking for a moment, Franz asked, "Do you know why the British did this?"

The more he thought about it, the more Franz felt that the British's operation was strange. It was good to monopolize, but they also had to consider the consequences.

Russia and Austria were not pushovers. If they were forced, they could flip the table and no one would have an easy time.

The Government of the United Kingdom must know this, but they still did it. They couldn't deliberately create conflict to lure Russia and Austria to attack Persia, right?

Foreign Minister Wesenberg explained, "It may be related to the conflict in Central Asia. The Government of the United Kingdom has repeatedly protested to the Russians to no avail, so they took countermeasures.

As for us being implicated, it is most likely that the Government of the United Kingdom thinks that we are encouraging the Russians to provoke the conflict in Central Asia and wants to teach us a lesson. "

After hearing this answer, Franz felt speechless.

Where was the trust between people?

It was purely an undeserved disaster. Even if he wanted to encourage the Russians to cause trouble in Central Asia, he would not choose to do it now!

It was true that the Russians were belligerent, but they were not stupid. Now was the critical moment of recovery. How could they provoke a war at this time?

An explanation was a cover up. Even if he knew that he was wrongly accused, Franz could not defend himself.

There was no need for evidence in international politics. As long as it was believed, then targeted actions could be taken.

"How is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs going to deal with it?" Franz asked.

Foreign Minister Wesenberg: "The Anglo-Persian Treaty is only a secret agreement. There is still a long way to go before it becomes a reality. It is not worth it for us to directly confront the British.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to first disclose the secret Anglo-Persian treaty, encourage the Persian people to rise up against this traitorous treaty, and then unite with the Russians to put pressure on Persia and force them to give up this secret treaty. "

Austria couldn't do anything to the British, and the Russians also couldn't do anything to the British, but this didn't mean that the two countries couldn't do anything to the Persian Empire.

Frankly speaking, Franz really couldn't understand the Persian government's actions. Was it because the "ignorant are fearless" or the Persian government's bureaucrats had lost their minds?

The forces of Britain, Russia, and Austria were all deeply involved. If any one of them wanted to dominate here, it would be resisted by the other two.

With such a stable structure, as long as the Persian government didn't mess around and took advantage of the contradictions between the powers, it was not a problem to retain sovereignty.

Such a good hand of cards was actually played to a pulp. Now they were still stupid enough to sign a traitorous treaty with the British.

The threat of the British?

At worst, they would just have to fight a war. It wasn't like they hadn't fought before. With the support of Russia and Austria, the country wouldn't fall no matter what.

If they were lucky, they could also use this opportunity to train an elite army and let the Persian Empire rise from the ashes.

There was no doubt that the opportunity to revive had been perfectly missed. From the moment the treaty was signed, the Persian government wasn't far from being betrayed.

The people couldn't tolerate such a traitorous government. Even if they didn't rebel, the Persian government's reputation among the people would fall to the bottom.

Due to the follow-up effects of the secret treaty, the relationship between Persia, Russia, and Austria would also fall to a freezing point.

As for the British, just by looking at the content of the treaty, they knew that it was to annex Persia. Normal people would know that they were enemies.

Sure enough, the decline of an empire wasn't without reason. Putting aside the messy objective factors, just by looking at the ruler, one would know that there was no stupidest, only stupider.

All kinds of ridiculous policies were not because of accidents, but because they were really only at that level.

Deep in his heart, after fiercely despising the decadent Persian government, Franz made a decision, "Let's do it according to the plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!"

…