Chapter 537

The sudden prosperity of the docks in East Prussia quickly attracted the attention of the Government of Berlin. It was impossible to keep such a large scale immigration a secret. Naturally, the news was leaked out early on.

Franz did not take the Kingdom of Prussia's protest seriously at all. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly replied, "It has nothing to do with us. Find the Russians."

That's right. If it weren't for the Russians, no matter how good they were at fooling people, there wouldn't be such a large-scale exodus.

One million people in East Prussia could testify that they left to escape, and Austria was only carrying out humanitarian relief.

Was there any evidence of the "Russian-Austrian deal"? There was a price to pay for talking nonsense without evidence.

From the beginning to the end, the Government of Vienna did not show its face in public. The people who organized the departure were businessmen from East Prussia and the local church.

In Berlin, ever since receiving the news of East Prussia, William I's expression had not been good.

The Russians did not care about the population of East Prussia. That was because they had a lot of people, and these people were a problem for them.

After sending the local people away, Alexander II Of Russia could also use the land of East Prussia to reward the meritorious service. It was simply killing two birds with one stone.

The Kingdom of Prussia was different. They did not have a large population, and East Prussia was the core area they had painstakingly managed. Without the population of East Prussia, they had no way to find people to fill it.

Apart from the occupation of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which added a small number of Germans, there were very few Germans in the rest of the country.

Prime Minister Frank advised, "Your Majesty, the problem of East Prussia should be considered later. It is more important to win the war now. At present, it is beyond our reach."

Prime Minister Frank's view of the problem was accurate. The population of East Prussia was gone, and the sequelae were very serious, but that was based on the premise of winning the war.

If they lost the war, it would not be their territory anyway, so these worries naturally did not exist.

William I shook his head and said, "No, we must take action to delay the speed of the Austrian immigration. Otherwise, by the time our army reaches there, this place will become a barren wasteland. "

Fortunately, this war was instigated by the Juncker nobles. Otherwise, William I wouldn't be able to give them an explanation if they lost their core territory.

What he was doing right now was nothing more than a show for the Juncker nobles to see.

Stopping the immigration of the Austrians would be a joke. From the moment the Russians occupied the East Prussia region, the migration had begun.

At first, there were only a few hundred or a few thousand people leaving. But now, there were tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people leaving together. If he really wanted to stop them, he wouldn't have waited until now.

However, William the First knew very well that he couldn't stop it at all. It might even cause more trouble, so he chose to feign ignorance.

Now that things had gotten out of hand, the lid couldn't be covered any longer, so he had no choice but to bring the problem out in the open.

…

In the end, of course, there was no result. Apart from calling on the local people to boycott the immigrants, there was actually nothing they could do.

In fact, this call might not even reach the people's ears. The Russians wouldn't help them spread the news. As soon as the Government of Prussia enters the East Prussia region, they would be hunted down by the Russians.

The Russian Army had already made the decision for the people of East Prussia. In order to speed up the migration, the Russian Army organized a food collection team and began to visit the villages.

Unlike before, where they only robbed the people's belongings, this time, they completely cut off the possibility of them staying. If they didn't leave quickly, they would starve soon.

The migration continued until the end of September. More than half of the population of East Prussia had already arrived in Austrian Africa. There was also a small portion that was sent to Southeast Asia and Central America.

Franz wasn't an idiot. Why would he give them a chance to group up? Of course, it was nominally to help them find jobs.

After all, most of the immigrants were old, weak, women, and children. It wouldn't be easy for them to find jobs. If they were to be grouped up, where would there be so many suitable jobs for them?

It was easy to disperse, but difficult to gather. These immigrants were scattered all over the country. After the war was over, it was estimated that many Prussia soldiers would have to travel tens of thousands of miles to find their relatives.

…

Belle Spring Palace. Looking at the summarized data, Franz was very satisfied. According to incomplete statistics, in this war, Austria tricked about 800,000 immigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia. There were 730,000 people in the Middle East region of Prussia.

It was impossible to move all of them. There would always be stubborn people who didn't want to leave. Franz never liked to force people to do things against their will.

Since they chose to stay, it was none of his business. Whether or not these people could survive the war depended on God's blessing.

The only regret was that the Danes were defeated too quickly. Otherwise, they could have tricked a large group of immigrants from the Duchy of Schleswig and Holstein.

Now, what Austria lacked was no longer land or resources. What Austria needed the most was a high-quality population.

Franz wanted to unify the German Region mainly for the population. Otherwise, the 400,000 square kilometers of land wasn't worth paying attention to.

Especially the terrible strategic location, it made people flinch. If Austria was sandwiched between France and Russia, then North Germany was sandwiched between Britain, France, Russia, and Austria.

It could be said that if the German Region was unified, the pressure on Austria's defense would at least double, or even more.

At least the Mediterranean region didn't need to face the British directly. Once the Suez Canal was open, Austria's strategic environment could be further improved.

As for the problem of the British blockade, it was completely unfounded. To block the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal at the same time, unless the Royal Navy went all out, it would be impossible.

This was the 19th century, not the 21st century. It was simply a myth to deploy a fleet to block the coastline.

He didn't dare to say anything else, but Franz was confident that he could raise a navy with half the strength of the Royal Navy.

As a land power country, Franz dared to use the navy to fight a lose-lose war. If it was the British, would they dare to take the risk?

Once the Royal Navy was greatly weakened, how could they defend the vast colonies? In the face of interests, European countries wouldn't be polite to them.

This was also a factor in Franz's frantic immigration. It was because he was worried that one day he would fight with a naval power and the navy wouldn't be able to defend the colony.

At that time, it would be time for the army. A decent army could be formed in any of the important colonies. Who would dare to touch this obstacle?

From a strategic point of view, the stronger the strength, the more difficult it was to fight a war. Especially after countries realized the high cost of war, the possibility of war would be further reduced.

In this day and age, farming was the way of the king. It was fine to bully the weak. If there was a bloody battle with a powerful country, even if they won the war, they would lose strategically.

This was the conclusion of Franz's experience. Specifically, he could refer to the Near East War and the ongoing Prussian War. The final winner was the fisherman watching from the sidelines.

Franz admitted that he was addicted to being a fisherman and didn't want to take the risk himself. This wasn't a bad thing. A good politician must learn to be a fisherman.