Chapter 631

On March 16th, 1853, Prime Minister Felix arrived in Munich. After a week of negotiations, it ended in failure.

The Bavarian government clearly opposed the rebuilding of the Shinra Empire, and Felix's diplomatic efforts failed.

Under the pressure of public opinion, the Bavarian government proposed to reconvene the Federal Parliament on March 27th to decide whether or not to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire.

On March 28th, Prime Minister Felix also gave a speech at the University of Munich and publicly responded to the Bavarian government.

"I have a dream. I want to see the German Region unified in my lifetime. It is the true unification of the German nation, not the German Confederation in name. The Confederation is a joke.

Today is a terrible day. The Bavarian government closed the door to rebuilding the Holy Roman Empire. All of our efforts have failed.

It seems like there is still a long way to go for my dream to come true. If I can't see it, I hope you can continue. As the elites of the German Region, this is your responsibility and obligation.

We all know that rebuilding Shinra is the best choice for the unification of the German Region. It is the only way to achieve the unification of the country in a short period of time.

The German states have been divided for a long time and have formed their own systems. This means that it will be difficult to unify the country. It can't be done in a short period of time.

Let the Federal Parliament vote? In fact, we all know that this isn't an activity where the minority obeys the majority, nor is it a children's game.

To rebuild Shinra, we must obtain the support of all states. If someone doesn't agree, we will reluctantly merge into an empire, but it will break down due to many contradictions.

Everyone knows the consequences of coercion. Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg became independent. This was their own choice. There is no need for us to go into the historical reasons for this.

If we don't do a good job now, a new wave of independence will appear. Don't doubt that there are already international forces planning to split Germany. They even colluded with internal forces in Germany.

Therefore, I have to be careful. I don't want to take a wrong step and become a sinner of Germany.

A unified German Empire must be an empire that everyone agrees with. If it can't be done, then it will only be a federation and not an empire.

I know many people oppose the rebuilding of Shinra because they feel that the empire is too loose. The local governments have too much power and the central government has too little power. This system doesn't suit everyone's taste.

However, there is one thing everyone needs to pay attention to. If you want the approval of the people, you can't bleed, at least not too much.

If a civil war broke out because of the unification and everyone killed each other, would they still be able to sit together peacefully after the war?

The answer is no. Under the guidance of people, this hatred will soon take root and germinate.

… "

Felix was in the zone, and he was in verbal mode.

The officials of the Bavarian government below the stage were already livid with rage, but they could not afford to lose their temper. Diplomatic etiquette was still necessary. Although Felix was spewing insults, he did not call out the Bavarian government by name.

If they stand up and stop the speech, wouldn't it mean they are was guilty?

Moreover, the students' emotions had already been aroused. If they were to provoke them at this time, God knows if there would be any youths who would start a revolution.

This wasn't without precedent. More than 90% of the revolutions in Europe were carried out blindly after being shouted out by a teenager.

For example, France's February Revolution, Vienna's March Revolution, Berlin's March Revolution, and so on. These revolutions were not organized beforehand. Once the slogans were shouted, everyone followed blindly.

Ever since the Bavarian government had made the decision, they had stepped up their security to prevent the youths from causing trouble.

For example, there are more than three digits of police in the University of Ber. They are protecting Prime Minister Felix, but in fact, they are monitoring the people he interacts with.

Prime Minister Felix is the most unstable factor in the Kingdom of Bavaria. His status is too high, so the Bavarian government can only hope for him to get out.

The people welcome him as much as the government hates him. Most Bavarians respect the pacifist Austrian Prime Minister very much.

After about an hour, Felix stopped his speech and entered the interactive session.

A young student said excitedly, "Dear Prime Minister Felix, how can we guarantee that the Holy Roman Empire can treat every state fairly?"

Felix had answered the same question many times along the way, so he repeated it once more.

"This question is very simple. It depends on a system, a fair system. I don't believe in the so-called rule of man, because people are selfish and have their own inclinations. Only a fair system can solve the problem.

This system will be jointly developed by all the states and announced to the whole country. Everyone will judge whether it is fair or not. "

The bullshit mode started. The audience applauded. The Bavarian government officials closed their eyes as if they didn't want to see it.

Another young student asked curiously, "Prime Minister, does such a perfect system exist?"

Felix answered without the slightest hesitation, "Nope!"

Ignoring the uproar at the scene, he continued, "There is no perfect system in the world. A system that seems wonderful today may be outdated tomorrow. What we can do is to constantly update the system and make it more suitable for us.

From the beginning of human society, the earliest tribal civilization, the matriarchal clan, to the patriarchal system, and then into the slavery era, the earliest countries …

These series of social changes were all self-rectification and improvement of the social system. In our eyes today, the current system is more advanced than the past.

But in fact, if our ancestors had adopted the current advanced system, the German nation would have already become history. It can't even be found in the history books.

Is this a problem with the system? Of course not!

Social productivity determines the production system, so don't echo the crowd and criticize the decadence and backwardness of the past social system. At least at that time, those systems were in line with the needs. "

Everyone's thoughts were too active, and the questions were too tricky. Felix had no choice but to lead the conversation further and control the rhythm as much as possible.

…

"Prime Minister, after the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria will become the new central government. Isn't this unfair to the other states?"

A young student's question once again brought the topic back to the main topic.

"You're wrong. The central government is jointly established by the states. If Austria becomes the central government, who can this central government command?

As for fairness, I think it can only be guaranteed by a notarized constitution. Big states and small states definitely have different rights in politics. If it has to be the same, it's actually unfair to the big states.

True fairness is equal treatment, not privilege. My ideal Holy Roman Empire is a world without privilege.

How much you contribute to this country will be how much you get in return. This reward could be in the form of money or social status.

In other words, it is to open the door to the upper class, even if this door may only be opened a small crack. "Prime Minister Felix continued to bluff.

The mixture of truth and falsehood made his speech more convincing.

It openly revealed the cruelty of society. Every state had no privileges, but the disparity of individual social status still existed.

This mode of speech was the result of painstaking research by the Government of Austria's staff. It had to be able to mobilize the emotions of the people, but not let the emotions get out of control.

This degree was not easy to grasp. If the fanatical nationalism exploded, Austria would be in trouble.

…

Due to the Bavarian government being too vigilant, Prime Minister Felix only gave a few speeches before he set foot on the road back.

There was no doubt that this diplomatic operation failed. Apart from a few German states expressing support for the reconstruction of Shinra, the rest were mostly implicitly expressing their opposition.

Especially after the Bavarian government publicly expressed their opposition, the German Region set off a wave of criticism against the Holy Roman Empire.

Of course, the governments of all countries didn't dig up the dark history. It was also a stain for local governments to oppose the central government. It was an absolute political mistake and couldn't be brought up.

Vienna

After listening to Felix's report, Franz realized the situation in the German Region was more complicated than he had imagined.

Most of the German people were one-track minded. Once they decided on something, it was difficult to pull it back.

This meant that they had to be convinced. If they couldn't get their approval, it could be said that unifying Germany was just a dream.

If they didn't do it well, it was very likely that it would be like what Felix said in his speech — an outbreak of independence.

"Your Majesty, the nationalism in the German Region is growing very fast. If we stir up the national emotions now, we still have hope to achieve unification through political means," Prime Minister Felix suggested.

Perhaps he was too immersed in his role, but now Felix was really considering the issue of using political means to unify Germany.

Franz shook his head and said, "This will not succeed. If we really make the Holy Roman Empire, I'm afraid that England, France, and Russia will immediately stop fighting and turn around to find trouble with us."

If the German Region was unified, Russia's European hegemony would be gone, France's dream of European hegemony would be broken, and England's continental balancing policy would also be ruined.

This was a conflict of core interests that was related to their future development and survival. In order to prevent this from happening, they would definitely take action.

Even if England, France, and Russia were at war in the Near East, in fact, the secret contact between the three governments had never been broken.

Franz was sure that England and France no longer wanted to fight. If it wasn't for the fact that they had no choice and were forced into a difficult situation, they would most likely compromise with the Russians.

Now that they wanted to compromise, the prerequisite was that the Russians had to make concessions, or they wouldn't be able to explain themselves.

Did the Tsarist government want to continue fighting? The answer was no. The cruelty of the war had awakened many people, and they were also in a difficult situation.

Making concessions was easy to say, but it was difficult to do! Once the Tsarist government made a compromise, internal conflicts would erupt. Naturally, Nicholas I Of Russia wanted to end it with a beautiful battle.

Now that Constantinople was in front of him, as long as he took this fortress city, all the crises of the Tsarist government would be solved. He would also become the greatest Tsar in the history of Russia.

As for other interests, the Black Sea Fleet was finished. Even if they entered the Mediterranean Sea, they couldn't rely on swimming, right?

Annexing the Osman Empire? Fighting a war also required money. The Russians had the military strength, but they didn't have the financial resources to match it.

They could even interfere with the German Region while fighting a war. With the Kingdom of Prussia around, England, France, and Russia only needed to shout a few times, and the Holy Roman Empire would be disbanded.

After being pointed out by Franz, Felix immediately woke up. The Shinra Empire was still far from being a real empire. Without external threats, the problem could be solved slowly, but the problem now was internal collusion.

…

Metternich said, "Your Majesty, the time is ripe now. We can start the next step of the plan."

Franz nodded, indicating that he agreed.

Austria wasn't strong enough to start a war at the slightest disagreement. If there wasn't a reason that everyone could accept, it would be easy for the people of Prussia if they incurred public anger.

Just political disagreements weren't enough to constitute a reason for war. Now, they needed to add fuel to the fire to give the Bavarian government the final historical conclusion.