The sudden conflict between Russia and Poland destroyed all of Prime Minister Dombrowski's plans. If it wasn't handled properly, a full-scale war would break out between Russia and Poland.
Under such circumstances, without the support of the Kingdom of Prussia, Poland wouldn't even have the power to fight. It could be said that the Tsarist government had helped the Prussia people greatly, forcing the Polish government to compromise.
Was it that simple? The Tsar government wasn't stupid. If there weren't enough benefits, why would they help their enemy?
The Polish government was still in a state of confusion, but Franz, far away in Vienna, had already figured out the ins and outs of the matter. It was nothing more than a secret deal between Prussia and Russia to jointly divide the Polish Kingdom.
There were no enemies in the face of benefits. The Tsarist government wanted to recover the lost land, and the Prussia wanted to strengthen their strength. Both sides had their eyes on the Poles.
A few years ago, the two sides had fought to the death. The scars of the war hadn't faded yet, and the two sides had united again.
In the eyes of ordinary people, it might be very inconceivable, but the reality was just that ridiculous.
For the Kingdom of Prussia, it was tempting to swallow Poland alone, but the Polish Kingdom was too large. It was seventy to eighty percent the size of the Kingdom of Prussia. If they swallowed it, they might choke to death.
Under such circumstances, choosing to divide with others to reduce the operational difficulty and share the international pressure was the best choice.
The Government of Berlin and the Russians were also forced to cooperate. There were only three countries bordering Poland, Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Austria was too strong, and the Prussia people didn't dare to do something like asking a tiger for its skin. They would rather choose to cooperate with the enemy.
Franz could even boldly speculate that the Prussia people were prepared to sell the goods to two countries. Perhaps at this time, they had already sent someone to contact the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They promised the territory that the Russians wanted to Austria and took the opportunity to provoke conflict between Russia and Austria.
Putting down the information in his hand, Franz didn't pay attention to it anymore. He wasn't interested in the Polish region to begin with, so Franz naturally didn't care about the conspiracy between Prussia and Russia.
No matter how they schemed, as long as Austria didn't move, all schemes would be useless in the face of absolute strength.
The more prepared Prussia and Russia were, the worse the next war would be. If the governments of the two countries were smart, the best thing to do at this time was to drag people down with them. It would be best to drag the European countries that were watching the show together.
Otherwise, in the next war, neither Prussia nor Russia would be the victors. As long as the FAO and Russia interfered, the three countries' efforts would be in vain.
Unfortunately, no one was a fool. The fact that England, France, and Austria could form an alliance meant a lot of problems. Both Prussia and Russia weren't experts in diplomacy. It was too difficult to break up the alliance and pull people to their side.
Austria did not want to expand on the European continent, the French did not have the time to fight, and the British always liked to stab people in the back. If they wanted them to fight, then forget it!
It wasn't easy to rope in the three countries. Just the appearance fee alone wasn't something that Prussia and Russia could afford. The United Kingdom, France, and Austria were much better at doing this than them.
In theory, the FAO, Russia, and Russia were fighting for world hegemony. There should be many conflicts between the three countries, but it wasn't time for these conflicts to erupt.
For example, the FAO and Russia were interested in Britain's maritime hegemony. Unfortunately, they were limited by their strength and neither country had the strength to challenge Britain's maritime hegemony.
Another example was the FAO and Russia's European hegemony. On the surface, it seemed like it was a life-and-death struggle. In reality, Austria lacked interest in European hegemony and was too lazy to fight for it. The French were busy dealing with their internal problems and didn't have time to care about European hegemony.
In the overseas colonial movement, the three countries had vested interests. If they stabbed each other in the back, each country's colonial maintenance costs would increase by a lot. If the three countries compromised, everyone could save a lot of money.
As long as the FAO and Russia didn't stab each other in the back, other countries would have to consider if they could bear the consequences of being exposed even if they wanted to fish in troubled waters.
There was no need to look at the FAO and Russia's colonial conflicts. They were much more restrained than before the three countries formed an alliance. At least there were no colonial exploration teams of hundreds of people that were wiped out in a daze.
Now, the FAO and Russia's negotiations on the division of colonial power had begun. According to the current progress, there would be a result in about a year or two. At that time, the conflicts in the overseas colonial activities of the three countries would be further reduced.
It wasn't Franz or Napoleon Iii who pushed all of this, but John Bull who stirred up shit.
Everyone opened up colonies to make money, not to lose money and make a name for themselves. The British had the most colonies and had the most conflicts with other countries overseas.
In the late 19th century, the maintenance costs of the major colonial empires were rising sharply. If they continued to fight like this, no one would be able to make money.
For his own interests, John Bull also wanted to establish a set of rules to restrain the overseas colonial activities of various countries so that they wouldn't stab each other every day and wouldn't be able to make money happily.
Of course, this was limited to the land that was recognized by everyone. During the battle for the ownerless colonies, it was better to be as ruthless as possible. No one would be merciful.
This international pattern was completely different from the original time and space. Now, the main international conflict in Europe was the conflict between Prussia and Russia.
In contrast, the Anglo-Austrian conflict, the Anglo-French conflict, and the Fao conflict all became secondary conflicts. The fact that the Fao and Russia could form an alliance proved that the common interests between the three countries were greater than the conflicts.
John Bull wanted the European continent to be balanced, not to have the European continent fight all day long.
War meant uncertainty. No one could guarantee the final direction of the situation by starting a war without confidence.
What if the situation got out of control and a giant appeared in the middle of the war? The lesson of Napoleon is not far off. That man almost succeeded.
Now, the Fao and Russia were restraining each other, and Prussia and Russia were hostile to each other. The European continent happened to be in a delicate state of balance.
No matter which country had a change, it could trigger a chain reaction. The last Near Eastern War told the British that there was a price to pay for interfering in the European continent's war.
From the British's point of view, it was best for the European continent's situation to be balanced. If there were conflicts between countries, they could be the arbiters.
…
On May 18, 1874, the Tsarist government sent a diplomatic note to the Kingdom of Poland, ordering the Polish government to hand over the "murderers in the border conflict" within 24 hours and cede the Kiev area to the Russian Empire as compensation.
Such conditions were obviously not acceptable to the Polish government. Prime Minister Dombrowski was furious, but there was nothing he could do.
The Russian Empire had a standing army of 876,000, while the Polish Kingdom tried its best, but the standing army was only 136,000. There was no way to make up for the gap in strength between the two sides.
In Warsaw, an office with only two tables, four chairs, and a filing cabinet was Prime Minister Dombrowski's office.
The Polish government was poor. As the head of the government, Prime Minister Dombrowski set an example and tried to reduce office expenses as much as possible.
In this regard, Prime Minister Dombrowski did an impeccable job. Unfortunately, a country could not be governed by frugality.
Prime Minister Dombrowski: "What did the Great Powers say? Will they interfere with the actions of the Russians?"
The Polish government could not accept the conditions of the Russians. The war had entered the countdown, and Prime Minister Dombrowski had to pin his hopes on international intervention.
Foreign Minister WA Vladivostok: "The British Minister promised to mediate the conflict. The French Minister did not give a clear answer and may be waiting for the Government of Paris's decision.
Prussia promised to support us. They promised that if war broke out, they would send troops to support us at the first opportunity.
Austria did not express its position, but because of the Russo-Austrian Alliance, they would at most remain neutral and would not stand on our side.
The remaining European countries are watching the situation. What choice they will make needs to wait for the situation to become clear before they can be sure. "
After hearing this result, Prime Minister Dombrowski did not feel relieved at all.
The reaction of the European countries made him very disappointed. As the gatekeeper of the Russian Empire for the European countries, the Kingdom of Poland was also doing its best. None of the three major countries, including the UK and Fao, clearly expressed their support for them.
It seemed that they had the support of the Kingdom of Prussia, but in fact, there was a price to be paid for this support.
Prime Minister Dombrowski was sure that if William I was unable to serve as the King of Poland, the Prussia would inevitably skive in this war.
Now that the Tsarist government was not ready for war, it was not a problem to beat the Kingdom of Poland. If they wanted to destroy the Kingdom of Poland, the Tsarist government would first have to consider whether they had enough money in their pockets.
The Kingdom of Prussia had the motive to skive. A half-dead Polish Kingdom was just convenient for them to annex and minimize the backlash.
Prime Minister Dombrowski made a prompt decision: "Immediately mobilize the whole country. We have to be ready to fight to the death with the Russians."
The Great Powers could not be counted on for a while. The French did not have time to care about them, and Austria was an ally of the Russian Empire. The British just thought about it and knew it was not reliable.
Mediating was easy to say, but in fact, it all depended on whether the Russians were willing to buy it or not. More than half of the Tsarist government's 24-hour ultimatum had passed. It was estimated that before the British diplomatic note reached the Tsarist government, the Russian Army would have already killed their way over.
The Kingdom of Poland's only hope was the Kingdom of Prussia, and Prime Minister Dombrowski was ready to compromise for the time being. In the face of life and death, many things could be compromised.
In any case, the Kingdom of Poland was still so big. No matter how good the appetite of the Prussia people was, it would not be able to swallow it in a short time.
Before that, they had to block the first wave of Russia's troops. If the Kingdom of Poland was defeated before Prussia's reinforcements arrived, it would be terrible.
They could not expect Prussia to help recover the lost land and drive the Russians back home, could they?
Even if they won the last war, Prussia still could not catch up to Russia in terms of national strength. Without financial support, Prussia was no match for the Russian Empire.
The Tsarist government had no money, and the Government of Berlin was not much better. If one day they heard that the Government of Berlin went bankrupt, it would not be surprising. They had always been on the verge of bankruptcy.
Rather than saying that the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Russians, it was better to say that the financial backer behind them used money to crush the Tsarist government.
European countries contributed money together, and Britain and France generously lent money. Such a good thing could not happen every day. The borrowed money also had to be paid back. For so many years, both Poland and Prussia had been working hard to pay off their debts.
The slimmed-down Russian Empire could no longer make Europe feel fear, so everyone's funding was naturally gone.
In this context, Prime Minister Dombrowski did not think that Prussia had the strength to beat the Russians. If they had this strength, the Government of Berlin would have annexed Poland long ago. There was no need to wait until now.
The Polish government had never neglected the "war preparation" work, but according to prior estimates, the war would be more than ten years later, so the Polish government was not fully prepared.
The Russian-Polish conflict came too suddenly. The Polish government had just received the news, and the Tsarist government's ultimatum came, leaving them no time to prepare at all.
Wanting to complete the war preparation work in 24 hours was simply a fantasy. Unless it was a small country like Monaco, which could complete the mobilization of the whole country in a few hours.
Poland began to mobilize, and the Russians were not idle either. The prepared Tsarist government had already assembled 20 infantry divisions and five cavalry divisions on the Russian-Polish border. They also deployed 20 infantry divisions on the Prussia border.
Obviously, the Tsarist government did not trust the Prussia people, so they stationed a large number of troops on the border.
Today was different from the past. The Tsarist government had hoarded a batch of food in advance, and the Russian Army's food problem had been solved. The logistical pressure on the Russians had been greatly reduced.
Twenty infantry divisions might not be able to do anything to the Kingdom of Prussia, but it was more than enough to defend the border. Even if the Government of Berlin wanted to play tricks, they had to consider their own strength first.
There was no other way. They could be willful with more soldiers. Casually, the Tsarist government had mobilized more than 500,000 troops, which was more than the combined standing armies of the Prussian and Polish countries.
The tragedy was that the Polish government was not aware of it in advance. Even Prime Minister Dombrowski did not know how many enemies they had to face.
In this regard, the Polish government was really unqualified. They had high expectations but low ability, and did not pay attention to intelligence work at all.
