The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1225 Trump Card
Prussia's situation was somewhat embarrassing. Although it always sat in the second chair in the German Confederation, its status was far lower than that in the same period of history.

It all started with the Austrian Empire joining the German Customs Union. Austria's joining directly overturned the internal structure of the Customs Union.

Before Austria joined, Prussia could be said to be the boss of the northern German region and completely crushed other countries.

However, with the addition of Austria, the power of South Germany suddenly soared and surpassed that of North Germany. With the rise of the Austrian Empire's economy, the position of the leader of the German Customs Union fell to Austria without any suspense.

Coupled with the German Confederation's continuous expansion externally and internal mergers of its own clans, many countries had the strength to compete with Prussia.

The conflict between central Prussia and the Rhine region gave new hope to the ambitious people, making them feel that they could compete for the second position within the framework of Austria-led leadership.

Franz pushed Prussia to the front line with France and Russia. At this time, Prussia was in a situation of internal and external troubles and was surrounded by powerful enemies.

Bismarck did not have much confidence in Prussia at this time because Prussia had already lost in terms of national strength and political structure.

Even if Prussia launched a war against Austria, regardless of victory or defeat, it would only bring about its own destruction.

Needless to say, Prussia was defeated. Even if Austria did not pursue the matter, the brothers in the German Confederation would dismember Prussia.

But even if it wins, Prussia may not be able to hold on to its throne as the hegemon of Germany. There are challengers everywhere internally, and France and Russia outside certainly do not want a true hegemon to emerge in Germany.

In fact, Bismarck still had a trump card at this time, which was the generator developed by Siemens.

At first, Bismarck was not very interested in his friend's little invention, but he became interested after learning that it was commissioned by the top leaders of the Austrian Empire.

Bismarck had been present when the crackling and humming machine came out, and he did not think it was much better than a steam engine.

“I think this is the greatest invention I’ve ever made!”

Siemens said with emotion.

"What can this crackling thing do?"

Bismarck asked with a puzzled look on his face. He had almost given back all his knowledge of physics to his teacher at this time. In fact, university physics at that time did not involve electricity courses. As mentioned earlier, electricity officially entered the classroom in the early 20th century.

“It can generate electricity!”

Siemens clenched his fists and said excitedly.

"Generate electricity?"

"That's right! This thing can generate one kilowatt of electricity per hour! It's more powerful than all the generators in the world combined!"

Siemens roared, while Bismarck clapped his hands with a bewildered look on his face.

"What is electricity good for?"

Siemens froze for a moment. He had never really thought about this issue. Fortunately, he had a related major.

"We can make arc lamps! We can use arc lamps to light up the city in the future. Then we won't have to breathe that terrible gas all day long! And we won't have to worry about fires!"

"Arc lamp?" Bismarck tried hard to recall the name, and suddenly said excitedly, "Is it the one that explodes and has a lot of fragments when it flashes?"

Siemens' face turned dark instantly.

"It's just a matter of materials, it will be solved later. And it's not a weapon!"

"Good! Good! Good!" Bismarck waved his hands and tried to change the subject. "What else can electricity do? Can it kill people like Zeus did?"

"hack?"

"Yes, chop!"

"Chop your head off! Unless you can get someone to hold both ends of the wire!"

Siemens could not help cursing, and Bismarck quickly used his hands to block the great inventor's saliva that was flying everywhere and fled.

After that, Bismarck made inquiries through his own channels and found that almost all well-known scholars believed that electricity would change the world, but no one knew exactly how it would change the world. Perhaps it would be a power source like a steam engine, or it might replace coal as a heat source.

The only known use of it now is to send telegrams, but at that time, most telegraphs in Germany were powered by hand-cranked generators, and they could not afford such a high-power generator unless someone could build a large telegraph office.

This reminded Bismarck that the telegraph office might be a profitable business, but due to the confidentiality agreement, he dared not expose this technology within five years.

On the one hand, it was because of his friendship with Siemens, and on the other hand, he vaguely felt that the other party was terrifying. Bismarck was not a coward, but he did not want to die like a fool.

As for whether Prussia can make a comeback, it depends on how much this little invention can change the world.

Russian Poland.

The strategy of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west achieved unexpected results. The Russian army was exhausted in the exhaustion, and the results of the battle in less than a month were greater than those of the Warsaw Uprising in 1830 in a year.

The Russians in Poland suffered huge losses. Two-thirds of Russian civilians fled Poland, and only a few still lived in Poland under the protection of the army. Russia's colonial policy over the years was a complete failure.

The Polish army continued to grow and now had at least 200,000 people, equipped with various light and heavy weapons such as artillery, rockets, and new rifles.

The British directly used Poland as a testing ground for weapons.

In 1848, Austria's rocket troops impressed the British army. However, rockets were originally brought by the British from India, so they pulled out the Congreve rockets from the warehouse, modified them a little, and sent them to the Polish battlefield when they felt they were almost ready.

The emergence of rockets greatly compensated for the Poles' lack of siege capabilities, especially against the Russians' crudely built large fortresses. After thousands of rockets were fired, the Russians did not even have time to put out the fire.

The early technology of rockets was not very advanced. Seeing the Russians retreating step by step, the British were very satisfied with their own modifications.

But in fact, the British rockets at that time were still early versions, and the quality defects were completely covered up by quantity.

However, the doctrine of firepower superiority is an important part of the art of war, and in the short term, the British did achieve great success.

However, in the eyes of the Austrian military, the British version of the rocket is still very backward, roughly equivalent to the stage when the Austrian military was just starting out ten years ago.

Of course, it is not ruled out that what the British gave the Poles was garbage. After all, the Polish battlefield was too close to Russia, Prussia and Austria. Perhaps the British considered the possibility of technology leakage.

In addition to rockets, a large number of hot air balloons also appeared on the Polish battlefield. However, these hot air balloons were not offensive, but were only used as reconnaissance tools.

The rifles the British supported the Poles with were still the old Brown Bess and a small number of Brunswick rifles.

It can be said that the British have made no progress in rifles. On the contrary, their blind pursuit of efficiency and quality in production technology has even regressed.

The weapons supported by Prussia and Austria were all civilian weapons, which were not very special.

Even so, the Russians were at a disadvantage in terms of equipment and tactics. In particular, the emergence of rockets and hot air balloons completely overturned the Russian commanders' view of war, and the battlefield was one-way transparent to the enemy, leaving them with no room for maneuver.