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

Chapter 1237 Paper cannot contain fire

Vienna, Hofburg Palace.

Franz was not surprised by the British backstabbing, but he did not expect that the British's real purpose was the Treaty of Unkar-Iskelesi.

It seems that the British people's obsession with sea power is really hard to estimate. They will be unable to sleep or eat if there is even a slight possibility of threatening their maritime hegemony.

Franz quickly dug out the naval plan sent by Friedrich. According to the latter's original plan, by the time Franz's first five-year plan was completed in 1853, the Austrian Empire would have:

Four "Trieste" class super flagships, twelve "Venetiana" class super first-class battleships, twenty first-class battleships, various light ships, and one hundred and twenty auxiliary ships.

The "Trieste" class refers to a super flagship with a tonnage of more than 7000 tons. Currently, the Austrian Empire has only produced one, and all data is kept completely top secret.

However, spies from other countries still collected some intelligence, that is, this warship did not have many artillery pieces.

The "Venetiana" class refers to a super-class battleship with a tonnage of more than 5,000 tons, but this is the classification method of the Austrian Empire and is not recognized by other countries.

This type of battleship is actually an enlarged and thickened first-class battleship, and is currently the main battleship of the Austrian Empire.

Most of the Austrian Empire's auxiliary ships were transport ships, and there were two types of ships that other countries currently did not have: minesweepers and minesweepers.

This was infinitely better than the time when there was only an old first-class sailing battleship retired from the UK as a facade, but Franz felt deeply uneasy.

In this era, the so-called sea power has no possibility of being isolated in a corner. Even if the Russian navy hides in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, the British will not let it go.

The Austrian Imperial Navy achieved a series of remarkable victories, but this did not deter the British. Instead, it made the latter set their sights on the former.

Given the opportunity, the British would spare no effort to destroy the Austrian navy, a force that could threaten their maritime hegemony.

Franz decided to add another construction plan, increasing the planned number by 50%.

Franz knew that this was a huge waste. These battleships were high-end products now, but in a dozen years they might just be scrap metal that could only perform simple tasks and was expensive to maintain.

But he could not be sure when the British would provoke trouble. If war broke out, without these scrap metals, the Austrian Imperial Navy might not even survive the early stages of the war.

Before, the Austrian Empire could use surprising tactics and the technological gap to catch the other side off guard, but Franz did not believe that the British, who had been roaming the ocean for many years, would not consider countermeasures.

Franz's previous estimates of the future were too optimistic. He felt that he had caused such a bad situation for Britain and France, and the Russian-Austrian alliance was so solid, the Crimean War would definitely be delayed or even prevented from happening.

However, Franz overlooked one issue, which was the sensitivity of the region where the Austrian Empire itself was located and the impact it had on the world.

Maybe this war will not happen in Crimea, or maybe this war will happen in more places than Crimea.
Russia, St. Petersburg.

Some things can't be hidden, and the news that the Archbishop of Cologne openly recruited anti-Russian people and raised funds for the Poles, as well as the news that the Prussians imported grain from Russia and resold it to the British, reached the Tsar's ears. Now Nicholas I wanted to kill people, and he really wanted to kill these two-faced Prussians and the group of incompetent idiots under his command.

The Prussians actually sold their grain to the British, despite the fact that they trusted them so much. It turned out that it was not Prince Uvarov's strategy that was wrong, but that there was a thief in the Holy Alliance.
The Tsar had begun to seriously consider how to deal with Prussia and exclude it from the Holy Alliance.

However, he soon thought of another problem: Prussia was not only a member of the Holy Alliance but also a part of the German Confederation.

The existence of the Austrian Empire within the German Confederation made this a very difficult problem to solve.

The German Confederation itself is a mess, but if the Austrian Empire is added, it will be difficult to deal with. Even Russia needs to carefully consider the gains and losses of this war.
Unless Prussia is not a member of the German Confederation, or Russia can win Britain as an ally
Soon Nicholas I discovered that his troubles were not limited to these. The traitors in the Baltic Sea actually claimed to be Germans, but they were obviously Eastern Slavs.

You have to know that the German Confederation has a criminal record, and often people who claim to be Germans will attract the German Confederation.

Then there would be a war over the region, and the German Confederation would incorporate the land of the defeated country, truly turning it into the territory of the German Confederation.

Why did nothing happen elsewhere, but only in the Baltic region adjacent to Prussia did such slogans emerge?
Nicholas I had to wonder if this was all a planned show. Was the German Confederation going to do something to him? No wonder Franz refused to marry his daughter.

At this point, the Tsar’s logic has formed a closed loop
Russia agreed to Britain's conditions and decided to abolish the Treaty of Unkar-Iskelesi. The new treaty would be jointly negotiated and decided with Britain and the Ottoman Empire.

Although things went smoothly, Palmerston was very depressed. He had never felt so depressed even when he was being monitored and left aside.

Nicholas I never summoned Palmerston. The Tsarist government directly skipped the British ambassador and negotiated with the British government. Palmerston was ignored.

Although Palmerston's plan was successful, it was a Waterloo for him personally, and it would be difficult to get rid of the title of "unappreciated diplomat".

Earl Derby was very happy when he heard the news. He was willing to see that arrogant guy suffer a setback. The Tsar's move was too ruthless.

It is hard to say that the smooth negotiations between Britain and Russia were not due to the Earl of Derby's contribution, because according to past experience, Britain is always greedy in the diplomatic field, and it is really unusual that they did not take the opportunity to gain more benefits.

The Earl of Derby was afraid that the situation would worsen if the time went on. After all, the Russians were notorious for going back on their words. At the same time, he did not want to give Palmerston any chance to make amends.

Russia signed a statement abolishing the Treaty of Unkar-Iskeleci, and the British cut off trade with the Poles and the Baltic Governorate on the same day.

At the same time, the British government handed over all the intelligence collected by MI6 from Poland to the Russians. Much of this intelligence was top secret, including detailed information on the Polish troop configuration, deployment, and even lists of officers and supporters.

In fact, it is not the case that everyone in the British MI1 is James Bond, but the Poles took the initiative to reveal it.

After all, the British had been supporting Poland before the war, and after the war they spared no effort to send military supplies to Poland. Even British volunteers and mercenaries participated in the fight against the Russians.

So when the British intelligence agencies claimed that they wanted to exchange intelligence with the Poles and help formulate strategies to deal with the Russians, the Polish side revealed most of the intelligence to the British without much hesitation.