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

Chapter 1291 The Troubles of William IV

However, this time the situation was different. Due to the change in the course of history, the Archbishop of Cologne was not bought by Prussia, but instead became a puppet of Austria.

Coupled with the turmoil in the German Confederation in 1848 and the civil war in the Frankfurt National Assembly, the Rhine region at this time became a country within Prussia.

Due to the influence of nationalism, this contradiction has instead obscured the economic development and class contradictions within the region, and this contradiction will become increasingly difficult to resolve as the imbalance in economic development and the escalation of class contradictions between regions.

With the advent of the industrial age, factory owners and mine owners in the West had begun to look down on farmers in the East, as well as the so-called Junker landlords.

In the eyes of people in the Rhine region, the Prussians are just a bunch of old-fashioned people. In addition, due to the existence of the German Customs Union, the Rhine region's dependence on its domestic market and food is quite low.

People in the Rhine region liked to call themselves Germans rather than Prussians, and even called Prussians Poles. The Prussian government had no way to deal with this.

If things continued to develop as they did, the eastern and western parts of Prussia would sooner or later split into two countries.

William IV was well aware of these two problems, but it was not easy to solve them. After all, it was William IV who established the Prussian Parliament, and now dissolving the Parliament would be a slap in his own face.

Although the Austrian Empire also took action to suppress parliamentary politics within Germany, the situation in Prussia was very special. Even if the National Assembly was dissolved, there was still the Prussian United Provinces Parliament.

The Prussian United Provinces Parliament, also known as the "Parliament of Eight Provinces".

After the end of the anti-French war, Prussian King Frederick William III established an independent and advisory Estates in eight provinces. It was a substitute for the national people's representative body in William III's words.

However, the power of this "Eight Provinces Parliament" was extremely limited, and the king and the government had many ways to bypass it. However, due to the poor financial situation of Prussia, it was later forced by the nobles and bankers to sign a series of clauses.

In 1847, the Prussian government needed funds to build a railway from Berlin to Königsberg. Due to the economic crisis, the government was in financial difficulties and had to levy new taxes.

According to the National Debt Law of 1820, the issuance of public debt and tax increases must be approved by the people's representative body. King Friedrich William IV was forced to order a joint meeting of the eight provincial estates on February 1847, 2 to vote on the issue of levying new taxes.

William IV specially established the House of Lords just in case, hoping to pass a bill to increase tax revenue.

Unfortunately, some nobles in the House of Lords felt that this was a good opportunity to limit the king's power, so the nobles and capitalists jointly attacked William IV, demanding the promulgation of a constitution, the establishment of a parliament, the reduction of armaments, and the limitation of the king's power.

Since the Parliament of Eight Provinces was established before 1848, it perfectly avoided the liquidation of the Austrian Empire.

Although the title of the Prussian National Assembly was abolished, its power was still astonishingly great. Almost all actions of William IV and the Prussian government had to go through the parliaments of eight provinces.

Naturally, these parliamentary masters will fight each other for their own interests, which leads to numerous factions within the parliament, and no one is willing to sacrifice themselves. The entire parliament spends most of the time arguing, and national policies are difficult to implement.

William IV had reached the limit of his tolerance and had to strike hard against these annoying guys.

He didn't think he could debate against these guys who made a living by talking. After all, many people in Parliament used to be lawyers, and if they really started to use twisted logic, ten William IVs would not be their match.

So William IV chose the most direct means, and ordered the soldiers to bring tools and directly dismantle the parliament. As for the Archbishop of Cologne, William IV decided to arrest him for war crimes and sedition, and then hand him over to the Russians for processing.

After all, it was well known that the Archbishop of Cologne supported the Poles, and Russia had already lodged a solemn protest.

William IV decided to kill someone with a borrowed knife. This would not only get rid of the Archbishop of Cologne, but also draw hatred to the Russians, killing two birds with one stone.
Russia, St. Petersburg.

The Tsar was not surprised by the speed of the Austrian Empire's progress in Spain, but he was angered by the speed with which the Russian army suppressed the rebellion.

Whether in Poland or the Caucasus, the Russian army's progress was extremely slow. Only in southern Russia was the progress smooth, as the Cossacks were much weaker than expected and most of them surrendered without much resistance.

On the Polish battlefield, even though the Poles had lost the support of the British, they still had sufficient weapons and supplies and were very motivated to fight.

Paskevich's strategy of killing one to warn the rest seemed to have failed this time. Instead of surrendering, the Poles resisted even more fiercely.

Faced with the riddled supply lines, Paskevich had to allocate a large number of troops to consolidate the rear, but this in turn led to a shortage of troops at the front.

According to Paskevich's estimate, if the war could not be ended before the winter of 1849, it might even drag on until the summer of 1850.

Upon hearing this result, Nicholas I really wanted to remove Paskevich, but reason told him that Paskevich was the most suitable person to deal with the Polish issue at this time.

Although Paskevich's advance was slow, it was indeed squeezing the living space of the Poles, and he did the same in the Caucasus.

On the other side in the Caucasus region, Imam Shamil’s army was like gophers. After one group was killed, another group would soon appear.

However, the fighting power of these people is not as strong as rumored. They are just some bandits who rob and loot.

But the brutality of these people was even worse than the rumors said. Imam Shamil's army attacked the Russians everywhere, killing everyone, young or old, regardless of gender, and taking away everything they could, and burning the rest.

The Russian army also tried to retaliate, but the other side was hiding in the mountains, making it difficult to even track down their whereabouts, let alone wipe them out.

Nicholas I was very unhappy with this feeling of being unable to use his power, so he planned to let Prince Uvarov solve the Caucasus problem.

The Cossacks in southern Russia were defeated by Duke Uvarov before, but this time he had no good solution.

As long as Imam Shamil's army is unwilling to fight head-on, no matter how many troops the Russians send, it will be useless.

Theoretically there are only two ways. The first is to gradually reduce Imam Shamil's living space and drive him out, just as Marshal Paskevich did before.

The other option is to force Imam Shamil to have a decisive battle with the Russian army, but the strength of the two sides is very different, and Imam Shamil is not stupid, so how could he choose to have a decisive battle with the Russian army?

What's more, the Russians have used all the necessary means over the years, and no one in St. Petersburg thinks that Duke Uvarov can achieve anything.