War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

The Russian offensive had made no progress for several months, and the Austrian Empire did not seem to have any intention of intervening in the Balkans.

This gave the British hope that as long as they were given enough time, the situation in the Near East could be maintained as it was.

However, the reality was that the Austrian Empire suddenly joined the war, and the reason for joining the war was to defend the legitimate borders of the Holy Alliance.

Although the Austrian Empire did not say it explicitly, the meaning was very clear, that is, the Austrian Empire was forced to participate in a just war.

John Russell was not obsessed with the justice of this war, but the participation of the Austrian Empire in the war really made him desperate.

This despair could not be alleviated, because everyone knew that Britain could not defeat the Holy Alliance on land, so the option of war was not even within his consideration.

As for Colin Campbell’s so-called theory of competition, it was just a joke in John Russell’s eyes, wasting his manpower?

Austria and Russia have more than one million standing armies alone, what a waste!

How many people will be killed in this battle? 80,000? 100,000?

The Ottoman Empire could no longer hold on after sending just over 200,000 troops. Given Britain’s current economic situation, how many troops could it send to the Near East?

Moreover, the whole world is in turmoil right now, and it is simply impossible for Britain to devote all its main forces to the Balkans.

The most crucial issue is that even if Britain put all its troops into the battlefield at all costs, the final outcome of the war would be difficult to change.

There were only two options in John Russell's mind. One was to break up the Holy Alliance and disintegrate this powerful hostile force. The other was to bring in powerful allies to fight against it, such as France, Prussia, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire.

As for fighting head-on, he had absolutely no interest in that.

As for allies, the Ottomans would certainly stand with Britain, but the former was too small to fight against the Russo-Austrian alliance.

The French are the easiest targets to win over. France is full of hatred towards both Russia and Austria. It wants to wash away the shame and break the balance between the great powers.

France is a major European country with great strength and influence, and can directly contain the Austrian Empire on the continent.

However, France was suffering from a series of defeats, its economy was on the verge of collapse, and its politics was unstable. It lost hundreds of thousands of young and strong men in several wars, and only gained a huge amount of debt.

Although Napoleon III was very interested in the British proposal, it was impossible for him to join the war at this time.

In fact, as long as France joined the war, even if the French did not lose a single battle in the Middle East, Napoleon III would have lost, and completely.

Because neither the Legitimists, the Orleanists, nor the Republicans would give up this opportunity to seize power.

A civil war was inevitable, and the main force that had been sent to the Balkans would have difficulty returning to support. France, which was in chaos at home, was even less likely to provide supplies for the expeditionary force. By then, it was hard to say whether these hundreds of thousands of troops were still the army of the Second Empire.

However, John Russell still chose to contact them. Although Britain and France were enemies, they were the most trustworthy partners at this time. After all, they had a common enemy.

However, even brothers have to settle accounts clearly, let alone good friends. So the British side will not ask for less interest, but they can find ways to help the French get more loans.

Both Britain and France are in the midst of an economic crisis, but Britain has a stronger financial situation after all, and can still help France.

However, capitalists wanted to make money, and they soon changed their investments into acquisitions. Quite a number of British banks and consortiums set up branches in France.

Napoleon III and those officials looked at the numbers, but the French capitalists could not sit still. They could not tolerate the British grabbing land on their own turf.

On the one hand, French capitalists began to compete with the British for high-quality assets, and on the other hand, they put pressure on Napoleon III to continue to implement trade protectionism.

How could Napoleon III not know at this point the dirty dealings of the French bankers? The reason why the French economy had not recovered was largely because these rotten fish and shrimps occupying high positions wanted to suffocate all the people below.

This way they can eat those small fish without any trouble

Unfortunately, Napoleon III advocated the principle of free trade. He thought it would be a good idea to bring in the British, at least to stir up the stagnant waters.

Napoleon III was also well aware that he came to power by relying on his uncle's reputation, the support of his peers, and coincidence.

The biggest problem of the Second French Empire was the economy. If he could not solve this problem, the demise of the Second Empire would only be a matter of time.

If free trade can boost the economy, then he must do it.

In addition, Napoleon III did not want to be a puppet like Louis Philippe, as he saw clearly what the latter's final fate would be.

Moreover, Louis Napoleon did not think that the Austrians would leave places like Corsica to him for a comeback as they did to Louis Philippe.

So Napoleon III was ready to take this opportunity to give these bankers and plutocrats a good beating. After all, as an emperor, he had much more power than the president.

But Napoleon III would definitely not participate in this war.

The situation in the United States is similar to that in France: it has ideas and strength, but lacks motivation and driving force.

Americans cared more about North America than Europe, and they wanted colonies like Texas and California.

But if the Americans want to seize these lands, they will inevitably offend the German Confederation and Mexico. Based on past experience of failure, the United States will most likely return empty-handed this time.

In addition, the insufficient price offered by the British also made the Americans lack interest in it.

As for Prussia, it was indeed a rebel in the German Confederation. However, the entire Prussia from top to bottom had no confidence in defeating the Austrian Empire, let alone the entire Holy Alliance.

Due to Prussia's special geographical location, once a war breaks out, it is likely to be attacked from both Russia and Austria.

By then it will not be the Ottoman Empire that will suffer, but Prussia.

In addition, as a member of the German Confederation, if Prussia rashly attacked Austria, it might be besieged by other German states.

Let's talk about the gap in national strength between the two sides. The only advantage Prussia had over the Austrian Empire was that the two sides had different railway gauges. Otherwise, William IV would have to worry about the scene of hundreds of thousands of Austrian troops appearing on the streets of Berlin the next day.

As for breaking up the Russo-Austrian alliance, Britain has tried many times and used many methods, but at least in the short term, it is powerless to do anything about it.

Russia and Austria were both imperial states. As long as the father-in-law and son-in-law, Franz and Nicholas I, always maintained mutual trust, no matter how brilliant and true the British arguments were, they would not be able to shake the alliance.

So the only option before John Russell was peace talks.