War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

"It came too fast, how could it be so fast?"

Orma Pasha muttered to himself.

Ahmet Yilmaz and other young Ottoman generals were somewhat confused.

"Orma Pasha, there is nothing to be afraid of! We are on the defensive now, and the advantage is on our side."

"That's right! The Danube River is blocking the way ahead. What's the Russian-Austrian coalition? Sooner or later, we Ottoman men will make them remember the fear of being shrouded by the Crescent Flag!"

Orma Pasha was not so optimistic, but Colin Campbell had a new idea.

"Pasha, we can ask the navy for help. As long as the navy enters the Danube, no matter how many troops the Holy Alliance sends, it will be useless."

This time, Colin Campbell's suggestion made Olma Pasha's eyes light up. Although his previous suggestions often made people feel disappointed, this time was different.

As long as the navy could be called upon to help, it would be impossible for the Holy Alliance's army to cross the Danube again.

At least not until the navy is defeated.

Thinking of this, Orma Pasha immediately wrote letters to everyone he thought could help. As long as the British sent their fleet into the Danube, the war would most likely come to a stalemate and then enter a negotiation mode. At that time, no one would hold him accountable anymore.

What Olma Pasha didn't know was that the British had already been unable to sit still. After receiving orders from London, Viscount Stratford went directly to the Tsar's camp.

Dobruja, Tsar's Camp.

"The Austrians will attack from the west, and our army will attack from the east. After crossing the river, the two armies will lay siege to Tulcea.

After destroying the 200,000 Ottoman troops in front of us, the road southward will be smooth sailing!"

Nicholas I was holding a baton and giving orders on the sand table. Even though the ice and snow had not completely melted yet, he was sweating profusely as he spoke.

"good!"

Archduke Albrecht took the lead in applauding, but the Russian generals all looked pale. After all, it was these high-ranking royal relatives who made the plan, but it was they who were to die.

Originally, the Russian generals still held out a glimmer of hope. They heard that Archduke Albrecht was a military genius and an outstanding general, and he should be able to persuade the Tsar to stop his crazy plan.

But now it seems that the Austrians were just bragging, and the two sides should be equally matched. These Russian generals can even imagine how miserable the Russian army will be if the Austrian army is defeated.

In fact, it can be seen from the fact that Albrecht and Prinski did not seize the beachhead for crossing the river that no one would give the river to the other side.

There was actually nothing wrong with Nicholas I's tactics, but no general liked to attack by force because the cost was too high.

"Your Majesty, your tactics are brilliant. But our Holy Alliance's target this time is not just Dobruja."

It was only then that Nicholas I realized that he was too narrow-minded.

"That's right! Our target is Constantinople! This time we must drive the damn pagans out of Europe!

Drive the godless pagans out of Europe!

Albrecht, my child, if you have any good ideas, just speak up! "

Queen Alexandra looked at her husband helplessly. How come he became more and more frivolous as he got older and even openly plagiarized the achievements of younger generations?

“I suggest that we first attack southern Serbia, then move into Bulgaria, and then completely destroy this Ottoman corps in Dobruja.

Then no one will be able to prevent the recovery of Constantinople."

This set of rhetoric was naturally not Albrecht's idea, but the conclusion that the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had deduced for a long time.

Not to mention the huge number of Muslims in the Balkans and the ethnic and religious conflicts they have caused, the more than one million Pomaks in Bulgaria alone are enough to give Russia a hard time.

Furthermore, the Balkans' basic terrain is mainly mountainous and there is almost no infrastructure, so the cost of governance alone would be frighteningly high.

The backward economy and meager tax revenues have made the war-to-war strategy a joke. By then, the Russian economy will probably not only fail to receive any support, but will also have to lose money, eventually becoming a financial black hole.

In addition, under the propaganda of some "enthusiastic" Pan-Slavists, nationalism in the Balkans is also awakening. These Slavs probably hope to gain autonomy rather than be annexed.

The Tsar regarded himself as the savior of the Slavs, and annexation was morally untenable.

Nicholas I himself reassured Franz that, strictly speaking, Nicholas I was not a politician.

Such emperors who changed their careers halfway through their careers are generally very abstract, but Nicholas I is definitely one of the best.

If William I had not met Bismarck, his life would have been very abstract. It was rare in Europe at that time for him to be strangled by parliament to the point of wanting to abdicate.

Threatening parliament by abdicating is something that most people would never think of. The phrase "A king without his army is nothing but a beggar" has been taken by liberals to attack right-wing parties for more than a hundred years.

In addition, behaviors such as walking the dog in the void, cyber military parade, king's toilet, and finding a son-in-law to act as a trustee are also very abstract.

Historically, 1861 was a critical moment in Prussia's military reform, but the royalists suffered a crushing defeat in the general election that year.

The new political party strongly opposed military reform and tax increases, so William I ordered the dissolution of parliament and re-election. As a result, the Conservative Party's seats dropped from 14 to 11, while the opposition's seats increased from 109 to 134.

What follows is the familiar Bismarck and his iron-blooded speech.

Finally, Franz had always been confident in the Russians' ability to handle domestic affairs and the economy. If those Russian bureaucrats had not set the Balkans on fire, it would have been a complete failure.

Russia was once known as the Principality of Kiev-Rus', but over the course of hundreds of years, not only did they fail to assimilate the Ukrainians, but they almost made them their lifelong enemies.

The assimilation policies implemented in Russian history have left a lot of blood in their wake from Eastern Europe to the Far East. As long as they couldn't kill all the people, they basically couldn't assimilate them, except for the Siberian indigenous people who only had tribal civilization. Even the nomadic Russians couldn't be assimilated.

But Franz did not want to weaken the Ottoman Empire too much. If Russia really went south and annexed the Ottoman Empire, regardless of how powerful Russia would become, it would at least directly threaten the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal was the key to whether the Austrian Empire could rise again, so Franz naturally could not accept any country or organization getting involved in it.