Chapter 384: Chapter 71, Prussia’s Counterattack
Europe was in turmoil, and it was not Austria or John Bull that became restless first, but the Berlin Government in the eye of the storm.

There was no way around it; no matter how much the Russians schemed against many, once their plans succeeded, they would certainly be the most miserable.

“In any case, we must disrupt the Russians’ loan plans,”

Wilhelm I solemnly said. He did not want to be ousted, as the Kingdom of Prussia had staked its national fate, and the people would not tolerate failure.

If the Russians secured a loan from France and Austria, the war would truly become unwinnable. Even if they were to achieve victory in the imminent decisive battle, the Kingdom of Prussia would still be unable to change its fate of defeat.

The Tsarist Government was not short of soldiers; they were just short of money! No matter how disastrous the losses, it was just that to St. Petersburg.

This was traceable in history; hundreds of years ago, Russia fought wars year after year, eventually running out of men, and ended up organizing women soldiers to continue fighting.

Times have changed; now, the Russian Empire has a really large population, around eighty to ninety million. Wilhelm I did not believe that it was possible to make the Tsarist Government suffer intolerably.

Foreign Minister Maikate suggested, “Your Majesty, regarding France and Austria, I propose we take different measures to obstruct their loan disbursements to the Russians.

To deal with the French, we can start with the joint defense plan. By using the dread that European countries have towards the French, we can apply diplomatic pressure.

The ambition of Austria to unify the Germany Region has never extinguished, and with the French coveting the Rhineland region, they stand on opposing grounds.

The British, too, are very wary of the French. If the French attempt to annex the Rhineland region, the London Government is very likely to intervene.

What we need to do is make Napoleon III believe that if they were to annex the Rhineland region, they would face joint opposition from Anglo-Austria.

This grand diplomatic drama will be played out with the cooperation of Vienna and London. They just need a strongly worded diplomatic declaration, and the French will hesitate.

To deal with the Austrians, I suggest we use nationalists to create public pressure, accusing the Vienna Government of collusion with foreign enemies and betraying the interests of the German People.

The loan in question is the result of Russian scheming, and it was the pressure from public opinion that made the Vienna Government agree to it. Now, we can similarly use nationalism, giving the anti-Russian faction an excuse to sabotage this loan.”

The stance of politicians has always changed with their needs. Initially, for expansion, the Kingdom of Prussia promoted German nationalism and the unification of the Germany Region to establish a large Empire.

With the resurgence of Austria, they found it impossible to unify the Germany Region and instead saw a higher possibility of becoming the unified entity. To safeguard their own interests, they turned to promoting Prussian independence.

Now, to disrupt the Russian loan from Austria, Maikate did not hesitate to once again invoke German nationalism, planning to leverage it to influence the decisions of the Vienna Government.

Prime Minister Christian thought it over and said, “These plans can only buy us time. Unless we win a decisive victory on the battlefield, dispelling the notion that the Russians are bound to win.

Otherwise, the Russians’ conspiracy will still succeed in the end. When faced with interests, all contradictions are trivial.

There is a possibility of compromise between France and Austria; they just need an excuse. The tripartite division of Prussia could become a reality.

Nationalism can at most influence the decisions of the Vienna Government, but it cannot dictate their decisions.

Their opposition to the French occupying the Rhineland region is not due to nationalism, but more so because they do not want to see the French growing too powerful, and also because they have lost out in this partition plan.”

That is the essence of the problem; unifying the Germany Region is just one of Franz’s political slogans. When needed, they chant it, and when it’s not, they throw it aside.

This is different from the annexation of the South German Region. Now, Austria’s national issue is no longer so severe, integration work is progressing steadily, and unifying Northern Germany is no longer the only option.

The core of the final question returned to the battlefield. If Prussia lost the war, the Kingdom of Prussia would naturally come to an end, unable to escape the fate of being partitioned.

What they were considering now were actually the issues after winning the war. The Russians were tough, and if they lost one set battle, the Tsarist Government could organize another.

The only thing that could restrain the Tsarist Government was finance. Now they were considering how to cut off the Tsarist Government’s source of funds.

After hesitating for a while, Wilhelm I made up his mind and said, “The Foreign Office may go ahead boldly; we’ve come this far, and it cannot get any worse anyway.

If necessary, we can issue worthless cheques to France and Austria, and make promises to the Russians; we can do the same.”

“As long as we can take more from the Russian Empire, then selling these lands to them is not out of the question!”

This was Wilhelm I’s self-comfort; even if they won the war, it was still an unknown how much they could take from the Russians.

As for promises to France and Austria, since they were worthless cheques, he had no intention of honoring them.

Unless absolutely necessary, Wilhelm I would not consider trading well-managed homeland for Russian land.

A glance at the map would show that the areas where Prussia and Russia bordered each other were dominated by the Polish. Although the geography was favorable and the resources plentiful, the problem lay in governing.

Prussia had no shortage of Poles, and if they annexed Russia Poland, then Prussia would become a country of Poles rather than Germans.

If it wasn’t for Prussia giving up the Warsaw region in exchange for the Rhineland and Prussian Saxon area during the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the Germanization movement would not have been so successful.

After the partition of Poland by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, of the 10 million Polish, 4.5 million were in Prussia, 1.5 million in Austria, and 4 million remained in the Russian Empire.

It can be said that the first Vienna System saved the Kingdom of Prussia, allowing them to escape the embarrassing situation of having a majority of Polish.

Now, to continue to fall into the big pit of Poland was clearly not the best choice. Unfortunately, reality did not allow Wilhelm I to choose, as the Junker aristocracy could not tolerate Prussia becoming a second-rate country.

Of course, Prussia had experience in assimilating Poles. Wilhelm I had no plan to annex the core regions of Poland; their target was the Lithuanian Region, and if possible, to take the Three Baltic Countries in one fell swoop.

Since the goals were quite ambitious: could they be achieved? One must always have dreams, for how can the outcome be known without trying?

This was also part of the British strategic plan, namely: the independence of Poland, Prussia occupying a large area of the Baltic Sea, and weakening the power of the Russians.

…

Politics requires the cooperation of the military; while the Berlin Government took diplomatic actions, the Prussian Army also began its counterattack.

Maoqi made a change from the previous strategy of immovability and waiting out the Tsarist Government and switched to actively seeking opportunities for a decisive battle with the Russians.

This shift left the Russians quite unaccustomed, and caught off guard, the Russian Army entering the East Prussia region suffered heavy losses, losing 30,000 men in just one week.

In terms of the overall combat situation, with both sides having a total force of over a million men, a loss of 30,000 might seem insignificant, but in reality, it had a huge impact.

In field battles, the power of the breech-loading rifle astonished everyone, as an astonishing exchange ratio of 1:2.7 appeared on the battlefield.

This was not a siege; such a disproportionate exchange ratio in an open battle was without a doubt telling the world that the combat effectiveness of the two armies was not on the same level.