War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

John Russell was wise to leave because there were really many people who wanted to kill him.

However, even if he has set foot on the ship to Australia, it does not mean that he will arrive in Sydney safely. After all, in this era, storms, reefs, pirates, and various accidents are often encountered at sea.

Another high-ranking member of the Whig Party was not so lucky. Palmerston was directly dismissed by Prince Albert. His application to work as a consultant in India was also rejected, and he could only temporarily live in his lover's home in London.

However, no one suggested taking revenge on the down-and-out Foreign Secretary. After all, Palmerston was not a gentleman.

The collapse of the Whig cabinet should have been replaced by the Tories. However, the original Tory leader Robert Peel offended too many landed aristocrats and traditional aristocrats due to the Corn Laws, so the Tories provided two new candidates. .

Edward Smith-Stanley and George Hamilton Gordon, these two brothers have a common characteristic of weakness and lack of leadership.

Edward Smith-Stanley was one of the few men in British history to serve as prime minister three times, but his three terms totaled only three years and 280 days.

You must know that the average term of a prime minister in British history is 3.86 years, which means that the three terms of Edward Smith-Stanley's combined terms still do not reach the average.

As for George Hamilton Gordon, most people have little memory of him. Even scholars who study history will mostly only remember him as the person who launched the Crimean War.

But what many people don’t know is that George Hamilton Gordon himself was anti-war, and even opposed the launch of the Crimean War. However, as the weakest prime minister in British history, he was successfully involved in a conspiracy by Palmerston, his political enemy. in a war he hated and ultimately resigned from power.

Of course, they all achieved some achievements in their respective fields before they came to power. For example, George Hamilton Gordon led some thorny border disputes between the Canadian colonial territories and the United States.

This guy's solution to problems is to always give in, and whatever Americans say is what he says, so he can be regarded as a model of human morality in the American-dominated historical circles.

Under his operations, Britain was defeated without a fight and lost an area equivalent to several British mainlands.

Franz felt much more at ease with this pair of twins in charge of the political arena of the British Empire.

However, this was not the opportunity for the pair of sleeping dragons and phoenixes to show off. Queen Victoria directly ordered Prince Albert to personally restart negotiations with the Austrian Empire.

With the fall of John Russell, more information was revealed. At this time, although some people within the British government were dissatisfied with the Queen's barbaric practices, these voices were temporarily suppressed. After all, no one wanted to stand up and take the blame.

The Austrian Imperial Mission was not surprised or surprised when it received the written notice from the British government. It did not even change its expression at all, as if everything was taken for granted.

This was all seen by the British agents, and the news that came later confirmed this. The Austrian mission did not make any changes.

Soon this information was sent to Prince Albert's desk. He glanced at it casually and handed it to the senior officials of the provisional government.

"It seems that the Austrians have planned everything long ago... we should not start a war."

George Hamilton Gordon said somewhat pessimistically.

"Now we should make concessions to avoid war, and solving our internal problems is the top priority. The Irish, Scots, and Chartists are our biggest enemies.

Maybe we could make the Irish independent to relieve the pressure on us."

Edward Smith-Stanley was also in a very depressed mood. He was more worried about domestic security than foreign problems.

These people who were elected by Wolong Phoenix were also very pessimistic, which made the originally conservative Admiralty Secretary George Eden appear to be a bit radical.

Prince Albert soon gave up asking for advice from these people. He decided to meet with the Austrian Imperial Envoy first. After all, he would have to talk to them anyway.

Since the Austrian Imperial Mission was staying at the Claridge's Hotel and no major members had left, it didn't take long for the two parties to finalize the location and time for the negotiations.

As soon as the meeting began, the Austrian Imperial Mission submitted a list to the British side, which clearly recorded the British government's various expenditures related to the war.

Prince Albert looked at the Chancellor of the Exchequer with some confusion, and as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Wood was already sweating on his forehead.

Seeing the performance of the Chancellor of Finance, Prince Albert sighed helplessly. It seemed that the Austrians had defeated the negotiation first.

But what he didn't know was that the reason why the Chancellor of the Exchequer was sweating on his forehead was not because the data provided by Austria were the same as those of the British government, but because they were consistent with the original figures. This shocked Charles Wood. Cold sweat.

"Baron Brooke, what do you mean?"

Prince Albert asked, feigning ignorance.

“This is the cost your country has paid so far in this war, a total of two thousand seven hundred and fifty-five hundred and seven thousand one hundred and twenty-one pounds.

If this war continues, this number will continue to rise.

If your country wants to truly defeat our country, then it needs to dispatch its army. Considering the size and combat effectiveness of our country, as well as its land area, your country needs to maintain at least an expeditionary force of 500,000 people to have any chance of success.

By then, your country's annual military expenditure will reach more than 30 million pounds. Considering our country's special geographical location, your country can only choose to forcibly land on the Apennine Peninsula or attack our country through Hanover.

But with all due respect, neither path is wise. "

Baron Brooke spoke sincerely, but Prince Albert was unmoved.

"Then Austria has no losses?"

"No, Your Excellency Prince. For our country, this war is also a huge burden. Without this war, our country's fiscal revenue growth rate should be close to 20%, but now the growth rate for this year is only expected to be 8%."

When these words came out, not only the members of the British mission widened their eyes, but some members of the Austrian mission who were far away from the government also found it strange.

You must know that at this time, the Austrian Empire can be said to be affected by both economic crisis and war, and the Austrian Empire is at war on all sides.

The flames of the civil war burned through almost every corner of the country. Even the imperial capital of Vienna had a large-scale rebellion. There was a large amount of unrecovered land in the crown territory of St. Stephen.

In this case, let alone increasing fiscal revenue. Historically, the fiscal revenue of the Austrian Empire was directly cut in half to a pitiful 78 million florins.

France's finances were also severely damaged. In 1847, the Orleans Dynasty's annual revenue could barely reach 1.4 billion francs.

However, due to the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1848, the February Revolution, successive colonial rebellions, and unsuccessful fiscal and tax reforms, the fiscal revenue of the Second French Republic in the first two quarters was less than 300 million francs, a decrease of 58.5% compared with the same period last year.

Major European countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom, Russia and Austria, have all experienced declines to varying degrees. The United Kingdom has a strong foundation and abundant fiscal and tax sources. It is also ruthless enough. Although the economy has declined, fiscal revenue has not decreased significantly.

As for Russia, the impact of the economic crisis was minimal, and the war stimulated Russia's economic growth.

The Russians fought extra hard this year for more cotton and wool, and the Chechens finally could not withstand the pressure. Imam Shamir was forced to lead his followers to flee into the mountains.

Although it still failed to completely eliminate the resistance forces in the Caucasus, this is the first time since 1813 that Russia has eliminated all the apparent resistance forces in the Caucasus.

As soon as Governor Ivan Fedorovich Paskevitch learned of the victory, he decided to hold a grand banquet to entertain all the heroes.

As expected, an accident occurred. A group of Imam Shamir's remnants attacked the venue and killed many Russian supporters.

Many of them had just accepted the land given by the Russian government. Governor Paskevich immediately decided to protect the families of the victims, convert their land into cash, and send them to live in the hinterland of Russia.

Most of the land in the Caucasus is in a state of waiting for development and cannot be sold for much money. However, some visionary and powerful nobles and landowners have already prepared money and serfs.

As soon as Governor Paskevich announced that he would start selling land in the Caucasus, those people swarmed in and began to use various connections and means to plunder it.

Paskevich's approach to the occupied territories was also very consistent with people's stereotypes of Russians. He ordered retaliation, isolation, and deportation of indigenous people who might pose a threat to the Russians and the compliant people loyal to Russia.

The Russians' colonial methods have always been very crude and primitive, but surprisingly solid, because they do not care about religious beliefs or economic relations, let alone so-called culture.

They only believed in their own people, and while carrying out bloody massacres of the indigenous people, they immigrated from their own country to enrich the local population, and ultimately completely eliminated the local culture and heritage.

In fact, when the Russians occupied an area, the local men did not even have the opportunity to become serfs. Most of them would be physically eliminated, and the women would become the wives of new Russian landowners or serfs.

It would only take a few generations for Russia to establish absolute rule over the region

As a close friend of Tsar Nicholas I, Governor Paskevich immediately spread the news back to St. Petersburg.

Historically, Russia's fiscal revenue in 1848 was only 190 million rubles, while at this time Russia's fiscal revenue was as high as 340 million rubles.

All this stems from trade with the Austrian Empire, the most important of which is the cotton trade. Only by solving the Caucasus issue can Russia obtain more cotton.

In addition, it also solved Russia's worries about its southern expedition to the Ottoman Empire. After all, Governor Paskevich knew the ultimate goal of Nicholas I very well.