Chapter 53

Suddenly, there are not many people sitting here who don't envy Prussia. They can easily roam between several big countries and earn their own benefits. This is easier to gain benefits than fighting any kind of war.

"Don't envy them. Yes, Prussia has stepped out of the shadow of Austria, and Prussia's diplomacy has officially entered into a good situation of left and right Pengyuan."

William IV, however, had a bit of sarcasm in his eyes, and everyone saw it, not knowing why, so they were all ready to "seek an explanation" for His Majesty's next words.

In particular, the former Prime Ministers Schelto von Hemstra and Jane Jacob Rokusen, who had just joined the team, felt that the young His Majesty had gone too far and was not afraid to flash his tongue. ?

The two have been operating in the Dutch political arena for many years. No matter which faction they belong to, the Congress must give them some face.

Schelto von Hemstra was the liberals' second-ranking figure in the House of Representatives, holding the post of whip, with power in the liberals, second only to Prime Minister Thorbeck, who served from 1861 to 1862 Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

And Jane Jakob Rokusen, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, served as Prime Minister from 1858 to 1860, and is currently the leader of the conservative party and the party whip.

In fact, both of them are now in the Dutch House of Representatives, which can also be called the real representatives of the House of Commons. The two of them control the dispatchers of the two factions in the Netherlands.

"Since Prussia has enjoyed the flexibility of both sides in diplomacy, it will inevitably lose certain reliability."

As soon as William IV's sentence came out, the two suddenly stopped.

Yes, there are gains and losses. Being flexible is flexible, but it is easy to be looked down upon by others. You also need to see other people's faces turning the rudder.

"Before the Prussian-Austrian relationship deteriorated, Prussia, which entered the 1940s, was more at ease in the relationship between the major powers than other major powers, and both sides had the best of both worlds.

Even after the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated, I don't know if everyone has noticed."

William IV said solemnly: "The initiative is still in the hands of Prussia, even directly in the hands of Bismarck.

As long as he dropped the obvious challenge to Austrian leadership within the German Confederation.

The relationship between Austria and Prussia can quickly warm up, making the German Confederation an alliance that both France and the Tsarist Empire feared again. Therefore, compared with other regional powers or major powers, the strategic maneuvering space of Prussian diplomacy is still very broad."

"It is undoubtedly a blessing for a big country to maintain a balanced relationship with other big countries for a long time, because this is an extremely scarce and rare strategic resource."

William exclaimed: "The strategic flexibility generated by the huge diplomatic space can not only create rare international influence for the country, but also 'cash out' for various interests of the country."

When William IV thought of this, he couldn't help but think of a certain country in the future that had just been ruled by Queen Victoria for a while.

This country was in the southwest of the motherland in the previous life. While its economy was booming, it attracted the attention of a superpower, and even the superpower adjusted its own policies towards this country.

Every time a superpower changes a leader, a new foreign policy will be launched accordingly. However, the diplomatic status of this country in the southwest of the superpower is unshakable, and it has received the attention and attention of the new leaders of the previous superpower.

Each new diplomatic strategy of these new leaders is inseparable from the country's position in the diplomatic strategy of a superpower, so its position in the superpower is clearly on the rise.

Under the circumstance that a superpower is actively approaching, and a certain country is actively approaching, the two countries have successively signed a large number of arms and arms purchase agreements, and the level of quasi-ally has been greatly increased in an instant.

Taking advantage of this shareholder wind, a certain country bought those advanced weapons from the superpower that could only be seen on TV in the past.

It can be called envy of the dead!

However, at the same time, he was still closely connected with his old ally, the northern allies. Even if the pressure of the superpowers, because of his strategic position was not light, he would not settle down in the end, so this country in the southwest became a model for future generations.

William IV couldn't help but sigh, and secretly said: Did this future southwestern country learn these diplomatic skills from Bismarck, or why is it so skilled, but it is slightly worse than the national leader in his previous life. .

It is inevitable that there will be frictions and even confrontations between major powers in terms of ideology, geopolitics, power politics and currency geopolitics.

After the Cold War, India's relatively superior geographical location, relatively weak national strength, relatively diverse civilizational characteristics, and relatively mild Italian style made it better to avoid confrontation with other major powers and save a lot of strategy. resources, creating a good international environment for its rise

Using other major powers to "cash out" their strategic needs further enhances India's power.

These are the "happy" aspects of India's diplomacy; however, there are also some "worries" of India's diplomacy hidden behind it.

"but"

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, William IV understood the word, but every time he mentioned it, it would attract a lot of people's wry smiles, because many times he would be the turn of God.

Following their understanding of the meaning of the word "familiar", William continued:

"There are three reasons why Prussia is so comfortable"

"Your Majesty, which three o'clock?"

It was Foreign Secretary Hesbet Feng who asked the question, "Don't look at me, I'm asking sincerely, not flattering.

Really, every time you listened to your Majesty's diplomacy topics at the Foreign Affairs University recently, you didn't see that the blood-rushing appearance was referring to the vivid expressions of the first class of China Foreign Affairs University students at that time. It's really shocking."

Hearing that Hesbet Feng mentioned the Foreign Affairs College, he even regretted it a little.

He wants to open the Netherlands Diplomatic Academy, but he shouldn't stand up himself, but someone else should do it. It's just three days and two days. This guy, Haysbet Feng, always uses the wishes of the students to prevaricate him, and he is passive. Being a lesson preparation teacher is still the kind without salary, which is very pitiful.

She glanced at him dissatisfied, and then said:

"There are three reasons why Prussia is so adept. The first is that Prussia is relatively weak compared to other countries.

The reason why Prussia was able to simultaneously rise from the British Empire (the marriage of the Crown Prince of Prussia and the Princess of England), Tsarist Russia (the marriage of the eldest sister of William I and Nicholas I), Austria (Prussia bowed its head to get Austria's asylum and secretly rose), France (every time Prussia faced this When it was a colossus, when the hostility of France came, it always shrank itself under the umbrella of the German Confederation and pushed Austria out.)

The reason why Prussia was able to communicate with the four countries at the same time was because of its close commerce.

Apart from the fact that these four countries regarded each other as a threat to each other, more importantly, Prussia was not strong enough to compete with these four countries for power in Europe and the world.

Judging from the overall national strength on the surface, Prussia still has a certain distance to reach Austria, the weakest among the four countries in terms of military, economy, population, and strategic position, not to mention the other three major powers, Britain, Russia and France.

You may wish to follow this line of thinking and think about it. It is not difficult to imagine that when Prussia is powerfully threatening the power of these four countries, the current similar and quasi-alliance relationship between Prussia and the four countries will be replaced by competition or confrontation. "

good!

The conservative leader and whip Rokusen and the liberal whip Hemstra were stunned for a moment, but they were shocked after they understood it.

Looking at the face of William IV in the sky that was so young that he didn't even need a beard, it seemed that His Majesty William just turned 22 this month, but his diplomatic proficiency actually made them, who have been listening to and seeing for many years, the old fritters in the political arena willing to give in.

With him here, the Netherlands' diplomacy, like what happened in the last month or two, has made the Netherlands the focus of news in the world that only big countries usually have.

At the same time, I thought to myself, no wonder a voice from the people said it right: the wind is blowing, the windmills in the Windmill Country are turning again, our Netherlands is about to take off again!

"Secondly, it is possible to become a **** of other countries. Medium or regional powers will usually be the first and second among several big powers, in order to achieve both sides and maximize their own interests.

However, they may also become pawns in the exchange of interests of major powers at any time.

Let us take this as an example. Back then, we followed the great powers to rebel against Napoleon I.

In the end, although they lost overseas territories, including Sri Lanka Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which was most regrettable by the Dutch, it was a great joy to gain Belgium, a principality close to the mainland.

But we didn't do it early. At that time, we were preventing the British Empire from digging a hole. The ultimate price was that the Tsarist Russian Empire helped us withstand the pressure of Belgium not being recognized internationally, but ultimately for their own country. We still had to let go of our interests, and Belgium left us.

This example is the thorn in our hearts forever in our hearts, the thorn in calling us to become stronger, although no one wants to blame the traditional ally of the Tsarist Russia Empire."

Yes, you must know that the relationship between the Netherlands was very bad at that time. His Majesty William I was only concerned with the relationship with Tsarist Russia, and the German Confederation was also because Luxembourg and the Dutch province of Limburg belonged to the German Confederation. It's a family, but it's also the kind of non-human, marginalized characters inside and out.

"I don't know, Luxembourg and our province of Limburg are within the framework of the German Confederation, and the customs union of the North German Confederation is also a good idea.

Prussia's ambitions are indeed not small. I don't know. If we apply in the Netherlands, we don't know if we can enter this customs union controlled by Prussia? "

The response received was yes, both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Foreign Affairs said there was no drama.

William IV smiled and didn't care. That's right, who would put a terrier into the farm where he raised chickens, ducks, cats and geese? Isn't this asking for trouble?

"Forget it, since Prussia is stingy, then the Netherlands should make a deal with other countries, and make a bigger one."

"Who is it?" Naturally, which country is he referring to?

William smiled mysteriously, but said, "I'll stop this for now. After listening to the report from the Ministry of Industry, let's come again. Now let me talk about the third point."

What William IV got, of course, was a pair of blank eyes!