Chapter 266

Tsarist Empire, St. Petersburg.

Alexander II looked at the information in his hand solemnly, and turned to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gorchakov, Minister of the Army Milyudin, Minister of the Navy and Chairman of the Russian Parliament Konstantin Nikolayevich Grand Duke. .

To the latter, his younger brother Nikolayevich, the Archduke: "The parliament did not pass the bill?"

Archduke Nikolayevich said with a wry smile: "Some people in the parliament are inclined towards the West, so there is some resistance, and their interests are linked."

Alexander II showed a stern expression and said fiercely: "The Slavs don't need such selfish people."

Archduke Nikolayevich persuaded: "Your Majesty, give me a moment, let me try to see if I can persuade them, if it is really so stubborn in the end."

He also said fiercely: "In that way, the Tsarist Empire can remove some worms."

Alexander II said to several people: "I didn't expect that the Germans would break the previous chaos of self-government and agreed to hold a German-heads summit in Sweden, which is very serious for us.

This is a great change that broke the European situation in the past. Prime Minister Gorchakov must closely watch any little progress of this matter. What do you think about this matter? "

Minister of the Army Milyugin said: "Your Majesty, the German-dominated country now has the ancestral kingdom of Sweden-Norway, and now it has expanded to the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Austria, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, etc. Each of these countries is not weak, only one , are threats to the Russian Empire.

Today, among these countries, the Netherlands has a better relationship with the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the others are hostile to the Tsarist Russian Empire, especially the United Kingdom, which can be described as the enemy of life and death.

If these countries are allowed to become a line of alliance because of the blood of the same race, it is conceivable that for the Russian Empire, it will definitely be a subversive and bad change.

In my opinion, the Tsarist Empire must stop this process. "

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Gorchakov also agreed: "I also agree with this point of view, and the cabinet government is currently taking countermeasures against this."

Alexander II said hopefully: "What is the plan?"

The other two also looked over, full of anticipation.

Gorchakov: "Faced with this situation, the Russian Empire must ease its relations with several of those countries, and its semi-ally relationship with the Netherlands should continue to deepen. For example, in terms of arms, we can help The Netherlands will continue to sell arms to us, and cooperation will benefit both countries and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Everyone knows that although the Netherlands has not bad relations with neighboring countries, especially with Prussia and the United Kingdom, it is not good either.

For example, they have always been wary of the two countries, and have always been on good terms with the Tsarist Russia era.

Not to mention Denmark, in the face of the Prussian invasion of Schleswig and Holstein, the United Kingdom, an ally of Denmark, dared not intervene.

This shocked Denmark, and its expectations for the United Kingdom were reduced to a minimum. In the end, it was better to marry closely with the Netherlands than to be too close to the United Kingdom.

This makes the Germanic people, in fact, many factions.

After all, even Sweden was full of doubts about Britain and Prussia, and chose to ally with the Netherlands.

So what we have before us is that the Germans are divided into four factions: the British alone; the Austrian alone; the Prussian alone; the Dutch-Swedish-Danish group.

Among these factions, the United Kingdom is the most powerful, followed by Prussia, the Netherlands and the three countries are the third, and Austria is the last, but Austria and the Hungarians are the third.

Your Majesty, the conflicting interests of the four Germanic factions is our breakthrough point, as long as the explosion is detonated, the Tsarist Empire can divide them, making it difficult for them to unanimously aim at Tsarist Russia."

Alexander II nodded, knowing that there was more to come.

Gorchakov added: "This is an internal decomposition plan. Second, the Russian Empire is not alone in facing this huge threat. Someone is more nervous than us.

Don't forget, everyone, France is more urgent than we should be, and they don't want this alliance to be formed.

After all, the small English Channel was originally the direction Napoleon III was worried about. If the Germanic Union was allowed to be established, it would be terrible for France.

Because he still needs to face the Netherlands from the north and Prussia in the northwest. The entire north is the territory of the Germanic country. In that case, France will definitely be worse than our Tsarist Empire.

Therefore, the Tsarist Russian Empire can break the non-alignment of the two countries in the past, and choose to explore an alliance to share the United Kingdom, a crisis that may exist in destroying the country.

The Kingdom of Italy and the southern European countries of Spain and Portugal are the targets of Russia's struggle.

In short, the next task of our cabinet government will be to link the common threats of these countries, to eliminate the existing "enemies" that have not yet formed, and to eliminate them. Tsarist Russia will completely minimize the risk. "

Alexander II finally showed a smile, "Yes, France can have more intimate contact, but the most basic, I think it needs to disintegrate them internally, so as to solve the worries"

"But Sweden is about to host this summit, which is always too dangerous for us, across the Baltic Sea, so close to our St. Petersburg, it looks like a provocation to us, everyone, is there a Swedish one against us? protests?"

Sweden and the Tsarist Russian Empire originally fought for Nordic hegemony repeatedly in the 18th century, but were eventually defeated by Tsarist Russia in the second half of the last world, and the Tsarist Russian Empire officially became the most powerful country in Northern Europe.

In 1809 at the beginning of this century, Finland was occupied by Tsarist Russia and became the Principality of Finland under the Russian Empire.

Although Sweden eventually grabbed Norway from Denmark, Russia's recognition of Sweden's right to rule over Norway was considered a compensation from a great power.

However, the grievances between Sweden and the Tsarist Russian Empire were not necessarily due to the fact that the Tsarist Russian Empire recognized Norway's ownership as Sweden in 1815, and the two countries were truly reconciled.

There is even more hatred among the people.

At this time, Sweden actually held this Germanic summit, which made Tsarist Russia unpredictable, and brought back the complex that used to regard Sweden as a life-and-death enemy from forgetting to reality.

"Maybe there really is such a meaning in it"

Milyudin added: "But it looks a little different, Your Majesty, I think maybe Sweden wants to use this summit to propose to Britain, Prussia and other countries that Sweden is their hometown, to prevent Britain and Prussia from attacking Sweden. Ambition, moral restraint, the impact of the invasion of Denmark, after all, was as clear as yesterday, unforgettable for all countries."

Prime Minister Gorchakov said: "This is an assembly of princely states. Sweden's role is questionable, but the Netherlands' role in it is even more questionable. Sweden and the Netherlands are allies. There is a close cooperation, so I suspect that the Netherlands will definitely not be a small player in it."