The raging conflict in South Africa had the British government deeply concerned. At one point, they suspected that Austria and France had reached a secret agreement to target the German Federal Empire. Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not materialize, as Austria did not take any action. Otherwise, Britain would have faced an additional threat. Although Austria, nestled in the Mediterranean, was formidable, it did not pose a direct threat to Britain. However, if Austria were to unify Germany and gain access to the Atlantic, the dynamics would change, bringing the two nations closer. Of course, this threat was relative. Franz also worried about the British threat, as the Royal Navy was the strongest of the era. Since the feared scenario did not occur, Prime Minister Benjamin became even more puzzled. He could not discern Austria’s intentions at all. Ignoring the French threat? Impossible! The Habsburgs and the French had been entangled on the European continent for centuries, so they were well aware of the French threat. France’s annexation of Italy was not merely territorial expansion. It also solidified France’s dominance in the Mediterranean and on the European continent. On this issue, Austria had no reason to compromise. Even if they were worried about directly confronting France and letting others benefit, they should have taken action after the British government agreed to an alliance. Concerned, Prime Minister Benjamin asked, “Have we figured out the inside story of the Franco-Austrian deal?” The more incomprehensible it seemed, the more suspicious it became. To uncover the details of the secret deal between France and Austria, the British government spared no effort, even activating their highest-level moles. As a result, many spies embedded in France and Austria were exposed, yet the information they sent back remained fragmented and required thorough analysis and interpretation. Foreign Secretary Maclean thought for a moment and said, “We lack sufficient intelligence and can only make preliminary judgments. Roughly, it seems that Austria has tacitly accepted France’s annexation of Italy in exchange for France’s recognition of Austria’s unification of Germany. There may also be other exchanges of interests, such as the two countries jointly dividing the Mediterranean and squeezing us out, as well as secretly partitioning the African continent. In recent years, the relations between France and Austria have been very close, and during their overseas colonial expansions, they seem to have an understanding, with each taking different paths and rarely clashing directly. This time, the French acted suddenly, catching the Austrian government off guard. Austria had no time to prepare, and they could not bypass the Kingdom of Prussia in their quest to unify Germany. Initially, the Austrian government likely intended to weaken Prussia through the Russo-Prussian War. They did not anticipate that the Russians would be so incompetent and lose the war. If not for this unexpected outcome, nationalists would have forced the defeated Kingdom of Prussia to join the Holy Roman Empire, and by now, Austria would have unified Germany. One unexpected event caused the Austrian government’s plan to fail completely. Now, they might be contemplating whether to unify Germany by force.” Speculation is often the most frightening. Mixed true and false information successfully misled the British, with Maclean choosing the most logical inference. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly accepting this explanation. The unknown is always the most terrifying. Once the ins and outs of a situation are understood, solutions can be found. Chancellor of the Exchequer Molitor analyzed, “In recent years, the Austrian government has invested a large portion of its financial revenue into economic development and has not made military preparations. The Kingdom of Prussia is not weak, and with the lesson from the Russians, the Austrian government will not rashly move against them without sufficient preparation. However, we still need to prepare for the worst. Austria holds significant advantages over Prussia, and once the Austrian government decides to take action, their war preparations won’t take long.” War is not a game, especially modern warfare, which heavily depends on logistics. When two countries go to war, they must inevitably prepare a series of supplies. This requires a significant investment of financial and human resources, making it impossible to keep such preparations secret. Judging whether a country is preparing for war by observing the flow of supplies is quite reliable. “We indeed need to be vigilant. One Greater France is already troublesome enough. We absolutely cannot allow a unified Holy Roman Empire to emerge. After so many years of development, the gap in strength between Prussia and Austria has not narrowed but has instead widened further. Although the Prussians won the Russo-Prussian War, these spoils of war still need time to digest and can’t be fully converted into strength in the short term. Currently, Austria’s standing army is as large as 580,000. If war breaks out, they can mobilize an additional 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 troops in the shortest time possible. More than ten years ago, Austria set a record by mobilizing 1,800,000 troops in a month. Austria is already at the forefront of the world in terms of mobilization mechanisms. Perhaps even Austrian Africa could mobilize a million troops. Moreover, these forces are not weak in combat. Now, a group of nobles’ private armies can even fight on par with us in South Africa. While Prussia’s standing army numbers 360,000, due to financial and human limitations and the impact of the Russo-Prussian War, it is estimated that their maximum mobilization capacity is only around 700,000. The Prussian government is now increasing reserve training. According to the Prussian General Staff’s plan, they aim to train 1,000,000 reserves within ten years, and their future mobilization capacity is expected to exceed 1,500,000. Since the Near East War, the mode of warfare on the European continent has changed. Future wars will inevitably involve large-scale operations, and our army’s size is already falling behind the times.” The speaker is Secretary of War Brandt, who felt frustrated as he watched the rapid development of European armies while the “lobster backs” (a reference to their bright red uniforms, as well as the fact that lobsters are bottom-feeders) remained stagnant. The era of large-scale operations has arrived, a reality many have foreseen. In the recently concluded Russo-Prussian War, the Russian Empire, fighting against multiple adversaries, amassed a total force that once exceeded two million. This number was previously unimaginable for them. If it weren’t for transportation limitations and the corruption of the Russian government, the Russians would have won the war simply due to their numerical advantage. Having experienced this firsthand, everyone had to admit that modern warfare could involve far more troops than in the past. When the quality advantage is not significant, human wave tactics become the simplest and most effective strategy. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rubbed his forehead and said, “We’ll discuss the army’s issues later. For now, let’s focus on how to respond to this challenge.” Expanding the army is out of the question. The country’s resources are already stretched thin. Maintaining the Royal Navy consumes most of the British government’s financial resources, and adding another money pit is unsustainable. The annual military expenses of France and Austria were no less than theirs, and in some years even exceeded them. The Royal Navy maintains its absolute superiority because it receives the lion’s share of the military budget. Typically, the Royal Navy takes 70-80% of the budget, and in some cases, even 90% is not unheard of. In contrast, if the navies of Austria and France even receive half of their countries’ military budgets, it’s already considered generous. Most of the time, the army receives the majority. In Austria, for example, the army usually gets 55-60% of the annual military budget, with the remainder going to the navy. France was the same. Unless there’s a naval arms race, it’s challenging for the navies of Austria and France to secure more funding than their armies. Against this backdrop, the Royal Navy’s dominance at sea was solidified. For the army to expand, the military budget would have to increase, or the navy’s share would have to be reduced. These two solutions are impossible to achieve. Substantially increasing military expenditure would overwhelm the British government’s finances, and reducing the Navy’s budget would be tantamount to slow suicide. Once the Royal Navy’s advantage is gone, Britain’s good days would be over. If they showed any sign of decline, European countries would pounce to divide up their colonial empire. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, knowing that the army’s issue couldn’t be resolved, didn’t let Brandt continue and directly shut down the discussion. Aware of the gravity of the situation, Foreign Minister Maclean picked up the topic, “Austria is already very powerful. We absolutely cannot allow them to unify Germany. Prussia is under immense military pressure, facing threats from both Russia and Austria. I suggest continuing to strengthen Prussia, and if necessary, allowing them to annex the Kingdom of Poland. However, this timing shouldn’t be too early. The Russian Empire hasn’t recovered yet. If we let them swallow Poland prematurely, they might join hands with Austria to first finish off the Russian Empire. We need a balanced European continent. The current phenomenon of frequent emergence of strong nations is not a good sign. If we don’t change this, the continent will eventually be unified again. Therefore, Greater France must also be dismantled. If strong countries keep annexing weaker ones, it will become a big problem.” The idea of a unified European continent is terrifying. A unified Europe would spell the end for Britain. John Bull has always had a strong sense of crisis. Whenever a European country shows signs of unifying the continent, Britain immediately suppresses it. In the later stages, it developed to the point of suppressing whoever was powerful. A dozen years ago, when the Russian Empire was domineering and pressuring the European continent, John Bull worked hard to suppress the Russians. Now that the Russians were down, France and Austria had emerged. Fighting two against one wasn’t their style. After some initial attempts, they decisively chose the strategy of hitting whoever rose first. Originally, the British government had selected Austria as the target and was formulating plans to implement this, but then France arose. Not only did they rise, but after annexing Italy, they also pushed British influence out of the Mediterranean. This couldn’t be tolerated, and the British government had to change targets. However, plans couldn’t keep up with the changes and Austria wasn’t cooperating. Without a henchman, John Bull couldn’t find a way to attack the French. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli solemnly said, “Italian revolutionary leaders Garibaldi and Mazzini have arrived in London, hoping for our support in restoring their nation. They met with the former Sardinian king, Victor Emmanuel II, and reached an agreement to unite against French rule. Additionally, some Italian nobles have contacted us, hoping we can convene an international conference to stop the French aggression. However, these forces are too scattered. Even with our support, it will be difficult to shake French control in Italy in the short term. We need support from more allies.” After speaking, he turned his gaze to Foreign Secretary Maclean, hoping he could provide a satisfactory answer. Foreign Minister Maclean’s response did not disappoint. He said, “At this time, all of Europe stands against the French, but everyone is wary of their power and doesn’t want to provoke them too much. Even the Austrians don’t want to see the French easily annex Italy. They may not intervene openly, but the Austrian government certainly won’t mind causing trouble for the French. The Foreign Office has already contacted various countries, and everyone is willing to support the Italian independence movement to break France’s ambition to dominate the European continent. Austria is an exception. They feared the Italian independence movement could affect Lombardy and Venetia, so they refused to support the Italian revolutionaries. That old fox Felix suggested we contact the French revolutionaries and encourage the French people to rise up against colonial invasion. He also proposed supporting an anti-French Spanish king to create more trouble for the French. These ideas are theoretically feasible. The only issue is maintaining a balance. If France falls, Austria will become overwhelmingly powerful.” Everyone was doing these overt strategies, all causing trouble for the French. However, Austria refused to take the lead this time, pushing all the responsibility onto the British. Knowing is one thing, but things still need to be done. If Austria was a potential threat, the Greater French Empire was a tangible one. If they don’t act quickly, the British will lose their foothold in the Mediterranean. Future overseas trade to the Indian Ocean will then be at the mercy of the French. Prime Minister Disraeli sneered, “Let the Austrians enjoy their moment. They’ll have their turn to cry. Ignore their schemes. Follow the original plan and suppress France first. After dismantling Greater France, we’ll slowly settle accounts with them. The Foreign Office should use anti-French sentiment as a cover to secretly contact various countries and prepare to establish an anti-Austrian alliance.” Anti-Russian alliance, anti-French alliance, and anti-Austrian alliance. These were carefully prepared by the British for their three competitors: Russia, France, and Austria. At present, the anti-Russian alliance has been successful, and in the recent war, the anti-Russian alliance defeated the Russians, burying the Russian Empire’s continental hegemony. The anti-French alliance wasn’t the first time, but Napoleon III changed the diplomatic policy of Napoleon’s era of being enemies with the world, choosing to mend relations with European countries, which led to the anti-French alliance failing to establish for a long time. Now the situation had changed. With the establishment of the Greater French Empire, the foundation for re-establishing the anti-French alliance was laid. If it weren’t for the lack of the crucial link, Austria, the anti-French alliance would probably be openly raising its flag by now. Faced with this alliance, Napoleon III would find it difficult not to compromise. The long-dormant anti-Austrian alliance was actually something the British had been preparing for a long time. Looking at the map, one would find that Austria’s neighbors—Poland, Prussia, Switzerland—all harbor anti-Austrian sentiments. If the situation changed, it would not be impossible for the Russian Empire to stand in opposition to Austria. And if Italy successfully gained independence, this newborn country would naturally be a member of the anti-Austrian camp. It could be said that as long as the Austrian government made one wrong move, they would fall into the trap set by the British, finding themselves isolated and helpless.
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