[The world line of the Demon Queen and the traitorous minister, Zha Ai stayed in Austria to assist Sophie and become the pillar of the Austrian country ~ Taking over extra chapters 2, 6 and 27]
April 29, 1850
Vienna in spring is more fascinating than usual. With the warm breeze sweeping away, you can see blooming flowers everywhere in the city's parks, flower beds and streets. These flowers embellish this historic city and the endless flow of the Danube River.
It also reflects the green grass on the river bank. The atmosphere is warm, comfortable and slow, and the whole city seems to be immersed in a soothing music.
However, outside this central European imperial capital, everything was not so stable.
Throughout the past 1848 and 1849, a series of jaw-dropping dramatic events occurred in France and throughout Europe.
First of all, in France, the people of Paris once again displayed their traditional skills. The revolutionary masses rushed to the streets and built barricades to besiege the palace, and then within a few days they overthrew Louis Philippe I of the Orleans family who had ruled the country for 18 years.
King (in 1830, it was the Duke of Orleans who usurped the throne of the Bourbon family with the help of the east wind of the revolution. This can be regarded as a kind of "good luck").
Soon after, France established the Republic, as if the great revolution had reappeared.
With the success of the French Revolution, a revolutionary storm spread quickly, sweeping across the European continent from west to east. Munich, Berlin, Warsaw, and cities all fell into turmoil. Even Vienna had many radicals leaving.
He took to the streets and called for a repeat of what happened in France, and to drive away the Habsburg imperial family, which was crushing the people and draining their marrow, especially the two unpopular queens and traitorous ministers who had defiled the palace.
Fortunately, the imperial government seemed to have been prepared for this. Under the command of the Empress Dowager Regent's most trusted minister, Charles Bonaparte, Duke of Lechstadt, the troops and police deployed around Vienna were quickly in place as planned.
, and then rushed into the city of Vienna at extremely fast speeds, and then quelled all riots in the city within two or three days.
Then, the imperial government promulgated martial law, and all cities in the empire implemented curfews. Any rioters who dared to defy the ban would be shot to death.
As tens of thousands of soldiers entered Budapest, the Hungarian capital, after minimal firing, the last flames of unrest in the empire were suppressed.
After careful planning beforehand and iron-fisted suppression afterwards, the great turmoil that originated in France did not damage the foundation of the Austrian Empire. The empire and the Habsburg royal family finally escaped this crisis without any danger.
Sophie, the Empress Dowager Regent, relied on her most trusted duke to firmly control this vast empire, just as she had done in 1838.
After allowing the rule of the Habsburg royal family to continue to be "as stable as a rock", the Queen Mother and the Duke adopted the strategy of standing still and watching the fire from the other side, watching the changes in the situation in various parts of Europe with a cold eye.
The thing that caught their attention the most was naturally France, which has always been capricious in history.
If the revolution is a shocking thunderbolt, then France will continue to be a "big drama", with shocking reversals in one scene after another, which makes people jaw-dropping.
First of all, there was the "internal strife" among the revolutionary ranks. The bourgeois government and the proletariat in Paris had a fierce internal strife, which ended with the government mobilizing troops to bombard Paris and bloody suppressing the second uprising of the proletariat. Although the king was driven away
, but the revolution is still dead.
Then, in the midst of the chaotic political situation, Aigron's cousin, the former Dutch prince Louis Bonaparte, who had been in exile, actually returned to France, and then openly ran for president under the banner of Emperor Napoleon.
When she first heard the news, Sophie was naturally furious. In her opinion, this was a separation of the family and an act of disrespect to her lover. However, the Duke did not feel dissatisfied with this and would rather continue to watch the development of the situation with a cold eye.
.
Therefore, at the end of 1848, Aiglon's cousin successfully ran for president, allowing France to have a supreme ruler named Bonaparte again after more than thirty years.
As soon as he was elected president, Louis Bonaparte sent a letter of good news to the Duke of Vienna. In the letter, he also "warmly invited" the Duke to go to Paris to participate in the grand event and return the family to the throne. He also vowed to
He said that once he succeeds in usurping the throne as president, he will definitely give up the throne to his younger brother.
"Bah! If he really plans to let you sit, then why doesn't he invite you to elect the president first, but wait until he grabs the big position and then sell it? I think he just wants to use you, and then he will kill you after he succeeds.
Kick it away!" After receiving this letter, Sophie saw the other party's sinister intentions at a glance, and then urged the Duke not to listen to such lies and rush into danger.
Of course, deep down in her heart, she was extremely reluctant to have her beloved leave her and go to Paris - even to become emperor.
The Duke was also well aware of the stakes involved. He wrote a reply to his cousin, first complimenting him and congratulating him on his victory, and then stating that he had already started a family in Austria and had grown up, and there was no way he would go to France to wade into troubled waters.
He thought that the family's business in France could be left to his cousin to handle, and at the end of the letter, he also wished his cousin to "promote higher and higher" in the future.
Of course, my shrewd and cunning cousin could understand this extremely clear hint.
As if in response to the Duke's call, in the next more than a year, President Bonaparte used a series of political maneuvers, promises, fraud, win-over, differentiation, and both soft and hard tactics to achieve victory even when his opposition had a majority in the Parliament.
Next, he continued to expand the power of the president. He first obtained an annual salary of millions of francs, then obtained control of the city defense of Paris, and then attracted the support of the army. Seeing that the supporters of the Bonaparte family became stronger and stronger, they gradually controlled
gained the military and political power of France.
It was obvious to everyone in Europe by 1850 that President Louis Bonaparte had taken control of the situation and was just one step away from a coup d'état to become Emperor of the Empire - and most had no interest in the Republic.
The French would cheer this up.
Regardless of whether they like this result or not, European governments have begun to make corresponding preparations based on this premise.
The "partner" of the Queen Regent and Duke Lechstadt naturally had to prepare for this now.
Among them, the Duke's situation is the most delicate: he is obviously the official successor of the Bonaparte family, but now he has become the Prime Minister of the Austrian Empire, and his shrewd and capable cousin now leads the Bonaparte family's power in France.
Should he be happy about the revival of his family? Or should he be depressed that all this has nothing to do with him?
Maybe a bit of both.
However, for the current Duke, the problem of mood is secondary. He must consider the future for himself, his lover and children. This "future" is in Vienna, not Paris.
His motherland is now the Habsburg Empire, and all his resources and ambitions can only be realized here.
A Corsican can regard France as his motherland, and a prince who grew up in Schönbrunn Palace can regard Austria as his motherland. So what can't he do?
But now, he is needed to devote all his energy to the future of this empire.
The aging Austrian Empire is now actually facing "national pressure" from all four fronts.
Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia and Northern Italy, the four territories of the empire, each one has ancient non-German peoples, and each one is indispensable.
The problem is that with the rise of nationalism, these non-German peoples have also begun to be dissatisfied with the Habsburg Empire and believe that they should gain independence - or at least gain more autonomy. Their "awakening" is bound to
It also brought great pressure to the Austrian Imperial Government.
In the original historical line, Emperor Franz Joseph first followed "tradition" and chose the emperor's autocratic dictatorship, with the Austrian Germans as the core, and suppressed these four ethnic groups at the same time. So in 1848, Austria first defeated the Kingdom of Sardinia
, stabilized the rule of Lombardy; then "borrowed troops to help suppress" from Russia, suppressed the Hungarian uprising, and re-stabilized the crumbling rule of the empire.
However, due to its disastrous defeat to the French Empire of Napoleon III in the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, and then its disastrous defeat to Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria's national strength suffered heavy damage, and it suffered successively.
Losing its territory in Lombardy, Italy; and leadership of the German states.
Under such a tragic defeat, Austria could no longer rely solely on its German core power to suppress all the ethnic groups within its territory at the same time. It had to change its strategy and instead win over the Hungarian Magyar nobles, and then use the Austria-Hungary merger method
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which suppressed the Slavs in Bohemia and Croatia, was also born.
This was not a perfect solution, and was completely full of "opportunism." But in the precarious situation of the empire at that time, how many options did the emperor have left?
Moreover, after making this choice, the Habsburg Empire lived for another half century. Who can say that this choice was completely wrong?
In politics, there are actually not so many right and wrong things, as long as you survive, you are right.
However, in the current timeline, through the Duke's efforts, the situation is much better - he turned the tide of the 1848 revolutionary craze that greatly weakened the Austrian Empire and subdued it at a relatively small cost. "With the help of his teachers, he
The humiliating incident of "suppressing" Hungary did not happen after all. The central government of the Austrian Empire is still strong and its finances have improved greatly. More importantly, Austria's industrialization process is also developing steadily under the leadership of the Duke, and everything is improving.
.
However, in order to escape from the "dangerous" nightmare of the 19th century, the Austrian Empire obviously needed to make more efforts.
First of all, if you want to maintain this huge, multi-ethnic Central European empire, you must not only gradually become politically enlightened and gradually absorb elites of various ethnic groups into the ruling institutions; you also need the support of major powers outside the region.
Even if you can't win the support of all the big countries, you must at least find a strong support that you can rely on.
Russia is excluded first - this country's territorial ambitions are too fierce, cannot be satisfied at all, and cannot be trusted.
Then, you need to "look left" or "look north".
To put it more bluntly, either take the "Catholic Alliance" route and unite France with religious beliefs as the core (although no emperor really cares about faith), while restraining the South German states who also believe in Catholicism; or they can unite with Prussia
Form an alliance and form the "German League" with German nationalism as the core while restraining the South German states.
Only one of the two must be chosen as a strong support, so that Austria can suppress the rebels of various ethnic groups in the country, resist the erosion of Slavism, and stabilize South Germany as a buffer zone, and then maintain its status as a first-class power.
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How to choose?
In the original historical line, Emperor Franz Joseph initially chose "neither choice". He was still stuck in the past, always feeling that the Habsburg family could benefit from both sides. The consequence of this was that he first
It offended Russia during the Lemean War, and was then forced to go to war with France and Prussia alone. It received no help from any country, and ultimately suffered a dismal defeat and lost all "bargaining power."
It was only at this time that the emperor finally came to his senses, and then chose to lean towards Prussia. At this time, Prussia, which had unified Little Germany, had greatly surpassed Austria in national power, and the status of the two countries was completely unbalanced.
In the end, he had no choice but to become a half-vassal state of Prussia, and walked towards the Ragnarok of World War I in a daze.
Therefore, for the Duke, since he must choose, he should choose "early".
Now, for the regent Queen Mother Sophie, it doesn't matter which way she chooses, because she was born in Bavaria. Since ancient times, Bavaria has had the tradition of "relying on foreign countries to respect itself". It is a traditional operation to form an alliance with France against Austria or Prussia.
, she has no German national feelings in her heart.
Regarding this issue, the Duke and Sophie had discussed it many times during "heart-to-heart talks" and finally reached a consensus.
Let’s look at France first.
It's not that the Duke prefers France, but that the Habsburg Empire doesn't like to take the nationalist route unless it has to, because for the empire, it will only increase the centrifugal force in non-German regions; if you think about it this way, it will
France is more pleasing to the eye.
Especially now, Louis Bonaparte is about to take power in France. Once he becomes the French emperor, not only will there be "fellowship", but France will become a monarchy again, and those anti-republican conservative aristocrats will
, there is nothing left to say now.
To them, no matter how unpleasant the "Emperor Bonaparte" looks, he is still ten thousand times more beautiful than the "President of the Republic".
Because of this consideration, at this time, Queen Mother Sophie ordered the Austrian Embassy in France to start diplomatic testing in her own name.
What made her extremely gratified was that Louis Bonaparte also gave an extremely enthusiastic response. Not only did he immediately express his willingness to contact the Austrians, the president was even willing to privately send a delegation of close associates to visit Austria, further
Deepen the relationship between the two parties.
Although this may not mean that the two countries have officially come together, it is at least a good start.
Now that the two sides hit it off, the next thing will be much easier to handle. President Louis Bonaparte secretly submitted a delegation list to Vienna through the embassy. As long as the Empress Dowager approves, the delegation can immediately
Set off.
Now, two people are reviewing this list.
The first person on the list is Prince Jerome Bonaparte. This is not surprising. As the youngest brother of Napoleon, the uncle of the Duke, and the eldest male of the Bonaparte family today, he deserves the title of leader.
Returning also embodies "family friendship".
The people behind him were also very normal. They were either long-term followers of the Bonaparte family or important French politicians. In short, President Louis Bonaparte showed his sincerity this time.
The Duke's eyes ran across the list line by line, and finally, he stopped on an unexpected name.
"Charlotte de Treville?"
The Duke frowned. He always felt as if he had heard of this name somewhere, and even had an impression of it, but racking his brains, he couldn't find the slightest impression.
"What's wrong? Do you know her?" Sophie was keenly aware of the Duke's anomaly, so she asked.
"I seem to know him, but... I have no impression." The Duke replied honestly. "I'm just curious as to why a girl came with the delegation."
"Don't treat her like an ordinary girl. According to the embassy's information, she is the president's confidant. Although she is only in her early twenties, she is smart, capable and skillful. She is by no means an easy person to deal with. She even
May be one of the core figures of this delegation."
Speaking of this, Queen Mother Sophie's expression showed a little sarcasm and a little narrow-mindedness, "In addition, the people from the embassy also specially emphasized that she is an amazing beauty... Maybe your cousin sent
Maybe she has some other motive for coming here~"
"I don't think he's that boring." The Duke smiled reluctantly.
"It's hard to say. After all, he can be the president, and you have contributed. At least you didn't hold him back, right? Isn't it normal for him to want to reward you heavily?" Sophie still smiled, "Actually, even if it is true,
That’s okay, right? Who doesn’t like pretty little girls..."
Sophie said so, but the Duke knew that if he really showed intention, then he would definitely be greeted by a violent storm.
Alas, no matter how powerful a woman is, she will inevitably be jealous. I have never seen her before... He thought a little innocently.
No matter how deep the relationship between the two people is, the fact that Sophie is six years older than her beloved is an unbreakable knot in her heart. As she gets older, her fear of aging naturally becomes more intense.
——After all, she is now over forty years old. Even if she can take care of herself at all costs as the empress dowager, she will still lose her youth after all.
"In my heart, no matter how beautiful the little girl is, she is not one ten thousandth as good as you... My Majesty." As he said this, he skillfully pinched Sophie's still white right hand with his hand to express "loyalty."
”.
"Come on!" Sophie spat, but the smile was brimming in her eyes. "Then you have to prove it with actions..."