Palace of Versailles

Foreign Minister Auvergne said: "Your Majesty, the New Holy Roman Minister in Paris sent us a diplomatic note, and they proposed that our two countries act together on the Greek issue.

It seems that the Vienna government is worried that the British will take the opportunity to annex the Greek Kingdom and threaten their interests."

The Greek population in this era had just exceeded one million. After this war, the youth and strong people in Greece suffered serious losses.

If the British were interested in turning the Greek Kingdom into their colony, it would not be very difficult.

This worry is obviously not redundant. Annexation of Greece can strategically bring a lot of benefits to the British, not only blocking the Russians' door to the Mediterranean, but also increasing their voice in the Near East.

The Paris government is also very worried about this situation. The cake in the Near East is so big. If the British take too much, they will inevitably squeeze their local interests.

Napoleon III thought for a while and said: "The British annexed the Greek Kingdom is very unfavorable to our Near East strategy. I sent people to talk to the Austrians and act together with everyone as long as the conflict of interests is not serious."

Napoleon III was still very cowardly when fighting against the British, but he was fearless when he joined Austria. In this era, the gap in strength between Britain, France, Russia and Austria has not yet widened. Even if the British have an advantage, they cannot fight against two.

Common interests are always the basis of cooperation. France and the new Holy Roman Empire have a dispute over continental hegemony. Logically speaking, the two sides should have many contradictions.

However, the European hegemon is still a Russian. Before the bear fell, both countries were just substitutes, and it was not time to turn against each other.

Affected by the anti-French war, every move of France on the European continent will be closely watched by everyone.

Against this background, any French expansion actions on the European continent may be misinterpreted by the outside world and boycotted by everyone. The Paris government has to be low-key at this time.

The new Holy Roman Empire is also keeping a low profile. Although Austria has been developing in Franz for more than four years, this development has only allowed Austria to keep up with the pace of the times and has not formed an advantage for all countries.

After annexing the Southern German region, the newly established new Holy Roman Empire entered a period of internal integration and did not have the energy to cause trouble in the short term. Franz has no plan to compete for continental hegemony.

Both families are very peaceful, and the conflict between France and Austria is naturally not ignited, which undoubtedly creates favorable conditions for the subsequent cooperation.

Home Secretary Pessini analyzed: "Your Majesty, the Austrians' purpose is probably not so simple.

According to what we know, since the failure of German regional unification, the calls for opening up overseas colonies within the Vienna government have begun to rise.

The situation on the European continent has now stabilized, the Austrians' way to unify the German region has been cut off, and Russia and Austria should have reached an agreement on the Balkans.

Regardless of the outcome of the Near East War, the Austrians' expansion on the European continent has reached its limit. Even the benefits they gained in the Balkans are a question mark whether they can eat them in the end.

In this context, the Austrians are likely to abandon the national policy of the Metternich era and restart the overseas colonial strategy.

It is necessary for us to prepare in advance, and another new opponent is about to enter the market in the future."

Not long ago, the Paris government determined its next national policy - temporarily abandoning expansion on the European continent and focusing on developing overseas colonies.

Now that Austria has joined overseas colonial activities, the French naturally have to be wary of it.

It is still the sailing era, and the navies of various countries have not yet set a distance of epoch-making technology. It is not as difficult as European powers with foundation to destroy the navy.

Of course, this does not mean that the French are afraid of Austria joining overseas colonization. On the contrary, the French have an absolute advantage over Austria in overseas colonization.

However, there is not only one competitor for overseas colonization, but everyone has many opponents. Usually, everyone is still restraining each other in the fight for colonies.

As long as it is not a core interest competition, it is basically just a game of power in a certain area, and it is rarely a struggle to compete with all its strength.

If you start a fight with a disagreement, then the winner will take all. Obviously this is impossible. If there are so many competitors, one will be suppressed and a new country will emerge.

If you continue to struggle like this, you are busy suppressing your opponents, so you will not have the energy to open up colonies. Colonial expansion is also limiting, and blind expansion may lead to losses.

Not all lands have colonial value; even the benefits that are ultimately generated by different countries in the same region are different.

In colonies with no strategic value and average economic value, who usually takes over the first place; if it is a colony with high strategic value and abundant interests, then a battle between dragons and tigers is naturally indispensable.

After the mid-19th century, countries had disputes over overseas colonies, but very few wars caused between colonial empires due to the competition for colonies.

The reason is that the most fertile land has been divided up by everyone, and the remaining land is not worthy of everyone's war. After all, everyone is for the sake of profit, and no one does the losing business.

After pondering for a while, Napoleon III said confidently: "For us, this should be a good thing. The Austrians will inevitably increase their efforts in the navy to start overseas colonization.

In this way, our local military pressure will be much smaller. Compared with the Austrians, our advantage at sea is much greater than that on land.

Due to geographical location, the Austrians were at a natural strategic disadvantage in the competition for overseas colonies.

Unless they only develop to the African continent in the Mediterranean and to develop in other regions, they must pass through our eyes and the British.

The greater the power they invest overseas, the less they will dare to turn against us in diplomacy in the future, otherwise we can jamm their necks at any time."

After saying that, Napoleon III looked dark. As he said, the situation in Austria was indeed at a disadvantage in opening up overseas colonies and exposed its weaknesses to them.

But why didn’t the British who mastered the Strait of Gibraltar get stuck in their necks? Once a war broke out between the two countries, the British could divide the French navy into two at any time so that they could not take care of each other’s heads and tails.

Why did the Austrian government give up opening colonies overseas? Is it really that they are not interested in the benefits of the colonies?

It is obviously impossible. Everyone knows that overseas colonization can bring rich benefits. However, for overseas colonization, Austria's geographical location is too bad, and they suffered losses in the overseas colonization process.

It would be fine if it did not grow and grow. With Austria's strength, colonization with average strategic value and average economic value can still be preserved. Once you encounter fat, you will definitely not be able to rob Britain and France.

Just for a few colonies with low strategic value and low economic value, a lot of financial resources were invested to develop the navy. In the view of the previous Austrian government, such efforts and returns were not proportional.

However, the times are changing. With the development of industrialization, overseas colonies that seemed to be useless in the past have once again revealed their value.

Don't look at Austria's geographical location, but Franz knows that with the development of naval technology, this weakness will become smaller and smaller in the future.

In the era of sailing warships, Austrian overseas colonization had to travel thousands of miles more than Britain and France in the distance, which was very fatal and meant a double increase in cost and risk.

However, with the advent of the era of ironclad ships, the use of steam engines on warships, the problem of distance is being gradually solved.

Especially after the Suez Canal passes, Austria will rush out of the Mediterranean and enter the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean will be greatly reduced, and its safety will be greatly improved.

This is also one of the reasons why the Vienna government eased relations with France. The excavation of a canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea has been proposed by Franz.

This requires cooperation with the French. Austria's voice in Egypt is still too low. Even if Franz strengthens his penetration into this region after he succeeds to the throne, it is impossible to catch up in a short time.

...

On the Crimean Peninsula, Britain, France and Russia fought a fierce battle. The casualties on the battlefield were still within the scope of the endurance of all parties.

However, the humid climate, a wide variety of small insects and fierce schistosomiasis have caused the spread of diseases and caused a large number of non-combat attributable people to appear, which is unbearable.

By the spring of 1854, the coalition forces lost non-combat men, which exceeded the casualties on the battlefield for the first time. Of course, the Russians were not spared, but they were more able to adapt to the local climate than the coalition forces, and the number of non-combat men was relatively small.

Russian commander Fitzroy Somerset never dreamed that it was not the arrival of new equipment, but the disease that helped a lot.

Of course, he has not yet paid attention to this. Now Fitzroy Somerset is also having a headache for a large number of soldiers in the Russian army to fall ill. The cruel reality of lack of medical treatment and medicine makes it powerless.

If he had known about the tragic situation of the coalition forces, Fitzroy Somerset would have been in a much better mood. If possible, he would not mind letting the Russian army and the enemy on the island die together.

This war has been related to the destiny of the Russian Empire. Now that the war has gone through, more than 300,000 Russian soldiers have fallen. The number of Russian casualties in the Crimean Peninsula alone exceeds 70,000.

A middle-aged officer replied: "Commander, the enemy has slowed down the intensity of the attack recently. According to the prisoners we caught, a large number of soldiers on the enemy fell ill, and it is said that they were infected with wind-cold, dysentery, and syphilis."

"Syphilis?" Fitzroy Somerset wondered

"Yes, Commander, it's syphilis!" the middle-aged officer replied affirmatively.

After receiving this answer, Fitzroy Somerset didn't know whether to cry or laugh. There were very few entertainment activities on the Crimean Peninsula except for war.

Gambling, smoking, drinking and women are the favorites of soldiers.

Russian soldiers rarely participate in these activities, and there is no way. Who makes Russian soldiers poor? They naturally can't afford to play without money. If they play less, the chance of getting sick will naturally be smaller.

The British and French coalition forces opposite were much better. They all had military pay, and market demand would naturally lead to a market. The service industry was booming in the coalition forces.

We are all living on the battlefield. After today, I don’t know if there is a tomorrow’s master, so we naturally have to have fun in time!

Because he did not pay attention to personal hygiene, he did not know which unlucky guy was infected with syphilis and then quickly spread throughout the army through the service industry.

(Note: More than 10,000 deaths in the Crimean War in history due to syphilis infection)

There is no effective treatment for syphilis in this era. The most reliable thing is to take antibiotics when you were just infected. Unfortunately, penicillin is still lying in Franz's laboratory, and it is still a long time to enter commercial operation.

Since there is no medicine, let it be done directly! Anyway, the normal mortality rate of syphilis is only about 20%, and people with good luck will most likely be able to withstand it.

Considering the poor environment in the military camp and the soldiers do not pay attention to personal hygiene, the mortality rate may have to rise again.

These are all small problems. Wind and cold and dysentery can also kill people, and the mortality rate is not much lower. Anyway, they are all dying, so what disease is not the same?

Not only the Russians were short of medical treatment, but the situation of the coalition forces was similar. Among them, the British army was even worse, with a chaotic logistics system, and most soldiers did not know where the battlefield hospital was.

It is not necessarily useful when you arrive at the hospital. The number of doctors is too small to satisfy everyone. Unless you are an officer, ordinary soldiers do not want to get good treatment if they do not get red envelopes.

Many therapeutic drugs need soldiers to bribe the quarantine officer before they can be obtained, otherwise you won’t even know where the drugs are placed.

If you find that the medicines are several miles apart from the hospital, don’t be surprised or panic. This is just a normal operation, and it is not an accident even if it is more than ten kilometers apart.

Machinery bureaucrats act completely according to regulations. Many times, field hospitals are relocated with the army, and the drug warehouse is trapped in the rear. All procedures must be completed before they can be moved.

Let me tell a joke: A transport ship called Pioneer transported more than 150 tons of vegetables to Balaclava, but the military department suddenly found that the ship was incomplete, so it was strictly forbidden to disembark from the ship.

According to regulations, you must go back to London to complete the procedures before these materials can be registered and put into the warehouse. Finally, the procedures are completed, and these more than 150 tons of vegetables have also rotted and spoiled.

Logically speaking, it should be scrapped, right? As a result, the mechanical bureaucrats directly put the materials into the warehouse and sent them to the troops.

The consequences can be imagined. In post-war statistics in history, the losses caused to the Expeditionary Force by the British Logistics Department far exceeded those of the Russians.
Chapter completed!