Chapter 891 The Tsar hopes to shed more blood
In the opinion of Frederick William IV, this was a war between Prussia or the German Confederation and Denmark.
But in fact, Britain, Russia, and Sweden all expressed strong dissatisfaction with this, and even France planned to get involved.
The British did not want the Prussians to rush out of the Baltic Sea, but the Russians had their own ambitions for Schleswig, which had the port that the Russians dreamed of.
At the same time, Denmark also controls the throat of the Baltic Sea. Britain and Russia will not give up here either for their own strategic needs or for world hegemony.
In particular, Russia has a deep connection with it, and even the Tsar himself has the titles of Schleswig-Holstein and Oldenburg.
This theoretically gave Russia the possibility to acquire this area. Naturally, the Tsar would not want the powerful German Confederation or Prussia to acquire this area.
In contrast, Denmark, a weak suzerain state, rules a region full of contradictions and is more in line with Russia's interests.
Sweden, on the other hand, cannot tolerate Prussia or Germany encroaching on Danish land, whether from the perspective of strategic offense or strategic defense.
Denmark is the only possible direction for Sweden's expansion at this time, and at the same time, it has a close relationship with Denmark. It is definitely not in Sweden's interests to let a powerful country occupy the position of Jutland.
Although Denmark covets Norway, its national power is declining, especially after the navy was destroyed by the British, it has not been able to recover for decades. It has a serious financial deficit and even had to sell its colonies to survive the crisis.
Kattegat, Sund Strait, Great Belt, Little Belt, Denmark controls all the waterways of the Baltic Sea.
Once these important waterways change hands, the Kingdom of Sweden's own maritime economy and security will be under huge threat.
Therefore, Sweden is also the most active country. Instead of protesting or issuing notes, they directly dispatch volunteers and warships to assist the Danes in fighting, and even nationalist sentiment in Sweden has been alleviated.
Sweden was also affected by nationalism at this time, but the Viking pirates were still relatively ferocious.
Two Swedish nationalist leaders in Stockholm also wanted to imitate the French and hold a banquet. After learning about it, the gendarmes immediately surrounded the manor where the banquet was held.
The Swedish government did not give the other side a chance to surrender. The army was ordered to completely eliminate the target. As a result, all 37 people in the manor, including servants, were killed.
Similar incidents occurred later, but the government's attitude remained tough, but the effect was immediate. The arrogance of nationalists in Sweden was much worse than that in other parts of Europe.
However, this does not mean that Sweden is not troubled by nationalism. In fact, those people have used more secretive methods to infiltrate the Swedish government.
This was difficult to eliminate, but fortunately, the first Schleswig War broke out at this time, and the Swedish government immediately organized volunteers to participate in the war, and linked it to the fate of the entire Swedish nation.
The vast majority of nationalists gave up their domestic struggle in Sweden and went to the front line against Prussia.
The Russian ambassador to Prussia expressed opposition at the time, and when the news reached St. Petersburg (travel was now open in spring), the Tsar was so angry that he almost smashed the table.
In Nicholas I's mind, Schleswig was already a Russian territory, and he immediately summoned his "advisors."
In fact, Russian civil servants and generals were very much like Nicholas I's personal advisers. They could not make decisions that were solely under the tsar's power, but the situation still had to change.
"The Prussians actually want to get involved in Schleswig. It is simply wishful thinking!"
The new Prime Minister Vasily Levav said with a hint of flattery.
It is difficult to be a civil servant in Russia, but it is even harder to be the prime minister! Not only did his power be pitifully small, but his status was also very low. Not only did he have no dignity in front of the tsar, he also had no dignity in front of the military attaches.
The former Prime Minister Hilarion was sent to Siberia by Nicholas I because of a trivial matter. His life and death are still uncertain.
Vasily Levav had decided to give up his dignity as a civil servant and focus on pleasing the emperor, but he didn't realize that Nicholas I despised those spineless people the most.
"Do you think Prussia is incapable of taking Schleswig?"
Nicholas I said coldly, and Vasily Levav was suddenly at a loss. He didn't know what he had done wrong.
"No, I just want to say"
"Then do you think the Danes can hold on?"
"I don't"
"Then what do you want to say?!"
Nicholas I suddenly shouted loudly, causing the former to fall to the ground in fright, and the general beside him burst into mocking laughter.
Vasily Levav was angry, but he didn't know what to do, because dignity was not as important as life.
However, from the way the Tsar looked at him, Vasily Levav knew that if he didn't do something now, he would be dead.
At this time, someone gave Vasily Levav a hand. The person who came was a young man. He patted the dust on himself for the somewhat downtrodden Prime Minister.
"The Danes may not be able to hold it, but the British, Swedes, even the French and Austrians will not want the Prussians to take Schleswig."
Nicholas I looked at the young man in front of him with great admiration.
"Very well, Andrei is right. We are not the only ones who don't want Prussia to take Schleswig. You continue."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. We just have to make our position clear and the British and Swedes will take care of it for us.
What we have to deal with now are the Poles and Chechens in the country. They are like two cancers eroding our national strength. "
In fact, Franz's whim caused more trouble for the Russians than he imagined. Although the supply of the Chechens was cut off by Franz, they were much stronger than imagined.
And because Franz’s early funding caused much greater losses to the Russians, the historical scene in which the Tsar threatened the French Provisional Government to send troops did not take place.
Nicholas I's brows softened slightly, this was what he was thinking about. In fact, he was considering whether to send troops to Schleswig because Russia's military strength was too stretched at this time.
Not only Chechnya, but also a series of small-scale uprisings broke out in Poland. The new Polish Governor-General Wimberowski was a romantic poet-general, but his methods were anything but gentle.
By this time the Polish Restorers had evolved after the disastrous defeat in Galicia, and they began to seek cooperation with workers and serfs.
These Polish restorers have realized that the few nobles and capitalists alone cannot defeat the powerful Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
So they changed some strategies and began to look for foreigners who were sympathetic to the Poles.
At the same time, they also learned to spread the pie for workers and farmers. For example, after the establishment of the Polish Federation, there will be no more oppression, no more overtime, and no more arrears of wages.