Chapter 1225 Trump Card
Prussia's situation is somewhat embarrassing. Although it has always been in the second place in the German Confederation, its status is far inferior to that of the same period in history.
It all started when the Austrian Empire joined the German Zollverein. Austria's joining directly overturned the internal structure of the Zollverein.
Before Austria joined, Prussia could be said to be the leader in North Germany and completely crushed other countries.
However, with the addition of Austria, South Germany's power instantly surged and directly surpassed North Germany. With the economic rise of the Austrian Empire, the position of leader of the German Zollverein Union has undoubtedly fallen on Austria.
Coupled with the continuous expansion of the German Confederation externally and the merger of the same clans internally, many countries have the strength to compete with Prussia.
The contradiction between central Prussia and the Rhine region gave new hope to the careerists, making them feel that they could compete for the second position under the Austrian-dominated framework.
And Franz pushed Prussia to the front line with France and Russia. At this time, Prussia was in a situation of internal and external troubles and powerful enemies.
Bismarck did not have much confidence in Prussia at this time, because Prussia had already lost in terms of national strength and political structure.
Even if Prussia launched a war against Austria, no matter whether it won or lost, it would only bring about its own destruction.
Needless to say, if Austria loses, the brothers in the German Confederation will dismember Prussia even if Austria does not pursue it.
But even if it wins, Prussia may not be able to secure its throne as the German hegemon. Internal challengers are everywhere, and external France and Russia certainly do not want a real hegemon to emerge in Germany.
In fact, Bismarck had another trump card at this time, which was the generator developed by Siemens.
Bismarck was not very interested in his friend's invention at first, but he became interested after learning that it was commissioned by high-level officials of the Austrian Empire.
Bismarck was present when the crackling and buzzing machine came out, but he did not think it was much better than the steam engine.
"I think this is the greatest invention of my life!"
Siemens said with emotion.
"What can this crackling thing do?"
Bismarck asked with a puzzled look on his face. At this time, almost all of his physics knowledge had been returned to the teacher. In fact, at that time, university physics did not involve electricity courses. As mentioned earlier, electricity would not officially enter the classroom until the beginning of the 20th century.
"Can generate electricity!"
Siemens clenched his fists and said excitedly.
"Generating electricity?"
"That's right! This guy can generate one thousand watts per hour! It's more powerful than all the generators in the world combined!"
Siemens roared, while Bismarck clapped his hands in confusion.
"What's the use of electricity?"
Siemens froze for a moment. He really hadn't thought much about this issue. Fortunately, he was a professional counterpart.
"We can make arc lamps! In the future, we can use arc lamps to light up the city. Then we won't have to breathe that terrible gas all day long! Let alone worry about fires!"
"Arc lamp?" Bismarck recalled the name hard and suddenly said excitedly: "Is it the one that explodes with a flash and has a lot of fragments?"
Siemens's face turned dark instantly.
"That's just a matter of materials, which will be solved later. And that's not a weapon!"
"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Bismarck waved his hand quickly, preparing to change the topic.
"What else can electricity do? Can it kill people like Zeus did?"
"hack?"
"Yes, chop!"
"I'll chop you off! Unless you can get someone to hold both ends of the wire!"
Siemens couldn't help but curse, and Bismarck quickly blocked the great inventor's spittle from flying around with his hands and fled.
After that, Bismarck made repeated inquiries through his own channels. Almost all well-known scholars believed that electricity would change the world, but no one knew exactly how it would change. It might be the same power source as steam engines, or it might be a heat source instead of coal.
The only known use now is to send telegraphs, but at this time almost all telegraphs in Germany used hand-operated generators. It was impossible to tolerate such a high-power generator unless someone could build a large telegraph office.
This reminded Bismarck that the telegraph office might be a profitable business, but due to the confidentiality agreement, he would not dare to expose this technology within five years.
On the one hand, it was because of his friendship with Siemens, and on the other hand, he vaguely felt that the other party was scary. Bismarck was not a coward, but he also did not want to die inexplicably like a fool.
As for whether Prussia can make an extreme comeback, it depends on how much this little invention can change the world.
Russian Poland.
The strategy of attacking in the east and attacking in the west achieved unexpected results. The Russian army was exhausted while running. The results in less than a month were greater than the results of the Warsaw Uprising in 1830 in one year.
The Russians in Poland suffered huge losses. Two-thirds of Russian civilians fled Poland, and only a few people still lived in Poland under the protection of the army. Russia's colonial policy over the years was a complete failure.
The Polish army continued to grow and now numbered at least 200,000 people, equipped with various light and heavy weapons such as artillery, rockets, and new rifles.
The British directly used Poland as a testing ground for weapons.
In 1848, Austria's rocket troops impressed the British army. However, rockets were originally brought by the British from India, so they pulled out the Congreve rockets from the warehouse and modified them to send them to the Polish battlefield.
The appearance of rockets greatly compensated for the lack of Polish siege capabilities, especially against the crudely built large fortresses of the Russians. After thousands of rockets, the Russians could not even put out the fire in time.
The early technology of rockets was not advanced. Seeing the Russians retreating step by step, the British were very satisfied with their modifications.
But in fact, the British rockets at this time were still early versions, and the quality defects were completely covered up by quantity.
However, the theory of firepower advantage is originally a prominent school in the art of war. In the short term, the British did achieve great success.
However, in the eyes of the Austrian military, the British version of rockets was still very backward, roughly equivalent to the stage when the Austrian military just started ten years ago.
Of course, it is not ruled out that the British used garbage for the Poles. After all, the Polish battlefield was too close to the three countries of Russia, Prussia and Austria. Perhaps the British considered the possibility of technology leakage.
In addition to rockets, a large number of hot air balloons also appeared on the Polish battlefield. However, these hot air balloons were not offensive, but were only used as reconnaissance tools.
The rifles that the British supported to the Poles were still the old Brown Bess and a small number of Brunswick rifles.
The British made no progress in rifles, but their pursuit of efficiency and quality in production technology was somewhat backward.
The weapons supported by Prussia and Austria were all civilian weapons, which did not have much highlights.
Even so, the Russians were at a disadvantage in equipment and tactics at this time. In particular, the emergence of rockets and hot air balloons completely subverted the Russian commanders' view of war. The battlefield was one-way transparent to the enemy, leaving them with no room for maneuver.