Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On December 5, 1865, the international situation continued to evolve rapidly in the form of war, leaving all countries overwhelmed.

The Northern Commonwealth of North America versus the Southern Commonwealth, the United Kingdom, and Austria.

On the Balkan Peninsula, the Russian Empire PKed the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and Austria.

In Central Europe, just after the Prussian-Danish War ended within the German Confederation, Prussia invaded the Kingdom of Hanover and Austria invaded Saxony. Both countries successfully won and their territories expanded.

Austria was engaged in four wars of different sizes in just two years, and public dissatisfaction began to appear in the country.

Especially when the Balkan Peninsula War and the North American War are still going on.

Under the fierce attack of Romania, the Tsarist Empire deployed Austrian troops in Bulgaria and Serbia. Since the beginning of the war, more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured, and more than half have been lost.

When Austria faced a Prussian surprise attack and successfully occupied the important northern town of Sadova in Austria, everyone in Vienna panicked.

At this time, how could they understand the so-called national strategic significance of Joseph I? They only thought about their own safety and need to be protected from the military threat of Prussia.

As a result, Austria faced dissatisfaction from all directions within the country, especially the fact that Austria sent troops to fight abroad when its domestic security could not be guaranteed.

Anti-war demonstrations were everywhere on the streets of Austria. In Vienna alone, one of the largest cities in Europe, more than 500,000 people took to the streets.

Taken together in other places, the scale of this march exceeded tens of millions, making it the largest anti-war march in European history.

The Austrian government finally could not withstand the pressure, and Joseph I even feared that this would turn anti-war into an anti-royal rule and an anti-Austrian cabinet.

Therefore, with his agreement, the Austrian Empire officially announced that it would withdraw its troops from North America and return to the mainland in the near future.

On the Balkan Peninsula, Vienna also sent missions to St. Petersburg, London, and Constantinople in the Russian Empire to explain Austria's position.

But before other countries could express their stance, Austria took action on its own.

On December 12, 1865, the Austrian Empire officially withdrew its troops from Bulgaria and Serbia. An army of 20,000 people was deployed to the southern border with Italy.

The 3,000 Austrian troops in North America have also crossed the Atlantic and are about to enter the Mediterranean.

At this point, Austria's two foreign wars ended in failure. Not only was Joseph I's ambition unsatisfied, he wanted to strengthen relations with Britain, but in the end he failed. Instead, because of his half-way withdrawal, the British heart was broken. Dissatisfied.

Therefore, in the current situation of Prussia's invasion of Austria, Britain did not express its support for Austria again, and expressed its dissatisfaction with Austria's withdrawal midway through silence.

This is naturally what the Bis government wants to see most.

As a result, Prussia intensified its offensive efforts and crossed the source of the Elbe River at the northern end of Vienna. When Moltke came to Sadova, he began to attack Prague, a large city north of Vienna, from the north.

The Austro-Prussian War actually broke out. After Joseph I returned from those two wars, he began to focus on dealing with the Prussian invasion.

December 17, 1865

Austrian Prime Minister Archduke Rainer Ferdinand, in order to maintain Austria's image as a moral high ground, peace-loving, and neither an intruder nor an invader, he stated at the German Confederation Assembly in Frankfurt that Austria would try to exercise restraint, and told the audience at the meeting Prussia's feelings for the plan were expressed only by a complaint to the Confederation Assembly in Frankfurt.

Since Prussia had chosen Austria as its emperor, it no longer recognized the authority of the pro-Austrian Frankfurt Parliament. Therefore, when the Parliament denounced Prussia's invasion and supported Austria's counterattack, Prussia's representatives in the Parliament were indignant. Leave.

The Prussian government officially issued a declaration of war to Austrian forces on December 20, 1865, and immediately sent a large number of troops to retake the previously occupied Schleswig from Holstein in a more upright manner. Prussia declared Schleswig to the outside world. Eiger is part of the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Denmark's Christian IX said this had nothing to do with Denmark and he would not comment.

Countries did not want to offend the powerful Prussia, so they acquiesced in Prussia's approach.

Although Austria strongly opposed it, in the face of the fait accompli and the attitudes of other countries, it had no choice but to be dumb, especially the attitude of the United Kingdom, which made Vienna miserable.

The successive losses of Holstein, Bohemia and Sadowa in northern Austria forced Austria to officially realize that the war had come, so Austria transferred its main combat forces to Prague and formed an army to block the Prussian army there. The first line of defense going south.

On this line of defense, the Austrian Empire continued to recruit and mobilize a large number of troops to move north.

In addition, there were various propaganda in the country that after Prussia invaded Prague, Vienna would invade the city. In the end, under the resistance of the Austrians with a sense of crisis, in the Battle of Prague, Austria successfully blocked the first wave of Prussian attacks, but it also suffered suffered heavy attrition.

Both sides invested a large number of troops in this battle

Prussia exceeded 200,000, and Austria eventually exceeded 250,000.

Although only some of them went to the battlefield, the scale was more than 50,000, forming a battle scale of 100,000 people.

In the end, Prussian casualties exceeded 16,000, and Austrian casualties reached 21,000.

When Austria was preparing for the next round of attack by the Prussian army led by Moltke, Joseph I received bad news.

On December 23, the Prussian army launched sporadic attacks to the east in Prague to cover up its purpose. General Moltke divided his troops into two groups and opened a new front in the east.

Krakow in northeastern Austria, close to the Grand Duchy of Poland in the Russian Empire, was occupied by Prussia.

The telegram sent back from there showed that the Prussian army exceeded 50,000 people.

After occupying Krakow, we have moved southwest towards the city of Olomouc in the rear area southeast of Prague. If this place is captured by the Prussian army, the risk index for Vienna will be even more serious than Prague, because Olomouc can support Prague and prevent Vienna. At the same time, it can also go directly southeast to take Slovakia, the hinterland of Hungary. You can also invade Galicia all the way east.

Therefore, Austria hurriedly sent a large army to Olomouc.

But it was a pity that when the Austrian army arrived there, Prussia couldn't help but capture Olomouc and even conducted an ambush. After leaving 8,000 corpses and wounded, the 50,000 Austrian troops were forced to march towards the small southern town. The town retreated.

Seeing this, Vienna could only plan to organize its army in the north, prepare for a battle with the Prussian army, and use the advantage of military strength to realize its desire to reverse the occupation.

However, apparently faced with such a rough strategic situation, the Prussian Chief of General Staff Moltke mobilized three legions and used detour tactics on two wings to pretend to deploy a large army in Olomouc. In fact, the 50,000-strong army had secretly mobilized the 40,000 Prussian troops. Arrived south of Prague.

However, Olomouc bombarded the Austrian positions with a bluff, so that the opponent did not know about it.

So when Austria thought that the Prussian army wanted to occupy this key position forever.

On December 27, 1865, the Prussian army stabbed in south of Prague like a sharp knife, causing chaos in the rear of Prague, and the Prussian army in the north naturally linked up.

Under the joint attack from the north and the south, and without knowing the number of Prussian troops behind them, the Austrian army was disoriented. The 250,000-strong army was defeated in the face of a calculated and unintentional attack by the Prussian army of the same size.

The Battle of Prague was one of the largest battles in European history. Although this war was short, nearly 500,000 troops were involved. In just two days, the Prussian army suffered more than 39,000 casualties, and the Austrian army suffered more than 30,000 casualties. 64,000 people.

The death toll on both sides exceeded 100,000, which meant that one person died in almost 2 seconds. This made all European countries furious, especially small countries such as Denmark and Belgium whose total number of armies was similar to this size. It can be said that after World War I, national defense almost stopped.

Therefore, he expressed his neutrality even more and was unwilling to intervene in the war between Austro-Prussia.

The West German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Bavaria once again stated that it did not take a position on the Austria-Prussian relationship and expressed its willingness to promote reconciliation negotiations between the two countries.

Unfortunately, there was no response from the two countries.

However, after this battle, Prussia was also somewhat exhausted, and obviously hoped to get some breathing time to digest the results of the battle.

With Prague and Olomouc being captured by Prussia, the Czech Republic was gone.

Austria lost nearly 100,000 people one after another.

Territory was lost to the Czech Republic on the frontier of Vienna in the north.

By this time, Joseph I had to admit that Austria was far behind Prussia in terms of combat effectiveness.

"I really regret that I targeted Saxony"

Joseph I looked at the Kingdom of Bavaria and other small principalities in the west on the map, with regret on his face.

Archduke Rainer Ferdinand also regretted it.

At this moment Austria found itself alone and helpless.

"Bismarck had planned this a long time ago?"

Although it seems like a visit, Lenovo has recently made frequent moves in Prussia, but in fact everyone knows that this is the answer.

Berlin.

Looking at the enlarged Prussian territory drawn by Bismarck on the map, William I's pride rose sharply.

He thought about Bismarck and said: "Should we attack Galicia in the east or Vienna in the west next?"

"No," Bismarck shook his head mysteriously and said, "We should attack central Hungary, because in this way, Joseph I will be in pain."

Fight Hungary? Wouldn't it hurt more if I hit Vienna?

William I looked at Bismarck in confusion.

The latter slowly revealed the reason

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