Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

The war between Austria and Prussia continued.

Many people thought that after Prussia captured Prague and Olomouc, the Prussian army would directly move south from the entire north to attack Vienna.

However, everyone thought wrong. Prussia was tightly defensive in these two places, but unexpectedly, it sent its main force to attack Hungary.

The Prussian army sent 50,000 troops to attack Kosice, Hungary (later a Slovak city).

Because this place is located in a small area of ​​Austria south of the Principality of Poland in the Tsarist Russian Empire. In order to confront the threat of the Tsarist Russian Empire on the front line, Austria pushed the main force of its army to Lviv in Galicia on the front line, with more than 150,000 troops.

However, because the troops were too concentrated, there was a shortage of troops in the areas between Vienna and Vienna.

Therefore, no one expected that Moltke would make such a surprise move and capture Kosice in a short time.

This shocked the whole of Austria.

Because the loss of Kosice is more threatening than Olomouc, this may be due to the fact that Vienna, located in the west of Austria, and Galicia in the east, if Prussia wins, Vienna will most likely have to compete with Lvo My husband was abruptly cut off from me.

So there is no room for error in Kosice.

December 30, 1865.

60,000 Austrians and 50,000 Prussians were engaged in a battle in Kosice, Hungary. Gunfire broke out between the two countries at 8 o'clock in the morning.

At first, Austria had a relatively large advantage because it was the defending side, and there were many military supports in the southern towns.

From 9 a.m. to around 13 p.m., Austria continued to use fierce artillery fire, suppressing Prussia.

After that, surprisingly, a Prussian Second Army of 30,000 people arrived on the battlefield, and the situation gradually reversed.

Prussia seemed to have a plan in advance. The Prussian army used three lines of left, center and right to build a battle wall to defend against the Austrian army's breakout and counterattack. They also used the standard rifle of the Dreiser needle gun newly developed by Austro-Prussia to quickly defeat them. The formation of the Austrian army was already in chaos.

Facing the increasingly fierce Prussian offensive, the Austrian field commander General Ludwig von Benedyck was unable to stabilize the morale of the troops, especially some soldiers between the Hungarians and the Austrians.

This resulted in the various troops under his command being able to fight independently.

Although the battle was remarkable, they were ultimately unable to withstand the Prussian army, which had superior tactics and equipment.

Finally, at 16:00 that day, Benedyk ordered a full retreat. With the help of artillery fire and cavalry cover, Benedyk's 25,000 remaining Austrian troops withdrew from the battlefield and retreated to the central Hungarian city of Miskol. tz.

Austria lost another important town to the Prussians.

This put increasing pressure on Vienna.

In Galicia in the east, changes in the Tsarist Empire were reported, which caused Vienna but Prussia to cooperate with Prussia on the Polish border if it received help from the Tsarist Russian Empire.

The entire eastern part of Austria, Galicia, would be really dangerous.

London, 10 Downing Street, British Prime Minister's Office.

Now the three leaders of the Whig Party, Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston and Foreign Secretary Russell, are meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gladstone, who has chosen the next generation successor of the Whig Party, to deal with the dilemma that Britain has recently faced.

Viscount Palmerston has been particularly troubled recently.

Queen Victoria had just married her second daughter, Princess Alice, to the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Hanover. Before they got married, the Kingdom of Hanover was destroyed by the Kingdom of Prussia.

Saxony was originally prepared by Queen Victoria for her sixth daughter, Princess Louise, but before she started taking action, the Austrian Empire followed Prussia's example and sent troops to occupy it.

This made Queen Victoria very angry and Viscount Palmerston very helpless.

As these royal princes and princesses grow up, and in the UK, there has begun to be dissatisfaction with the royal family's practice of marrying royal families from other European countries.

British nobles even said that royal marriages should be carried out domestically, rather than choosing foreign marriages.

Only in this way can the royal family be truly localized and capture the hearts of all British people who are loyal to the royal family.

Viscount Palmerston also agreed with this. After all, the Britishization of the heirs could ensure that the inheritance rights would remain in the UK, instead of being inherited by foreign princes and princesses as before, which would reduce domestic cohesion.

At that time, Queen Victoria did not refuse or agree.

But this was enough for the British nobles to take notice and began to propose to the royal family the idea of ​​marrying the princess home.

This put Queen Victoria in a dilemma.

The unfavorable outcome of the war made her even more upset and angry.

Viscount Palmerston understands the Queen's difficulties.

The successive losses of troops and generals in the Americas destroyed Britain's prestige.

The blockade of Tsarist Russia on the Balkan Peninsula was due to the recent withdrawal of Austria, which put both Britain and the Ottoman Empire under tremendous pressure.

Napoleon III of France obviously sat on the Diaoyutai and sat on the sidelines. He had already made it clear to Britain that he would not participate in the Balkans and let Britain deal with it on its own. This approach makes it difficult for Britain, a country that always likes to scheme against others, to feel comfortable.

As a result, anti-war voices also emerged in the UK. Although it was not loud yet, this voice had the potential to start a prairie fire.

It should be extinguished as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to clean up the mess later.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gladstone Russell said: "What on earth does Bismarck, a newly rising guy, think? He just wants to stop at Schleswig, but he dares to reach out to Austria. I'm a little confused about this." Guy’s idea”

Viscount Palmerston looked at his chosen successor to the Whig Party.

Russell chose Viscount Palmerston before him, saying: "I met Bismarck when he was the ambassador to France because of Belgium's independence. This man is cunning and very persistent in his set goals. , do things in a planned way”

He sighed: “What no one knew before was that Prussia clearly had the ability to attack Schleswig and Holstein, but it wanted to pull Austria along and even gave up its leading role.

However, people initially thought that Prussia was forced by public opinion, so Prussia stood in front to protect it from the wind and rain.

But now we still find that we were all wrong. We were all wrong. The Bismarck government actually used it to consume Austria's military strength, and it was also famous for its military strength.

Later, they deliberately pulled Austria to form a reconciliation alliance within the German Confederation, and worked with Austria to plan the small country in the German Confederation, leading Austria to plot to seize Austria's original ally Saxony, damaging Austria's image.

The Prussian University of Technology in Hanover has always supported Austria in the German Confederation. ’

Both of them, Prussia is trying to dig into Austria's alliance system, but Austria doesn't care about Prussia's calculations.

The entry of North America into the war and the outbreak of the Balkan Peninsula sharply reduced the combat effectiveness of the Austrian Continuous War Army. Prussia was really very accurate this time. "

"There is no danger of national destruction in Austria"

Viscount Palmerston sighed: "I'm just afraid that there will be double-minded people in the Austrian Empire. Hungary is not willing to rely on others."

When Gladstone and Russell heard this, their eyes flashed slightly.

In the Netherlands, William IV also thought that Hungary might take this opportunity, possibly.

But would Bismarck in Berlin really do this?