War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Paris France.

The Bonapartists firmly opposed the preconditions for negotiations proposed by the German Confederation. After all, Alsace-Lorraine was French territory, so why should the French army have to withdraw from the area together with the German army.

However, Louis Philippe did not care about these trivial issues. Anyway, he would not suffer if both sides withdraw at the same time, not to mention that the coalition forces had already taken the lead in withdrawing from Alsace-Lorraine in order to show their sincerity in the negotiations.

Therefore, Louis Philippe agreed to the terms of negotiation with the German Confederation early on without the approval of Congress.

The Bonapartists felt it was a shame to sue for peace without fighting, while the Legitimists seized the opportunity to criticize Louis Philippe for his weakness and incompetence. The Orléansists were concerned about the king's increasing interference in state affairs.

(In fact, the July Monarchy was a constitutional monarchy, but the king's power was not small and he was not a complete mascot. Theoretically, Louis Philippe could dissolve Parliament, appoint and remove the Prime Minister, and directly issue edicts without permission from Parliament.)

The Bonapartists and the Orthodox were the traditional opponents within the July Monarchy, and their reactions were understandable, while the Orléansists were an interest group deeply bound to Louis Philippe and even the July Monarchy.

But ever since Louis-Philippe's youngest son became engaged to the theoretical Queen of Spain, he was no longer the puppet of the financial capitalists.

After all, power breeds ambition, and once you've tried to have it, it's hard to give it up.

However, Louis Philippe himself did not feel that he was weak, or even that he was suing for peace, but that he was just reaching some kind of agreement with the German Confederation.

As for unconstitutional things, you will get used to them if you do them too often.

In Louis-Philippe's view, the Bonapartists were a group of idiots who failed to achieve anything but failed. In particular, Jean Durde's operations directly caused France to lose the province of Namur (the French-speaking part of Belgium), and even more so. Louis Philippe was even more convinced of this.

Those people miss France's past glory all day long. Why don't they go to accompany Napoleon?

That short-sighted Corsican dwarf would only betray his country and give up France's land to the Americans, and he, the real King of France, Louis Philippe, would take back what France had lost from the United States and Mexico.

One was a scum who betrayed his country and died, and the other was a victor who expanded his territory. Comparing the two, the Orleans Dynasty was far better than the Napoleonic Empire.

The delegation of the German Confederation set out from Vienna and sailed to the French port of Toulon via Genoa in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Metternich received what he thought was a warm welcome from the French as soon as he got off the ship. The long corridor composed of four salutes and 140 cavalry was of high standard, but there was an uncomfortable feeling everywhere.

Later, the Bonapartist officials ordered people to play "Marseillaise". Although Louis Philippe ascended to the throne during the July Revolution of 1830, accompanied by barricades and "Marseillaise", for a kingdom It's still a taboo.

With the passionate "Marseillaise" playing, the Bonapartist goal of humiliating Austria was achieved.

But they seem to have forgotten one thing, that is, the original name of "Marseillaise" is "Military Song of the Rhine Army", and it also has a German name called "March to the Rhine Region", and even the area where this song first began to be sung was It's Alsace-Lorraine.

At this time, the Prussian representative Heinrich von Bülow's face became very ugly. You must know that the Rhineland was Prussia's territory at this time, and Prussia was also beaten badly during the Napoleonic Wars, so this song not only insults Oh, that's an insult.

The other representatives of the German Confederation also had ugly expressions on their faces. They all had objections to this piece of music. After all, the German region had been the target of French ravages for centuries.

Metternich was completely unmoved and took it calmly. After all, he had experienced scenes that were ten thousand times more humiliating than this.

But in any case, this "La Marseillaise" did temporarily unite the German Confederation negotiating team that had previously had their own evil intentions.

Afterwards, the French official arrogantly introduced to the German delegation, "the crystallization of French wisdom" - a train with a speed of up to 30 kilometers per hour. He also deliberately added an accent to the word train.

Although the French officials said it with a serious face, the German representatives thought it was a cold joke and keenly caught the "laughing point". After all, telling cold jokes is one of the stereotypes left to the world by the Germans.

Naturally, a group of people cannot laugh too wildly on behalf of the country, but the scene of holding back laughter makes the French feel even more uncomfortable.

"What's so funny about this? Don't you know that laughing in public is a sign of lack of education?"

Faced with the insulting questions from the French officials, the representatives of the German Confederation realized that it was not a joke, and then showed even more contemptuous smiles on their faces.

Prince Metternich did not speak to the young French official at all. He directly passed him and whispered a few words to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs official responsible for the reception, and then patted the other party's shoulder.

The latter immediately started sweating profusely, and even took out a handkerchief and wiped it back and forth on his bare forehead, bowing and thanking Metternich again in the direction he left.

The other members of the negotiating team did not have the discipline and authority of His Highness the Prince, so they all replied.

"The slowest speed of our German Confederate trains is forty kilometers per hour, and the latest test train has a speed of close to sixty kilometers per hour. A frog in the well!"

"The crystallization of French wisdom!"

"train!"

"Thirty kilometers is so fast!"

In fact, initially Germany, especially North Germany, lagged far behind France in terms of railway and train technology.

The earliest steam railway in France had a speed of only four kilometers per hour, and horses were even used before that. The situation in Austria was similar to the former.

The first train used when the first railway in North Germany was opened, the Adler, had a speed of only eight kilometers per hour and a traction capacity of only 550 kilograms.

However, it was quickly replaced by more advanced Austrian products, which did not leave too deep an impression on people.

However, due to Franz's intervention, the railway technology in the German region advanced rapidly. In the early days, it was on par with the United Kingdom, and later it overtook the country in a corner.

The invention of the compound-expansion steam engine made the dream of sixty kilometers per hour easily a reality.

However, after reaching a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, Franz urgently cut back on the funds he wanted to use steam power to continue accelerating.

Because Franz knew the upper limit of this kind of machinery, although the British had developed a steam locomotive with a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, it could only operate for a short period of time and was not practical at all.

Considering efficiency and practicality, Franz felt that a speed of 60 kilometers per hour was enough, and the remaining money could be used to research newer models of "internal combustion engines."

Of course, steam trains are not no longer researched, but the weight can be relatively lowered to give way to more urgent technologies.

Although Franz didn't know the upper limit of the steam engine, he had seen the green train, which could reach a speed of fifty or sixty kilometers per hour.

In the era of internal combustion engines, the speed of trains can stably exceed 100 kilometers.

At this time, the Austrian Empire's land area in Europe was only more than 700,000 square kilometers, with the north to south being only 700 kilometers, and the east to west being only 1,400 kilometers. The speed requirements for trains were really not too high.