As Leopold looked over at Kaunitz and Mabeini, both fell silent, Kaunitz was undoubtedly the most entangled.
When negotiating with the Prussians, Kaunitz had promised Prussia to divide Mainz with Prussia after Leopold ascended the imperial throne, and Kaunitz also signed his own name on the agreement with the Prussians.
Although Prussia has not yet made public the agreement signed by Kaunitz, there is no doubt that once the Prussians make it public, Austria will become extremely passive, so Kaunitz asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, at the beginning of the year, we had reached an agreement with the Prussians on the Main region, and now the Prussians have launched an operation against the Main region, if the Prussians make this agreement public, then I think our Austrian position will become very embarrassing, even the princes who regard us as saviors, when they learn of this agreement, will inevitably change their attitude towards our Austria, you see............"
Leopold frowned and said: "I know what you mean, but don't forget, this agreement does not include the Main River basin, and even the Rhine valley is divided in the agreement, and I think it is precisely for this reason that the Prussians are not making this agreement public.
Now the Prussians only made the princes on both sides of the Main feel threatened, but once it was made public, then the princes of the western frontier of the entire empire would become hostile to Prussia, so Prussia would never do anything to harm others and not to themselves!
” "But, Your Majesty.
I'm not afraid of 10,000 for this kind of thing, I'm afraid of ........."
Leopold II waved his hand impatiently "Even if the Prussians make the agreement public, we can identify the Prussians as forging the agreement, and there is no compromise between us Austria and Prussia!"
Leopold's answer made Kaunitz's face not look very good.
The agreement with Prussia was signed by Kaunitz himself.
The document bears not only Kaunitz's name but also his seal, which facilitates Opold's statement that the documents are all forged.
But the princes must have been suspicious, and in this way, it will undoubtedly damage his Kaunitz prestige, and perhaps in order to appease the princes, Leopold will also throw him Kaunitz to attract fire.
Seeing that Kaunitz stopped talking.
Leopold turned to Mabeni and said: "Are all our troops on the front line in place?"
After Leopold finished asking, Mabeni's face showed a hint of embarrassment, and after a while, he said in a hurry: "Your Majesty.
Because we didn't think that Prussia would go on the offensive at Christmas, there are some troops that have not yet been deployed!
” Mabeni's words made Leopold Ron angry "Mabeni, what are you doing in the military department!
I remember very well that a few months ago I asked you to start moving our troops in case the Prussians made a surprise move to disrupt our deployment.
But you're telling me now that there are still some troops that are not in place.
How do you deserve to be the Minister of War!
” Hearing Leopold's angry roar, Mabelney's waist bent even lower "Your Majesty, because before Christmas, the Prussians showed no sign of a surprise attack at all, so some troops were transferred to the rear for Christmas, so ............."
"I don't want to listen to explanations!"
Although Mabeni was very aggrieved, he didn't dare to say a word of complaint at the moment.
Although Mabeni was Austria's military minister, he seemed to be powerful and glamorous.
But after all, Mabelny was a candidate that Leopold found out of desperation, so Leopold did not trust Mabelney's ability very much.
From time to time, orders were issued to the front-line troops across the Mabeni.
And it was also Leopold's own order to withdraw the troops originally deployed to the front for Christmas, after all, the emperor was still very humane in some things.
But now, poking out such a big basket, it is clear that Leopold wants to find someone to vent his anger, so Mabelny is the type to be shot while lying down.
Seeing Mabeini's sincere and terrified appearance, the anger in Leopold's heart decreased a little "You say, how long will it take for the army to be ready" "Your Majesty, it depends on what you really think, if it is only to put pressure on Prussia as we envisaged before, then it will be another five days, but if you plan to fight against Prussia, then I want to be ready until mid-January" Listening to Marbeni's words, Leopold's brain was also thinking quickly.
Originally, Leopold did not think of a large-scale war against Prussia, after all, once Austria and Prussia started fighting, then the scale of the war would definitely not be small, although Austria's development in the past two years was okay, but once the war was carried out, no matter how much money it had, it would not necessarily be enough to consume.
But let Austria watch Prussia swallow the Main River valley into its belly, Leopold thought that he could not do it, you must know that although Prussia is now stronger than Austria in terms of military aspect, it is slightly inferior to Austria in terms of land area, population, and industrial scale.
But once Prussia takes the Main, then the distance between Austria and Prussia will be completely widened, and Austria will not know what to do with Prussia, which occupies almost half of the empire.
"Your Majesty, at this time, the Prussians are still mainly deterred, and the war must not be opened!
Once the war starts, the achievements of our country over the years will become necessary!
” Hearing that Mabeni actually said the words of fighting Prussia, Kaunitz could not calm down.
Kaunitz was not a pro-Prussian, and even Kaunitz was definitely a staunch hostile to Prussia, but such a person who spoke out against Prussia at this time was not because his attitude towards Prussia had changed, but in Kaunitz's view, it was inevitable that there was more to gain than to lose with Prussia at this time.
"Prime Minister Kautz can scare the Prussians.
That would be wonderful, of course, but I don't think it's easy to give up as Prussia looks like it is now.
And I will never sit idly by and watch the Main fall into the hands of the Prussians, and don't forget that the Main is our lifeline to the Netherlands!
” "But your Majesty, you should also know that since the Prussian occupation of Warsaw, a large number of opponents have suddenly appeared in the former Polish territories that we have acquired, and these people have stirred up the whole situation in the occupied territories, and if there is now a war against Prussia, what will happen to the old Polish lands?"
Leopold waved his hand impatiently and said: "These matters should be resolved by your government.
Well, no further ado!
” Seeing that Leopold had made up his mind, Kaunitz said no more.
In fact, Kautz originally had a plan in mind that could be used against Prussia.
The current Prussia seems to be firmly in power.
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But the interior was not invulnerable, and William's military reforms and the emancipation of serfs touched the interests of a large number of Junker nobles, which was not finished.
In addition, although it appeared that Prussia had gained the upper hand on the Eastern Front by occupying Warsaw, this move also offended a large number of Poles who cherished their homeland.
After all, Poland before it is dead.
But a Warsaw was left behind so that some Polish nationalists could have a thought in their hearts, but now it was obvious that Prussia was preparing to completely annex Poland, which would surely make some people hostile to Prussia.
The reason why the situation has not deteriorated is that the Prussian military is now suppressed, and if the Prussian army is dragged down in any way, the situation will definitely deteriorate.
Leopold groaned for a moment and said: "Now we have 40,000 men on the Bohemian front, 20,000 on the Silesian front, and 20,000 on the old Polish land.
That's 80,000, but it's not enough.
After all, the Prussian army opposite us was no less than ours, so 20,000 men from Hungary were also transferred to Silesia, and another 10,000 men from Vienna were sent to the Bohemian front.
In this way we have a military superiority over Prussia" "Your Majesty, once the Hungarian forces are transferred, will the Ottomans have any ideas?"
Hearing Mabeni's words, Leopold said displeasedly: "What can those barbarians think, don't forget that on the Ottoman border, we have a whole 70,000 people deployed, are these 70,000 people all paper!
Besides, now that the Ottomans are too busy to take care of themselves, where can they afford to join in the fun!
” Leopold's scathing rebuke silenced Marbeni.
"Alright, let's go down and give orders!
Tell the generals at the front, give me 120,000 attention, and if the Prussians dare to take a step forward into our Austrian territory, then give me no hesitation to call back!
In addition, an order was sent to the Netherlands, so that the garrison there could be prepared, and if the Prussians dared to cross the line, then directly down the Rhine, I would like to see if the Prussians had really eaten the gall of the leopard!
” This remark can be described as arrogant, but Kaunitz is a little unimpressed.
The garrison of the Netherlands can be seen but not used, and the garrison of more than 10,000 troops is already very reluctant to maintain the local situation, and only fools can go back and think about it when they expect those troops to participate in the war, after all, the Netherlands has not stopped resisting for decades.
In addition to the above-mentioned areas, the Austrian army also had nearly 30,000 troops stationed in northern Italy, and this army was the greatest guarantee of Habsburg rule in the city-states of northern Italy.
In this way, more than 220,000 men before and after, plus nearly 20,000 men who were not used in the garrison in Vienna, the total strength of the Austrian regular army was 240,000. 240,000 men seemed like a lot, 60,000 more than Prussia, but Austria also had more areas to defend.
Moreover, Prussia and the Ottomans, two countries that can be called fierce rivals, have never given up their ambitions against Austria, which has led to Austria having ten percent of its combat power and only seventy percent at most, leaving three percent to guard against another enemy.