Chapter 1660: Ten. BABEL (12)

In the foreign policy of the United Principality of Ross, the Duke of Marlboro is a firm alliance. You are hard enough to imagine that the Duke was actually a firm anti-Principality in the past few decades.
This is not surprising, and need not feel unacceptable. Albian's national policy has always been pragmatism. For them, there are no friends at all, and some are only associates or enemies. According to need, the enemy can also become a partner, and the partner can also become an enemy, and only interests are real and eternal.
So when an emerging power rises and threatens Albian more than any previous opponent, the country will immediately seek to establish alliances with past opponents, rather than taking into account the past grievances and character and credit of allies.
With such qualities, Albion will not come together with the Principality at all, and the Duke's transformation will not be surprising.
Even though the pressure of the empire made Albion feel palpitations, from a strategic perspective, there is an objective necessity for the Principality to directly border the empire. The Duke of Marlborough and the Privy Council’s grown-ups were still worried about the "going west" of the Principality.
This is by no means sympathetic to Lapland or being vigilant about the growth of the Principality. In fact, whether it is the Principality swallowing Lapland, the Empire annexing Lapland, or the two countries dividing Lapland, the final result is that there is no longer any obstruction between the two giant beasts, they will face each other, hostility, and eventually trigger An inevitable collision, a war that will kill a whole generation of young people in both countries, will begin.
Albion was happy to see this happening, so quite a few senior executives were keen to contribute to the "Westward Movement" of the Principality.
However, the recent trend is a bit wrong. A possibility that has not been thought or noticed before is showing a little bit of outline. For this, Albion, who is unprepared, suddenly finds out that the Principality’s "westward advance" will eventually lead to the result. It is likely that they are unwilling to see, or even unbearable.
That is led by the empire, the countries signed a contract to guarantee the "neutralization" of Lapland.
Once the empire proposes such a bill, the countries, especially Albion, will be in a very awkward position. Starting from the national interests, they were happy to see the empire or the Principality annexing Lapland, thereby triggering a full-scale conflict between the two powers on land and completing Albian’s strategic layout. But morally, especially in order to win over Castilla, Serres, and the Republic, they had to echo the empire’s initiative. But in this way, he was estranged from the Principality again. Even if the Principality can take a breath for a while, who can guarantee that they will always be patient in the future, and will not actively tear up this paper agreement and trample on Lapland's neutrality?
Albion did not know that a similar thing happened once in another world. At that time, the dilemma was the Germans and the French. Affected by the result of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, the two European powers were taking the initiative in considering the next war. Invade Billy to flanker and annihilate the main enemy army (Germans have the "Schriffin Plan", the French have been seriously studying the feasibility of invading Belgium after the war since 1902), but signed it on April 19, 1839 Article 7 of the "London Treaty" clearly requires "Belgium to remain neutral in any future conflict", and such a neutral status is jointly guaranteed by the contracting states, namely the three countries of Britain, France and Germany. In addition, if any of the three countries attack Belgium, then the other two countries will guarantee that they will definitely assist Belgium.
Both Germany and France are dissatisfied with the "London Treaty", but in the end, the French gave up the initiative to invade Belgium because of the reaction of the British. The Germans did not hold back, or they did not intend to comply at all. It is well known to everyone.
Albion does not know the history of another world, but their political sensitivity and wisdom are enough to foresee how embarrassing they will face if the empire proposes such a bill.
"My country hopes that your country will take cautious actions on certain issues to avoid discord in future integration."
This should not be mentioned on the occasion at hand, and how to say here is also the territory of the empire. However, the time was too tight. When Albion communicated and coordinated with the Principality through normal diplomatic channels, the empire was likely to have raised relevant issues. In order to avoid any difficult situation in the Principality, the Duke of Marlborough was awarded a separate The power to communicate with the Earl of Gorchakov in order to master and control the diplomatic trends of the Principality to a certain extent.
Regarding Albion’s concerns, the high-level Principality’s response was disapproval and scorn.
In the eyes of the principality of the Principality, the Albian people were obviously too obsessed to play the gentleman, so that they forgot what the essence of the struggle was, what the law of the jungle was, and what was weak.
The sole purpose of signing the treaty is to tear it at some point in the future. As for the method of tearing, the appearance of the tearing is not good. That is a problem that only has time to consider after the end of the war.
No one will blame the winner, and victory is the best escape symbol.
Only the result is important, and the means and processes are insignificant.
Albion wants to advance their strategic planning, and wants to ensure that they can get all the expected benefits, but also wants to minimize investment and maintain their international image. But just like the popular saying in the Republic, "Freedom is not without cost", the same is true of gaining benefits and international games, and no one or country can benefit from nothing.
Albian’s worries are superfluous and unnecessary.
Even the veteran Earl of Wit shook his head at Albian on Lapland.
In the eyes of the principal member of the principality of the principality, the most reliable ally of the principality is neither the empire nor Albion, but the army and vast territory of the principality.
Relying on the huge human resources and territories, the Principality can form a huge legion, can go west at any time, and can use thousands of kilometers of depth, run-down traffic, and thorough scorched earth tactics to dilute the enemy’s attack, when the enemy is tired. When it was unbearable, the front was pushed back.
This is a strategy proven by history until the rise of the empire, long-range attack weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
V1, V2, Gustav equipment, long-range large bombers, indiscriminate bombing, strategic bombing, precision strikes-the emergence of these series of weapons and tactics means that the boundaries of "front" and "rear" in traditional concepts have become blurred or even blurred disappear. The advantages that the Principality relied on in the past no longer exist. In the face of overwhelming bombing and weapons of mass destruction, it is hard to say that the heartland of the west, even the industrial zone under construction in the east, is safe. Facing the technical gap that could not be bridged in a short period of time, the only solution was to narrow the gap with the empire, remove the obstacle of Lapland, and bring the dagger to the throat of the empire.
The old count has a very insightful discussion on this, so I might as well quote it in order to understand the ideas of the Principality more thoroughly.
"In the event of a war with the empire, a war plan that launched a fierce offensive and gave the empire a fatal blow at the beginning of the war was obviously the best, but now the empire's superiority in technical weapons, especially long-range attack weapons, makes our army Whether it is rallying or marching, it becomes extremely dangerous. After endless air strikes, hunger, fatigue, and death, the troops arriving on the front line are severely weakened in terms of combat effectiveness and number, and it is difficult for such troops to attack or defend. Competent. But if our army extends the attack position to the frontier of the empire, the situation can be greatly improved. Our army will get all the freedom to move, and the fortress group that stretches the entire border, whether it is used to delay the attack of the imperial army or As our army's forward base for attacking the hinterland of the empire, it is very suitable. In this situation, once our country wages a war with the empire, it will allow the Albian army to join our army's operations more effectively. With the assistance of the Albian army, We will form a considerable advantage over the enemy."
Judging from Earl Witt’s statement, the Principality values ​​the great benefits of doing so over the political drawbacks of signing and then tearing up the treaty and destroying Lapland’s neutrality. There are both military and objective strategies.
As we all know, the industrialization progress of the Principality is quite slow. Even if we can obtain relevant technology patents from the empire in this joint meeting, absorb the technology and transform it into a driving force for industrialization, it will take a long time and investment to fully bloom from the point and the surface. During this period, the empire will not stay where it is. In order to maintain a strategic deterrent to the empire ~EbookFREE.me~ and to shorten the distance between the two countries as much as possible, the Principality must station troops on the border between Lapland and the empire, and ensure the daily consumption and storage of combat readiness of these garrisons. Plan's all-round cooperation. But in this way, the Principality is equivalent to giving his lifeline to Lapland. Once Lapland suddenly falls to the empire at a critical moment, the Principality will suffer unimaginable and heavy losses. To retreat 10,000 steps, even if Lapland is willing to cooperate with the Principality in all directions and spare no effort to meet the various needs of the Principality, this will trigger a strong rebound of the empire, and eventually the war will break out before it is ready. This is also the Principality hard to accept.
So from the perspective of the Principality, except for the annexation of Lapland by it, any other result is unacceptable. As a loyal ally of the Principality, Albion should assist the Principality in achieving this goal, rather than waste time caring about unnecessary and unnecessary things.
"Even if anyone is dissatisfied with this and claims to be unacceptable, what can they do? In front of strength and reality, feelings and morality are nothing."
Count Gorchakov raised his chin and said in a standard princely noble arrogant tone:
"They can call it aggression, imperialism, hegemonism, betrayal, whatever they want. Anyway, we think this is just taking away the part we deserve, and it is still the part that is vital to victory. "