Melbourne, Australia.

"Bismarck is now 65 years old, which is the best age to be a senior political figure. In the past eight years, he chose to keep a low profile, rarely going out and leaving Berlin or the German Empire.

Since last year, not only has he frequently flirted with the United Kingdom, but he has even met with the Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Rainer Ferdinand, once every six months to show off his affection to the outside world."

William IV suddenly understood that this old fox was planning something again.

"There is always no benefit and no early start."

According to Bill Charlie's information, the German Empire is also currently building relations with Alexander II.

"call"

William IV took a deep breath. At present, the country with the most balanced relations with other countries in the world has to be the German Empire. Under Bismarck's horizontal and vertical alliance, neighboring powers such as Britain, France, Russia, and Sweden all followed Bismarck's manipulation.

Below, the relationship is between the operation of strategic balance.

William IV secretly said with a wry smile: "The position of the Netherlands ten years ago, with the rise of the Netherlands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the Far East, and the collision between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, gave Bismarck the opportunity to replace the Netherlands as a great power that all countries are competing to make friends with.

On the contrary, the Netherlands has become a vassal state. However, there is nothing that can be done about it. In modern history, there has never been a truly peaceful rising regional power. Especially in the second half of the 19th century from ancient times to the present, all countries have relied on force.

win."

In 1851, at the age of 36, Bismarck became the representative of the Kingdom of Prussia at the German Confederation Assembly in Frankfurt, and was promoted to ambassador soon after.

He held this job for eight years, which laid the foundation for his thorough understanding of the national conditions of many countries in the entire German Confederation, including the Austrian Empire, and paved the way for him to later lead Prussia to unify the German Confederation and dominate it.

In 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia suffered from mental disorder, so he was regent by his brother Prince William (now William I). Soon after, he encouraged Prince William to defect to him and appointed Bismarck as ambassador to the Russian Empire.

In 1861, Prince William ascended the throne as William I and appointed Bismarck as interior minister. However, Bismarck was unwilling to accept the position of interior minister, so he refused and did not fulfill it.

In early 1862, Bismarck returned to Berlin from St. Petersburg. Wilhelm I was still unable to appoint him as Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, so he resigned directly. However, he was eventually persuaded to become ambassador to France.

In the same year, under the operation of Bismarck, the liberals won a new round of elections in the Prussian Parliament and immediately vetoed all the Prussian government's funding for military reform. The government and parliament were elected into a deadlock. Under major conflicts, Bismarck directly stood

He came out to support the government and became the only elected prime minister after the resignation of the then prime minister. On September 23, 1862, William I recalled Bismarck, who was the ambassador in Paris, and appointed him Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia.

The first thing Bismarck did when he came to power was to dissolve the parliament that was obstructing military reform. This shocked the whole of Europe, but it also put Prussia's military-ironization on the fast track.

No one knows how many tricks Bismarck used to get himself into that position. After all, none of them were involved. I have to say that this old guy is really powerful.

The real foundation of the Kingdom of Prussia led by Bismarck in the past was the army of the Prussian military reform.

However, with Prussia becoming a thing of the past, the area of ​​the German Empire has more than doubled. Whether it is population, economic size, talent pool, etc., the German Empire has developed at a faster pace in the past eight or nine years and is fully capable of rivaling the United Kingdom.

.

Calculated in this way, the German Empire has the strength of European hegemony in terms of economy, military, population, and area. It is now officially in the period of external expansion of its influence outside Europe.

Is the current trend of the German Empire in South America the next step for Bismarck?

William IV was not sure. After all, Bismarck, an old guy, would not be easy to see through. Just like when he promoted the Austrian Empire, including the entire German Confederation, to attack Denmark, the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Hanover, and the Kingdom of Bavaria were

After the reputation and strength of several old rivals of the Kingdom of Prussia within the German Confederation were reduced, they finally took advantage of their weakness to deal with them, and finally kicked out the Austrian Empire and agreed to other territorial areas of the entire German Confederation.

William IV was familiar with the future development trend, but with the rise of the Netherlands, the world situation had already undergone a partial butterfly effect. Naturally, he did not think that Bismarck and others would not adapt to the situation and change Germany's development strategy.

This is one of the reasons why he pushed the Netherlands to move to the Far East, a wasteland in Europe's eyes. After all, in this way, the Netherlands' power in Europe was compressed, allowing Europe's balancing power to return to its original track.

.This way it will not change too much the development direction of Europe that he is familiar with.

Bismarck is unfathomable, this old fox must be guarded against.

In particular, intelligence shows that the German Empire is currently making some secret agreements with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is even purchasing more steel from Sweden.

After reading Bill Charlie's information, William IV smiled helplessly.

He knew that the German Empire hid a lot of strength, but he never expected that it hid so much.

"Your Majesty, Major General Laite from MI8 wants to see you."

Just when William IV was distressed, his bodyguard leader Yoludo suddenly came to report.

William IV narrowed his eyes slightly and asked: "What's the matter?"

Is he coming to find me at this time?

"I heard Major General Laite say that it's a matter of North America," Yoludo said.

North America?

America or Mexico?

William IV was doubtful, but still said: "Bring him in."

MI8 also became the Dutch Secret Intelligence Service, the external intelligence agency of the Netherlands. It was the first secret intelligence agency founded by King William IV on January 1, 1858, before the Royal Intelligence Service of the Netherlands.

, but different from the two subsequent ones, the Royal Dutch Intelligence Service and the Dutch International Intelligence Service, this agency has been responsible for collecting intelligence from all over the world since its creation, mainly including Dutch internal counter-terrorism, global weapons development and operations, and global intelligence.

There was turmoil in various places, and various tasks such as the Netherlands secretly planting spies in governments around the world were developed.

It has been working in utmost secrecy, without supervision by the Dutch cabinet government, and its name is not on the list of government departments because it only served William IV.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a Dutch military uniform but with the rank insignia of major general came to William IV.

"MI8 has come to pay a special visit to His Majesty."

William IV just stared at him and asked: "MI8 has no important matters, so don't show up casually. Have you forgotten?"

"Your Majesty, I know, but MI8 is currently facing a big problem," Laite said with a solemn expression while holding a piece of information.

William IV opened the information and was stunned after just one glance. It read: On January 13, 1879, six MI8 agents were secretly assassinated while collecting intelligence in northern England.
Chapter completed!