Chapter 657 Open the bow without turning back the arrow
As a representative of Hanover, Duke Andrew's words are still quite weighty. After all, Duke Andrew's words not only represent the attitude of Hanover, but also the attitude of the British Empire.
"I agree with Duke Andrew's opinion! The County of Schwarzburg must pay the price for Frederic's ambition, there is no doubt about it!"
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In the end, at the show of hands vote, the proposal to disintegrate Schwarzburg was accepted by most of the princes. One-third of the territory of the County of Schwarzburg would be included in the emperor's direct territory, that is, under Maximilian's command, and
In order to compensate for Prussia's losses, Prussia received a quarter of the other territories of Schwarzburg. The remaining territories will be divided equally among the princes participating in the princes conference. Of course, if any princes have concerns about their own country,
If they are too far away from the County of Schwarzburg to rule effectively, they can sell these territories to those princes who are willing to buy them at a certain price.
After the first topic was over, Joel also stood up at the right time and said:
"The discussion on the first topic is over, and the second topic is the issue of the imperial army. His Majesty the King of Prussia proposed to establish a standing army of five divisions within the empire to deal with the increasingly severe situation on the European continent!
"
Just after Joel raised the second topic, all the princes in the parliament hall suddenly couldn't calm down.
What is the concept of five divisions? If the five divisions are fully established, they will reach nearly 70,000 people, and this strength is even greater than the armies of most of the princes here. It can even be said that there are only a few princes here.
Outside of the big countries, the total force they can muster together is only about 100,000 people.
After Joel finished speaking, it was the Duke of Hesse who was the first to speak:
"I think this proposal is unnecessary. As the national power of the French and Russian empires declines, the security of the empire can be said to be unprecedentedly stable. Under such circumstances, I think there is absolutely no need for the empire to expand its military!"
After the Duke of Hesse finished speaking, the Duke of Nassau followed closely and said:
"His Royal Highness Zunigo is right. We have already established two divisions before, and last month, the Imperial Third Division was also established in Cologne. In this case, we believe that the Imperial Army of three divisions
We are fully equipped to deal with complex situations, and it is completely unnecessary to expand two more divisions!"
The Duke of Nassau's words aroused the approval of many princes present.
You must know that the establishment of the previous three imperial divisions was entirely organized by the small princes of the empire. For example, Prussia only sent less than 2,000 troops, and most of them were shared among the Rhine princes. As for the
Hanover, Austria and other large princes have not sent out any soldiers. If these small princes are allowed to form two divisions, wouldn't they have to drain their own wealth?
After the Duke of Nassau finished speaking, Archduke Alexander of Austria stood up and said with a cold expression:
"I oppose this proposal! The empire currently has enough troops. I think what we are currently doing is not to expand the army but to reduce it. The expansion of the army takes up a lot of domestic resources of the princes. This is not good for each prince to stabilize his rule.
Yes, therefore I object!”
After Alexander finished speaking, the Duke of Milan immediately spoke in support of Alexander's opinion.
For princes such as Alexander and the Duke of Milan who are relatively far away from each other, the formation of two new divisions has no interest at all. After all, even if two new divisions are to be formed, Austria and Milan will not be allowed to send troops, or
In other words, even if Austria and Milan are asked to send troops, I am afraid that these two princes will not be willing to send troops.
But things cannot just be shown. For all the princes present, the two imperial divisions established previously are a precedent. These imperial divisions, which were pieced together from the armies of the princes within the empire, are completely equivalent to the Prussian family.
The army is completely fighting for Prussia!
At this moment, Duke Andrew stood up again and said:
"The army currently owned by the empire is indeed enough to cope with some complex situations, but I hope that all the princes can see clearly that the current danger of the empire has not completely disappeared. We are still under the threat of France on the Western Front, and the territory of the empire is not
It is completely peaceful, just like this time Count Schwarzburg actually dared to take the risk to assassinate His Majesty the King of Prussia and Her Royal Highness the Imperial Princess! We must muster a strong force to deter those careerists who are unwilling to be lonely!"
"I object!"
Before Andrew could finish speaking, another prince stood up and interrupted Duke Andrew's words:
"What Duke Andrew said is simply absurd. No one knows the situation in France right now. Under the pressure of the allied forces of Hanover, Prussia, and the Netherlands, France is now in danger of extinction. I want to ask you, what do you think about the situation in France?
In France like this, what else can we feel threatened by?"
The King of Sardinia's rebuttal made quite a few princes look cautious.
The predecessor of the Kingdom of Sardinia was the Principality of Savoy. In the 18th century, Piedmont and Savoy were merged into Sardinia, and the Dukes of Savoy became the kings of Sardinia. In the original history
Above, in 1792, the Kingdom of Sardinia was annexed by France, but now because France is too busy to take care of itself, it naturally cannot take care of Sardinia in northern Italy.
The reason why the King of Sardinia would stand up against Duke Andrew is actually very simple. Sardinia is France's main forward in the battle with Austria in Northern Italy, and most of Sardinia's top leaders are people close to France.
, so the pro-French King of Sardinia naturally opposed Duke Andrew's opinion.
In fact, the reason why Duke Andrew agreed with Prussia's expansion of the army was because William had already hinted to Duke Andrew before that the newly established Imperial Division could be sent to France to participate like the two previous Imperial Divisions.
Allied war against France.
It is precisely because he knows William's attitude that Andrew firmly supports William.
At present, although the coalition forces are generally dominant in France, the main force of the coalition forces led by Ferdinand the Younger has never been able to approach Paris. This is partly because the Prussian 14th Division led by Jarman could not
It effectively suppressed the 5,000 French surprise troops led by Lucien. On the other hand, it was also because Napoleon caused a lot of trouble for the coalition forces around the coalition occupied areas after regaining Paris's understanding.
Not only that, according to the intelligence of the coalition forces, the royalist forces currently entrenched in the Vendée in western France have once again regained a glimmer of hope because the coalition forces have been unable to reach the city of Paris for a long time. Under the order of Prince Condé, a 20,000-strong army
The army had already set off from Vendée for Paris.
Although Louis XVI had already despaired of the situation in Paris, the harassment campaign organized by Napoleon was very effective in the rear of the coalition forces, which slowed down the march of the coalition forces to a certain extent. And after the coalition forces captured Beauvais
, but the coalition forces had to stop to deal with the annoying French army. Under such a situation, Louis XVI, who had raised hopes, not only issued an order to Napoleon, allowing him to use all the power he could use to hold him back.
In addition to the coalition forces, Louis XVI also called on all French people to engage in "national resistance!" as the ruler of the Bourbon dynasty and the king of the French dynasty.
Under such circumstances, although the coalition forces did not suffer any defeat in France, it was very difficult to go further. In this way, the British, who were eager to win as soon as possible, naturally hoped to have more effective forces.
Join the coalition forces, and the new empire division that William hinted to Duke Andrew is undoubtedly a very good bait.
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Just when the Imperial Lords Conference began to debate fiercely on whether to expand the Imperial Division, Anna and her party also rushed to Plaxi, and Anna's escort force numbered 600 people.
And more importantly, among the 600 people, there are 300 people who are clearly fully armed imperial cavalry. This configuration makes pedestrians who encounter Anna's convoy along the way avoid it.
However, for Brandon, such a conspicuous target is obviously very conducive to his tracking.
This time, Brandon received the greatest support from Dessau. An entire regiment of the 10th Division was deployed in Plassey. Dessau clearly told Brandon that if this operation could not succeed,
If so, then Brandon will definitely evaporate.
Dessau's threat frightened Brandon and made him determined to fight to the death.
The one arranged in Plassey this time was the 30th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Division. When he learned that Anna and his party were about to arrive in Plassey, Dessau issued the order of the supreme commander to all the troops in Plassey.
The city is under martial law.
Of course, the reason Dessau announced martial law in the city was for Anna's safety. After all, Anna had been assassinated before. It was for this reason that the martial law in the city of Plassey was justified.
All Plassey residents were restricted from entering and exiting Plassey. At the same time, travel restrictions on the streets of Plassey began even before Anna arrived. This unprecedented move made all Plassey residents panic.
disturbed.
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have united with Plaxi's militia to start martial law on the streets, but is this really good?"
The chief of staff of the 30th Infantry Regiment hurried to the side of the regiment commander Multon and said, and when he said the second half of the sentence, the chief of staff's face was obviously very complicated.
"My Chief of Staff, you should know that this matter is not something I can take charge of. This is the arrangement of Marshal Dessau. Do you think we can disobey the order of Marshal Dessau? And this time.
I tell you from the marshal, this matter is not just involving us. All the big shots in Brandenburg are also involved in this matter. We have no other way to go now!"
Hearing what Multon said, the chief of staff's face suddenly became a little sad.
"Okay, Adenauer, this matter is really beyond our capabilities. All we can do now is follow the marshal's orders. Even if we want to change our stance, don't think about it. Those big shots can't deal with that.
As a queen, can’t you still deal with you and me?”
Adenauer did not speak, but gave a military salute to Multon and then left.
Just after Adenauer left, the whole city of Plassey was filled with noise. Patrol teams composed of soldiers and militiamen were enforcing martial law on the streets of Plassey. These patrols beat gongs and asked Plassey to
All the residents immediately rushed home. If anyone was still on the street after half an hour, they would be punished as treason.
After clearing the streets, Multon and Adenauer led the entire 30th Infantry Regiment to the south of Plassey, which was the direction Anna came from.
After a while, a scout quickly rushed to Multon and Adenauer and said:
"Reporting to the head of the regiment, Your Excellency the Chief of Staff! A motorcade flying the royal flag was found six miles south of the city!"
After hearing the scout's report, Adenauer and Multon looked at each other. Adenauer held his hand tightly and then whispered to Multon with a somewhat uneasy expression:
"Captain, please think carefully. This matter is really too big. Once we take action, there is really no turning back!"
Adenauer's words caused Multon to roll his eyes. Multon stared at Adenauer and said:
"From the moment we received the order to come to Plassey, there was no turning back!"
After Multon finished speaking to Adenauer, he only saw Multon shouting to the soldiers of the 30th Infantry Regiment who were lined up under the gate of Plasinin:
"Attention all! This time we received an order from our superiors in Plassey. The traitors who assassinated Her Royal Highness the Queen before were defeated by Her Royal Highness the Queen's escorts and fled towards Plassey! In order to prevent these traitors from going unpunished.
, disrupting the public order, superior orders, the 30th Infantry Regiment must completely wipe out this rebel army who intends to assassinate Her Royal Highness the Queen, leaving no one alive!"
After Multon finished his roar, he looked around at the soldiers in front of him. Under Multon's gaze, the soldiers of the 30th Infantry Regiment raised their heads and raised their chests.
For these soldiers, they do not need to know whether Multon's words are lying, they only need to know that their regiment commander has issued an order, and they need to execute it!
"Set off!"
As Multon's order was issued, the soldiers of the 30th Infantry Regiment immediately formed a neat queue and headed south of Plaxi City. Their goal was a lake south of Plaxi City, and that lake was Anna