Struggle in Russia

In the last book, it was mentioned that Menshikov asked the Prussian and Austrian embassies to help inquire about the news, so did he succeed?

Well……

Let's put it this way, if you say he succeeded, it's okay, because the Austrian and Prussian embassies agreed to help.

But you want to say it is really useful? That is not necessarily the case.

why?

The reason is that the Holy Alliance has already existed in name only, and because of the Hungarian revolution, the relationship between Austria and Russia is actually not good, and the face and heart have long been at odds. As for Prussia, because of Russia's favoritism towards Austria after the European Revolution, they and Big Brother are also in the same bed, and they are no longer of one mind.

What's more, Austria itself has great interests in the Balkans, and has always been very repulsive to Russia's expansion. Now that Nicholas I is playing tricks in Bulgaria again, to be honest, Austria is actually very boring.

It's just that Russia seems too strong and powerful, and Austria, which was tossed to death by the Hungarian revolution, has not yet recovered its strength, and has no courage to turn against the polar bear.

This time, I heard that the British took a tough note to Menshikov. In fact, the Austrians were very happy in their hearts. They wished that Britain and Russia could do it together so that he could take advantage of it. How could he sincerely help find out the news.

To put it bluntly, they just coped with the matter, at most they were prevaricating to some bad news that everyone in the street could know.

As for Prussia, as I said earlier, they are no different from Russia. They may be a little stronger than Austria, and they won't be particularly perfunctory, but they won't really go all out to find out the news.

After all, Prussia does not have many interests in the Balkans, and their focus is not in that direction. It is obviously unrealistic to ask them to help Russia inquire about intelligence on their own.

So Menshikov visited here, and he felt that it would be safe to have this group of friends to help him inquire about the news, but he didn't realize that this was useless work at all.

It can also be seen from this point that he does not have much diplomatic ability, but anyone who is sensitive to the international situation knows that neither Austria nor Prussia is reliable at this time. If Duke Alexander was here, he would definitely not make such low-level mistakes. He would definitely do everything possible to inquire about news from various channels, instead of pinning all his hopes on unreliable allies.

This was the first and most serious mistake Menshikov made, from the very beginning his initiative and international sensitivity were not strong,

Did not realize the seriousness of the problem at all.

After that, he didn't have much awareness of actively resolving the crisis. He just waited for the news foolishly, and let a group of conspirators in Britain who were already very hostile to Russia make troubles.

For three full days Menshikov did nothing. However, London or the whole of the UK has been instigated by Russian hatred. The major newspapers in the UK are sparing no effort to exaggerate Russia's aggressiveness, and they are pitying how poor Turkey is.

In short, Russia is packaged as a vicious bully, while Turkey is a poor little bullied. When the entire British public opinion circle was dominated by this kind of argument, our Prince Menshikov was still leisurely hunting and playing with a few aristocratic children who were good friends.

Of course, in Menshikov's own words, he is actively expanding relations and conveying the friendship of the Romanov family to the British royal family.

When the old eunuch returned to London, he was suddenly shocked to find that a British mob had thrown rotten eggs at his luxurious carriage with the double eagle emblem. This fool didn't even know why, and even lost his temper and denounced Baron Brown Brunov for not doing his job well enough to let a group of untouchables humiliate Russia.

"Your Excellency, don't you read the newspaper?" Baron Brown Brunov asked with a bitter face.

Menshikov asked displeasedly: "What newspaper? I never read such nonsense!"

Baron Brunov sighed again: "I think you'd better take a look. The incident caused by the Black Sea Fleet has made the British very angry, causing a sensation in the ruling and opposition parties. They generally demand justice for Turkey!"

"Fair?" Menshikov frowned, snorted and said, "What kind of talk is this! How could Christians stand on the side of heretics? This is definitely a trick of some youngsters. You should send a note to the British Foreign Office. , let them severely punish these bastards!"

Baron Brunov was shocked. He looked at Menshikov like an alien. He didn't know whether the special envoy was really stupid or pretending to be stupid. It took him a long time to see that this man really didn't understand the twists and turns. Wandering around, he could only patiently explain:

"Your Excellency, according to my observations, I think it is impossible for the British Foreign Office to agree to your request. Because the public opinion in the UK is very unfavorable to us now, it is impossible for them to go against the mainstream public opinion! Even..."

After a short pause, Baron Brunov reminded in a low voice: "It is not even ruled out that these things were directed by the British Foreign Office!"

Menshikov's cloudy eyes were full of confusion, he couldn't understand what Baron Brunov was saying. Because he felt that the British Foreign Office should serve the British royal family, and the royal family's attitude towards Russia had always been good to him, so the British Foreign Office had no reason to give him eye drops.

In addition, he has no idea what public opinion is, because there is no public opinion in Russia at all, and even if there is public opinion, it is not important at all. The important thing is not to make the Tsar happy?

So he was very displeased and taught: "What the hell are you talking about? The current situation is that some unknown British mobs are against us. What does it have to do with the British Foreign Office?"

Well, Baron Brunov was completely desperate. He knew that it was impossible to explain the ins and outs of the matter to this old fool in a few words, and he didn't have the patience. He could only make himself as sincere as possible, and then reminded :

"Your Excellency, I think the most important thing for you now is to justify His Majesty's defense of the Black Sea Fleet, and you can no longer allow these youngsters to tarnish us. You must show a strong attitude to shut up these youngsters, otherwise our troubles will become bigger and bigger !"

In Baron Brunov's view, the only way now is to put pressure on the British Foreign Office to force them to calm down. In his opinion, as long as the British are not ready to really turn against them, such pressure will definitely have an effect.

What about Menshkov? Although the old eunuch still hasn't figured out what role the British Foreign Office played in the incident, he also agrees with letting the British settle the matter by themselves, because it seems normal to him...