War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

London, England.

The British government had long been informed of the Warsaw Uprising, but the Prime Minister, Earl Derby, was not optimistic about it. He did not want to provoke the Russians at this time, because Britain was already in enough trouble.

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The domestic financial crisis, industrial depression, railway cooling, the spreading and incurable potato late blight, the Irish, the Chartists, and the unemployment of workers alone had already made him overwhelmed.

Recently, the potato late blight has spread to Scotland. This time, local officials and the media still want to use the same rhetoric against the Irish, saying that the natural disaster is a punishment for the immoral lazy people.

But the Scots are not the Irish. The former's spirit of resistance is much stronger than the latter, and Scotland has armed forces.

For this brother with a knife in his hand, the British government is naturally willing to speak well. First, it fired some officials and reporters who talked nonsense, and then began to increase support for Scotland.

This time, the British government did not set up poorhouses or fake work-for-relief, but directly distributed money and food, which calmed the anger of the Scots.

But there is a price to pay for this, and the price is that the British government, which is already heavily in debt, has been further aggravated.

So the Earl of Derby really doesn't want to get into this big trouble with Poland. If he can, he doesn't even want to know the news.

However, other people in the British high-level don't think so. They think that Russia's encroachment on the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia has seriously affected the interests of the British Empire, so they must respond.

At this time, the turmoil caused by the Tsar's request for the Polish conversion is a perfect opportunity. Britain's support for Poland is easy to remind people of the great Greek War of Independence.

That was one of the few wars in which Britain appeared with a glorious and just image. The British sacrificed for the cause of Greek liberation. They were called "Philhellenes", a word derived from Greek, meaning "Friends of Greece".

But in fact, this term did not only refer to the British at that time, but also included the French, Germans, Spanish and all those who came to help Greece, but they could not withstand the propaganda offensive of the British government and the great reputation of Lord Byron.

Although Britain portrayed its support for the Greek War of Independence as a just fight against injustice, there were actually countless dirty deals and irreconcilable conflicts of interest behind it.

For example, Britain never thought of destroying the naval power of the Ottoman Empire. The glorious victory in the Battle of Navarino was entirely the product of the operational errors of the British commander Edward Codrington.

In fact, Edward Codrington's mission was to weaken the Russians as much as possible while maintaining the balance of power in the Mediterranean.

However, fate played tricks on people. The Ottomans' killing of envoys angered the coalition forces, and under the leadership of the Russians, they won the naval battle.

Edward Codrington suffered a lot in the days that followed. He had to explain his actions again and again, and finally died in pain.

In fact, the British did not care whether the Poles were independent or converted. What they cared about was to let the Russians know that the interests of the British Empire could not be violated.

Prime Minister Earl Derby thought his colleagues were stupid. Why did they care about other people's affairs when their own family was in danger?

He did not want to be involved in this war. As prime minister, he had great power and no one could force him to be involved in this war.

But unfortunately, there was a very special man in this era, that is, Palmerston, the "King of Understanding" of the British Empire in the 19th century.

As soon as the news of Prince Albert's departure from the center reached India, Palmerston rushed back without stopping.

After drifting on the sea for several months, he learned about such a big event as soon as he got off the ship. How could he not intervene?

As soon as Palmerston learned about this, he hired a cargo ship full of weapons produced by the Arsenal Arsenal to sail to the Baltic Sea and contacted the Polish Restorationists.

As soon as the Russian-Polish insurgents succeeded, cargo ships loaded with munitions docked at the shore.

So far, Earl Derby's neutrality plan has completely failed. Palmerston tied Britain and Poland together with just one ship of munitions.

After learning that he could not get off the pirate ship, Earl Derby was very angry. He felt that his colleagues were a group of idiots and hegemonists who had completely forgotten the traditional continental balance of power policy.

However, no one cared about the anger of the prime minister. Those who supported the war did not even pretend. They directly sent warships to escort under the banner of "maintaining free trade".

Although the British Royal Navy was defeated, no country dared to underestimate their reputation. The strength of the British Royal Navy can easily crush Sweden and Russia, the two Baltic hegemons.

At this time, Libawa did not belong to Russian Poland, but the Polish uprising was not limited to being carried out within the scope of Russian Poland designated by Russia.

Libawa was once part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and there were also a large number of Poles living here. Compared with the Russians' strict defense of the Polish Governorate, the Russians' supervision of the Baltic Governorate can only be described as leaky.

British cargo ships loaded with munitions docked at the port unscrupulously, unloading weapons and ammunition one by one, and taking away boxes of gold, silver and antiques.

However, the Russian navy did not even have the courage to intercept. They could only report that the sea was still frozen and could not sail.

(Libawa was the largest port in northern Russian Poland at that time, and it was the year-round ice-free port that the Russians dreamed of.)

The weak performance of the Russians made the British more unscrupulous. The latter not only continued to export weapons to Poland, but also organized volunteers.

The newspapers in Britain were full of applause, and Palmerston even openly declared in Congress that this action would make Britain great again.

Compared with the British people's unremitting efforts, the French seemed to be a little thunderous but little raindrops.

Although the French government expressed its support for Poland in a previous joint statement with the British government, the French suddenly kept a low profile when the Polish uprising actually occurred.

They kept silent about the support, did not send warships into the Baltic Sea, and did not deliver any supplies to the Poles.

The French government strictly ordered French ships to enter the Baltic Sea, and even sent a letter to the Russian government to clarify that it had nothing to do with the matter.

In fact, this is easy to understand. Napoleon III had just come to power, and more importantly, the government of the Second French Republic was just a makeshift team.

Napoleon III had a weak foundation, and the Order Party was also divided. The two sides were evenly matched opponents.

He understood that the most important thing at this time was not to make achievements, but to avoid mistakes.

Napoleon III had previously given the qualification of the victorious representative of the Vienna Peace Conference to the Order Party for this purpose. After all, doing less means fewer mistakes, and not doing anything is not bad.

In addition to the problems within the government and considerations for his own political career, the domestic situation in France did not allow him to worry about other countries.