Chapter 556: Dark Collusion
Chapter 557 Dark Blending
What Potemkin did not say was that just a few months ago, nearly 200 warships of the Russian Baltic Fleet were ambushed by the Swedish Duke Zudermannia.
The Swedes used a large number of gunboats that were only the size of fishing boats. Although these small boats had poor seaworthiness, they were equipped with 24-pound guns and even 32-pound guns. Russian battleship.
The Russian fleet was very unlucky. It originally wanted to rely on its numerical advantage in warships to defeat both sides. However, a headwind suddenly blew up, and it eventually lost 64 warships and thousands of soldiers, and returned in defeat.
This failure directly led to the end of the Seventh Russo-Swedish War. Fortunately, Russia's ally Denmark took advantage of the chaos to attack Gothenburg, Sweden from the south. Sweden had to give up its plan to take the opportunity to regain the lost territory and signed the Treaty of Verreira with Russia. 》.
Although Russia barely maintained its pre-war borders, after this war, it was bound to invest a lot of resources to stabilize its sphere of influence in the Baltic Sea.
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In other words, Russia is faced with the situation of investing troops in three directions. At this time, even if they become underwear, they can only mobilize 50,000 troops to attack Poland.
No matter how weak Poland is now, it still has nearly 70,000 troops. Coupled with the advantage of playing at home, Russia will definitely kick the bucket if it rashly takes action.
According to Catherine II's original plan, Russia and Prussia signed a secret treaty, preparing to choose an opportunity to attack Poland together - the fertile land of the Great Plains of Eastern Europe has always been highly coveted by Russia.
However, something unexpected happened, and Russia was planning to wait until the Russo-Swedish War was over before attacking Poland. Unexpectedly, Prussia and Austria started fighting first.
At present, more than 100,000 troops from Prussia and Austria are still facing each other in Silesia, and it is impossible to send troops to Poland.
The tsar's secretary nodded, smiled and said:
"Your Excellency, in fact, the British came to Petersburg this time to promote an armistice between Prussia and Austria. This is why Your Majesty is eager to let you go back."
When Potemkin heard this, he couldn't help but sit up straight, but did not show any surprise. Instead, he asked cautiously:
“What do the British want?”
As a veteran in politics, he knows that there is no free lunch.
Hrabovich said: “They seem to want to help Prussia get out of the quagmire of the Silesian War and seek some trade benefits.
"As you know, Prussia's financial situation is already very dangerous. If the stalemate with Austria continues for another year, or even half a year, there may be a financial collapse.
"The British, as their allies, hoped that we could play a role on the Austrian side and bring about an armistice."
Potemkin frowned: "But we have an agreement with France and we will not put pressure on Austria because of the war in Silesia."
Hrabovitzki nodded: "His Majesty also hinted this to the British envoy. The British suggested that we could send some benefits to Austria in exchange for their signature on the armistice agreement."
"Profit? What does he mean?"
"The British mentioned that we could recognize Austria's claim to Wallachia..."
"These bastards!" Potemkin suddenly showed anger, "That is our passage to Constantinople, how can we hand it over to the Austrians?!"
The ultimate dream of the Russian tsar is to inherit the orthodoxy of the Eastern Roman Empire - their bloodline brought by Princess Sophia [Note 1] has a legal basis - if they can "recover" Constantine, the former capital of Eastern Rome Fort, then any country has to admit this.
This is also the core reason why Russia spared no effort to go to war with the Ottomans.
If you want to invade Constantinople, you must use the Balkan Peninsula as a springboard. Otherwise, transporting logistical supplies from the Russian mainland to the Anatolia region will definitely bring down Russia.
The Romanian region in the eastern Balkans is the best forward base. After the previous Russo-Turkish War, Russia had basically controlled the Principality of Moldavia in northeastern Romania.
Potemkin was constructing and recruiting troops in Iasi, the capital of Moldavia.
Wallachia is an important place in central Romania. If it were captured, Russia would be able to drive south into the Bulgarian plains. The Thrace region in eastern Bulgaria borders Constantinople.
However, the Romanian region is also a strategic expansion target for Austria.
Austria currently still prefers to protect the integrity of Poland, and the Italian peninsula in the southwest faces competition from France, so expanding toward the southeast toward the Balkans has become their best choice.
In fact, Austria once controlled most of the northern Balkans, but later withdrew under pressure from Russia and the Ottomans, but still maintained considerable influence.
Wallachia is such a state - it still nominally belongs to the Ottoman Empire, but most of the residents are Slavs and are very close to Russia, but Austria's control here is the strongest.
Therefore, if Austria wants to really get Wallachia, it must get Russia's nod. You know, Russia's incitement of Slav rebellion in Wallachia is the biggest obstacle to Austria's rule here.
Hrabovitzky whispered:
"The British said they could persuade Austria to guarantee non-interference in the Silislat region and to abandon its claim for the integrity of Poland, and guaranteed this."
Silisrat is the easternmost part of the Balkan Peninsula, close to the west coast of the Black Sea, connecting Moldavia and Thrace like a corridor.
Although the area of this place is not large, it allows the Russian army to bypass Wallachia and attack Constantinople.
Potemkin's eyes lit up when he heard this.
If Wallachia, which Russia has never controlled, is used in exchange for a truce between Prussia and Austria, and Austria gives up harassing the Silisrat corridor, this is very cost-effective strategically.
You know, once the confrontation between Prussia and Austria ends, Prussia's tens of thousands of troops will be able to attack Poland from the east and west with the Russian army, and the weak Poland will almost certainly lose.
Hrapovitzki continued: "The British envoy also proposed to increase the amount of wood, grease, wax, and animal skins purchased by Britain from us by at least 25% in 3 to 5 years.
"At the same time, invest no less than 200,000 pounds in Crimea to mine coal there and hand it over to our merchant ships for transportation. ”
[Note 1] In the mid-15th century, the Ottoman army destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire. The last Eastern Roman emperor died in the war, and his last descendant, Princess Sophia Paleologus, fled to Russia with the help of the Roman Catholic Church and married Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow.
Since then, Russia has regarded itself as the Third Rome and claimed to be the orthodox Eastern Roman Empire.
