Chapter 15
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Chapter 15: A Tragedy in Tsarist Russia
"Those smelly researchers think they’re like gods, but I am the real god," said Anna von Bismarck.
As the national science award was being presented, Anna also set off from her mansion, getting ready to head to Frankfurt. Many political leaders from different countries were gathering in Frankfurt for a meeting on the Middle East issue. When her carriage passed by the Brandenburg Gate, she noticed how arrogant the researchers were and made a small complaint.
Anna’s attitude towards science was similar to her attitude towards the navy.
What’s that? Can you eat it?
In the Redel era, the changing social class structure placed researchers alongside teachers, lawyers, doctors, and military personnel as the elite group. The existing group was puzzled by newcomers. Anna truly wondered if these people really needed such high-level treatment.
Leader One explained to her, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and research is the future of a country."
Anna replied, "Last time you said education is the future of a country, the time before that it was health and medical care, then defense, and once you mentioned industry."
Leader One agreed, "Yes, each of them contributes to the country’s future, but research is definitely important."
Since Leader One was so sure, Anna had no objections. Even though she didn’t oppose the prince regent’s strong support for researchers, some things were still questionable.
Her carriage passed through the crowded Unter den Linden Street, watching the lively scene of the science award ceremony. She thought to herself, "Why don’t I receive such good treatment? I serve Prussia with all my heart, yet I have never seen Leader One award me in front of thousands of people. Why do those researchers get all the attention…"
The Prussian Academy of Sciences is not as grand as the upcoming Frankfurt Conference, where all the gods will truly gather.
Firstly, there’s me, Anna, who surpasses even God!
Next, there’s Metternich. Despite being ousted by the great revolution, this cross-dressing figure still plays a role as a secret advisor in Austrian and international affairs. Metternich is the second person after Richelieu to lead the era. Well, the time of Metternich will pass, and it will be the era of Anna.
Then, there’s Robert Peel, the Prime Minister of England, who is often regarded as the most outstanding Prime Minister in English history. For a quarter of a century, he has been a loyal and capable servant, able to stand his ground against the Chief Secretary of the Cabinet.
The Sardinian king’s personal advisor, Camillo Benso di Cavour, the current hard-to-pronounce Austrian Prime Minister, the unnamed Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the French-English emperor, Napoleon III.
Every European statesman attending the Frankfurt meeting will leave their mark on history.
The meeting of various European statesmen will discuss the Eastern issue, concerning Russia and the Ottoman Empire. However, neither Russia nor the Ottomans are present at the meeting…quite typical, quite typical.
Anna’s carriage arrived at the train station from the city center. The prince regent arranged a royal special train for her travels, which consists of three carriages. The interior is simple with minimal luxury decorations, focusing on soundproofing and practicality. It is the most discreet royal train in the world.
Inside the prince regent’s special train carriage, Anna was reading various documents on the desk. These were mainly secret reports from spies hidden in different countries and major newspapers. She needed to carefully analyze the current international situation, each country’s needs and goals. The participants in this meeting were all experts in diplomacy and very clever, so it was easy to fall into traps without realizing it.
On the way to Frankfurt, Anna was joined by Prussia Cabinet Secretary Schultz, who had arrived early. He was arranging the meeting venue and welcoming the participants, as well as preparing necessary documents for Anna.
Prussia had no direct connection to the Eastern issue, but they were putting a lot of effort into the meeting, leaving other participating countries feeling puzzled.
While Anna was on the train journey…
The useless King of Prussia was sleeping with her careless maid, Sophia.
When Anna arrived in Frankfurt…
The mourning King was watching a play at the opera house with Princess Elizabeth.
When Anna began the international meeting…
The grieving King was reviewing the troops with Catherine on horseback.
In the land of bad guys, the worst of the worst, Leader One’s theory goes like this:
Imagine a king who works hard all his life when he’s young, only to start enjoying his life when he’s old. Not only can he not enjoy it physically, but he will also be looked down upon by future generations in history books, saying that he had great abilities when he was young, but became more and more corrupt as he aged.
In that case, why not have fun when you’re young, and then start working hard in middle age? That way, history will remember you well. People will say that even though you were naughty when you were young, at least you woke up in time and became a wise ruler of your time…
Hooray!
Actually, Leader One is just being a bit indulgent lately. Compared to other kings and nobles, his personal life is as clean and controlled as a saint. Nowadays, other nobles… have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
Let’s leave the bad kings aside, and focus on the multinational summit taking place in Frankfurt.
Baron Schultz personally arranged the meeting room, with a crescent-shaped massive conference table as the main visual point. Surrounding it were lots of red roses, the walls were a deep grey, and the carpet had a complex and eye-catching clash of colors, intensifying emotions with the clash of cool and warm tones, deep grey and bright red, along with the dizzying carpet pattern.
Fight on! Fight on!
The seats for England and France were placed in the middle, with Prussia and Austria on the sides, along with Sardinia. When Anna entered the meeting room, she brought a stack of documents, but she hardly spoke throughout the meeting, occasionally flipping through the files.
Anna memorized all the things prepared by the Prussian Foreign Ministry on her way. She could even easily talk about them without any hesitation. Bringing a bunch of documents to the meeting was to show that she was very well-prepared.
The first half of the meeting was a subtle clash between England and France, as the two countries had some differences on the Eastern question and unfair distribution of interests.
Was the meeting discussing things indirectly? No, the Prime Minister of England and Napoleon III were openly dividing up the continent, showing their ambitions without any secrecy, directly setting boundaries for the lands of Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
The two people at the conference table were elegantly dressed and spoke in a sophisticated manner, but they were discussing dividing other countries’ sovereignty, showcasing extreme civility and extreme brutality.
Anna listened carefully to the negotiations between the Prime Minister of England and Napoleon III, nodding from time to time.
The top two powers in the world are strong – they can beat whoever they want and divide whoever they want. The British Empire doesn’t need to worry about others, and France only needs to slightly consider the British Empire’s opinion, while Prussia’s diplomacy needs to be submissive everywhere.
The confidence of England and France comes from their national strength and what they can easily obtain on the battlefield, which naturally translates to easy wins at the negotiation table.
Anna also hopes that Prussia will become strong quickly. The British Empire and France, as the world’s top two powerful nations, can do whatever they want.
The Prime Minister of England said, "The Kingdom of Sardinia should focus on managing itself well and not stretch its hands too far."
Napoleon III said, "Isn’t the Kingdom of Sardinia doing well? It’s okay to expand into the Balkans."
The Austrian Prime Minister replied, "We cannot allow outsiders to interfere in the Balkan region."
Napoleon III responded, "The eastern Balkans belong to the Ottomans, it’s none of your concern."
There were disputes over the distribution of power in the Balkans among England, France, Austria, and Sardinia. The meeting became noisy but representatives from Prussia and Sweden remained uninvolved.
These people were quite skilled, speaking in English, French, German, and Italian. They all understood each other without needing translations, a key quality for excellent diplomats.
With the end of the Liberal Revolution, the war in the Apennine Peninsula also ended. Italy’s first attempt at unification and independence failed, with Austrian influence being expelled. Much of the Apennine Peninsula fell under French control.
The Austrians lost in the Apennine Peninsula and were determined not to let it happen in the Balkans, ready to stand firm against the French.
England did not want France to become too powerful, but had also benefited from France recently, leading to a hesitant stance.
Everyone was trying to divide up a new cake. How did this cake come about? By taking it from the Ottomans and the Russians. The distribution of this cake caused arguments due to unfair sharing.
The representative from Sweden didn’t speak, because he was just there to make up the numbers and obediently listened to the meeting.
Anna didn’t say much on the first day, because this international summit would last for several days, and on the first day, they couldn’t reach any agreement. Let England, France, and Austria argue first, and after a few days, Anna would start to get involved.
After the first day’s meeting, the evening newspaper directly published a leak from an insider, "Multiple countries are dividing up the influence of the Ottoman Empire and Russia in the Balkan Peninsula".
Anna looked at the newspaper with a slight surprise, "Huh? I haven’t started getting involved yet, who started it first?"
Representatives from England, France, and Austria were also surprised, they also had plans to get involved, but they haven’t started yet.
The insider leak was actually revealed to the newspaper by the Swedish team. Sweden wanted Russia to be dealt with quickly, they wanted to add fuel to the fire and get the war started soon.
The day after the leak, the arguments during the meeting became even more intense, with representatives from each country accusing each other of leaking information, everyone was suspicious, everyone had thoughts, but no one admitted to anything.
As a result, there was no progress made during the meeting on the second day, they were just busy arguing.
On the third day, Anna sat idle in her seat, flipping through the newspaper, ignoring the noise of people arguing around her. Suddenly, she looked up and saw a commotion outside the meeting room.
The newspaper leaked the secret information, so the Russian and Ottoman ambassadors to Berlin and France hurried to Frankfurt without even informing their home countries first.
It was a serious matter as their own countries were about to be divided. The Russian and Ottoman ambassadors were very worried, but the guards at the meeting venue stopped them from entering. The six nations, including England, France, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, had no intention of letting them join the meeting.
After the meeting ended that day, in the evening, Anna tried to secretly meet with the Russian and Ottoman ambassadors but she found…
The ambassadors to Berlin and Paris from the two countries were taken away by someone, leaving only the Russian ambassador to Berlin to have a secret meeting with Anna.
The Russian ambassador to Berlin was newly appointed, serving for just six months. His German was very strange, making Anna unable to bear it after exchanging pleasantries.
"Sir, please speak Russian, I understand it."
The Russian ambassador wanted to chat and improve relations, but it was clear that he was very anxious and uneasy, fidgeting a lot.
"Respected Mrs. Bismarck, Russia and Prussia have a deep friendship. Our great Emperor and your prince regent are as close as brothers."
"Mm-hmm…" Anna responded absentmindedly.
Tsar Nicholas I’s queen was the eldest daughter of the late King Frederick Wilhelm III, who was also Leader One’s big sister, and at the same time, Nicholas I was the great-grandson of King Frederick Wilhelm I.
The Tsar is Leader One’s brother-in-law and also a distant cousin. They have double family connections, but really, who cares about that stuff? Leader One can find family ties with almost all European royalty anyway…
Anna made a regretful expression and said to the Russian ambassador, "Oh, the ambitions of England and France are quite big and very barbaric. We in Prussia want to help our dear friend Russia, but Prussia doesn’t have much say in the meetings to stop England and France."
"Respected Mrs. Bismarck, please speak up more for Russia on our behalf. We will never forget this friendship and assistance."
"Of course, I will definitely fight for justice for Russia at the conference. After all, the bond between Prussia and Russia is as close as brothers."
In reality, the Russian ambassador and Anna both knew very well that they were just making empty promises to each other. They wouldn’t help unless they saw real benefits. But Anna still pretended to be friendly to build rapport, and the Russian ambassador tried to see if they could get Prussia’s help for free.
Free help? That’s impossible.
Anna X Bismarck turned around and went to the conference to stir things up. She and the Swedish representative earnestly discussed agricultural issues and international agricultural trade, mentioning how Prussia’s local agriculture was deteriorating due to the influx of foreign grain, and some countries were trying to control international grain trade.
Swedish representative, "Yes, some countries are really bad, dumping grain and trying to control our agriculture."
Anna and the Swedish representative brought up the issue of food shortage to highlight the aggressive and expansionist nature of tsarist Russia, adding fuel to the fire at the meeting and urging England and France to quickly teach Russia a lesson.
Austria and Russia were supposed to be allies, ever since the establishment of the Holy Alliance under the Metternich system.
After the French Revolution, with Metternich being ousted and the Holy Alliance facing severe challenges, a crisis erupted between Prussia and Austria called the Silesian Crisis. During the tense standoff between Prussia and Austria that almost led to war, Anna diplomatically isolated Austria and brought Russia closer to her side.
Austria had long-standing issues with agriculture and Russia, and during the Silesian Crisis, Russia leaned towards Prussia, which left Austria feeling discontent.
During the meeting, while England and France were discussing how to deal with Russia, the current Chancellor of Austria did not intervene, implying that the countries were ready to confront Russia.
Metternich, as a special guest at the meeting, strongly disagreed with the current Austrian leadership. He believed that Austria and Russia didn’t need to part ways and could maintain their friendship. Austria should not completely push Russia into the enemy’s arms.
However, Metternich had lost his power. His presence at the meeting was merely symbolic. Although his words were heard, the Austrian authorities were not inclined to accept his advice. The current Austrian leadership had decided to break all ties with Russia.
Russia was now in a precarious position, as all the surrounding countries were eager to see it defeated. Prussia, Austria, England, France, and Sardinia had all turned against Russia. This was a diplomatic failure for Nicholas I and a strategic failure for the country.
Russia’s overly aggressive expansionist behavior raised strong concerns among the European countries. Originally, no one really liked Russia, and with such aggressive behavior, they were bound to face consequences.
When the countries at the Frankfurt Conference were preparing to deal with Russia, Anna was also learning from the situation and lessons. Prussia will likely face similar challenges in the future – strong nations seeking to expand their territories and compete for world dominance. Each step requires cultivating good relationships in diplomacy, not acting recklessly like Russia.
If you want to develop without being attacked by others, you must act submissive and appear weak, so that other countries will allow you to grow.
From that moment on, Anna von Bismarck had already started planning her diplomatic strategy called "Iron and Blood, Actually a Filial Son" in her mind.
