Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 393

Chapter 393: Chapter 80: Learning to Be a Fisherman (Additional Chapter 4 for the Leader of Nan Street)
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The rapidly flourishing East Prussia Pier soon caught the attention of the Berlin Government. Such conspicuous immigration could not be kept a secret, and the news naturally leaked out early on.

The Kingdom of Prussia’s protest was a non-issue for Franz, as the Foreign Ministry directly responded, “It has nothing to do with us, go talk to the Russians.”

Indeed, if it weren’t for the Russians’ perverse actions, such a mass exodus, no matter how much they were cheated, would not have been possible.

A million East Prussian people could testify that they left to escape hardship, and Austria was simply providing humanitarian relief.

“Russian-Austrian trade,” is there evidence? Without evidence, careless talk comes at a cost.

From the beginning to the end, the Vienna Government never showed its face. The organization of the people’s departure was managed by merchants from East Prussia and the local Church.

In Berlin, ever since the news from the East Prussia region arrived, Wilhelm I’s expression had never improved.

The Russians did not care about the population of the East Prussia region; they had plenty of people, and besides, these people were a nuisance to them anyway.

Sending the locals away, Alexander II could even bestow the lands of East Prussia to his meritorious subjects, in essence killing several birds with one stone.

The Kingdom of Prussia was different. Their population was already small, and the East Prussia region was a core area they had diligently managed. Without the population of East Prussia, they had no means to replenish the loss.

Besides acquiring the Schleswig-Holstein Duchies, which added some Germans, there were hardly any Germans in other regions.

Prime Minister Frank advised, “Your Majesty, let us put East Prussia’s problem aside for now. The priority is to win the war, and currently, it’s beyond our reach.”

Prime Minister Frank saw the issue clearly. The loss of East Prussia’s population would have severe consequences, but that was predicated on winning the war.

If they lost the war, it wouldn’t be their territory anyway, so the troubles would naturally cease to exist.

Wilhelm I shook his head and said, “No, we must take action to slow down the pace of Austrian immigration. Otherwise, by the time our army gets there, the place will be empty.”

Luckily, this war was instigated by the Junker aristocracy; otherwise, losing the core area of the Junker nobles would have left Wilhelm I without a way to explain.

Now, all he could do was to take a stance and engage in a political show, for the Junker nobles to see.

Stopping the Austrians’ immigration activity was a joke. The immigration had already begun when the Russians occupied the East Prussia region.

Initially, it was just hundreds or thousands leaving, but now there are tens or hundreds of thousands leaving together. If they really planned to stop it, they wouldn’t have waited until now.

Wilhelm I knew very well that he simply couldn’t stop it and might even provoke bigger issues, which is why he had chosen to play dumb.

Now that the situation had blown up, it was impossible to keep a lid on it any longer, and the issue had to be brought into the open.

…

Ultimately, of course, it was a non-event. Apart from calling on the local population to resist immigration, they were realistically powerless to do anything.

Even that call might not even reach the public. The Russians would certainly not help them spread the word, and Prussian Government officials, once they entered the East Prussia region, would have to face being hunted down by the Russians.

For the people of the East Prussia region, the Russian Army had already made the decision for them. To expedite the immigration process, the Russian Army organized grain levying teams and started visiting rural households.

Unlike the previous mere looting of property, this time it was to completely cut off any possibility of them staying. If they didn’t leave quickly, it wouldn’t be long before they starved.

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The large-scale immigration operation continued until the end of September, with most of the population of the East Prussia region having arrived in Austro-Africa, and a smaller part being allocated to the Southeast Asia and Central American regions.

Concentrated settlements did not exist, Franz wasn’t foolish, how could he possibly give them the chance to band together? Of course, officially it was to help them find jobs more easily.

After all, most of these immigrants were the elderly, weak, women and children, for whom finding jobs wasn’t easy. If they were settled together, where would there be so many suitable positions for them?

It’s easy to scatter, hard to gather. These immigrants were dispersed far and wide, and after the war ended, it was expected that many Prussian soldiers would have to embark on a long search for their relatives.

…

At Belvedere Palace, looking at the compiled data, Franz was very satisfied. According to incomplete statistics, during this war, Austria had managed to “cheat” approximately 800,000 immigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia, of which 730,000 were from East Prussia.

Completely clearing out the area was impossible, as there would always be stubborn individuals who didn’t want to leave, and Franz never liked to coerce others.

Since they chose to stay, it was no longer his concern. Whether these people could survive this war would depend on whether God blessed them.

The only regret was that the Danish people lost too quickly; otherwise, he could have “cheated” a large group of people to immigrate from the Schleswig-Holstein Duchies.

As of now, Austria no longer lacked land or resources; what it needed most was a quality population.

Franz wanted to unify the Germany Region mainly for its population. Otherwise, that land of just over 400,000 square kilometers wasn’t worth much attention.

Especially the terrible strategic location, which was off-putting. If Austria was sandwiched between France and Russia, then the Northern Germany region was stuck in the middle of England, France, Russia, and Austria.

One could say that with the unification of the Germany Region, Austria’s national defense pressure would at least double, if not more.

In the Mediterranean Region, there was at least no need to confront the British directly, and once the Suez Canal opened, Austria’s strategic environment could be further improved.

As for concerns about the British blockading, that was an unfounded fear. To block both the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal simultaneously, unless the Royal Navy was completely deployed, it was simply not feasible.

It’s the 19th century, not the 21st century, where deploying a fleet to blockade a coastline is simply a myth.

Without boasting, Franz was confident of maintaining a navy with half the strength of the Royal Navy.

As a land-power country, Franz dared to stake everything on his navy, fighting a war with mutual destruction. Would the British dare to take such a risk?

If the Royal Navy was severely weakened, what would they use to protect their vast colonies? In the face of interests, the European nations would not be considerate towards them.

This was also a factor in Franz’s fervor for massive immigration, in case one day there was a conflict with a naval power and the navy couldn’t defend the safety of the colonies.

Then, the army would take over. Easily, a formidable force could be assembled in any significant colony, deterring anyone from daring to touch this nail.

Strategically, the stronger the power, the harder it is to initiate a war. Especially when countries realize the high cost of war, the likelihood of war breaking out will further decrease.

In those days, farming was the true path. It was one thing to bully the weak, but engaging in bloodshed with a strong country meant that even if one won the war, they lost strategically.

This was a lesson Franz had learned, offered in detail by examples like the Near East war and the ongoing Prusso-Russian war, where the ultimate victors were the fishermen watching from the sidelines.

Franz admitted that he was addicted to being the fisherman, not wanting to take personal risks. It wasn’t a bad thing; any excellent politician must learn to be a fisherman.