Zhu Jinsong, amused by Zeng Cheng's analysis, laughed, "The mustached art student hasn't even figured out Austria yet. How could he use the Habsburg family as leverage to win over Alexander? Don't forget, the Habsburg family has centuries of heritage; a mere mustached art student can't shake it easily."
"Another more important reason is that the mustached art student would definitely view the Habsburg family as Austrian national interests. He wouldn't be willing to sell the Habsburg family to the Russian Tsar."
After some thought, Zhu Jinsong had a map spread out. "To analyze the transaction between the mustached art student and Alexander, we must consider the Tsar's long-standing dream – to advance into Europe and mingle with European nations."
"Therefore, if I were the mustached art student, I would definitely seize upon this ambition of the Russian people to win them over."
Zhu Jinsong pointed to a spot on the map. "Look at the map. Between Austria and the Russian Tsar lies the Tsar's Polish cousin."
Speaking of which, Zhu Jinsong again instructed Ke Zhiming, "Tell me about the Polish cousin."
Ke Zhiming bowed in acknowledgement and then said to Zeng Cheng, Liu Heming, and others, "The Polish cousin practices a system of free election of kings, meaning the king of the Polish cousin is elected by the parliament, and foreigners can also participate in the election. Consequently, the throne of the Polish cousin has changed hands frequently. In the past two hundred years, seven foreigners have become kings of the Polish cousin."
"In addition to the free election of kings, the Polish cousins also practice a liberum veto, where one objection in the Polish cousin's parliament can veto a proposal. Thus, out of fifty-five sessions held in the past hundred years, forty-eight failed to reach any resolution, which has led to extreme chaos in the Polish cousin's administration."
Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming and the others were stunned.
While the free election of kings was somewhat understandable, allowing foreigners who were not Polish cousins to participate in the election was truly baffling.
Of course, allowing foreigners who were not Polish cousins to participate in the election was the Polish cousin's own affair. Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming wouldn't say much even if they couldn't understand it.
But what exactly was this so-called liberum veto?
If one person opposed it, the proposal could be directly vetoed?
If the Polish cousins truly used such a system, what could they possibly accomplish? They might as well treat vetoing proposals as a game every day!
Ke Zhiming continued, "According to intelligence gathered by the Imperial Guard, the Russian Tsar has always viewed the Polish cousin as an obstacle to reaching Western Europe. In order to compete with the Ottoman Empire for access to the Black Sea, the Russian Tsar has been implementing a policy to weaken the Polish cousin since Catherine II."
"Furthermore, the Polish cousin suffered from severe feudal fragmentation and continuous strengthening of serfdom, which weakened them further. As a result, in the twenty-ninth year of Qianlong, they were defeated and partitioned by an alliance of the Russian Tsar, Prussia, and Austria. The Polish cousin lost land equivalent to the entire Hunan Provincial Administration, as well as nearly four million people."
"In the seventh year of the Holy Emperor, which was the seventh year after Your Majesty established the Great Ming, the Russian Tsar's army and the Prussian army once again marched deep into their territory, and another area roughly equivalent to the Hunan Provincial Administration was partitioned by the Russian Tsar and Prussian armies."
"Subsequently, because Your Majesty requested the formation of the Small Broken Pot and the establishment of the Five Great Benefactors system, the Russian Tsar also became one of the Five Great Benefactors. Therefore, the plan to partition the Polish cousin once again was not implemented, and the Polish cousin took the opportunity to cling to Louis XVI, successfully joining the Small Broken Pot."
Zhu Jinsong tapped the table with his fingers and said with a smile, "Do you understand now? The Russian Tsar has always wanted to annex the territory of the Polish cousin, and Austria, where the mustached art student is located, did not gain any benefits from the second partition of the Polish cousin by the Russians and Prussians. Therefore, I suspect the mustached art student might promise Alexander a partition of the Polish cousin."
Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming and other civil and military officials did not doubt Zhu Jinsong's analysis. After all, Zhu Jinsong's strategic direction had never been wrong, and analyzing a mere transaction between Austria and the Russian Tsar was not a problem.
However, what Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming and the others couldn't figure out was, even if the mustached art student could use the Polish cousin to win over the Russian Tsar, how would he win over France?
Zhu Jinsong smiled and said, "To win over France, it may not be necessary to offer the condition of partitioning territory, as with winning over the Russian Tsar."
Zeng Cheng was startled, and after regaining his composure, he tentatively asked, "Does Your Majesty mean that the mustached art student is likely to win over De Gaulle first, and then win over Louis XVI and the others?"
Zhu Jinsong nodded and said, "France's demands are not about European territory itself."
"After all, France has offended many people in Europe in recent years, so France can only stick with our Great Ming for now."
"However, France is too close to Europe and too far from our Great Ming. If France incurs the wrath of Europe, and all European nations unite and disregard everything to destroy France, then France might not be able to hold on until the rescue of the Great Ming army."
"Therefore, for France, the most important thing now is to maintain its status as one of the Five Great Benefactors of the Small Broken Pot, and to maintain its colonial advantage in the Western Kunlun region, rather than stubbornly fighting with those European countries."
This was unavoidable.
As for fighting with those European countries, Zhu Jinsong was not worried at all. After all, the armies of Europe at this time were not much stronger than the armies of the Great Qing. They all carried firearms and rifles, and might not be as good as some of the elite troops of the Great Qing.
However, the Great Ming was indeed too far from Europe. Although the Great Ming had several military bases in Europe and the Western Kunlun region, if all European countries were determined to destroy France, the troops at those military bases might not be able to protect France.
No matter how arrogant Zhu Jinsong was, he wouldn't be so arrogant as to dare to sweep across all of Europe with thirty to fifty thousand men. After all, even if these thirty to fifty thousand men were capable fighters, they would still need troop replenishment and logistics, and the Great Ming's military bases could at most store supplies for one or two months. Moreover, after the outbreak of war, a large number of troops would need to be replenished, which would accelerate the consumption of supplies.
This was something that not only Zhu Jinsong understood, but even French leaders like Louis XVI and Napoleon saw clearly.
It was precisely because of this that, although Louis XVI had the courage to constantly stir up trouble in Europe, he was not so arrogant as to challenge all of Europe alone.
Zhu Jinsong continued, "If I were the mustached art student, I would definitely promise to support France's interests in the Western Kunlun region, and at the same time support France's interests against the Netherlands, England, and other countries."
Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming were again surprised. Liu Heming directly asked, "France has already defeated England, and our Great Ming is also going to entrust Benghazi to France. It can be said that both European and Western Kunlun interests are already within France's grasp. Why would they need the support of a mustached art student?"
Zhu Jinsong glanced at Liu Heming and retorted, "I told you to read more. Did you feed all the books to the dogs?"
Seeing Liu Heming chuckle sheepishly and remain silent, Zhu Jinsong simply snorted, "France, for various messy reasons in the past, is at odds with the Habsburg family. The mustached art student is also at odds with the Habsburg family because he wants to take over all of Austria. Therefore, France and the mustached art student have common interests."
Liu Heming whispered, "But... France and Austria are directly adjacent. Isn't France afraid of nurturing a tiger that will harm itself?"
Zhu Jinsong said, "What is France afraid of? Are they afraid of not being able to defeat the mustached art student? Or are they afraid of not being able to defeat the Habsburg family? Moreover, all those European countries have a common flaw, which is to only focus on the present."
"Currently, France and the mustached art student have common interests, so they can naturally unite to deal with the Habsburg family."
"As for future matters, Louis XVI won't care, and the mustached art student won't care either. This is a common problem in Europe."
Hearing this, Zeng Cheng, Liu Heming, and other leaders finally understood.
As Emperor Zhu said, the barbarians in Europe were indeed short-sighted. When the Great Ming had not yet completely defeated the Great Qing, France dared to take the lead in selling warships to the Great Ming because France wanted to earn money by selling warships to fill the deficit in the French treasury.
It was precisely because France took the lead in selling warships that England, which had the strongest naval power at the time, also followed suit and sold warships, because England also wanted to make money by selling warships, or at least snatch a piece of the pie from France.
Under these short-sighted behaviors of both sides wanting to sell warships, the Great Ming, originally the buyer, suddenly had room to choose, and forcefully turned a seller's market transaction into a buyer's market transaction.
Later, the Great Ming, by reverse-engineering the warships of England and France, developed many new types of warships, greatly enhancing the Great Ming's naval military strength, and even gradually formed a reversal of European warship technology, starting to export warships to France and England.
It can be said that if England and France had been more far-sighted at the time, they would never have sold their most advanced warships to the Great Ming.
The best approach would have been to sell products one generation behind while maintaining their own advantages, just as the Great Ming now does not export its most advanced firearms, cannons, and warships, but only sells products from the previous generation or even the generation before that.
After understanding the intricacies, Zeng Cheng had to admire those barbarians in Europe. They couldn't be said to have grown heads in vain; they could only say that they grew heads just to look taller!
Zhu Jinsong tapped the table with his fingers and muttered to himself, "Mustached art student, Alexander, De Gaulle... and also Italy's Mussolini..."
After muttering these names, Zhu Jinsong couldn't help but gasp – if these guys got together, plus Kojiro Tojo and Nijuro Tojo, who were recruiting laborers in India... could this Small Broken Ball be okay?