The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1358 Clay-footed Giant
Compared to torpedoes, submarine technology is much more mature. As early as the American War of Independence, Americans had developed early submarines.

Later, during the anti-French war, American Fulton built the first submarine that could be used in actual combat, the "Nautilus", with the support of Napoleon.

However, it is not the one in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but even so, its influence can be seen.

The world only knows that Napoleon lost the war because he rejected Fulton's steamship, but few people know that the former had already cooperated with the latter.

The Nautilus failed to sink any British warship, and Fulton even wanted to sell the secret of the Nautilus to the British, which created a deep rift between the French and Fulton.

In 1804, Fulton went to England and boasted about his great weapon to the then British Prime Minister William Pitt, but was strongly opposed by the British Navy.

The then Secretary of the Navy called Fulton's submarine a dangerous "toy" and declared that if the Nautilus could sink the Victory, he would fill his estate with Nautilus submarines.

In 1848, a Bavarian artillery sergeant named Wilhelm Bauer invented a new submarine that could dive to a depth of sixty meters and move underwater.

Franz naturally would not let go of such a capable person, but he just wanted to learn from Bauer's experience.

With the changes of the times, the biggest role of inventors like these with wild ideas in the research of large-scale precision instruments is to provide some creative ideas. If you want to improve standards and mass production, you still need real professionals to carry out repeated calculations.

As for Friedrich personally, he still appreciates mines. Friedrich thinks that both submarines and torpedoes are a bit too unrealistic, while mines are more practical.

In fact, Friedrich believed that as long as the mines were laid enough and densely enough, there would be no solution, because as far as currently known means were concerned, there was no way to quickly and effectively deal with large areas of mines.

So Friedrich has been working hard on researching mines, striving to design them to be more covert and more deadly.

Franz did not deny the power of mines, but he had no means to deal with them. Franz did not want to use mines too much, as he was afraid that some weak countries would learn how to use them and then counter the Austrian navy.

Franz was not afraid of torpedoes because human courage is limited, but he was afraid of mines because morality has no lower limit.

In the Near East, the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was developing in an almost bizarre way. The Russian army, which was supposed to be the attacking party, was on the defensive, while the Ottomans, who were supposed to be the defending party, were actually attacking actively.

Ahmed Yilmaz came from a prominent family, but after returning from studying in France, he chose to join the army despite the opposition of his family and wife.

Over the years, Yilmaz continued to stand out in the Ottoman New Army. He was quickly promoted from a sergeant to a colonel, partly because of his military merits and partly because of his family's "money power."

Yilmaz was very excited because they had just wiped out a Russian company, and he personally executed the Russian officer who refused to surrender.

What made Yilmaz even more excited was that Orma Pasha, the supreme commander, actually wanted to meet with him to hear his views on the war.

"Olma Pasha, the Russians are now short of food and manpower. We have 280,000 men and should march directly into Moldavia, go around the enemy's rear and then eat up the 50,000 Russian troops in front of us!
In this way, even if the Russian follow-up troops arrived, they would be unable to continue the attack, and the Russian threat would naturally be lifted.

If the emperor really wants to lead the army in person, we don't mind capturing him alive and sending him to the Sultan."

The generals around him all laughed. At this moment, all the Ottomans present were very optimistic about the prospects of this war. However, Orma Pasha remained silent. He had fought for so many years, how could he not see this opportunity?
The problem was that although Moldavia was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, it was within the Russian sphere of influence. As for going deep into the Russian border to encircle the Russians, he dared not even think about it.

Now all the fighting is taking place on Ottoman territory, and they can barely be called defensive operations.

But once the war spreads to Russian territory, its nature will change.

The Ottomans were not afraid of the Russians. After all, whether the Ottomans were afraid or not, the Russians would fight them.

What the Ottomans feared was the Austrian Empire, which had just defeated France, and what they feared was being attacked from both sides by the Austrians and the Russians.

So at this moment, even if Orma Pasha had the courage, he would not dare to go to Russian land to fight the Russians.

This kind of war that can neither be won nor lost is simply suffocating. However, this is the helplessness of the secondary power. No great power wants the birth of a new great power, especially around itself.

Orma Pasha was well aware that the Austrian Empire would never sit idly by and watch Russia be defeated. Although the Austrians might not want Russia to continue to grow stronger, they would never allow the Ottoman Empire to rise again.

Moreover, the Russians are not as easy to deal with as they seem. If the Russians really hold their ground, the Ottoman army may not be able to eliminate the Russian vanguard before the Russian reinforcements arrive.

On the Russian side, Nicholas I was also very frustrated because his plan to lead the army in person failed to materialize. The three months that Franz had bought for Russia were about to pass, but the main force of the Russian army was still on the way.

The only two troops had been defeated by the Ottomans and had been unable to advance at all for several months.

At this time, Russia had hundreds of thousands of troops, but was unable to deploy them to the front line. As a result, Nicholas I's hair loss became more serious.

According to his idea, the Russian army should occupy Constantinople while Britain, France and Austria were fighting in Spain, but the reality was that heavy snow fell before the Russian army had assembled, and the soldiers could not move forward at all.

Those Cossacks were not afraid of the wind and snow, but those damn guys liked to raise the price. If it wasn't the right time to use people, Nicholas I would have wanted to hang all those guys.

Moreover, most of the Cossack troops were cavalry, and they could not play much of a role in the siege battles on the front lines.

On the other hand, the Polish issue was becoming increasingly difficult. Paskevich's accidental injury left the Polish Front somewhat leaderless.

The situation, which had been clear, became tense again.
Alexander, who just returned from Austria, has some suggestions:

“The best way to solve the problem of transporting troops and supplies to the Western Front is to build a railway like the Austrians did.

As for the Poles, first, stop the religious reform and execute the officials who falsely conveyed the Tsar's orders. Second, liberate the serfs in Poland, promise liberal reforms, and restore the kingdom's status.

Third, execute the initiators and leaders of the rebellion. "