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

Chapter 1558 Another Storm Begins (Part 2)

The reason why the officials and soldiers of the Austrian Empire behaved as described above was entirely because "Das Lied von der Deutschland," also known as "Emperor Quartet," was a birthday gift from the great composer Haydn to Franz II, the first emperor of the Austrian Empire, on February 12, 1797, and it was the national anthem of the Austrian Empire at that time.

Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine, Strasbourg.

Hearing the singing outside, Louis-Philippe remained completely calm. He closed his eyes and moved his arms to the rhythm like a conductor.

The surrounding ministers were somewhat puzzled, but Guizot silently clapped.

“Excellent, the Orleans family’s long-cherished wish is about to be fulfilled in your hands.”

Guizot's words confused those around him even more. How could he have fulfilled his long-cherished wish if he hadn't returned the capital to Paris?

"Your Majesty, the people are extremely agitated. If we don't find a way to resolve this, things could spiral out of control."

A minister uttered a truism that everyone already knew, but the crowd was still relieved, since someone had spoken the truth.

Many of the ministers of the Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine came from France, and the shadows of the French Revolution, the June Revolution, and the February Revolution were still fresh in their minds. How could they not have any sense of crisis?
Moreover, 90% of the population of Strasbourg is now German, and the German Confederation lies just across the river.

If the situation remains unresolved, it could very well become a trigger for a public outburst. If the kind-hearted French people can do such shocking things, what chance do the Germans, whom they consider barbarians, have?
On the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish government is also in a very awkward position.

To be honest, Germans make up only a small fraction of Denmark’s total population, and the Danish government initially thought the issue would only be a problem in the two principalities.

Unfortunately, the opponent was Britain, and the Danes, who already disliked Britain, automatically cast the British as the villains.

As a result, before the two principalities could even start fighting, Zealand was already in turmoil, with the capital Copenhagen being the hardest hit. A group of Danes were even more anxious than their own German counterparts, wishing they could make the decisions for their own government.

However, at this time, there were many pro-British figures in the Danish government. Although Denmark had joined the German Confederation, they still cared about Britain.

Frederick VII was an indecisive king who personally disliked the German Confederation and hated German nationalism even more.

However, Frederick VII did not have the courage to challenge the authority of the German Confederation, and he was more afraid of a repeat of the events of 1848.

Frederick VII feared his people, so when angry crowds took to the streets and killed two policemen, he immediately promulgated a constitution.

After the Austrian Empire decisively defeated the National Assembly in Salzburg, Frederick VII swiftly abolished the constitution.

Frederick VII, not wanting to get involved in any trouble, entrusted the matter to his most trusted minister, Ramond.

However, it's difficult for such a monarch to have many capable subordinates. As the leader of Danish nationalism, Rammond, while not obligated to help the Germans, would certainly not offend Danish nationalists either. After all, the latter were his core supporters.

So Ramund fell ill, and became very ill.
The situation in Belgium was also not optimistic. Leopold I himself had close ties with the British royal family, and there were many pro-British officials. After losing large tracts of territory, the French-speaking population had become the mainstream.

However, Belgium's restoration was entirely due to the protection of the German Confederation, and recently Leopold I even made German the official language.

In addition, Belgium won many awards at this World Industrial Fair, which is encouraging for the domestic industry and commerce. Asking them to give up their awards now would be asking too much and would be detrimental to Belgium's economic development.

Bismarck, who was in London, was in a real bind. He knew that these nationalists were a bunch of easily incited idiots, but he really didn't expect that they would make things turn out like this.

Bismarck encountered such a tremendous crisis on his first overseas expedition; if it had been anyone else, the sky would probably have fallen.

Even Bismarck faced a difficult situation, pleasing neither side, and Prussia's position as the second-largest power made things even more complicated. Rejecting the prize offended Britain and ruined his career.

To appease Britain by pretending nothing happened?

That would be tantamount to cutting off one's own escape route. Bismarck was not afraid of the nationalists in Prussia, but he was afraid that Austria or those brainless little parliaments would take the opportunity to exclude Prussia from the German Confederation.

Bismarck knew that he absolutely could not rush things at this point; he had to wait for the Austrian Empire to make a decision first.

William IV of Prussia was nearly driven mad. He violently knocked over the porcelain displayed in the palace and then began picking up the shards of porcelain until his hands were cut and bleeding.

People took to the streets to protest, demonstrate, and march. This had happened countless times before, and William IV felt physically and mentally exhausted. He even wondered if he was trapped in some kind of time-space prison.

"Why? Why do things always turn out this way?"

William IV kept muttering to himself, and the Prince of Shotguns couldn't stand it anymore.

"Brother, there's nothing to be afraid of! We can always do it again!"

William IV was furious upon hearing this.

"What do you mean by 'one more time'? Do you want to be defeated again? Do you think you can escape alive this time?"

"I'm not afraid of death!"

"I'm afraid of being embarrassed!"

The two brothers fell silent. William the Shotgunner left the room without looking back, while William IV remained silent. The two brothers thus parted ways completely.

Franz himself wasn't particularly interested in those British awards, but he couldn't go too far for the sake of Britain's reputation.

Rejecting the award in public is definitely unacceptable; it would be tantamount to publicly humiliating the British. Those who flaunt their achievements and then embarrass themselves deserve to be punished.

Although the award could not be forfeited, since the award had already been won, those medals should belong to Austria, and how to deal with them was a matter for the Austrian Empire.

So these medals were thrown into the furnace and turned into all sorts of strange things. Artists in the Austrian Empire even used these strange handicrafts to compete for awards, repeatedly exploiting bugs.

Before the Austrian Empire could take any action, the Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine had already made its choice: Louis Philippe chose to forgo the prize.

Louis Philippe, who died in August 1850, was living a more fulfilling life at this time, and his constant activity and energy rekindled his youth.

The Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine withdrew from the prize immediately because Louis Philippe had decided to go all the way.

The chances of reclaiming France were already slim, so it was better to cling tightly to the German Confederation than to pursue those unrealistic goals.

Louis-Philippe had suffered enough from being caught in a dilemma all his life, and he didn't want to go through that again.

On the other hand, Britain was clearly more inclined towards Napoleon's government, which was something Louis Philippe could not accept under any circumstances.

France may not belong to the House of Orléans, but it absolutely cannot belong to Napoleon.