Reincarnated as Nikolai II

Chapter 88 The Shepherd Boy and Foolish Ivan (6)

seeing forces gathering beyond warsaw day by day, wilhelm ii felt like he was developing anxiety symptoms.

"how did i barely turn nicky's attention to asia! throwing away such a heaven-sent opportunity?"

in wilhelm ii's view, the reason russia had been quiet for the past 8 months was because his russian diplomatic policy had worked.

though it would be difficult to be as friendly with russia as during bismarck's time, at least stay away from hostility.

make nicky focus on asian expansion rather than conflict with germany.

he says it was all because he turned that double-headed eagle's gaze.

"but, but you made even russia move on this matter? prime minister von bülow, if you have a mouth, speak. weren't you so confident france would lower their tail on their own?"

unable to accept the suddenly reversed situation, the emperor turned his arrows toward the prime minister.

"...i didn't know their alliance was this solid."

it's hindsight. it's unfair.

count von bülow couldn't spit out such excuses.

though he didn't know what special methods they used, in the end britain and france succeeded in drawing out even russia's military movements.

if nicholas heard this, he would have been dumbfounded saying "special methods? you mean shifting responsibility and results while handing over the trigger?"

anyway, as a result, mobilization orders were issued.

"what will you do now? if we back down like this, not just the junkers but even the people will point fingers at me."

strong monarch. emperor satisfying both morality and imperialism.

wilhelm didn't want to damage that external image at all.

though cornered by the alliance of france, russia, and britain, prime minister von bülow tried to view the situation as coldly as possible even in between.

"we must negotiate. military pressure won't work on france anymore. however, even though russia issued mobilization orders, they haven't entered wartime system. this signals we can end the situation here and still suggests possibility for negotiation."

"...this is the last time. don't drag this out anymore."

the longer this meaningless confrontation continues, the stronger the voice of russia and france becomes as they call up more and more reserves.

from the start it was an alliance of necessity and they were just using each other.

as a result, the anglo-russian agreement was successfully concluded.

splitting persia in half.

guaranteeing black sea passage and allowing strait control.

recognizing british influence in afghanistan.

recognizing chinese suzerainty over tibet.

though the persian government would receive this content as after-the-fact notification and china didn't have the capacity to care about tibet, it was certainly a satisfactory deal for both sides.

anyway, the hidden core treaty of this anglo-russian agreement was - the rest of the content was just removing points of contention and pleasant-sounding words like mutual respect and cooperation.

sure enough, when the anglo-russian agreement was announced and france opened the window for dialogue, prime minister von bülow quickly rushed to morocco.

now they'll resolve the morocco crisis among themselves whether by dividing morocco or exchanging it for other land.

though the process wasn't smooth, for just one mobilization order, the results were quite satisfactory.

'next time we issue total mobilization, how much more delicious things will come to our hands... no.'

originally, threats have more impact when the quiet kid in class suddenly tries to throw a chair shot.

if done too often, immunity develops and the drug loses effect.

still, it would be a bit disappointing to only receive something from britain so.

[to my dear distant friend and family, willy.

this matter was very regrettable and held no personal feelings. though i unwillingly gave in to prime minister witte's unilateral and shortsighted claims, i promise such a thing will never happen again.

...

..

.

by the way, these days prices are rising but strangely only grain prices are falling, making me quite worried. with global meat consumption trending up, perhaps germany could import feed grain...]