Chapter 860 Coup
The Duke of Brunswick frowned and muttered: "70,000 French troops are besieging Cologne. Once there is lost, they may cross the Rhine to attack Dusseldorf at any time.
"There is no danger between Dusseldorf and Brunswick, and Magdeburg is behind..."
Magdeburg is close to western Poztan. If the French army attacks here, basically Pozdam and Berlin cannot be kept.
William Minnie asked: "What do you think we should do? ”
"Quit out of the anti-French alliance immediately." The Duke of Brunswick said, "I have talked to the French prince, and I can hear that he is still hesitating."
"What is hesitating?"
"France's main attack direction." The thin old man was anxious, "If we can reach an armistice agreement with the French before Cologne fell, then the French army would be transferred to the southern section of the Rhine to threaten Bavaria and Austria.
"In addition, the French promised that as long as we withdraw from the anti-French alliance, we would release the captured army back. We cannot lose those more than 40,000 veterans, otherwise we will not be able to maintain the leadership of North Germany. "
The Duke of Brunswick accelerated his pace: "I have to go and talk to Prince Heinrich..."
William Minnie stood there: "You know that the prince would not agree to surrender, and Baron Fredrich would not agree."
The Duke of Brunswick turned his head and said: "But I must convince them."
"I agree with the ceasefire." William Minnie suddenly said, "Your Majesty will listen to me. But this is without the pro-war faction's advice to Your Majesty."
The Duke of Brunswick looked at the woman in front of him in surprise.
He had heard before returning to Potsdam that in the past six months, His Majesty the King's physical and mental state has become worse and worse due to uncontrollable overeating and drinking, and almost all the national affairs have been handed over to his mistress.
Judging from the tone of this woman, the rumors should be true.
He hesitated for a moment and asked, "What are you going to do?"
William Minnie lowered her voice: "If you want to truce as soon as possible, you must keep Prince Heinrich and Baron Fredrich away from the center of power."
The Duke of Brunswick's pupils shrank, "How can this be done?"
"Sir August and Count Schulenberg will support me."
The thin old man was shocked again.
August von Hardenburg is a political rookie in Potsdam. He is highly valued by His Majesty the King and manages the Prussian judicial system. Schulenberg is an assistant to the Foreign Minister.
These two powerful ministers are actually William Minnie's people!
The king's mistress glanced at the thin old man: "If you get help from you and the military, even Prince Heinrich will not be able to stop me."
The Duke of Brunswick's forehead was covered with cold sweat.
Prince Heinrich was the most powerful minister in Prussia. To overthrow him, it would almost be a coup.
But he must make a ceasefire. Only by recovering the more than 43,000 captured soldiers would the losses in the Battle of Luxembourg be less serious, and his position in the army would be preserved.
He bowed slightly to William Minnie: "I will think seriously, ma'am."
The latter added, the moment he turned around, "Also, Julie has to leave Wuyou Palace."
The thin old man paused for a moment and nodded: "I understand."
Julie von Fouss was William II's third mistress. Although she did not interfere in national affairs, the Fouss family was a force that cannot be ignored in the Prussian bureaucracy.
William Minnie took this opportunity to solve her. Two days later.
Prussian Foreign Minister Evald Fredrich was prosecuted for corruption, and diplomacy is temporarily handed over to the Assistant Foreign Minister for Full Responsibility.
After a large number of wounded soldiers and their families protested on the streets of Pozdam, demanding that the government fulfill the pensions. Prussia experienced consecutive defeats, and its military expenditure was almost exhausted, and the pensions for tens of thousands of disabled soldiers had not been issued.
Then, somehow, someone revealed that it was because of the chaotic logistics and frequent corruption that Prince Heinrich was responsible for, which led to the failure of the front line, which immediately aroused public anger.
Prince Heinrich is hard to argue about in this kind of thing.
The Prussian bureaucracy has systemic corruption - the old bureaucracy in this era cannot avoid this problem - so as long as we investigate strictly, a lot of corruption problems will definitely be found with such a large amount of financial transactions in the military logistics.
These accounts must be counted in the end on him, the head of the logistics chief. Besides, he really made a fortune in logistics procurement.
Wuyou Palace caused a sensation. William Minnie soon issued an instigation in the name of William II, severely reprimanding Prince Heinrich and ordered him to reflect at home.
As two leading figures of the Prussian war faction lost power, the calls for a ceasefire quickly filled the Wuyou Palace.
A few days later, Count Schulenberg was appointed as the armistice negotiator and set out for Paris.
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Cologne Fortress.
The whole world seemed to be filled with endless roar of cannons and the harsh "chuckling" sound of shells flying by.
Captain Zimmerman of the Austrian Ells Corps pointed to the corpse next to the fortress and shouted hard to the soldiers behind him: "Turn them away. You guys, go and bring the shells over. Just hurry!"
Does of Austrian soldiers hurriedly dragged the bodies away, collected artillery equipment scattered around, and pushed the 18-pound cannon back to the cannon position.
Soldiers in another cannon position 30 meters away from the left saw their figures shuttled back and forth, and hurriedly waved anxiously, "Squat down!"
"Don't be so close to the cliff!"
"Be careful..."
However, the sound of deafening cannons covered their voices, and the people in Zimmerman Company stopped in confusion and asked loudly, "What are you talking about?"
At this moment, Zimmerman's messenger suddenly groaned and fell to the ground.
Everyone turned his head and saw a hole the size of a dish appeared on his chest, and black and red blood gushed out from there.
Zimerman was furious and lay on the mercenary made of stones, cursing in the distance: "Damn Frenchman, I will send you all to hell..."
The second half of his words came to an abrupt end, his body leaned back, and his whole face was smashed by lead bullets, like a broken clay doll in a shop.
The people from Zimmerman Company could barely hear the people in the cannon position be shouted, "Stay away from the cliff" and "Squat down."
Before they could react, several more bullets drilled into the gaps in the merceration and shot them accurately.
Austrian soldiers looked out in horror. With such a high hit rate, was it because the enemy's main force attacked?
However, they only vaguely saw more than a dozen figures in white military uniforms, shuttled back and forth between the dead grass under the fortress.
When the figures completed the loading in a few seconds and raised their guns to shoot at this side, seven or eight more Austrian soldiers who were still protruding their heads fell to the ground.
(This chapter ends)