Struggle in Russia

In fact, not only Nicholas I would not agree to an alliance between France and Russia, but France was also unwilling to cooperate with Russia. The reason is very simple. The grievances of the Napoleon era have not yet been resolved, and there are still serious religious conflicts between France and Russia. Catholicism and Orthodox Church are now in the same situation. They really dislike each other and it is impossible to hold hands.

To put it bluntly, France and Russia are too far apart in terms of common interests and ideology, unless a very powerful common threat emerges between the two countries, such as Prussia in history. Without the rise of the Second German Empire, France and Russia would not have been able to go together.

Of course, in history, the Franco-Russian alliance was both inevitable and accidental. If Prussia hadn’t been bullied by Denmark, the later Danish princess might not have married Alexander III and tried her best to fight against Germany to promote an alliance between France and Russia.

But these are things for the time being. Li Xiao continued to advise Perrier: "Not only to feint, but also to find a way to make trouble for Ke Hong. My friend, did you do the suggestion I gave you before?"

What advice did Li Xiao give? In fact, it is to buy the Tory Party, the opponent of the Whig Party, to provide ammunition to attack Cochon, and to create public opinion to cause trouble for Cochon.

Perrier said with a smile: "It has already been done. Those criminals are very happy to make trouble for the horse thief. The horse thief has been so powerful these years that they are almost overwhelmed. They will not miss the opportunity for revenge. !"

The so-called outlaws naturally refer to the Tories, which is actually Irish, meaning outlaws. The Tory Party later evolved into the Conservative Party, which is the ancestor of the people who voted for Brexit in later generations.

It’s just that the Tory Party has been in a bad situation these days, because the prosperity of capitalism and free trade comes from the Scottish word Whig, which later became the Liberal Party. The government has almost reduced the Tory Party to an iron bench.

It's just that as the economy of the British Empire was gradually overtaken by the United States and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, the Whig Party's approach became more and more out of date, and was eventually overtaken by the Tory Party. Anyway, the two have always loved and killed each other.

Let's put it this way, although the Tory Party has no hope of coming to power, it does not mean that they will not find trouble with the Whig Party. Before that, many of John Russell's policies were violently attacked by the Tory Party, such as the Balkan issue, the Jerusalem issue, and the Russian relationship issue. It's just that the Whig Party is too powerful, and the Tory Party doesn't have very good ammunition, so this type of attack is more like scratching an itch.

But with Li Xiao taking the initiative and personally arranging a series of black materials to be delivered to the door, the situation is completely different.

Soon there was a series of gossip in the "Guardian" and "The Times", some telling the inside story of the coup in Wallachia, and how Cochon and Sir Thomas Edwards fell in love and killed each other. .

In these versions of the story,

Without exception, Ke Hong is the anti-No. 1 character. In Li Xiao's writing, Ke Hong is a mediocre bureaucrat who does nothing, and Sir Thomas Edwards is the hero who prompted the anti-Russian revolution in Wallachia . But the merits of the kind hero were shamelessly stolen by the black-bellied bureaucrats, and in order to prevent the truth from being known to the public, the despicable bureaucrats secretly planned a conspiracy to shamefully assassinate the poor hero.

Anyway, this story is all true and false. You can call it false. There are a lot of insider information in it, such as how the British planned the Wallachia anti-Russian coup step by step. The details are all true. Yes, but the character was replaced by Sir Thomas Edwards.

But if you want to say it is true, it is completely unrecognizable. Anyway, it looks like that to ordinary people who eat melons, but to those who really know the inside story, it is complete nonsense.

Anyway, when Palmerston read these gossips, he was so angry that he protested with Lord John Russell angrily: "These news are shit! It's all nonsense! We all know that Cohon did Well, if it weren't for him, Wallachia would still be enslaved by the Russians! All this nonsense is dirty criticism, all lies!"

John Russell didn't particularly care about this. He had always been not very interested in the Balkan issue, and he didn't want to get involved in the grievances of Russia, Austria, and France. As for Ke Hong, who is doing things on his own, he feels even more ordinary about him. He hates subordinates who come here without saying hello.

What's more, John Russell thinks that Ke Hong is just a small person, a mere consul general. So what if such a small person the size of a sesame mung bean is sprayed out by the Tories? It's great to change a consul general in Bucharest.

So he said to Palmerston very calmly: "We all know that these newspapers like to catch rumors and talk big! But if we have to defend every time they spread rumors, then the cabinet doesn't have to do anything else. "

"What's more, what's in the newspapers are all analysis and speculation, and they didn't say it must be true. What's great is that they have to apologize and have to fight a long lawsuit. The best way is to leave them alone. In a few days When the people get tired of these boring stories, they will naturally forget about it, and if we protest, we will help them attract attention, turn small things into big things, and finally get out of hand!"

Finally, John Russell came to a conclusion very calmly: "So the last way is to ignore it, ignore it, and let it disappear by itself!"

Palmerston was full of criticisms in his heart. He was a man who acted decisively and decisively. So I don't take John Russell's cold treatment very seriously.

He fought again: "Your Excellency, the reputation of an upright gentleman is involved at this time. It is by no means a trivial matter. How can we let it go! I am very worried that if we let it go, our enemies will make a big fuss about it and attack it. and slander us!"

It's just that John Russell still doesn't take it seriously, and the reason is very simple, because he doesn't look down on the Tory Party at all, and thinks that this party is already a toothless tiger, and it can't make any waves at all. He thinks the Tories are just a bunch of clowns who can settle him with three punches and two kicks, no fuss at all!

So he ruthlessly rejected Palmerston's suggestion again, and said very strongly: "There is no need to pay special attention to this, it is irrelevant, my friend, I need you to focus on more important things Instead of caring about a little gossip about a consul general!"