When the four countries of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal joined forces, representatives from several other countries were not idle either.

Among the representatives of all countries now, the most anxious one is Austria.

After the Ming Dynasty invaded the Mediterranean, Austria had to face the direct threat from the Ming Navy.

Austria's narrow outlet in the Adriatic Sea is in danger of being directly blocked by the Ming Dynasty's navy at any time.

Later, Osman and Lucia reconciled with the Ming Dynasty and signed a permanent peace treaty. The Ming Dynasty promised to support the naval construction of the two countries.

This made Austria feel an unprecedented crisis.

The Ming Dynasty can block the door from the outside, the Ottomans can press closely in the middle, Lucia can threaten from the rear, and there is also an old enemy Prussia in the north.

It's really an extremely sad environment.

The Austrian royal representative, Archduke Karl, and the court representative, Foreign Minister Johann Philipp Stadion, met every day to discuss countermeasures.

When the news came that Britain, France, Spain and Portugal had decided to cooperate, the two people came together again.

Stadion first explained the content of the message he received to Archduke Karl:

"Spain and Portugal have decided to sign a twenty-year peace treaty, and they will form a new alliance with Britain and France.

"Britain and France hope that we, Prussia, Italy, and even Lucia will join us and continue to fight against the Ming Dynasty.

"So, Austria now has two choices before it.

“The first is to reconcile with the Ming Dynasty at all costs and ask the Ming Dynasty to mediate our relations with Osman and Lucia to avoid being surrounded by the two countries.

"The second is to join the alliance of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, and rely on this new alliance to jointly fight against the Ming Dynasty and the enemies who are on the side of the Ming Dynasty."

Archduke Karl, who had a sad face, frowned and said:

"Reconciling with Ming? Since Ming has already reconciled with Lucia and Osman, why does it still want to reconcile with Austria?

“Wouldn’t it be better to support Ottoman and Lucia, plus Prussia, to carve up our Austria?

"As for this new alliance, it is basically impossible for the Ottomans to join, and the Lucians probably will not join either. It is weaker than the current anti-Ming alliance.

"This is actually a colonial war alliance, which was formed because the Ming Dynasty could not occupy their homeland.

"The threat we have to deal with comes from Lucia and the Ottomans on land, and there is no point in joining this alliance."

Stadion opened his mouth:

"You can check Daming's tone to see if he can continue to support us as promised before the negotiations began."

Archduke Karl nodded slightly.

Stadion looked at his deputy, Clemens Metternich, and motioned for him to contact him and ask when Shaoqing Shen Fu of the Ming Dynasty would be free.

As a result, Metternich, a thirty-two-year-old diplomat, expressed his views on the previous discussion:

"Your Highness, Minister, I think we have a third option."

Archduke Karl and Stadion looked at Metternich at the same time.

This young diplomat has always been very thoughtful, so he can serve as Stadion's deputy.

Now that I heard the other party speak, I didn't stop him, but wanted to listen to his suggestions.

Metternich did not try to hide behind his boss, but directly confessed his thoughts:

"We can refer to the colonial alliance of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, contact the countries in Europe that are threatened by the Ottomans, Lucia, and the Ming Dynasty to form an alliance of countries in Europe."

When Archduke Karl heard this, he subconsciously asked:

"The only countries like this are us, Prussia, and Italy. Do you think our three countries can form an alliance?"

The main ethnic group of the Kingdom of Prussia is German, and a quarter of the population of Austria, the suture empire, is German.

The two countries can be regarded as old enemies in the central part of the western continent.

Prussia's goal was to seize the German areas in Austria, incorporate them into Prussia's mainland, and establish a complete German Empire.

At the same time, the areas where other ethnic groups in Austria lived were turned into colonies of the new Greater German Empire.

Prussia believed that Austria could not integrate the rest of Austria because the proportion of Germans in Austria was too low.

Prussia itself is mostly German, with a larger population than other ethnic groups in Austria, and can completely suppress and integrate other ethnic groups in Austria.

Prussia's idea is almost public, and it is a plan well known to everyone in Prussia and Austria.

In order for Prussia to achieve this goal, it must directly destroy the Austrian royal family. The contradiction between the two countries is theoretically irreconcilable.

As for Sardinia, Italy's northeastern territory borders Osli, and the two sides have a long history of territorial disputes.

Metternich knew that his Archduke Karl was not good at foreign affairs and was relatively direct in his speech, so he immediately explained to him:

"Your Highness, this is not a grand alliance, nor an alliance with a fixed strategy, nor even a stable alliance.

"What we want to build should be a small alliance with a loose structure, changeable strategies, and flexible positions."

Archduke Karl frowned and asked:

"This kind of alliance? Is this an alliance? Can it work?"

Metternich nodded slightly and said:

"It can work because we may have a common threat, Ming Dynasty, Lucia, Osman.

"We also have a common goal. We all need to choose between the Ming Dynasty and the Anglo-French Spanish-Portuguese Alliance.

"Our alliance can be regarded as being born for the sake of choice. After we all make a choice, we can 'die'.

"But this choice itself, we don't have to make it in a hurry, and we don't need to make it right away.

“We should maintain a long-term non-departure position between the order led by the Ming Dynasty and the order led by the Anglo-French Spanish-Portuguese Alliance.

"To put it bluntly, it is the Ming Dynasty's strategy of 'playing both sides', but none of our three countries has enough confidence to play both sides.

"If our three countries stand together, we will have certain qualifications, so we must have a loose small alliance with flexible positions."

Archduke Karl was not stupid, otherwise he would not have become the most famous general in Austria. He gradually understood Metternich's strategy.

This is actually the group buying strategy of later generations. A loose and flexible small alliance is a temporary group, and retail investors form a group to increase their bargaining power.

Once everyone has finished their things, the temporary group will be disbanded.

Archduke Karl nodded slightly and said:

"So, we should first contact Prussia and Italy to form this loose and flexible small alliance, and then ask about Ming's position."

Metternich smiled and nodded and said:

"So I should go to the Prussians and Italians now?"

Stadion also nodded slowly and said:

"Yes, let's contact them first, and we'll have an internal meeting first..."

Prussia was equally anxious now.

At the beginning of the peace talks, the state of the Prussian representatives was not easy.

But that is because they believe that the environment in their country is too bad and the state of suffering, great hatred and deep hatred has been prevalent for a long time.

When facing the Ming Dynasty, Prussia was actually the easiest, because it was completely impossible for the Ming Dynasty to occupy Prussia itself.

Between the Ming Dynasty and Prussia, there is the Atlantic Ocean and the British and French mainland on the sea, and there is a huge Lucia on the land.

There is little contact between the two parties, and it is difficult to form deep conflicts.

But after Lucia split and reconciled with the Ming Dynasty, the pressure on the Prussian representatives skyrocketed.

Lucia may go all out to the west in the future, and Prussia will become the Lucia before and have to hold Lucia in the front.

What's more, Prussia also has an old enemy, Austria.

Now Austria proposed establishing a loose "choice" alliance, and Prussia accepted it after considering it for two days.

Because this alliance is really loose enough and flexible enough that it can be withdrawn at any time.

As for the Sardinian Italians, they have the least pressure among the three countries, but the pressure still exists, and they are also hesitant about which side to join.

The ideal choice for the Italians is to reconcile with the Ming Dynasty first, obtain a permanent peace treaty, and then see whether to join the alliance between Britain, France, and Spain.

Austria's suggestion does not hinder your own choice and can also increase your own weight, so I joined it without much hesitation.

There are indeed conflicts between the three countries, but in the face of other common fatal threats, these conflicts can be put aside temporarily.

After the loose small alliance was established, Metternich became the representative of this small alliance and contacted the Ming Dynasty.

After Shen Fu figured out the other party's intention, he was a little surprised and helpless, and then went to report to Zhu Jingyuan.

After Zhu Jingyuan understood this, he said in surprise:

"That is to say, what the three countries want is that if we want to reconcile, we should reconcile with the three countries.

"At the same time we cannot support Lucia and the Ottomans in attacking their country.

"Finally, I hope Daming can provide them with technical support."

Shen Fu seemed a little dumbfounded and said:
To be continued...