All Hail the German Confederation! v. 2.0

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The German Civil War
It is not wise to draw men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws- Stephen Crane​

In 1826 the so-called Bills of Centralization were passed. A combination of 3 bills, they forfeited the foreign and military responsibilities to the Federal Convention. Some of the smaller dukes in the West felt threatened by this and left the Confederation. The Confederation declared war, but the Prussians and Austrians led the armies. The smaller Dukes turned to Britain and France, but were met with verbal support as a war was just not in the cards. They then turned East and saw a viable ally in Russia.

After the Napoleonic Wars Russia emerged as the policeman of Europe and the German Confederation worried the Tzar, who thought of it as a threat to peace in Europe. They decided that the Confederation must be tamed so they entered the war on the Dukes side. Austria and Prussia were startled when they got the news because their armies were away. Austria agreed to pull its men back and hold the Russians at bay until the Prussians could get over and help, that plan didn't work that well. The Austrian armies did managed to move into the Duchy of Warsaw and push out the Russians but not for long, the Russian steamroller was just warming up. The Russians descended upon Austria and badly mauled their army in the Battle for Warsaw and swept the remnants into Austria-Hungary with them nipping at their heels. The Austrians were again attacked in the town of Krakow but this was Austrian territory, the Russians were pushed out the the city after a brutal battle that battered the already bleeding Austrians. Hungary sent troops of their own into the Duchy and had a moderate degree of success. The Russians attacked the Hungarians in Warsaw in October of 1826 and met a determined and dug in enemy. The battle dragged on into January of 1827 before the Hungarians were called back to Austria because both Vienna and Budapest were in danger. Prussia, having finally dealt with the smaller enemy marched its army into Austria to aid with Vienna's defense.

The Prussians attacked the siege and forced the Russians to draw troops from other parts, allowing for the Austrians to break the siege and save Vienna. Budapest though was a different story. The Austrian Army left it for the Russians but Hungarians from around the country flocked to its defense, inspiring a sense of Hungarian Nationalism. The Hungarians held out for so long in fact that they drafted a constitution for an independent Hungary but waited to announce it, waiting for the Austrians to break the siege. They were horrified however to find that the Austrians had abandoned the Hungarians in lieu of the Russia's invasion of Austria. The Hungarians decided to take things into their own hands and declared independence from Austria-Hungary, tearing up the Empire. With Russian help Hungary quickly formed a National Congress and switched sides along with most Austria's army which put Austria in a tough spot.

The Prussians soon got word that the Archduke was considering capitulating to Russia and decided to not allow for that to happen. He marched his troops into Vienna and pushed the Archduke from power and put in a interim General as ruler of Austria-Hungary. When the Archduke protested the action to the National Convention they agreed that he should re-instate the Archduke. After a week of negotiations and the continued deterioration of Austria Hungary Frederick agreed and handed power back to the Archduke. The Archduke agreed that he would continue fighting for the sake of the Confederation, the December Crisis was over and the War came back into prime focus. The Austrian Army attacked the Russian Army in Austria and Prussia moved their troops north to get the jump on Russia. The Tzar moved his troops and attacked Austrian troops outside Bratislava, the Russians were playing right into the German's hands. The battle dragged on for weeks and then months as the Archduke waited for word of Prussia's invasion. Finally on March 29th, 1827 word reached him that Prussian troops occupied Minsk after a small battle. He also got word that the Russians were pulling troops from the battle and heading back to Russia. Prussia continued advancing with little in the way of resistance until Smolensk when the Russian Army under General Mikhail Vorontsov. The Battle for Smolensk was a bloody stalemate as Russian and Prussian (and some Austrians but not much) forces poured into the city. The Battle lasted until March of 1827 when Prussian forces were pushed out of the city.

Back in Austria-Hungary the Hungarians were running into problems with their bid for independence. The Hungarian Independence Army was routed at the Battle for Varpalota and the road to Budapest lay open for the Austrians. The National Congress appealed to Tzar Nicholas for help but he was unable to meet their proposition. The Congress ordered the Army to hold at Erd at the most or Budapest at the least and promptly headed East. On March 27th, 1827 The Battle for Budapest began when Austrian artillery began to shell the city. The Hungarian Army fled across the Danube River and blew the bridges that connected the two halves the city, effectively abandoning half of Budapest and the Royal Palace. On March 30th Austria occupied the western half only to find the bridges were blown. When they sent engineers to repair them, they were fired upon and forced to pull back, their work was then destroyed. The Hungarians launched a raid into the Austrian portion of the city on April 3rd in a effort to gain a foothold in the Royal Palace. While they did occupy the Palace shelling from Castle Hill forced them to retreat back across the river.

The Austrians gathered their forces and bode their time and on April 15th they launched Operation: Danube. Using a gratuitous amount of artillery support they landed on the Eastern side of the Danube and met absolutely no resistance. They proceeded cautiously through the seemingly abandoned streets and soon found themselves in front of the Opera House. Command Center for the Hungarian Army. They stormed the House and found nothing, no documents, no people, nothing. It appeared that the Hungarians had evacuated the city. It was soon after the Austrians let their guard down and more troops began to be ferried across. The Operation went on through the night and in the morning hours of April 16th machine gun fire raked across one of the boats. Before they could react the Hungarians appeared out of every nook and cranny one could possibly stuff a man in. The Austrians were taken completely by surprise and soon were sent packing back across the Danube only this time the Hungarians were hot on their heels.

The artillery opened up on the Hungarians but it wasn't long until fighting grew close enough that they had to retreat. At 3:30 PM on April 16th the Hungarian flag was raised over Castle Hill and soon after the Austrians were tumbling out of Budapest. The Hungarian's had scored a major victory and reinvigorated the failing independence movement.

The Hungarians followed up the victory with another at Baja and then another at Komlo. The Archduke was getting desperate and ordered that the rebellion be crushed without mercy. The tide soon turned again and drastically in Austria's favor. It was only then, at the urging of Tzar Nicholas, that the National Congress surrendered to Austria and the Hungarian Independence War ended. In response to this the Archduke turned Austria-Hungary into a dual Monarchy and enacted a law that both monarchs had to agree before a law was passed. The Hungarians taste of freedom was over and they wanted more, and more they would get.

Back up in Russia the Prussians had held their ground outside Smolensk and when news of Hungarian reintegration into Austria-Hungary they saw the war as turning around. The Archduke promised to launch his own Invasion of Ukraine and asked Frederick to begin an offensive the day he got the message, Frederick happily obliged. The Prussian offensive began on April 25th and was not as easy as expected. In the lull between First Smolensk and Second Smolensk the Russians had some much needed R&R. The Army was re-supplied, the Tzar gave a speech about defending "Mother Russia" which inspired his troops and their torn and tattered clothes were patched up. Even with the Austro-Hungarians pushing hard in Ukraine the Prussians had a hell of a fight ahead of them. Second Smolensk was a hard fought battle but the Russians were eventually forced back as troops were diverted South to deal with the Austrians. After Smolensk the road to Moscow lay open and Prussian troops prepared for the final assault. The Tzar scrambled troops as the Prussian marching song could be heard floating across the air. Russian troops were sent out in a bid for holding off the Prussians long enough that the Tzar could think of something to save Moscow, which hadn't fallen since the Polish-Muscovite War. The sounds of gunfire only added to the urgency and soon the Tzar was out of ideas. He was about to begin drafting a peace deal when he heard "Ura!" drift to his ears.

He went outside to find the Russian Army triumphantly marching into Moscow, yelling "Ura!". The Russian General reported that the Prussians have been halted and the counter-attack would begin the next day. Tzar Nicholas breathed a internal sigh of relief, Moscow would be safe. The next day the Tzar personally led the charge against the Prussians but was defeated and forced into the high walls of Moscow, Prussians close behind. The Siege lasted for months because the Prussians could never quite completely isolate the city. Finally on October 9th, 1827 with the city facing starvation as the famous Russian Winter killed crops, the Tzar opened the gates and led a small delegation waving a white flag. King Frederick called him to Smolensk, the sight of two major battles, to negotiate a peace. In a small inn that survived the carnage that was the First and Second Battle of Smolensk King Frederick William III of Prussia, Emperor Francis II of Austria and President of the German Confederation, and Tzar Nicholas I gathered and hammered out the peace deal. After months of negotiations the three leaders signed the Peace of Moscow. In the treaty Russia promised not to interfere in the affairs of the German Confederation, the secessionists were re-administered back into the Confederation and Russia payed war reparations.

The Polish Uprising
 
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A few things that you should not have done:

an Archduke is a member of the imperial house, but you should refer to the Austrian monarch as the (austrian) Emperor

no Machine guns in the mid 19th century

I don't see "logic" in your battles - there is no clear line of what forces are on each side present. Also teh Battles are centered too much in and around cities - fighting inside cities is uncommon at the time. Especially the Budapest battle is too modern ;)

THE Austrian army had German regiments and Hungarian. GErman included Czech, Italian, Polish, ... Hungarians Slobvak and Croat . In addition there were the bodrder regiments of the Militärgrenze. I doubt that any german regiments (larger half) would defect to the hungarians - even most Croats would side with the Emperor (as would probably the Slovaks).

Hungary would probably muster many volunteers, but those would probably have after initial sucess met disaster ;)

Hungarian nationalism was more a nationalism of the elites and less so one of the masses. Even if Hungary is abandoned at first against the russians its hard to believe that the Austrians woudl completely abandon them after Vienna is secured.

But while I have doubts of the course of the campaign, I see the outcome plausible - but you also fall to the trapp that the Austrians had a bad army at the time and the prussians were the better soldiers - for the first half of the 19th century the Austrians were the leading military power of the confederation - only atfer the 50s the quality began to decine because of financial issues.
 
A few things that you should not have done:

an Archduke is a member of the imperial house, but you should refer to the Austrian monarch as the (austrian) Emperor

no Machine guns in the mid 19th century

I don't see "logic" in your battles - there is no clear line of what forces are on each side present. Also teh Battles are centered too much in and around cities - fighting inside cities is uncommon at the time. Especially the Budapest battle is too modern ;)

THE Austrian army had German regiments and Hungarian. GErman included Czech, Italian, Polish, ... Hungarians Slobvak and Croat . In addition there were the bodrder regiments of the Militärgrenze. I doubt that any german regiments (larger half) would defect to the hungarians - even most Croats would side with the Emperor (as would probably the Slovaks).

Hungary would probably muster many volunteers, but those would probably have after initial sucess met disaster ;)

Hungarian nationalism was more a nationalism of the elites and less so one of the masses. Even if Hungary is abandoned at first against the russians its hard to believe that the Austrians woudl completely abandon them after Vienna is secured.

But while I have doubts of the course of the campaign, I see the outcome plausible - but you also fall to the trapp that the Austrians had a bad army at the time and the prussians were the better soldiers - for the first half of the 19th century the Austrians were the leading military power of the confederation - only atfer the 50s the quality began to decine because of financial issues.
I forgot what time I was in. I was thinking in the 1860's. I thought there were more Hungarians in the Austrian army.
 
I dpon't have numbers from the 1820, but in 1910 "only" around 20% claimed Hungarian as "first language" (As indicator of nationality).

I don't know if the Ruthenians (Ukraineans) would side with Russia, but the Poles would flock to the "Austrian" colours (the might hope that Austria beats Russia and makes an independent Polans with the core of Kongresspolen. As said teh Croats were among the more loyal groups in the monarchy.

I also assume that the Austrian/Priussian campaign against russia could cause a Polish uprising in 1826 (OTL the rose on 1830).
 
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The Polish Uprising
The Czar always gets his dues, even if it ruins a entire family.

The Polish Uprising of 1828 wasn't as out of the blue as historians say. The Czar, along with the Duma, saw in a mile away. After the Prussians left there were grumblings of revolution. When Polish men went to join the Prussians and Austrians in their respective invasions the Czar dissolved much of the civil liberties and sent the secret police to infiltrate and bring down the Independence movement. When their leader Nikolay Novosiltsev discovered the agents he had them imprisoned. Afterward he personally led 1000 men and took the Belweder Castle and captured Grand Duke Constantine. Before he was captured Constantine managed to send a message to Nicholas reporting the rebellion. The Poles sent two messages, one to Prussia, one to Austrian and then one to the Federation Convention in Frankfurt asking for help. The Czar immediately sent troops to Warsaw but the Convention snagged on the problem that Austria couldn't fight another war against Russia so soon, neither could Prussia for that matter. So all the war haws in the Convention sat with their hands tied and began to bite at the rope in a desperate attempt to free Poland. Another Convention of Prussian Generals was held a week later in Berlin and they played out a hypothetical war in which Prussia at its current state fought Russia again. The Wargame didn't turn out that well until the Austrians got involved so King Frederick went to Frankfurt and announced his support for war. Then he went to Vienna and asked the Emperor for his help in the war and was flatly turned down. Frederick then went back to Frankfurt and asked for the National Convention to overrule the President and declare a state of emergency, but was met with little support. "Doing such would tarnish the reputation of the Confederation!" said one delegate "But watching the freedom of man be suppressed on our borders would do just as bad!" Responded another. After 3 weeks of debating a state of emergency was declared by the Convention and the President's opinion fell by the wayside. In protest President Francis resigned and King Frederick took his place until another election could be held after the war.

In the meantime the Confederation mobilized its troops and gathered them in Hungary and Prussia. Then in January of 1829 they announced their support for the rebellion. They crossed the border and marched into Krakow and Chelmno only to find the Uprising had already captured those towns. They were informed that the rebellion had spread from Warsaw across the Duchy and now was fighting Russia for independence. The Germans marched into Warsaw to a jubilant crowd, this was most unexpected. The soldiers didn't have much time to celebrate though because they were soon told of Russian advances near Minsk with little in their way. The German troops marched double time to Minsk to find that the city was currently revolting (counter-revolting?) against their recent Russian occupiers. The Germans could have charged into the fray and staved off the Russians but with moderate civilian casualties and that would only serve to turn the Poles against them. The Germans made camp and watched the battle unfold, every horrid second of it played out in painfully real time. They witnessed the successful Russian charge and heard their cries for help, they were more than likely directed at the Germans, and then the execution of the survivors the next day. After that the commanders gave the army the go ahead to begin to shell the Russians in a attempt to flush them out. After 19 hours of almost continuous shelling the Russians left the city to try to dislodge the artillery, exactly what the Germans expected. The Germans charged shouting "Fur die Polen!". The Russians and Germans clashed in the plains outside Minsk and the Battle lasted for hours, the ground became so soaked in blood that it began to pool. Hundreds of thousands died that day but in the end the Russians pulled through and the Germans pulled back back onto the hill with the artillery. The Russians brought in artillery of their own and a sort of artillery duel began with both sides shelling each-other and not much else. The German artillery was less in number but more professional and the Russians had more but were less accurate, they wreaked havoc on the German Army.

Down South the Germans advanced from Austria and into Krakow and was expecting a warm welcome like the north, they were afforded no such luxury. When they entered the city the door and window shutters were closed, nobody was on the street and the candles were out. They spread out to find still nothing, the doors were locked and the houses were deathly silent. Something was happening or is happening here in Krakow. They set up camp and soon their collective bellies began to rumble. With only locked door and seemingly empty houses all around the soldiers wasted no time in ramming the doors open on a few houses and what they found horrified them. The walls were covered in a brown fluid that more than likely was dry blood, further investigation found that in the back room there was a pile of bodies that were partially burned. They broke open more houses and soon discovered that not all houses were like this, some looked like they were hurriedly evacuated, one had dinner still on table. (We now know that the Russians killed thousands of suspected rebels and relocated the rest of Krakow across the Duchy.). The Army sat in Krakow for 3 days and then moved Northward to help reinforce Warsaw and made great time, getting there within a little more than 2 days. The Southern Army marched into Warsaw and found it to be under siege, in what can only be called the worst luck the Southern Army had stumbled upon the Russian counterattack into Poland. They tried repeatedly to break it and enter Warsaw but were repelled each time. Warsaw fell on October 3rd, 1830 and Nikolay Novosiltsev fled to the Confederation for protection and was murdered three months later by Russian sympathizers in Nuremberg. The Germans fled east with the fires of Warsaw at their backs and 3 days later Russia and Germany signed a peace treaty. The Duchy went back under Russian control and any remaining leaders of the Uprising were imprisoned or simply disappeared and are still missing.
 
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Zollverine
Only the liberation of the natural capacity of love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.- Wilhelm Reich​

With the conclusion of the Polish Uprising the Confederation seeked to continue on their path of gradual unification. With King Frederick William III of Prussia at its head the Reformists introduced a period of gradual opening of borders between the kings and dukes of Germany by establishing the Customs Unions. By law there were three Customs areas, the Central German Commercial Union, The Customs-Union of Bavaria-Wurttemberg and the Prussian Customs-Union. The Austrians petitioned the vote and were therefore bypassed, the Customs Union would get into Austria for a while.

This opened a peaceful chapter in the history of the Confederation, at least on the outside. On the inside it was a secret war as the Prussian and Bavarian Customs-Union tried to control the entirety of German commerce. The Austrians saw a chance to be included in this trade that could become massively powerful, so the Austrian crown bought the Bavarian Customs Union. The Prussian and Bavarian Customs-Union quickly ate up the Central Union and came to direct economic confrontation. They repeatedly lowered toll fees and the like to gain more customers and put the other out of business and the Prussians began to build roads into Bavarian territory. When the Bavarians tried to do the same the Prussian Union confiscated them and even once chased off a construction crew. The Bavarians then began to fund highway men to raid commerce on the Prussian roads in their jurisdiction, that was the last straw.

The robbers ended up killing the Union leaders son as he was traveling to Nuremberg on business. The Bavarians fiercely apologized and promised to cut their funding of the raiders but the Prussians didn't listen. They hired trained mercenaries to do the same on Bavarian roads. The Bavarian merc's and the Prussian merc's frequently got into fights and blood spilled on the roads of the Confederation. The little dukes appealed to the Convention to nationalize the Customs Unions and end the bloodshed but they couldn't without the President's approval. The violence went and officials turned a blind eye as their pockets became lined with money. The Convention in Frankfurt were not so easily bribed though and soon they stepped in and demanded an end to the violence. They agreed and the violence subsided. In May of 1831 the various Unions met in Frankfurt to discuss uniting into one single customs union and the Zollverein Talks began. They lasted late into the months but before long the Zollverein Commercial Alliance was formed in Frankfurt under command of the National Convention. Under the treaty the Prussian and Bavarian Unions were signed over to Zollverein for a moderate lump sum of money and the Zollverein even expanded their range into Austria-Hungary. Soon roads were criss-crossing the Confederation and trade between the separate dukes and Kings jumped 100 fold. The Zollverein expanded in June and soon the Meerzoll was founded to include all seaborne trade both foreign and domestic and income for the Confederation almost doubled and their checkbooks were balanced. The Germans had achieved Economic Unity, the first step in many, many steps ahead.
 
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The Liberal Revolution of 1848
Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views- William F. Buckley

Unification and the First Franco-German War

With economic prosperity and the Convention in Frankfurt leading the country into a age of prosperity, a new movement sprouted up in Berlin in October of 1833. The Liberals endorsed the end of the autocratic system, increased political freedom, Democracy and freedom from censorship. They grew steadily until the eventful year of 1848 rolled around.

First a liberal demonstration forced the King of France to flee to Britain. The revolt in France quickly spread into Germany and Austria. The first to pop up was in Vienna and soon Prince von Metternich fled Vienna and went to live in Britain, the Revolution quickly spread across Germany and soon Berlin was gripped in Liberal Fever. Protesters flooded the streets and paralyzed Berlin, Vienna and Frankfurt with chants calling for increased freedom and unification. The three heads of state were completely cut off and soon King Frederick William IV of Prussia announced his support of German Unification on March 19th, 1848. This was met with fright and nervousness from both Frankfurt and Vienna and soon shots rang out in both cities as the protesters swelled in numbers, the Austrian protesters fled into the city and Ferdinand I of Austria declared martial law in Vienna. In Frankfurt the protesters surged forward and took the Convention Hall and expelled the delegates who handed over power to the new National Assembly that was established in its place. The Assembly gathered the delegates from the Convention and a loose Federation was formed under a more central government in Frankfurt.

When news of the new Constitution the King of Prussia immediately went to Frankfurt to sign it, Ferdinand of Austria required some persuasion. The German Confederation moved its troops south and on May 20th Ferdinand agreed to sign after some changes were made. On his way his carriage was ambushed by Austrian Military forces led by Duke Alexander of Württemburg who killed Ferdinand and marched into Vienna proclaiming a new monarchy. His first decree was to abolish the double Monarchy and when the Hungarian King protested, he was shot. This led to mass demonstrations in both Hungary and Austria against Emperor Alexander. Alexander went on to make a speech condemning the German Confederation and dismissing German Nationalism as a threat to national security. The upper class cheered the speech and the protesters continued to camp out before the Army came in and broke it up by literally pushing them out. The protests continued through the months and into January of 1849 when it culminated in Franz Joseph I leading the protesters in storming the palace. Emperor Alexander fled the palace but was picked up trying to flee into Russia when he was recognized by his picture that was printed on wanted posters across the Empire. Emperor Franz Joseph reinstated the Hungarian Monarchy and gave him control of all non german parts of the Empire, when asked why he said he was on his way to join the Federation. On February 3rd, 1849 Franz Josef I signed Austria into the Federation as a independent state, the rest of the Empire broke apart. With that the German Federation had become unified but Britain and France became terrified that another Napoleon like figure could rise in the Federation and try to take over Europe. Citing "Germany defying the Congress of Vienna" France declared war with the British at their backs.

The First Franco-German War

The French wasted no time in attacking into Luxembourg and met almost no resistance. Meanwhile the German Congress met in Frankfurt and declared war on Britain and France after a 10 minute deliberation. The German Army mobilized and moved West while the French moved East with little in their way of stopping them. Mainz fell to the French in February of 1850 but they were soon besieged by German forces. The French quickly ran out of food after the villagers hid it all. The siege went on for a week until the French tried a breakout. It was going well until the Germans got reinforcements, they ended up having to retreat back into the city and were captured by armed civilians.

The Germans then launched a counterattack into French territory and captured Luxembourg (which was occupied in the beginning of the war), Metz and Nancy. The French pulled out and formed a defensive line on the border of the Alsace and Lorraine departments. The Germans launched a major attack on May 3rd of 1850 which quickly went nowhere. The two sides continued to headbutt each other for months on end while the Germans restructured Alsace and Lorraine into a single, independent country in the German Federation. The British condemned this action by stating the obvious it was still occupied territory, Germany cited German speaking natives that approved of the action*. The Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine backed Germany in the issue and cooled relations between Britain and the Confederation even more than they already were. The Germans wanted a swift end to the war so German High Command met in Frankfurt and the Winter Offensive was drawn up.

It called for 3 Corps of 40,000 men to quickly push into Champagne and Brie and then on to Paris and 2 divisions of 10,000 which were to come up the back and defend against any counterattacks. The Plan was to begin on November 10th, 1851 which gave the Army 5 months to prepare, not much by logistical standards. The German war machine kicked into overdrive and began pumping out beans, bullets and bandages at a astronomical rate and Albrecht Dominik, Duke of Teschen was appointed to lead the attack as a gesture of goodwill to Austria that lost its Empire when it joined the Confederation. He had shown his mettle during the Liberal Revolution in Vienna when he helped Emperor Franz Joseph storm the Imperial Palace. As the day of the offensive approached the troops still were not ready and Dominik asked for the offensive to be delayed for a month while the rest of the supplies arrived, his request was refused.

It is of the utmost importance that this begin on time. We have faith in our Lord that you will achieve victory.
Excerpt from the letter from Frankfurt

Nevertheless the Winter Offensive kicked off on the scheduled date and the French were not as tough as the Germans thought. Wars were usually fought during the spring and summer months with the winter off. While there were some exceptions during the American Revolution and Napoleonic Wars this formula for war was more or less obeyed. The Germans swept through the French camps and captured dozens of troops and more than enough supplies to make up for the ones that never arrived. Before long and after a few small skirmishes the Germans were nearing Troyes ahead of schedule. Napoleon III appealed to the Brits for help and they began to gather a invasion force for Northern Germany.


*I could not find accurate population figures for 1850's Alsace and Lorraine so I was forced to go with 1870.
 
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