War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Ludwig had no objection to Franz's actions, or in other words, in his eyes, everything was God's will.

Although Maximilian was dissatisfied with being arranged by Franz, he had nothing to say if he could escape. For Mrs. Sophie, as long as it is beneficial to the family, it is enough, and she does not like to be taken advantage of.

In fact, Mrs. Sophie still dotes on Maximilian very much, but she is not a good mother in the usual sense. For the sake of the future of the young eagle, she will kick him off the cliff without hesitation.

Queen Regent Christina was obviously not satisfied with this result. The person she really wanted to marry was Franz.

But she really couldn't afford to offend Russia, so Maximilian wouldn't be able to do the next best thing.

Maximilian was actually quite famous in the aristocratic circle. After all, there were many people in the royal family who were known as scholars, but very few were actually scholars.

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Maximilian was definitely an outlier in this regard, and almost everyone knew that Madame Sophie was seeking a throne for him.

Christina felt that neither Maximilian, nor Lady Sophie, nor the Habsburg family could refuse the temptation of the Spanish throne.

The result surprised her. The Habsburg family only introduced an underage archduke. Moreover, the marriage partner was not her eldest daughter Isabella II, but her youngest daughter.

This made Christina's wishful thinking come to nothing, because this marriage will not produce any benefits in the short term. Even after Luisa Fernanda and Ludwig get married, both parties will settle in Austria according to common sense.

According to the original idea of ​​the Queen Regent, she could use the tiger skin of the Austrian Empire to intimidate the domestic opposition. At best, she could ask Austria to send troops to help her solve the domestic rebellion. In the worst case, she could also ask the Austrian Empire in the name of her son-in-law. Bank loan.

However, Ludwig's weight is obviously not enough. His exposure is not high enough, and his family status is not high enough, but his status is similar to that of Cristina's youngest daughter Luisa Fernanda.

The marriage between Luisa Fernanda and Ludwig was obviously a bit useless, but it was difficult to refuse the Habsburg family's proposal. This time it was the Spanish royal family's turn to be in trouble.

Luisa Fernanda's appearance is more refined than that of Isabella II, but it is still far from the standard of beauty.

Luisa Fernanda's mother did not value education, let alone her. Coupled with the chaos of Spanish court politics, her mind was empty, she could only read and write basicly, and her personality was somewhat gloomy and withdrawn.

These qualities made her even less popular with Isabella II and her daughter, so Christina abandoned her without hesitation at this time.

Of course, it was impossible for someone like the Queen Regent to leave empty-handed. She finally took away jewelry worth 200,000 florins from Vienna.

Fortunately, Franz did not lack such things at all, or because of the war, the sales of jewelry were very poor.

The jewelry collected from the colonies in Southeast Asia has been backlogged for a long time, but in order not to destroy the market price, Franz did not dare to put it all into the market at once.

He knows very well that once these luxury goods depreciate, it will be difficult to restore them to their original prices.

On the surface, this series of wars seemed to have little economic impact on the Austrian Empire, but in fact many industries fell into a winter trough.

In particular, the luxury goods industry and the newly emerging tourism industry have shrunk by more than 80%.

In addition, the grain reserves and strategic reserves of the Austrian Empire are also declining. If Franz had not been preparing for many years, various supplies would have been stretched.

But the situation at this time was not optimistic. On the surface, the British and Austrian sides had ceased fire, but at some point there were suddenly more pirates on the Atlantic.

These pirates are well-equipped and well-trained. They cooperate with each other tacitly, move boldly and quickly, are extremely cruel and cunning. Let alone ordinary merchant ships, even lone warships are no match.

These pirates not only robbed property, but also massacred sailors, and even deliberately left wreckage and corpses to provoke the Austrian Imperial Navy.

At this time, the performance of the Austrian Empire's main fleet can completely defeat these pirates, but the question is how can the pirates who come and go like the wind on the vast sea possibly have a decisive battle with the Austrian Empire's main fleet?

Let the fleet escort? This is the most common and common approach, using the excellent performance of new warships to slap the enemy in the face, and then saying that any conspiracy and trickery are in vain in the face of absolute power.

This sentence cannot be said to be completely wrong, but it is obviously inappropriate now.

In this world, there are only those who can commit a thief for a thousand days, but there is absolutely no one who can guard against a thief for a thousand days. Putting aside whether it can be successful or not, the cost alone is unacceptable. After all, merchant ships have to make money, but warships burn money.

Let's talk about strategic issues. The most taboo in naval battles is to divide the troops. Once the Austrian navy is provoked and starts to split up, the British navy can take advantage of it and annihilate them one by one.

Although the Austrian Navy had won several beautiful victories before, the fundamental situation of the enemy being strong and us being weak has not changed.

The British still have the ability to determine victory or defeat in a battle, but it is their aversion to losses and fear of the unknown that makes them take action.

Once the Austrian Empire loses its navy, it will not even have a chance to play games. After all, Britain can suck blood from the whole world, while the Austrian Empire can only rely on self-circulation.

If the fleet is really sent to escort or the troops are kept still, it will be exactly what the British want. If Austria is desperate and directly attacks the British mainland, it will be more in line with the interests of the British government.

At this time, the British government is suffering from the lack of reasonable reasons to continue the war. Once the Austrian navy attacks the British mainland, then this war will no longer be the government's willful behavior, but a defense war related to the interests of all British people.

Franz's publicity and personality in the media will be greatly discounted, and the British will regain the high ground of public opinion.

Can't move, can't not move, and can't move randomly. How to break this situation?

Franz's answer is to cut off the firewood from the bottom of the pot. It is not easy for the British to successfully intercept the merchant ships of the Austrian Empire on the vast ocean.

The ocean is not land, and there is no absolutely accurate and fixed route. It is almost impossible to achieve accurate interception without satellite maps and radar.

According to common sense, if you start from the British mainland, you will most likely miss it, or even just hit the Austrian Navy. Such plundering not only has a low success rate, but also has a high cost. The British would not choose such a stupid approach.

So the most likely possibility is that there are pirate bases on the Atlantic route. Combining the map with the route and time of the plundered merchant ships, the two most suitable locations for pirate bases are obvious - the Malad Islands and the Azores Islands.

Only in these two archipelagos in the North Atlantic can pirates carry out precise attacks on Austrian merchant ships, and these two archipelagos happen to belong to the British ally - Portugal.