War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Neither the Albanians nor the Ottomans expected that the war would end so hastily.

The main battle turned into a one-sided beating. In fact, they overlooked some problems. The Albanian mountain people were not good at battles. They were good at guerrilla warfare. In the end, it was not a battle that ruined them, but an ambush.

Backward equipment, insufficient training, outdated tactics, loose organization, wrong intelligence, almost no supplies, and impatient mentality

Before the war, the Albanian mountain people had almost gathered all the factors that were unfavorable to them. On the contrary, the Austrian army was waiting for the opportunity, and it was not surprising that they won with a crushing momentum in the end.

However, the Ottoman envoy was not panicked at this time. On the contrary, he was more excited, because such a tragic defeat would definitely arouse the blood of the mountain people, and then they would start to revenge to the death.

The facts were similar to what the Ottoman envoy thought. The courage of the mountain people was still worthy of recognition. They were not frightened by the tragic defeat, but were ready to take revenge on the Austrian Empire.

However, this time they did not form a coalition, but the tribes fought each other. Although the scale has become smaller, the organizational efficiency has been greatly improved.

They began to destroy roads and bridges, burn villages, hide the elderly, women and children in the mountains, and then set up ambush points on both sides of the road to prepare to resist the attack of the Austrian army.

However, the Austrian army did not continue to attack, but retreated to the border area.

The behavior of the Austrian Empire seemed extremely unreasonable, because in the eyes of the Ottomans and the southern Albanian tribes, the Austrians should be very anxious, and the latter should want to quickly attack the heartland of the Ottoman Empire through the southern mountains.

So they were wrong from the beginning, and Franz never thought of sending troops from Albania.

Even if the tribes in the southern mountains supported the Austrian Empire, the Austrian army could not guarantee its supply line from Albania.

There is no railway on the long mountain road, and it can only be transported by mules and horses and manpower.

If Franz sent an army of 100,000 people, then in order to maintain this supply line in the mountains, at least a supply team of 300,000 people would be needed.

300,000 people sounds like a lot, but it is nothing if it is really scattered in the mountains.

The total population of the Austrian Empire in Albania at this time was only a few hundred thousand people.

If they really wanted to send 400,000 or 500,000 people and supporting materials to Albania, it would probably become a serious loss-making business, which would be a severe test for the entire Austrian Empire.

Let's take a step back and say that it is hard to say that there will be no accidents if the mountain people who are short of materials and armed with sharp weapons watch a group of fat sheep passing by their doorsteps all day long.

Franz is not a war maniac, he just skipped those useless pulling stages and directly started the last step.

Franz stationed troops in Albania just to cheer the Greeks and help them at a critical moment.

Although the Greeks are united from top to bottom, the Ottomans can't deal with Austria, Russia, Egypt, can't they deal with a small Greece?

After a period of waiting, it was the Albanians who couldn't sit still first, because the expected army attack did not happen, but the Austrian Empire's elite troops never stopped their targeted attacks on hostile tribes.

The forts in the mountains have always been a holy place in the hearts of the mountain people. These medieval fortresses built with huge stones in dangerous areas have never fallen after hundreds of years of wind and frost. They are the symbol of the mountain people's invincibility.

The mountain roads are narrow and rugged, heavy artillery cannot be transported at all, and light artillery is difficult to cause enough damage. The forts are often built in dangerous locations, so the mountain people will no longer be afraid of any strong enemy as long as they escape into the forts.

However, times have changed. The holy place in the hearts of the mountain people is vulnerable to rockets. The corner ambush tactics that have been unfavorable for thousands of years are no different from seeking death in front of grenades.

The southern mountains used to be their greatest reliance, but now the poor communication between them and the mountains has become their biggest disadvantage.

As one fort after another was breached, the civilians released by the Austrian army spread the fear to the entire southern mountains.

Because they didn't know when the Austrian army would come to the door, and who would be the next turn, the tribes in the southern mountains began to feel insecure.

Some tribes have already sent people to contact the Austrian Empire privately. These tribes hope to get the captives back, but they are still rejected by the Austrian side.

In fact, Franz has sent the captives to the mountains in northern Albania, with the purpose of continuing to dig a channel connecting to the Austrian Empire.

This project started in 1846, but according to the most optimistic estimate, it will not be completed until early 1851. If you want to build a railway here, you need to add another two to three years of construction period.

It is not that there are no roads in northern Albania, but most of those roads have been in disrepair for a long time and are too narrow to withstand excessive traffic pressure.

At the same time, the location of some roads is also problematic, which is not conducive to the unified planning of the Austrian Empire in the future, so these roads must be rebuilt.

The road construction team is mainly composed of some prisoners of war and criminals, as well as some civilians who are recruited from northern Albania. In the future, Albanians should become the main force.

Although the work of road construction is very hard and often accompanied by danger, the Austrian government's supply of supplies is not bad. At least they don't have to worry about hunger or fullness, and they can even eat meat occasionally.

However, the meat issue caused a lot of trouble. Many locals did not eat pork for religious reasons, but the officials in charge of supply ignored this point. Fierce conflicts broke out between the two sides and even triggered a riot.

During the period, a large number of casualties occurred, and the officials were eventually dismissed and investigated.

The two main sources of meat in the Austrian Empire at that time were pigs, cattle, chickens, and ducks, but the price of cattle and ducks was too expensive. Even the regular army of Austria could not afford it, let alone this group of prisoners.

The newly appointed Austrian officials had been to the Tranquiba colony, where the local Indians could not eat meat due to religious issues.

But food without meat was not delicious, so the clever Indian chefs came up with a solution, which was to make the food into paste.

Add some strong seasonings, so that the raw materials and the taste could not be distinguished, which solved the food problem for the workers.

(The so-called seasoning here is not the usual spices, but anything that can change the original taste, including but not limited to horse urine, sheep dung, rotten fruits, vegetables, wild vegetables with strong flavors, insects, fish heads, fish bones.)

This road is necessary to conquer Albania. After solving the problem in southern Albania, it is also necessary to build a road to connect with the Austrian Empire. Only in this way can it be possible.

There are more and more surrenderists in the southern tribes of Albania. This situation is not what Reshid Pasha wants to see, so he offers a large reward.

Finally, a tribe proposed to take the initiative again, and the tribes that were frustrated in the negotiations agreed.

The southern coalition was formed again, and the battle returned to the battlefield that the Austrians were most familiar with. As expected, the Albanian revenge army once again ran into the Austrian encirclement, and the number of road construction teams increased again.