War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Tirol, Royal Arsenal.

Although there was a lumberyard sign outside, the sound of planing wood was completely masked by the noise of machinery.

Corresponding to the snow-capped mountains are rows of black smoke-belching factory buildings in the valley. The supposedly quiet valley is filled with the roar of machinery.

It's still snowing outside, but the workers in the factory are sweating like rain. The vast majority of them are landless farmers, descendants of soldiers, disabled soldiers and veterans.

In addition, there are some who have passed the exam to enter the factory (requiring primary school education or above), as well as some skilled workers and weapons experts from other parts of Austria.

The salary of soldiers in this era is relatively low, and there is no insurance or pension. After soldiers leave the army, they usually either end up in poverty or join gangs as thugs.

Because these people generally have no life skills, everything can only be started from scratch. But how can it be so easy for a person in his thirties or forties to start from scratch?

Franz was fed up with the intrigues in Vienna and wanted to find a place to be clean. As for matters in Vienna, Franz temporarily left them to Madame Sophie.

Although Mrs. Sophie has no business acumen, her status is high enough, she is scary enough, and she has seen enough scenes.

Franz had fired and punished many people before, but these guys were actually of no use. It would be better to say that the efficiency of the entire system increased after they left.

Franz spent more than a month building a new structure to offset the impact of those Lesese leaving.

What Mrs. Sophie has to do is to maintain this system and deal with some of the troublemakers. As for the troubles she encountered in business and industry, she could go to Mr. Cinna, Baron Brooke, and the Royal Academy of Sciences to solve them.

In fact, due to the railway connection, if there was an emergency, Franz could return to Vienna within one day.

And Franz didn't think there would be any problems. After all, it would be too useless for an organization that couldn't function without him.

The Tyroleans living in the north of the mountain were very satisfied with the arsenal, while the Tyroleans living in the south of the mountain hoped that Franz could build a factory in their territory.

The mountains here refer to the Dolomites, a branch of the Alps. They are majestic and majestic (which means difficult to walk). However, after the construction of the railway, the transportation problem has been greatly improved.

Although South Tyrol is also located in a valley, it lacks terrain protection, and the terrain in the valley is too flat for defense.

However, the South Tyrol people still got the factory they wanted. Franz built a local flour mill and hired local people to grind flour for local farmers, but only charged a small fee.

South Tyrol was actually politically and spiritually biased towards Austria and the Habsburgs, so Franz needed to win over them.

Historically, the Austrian imperial government has always regarded them as "people from the ditch", whose status was not high or low, and they were called "Germans who are not Germans".

In fact, there are many Italians in Tyrol, but Franz doesn't think these are a problem. Loyalty is what matters, after all, Austria's national problem cannot be solved in a short time.

Franz now wants some troops because some things can no longer be resolved peacefully.

Although he wanted to solve the problem in a way that would have less impact on society and the country, his successive encounters made him feel that he might be too naive.

Although war cannot solve all problems, it can solve some people with problems. The Tyroleans are relatively reliable, and being surrounded by mountains is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Therefore, in Franz's plan, this place was designated as the strategic rear area. Although the Swiss Confederation is behind it, first of all, there is the natural danger of the Alps, and secondly, the Swiss Confederation has long lost its courage.

As for Bavaria, there was almost no conflict between the two countries, and it was difficult for Franz to associate it with danger, at least before 1848.

Of course, it is very necessary to prevent spies from infiltrating. After all, military technology and arsenals are related to the foundation of national defense.

Although there is a railway, the population mobility in Tyrol is still not great, and few people come here except for tourism.

The travel routes and guides are usually planned by Franz and will not expose the location of the arsenal. At this time, the largest tourism company in the Austrian Empire was controlled by Franz, and the tour guides were carefully trained (as mentioned earlier).

However, for safety reasons, Franz came up with a system similar to household registration and ID cards, such as a residence certificate.

What's the reason? Naturally, it is to allow local residents to enjoy more royal favors while preventing others from imitating these favors.

The people of Tyrol are naturally very willing to cooperate. After all, this is related to personal interests.

As for the so-called Zen, it is nothing more than mills, public toilets, parks, hospitals, fountains, tourist attractions and the like.

And it's not completely free, but a certain fee is reduced. It's just a transfer of cost, but the food looks better.

But this was already a great blessing to the people at that time. After all, Franz did not directly expropriate them, nor did he use violence to expel them.

On the contrary, it also provides jobs, housing, education, medical care, and a variety of public facilities.

Public toilets are a major advancement in the history of human hygiene. Just look at the cholera epidemics that broke out everywhere in this era to know how important it is.

When Franz built these toilets, he also built a sewage system for the local area, which was another great progress for public health.

In addition, some common sense, even today, public toilets in Europe still charge a fee. This seems very normal to Europeans, but in fact it also prevents waste and abuse to a certain extent.

Moreover, the construction and maintenance costs of toilets were not low at that time. Although there were some benefits, they were far from being able to cover the cost and subsequent maintenance costs.

In addition, let’s talk about waste and abuse. In fact, such a spectacle has occurred in the UK. Some people stay in public restrooms because they cannot afford to sleep.

At that time, due to the high housing prices in British cities, many people were homeless. Later, many public welfare "hotels" appeared.

The famous rope bed came from here. People could hang on the rope and sleep all night for only two or three pennies. It was really a great favor from the emperor.

No matter how rich you are, you can choose to sleep in a coffin, that’s right, a coffin! Franz even suspected that Britain was the European branch of the Tomb Sect.

However, there are still many people who cannot afford to sleep in coffins or ropes. But going to the toilet only costs a quarter of a penny! Although the smell is a bit unpleasant, at least it has walls and a roof to protect it from wind and rain, and you can sleep sitting up!

Closer to home, these facilities built provide employment opportunities for a large number of Tyroleans. In addition, the construction of railways not only brought more income, but also suppressed commodity prices.

Gone are the days when some unscrupulous businessmen would use some cheap industrial products and "gadgets" to take away large amounts of supplies from the mountain people.

The biggest victims during this period were the Gypsies, a people who "loved" wandering.

Gypsies are what the British call them. In fact, they have many other names. For example, the French call them Bohemians, the Spanish call them Flamencos, the Russians call them Gypsies, and the Albanians call them Gypsies. The Evergits are known to the Greeks as the Akinganos, to the Iranians as the Loli people, and to the Sri Lankans as the Akuntakas.

In Austria, they have a more technical name "Roma", and these Roma people also like to call themselves that.

At this time, the Austrian Empire was the country with the largest number of Roma people. Although they were not welcome, it was the only country that would not kill them.

There were about one million Roma (Gypsies) in this era, of which 300,000-400,000 lived in the Austrian Empire, and the rest were mainly distributed near the Carpathian Mountains (the Danube Principalities, or present-day Romania) area).

Franz would naturally not kill them all, but in the industrial age, it was time to change that wandering life.

The Roma who moved between Northern Italy and Tyrol soon found life difficult, but they were invited by Franz.

After all, the tourism industry also needs people, and some things are indeed better done by them. This is the first time in thousands of years that the Roma have been recruited, rather than directly recruited and plundered.

Although according to tradition, they should not accept Franz's proposal, but with a hungry family on one side and a golden rice bowl within their reach, the choice was easy.

Of course, Franz did not have no requirements for them. First of all, they had to learn German. In fact, German and Italian were simply necessary skills for these Roma people who had been living in the Alps all year round.

Secondly, we must obey orders and obey instructions. Yes, you can wander, but you have to go to a designated place, the area cannot leave the Austrian Empire, and the route is arbitrary.

In fact, the Gypsy (Roma) caravans and the like are quite exciting and quite tempting to the aristocratic children of Vienna.

This is also a characteristic of the Austrian Alps.

Historically, with the defeat of the Austrian Empire in 1859, the Roma people in the Alps were expelled by the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Afterwards, they were successively expelled by the Swiss Confederation and the Austrian Empire. In the summer of 1860, some two hundred Roma bodies were found in the melting snow of the Alps.

The locals thought this was an ominous sign and burned them all, and then hired a priest to perform an exorcism ceremony.

These people are just the dust of history, and their history will not be remembered.

The arsenal has a great influence on the Tyrolean people, and some people even have their whole families working for it. Men wield hammers and drive screws in the factory, while women pack bullets and add gunpowder powder.

In fact, the Tyrol Arsenal produced nearly half of the rifled barrels in Europe at this time. The die extrusion method used by the Austrian Empire at this time seemed completely unimaginable at the time.

Even if someone could figure it out, they would have to solve the problem with the hydraulic press. Even with the hydraulic press, they didn't have enough pressure.

However, no matter how hard those craftsmen worked, their manual efficiency still lagged far behind the industrial manufacturing of the Austrian Empire.

Historically, rifled barrels only began to gradually enter industrialization after 1851, and the early single-point hook method was still very inefficient, and it was also very easy to cause defective products and even directly scrap the barrel.

The invention of the sealing ring has greatly enhanced the airtightness of the breech gun. Although it will occasionally burn the soldier's face, it will not cause large-scale burns or anything like that. At most, it will just inhale some dust.

Franz did not try to persuade the army to adopt breech-loading guns, or even mention it at all. If both sides in a civil war are equipped with breech-loading guns, the intensity and bloodshed of the war will increase rapidly.

For specific reference, you can refer to the American Civil War. Even if it was just a rifled gun, its bloody level is still fresh in people's memory.

If breech-loading guns were fully popularized before the Civil War, coupled with the popular queuing and shooting tactics at this time, the results can be imagined.

By the way, the breech-loading guns of the Austrian Empire at this time were not the large bolts (bolt-action rifles) of the later Prussian type, but another branch-lever-action rifles.

The characteristic of a lever-action rifle is that it has many rounds of ammunition and a fast rate of fire. The 60 rounds per minute of the M1894 are not used as an example here.

It is only the Italian M1820 that is copied by later generations, and its rate of fire can reach an astonishing 35 rounds per minute.

However, considering that there were no smokeless gunpowder and metal fixed ammunition in this era, the rate of fire could still reach 15-20 rounds per minute.

Compared with the Prussian Dreiser rifle, there is a huge advantage in the rate of fire. The rate of fire of the Dreiser rifle is 6-10 rounds per minute.

At this time, the muzzle-loading rifled gun can usually only fire 1-2 times per minute. Even the muzzle-loading smoothbore gun, which is proud of its rate of fire, usually only fires 3-4 rounds.

Franz's lever-action rifle, which he intended to equip only a small number of troops.

In addition to his own Royal Order of Dragons, Royal Guards, Archduke Karl's House Guards, Friedrich's Marines, some church armed forces and Umbrella mercenaries, Franz is also preparing to raise an army in Tyrol .

Franz raised a guard from Tyrol, which seemed normal to those who did not know the secret order. After all, usually when the emperor is still alive, the crown prince will be arranged to leave Vienna and go somewhere to gain experience as a deputy king or governor.

Except for female crown princes like Theresa, it is usually very normal for a crown prince to establish his own palace and form a guard after leaving Vienna.

As the former capital of the Austrian Empire, Tyrol is surrounded by mountains and rivers. It makes sense for Franz to choose this place.

As for those who knew the secret edict, they understood Franz's behavior even more. After all, people around him were assassinated one after another, so it was only human nature to strengthen some security measures.

However, Franz recruited two thousand people at a time, which confused onlookers. After all, Innsbruck (the provincial capital of Tyrol) only had more than 20,000 people at that time.

But what they didn't know was that this was just the first phase of Franz's plan. What he wanted was a real army of 5,000 to 8,000 men.

The purpose has been mentioned before, political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and the hammer must be strong enough to strike iron. This is the so-called meta-violence.

As for the appointment of officers, Franz only paid attention to nepotism, and all were drawn from the Royal Dragoons.

These people's abilities may not be the strongest in Austria, but they must be the most loyal to Franz. After all, they are all available people left by the old emperor to Franz.

These people also understand their position. If Franz becomes the emperor in the future, they will surely prosper.

If Franz loses power, they will either be forced to retire or be sent to a battlefield as cannon fodder.

I was in a hurry today and my computer broke down, so I wrote this in an Internet cafe. It has not been inspected, please help me check it out.

Also, my computer was sent by mail and it will take 14 days to get it back.