War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

When the water wall more than ten meters high reached the shore, the wooden piles on the trestle seemed to be torn apart by giant beasts.

However, that was just an appetizer for the ancient ferocious beast in front of him. It smashed the warning lighthouse with one slap, and shattered the bridge with one bite. The huge warship was abandoned by it in the air and hit heavily on the newly built factory. Everywhere he passed were broken walls and ruins.

The black ocean current swallowed up everything in front of it, whether it was riding a horse or running, it was just a useless struggle.

When the people running in front looked back, the crowd had already disappeared, and they could only see the endless ocean current behind them.

Benito was the one who ran at the front regardless of everything. He was a native of Venice. He was extremely familiar with everything here. Every street, alley, and corner was clearly remembered in his mind.

No one can catch Benito, but this time he is not facing people, but natural disasters. The black current broke through the side walls and rushed towards him. At this critical moment, Benito grabbed a high clothes drying pole.

Looking at the turbulent waves under his feet, he had no choice but to explode with unprecedented strength and use inertia to throw himself onto a high wall.

However, the wall under his feet suddenly shattered. Fortunately, Benito adjusted his center of gravity in time.

But when he stood firm and looked ahead, he found that the city was already a vast ocean. With a crisp sound underfoot, the ancient city wall that had long been weathered could no longer hold on.

——

This is the black ocean current that is unwilling to retreat——

After the tsunami, it was a mess. Waterlogged goods, scattered clothes, bloated corpses, and debris filled the streets.

Some people are looking for their former home in the ruins, but most of their belongings are gone, and family members need to carefully identify them.

Occasionally, survivors burst into tears when they met each other. The busy port and bustling commercial streets disappeared in a blink of an eye, replaced by temporary shacks and dilapidated buildings in urgent need of repair.

A tsunami took away more than 5,000 lives, more than 2,000 houses and 300 boats, and the direct economic losses may be close to 100 million florins.

But people had no time to grieve, and just three days later the Port of Venice resumed operations. This is not because the Austrian Empire has strong reconstruction capabilities, but because the handling capacity of the coastline is too weak.

The damage to Trieste was not that great. It was a military port, and due to the blocking of the terrain, the impact was not serious.

The senior officials of the Austrian Empire still attach great importance to the tsunami that occurred in the Adriatic Sea, because after all, this is the only outlet for the Austrian Empire to the sea.

However, at this time, Prime Minister Metternich had long been drowned in sorrow. The tens of millions of funds he had embezzled before were all in vain. The Pope actually went to see God with the Chief Secretary of State.

And the positions of cardinals that he bought proved to be useless. Those old diehards in the Papal State had no shame at all. In their eyes, the Holy Law and the First Law were bullshit.

Pius IX also proved his commitment with his own actions. The new pope issued three consecutive edicts, which caused an uproar in Europe and the entire world.

First, Pius IX required all bishops in France to come to the Vatican and pledge allegiance to him.

Second, the Papal States would renegotiate tax rates with the Austrian Empire and require the latter to pay back the tithes owed over the years.

Third, reorganize the Society of Jesus. This one was headed towards the Spanish Church. Father Clarit, who was highly respected in the Spanish court at this time, was one of the Jesuit monks.

The Jesuits in Spain were powerful and had absolute influence over the future queen. However, from the perspective of Pius IX, this should have been his own strength.

At the same time, the Jesuits also had considerable influence in Spanish colonies and former colonies.

As soon as these three edicts came out, the three major Catholic powers began to have headaches. The biggest headache among them is the Austrian Empire. After all, Austria theoretically has a veto power on the election of the pope.

This right was actually inherited from the Holy Roman Empire, but Metternich felt that it was not to that extent at all, and even wanted to sell Pius IX a favor.

As a result, what this liberal pope did was simply unreasonable. Just last night, the Papal State's emissary was even prepared to discuss the issue of abolition of the secret agreement between the two countries.

This has completely exceeded Prince Metternich's bottom line. The Pope's emissary was already a guest at the bottom of the Danube River.

Once the new pope tears up the secret agreement and abolishes the defense agreement with the Austrian Empire, all the investments in the Papal States over the years will be in vain.

It was like a knife was stabbed in Metternich's heart, and then it was stabbed hard, which made him feel extremely angry.

And everything actually came from an unknown little person, which made Prince Metternich feel a sense of shame.

Being plotted by the lame Talleyrand, Canning, and Palmerston, he was defeated by the strong and conspirators.

And Pius IX was obviously a political novice, an insignificant little bishop, a ridiculous and arrogant tick.

"How dare he?!"

What Metternich said unintentionally surprised himself.

"Prime Minister, do you want to take a rest first? Anyway, what we are talking about right now is just trivial matters. No matter how big the splash is, Venice is still in our hands, isn't it?"

Count Kolarov was not interested in Metternich's Italian strategy, and he was still unhappy that the empire had suffered such heavy losses.

Facing the cynicism of his old rival, Prince Metternich calmed down. He did not want to admit it, but the colonial plan led by Franz had huge benefits for the Austrian Empire.

It is precisely because of the continuous flow of materials from the colonies that the industry of the Austrian Empire has been able to form a crushing advantage over Germany and Italy.

At the same time, Austria also shoulders the important task of resisting the invasion of foreign goods. Once maritime trade is cut off, the entire Austrian Empire and even the entire German Confederation will be affected.

Therefore, the Regent Council immediately approved the aid plan for ports such as Venice and Trieste. However, what they did not expect was that the tsunami was not the whole disaster.

After the tsunami, cholera came unexpectedly, and Franz was still in the north to guard against it. The cholera epidemic spread rapidly in Italy and quickly spread through the railways throughout the Austrian Empire.

Faced with the overwhelming reports of cholera, senior officials in Vienna finally exploded. Because according to the previous experience of other countries, each report may herald 1 to 2K deaths.

At the same time, the top brass of the Polish Nationalist Army gathered again in Krakow.

"This is really a God-given opportunity. Now that the Austrian Empire, Prussia, and Russia are too busy to take care of themselves, this is a good opportunity for us to take action!"

Landry Prome has been in Paris. He knows how terrible the plague is, so he firmly believes that Russia, Prussia, and Austria have no power to fight anymore.