War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz knew exactly what was about to happen at this time. Over the years, the number of guards in the palace had increased from eight hundred to two thousand, and now to eight thousand at this time. The defense strength was ten times the historical number.

Vienna's old city walls were demolished and replaced by Franz's shops and factories.

The advantage of this is that it can not only prevent the insurgents from building barricades, but also blow them up when necessary to form an isolation belt near the palace and the noble area as the last line of defense.

At this time, the number of the city defense army did not change much from that in history, but after eliminating the old, weak, and young, under Albrecht's training, it had completely become a fighting force.

This is an army composed of 20,000 nobles, equipped with the most expensive equipment in the entire Austrian Empire. Especially after experiencing the Winster incident and the anti-drug operation, the fighting will of the personnel has been greatly improved.

In addition, the Austrian army deployed 100,000 garrison troops near Vienna, which was much higher than the same period in history.

The most important thing is that in the context of the economic crisis, the economy of the Austrian Empire is still improving, and farmers have not had harvest failures and large-scale peasant flight incidents have not occurred.

There were not a large number of refugees gathered in Vienna, nor were there many unemployed workers. Generally speaking, the people are in a relatively tolerable state, at least no one can survive.

Due to the impact of the economy, a small number of factories and businessmen did go bankrupt, but the scale was small. Compared with the thousands of companies that go bankrupt in the UK and France a year, hundreds of companies go bankrupt every month on average.

In December 1847, only seven companies in Austria went bankrupt, and two of them were confiscated by Franz because of false accounting.

In December of the same year, there were 104 companies in Paris, 97 companies in London, 61 companies in Prussia, and 28 companies in Russia. However, the main reason why there were fewer companies in Russia and Prussia was because they also had fewer companies.

The development of railway transportation made the entire Austrian Empire more closely connected. In fact, if there was a rebellion in Vienna, garrisons from various places could arrive in one or two days, which greatly reduced the success rate and feasibility of the rebellion.

Theoretically speaking, the uprising in Vienna lacked the necessary sunlight, soil and moisture at this time, but for the sake of safety, Franz made a second plan, which was the shelter in Tyrol.

The North Tyrol region is surrounded by mountains and is undoubtedly easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although the sparrow is small and has all the internal organs, the Tyrol region has basic agriculture and industry.

In addition, under Franz's special care in recent years, the industrial and agricultural foundation has been much stronger than in history, and there is also the largest arsenal and weapons development department in Austria.

Historically, Tyrol was also the only region in the Austrian Empire that did not experience rebellion during the Year of the Storm, the other being Galicia.

There are many reasons to send people to Tirol. After all, the beautiful scenery and close proximity to the Alps are very suitable for retirement, vacation, and leisure.

Those literati, artists, and members of the royal family had no objection to this place. Franz could come over just by sending an invitation.

What is difficult to deal with is that among the Austrian scientists, except for some who are engaged in biology and geography, most of them have little interest in mountains and rivers.

At this time, they were still in the stage where man could conquer nature, and they were not in the mood to stop and appreciate the beautiful scenery at all.

In addition, the laboratories in Tyrol are not up to the level of the Vienna laboratories, which makes those engaged in scientific research even more disgusted.

In particular, Babbage's design was all made of precision parts, and the Trinity Analytical Engine, which weighed dozens of tons, could be transported separately by train.

But assembly is a big trouble. What's worse is that those precision instruments cannot withstand bumps, and small deviations will make the experimental data completely wrong.

Babbage and his team would not be able to leave Vienna, so Franz respected the wishes of the computer pioneer.

But for safety reasons, the latter reinforced the walls around the laboratory and built a doomsday fortress underground for them.

Franz didn't want these scientists who had made great contributions to human history to make any mistakes, and the rest of them could only coax and lie.

For example, in the legendary prophecy, people in this era still believe in religion.

As for Prince Metternich, he still suggested that Franz should go to Tyrol for some experience. Of course, there was also a sense of protection.

Because of the lessons learned from the French Revolution, it is difficult to guarantee that Vienna will be safe.

Of course, from the bottom of his heart, he still believed that the Austrian Empire would survive this crisis unscathed, but he also wanted to have a backup plan and did not want to take any risks.

The old prime minister's face looked very bad, obviously because he hadn't had a good rest recently. After some routine greetings and instructions, Franz spoke first.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, you seem to be a little troubled. Is it because of things in Italy?"

Metternich nodded, and now it was Franz's turn to be depressed, because they had already discussed matters about Italy before, and the former had adopted the latter's opinion to increase 50,000 troops to Italy.

At this time, there were already 150,000 troops in Northern Italy, among which the old commander Radetzky had 100,000 troops, which was much stronger than the 15,000 troops in history.

"Your Majesty Prime Minister, do you think Marshal Radetzki is useless?"

"Radetzki is 82 years old, and I am really worried about letting such an old man in his dying years lead the army.

But Count Latour said that he was the best, and the other generals had no experience in leading more than 50,000 troops. "

"If you are worried, you can transfer Archduke Karl to the Italian battlefield."

Historically, Archduke Karl caught a cold after attending the funeral of Archduke Friedrich, and fell ill when he returned home.

However, Friedrich was not dead at this time, and Archduke Karl was naturally alive and well.

Metternich frowned. For the first time, he discovered that this country was so old. In addition to the 82-year-old marshal, there was also a 77-year-old grand duke.

"Archduke Franz, I hope you understand that letting Archduke Karl go to guard the ancestral land is an internal decision of the Habsburg family, not an administrative order from me."

Metternich's meaning was obvious, he did not want to get involved in the internal affairs of the royal family.

"Italy still has Prince Schwarzenberg in charge, so the situation should not be out of control."

Felix Schwarzenberg was actually a close confidant of Metternich. He was relatively reassured by this person, but he was not young anymore due to the same problem.

Moreover, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg was better at strategizing than marching and fighting. His ability, experience, and prestige to adapt to changes on the battlefield were far inferior to Marshal Radetzky and Archduke Karl.

But the matters in northern Italy were not what Metternich was worried about. In fact, he still had "talented people" such as Fernand Lizzie, Alois Palfi, and Archduke Rainer in his heart.

"Archduke Franz, I'm worried about what's going on in Sicily."

At this time, there was a war on Sicily, but Franz was still confused.

"Your Majesty Prime Minister, I'm very sorry about what happened in Sicily, but the soldiers will cover up the water and the earth, so I don't think there is anything to worry about."

Franz suddenly thought of something in the middle of speaking.