War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

This issue left the entire Austrian Empire with no time to think about anything else. The Regency Council studied it for a long time and even called Franz back from Tyrol overnight.

But this time Franz had no choice but to take a step back.

After all, he knew very well that the entire Western world would be in chaos soon, and he had a better plan to get back what he had lost all at once.

Although Pius IX was the apparent leader of the Italian nation at this time, he was not as beloved as he imagined.

And as a member of the old era, the Pope will sooner or later be liquidated by his "supporters".

Counting the days, France’s February Revolution has been put on the agenda, and Count Chambord’s mother is still calling for the return of Bourbon orthodoxy in Paris.

The Count of Chambord himself has completely assumed the role of the Grand Duke of Friborg. He is enjoying the happiness and responsibility of writing as a monarch.

In less than half a year, Count Chambord had formulated hundreds of policies and revised almost all of Friborg's laws.

There is no doubt that for ordinary people, he was a good king who was diligent and caring for his people, but most of these policies and laws could not be implemented due to the limitations of the era at that time.

It is a bad habit for a monarch of a big country to do everything personally, but for a small country with a mountain city, it does make the people feel very cordial.

Although France was in turmoil at this time, and Count Chambord did have the intention to restore the glory of Bourbon, he did not feel that these "small fights" could shake the Orleans Dynasty.

In addition, although Louis-Philippe publicized that Count Chambord had become a bastard of the Germans, the latter himself thought it was nothing.

As an heir to the French throne and also a Duke of the German Confederation, this is normal! In fact, the orthodox faction doesn't care much about this. On the contrary, they are very glad that they will have the opportunity to expand their territory in the future.

Since Pius IX started a people's war and all parties were urging him urgently, Franz had no good solution.

When Metternich heard Franz say that he had no good solution and could only take a step back before talking, the old prime minister was actually a little relieved. After all, it is not a glorious thing to be reminded by juniors often.

At this point Metternich could only announce that the Austrian Empire would withdraw from the territory of the Papal States.

This is actually a strategic retrenchment in order to go further next time. It's just that the people don't understand it that way. They only know that the Austrian Empire has never suffered such a huge failure and humiliation in these years.

Although Franz is also trying his best to control public opinion and narrow the scope of influence, the reality is that the influence and spread of this storm far exceed his imagination.

This incident immediately caused an uproar in Vienna, which was relatively peaceful before. Before this, Metternich could only be regarded as notorious, but at this time he had become the number one national thief.

Demonstrations came one after another. This time, no nationalist instigation was needed. Vienna's grassroots officials, citizens, businessmen, as well as Germans who worked, traveled, and visited relatives in Vienna all spontaneously joined in.

A gathering of 100,000 people at the zoo was scary enough, but at this time, the number of people gathering in Vienna's Central Park could no longer be counted.

Legend has it that on February 18, 1848, half of the residents of Vienna went to Central Park to denounce the traitor Metternich in the witness of those ancient sages.

Vienna Central Park is later known as the Vienna Central Cemetery, where Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and his sons, as well as many celebrities and sages are buried here.

At this time, the Austrian Empire's control was far stronger than at the same time in history, but it still seemed small in the face of such huge waves.

Archduke Albrecht was ordered to lead troops to disperse illegally gathered crowds, which really made people sweat. Fortunately, his status as a war hero was still sought after, and he did not follow the example of General Leopold von Gerlach. There was no violent conflict like in history.

In fact, Albrecht chose a smarter and more euphemistic approach, which was to explain the reason for dispersing the crowd as preventing another cholera epidemic.

Although the disease cholera did not spread on a large scale in Austria and did not cause too many casualties, it was only compared to other countries. As the number one plague in the 19th century, it was not a problem to take away 1,800 lives.

Furthermore, even if people have never eaten pork, they have always seen pigs running away. France and Russia next door were severely affected, and the German and Italian regions were equally serious. Even the British Empire was not immune to the disaster at this time.

Because of this, the dissuasive effect of cholera is still very obvious. Neither ordinary people nor die-hard nationalists have much objection to this expulsion operation.

But Franz saw one thing. At this time, Prince Metternich had lost his mind, and Count Kolarov did not seem to care about what was happening in front of him.

In fact, the latter also felt that Prince Metternich had lost his mind, but he also felt that this was a good opportunity to bring down Metternich, and he felt that he would do better after becoming prime minister.

In Count Korolaf's eyes, Metternich was a fool and would be entangled in the Italian issue. If it were him, he would develop towards South Germany and at least get rid of the Czechs in Bohemia.

The call for a constitution in Austria is not that high. This is mainly due to Joseph II. First of all, Austria's legal code is very complete, and most things can be done in accordance with the law.

Secondly, the last time the emperor declared that he wanted to rule the country according to law, he directly set the entire country back decades. Moreover, the domestic conflicts in the Letania region were not acute, so the need for a constitution was not that urgent.

Count Kolarov really wanted Austria to embrace Germany. He felt that he could take advantage of the chaos in the three South German countries to infiltrate them, and in turn use nationalism to hold a referendum.

If the timing is right, it is not impossible to include North Germany by the way. Compared with his grand plan, Metternich's plan was too petty.

Franz had no intention of understanding the overt and covert fights between the two life-seeking ministers, but it was a very unwise choice for them to involve Albrecht in this political turmoil.

The actions of Prince Metternich and Count Korolaf almost killed the last famous general of the Austrian Empire. They did not consider what would happen if the people really rebelled?

If Albrecht had not been a hero in the war and had not adopted a roundabout strategy, the result would most likely be the same as in history. No matter how restrained the Archduke himself was, he would not be able to stop some irrational people from directly attacking the military formation.

Historically, Albrecht ordered the shooting only after he was pulled down by the marching crowd. The result was that the massacre of civilians became a stain on his life.

And this kind of stain is extremely difficult to wash away. Even if you win more victories, you will only remember the title of executioner.