Chapter 1081: Bold and Sharp Actions

In order to prevent the members of the National Assembly from escaping as much as possible, Franz gave the German Workers' Brotherhood a sum of money to support it.

These workers spared no effort in hunting down the fleeing members of the National Assembly. The top leaders of the workers' brothers also disliked the National Assembly. After all, it was those so-called members of the National Assembly who refused to join the workers' organization.

As for the power of the orthodox in rural areas, it can be described as almost invincible. The pressure accumulated by the church and the nobility for thousands of years is not so easy to get rid of.

Of the 759 people involved, 682 were captured, 130 of whom surrendered themselves, and another 21 were killed in the process of resistance and escape.

The Frankfurt City Guard had 2,000 people, 1,328 of whom died in battle, 592 were captured, and another 80 were missing.

The citizens of Frankfurt did not organize barricades. A few people tried to block the Austrian army's advance, but were suppressed by the Workers' Brotherhood.

The Austrian Empire occupied the entire city with only 32 deaths and 218 injuries.

The mayor and major officials of the Free City of Frankfurt were controlled, and some officials who had long since drawn a clear line with the constitutionalists in the National Assembly were re-employed to maintain order.

Franz's purpose in doing these things was simple. He wanted to publicly try these so-called representatives of the National Assembly and find out the mastermind behind the scenes.

Although these people said that they were for the German nation and looked righteous, they were also lawyers and capitalists, and there were too many scandals about them.

Withholding wages, calling a deer a horse, unspoken rules, collusion between officials and businessmen, etc., there was nothing they could not do except what people had not thought of.

Moreover, these crimes were reported and exposed by the people, and their credibility was more convincing than those announced by the Austrian Imperial Government, at least that's what the people thought.

The people who listened to the public trial wanted to eat these beasts in front of them. The people shouted "burning, stabbing, rat punishment, skinning and pulling out tendons." In short, in the eyes of the angry people, the death penalty was the starting point and there was no upper limit.

At this time, few people were unshakable. When the Austrian prosecutor asked them to confess the mastermind behind the scenes and promised to reduce the sentence depending on the confession, no one was unshakable.

Under the bite of these people, a large number of behind-the-scenes masterminds surfaced, including big businessmen, big bankers, and many nobles who sat crookedly.

So the Austrian Empire sent the list of these people to various states and asked them to deal with them, otherwise the Austrian Empire would have to enforce the law across borders for the peace of the German region.

Did the Austrian Empire have the ability to enforce the law across borders in the German region at this time?

The answer is that it really did. In the past, when Metternich was there, he often did so. At this time, after such a toss in 1848, the prestige and influence of the Austrian Empire in Germany reached a new height.

Moreover, there are many fat sheep in the lists given by the constitutionalists. If it were normal times, naturally no one would dare to touch these rich and high-ranking gentlemen.

But it was different this time. Who made them get involved with the constitutionalists? No matter how much money and bodyguards they had, they were still just fat sheep when facing the state machinery and angry people.

There were a large number of Jews or Jewish people among these people, so it was politically correct for the government and the people at that time to deal with them.

For Franz, the mastermind could be a Jew, but a Jew could not be the mastermind.

After all, there were millions of Jews in the Austrian Empire itself, and most of them had no idea of ​​rebellion, and even supported the rule of the Austrian Empire.    The identity of the Jews could further confirm the guilt of the masterminds, but this time the struggle between the Orthodox and the Constitutionalists could not be misinterpreted as a simple anti-Semitic incident.

The fall of these so-called masterminds would benefit everyone, especially for those governments that were not doing well, as they had few opportunities to eliminate creditors.

Of course, not all governments were happy. Those liberal governments felt uneasy about the loss of their lips and teeth, but they were implicated before they had time to feel sad for the constitutionalists.

The first to bear the brunt are the four free cities within the German Confederation, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen.

It is a miracle that these free cities were not liquidated after the end of the anti-French war, but they themselves do not think so, so they are the most violent at this time.

Franz naturally does not intend to continue the previous mistakes, so the four free cities must disappear. However, in order to win the consent of the states, Franz will place them under the rule of the four major powers.

The so-called four major powers are Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, and Saxony. The main reason why Saxony can be among the four major powers is its strong economic strength.

In terms of economic strength alone, Bavaria and Hanover together may not be equal to Saxony, because it is located at the junction of North and South Germany, and is connected to the two major powers of Austria and Prussia. In addition, its own industrial advantages make it difficult for the economy to be underdeveloped.

According to Franz's plan, Bavaria will get Frankfurt, Hanover will get Bremen, and Prussia will annex Lübeck, and Saxony will get Hamburg, which has the greatest potential.

Bavaria is the easiest to satisfy, while Hanover has coveted Bremen for a long time, but its strength and status are too weak, and it dare not reveal its true thoughts, so it has no reason to refuse at this time.

Although Prussia was dissatisfied, it could not refuse, let alone refuse. After all, the Rhine region had not been resolved, and William IV was afraid that Franz would take the opportunity to split Prussia.

Saxony was the state with the closest relationship with Austria at this time, and Saxony could not directly rule Hamburg after obtaining Hamburg, and would only rely more on the Austrian Empire at that time.

In addition, Franz was also prepared to merge those states of the same origin in the name of strengthening the power of orthodoxy and preventing the constitutionalists from making a comeback.

For example, the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, and Saxe-Harburg merged with the Kingdom of Saxony.

The Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Electorate of Hesse, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Kassel, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt merged and upgraded to the Kingdom of Hesse, etc.

After this operation, Prussia had three more powerful states around it, Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Saxony.

Especially after the merger, Mecklenburg no longer needed to follow Prussia's lead, which was a kind of harm to Prussia.

In addition, the rise of Saxony also made Prussia uneasy. After all, Prussia's success today was mainly due to plundering Saxony's land.

After the headquarters of the German Confederation and the German Stock Center moved to Vienna, Vienna officially became the economic, political and cultural center of Germany.