Chapter 1103 The Best Defense Is Offense

Ludwig had no opinion on Franz's actions, or in his eyes, everything was God's will.

Although Maximilian was dissatisfied with being arranged by Franz, he had nothing to say about being able to escape. For Mrs. Sophie, as long as it was good for the family, it was enough, and she didn't like being used.

In fact, Mrs. Sophie still doted on Maximilian, but she was not a good mother in the usual sense. For the future of the young eagle, she would not hesitate to kick him off the cliff.

Queen Regent Christina was obviously not satisfied with this result. The person she really wanted to marry was Franz.

However, she really couldn't afford to provoke Russia, and Maximilian was not a bad choice as a second choice.

Maximilian was actually very famous in the aristocratic circle. After all, there were many people in the royal family who were called scholars, but few were actually scholars.

Maximilian was definitely an outlier in this regard, and almost everyone knew that Mrs. Sophie was seeking a throne for him.

Christina felt that neither Maximilian, Madame Sophie, nor the Habsburg family would be able to resist the temptation of the Spanish throne.

The result surprised her. The Habsburg family only put forward an underage archduke. And the object of the marriage was not her eldest daughter Isabella II, but her youngest daughter.

This made Christina's wishful thinking fall through, because this marriage would not produce any benefits in the short term. Even after Luisa Fernanda and Ludwig got married, both parties would settle in Austria according to common sense.

According to the original idea of ​​the regent queen, she could use the Austrian Empire to deter domestic opposition. At best, she could let Austria send troops to help her solve the domestic rebellion. At worst, she could borrow money from the bank in the name of her son-in-law.

However, Ludwig's weight was obviously not enough. His exposure was not high enough, and his family status was not high enough, but his status was similar to that of Christina's youngest daughter Luisa Fernanda.

It was obviously a bit useless to let Luisa Fernanda marry Ludwig, but it was difficult to refuse the proposal of the Habsburg family. This time, it was the turn of the Spanish royal family to be in a dilemma.

Luisa Fernanda's appearance was more delicate than Isabella II, but it was still far from the standard of beauty.

Luisa Fernanda's mother did not attach importance to education, let alone her. In addition, the chaos of Spanish court politics caused her mind to be empty. She could only read and write basic things, and her personality was a bit gloomy and withdrawn.

These characteristics made her even more unpopular with Isabella II and her daughter, so Christina abandoned her without hesitation at this time.

Of course, it was impossible for the regent queen to return empty-handed. She finally took away 200,000 florins worth of jewelry from Vienna.

Fortunately, Franz had no shortage of such things, or because of the war, the sales of jewelry were very bad.

The jewels looted from the colonies in Southeast Asia have been in stock for a long time, but in order not to destroy the market price, Franz did not dare to put them all on the market at once.

He knew very well that once these luxury goods depreciated, it would be difficult to restore them to their original prices.

This series of wars seemed to have little impact on the economy of the Austrian Empire, but in fact many industries were in a cold winter trough.

Especially the luxury goods industry and the newly emerging tourism industry, the industry scale shrank by more than 80%.

In addition, the food reserves and strategic reserves of the Austrian Empire were also declining. If Franz had not prepared for many years, I am afraid that all kinds of materials would have been stretched long ago.

But the situation at this time was not optimistic. On the surface, the British and Austrian sides had ceased fire, but I don’t know when the pirates in the Atlantic suddenly increased again.

These pirates were well-equipped and well-trained, and they cooperated with each other tacitly. They acted boldly and quickly, were extremely cruel and extremely cunning. Not to mention ordinary merchant ships, even lone warships were no match.

These pirates not only robbed property, but also massacred sailors, and even deliberately left wreckage and corpses to provoke the Austrian Navy.

The performance of the Austrian Empire Navy's main battleships at this time is completely capable of defeating these pirates, but the problem is how can pirates who come and go like the wind on the vast ocean fight a decisive battle with the Austrian Empire's main fleet?

Let the fleet escort? This is the most common and most common practice, using the excellent performance of new warships to slap the invading enemy in various ways, and then leaving a sentence that any conspiracy is futile in the face of absolute power.

This sentence cannot be said to be completely wrong, but it is obviously inappropriate now.

There are only thieves in the world who can do things for a thousand days, and there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. Let alone whether it can succeed, the cost alone is unacceptable. After all, merchant ships are to make money, while warships are to burn money.

Let's talk about strategic issues. The most taboo in naval warfare is to divide troops. Once the Austrian Navy is provoked and starts to act separately, the British Navy can take advantage of the opportunity and annihilate them one by one.

Although the Austrian Navy has won several beautiful victories before, the fundamental situation of the enemy being strong and we being weak has not changed.

The British still have the strength to win the battle, but their aversion to loss and fear of the unknown make them cautious.

Once the Austrian Empire loses its navy, it will not even have a chance to gamble, after all, Britain can suck blood from the whole world, while the Austrian Empire can only rely on self-circulation.

If the fleet is really sent to escort or the troops are not moved, it will be exactly what the British want. If Austria is desperate and directly attacks the British mainland, it will be more in line with the interests of the British government.

At this time, the British government is suffering from the lack of reasonable reasons to continue the war. Once the Austrian navy attacks the British mainland, then this war will no longer be the government's willful behavior, but a defense war related to the interests of all British people.

Franz's publicity and personality in the media will be greatly reduced, and the British will regain the high ground of public opinion.

Can't move, can't not move, and can't move randomly. How to break this situation?

Franz's answer is to cut off the firewood from the bottom of the pot. It is not easy for the British to successfully intercept the merchant ships of the Austrian Empire on the vast ocean.

The ocean is not land, and there is no absolutely accurate and fixed route. It is almost impossible to achieve accurate interception without satellite maps and radar.

According to common sense, if you start from the British mainland, there is a high probability that you will miss it, or even just hit the Austrian Navy. Such looting not only has a low success rate, but also has too high a cost. The British will not choose such a stupid approach.

Therefore, the most likely possibility is that there are pirate bases on the Atlantic route. Combining the map with the route and time of the looted merchant ships, the two most suitable locations for pirate bases are obvious: the Malade Islands and the Azores Islands.

Only in these two archipelagos in the North Atlantic can pirates carry out precise attacks on Austrian merchant ships, and these two archipelagos happen to belong to the British ally, Portugal.