Chapter 197 The Archbishop's Concerns

"It's good to take over the whole territory of Zhenla quickly, but does the Guardian Army have enough troops? The scale of the organization is expanding too fast, how can loyalty be guaranteed? After losing the threat of a strong enemy, internal disagreements have become the main problem. Archbishop Rauscher, I hope you can pay attention to those potential threats."

Franz talked about his views on the Zhenla region. As for whether those things would happen, he didn't know. Franz just didn't want Austria's good situation in Zhenla to be ruined for no reason.

After conquering the whole territory of Zhenla, there was another commodity that could be traded, that is, saltpeter.

Europe's military progress all depends on gunpowder, and at this time, one thing that cannot be separated from the manufacture of gunpowder is saltpeter.

At this time, saltpeter is not only an important military material, but also an important raw material for making fertilizers.

The traditional method of making saltpeter, cave saltpeter, etc., can't keep up with the speed of consumption.

At this time, the only saltpeter exporter is Chile. As for the price, it is still within an acceptable range, but the problem is that the price is extremely unstable.

The biggest role of saltpeter in Zhenla is that Austria can open an arsenal in Zhenla to achieve self-sufficiency in weapons, and at the same time slightly alleviate the problem of insufficient saltpeter in Austria.

"Archduke Franz, Queen An Mei of Zhenla has agreed to convert to another religion. In the future, Catholicism will become the state religion, and the size of the Catholic Army has expanded to 40,000."

"The queen's conversion is a success of the upper-level route, which is certainly worth celebrating. But Zhenla is a country, not a parish. With the continuous increase in administrative costs, it is very likely to follow the footsteps of the East India Company."

"But with the support of the queen, we can legitimately take over the entire country. Zhenla has already surrendered to Austria. This is the first and largest overseas colony of the Austrian Empire." Rauscher said proudly.

"Archbishop, please read the newspaper. People don't care about this at all. And Queen An Mei, how many brigades does she have? In the past, you used some colorful indulgences to make those believers fight to the death. But what about now?" Franz asked.

To put it bluntly, Queen An Mei, apart from symbolizing orthodoxy, could not bring economic or military benefits. In the future, the political, economic and military pressures of Zhenla will all fall on the church.

These things need money to support them. In the past, the church could replace currency with indulgences in the parishes, and plunder resources from the Zhenla region at no cost.

But now that the country is burdened, the currency must be supported by precious metal reserves, otherwise the country cannot even operate normally.

"We can still print indulgences now, but the Zhenla people do not have this technology." Rauscher argued.

"But what about the French? What about the Austrians? Even if no one is trying to take advantage of the situation now, they will appear sooner or later. Maybe the interior of the Zhenla Church is already riddled with holes. It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one. Use white lead money and expected notes instead of indulgences. Use white lead money for small transactions and expected notes for large transactions."

Although Franz's answer was cruel, it was very realistic. Archbishop Rauscher also knew this, but he was unwilling to believe that those devout believers who could disregard life and death would become slaves of money.

In fact, this is easy to explain, because people are social, and those devout believers used to be separated from society, making them detached from the secular existence.

However, in the process of preaching, it is inevitable to come into contact with ordinary people, which restores their social nature.

After a complex ideological struggle, Archbishop Rauscher finally chose to give up thinking. After all, Archduke Franz in front of him is a natural saint, and we just need to listen.

"You are right, Archduke Franz. Everything will be done as you ordered. I will send people to clean up those cancers and let them get the punishment they deserve."

"For the stability of Zhenla, we can adopt the method of divide and rule. The areas originally occupied by the church will continue to be managed by the church. As for those areas that have just been recovered, they can be elected by themselves, or Queen An Mei can appoint people to manage them. As long as the language, weights and measures are unified and guaranteed to be under the premise of one country, it will be fine."

The reason why Franz said this is mainly because Zhenla's territory and troops have expanded too much. If this continues, there will be a civil war. Once a civil war breaks out, all the efforts of the church before will be in vain.

In fact, Rauscher unknowingly walked into a trap. In the past, the church appeared as a savior, and the people would naturally be willing to support it. Once it became the controller of the country, it would have to stand in front of the stage and stand on the opposite side of ordinary people, and the so-called faith would naturally be greatly discounted.

Archbishop Rauscher didn't quite understand what Franz meant, but there were smart people in the church who would answer these questions for him. All he had to do was accept and implement them.

"The Siamese have placed a large number of weapon orders with us. What if..." Archbishop Rauscher did not continue.

Franz knew what he was afraid of. Rauscher was afraid that the Siamese (Thai) people would use the weapons sold to them by Austria to attack Zhenla.

This is indeed possible, but if there is such a day, it can only mean that Austria is too weak. Because of hesitation, it leads to today's defeat yesterday. Such a country does not deserve sympathy.

Of course, this is only in theory. In actual operation, monkey version weapons are a necessary choice.

The human version refers to the original genuine version, which has complex process, difficult production and high cost; the monkey version refers to the simplified version, which removes some complex functions, has simple process, easy production and low cost.

The Siamese’s opponents were mainly Malay natives, Laotians and Vietnamese. The degree of firearms of these opponents was not high. It was not meaningful for Austria to sell them the latest rifles. It was better to occupy their market with a large number of cheap goods and let them give up the idea of ​​imitation.

“Archbishop, I believe the military will be very happy to hear this news. If the military’s inventory is exhausted, you can have people make it in Zhenla. In a few days, I will ask Archduke Albrecht to send you two drawings, one for the Guards and the other for manufacturing goods.”

“But Archduke Franz, if two designs are used, will the cost increase?” Archbishop Rauscher said with some concern.

It seems that the archbishop really considered selling weapons seriously. The manufacture of weapons in this era is still an era of factories and handicraft workshops, and the so-called factories are just larger workshops. The concept of assembly line has not yet been proposed.

So Archbishop Rauscher’s worries are normal, but the monkey version of the weapon is actually a simplification of the genuine one. The simplest way to limit the fighting power of the Siamese is to change the ignition method from fulminate of mercury to volley.

The climate in Southeast Asia is humid and rainy, which is also an important reason why the matchlock gun has never been able to replace cold weapons. Let Albrecht go just to see if there is a more cost-saving method.

"Don't worry, Archbishop. I will definitely give you a plan that can both weaken the fighting power of the Siamese and make money for the church."

(In this era, the Austrian army did not have a division-level organization. An infantry regiment is about 2,000, a brigade is 4,000, and an army has five brigades with about 20,000 people.)

In the next chapter, a new character will appear. The one decided by the group vote before, the witch lady.