Chapter 385: Principality of Liege
Principality of Liège.
Although it was not long, the local residents obviously adapted to the new identity of "Austrians" quickly. After all, they were very experienced, so there was no resistance.
On the contrary, they were ecstatic to join the wider market of the German Confederation.
Even though the locals usually communicated in French, it did not hinder their interest in learning another language. Soon, Austrian language schools (German) sprang up in Liège and Namur.
Of course, knowing French is not a bad thing. At that time, almost all the nobles in the German region could communicate in French, which was very popular in some business occasions.
Although the French had clearly restricted the trade between the local residents and the Principality of Belgium, there were always more ways to bypass it than difficulties.
Moreover, according to news from Vienna, Austria was ready to start construction of a railway in the Principality of Liège to connect important cities in the country.
Most of the appointed government officials of the Principality were locals, who were basically only responsible for taxation and did not care about politics.
The people of the Principality of Liège were very satisfied with this. However, Austria seemed to have no interest in sending troops to the area, and seemed to intend to entrust Prussia to continue to assume the responsibility of defending the territory.
This move immediately made the Duchy of Liege unacceptable. After all, the troops under Archduke Albrecht were still disciplined, but the rest of the German Confederation's troops were not even as good as the French.
A bunch of good-for-nothings, and also a group of "do-it-yourself, have enough food and clothing" robbers.
In order to ensure their own safety, the nobles and merchants in the Liege area immediately decided to fund the establishment of their own militia. In fact, similar groups were not uncommon at the time, but an enclave had its own army, which was unacceptable to the officials in Vienna.
"If they have their own money and military strength, won't they become a country within a country?" Count Latour was obviously insinuating. How could he remain indifferent to this when he couldn't even stand the behavior and attitude of the Magyars?
"That's easy, we can send a team of officers there to lead them." A minister said casually.
But as soon as he spoke, he was reprimanded by Count Korolav.
"You damn fool, do you think you can control the situation by sending a few officers? Those soldiers know better than you who they eat and use."
"Please calm down and listen to me. I think it is urgent to send troops there as soon as possible." Metternich said calmly.
He naturally understood the meaning of his old opponent's words. And the word militia always made Metternich associated with the French Revolution.
So he felt that the militia group formed by the Liege people was not reliable, and if he wanted to stabilize the situation, he had to mobilize troops from the country first.
Historically, the Habsburg family has always done this, recruiting a group of soldiers from within, and then recruiting a group of mercenaries locally. At the same time, they won over merchants and the aristocracy to stand on the same side with themselves.
"Then according to your suggestion, how many should be sent? Hundreds? Thousands? Or tens of thousands?"
A new problem has arisen, that is, if there are too few soldiers, they cannot defend, and if there are too many soldiers, it will lead to more expenses than income.
Franz, who was not present, thought that this situation was not too difficult to deal with. It was enough to maintain a small and capable army. The wages of the militia must be paid uniformly by the empire, and the officers must be selected and appointed by the state.
Local citizens can get the opportunity to serve as officers, but they must go to Austria for further study.
At the same time, the empire encouraged merchants and nobles to donate to the garrison in exchange for promising that those who fulfilled the agreement would get official positions and noble status, but they could not serve as chief officers in the local area.
The reason is that the Duchy of Liege is close to France. Although its terrain advantage is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is obviously impossible to stop a powerful country with only a fortress.
And with the development of railways, the speed of transporting troops has greatly accelerated. As long as the local troops can hold out for a few days, they can get a lot of reinforcements and supplements.
At the same time, compared with garrison defense, strengthening intelligence infiltration is the only way to solve local defense. If the enemy's offensive intentions can be known in advance, the empire can make strategic decisions one step ahead.
So compared with garrisons, building railways is more important.
From a global perspective, the invasion that the Duchy of Liege may suffer comes from four neighboring countries, namely France, Prussia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the Duchy of Belgium is considered a vassal).
If the opponent is France, then Austria can completely rely on the power of the German Confederation and the railway lines to frantically send troops to the front line, and at the same time attack the French mainland from Italy and Baden.
But considering that the contradiction between Austria and France is not great at the moment, on the contrary, both countries have to deal with the suppression of the British, to a certain extent, it can even be said that they sympathize with each other.
Even if a war breaks out in the future, the battlefield will be chosen in Italy, otherwise the French will face more than the anger of Austria.
If the opponent is replaced by Prussia, it will be equivalent to a full-scale civil war in the German Confederation. In this case, the strategic importance of the Duchy of Liege is irrelevant, because the decisive battlefield will be launched in the area between Prussia and Austria.
This possibility is the greatest. After all, it is inevitable that Prussia and Austria will inevitably conflict for the leadership of the German region.
Next is the Netherlands. Compared with the first two heavyweight countries, the Dutch military strength can barely threaten the Duchy of Liege; but it has no reason to go down this path, because it is a suicidal act of killing one hundred enemies and losing ten thousand of its own.
Luxembourg is the same as the Netherlands. Even because Albrecht led the Austrian army to liberate the area not long ago, the locals may not accept such a whimsical approach.
And Franz's suggestion was naturally to be presented by his father who recently raised a pet seal. His proposal was very good for the royal family.
In short, as long as more taxes can be collected and less money can be spent, the empire does not lack a so-called enclave. Of course, he himself is not interested in enclaves, but politics is not determined by a person's preferences.
If Austria did not gain any real benefits or only fame after the war this time, the people and the aristocracy would not agree.
Most people do not care about so-called fame or political interests, they pay more attention to cost-effective benefits. For example, the empire's acquisition of new territory can make the people immersed in joy and happiness, which is a simple patriotic enthusiasm.
Although they do not understand the real meaning behind it, everyone's face is filled with happy smiles.
Franz knows very well that the current season is not suitable for preaching, and it is right to celebrate to the fullest.
Therefore, under his operation, all the royal products were promoted within a month, but this method was beyond the cognition of people in this era.
They did not understand that this was a commercial method, but caused chaos in the city. Since the royal family took the lead, other merchants had to follow.
Austrian domestic consumption soared during this period, and even some citizens of neighboring countries came here after hearing the news. After all, it is human nature to like high-quality and low-priced goods, and it seems not easy for Austrians to win the war.
In the end, people felt the benefits and merchants made money.
The empire also weakened the impact of Britain's trade dumping on the European continent to a certain extent, and its own surface data such as taxation and fiscal revenue also became very good.
It is worth mentioning that the former is also the only country that remained strong during this small economic crisis. This gave many people at home and abroad hope, and more residents from the German region were willing to live in Austria.
It is human nature to admire the strong, and a prosperous and powerful country is more desirable.