Chapter 466 Seafood

Will the increase in beer prices lead to an uprising?

Speaking of beer halls and Bavaria, people always think of something not so good.

However, at this time, Bavaria had to find a way to increase taxes due to the astonishing expenses of Ludwig I.

So the king remembered that his subjects liked to drink beer, so he decided to increase the beer tax by 8%.

Then in February 1844, large-scale demonstrations took place in Bavaria, not limited to Munich but protests throughout the country.

Fortunately, the king's moral bottom line was flexible enough. The next day, he pushed a minister to take the blame and said that he was not aware of it. He still used the old story of "the good king listened to the bad minister".

In fact, Ludwig I was not a good king. His outrageous consumption was mainly used to support mistresses and enjoy himself.

In the past, Bavarians were called "highland beggars" by other Germans. In recent years, other neighboring countries have invested a lot of money in development, but only Bavaria has used all the funds for the king's personal consumption.

This king would come to the Dark Moon Theater every week, and his generosity was truly that of a top player.

However, even if Franz had not set up the Dark Moon Theater, he would have wasted his money on other things. In history, this king had 36 public mistresses alone, and countless women with whom he had had casual relationships.

The most famous of them was Lola Montes, who was also a dancer and was deeply loved and trusted by Ludwig I.

However, she was not a spy sent by Franz to lurk, but in short, with such a disaster, Bavaria would not be able to become a powerful country.

This was good news for Franz, after all, Madame Sophie herself was very enthusiastic about political affairs. The former did not allow her to manage Austria, and the latter went to Bavaria to make suggestions.

Fortunately, his mother did not have any extraordinary political talent. In addition to strengthening domestic control, her level in other aspects was similar to that of her half-brother.

After helping several times and finding that she was making things worse, Mrs. Sophie decisively chose to stop and went home to take care of her children.

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Mrs. Sophie, who had just stepped off the carriage, was knocked down by a huge duck just as she was about to breathe the smell of home.

The servants on the side hurriedly helped Mrs. Sophie up, but the latter was obviously very angry.

"You idiots! What is this thing! How did it get into the palace?!"

The servants looked at each other, and Mrs. Sophie knew that it was probably her husband or her beloved son who did it.

In fact, these creatures that walk like penguins and swim like ducks are great auks.

Archduke Franz Karl went to the Arctic to look for penguins and naturally returned without success, but he accidentally found a group of "Arctic ducks" on a small island.

Franz Joseph (the full name of the protagonist) was also curious when he first saw this creature. It seemed to be the great auk he had been looking for.

But he couldn't confirm it, and only after finding a naturalist did he confirm that this was the great auk.

In fact, before the Great Auk became extinct, people had been buying its feathers and specimens at high prices, which was the direct cause of its extinction.

Franz naturally wanted to buy a few, after all, the price of the Great Auk had been hyped up to 500 pounds each at that time. If it could be mass-produced, it might be a new way to get rich.

Even if it cannot be mass-produced, it would be good to put it in the zoo as a protected animal.

Through the few Great Auks brought back from the Arctic by Franz's father, plus the ones bought from merchants later, a total of ten Great Auks, after several years of breeding, the population size has expanded to thirty.

However, Franz had been raising them in the greenhouse of the Imperial College of Women in Vienna before, and little Maria wanted a few to play with recently.

So this kind of precious waterfowl appeared in Schönbrunn Palace. The combat effectiveness of this thing is far less than that of the goose, and it was easily controlled by little Maria.

Franz's sister held one in each hand and clamored to eat it. This caused a sensation in Schönbrunn Palace. After all, this was the pet raised by Archduke Franz, and it was said that one was worth 5,000 florins.

Five thousand florins could buy several houses in Vienna at that time, but the chefs had long wanted to study new dishes, and the ladies in the palace also wanted the beautiful feathers of the great auks to decorate their clothes and hats.

But no one dared to say such things at ordinary times, and Franz rubbed his sister's head helplessly.

"Okay, just this time and it won't happen again."

"Okay!" Little Maria was immediately excited.

"It's agreed that you can't have any ideas about them in the future. These ducks are very expensive, but when their population size increases, you can do whatever you want."

"Okay!" Little Maria blinked again, "Then when can they become more numerous!"

"It may be ten years, or it may be twenty years. After all, their egg production is very low, but their lifespan is very long. It is said that they can live for ten or twenty years."

"Oh" Little Maria was a little disappointed.

"But when the number of such ducks reaches a certain scale, we can consider using hybridization to increase their number."

Ajani looked at Franz with contempt.

"Archduke Franz, it's not a good idea for you to talk about this with Her Royal Highness the Princess. I've noticed that you're not very interested in the opposite sex, but rather you like to interfere with certain private activities between animals and plants.

I think it's better not to pass this quirk on to Her Royal Highness. You know that some rumors in the palace spread very quickly, and some people even think that you will not have offspring, which will cause some people to support other archdukes. "

Franz's head was full of black lines. He certainly knew who said this, Maximilian, his younger brother. Franz thought that the latter might still be resentful of the shame of being pressed under the Bible when he was a child.

But Franz was not too worried about this. After all, a severely disabled person like his uncle Ferdinand I could become an emperor, so there was no reason why he couldn't do it.

"Ms. Ajani, you are too involved. As for some things, how can I, a child, prove it? As for chasing chickens and teasing dogs, isn't it what I should do at my age? "

Ajani just glanced at them casually. After all, with the little princess around, she didn't dare to say anything too outrageous. Because if some things were heard by Mrs. Sophie, it would not be good. Although she was Franz's female attendant, it was still easy for the little princess to deal with her.

"Franz! I'm hungry, I want to eat duck!"

Franz looked at the two poor big auks, who had been tortured half to death. The child was not gentle.

"Miss Ajani, you and Maria go and hand these two big auks to the chef. I'll ask my father to come over. After all, he has been craving for it for a long time."

At this moment, there was a roar!

"Franz! Look at what you have done! What a terrible bird! It ruined my skirt. You must give me an explanation today! "

Mrs. Sophie found Franz carrying two strangled great auks. When little Maria saw them, her eyes lit up and she ran over to hug Mrs. Sophie's thighs and shouted.

"Good mother! There is food again!"

The number of great auks, which was already small, dropped by 4 that day.