Chapter 576 Internal and External Troubles

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

The flowers are still in full bloom, but they have been replaced with some cold-resistant varieties. But Franz felt something unusual, and he was afraid that the next days would not be easy.

While Western Europe was hit by blizzards, Central Europe experienced a warm winter. It seemed that there was no snow in Netalenia for a whole winter, and there might be another drought next year.

But in fact, Franz was overthinking. The Austrian Empire's agriculture would not have a poor harvest until after 1846, but it was still much better than its neighbors.

France would have three consecutive poor harvests from 1845, 1846, and 1847, resulting in a rapid decline in the purchasing power of French farmers. At the same time, financial defaults increased significantly, land mergers accelerated, and eventually triggered a revolution.

As for how bad things would be in Spain, Franz was not sure, but he would not jump out of the routine of famine, riots, and civil war.

At the same time, Franz also planned to increase the area of ​​grain cultivation in the colonies. Although doing so would sacrifice some economic benefits, it could add an insurance for the future.

In fact, such behavior will not lead to a reduction in production, but a relatively slow growth rate.

In addition, Franz needs to build some more grain reserve bases. After all, according to his brain circuit, uprisings and riots always seem to be related to not having enough food to survive.

Franz wondered if he could feed most people, then could he eliminate the rebellion in some areas? Or should he only let the rebellion occur in some areas and then use all his strength to completely kill it?

It was just that a sudden riot poured a basin of cold water on Franz.

Milan, Northern Italy.

Italian nationalists launched a riot in this core city of the Austrian Empire, and the result was naturally a failure.

Historically, there were constant small-scale riots in the northern Italian region ruled by the Austrian Empire, and there were not even accurate records about them.

However, the scale of this time was large. The rebels had a large number of weapons. They first attacked the police station and then coerced the people to try to rob the arsenal.

Fortunately, Marshal Radetzky did not adopt a conciliatory policy this time, and directly mobilized three regiments of troops to suppress the rebellion.

When the crowd saw the army waiting in full battle array, they began to retreat. The insurgents who had engulfed the people knew that they would completely lose their chance after the crowd dispersed.

So someone detonated the explosives that had been prepared in the crowd, and then shot at the crowd.

"The Austrians are shooting!"

"Hurry up and fight them!"

"Charge!"

Fortunately, Marshal Radetzky's soldiers were disciplined enough and did not shoot randomly because of excessive tension, otherwise it would be a real massacre.

The people fled in panic, but because the Austrian army did not shoot, and the black muzzles and neat queues were also daunting, naturally no one would rush to the Austrian army at all costs.

Soon only the diehard insurgents were left. They did not retreat, but chose to shoot at the Austrian army and throw homemade explosives.

However, this chaotic attack was not a threat to the army that had been prepared for battle. With the sound of neat gunfire, the first insurgents who rushed up were wiped out, followed by continuous gunfire like frying beans.

The insurgents were completely suppressed, and the line began to move forward. Those who had not experienced war were already frightened by the oppression and could only run for their lives.

However, elite hunters had already gone around to cut off their retreat, and at the same time occupied various commanding heights, and a precise hunting began.

Later, the existence of the remnants of the insurgents was learned through the captured insurgents, and nearly 1,300 people were arrested in the end. Together with the total number of people killed and captured before, it reached an astonishing 2,500.

Although it was not as large as the tens of thousands of the insurgents of the Papal Palace, the northern Italian region controlled by the Austrian Empire had not had a riot of more than 100 people for several years since the Carbonari uprising.

After all, there was money to be made and food to eat, so who wanted to risk their lives? Moreover, due to the emperor's decree "Evil men should not be condoned, and good men should not be wronged.", and Franz's continued attention, the public security in northern Italy is relatively good.

However, in Italy, hundreds of people often fight because of business or gangs fighting for territory, but because the Austrian Empire confiscated a large number of weapons, there were not too many casualties.

The local officials just said that this is a national tradition and did not interfere too much.

After investigation, most of these insurgents were dock workers, traditional craftsmen and small businessmen. They each had their own reasons, although on the surface they said something like overthrowing the monarchy and resisting foreign humiliation.

But in fact, they all started from their own interests. Due to the arrival of a large number of foreign immigrants, the wages of dock workers were suppressed again and again. Although the Italian economy took off, their treatment was constantly declining.

At the same time, the officials of the Austrian Empire had no intention of stopping these foreign populations. After all, in their view, this was a problem between brothers.

Moreover, they couldn't manage such a large border, not to mention that the Austrian Empire was traditionally a multi-ethnic country and never prohibited the entry of national people.

Some officials were even "foreign immigrants" who migrated from southern or northern Germany.

Austria's industrialization will inevitably have an impact on handicraftsmen, especially the emergence of large-scale factories, which directly eliminates the survival soil of many traditional handicrafts.

As for the small businessmen, they have also been severely affected, because the development of industrialization will inevitably tilt financial policies towards the big businessmen.

This has led to the rapid expansion of capital, with the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker. While the big businessmen were praising the policies of the Austrian Empire, the small businessmen were struggling for shrinking assets and squeezed living space.

In fact, big businessmen will not give up on certain industries because of low profits. On the contrary, they plan to take them all. In order to complete the monopoly, those small businessmen need to be squeezed out.

So they frantically raised the threshold while frantically lowering prices.

Although the people feel benefits in the short term, in the long term the results of monopoly are likely to harm the interests of the people and upstream and downstream industries, and may even harm the country.

But now it seems that we don't have to wait long before these people can stand up and endanger the interests of the Austrian Empire.

This uprising sounded the alarm for Franz. It seemed that things would not be as smooth sailing as he thought.

At the same time, such a large-scale uprising also has these weapons and intelligence. Franz did not believe that it was all organized voluntarily by the local people, and there was a high probability that there would be a mastermind behind the scenes.

And this black hand may be the United Kingdom, France, or even Sardinia or Switzerland, or all of them.