Chapter 581 Haystack

Because the import volume in the previous years had been growing explosively, and after opening up more markets, Austria's import volume increased very little, which aroused John Tyler's suspicion.

Although the president was driven out of office, he still left a lot of information and analysis results to his successor before he stepped down.

As his successor, James Knox Polk was a hard-line xenophobe who would find any reason to prove that foreigners were a threat.

However, although both sides did not like each other, business still had to be done. After all, Austria's textile industry was just starting out, and the United States of America was also seriously injured by the war.

So the latter retaliated against the former in this more secretive way.

Prussia also did not want peace and stability in Austria, although the former was at an absolute disadvantage in the competition with the latter at this time.

But it was far from time for Prussia to give up. After all, they had experienced more desperate scenes than this.

In fact, Prussia wanted to instigate Bohemia and Hungary the most, but the nationalist vortex of the former was too terrible.

The latter was intentionally isolated by Austria, and its energy was not as good as before, and it was in chaos and difficult to organize an effective "riot".

Sardinia had been unhappy with Austria for a long time. Carlo Alberto suffered from domestic riots and naturally hoped that the powerful neighbor next to him would "share weal and woe" with him.

In fact, since 1841, due to the spread of revolutionary ideas, Carlo Alberto had to approve the decree to set up a representative government.

This government was very radical. Although it did not explicitly propose anti-Austria and anti-France, it had been making small moves in the Apennines.

The Russians were very contradictory. On the one hand, they hoped that Austria would expand to Italy, and it would be best if they could directly take over Sardinia and fight the French, but on the other hand, the Russians did not want Austria to be too strong.

Ferdinando II of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a typical person who had no idea. He wanted to dominate the Apennine Customs Union, and it was completely routine to attack competitors.

But this was an unrealizable ambition, because the entire Apennine Customs Union was Austria's own toy, and there was no possibility of changing the chairman.

Although there are many countries that make trouble, only Britain, France and Sardinia can really affect the situation in Italy.

However, these foreign forces are the key targets of the Austrian Empire at this time. After all, there is no room for negotiation with these invaders, and any compromise will only lead to more excessive demands.

The second is Italian nationalists. If you have to pick a country in Europe that is most afraid of nationalism, it must be the Austrian Empire.

Italians, Germans, Hungarians, Western Slavs, Yugoslavs, not to mention that there are countless small branches under each major race.

Although some countries have many ethnic groups, none of them has as few main ethnic groups as Austria.

What's more terrifying is that the enlightened monarchy that the empire has always implemented has made the ethnic groups in Austria more civilized, easy to contact with new ideas, and easy to accept them.

The entire empire is like a haystack, which can be burned clean with just a few sparks.

As for the 1,300 captured participants and supporters of the riot, the Habsburg family still pardoned their death penalty as before, and the price they paid was just to confess in front of the statues in the church.

But Franz did not intend to let them go back safely, and first dragged these people to the cemetery to confess to the sacrificed soldiers and innocent people.

Then these sinners must sign a maintenance agreement, and they must bear the consequences of their crimes. Maintenance agreements may include paying compensation or alimony to ensure that the victims or their families receive due compensation.

This money must naturally be compensated with their property. If the property is not enough, then they must use labor to atone for their sins.

Austria's colonies are very short of labor, not to mention thousands of people, but tens or millions of people can eat.

Of course, even those rich gentlemen cannot escape punishment. After all, in addition to the innocent citizens and soldiers who need to be compensated, the Austrian Empire also suffered great losses, cities, reputation, etc.

In short, no one can fill this black hole with money, unless he can prove that he can create great value by staying in the country, such as inventions, or achievements in music, art, technology, science, etc.

And under this attitude of killing all, those young radicals who lack experience in struggle are likely to choose to take risks.

Compared with the Verona Fortress, which is garrisoned by tens of thousands of troops, it is obvious that those local gentry who "surrendered" to Austria are easier to kill.

And the reason why those aristocratic families can stand for hundreds of years or even thousands of years is certainly not because they are drunkards.

So the two sides began a bloody "tear each other", which made those grassroots radicals and local high-level officials have a blood feud.

However, it is impossible for every family to have the ability to protect themselves, and those weak families can only seek protection from the imperial government.

This returns to the field that the Austrian Empire is best at, recruiting those weak families to act as its own eyes and vanguards.

Monitor those powerful families and work with officials sent from Vienna to limit the continued development of their power, then identify those that are easy to control, support them, and slowly transform them.

In fact, the internal and external environment of the Austrian Empire did not allow Franz to make big moves. After all, he was like a terminally ill patient who might die after taking a strong medicine, so Franz would adopt this alternative plan.

At night, lights flickered on the streets of Milan, and only a tavern at the end of the road was still brightly lit.

In front of the tavern was a faded wooden board with the words "Sicilian House" written on it.

A dark carriage stopped, and people who were out of tune with this picture walked down from it.

Three men and two women pushed the door open and entered. The tavern was filled with choking smoke, alcohol, sweat, and all kinds of noisy sounds.

The leading man frowned, but the beautiful woman in the middle didn't care. This group of people soon became the focus of the audience, and a drunkard even teased the girl who was walking at the end and taking small steps.

As a result, the thin figure knocked the man down with lightning speed and received a cross lock.

The sturdy man tried his best to break free, and just as he was about to curse, he heard a "crack". The thin woman broke the man's arm without mercy, and all that was left was a heart-wrenching scream.

"Do you know whose territory this is?"

The sturdy man's partner immediately took out a knife, but he was hit on the back of his head by a bottle just a few steps forward and fell to the ground.

The bartender at the bar immediately reached for the shotgun behind him when he saw that he was not friendly, but he heard a gunshot before his hand touched the gun.

When he turned around again, there were already ten revolvers pointed at him.

"We want to see Al Pacino."