Chapter 585 Questionnaire Survey

Regarding the problem of Italian nationalists, Marshal Radetzky's advice was "Why not ask directly?"

Although it sounds a bit unbelievable, it is still quite efficient.

The Italian soldiers generally said that they were really unfamiliar with the northern Italians, and as for the southern Italians, they were simply sworn enemies.

Of course, they would rather say that they were Sardinians, Lombards, Venetians, Lucca people, Parma people, Modena people, Tuscans, Romans (Papal States), Naples people, and Sicilians.

It seems that the propaganda of the Austrian Empire over the years has not been in vain. In fact, most of the troops are poor people who are not accepted by the local society. They naturally have no good feelings towards those who abandon them.

All Franz needs to do is to keep them winning and have money to buy wine after the victory.

Relatively speaking, the Illyrians and Hungarians in Italy are the problem. This is not because they are deeply influenced by Greater Hungaryism, but because these people have long been accustomed to taking money to do things, and the concept of the country and the nation is very weak.

(Illyrians are the general term for Slovenians, Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins in the Austrian Empire.)

In the garrison in Italy, only half are Italians, and the remaining half are Germans, Illyrians, Hungarians and Czechs.

This is also a feature of the Austrian Empire. The advantage is that it prevents a certain ethnic group from becoming too big and is unable to stop it when a rebellion occurs.

But the disadvantage is that there are many factions within the army, and the ethnic composition is complex and it is difficult to unify the command.

A low-level officer needs to learn at least three foreign languages ​​to effectively command his team, and spend a lot of time on communication.

Not to mention the training problem. Compared with language communication, sticks and whips are extremely useful.

The "Handbook of Twenty Words You Must Know on the Battlefield" has been promoted for nine years. In fact, during the Napoleonic Wars, the military reform presided over by Archduke Karl had this item, but the reform failed in the later period, and coupled with the opposition of the Hungarians, this reform was shelved.

In 1836, Franz proposed this reform again, and the Minister of War, Count Latour, continued it.

Today, the "Twenty Words You Must Know" has become the "Fifty Words You Must Know". In fact, there have been "One Hundred Words You Must Know" and "One Hundred and Twenty Words You Must Know" in the middle, but they were too complicated for new soldiers, so they had to give up.

Franz conducted several inspections, and the sampling pass rate of the Italian Corps' "Fifty Words You Must Know on the Battlefield" was above 90%, which was higher than the national average (60%, if the Hungarian Military District is excluded, the average line can be close to 75%).

The sampling pass rate of the "Twenty Words You Must Know" is infinitely close to 100%. They all know and can hear it, but a few people can't spell it.

The army as a whole has no revolutionary tendency, and its combat effectiveness is also OK.

However, Franz took a deep breath when he flipped through the list of officers. The names of the two great men, Ferdinand Lizzie and Alois Palffy, were listed.

Ferdinand Lizzie was the ruthless man who later gave Venice to the rebels without firing a shot, and fled all the way from northern Italy to the beach of Brussels, Belgium.

His life experience was extremely glorious. He was captured twice and severely damaged by the rebels many times. The Austrian army suffered huge losses in every battle under his hands.

Knowing the rebels' plan in advance, he led two full brigades to encircle and suppress the Carbonari rebels, with the strength of both sides being 10,000 to 800.

As a result, almost all important figures including Garibaldi were let go, 26 people were captured, more than 100 enemy soldiers were killed, and his own losses were more than ten times that of the enemy.

Another Alois Palffi is even more of a heavyweight, a true master of surrender. In the stormy year of 1848, he led three legions in northern Italy, Bohemia, and Hungary without firing a single shot.

What is even more incredible is that the Austrian Empire always believed that this guy was a genius and would launch an attack.

Franz looked at Alois Palffi's resume and found that he was a typical person with a good family background. He entered the military academy at the age of eight and graduated at the age of twelve. He was proficient in all tactics such as artillery, cavalry, and infantry.

After graduation, he directly served as a lecturer at the Theresa Military Academy, the highest military academy of the Austrian Empire, responsible for teaching a series of prominent subjects such as campaign theory, war science, and artillery science.

Various medals, certificates, and honorary titles awarded at home and abroad can almost fill two pages of paper. How could such a dragon Aotian's performance be so bad?

Franz later asked some professionals. Friedrich said that he was really not familiar with this guy, and Archduke Karl had no impression of his reply.

Albrecht said that guy was an idiot and his course was a piece of shit, but it was okay if you just listened to it as a story.

Count Latour sent a copy of Franz Joseph's resume, and the latter roughly understood it after reading it.

Alois Palffy was a product of deification, an artificial idol created by a big family at the cost of manpower and financial resources in order to support their legitimate heir.

Franz was going to take this pair of dragons and phoenixes to Hungary to let them fend for themselves. If they could survive and do something with their little universe, they would be worthy of the salary they had received over the years.

If they died, it would only be bad luck, and it would have no impact on the Austrian Empire.

However, it was soon opposed by Prince Metternich and Count Korolov in the Regency Council. In fact, it is easy to imagine that it is impossible for this pair of crouching dragons and phoenixes to have no support behind them.

Moreover, it is unlikely that the bigwigs will not come in and get involved in such a fertile land as Northern Italy. It seems that this plan can only be shelved for the time being, but Franz is not in a hurry. After all, he still has three years to do a lot of things.

The local gentry and nationalists in Lombardy are not all idiots. Some people have analyzed that the Austrian Empire wants them to kill each other, but they can't explain it clearly, let alone explain it.

So some people really took the risk and launched an attack on the Verona Fortress, but their caravans and death squads were intercepted before they saw the shadow of the Verona Fortress.

Franz still admired this group that dared to carry out assassinations openly, so they must be eradicated.

Soon, with the cooperation of many parties, most members of the so-called "Dras Brotherhood" were captured, as well as their supporters, including several very influential local nobles.

The families behind these people sent envoys hoping to negotiate with the empire, and Franz did not mind "killing nine clans".

It was not uncommon to force confessions under torture at that time. After obtaining "strong evidence", the Lombardy regional government quickly and thoroughly struck down these guys who dared to openly assassinate the royal family and commit treason.

Afterwards, nearly 3,000 people boarded the ship to the colony.