Chapter 595 Two Gifts

Austria did not dare to buy the entire Albania blatantly. After all, Russia regarded the place where these "Slavs" lived as its own taboo.

In order to take care of the Russians' emotions, Austria must find a reasonable reason. For example, the Ottomans are a good person to take the blame.

Of course, if the Tsar had not insisted on finding trouble, Franz would have postponed this plan for a few years. After all, it was too close to 1848, and the most sensible approach for Austria would be to adopt a comprehensive contraction strategy.

It's just that how can everything go as planned, and Russia is a country that is easy to push beyond its limits. So Franz's plan seemed correct and necessary at this time.

His conditions were not harsh. Austria would manage the northern mountainous area for the Ottoman Empire, and at the same time lease the port of Sengeni (a port in northern Albania) to transport troops and supplies.

As for the warlords in the southern plains, the Austrian side will also try its best to fight against them in accordance with the requirements of the Ottoman Empire.

However, casualties are unavoidable in battle, so the latter must provide sufficient evidence to prove that those are rebels, and at the same time cannot pursue accidental injuries and looting that may occur during the battle.

Afterwards, Austria will pay 1 million Ottoman lira to the Ottoman Empire to replace the taxes on the northern mountainous areas, and the southern part will be returned to the latter. After all, the plain areas are relatively easy to rule.

In fact, both the north and east of Albania are mainly mountainous, but the north is mainly Catholic, the east is Orthodox Christian, and the southwest is "Heavenly Christian".

At this time, there were more than 1.3 million people in Albania, including more than 100,000 Catholics and more than 300,000 Orthodox Christians, and the rest were all "Tianfang Christians."

(A certain country in ancient times also called Arabia "Heaven", hence the Arabian Nights story.)

Franz will definitely choose those who are easy to assimilate, and at the same time, he will also find a window for the Montenegrins and Croatians to vent, so as to prevent them from fighting among themselves without external enemies.

Franz's actions received the full support of the church. In their view, this was a "good deed" comparable to the Crusades in expelling paganism and saving Christians.

At the same time, looking at the Austrian side from Magid's perspective is too sincere. After all, even in normal times, northern Albania would not be able to hand over as much as 1 million Ottoman liras.

Returning the prosperous and developed southern region to the Ottoman government was undoubtedly an act to extend its life. As for accidental injury and looting, Magid regarded them as completely reasonable punishments. He was also worried that the Austrians did not kill enough and robbed harshly enough.

After all, only the weaker the local forces are, the stronger his centralized power will be, and the local areas are all "Slavs". If the Austrians really go on a killing spree, Russia will not sit idly by and ignore it. In this way, the Ottomans and Austria can be regarded as brothers in trouble. .

In fact, Austria's asking price was far lower than Magid's expectations. In the latter's eyes, the Western powers were greedy and shameless robbers, and they were never relenting in seizing Ottoman territory.

On the contrary, this is the first time he has seen a "civilized" bandit like Franz. After all, as long as it does not threaten his core interest group, the conquered land can be abandoned.

To be honest, Franz actually has no interest in the Balkans. After all, the ethnic and religious composition of this place is too complex, and it will become a powder keg if he is not careful.

Of course, there are ways to dismantle even a tinderbox, such as using the power of religion to unite some local people and then help them earn their own living space.

In this way, these oppressed people at the bottom will regard the Austrian Empire as their savior, thus establishing faith in the Empire.

Then we started to improve the lives of local people and spread Austrian culture, spirit, customs and habits.

Soon these people will find out what kind of life they have lived in the past. When they begin to despise tradition, it means breaking with the original world. At this time, they become the true supporters of the Austrian Empire.

As for the heretics living in the fertile lands, they are obviously enemies of God and obstacles to the empire. They, the devout believers, should eliminate those "pests".

On the other hand, mountains are both obstacles and barriers. The Austrian side that occupies the mountains is always in a favorable offensive position. On the contrary, the Ottomans who have lost the protection of the barrier will sooner or later be just a dish on the table.

Magid's deal with Austria would have made Tsar Nicholas I furious, but Franz would not forget Russia while giving gifts to the Ottomans.

In fact, as soon as the tsar returned to St. Petersburg and before he had time to check the performance of the crown prince's superintendent, urgent news came from the border.

The Chechen rebel army led by Imam Shamir once again defeated the main Russian force and also robbed a large amount of war supplies sent by the Austrian Empire.

This batch of supplies includes a large number of light artillery suitable for mountain warfare, as well as new rockets specially used for sieges. In addition, there are also a large number of new rifles and ammunition.

Although these are all obsolete products from Austria, they are still very attractive to Russia.

After the Russians decided on the quantity, the former loaded the goods on the ship, but it was delayed for some time due to some things, and the trading location was temporarily changed.

The new trading location is closer to the Caucasus and also closer to the Russian military camp.

The Austrian side's reason was to deliver the goods to the door, but the weather was unpredictable and people were subject to misfortunes at any time. The Russians had just unloaded the goods and had not had time to put them into the warehouse when they were attacked by Imam Shamil's rebels.

The unprepared Russian army was killed by the Chechen army without a single piece of armor left. After that, Shamil continued his usual style and executed all the Russians.

In this battle, the Russian army lost more than 8,600 people, and also lost about 20,000 Austrian equipment. With these equipment, Shamil could raise several more teams.

Imam Shamil is a national hero of Chechnya and the protagonist of the entire Caucasus War.

He is very good at defeating the strong with the weak. He has won many brilliant victories against the Russian army, and even forced the Russians to be on the defensive for a long time.

Shamil implemented many reforms, wanting to completely disintegrate the feudal system and patriarchal system in the Caucasus region and establish a "Thailand religion state" that combines military, politics and religion.

He led the rebel army to attack noble landlords everywhere, liberated serfs and slaves, and distributed the landlords' land and wealth to them.

(In fact, serfs are not equal to slaves. At that time, slavery still remained in some parts of the Caucasus.)

At the same time, he appointed people on their merits, whether they were slaves, old nobles, or craftsmen, as long as they had talent, they were all given important official positions.

He abolished customary law, established a new code of law, and to a certain extent, he achieved rule of law.

He reformed agriculture and encouraged the development of industry and commerce.

However, the Caucasus region was still too small compared to the huge Russia, and Shamil eventually lost the war with the Tsar.

In history, Shamil had neither allies nor resources. But now Franz gave the Tsar a gift that made the latter uneasy, and it was unknown who would win.