Chapter 706: Xin Huang's First Three Actions upon Taking Office!

When the water wall more than ten meters high reached the shore, the wooden piles on the pier seemed to be torn apart one by one by a giant beast.

However, that was just the appetizer of the ancient beast in front of him. It smashed the warning lighthouse with a slap, and then bit the bridge. The huge warship was thrown into the air and smashed heavily on the newly built factory. Wherever it passed, there were broken walls and ruins.

The black sea current devoured everything in front of it. Whether riding a horse or running, it was just a meaningless struggle.

When the person running in front looked back, the crowd had disappeared, and only the endless sea current could be seen behind him.

Benito was the one who ran in front regardless of everything. He was a native of Venice. He was very familiar with everything here. Every street and every corner was clearly remembered in his mind.

No one could catch Benito, but this time he was not facing people, but natural disasters. The black current broke through the side wall and rushed towards him. At this critical moment, Benito grabbed a high clothesline.

Looking at the surging waves under his feet, he had no choice but to burst out unprecedented strength and use inertia to throw himself onto a high wall.

However, the wall under his feet suddenly broke, but fortunately Benito adjusted his center of gravity in time.

But when he stood firm and looked forward, he found that the city was already a vast ocean. With a crisp sound under his feet, the weathered ancient city wall could no longer hold on.

——

This is the black ocean current that is unwilling to retreat——

After the tsunami, there was a mess, with soaked goods, scattered clothes, swollen corpses, and broken wood and tiles everywhere.

Some people are looking for their former homes in the ruins, but most of their belongings are gone, and their families need to be carefully identified.

The survivors who occasionally met each other were all in tears. The busy ports and prosperous commercial streets disappeared in the blink of an eye, replaced by temporary sheds and dilapidated houses that needed to be repaired.

A tsunami took away more than 5,000 lives, more than 2,000 houses and 300 ships, and the direct economic losses may be close to 100 million florins.

But people had no time to grieve. Just three days later, the Port of Venice resumed operation again. This is not because the Austrian Empire has strong reconstruction capabilities, but because the coastline's throughput capacity is too weak.

Trieste was not damaged that much. It was a military port, and the terrain blocked it, so it was not seriously affected.

The Austrian Empire's top leaders still attached great importance to the tsunami in the Adriatic Sea, because it was the only outlet to the sea for the Austrian Empire after all.

However, Prime Minister Metternich had long been drowned in grief at this time. The tens of millions of funds he had embezzled before were all gone, and the Pope actually went to see God with the Chief Secretary of State.

The positions of the cardinals that he bought proved to be useless. The old stubborn people in the Papal States were shameless. The holy law and the law were shit in their eyes.

Pius IX also proved his promise with his own actions. The new pope issued three edicts in a row, which caused an uproar in Europe and even the whole world.

First, Pius IX required all bishops in France to come to the Vatican to pledge allegiance to him.

Second, the Papal States had to renegotiate the tax rate with the Austrian Empire and require the latter to pay the tithe owed over the years.

Third, reorganize the Jesuits. This one was aimed at the Spanish Church. At this time, Father Claret, who was highly respected in the Spanish court, was one of the Jesuit monks.

The Spanish Jesuits were powerful and had absolute influence on the future queen. However, in the eyes of Pius IX, this should have been his own power.

At the same time, the Jesuits also had a very strong influence in Spain's colonies and former colonies.

As soon as these three edicts came out, the three major powers of the Catholic Church began to have a headache. The most troublesome thing among them is the Austrian Empire. After all, Austria theoretically has a veto over the election of the Pope.

This right was actually inherited from the Holy Roman Empire, but Metternich felt that it was not at that point at all, and even wanted to do a favor for Pius IX.

As a result, the actions of this liberal pope were simply unreasonable. Just last night, the secret envoy of the Papal States was even ready to discuss the issue of abolishing the secret agreement between the two countries.

This has completely exceeded Prince Metternich's bottom line. The Pope's secret envoy is now a guest at the bottom of the Danube.

Once the new pope tears up the secret agreement and abolishes the defense agreement with the Austrian Empire, all the investments in the Papal States over the years will be wasted.

This is like a knife in Metternich's heart, and then a hard flick, which makes him feel extremely angry.

And everything came from an unknown little person, which made Prince Metternich feel a sense of shame.

He was calculated by the cripple Talleyrand, Canning, and Palmerston, and at least he was defeated by the strong and the conspirator.

And Pius IX was obviously a political novice, an insignificant little bishop, a ridiculous and arrogant tick.

"How dare he?!"

Metternich was surprised by what he said unintentionally.

"Prime Minister, do you want to take a break first? Anyway, what we are talking about now is just a trivial matter. Even if the splash is big, Venice is still in our hands, right?"

Count Kolarov was not interested in Metternich's Italian strategy. He was still very unhappy that the empire suffered such a heavy loss at this time.

Faced with the sarcasm of his old rival, Prince Metternich calmed down. He didn't want to admit it, but the colonial plan led by Franz was of great benefit to the Austrian Empire.

It was precisely because of the continuous supply of materials from the colonies that the industry of the Austrian Empire could always form a crushing advantage over Germany and Italy.

At the same time, Austria also shouldered the heavy responsibility of resisting the invasion of foreign goods. Once the maritime trade was cut off, the entire Austrian Empire and even the entire German Confederation would be affected.

So the Regency Council immediately approved the aid plan for ports such as Venice and Trieste. However, what they didn't expect was that the tsunami was not the whole disaster.

After the tsunami, cholera came unexpectedly, and Franz was still guarding the north. The cholera epidemic in Italy spread rapidly and quickly spread to the entire Austrian Empire through railways.

Faced with the overwhelming cholera reports, the senior officials in Vienna finally exploded. Because according to the experience of other countries before, each report may indicate the death of 1~2K.

At the same time, the top leaders of the Polish Restoration Army gathered in Krakow again.

"This is a godsend opportunity. The Austrian Empire, Prussia, and Russia are all busy with their own affairs. This is a good opportunity for us to take action!"

Landre Promi has been in Paris. He knows how terrible this plague is, so he is very confident that Russia, Prussia, and Austria have no strength to fight again.