Chapter 797 The Second Fastest Growing Country in Europe

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

It is not unusual for Prime Minister Metternich to appear here, but it seems a little strange at this time.

Because there are obviously more important things for Austria at this time, such as the war in Switzerland and the nationalism problem at home.

But in fact, the purpose of Prince Metternich's visit is for this. Franz is no longer completely behind the scenes at this time. The latter began to frequently go in and out of the Regency Council and the Imperial Government.

After the two met, after a simple greeting, Prince Metternich went straight to the point.

"Archduke Franz, I don't think our meeting should be delayed until April. The Russians and the British are too far away. As long as we reach an agreement with France and the Kingdom of Sardinia, it is not a problem to divide Switzerland.

The princes of the German Confederation are either too far away and powerless, or they are not enterprising and just want to reap the benefits.

It is good to have a large number of people, but these guys who drag their feet are really useless."

Franz understood what Prince Metternich meant.

"You mean we can leave aside the German Confederation and Britain and Russia, and then sign a tripartite agreement or some secret treaties with France and the Kingdom of Sardinia."

Secret agreements between countries in this era are not uncommon, and almost every country has secret agreements with several countries at the same time.

For example, Austria was able to take control of Krakow before, which was the result of the secret agreement between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1835.

In fact, Austria still had many secret agreements at this time, such as to prevent France from making a comeback, to prevent France and Spain from merging, to prevent France from annexing the provinces of the Kingdom of Sardinia, to prevent France from attacking Tunisia, to prevent France from annexing Belgium, to prevent the Kingdom of Sardinia from annexing Monaco, to prevent France from connecting its colonies on the east coast of North America with the Alaska lease, etc.

Monaco was surrounded by the Kingdom of Sardinia on three sides, and its population was less than 1% of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but Carlo Alberto couldn't eat it.

"That's right, Your Highness. This is beneficial to all three of us, and only in this way can we join the war as quickly as possible, before the Free Alliance wins."

At this time, the news of the Swiss Civil War had reached Vienna. Such a quick and tragic defeat was something Metternich had never expected.

But he still underestimated the young man Franz. Because Franz had been trying his best to stop Metternich from sending weapons, supplies, and military pay to Ticino.

At this time, Ticino just happened to rebel. It seemed that it was just Franz's momentary willfulness that sent the supplies that were supposed to support Switzerland to Galicia.

But Metternich knew very well how low the probability of such a thing happening was, and the Austrian Empire was not short of money at this time, or the treasury had never been so rich, and it was not a problem to take out a separate sum of money to support Galicia.

The reason why Franz tried his best to stop it was either the so-called "prophecy" or he had learned the news in advance and didn't want more people to know.

Metternich believed it was the latter, so he felt it necessary to have a good talk with Franz about his ideas, after all, the latter would be the emperor of Austria in the future.

"Mr. Prime Minister, why do you think you established the Vienna system in the first place? Switzerland is a buffer zone between us and France. Are we going to destroy it now?"

Metternich was a little surprised, but it was only for a moment. The old prime minister's expression management was still in place.

"The Austrian Empire is no longer what it used to be. Since 1836, we have achieved a balance of payments. This is the best era of the Austrian Empire's economy since 1780 after the death of Queen Theresa.

From 1834 to the present, our country's fiscal revenue has increased from less than 100 million florins to nearly 700 million florins now."

The average annual growth rate is 17.65%, second only to Luxembourg, which has recovered its homeland.

Franz was actually a little helpless. At this time, the economy of the Austrian Empire was not completely natural. In addition to the dividends of technology, colonies, policies and customs unions, there was also the boost of gold mines to create today's economic miracle.

The rapid economic growth has brought about earth-shaking changes, and at the same time, the Austrian Empire's top leaders have begun to have some unrealistic ideas.

"But we have only just surpassed France, and there is still a big gap with Britain, and we do not yet have a fleet that can protect our overseas interests.

Think about it, we are bordering France and have conflicts. Which country will benefit the most?"

"Britain?"

"Then who is provoking the Swiss civil war?"

"The British"

"Yes, doesn't Britain know that Joseph Loy and his people can't defeat us?"

"This" Metternich hesitated for a while and said, "But now the Orthodox Alliance has fallen into an absolute disadvantage."

"So what? Switzerland has scarce resources, insufficient arable land, and a small population. This country cannot sustain a long-term war. What's more, I think the war has just begun."

Switzerland, Aargau.

Dufour was angry at the incompetence of the defenders of the three states of Aargau, Zurich, and Thurgau, and let the other side burn almost all the arsenals, and several granaries were also burned.

However, he knew that although a lot of granaries were burned, there must be food. The best proof is that these governors did not ask for too much.

Furthermore, it is not certain whether the granaries were burned by the Orthodox Alliance Army or by themselves.

Dufour didn't want to delve into these, so he could just leave the overly brutal General Frei Holose here to deal with the small forces of the Orthodox Alliance.

After all, General Frei Holose was one of the few iron-fisted generals in Switzerland. If he appeared on the front line, it would be a huge threat to both the enemy and us.

In fact, at this time, Dufour still hoped to fight a perfect war, especially after the great victory in Fribourg.

Except for Valais, all the remaining Orthodox Alliance states gathered around Lucerne. With a perfect raid, he could win a great victory.

However, the risk of attacking Lucerne directly was still too high. Dufour decided to order Augustin Keller to attack Zug with a force of 50,000 people.

Zug was on the periphery of the Orthodox Alliance and had no strategic location to defend. The most important thing was that Joseph Roy claimed that he had bribed the top leaders of Zug and could solve the problem without bloodshed.

Dufour sent another force to attack Lucerne from the front. Although the front battlefield was very lively, his real trump card was to advance quickly on a mountain path.

The morning sun shone through the rugged rocks in the valley, and a Free Alliance army was marching briskly on the mountain road.

Only these mountain people could run on the mountain road without delay. In fact, there are more than a dozen mountain roads leading to Lucerne.

But these paths are too narrow and the number of troops that can pass through is limited, so commanders usually don't nitpick to such an extent.

Although the number of troops that can pass through is limited, Dufour saw a fact from the previous battle of Fribourg, that is, the Orthodox Alliance army lacked fighting spirit and their morale was so low that they could run away at any time as long as the gun was fired.