Chapter 905: Gift From Heaven

The so-called King of Rome by Pius IX was more like the honorary mayor of Rome, not the Roman Empire or the emperor of the Roman Empire.

As for the king of the Romans, if Franz is too serious, he will definitely end up like Emperor Norton.

Therefore, Franz did not have to lead the horse, hold the stirrup, kneel down, or kiss his feet. He just curtsied out of ceremony, but this was still a title worth showing off for the royal family of any country.

The whole ceremony was complicated and lengthy. In addition to the coronation, Franz should also go on a parade out of the city, but considering the safety situation at this time, this was omitted.

Franz was crowned as the savior of Rome, especially since all this was done by the Pope himself, so it was not easy for other countries to say anything.

In fact, Pius IX, including the entire Holy See at this time, had their own considerations. The Papal State experienced this catastrophe, resulting in heavy losses in population, ruined industries, and high debts.

The most important thing is that at this time, the foundation of the Papal State's own country has also encountered a threat, that is, a crisis of faith.

In 1848, too many people were using the banner of the Pope and religion, but what they did was beyond the tolerance of believers.

Coupled with the smearing and liquidation after the liberals came to power, the Papal State at this time has not only been shaken to its foundation, but has actually become an empty shell.

So when Austria showed sufficient strength, Pius IX had to agree to Franz's deal, trading all its national defense, military, and economic powers, and had to accept the Sino-Italian Confederation and the Pan-Apennine Commercial Alliance Agreement .

Although the Pope will serve as the honorary president, he actually has no real power just like Francis, the King of Rome.

At this time, Austria was the only country the Papal States could rely on. The credentials of the French Provisional Government were not delivered until the day after Austria liberated Rome.

The French had similar ideas to the British. They also hoped that Austria would annex the Papal States or occupy the city of Rome.

However, the decision-making level of the French Provisional Government was too chaotic at this time, and its administrative efficiency was not as good as that of the Orleans Dynasty.

The French Provisional Government has many factions, many hills, and a mixed bag of fish and dragons, even a nest of snakes and rats.

As for its composition, it can be seen from the words of Ryder Rowland, the Minister of the Interior of the French Provisional Government at this time.

"We all care about the people, but please believe me, if one day the people really become the masters of this country, we will be the first to be hanged."

It is obviously unrealistic to expect this group of people to improve the lives of the people at the bottom of France, and too many factions and excessive democracy have also led to some common problems - excessive decentralization of power, leading to low administrative efficiency and political chaos.

The French provisional government also likes to hold meetings, but even if they hold a hundred meetings a day, they cannot come up with a solution.

And even the plan that most people like is not necessarily the best plan, just like the previous declaration of war on Austria when the international situation was extremely unfavorable.

It may seem like a stupid decision, but in fact it releases the national sentiment that the French have been accumulating.

When this bill was proposed, it was almost unanimously approved, but the result was that the new French provisional government fell into a desperate crisis.

In fact, almost all senior French military officers and diplomats at the time opposed the provisional government's approach, but those political factions obviously chose the most popular approach.

At this time, the French were also feeling uneasy about the Austrian Empire's rapid advance in the mountainous areas of Central Italy.

Whether it was the Orleans Dynasty or the Provisional Government at this time, the French never gave up their expansion in Italy.

And once the Austrian Empire takes Rome, they will occupy a more favorable position in the Catholic world.

But what to threaten the Austrians with? The new Navy Minister Agra proposed a naval blockade because the mountains of Central Italy were rugged and difficult to navigate, and the Austrians must transport supplies by sea if they wanted to attack Rome.

As long as the French fleet enters the Adriatic Sea and crushes the Austrian navy in the Port of Venice, the Austrians will not be able to continue deep into central Italy.

In the wars of the 19th century, the role of logistical supplies was raised to a very high level. Without food and artillery, the Austrian army could not attack the city and therefore could not occupy Rome.

However, this does not mean that the French recognized the so-called Fourth Roman Republic. Although the French Provisional Government did not clearly express its position at this time, they actually supported the restoration of Pius IX.

Minister Agra is indeed very talented, and his vision is also very vicious. This can indeed avoid the expansion of the war and force the Austrians to retreat.

But the premise is that the French navy is far stronger than the Austrian navy. However, although the French navy at this time won the Mediterranean naval battle, its vitality was severely damaged.

What's more important is that no one knows better than those within the French Navy whether they sunk the British fleet.

At that time, the losses of the British were much less than those of the French navy, but the latter had the advantage of the home field, and this kind of close-range melee meant that the British, who were better equipped and had higher-quality soldiers, could not give full play to their advantages.

The fate of the subsequent British fleet must be determined by the Austrian Navy. At this time, the French Navy had no confidence in winning this war.

Due to the resolute opposition of naval officers and soldiers, Minister Agra's proposal was rejected. Then someone proposed a more radical approach, which was to directly threaten Austria with a total war.

In fact, France and Austria do not border each other, so the so-called total war is just a gimmick.

What they really want is the Duchy of Liege. Although the French have a bad reputation here, there are indeed a large number of French-speaking residents living here.

And because of the rise of German nationalism, the local French-speaking residents are hurt. In addition, the high-pressure policy left over from the Metternich era also made the locals very disgusted.

Forced German education, Austrian culture, and copied Austrian laws and bureaucratic systems. Metternich really wanted to quickly assimilate the Duchy of Liege into Austrian territory.

However, haste makes waste, and the habits formed by the locals for thousands of years cannot be changed just by saying so.

At this time, the French set their sights on the area. After all, the number of Austrian garrisons in the area was not large, and the whole of Germany was in a mess. At this time, there should be no more German coalition forces.

In fact, Louis Philippe, who hid in Alsace-Lorraine, was also a major concern for the French Provisional Government, but according to the previous agreement, Alsace-Lorraine was part of the German Confederation.

Although there were no German Confederation troops stationed in Alsace-Lorraine, attacking Alsace-Lorraine was equivalent to declaring war on the entire German Confederation.

France had not gained any advantage in the two previous frictions with the German Confederation, so it was still very cautious about rashly going to war.

However, in theory, the Austrians would not protect the former French king, but if a French king was shameless enough, he could still claim to be a German duke.

That's right! At this time, Louis Philippe claimed to be the Duke of Alsace-Lorraine, and even threatened the French Provisional Government, saying, "If you dare to attack Alsace-Lorraine, I will also learn from the Luxembourgers to go to Frankfurt to accuse you!"

Note: Frankfurt was the location of the German Confederation Parliament in 1848.

The French Provisional Government spent several days arguing over the issue of Italy during the Austrian advance, and finally sent their ultimatum to Rome the day after Franz liberated Rome.

The French threat was a full-scale war, but this made Pius IX determined to follow the Austrian side.

Because judging from the speed of intelligence transmission alone, the French Provisional Government was several levels behind the Austrians.

Secondly, Pius IX witnessed the strength of the Austrian army with his own eyes. Before, it was not only the Swiss Guards who defended the Papal States, but the Swiss were the most famous.

There were all kinds of mercenaries in the Papal States, including the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and even Germans.

The supreme ruler of a country has to rely on foreign troops to protect his position, which shows the degree of corruption of this country.

However, in terms of personal morality alone, Pius IX is much better than his predecessors. After all, he is not a politician, businessman, liar, or conspirator.

In fact, the role of the Pope has been going astray since the Middle Ages, so that people's standards for his morality have been lowered again and again.

The way that Pius IX and his bishops came up with to solve the crisis of faith was to tie the church to the Austrian Empire.

Because the Austrian Empire Church rose in this way before, the wealth of the Austrian Empire Church at this time was completely incomparable to the Papal States.

Although the Papal States was not as down-to-earth as the local church in Austria, the former had an advantage that the latter could not match, that is, the righteousness.

In fact, Pius IX had another crazy idea at this time, that is, to launch another Crusade, perhaps in this way, people's faith in religion could be restored, and his face could be saved.

After the coronation ceremony, Pius IX came to Franz.

"Child, you are our hope for the future. I wonder if you are satisfied with this gift?"

However, Pius IX did not see fear or satisfaction on Franz's face, but only calmness.

"Your Holiness, when the time is right, I will give you a kingdom of heaven."

"Heaven?"

Pius IX suspected that he had heard it wrong.

"Yes, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

Franz's words only made Pius IX smile, and the latter just thought it was a joke made by the former.

At the same time, the French letter was delivered to Vienna, and the Austrian imperial government was a little embarrassed because the news that Franz had liberated Rome had already reached Vienna.

However, the fact that France was going to declare war on Austria was a blessing from heaven to Duke Fantrow and Solomon.

Although Solomon was once the "King of Vienna", he had no chance to meet someone like Duke Fantrow, after all, the latter was a real noble.

In fact, Duke Fantrow had long wanted to meet Solomon Rothschild, but due to the difference in status, he could only put on airs.

However, the present is different from the past. Now they have an enemy that they have to join forces to defeat - the Austrian Empire.

In fact, they have done a lot of work these days. As the former underground king of Vienna, Solomon naturally has a lot of connections.

And because of the long-term chaos in Vienna at this time, many of those gang members have already mixed in with the German nationalists.

Now Solomon controls at least 20,000 to 30,000 people, and they are spread all over Vienna. The previous purges by the Vienna government did not knock down much of his power.

However, Solomon's power is still not worth mentioning in front of Duke Fantello, who directly attacked the Vienna City Defense Army.

As the top nobles who have been entrenched in Vienna for many years, the power of the Fantello family has naturally penetrated into all aspects of Vienna.

This naturally includes the nobles' reserved place - the Vienna City Defense Army.

The previous gatherings between the top wealthy families were the layout of Duke Fantello. He wanted to win over as many nobles as possible to make trouble with him.

However, due to the existence of Vienna's overseas companies and the loyalty of some nobles, Duke Fantello's plan was not completely successful, but in fact he had already won over some of them before that, and took advantage of the chaos in Vienna to kill a group of people.

Now Duke Fantello is fully capable of instigating 10,000 city defense soldiers to rebel. This kind of regular armed force is not comparable to gang members and militia.

The city defense army not only has infantry, but also cavalry, and even cannons. Duke Fantro had also been on the battlefield and had fought for the Austrian Empire.

However, the nobles had their own unique way of fighting, which was to listen to music, eat red wine and steak, and sit in an absolutely safe area to enjoy the war process.

This was a common posture of the nobles at that time. People like Archduke Karl who would really go to the front line to command were rare.

And the supreme commander like Duke Andrei Bolkonsky (one of the protagonists of War and Peace) who led the troops in person only existed in novels.

But this does not mean that Duke Fantro was a good-for-nothing. In fact, he had a very profound study of the art of war and understood the importance of artillery in the wars of the 19th century.

The walls of the Hofburg Palace were not thick, but even the thick walls of Constantinople could not withstand the bombardment of modern artillery.

Although the Royal Guards in Vienna were expanded several times, it was still impossible to stop the attack of tens of thousands of people. And the key to all this would end with the capture of Emperor Ferdinand I.

Some people might have hesitated before, but with the help of France, Duke Fantro believed that most people would agree with his approach.

Although the expansion of the Royal Guard has increased combat power, it also gave the nobles an opportunity to reach out.

The Fantro family planted an insider in it. After the battle between the two sides, the collateral descendants of the Fantro family and those who have received favors from the Fantro family will turn against them. At that time, the Hofburg Palace will surely be captured by the inside and outside forces.

Duke Fantro could already imagine Emperor Ferdinand I getting under the stool in a panic, exposing his fat butt.

Duke Fantro was still hesitating whether to kick his butt with his left foot or his right foot first? This is a question

At this time, his door was knocked