Chapter 911 Kill!

In fact, the Brescia incident is not difficult to wash, or it does not need to be washed at all. It is enough to change the perspective of looking at things.

From the perspective of Italians, it is natural to praise the priests and guerrillas who violated morality and faith and slaughtered the wounded Austrian soldiers.

But from the perspective of Austria, this should not be done at all. Although there was no Geneva Convention at that time, slaughtering wounded soldiers in the church should definitely be condemned.

However, the propaganda machine of the Austrian Empire was too weak in history, which led to the reversal of the reputation of this incident. Franz will not make the same mistake.

After so many years of operation, Franz has a strong propaganda team under his command, from reporters, editors, to publishers and printing houses, which can provide a complete one-stop service.

There are many disadvantages of such a complete system, but the advantage is that it is extremely stable, and others can't start even if they want to sabotage it.

Franz knew the importance of first impressions, so he defined the Brescia incident at the first time, that is, forced just revenge.

The Austrian army faced shameless betrayal and sneak attacks, demons hiding in God's house and people who betrayed their faith.

But the Austrian soldiers did not choose to retreat, but chose to fight evil to the end, and would never bow their heads even if the heaven was broken.

As a result, the reputation of both sides was reversed. After all, no one likes sneak attacks and betrayal, and the so-called Italian nationalism is morally untenable.

Secondly, this is Venice, which is the territory of the Austrian Empire. The Austrians are the victims, and those who are hostile to them are naturally shameless perpetrators.

With this characterization, even those Italian nationalists published articles in newspapers to condemn this immoral behavior.

Mazzini, who had just escaped, exaggeratedly claimed that the attackers in Brescia were not Italian guerrillas at all, but a group of shameless thieves in disguise.

Such a dramatic change is entirely because Mazzini is afraid that the Austrian government will use this incident to stigmatize the great cause of national independence.

But this matter will not happen if he is not afraid, and at this time, those so-called Italian nationalists do not need Franz to discredit them at all, they can be as black as they want.

The Venetia region is the most developed region of capitalist factories in Italy and even in Austria.

However, due to the special political environment of the Austrian Empire and the traditions of the Venetia region, the capitalists here often have more than one identity, and they are usually nobles and bishops.

So the people here are subject to triple oppression, feudal exploitation, theocratic exploitation, and capitalist exploitation.

Franz did not feel any sense of disobedience no matter how dirty the dirty water was thrown on them.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, but these people do not have a unified program. In fact, including Mazzini himself, there is no real systematic long-term plan.

So when the rebels achieved a little victory, they began to imitate those oppressors and began their journey of degeneration.

For example, Daniele Manin, who wanted to be the governor of Venice, and his rival Niccolò Tomasi.

The latter did not want to establish himself as king, but it did not mean that he had great ambitions. He hoped that Venice would be incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then govern the local area as the Governor of Venice in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Bishop Kossel even planned to create a new religion and let himself serve as the new spiritual leader of the Italian nation.

Ambras, this name is definitely famous in the Austrian Empire. The future heir of his family, Luca Ambras, was one of Franz's childhood companions.

This honor is not available to every local noble, but this family that manages theocracy always wants to bet on many sides and stands on the wrong team at a critical moment.

In the 19th century, it was a joke to want to restore theocracy. Even Pope Pius IX couldn't do it, let alone their small theocracy family.

The Ambras family has multiple bishops in Italy and controls several wealthy parishes, but those parishioners want to go to heaven, not to die.

So when the Austrian Empire's army arrived, the hundreds of thousands of parishioners controlled by the Ambras family hardly put up any resistance.

Luca Ambras, one of Franz's childhood playmates, also died. The latter did not listen to the former's advice to venture overseas.

After Luca Ambras returned to his hometown, he began to take over the family business, and then he also participated in the conspiracy between the family and those Italian nationalists.

Luca Ambras knew very well what he was facing, but in order to revive the family's prestige and to keep his good life, he decided to take a gamble.

Of course, this was just Luca Ambras's wishful thinking. In Franz's view, he was corrupted.

The Ambras family used theocracy and the position of bishop in their hands to do too many bad things, even making those gangsters ashamed, from drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling of arms, organizing gangsters to premeditated robbery, murder, forced prostitution, and collecting protection fees.

They wanted to overthrow the Austrian government. The most important reason was that the strengthening of public security and government control made it impossible for them to do whatever they wanted.

Franz once advised him to leave and also advised him to stop, but Luca Ambras and the entire Ambras family still took that road of no return.

But this time they were not forgiven. Franz sent an army of 5,000 people to completely wipe out the power of the Ambras family from the world.

The battle was completely one-sided, and the church members who had high hopes for the Ambras family chose to watch from the sidelines.

As for the private soldiers trained by their family, they were fine in gang fights, but they were scared to death when facing the regular army.

After the war, a few shells killed their souls, and they ran around like a group of headless flies. Even those who dared to fight could not organize an effective counterattack in such a chaotic situation.

Except for a very few who died in the battle, most people chose to surrender. Generally speaking, Franz would take the approach of punishing the main culprit and not asking questions about the coercive followers for those who surrendered.

However, Franz did not want to let any of these traitorous gang members go. He not only ordered the hanging of all traitors, but also sent people to collect intelligence from the people to crack down on the fish that slipped through the net.

Facts have proved that there is no friendship between these gang members and the people, and it is more like an irreconcilable hatred.

After witnessing the Austrian army defeating the families that had oppressed them for hundreds of years, the local people became brave. They not only provided clues to the Austrian army, but also organized militias to assist.

In addition to these gang members, Franz also took down the local gendarmerie. The gangs were so rampant, and they definitely contributed to it.

Fight? There was no fight!

Franz was not a war maniac. With his identity, wouldn't it be easy for him to make up a reason to let these people lay down their weapons and surrender?

In addition to these powerful anthropomorphic things, some small figures also stepped onto the stage of history at this time.

For example, the previous Marshal Lapoll, he was just a small shopkeeper who was submissive before, but with a fierce force, he became the commander of a million troops, not only killing those genuine generals but also taking them as his own men.

If it was a few centuries ago, he would have been a hero at least. Unfortunately, he met Franz, so he could only become a clown.

As a bargaining chip, he was sent to Pius IX, and then he was put on the stake after Franz entered the city, becoming the background board of the liberation of Rome, and even painted by the painter in his own painting to be passed down to later generations.

The famous Italian painter Achille Vianelli painted for this and named it "Liberation of Rome".

Achille Vianelli was a typical court painter, and even served as a teacher of Lu Yi Philip, teaching him the Impressionist painting method.

However, at this time, the Orleans dynasty had fallen, and the French Provisional Government could not tolerate him, so the great painter could only look for a new meal ticket.

At this time, Rome threw an olive branch to him, but this person was not Pius IX, but Angelo Nebuti.

After being captured, Angelo Nebuti also became one of the background boards of "Liberation of Rome". Pius IX also specifically instructed the executioner to tie him up with iron chains and simmer slowly over low heat.

In this way, the great painter Achille Vianelli failed to witness Angelo Nebuti's restoration of Rome's glory, but instead witnessed its ashes.

Enrico Senuschi, nicknamed "Little Robespierre". However, he did not have the talent of Robespierre. He studied law, but failed in the exams many times. In addition, he had no strong connections and could only work in the sugar refinery.

After the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, Enrico Senuschi instigated workers to riot and set up the "People's Court". Their principle was very simple. Whoever had money would be judged, and whoever did not pay would be sent to the guillotine.

Franz felt that such a person was called "Little Robespierre", which was an insult to Robespierre and the French Revolution.

As soon as the Austrian army entered the city, "Little Robespierre" sent someone to send an invitation, asking Franz to go to his home to accept their surrender.

Franz did not keep the appointment, and only twenty cannons responded to it. He was too lazy to think about whether this was a Hongmen Banquet, and he did not want to accept the surrender of such a person.

The new mountain party of "Little Robespierre" was destroyed. According to statistics after the war, more than two tons of gold and silver utensils were found in the ruins alone. During the rebellion, the number of people executed by their so-called "people's court" reached 700.

Among them, except for a small number of people who came to Venice from other parts of Austria to do business or work as officials, most of the rest were local Venetians.

As for whether these people were guilty or not, there was no evidence at this time.

(The situation in Lombardy was even more outrageous, but for the sake of coherence, it was still discussed when we got to Lombardy.)

Franz was ordering himself to bring reporters and pens to help record the facts and help the Austrian army clear the charges.

However, the reality was that there were some confused guys in the Austrian army. A junior officer jumped out to accuse Heinau of atrocities as soon as the incident occurred.

That's right! This "brave" and "upright" junior officer did not come to accuse Franz, but to accuse Heinau.

The latter's identity was too sensitive. He was a Jew, an illegitimate child, and a foreigner. He was nailed to the pillar of shame almost as soon as he was born.

In contrast, Franz's origin was much more glorious, so he was selectively ignored.

The most direct purpose of this low-ranking officer was to show his eccentricity and make a name for himself.

In addition, he was suspected of wanting to show off in front of Franz, but he just happened to run into the gun.

First of all, he couldn't escape the charge of treason, and secondly, he slandered the nobles and tarnished the image of the army.

As for the fate of this little man, Franz was not going to ask. But sometimes, there are unexpected surprises.

Before the interrogation, this little man confessed that he was an insider planted by a big man in Vienna next to Franz.

Along this line, Franz easily eliminated a large number of unstable factors lurking around Franz.

However, Franz did not feel much about catching such a big fish, because they would die soon.

On the contrary, Julius Jacob von Heinau, who was notorious in history and known for his cruelty, became a little terrified.

"Archduke Franz, is it a bit inappropriate for us to kill all the people like this?"

Franz looked at the fierce-looking man in front of him, sighed and thought to himself.

"Is this the courage of the executioner of Arad, the hyena of Brescia and the tiger of Habsburg?"

However, Franz could not tell Heinau how fierce his reputation was in later generations. Even Sherman, the blazing city, and Grant, the bloody butcher, regarded him as a synonym for cruelty.

During the Civil War, Sherman, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, ordered the burning of Atlanta, burning alive all the elderly, women and children who failed to evacuate.

He also ordered the soldiers to shoot anyone who dared to put out the fire or escape from the city.

Perhaps God could not bear to see such atrocities, and heavy rain extinguished the flames, but Sherman did not care about the so-called will of heaven. He ordered the soldiers to set fire again, and finally used more than a week to completely turn Atlanta, the industrial center of the southern United States at that time, into scorched earth.

Grant, the bloody butcher, also indulged soldiers in looting, rape and massacre during the Civil War. After becoming president, he also liked to adopt a high-pressure policy to suppress foreigners and people of color, and signed the Horace Page Act (the predecessor of the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act).

Franz felt that what Heinau did was still far worse than the two "greatest" Americans mentioned above, but his reputation was much worse.

"General Heinau, I have something to say to you.

Killing one person is a crime, killing ten people is evil, killing a hundred people is evil, killing a thousand people is pride, killing ten thousand people is a hero, and killing a million people is the best of heroes.

The immortal deeds of the ages are all in killing people."

Franz patted Heinau's shoulder meaningfully.

The former's meaning is very clear, that is, let the latter decide for himself.

Franz's words were like a revelation, and at this moment, Heinau had only one word in his mind: "Kill!"