The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1081 A bold move
In order to prevent members of the National Assembly from escaping as much as possible, Franz gave financial support to the German Workers' Brotherhood.

These artificial workers' brothers spared no effort in hunting down the fleeing members of the National Assembly. The top leaders of the workers' brothers also disliked the National Assembly. After all, it was those so-called members of the National Assembly who refused to join the workers' organizations.

As for the power of the orthodox faction in rural areas, it can be described as almost invincible. The pressure accumulated by the church and the nobility for thousands of years is not so easy to eliminate.

Of the 759 people involved, 682 were captured, 130 of whom surrendered, and 21 were killed during resistance and escape.

Of the 2000 Frankfurt City Guards, 1328 were killed, 592 were captured, and the whereabouts of 80 others are unknown.

The citizens of Frankfurt did not organize barricades. A few people tried to block the path of the Austrian army, but were suppressed by the Workers' Brotherhood.

With only 32 killed and 218 wounded on the Austrian side, the entire city was captured.

The mayor and key officials of the Free City of Frankfurt were controlled, and some officials who had long distanced themselves from the constitutionalists in the National Assembly were reactivated to maintain order.

Franz's purpose in doing these things was simple: to publicly interrogate these so-called representatives of the National Assembly, and to find out who was behind the scenes.

Although these people all work for the German nation and appear to be sanctimonious, they are also lawyers and capitalists. There is not much black material about these people.

Wage deductions, false accusations, unspoken rules, collusion between government and business, etc. There are only things that people have not thought of, and there is nothing they cannot do.

Moreover, since these crimes were reported by the public, their credibility is more convincing than those announced by the Austrian Imperial Government, at least that is what the people think.

The people who attended the public trial all wished they could eat the guys with human faces and animal hearts in front of them. The people chanted "fire, stabbing, rat, skinning and cramping." In short, in the eyes of the angry people, the death penalty started and there was no limit.

At this time, few people were unswayed. When the prosecutor of the Austrian Empire asked them to reveal the mastermind behind the scenes, and promised to reduce the sentence depending on the circumstances of the confession, no one was unswayed.

Under the bite of these people, a large number of behind-the-scenes masterminds surfaced, including big businessmen, big bankers, and many aristocrats with crooked buttocks.

So the Austrian Empire sent the list of these people to all states and asked them to deal with it. Otherwise, the Austrian Empire would have to enforce the law transnationally for the sake of the tranquility of the German region.

At this time, did the Austrian Empire have the ability to conduct transnational law enforcement in the German region?
The answer is yes. It was often done this way when Metternich was here. At this time, after such a setback in 1848, the Austrian Empire's prestige and influence in Germany had reached a new height.

Moreover, there are many fat sheep in the lists provided by the constitutionalists. In normal times, no one would dare to touch these rich and superior men.

But things are different now. Who made them get together with the constitutionalists? No matter how much money they have and how many bodyguards they have, they are still just fat sheep when facing the state machinery and the angry people.

There are a large number of Jews or Jewish people among these people, so in the eyes of the government and the people at this time, dealing with them is simply the political correctness of political correctness.

For Franz, the mastermind can be a Jew, but a Jew cannot be the mastermind.

After all, the Austrian Empire itself had millions of Jews, and the vast majority of them had no thoughts of rebellion and even supported the rule of the Austrian Empire. The identity of the Jews can further strengthen the accusations of those behind the scenes, but this time the struggle between Orthodox and Constitutionalists cannot be misinterpreted as a simple anti-Semitic incident.

The fall of these so-called behind-the-scenes masterminds is beneficial to everyone, especially for those governments that are not operating well. There are not many opportunities to eliminate creditors.

Of course, not all governments are happy. Those liberal governments feel uneasy, but they are implicated before they have time to feel sad for those constitutionalists.

The first to bear the brunt were the four major free cities within the German Confederation, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen.

It was a miracle that these free cities were not liquidated after the anti-French war, but they themselves did not think so, so they jumped the most fiercely at this time.

Franz naturally did not intend to continue his previous mistakes, so the four free cities must disappear. However, in order to win the consent of each state, Franz would place it under the rule of the four powerful states.

The so-called four powerful states are Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover and Saxony. The main reason why Saxony can become one of the four powerful states is its strong economic strength.

In terms of economic strength alone, Bavaria and Hannover together may not necessarily be worth a Saxony, because it is located at the junction of North and South Germany, and is connected to the two major powers of Austria and Prussia. Coupled with its own industrial advantages, it is difficult for the economy to fail. developed.

According to Franz's plan, Bavaria will get Frankfurt, Hannover will get Bremen, Prussia will annex Lübeck, and Saxony will get Hamburg, which has the greatest potential.

Bavaria is the easiest to be satisfied, and Hannover has coveted Bremen for a long time. However, its strength and status are too weak and they dare not reveal their true thoughts. There is no reason to refuse at this time.

Although Prussia was dissatisfied, it could not refuse, let alone dare not refuse. After all, the affairs in the Rhineland had not yet been resolved, and William IV was afraid that Franz would take the opportunity to break up Prussia.

Saxony is the state with the closest relationship with Austria at this time, and Saxony will not be able to directly rule Hamburg after acquiring Hamburg, and will only become more dependent on the Austrian Empire.

In addition, Franz is also preparing to merge those countries with the same origin in the name of strengthening the power of orthodoxy and preventing the return of the constitutionalists.

For example, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Harburg merged with the Kingdom of Saxony.

The Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Electorate of Hesse, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Kassel, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt were merged and upgraded to the Kingdom of Hesse, etc.

After this operation, Prussia had three more powerful states: Hannover, Mecklenburg, and Saxony.

Especially after the merger, Mecklenburg no longer needs to look at Prussia's eyes to act, which in itself is a harm to Prussia.

In addition, the resurgence of Saxony also made Prussia uneasy. After all, Prussia’s current status was mainly due to plundering Saxony’s land.

After the headquarters of the German Confederation and the German Stock Center moved to Vienna, Vienna officially became the economic, political, and cultural center of Germany.

(End of this chapter)