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

Chapter 1103 The best defense is offense
Ludwig had no opinion on Franz's actions, or in his eyes everything was God's will.

Although Maximilian was dissatisfied with being arranged by Franz, he had nothing to say as he was able to escape. For Madame Sophie, as long as it was beneficial to the family, it was enough, and she did not like being used by others.

In fact, Madame Sophie still doted on Maximilian very much, but she was not a good mother in the usual sense. For the future of the young eagle, she would not hesitate to kick it off the cliff.

Queen Regent Christina was obviously not satisfied with this result. The person she really wanted to marry was Franz.

However, she really couldn't afford to provoke Russia, so if she had to settle for the next best option, Maximilian was not an option.

Maximilian was actually quite famous in the aristocratic circle. After all, there were many people in the royal family who were scholars in name only, but few who were actually scholars.

Maximilian was definitely an outlier in this respect, and almost everyone knew that Madame Sophie was seeking a throne for him.

Christina felt that neither Maximilian, Madame Sophie, nor the Habsburg family would be able to resist the temptation of the Spanish throne.

The result surprised her. The Habsburg family only put forward an underage Grand Duke. And the object of the marriage was not her eldest daughter Isabella II, but her youngest daughter.

This made Christina's wish come to nothing, because this marriage would not produce any benefits in the short term. Even after Luisa Fernanda and Ludwig got married, they would settle in Austria according to common sense.

According to the Queen Regent's original idea, she could use the Austrian Empire to intimidate domestic opposition. In the best case, she could ask Austria to send troops to help her resolve the domestic rebellion. In the worst case, she could borrow money from the bank in the name of her son-in-law.

However, Ludwig's weight was obviously not enough, his exposure was not high enough, and his family status was not high enough, but his status was similar to that of Christina's youngest daughter Luisa Fernanda.

It was obviously a bit useless to let Luisa Fernanda marry Ludwig, but the Habsburg family's proposal was difficult to refuse. This time it was the Spanish royal family's turn to be in a difficult situation.

Luisa Fernanda's appearance was more refined than Isabella II, but still far from the standard of beauty.

Luisa Fernanda's mother did not attach importance to education, let alone her. In addition, the chaos in the Spanish court politics caused her mind to be empty. She only had basic reading and writing skills, and her personality was somewhat gloomy and withdrawn.

These characteristics made her even more unpopular with Isabella II and her daughter, so Christina abandoned her without hesitation.

Of course, it was impossible for the Queen Regent to return empty-handed. In the end, she took away jewelry worth 20 florins from Vienna.

Fortunately, Franz had no shortage of such things, or perhaps because of the war, the sales of jewelry were very poor.

The jewels looted from the colonies in Southeast Asia had been piling up for a long time, but in order not to disrupt the market price, Franz did not dare to put them all on the market at once.

He knew very well that once these luxury goods depreciated, it would be difficult to restore them to their original prices.

On the surface, this series of wars seemed to have little impact on the economy of the Austrian Empire, but in fact many industries fell into a cold winter trough.

Especially the luxury goods industry and the newly emerging tourism industry, the industry size shrank by more than 80%. In addition, the food reserves and strategic reserves of the Austrian Empire were also declining. If Franz had not prepared for many years, I am afraid that all kinds of materials would have been stretched long ago.

But the situation at this time was not optimistic. On the surface, Britain and Austria had already ceased fire, but at some point, the number of pirates in the Atlantic suddenly increased again.

These pirates were well-equipped and well-trained, they cooperated well with each other, acted boldly and swiftly, were extremely cruel and cunning, and were no match for them, let alone ordinary merchant ships, even lone warships.

These pirates not only plundered property, but also massacred sailors, and even deliberately left wreckage and corpses to provoke the Austrian Imperial Navy.

With the performance of the Austrian Empire Navy's battleships at that time, it was completely possible to defeat these pirates, but the problem was how could the pirates who came and went like the wind in the vast ocean possibly engage in a decisive battle with the Austrian Empire's main fleet?
How about letting the fleet escort? This is the most common and most common approach, using the excellent performance of the new warships to slap the invading enemy in various ways, and then leaving a sentence that any conspiracy is futile in the face of absolute power.

This statement cannot be said to be completely wrong, but it is obviously inappropriate now.

There are only thieves who can steal for a thousand days, but there is no such thing as a thief who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. Let alone whether it can be successful, the cost alone is unacceptable. After all, merchant ships are meant to make money, while warships are meant to burn money.

Speaking of strategic issues, the worst thing in naval warfare is to divide the troops. Once the Austrian Navy is provoked and loses its mind and starts to act separately, the British Navy can take advantage of the situation and annihilate them one by one.

Although the Austrian Navy had won several great victories before, the fundamental situation of the enemy being strong and we being weak had not changed.

The British still have the strength to win the battle, but their aversion to loss and fear of the unknown make them hesitant to take action.

Once the Austrian Empire lost its navy, it would not even have a chance to bargain. After all, Britain could suck blood from the whole world, while the Austrian Empire could only rely on self-circulation.

If the fleet was sent to escort or the troops were kept in place, it would be exactly what the British wanted. If Austria was desperate and attacked the British mainland directly, it would be even more in line with the interests of the British government.

At this time, the British government was suffering from the lack of a reasonable reason to continue the war. Once the Austrian navy attacked the British mainland, this war would no longer be a unilateral act of the government, but a war to defend the interests of all British people.

Franz's publicity and personality in the media will be greatly reduced, and the British will regain the high ground in public opinion.

I can’t move, I can’t not move, and I can’t move randomly. How can I resolve this situation?
Franz's answer was to cut off the source of the problem. It was not easy for the British to successfully intercept the Austrian Empire's merchant ships in the vast ocean.

The ocean is not land, and there are no absolutely precise and fixed routes. It is almost impossible to achieve accurate interception without satellite maps and radar.

According to common sense, if they set out from the British mainland, they would most likely fail, or even run into the Austrian navy. Such a robbery not only has a low success rate, but also is too costly. The British would not choose such a stupid approach.

Therefore, the biggest possibility is that there is a pirate base on the Atlantic route. Combining the map with the route and time of the looted merchant ships, the two most suitable locations for pirate bases are obvious - the Malad Islands and the Azores Islands.

Only in these two archipelagos in the North Atlantic could the pirates launch precise attacks on Austrian merchant ships passing by, and these two archipelagos happened to belong to the British ally, Portugal.