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

Chapter 1122 Five Roads
In fact, it was understandable that these pirates were in low spirits, after all, Major Giovanni had interrogated them all night.

The interrogation during this era was very simple and crude. In short, it can be summed up in four words: "torture and forced confession."

Although this approach can easily lead to false convictions and wrongful convictions, it is suitable for dealing with enemies.

Giovanni's method was not very clever, it could be summed up in one word: "beat", beat to death.

These pirates had been beaten all night, it would be strange if they were in good spirits.

Friedrich originally wanted to hear whether there would be some differences between authentic pirates, but Grand Duchess Sineka had no good feelings towards these pirates at all. After all, the pirates in the Gulf of Aden were the biggest headache for the Oman Empire.

Especially since these pirates were British, Archduchess Sineka should hate them both as an Omani and an Austrian.

Before the trial, Baron Heimann had thought about dying rather than surrendering and gave a few passionate speeches, but after hearing a few terrifying screams, he immediately changed his mind. Perhaps he could use his intelligence and some false information to mislead the Austrians.

As a result, after being slapped dozens of times with a wooden board by two strong men, he blurted out everything he knew. He just wanted to end the pain as soon as possible.

Of course, there are also tough guys, such as Captain Callum, Baron Heyman's immediate superior. Even after having more than twenty nails nailed through his body, he still refused to confess any information. Out of respect, Major Giovanni gave him a bullet.

However, most people were not so loyal to the British government, and they quickly revealed their intelligence.

As for how to distinguish the truth from the falsehood of intelligence, you only need to compare a few confessions to find out. Unless someone can collude with others in advance, it is difficult to forge information.

The way to deal with those liars is to execute them directly. Of course, when two countries are at war, this may not necessarily be done to prisoners, but when it comes to pirates, there is no need to talk about morality.

After all, if they reasoned with these pirates, then who would the Austrian sailors who had been harmed by them before go to reason with?
The most unlucky ones among them were the Portuguese who wanted to make money from the British. Not only did they lose all their investment, but they also inexplicably became accomplices of the pirates.

No matter how they tried to distance themselves from the British, Major Giovanni would not let them go. After all, once the news leaked out, it would be a disaster for Friedrich's fleet.

According to the report of Major Giovanni, in this battle the Austrian side lost 8 men, 25 were missing, more than 272 enemies were killed, were captured, two cruisers, cargo ships and more than tons of cargo were seized.

However, there should still be enemies hiding on the island, with a number estimated to be between 20 and 50.

Friedrich nodded. Such an outcome did not surprise or alarm him. He just felt sorry for the eight soldiers who were killed and the 8 missing persons.

In fact, the so-called missing persons are most likely lost at sea. They did not bring much supplies and their hope of survival is extremely slim.

"Send a message home and tell His Majesty Franz that the pirate problem has been resolved and we can start the next step."

"As ordered!"

Captain Michel's ship is a little special. His warship is not equipped with weapons and does not have heavy armor. Everything about his ship is designed for speed.

Captain Michel was in charge of a messenger ship. His mission was one-way communication in order to send news of the fleet to the country as quickly as possible.

"Commander, according to intelligence, the British pirates have at least five bases. Isn't it too early for us to send a victory report now?"

Major Giovanni questioned this. Although he admired the young naval commander very much, he did not think it would be easy to wipe out the remaining pirates. According to Giovanni's estimate, it would take a week or even longer to clear out the remaining pirates on the island.

Moreover, the remaining five strongholds of British pirates are not on this island, but are distributed on five different islands.

Unless we can eliminate the enemies on the five islands at the same time, once an enemy escapes, it will be like a fish in the sea or a bird in the forest and we will have no way to deal with him.

"No! Not at all. It will take at least a week for the news to reach Vienna from here, and we will wipe out all the pirates within three days."

The difficulty in eliminating pirates lies not in the battle itself, but in how to find the pirates' hiding place.

Now that he knew the location of the pirate stronghold, Friedrich planned to launch a full-scale attack in five directions.

This is a plan that sounds extremely crazy. After all, in theory, the most taboo in naval warfare is to divide the troops.

But Friedrich was very confident in his battle plan. He believed that those so-called pirates were obviously too confident. They did not think that the Austrians could find them, so they did not even take the most basic precautions.

In fact, it is not the British's fault. Being discovered at sea is a low-probability event. What's more, they have the amulet of a third-party neutral country, so they are completely fearless.

In addition, Friedrich was very confident in his subordinates and ships. Since 1846, the shipbuilding of the Austrian Imperial Navy has never stopped.

The performance of these new steam ironclad warships was overwhelming that of traditional wooden sailing warships, and they could crush British warships in all aspects, whether in attack, defense, or speed.

Ten years of training also allowed Friedrich to train a large number of qualified sailors, and the same myth of invincibility gave them absolute confidence.

Of course, this is also due to Franz's contribution. After all, he provided Friedrich with the solution to the problem more than a hundred years later.

For ordinary people, being exposed to too advanced knowledge may cause them to fall into confusion and helplessness, but for a small number of geniuses, this is merely a booster for their growth.

In fact, the British pirate tactics at this time were a form of special operations, but their methods were still quite primitive.

They only performed so poorly when facing the Austrian special forces who had undergone long-term training, had rich combat experience and were well-equipped.

Until the British figured out the model of special operations, this was the most effective tactic at the time.

The main goal of the special forces is to confirm the enemy's position and number, because the pirates cannot stay on the island all the time. In addition to launching attacks after receiving intelligence from the Portuguese, they will also roam the sea looking for targets.

Franz's goal was to wipe out the enemy completely, so the best case scenario would be to launch an attack when the enemy returned to the port and annihilate them completely.

In Vienna, Franz convened an imperial conference immediately after receiving Friedrich's "good news".

This was the first official imperial meeting after Francis ascended the throne. Usually, the new emperor would announce the pardon of some criminals, reduce some taxes, and show goodwill to all parties to demonstrate the royal kindness.

Some oppressed nobles were very excited. They felt that the emperor was finally going to bow his head. It turned out that people can change!
Some Hungarian party members were even more excited because they felt that Francis would definitely negotiate peace with Hungary, because nothing could better demonstrate his kindness than an armistice.

However, what Franz wanted to announce was that the Austrian Empire officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire.