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

Chapter 1124: Conquering Albania (Part )
In southern Albania, there are countless watchtowers standing among the mountains, and the people there are as tough as those in Montenegro.

In addition, the complex terrain made it daunting for any conqueror, and historically, the only people who could conquer Albania were the Albanians themselves.

At this time, even Albania, which was still Ottoman territory, was in a semi-independent state, and even the British before had not been able to control the mountains in southern Albania.

Although Mustafa Reshid Pasha was a greedy and powerful official, he was not an incompetent person.

As soon as Mustafa Reshid Pasha received news of the Austrian invasion, he sent people to contact the tribes in the mountains of southern Albania.

Moreover, Mustafa Reshid Pasha was willing to spend a lot of money. Not only did he give them weapons and equipment and scarce supplies, he also gave them the autonomy they had always dreamed of.

By doing this, isn't Reshid Pasha afraid that these tribes will directly turn against the Austrians and then attack the Ottoman Empire together with the Austrians?

Of course this is possible, but judging from the geographical environment and historical traditions, the locals do not like to leave their homes where they have lived for generations, and they do not like the army passing through their territory or the regime threatening their own rule.

If the Austrian army wanted to attack the Ottoman Empire, it would have to pass through the territories of the southern Albanian tribes.

Perhaps Reshid Pasha's conditions cannot impress all tribes, but as long as someone can't help but take action, it doesn't even need to be a certain tribe that takes action, all the tribes in southern Albania will inevitably be involved in this war.

Reshid Pasha was well aware of the development of the Austrian intelligence network, and his secret operations could hardly escape the Austrians' eyes.

But who can guarantee that he didn't do it on purpose?

In fact, the southern Albanian tribes had a very good impression of the Austrians before. After all, the Austrians were enemies of the Ottoman Empire and had severely beaten the British who tried to control southern Albania.

However, as the Austrians approached, a lot of dirty stuff was exposed. For example, after entering the northern mountainous area of ​​Albania, Austria joined forces with local Christians to expel pagans.

The Albanian region was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years, and converting to another religion offered generous benefits, so most people have converted and even firmly believe in their new faith.

At the same time, life was not easy for Albanians in the western plains controlled by Austria. Although there were no large-scale expulsions or massacres, there were new Austrian rules and immigrants.

There were many differences between Austrian law and local customary law, and between new immigrants and indigenous peoples, and these differences quickly turned into contradictions and conflicts as the war began.

These contradictions and conflicts were then deliberately exaggerated by the Ottomans and spread all over the mountains in the south.

In addition, the weapons and supplies promised by the Ottoman Empire had arrived, and the leaders of the southern tribes instantly gained the confidence to negotiate.

There were many people who had this idea, so an alliance was quickly formed and envoys were sent to Austria.

The southern tribes had an ambiguous attitude during the negotiations, and they were obviously waiting for the Austrian Empire to offer a higher price.

At this time, as long as Franz offers a relatively reasonable price, the other party will accept it immediately, regardless of whether the promise will be fulfilled.

Normally, Franz should have painted a big pie to satisfy the other party's psychology, then attacked the Ottomans to seize territory, and then slowly dealt with these tribes in the future.

As for those promises, they are naturally invalid!

Of course, those who are more ruthless may also try to pretend to attack the enemy and launch an attack when the enemy is unprepared.

Both of these paths seem good, but who can guarantee that the other party is not luring you into a trap?
Even if the enemy did not have this idea, the local development level was very low, and it was not easy to attack Guo by pretending to be a passer-by. At the same time, the alliance of tribes was not just one tribe or one country, which greatly increased the difficulty of making the enemy lose resistance in a war. The most important thing was that no matter what the result was, the Austrian Empire would have an excuse, just like the Israelites could use the Bible as a deed two thousand years later.

Whether others admitted it or not, they would use it as evidence against Austria.

Similarly, regardless of whether Franz's promise will be fulfilled in the future, this region will have problems again, perhaps flirting with the enemy country, expelling officials, violently resisting taxes, or even directly killing officials, rebelling, and seeking independence.

Rather than haggling back and forth and risking a hidden injury to the Austrian Empire, it would be better to refuse from the beginning.

Whether the southern Albanian tribes wanted autonomy or to become their own country, it was not in the interests of the Austrian Empire.

If Austria wants to gain a foothold here, it must firmly control the southern mountains.

Even if Franz had no interest in those poor mountains at this time and only wanted to control the developed and prosperous coastal plains in the west, he had to do this.

As the saying goes, there is only a thief who can steal for a thousand days, but there is no such thing as being on guard against thieves for a thousand days.

The coastal plains in western Albania had no strategic locations to defend, and when the British were operating there, banditry was rampant, and in the end the British were only able to maintain a few areas centered around ports.

Although Austria had considerable military strength in Albania at this time, Franz would not rashly send a large army into the mountains.

This approach is not only stupid, but also inefficient.

However, it is still necessary to slightly dampen the enemy's arrogance.

The news that the Austrian Empire refused to negotiate quickly spread back to the Southern Alliance, which made the Ottoman Empire's envoy so excited that he could not sleep all night. The next day he went to the headquarters of the Southern Alliance to start a new round of lobbying.

The Austrian Empire's rejection of the southern tribes' proposal did not surprise these leaders. After all, the powerful countries always looked down on them, and the Ottoman Empire was the best example.

The tribal leaders were very experienced in this regard, and they immediately decided to unite and teach the Austrians a severe lesson. It would be best if they could capture a port and teach the Austrians the rules here.

Albania's plain area covers 7000 square kilometers and is distributed in strips along the coastline. If the Austrians want to hold such a long line of defense, they will need at least hundreds of thousands of troops working day and night.

But as the attacking party, the southern tribes could choose any point to attack and form a local numerical advantage. This was the secret of their victory and the basis for their challenge to the Austrian Empire.

Even if they really failed, they could just flee back to the mountains, and the Austrians would be helpless.

However, it must be said that the primitive organizational mobilization capabilities of this tribal alliance were terribly low. Each tribe was wary of each other, and as a result, they had not completed their assembly even when the Austrian mountain division broke in.

Under the tremendous pressure of war, the tribes finally united and organized a force of 1.5 people, led by the leaders of the fourteen largest local tribes.

However, this loose alliance seemed as immature as a newborn baby when faced with a truly efficient and close-knit military organization.

The entire army plunged into an ambush designed by the Austrian army. The old-fashioned muskets and cold weapons were no match for the new Austrian rifles, let alone mountain cannons and rockets.

The 1.5-strong coalition force of southern Albania was completely wiped out, of which 1300 were killed and the rest chose to surrender and become prisoners.