Chapter 120: The Hongmen Banquet
Chapter 119 The Hongmen Banquet
Franz and Alexander’s meeting still yielded constructive results, and Russian-Austrian relations quickly began to heat up, as the minor conflicts caused by the Pudan War, dissipated.
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Austrian army was packing their bags, the armistice treaty had been signed, half of the war reparations had been paid, and the rest had been guaranteed by the British government, and the time had come to withdraw.
Franz has no intention of playing games, he doesn’t mind pulling his troops back immediately if possible, big armies out there can be costly.
However, since the occupation of Sardinia once, the Austrian army naturally could not go in vain. It would be impossible to go without any offense in the fall, and almost all of the soldiers were now fully loaded.
When there are more loot, it is very troublesome to carry it, and if it is sold on the spot, in the Sardinia Kingdom which has just been baptized by war, it is not sold at all, and some commodities can’t even find a buyer.
Marshal Radetzky is a good marshal, in order to protect everyone’s interests, immediately decided to be unified by the troops transported back to the country to sell, and then we will share the money.
……
Turin Industrial Zone, a major officer is directing from the side, “Tom be careful, these machines are precious, they are said to be worth tens of thousands of guilders, you can’t turn it into scrap metal, then we won’t even earn enough for the shipping!”
“Don’t worry, Major. I wouldn’t dare to let these babies break.” Tom replied
A bandit passes like a comb, a soldier passes like a grate.
Ever since the Vienna government decided to give up the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Austrian army gave full play to its initiative and started its journey to get rich.
Of course, they were too lazy to rob the general public, not to mention the time they wasted to squeeze out the oil.
The gain from robbing a nobleman or a capitalist was greater than that from robbing a village, and this was a good choice.
Marshal Radetzky ruled the army strictly, everyone was getting rich in an organized way, each unit divided the area and started to move.
This was also going to test specialized knowledge; European armies have always had a tradition of looting, and the Kingdom of Sardinia was patronized by the French many times during the war against France.
In the process of looting and being looted, everyone also learned to hide their wealth.
Don’t worry about real estate and land, these real estate that you can’t take with you are safe, what you have to be careful about is how to hide easy-to-carry cash, antiques and paintings, and so on.
The nobles and capitalists were not stupid, they started to hide their belongings before the enemy arrived, and anyway, as long as they didn’t resist, usually the army only robbed and didn’t kill.
As long as they resisted, the army usually only robbed and didn’t kill. How much they could hide was their own skill, and experienced people knew that they should hide the most valuable part of the goods and leave part of the cash outside for the big-headed soldiers to rob.
If all of them are hidden, then most of them will be blood money, no gain at all how can the soldiers give up? If they get angry, what if they are tortured to make them confess?
Torture rates and not Li Zicheng’s patent, have done this kind of thing a lot of people, only other people do not have him so fierce.
Franz so temperate people, naturally will not let the Austrian army to do such a thing without technical content.
Before the action, has sent people to the soldiers to do the training, for example: antiques and paintings within the cultural relics, must be carefully stored, mechanical equipment should also be gently.
What basement, dark attic, empty walls, new earth …… these places that may hide the property, are the key search object.
What are afraid of specialization, there are qualities of the robbery team combat effectiveness is bar, which is not the booty burst.
In this era, the Kingdom of Sardinia has not yet run through to the Austrian railroad, transportation mainly rely on manpower and animal power, this speed is naturally not fast.
From August, the Austrian army are starting to transport these household goods to the country, and now continue to work in.
A soldier reported, “Major, we found a warehouse with a large amount of black wheat, which is said to be stored here by a grain merchant.”
The major officer frowned and hesitated for a moment, “We’ve already captured a large amount of grain in front of us, and now that we’re about to evacuate, we simply won’t be able to eat it all. Seal it there first and don’t move it, wait for orders, I’ll report up first.”
It’s not like Austria is short of food, spending a large price to transport it back from Sardinia Kingdom won’t make a few dollars at all, it belongs to the worthless spoils of war.
……
Expeditionary Force Supreme Command, Marshal Radetsky has received too many reports of captured food, coal, ore, industrial raw materials, these basic materials.
These things for Austria, is completely chicken ribs, transported back at all do not make money, or even sell the freight is not enough.
Left to the Sardinian government, he was not willing. After this battle, the relationship between the two countries will not want to normalize for decades, weakening Sardinia’s national strength is more in line with Austria’s interests.
Should it be destroyed? Marshal Radetzky hesitated.
“Marshal, why don’t we sell this material cheaply to merchants?” Lieutenant General Edmund Leopold Fridley suggested
Looting is also divided into objects, Britain and France, these foreign merchants are naturally not included in the scope of looting. Of course this is limited to large merchants with backstage, small merchants robbed also robbed.
After the Austrian army occupied the Kingdom of Sardinia, there are merchants who want to buy the Austrian army’s spoils of war, but because the price is too low, Marshal Radetzky did not want to eat this loss, and chose to ship it back to the country to sell.
Marshal Radetzky hesitated for a moment of effort before saying, “Sell it then!”
Whoever you can’t get along with, you can’t get along with money. So many basic materials, no matter how cheaply they were sold, it would add up to a considerable amount.
What would be the consequences of these supplies falling into the hands of these foreigners, Marshal Radetzky didn’t even bother to think about it, anyway, it wouldn’t be a good thing for the Sardinian Kingdom.
……
In Vienna’s Stefan’s Cathedral, a religious feast is taking place, and Pope Pius IX himself is “attending” the meeting.
Yes, he is attending the meeting, although he is the head of the religious world, but the tiger has fallen into the sun, although not to the point of being bullied by the dog, but also lost the authority to say that there is no one who can do anything.
In the face of the conditions offered by the Austrians, he really could not find a reason to refuse.
The headquarters of the Holy See fell, in order to recapture the headquarters, the sale of part of the religious property to raise funds for military expenses, this is a logical thing.
Anyone who dared to oppose it was not religious enough in their faith in God. Clergymen whose religious beliefs were not devout were not qualified to continue serving God.
This was only the view of Pius IX, and in the view of many Austrian bishops, it was all very unreasonable. The Holy See has so many properties, why should they all sell the properties under them?
“Stop arguing, this is an order. Whoever opposes the recovery of the Holy Land, I will remove him from his bishopric right now!” Pius IX threatened
Dismissing the position was estimated that was only the first step, maybe there would be an absolute punishment, that would be disastrous.
They weren’t Protestants, able to treat the Pope’s orders like toilet paper. Nor are they a party of lords who can just lead an army to Rome and threaten the Pope to rescind the order.
There is never a shortage of people blinded by profit in this world, and the Bishop of Monterey is one of them.
Unlike the old bishops who had already had enough, he had only just come to the throne. For this position, Monterey had put up his entire fortune, and had not yet had time to make it back?
At this time, to massively sell off the Church’s assets, isn’t this to cut off his wealth?
Scanning the room, seeing that all the bishops were all angry, his guts came up.
This isn’t even the Middle Ages anymore, what makes the Pope still so bullish?
“Your Holiness, the clergy also need to eat, if we sell off the patrimony, what are we going to eat?” Monterey questioned
“As God’s servants, it’s not for us to be greedy for pleasure, the church’s proceeds are enough to sustain the clergy.” Pius IX said without a care in the world
It’s not like the church doesn’t have a business, in a country like Austria where the atmosphere of faith is strong, there’s no shortage of believers collecting donations.
Monterey continued to argue, “But, Your Holiness, the church also needs to function, and if the funds are not sufficient, we will not be able to guarantee that the faith of the people does not diminish.”
Pius IX said with a pious look on his face, “As a devout believer, one must overcome these difficulties, child if you are not capable of taking on this responsibility, let those who are capable do it!”
Those who were originally prepared to speak out to help quickly chose to shut up. This was clearly the Austrian government eyeing the wealth of the Church, and Pius IX had sold them out in order to recover the Papal States.
Not to mention deposing one bishop, even if they were all deposed, it would be a minor issue. Without the aura of sanctity behind them, they were no match for the government.
Seeing that the bishops, who were originally filled with righteous indignation, were quiet, Monterrey knew that he was finished.
By accident, he had actually become the chicken in the example. At this time, he didn’t even have the courage to defend himself.
Behave yourself and confess, you can still be lenient, if you continue to fight, one death is considered light, maybe the whole family will have bad luck.
Don’t think that there is no strain in Europe, even if it can’t reach the point of the nine families, to hit the family where he is, it is still inevitable.
Looked at the soft confession of Monterey, Pius IX is very satisfied with his own prestige.
After no one objected, Prime Minister Felix was invited out.
In the presence of God, Pius IX signed an agreement on the transfer of ecclesiastical property on behalf of the Holy See and the Austrian government represented by Felix.
Thank you Gloria Jin Chengwu’s 10,000 reward, plus one more, the debt summary is a total of 17+5+1-1=22 chapters, Hai Yue will slowly pay back!
(End of chapter)