Chapter 33: March Revolution

  Chapter 33 The March Revolution

Out?

This is impossible, Metternich is not stupid, this time the enemy is waiting for him to go out?

Don’t presume to explain it, it was more likely still that no sooner had he ventured out than someone rushed up and beat him to death, creating an established fact.

This kind of thing has happened in more than one instance in history, and most of it has been carried over by the springtime, perhaps with a little more groping into being killed on the spot by an enraged populace.

Political struggles aren’t that complicated if the explanation works.

“Mr. Prime Minister, order the eviction of the demonstration crowd, or the situation will soon get out of hand!”

The one who spoke was Oppenheimer, the chief of the Vienna Police Department, who was under the most pressure after such a big event. Many people in the government thought that Metternich had lost his power, and by this time was already preparing the back way.

Unfortunately, while others can leave, he, the police chief, cannot escape. Once Metternich falls, he will have to roll with him, and maybe even be liquidated.

Metternich wandered for a few steps and finally made up his mind, “Order the city defense forces to disperse the crowd!”

Without waiting for his order to go out, the situation outside was already out of control. The revolutionaries mixed in the crowd found an opportunity to fire a shot at the soldiers who intercepted them, and by habitual reflex, the soldiers followed suit and pulled the trigger.

“The army is killing people!”

After a loud shout, the crowd was soon thrown into chaos fleeing in droves.

This time, there was no need to disperse the crowd, people themselves had dispersed.

Only the aftermath was very serious, except for a small part of the crowd, most of them knew that the army had shot and killed people.

As for the revolutionaries who provoked the strife, the truth was naturally covered up.

The angry masses, who were being lulled into starting a revolution at this time, and the capitalists who had managed to raise a portion of the weapons, were sent over at this time.

Some hot-blooded young men were selected, and the revolutionary armies were established, and that night the insurgents attacked the police precincts. The Vienna city government, which had already fallen to the revolutionaries, facilitated the rebels at this time.

When the guns of the revolution had sounded, the situation in Vienna soon got out of control, and the rottenness was always too much for the wall.

The city guards left behind lived up to their name, and after a brief firefight, the cowardly noble officers actually retreated and did not suppress the rebellion in the first place.

Vienna’s police, too, have become blinded by the city government’s fall, and are temporarily in a neutral position.

In a way, the uprising was also a palace coup, and some of the nobles, who had been trapped in the economic crisis, abandoned their class position and sided with the revolutionaries.

They attempted to reorganize the regime by revolutionary means, and by the way revolutionized the bankers to get rid of the debt crisis.

History changed. The insurgents seized the banks at the first opportunity and burned the IOUs, and the Austrian financial groups were in bloody luck.

In the face of the chaotic situation, Metternich’s chancellor panicked, the nobles panicked, the Council of Regents panicked, and the Viennese court also panicked.

The February Revolution in France has just passed, they are still watching the French joke, did not expect so soon the crisis spread to Vienna.

The French this is the second revolution, the last time has hit the aristocracy, serfdom has long been abolished, the privileges of the aristocracy no longer exist.

Austria this is just beginning, the aristocrats still have a lot of privileges, have a large pile of interests, this revolution is obviously aimed at them.

According to the French custom, they would probably be sent to the gallows, perhaps to be killed by the disordered soldiers. Prime Minister Metternich had long since lost his usual composure, and by this time he was at his wit’s end.

As a qualified backstabber, Metternich was the most odious man in the eyes of the public, and once he fell into the hands of the rebels, it was a question of how he would die.

A man in a tuxedo said anxiously, “Lord Duke, the carriage is ready, hurry up, if you’re late, it’ll be too late!”

Metternich was having a fierce struggle inside, he knew that at this time, he had become a target, and it was very dangerous to stay in Vienna.

But as a nobleman, he also had his own pride and was not willing to this as a deserter. As early as this morning, he sent his family away and stayed alone to deal with the situation in front of him.

“Holder, I ……”

Without waiting for Metternich to get his words out, Holder reacted, giving full play to the duties of a good butler, and commanded, “Several of you quickly send Lord Duke away!”

These guards were all Prime Minister Metternich’s vassals, and there was not the slightest question as to their loyalty, and at this time everyone could not care less.

Ignoring Prime Minister Metternich’s struggles, they forced him to stay in a dilapidated carriage and hurriedly left from Vienna. At the same time, there are also people set up his most commonly used carriage, toward the royal palace.

Loyalty in times of trouble, the time had come for the nobles’ vassals to take full advantage of the situation. Not only Prime Minister Metternich, but also many nobles chose to flee Vienna at this time.

Now the only safe place in Vienna is the palace, the vast majority of soldiers in the insurrectionary army, this is still to the emperor has the fear of the heart, they refused to attack the palace, the revolutionaries can not do anything.

Even within the revolutionary party, many people did not have the intention of overthrowing the Habsburgs, and most of them were actually reformers who joined the revolutionary party only after despairing of reform.

At this time, a large number of disorganized revolutionary armed forces, they even a unified leadership, it is too late to establish, have their own war.

The vast majority of the insurgents did not even have guns, and the weapons in their hands were so varied that it was as if they had traveled back in time to the Middle Ages.

Many ordinary people were not interested in the revolution, and there was no market for revolutionary ideas in Austria. After venting their anger, many people dispersed.

In order to strengthen their own ranks and to suppress the growing working class armies, the revolutionaries were desperate to recruit people, and the uprising that had just begun changed qualitatively, becoming a mixture of good and bad.

In the name of the liberation of political prisoners, for example, all the inmates of the Viennese prisons were released, and many vicious criminals were transformed into members of the revolutionary party.

Gangs and gangsters also came out to take advantage of the fire, murder, arson, robbery, rape and various styles of crime, constantly staged in Vienna.

The first to be hit were not the aristocrats, but ordinary Viennese citizens, small businessmen and the middle class.

The darkness of the night covered the endless evil, Vienna this international metropolis, in this night immersed in the sea of evil.

(End of chapter)