Chapter 34: The Panicked Archdukes
Chapter 34: The Panicked Archdukes
In the Hofburg Palace, after receiving the news, a group of royal archdukes were anxiously thinking about countermeasures. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to run, but they couldn’t run anymore.
Before the situation got out of hand, the Vienna court was holding a secret meeting to consider whether or not to remove Prime Minister Metternich and calm the anger of the people.
As a result, the sudden pandemonium broke many people’s deployment. Now that there are rebels everywhere outside, they don’t dare risk leaving.
The lesson of the French Revolution had taught them that the rebels didn’t care about noble status and nobility, what they killed was the nobility.
In fact, at this time, as long as the palace guards go out to quell the rebellion, there is still a great possibility that the rebellion will be extinguished in the cradle.
Unfortunately, there is not even one noble who dares to take the responsibility, wasting the opportunity for nothing.
Emperor Ferdinand I’s attitude, can already be ignored, suddenly suffered such a big stimulus, this moment epilepsy again, can not count on him to make decisions.
No one wants to take the blame, Empress Anna is not stupid, she has never liked to participate in politics, this time naturally will not take a position.
Grand Duke Franz Karl, whose status was second only to the Emperor, was also pale with fear at this time, and it was obviously impossible for him to make a decision.
The only somewhat capable Archduke Louis, also not capable of coping with this kind of big scene, otherwise in the Regency Council would not have been suppressed by Prime Minister Metternich.
“The message has been sent out, in two days at most, the city defense forces will return to quell the rebellion, order the guards to hold on and wait for help!”
Archduke Louis, who was frowning, finally made a decision that was not a decision.
Abandon Vienna and escape?
This consequence no one can bear, the Archduke Louis likewise can not afford.
Once give up Vienna, the impact will be big, maybe the Habsburg family and the French royal family of Orleans as a companion, together with the exile.
At this time, everyone looked at the child-like Ferdinand I, everyone felt the future is not “bright”.
If Ferdinand I is a normal person, this can also be summoned to negotiate with the rebel leader, after all, most of the rebels in the city is under the banner of the emperor’s uprising.
After all, most of the rebels in the city were revolting under the Emperor’s banner. Using political means, some of the rebels could still be brought together, and the later things would be easier to do.
They thought of themselves as being able to fight politically, and would not lose to a bunch of thugs. As long as it was within the rules, everyone would have to have a way to deal with it.
This is a good thing for Franz, for their own interests, the nobles now need a capable monarch, to recreate the majesty of the monarch to protect their rights.
……
News of the Vienna Rebellion had already reached Franz, just a day’s work later than the government’s order.
“Albrecht, something has happened in Vienna, on March 7 the demonstrating pairs clashed with the army that intercepted them, and that night a rebellion broke out in Vienna.”
Hearing this news, Albrecht’s face changed, and he hurriedly asked, “What is the situation now, has the rebellion been suppressed?”
Franz shook his head and said, “We don’t know yet. But the likelihood of the rebellion being suppressed is very small, Prime Minister Metternich is already old, and there is no one in the Vienna government who has that kind of commitment!”
The Austrian Empire was old, and no one was willing to bear the consequences of suppressing the rebellion.
The Emperor could not preside normally, and whoever made this decision would mean the end of his political life, or perhaps prison.
This is not only from the enemies of the smear, but also from the internal attack, what hitman, butcher and so on to be a pile of charges on the head.
In this case, in order to avoid becoming a scapegoat, in the beginning of the outbreak of rebellion, many people will be afraid to order a bloody crackdown.
Basically, they have to wait until things get big and everyone realizes the threat before the conservatives can make a concerted effort to suppress it.
This is a commonality of the old European empires. Take the Paris revolution for example, the death toll was only in the single digits, which is not a revolution, but clearly a village-sized armed struggle.
The March Revolution in Vienna was more or less the same, the casualties caused by the firefight between the rebels and the government forces were definitely not as many as those caused by the hooligans taking advantage of the fire.
A lot of history books call the army sympathetic to the revolution and neutral in it, when in fact there was no one to give them orders to suppress it at all.
In this era, “transportation relied on walking, communication relied on yelling”, information transmission was very inconvenient, there was no order to suppress the initial stage, when the rebellion became big, want to suppress even the order could not be passed down.
This is European politics, the bottom officers do not dare to make the decision to suppress the rebellion to be reported to the layers, waiting for the Cabinet to make a decision, and when they make a decision to the yellow flowers and vegetables are cold.
Albrecht sighed, looked in the direction of Vienna, helplessly said, “Then we will speed up!”
“No need! According to the current speed, the day after tomorrow morning, we can arrive in Vienna, even if we speed up, it’s impossible for us to launch an attack during the night!
Vienna won’t fall so quickly, there are still so many policemen and 5,000 city guards in the city, even if they’re all trash delaying the time, there should be no problem, right?
Besides, there’s still the palace guards, there’s no problem holding the palace!” Franz explained
Marching all night long is impossible, the troops must maintain enough stamina, otherwise how can they ensure combat effectiveness?
Although Franz’s military command ability is only average, he still understands the principle that “a tired army cannot fight”.
Albrecht wanted to accelerate the speed, the main reason is also in the political factors. Originally, the city defense force went out to train, resulting in the Vienna rebellion was not suppressed in time, he this city defense force commander to take the blame.
Now that he had gotten the news and had not rushed back as fast as he could, he was politically tainted again.
All of these responsibilities will be borne by him as the commander of the city defense force, and Franz is half of the relationship, who let him be the commander-in-chief?
These problems Franz also know, but now he can not risk, steady and stable to suppress the rebellion, is the most important.
The problem of taking the blame, which subordinate does not take a few black pots for the leader?
“But, right now the rebel party is still a bunch of rabble, if time passes I’m afraid it will become a climate, then it won’t be easy to fight!” Albrecht thought about it and said
“Albrecht, don’t worry about this. The rebel party is a group of temporary cobbled together rabble, with a lot of internal contradictions, it will never be able to be integrated so quickly!” Franz said with confidence
(End of chapter)