Chapter 386: A Multi-Purpose Act
Chapter 376: A Multi-Purpose Effort
While the rebellions in Milan and Venice were suppressed, the Austrian Empire began another crackdown on law and order, with a large number of members of independent organizations being arrested in the Hungarian region, followed by many more cults being smashed.
In just one month, the number of arrests exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand, which frightened Franz to call a halt. If it continued to expand, it was going to affect the economic development of the country.
Still, individuals and social groups suspected of being involved in the rebellion and having independent tendencies did not manage to escape.
Originally, the bottom was not clean, the charge as long as the government wants to find, there is no fear of not being able to find. As a key target, this group of people are not even qualified for exile in the colonies, to all enter the road building army.
The plan for more than 90,000 kilometers of railroads could be more than just a plan. Times are progressing, and plans that were pie-in-the-sky a few years ago are now feasible.
With the rapid development of the economy, many railroad lines that originally had no economic value have turned around. The Austrian railroads, after more than a decade of losses, have finally turned the corner.
Only this time, the largest shareholder has become the Vienna government. The original contract signed with the government, naturally still need to fulfill, the essence of the bundled business has never changed.
As of 1865, the total mileage of the railroads in the new Holy Roman Empire had reached 58,000 kilometers, at the cost of free laborers fell one after another.
Under normal circumstances, there simply weren’t that many criminals, and the number of people joining the road-building army each year was nowhere near enough to keep up with the consumption.
After the Revolution of 1848, the number of laborers once exceeded the four hundred and fifty thousand mark, and then it declined year by year to less than one hundred thousand now.
After all, not any criminals will be sent inside, basically as long as it does not involve rebellion, sentenced to less than five years of imprisonment, most of them are exiled from the colony.
Into the road building army is still mainly felons, these people social harm is relatively large, exile colonies are hidden dangers, or unified management of good.
Franz will not throw political prisoners and nationalists into the colonies, God knows whether these people will cause trouble in the colonies?
In case these messy ideas were brought into the colonies, wouldn’t it increase the cost of ruling? This kind of self-inflicted suffering was something Franz would never do.
But with the exception of the Revolution of 1848, there were fewer of these dangerous elements back there. Those who entered the road-building army also ceased to be rebels and became common felons, and the number dropped at once.
Only ten thousand or so were added to it every year, and it was not enough to keep up with the consumption. This is not that the builders are abusing the laborers without regard to the casualties, in fact, this kind of free labor force is very much liked by everyone.
The main thing is that medical technology is limited in this day and age, don’t expect the Vienna government to be extravagant enough to give criminals doctors. If you get sick and survive, you survive, if you don’t, you meet God early.
Austria’s life expectancy has just passed the 40-year-old mark, and most of them are adults before going to prison, after more than ten years of prison life, how many of them can survive?
In order to solve the shortage of cheap labor and reduce the cost of railroad construction, last year the Ministry of Railways proposed to the government to bring in bonded laborers from Africa, only to be stopped by Franz.
In order not to lift a stone to hit his own feet, this kind of thing with endless consequences, Franz never do.
To a certain extent, this rebellion not only solved the internal hidden danger and contributed to the long-term stability of Austria, but also solved the problem of the shortage of cheap labor in railroad construction.
Compared with this, the wealth gained from the plagiarism is not worth mentioning. Now Austria is not the same poor country, some money is nothing.
The review continues, except for Lombardy, Venetia as the outbreak of the rebellion, to deal with a little simpler, the other areas are involved in the personnel, we need tangible evidence to be punished.
As the institution of the rules, Franz was likewise the rule-follower. When the situation has been finalized, he will naturally act in accordance with the rules.
But the members of the Hungarian Independence Organization and the Italian revolutionaries, all of whom were proper rebels, did not need to be investigated in depth at all.
Either they were clicked off or thrown into the road-building army to labor for life. Undoubtedly, now that there is a shortage of people for the construction of railroads, they naturally dodged a bullet and didn’t need to eat it.
The main thing is that the mastermind who led the rebellion let go, the rest can be counted as coercion, for the sake of everyone’s happy cooperation, naturally there is no need to cut off all the people.
If there is a need in the future, we can do it again. Politics is supposed to be all-encompassing, and fishing for law enforcement is just a much more clever tactic than directly planting evidence.
Prime Minister Felix said: ”Your Majesty, this Milan rebellion killed 461 rebels and arrested 2986 rebels; the Venice rebellion killed 296 rebels and arrested 3128 rebels, so it can be said to be a brilliant war.
Regrettably, the leaders of the thieves are all at large, and we have only captured a few minor players, and have not been able to completely eliminate the Hungarian Independence Organization.
Most of the arrested rebels were Italian mercenaries, about 2,518 of them were cross-border criminals, and another 864 were local mercenaries.
The remaining 2,000 or so rebels were mostly providing financial and intelligence support to the revolutionaries. The influx of so many mercenaries into the area was also provided by these people as cover.”
Without a doubt, this was a cover-up. Throwing all the black pots on the rebel party, the Vienna government’s borrowing of the knife will be buried in history forever.
After this battle, no one in the Austro-Italian region dared to go against the Vienna government any more. The few who escaped from the net appeared in the newspaper as the merit of reporting the rebel party.
Even for the sake of their own lives, they had to defend the Austrian rule. If the Austrian Italian regions really became independent, how could they, the traitors, have a good life?
Traitors are always more detestable than enemies, this is a truth that cuts across both East and West. Any Italian regional revolutionary party organization stood against them.
It’s the price of reporting, and there’s always a need to take responsibility for wrongdoing. Since you did something stupid in front of you, you have to pay the price now.
A mere letter of denunciation is no proof of loyalty. Only by becoming traitors to the revolutionaries and tying themselves to the chariots of the Viennese government would they be considered finished.
Franz said calmly: “Let the judiciary convict them as soon as possible, and then send them into the road repair army, the railway ministry not only once reported the lack of manpower, don’t let them wait.
And what about the other regions? I remember over a hundred thousand arrests this time, and that’s only a fraction of what’s happened to the other hundred thousand?”
Prime Minister Felix explained, “Your Majesty, the arrests of over 100,000 suspects were not all suspected of rebellion.
It’s still in the process of reviewing the evidence, and a large portion of them weren’t for rebellion, they were arrested by the police because they were found to have other problems.
In addition to the Italian region, which is the hardest hit, in the Hungarian region we have arrested more than two hundred core members of independent organizations and more than five hundred people suspected of rebellion.
Since the Hungarian rebellion was suppressed by us before it was launched, it will take some time to review the issue of conviction.
In the rest of the country, a total of 183 suspected insurgents have been arrested, and the charges have not yet been formalized because the evidence is not very strong.”
This explanation caused Franz to breathe a sigh of relief, if there were really that many people wanting to rebel, his kingdom would be unstable.
As it turned out, the rebels were only a minority. This was still the result of fishing for law enforcement, otherwise the number could have gone down a bit.
Taking a closer look, after deducting the mercenaries who were held hostage, there were only two to three thousand dangerous people who were inclined towards the rebel party, which was not at all the same concept as the total number of people arrested.
These people do not necessarily want to rebel, most of them are being rebelled. It was only because they had been led astray in their political thinking that they stood in opposition to the Vienna government.
Franz thought for a moment and said, “Then continue the investigation of this group of suspects according to the original plan, and do everything according to the law.”
……
(End of chapter)