Chapter 41: Handling of Prisoners of War

  Chapter 41 Handling Prisoners of War

Which expert came up with this idea, everyone very tacitly did not ask. Franz is not willing to admit that he proposed the “piece-rate system”, the people think that he has principles and is not willing to take credit for others.

In this era, the “piecework system” is undoubtedly progressive, can release more productivity, breaking the “grinding labor” tradition.

You should know that in this era, the capitalists in order to combat the “grinding labor”, the means used is extremely rough, the deduction of wages that is light.

More often than not, they were beaten up while their wages were being deducted, and not a few workers died every year because of this.

Especially in the mines, in order to stimulate everyone’s motivation, very often the capitalists would make an example of the workers, in order to deter others from working hard.

The government is obviously unable to learn these cruel methods, and Karl is worried that the government will lose money if it directly manages the enterprises, that is, he is worried about the emergence of large-scale “labor abrasion”.

There have been many cases of this kind in later times, where a state-owned enterprise, which had suffered serious losses, turned into a private enterprise, laid off half of its employees, and still managed to double its production capacity and instantly turn around its losses into profits.

……

“What are your plans for the sentencing of the prisoners?” Franz asked next

He decisively ignored the nobles and capitalists who participated in the rebellion, these people basically ran away pretty much, and the ones who were captured were dumbasses who didn’t have much of a head on their shoulders.

As the heads of this rebellion, there was no need for a trial at all, and they had all been taken care of during the suppression of the rebellion.

So to speak, as long as the rebels were middle and above officers, Franz was quick to kill them first.

Except for those who took the initiative to run out and surrender with their troops before a single shot was fired, all other rebel leaders platoon commanders and above received their boxed lunches.

Suppression of the rebellion only killed more than three thousand rebels, the next to be executed off the rebel leaders, actually also has more than two thousand people.

There is no way, the rebels are no human rights, as long as they are involved, the higher the status, the faster they die, on the contrary, the ordinary people have not been pursued too strictly.

Even the Cannon Party at the University of Vienna, which advocated for revolution, received a box this time, the army took over the campus, and anyone who joined the revolutionary party and advocated revolutionary ideas had only one outcome.

These orders were given by Franz, but the one who took the blame would certainly not be him, the cabinet had not yet been formed, and he issued orders in the name of the cabinet.

If historians are interested, they will realize that the issuer of these orders was the Prime Minister, and Franz, the Crown Prince, was anything but.

This is all a minor issue, this time the Viennese public was scourged, everyone hated the revolutionaries and no one would sympathize with them.

“Your Highness, this rebellion is too far-reaching, these captives must be severely punished as an example to deter the whole country!”

Archduke Louis’ eyes were red and he said furiously, as if he had an undying grudge against these people and could not wait to execute them all.

Not only him, but several other cabinet members all had the same expression.

It didn’t need to be said that Franz knew that the old aristocrats had many relatives, and those who hung up in this rebellion definitely had their friends and family.

If that was the case, it wasn’t intolerable, the point was that the rebels had also ransacked their homes, their belongings had been taken, and their loyal servants had been killed.

Even Archduke Louis’s youngest son, who was a step too slow to escape because of bad luck, was clicked by the rebels, which was the main reason he was so angry.

Before that, he also advocated a lenient sentencing of the rebels to appease the people and stabilize the domestic situation as soon as possible.

At this time, when the pain of losing a son was involved, everything was different. First, he advocated the execution of all the nobles involved in the rebellion at the meeting of the nobles, and at this time, he did not even want to spare the captives.

Franz was very clear about the causes and consequences of this rebellion, and even clearer about his own class position, so after capturing the nobles involved in the rebellion, he did not execute them at the first opportunity, but left it to the council of nobles.

The nobles participated in the rebellion, mostly because of the profit stimulation, in order to recover the loss, they did the most important work, in fact, still burned the bank data.

Not only Austria’s local financial institutions suffered heavily, even the Vienna branches of international banks did not escape.

The bosses behind these financial institutions were also the mainstay of those who advocated severe punishment of the insurgents, including the Vienna court.

The profits in the financial sector were so large that the Habsburgs, as the head of the Habsburg family, were not involved, and in fact many of the financial institutions in Austria had Habsburg family shares.

At this time want to recover the loss, obviously is impossible. For this reason Franz was in a hurry to form a cabinet, the main purpose is to let the cabinet to resist the pressure, to prevent the aristocrats to get back the loss.

After all, these are confiscated from the hands of the rebels, who is the original owner of the property is not clear, in addition to the real estate of the owner of the surface, other property Franz is ready to fill all the treasury.

If you send back the original owner, he guaranteed that all the spoils of war, will soon be divided up by the nobles, the greed of human nature Franz is not ready to test.

Franz thought for a moment and said: “It is necessary to severely punish the rebels, but most of these prisoners are workers, it is better to let them return to the factory to continue to create value for us.

Depending on the severity of the case, a fine will be imposed and they will be allowed to go to work in the factories to pay with their wages, and they will not be allowed to go free until the fine is paid off.”

It was the lightest punishment he could fight for, no one would have a problem with money, and there was no way the cabinet would refuse so much free labor.

“This is a good way, we can’t possibly kill all of them with so many people, might as well utilize the waste!” Finance Minister Karl was the first to concur

With the Vienna Rebellion together, there were more places that needed to use money, any suggestion that could increase the financial revenue, he was in favor of.

“It’s fine, but what about the stubborn elements in here? What if they sabotage amongst the factories?” Archduke Louis said reluctantly

“This is simple, we can adopt the guilt by association system, divide them into groups and let the workers supervise and report to each other, and those who report with merit can have their sentences reduced.

If no one reports and gets caught, all of them will be sent to the mines together.” Finance Minister Karl said with a sneer

Franz couldn’t help but want to nod his head, in fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that there would be a series of rebellions coming up in Austria, he would be ready to send these prisoners to dig mines and build railroads.

Considering that there might be more captives in the future, and that these people weren’t recalcitrant and had surrendered quickly at his call, only then did he get the lightest punishment for them.

“If there are no better suggestions from everyone, then this matter is settled!” Franz said calmly

(End of Chapter)