Chapter 554: Acting Confused

  Chapter 542: Acting Confused

The winds of the Balkans did not affect Franz’s mood. Even the fact that the rebel group was terminated didn’t attract his attention.

After being an emperor for so many years, he had seen many big storms. Didn’t someone who wanted to rebel get suppressed before they even started?

This kind of thing Franz was used to, almost every few years, there would be a few that couldn’t think of anything else that wanted to die. Usually they are suppressed by the police, even if the occasional rebel flag, will soon be extinguished by the local feudal forces.

Almost all the feudal remnants were very wary of revolution, and things had changed in Austria since the shots of 1848.

Anyone could put down a rebellion, and it was just to do so, no matter when or for what reason. Even if it resulted in accidental injury, there was no fear of being held accountable.

General Butcher could even be promoted to Field Marshal and was able to hold a state funeral after his death, and public opinion in Austria had been turned around.

This change naturally mobilized the motivation of the people underneath, suppressing the rebellion is a great achievement, there is no need to worry about being held accountable. There was no need to worry about reprisals. Since he was a feudal emperor, it was only natural that the whole family would suffer if one person revolted.

Due to the influence of the environment, the Austrian revolutionary groups had moved into overseas activities, almost cut off from the domestic.

Warriors who dared to return to the country to make things happen, I do not know to which corner to add bricks and mortar to the construction of the country, it is unlikely that the death of the Vienna government will not even have a record.

The government didn’t keep records, the intelligence organizations certainly did. As an emperor who wants to face, Franz also does not want to see the history books record: hanged the rebel party millions of words.

This is not a joke, so many years of emperor career, Franz killed by the rebel party even if there is not a million, but also not close to a lot. Otherwise, how can Austria be stabilized?

The Balkan Peninsula, which was a powder keg, did not explode; the Lombardy and Venetia, which had always wanted to be independent, did not move; and Hungary, which was active and rowdy, became the most stable place in the empire.

Behind the stability, naturally, there was no shortage of swords. After cleansing these dangerous places over and over again, taking out all the ambitious and stupid people who wanted to rebel, and replacing them with a new group of ruling class, the country was truly stabilized.

In some ways, the Revolution of 1848 gave Austria a chance to be reborn. Taking advantage of the suppression of the rebellion, Franz was able to change the ruling class.

The Balkan turmoil did not affect Austria, and Franz could naturally read the newspaper at his leisure, while Alexander II in St. Petersburg could not sit still.

Greek coup, Alexander II does not care, that is Austria’s sphere of influence. Bulgarian rebellion, it is not up to him to watch the fun.

Geographically speaking, Bulgaria is far from the heart of the Empire, belonging to the dispensable kind. But next door there is Constantinople, all of a sudden improved the status of Bulgaria.

Tsarist government has a special affection for Constantinople, so many years Alexander II did not less in the city on the investment, to this day Constantinople has been reborn from the fire of war.

By virtue of its geographic location, Constantinople once again became the largest and most prosperous city in the Near East, and a major source of revenue for the Tsarist government.

The outbreak of rebellion in Bulgaria was bound to affect the stability of Constantinople, and if it was not quickly extinguished, the flames of war might burn over.

Throwing the battle report in his hand to the table, Alexander II growled: “All are a bunch of rice buckets, a division of troops actually can’t beat a group of rabble, it’s simply a disgrace …….”

There was no doubt that the situation on the front line was very bleak. A Russian infantry division ran through to suppress the rebellion, only to be beaten by the rebels.

Minister of War Kafokis lowered his head and waited for Alexander II to finish cursing before explaining, “Your Majesty, this Bulgarian rebel army is not simple.

According to the intelligence received from the front line, the enemy is a regular army, and despite still being young, it is still well organized, with none of the chaos of an ordinary rebel army.

There must be someone behind this, or else their weaponry, and officers could not have fallen from the sky.”

Kafokis wasn’t lying, the Bulgarian rebels were indeed behaving somewhat like the regular army. Only instead of relying on outsider support, they had it themselves.

There’s also a credit to the Russians, who recruited tons of Bulgarian partisans as cannon fodder during the Near East War. The unlucky ones who died passed away with the wind, and those who survived became veterans, and many of the top partisans morphed into qualified officers.

When the war was over, these people naturally discharged their armor and returned to their homes. The tsarist government was poor and could not even settle its own people, so the treatment of these privates was even worse, with a symbolic bounty paid out.

Except for a few high-ranking officers, who received benefits, most of the partisans did not have much to gain, and naturally did not have a favorable impression of the tsarist government.

In the end, most of the promised land distribution fell into the hands of the Russian aristocrats stationed in Constantinople, and many Bulgarian people were once again reduced to serfdom.

After Alexander II’s reforms, the land problem was only solved by opening up the land. If no one messed up, the people’s hearts were stabilized.

Unfortunately, nationalistic ideas had already proliferated in Bulgaria, and a flurry of lulling by the revolutionaries galvanized the discontent in the hearts of these guerrilla veterans, and many of them revolutionized in a daze.

The Near East War is only a dozen years old, most of these people are only thirty or forty years old, and still resistant to fighting with guns. With these backbones, and then recruited a group of young and strong, the Bulgarian insurgent army is shocked out.

Weapons and equipment, part of the Russian army left behind, part of the Bulgarian “patriotic merchants” sponsored.

The fighting strength of the rebel army may not be stronger than the Russian army, but the morale of the army must be higher than the Russian army. The Russians who went to quell the rebellion were unlucky enough to be caught in the wave of the highest morale of the insurgents.

If they fought a few battles or dragged on for a while, the morale they had built up because of their dissatisfaction with the Tsarist government would be almost deflated, and then the rebels would be the best ones to deal with.

Provided, of course, that the rebels are not allowed to win. If they win a few more times and convince them that victory is just around the corner and that an independent Bulgaria will be established soon, it will probably be even more violent.

Alexander II glared at him fiercely, ”I don’t want to listen to this nonsense, no matter what use there is, the rebels must be extinguished immediately.

If someone is messing up bring out the person behind the scenes to me, instead of reporting and complaining to me here, do you want me to find the person behind the scenes in person?”

Minister of War Kafokis was helpless, finding out who is behind the scenes is not his specialty, if he wants to ask, he should also ask the intelligence department!

Well, the tsarist government did not pay enough attention to the intelligence work, did not spend a lot of effort to build, intelligence organizations are also very decentralized, and more part-time.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had an intelligence team, the Ministry of Police had an intelligence team, and the Ministry of War also had an intelligence team. The division of authority was not clear, and was often determined by the will of the chief officer.

“Your Majesty, the information we have received is very vague, there are too many suspected countries.

The merchant who supplied the Bulgarians with weapons and equipment came from the Ottoman Empire, so logically, the Sudanese government is highly suspicious. However, the Bulgarians and the Ottoman Empire have a deep enmity, and it is impossible for the two sides to cooperate.

We inspected the weapon system and found that all the weapons are of Austrian standard, and besides us, Austria, Greece, Montenegro and the German Federal Republic are also equipped with some of these weapons.

These small countries can be ruled out as unlikely to have masterminded this conspiracy, and the Austrians are not a small suspect. However, we have just joined forces with the Vienna government to attack the Ottoman Empire, they should not lay their hands on us at this time.

Later we investigated the source of funds of these merchants and found that it was provided by a French bank. But the French didn’t have to stir up trouble, and without enough benefits, it didn’t make sense for them to support the Bulgarian Revolutionary Party.”

Hearing this explanation, Alexander II also felt dizzy. They were all suspects, and they were all able to disprove them, so who knew who the real black hand was?

Foreign Minister Chris Basham differently asked, “Why are there no British?”

No wonder Chris Basham was surprised, usually this kind of thing, shouldn’t all the big countries be withdrawn into it, how come the British were missing?

Kafokis explained, “It’s not that there aren’t any, it’s just that the suspicion is relatively small, and the ship responsible for the transportation is British. The ship departed from the Ottoman port of Karasu and was delivered directly to the port of Burgas to be handed over to the rebels.

The British, French and Austrians are all involved, the merchant who supplied the Bulgarians with weaponry has disappeared, and we at the War Ministry are really not in a position to make a judgment.”

It was a muddled account, full of suspicions and smoke and mirrors. Only this arms aid reveals more information than the first aid.

Alexander II slammed the table and made a decision, “Continue the covert investigation, and at the same time announce to the public that this Bulgarian rebellion was planned by the Ottoman Empire, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sends a note to the Sudanese government to hold them responsible for it.”

Persimmon to find soft pinch, now the Russian Empire has no former hegemony, the time to pretend to be confused, have to pretend to be confused.

The best result would be for the real culprit to become the Ottoman Empire, or else it would be traced to Britain, France or Austria, what would you have the Tsarist government do?

Of course the secret investigation, figure out who the enemy is, is equally important, only can not lift the lid, lest the situation to make it impossible to end.

Not only are the Russians investigating, but the Austrian Intelligence Organization is not idle either. Ever since the Black Hand supported the Bulgarian rebels for the second time, a lot of things couldn’t be hidden.

First of all, such large quantities of arms could not have left no traces, and it was soon established that they came from the Field Arsenal.

Originally used by the Austrian Army, it was decommissioned a month or so ago, then sold to a Dekras arms dealer and flowed into Bulgaria through the Ottoman Empire.

In this day and age arms exports were not as strict, especially with common weapons such as second-hand rifles, and did not need to be scrutinized at all.

But to be able to complete a series of operations in such a short period of time, it was obvious that some power had been used. Once these things were checked, many things were exposed.

Looking at the intelligence in his hands, Franz couldn’t help but mourn for the Russians. It was fine to find out the real culprit, but if he did, it was estimated that the Tsarist government would not be able to sleep.

The British led the way and were responsible for contacting the transportation, the French provided the money, and the Austrian capitalists were responsible for providing the arms.

Well, the real contribution is still the British, the total price of this batch of arms are less than 100,000 guilders, to the financial predators is not worth mentioning.

Capital without borders is reflected in this, Franz secretly increased vigilance, decided to strengthen the monitoring of private capital.

It seems that in this operation, the Austrian capitalists were involved in very little, nothing more than the promotion of this arms deal, from beginning to end there is only a cannon fodder arms dealer launched.

But if you dig deeper, you will find that someone has already hooked up with the British and French capital. Although this kind of thing Franz had expected, but still feel uncomfortable.

Austria is undercapitalized, and in the process of development used the British and French capital, the capital world has a connection is inevitable.

Now for the sake of profit, they can quietly cooperate with the British without a word, then in the future, when they encountered a greater interest in betraying Austria, it is estimated that they will not care.

Of course, things are two-sided, the British can buy Austrian capitalists, Franz can likewise buy British capitalists, the loyalty of this group has always been the lowest.

Vigilant as he was, Franz still didn’t take any targeted action except for increased surveillance of the big capitalists.

In any case, it was still within the rules. Good arms dealers sold weapons to their enemies, and the fact that they hadn’t offered delivery directly to the Bulgarian insurgents proved that it could still be salvaged.

(End of chapter)