Chapter 107 Bavarian Mutual Aid Association
Schönbrunn Palace, Madame Sophie's palace.
"Seven thousand people? How come there are so many." Mrs. Sophie looked very surprised. You must know that although the number of people in Vienna at this time was much larger than that at the same time in history, there were only less than 500,000.
London, the largest city in this era, had a population of two million, followed by Paris with 800,000, and Vienna with 500,000. Berlin at this time had only 300,000 people. A gang of 7,000 people was really an exaggeration.
"In order to ensure the loyalty of those people, you asked the whole family to join. Now it's better. This group of people is like mice moving endlessly. They have called all the relatives from Bavaria, plus the gang members who defected to us. , it’s difficult even if you don’t think too much.”
Xussel smiled and handed a document to Madam Sophie. Madam Sophie looked at it twice and became even more worried.
"Why did you lose so much? I clearly told you to restrain yourself."
"Mom, do you plan to be the boss?"
"Franz, why are you here?"
Franz's appearance startled Mrs. Sophie, and the maid on the side could only look at Mrs. Sophie with a very embarrassed look and said something.
"I'm sorry, Archduke Franz didn't let me inform you, I."
"Mother, I have something to tell you."
Mrs. Sophie said as she glanced around the room.
"Everyone, please go out. I have something to say to Archduke Franz."
The maids in the room immediately bowed and left. Count Xussel stood at the door and looked at Mrs. Sophie.
Mrs. Sophie waved her hand, and Count Xussel exited the door and closed the door.
Before Franz could speak, Mrs. Sophie picked up Franz and put him on her lap as if showing off, and then handed him two documents.
"My little monster, please help me think about how to deal with this matter first."
Franz looked at the data on the two documents, and combined it with the information he got from Thalia, he knew why Mrs. Sophie was worried.
"Mother, your Bavarian gang should have been called the Bavarians Mutual Aid Committee."
Mrs. Sophie thought about it, and it seemed that it was called this name, but at that time it was a micro-organization with only a few dozen people. Her wish at that time was to expand the organization to 200 people.
Times have changed, and the current scale has far exceeded the limits of her control.
Seeing that Mrs. Sophie did not speak, Franz continued.
“What you should be providing is a platform, not keeping them together like pets.”
Although Franz's words were unpleasant, Mrs. Sophie's current state was like a little girl raising a hamster for the first time, facing so many baby hamsters that she couldn't raise but was reluctant to throw them away.
“Franz, what do you mean by platform?”
"That is, you should build an intermediary platform to allow information, resources, personnel, etc. to flow freely and be combined reasonably, instead of over-interfering like you do. In order to maintain this organization and this platform, you can consider charging them membership fees." Franz said.
Mrs. Sophie was not an idiot. She knew what to do as soon as Franz said it, but with a woman's intuition, she knew that there was something in Franz's words.
"Franz, what you want to say can be said now."
"Mom, what's going on with Miss Adjani? I think she's weird. What is her identity?"
"Your attendant, you weren't staring at people at the ball. I just fulfilled a small dream for you." Mrs. Sophie teased with a smile.
"Mother, I want to know who she is." Franz said seriously.
Mrs. Sophie put away her smile and stood up, walked to a cabinet, pulled out a stack of documents and threw them to Franz.
"It contains her height, weight, body measurements, life history and everything you want to know."
Franz just glanced at it twice before putting down the document in his hand.
"Mother, why did you bring such a dangerous person in?"
"Franz, don't worry, that is in the past, and now she works for our family."
"But, what if she betrays you?"
"It's okay, you still have two younger brothers."
"."
"Aren't you always looking for help? I think Miss Talia can help you, and by the way, she can also help me monitor you. I'm wrong, she is helping me to watch you and don't do stupid things."
"."
"Why don't you tell me why you are hoarding so much food and involving the entire royal family." Madam Sophie asked the biggest question in her mind.
"Mother, it is impossible to have a good harvest of food every year. There is a saying that things will turn to the extreme. A long-term good harvest makes people forget the pain of hunger, but God will not forget the suffering that mankind deserves."
Faced with a devout believer like Mrs. Sophie, Franz could only bring out God. He could not tell Mrs. Sophie that he was actually a time traveler. He knew that there would be a great famine in Central and Eastern Europe before 1840, but because he could not remember It’s the Qing Dynasty, so I have to prepare in advance.
"Well, Franz, I hope God bless you to be right, otherwise the entire Habsburg family will be bankrupted by you." Mrs. Sophie said.
"It's not like we haven't been bankrupt before. It has always been a fine tradition of our family to not pay back money we owe. You have to stick to it, and you are the only one who will go bankrupt, because you have mortgaged all your properties. I didn't, and neither did Archduke Karl. "
Franz found it very interesting, but Mrs. Sophie didn't like it very much, so she simply grabbed Franz's face.
"That won't work. You have to find a way out."
"Love mother, you hurt me. This world has been peaceful for too long. Everyone is ready to make a move. Sooner or later, these grains will come in handy.
Especially the Mexicans. They have the largest silver mine in the world, but their agriculture cannot support themselves. The only two options before them are to spend money to buy food or continue to fight the civil war. "
Far East, Kabul.
King Dost of Afghanistan was receiving the British envoy. At this time, Afghanistan had just lost the important southern town of Peshawar to the Sikh state, one of the Indian princes.
The British were the biggest enemies of the Sikhs in India. At this time, the British had controlled most of India, and even the Sikh Empire had to bow to the British.
The British hope to join forces with Dost to fight against Russia, because Russia's power in Central Asia has approached Afghanistan, and the British are very wary of anything that may threaten British India.
But Dost hoped to get the British to support him in retaking Peshawar, but the British refused on the pretext that they were not ready to fight the Sikhs.
Later, the Russian envoy also came to Kabul. In order to bring the two countries closer, the Russian envoy expressed support for Dost to regain Peshawar.
In fact, the three parties all wanted to be a free hand, but this time the verbal promise of a free hand was exaggerated by some people, saying that Russia was preparing to attack India through Afghanistan.
At this time, the British Governor of India could not sit still and immediately wrote to the country, requesting that troops be sent to occupy Kabul before Russia.
As a result, Britain suffered the most tragic defeat after the Napoleonic Wars.