Chapter 170 Church Hospital Arsenal
Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.
Franz lay leisurely on Adjani's lap. Compared to Thalia, Adjani was more coaxing and gentle, and she could also sing.
Thalia was reading the newspaper for Franz, and the content was of course inseparable from the Spanish Civil War and the recent Second Turkish-Egyptian War.
The newspaper also devoted a lot of space to reporting on the persecution of Catholics in Serbia and Bosnia. Those people have been persecuted for more than a day or two. Why did they report it at this time? Of course it was Prince Metternich’s handiwork.
Prince Metternich fully agreed with Franz's proposal to exchange Ottoman land for Belgrade in Serbia.
After all, who can not love a wolf with nothing?
Belgrade, as the key to the Balkans, must be in the hands of Austria.
However, in order to avoid arousing Russia's anger and Ottoman's excessive vigilance, while Austria takes away Belgrade, it also needs to strengthen Serbia's strength, and even allow Serbian forces to surround Belgrade.
In addition, the purpose of this exchange was to increase the population of Croatia and control the Serbian population in Austria.
Although they were both Yugoslavs, the Catholic Croats were obviously more loyal to the empire than the Serbs.
Franz was not idle either. He opened an arsenal in Tyrol. Adjani was a little surprised as to why Franz chose the arsenal in Tyrol.
Tyrol had no industrial base and no market, and even if silver mining resumed, it was one of the poorest provinces in Austria. And the most important thing is that there are not enough gunmakers. You must know that it takes 3-5 years to train a qualified gunmaker.
Adjani didn't understand Franz's approach very much. She felt that this approach, which was almost a favor, was unnecessary.
Because Franz had donated money to schools, churches, and hospitals in Tyrol more than once before.
But in fact, Franz did not pay a penny for these donations. It was the church that paid.
Tyrol was a pilot region, dominated by Germans, but with a large Italian population and a small French presence (a by-product of the Napoleonic Wars).
Mission schools would forcibly promote German, but education was free and students would be provided with free lunches.
Franz wanted to know how strong the resistance would be to the forced introduction of German and where it would come from.
Can free education and free lunch attract poor people to study?
Theoretically speaking, it can definitely attract a lot of people under the banner of being free. In addition, it provides real benefits, so local people should flock to it.
There is also the issue of cost. Although free education can solve the problem of illiteracy in the short term, it has insufficient staying power and will put economic pressure on the country.
If education is treated as an industry, a new problem will soon arise, that is, all resources will inevitably flow to the powerful, and it will eventually become a game for the rich.
Then classes solidified, as they do now in Austria. Many nobles not only held official positions, but were also capitalists and received higher education.
Different from the historical stereotypes, the aristocrats of this period were generally well-educated and of high quality. They were not all fat-bellied, ignorant, deformed monsters.
If Doppler had not met Franz, he would still be working as a junior high school teacher. This is thanks to the fact that he was born into a family of masons who had money to support his education.
If Mendel had not received the generous support of a nobleman, he could only mow lawns for others with his father.
Hermann von Helmholtz was one of the greatest physicists in human history. In order to make a living, he planned to give up his beloved natural sciences, apply for Berlin Medical College, and prepare to serve for eight years to repay his tuition.
Franz only used a scholarship of 300 florins per year to trick him into Vienna. Of course, a job was also arranged for him. As soon as he graduated in 1843, he would enter the Royal Academy for Women in Vienna. By then, would he like to teach or work? The experiments are up to him.
In fact, not only his work, but also his life-long events, Franz had prepared them for him. And those noble women would not run away with him easily.
Anyway, historically this guy was practicing medicine while writing those physics masterpieces in his spare time. If you move to a place with a better academic atmosphere, there is no reason for it to become worse.
In fact, in addition to physics, this guy has also made major achievements in the fields of physiology, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, aesthetics and other fields while practicing medicine. Like the two mentioned before, he is a genius who is completely ahead of his time.
Since the time of Queen Theresa, education has been an important means of breaking down class barriers. Only mobility between classes can bring sufficient vitality to society.
The Spanish gold diggers were like this, the British pirates were like this, and the French who once challenged Europe alone were like this.
Next door, Osman Mahmud II had great vision, skill, and determination. He also had many loyal ministers and generals, and a large number of reformers emerged. However, he failed miserably.
The 19th century was an era of rapid progress. At this time, Franz could still be considered a genius, but in a dozen years he would only be at the level of an ordinary college student. A few decades later, he might be a high school student. Maybe he will survive.
So education would be a top priority for the Austrian Empire, and the experiments in Tirol and Chenla were just the beginning.
The mission hospital was prepared by Franz to spread Chinese medicine.
At this time, Western medicine was just in its infancy and was still very immature. Although great achievements had been made in fields such as surgery, some fields and medical ideas were still very backward.
Especially for some difficult and complicated diseases in the colonies, Western medicine methods were often useless, and it was not conducive to the spread of religion.
As for traditional Chinese medicine, something that cannot be explained at present, is exactly what the church is interested in.
"Nothing can better prove the existence of God than something that is effective and unclear, Amen!"
Compared with traditional Chinese medicine, the church has two huge advantages. One is trust, and the other is not hiding anything.
People's spiritual power is powerful. Sometimes even a bowl of talisman water with incense ash can save a person's life, let alone a decoction that can cure diseases.
If the rescuer and the rescued have the same beliefs, they will be more empathetic, the treatment process will be relatively smooth, and they can even provide each other with courage to overcome difficulties.
The concealment of traditional Chinese medicine has wiped out many unique skills discovered by chance, but the church does not have this trouble. Every priest who discovers a new drug is eager to name the drug after himself, so how can he conceal it?
"Look outside and inside, know the subtleties, and balance changes with constant changes." This sentence contains the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, and Franz printed it on every textbook for church doctors.
At the same time, when promoting traditional Chinese medicine, we must not forget that Western medicine can truly cure diseases.
Archbishop Rauscher was very interested in anything that could spread religion and gave great support to missionary schools and missionary hospitals.
As for those churches, Franz could only say that "in this painful era, the people need comfort even more."
Adjani felt that Franz's construction of the arsenal in Tyrol was expensive and laborious, and there was no market for it.
But in fact, in his future plans, the arsenal was not used for commercial profit, but belonged to a secret agency of the Austrian Empire.
Since it does not exist for profit (at least not yet), the weapons it produces will only be equipped with a small number of troops.
And Franz knows one thing very well: the more secretive the research and development of weapons, especially new weapons, is, the better.
Finally, from a security perspective, Tyrol's terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is a relatively loyal area. After all, it is an old area with a relatively strong public base.