Chapter 705 Adriatic Tsunami
On June 16, 1846, Pius IX became the new pope.
Same day, Austrian Empire, Port of Venice.
Benito Adams is a boatman. He is particularly irritable today because the boat parked on the shore keeps rocking.
The good mood from last night's harvest had disappeared, replaced by rage caused by lack of sleep.
"Achelli! Damn it, don't let those little things jump around on the boat! Go and sell things for me! It's rare to get so much! If you get it in my hands, I'll beat your ass!"
No one answered, but the boat kept rocking.
Benito finally couldn't bear it anymore and stood up, ready to deal with the ungrateful woman.
But when he got up, he found that his wife and children had already dragged their catch to set up a stall on the pier.
Benito, who had nowhere to vent, had to take another sip of "yellow soup" and prepare to go back to sleep.
With the arrival of the Sicilians, the lives of northern Italians were seriously affected. Originally, fishermen like Benito who owned boats could be considered a petty bourgeoisie.
He usually goes fishing, and occasionally takes a few guests to visit the water town. His wife and children work as beggars next to the monastery. He and his friends can drink in the tavern every day until they are drunk.
(Sicilians here generally refer to Italians outside Northern Italy. At that time, many people had never even left their hometown, let alone visited other countries.)
But as the Austrian Empire opened itself up to trade, a massive influx of capital and immigrants, coupled with the establishment of several large shipyards, increased Venice's population sevenfold.
This is a registered legal citizen. In fact, the customs at that time had no problem checking the goods, but the officials who checked the people were really not interested. What's more, the people above didn't want to check, so the officials below would naturally not find trouble.
The large number of Sicilian ships overwhelmed the entire Venice. The technological innovation of the national shipyard caused the price of various civilian ships to plummet, including ultra-small fishing boats.
As a result, Benito could catch fewer and fewer fish in the offshore. Later, it was difficult to catch too many fish even in farther seas. In the end, he could only go fishing in the distant sea when it was dark.
His luck was extremely good last night. Fish and shrimps jumped into his net desperately. Thinking that he would soon have money, he could go to the pub and have fun, and he couldn't help but chuckle.
What Benito didn't know was that the water was turning white, and there was so much foam that one suspected that the washerwoman was wasting soap on purpose.
At this time, the Port of Venice has already undergone two small-scale expansions. In fact, it is not that it does not want large-scale expansion, but the upper limit of the port itself is too low to expand.
This was one of the important reasons why Franz had to ask Friedrich to move the headquarters of the Austrian Imperial Navy to Trieste.
However, the port of Venice was still booming at this time. Due to a series of economic and political reforms, the port had a second spring.
Hundreds of boats compete for water in the crowded waterway. The porters on the dock are as densely packed as ants, loading and unloading goods from all over the world every day. The mountains of goods on the trestle make people sweat.
Businessmen and tourists came to the port's trading area in batches, and shopkeepers hawked their goods hard.
In the port authority, some distinguished gentlemen concluded some large-scale trades while talking and laughing. The tavern was filled with the stench of blood, urine, and sweat, and laborers and sailors bragged to each other about their experiences.
In the invisible corners, dirty and terrible transactions have never stopped.
Even eight years after the "New Anti-Slave Trade Act" signed by the Austrian Empire and the German principalities, some people are still full of illusions about Britain and the New World, and human traffickers from Britain, France, the United States, and Pakistan have never given up coming to dig up slaves. The foundation of the Austrian Empire.
During this era, Italy and Germany had always been major exporters of population. In addition to immigrants to the colonies, most of the immigrants were indentured servants. Of course, there were exceptions such as wealthy craftsmen and scholars.
People in cafes could pick up a newspaper and read the news about Louis Bonaparte's escape from prison. The Orleans Dynasty tried their best to cover up this disastrous news, but reporters from other countries always got the information they wanted.
One day in May, Louis Bonaparte escaped from prison, but various countries followed up and reported on the incident in order to disgust the French. Even now, the popularity of this news has not diminished.
What's more, Franz hired a bunch of novelists to serialize them in newspapers, covering everything from detective, suspense, romance, and fantasy epics.
Franz also used his spare time to write a nineteenth-century version of the Holy Grail War, naturally located in Paris.
"The evil Napoleon family, even if those warriors die, they will be forced to work!"
While reading the serialized article, Mr. Brian slammed the cup on the table. The coffee in the cup splashed everywhere, causing a burst of laughter from the people around him.
"But Paris is so scary. There are monsters fighting everywhere. I wonder if Bluebeard succeeded in sacrificing 999 children? And those ogres, werewolves, and masked clowns... can they be born in a peaceful place? The kingdom is so wonderful."
People around him were also talking about it, but they did not think of themselves as heroes. Instead, they lamented that the people of Paris were so frightened that they were terrible.
In fact, just a few years ago, gangs were rampant in Northern Italy, and nobles, priests, and businessmen joined forces to prey on the people.
However, with the development of the times, the arrival of officials and troops from the Austrian Empire made the law effective again. Although it was already another code, someone was finally able to restrain those unscrupulous guys.
"The French are so inhumane!" Mr. Brian, a port civil servant, slammed his cup on the table again.
As a result, the entire cafe shook. Mr. Brian felt it himself and quickly looked at his hands.
"Am I also a heroic spirit?"
But then more violent shaking began, and screams sounded outside.
A sharp whistle also came from the port. Ordinary people may not understand that this kind of long whistle is only emitted when a disaster of the level of an attack by a foreign warship occurs. Mr. Brian has never heard it before as a port steward for 20 years. .
When the gentlemen in the cafe ran to the street, they found that some people were running away in all directions, some were kneeling and prostrating and chanting unintelligible scriptures, and some even tried to run to the beach to drive away their boats.
But most people, like Mr. Bryan, stared blankly at the approaching black wall. The black water overflowed over the dam, and the huge ships rose and fell like little yellow ducks in the bathtub.
The strong currents rolled back the goods on the pier into the city like a flood. People who had no time to escape were swallowed by the flood. People shouted and struggled.
But these seem so small and ridiculous in front of the coming wall of water.