Chapter 839 Parma Troubles
Marie-Louise fell ill on December 9, 1847, and her condition continued to worsen. When the news reached Vienna at first, no one cared.
In the eyes of most people, this is just a new trick used by the Grand Duchess to gain sympathy.
The former Queen of France has lost everything in people's eyes, including her credibility, beauty, integrity, two husbands, son, and father.
At this time, Austria is still preparing for Christmas, and various government departments are preparing year-end summaries.
The workers have already received their wages at this time. It is the richest time of the year, and some smart businessmen are nervously preparing to make a final profit.
In fact, even if those people are not smart, Franz's royal mall is having a big promotion, so they can't help but be smart.
The carp production in the Austrian Empire has increased tenfold in three years, but the sales volume during normal times is not very good, and only during the Christmas period does it show explosive growth.
One is due to traditional concepts, and the other is that the price of carp is not low enough and ordinary people still cannot afford it.
Third, the main reason is that wars have been raging in recent years. Although the war has not reached the Austrian mainland, people have already felt the crisis. Many families are hoarding daily necessities, even guns and ammunition.
People don't have money, so they naturally don't have the ability to buy carp.
Franz’s promotion strategy is to directly give carp as a gift after spending a certain amount of money. This can minimize people’s resistance and at the same time he can continue to promote this ingredient and clear inventory.
Early generators have been successfully developed, but the efficiency at this time is still not high, and the cost of cold storage is too high, so Franz must dispose of those precious carp as soon as possible.
Although the situation at home and abroad is very tense, Franz obviously has more money on his books than in previous years.
The giant bear, Karena von der Leant, although she has no business talent, is good at fighting corruption and auditing accounts. She has almost no friends, and her background as a military aristocrat makes her have almost nothing to worry about.
The Delant family actually came from Russia, but they had settled in Austria for hundreds of years, and their ancestors had followed Wallenstein.
However, no one knows the original surname of their ancestors. It is speculated that they are most likely escaped Russian serfs or Cossacks.
Later generations followed the ancestral precepts and have been serving the Austrian army for hundreds of years. They are neither engaged in business nor politics, so their reputation is not obvious.
Outliers like the Deliant family are easily ostracized by the mainstream nobles, but they are proud of it because they also look down on those weaklings who only know how to spend their days drinking and begging for mercy.
Therefore, Karena's series of thunderous methods of revenge are completely proof of honor in the eyes of her family.
Old Deliant (Karena's grandfather) led the family to cut down all the trees near the ancestral home, and purchased a batch of weapons and bulletproof carriages to fight hard.
Coupled with the escorts and bodyguards Franz added for it, the ancestral home of the Deliant family became a hot potato.
In order to prevent unnecessary trouble and someone taking advantage of the opportunity, all the escorts and bodyguards Franz purchased for him were public, at least to the public.
Over the years, Franz has rarely failed in his plans on international events, but he has repeatedly failed in domestic issues. It is impossible for him not to reflect on his actions.
In fact, Karena has also been assassinated, and the person who carried out the assassination was her assistant, but how could two civilian staff fight against a giant bear?
One person was pushed out of the window from the third floor by her before he could shoot, and the other person deflected the bullet in panic.
When the guards outside the door rushed in, the civil servant who had been instigated to rebel had been beaten into a pig's head, with his face sunken and one eyeball hanging out.
The reason why some people can instigate rebellion against Franz's subordinates one after another is just the connections and prestige accumulated by those families over hundreds of years.
If you want to completely eliminate this influence, you must either carry out a general cleaning, or build your own power after ascending the throne and give your subordinates the capital to make the other party afraid to move.
Franz thinks that day will not be too far away, but what if the people he supports are also rubbish? No, he wants to break this cycle.
On December 17, 1847, Archduke Marie-Louise finally passed away after suffering from pleurisy for more than ten days.
According to the tradition of the Habsburg family, the remains of the Archduchess will be transported back to Vienna and placed in the royal crypt.
Marie-Louise grew up in an environment that was very disgusting with France. Both Austria and the Habsburg family felt that France was stupid.
As a result, for the sake of the overall situation, she had to marry this Tuo Xiang. After that, Marie-Louise encountered almost every tragedy a woman could encounter. Even before she died, no one believed her and no one cared about her.
In fact, the Austrian Imperial Government was already in turmoil because of Marie Louise's death. They did not expect that the Archduchess would die so quickly and suddenly.
But what they care about is not this poor victim, but the national interests of the Austrian Empire.
According to the agreement of that year, after the death of the Grand Duchess, the Duchy of Parma will return to the rule of the Bourbon-Parma family.
At this time, Austria's investment in Parma has not recovered its cost. If the Bourbon-Parma family moves closer to France, it will drive a nail into the hinterland of Austria and directly threaten the security of northern Italy.
The current head of the Bourbon-Parma family is Charles II, grandson of Ferdinando I, Duke of Parma, and son of Ludwig I, King of Etruria.
From 1803 to 1807, he was the King of Etruria, known as Ludwig II; from 1824 to 1847, he was the Duke of Lucca, known as Carlo I.
Carlo II was settling in the Principality of Lucca at this time. In fact, this principality was also indirectly controlled by the Habsburg family, so Carlo II's presence was so thin that people almost forgot about his existence.
Theoretically, if Carlo II inherited the Duchy of Parma, the Este line of the Habsburg family would be able to regain control of Lucca.
This means nothing to Austria, it's just a left hand to a right hand. But once Parma falls into the hands of the Bourbon family, it will directly threaten the map of northern Italy.
However, it is not so easy for Austria to break the contract, let alone the international impact. The great powers alone will not miss this opportunity.
France wants to compete with Austria for dominance in the Apennine Peninsula, Britain wants to stir up trouble, Prussia hopes to weaken the two great powers Austria and France, and Russia both hates France and does not want Austria to be too powerful.
At this time, Carlo II was still considering whether to turn to France or Austria, or to create a miracle by doing both.
But soon he would have no choice, because France would not be able to hold on any longer. At this time, Franz was considering whether to let Louis Philippe retire from the game or put him in another place to shine?
After all, Napoleon III's attitude towards Austria was not exactly friendly.