Chapter 1124 Conquering Albania (Part 1)
In southern Albania, there are countless towers in the mountains, and the people are as tough as those in Montenegro.
In addition, the complex terrain makes any conqueror daunt. In history, only Albania itself can conquer Albania.
At this time, even Albania, which is still Ottoman territory, is in a semi-independent state. Even the British before could not control the mountains in southern Albania.
Although Mustafa Reshid Pasha is a greedy official, he is not an incompetent person.
As soon as Mustafa Reshid Pasha received the news of the Austrian invasion, he sent people to contact the tribes in the mountains in southern Albania.
Moreover, Mustafa Reshid Pasha was very willing to spend a lot of money. Not only did he give them weapons and equipment and scarce supplies, but he also gave them the autonomy they had always dreamed of.
Isn't Reshid Pasha afraid that these tribes will directly turn against the Austrians and then attack the Ottoman Empire together with the Austrians?
Of course, this is possible, but from the perspective of geographical environment and historical tradition, the locals do not like to leave their homes where they have lived for generations, and they do not like the army passing through their territory and the regime threatening their own rule.
And the Austrian army must pass through the territory of the southern Albanian tribes to attack the Ottoman Empire.
Maybe Reshid Pasha's conditions cannot impress all tribes, but as long as someone can't help but take action, even if it doesn't need to be a certain tribe, all the tribes in southern Albania will inevitably be involved in this war.
Reshid Pasha is well aware of the development of Austria's intelligence network, and his secret actions are difficult to escape the eyes of the Austrians.
But who can guarantee that he didn't do it on purpose?
In fact, the southern Albanian tribes had a good impression of the Austrians before. After all, the Austrians were enemies of the Ottomans and beat the British who tried to control southern Albania.
However, as the Austrians approached, a lot of black materials were exposed. For example, after entering the northern Albanian mountains, Austria united with local Christians to expel pagans.
The Albanian region had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years, and the conversion had generous benefits, so most people had converted and even believed in their new beliefs.
At the same time, in the western plains controlled by Austria, the life of the Albanians was not easy. Although there was no large-scale expulsion or massacre, there were new rules and immigrants in Austria.
There were many differences between Austrian laws and local customary laws, as well as between new immigrants and indigenous people. With the beginning of the war, these differences quickly turned into contradictions and conflicts.
Afterwards, these contradictions and conflicts were deliberately exaggerated by the Ottomans, and then spread to the mountains in the south.
In addition, the weapons and supplies promised by the Ottoman Empire were in place, and the leaders of the southern tribes instantly had the confidence to negotiate.
There were many people who had this idea, so an alliance was quickly formed and envoys were sent to Austria.
The attitude of the southern tribes during the negotiations was ambiguous, and they were obviously waiting for the Austrian Empire to offer a higher price.
At this time, Franz only needed to propose a relatively reasonable price, and the other party would accept it immediately, regardless of whether the promise would be fulfilled.
Generally speaking, Franz should have painted a big pie to satisfy the other party's psychology, and then attacked the Ottomans to seize the territory first, and then slowly dealt with these tribes in the future.
As for those promises, they were naturally invalid!
Of course, those who are more ruthless can also make a play of pretending to attack Guo and attack the other party when they are not prepared.
Both of these roads look good, but who can guarantee that the other party is not inviting you into a trap?
Even if the other party does not have this idea, the local development is very low, and it is not easy to pretend to attack Guo. At the same time, the alliance of various tribes is not just one tribe or one country, which greatly increases the difficulty of making the enemy lose resistance in one war.
The most important thing is that no matter what the result is, the Austrian Empire will leave a pretext, just like the Israelites can use the Bible as a deed two thousand years later.
Whether others admit it or not, they will use it as evidence to deal with Austria.
Similarly, regardless of whether Franz's promise will be fulfilled in the future, this region will have problems again, which may be flirting with the enemy country, or expelling officials, violently resisting taxes, or even directly killing officials to rebel and seek independence.
Rather than risking a hidden wound to the Austrian Empire, it is better to refuse from the beginning.
Whether the southern Albanian tribes want autonomy or want to become a country, it is not in the interests of the Austrian Empire.
If Austria wants to gain a foothold here, it must firmly control the southern mountains.
Even if Franz has no interest in those poor mountains at this time and only wants to control the developed and prosperous coastal plains in the west, he must do so.
As the saying goes, there is only a thief who can steal for a thousand days, and there is no reason to guard against thieves for a thousand days.
The coastal plains in western Albania have no strategic locations to defend. When the British operated here, banditry was rampant, and in the end the British could only maintain a few areas centered on ports.
Although Austria had a fairly strong military force in the Albanian region at this time, Franz would not rashly send a large army into the mountains.
This approach is not only stupid, but also inefficient.
However, it is still necessary to slightly hit the enemy's arrogance.
The news that the Austrian Empire refused to negotiate quickly spread back to the Southern Alliance, which made the Ottoman Empire's envoy so excited that he did not sleep all night. The next day, he went to the headquarters of the Southern Alliance to start a new round of lobbying.
The Austrian Empire's rejection of the proposal of the Southern Alliance did not surprise these leaders. After all, those high-ranking powers always looked down on them, and the Ottoman Empire was the best example.
The tribal leaders were very experienced in this regard. They immediately decided to unite and teach the Austrians a hard lesson. It would be best if they could take a port and teach the Austrians the rules here.
The plain area of Albania is 7,000 square kilometers, and it is distributed in strips along the coastline. If the Austrians want to defend such a long line of defense, they need at least hundreds of thousands of troops day and night.
But as the attacking party, the Southern Alliance can choose any point to attack and form a numerical advantage in the local area. This is the secret of their victory in every battle, and it is also the confidence to challenge the Austrian Empire.
Even if they really fail, they just need to escape back to the mountains, and the Austrians can only sigh in despair.
However, it must be said that the primitive organization and mobilization ability of this tribal alliance was terribly low. The tribes were wary of each other, and as a result, they did not complete the assembly even when the Austrian mountain division broke in.
Under the huge pressure of war, the tribes finally united and organized a 15,000-man force led by the leaders of the fourteen largest local tribes.
However, this scattered alliance seemed as immature as a newborn baby when facing a truly efficient and tight military organization.
The entire army plunged into the ambush designed by the Austrian army. The old-fashioned muskets and cold weapons could not fight against the new Austrian rifles, let alone mountain artillery and rockets.
The 15,000-man army of the southern Albanian coalition was completely wiped out, of which 1,300 were killed, and the rest chose to surrender as prisoners.