Chapter 1207 Tacitus Trap
Harvest the church, as long as theology and ethics are added to the compulsory courses, Franz will be a saint in the world.
In addition to compulsory education, the bandits in the mountains of Transylvania are also annoying.
The cost of going into the mountains to suppress bandits in this era is too high. Transylvania is full of mountains. If you want to eliminate a group of hundreds of bandits, you often need to mobilize tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of troops to completely eliminate them. The economic losses caused by blocking the mountain roads are simply sky-high.
Simply put, the gains do not outweigh the losses. The damage caused by a few hundred bandits is very limited, and the cost of mobilizing tens of thousands of regular troops has far exceeded the losses that those bandits can cause.
(Due to the influence of some dramas, quite a few people think that bandits live by robbery, and every day there are swords and swords. In fact, robbing caravans and looting villages are rare cases.
Most of the time, bandits in this era live by kidnapping, extortion, and collecting protection fees. This relatively safe "business" makes them live. They even farm, hunt, and do business with caravans.
Some even rely on local dignitaries and gentry to be their black gloves, and some are simply thugs raised by others.)
At this time, under the attack of the Austrian Imperial Army, the number of local bandits in Transylvania decreased by more than 50%, looting incidents decreased by 98%, and bandits on the Hungarian Plains disappeared directly.
Some people suggested whether they should consider stopping and investing money and energy in more meaningful things. After all, Austria is in a period of comprehensive construction at this time. Money and people are needed everywhere.
Some people have long been dissatisfied with Franz's delay in disbanding the army. They think this is a manifestation of the emperor's militarism and bellicosity, and believe that this will affect the people's livelihood.
In fact, more than 90% of the subjects of the Austrian Empire did not know how many troops the Austrian Empire had, and even many soldiers had no idea of Austria's military strength, so it was enough to just listen to the impact on people's livelihood and work.
Money is a good thing, and development and funds are indeed inseparable, but the silver and gold accumulated before just came in handy at this time.
(Mainly from mining and plundering from colonies.)
The total amount of precious metals invested by Franz just kept up with the scale of financial expansion of the Austrian Empire, so the economy was generally very healthy.
As for reducing the army, it is a delicate job. If you are not careful, it will cause complaints and even provoke rebellion.
Franz still followed the previous strategy and demobilized the soldiers on the spot. It happened that the eastern region had been emptied out, and now it was just right for these people to fill the vacancies.
There is another good thing about the demobilized soldiers, that is, it is easy to organize militias to prevent bandits and mountain bandits from resurrecting.
At the same time, these soldiers who participated in the suppression of bandits should also know what the Austrian Empire's attitude is towards armed forces that dare to confront the country and harm the countryside.
These demobilized soldiers have money and land, but they are foreigners after all, so they still need to rely on the country.
Many of these soldiers are bachelors, which can balance the local male-female ratio.
They may be homeless and beggars in their hometown, but in the Crown of St. Stephen, they are glorious veterans and warriors of the empire.
Local smart people will also win over these veterans, which will help them better integrate into the local society, but their own attributes will inevitably cause jealousy and dissatisfaction among some people.
In addition, if they marry those local smart people, they will be more disliked and isolated by some people.
In the future, Franz will engage in education and industry in the local area, and they will be the biggest supporters of the Austrian Empire because they have no choice.
It is indeed a good idea to demobilize soldiers in the Crown of St. Stephen, but you have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.
Franz knows very well that bandits are like weeds. If they cannot be eradicated, they will soon recover their vitality. As long as a spring breeze blows, they will bloom everywhere, so evil must be eradicated.
Franz was very determined. There could be no more bandit strongholds in the Austrian Empire. No matter how much it cost, these pests must be wiped out.
So someone came up with a new way to let the emperor issue an amnesty order, which would save a lot of money.
Of course, they didn't want to let the bandits go, but to trick them out. After all, the most difficult thing to deal with is hiding in the mountains.
But as long as they leave the mountains, it's like a fish out of water. At that time, the Austrian army can take them at will.
Then, according to the principle of punishing the chief criminal, the bandits will be dispersed and incorporated, and some of the difficult ones will be sent to mines or road construction teams.
This can not only reduce costs, but also solve the thorny problem of banditry.
It has to be said that the person who came up with this method is a genius, but who will make up for the loss of credibility of the government and the royal family?
As an empire, Austria can be unreasonable, but it cannot lose its credibility.
Perhaps modern countries are representatives of democracy and are not afraid of the Tacitus Trap, but the Austrian Empire itself is not a modern country.
Franz's attitude is that all bandits must be tried in public, sentenced and convicted, and all habitual murderers must die, regardless of whether they were coerced or not.
(Tacitus Trap, the original words are "Once the emperor becomes the object of people's hatred, the good and bad things he does will also cause people to hate him.")
The so-called "the chief culprit must be punished, the coerced accomplices will not be questioned, those who are deceived are innocent, and those who turn the tables are meritorious" in history are mostly only applicable to special periods. The teacher once wrote on February 28, 1951:
"The so-called coerced accomplices are not questioned, which means those who are forced to participate but do not do bad things, or do not do big bad things. As for those who help the evil, there is evidence, that is, accomplices, they should be sentenced. If the principal offender is sentenced to death, the accomplice will at least be sentenced to imprisonment."
Franz can also use this explanation, which is at least much better than not pursuing and pardoning.
The purpose of "the chief culprit must be punished, and the coerced accomplices will not be questioned" is more to divide and disintegrate and reduce resistance, but Franz has a good mouth, so he wants to try hard bones.
Franz just wants to use all kinds of elite soldiers, new weapons, and hundreds of times the number of troops to beat these bandits to doubt their lives.
There are a lot of mountains in the Austrian Empire, so mountain warfare is inevitable in the future. It is always less casualties to practice with mountain bandits than with the enemy's regular army.
Rather than training, it is more about getting familiar with tactics and mountain warfare modes, as well as running-in equipment.
In addition, it is also very difficult to identify the accomplices and the main culprits. There are many examples in history of successfully escaping sanctions, even false accusations, and resentful killings. What's more, some have transformed themselves into official representatives and righteous people.
(Here refers to the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty.
For example:
In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others pretended to accept the amnesty of Xiong Wencan, the governor of the Ming Dynasty's bandit suppression.
The two used their official positions to collect money and recruit local militia under the guise of suppressing bandits and pacifying the people.
After recovering their vitality, they killed officials and rebelled again in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.)
It is better to kill people in a mess than to leave hidden dangers everywhere.
If the problem still cannot be solved, Franz will consider setting up a half-military and half-civilian Transylvanian Construction Corps.