Chapter 1262: The Tyrant
"We are just unlucky to have met such a king."
"Yes, the Austrians actually sent troops. It seems that the destiny is still with the Carlos family."
The expressions of the generals were not clear whether they were relieved or helpless. In short, the scene was a bit cold.
"Destiny? I don't think so. Our Majesty wants us to take Madrid in three months. Do you think this is possible?
The war has been going on for many years. Does anyone really think that the war can be ended in a few months?"
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"Then I don't know. If the army of the Austrian Empire can really reach Madrid within three months and attack us from both sides, it's really possible."
"Three months from Barcelona to Madrid, do you think he is Caesar or Napoleon?"
"Who knows?"
The generals chatted intermittently, and suddenly someone had an idea in his mind and blurted it out.
"What if the Austrians don't leave? Then won't we have worked in vain?"
There have been many invaders in history under the banner of aid. With the current strength of the Carlos faction, if the Austrians really don't leave, then they have no choice.
"Don't worry. This is Spain. Even if they don't want to leave, the British and French won't let them stay."
The general obviously saw it very clearly. After so many years of war, both sides have never been able to achieve a decisive victory. Some people have also realized that there are big countries behind the scenes manipulating the situation and don't want Spain to lean towards any side.
"I hope the Austrians don't leave. The Habsburgs are much more generous than the Bourbons."
"Yes! I heard that the emperor of the Austrian Empire gives a sum of money to the meritorious officials every month. In order to prevent them from being reluctant to spend, it is stipulated that if they cannot spend it all this month, they will stop paying it next month, provided that they are not allowed to invest or donate.
The new emperor likes to show off his power, and there are always people criticizing him for being too extravagant. So the emperor came up with such a solution. As long as the nobles are extravagant, the royal family will not seem so extravagant."
"What a tyrant! I also want to live under such a tyrant."
"Although the Austrian emperor made those nobles complain, his reputation among the people is very good, especially those businessmen who want to worship him, and economists and the church like to call him a saint."
Although what these people described was a bit exaggerated, Franz did do similar operations.
So Franz has a very bad reputation in Britain. After all, this kind of extravagant behavior is heretical in the eyes of Protestants who advocate frugality.
Although Franz was labeled as "extravagant, absurd and cruel", in an anonymous survey by the British Times, Franz was the man British women most wanted to marry, with more votes than the second place.
On the other hand, the progress of the Austrian Empire was far beyond the imagination of Isabella II and the Carlos faction. After Barcelona, Cadiz and Valencia also chose to surrender.
So far, the entire Spanish Navy surrendered to the Austrian Empire without firing a single shot.
However, the surrender of the Spanish Navy could not increase the combat power of the Austrian Empire much. The ships owned by the former were too old and the training of the navy was also low.
Friedrich even suggested that Franz disband the Spanish Navy directly or incorporate it into the army, so that they would be more useful.
Franz understood what Friedrich meant, but he did not want to disarm Spain. If the ship was broken, repair it, and if the training was poor, speed up the training.
Anyway, the Austrian Navy would not participate in land battles, so it would be better to help transform the Spanish Navy directly.
Franz's order made Friedrich a little confused, but soon he got an order that confused him even more.
The Austrian Army only sent some officers and veterans, because the army was generally seasick, and many people were afraid of encountering storms or sea monsters at sea.
"Damn it! How can we fight this war!"
Friedrich angrily threw his pen on the table.
The generals of the navy were also very confused, but they didn't dare to throw things like Archduke Friedrich.
"Archduke Friedrich, since the army is useless, why not let our special forces go directly.
To put it bluntly, Spain is just a bigger island"
To be honest, they are all navy, and their level of land warfare is really limited, but when it comes to special operations, they are not sleepy.
"That's right! Archduke, we can first give the Spanish a warning"
A group of naval officers gave dozens of offensive plans and argued about it.
Friedrich jumped up and hit the heads of his generals one by one.
"God damn it! Are you using our naval elite as soldiers? Let them handle the army's affairs.
We have been ordered to guard the coastline and the sea supply lines.
Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
In fact, the army was also a little confused, because their mission was to recruit and train one or more armies mainly composed of Spaniards.
Officers from any country in the world would definitely think that the monarch was crazy if they heard such an order, but in the Austrian Empire this was just a less common tradition.
Yes, it was just a routine operation for the Austrian Empire to recruit soldiers in war zones.
As soon as the Austrian Empire's conscription notice came out, the conscription station was immediately overcrowded. This was already commonplace for the officers in charge of conscription, after all, the scene of conscription in the Austrian Empire was even more exaggerated than this.
The Austrian Empire did not withdraw the anti-bandit army from Transylvania, nor did it send reinforcements to Spain, but chose to continue to transport supplies.
1849 can be foreseen to be a good year, so the Austrian Empire's Minister of Agriculture's hair is all worried about white.
Due to the previous war in 1848 and the famine, the grain production was seriously reduced, so the Austrian Empire government imported a large amount of grain from the colonies to fill the gap in order to overcome the difficulties.
However, at this time, the civil war in the Austrian Empire had basically ended, agricultural productivity had recovered, and even expanded the planting area, especially with the influx of Hungarian grain, the market was obviously saturated.
Unfortunately, the German and Italian regions also had a good harvest, and the grain from the colonies was still pouring into the Austrian Empire.
The big harvest in autumn is very likely to become a disaster for farmers. If farmers reduce production this year and natural disasters occur next year, it will be another terrible disaster.
In fact, whether there would be a food surplus can usually only be judged by experience. Unfortunately, the Minister of Agriculture was not only an agricultural expert, but also an agricultural tycoon, and he had a lot of experience in this regard.
What was even more desperate was that the Austrian Empire had invented a punching machine at this time, which made statistics more labor-saving and accurate.
The conclusion drawn from the data further verified his judgment, but fortunately the Austrian Empire went to war with Spain and needed a lot of supplies.
The Minister of Agriculture directly sent the food from the colonies to Spain, and also sent part of the food stored in the national security warehouse to Spain.
In this way, not only did it solve the risk of food surplus that the Austrian Empire might face, but it also contributed to solving the Spanish problem.