Chapter 552 Loyalty to the Emperor and Patriotism

Baron Bruck is definitely an outlier in the officialdom of the Austrian Empire. Of course, it is precisely because of this outlier that Franz can save a lot of "administrative costs".

However, although this guy is a pillar of the country, his family is unlucky.

Because Baron Bruck is not sociable, he offended many people. Although Austria is not as wild as California, there are many things that secretly trip up the president of the Imperial Central Bank and the royal financial adviser.

Some people are upright and fearless, but most of his relatives are just mortals. So the gods fight, and mortals suffer.

The lives of other people in the Bruck family are as difficult as those of workers in British factories. After all, if someone is always watching you and holding you to the highest standards, such a life must be worse than death.

Bruck is cruel to his family and even more cruel to himself. Historically, he died because he proved his innocence.

Franz did not want the tragedy of history to repeat itself, so he built a mansion for the president of the Imperial Central Bank opposite the Central Bank.

At least Mr. Baron can move out of the attic where he has lived for decades. In the imperial capital where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, Mr. Baron's salary is indeed not enough.

This is a historical problem. Because the number of civil servants in the Austrian Empire is huge, coupled with financial problems, the salary has always been low.

But the empire has a tradition of extravagance and waste, and there are many social events in society, which in turn encourages the trend of corruption.

However, under Franz's strong advocacy, the salary of civil servants in the Austrian Empire has been raised many times. At least it can support the whole family, and there is still some money left for less extravagant consumption.

But this also leads to many problems, such as the qualification of civil servants is more difficult to obtain, and more people want to take advantage of the country's loopholes to eat empty salaries.

This is also an important reason why Prince Metternich opposed to raising the salary of the Austrian civil service group, while Count Korolov supported the salary increase because the latter felt that the harm of those parasites would be greater without a salary increase.

In addition to the mansion and bodyguards, Franz also provided each member of Baron Bruck's family with an annual pension as a reward for their years of loyal service to the royal family.

Although the amount is not large, it is enough for them to live a decent life in the countryside.

In the 19th century, corruption, bribery, and abuse of power were too common, and many of them were even open or semi-open. Franz knew all of this, but he couldn't rush it.

Some diseases are not formed in a day, so it is naturally difficult to get rid of them all in a day. Moreover, if the medicine is not used correctly, it may be counterproductive. While getting rid of the disease, you also need to strengthen your body, otherwise a strong dose of medicine may kill you along with the disease.

Therefore, both strengthening the body and eliminating evil are indispensable.

Speaking of strengthening the body, we have to mention the education of the Austrian Empire. The pilot education has already achieved initial results, and a large number of church schools have sprung up with the support of the state.

However, these schools were mainly built in Neretonia and the royal territory, because Franz didn't know what direction the world would develop in 1848, and whether madness would devour human nature.

In order to avoid some human tragedies, Franz decided to postpone his long-cherished universal education.

As for the royal territories, Franz was still very confident. He had cultivated the most basic organizational structure in these places. Even if a war broke out, these people could unite to defend their property.

In fact, it was to use some "standard" unemployed college students, plus a group of "loyal" retired officers. These people were usually a group of useless people in Austrian society, but they were just right to be placed at the grassroots level.

In fact, in addition to them, there are countless churches and priests acting as lubricants. Don't underestimate the role of these charlatans. They play an indispensable role in the lives of the grassroots people at this time.

In this era, many people have never left the village and the fields in their lives. When they were born, they had to be baptized by clergy, and the subsequent weddings and funerals were also presided over by priests.

Especially the parish priests in some small places are as authoritative as the patriarchs of the ancestral halls in the southern region.

The skeleton formed by these people together, plus the people who have completed the education of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, can form an unbreakable fortress.

In addition to literacy, Austria's basic education is to improve people's obedience to the country, which is the so-called loyalty to the monarch and patriotism.

This is not a new thing. Prussia had already started education on loyalty to the monarch and patriotism during the reign of William III. Its main purpose was to improve the quality of the people and establish national consciousness.

After all, the Germans at that time did not have a strong concept of the country. For example, there were often Hessians, Bavarians, Saxons, and even Hanoverians in the Austrian army.

When the German states were fighting, everyone joined the army of any country according to their preferences. For example, General Julius Jacob von Heinau was actually a Hessian, while the Saxon Field Marshal was a Württemberg.

King Friedrich William III of Prussia decided to end this chaos. Under the advice of the great educator Humboldt, he began to declare war on tradition, requiring people to be loyal to the country and respect the monarch, so Prussians rarely fought for other countries.

In contrast, the Austrians did not do well in this regard in history, and even let a guy who practiced the Buddha's reverse palm be mistaken for a German.

Many of the Prussian practices have been passed down to the present day, such as flag-raising ceremonies, singing the national anthem, and promoting the country's history (especially the victory in the war against Austria).

In addition, the Prussian government also established the Prussian Youth Army in various schools, aiming to cultivate the discipline and patriotism of young students through military training.

Prussia's education of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism has achieved great success in Prussia, improving national consciousness and civic quality, and laying a solid foundation for Prussia's rise in Europe.

This education system was later imitated and introduced by other countries. Historically, the Austrians also learned it, but they did not understand it, and instead complained.

In fact, the situation of the Austrian Empire is much more complicated than that of Prussia. The former has many ethnic groups, and the mountains and rivers divide it into geographical units. At least the word nationalism cannot be used casually.

The only thing that maintains this country is the royal family and the church, but Franz will find a way to incorporate it into a unified economy.

After all, with the development of history, the first two ties will become more and more fragile, and the economic chain will become more and more close.

Of course, strength and weakness are only relative. If Franz could become a great man sent from heaven, turn the tide and complete the great cause of rejuvenation, then the bond of the royal family would become the reins of the entire country, completely controlling the direction of the empire.

The Prussians had already played the game of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism very well, and Franz couldn't even think of anything to add.

The only thing that could be learned seemed to be the reverse combination of secular imperial power and divine power. Although this approach could attract a large number of fanatical supporters, it would also bring a lot of unnecessary trouble to himself.

Moreover, Franz was not sure whether he would also be lost in the wave of personal worship. After all, there were many tough men with iron wills and geniuses with foresight in history, but they could not escape the fate of being praised to death in the end.