Chapter 679 Franz's Private Soldiers

Tyrol, Royal Arsenal.

Although there is a sign of lumberyard outside, the sound of planing wood is completely covered by the noise of machinery.

In contrast to the snow-capped mountains are rows of factories in the valley that emit black smoke. The valley that should have been quiet is filled with the roar of machinery.

It is still snowing outside, but the workers in the factory are sweating profusely. Most of them are landless farmers, descendants of soldiers, or disabled soldiers and veterans.

In addition, there are some who pass the exam to enter the factory (primary school education or above is required), as well as some technical workers and weapons experts from other parts of Austria.

The treatment of soldiers in this era is relatively low, and there is no insurance or pension. After the soldiers are discharged from the army, they are usually either poor or join gangs as thugs.

Because these people generally have no life skills, everything can only start from scratch, but it is not so easy for a man in his thirties or forties to start from scratch?

Franz was fed up with the intrigues in Vienna, and he wanted to find a place to be quiet. As for the Vienna affairs, Franz temporarily handed them over to Madame Sophie.

Although Madame Sophie did not have much business sense, her status was high enough, and she was scary enough, and she was good enough to watch the scene.

Franz had fired and punished many people before, but these guys were actually useless. It was better to say that the efficiency of the entire system was improved after they left.

Franz spent about a month to build a brand new structure to offset the impact of those people leaving.

All Madame Sophie had to do was to maintain this system and solve some troublemakers at will. As for the troubles encountered in business and industry, she could ask Mr. Sina, Baron Brook and the Royal Academy of Sciences to solve them.

In fact, due to the connection of the railway, if there was an emergency, Franz could return to Vienna within a day.

And Franz did not think there would be any problem. After all, if an organization could not operate without him, it would be too useless.

The Tyroleans living in the north of the mountain were very satisfied with the arsenal, while the Tyroleans living in the south of the mountain hoped that Franz could also build a factory in their territory.

The mountains here refer to the Dolomites, a branch of the Alps, which are majestic (translated as difficult to walk), but the transportation problem has been greatly improved after the railway was built.

Although South Tyrol is also located in a river valley, it lacks the protection of the terrain, and the terrain in the valley is too flat to be conducive to defense.

However, the people of South Tyrol still got the factory they wanted. Franz built a flour mill in the local area and hired local people to grind flour for local farmers, but only charged a small fee.

South Tyrol is actually politically and spiritually inclined towards Austria and the Habsburg family, so Franz needs to win it over.

The Austrian imperial government in history has always regarded it as a "ditch man" with a mediocre status and was called "Germans who are not Germans."

In fact, there are indeed many Italians in Tyrol, but Franz thinks these are not a problem. Loyalty is important, after all, Austria's national problems cannot be solved in a short time.

Franz now wants some troops because some things can no longer be solved peacefully.

Although he wanted to solve the problem in a way that had less impact on society and the country, his successive experiences made him feel that he might be too naive.

Although war cannot solve all problems, it can solve some people with problems. The people of Tyrol are relatively reliable, and surrounded by mountains, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Therefore, in Franz's plan, this place was set as a strategic rear area. Although the Swiss Confederation is behind it, first of all, there is the natural barrier of the Alps, and secondly, the Swiss Confederation is no longer as brave as it used to be.

As for Bavaria, there is almost no conflict between the two countries, and secondly, it is difficult for Franz to associate it with danger, at least before 1848.

Of course, it is very necessary to prevent spies from infiltrating, after all, military technology and arsenals involve the foundation of national defense.

Although there are railways, the population mobility in the Tyrol region is still not large, and few people will come here except for tourism.

The tourist routes and guides are usually planned by Franz, and the location of the arsenal will not be exposed. At this time, the largest travel company in the Austrian Empire was controlled by Franz, and the tour guides were carefully trained (mentioned in the previous article).

However, for the sake of safety, Franz still came up with a system of proof of residence similar to household registration and ID cards.

The reason? Naturally, it was to allow local residents to enjoy more royal favors and prevent others from claiming these favors.

The Tyroleans were naturally very willing to cooperate, after all, this was related to their personal interests.

As for the so-called Zen, it was just some mills, public toilets, parks, hospitals, fountains, tourist attractions and the like.

And it was not completely free, but a certain amount of fees were reduced. It was just to transfer costs, but the appearance was relatively better.

However, this was already a great blessing for the people at that time. After all, Franz did not directly levy heavy taxes or expel them with violence.

On the contrary, it provided jobs, housing, education, medical care, and various public facilities.

Public toilets are a major advancement in the history of human hygiene. Just look at the cholera epidemics that broke out everywhere in this era to know how important it is.

When Franz built these toilets, he also built a sewage system for the local area, which was another great progress for public health.

In addition, let me tell you some common sense. Even today, public toilets in Europe are charged. This is very normal in the eyes of Europeans. In fact, this is also to prevent waste and abuse to some extent.

Moreover, the construction and maintenance costs of toilets at that time were not low. Although there were some benefits, they were far from covering the costs and later maintenance costs.

In addition to waste and abuse, such a wonder actually appeared in the UK. Some people could not afford to sleep in public toilets.

At that time, due to the high housing prices in British cities, many people were homeless, and later many public welfare "hotels" appeared.

The famous rope bed came from here. People only needed two or three pennies to hang on the rope and sleep all night. It was really a great favor from the emperor.

Even richer people can choose to sleep in coffins, yes, coffins! Franz even suspected that Britain was the European branch of the Tomb School.

However, there are still many people who can't afford to sleep in coffins or ropes. But it only costs a quarter of a penny to go to the toilet! Although the smell is a bit unpleasant, at least there are walls and roofs to shelter from the wind and rain, and you can sleep sitting up!

Back to the point, these facilities have provided employment opportunities for a large number of Tyroleans. In addition, the construction of the railway has not only brought more income, but also lowered prices.

The era when some unscrupulous businessmen wanted to take away a large amount of materials from the mountain people with some cheap industrial products and "gadgets" is gone forever.

The biggest victims during this period were the Gypsies, a nation that "loves" wandering.

Gypsies are the name given by the British. In fact, they have many other names, such as the French call them Bohemians, the Spanish call them Flamencos, the Russians call them Gypsies, the Albanians call them Evergites, the Greeks call them Akinganos, the Iranians call them Rories, and the Sri Lankans call them Aquintakas.

In Austria, they have a more professional name "Roma", and these Roma also like to call themselves that.

At this time, the Austrian Empire was the country with the largest number of Roma. Although they were not welcomed, it was the only country that would not torture them to death.

There were about one million Roma (Gypsies) in this era, of which 300,000 to 400,000 lived in the Austrian Empire, and the rest were mainly distributed near the Carpathian Mountains (the two Danube principalities, or the current Romania region).

Franz would naturally not kill them all, but in the industrial age, that kind of wandering life should be changed.

These Roma people between northern Italy and Tyrol soon found that they could not make a living, but they were invited by Franz.

After all, tourism also requires people, and some things are indeed better done by them. This is the first time in thousands of years that the Roma have been recruited instead of being directly conscripted and plundered.

Although according to tradition, they should not accept Franz's proposal, but on one side there are hungry families and on the other side there is a golden rice bowl at hand, so this choice is easy.

Of course, Franz did not have no requirements for them. First of all, they had to learn German. In fact, German and Italian were essential skills for the Roma people who lived in the Alps for many years.

Secondly, they had to obey orders and follow instructions. Yes, you can wander, but you have to go to a designated place, the range cannot leave the Austrian Empire, and the route is arbitrary.

In fact, the caravans of the gypsy (Roma) people are quite exciting and tempting for the noble children of Vienna.

This is also a feature of the Austrian Alps.

In history, in 1859, with the defeat of the Austrian Empire, the Roma people in the Alps were expelled by the Kingdom of Sardinia.

After that, they were expelled by the Swiss Confederation and the Austrian Empire. In the summer of 1860, about two hundred Roma bodies were found in the melting snow in the Alps.

The locals thought this was an ominous sign, so they burned them all with a fire, and found a priest to perform an exorcism ceremony.

These people are just the dust of history, and their history will not be remembered.

The arsenal had a great influence on the Tyroleans. Some people even had their whole families working for it. Men swung hammers and screwed in the factory, while women packaged bullets and added gunpowder powder.

In fact, the Tyrolean arsenal at that time produced nearly half of the rifled barrels in Europe. The die extrusion method used by the Austrian Empire at that time was completely unimaginable at the time.

Even if someone could think of it, they had to solve the problem of hydraulic presses. Even with hydraulic presses, their pressure was not enough.

However, no matter how hard those craftsmen tried, their manual efficiency was still far behind the industrial manufacturing of the Austrian Empire.

Historically, rifled barrels only began to gradually enter industrialization after 1851, and the early single-point hook method was still very inefficient, and it was very easy to produce defective products, or even directly scrap the barrel.

The invention of the sealing rubber ring greatly enhanced the airtightness of the breech-loading gun. Although it would occasionally make soldiers' faces covered, it would not cause large-scale burns or anything, and at most they would inhale some dust.

Franz did not try to persuade the army to fully equip breech-loading rifles, and did not even mention it at all. If both sides were equipped with breech-loading rifles in the civil war, the intensity and bloodiness of the war would increase rapidly.

For details, you can refer to the American Civil War. Even if only rifled rifles were equipped, the bloodiness is still fresh in people's memory.

If breech-loading rifles were fully popularized before the civil war, then coupled with the popular tactics of queuing and shooting at that time, the result can be imagined.

By the way, the breech-loading rifles of the Austrian Empire at that time were not the large bolts (bolt-action rifles) of later Prussia, but another branch-lever-action rifles.

The characteristics of lever-action rifles are that they have a lot of ammunition and a fast rate of fire. Here we don't use the 60 rounds per minute of M1894 as an example.

The Italian M1820, which was only reproduced by later generations, can also reach an astonishing rate of fire of 35 rounds per minute.

However, considering that there was no smokeless gunpowder and metal fixed bullets in this era, the rate of fire can still reach 15-20 rounds per minute.

Compared with the Prussian Dreiser rifle, it has a huge advantage in firing rate, which is 6-10 rounds per minute.

At this time, muzzle-loading rifles can usually only fire 1-2 times per minute, and even muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles, which are proud of their firing rate, usually have a firing rate of only 3-4 rounds.

Franz's lever-action rifle, he only intends to equip a small number of troops.

In addition to his own Royal Dragon Knights, Royal Guards, Archduke Karl's Family Guards, Friedrich's Marines, some church armed forces and Umbrella mercenaries, Franz is also preparing to raise a force in Tyrol.

It is normal for Franz to get a guard from Tyrol to those who don't know the secret decree. After all, usually when the emperor is still alive, the crown prince will be arranged to leave Vienna to serve as a vice prince or governor somewhere.

Except for female crown princes like Theresa, it is usually normal for the crown prince to establish his own palace after leaving Vienna and then form a guard.

As Tyrol was once the capital of the Austrian Empire, it was surrounded by mountains and rivers, so it was completely reasonable for Franz to choose this place.

As for those who knew the secret decree, they understood Franz's behavior even more. After all, people around him were assassinated one after another, so it was human nature to strengthen some security work.

However, Franz recruited 2,000 people at a time, which confused the onlookers. After all, Innsbruck (the capital of Tyrol) had only more than 20,000 people at that time.

But what they didn't know was that this was just Franz's first phase of the plan. He wanted a real army of 5,000 to 8,000 people.

The purpose has been mentioned before. The gun is the source of power, and the hammer must be strong. This is the so-called meta-violence.

As for the appointment of officers, Franz only pays attention to nepotism, and all of them are drawn from the Royal Dragoon Regiment.

These people may not be the strongest in Austria, but they must be the most loyal to Franz. After all, they are all available people left to Franz by the old emperor.

These people also understand their position. If Franz becomes emperor in the future, they will surely rise to prominence.

If Franz loses power, they will either be forced to retire or be sent to a battlefield as cannon fodder.

I was in a hurry today and my computer broke down. I wrote this in an Internet cafe. It has not been checked. Please help me take a look.

In addition, my computer has been mailed and it will take 14 days to return.