Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 367

Chapter 367: Chapter 54, Fishing Law Enforcement

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The actions of the Hungarian Independence Organization could only be considered minor disturbances, but the movements of the French Revolutionary Party were significant.

In January of 1865, from Paris to Montauban, over 30 cities throughout France experienced demonstrations and marches, as if France had returned to the era of the Great Revolution.

Many people blindly joined the marching ranks, shouting a diverse range of slogans, such as:

Some demanding government support for the Polish independence movement, some opposing certain government policies, some advocating support for the Spanish Revolutionary Party, and others opposing the colonial movement…

There was nothing they couldn’t think of, and absolutely nothing they couldn’t shout out loud.

Clearly, the French Revolutionary Party had become smarter. In the recent years, the domestic economy had been developing well, and everyone was living a fairly good life; at this time, rebelling was simply out of the question.

The ones strongly dissatisfied with the government were these disappointed contenders for power, along with a group of idealists.

The only way to overthrow the rule of Napoleon III was to first plunge France into chaos, for only with internal turmoil could there be an opportunity.

The French people possessed a spirit of internationalism, and were often very emotional, believing they should intervene in anything they deemed unreasonable, thus providing opportunities for mischief.

In the Palace of Versailles, the messy protests had alerted Napoleon III. On the surface, these seemed like ordinary demonstrations, which happened countless times every year in France.

But the recent frequency was too high, and Napoleon III, with his rich experience in struggles, instantly recognized that these were organized efforts.

Napoleon III ordered, “Adair, root out the rats behind this for me, I want to see who’s causing the trouble.”

Marches were legal in France, and the government had no right to interfere. But daily protests were different; they not only affected the economy but also people’s hearts.

This was not yet the desirable era of “working in the spring, vacationing in the summer, striking in the autumn, and celebrating Christmas in the winter.”

This era was a time for nation-building. Following the anti-French wars, the French Colonial Empire had collapsed, and now Napoleon III was striving to build a second Colonial Empire.

He naturally could not tolerate demonstrations that affected the national economy to continue, especially since there were many competitors at this time, and one could easily be left behind.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” replied Minister of Police Adair, nervously.

This was not an enviable job; due to the deteriorating public security caused by protests in recent years, 15 Ministers of Police had been forced to step down, with an average tenure of only 10.5 months.

No matter how good the economic development and social stability seemed during the era of Napoleon III, it did not mean their days were easy. In fact, they were still viciously attacked as if they were the worst government in history.

Reasons weren’t needed to smear the enemy; what reason did one need? The government could not control public opinion; the opposition would always criticize, and at most, Napoleon III could find someone to talk back at them.

Perhaps due to the change in position, Napoleon III had become a maintainer of the rules. He had not taken extreme measures against these enemies, leaving room for the revolutionaries to operate.

Foreign Minister Abraham spoke, “Your Majesty, it may be influenced by the Polish independence movement; the revolutionary movement in Europe has recently surged again.

First, the Two Sicilies experienced an uprising, with the rebel army now controlling one third of Sicily; then, Spain and Portugal each had their revolutions.

The atmosphere in other European countries has also become tense, and a new wave of revolutions may erupt once again. We must be vigilant.”

Although Americans only encouraged the revolutionaries of major countries to return to Europe to cause trouble, revolutionary groups in other countries were also influenced.

Seeing the surging Polish independence movement, many naturally assumed that a new wave of revolution was upon them and started to make trouble.

For other countries, the issue might not be so severe. But for France, it was a big problem.

For some reason, French people always appeared in every revolutionary wave, with Paris being hailed as the Holy Land of Revolution.

Napoleon III had no interest in such an honor. If possible, he would have preferred to move the capital to a poor and backward small city rather than keep it in the “Holy Land of Revolution.”

Any monarch living in the Holy Land of Revolution would feel ill at ease, fearing a revolution might occur at any moment.

Before ascending to the throne, Napoleon III had once been proud of Paris; after ascending, those feelings never returned.

Putting aside everything else, the amount of strikes and protests that occurred annually in Paris exceeded the total in all of Austria.

The annual number of demonstrations and strikes in France exceeded the total in the rest of Europe, and it was truly not easy for Napoleon III to maintain his throne.

If Franz had a choice, he would rather be a local tyrant in a colony than the Emperor of France.

This had nothing to do with how well the monarch performed; one needed only to open a history book and see the history of the French revolutions to understand.

Observers might laugh it off, but being in the thick of it only left room for tears. Sitting atop a powder keg, any policy that dissatisfied a portion of the population could trigger a revolution.

Monarchy was not suitable for romantic and energetic French people; Parisians had proven through their actions that only the republic was suitable for them.

After pondering, Napoleon III said, “This indeed poses a problem. Order the police across the country to strengthen their vigilance and for the city guards of Paris and the Seventh Division in the Nantes area to change guards.”

Changing guards was Napoleon III’s most common tactic to avoid collusion between the revolutionaries and the military; the troops guarding Paris never stayed for long.

The fall of the Orleans Dynasty had taught him that without a reliable force, one’s empire was insecure.

…

Artisa was an Italian merchant, but he was also a nationalist, and this order cannot be reversed.

Therefore, during the Great Revolution of 1848, he decisively aligned with the victors, narrowly escaping calamity.

However, this did not change his nature as a nationalist. Over the years, he and a group of like-minded friends spared no effort in promoting Italian nationalism.

Under the Vienna Government’s advocacy for national integration, Artisa did not dare to go against the current, but behind the scenes, they established the Venice Cultural Art Exchange Center.

This was purely an academic exchange, except the exchange focused entirely on Italian national culture and art. If it was just a personal hobby, it would not have attracted the attention of the Austrian Intelligence organization.

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The critical part was their recklessly held youth art and culture training classes, in which they clandestinely promoted nationalism and even occasionally expressed the desire for Veneto’s independence.

In the Austrian Empire, freedom of speech existed, as long as one did not publicly expound these ideas, legally they couldn’t be convicted.

From start to finish, they only spoke in words, never putting anything into action. Even when instilling these ideas in the youth, they left no evidence behind.

During the period of the Teutonic unification wars, the local government even intentionally left loopholes, hoping they would act so they could catch them all in one fell swoop.

Regrettably, individuals like Artisa were old hands and, in the face of interest, ideals had to make way.

The Italian Area was not unified; if the Veneto region broke away from Austria to become independent, they would lose most of their current market, which was not in their interest.

Thus, not only did they not seize the opportunity to become independent, but they also convinced the radical nationalists not to act rashly.

Such infiltrators are the most terrifying. They won’t rebel rashly, yet they strive for rebellion.

Artisa had been somewhat restless lately, always feeling that something bad was going to happen. He had just returned home when the old housekeeper handed him a letter.

“Mr. Artisa, this is a letter from Mr. Stephen, brought to you by his messenger.”

Stephen was someone he had met by chance at a banquet, where they chatted pleasantly. Stephen even invited him to join the Colonial Company to establish colonies on the African Continent.

Encountering a professional cheat with a multitude of mercenaries as evidence, Artisa had no reason to doubt Stephen’s identity.

In Europe, too many people share the same name; with such a common name as Stephen, Austria might not have a hundred thousand but definitely tens of thousands, and nobody would associate a colonial businessman with a Hungarian Independence Organization.

After opening the letter and briefly glancing through it, Artisa’s complexion greatly changed.

“Neal, was anybody else present when you received this letter?”

The housekeeper Neal replied with a sullen face, “The messenger handed it to me at the front door; aside from a few street peddlers, there were no suspicious individuals.”

He was utterly bewildered and could not understand why Artisa was so nervous. It was just a letter; even if someone saw it, they wouldn’t know the contents!

Upon hearing this response, Artisa again confirmed, “Are there any new vendors among those peddlers?”

Neal answered with certainty, “No, they’re all the regulars, almost there every day.”

Artisa breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately felt a headache coming on. Rebelling in these times was seeking death, wasn’t it?

He couldn’t comprehend what Stephen was thinking. As the leader of the Hungarian Independence Organization, having eluded the Vienna Government’s pursuit for over a decade, why would he choose to come back now and seek death?

Indeed, in Artisa’s view, Stephen was now courting death. The situation in Hungary might be unclear to others, but could these well-informed businessmen not know?

Never mind independence, they probably wouldn’t need to wait for the Vienna Government to make a move before the local populace would suppress them.

Such circumstances could likewise occur in the Veneto region. The Vienna Government’s cultural assimilation campaign was indeed effective.

No matter how much they tried, the Germanization of the area was becoming increasingly apparent, particularly among the younger generation, all of whom were learning German, and the Italian language had already disappeared from compulsory education.

Even if some people insisted on instilling it in the next generation, the workload of Austria’s compulsory education was very heavy, with students busy every day. If the school didn’t test it, how many would actively study it?

Private schools were still teaching Italian a few years back, but then the Ministry of Education stopped their funding and listed them as for-profit corporate operations, requiring them to pay high taxes to the government like luxury goods industries.

If it were only a matter of funding withdrawal, they could continue to operate the schools. Being listed as a luxury industry, however, was completely unmanageable with a tax rate of ninety-five percent. It was impossible to increase school fees by 20 times, right?

Even with substantial financial resources, no one could sustain it. Now, in the entire Austrian Empire, there are no schools outside the supervision of the Ministry of Education.

The legally recognized schools are all government-funded, and the rest are considered corporate training institutions.

These institutions are taxable, with rates benchmarked against industry profit standards. Unfortunately, the school’s reference is the compulsory education schools, and compared to zero fees, any amount of fees charged is classified as a for-profit industry.

The training centers founded by Artisa and others relied on donations without charging any fees; otherwise, the hat of for-profit industry would have been slapped on their heads a long time ago.

There were people who caused trouble, but the Vienna Government was very tough. If a thousand people caused trouble, they arrested a thousand; if ten thousand caused trouble, they arrested ten thousand. Ringleaders joined the Road Repair Army, while accomplices, along with their families, were all exiled to the colonies.

After the exile of tens of thousands, the rest became law-abiding. Even if not for themselves, they had to consider their family members!

Exiled convicts were certainly not treated as well as immigrants, typically assigned to the harshest areas, undertaking the most dangerous jobs.

Having now received an invitation from Stephen to join the core of the revolutionary forces, Artisa decided to distance himself from them immediately—he did not wish to risk his life and property.

Without hesitation, Artisa promptly struck a match and set the letter in his hands ablaze.

Not reporting it to the government was his way of being fair to a friend. As for the meeting place arranged in the letter, Artisa chose to ignore it outright.

Interacting with revolutionary parties in Austria was risky, as the Vienna Government had zero tolerance for such matters—Artisa was not willing to take the risk.

After burning the letter, Artisa once again instructed, “Neal, don’t talk about this letter to anyone. I’ve only met Stephen at a banquet, we are not friends; do you understand?”

Housekeeper Neal replied, “Understood, Mr. Artisa.”

The cautious Artisa did not yet know that from the moment he started promoting nationalism, he had already set one foot in hell.

Now, having burned the letter and not reported to the government, he just put his other foot in as well.

Without a doubt, this was entrapment by law enforcement. If he had taken the letter to the local police station straight away, it would be impossible for him to get entangled in it.

Having failed to seize the opportunity, there was nothing to be done. Even if one did not participate in the rebellion, knowing but not reporting it was also a crime: there was no injustice.