Sissi sat in the large conference room in the west side of Schönbrunn Palace, and the baroque chair was quite uncomfortable to sit on, which made her wonder if the craftsman who made it back then hated the powerful people who were going to sit on her work.

If that's the case, Sissi thinks she has a common language with the craftsman from a hundred years ago.

The Imperial Council was in progress, the Prime Minister was reading the long week's work report in his hand, and the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Ferdinand was sitting at the top of the long conference table, listening with a serious expression.

Sissi sat at the right hand of the Emperor, wearing a ribbon of red, white and green, the main colors of the Austro-Hungarian flag, and wearing the newly awarded Grand Cross Order of Leopold at her neckline, and the Order of Maria Teresa, also of Grand Cross, on her left breast socket.

The Prime Minister's report, which was irritating to Sissi, contained nothing of interest to Sissi in the lengthy report, from which she did not hear any analysis and evaluation of the current situation in the country by key government officials, nor any constructive comments from them. In addition to all kinds of empty official words, the whole report is only a dishonest data.

Sissi was well aware that this report would not solve any problems at all, and that it was a waste of time – as has been the case with countless reports that were almost identical in the past.

However, after the end of the last war, the government was very sensitive to the excessive interference of military personnel in politics, and after the end of the war, it enacted legislation stipulating that unless the country was attacked by hostile forces, military personnel only had the "right to observe" in the operation of the government, and did not have the "right to make suggestions." Now, some people in parliament are trying to erase the clause that "soldiers can urge the government to take action in times of emergency" from the law, because in the Balkan war, Sissi relied on this article to force the parliament to decide to issue war bonds.

Because of this, at this moment in this meeting, even if Sissi is a god who has just made great achievements and is at the peak of her prestige, as long as she is still wearing a military uniform, she cannot blame these "elegant" gentlemen in front of her - it is useless to blame precisely, they will definitely bring out the evil consequences caused by the government of the last war because they listened to the advice of the soldiers.

Sissi was 100% sure that these people would move her grandfather out.

Therefore, Sissi could only choose to remain silent and watch these people do nothing.

She couldn't help but think of the editorial in the Free Austrian newspaper, a rather radical tabloid that had been trying to encourage workers and peasants to rise up before the Balkan War to overthrow the Austro-Hungarian government and establish a republic in the example of Germany next door.

Sissi also thought that the proprietor of this newspaper was a wall-riding faction, and was about to ignore the newspaper for the sake of profit, but who knew that it had only been singing praises for less than a month, and began to try to point out in a tactful way that "the situation in the country has not improved". Recently, the newspaper has begun to say something weird: "We desperately hope for the great Sissi? Feng? Miss Conrad solves the problems of the country as cleanly as she does with the Serbs", "Perhaps we need a new Queen Maria Theresa, so I sincerely hope that Miss Sissi will consider Prince Karl".

Every time Sissi read the newspaper, she was so angry that she couldn't do it, but every time the housekeeper wanted to unsubscribe from the newspaper, Sissi didn't agree.

She didn't tell the housekeeper why.

Although the editorials on the front page of this newspaper were very annoying, the articles on the other pages seemed to be very reasonable, and some of the suggestions Sissi really felt ten thousand times better than the bombastic talk of the gentlemen in front of her.

Sissi had already tried to introduce new methods of production on her estate, as suggested in the newspaper, to improve the treatment of the employees and increase productivity. The results of these approaches, at least for now, are quite encouraging.

Sissi did not want to learn from Catherine of Russia and become queen in a coup d'état, but she immediately gave up this idea when she thought that it might implicate innocent people and lose their lives.

As for marrying Prince Karl, it is even more impossible, His Royal Highness has been married for a long time, and both of them can be Sissi's adoptive parents at their age.

So Sissi could only sit here as she is now, suppressing her inner irritability and listening to the Prime Minister read aloud the summary of the reports submitted by the government ministers, and helplessly watching the Austro-Hungarian Empire slide towards the abyss of decline.

Today, Sissi was more irritable than usual, because early this morning she received new news that the Romanian government had just introduced a reform plan. Along with the news, Sissi was accompanied by the details of the reform plan, which seemed to have a lot in common with the policies pursued by Sissi in her fiefdom.

While the Austro-Hungarian Empire was stagnant, the surrounding countries were working hard, which made Sissi very anxious.

At this time, the Prime Minister's report read about the week's developments in Hungary, and the fact that the Hungarian parliament would vote on whether to approve the economic reform package in the near future made Sissi's heart tremble.

It has long been rumored that the Hungarians sent an economic mission to Germany to learn from the experience, and now it seems that they are preparing to put into practice what they have learned from Germany.

Sissi was a little unable to sit still, the system of the dualist empire had fallen into a state of extreme instability after the end of the war, and the Hungarians had shown a tendency to break away from the empire on more than one occasion, and if their economic power had surpassed that of Austria, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have largely existed in name only.

At the same time as Sissi's expression changed, His Majesty Ferdinand, who had been silent, changed his posture, and it seemed that the Hungarian man's movements had also attracted the attention of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor.

Suddenly, the emperor interrupted the prime minister's report.

"The Hungarians are starting to reform."

"They're just discussing, not ...... yet"

"I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before it passes." Ferdinand interrupted the Prime Minister, "Judging from the performance of the Hungarians in recent times, there are still many people of insight among them. ”

The government dignitaries looked at each other, and they instinctively felt that there was a deep meaning behind the emperor's words at this time.

Since his accession to the throne, Ferdinand has been trying to bring the Slavs into the dual empire of Hungarians and Austrians, and as a result has had many hostilities with the Hungarian government, which has always opposed any change that might weaken their power within the imperial system.

Because of this, in the first few years of Archduke Ferdinand's accession to the throne, he complained in front of his ministers that the Hungarian nobility was "short-sighted". At this time, the emperor suddenly changed his words, which made the prime minister and all the ministers feel bad.

While the gentlemen were in doubt, the supreme ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire stood up, lightly pressed his hand on his abdomen, and scanned the room majestically.

"Gentlemen, a few months ago, I asked you to come up with a solution to the current domestic problems, but until now, I have not seen any trace of this plan." The Emperor paused, apparently trying to give his courtiers a chance to defend themselves, but no one spoke, so Ferdinand continued, "Before the outbreak of the Great War, I had always believed that the crux of the Empire's weakness was the dissatisfaction of the Slavs with their treatment. But the war gave me a blow in the face, and made me realize how far apart we are from other countries in terms of our production capacity, our military technical capabilities, and other countries! The severe economic difficulties of the post-war period taught me another lesson. ”

The Emperor took a deep breath, and Sissi felt that he was using this to push herself to make up her final mind.

Finally, the Emperor spoke again: "We must change, and continuing to maintain the status quo will only lead to the destruction of the Empire." Serbia's victory is an opportunity, and now the government can get the understanding of the people no matter what it does! We are going to carry out drastic reforms, gentlemen! We need to completely reform the economic system of society, and start to catch up while we are not completely left behind by other powers! ”

While the emperor made a generous speech, Sissi carefully observed the expressions of the dignitaries present.

This made Sissi further certain of one thing.

These guys, the stumbling block to the progress of Austria-Hungary, are selfish and have no foresight, only know how to protect the interests that their family has already obtained, and stubbornly reject all changes that may threaten them.

It is precisely because of this that they are so afraid of the spread of the ideas of the Chinese who single-handedly concocted the German reforms.

They only want to guard their estates, their own wealth, and they only want the workers to work like ants in the factories they have invested in, and to use the whip to maintain the motivation of the workers.

According to the Free Austrian Zeitung, "These fiefdom aristocrats are no longer adapted to the requirements of the present social production, they have become an obstacle to the development of the productive forces, and there is no other way but to get rid of them completely."

Recalling this passage made Sissi's mood become depressed.

Because she suddenly felt that in order to turn Austria-Hungary to the light, there would probably be a bloodshed.

Even if the people do not rise up, His Majesty the Emperor must sweep away these stumbling blocks if he wants to implement reforms.

When she heard the news of Iron Hime's large-scale purge in Russia, Sissi firmly believed that it was the result of Iron Ji's tyranny, but now it seems that she may have just seen the affairs that Sissi only saw now.

The Emperor was still impassionedly stating his opinion, and the faces of the ministers became more and more grim, and finally, when Ferdinand stopped to breathe, said: "Your Majesty, we fully understand your intentions, and we will certainly come up with a detailed plan next week and submit it to the Parliament for discussion." ”

Ferdinand's expression froze slightly, but quickly returned to normal.

"Well, then I'm looking forward to the outcome of your discussion."

With that, the Emperor slowly sat back in his chair, his movements looking full of tiredness.

An hour later, the meeting finally ended, and after the Emperor motioned for the ministers to leave, Sissi stood up.

At this time, Ferdinand said, "Sissi, Sophie, she wants to invite you to dinner, are you free tonight?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Ferdinand nodded, then leaned back in his ornate baroque chair, closed his eyes, and raised his right hand to rub his eyes.

The ministers who were leaving the room exchanged glances with each other.

Outside the large window of the conference room, dusk had arrived, and the remnant sun was like blood.