In fact, when Franz was making trouble everywhere, Prime Minister Metternich was not idle, but he still slid to the Italian region according to the trajectory of history.

The four countries of Parma, Lucca, Modena, and Tuscany in Central Italy were all effectively controlled by Austria and were nominally independent states.

Especially with the construction of railways and the establishment of the Apennine commercial alliances, the growing ties between these regions and the Austrian Empire became de facto part of the Austrian market.

As for the kingdom of Sardinia, the most powerful in the whole Italian peninsula, it also entered into several marriages with the Austrian Empire, and was also influenced by the latter to some extent, at least superficially subservient.

Ferdinando II of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies went from being an ultra-liberal to an ultra-conservative because of the constant rebellion in the country and the deep fear of death.

Conservative to the point of seclusion, yes, the king who built the first railroad on the Italian peninsula, the first modern shipping company, and laid the first telegraph line.

At one point, Ferdinando II even cut off foreign trade routes for fear of revolutionaries landing by sea, which eventually led to the great famine and the decline of commerce at home.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was too far from Austria proper, and this neurotic way of ruling was naturally not Metternich's dish, and he aimed at the Papal States.

If Tsarist Russia was the sewer of literacy among the great powers, then the Papal States was the bottomless pit of literacy in the homes of the non-great powers.

The peasants, who made up the vast majority of the population, did not have the right and financial resources to receive education, and the state was run not by the government or by the law, but by the mood of the pope and the clergy.

The priests of the Papal States at that time had great power to enter any house in the parish (similar to a community) at any time they wished, and to decide whether the hadiths of the Church had been observed.

They are both police chiefs and judges, as well as prosecutors. In addition, they held military and legislative powers, as well as the functions of administering the Holy See Edict and judging heretics.

In short, the priest is a god in his diocese, and what he does may make future generations of African benevolents seem much more "wise".

More than three million of the 3.3 million people of the Papal States are chronically hungry, living a medieval life with little public lighting at night.

The houses of the poor were made of mud and stone, the roofs were covered with straw, and even the luxurious palaces where the nobles and clergy lived were covered with the stench because they also had no sanitary system.

Piles of filth can be seen on both sides of the road, as well as buckets hanging from second-floor windows.

There are quite a few people who can't afford to use iron tools, many are poorly clothed, and some families even have only one pair of trousers. The terrible poverty is hard to believe not only for modern people, but also for diplomats resident in the Papal States.

Rudolf von Lützov, the Austrian ambassador to Rome, wrote in his diary.

"It makes me hard to believe that I've seen the most blasphemous things in the closest places to God

People are hungry, they are not clothed, they don't know it, and the absurdity and ignorance are not enough to describe what I see.

On the way to Rome I met a lovely kid who seemed interested in my cat.

Since the child had a beautiful face, beautiful eyes, and a beautiful voice, but he was not wearing a shirt and had long hair, I had no way of judging his gender.

As a traditional Viennese, I love children, so I gifted my cat to that cute little guy and gave him or her a shirt, as well as a silver coin in the hope that he or she would have a happy day.

After about a quarter of an hour, I realized that the boy had forgotten to take the cat food, and that I did not want Mr. Saswa (the cat's name) to leave his beloved little dried fish, so I turned back.

What I saw, however, was a filthy woman wearing the white shirt I had given away, and on a wooden shelf beside her was a bloody Mr. Saswa.

I angrily took my single-shot pistol out of the box, trying to get the filthy woman in front of me to pay for Mr. Saswar's life.

But when I saw the grateful and expectant eyes of the two children on the side, I chose to go back to the carriage and fly away."

The poverty, backwardness, and ignorance of the Papal States were evident, and countless beggars were moving through the city as the cardinals rode through the streets in extravagant carriages.

They beg on every street corner, in every square, in every monument, in every church door, and they are as ubiquitous as the Church describes it to be immense.

Pope Gregory XVI was not a beloved ruler, and his incompetence and stupidity deepened the crisis of the country.

Pope Gregory XVI was born into a local aristocratic family in Lombardy, northern Italy, with a high nose, curved lips, a never-changing frowning expression, and the most terrible thing is that the tumor on his face made him live in seclusion.

Pope Gregory XVI considered himself an ascetic, but he established financial institutions such as the Discount Bank, the Bank of Rome, the Bank of the Holy Spirit, and the Savings Bank, as well as the Holy Water Company, and appointed entrepreneurs to manage the internal affairs of the Church, and the thirst for money far exceeded that of his predecessors.

However, due to poor management, the Papal States had to borrow money to survive the current crisis, and by 1846 the total debt had reached 36 million ztyiros (1 ztyro = 0.4 pounds).

Among them, the French bank of Rothschild alone lent nearly 20 million francs, and the debt to the Austrian Empire exceeded 50 million florins.

In order to pay off his debts, Gregory XVI mortgaged to merchants the tax cards of various places, as well as the privileges of buying and selling wine, salt, fish, sugar, and cotton cloth.

This further exacerbates the divide between rich and poor, with the "black aristocracy" holding everything in their hands and millions of people suffering from poverty and hunger.

The black nobility refers to the descendants of the pope and the relatives of the cardinals, and it is also said that the monks are called black aristocrats because they wear black.

Under such a rule, coupled with the spread of nationalist ideas, an uprising was inevitable.

The Papal States at first did not realize the seriousness of the problem, and the then bishop of Bologna, Mastai Ferret (later Pius IX), did not assess the insurgents as:

"There are no more than 500 rebels in Perugia, Frino, Spoleto and Terni"

"No uniform, no leadership, no guts, this group of people has no ability to scare anyone!"

Then the so-called five hundred rebels defeated the 12,000-strong army of the Papal States under Bologna, and the ranks grew rapidly, storming the town, killing the clergy, and looting the Holy Treasury everywhere.

Mastai Ferret deserted the city, but he did not believe that he had lost, but that his morale collapsed due to an epileptic seizure, and he applied to the Holy See to be re-inforced.

The Holy See hierarchy felt that he was very brave and decided to give him another chance.

As a result, there was another crushing defeat in the Imola region, where the 30,000-strong army of the Papal States was crushed in a single blow. Gregory XVI had to send men to France and Austria overnight to bring reinforcements.

In July 1831, when the July dynasty had just overthrown the Bourbons, Louis Philippe had no time to look to the east, so he sent only 250 soldiers to defend the Holy Throne.

Gregory XVI was so angry that he almost suffered a stroke, but fortunately, the Chief Secretary of State of the Holy See, Ruigi Lambroszini, invited the Austrians against public opinion.

And both the then Emperor Franz II and the Prime Minister Metternich felt that this was a good opportunity.

The Austrian army entered the Papal States to quell the rebellion, and the result was a shocking surprise, as the rebels, which the Pope had previously claimed to unite with Catholics from all over the world to fight, were easily routed by the Austrian army in Bologna.

However, although the rebellion was quelled, the root cause of the rebellion was never resolved. By the time of the death of Franz II in 1835, the Austrian Empire spent millions of dollars annually on the Papal States.

After the death of the "Italian Emperor", Metternich, who had no support, naturally had no choice but to cut expenses and maintain the papal rule.

However, history had changed by this time, and with the accession of the Austrian Empire to the German Customs Union in 1834, and the subsequent intervention of Franz, its economic power was far greater than that of the same period in history.

Metternich was not stupid, he knew that times were changing, and that governments that failed to make changes in time would be swept into the dustbin of history.

For example, the Bourbon dynasty, which was successfully restored after the Napoleonic Wars, was unwittingly overthrown by his people again.

The Papal States bordered Lombardy and Venetia, and had close ties with the small states of Central Italy, and its stability would have a direct impact on Austrian rule in Italy.

Metternich was determined to strengthen the rule of the Papal States, but he had also been to the Papal States and had met the Pope himself, so he believed that reform was necessary.

Metternich wanted to use his ideas to transform the Papal States and let capable people dominate the government, which seemed to Gregory XVI to be completely unorthodox.

As a result, money was spent, but with little effect, people were more miserable, and uprisings and riots broke out one after another. It costs tens of millions of florins every year, but the Pope does not appreciate it, and even has a tendency to turn to France.

At this time, Franz intervened (mentioned earlier, but too long to briefly describe here).

Franz's advice to Metternich was to treat it as a deal, since Gregory XVI was a businessman.

No matter how selfless the Austrian Empire was, it seemed to the other side that it should be. After all, Gregory XVI was the Church, and the Austrian Empire was a Catholic state.

Therefore, before sending troops, send people to the Holy See to pay for the cost of sending troops, so that the relations between the two countries can be greatly eased.

As a result, the attitude of the Holy See towards the Austrian Empire changed significantly, not only alienating France, but also giving the Austrian Empire two more cardinal positions.

However, this was a palliative rather than a cure, and the Austrian Empire still needed a large amount of military appropriations every year to maintain the rule of the Church.

In doing so, it became the target of public criticism, and the people saw the Austrian Empire as an accomplice to the black aristocracy, and their own people and nobles felt that this support was a complete waste.

The Great Powers accused the Austrian Empire of interfering in the internal affairs of the Papal States with the intention of distributing it to the Pope. Italian nationalists even listed Austria as their number one enemy.

Revolutionaries in other regions also regarded the Austrian Empire as the number one reactionary force, and for a time even worse than the reputation of Russia.

Franz did not approve of the kind of thing that sold his head to aid the United States, so he suggested early on that Metternich should change his rule by suppression. For Ferrara and Bologna, which were closer to Austria, they could consider sending troops directly to the station, on the grounds that it would facilitate continued repression.

This proposal was approved by the Papal Chamber, and in the eyes of the higher echelons of the Papal States, it was more important to maintain one's position and security than anything else, and the long-term presence of the Austrian Imperial Army would not only reduce rebellion, but also save the cost of moving troops to Vienna every time.

Later, the Austrian side offered to help the Papal States govern, after all, there may still be dangerous elements in these areas where the rebellion occurred.

Those men had killed Papal officials, and in order to avoid tragedy, the Austrian Empire could help govern and collect taxes.

When the Holy See leaders heard this, they immediately expressed their support, on the one hand, they were really worried about security, and on the other hand, they naturally had no reason to refuse if they could get something for nothing.

Gregory XVI was not a fool, but fortunately he was a negotiable leader.

Eventually, after the Austrian Empire pledged to donate 500,000 florins annually to the Pope's private treasury, Gregory XVI finally agreed to hand over Ferrara and Bologna to the former to administer on his behalf.

However, Gregory XVI was adamantly opposed to the construction of railways on the lands of the Papal States, so Austrian railways could only be built as far as the borders of Ferrara.

Then the "corrupt" rule of the Austrian Empire won the praise of the local population, and the papal state's centuries-long education of the people was not in vain.

As long as the Austrian side gives the people a little benefit, the latter will be grateful. In fact, Austrian merchants still control most of the important trades, but all the locals want is to have enough to eat.

It is not difficult to do this in this era of rapid agricultural development. Therefore, the locals quickly came to the conclusion that the Austrian faith was more religious than the Roman faith, because the land could produce more food under the former's rule.

This sense of self-brainwashing is an excellent quality in the eyes of the rulers. In order to fulfill the long-cherished wish of the old emperor, Metternich is also steadily advancing the area of Austrian governance.

However, paper could not contain fire, and someone sensed the intentions of the Austrian Empire and informed the Holy See. Gregory XVI immediately ordered the return of Ravenna, Ancona, and other places, but soon the war resumed, and he had to bring back the Austrian army.

In the years that followed, the rebellion continued so that even a fool could tell that Metternich was the culprit.

At this time, however, the Prime Minister's self-proclaimed clever strategy was in fact playing with fire, and the opposition of the Great Powers aside, it was impossible for the top of the Papal States alone to allow Austria to be encroached upon in this way.

All the achievements at this time were made under the money-hungry and mediocre ruler of Gregory XVI, and if it had been replaced by a more capable pope, Austria would have been hindered and even had to abandon it.

However, what Franz didn't know was that the new pope who was about to appear on the stage could be said to have taken the word "disgusting" to the extreme.

There are few people in this world who are hated by conservatives and liberals, by the poor and by the rich, and even by himself.

(End of chapter)