Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Prime Minister Metternich's presence here is not unusual, but it seems a little strange at this juncture.

Because at this time there were obviously more important things for Austria, such as the war in Switzerland and the problem of nationalism at home.

But in fact the purpose of Prince Metternich's visit was precisely for this purpose, and Franz was no longer completely secluded behind the scenes, and the latter began to frequent the Regency and the Imperial Government.

After the two met, there was a brief greeting, and Prince Metternich went straight to the point.

"Archduke Franz, I don't think our meeting should drag on until April. The Russians and the British were too far apart to be a problem if we reached an agreement with France and the Kingdom of Sardinia to divide Switzerland.

The princes of the German Confederation were either too far away and weak, or they did not want to make progress and only wanted to reap the benefits.

It's good to have a lot of people, but it's embarrassing to be able to hold back."

Franz understood what Prince Metternich meant.

"You're saying we can set aside the German Confederation and Anglo-Russian, and then sign a tripartite agreement or some secret treaty with France and the Kingdom of Sardinia."

Secret agreements between countries were not uncommon in this era, and almost every country had secret agreements with several countries at the same time.

For example, the Austrian side was able to take control of Krakow, which was the result of the secret agreement between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1835.

In fact, Austria still had many secret agreements at this time, such as to prevent the resurgence of France, to prevent the union of France and Spain, to prevent France from annexing the provinces of the Kingdom of Sardinia, to prevent France from attacking Tunisia, to prevent France from annexing Belgium, to prevent the Kingdom of Sardinia from annexing Monaco, and to prevent the French colonies on the east coast of North America from being connected to the Alaska Lease.

Monaco is surrounded on three sides by the Kingdom of Sardinia, with a population of less than 1% of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but Carlo Alberto could not eat it.

"That's right, Your Highness. This is beneficial for all three of us, and only then can we join this war as quickly as possible, before the Freedom Alliance wins. ”

By this time news of the Swiss Civil War had reached Vienna, and such a quick and tragic defeat was something Metternich never expected.

However, for Franz, a young man, he felt that he was still underestimating. Because Franz had been trying his best to prevent Metternich from sending weapons, supplies, and salaries to Ticeno.

At this time, the state of Ticeno had just rebelled, and it seemed that it was just a whimsical act by Franz who sent supplies that should have been sent to support Switzerland to Galicia.

But Metternich was well aware of how low the probability of such a thing was, and that the Austrian Empire was not short of money at this time, or that the treasury had never been so wealthy, that it would not be a problem to come up with a single sum of money to support Galicia.

The reason why Franz tried his best to prevent it was either the so-called "prophecy", or he had already learned the news in advance and did not want more people to know about it.

Metternich believed that it was the latter, so he felt compelled to talk to Franz about his ideas, since the latter would be the future emperor of Austria.

"Prime Minister, why do you think you established the Vienna System in the first place? Switzerland is a buffer between us and France, and now we are going to destroy it with our own hands? ”

Metternich was a little surprised, but it was only for a moment, and the old prime minister's expression management was still in place.

"The Austrian Empire is no longer what it used to be, and since 1836 we have reached a break-even. This was the best era of the Austrian Empire's economy from 1780 after the death of Empress Theresa.

From 1834 to the present, China's fiscal revenue has increased from less than 100 million florins to nearly 700 million florins. ”

With an average annual growth rate of 17.65%, it is second only to Luxembourg, which has regained its homeland.

Franz was actually a little helpless, at this time the economy of the Austrian Empire was not completely natural, in addition to the dividends of technology, colonies, policies and customs unions, it was also fueled by gold mines to produce such an economic miracle as today.

The rapid economic growth brought about earth-shaking changes, but it also led to some unrealistic ideas at the top of the Austrian Empire.

"But we are only just over France, we still have a big gap with Great Britain, and we do not yet have a fleet that can protect our interests abroad.

You think that we have a border with France and have contradictions, which country benefits the most? ”

"Britain?"

"So who started the Swiss Civil War?"

"British"

"Isn't it true that England knows that Joseph Lowy's men are impossible to defeat us?"

"This," Metternich said after a moment's hesitation, "but now the Orthodox Alliance has fallen into an absolute disadvantage. ”

"So what? With scarce resources, insufficient arable land and a small population, Switzerland simply could not sustain a long war. What's more, I feel like the war has just begun."

Aargau, Switzerland.

Dufour, annoyed by the incompetence of the defenders of Aargau, Zurich, and Thurgau, actually had almost all of their arsenals burned down, and several granaries were burned.

However, he knew that although the granary had burned a lot, there must still be food. Because these governors don't have a lion's mouth, as evidenced by this.

Further, it is not certain whether those granaries were burned by the Orthodox Union troops or by themselves.

Dufort didn't want to delve into this, so he could leave the overly murderous General Frey Holsay here to deal with the small forces of the Orthodox Alliance.

After all, General Frey Holosey is one of the few strong-fisted generals in Switzerland, and if he were on the front lines, he would be a great threat to both the enemy and the enemy.

In fact, at this time, Dufort still hopes to fight a perfect war, especially after the previous big victory in Fribourg.

The remaining states of the Orthodox Union, with the exception of Valais, were all gathered around Lucerne, and with a perfect raid, he would have won a big victory.

However, the risk of a direct attack on Lucerne was too high, and Dufort decided to order Augustin Keller to attack Zug with a force of 50,000 men.

The canton of Zug is on the periphery of the Orthodox Union and has no danger to defend, the most important of which is that Josef Løj claims to have bought off the top of the canton of Zug and can solve the problem without bloodshed.

Dufort sent another force to attack Lucerne from the front. Although the frontal battlefield is very lively, his real killer weapon is fast advancing on a mountain path.

The morning sun pierced through the rocks of the valley, and an army of the Freedom Alliance was striding along the mountain road.

Only these mountain people can run without delay, and there are actually more than a dozen mountain roads leading to Lucerne.

However, these paths are too narrow and have a limited number of troops to pass through, so commanders are generally not critical of this.

Despite the limited number of troops that could pass through, Dufort had seen from the previous battle of Fribourg that the Orthodox coalition army was so lacking in morale that it could flee at any time as long as the gun was fired.