Franz nodded, but it didn't matter.

"Do you want to smoke?"

"Please give me a cigar."

Franz nodded, and Bordeaux took out a cigar and a box of matches and handed them to Joseph Lowy.

The latter did not light the match several times, not because the Austrian match was of bad quality, and it was not that Franz deliberately teased the other party, but because Joseph Lowy's hand was shaking.

Finally, there was a crunch, the match was lit, and Joseph Loy took a hard breath, then slowly exhaled a smoke ring.

"This cigar is good, French? Or Cuban cigars from Spain? ”

"This is a product of the Nicaraguan region of Austrian Central America, and the quality is not inferior to Cuban cigars."

Later Nicaraguan cigars were indeed not inferior to Cuban cigars in terms of quality, but due to the long-term war, their reputation was far inferior to that of Cuban cigars.

This was also the case at this time, but one of the important reasons was that the Austrian Empire was not strong enough and not influential enough.

The stereotype that French cigars were considered the best cigars in the world, even if they were of poor quality, did not disappear until after World War II.

Joseph Loy nodded, then smiled wryly and said the question in his mind.

"When are you going to execute me?"

Franz shook his head.

"You have accumulated too much hatred, I will send you to a suitable place to adjudicate against you"

Franz would put Joseph Loy and Frey Holosey on trial in Switzerland and then in Vienna, and then they would be sent to the Vatican to face the Pope's final verdict.

They arrived at the same time as two petitions in Switzerland and Vienna, as well as incriminating evidence against them.

In fact, the Papal States had a bitter hatred for these two, and Joseph Loy had swept away the Jesuit estates and monasteries in Switzerland.

Pius IX's confidant died directly in Switzerland, and this would not only ease relations with the Papal States, but also throw the pot to His Majesty the Pope.

Franz prefers to pay off favors rather than pay off debts. It's just that whether Pius IX appreciates it or not is another question.

The trial of Constantine Sigwater and Ulrich Salis may have been a hassle for Austria, but it was a surefire deal for the Papal States.

First the brothers of the church were martyred, then the nuns were canonized, and then the trial of the two culprits at this time is definitely a shot in the arm for the stormy Papal States.

At the same time, the final settlement of Switzerland at the Vienna Conference was finalized.

Austria gets Allgäu, France gets Geneva and Vaud, Prussia gets Jura, and the Kingdom of Sardinia gets Valais

The rest of the territory was divided by the German Confederation except for the canton of Fribourg, which elected the Archduke Count of Chambord.

This caused quite a stir at the time, but Louis Philippe eventually agreed, because he felt that Fribourg was a piece of meat on his lips.

And after the Count of Chambord has his own territory, will he give up his coveting of the throne?

In fact, Louis Philippe also tried to force the other party to submit on this condition, but he was still very firm about his throne, the Count of Chambord.

As for the German princes, no one wanted to defend the frontier to face the French, so this hot potato was lost to another French monarch.

Then the canton of Ticeno, which the Kingdom of Sardinia had claimed, was replaced by the canton of Valais, which was more desolate than the canton of Ticeno.

At the same time, he had to confront the French threat, and Carlo Alberto, although he was unwilling, did not help.

Thus an iron curtain was lowered from the Jura to the Valais, separating France from the German Confederation by a separation of Prussia, Chambor, and Sardinia.

Of course, this was also in Franz's plan, after all, the thicker the buffer zone, the greater the room for manoeuvre.

This time it was supposed to be a big victory, but when Franz returned to Vienna, he realized that something was wrong. That is, the national mood in Germany, far from easing, is moving in a more extreme direction.

Austria's upper class is panicking, and there are even some shrewd bankers who are trying to exchange precious metals and are ready to run away.

It all started with someone's wild words at the Congress of the German Confederation.

In fact, when the old Kurdray had a not-so-good start, the Boers, who were desperate in South Africa at this time, suddenly remembered that he might also be German.

Andres Pretorius came to Vienna, but the Boers were not as rich as the Luxembourgers.

Even the commander of the Boer militia had to borrow money to finance his travels, because they had less than thirty pounds in their treasury.

Andreas Pretorius was one of the greatest leaders in Boer history, and the capital of South Africa, Pretoria, was named after him.

Andreas Pretorius brought the Boers inland to escape the persecution of the British.

After another leader, Retif, was killed by the Zulus, he recruited 500 militiamen to protect the remaining populace, and eventually defeated the Zulus, who were dozens of times his size, in the Battle of the Blood River.

The size of the Zulu at that time probably exceeded 15,000 men, and they ended up leaving behind 3,000 corpses, while the Boers did not lose a single soldier.

However, being able to defeat the natives does not mean that he can defeat the most powerful country in the world at this time, the United Kingdom.

The British have always been very good at being inappropriate.

The Cape Colony was once one of many Dutch colonies that came to the hands of the British for various reasons.

In order to pass on their internal contradictions, the British chose to emigrate to the Cape colony, where the Boers occupied large amounts of land and had the tradition of a self-governing parliament.

This is what the British do not want to see, so they came to the bottom of the kettle.

The British government declared the Cape Colony a royal domain, and no longer allowed Boer farmers to occupy and develop it for free, but implemented a land auction system, and the land that had been developed had to pay back land rent.

At the same time, British colonial officials also imposed a system of discrimination against the Boers, restricting their migration north of the Orange River and abolishing the slavery system on which the Boers depended.

At that time, the Boers in the Cape Colony relied mainly on plantations and pastures, which required a large number of slaves, and the abolition of slavery was tantamount to destroying their economic base.

As the British grew in number in the Cape colony, so did the contradictions with the Boers, and the British officials had the weapons of law that made them powerless to confront them.

As a result, a large number of disenchanted and dissatisfied Boers abandoned their pastures and houses, and left the land where they had lived for generations and migrated inland.

In 1838 the Boers established the Republic of Natal, but the British were not prepared to let them go and annexed the Republic of Natal in 1842.

Andreas Pretorius and his men fled inland to Orange, where the British expanded again in 1847.