Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz knew exactly what was going to happen at this time, and over the years the number of guards in the palace had gone from eight hundred to two thousand, and then to eight thousand at this time, and the defense force was ten times greater than in history.

Vienna's old city walls were demolished and replaced by Franz's shops and factories.

This had the advantage of preventing the rebels from using it to build barricades, and if necessary, blowing up a barrier around the palace and the noble quarters as a last line of defense.

At this time, the city defense army did not change much from the number in history, but the old, weak, and young were eliminated and completely became a fighting force under Albrecht's tutelage.

It was an army of 20,000 nobles, armed with the most expensive equipment in the entire Austrian Empire, and the will to fight was greatly improved, especially after the events of Winster and the anti-drug operation.

In addition, the Austrian army deployed a garrison of 100,000 troops near Vienna, which was much larger than the same period in history.

The main thing is that in the context of the economic crisis, the economy of the Austrian Empire is still improving, and the peasants have not had a bad harvest and there has been no large-scale exodus.

Vienna did not have a large number of refugees and not too many unemployed workers. On the whole, the people are in a relatively passable state, at least no one to the point where they can't survive.

Due to the impact of the economy, it is true that a small number of factories and merchants went bankrupt, but on a very small scale. Compared to the thousands of companies that go bankrupt in Britain and France a year, an average of hundreds of companies go bankrupt every month.

In Austria only seven companies went bankrupt in December 1847, two of which were raided by Franz for falsifying accounts.

In December of the same year, there were 104 in Paris, 97 in London, 61 in Prussia and 28 in Russia.

The development of railway transportation brought the entire Austrian empire closer together, and the fact that if there was a rebellion in Vienna within a day or two, the garrisons from all over the country could arrive, which greatly reduced the success rate and feasibility of the rebellion.

Theoretically, the revolt in Vienna lacked the necessary sunlight, soil, and moisture at this time, but Franz made a second plan for safety: the Tyrolean refuge.

North Tyrol is undoubtedly easy to defend and difficult to defend and difficult to attack, and despite its small size, Tyrol has a basic agricultural and industrial base.

In addition, under Franz's special care in these years, the industrial and agricultural base was much stronger than in history, as well as the largest arsenal and weapons development department in Austria.

Historically, Tyrol was also the only region of the Austrian Empire that did not rebel during the Year of the Storm, the other being Galicia.

There are also many names for sending people to Tyrol, after all, the beauty of the mountains and rivers and the proximity to the Alps are very suitable for retirement, vacation, and leisure.

The literati, the artists, the royals had no objection to the place, and Franz could come with a casual invitation.

The difficult thing to deal with is the Austrian scientists, except for a few who are engaged in biology and geography, most of whom have little interest in mountains and rivers.

At this time, they were still in the stage of human victory, and they were not in the mood to stop and enjoy the beautiful scenery at all.

In addition, the laboratories in Tyrol are not up to the level of the Vienna laboratory, which makes those who do scientific research even more disgusted.

In particular, Babbage's design is full of precision parts, and the trinity analyzer weighing dozens of tons can be transported separately by train.

But assembly is a big trouble, and what's worse is that those precision instruments can't stand the bumps, and the slightest deviation will make the experimental data fallen.

Babbage and his team would not have been able to leave Vienna, so Franz respected the computer pioneer's wishes.

However, the latter reinforced the walls around the lab to be on the safe side, and built a doomsday fortress for them underneath the lab.

Franz didn't want these scientists who had made great contributions to human history to make any mistakes, and the rest of them could only be coaxed and deceived.

For example, in the legendary prophecy, people in this era still believe in religion.

As for Prince Metternich, he still suggested that Franz should go to Tyrol to experience it, of course, there is no lack of protection.

Because of the experience of the French Revolution, it is difficult to guarantee that Vienna will be safe.

Of course, he still thought in his heart that the Austrian Empire would survive the crisis unharmed, but he also had a backup plan and did not want to take any risks.

The old prime minister's face was very bad, and it was obvious that he had not rested well recently. After some routine greetings and exhortations, Franz spoke first.

"Prime Minister, you seem to be bothered. Is it because of the Italian thing? ”

Metternich nodded, and now it was Franz's turn to be depressed, because they had already discussed things about Italy, and the former had taken the latter's advice to increase the Italian army by 50,000.

At this time, there were already 150,000 troops in northern Italy, of which the old commander Radetzky had 100,000 troops in his hands, which was much stronger than the 15,000 in history.

"Prime Minister, do you think Marshal Radetzky is useless?"

"Radetzky is 82 years old, and I really don't feel at ease with such a veteran old man leading the army.

But the Count of Latour said that he was the best, and that the other generals had no experience in leading more than 50,000 troops at all. ”

"If you are not at ease, you can transfer Archduke Karl to the Italian battlefield."

Historically, Archduke Karl occasionally suffered from a cold after attending the funeral of Archduke Friedrich, and he became ill when he returned home.

However, Friedrich was not dead at this time, and Archduke Karl was naturally alive and well.

Metternich frowned, for the first time he found out that the country was so old, except that the marshal of 82 was the 77-year-old Grand Duke.

"Archduke Franz, I want you to understand that letting Archduke Karl go to guard the ancestral land is an internal decision of the Habsburgs, not my executive order."

Metternich meant it was obvious that he didn't want to get involved in the internal affairs of the royal family.

"Italy still has Prince Schwarzenberg in charge, and the situation should not be out of control."

Felix Schwarzenberg is actually a close confidant of Metternich, and he is still more comfortable with this person, but the same problem is not young anymore.

Moreover, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg was better at strategizing than fighting on the march, and his ability to adapt to changes on the battlefield, experience, and prestige were far inferior to Marshal Radetzky and Grand Duke Karl.

But the affairs of northern Italy were not what Metternich feared, in fact he still had in his heart such "talents" as Fernand Richie, Alois Palfe, and Archduke Reiner.

"Archduke Franz, I'm worried about things in Sicily."

By this time, Sicily was already full of beacons, but Franz was still puzzled.

"Your Excellency, I regret what happened in Sicily, but I don't think there is anything to worry about."

Franz was halfway through his speech and suddenly thought of something.

(End of chapter)