On the way back to Venice, Franz was ready to take a nap, after all, there were still many troubles to attend to afterwards.

Coming back from Berlin, the situation in Prussia was not much better than in Austria.

The wave of revolution also swept through Berlin, and Frederick Wilhelm IV learned the lessons of the previous zoo tragedy.

This time he requisitioned 30,000 troops to Berlin, bringing the total number of troops available to Wilhelm IV to 50,000.

But Metternich's early fall from power and the chaos in Vienna left Wilhelm IV without any sense of security.

He had hoped that the Austrians would come to help Prussia share the pressure, but Vienna fell first.

At the same time, there were serious divisions within the Prussian government between the two major factions, and the hardliners were represented by War Chancellor Kannitz, who insisted on suppressing the Berlin revolution.

The reason is simple, the Austrians have already compromised, and the result is the resignation of the prime minister, frequent changes of government, domestic political chaos, and covetousness by external forces, or even direct contention.

"The blood of the zoo cannot be shed in vain! They must be made aware of their status! We must not ride on our heads against those who have lowly blood! ”

Although the Junker landlords had been transforming into bourgeois farmers over the years, and the aristocracy had less and less power, they still did not want more people to threaten their position.

"Do you want the tragedy of France to play out in Prussia?"

Prime Minister Ludolf Comphausen asked rhetorically.

Generally speaking, the position of the prime minister of a country is higher than that of the war minister, but Prussia is obviously an exception at this time.

Ludolf Comphausen, a Prussian banker, was involved in the founding of the Rheinische Zeitung and was the founder of the Deutsche Steamship Company.

He made his fortune neither by his family's banking nor by freight, but by sending highly qualified German immigrants to North America and the British colonies.

Both countries pay high intermediary fees to them every year, so Ludolf Comphausen is a typical Anglophile.

Although under the impetus of Franz, the German Confederation promulgated the "Anti-Human Trafficking Act" and the "Anti-Human Smuggling Agreement", and even directly sent warships to intercept smuggling ships.

But these methods did not work for Ludolf Comphausen, who had an official background, and he could well say that he was a job introduction or a labor dispatch, in short, he was innocent.

Even if Franz wanted to use tough means, they took the Northern Sea Route, and the Austrian navy in the Mediterranean was powerless, and as for the navies of other states, it can only be said that they have more than enough heart but not enough strength.

Ludolf Comphausen's goal was to emulate Britain and establish a constitutional monarchy, so the public's call for constitutionalism at this time was more welcome.

"This is Berlin! Not Paris! I'm not a weak Marquis de Lafayette either! ”

"Aren't the lessons of the zoo tragedy enough?"

"There were only a thousand people in Grach, and only rifles. Now we have 50,000 people, and artillery! There's no reason those mobs can win against us! ”

The hardliners and capitulators were at loggerheads, and Frederick William IV had little idea, he did not want to hand over power, nor did he want to bear the infamy of slaughtering the people, and he was even more afraid of defeat.

Naturally, nothing will come of such an argument, said Friedrich Liszt, the chancellor of the exchequer.

"Field Marshal Kannitz, your army can indeed win against the people of Berlin, but what about after the victory? Are you going to kill them all? ”

The War Chancellor had to keep his mouth shut, knowing that he couldn't really kill all the people.

Friedrich Liszt then turned to Ludolf Comphausen.

"Prime Minister, if we are too soft, we will be ridden on the head by those nationalists, like Bavaria and Baden.

My proposal is to convene a joint Prussian provincial council, and we can cede some of the power, but they will also have to pay a price.

First of all, it is necessary to stop the civil strife and not allow the Rhine region to become independent from our country.

Second, they need to agree to tax hikes so that we are well positioned to deal with the current crisis. ”

Frederick Wilhelm IV nodded, and one of his powerful ministers finally came from the perspective of the state, and he admired the Württemberg man more and more.

But what Frederick Wilhelm IV did not know was that Friedrich Liszt was the biggest liberal in the Prussian government.

The Prussian Provincial Parliament was theoretically the representative body of the Prussian people, but successive generations of Prussian kings failed to fulfill this promise.

At the same time, due to the relationship between the Archbishop of Cologne and the Church, the situation in the Rhine region was indeed more serious at this time.

It was already clear that King Frederick William IV preferred Friedrich Liszt's proposal, and Kannitz was dissatisfied, but there was no point in arguing.

The intention of the Berlin government was to return the ball to the nationalists, but the nationalists in the Rhine and East Prussia were not at all the same people.

Friedrich Liszt also miscalculated on this point, he did not expect that those people would give up the opportunity to establish a constitution for the sake of religious contradictions.

They rejected the Berlin government's proposal, and then revolts broke out in both places. In the end, Berlin was still not spared, and the army and civilians fought in the streets, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Barricades are a common problem in this era, but the reality is that weapons at this time really have no good way to deal with such rudimentary fortifications.

The soldiers could only take one position after another in hand-to-hand combat despite huge casualties, and these soldiers from the three new provinces in eastern Prussia did not have a good impression of the concept of Germans.

Coupled with the huge number of casualties at this time, they could easily kill the red eye.

The soldiers fired their cannons at the barricades, and the horrific shells easily pierced the barricades where wooden furniture was piled up.

In order to suppress this rebellion, Kannitz also specially purchased special shotguns and even incendiary bombs from Austria.

The use of these weapons greatly reduced the casualties of the Prussian army, but the street fighting was still very brutal. Unable to distinguish between the resisters and the civilians, Cannitz's soldiers had to go room by room to suppress.

The inevitable number of accidental injuries and manslaughters provoked more people to revolt, and the morale of the soldiers was low and the mood was low, but there was no doubt that both sides were heading for madness.

Corpses piled up in the streets, houses set on fire, and the Berliners flinched in this purgatory-like scene. They did not have the courage of the Parisians, and the Prussian army was more disciplined, and these troops from the east were not sympathetic to the population, and were not directly opposed as the French army.

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace.

Frederick William IV felt betrayed, and he muttered to himself.

"A bunch of damned traitors!"

But when Kannitz came to ask him for approval for further action, Frederick William IV said.

"Keep going! But don't shoot! ”

(End of chapter)