Sunshine, Afternoon, and Lap Pillow

Austrian Empire, Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

The sun was warm, and the leaves were translucent.

Under a tree, Franz lay sprawled out across Thalia's lap.

Thalia was the tutor hired by Sophie for Franz Joseph.

In Thalia's own words:

"The little Highness is perfect in every way, except that his studies are a bit..." "Over-the-top!"

Although the little Highness still struggled to write many words, he could always draw inferences from one instance to another in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Many things that Thalia could not understand, the little Highness grasped instantly.

So much so that, most of the time, Thalia could only read the newspaper to him.

The little Highness also had a peculiar habit: he liked to hug people's legs while he slept.

Thalia thought of the royal regulations, which forbade the Archduchess from raising her children personally, and felt the little Highness was quite pitiful.

Little did she know that Franz, lying on her lap, was miles away in his thoughts.

For the current Franz, getting the old Emperor to agree to join the Zollverein was the absolute limit of what he could achieve.

As for whether they could actually join, or whether they could harvest the leeks of Prussia afterward, that would depend on the will of the heavens.

For Franz, what he should be doing now was enjoying everything his status brought him: the sun, the grass, and those shapely legs.

After all, to be given a gift and not take it is to invite disaster; to have the time and not act is to invite calamity!

In the afternoon, Franz stretched, only to find that Thalia had fallen fast asleep.

He tried poking her a couple of times, but Thalia didn't wake up; she merely turned over, her sleeping posture becoming even more disheveled.

Thus, Franz walked alone to the table in the garden and opened the newspaper.

In the corner of the page, there was a piece of news:

Land prices in the United States had hit a record high; from 1830 to 1834, in just four years, land in Chicago had tripled in value. The upward trend in land prices showed no signs of slowing, with expectations of another doubling in the next three years.

Franz smiled. It seemed the Austrian economists were still too conservative. From 1834 to 1837, Chicago land prices would soar 64-fold, directly triggering the economic crisis of 1837.

In the end, the land would return to its original value; land that could be sold for $12,000 at the peak in 1837 would be waiting for buyers at a value of only $100 by 1839.

The parties that suffered the most in this economic crisis were Britain and the United States, naturally due to their overly close economic ties. Meanwhile, the European continent, which generally practiced trade protectionism, was less affected.

It was just a pity that Franz couldn't invest; otherwise, he would have certainly helped out in causing trouble for the Americans.

Let the Austrian royal family buy it? What if they refused to sell when the economic crisis hit? Franz dared not gamble on human greed.

The newspaper used two full pages to report the news that the Austrian Empire was preparing to join the Zollverein.

Of the two pages, one was dedicated to singing the praises of Francis II, while the other detailed the immense benefits that joining the Zollverein would bring.

The moment the clock struck midnight on January 1, 1834, strings of carriages that had been waiting anxiously at the borders of various states rushed through like madmen, fully loaded with goods. Because the various taxes previously required to enter other countries had been abolished, profits increased significantly, and all German merchants were rushing about, driven by profit.

In the first quarter of 1834 alone, the total trade within the German Confederation exceeded the entire trade volume of 1833. Meanwhile, Austria's trade volume had only risen by 6%; if this continued for long, the merchants of the Austrian Empire would suffer huge losses.

The newspaper described the Zollverein as providing Austria with a massive market of 23 million people.

Although blind optimism was not advisable, one could not pour cold water on the merchants at this time.

Prince Metternich's censorship system was being enforced quite effectively; no dissenting voices were found in the newspapers.

There were also reports regarding rebel forces in various regions; from 1833 to 1834, a total of 12 uprisings occurred within and around the borders of the Austrian Empire.

Three recent ones had been quickly suppressed. One was small-scale, with the smallest involving no more than 20 people; in another, the garrison had been prepared in advance, as Thürheim had assigned the most capable Austrian generals to the locations most likely to erupt in rebellion.

Only the uprising in Genoa had the largest number of people and lasted the longest. Franz even saw two names he recognized: Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Franz read on and finally understood what had happened. The general sent by the Austrian Empire to suppress the uprising was Lich, and this general was quite something.

During the Napoleonic Wars, he was a famous "King of Surrender," a walking purse for the French. He had been captured by the French army and its allies eleven times, and each time he returned to Austria thanks to his family's ransom.

Moreover, this fellow was incompetent yet addicted to command; every time he was captured by the French, he would demand that the Emperor let him lead troops into battle again.

During the Year of Revolutions, as the Governor of Venetia, he had 20,000 troops stationed in the city of Venice. Faced with rebelling citizens, he actually ordered his soldiers to surrender their weapons without firing a single shot, leaving the city with nothing but their flags.

He even indirectly buried the Austrian Navy. At the time, the previous Austrian Admiral had died unexpectedly, and the successor was vacationing on a beach in Belgium with a beauty.

Without a commander, most of the officers and men of the Austrian Navy scattered like birds and beasts, leaving only an unknown captain who, with less than a hundred sailors, fought the rebels for five days before all of them died as martyrs.

If the Austrian fleet had still been intact, there wouldn't have been the ridiculous spectacle of 7 rebel warships blockading the Austrian imperial port of Trieste.

The city of Venice wouldn't have been able to hold out for so long, and General Radetzky wouldn't have needed to divert troops to prevent the Venetian army from cutting off the Austrian supply lines. More troops could have been committed to the front, and the war could have ended much sooner.

Afterward, not only was General Lich not held accountable, but he was also put in charge of the Bohemian front in northern Austria, living until the age of 85.

This piece of trash, leading over 10,000 men to pursue 800, chased them all the way from Genoa to Rome, yet still let more than 300 of them escape.

Having captured only 20-odd prisoners, he actually had the nerve to claim credit in the newspapers. Franz was speechless, determined in his heart that he would never let such a person continue to occupy a position while doing nothing.

Mazzini, as the mastermind behind the uprising, successfully escaped to Switzerland. The Swiss Confederation rejected the demands from the Austrian and Sardinia governments to expel him.

In history, Mazzini did not continue preparing for new uprisings in Switzerland, but instead traveled across the ocean to Britain to seek a path to salvation.

At this time, Garibaldi, merely a gunman, did not attract the attention of various nations. Yet, this unknown gunman would eventually stir up wave after wave of turmoil in Italy.

This man snuck onto a merchant ship and later arrived in South America. He even participated in the war of independence of a small country and achieved great merit.

Just when everyone thought Gallipoli would continue to enjoy the treatment of a hero in that small South American nation.

The president of that small nation suddenly had a lapse in judgment and actually wanted to launch a counter-offensive against a country with more than ten times its landmass and dozens of times its population.

The result was predictable; Garibaldi had no choice but to return to Italy.

In an inconspicuous corner, it was written: Friedrich List from Württemberg will serve as a special advisor to the great Emperor Francis II for a period of five years.

Franz let out a yawn; perhaps due to his young age, he grew sleepy after reading for only a short while. He put down the newspaper and, following the undulating curves of the mountains, crawled inside.

Thanks to book friend Shenzhou Buwu Tianxia Fengdao for the tip.